The Praepositus of the Exploratores, whose office was to discover the
state and motions of the enemy, and who was certainly in this part of
Sussex, could be no where more advantageously placed than in the elevated
situations of the strong camps at Hollingsbury and White-Hawke, commanding
a most extensive view of the whole coast from Beachy-Head to the Isle of
Wight. The form of this town is almost a perfect square; the streets are
built at right angles to each other, and its situation is to the south
east, the favourite one among the Romans. To these may be added, that an
urn has been some time ago dug up in this neighbourhood, containing a
thousand silver denarii marked from Antoninus Pius to Philip, during which
tract of time Britain was probably a Roman province. And, lastly, the
vestiges of a true Roman via running from Shoreham towards Lewes, at a
small distance above this town have been lately discovered by an ingenious
gentleman truly conversant in matters of this nature.
The light sometimes obtained in these dark matters from a similitude of
sounds in the ancient and modern names of places, is not to be had in
assisting the present conjecture.
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