Beast
The Horsham Serpent
Yet living, the pamphlet said.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Mixed woodland and heath
- Legend from
- Printed pamphlet, 1614
- Tone
- Spooky
A Jacobean news pamphlet: a living dragon two miles from Horsham, killing men and cattle.
In August 1614 a pamphlet was published in London called 'A Discourse relating a strange and monstrous Serpent (or Dragon) lately discovered, and yet living'. It claimed the creature lived 'two miles from Horsam, in a Woode called St. Leonards Forrest', and had killed men and cattle with its poison. Today the only dragons are a pub sign at Colgate, a bronze in Horsham Park and a carved bench in the forest.