FORESTRY 



in 1587 gives the extent of the forest of Stanstead as 1,413 J acres 15 poles, and values the timber 

 therein at 5,000 ; it is not quite clear whether these figures include the 797 acres of the forest 

 lying in Charlton manor, with timber estimated at 2,800, but they were certainly exclusive of the 

 Little Park, round Stanstead House, containing 560 acres and timber worth 595, and Great 

 Park of 836 acres, valued at 1,713 14*. 8J. 



This Lord Lumley died seised of the forest of Stanstead and Overholte, and the parks of 

 Stanstead and Downley ; Overholte being, possibly, the more ancient name of Ladyholt, a park 

 contiguous to Stanstead on the west. 78 In the succeeding years of this century the Lumleys increas- 

 ing in riches and honours and becoming earls of Scarborough, Stanstead was the scene of much 

 development ; a mansion, variously described as splendid, magnificent, or elegant, succeeding the 

 older house, while 25 miles of turf rides and coach-drives were laid out in this 'majestic woodland.' 

 Beautiful in situation, commanding wide views of down, forest-land, and sea, abounding with beech 

 trees of great size, in the midst of this woodland of more than 1,600 acres, with its celebrated 

 triple avenue of beeches, the central one, three chains in width, extending 2 miles in length to 

 the border of Hampshire, Stanstead was one of the finest seats in the south of England. 



The boundary between the forests of Stanstead and Arundel is doubtful, and so we pass, 

 insensibly as it were, on to the latter, the greater part of which lay in the same rape as Stanstead. 



THE FOREST OF ARUNDEL was a wide tract of country extending over the two rapes of 

 Arundel and Chichester, stretching from the west bank of the Arun nearly to the western border of 

 Sussex, in length about 1 2 miles, and in breadth from 4 to 6 miles. 



According to Tierney's painstaking History of Arundel its forest bounds were as follows : 

 Leaving Fishbourne on the west the boundary passed eastwards to Crocker Hill and Avisford, thence 

 south to Cudlowe on the coast, and abruptly changing its course returned along the river Arun in a 

 northerly direction through the marshes of Tortington, ascended the hill behind Arundel and hastened 

 down the opposite slope to Houghton and Paplesbury. From thence westwardly through Swan- 

 bridge and Berkhale to Normansland on the Downs. Then turning to the right towards Waltham 

 it crossed the hills of Cocking, North Merdon, and Compton, and suddenly wheeling to the south 

 terminated its course near the present Chichester Harbour. The circumference thus described 

 could scarcely have measured less than 50 miles. Mr. Tierney considers its ancient boundary to 

 have been less extensive, and describes it, but as he gives no authority for the one boundary or the 

 other it would be useless to discuss the question. 



Within or on the verge of this forest were the great and little parks of Arundel, and the 

 wood called Ruell, the parks of Selhurst, Halnaker, Goodwood, East Dean, West Dean, Downley, 

 and Walberton. In addition, Earl Roger possessed other parks in various parts of his rapes, no 

 fewer indeed than eighteen in all. 



Nevertheless a large amount of the woodland of his vast territory was in the hands of various 

 other lords. The first earl found his forest encroached upon, as it were, by the bishop of 

 Chichester's parks of Houghton on the north-east a park so large that it was often denominated a 

 forest and Aldingbourne on the south, possessions of that see from the days of Csedwalla, while in 

 the middle of the forest itself lay the manor of Halnaker with its extensive woodlands successively in 

 the possession of the de Haia and St. John families. In addition, at the south-west corner of his 

 forest was Broyle, north of Chichester, which, as we have seen, was once a forest. 



The manor of Slindon with its park had belonged to the see of Canterbury, but had been 

 separated from it at the Conquest. Taking advantage of the forfeiture of the wide lands of Earl 

 Roger's son Robert, Anselm obtained from King Henry I its restoration to his see in i io6. 79 



Meanwhile, the forest, with the rest of the honour, remained in royal hands until, after the 

 death of Henry, the marriage of his widow Adelisa (whose dower it had become) carried all these 

 things into the possession of her second husband, William d'Albini. 



During this period and the years succeeding the acquisitions of those religious houses in the 

 close neighbourhood of Arundel afford many items of information concerning the forest and its 

 constituent woodlands, particularly those of Halnaker. Both the families who owned that manor 

 were generous donors to Boxgrove, or to its Norman parent, the abbey of Essay. Thus, Robert de 

 Haia gave the foreign house tithes of the profits of his woods of Halnaker, with house-bote, fire-bole, 

 and pannage for their swine therein. His successor, the first St. John, endowed Boxgrove with the 

 wood of Bessole the Bexley of to-day ' near to the wood of Halnac,' while in the latter wood 

 his brother granted pasture for their cattle, as well as pannage for their pigs, together with part of 

 the wood itself. The earl himself endowed Boxgrove with another part of the wood of Bessole, 

 called Hazelwood both name and wood surviving to-day together with pasture for a certain 

 number of their cattle and horses, and pannage for forty hogs. His successor gave them yet another 

 portion of Bessole, and in addition the wood of Winkinges, a name of Saxon origin surviving to-day. 



18 Inq. p.m. 7 Jas. I. " Somner, Canterbury. 



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