206 
LIGNITE. 
iron, so procured, was at first principally used for 
agricultural implements but Fuller also observes, 
in his Worthies, that “it is almost incredible how 
many great guns were made of the iron of this 
county. The total decline of the manufacture in 
Sussex is to be attributed to the establishments in 
Scotland and Wales, in which pit-coal is used, the 
superior cheapness of fuel having enabled them to 
monopolize the trade.” There is now but a single 
foundery in the eastern division, and which be- 
longs to the Earl of Ashburnham. According to 
the present practice, it requires fifty loads of char- 
coal, and fifty loads of ironstone (twelve bushels 
to each load) to make thirteen tons of jiig iron.* 
Lignite occurs in many of the shales and 
clays ; and at Bexhill, the south-eastern extremity 
of the Forest-ridge, towards the sea, indications of 
this substance induced some enterprising indi- 
viduals to sink a shaft; and at the depth of iCO 
feet a layer of lignite, resembling Bovey coal, 
was found : the undertaking was abandoned after 
an outlay of some hundred pounds sterling ! 
At Waldron, and Newick, seams of fibrous lignite 
have also been noticed. The strata pierced in 
Newick-Old-Park, about one mile from the banks 
of the Lewes canal, were : 1. Loam. 2. Sandstone 
and clay. 3. Marl and sandstone. 4. Laminated 
sandstone. 5. Indurated clay rubble. 6. Altern- 
ations of clay and sandstone. 7* Shale. 8. Coal 
of the Bovey kind, examined to the depth of 
eleven inches. It bassets out on the side of a 
* Dallaway’s History of tlie Western Division of the County of Sussex, 
vol. i. p. 161. folio, 1815. 
