he last furnace being quenched in
1828.

"It is a strange thing to remember, when one is standing on the cold
desolate hills about Crowborough Beacon, or in the glens of the Tilgate
Forest--now the very picture of quiet, and rest, and loneliness--that
this same Sussex was once the iron mart of England. Once, spotted over
these hills and through these forests, there were forges that roared
from morning till night, chimneys that sent up their smoke and their
poisonous vapour from one year's end to another; cannon were cast ...
where now there is no harsher voice than the tap of the woodpecker....
One cannot fancy the forests of St. Leonards and Ashdown, the
Wolverhampton of their age. But so it was; and not the least remarkable
thing ... is the absence of traditions about the life and customs of
the manufacturers so employed." (Lower.)

[From Maresfield a round of about thirty miles could be made
through the beautiful East Sussex Weald, rejoining the main road
at Uckfield. In two miles is Buxted, which has an interesting
Early English church standing high amidst woods. In the Decorated
chancel is the brass of Britellus Avenel (1408) and J. de Lewes
(1330), by whom the church was founded. Note the old muniment
chest in the north aisle and the mortuary chapel of the Earls of
Liverpool south of the chancel. Not far from the church is "Hog
House," note the hog carved over the door and dated 1581. The
Hogge family, ironmasters, once lived here. In 1543 was cast the
first iron cannon made in this country.

"Master Huggett and his man John,
They did cast the first cannon."

Not far away is the one time cell of a hermit, carved out of the
rock, and named "The Vineyard." The road now winds through a
remote country, which once resounded with the clangour of the
forge, to Hadlow Down and Butcher's Cross and in seven miles
reaches Mayfield. The village street is according to Coventry
Patmore the "sweetest in Sussex." The half-timbered "Middle
House" nearly opposite the church is the best example of this
style of architecture in the south, it is dated 1575. Lower House
was built about 1625. The fine Perpendicular church is on the
site of the traditional building erected by St. Dunstan. This was
made of wood, and the Saint, finding that the orientation was not
quite true, set his shoulder to the wall and pushed it straight!