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CHAPTER IX. 
Asupown Forest anp Matvern HItts. 
ANOTHER very important case in the South of England, 
but beyond the limits of London, was that of Ashdown 
Forest in Sussex. 
This ancient Chase is undoubtedly one of the remain- 
ing part of the great Forest of Anderida, which in very 
early times covered a large part of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, 
and Hampshire, extending from the Romney Marshes 
nearly to Portsmouth, and comprising the greater part 
of the district known as the Weald. In the time of 
Edward III., 1372, so much of it as then remained 
forest, consisting of about 14,000 acres, and lying 
between Tunbridge Wells and East Grinstead, was 
granted by the name of the Free Chase of Ashdown, 
together with the Castle of Pevensey, to John of Gaunt, 
Duke of Lancaster, and thenceforth, till after the 
Restoration, was attached to the Duchy of Lancaster. 
In 1560, the Mastership of the Forest, together with 
the keepership of the “wild beasts” therein, was granted 
to Sir Richard Sackville, the ancestor, through the 
Dukes of Dorset, of the present Earl De la Warr, and 
the owner of several Manors in the neighbourhood of 
the Forest, including that of Buckhurst. This was the 
first connection of the family with the Forest. 
Shortly after the accession of Charles I., the Earl of 
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