protection of domestic manufactures, we find
no mention of iron, which was still, as a matter of necessity, allowed
to come freely from abroad.

The first indications of revival in the iron manufacture showed
themselves in Sussex, a district in which the Romans had established
extensive works, and where smelting operations were carried on to a
partial extent in the neighbourhood of Lewes, in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, where the iron was principally made into nails
and horse-shoes. The county abounds in ironstone, which is contained
in the sandstone beds of the Forest ridge, lying between the chalk and
oolite of the district, called by geologists the Hastings sand. The
beds run in a north-westerly direction, by Ashburnham and Heathfield,
to Crowborough and thereabouts. In early times the region was covered
with wood, and was known as the Great Forest of Anderida. The Weald,
or wild wood, abounded in oaks of great size, suitable for smelting
ore; and the proximity of the mineral to the timber, as well as the
situation of the district in the neighbourhood of the capital,
sufficiently account for the Sussex iron-works being among the most
important which existed in England previous to the discovery of
smelting by pit-coal.

The iron manufacturers of the south were especially busy during the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Their works were established near
to the beds of ore, and in places where water-power existed, or could
be provided by artificial means. Hence the numerous artificial ponds
which are still to be found all over the Sussex iron district. Dams of
earth, called "pond-bays," were thrown across watercourses, with
convenient outlets built of masonry, wherein was set the great wheel
which worked the hammer or blew the furnace. Portions of the adjoining
forest-land were granted or leased to the iron-smelters; and the many
places still known by the name of "Chart" in the Weald, probably mark
the lands chartered for the purpose of supplying the iron-works with
their necessary fuel. The cast-iron tombstones and slabs in many
Sussex churchyards,--the andirons and chimney backs[4] still found in
old Sussex mansions and farm-houses, and such names as Furnace Place,
Cinder Hill, Forge Farm, and Hammer Pond, which are of very frequent
occurrence throughout the county, clearly mark the extent and activity
of this ancient branch of industry.[5] Steel was also manufactured at
several places in the