Nor is
Chanctonbury, though it cannot boast of mines such as these, less
astonishing or less ancient. The camp set there following the contour
of the hill can only have been one of the most important in south-
east England. It commands the camps at Cissbury, the Devil's Dyke,
High Down and White Hawk, the whole breadth of the Weald lay beneath
it and a signal displayed upon Leith Hill upon the North Downs could
easily be answered from this noble mountain; Mount Caburn itself was
not more essentially important.
It has been thought that the Romans may have used Chanctonbury, but if
so they have left but little mark of their occupation, and indeed,
though the Downs as a whole far off are stamped with so Roman a
character, there is but one spot in their whole length where we may
say; here certainly the Legions have been. That spot lies upon the
last division of the Downs towards the west, the line of hills which
stands between Chichester and the Weald.
It is certain that the Romans were, in Sussex, most at home on that
great sea plain towards which the Downs slope so gradually southward.
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