the Peak." It was another of the guests at Eridge
that made Tunbridge Wells; for had not Dudley, Lord North, when
recuperating there in 1606, discovered that the (Devil-flavoured)
chalybeate water of the neighbourhood was beneficial, the spring would
not have been enclosed nor would other of London's fatigued young bloods
have drunk of it.

[Illustration: _Bayham Abbey._]

[Sidenote: BAYHAM ABBEY]

Enough remains of Bayham Abbey, five miles south-east of Tunbridge
Wells, to show that it was once a very considerable monastery. The
founder was Sir Robert de Turneham, one of the knights of Richard
Coeur de Lion, famous for cracking many crowns with his "fauchion,"
and the founder also of Combwell Abbey at Goudhurst, not far distant.
Edward I. and Edward II. were both entertained at Bayham, while a
fortunate visit from St. Richard, Bishop of Chichester, put the Abbey in
possession of a bed (on which he had slept) which cured all them that
afterwards lay in it. Between Bayham and Goudhurst is Lamberhurst, on
the boundary. (The church and part of the street are indeed in Kent.)
Lamberhurst's boast is that its furnaces were larger than any in Sussex;
and that they made the biggest guns. The old iron railings around St.
Paul's are said to have come from the Lamberhurst iron works--2,500 in
all, each five feet six inches in height, with seven gates. The
Lamberhurst cannon not only served England, but some, it is whispered,
found their way to French privateers and were turned against their
native land.

Sweetest of spots in the neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells is Withyham,
in the west, lying to the north of Ashdown Forest, a small and retired
village, with a charming church, a good inn (the Dorset Arms), Duckings,
a superb piece of old Sussex architecture, Old Buckhurst, an interesting
ruin, new Buckhurst's magnificent park, and some of the best country in
the county. Once the South Down district is left behind I think that
Withyham is the jewel of Sussex. Moreover, the proximity of the wide
high spaces of Ashdown Forest seems to have cleared the air; no longer
is one conscious of the fatigue that appertains to the triangular hill
district between Tunbridge Wells, Robertsbridge and Uckfield.

[Sidenote: THE SPLENDID SACKVILLES]

Withyham is notable historically for its association with the great and
sumptuous Sackville family, which has held Buckhurst since Henry II.,
and of which the principal figure is Thomas Sackville,