Highways and Byways in Sussex - online book

An illustrated appreciation, of the most interesting districts in Sussex.

	xr,                                  ASHDOWN FOREST                             403 the edge of it; to the Saxons it was Andreaswald. Wolves, wild boar and deer then roamed its dark recesses. Our Ashdown Forest—all that now remains of this wild track—was for long a Royal hunting ground. Edward III. granted it to John of Gaunt, who, there's no doubt, often came hither for sport. It is supposed that he built a chapel near Nutley (" Chapel Wood " marks the site) where, on one occasion at least, John Wycliffe
	Ashdmvn Forest, from East Grinstead.
	the reformer officiated. At Forest Row, as we have seen, the later lords who hunted here built their lodges and kept their retainers. There are no longer any deer in the Forest; the modem sportsman approaches it with a cleek where hir. forerunner carried a bow. A hundred years ago, in the smuggling days, it was a very dangerous region. Hartfield, the village next to Withyham in the west, is D D 2