n 1345. The inscription, in
French, runs:--"I was made and formed of Earth; and now I have returned
to Earth. William de Etchingham was my name. God have pity on my soul;
and all you who pass by, pray to Him for me." Certainly no church in
Sussex has so many interesting brasses as these. A moat once surrounded
the God's acre, and legend had it that at the bottom was a great bell
which might never be drawn forth until six yoke of white oxen were
harnessed to it. Pity that the moat was allowed to run dry and the
harmless fiction exposed.

[Sidenote: A WAGER]

Sir John Lade, diminutive associate of George IV. in his young days (and
afterwards, coming upon disaster, coachman to the Earl of Anglesey),
once lived at Haremere Hall, near by. As we have seen, the First
Gentleman in Europe visited him there, and it was there one day, that,
in default of other quarry, Sir John's gamekeeper only being able to
produce a solitary pheasant, the Prince and his host shot ten geese as
they swam across a pond, and laid them at the feet of Lady Lade. Sir
John was the hero of the following exploit, recorded in the press in
October, 1795:--"A curious circumstance occurred at Brighton on Monday
se'nnight. Sir John Lade, for a trifling wager, undertook to carry Lord
Cholmondeley on his back, from opposite the Pavilion twice round the
Steine. Several ladies attended to be spectators of this extraordinary
feat of the dwarf carrying the giant. When His Lordship declared himself
ready, Sir John desired him to strip. 'Strip!' exclaimed the other; 'why
surely you promised to carry me in my clothes!' 'By no means,' replied
the Baronet; 'I engaged to carry _you_, but not an inch of clothes. So,
therefore, My Lord, make ready, and let us not disappoint the ladies.'
After much laughable altercation, it was at length decided that Sir John
had won his wager, the Peer declining to exhibit _in puris
naturalibus_."

[Sidenote: THE HAWKHURST GANG]

Ticehurst and Wadhurst, which may be reached either by road or rail from
Robertsbridge or Etchingham, both stand high, very near the Kentish
border. To the east of Hurst Green on the road thither (a hamlet
disproportionate and imposing, possessing, in the George Inn, a relic of
the days when the coaches came this way), is Seacox Heath, now the
residence of Lord Goschen, but once the home of George Gray, a member of
the terrible Hawkhurst gang of smugglers. Ticehurst has a noble church,
very ingeniously restore