Near Duddleswell

A young Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) on a short but exhilarating walk up on the Forest early this afternoon.

'Exhilarating' was not always the kind of reaction that Ashdown Forest instilled in its visitors. As the Wikipedia entry records, William Cobbett, in his Sussex Journal entry of 8 January 1822, wrote of the Forest:

"At about three miles from Grinstead you come to a pretty village, called Forest-Row, and then, on the road to Uckfield, you cross Ashurst (sic) Forest, which is a heath, with here and there a few birch scrubs upon it, verily the most villainously ugly spot I saw in England. This lasts you for five miles, getting, if possible, uglier and uglier all the way, till, at last, as if barren soil, nasty spewy gravel, heath and even that stunted, were not enough, you see some rising spots, which instead of trees, present you with black, ragged, hideous rocks."