196 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



of the South Downs are utterly damned by gigantic 

 black hoardings painted in white letters, trumpeting 

 the advantages of the motor garage of an hotel which 

 here, at least, shall not be named. Much has been 

 written about the abuse of advertising in America, 

 but Englishmen, sad to say, have in these latter days 

 outdone, and are outdoing, those crimes, while America 

 itself is retrieving its reputation. 



This is the Forest Ridge of Sussex, where the Forest 

 of St. Leonards still stretches far and wide. Away 

 for miles on the left hand stretch the lovely beech- 

 woods and the hazel undergrowths of Tilgate, Balcombe, 

 and Worth, and on the right the little inferior wood- 

 lands extending to Horsham. The ridge is, in addition, 

 a great watershed. From it the Mole and the Med way 

 flow north, and the Arun, the Adur, and the Sussex 

 Ouse south, towards the English Channel. Hand 

 Cross is the summit' of the ridge, and the way to it is 

 coming either north or south, a toilsome drag. 



At Tilgate Forest Row the scenery becomes park- 

 like, laurel hedges lining the way, giving occasional 

 glimpses of fine estates to right and left. Here the 

 coachmen used to point out, with becoming awe, the 

 country house where Fauntleroy, the banker, lived, 

 and would tell how he indulged in all manner of unholy 

 orgies in that gloomy-looking mansion in the 

 forest. 



Henry Fauntleroy was only thirty-nine years of age 

 when he met the doom then meted out to forgers. 

 As partner in the banking firm of Marsh, Sibbald & Co., of 

 Berners Street, he had entire control of the firm's Stock 

 Exchange business, and, unknown to his partners, 

 had for nine years pursued a consistent course of 

 illegally selling the securities belonging to customers 

 — forging their signatures to transfers. Paying the 

 interest and dividends as usual, the frauds, amounting 

 in all to £70,000, might have remained undiscovered 

 for many years longer ; but the credit of the 

 bank, long in a tottering condition, was exhausted in 

 September, 1824, when all was disclosed. Fauntleroy 



