A HISTORY OF SUSSEX (East Hampnett) and Hentone (West Hampnett) (fo. 25-^). Finally we may notice the introduction of E before the initial S, as in Esserintone (fo. 19) and Serintone (fo. zoh), Estorchestone (fo. 24) and Storgetune (fo. 29). In dealing with the boroughs of Sussex we find their salient feature in the marked increase of wealth and population which the Conquest had brought them, and which was doubtless due partly to the impulse it gave to traffic with Normandy and partly to the settlement in their castles of Norman lords. At Pevensey itself, William's landing-place, the burgesses were reduced to twenty-seven when Robert of Mortain received it, but at the time of the survey their number had risen to sixty in the count's demense and fifty belonging to his tenants, no in all. At Chichester there were far more houses than there had been under King Edward, and even Steyning had increased. Lewes, it was reckoned, had increased in value thirty per cent, since the Conquest. It must be remembered that the vessels of the time were small and of shallow draught, while the Sussex rivers, probably, were larger then than now. Consequently Arundel, Steyning, and Lewes most of all, would be then ports of consequence. We have to deplore the omission in the survey of the city of Chichester — except for a brief statement that there had been 97I haws, or closes, there on which the houses had now increased by sixty — and of Hastings. The loss of the latter is particularly regrettable in view of the position afterwards held by Hastings as head of the Cinque Ports. Nor is there any great amount of detail in the treatment of the other boroughs, though the customs of Lewes (fo. 26) are of considerable interest. Of these the first deals with the scypfyrd : ' If the king wished to send his men to guard the sea without going himself (the burgesses) collected from all the men whoever held the land 20 shillings, which money those had who were in charge of the arms in the ships.' Some light is thrown on this by the similar customs of Malmesbury,' where the burgesses were bound either to supply one man as the military service due from the 5 hides at which they were rated, or to pay 20J-. towards the maintenance of the ' buzcarles.' ' Reading these two entries together it seems probable that when the king led his forces in person Lewes had to provide one man, or possibly more, but that otherwise the service was commuted for a payment of 20J. Moreover, the 'buzcarles' would seem to be equivalent to ' those who were in charge of the arms in the ships,' and these we may reasonably conjecture to have had some connection with the ' helm and hauberk ' which King Ethelred levied in 1008 from every 9 hides for the arming of the ships provided by the different counties.^ The second clause of the customs is, that ' he who sells a horse in the borough gives to the reeve one penny and the buyer (gives) another ; for an ox a halfpenny ; for a man four pence, in whatever place he buys • Dom. Bk. fo. 64J. 3 Freeman, Norman Conquest, i. App. LL. 382
