22 HISTORY OF HART1NG. 



said of the Sussex Saxons that they took their religion 

 hardly : and Bede's words are : " The whole province 

 of the South Saxons was ignorant of the Divine Name 

 and faith." * 



Being strong conservatives after their fashion, they 

 clung to their idols with a peculiar fondness and per- 

 tinacity, and were only won by Wilfrid, Bishop at 

 Selsey, some 90 years after the rest of England. f 

 When Wilfrid went northward to be restored to York, 

 Le Neve says that from 680 711 A.D. the Chichester 

 diocese was administered by the Bishop of Winchester. 

 Thus the chain of the Bishop of Winchester manors, 

 between his sees of Winchester and Chichester, were 

 Droxford, West and East Meon, Langrish, Steep, 

 Petersfield, Buriton, all still connected with the See 

 of Winchester. The line thus formed entered the 

 Sussex woods at Harting and extended to several 

 places round Chichester, and even to Pagham and 

 Slindon, which actually at one time belonged to the 

 See of Winton. 



Accordingly, in King Edgar's time, Harting was 

 church land, and belonged to ^thelwold Bishop of 

 Winchester, the chief builder of Winchester Cathedral, 

 and next to Dunstan the foremost man of his day. 

 But as the Sussex see had now bishops of its own to 

 take care of it after the interregnum of 31 years, 

 Winchester appears to have exchanged Harting with 

 the king, probably as outlying and in another diocese, 

 for the minster lands of Ely. 



(Kemble Codex Diplom., Vol. V, No. 563, 564.) 

 There are two Saxon charters, the second dated A.D. 

 970, relating to this event. No. 563 is a charter 

 operating an exchange of lands between King Edgar 

 and yEthelwold, by which the bishop hands over Hart- 

 ing to the king. Harting is here described as con- 

 sisting of 60 hides, reduced, owing to Danish troubles, 



Bede iv. xii. p. 310. f Le Neve's Dignitaries, p. 55. 



