A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



timber left on Chesworth lands, the surveyors only enumerating 254 trees, 104 of which were 

 ' small oake trees,' the value of the whole being set at 46. Of all this the great timber had 

 been reserved by the crown, when, by patent of 44 Elizabeth, the queen had granted the estate to 

 Sir John Caryll, who in this connexion had merely such wood and underwood as he required for 

 house-, fire-, hedge-, pale-, plough-, wain-, and cart-bote, a sufficiently comprehensive catalogue, and 

 one whose benefits became enjoyable by the ' meane ' (mesne) tenants whose holdings are passed in 

 review in this survey. 126 



The manor of Colstaple in Horsham was also surveyed. Leased by the Caryll family, it had 

 been sub-let to a certain Matthew White ; the lord reserving the great timber, and the right to hunt 

 or hawk. The timber on this small estate consisted of 350 ' small oake trees, besides Tellars and 

 some beeches,' of an estimated value of 52 lew. 127 



In 1655 another survey 128 was taken of 'St. Leonards Forest, Iron Mills etc. there .... 

 lying and being within ye deafforrested Forrest of St. Leonards.' It commences with an inventory 

 of the forges of the forest. No less than 250 loads of charcoal and 30 cord of wood were ' reserved 

 yerely out of ye said Forrest of St. Leonards for ye use and service of ye said Forges or Mills.' 

 The surveyors conclude with the remark that ' there hath binn very greate Distrucon of ye Woods 

 within the affores d Forrest .... but there is Sufficient Coppice Wood yet remaining if well 

 p'served' an 'if in which there is much virtue. 



Of the other parks of the forest we find the Middleton family in possession of Beaubush and 

 Shelley, described as disparked. 129 At the Restoration Edward earl of Sandwich obtained the grant 

 of these two parks. The Carylls, too, recovered Knepp and some other of their possessions in the 

 forest-land, as Sedgewick. These woodland properties seem to have been much sought after, judging 

 from the petitions of John Browning and John Fifield for the reversion, after Sir J. Caryll, of Ches- 

 worth manor and parks, St. Leonard's Forest, and other lands rented at 226 13*. 6d. ' with such 

 increase as is fit.' 1: We find, however, that the forest of St. Leonard itself was conferred by 

 Charles II on his chief physician, Sir Edward Greaves, from whom, by his daughter's marriage, it 

 came ultimately into the possession of the family of Aldridge, whose descendants still remain therein. 

 Their residence, albeit called the ' New Lodge,' is considered to occupy the site of the old ranger's 

 house ; while the park of 250 acres surrounding it is supposed to represent the ' Little Park' men- 

 tioned in old documents. Several other estates and mansions, such as 'Leonardslee,' 'Newells,' &c., 

 occupy various other portions of the old forest-land ; thus partially, in a way, realizing the idea of 

 the unfortunate Admiral Seymour. 



During the eighteenth century St. Leonard's forest-land began to come into favour as a 

 residential locality, and Horsham flourished as a county town, while the assize courts continued 

 there. Dr. Burton, in his ' Iter Sussexiense,' described it as ' the metropolis of the Weald of 

 Anderida.' Proceeding, he says he passed ' through a forest which has its name from St. Leonard, 

 extensive and easily passed through. After passing this we fell again upon the especially impassable 

 Sussex roads.' m Nowadays these ways are mended, and St. Leonard's district continues in favour 

 as a residential neighbourhood. Nor is it destitute of deer-parks, Warnham, West Grinstead, 

 Denne, and Leonardslee parks containing in all more than 600 deer, red, roe, and fallow. Other 

 parks are Holmbush (the ancient Beaubush), Horsham, and Knepp. 



Separated from St. Leonard's Forest, more by an imaginary than an actual line, WORTH FOREST 

 lies in the north-western corner of the rape of Lewes. Even to-day the district is very woody, 

 and travellers between London and Brighton may form some idea, albeit inadequate, of the aspect 

 of this country-side in days of old, by the sight of the miles of continuous woodland through 

 which the train passes about Balcombe. 



Worth was a royal possession in the days of the Confessor, and doubtless, as in the case of 

 some other so-called forests in Sussex, its subsequent denomination as such was a survival from 

 those earlier times. The boundaries of the forest are unknown, but they probably extended from 

 the northern end of the rape of Lewes at least as far south as Cuckfield ; possibly as far as 

 Ditchling. In the former case they would include the woodlands of Crabbet, Wakehurst, Worth 

 itself, Balcombe, and Cuckfield, with the addition in the latter case of those of Homewood, Hurst, 

 Keymer, and Ditchling. 



No forest or park is named in Domesday in connexion with Worth or its forest-land, though 

 Wanningore (where Richard de Plaiz had a park in the thirteenth century) is mentioned, but no 

 woodland is given as bringing in any payment in money or kind for pannage privileges. There are, 

 indeed, no manors, vills or centres of habitation in this forest-land except Worth mentioned in 

 Domesday, a fact most suggestive of the remote and unopened-up nature of that woodland district, 

 since in the other forests of Sussex that survey names not a few such places in connexion with each. 



IM Parl. Surv. Sussex, No. 22. '" Ibid. No. 31. "" Ibid. No. 35. 



l " Royalist Comp. (ist Ser.), vol. 45, fol. 575. 13 S.P. Dom. Chas II, vol. 48, No. 46. 



"' Iter Surrienie et Stusexiense, Oxon. 1752. 



310 



