ASHDOWN FOREST. 125 



go without their pickings, for they took the stools or roots 

 of the trees felled, which must have put a considerable 

 sum a year into their pockets, although such stools were the 

 undoubted property of the Crown. In short, the adminis- 

 tration of the forest seems to have been a merry-go-round 

 of unblushing knavery." 



E. Ashdown Forest. 



An immense forest once occupied a great part of the 

 surface of the present county of Sussex. This forest was 

 called by the Britons ' Coit Andred/ and by the Saxons 

 ' Andredes- weald ; it was inhabited only by wild boars and 

 by deer. According to the Saxon Chronicle, this wood was 

 of prodigious dimensions ; it was ' in length, east and west, 

 one hundred and twenty miles or longer, and thirty miles 

 broad.' In the course of time a large portion of this im- 

 mense space has been gradually cleared and brought into 

 cultivation. Three forests of some extent, however, still 

 exist St Leonard's. Ashdown, and Tilgate Forests. St 

 Leonard's contains about ten thousand acres , and Ash- 

 down forest about eighteen thousand acres. Pine, fir, 

 beech, and birch are the principal trees. 



" Ashdown Forest has the character of an open heath 

 partially sprinkled with underwood, and rising to a con- 

 siderable elevation Crowborough Hill, the highest point, 

 being 804 feet above the level of the sea. From the 

 summit of this hill is presented a splendid panoramic view 

 of the whole range of the South Downs from Beachy Head, 

 the eastern extremity, to the borders of Hampshire ; the 

 Isle of Wight appearing like a cloud resting on the sea 

 beyond. The nearest ridge of the Downs is about twenty 

 miles distant; the intervening country, though enclosed 

 and cultivated is deeply wooded." 



