DOMESDAY SURVEY 



The existence of ploughteams implies the existence of pasture, and 

 of this a certain amount was always secured by the well-known three- 

 field system of agriculture, but when much live stock, was maintained 

 this pasture would be insufficient, and we accordingly find considerable 

 value set on the water-meadows,' of which the holdings varied from two 

 or three acres in the wooded districts of east Sussex to one or two 

 hundred acres in the neighbourhood of Lewes. There are also frequent 

 entries of payments made by men of the manor for the use of the 

 pasture, such payments being usually made in swine, of which large 

 herds were kept and which formed practically the only meat of the 

 poorer classes. The pig occurs very prominently in connection with the 

 woodland. Sussex, for its size, has always been one of the most thickly 

 wooded counties in England, and was especially so at the time of 

 Domesday, and the quantity of woodland in each manor was expressed 

 by the rent paid to the lord of the manor by the villeins for pannage, 

 the right of pasturing their herds of swine in the woods, and this rent 

 was almost invariably paid in swine." 



Three diffisrent phrases are employed to describe payments due in 

 swine ; one of these, ' porci de gablo,' which is found at Deeding and at 

 Plumpton, occurs, it would seem, nowhere else in Domesday ; another 

 is ' de herbagio x porci,' and the third is, as at Washington, ' de 

 pasnagio silvs Ix porc(i),' or, as in the entries preceding and succeed- 

 ing, ' silva x porcorum ' . . . ' silva de x porcis.' It is to be observed 

 that Plumpton and Beeding have respectively ' silva de xx porcis ' and 

 ' silva Ixx porcorum ' in addition to their gafol-swine, this proving that 

 the two dues were quite distinct in character. Again under Mailing, 

 the archbishop's manor, we read of ' silva ccc porcorum de pasnagio ' 

 as well as of ' ccclv porci ' as part payment ' de herbagio,' which proves 

 that the dues for ' mast ' and for pasture were similarly distinct. 

 Lastly an important entry found under the archbishop's manor of 

 Pagham records that every villein who has seven swine must give one 

 of them ' de herbagio,' ' while a marginal note adds : ' Similiter per 

 totum Sudsex.'* This last provision reminds one of the dues from a 

 gebur at Tidenham (Glouc.) in earlier days : ' If he has seven swine he 

 pays three, and so forth at that rate, and nevertheless gives mast-dues if 

 there be mast.'* 



> Mr. Round considers that the ' pratum ' of Domesday affords a rough indication of rivers or streams, 

 and he points out that the 7 acres at Brighton, 15 acres at Preston, and 84 at Patcham might be accounted 

 for by the stream which once flowed down the London Road valley to the Steyne at Brighton. Also 

 that the rich meadows of the Ouse valley, glorious in summer with green and gold, can be clearly dis- 

 cerned in Domesday, where we trace them through Southease (130 acres) and Rodmell (140) to Iford 

 (208), Tarring Neville also having 50 and Bishopstone 40. At' Lewes itself South Mailing had 195 

 acres, and Hamsey above it 200. 



2 In the edition of the survey pubUshed by the Sussex Archaeological Society in 1886 the trans- 

 lator fell into the unfortunate error of reading silva de x -porcis as ' wood for x swine,' and in order to 

 be consistent, translated herha^ de vij -porcis unum as ' herbage for one of 7 hogs.' 



3 So also, under Ferring, ' silva iiii porcorum et pro herbagio unus porcus de vii.' So also at Elsted 

 and Woolavington. 



« A similar provision is found in Surrey at Maiden (' De herbagio unus porcus de vii porcis ') and 

 Titsey ('pro pastura septimus porcus villanorum '), while at Battersea and Streatham the tenth pig was 

 due. V.C.H. Surrey, i. 29 (J. H. R.) = Seebohm, English Village Community, p. 155. 



365 



