HEATHFIELD MEMORIALS.
Heathficld Memorials. By Perceval Lucas. (Arthur L. Hum- phreys. 21s. net.)—Heathfield is a Sussex parish, about half-way between Mayfield and Hurstmonceaux. Its name suggests Gibraltar, for George Augustus Eliott took his title from it after the famous defence. (He had bought the property with the prize-money from the capture of Havana ; there were good things going about in those days.) An earlier association is with Jack Cade, who was captured here. His name lives in " Cade Street," but it is more than suspected that the Cade" is really "Cat." Lord Heathfield's son sold the property to Francis Newbery, of bookselling fame. He greatly enlarged it ; book- selling in those times seems to have been even more profitable than fighting. Mr. Lucas has collected much interesting matter about persons and places. Perhaps the chapter on "The Workhouse and the Poor of the Parish" is just now the most ad rem. Heathfield was something of a shocking example of the
old Poor Law. In 1822 the sum of 42,288 was sxpended on the poor of the parish, and the rates were not far off the rental (17s. 5d.) It must be allowed, however, that for a parish of seven thousand eight hundred acres a rental of ..t2,700 was low. Heath- field is in the region which was once covered with ironworks. This industry finally ceased early in the nineteenth century. (Mr. Lucas puts the date at 1787, but forges were kept on, probably with little idea of profit, some twenty years later.) The main trade of the place is now in " chicken-fatting,"--" Surrey Fowls," as they are called, because the breed originally came from Surrey.
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