The road from Frog Firle to Alfriston is called White Way, and has been for many years. One evening in the 1700's, Master Chowne, heir to Dean's Place and surrounding estate, was walking there with his dog. Six men jumped out from the shadows of the hedge and attacked him. He fought back as well as he could with his dog snapping around the legs of the assailants. In the fight one of the robbers struck the young man a powerful blow to the back of the head with a wooden implement. Young Master Chowne fell dead. They hadn't meant to kill him, but that's what happened. In a panic the robbers searched their victim, took the little money he had, and buried the young heir in a shallow grave in the field by the roadside. They worked under cover of the hedge and the darkness. When they had covered shallow grave with leaves and were about to make off as fast as they could, one of the six noticed the little dog cowering in the hedge. Realising that the dog would betray the grave, they killed it and buried it by its master.

The family searched and searched for the lost youth but his body was not found and after many months they had to give up and mourn his apparent death.

Seven years later, two carters were walking beside their loaded wagon along that stretch of White Way when they saw a little white dog running in front of them. They followed it - curious because it was on its own and it seemed to be an unusual breed. It disappeared when they came nearer. They were mystified but, after a while, forgot all about it. Then, several years later, one of the carters heard an old woman talking about how she had seen a little dog in that place on the road on the night before her nephew died. The carter remembered what he and his companion had seen, and he remembered that soon after the sighting his companion had a serious accident.

From this time on there were various sightings of the dog and each time something awful happened either to the person who'd seen it or to someone close to them. Sam Shaw saw it in the early 1800's and got down off his horse to have a really good look at the place it had disappeared. He couldn't see any disturbance in the grass or the hedge, but later that day he fell from his horse and broke his leg.

Some time later an old man lay dying in a workhouse in London. He was restless and clearly ill-at-ease, and eventually communicated that he wanted to speak to a priest - he had a confession to make. He told the priest about the accidental murder. He said he'd done it with five other men who'd been working in that area and who just wanted money for a night's drinking. Then he died, before anyone could get from him the details of the burial place.

And still the ghost of the dog was sometimes seen and still folk feared seeing it because of the misfortune it always brought.

Some years later, when the road was widened, the bones of a man and a dog were found. The Chowne family had them re-buried in Alfriston churchyard. Since then no-one has seen the little white dog.

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