discussing upon the Subject we was nearly agreed
and propose meeting again every first monday after the fool Moon to
meet at 4 and break-up at 8.

"March 14th, 1788. Went to Fryersoake to a Bull Bait to Sell My
dog. I seld him for 1 guineay upon condition he was Hurt, but as he
received no Hurt I took him back again at the same price. We had a
good dinner; a round of Beef Boiled, a good piece roasted, a Lag of
Mutton and Ham of Pork and plum pudden, plenty of wine and punch.

"At Brightelmstone:--washed in ye sea."

CHAPTER XXII

CUCKFIELD

Hayward's Heath--Rookwood and the fatal tree--Timothy Burrell and
his account books--Old Sussex appetites--Plum-porridge--A luckless
lover--The original Merry Andrew--Ancient testators--Bolney's
bells--The splendour of the Slaugham Coverts--Hand Cross--Crawley
and the new discovery of walking--Lindfield--_Idlehurst_--Richard
Turner's epitaph--Ardingly.

Hayward's Heath, on the London line, would be our next centre were it
not so new and suburban. Fortunately Cuckfield, which has two coaching
inns and many of the signs of the leisurely past, is close by, in the
midst of very interesting country, with a church standing high on the
ridge to the south of the town, broadside to the Weald, its spire a
landmark for miles. Cuckfield Place (a house and park, according to
Shelley, which abounded in "bits of Mrs. Radcliffe") is described in
Harrison Ainsworth's _Rookwood_. It was in the avenue leading from the
gates to the house that that fatal tree stood, a limb of which fell as
the presage of the death of a member of the family. So runs the legend.
Knowledge of the tree is, however, disclaimed by the gatekeeper.

[Illustration: _Cuckfield Church._]

[Sidenote: THE COACHMAN'S PLANS]

Ockenden House, in Cuckfield, has been for many years in the possession
of the Burrell family, one of whom, Timothy Burrell, an ancestor of the
antiquary, left some interesting account books, which contain in
addition to figures many curious and sardonic entries and some ingenious
hieroglyphics. I quote here and there, from the Sussex Archaeological
Society's extracts, by way of illustrating the life of a Sussex squire
in those days, 1683-1714:--

1705. "Pay'd Gosmark for making cyder 1 day, whilst John Coachman was to
be drunk with the carrier's money, by agreement; and I pay'd 2_d._ to
the glasyer for mending John's casement broke