THE WEALD
There can be no one who has stood upon one of the great heights of the
Downs north and south, upon Ditchling Beacon, Chanctonbury or Leith
Hill, who, looking across the Weald, has not wondered what this
country, lying between the two great chalk ranges, might be, what is
its nature and its history and what part it has played in the great
story of England. For even to the superficial onlooker it seems to
differ essentially not only from the great chalk Downs upon which he
stands, but from any other part of England known to him. It lies,
thickly sprinkled with scattered and isolated woodlands, a mighty
trench between the heights, not a vast plain but an uneven lowland
diversified by higher land but without true hills, and roughly divided
west and east into two parts by a great ridge known by various names,
but in its greater part called the Forest, St Leonard's Forest,
Ashdown Forest, Dallington Forest, and so forth. This country which we
know as the Weald is obviously bounded north and south by the Downs
which enclose it, as they do, too, upon the west, where between
Winchester and Petersfield and Selborne the two ranges narrow and
meet. Thence, indeed, the Weald spreads eastward in an ever widening
delta till it is lost in the marshes and the sea.
Such is the aspect of this great country as we see it to-day from any
of the heights north and south of it; but what is its true character
and what is its history?
We hear of it first under a Saxon name, Andredeswald, whence we get our
name of the Weald, and we find it always spoken of not only by the
Saxons, but by the Romans before them as an obstacle, though not, it
would seem, an insurmountable one. It was, in fact, a wild forest
country of clay containing much woodland, everywhere covered with
scrub, and traversed by various sleepy and shallow streams. That it was
difficult to cross we have Roman evidence; that it was a secure hiding-
place we know from the Saxons; but as we look upon it to-day neither of
these historic facts is self-evident, and therefore a curious myth has
grown up with regard to the Weald; and the historian, seeking to
explain what is not to be understood without time and trouble and
experience, tells us that the Weald was once an impenetrable forest, a
whole great woodland and undergrowth so thick that no man might cross
it without danger. Such an assertion is merely an attempt on the part
of men, who do not know the Weald, to explain the facts of which I have
spoken, namely, that the Weald appears as an obstacle in our early
history, though not insurmountable, and that it continually offered a
secure hiding-place and refuge to the fugitive.
The Weald as it appears to us first, is the secure home of those who
first smelted the ironstone in which it abounds, and as such it
remained during many ages. But the two main facts about it which help
to explain everything in its history are first that it consisted for
the most part of clay, and secondly that it was everywhere ill
watered. Let us consider these things.
The Weald, even as we see it to-day, tilled and cultivated and tended
though it be, remains largely a country of scattered woodland, very
thickly wooded, indeed, as seen in a glance from any height of the
Downs, but revealing itself, as we traverse it, as a country of
isolated woods, often of oak, and with here and there the remains of
a wild and rough moorland country, of which, as we may think, in the
Roman times, it, for the most part, consisted. It later possessed some
six forests properly so called, but itself was never a legal forest
nor in any sense of the words an impenetrable wood. It always
possessed homesteads, farms and steadings, but almost nowhere within
it was there a great or populous town; men lived there it is true, but
always in a sort of isolation. And this was so not because the Weald
was an impassable forest of woodland and undergrowth--it was never
that; but because of its scarcity of water or more accurately its
uncertainty of water and its soil, the Wealden clay. The state of
affairs anciently obtaining in the Weald does not fundamentally differ
from what obtains to-day, and in a word it was and is this: in dry
weather there is no water, but the going is good; in wet weather there
is plenty of water, but the going is impossible. Of course, these
conditions have in modern times been modified by the building of roads
and the sinking of wells and the better embankment and preservation of
the rivers, but in Roman times, as later, the Weald was an obstacle
because it was difficult, though never impossible, to cross on account
of the badness of the going or the lack of water. It was a secure
hiding-place for such a fugitive as a Saxon king because he could not
be pursued by an army; he himself with a few followers could move from
steading to steading and enjoy a certain amount of state, but a
pursuing army would have perished.
