THE COUNTRY-SIDE : SUSSEX. 91 



the charcoal was prepared for hop-drying, large quantities 

 being used for that purpose. At one time a considerable 

 amount was rebaked for patent fuel, and the last use to 

 which it had been put was in carrying out some process 

 with Australian meat. It was still necessary in several 

 trades. Goldsmiths used charcoal for soldering. They 

 preferred the charcoal made from the thick bark of the 

 butts of birch trees. At the foot or butt of the birch 

 the bark grows very thick, in contrast to the rind higher, 

 which is thinner than on other trees. Lord Sheffield's 

 mansion at Fletching was the last great house he knew 

 that was entirely warmed with charcoal, nothing else 

 being burnt. Charcoal was still used in houses for 

 heating plates. But the principal demand seemed to be 

 for hop-drying purposes — the charcoal burned in the 

 kiln where I had been resting was made on the spot. 

 This heap he was now burning was all of birch poles, 

 and would be four days and four nights completing. 

 On the fourth morning it was drawn, and about seventy 

 sacks were filled, the charcoal being roughly sorted. 



The ancient forest land is still wild enough, there is 

 no seeming end to the heath and fern on the ridges or 

 to the woods in the valleys. These moor-like stretches 

 bear a resemblance to parts of Exmoor. The oaks that 

 once reached from here to the sea-shore were burned to 

 smelt the iron in the days when Sussex was the great 

 iron land. For charcoal the vast forests were cut down ; 

 it seems strange to think that cannon were once cast — 

 the cannon that won India for us — where now the hops 

 grow and the plough travels slowly, so opposite as they 

 are to the roaring furnace and the ringing hammer. 

 Burned and blasted by the heat, the ground where the 

 furnaces were still retains the marks of the fire. But 

 to-day there is silence ; the sunshine lights up the purple 



