ASHDOWN FOREST. 167 



committing depredations upon the Forest by cutting and 

 carrying away the heath to the amount of many thousands of 

 loads in the course of a year, by means of which the herbage is 

 not only destroyed, and the tenants who have rights of 

 Commonage prejudiced, but the Lord of the Manor, who is 

 entitled to the timber in the Forest, is much injured, inasmuch 

 as the young oak trees, which may be coming up amongst the 

 heath, are cut down by the scythe, and consequently no timber 

 can ever grow where these cuttings take place. Independently 

 of this injury, the black game which used to abound in this 

 Forest, and which the Duke is extremely desirous of preserving, 

 are by this practice almost extirpated. His grace is therefore 

 determined to put a stop to it if it is possible to do so/' 



Mr. Serjeant Hill does not appear to have favoured 

 the Duke's view, for he gave as his opinion " that if 

 the Commoners had been accustomed to cut heath for 

 estovers as long as any living witnesses could remember, 

 they could not be restrained from doing so." 



Later, in spite of this opinion, a notice was 

 issued forbidding altogether the cutting of litter within 

 the Forest. The taking of turf, peat, and stone was 

 also prohibited, with certain exceptions in favour of the 

 poor of the adjoining parishes. From thenceforward 

 these questions were perpetually in dispute between the 

 Dukes of Dorset and their successors in their property 

 the Earls De la Warr and the Commoners of 

 the Forest. These Commoners were not a class of small 

 owners and occupiers of land, as in many other cases, 

 little able to oppose a powerful and wealthy Lord of 

 the Manor. They contained in their ranks many of 

 the principal landowners of that part of Sussex Lord 