Evidence in support of this explanation of the secret and character of
the Weald is not far to seek. The Weald lay between the Channel and
its ports, that is to say, the entries into England from the
continent, and the Thames valley; it was then an obstacle that had to
be overcome. Had it been merely a great woodland forest, it would not
have troubled the Romans who would merely have driven a great road
through it. But the Romans had more to face than an impenetrable
woodland or the roughness of the country; they had to overcome the
lack of water, and therefore in the Weald their day's march of some
twelve miles was pressed to double its normal length. The French
armies, according to Mr Belloc, do exactly the same thing in the Plain
of Chalons to-day. And indeed a man may see for himself, even yet,
what exactly the Weald was if in summer he will cross it by any of the
winding byways that often become good roads for a mile or so and then
lapse again into lanes or footpaths. Let him follow one of these afoot
and drink only by the wayside. And then in winter let him follow the
same tracks if he can. He will find plenty of water, but his feet will
be heavy with clay. For an army or even a regiment to go as he goes
would be almost impossible, and this not because of the woodland or
undergrowth, but because of the lack of water, the lack of towns or
large villages and the clay underfoot.
Such then was the nature of the barrier which lay between the ports of
the Channel and the valley of the Thames. The Weald was indeed
inhuman, and this helps to explain why it was not only a barrier but a
refuge.
We read in the rude chronicle of the Saxons of two men who sought
refuge in the Weald, in the seventh and eighth centuries. The first of
the three was Caedwalla, (659?-689) a young man of great energy,
according to Bede, and probably a dangerous aspirant to the West-Saxon
throne. At any rate he was exiled from Wessex and he took refuge with
his followers in the forest of Anderida, that is to say in the Weald.
There about 681 he met St Wilfrid who had fled, too, from the West
Saxon kingdom. Wilfrid was busy converting the South Saxons, and
Caedwalla, going from steading to steading with his followers, saved
from any considerable pursuit by the nature of the country, became
great friends with him. This, however, did not prevent him in 685
from ravaging Sussex, slaying the South Saxon king and at last
succeeding his old enemy Centwine upon the West Saxon throne.
Caedwalla, after conquering the Isle of Wight and putting
to death the two sons of King Arvaldus, having allowed them first to
be baptised, was himself converted, and to such purpose that he laid
down his crown, went on pilgrimage to Rome, and was baptised under the
name of Peter, by the Pope, on the vigil of Easter 689. He died,
however, before Domenica in albis, and was buried in Old St Peter's,
nor was he the only English king that lay there.
All this came out of the Weald; but it is most significant for us
because it allows us to understand the nature of this refuge and what
it offered in the way of safety to an exile.
This is confirmed by the experience of Sigebert, King of the West
Saxons. He, too, first took refuge in the Weald when deposed by his
witan. He fled away and was pursued, we read, by Cynewulf, so that he
took refuge in the forest of Andred where he was safe from pursuit by
many men, being killed at last at Privet near Petersfield in Hampshire
by a swineherd in revenge for his master's death. Such then was the
nature of the Weald and such fundamentally it remains, a stubborn and
really untameable country, even to-day not truly humanised, still
largely empty of towns and villages but scattered with isolated farms
and steadings. And the essential inhumanity of the true heart of the
Weald is borne out by the scarcity of religious houses there. Only the
little Priory of Rusper, a small Benedictine nunnery perhaps founded by
one of the De Braose family before the end of the twelfth century, and
the small Benedictine nunnery of Easebourne founded in the thirteenth
century may be said to belong to the true Weald; of the others, such
as the Abbey of Robertsbridge, the Priories of Michelham and Shulbred,
the Abbeys of Otham, Bayham, and Dureford not one is really old or
stands really within the true Weald. Nor are they of very much
importance. The greatest of these houses was the Cistercian Abbey of
Robertsbridge founded in 1176 by Alfred de St Martin, Sheriff of the
rape of Hastings, within which the abbey stood, really upon the last
of the forest ridge towards the Level of Pevensey. It is true that this
abbey played a considerable part in history during the first years of
its existence; for it was the Abbot of Robertsbridge who set out with
the Abbot of Boxley to search for Coeur de Lion in 1192 and who found him
in Bavaria, and we find the Abbot of Robertsbridge employed more than
once again as an ambassador; but its fame soon dwindled, and though
it escaped the first suppression and indeed survived till 1538 it
could boast then of but eight brethren.
