A HISTORY OF SUSSEX the growth of interest in our national past, it may be possible to procure more precise and satisfactory evidence at no distant date. The present survey of Anglo-Saxon discoveries in the county includes little but burials of an early date, some doubtless of pagan Saxons, others probably of Christian converts who died before the middle of the eighth century, when, by order of the Church, burial was no longer permitted in the open country, but confined to the consecrated ground of the churchyard. By that time also the practice of depositing ornaments and weapons in the grave was given up ; and the church- yards, even if disturbed, would yield but Httle evidence of service to archaeology. The first entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relating to Sussex has certain suspicious features, but may well indicate the date at which the occupation began. It is under the year 477, and runs as follows : ' This year Aella and his three sons, Cymen, Wlencing and Cissa, came to the land of Britain with three ships at a place called Cymenesore, and there slew many Welsh, and some they drove in flight into the wood called Andredslea.' ^ Thirty-seven years later the West Saxons are said to have arrived in three ships at Cerdicsore, and in that same year Aella is said to have died. Much however seems to have happened in the course of his long reign, and a notable battle, which no doubt marked an important stage in the conquest but cannot now be located, is reported at the river called Mercroedsburn in 485. Another six years dealt what was apparently the final blow to British independence in this region, and the fall of Anderida (perhaps Pevensey) has often been quoted as proof of the ruthless methods of the invading Saxon. This record however stands alone, and the fact that ' Aella and Cissa slew all that dwelt in Andredsceaster so that not a single Briton was there left ' may first have been recorded on account of its exceptional character. It had taken fourteen years to conquer what to-day is the southern half of Sussex, and according to Bede," Aella was something more than King of Sussex, and was the first to hold the title of Bretwalda, which is generally translated Wielder of Britain. Whether this implied dominion over the native British population beyond the borders of Sussex is open to question ; but if the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is to be trusted on such a point, the conquest of Kent had begun more than forty years before the siege of Anderida, and the predominance of Aella must be ascribed to his own exceptional prowess, as Ethelbert of Kent only came third in the list. The rehearsal of these few scraps of history or tradition is a neces- sary preliminary to the investigation of the relics that undoubtedly belong to a Teutonic people or group of settlers from beyond the seas, during a period but vaguely defined but quite in accordance with the dates already mentioned. Further deductions as to race or chronology must be reserved till the discoveries have been presented ; and as the relative dates of the Saxon cemeteries of Sussex cannot at present be » Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i. 22. 2 Bede, Eccl. Hist. ii. 5 (Plummer), i. 89. 334
