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.
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