ily Normanhurst, the seat of the Brasseys,
and Ashburnham Park, just to the north of it, a superb undulating
domain, with lakes, an imposing mansion, an old church, brake fern,
magnificent trees and a herd of deer, all within its confines. Of the
church, however, I can say nothing, for I was there on a very hot day,
the door was locked, and the key was at the vicarage, ten minutes'
distant, at the top of a hill. Churches that are thus controlled must be
neglected.

[Sidenote: ASHBURNHAM]

Ashburnham Place once contained some of the finest books in England and
is still famous for its relics of Charles I.; but strangers may not see
them. The best Sussex iron was smelted at Ashburnham Furnace, north of
the park, near Penhurst. Ashburnham Forge was the last to remain at work
in the county; its last surviving labourer of the neighbourhood died in
1883. He remembered the extinguishing of the fire in 1813 (or 1811), the
casting of fire-backs being the final task. Penhurst, by the way, is one
of the most curiously remote villages in east Sussex, with the oddest
little church.

I walked to Ashburnham from Ninfield, a clean breezy village on the hill
overlooking Pevensey Bay, with a locked church, and iron stocks by the
side of the road. It is stated somewhere that at "that corner of Crouch
Lane that leads to Lunford Cross, and so to Bexhill and Hastings," was
buried a suicide in 1675. At how many cross roads in Sussex and
elsewhere does one stand over such graves?

[Sidenote: CROWHURST]

One may return to Hastings by way of Catsfield, which has little
interest, and Crowhurst, famous for the remains of a beautiful manor
house and a yew tree supposed to be the oldest in Sussex. It is curious
that Crowhurst in Surrey is also known for a great yew.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

WINCHELSEA AND RYE

Medieval Sussex--The suddenness of Rye--The approach by
night--Cities of the plain--Old Winchelsea--The freakish sea--New
Winchelsea--The eternal French problem--Modern Winchelsea--The
Alard tombs--Denis Duval and the Westons--John Wesley--Old
Rye--John Fletcher--The Jeakes'--An unknown poet--Rye church--The
eight bells--Rye's streets--Rye ancient and modern--A Rye
ceramist--Pett--Icklesham's accounts--A complacent epitaph--Iden
and Playden--Udimore's church--Brede Place--The Oxenbridges--Dean
Swift as a baby.

In the opinion of many good judges Sussex has nothing to offer so
fascinatin