ASHDOWN FOREST. 125 



go without their pickings, for they took the stools or roots 

 of the trees felled, which must have put a considerable 

 sum a year into their pockets, although such stools were the 

 undoubted property of the Crown. In short, the adminis- 

 tration of the forest seems to have been a merry-go-round 

 of unblushing knavery." 



E. — Ashdoum Forest 



An immense forest once occupied a great part of the 

 surface of the present county of Sussex. This forest was 

 called by the Britons ' Coit Andred,' and by the Saxons 

 ' An dredes- weald ; it was inhabited only by wild boars and 

 by deer. According to the Saxon Chronicle, this wood was 

 of prodigious dimensions ; it was ' in length, east and west, 

 one hundred and twenty miles or longer, and thirty miles 

 broad.' In the course of time a large portion of this im- 

 mense space has been gradually cleared -and brought into 

 cultivation. Three forests of some extent, however, still 

 exist — St Leonard's, Ashdown, and Tilgate Forests. St 

 Leonard's contains about ten thousand acres ; and Ash- 

 down forest about eighteen thousand acres. Pine, fir, 

 beech, and birch are the principal trees. 



" Ashdown Forest has" the character of an open heath 

 partially sprinkled with underwood, and rising to a con- 

 siderable elevation — Crowborough Hill, the highest point, 

 being 804 feet above the level of the sea. From the 

 summit of this hill is presented a splendid panoramic view 

 of the whole range of the South Downs from Beachy Head, 

 the eastern extremity, to the borders of Hampshire ; the 

 Isle of Wight appearing like a cloud resting on the sea 

 beyond. The nearest ridge of the Downs is about twenty 

 miles distant; the intervening country, though enclosed 

 and cultivated is deeply wooded." 



