Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/455

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DOMESDAY SURVEY suggests that Chichester and Lewes were then rivals for the headship of the county. Mr. Ballard has, however, shown that this peculiarity was not confined, in Sussex, to Lewes and Chichester ; twenty burgesses are mentioned as appurtenant to the abbey of Trcport's manor of ' Bolintun,* and must clearly have been in Hastings, where also the abbey of Fecamp had four burgesses.' Arundel had seventeen houses — belonging, as he holds, to seven estates in the neighbourhood — and Pevensey fifty be- longing to sixteen manors. Here then we have circumstantial evidence of the quasi-independent character of the rapes, each of them with a local capital, as each had a sheriff. It only remains for us to deal with the castles of Sussex mentioned in Domesday Book. It has often been asserted that Arundel castle was of Saxon foundation, and was already standing when the Normans came, this idea being based on the statement of Domesday : 'Castrum Harundel reddebat . . . T.R.E.' ; but Mr. Round has shown ' that this should be translated not ' the castle of Arundel ' but ' Castle Arundel,' a place- name analogous to Newcastle or Castle Acre. Again, the castle mounds at Lewes have often been claimed as Saxon, but modern research shows this class of mound to be typically Norman, and very rarely, if ever, English. Lewes castle itself is not mentioned in the survey of Sussex, but in connection with some of William de Warenne's manors in Norfolk we find mention of the ' castellatio ' of ' Lawes,' ' de Laquis ' in its semi-Latinized shape, and finally by a bold piece of translation on the scribe's part ' castellatio Aquarum.' To Hastings castle also the only reference is under Bexhill, when the grant to the Count of Eu of the ' castelry of Hastings ' is mentioned. Of the castle erected within the still strong Roman walls of Pevensey no direct mention is made, but under Eastbourne and Firle ' the warders of the Castle ' occur as holding land, and it is clear that these are the ' vigiles de Pevensel ' and ' de Monte Acuto,' who occur on the Pipe Rolls of Henry II. That part of this land was the fee in Southeye and Eastbourne subsequently held by Henry de Palerne and the family of Brade by service of guarding the outer gate of Pevensey castle seems probable, and there is an obvious connection with the ' vigiles de Monte Acuto ' who occur on the Pipe Rolls for Somerset during the same period, and who are the successors of the 'duo portitores de Montegud' of the Somerset Domesday. Finally, we may refer to Bramber castle, which is spoken of as being situated on one hide of the manor of Washington. Thus we conclude our study of the Sussex survey ; some of the questions raised by it may be claimed as answered, on some light has been thrown, but to others we can at present only say, as the compilers of Domesday said about an estate at Hankham, ' Inde nullum responsum.' ' Fecamp had also in their manor of ' Rameslie ' a ' new borough ' with sixty-four burgesses ; from other instances of the use of this term ' new borough ' in Domesday — e.g. Norwich and Nottingham — it seems probable that this refers to a French settlement in Hastings, unless it was VVinchelsea. 2 Ibid. pp. 21-2, 39, 40. 3 Archceologia Iviii. 342. I 385 49