[Illustration: THE WEALD OF SUSSEX, NORTH OF LEWES]
The only other houses as old as Robertsbridge are those of Otham and
Dureford, houses of Premonstratensian Canons, neither in the heart of
the Weald, and both dating from the twelfth century. The other
religious houses, Michelham and Shulbred of the Augustinian Canons,
Easebourne of Augustinian nuns and Bayham the successor of Otham, all
date from the thirteenth century, and indeed no more belong to the
true Weald than do the rest. It is, in fact, only to-day that a great
monastery stands in the heart of the Weald, and of all wonderful
things that is a Carthusian House of the like of which Pre-reformation
England boasted but twelve, and Sussex none at all.
It was one day as I came over the Adur by Moat Farm that I became
aware of this great establishment, for there suddenly, as I turned a
corner, by the Lord, the road was full of Carthusian monks all in
their white habits, a sight as marvellous as delightful once more upon
an English road. And so I found my way to the great house of St Hugh
at Parkminster.
One should learn to be astonished at nothing in England of my heart,
for it will beggar one's admiration. But Carthusians! Was it not this
Order which Henry II. had brought into England as part of his penance
for the murder of St Thomas? Was it not this Order which had first been
established in my own Somerset, and alone of all Orders in England by a
Saint, and which there at Witham and at Hinton, still so fair and
lovely, built its first two houses in England, of which all told there
were but twelve? Was it not this Order that had faced and outfaced
Henry Tudor to the last so that the monks of the London Charterhouse
were burnt at the stake at Tyburn?
Well is this monastery dedicated in honour of St Hugh. And if you do
not know why let me write it here. It is well known that after the
murder of St Thomas and Henry II.'s public repentance for his part in
all that evil, Pope Alexander III. gave him for penance a crusade of
three years in the Holy Land, but when that was found not to be
convenient he commuted it for the building of three monasteries of
which one was to be Carthusian, for the Carthusians at that time had no
house in England. This Order had been founded at Grenoble in 1086 by St
Bruno, who had been sent by St. Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, to a desert
spot in the Alps 14,000 feet above the sea. There St Bruno founded his
monastery known as the Grande Chartreuse. His monks were hermit monks,
each had, as each has still, his own little dwelling. The Order, which
has never been reformed--Cartusia nunquam reformata Quia nunquam
deformata--and has uniformly followed the Rule approved by
Pope Innocent XI., recognises three classes of brethren, the
fathers, the conversi or lay brethren, and nuns. Each house is
governed by a Prior and each monk lives, as I have said, in a separate
dwelling of five little rooms and a tiny cloister, or rather
ambulatory, facing a little garden. His food is given him through a
hatch at the foot of the stairs leading to his rooms. He attends Mass
in Choir, Matins and Vespers too, but the other Hours are said in his
cell. As the Carthusians were when they first came into England so
they are to-day.
But it is not in honour of St Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, that the
monastery at Parkminster is dedicated, but of quite another saint.
When Henry II. set out to found a Carthusian house in England in
obedience to the Pope, the place he chose for it was Witham in
Selwood, a solitude, for the Rule of the Order demanded it, and that
is also why we have this monastery in the Weald to-day. It bears
witness as nothing else could do to-day, perhaps, to the true
character of the Weald.
