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36 KIPLING'S SUSSEX
Ashburnham's property. The Vicar of Burwash kindly gave me this information, but he points out that the Pook's Hill Farm has now degenerated into some modern name.
Burwash stands three miles to the north of Brightling and two miles west of Etchingham, on the parallel ridge, which diverges from the main one some distance from the west. In the valley between flows the Dudwell, an affluent of the Rother. It is here that we must look for most of the topographical hints which Kipling throws out in " Puck of Pook's Hill." The hill itself is not given on the map, but I think the lower slope of the hill, south of the valley, may be determined upon as the " bare, fern-covered slope" mentioned by Kipling as running from the " far side of the mill stream to a dark wood." This is the High Wood and is probably the " Far Wood " to which Una went when Dan came to grief over his Latin, and was kept in. Here we may seek the children's " important watch tower," which looks down on Pook's Hill and " all the turns of the brook as it wanders out of Willingford Woods, between hop gardens, to old Hobden's cottage at the Forge." Still further south is Brightling Beacon.
Two fords over the Dudwell are mentioned by |
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