ASHDOWN FOREST. 167 
committing depredations upon the Forest by cutting and 
carrying away the heath to the amount of many thousands of 
loads in the course of a year, by means of which the herbage is 
not only destroyed, and the tenants who have rights of 
Commonage prejudiced, but the Lord of the Manor, who is 
entitled to the timber in the Forest, is much injured, inasmuch 
as the young oak trees, which may be coming up amongst the 
heath, are cut down by the scythe, and consequently no timber 
can ever grow where these cuttings take place. Independently 
of this injury, the black game which used to abound in this 
Forest, and which the Duke is extremely desirous of preserving, 
are by this practice almost extirpated. His grace is therefore 
determined to put a stop to it if it is possible to do so.” 
Mr. Serjeant Hill does not appear to have favoured 
the Duke’s view, for he gave as his opinion “ that if 
the Commoners had been accustomed to cut heath for 
estovers as long as any living witnesses could remember, 
they could not be restrained from doing so.” 
Later, in spite of this opinion, a notice was 
issued forbidding altogether the cutting of litter within 
the Forest. The taking of turf, peat, and stone was 
also prohibited, with certain exceptions in favour of the 
poor of the adjoining parishes. From thenceforward 
these questions were perpetually in dispute between the 
Dukes of Dorset and their successors. in their property 
—the Earls De la Warr—and the Commoners of 
the Forest. These Commoners were not a class of small 
owners and occupiers of land, as in many other cases, 
little able to oppose a powerful and wealthy Lord of 
the Manor. They contained in their ranks many of 
the principal landowners of that part of Sussex—Lord 