Witham, it is true, was not so desolate as the Grande Chartreuse, but
it was in the heart of the Forest, far from the abode of men. Even to-
day Witham is not easy to reach by road. This house, thus founded did
not flourish; whether the place was too hard for the monks, or whether
there was some other cause we know not, but the first two priors,
though both from the Grande Chartreuse, failed to establish it. Then
King Henry was advised to beg of the mother-house her great and
shining light, Hugh of Avalon, not of Avalon in England, but of Avalon
in Burgundy. He was successful in his request. The Bishop of Bath and
Wells, his ambassador, then in the Alps, was able to bring Hugh home
with him, though the loss of that "most sweet presence," as the Prior
declared, widowed his house; and Hugh came to England and to Witham
and was received as "an angel of the Lord." It is in honour of this
great and holy man, later Bishop of Lincoln and known as St Hugh of
Avalon, that the Carthusian monastery of Parkminster is dedicated. I
have here no room to speak of him, the true founder of the Order in
England, of his holy, brave and laborious life in Selwood or of his
rule there of ten years. He is forgotten even at Witham and his name
no longer, alas, means anything to us whom he served. Only the
Carthusians have not forgotten, and to the keeping of no other saint
in the Calendar could they so honourably have entrusted their new
house.
This monastery, founded in the Weald, upon October 17, 1877, is a
great, if not a beautiful, pile of buildings, and is, in fact, one of
the largest houses of the Order in the world. The visitor rings at the
gate, and is admitted by a lay-brother dressed in the beautiful white
habit, caught about the waist by a leathern girdle from which a rosary
hangs. Upon his feet are rough shoes and his head is shorn but he
greets you with a smile of welcome and leads you into a large
quadrangle, where before you is the great Romanesque church with a
chapel upon one side and the refectory upon the other, and all about
are cloisters. Here over the entrance to the church is a statue of St
Hugh. Within, the church is divided by a screen into two parts, the
choir for the Fathers, the nave for the lay-brothers. Over the screen
is a rood, and beneath, two altars, dedicated in honour of St John the
Baptist, who went into the desert, and St Bruno, the founder of the
Order. From the church one is led to the Chapter House, in which there
stands an altar and Crucifix, and there upon the walls are depicted
scenes from the martyrdom of the London Carthusians in the time of
Henry VIII. From the Chapter House one is led to the Chapel of the
Relics, where there is a beautiful silver reliquary that belonged to
the English Carthusians before the Reformation, and in it is a relic
of St Thomas of Canterbury. Here, too, is the stole of St Hugh and a
bone of St Bruno.
The monastery proper lies behind the church, where a vast quadrangle,
the Great Cloister, some three acres in extent, opens out, surrounded
on three sides by the little houses of the monks, with the graveyard
in the midst. Here the monks live, and are buried without coffin or
shroud in their white habits, the hood drawn over the face. The cells
are delightful to look upon, "a solitude within a solitude"; each
consists of five rooms, two below and three above, reached by a
staircase, the whole approached from a passage closed by a door giving
on to the Great Cloister. Here live and pray some thirty-six monks,
with a like number of conversi or lay-brothers.
I do not know in all England a place more peaceful than this one, more
solemn and salutary to visit in the confusion of our modern life. Here
is one of the lightning conductors that preserves the modern world
from the wrath of God. Let others think as they will, for me the
monastery of St Hugh in the Weald is holy ground.
And at any rate, even though you may not agree with me so far, in this
at least I shall carry you with me, when I say that this monastery,
and especially because it is Carthusian, bears out the old character
of the Weald and endorses it. I have said the Weald was ever a wild
and inhuman place where only few men could go together, without great
towns and with only infrequent villages; not a thick or impenetrable
woodland but a difficult and a lonely country sparsely scattered with
steadings. Well, it is such places that the Carthusians have ever
sought out for their houses, such was Witham and such was the Grande
Chartreuse also. That a Carthusian monastery should have been founded
to-day in the midst of the Weald proves, if anything can, that it has
not yet wholly lost its character.