"It is a strange thing to remember, when one is standing on the cold
desolate hills about Crowborough Beacon, or in the glens of the Tilgate
Forest--now the very picture of quiet, and rest, and loneliness--that
this same Sussex was once the iron mart of England. Once, spotted over
these hills and through these forests, there were forges that roared
from morning till night, chimneys that sent up their smoke and their
poisonous vapour from one year's end to another; cannon were cast ...
where now there is no harsher voice than the tap of the woodpecker....
One cannot fancy the forests of St. Leonards and Ashdown, the
Wolverhampton of their age. But so it was; and not the least remarkable
thing ... is the absence of traditions about the life and customs of
the manufacturers so employed." (Lower.)

[From Maresfield a round of about thirty miles could be made
through the beautiful East Sussex Weald, rejoining the main road
at Uckfield. In two miles is Buxted, which has an interesting
Early English church standing high amidst woods. In the Decorated
chancel is the brass of Britellus Avenel (1408) and J. de Lewes
(1330), by whom the church was founded. Note the old muniment
chest in the north aisle and the mortuary chapel of the Earls of
Liverpool south of the chancel. Not far from the church is "Hog
House," note the hog carved over the door and dated 1581. The
Hogge family, ironmasters, once lived here. In 1543 was cast the
first iron cannon made in this country.

"Master Huggett and his man John,
They did cast the first cannon."

Not far away is the one time cell of a hermit, carved out of the
rock, and named "The Vineyard." The road now winds through a