THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



drawn special attention to the prevalence of honey-rents in Wales and 

 on the Welsh border, and has explained that ' honey had two uses, 

 besides its being the substitute for the modern sugar — one for the 

 making of mead, which was three times the price of beer ; the other for 

 the wax for candles used in the chief's household, and on the altar of the 

 mass.'^ 



In Norman eyes, however, the value of the woodland for hunting 

 was even greater than in those of Edward the Confessor and his thegns. 

 Earl William had installed huntsmen at Feckenham in the east of the 

 county and at Bushley and Hanley (Castle) in the west ; king William, 

 his friend and lord, had taken into the royal forest many a stretch of 

 woodland, and the ' huntsman ' mentioned under Lippard belonged 

 perhaps to that portion which ran almost, if not quite, up to Worcester 

 on the east/ The woods at Chadwick in Bromsgrove, Kidderminster, 

 and Malvern (the Bishop's portion) are specially stated to have been 

 added by the King to the forest, as is half the woodland at Alvechurch, 

 together with that at Woodcote. At Shelve (fo. 176^) the wood had 

 been ' missa in defenso,' and on fo. 180^ we read that the woodland 

 of Feckenham, ' foris est missa ad silvam regis,' as had been the ' park 

 for beasts of the chase,' with all the woodland in HoUoway adjoining. 

 The great stretch of woodland behind Hanley (Castle) had been taken 

 into Malvern Chase {missa est foris), and the King had also laid his hands 

 on the woods of Queenhill near by and of Eldersfield to the south-west 

 (fo, i8oi^). Thus the forests of Feckenham and of Wyre and the chase 

 of Malvern were all gainers under William. In the woods belonging 

 to Bromsgrove were four ' eyries of hawks,' and in that of Hanley 

 (Castle) one (fo. 180^). The 'hay' or hedged enclosure 'in which 

 wild animals were captured' (fo. lybb) is mentioned at Holt, at 

 ' Chintune,' and at Hanley Castle (fo, 163^). At Lawern, the home of 

 Kineward, the last English sheriff, the survey records ' 1 2 oaks,' an entry 

 perhaps unique in Domesday. 



In some counties the amount of woodland is reckoned, in the great 

 Survey, by the number of swine that could feed there or that it was 

 worth ; in others it is somewhat obscurely reckoned in leagues {lewce) 

 and furlongs {quarentena) . Worcestershire belonged to the latter class, 

 its woodland being almost exclusively measured in these terms. Mr. 

 Eyton, who devoted to these measures much attention, held strongly 

 that the ' lewa ' was equal to 12 ' quarentens,' that is 2,640 yards, or a 

 mile and a half.* So far as Worcestershire, however, is concerned, we 

 never find a higher figure than 3 ' quarentens ' below the ' lewa.' The 

 inference certainly is very strong that this was because the ' lewa ' con- 

 sisted of only 4 'quarentens,' that is of half a mile. Such a modification 

 of Mr. Eyton's conclusion* would reduce very greatly the amount of 



* English Village Community, pp. 207— 8, 211, 213. 



* The woods at Warndon, Cadley, and Pirie (in St. Martin's, Worcester), Bredicot, 

 Churchill, and Aston White Ladies were all 'in the forest' (fo. 173^). 



* Key to Domesday : Dorset, pp. 25-28. ■* It is also that of other antiquaries. 



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