Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, who was sent here by her physicians, for the re-establishment of her health, after the birth of Prince Charles

The queen continued about six weeks at the Wells, and dwelt in tents the whole time. Her camp was pitched upon Bishops-down-common, and certainly diffused a splendor and magnificence over this wild country, to which it had hitherto been an absolute stranger; ....... The curiosity of this gay young queen induced her one day to walk from the Well a little way into the county of Sussex, where she wandered about till, at length growing weary, she sat down on a bank beneath the shade of a spreading birch for refreshment; and, when she had sufficiently rested herself, she arose, and ordered a stone to be placed there, as a memorial of her travels in that county. ...... The Queen's-stone, an alehouse in the road to Frant, is built where this monument was placed, and the sign which hung there till within these few years, was drawn from a view of the stone itself. It is now the sign of the Blue-bell

It is stated that in one of her pedestrian excursions in the neighbourhood, Her Majesty [Queen Henrietta Maria] strolled up the Frant Road, and finding herself fatigued, rested upon a bank beneath a birch tree - upon quitting which, with that gaieté de coeur which was natural to her, she gave orders for a stone to be placed on the spot "as a memorial of her travels into Sussex." The gallantry of the courtiers suggested a complimentary latin inscription to be engraven upon it, but no vestige of the stone or inscription now remains, although in the year 1766, a Public House, called "The Blue Bell", formerly "The Queen's Stone" and afterwards "The Black Dog" stood upon the spot where the stone had been originally placed. Since then the house has undergone another change, being now a private residence, called "Mount Nevill." It is about quarter of a mile from the Springs, on the right of the road to Frant.