Looking at the map of the South-Eastern corner of England we see that the greater part thereof forms a sort of an irregularly shaped valley running from the sea in a direction somewhat westerly, for a dis tance of one hundred or one hundred and twenty miles, having a mean width of thirty or forty miles ; the whole extent of coast being (if we include a part of West Sussex, south of the South Downs) from Folkestone, in Kent, to Selsey Bill, in Sussex, about one hundred miles :-this may be broken up in the following portions ;--an almost level sea-board from Folkestone to the Cliffs' end near Winchelsea about twenty-five miles ;-then six miles of cliff, the foot of which at many places slopes down to the sea, and is intersected at other places by short valleys, wooded down almost to high-water mark these extend west ward as far as Hastings ;-then from Hastings about eight or ten miles of coast of a varied character, but in every respect favourable to the landing and running of contraband goods. This extends to a little beyond Bexhill, after which we have eight or ten miles to Eastbourne, being the sea-front of Pevensey level ; and next the abrupt chalk cliffs from Beachy-head to near Brighton, forming a part of the South Downs, they being the southern boundary of the district called the Weald. These cliffs are intersected by the narrow valleys of Birling-Gap, Crowlink, and the Cuckmere river, and the wider one of the Ouse at -
