THE WEALD OF KENT AND SUSSEX.
To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."
SIR,—The graphic description of Rye and Winchelsea in your paper of the 12th commences with a topographical misnomer. You state that there is not a more desolate region in all England than the Weald of Kent and Sussex, extending some hundred miles in length and thirty in breadth, from near Hastings till towards Folkston. The district which you so describe (overstat- ing its breadth) is the " Marsh," not the " Weald," which lies to the north, and from the centre of which I am writing. It is a cheerful, hilly, woodland tract, supporting a considerable population from the constant labour in the hop gardens in summer, and in the woods in winter. It is in fact the Anderida Sylva,—called by the Saxons Andredeweald. The word " weald " is but another form of " wood " or " wold," in German, Wald, and the district still justifies the appellation by the large proportion of woodland
which it contains.—Yours faithfully, A WEALDSMAN.
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