246 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



the mansion of Ashfold, where once resided Mrs. 

 Matcham, a sister of Nelson. Indeed, it was while 

 staying here that the Admiral received the summons 

 which sped him on his last and most, glorious and fatal 

 voyage. Slaugham, too, with St. Leonard's Forest, 

 contributes a title to the peerage, Lord St. Leonards' 

 creation being of " Slaugham, in the county of Sussex." 



XXXII 



This route to Brighton is singularly rural and lovely, 

 and particularly beautiful in the way of copses and 

 wooded hollows, whence streamlets trickle away to 

 join the river Adur. Villages lie shyly just oft its 

 course, and must be sought, only an occasional inn or 

 smithy, or the lodge-gates of modern estates called 

 into existence since the making of the road in 1813, 

 breaking the solitude. The existence of Bolney itself 

 is only hinted at by the pinnacles of its church tower 

 peering over the topmost branches of distant trees. 

 " Bowlney," as the countryfolk pronounce the name, 

 is worth a little detour, for it is a compact, picturesque 

 spot that might almost have been designed by an 

 artist with a single thought for pictorial composition, 

 so well do its trees, the houses, old and new, the 

 church, and the ' ' Eight Bells ' ' inn, group for effect. 

 Down the road, rather over a mile distant from 

 Bolney, and looking so remarkably picturesque from 

 the highway that even the least preoccupied with 

 antiquities must needs stop and admire, is Hickstead 

 Place, a small but beautiful residence, the seat of Miss 

 Davidson, dating from the time of Henry the Seventh, 

 with a curious detached building in two floors, of the 

 same or even somewhat earlier period, on the lawn ; 

 remarkable for the large vitrified bricks in its gables, 

 worked into rough crosses and supposed to indicate a 

 former use as a chapel. History, however, is silent 

 that point ; but, as the inquirer may discover for 



