FORESTRY 



conferred them upon Peter of Savoy, the royal favourite. 249 Forfeitures and minorities of heirs were 

 the main causes of the numberless gifts of honours, offices, and privileges by the sovereigns in those 

 days ; but it would be difficult to find an instance of more numerous co-existing or rapidly alternating 

 grants of kindred rights than are met with in the case of the forest-land of Dallington. In addition 

 to those already mentioned, others to obtain free warren over it or its constituent parts were 

 Stephen de Burghershe in 1272 ; 250 a certain Iterus Bochard five years later; 2 ' 1 and Alan de 

 Boxhull in I3i4. 282 Edmund de Passeleye obtained an extensive grant of free warren in 1283 

 over lands in that forest, as Brightling, Mountfield, Ticehurst, and Battle. 253 From the terms of 

 this concession it appears that the forest was at the time a royal possession, since it contained a 

 clause ' saving the king's rights in his forest.' An early ' extent ' of the manor of Burwash, within 

 the forest bounds, shows that in the park itself practical economy was evidently not sacrificed to sport, 

 for it contained some of the arable land of the demesne ; its herbage and pannage was worth half a 

 mark annually ; sale of wood gs. ; of heather (much used for thatching and for the bedding of 

 cattle) I2d. ; while the 'warren of conies' brought in 4.5. In addition to its arable and pasture the 

 park contained 20 acres of wood. By the same survey the forest of Dallington was reported to 

 have herbage worth 5 marks annually ; while the swine-owners who turned out their hogs to feed 

 on the beech-nuts and acorns paid on an average 2 marks annually. Timber sold in the forest 

 brought in 4 ; and 'wainagium,' or the toll of wagons passing through the forest, was worth I2d., 

 from which we may conclude that traffic and trade were not very brisk in the interior of the rape 

 of Hastings at that period. 254 



Evidently the timber of Dallington Forest was of good repute, since in the fourteenth 

 century it was sent on the long journey to Lincolnshire, to build a bridge withal at Boston. 

 Nearer home John, duke of Brittany, used it to repair his manor-house at Crowhurst. 255 About 

 the same period John de Ashburnham obtained from King Edward III payment for sixty oak trees 

 which Edward II had cut down in Ashburnham Woods (the southern part of Dallington forest-land) 

 for the repair of Pevensey Castle. The king had also caused to be felled therein 169 oaks for 

 Dover Castle repairs. 356 



Although these facts tend to show that the growth of heavy timber was considerable over 

 Dallington Forest, there was much country in it of an open nature, barren, or supporting only 

 broom, gorse, and kindred growths. Hence the special mention of the sale of such vegetation 

 ' brueria ' as among the usual revenues from the forest. Hence, too, the designation ' waste ' 

 (vastum) as applied to the forest in a return of the possessions of John, duke of Brittany and earl 

 of Richmond. Among the estates of which he died possessed was, it is stated, the rape of Hastings, 

 and Cumbwood waste ' Combwode vastum ' which is doubtless but another name for the forest, 

 the 'Brislinga, Werth, and Cumba ' of Earl Henry's grant to Robertsbridge Abbey. 257 Dallington 

 appears in 1400 to have been again in the royal hands, for John Fraunceys, the king's serjeant- 

 farrier, was appointed ' Bailiff of the Rape of Hastings and Keeper of the Forest of Dallington.' 258 

 In 1457 Sir John Pelham by his will required his trustees to enfeofF John Pelham, his son and 

 heir, in ' the Forest and Chace of Dallington ' ; and in this family it remained for many generations. 

 But questions of possession arose between the Hoos and the Pelhams concerning the manors of 

 Crowhurst, Burwash and others, and Dallington Forest; these were ultimately composed in 1465 

 by Thomas Hoo's son, William Lord Hastings, renouncing in favour of the Pelhams all claims to 

 those manors, three hundreds of the rape, and ' the Chace of Dallington.' 2W 



Not till the eighteenth century did this forest come into other hands ; until, in fact, 1774, at 

 which time we find John, earl of Ashburnham, lord of Dallington. 



The later history of this forest is entirely industrial, rather than sporting ; for the ironworks 

 were particularly active and persistent in this district. 



Yet though no more the wild deer range over Dallington forest-land, or shelter within the 

 recesses of Darum Wood, there are still some fallow and a few red deer in the largest park of this 

 woodland, Ashburnham. Comprising more than a thousand acres, this beautiful park, wild and 

 hilly, with sandstone rocks appearing here and there, contains some very fine timber, oak, beech, fir, 

 and Spanish chestnut ; and nearly 250 deer, mostly fallow, roam over its surface diversified by 

 streams, lakes, and ponds. At Brightling Park, too, in the centre of the old forest-land, fallow deer 

 are still preserved. Lying high on the forest-ridge, a wide and varied outlook from it affords 

 splendid views over hill and dale and woodland, as far as the southern sea that bounds an isle which, 

 when the Romans invaded it, was little else than primaeval forest-land, of which the county of 

 Sussex preserves to-day the greatest remains. 



"' Pat. 33 Hen. Ill, m. 2. 1M Chart. R. I Edw. I, pt. t, 22. '" Ibid. 6 Edw. I, pt. i, 20. 



'" Ibid. 8 Edw. II, pt. i, 1 6. * Ibid. 12 Edw. I. '" Inq. p.m. 8 Edw. I, No. 50. 



'" Pat. 32 Edw. III. !M Close, 3 Edw. Ill, m. 26. '" Inq. p.m. 15 Edw. Ill, No. 43. 



148 Pat. 2 Hen. IV. pt. I, m. 8. Duchy of Lane. Plead, vol. 48, F. 16. 



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