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Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 1  1858  page 116

Cowden and its Neighbourhood. 
By Robert Willis Blencowe Esq

Such names as these are to be found in almost every Wealden parish, and many centuries before the time of which Camden speaks, the Roman was at work upon his forges and his furnaces here. Their pottery and the coins of Nero, Vespasian, and Diocletian have been found mingled with the scoriae of their old ironworks. A lane, now called Spode Lane, leads directly from the Roman camp towards the castle-field at Hartfield, of which castle the mounds on which it stood alone remain; and is it too much to believe that this name has been derived from the Latin word spodium, signifying the refuse of an iron-furnace ?—in fact, that Spode Lane was nothing more or less than Cinder Lane?
  
Of the presence of other invaders of our land, the Dane and the Saxon, those sturdy forefathers of Englishmen, from whom we have inherited, with other manly qualities, that ardent love of the sea which has made us the best sailors in the world, we have proofs in the names of places within our prescribed limits, of Dane Hill and Danehurst, of Saxonbury Hill on the heights of Bridge, and more distinctly revealed in the Saxon work in the curious old church at Worth. It is remarkable how many of the descendants of the Norman chiefs who followed the fortunes of the Conqueror have been established within our chosen district. The names of Nevill, Sackville, and West are identified with this country. The castles of their ancestors, with one great and fine exception, that of Tunbridge, have disappeared, but their descendants still dwell there in mansions better suited to the tastes and wants of more civilised life. There is no satisfaction in reflecting upon the conduct and character of those fierce and violent men, the Norman barons, but in judging them we must recollect that they were placed in a condition most-adverse to the development of good moral character. In the words of M. Guizot, "A feudal chieftain of those days belonged to

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