A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



custumal of Ashdown Forest 18 shows that there the render was one pig in ten, and this was possibly 

 the same throughout the county. 



The total number of hogs that Domesday records as received by the lords from the tenants 

 who pannaged their pigs in their woodlands amounted to 3,433, which, if the proportional payment 

 was one hog of ten, gives a total of over 34,000 pigs, procuring the greater part of their provender 

 from the parks, chases, and forests of Sussex. 



Turning now to the Sussex parks that are mentioned in Domesday, and the one forest referred 

 to therein, we find the first of the former is at Rotherfield, in the king's hands, its possessor, his 

 half-brother, Bishop Odo, being then in disgrace. Another park was in the west of the county, at 

 Walberton, where the survey mentions land that lay in the park of the lord of the rape, Earl Roger 

 of Montgomery. This was doubtless the park of the same name as the parish, and in after years 

 came into the hands of the St. John family, Robert de St. John obtaining free warren, or hunting 

 rights for the manor in I253, 19 an( ^ n ' s descendant, John de St. John, a confirmation of the same in 

 I 379 >2 Another park belonging to the same lord is mentioned under Waltham, where two hides 

 of land had been included in the earl's park. Waltham, now Up Waltham, was on the borders of 

 Arundel Forest. At Tortington is record of ' a hide of land which the earl has in his park ' ; an ^ 

 inclosure probably within the bounds of Arundel Forest. 



At the other end of the county Domesday mentions, under ' Wiltingham,' one rod of land as 

 being in the park of the earl of Eu, the lord of the rape of Hastings. This is all we learn from 

 Domesday of the parks of Sussex. What it tells us of its forests is practically nothing, amounting 

 to a mere mention, under Dallington, that the earl of Eu had half a hide of land there within his 

 forest, doubtless that which was variously called Brightling, Burwash, and properly Dallington. 



Every park, at least in the vicinity of a forest, before inclosure and recognition as such had to 

 be licensed by royal grant ; while before a man could chase the deer over his own demesne a grant 

 of ' free warren ' or right of free chase must be obtained at a price from the same source, and 

 if the kings were ready enough to grant rights of free warren they were not the less severe to those 

 who, without licence, presumed to enter the royal woods or forests in pursuit of game. Such were 

 made to suffer severely by imprisonment or fine. Thus in 1186 Seffrid II, bishop of Chichester, 

 was fined 10 marks for hunting in Sussex woodlands which were at that time in King Henry's 

 hands as escheats. 21 But in spite of fines and imprisonments illegal hunting was extensively indulged 

 in during the Middle Ages, and innumerable instances occur of 'malefactors in parks, warrens, and 

 chaces ' who ' arrayed in manner of war killed and took away deer, beat and assaulted the keepers.' 



The disaffbrestation by Henry III and John of great tracts of land hitherto under the forest 

 laws would not, of course, affect the natural features of the land, and a large part of Sussex still 

 retained its wild and forest character, so that fifteen guides through Sussex were employed when 

 Edward I journeyed to Chichester in I2y6. 22 To the same conclusion points the universality of the 

 grants of privileges in the woodlands, as well as of actual transfer of extensive tracts of wood, to the 

 numerous houses of religion which were established all over the county. Space will only allow 

 reference to a few instances, one of the earliest of which was the endowment of Battle Abbey, which 

 included all the woodland of its well-timbered ' leuga,' extensive enough to allow of the formation of 

 three parks one of which was called ' the Plesset ' and in addition the woods of all its numerous 

 manors throughout Sussex. Further west at Lewes was the great priory of St. Pancras, founded 

 by William de Warenne and Gundrada his wife, whose endowments included the privilege of taking 

 deer in any of the founder's parks and forests, for the use of sick or infirm monks of the house. 



Still further west the religious houses of Sele, Tortington, Dureford, and others were all 

 endowed with grants of woodland or privileges therein, while all had the usual rights of 

 house-bote, hey-bote, hedge-bote, plow-bote, and wain-bote, by which they obtained free 

 timber for repairing their houses and warming them, for making or mending their hedges, 

 fences, ploughs, and wagons. In addition to serving the purposes aforesaid, the timber of 

 Sussex was constantly in demand for the construction and repair of castles and bridges, and the 

 building of ships. Thus in 1206 King John addressed a writ, 'To all Earls, Barons, etc. of 

 the county of Sussex Greeting We pray you for the love of us to assist us now in carrying our 

 timber to Lewes . . . not as a right but as a favour . . . and so act in this matter that we may 

 have cause to thank you.' 23 A more particular instance is afforded by a chamberlain's account of 

 the Domus Dei at Southampton in 1306, which relates to a Sussex park, that of Bosham, to wit 

 Expenses of the men cutting down six logs of timber the gift of the Earl Marshal and shipping them 

 for splitting, three weeks, with their expenses going and returning 15*. 6</. Given to the wood- 

 ward for the crops of the said trees which belong to him as his fee, is. Taking the said trees to the 

 water 3*. Hiring five boats to carry the said trees to Hampton, 261. 



" Rentals and Surveys (P.R.O.), i| " Rot. Chart. 38 Hen. III. " Ibid. 3 Ric. II. 



" Pipe Roll, 33 Hen. II. " Wardrobe Acct. 5 Edw. I. 



a Suss. Arch. Coll. ii, 134. " Magdalen College MSS. 



294 



