126 THE FORESTS OP EtTGLAND. 



Of the Ashdown Forest, and the forest of which it 

 formed a large integral part, The Spectator writes (15th 

 February, 1879) :— 



" It is difficult to realise that vast forest, the memory 

 of which is handed down to us in the wealds of our 

 Southern Home Counties. Stretching from the edge of 

 Komney Marsh to the border of Hampshire, the Andreds- 

 wald, or Forest of Anderida, occupied nearly the whole 

 space between the North and South Downs, covering about 

 a third of Kent, nearly the whole of Sussex except the sea- 

 board, and a considerable slice of Surrey. So densely wooded 

 was this district, that the great Roman roads avoided it ; 

 the way from Chichester to London, for instance, passing 

 through Southampton. Devoted, so far as it was used at 

 all, to the rearing of large herds of swine, who fattened on 

 its acorns and beech-mast, it was frequented only by those 

 who attended them ; and it remained for centuries after 

 the adjoining parts bad become subject to Roman civilisa- 

 tion, a terra incognita to both rulers and ruled. Through- 

 out Saxon times but very slight inroads were made upon 

 it, and it would appear that so late as the Conquest very 

 little of it had been brought under cultivation or appro- 

 priated to particular owners, since few places situate 

 wholly within the Weald are mentioned in the Doomsday 

 Survey. 



" Compare this condition of the country with that now 

 existing, and the contrast is remarkable. So far from the 

 Weald of Kent being now noted for wild and waste, it is 

 exceptionally free from them. No large commons are to 

 ■ be found, villages abound, and are of exceptional size, and 

 the whole face of the country is in individual ownership, 

 and in great part under high cultivation. Though Sus- 

 sex contains more wood, and is particularly favourable to 

 the growth of oak, yet it is, on the whole, an enclosed 

 county, and does not, like Surrey, for example, abound in 

 heaths and open land. Three fragments of the ancient 

 forest, bearing traces of their descent even in their names, 

 have, however, survived to modem times — the Forests of 



