Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/322

262 of attentive examination, as it presents some features, which may indicate very considerable antiquity. In the nave and aisles are E.E., Dec., and late Perp. portions. I would recommend the tower of this church as a study, it containing in the coigns stones of a kind not commonly found, but resembling those employed in a portion, of uncertain date, of Apledore church, Kent; the Note on which place compare.

Sir Henry Ellis (in his Introd. to Domesday Book, I, 314, note) considers the Domesday "Hiham" to be 'Iham, the site of Winchelsea. Presumptuous as it must be acknowledged in me to differ from such an authority, I am convinced he is wrong, and that Northiam is the place intended. It is described among the possessions of the Earl of Eu, in "Staple" hundred, the manor first named being "Werste," Ewhurst; the next "Bodeham," Bodiam; then "Hiham;" after which follow "Salescome," Sedlescombe; "Lordistret," (I think there is some place in that neighbourhood now called Lordstreet, but cannot recollect where, nor obtain any information to support my notion), and some other names, which I cannot identify: the modern Staple Cross, whence we may presume the hundred derived its appellation, being a well-known spot with a considerable population, partly, if not entirely, in the parish of Ewhurst, between Northiam and Battle. Again, just previously, among the very same possessions, "Checeham," Icklesham, and "Dodimere," Udimere, appear in the hundred of "Babinrerode:" in that of "Gestelinges, Gestelinges," Guestling, and "Luet," which is uncertain; Horsfield deems it Pett: in the hundred of "Colespore, Pleidenam," Playden, "Idene," Iden, "Glesham," Leesham, and others unknown: beside that another portion of Luet is mentioned in "Baldeslei" hundred. Respecting the identity of the greater number, if not all, of these places there can be no doubt; and as they form a complete belt inland around Winchelsea, they allow no space for so extensive a hundred as that of Staple evidently was. The supposition that the (D.B.) title "Hiham" designates the site of modern Winchelsea would completely sever the spot from the remaining members of the hundred, to which it belonged; whereas, if we understand Northiam to be the place intended, it appears in close and appropriate connection with the other portions of the district described. My idea seems to have been that of Mr. Hayley, as collected from Sir H. Ellis's quotation of his MSS. (in the note to p. 317 of Vol. I of the Introduction). It must be admitted, that in (A.D. 1291) we find