20 HISTORY OF HARTING. 



first detailed Survey of Harting, to which we shall 

 hereafter refer (i/th Oct., 1349), the Akermaincoure, 

 which has a Roman ring in its sound; and four Roman 

 coins of Victorinus have been found at Eckenfields. 

 I have not as yet been able to trace the existence of 

 any other Roman remains connected with Harting. 



Of Anglo-Saxon predecessors we have more evidence. 

 Sir P. Burrell (MSS. 5,689, p. 284) quotes from 3 Dugd. 

 Mon., p. 1 1 6, to the effect that "Numa, King of Sussex, 

 was seized of the lordship of Herting." The title of 

 " King of Sussex " would seem to have been a barren 

 honour, for Speed, Book vii., 300, says : " The King- 

 dom of the South Saxons, though it began with the 

 first, in the second yeere after the entrance of Hen- 

 gist, and Ella was their first king yet after 



Ella his death, it was the most obscure of all the 

 rest> had the fewest kings, and the shortest time of 



their kingdom's continuance The two last that 



governed are rather called ' Captains ' than kings." It 

 is probable that Numa was king of East and West 

 Harting and of the Combe, and ruler over a few hamlets 

 in the clearings of the great forest of Anderida. 



The Saxons, however, undoubtedly gave Harting 

 its name. The nomenclature is unusually varied. 

 " Herotinum," alias " Hertinges," alias " Herting," alias 

 " Harting," (Burrell, 5,689, p. 24,) alias " Hertone," (a 

 pronunciation still kept among the peasants,) as it is 

 written in the Carta de Dureford, I2OOA.D. ; and from 

 this last " Hirtum " the medieval and present ec- 

 clesiastical and punning name, signifying the " hirsute " 

 or " razorless," on account of its woods. 



" With regard to the derivation of ' Harting,' " writes 

 Mr. Thomas Arnold, " Lye gives it as ' cervi pascua ' 

 (the run of the hart or stag). But this is, I think, 

 nonsensical. I have no doubt, the original forms of 

 the word being Hertinges, Hertingas, Heortingas, that 

 it is a patronymic place-name, like Reading, Barking, 

 Bocking, Bobbing, Brading, and many more. ' Haeort' 



