The County of SUSSEX

Sussex, maritime County in the Southeast of England, bounded North and Northeast by Surrey and Kent, Southeast and South by the English Channel, and West and Northwest by Hants; greatest length, North and South, 27 miles; greatest breadth, East and West, 76 miles; area, 933,269 acres, population 490,505.  From the Hants border, near Petersfield, to Beacby Head, the county is traversed by the South Downs; to the North of this range of chalk hills is the valley of the Weald, rising into the Forest Ridge on the Northeast, and sinking on the Southeast, towards the sea, into wide marshes.  The rivers are not important; they are the Arun, Adur, Ouse, and Rother, all flowing South to the English Channel.
The principal means of communication are the railways; these belong chiefly to the London, Brighton, and South Coast system, which has steamers running daily between Newhaven and Dieppe.
The most fertile soil is the low land along the coast, which yields heavy crops of grain and hay.  The South Downs are chiefly pastoral, and support a well‑known breed of sheep to which they give name.  The Weald consists generally of sandy or tenacious clays of a very indifferent description, but the clays produce a stiff soil, remarkably favourable to the growth of forest trees, particularly the oak, and about 150,000 acres are under wood.  Hops are grown in the eastern part of the county, which borders on the hop districts of Kent.  Ironstone is abundant, and so long as wood only was used for smelting the county was one of the chief seats of the British iron trade.  "Sussex marble," a kind of limestone containing freshwater shells, is worked near Petworth.
The manufactures include woollens, paper, gunpowder, bricks and tiles, &c., but are not extensive.  The seaports are now small and comparatively unimportant, but the mildness of the climate along the sea coast has led to the growth of numerous watering and bathing places and health resorts, including Brighton, Hastings, Easthourne, Worthing, Seaford, Littlehampton, and Bognor.
Sussex  was the scene of much of the early history of the country, and is rich in archeological remains.   The county contains 6 rapes, which comprise 68 hundreds, 2 liberties, the parliamentary and  municipal boroughs of Brighton (2 members) and Hastings (1 member), and the municipal  boroughs of Arundel, Chichester, Eastbourne, Lewes, and Rye.  It is almost entirely in the  diocese of Chichester.  For parliamentary purposes it is divided into 6 divisions ‑viz.,  North‑Western or Horsham, South‑Western or Chichester, Northern or East Grinstead, Mid or  Lewes, Southern or Eastbourne, and Eastern or Rye, 1 member for each division; the  representation was increased from 4 to 6 members in 1885.

(Transcribed from Bartholomew's  Gazetteer of the British Isles, 1887. ‑C.H.)