A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



Arundel is more than a thousand acres in extent, and contains some splendid timber, chiefly beech 

 trees, some of great size and age ; while between four and five hundred fallow deer, and more than 

 two hundred red deer, wander over its hills and dales. 



North of the forest-land of Arundel lies the well-wooded park of Petworth, the seat of Lord 

 Leconfield. Nearly seven hundred acres in extent, it shelters a herd of more than five hundred fallow 

 deer, and contains a clump of ancient trees wherein ravens have been wont to breed. North-east of 

 Arundel is Parham Park, more than four hundred acres in extent, containing over two hundred 

 fallow deer, and harbouring a heronry among its trees. 



Leaving Arundel we pass on to the contiguous division of Sussex, where, in the north-east of 

 the rape of Bramber, is the FOREST OF ST. LEONARD, one of the most important in the county. It 

 occupied the huge parish of Beeding, and extended southwards far into the centre of the rape. It 

 derived its name in all probability from the fact that within its bounds stood a chapel dedicated to 

 St. Leonard, of remote and unknown origin. 



From the immense number of flint flakes and implements of various kinds found in the loose sand 

 of this forest-land, particularly about Horsham, it is evident that the district of St. Leonard's Forest 

 was much frequented by our Celtic forefathers, who must have had to travel many miles to get the 

 materials for their tools, Findon in the south and Reigate in Surrey in the north being the nearest 

 localities for flint. Beeding, Steyning, and other places in the woodland were manors of Godwin, 

 Harold, and Edward the Confessor, and very possibly of Saxon kings before him. 97 



Both Beeding and Steyning are credited in Domesday Survey with a considerable amount of 

 woodland affording food for swine, and the lord of Beeding received two sextaries of honey of the 

 bees that resorted to its woods. Bramber itself must have been densely wooded, 3,000 acres of 

 wood therein being mentioned in a record 98 several hundred years later than the days of Domesday. 

 The forest of St. Leonard is not mentioned in Domesday, neither any of the parks its con- 

 stituents ; probably they were inclosures of the forest-land of a later date, while its claim to the title 

 of a forest in the strict sense of the word has been called in question. It is likely that the designation 

 is a survival from the days of the Saxon kings. 



The foundation of the priory of Sele or Beeding affords some items of information concerning 

 this forest. Founded by the lord of Bramber, William de Braose, in 1075, the priory of Sele 

 was endowed by him and his successors with pannage for their swine in this forest, and in 

 all the woods of the barony, with timber from the same for building and reparations ; together 

 with the tithes arising from pannage, from the underwood of the forest, from recent assarts, i.e., land 

 reclaimed from the forest and converted to cultivation, and from colts born in the forest-land. From 

 the last item it would appear probable that, like the neighbouring Hampshire forests, this forest of 

 St. Leonard contained among its ' ferae naturae ' wild forest-ponies, and this is borne out by the 

 fact that in 1 305 a canon of Calceto Priory and other persons were convicted of hunting in 

 Sedgewick Park and of wantonly driving a herd of horses (equitium) belonging to Mary de Braose 

 into their nets and beating the horses with their bows. 38a Like the other forests of Sussex, it 

 gave origin to one of the little rivers of the county. We have noted how these tidal rivers 

 gave access to the densest forest lands ; they were also of the highest importance as carriers 

 of the timber supplies which Sussex woodlands rendered for the building and repair of the 

 castles, houses, bridges, and ships of past ages. In 1207 there is record in the accounts of the 

 bishopric of Winchester of wood from this Sussex forest being conveyed to various episcopal manors. 

 The steward of Southwark manor enters in his account of that year the ' cost of timber coming from 

 the forest of St. Leonard for the mill, and of the carpenter to saw it up ... timber brought from 

 the forest of St. Leonard to Dorking . . . timber brought from the same forest to Kingston.' " 



It must have been a matter of some difficulty in those days of deep and miry roads to convey 

 timber such distances as these, the shortest of which was to Dorking, and the easiest. For the 

 Stane Street, a road of Roman formation, passed through the north-western corner of the rape of 

 Bramber adjoining, if not piercing, the verge of St. Leonard's Forest. The timber that was 

 conveyed to Kingston-on-Thames, and to the mill of Southwark, may also have travelled the 

 same route, unless it was floated down the Adur river for transference to London by sea and 

 up the Thames. 



About the same period we meet with various parks on the borders of or within this forest- 

 land ; Cnep or Knepp in its southern part, Sedgewick in the west, Chesworth, Shelley, and Beaubush 

 (or Beaubusson) in the north. Knepp was doubtless an inclosure of the forest around the castle of the 

 same name, probably of ancient formation. For it was already in existence in the twelfth century, 

 when the monks of Sele complained that William, the third lord of Bramber, had taken some of 

 their land for the enlargement of his park at Knepp. 100 



97 Suss. Arch. Coll. xxvii, 177 et seq. * Inq. a.q.d. 9 Edw. II, No. 204. 



''Assize R. 934, m. 7. " Rot. Compoti Petri Epis. Winton. a quarto, m. 9 (1208-9). 



100 Sele Chartul. at Magdalen Coll. fbl. 14. 



306 



