A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



boundary in which to locate another 'forest. Moreover as Henry Hussey's action in inclosing a 

 chace upon the Downs (mantes) of Harting and making a park there, was considered in 1283 to be 

 ' to the injury of the chace of Arundel,' 64 it is clear that what was afterwards usually called Stan- 

 stead Forest was at this time considered part of the chase or forest of Arundel. 



However this may be there is no doubt that Stanstead Park and woodland circumjacent was 

 very often denominated a forest. Lying on the extreme western border of the county, to within 

 two miles of which Arundel Forest extended, STANSTEAD FOREST must have had its greatest extent 

 from north to south, including in its bounds Compton, Racton, Harting, Stoughton, and Stanstead. 

 The two former belonged to Saxon kings ; Compton to Alfred, coming afterwards to Earl Godwin ; 

 Racton to the Confessor ; while Harting, Stoughton, and probably Stanstead were possessions of 

 Godwin, and after him doubtless of Harold. A wide and wild woodland district such as this would 

 doubtless be denominated a forest while held by royal families as those of the Saxon line, and the 

 designation would persist under succeeding though different tenures ; and the same argument will 

 be seen to apply to most of the other forests of Sussex. 



At the Conquest, Harting, Racton, Stanstead, Stoughton, and their woodlands, as parts of the 

 rape of Chichester, came into the possession of Roger earl of Montgomery. Domesday does not 

 mention either the forest or any of its constituent parks, but it is evident that there was considerable 

 woodland in this district, for Stoughton rendered 100 hogs, Harting 100, and Racton 4. 



The only house of religion associated with Stanstead was the small abbey of Dureford, founded 

 by Henry Hussey in 1165. The canons of this house had tithes from the wood of ' Herchaia,' 6S 

 and from all the woodland lying west of the road to London, from Dureford to ' Styngel,' localities 

 unknown to-day. But the abbot's wood of la Wyke, which tenants of lands at Chithurst were 

 bound to fence and to guard, was probably the locale lying north of Harting. 66 



In 1114 Henry I was at Westbourne into which parish the forest extended waiting for a 

 favouring wind to set sail for France. 67 Henry II also spent a week at Stanstead in 1177, and it was 

 possibly owing to the exertion of hunting that his leg, which had been injured by a kick from a 

 horse, grew painful and drove him back to rest at Winchester. 68 His son, King Richard, in April, 

 1194, went over from Portsmouth to Stanstead for a day's hunting. 69 



In the latter part of the reign of Edward I, during the minority of Edmund, earl of Arundel, a 

 trespass was committed by a certain William de Whiteway in Stanstead Park. For this he was fined 

 and imprisoned in the Tower, but in 1307 was fortunate enough to obtain an order for his deliverance 

 when he should have paid his forfeiture to Edmund of Arundel, now in possession of his estates, to 

 whom it was assigned. 70 The lords of the forest of Stanstead built themselves a mansion, or at least 

 a hunting-seat, in the forest-land, where they might sojourn when hunting over a woodland so far 

 removed from their central castle of Arundel. Their original seat at Stanstead was apparently but 

 a small abode, and a description 71 of it in the early part of the fourteenth century reads singularly 

 like the 'lodges' in St. Leonard's and Ashdown Forests surveyed by the Commonwealth Com- 

 missioners more than 300 years later ; for it contained a hall, two chambers, a kitchen, and a 

 chamber over the porch, but with the addition of a chapel. Such an inconsiderable house would 

 scarcely meet the requirements of its lords for an indefinite period, and thus in 1480 it was rebuilt 

 on a far larger scale. Here the earls frequently sojourned, and here they held their forest courts. 72 

 One of the foresters and parkers for he appears to have had the custody of both the forest and the 

 park of Stanstead appointed by Edmund, earl of Arundel, was Henry le Rede, who had a salary 

 of a penny daily and a coat yearly or 30^. in its place together with house-bote, hedge-bote, 

 and fuel, to be delivered by the steward of the manor of Stanstead. 73 



Ten years later there is record of one of those sporting clerks whose zeal outran their discre- 

 tion in their pursuit of game ; for in 1340 William ' le Chanoyn,' of Shulbred Priory, together with 

 other men of the same kidney, was charged with breaking into Stanstead and other parks of the earl 

 of Arundel vi et armis and killing and carrying away deer. 74 



A valuation of the honour of Arundel taken in the reign of Henry VIII does not mention this 

 forest ; but the aghtment or feeding of cattle in the park of Stanstead is included among the items. 76 

 ' Common of pasture ' is also mentioned in a record of Queen Elizabeth's reign, a certain John Leefe 

 dying seised inter alia of communis pasturae in Foresta de Stamted. 



In this reign Stanstead, its manor, park, and forest passed on the death of Henry, last of the 

 Fitzalans, to Lord Lumley, who had married Jane Fitzalan. A survey " of Lord Lumley's manors 



64 Inq. p.m. 12 Edw. I, No. 91. Suss. Arch. Coll. v, 4. 



66 Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xxiii, fol. 95. <" Engl. Hist. Rev. TL, No. 39. 



68 Benedict of Peterborough, Gesta (Rolls Ser.), i, 182. 69 Rog. Hoveden, Cbron. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 251. 



"Close, i Edw. II, m. 18. "Escheat R. 20 Edw. II. 



7> Cartwright, Rape of Chic. 158. "Pat. 4 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 37. 



74 Pat. 14 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 2. "Close, 16 Hen. VIII. 



"Bodleian, Rawlinson MS. B. 433. "Rentals and Surv. portf. ^f. 



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