62 
old legend, the belief in which was persisted in for a long time. 
This was that in 1264 King Henry ITI. stood and watched the 
Battle of Lewes from that point, where, being fifteen miles away 
from the scene of the conflict, he thought he would be in perfect 
safety! At Kidd’s Hill the road drops suddenly in a series of 
steep descents suggestive of a switchback ; and here the party 
alighted and plodded cheerfully on foot till level ground was 
reached once more. At the bottom of the hill Mr. Davey called 
a halt and gave an instructive little roadside talk on Ashdown 
Forest and its historic associations. Vast expanses of the Forest 
are quite bare of trees; and Mr. Davey called attention to the 
fact, which is not always understood, that a forest is not necessarily 
a wood, but a tract enclosed for the chase, and often is mainly 
moorland. Such are Ashdown Forest, Woolmer Forest in 
Hampshire, and Dartmoor Forest ; and in political life we speak 
of the Commissioners of Woods avd Forests. Mr. Davey was 
doubtful whether the Forest is in the same condition as it was in 
Roman times, although he believed there was more wood a 
hundred years ago than there is to-day. Some people have 
thought that a great number of the trees have been used as fuel 
for the iron-furnaces of the district. 
After briefly touching upon the geographical and geological 
characteristics of the Forest, and mentioning that the Romans 
appeared to have carried on the ironworks at Oldlands, Mr. Davey 
proceeded to state that it was known that Edward II. frequently 
visited it, and that he built the old Palace which formerly stood in 
Vetchery Wood. The Forest, or, as it was called, the Free 
Chase, or Lancaster Great Park, was granted to John of Gaunt 
in 1372, and it was of great value by reason of the wood, the 
deer, and the iron mines. The diary of Henslow (the contem- 
porary of Shakespeare) whose father was a Forest keeper, was 
written on the flyleaves of a book used for keeping accounts 
relating to the timber. During the Civil War, however, the pale 
by which it was enclosed appeared to have been broken down, 
and the deer were killed. A survey made by the Earl of 
Pembroke in 1658 showed that there were almost exactly 14,000 
acres. At the Restoration the Forest was granted to the Earl 
of Bristol; but then trouble with the foresters arose, and, added 
Mr. Davey, that had continued until the present day. The 
foresters claimed esfover, the right of taking wood for any abso- 
lutely necessary purpose. In conclusion, he remarked that the 
last deer was supposed to have been killed in 1808, but he had 
been informed that there were still some left on the Forest, 
perhaps even a hundred. 
The journey was then resumed, a feeder of the Medway 
being crossed, and another ascent began on the way to Coleman’s 
Hatch ; and here a turn was taken to the west, skirting Ashdown 
