FORESTRY 



planted annually, and when underwood is cut every suitable ' teller ' is preserved. At the other end 

 of the county, however, where there are large woods of Scotch firs on the marquis of Aber- 

 gavenny's estate at Eridge, the practical value of that timber is not overlooked, and periodic fellings 

 are made. There are very fine beeches and oaks in this beautiful district, but the greater part of 

 the Eridge woodland is coppice, with oak standards, the total area being 2,500 acres. 



Ordinarily Sussex underwoods and coppices are cut every ten or twelve years, usually after sale 

 by auction, at which 7 or 8 or 10 per acre are realized. Where the timber is mainly oak the 

 intervals of cutting are longer, averaging twenty years, and for such wood a higher price is given. 

 Ash trees have the advantage of being, caeteris paribus, of equal value when young as mature. 

 Willow plantations are usually cut annually ; but there is little cultivation either of osiers or other 

 kind of willows except in the river valleys, ponds, and marshes. The poplar tribe is plentiful in 

 Sussex, especially the black poplar, but the tall Lombardy variety is rarely seen. 



Early in the nineteenth century Lord Gage planted most of the Scotch firs that are now to 

 be seen in Plashet Park. At Glyndebourne a considerable number of beeches were planted in the 

 eighteenth century, probably by William Hay ' the philosopher.' The present lord of the manor 

 has planted a few acres on a hillside, chiefly with sycamore and ash, hardly more than will replace 

 the trees that have been cut down in the parish during the last twenty years. 



It is very much to be desired that arboriculture should be more extensively and systematically 

 practised in a county so eminently suitable in soil and climate. It is true that the remuneration 

 might be remote ; it is certain that as regards underwood prices have fallen considerably faggots, 

 for instance, can be bought retail for no more than 261. per hundred yet there must always be a 

 demand for such timber as Sussex oak and ash. But the rising price and increasing scarceness of 

 rural labour will continue to present discouragement. 



Sussex does not now possess any celebrated trees whose names are known beyond its borders. 

 Gone is ' the hoar apple tree ' which marked the spot where Harold and William strove for the 

 mastery of England ; 62 nor can any man now point to the great ash under which the earl of 

 Arundel's bailiffs held their court at Midhurst in the thirteenth century. 63 Nevertheless, there are 

 some very fine elms, oaks, and beeches in various parts of the county. The elm in the High Street 

 of Crawley is still a remarkable tree. Sixty-one feet in girth near the ground, its hollow trunk was 

 so capacious that a generation or so ago thirteen people sat down to a banquet within it. Its floor 

 was then paved with brick, its entrance fitted with a door. It is now in a very dilapidated con- 

 dition, but still bears verdant branches growing to a height of 30 or 40 ft. At Hollington, in east 

 Sussex, is an ancient beech tree, reputed to be more than 400 years old, and to have served, from its 

 size, as a landmark to ships .at sea. But it is the oak which is the most celebrated of Sussex trees, 

 and many survive to which more or less veracious histories attach. Such as Pope's Oak at West 

 Grinstead, beneath whose shade that master of the ' most absolutely chiselled ' language as Ruskin 

 says wrote ' The Rape of the Lock ' ; and ' Betsy's Oak ' at Parham, under which Queen Elizabeth 

 rested on her way to Cowdray. 



Burton Park has some fine timber, an oak in particular being 25 ft. in circumference ; and 

 at Glyndbourne there is also an ancient oak 21 ft. in girth, hollow, but still verdant, growing in 

 what was probably once More Park. Cowdray and Halnaker possess some splendid Spanish chestnut 

 trees ; the avenue composed of them at the former park is hardly second to any in the country. 

 The well-known park of Goodwood contains a variety of fine timber. In addition to oaks and 

 beeches, there are tulip trees, cork trees, and some fine cedars of Lebanon, survivors of 1,000 planted 

 by the duke of Richmond in 1761. The county also possesses some yew trees of great antiquity 

 and size. The most ancient, perhaps, is that at Hardham near Pulborough ; the most celebrated 

 that in the churchyard at Crowhurst ; and the most beautiful the very ancient tree on the north 

 side of the church of Wilmington. This last is 22 ft. in circumference, and divides at a foot or two 

 above the ground into two massy trunks. At Kingly Vale near Chichester is a remarkable grove 

 of yew trees, some of them of enormous girth. Doubtless Sussex once possessed many ancient and 

 historic trees, but more perhaps than in other counties they have suffered under the axes of the 

 Goths and the Philistines. 



When we come to the history and description of the forests of Sussex we are met with the 

 difficulty of deciding which of the six or seven groups of woodland usually so denominated are 

 actually entitled to the name. If ancient but occasional usage were accepted as the criterion such 

 mere parks as Knepp, Houghton, and even such uncertain localities as ' Claverige ' would have to be 

 included. But mediaeval nomenclature is too inexact to allow of such procedure, and it is preferable 

 to account forests those which ancient usage generally, though not invariably, designated such. Even 

 this will admit doubtful instances, such as Stanstead. Spelman does not include this in his list of 

 English forests, and if the bounds of Arundel Forest have been correctly handed down there appears 

 hardly a large enough extent of country between the western end of Arundel Forest and the county 



61 Angl.-Sax. Ckron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 167. " Assize R. 914, m. 17 d. 



301 



