Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/436

 A HISTORY OF SUSSEX Possibly the payment for the use of the woods was proportionate to the number of swine kept, as in the case of the pasturage rent, but in the absence of evidence it is impossible to form any deductions as to the size of the herds from the rents paid, which vary from i to 150 swine/ Though the swine thus formed the most important part of the ' exitus silvas ' referred to under Offham, there were other items, as for instance honey from the swarms of wild bees, mentioned under Beeding and Wappingthorne. Wood with which to make fences occurs in a few cases ; a forest is mentioned in connection with Dallington ; and the Count of Eu's park in Baldslow Hundred. At Rotherfield was a park which the king had first granted to the Bishop of Bayeux and sub- sequently taken into his own hands ;' and land in Tortington and in Waltham had been imparked by Earl Roger, who had also a great park just across the Hampshire border,^ though we merely hear of it inci- dentally, while that which William de Braose had formed at Bramber* is not mentioned at all. Another important source of revenue was the water-mills — wind- mills were unknown in England in the eleventh century. Of these 157 are mentioned in Sussex, very unequally distributed, as only four were in Hastings rape, while Earl Roger had seventy-three, nine of these being in his manor of Harting and five in Cocking ; the king had eight in his manor of Bosham and the archbishop the same number in South Mailing. In Chiddingly there was a mill ' cum moHnario,' meaning either a small mill or more probably the site of a mill ; it has occasion- ally been rendered ' with a miller,' but this is not at all likely to be correct. Their value also was very variable, ranging from 2od. to 20J., the average being just over 8j. In addition to the monetary values there is not infrequent mention of a render of so many hundred eels from the mill pond, and the mill at Arundel made a yearly payment of ten bushels of wheat and as much of mixed grain (probably used for brewing), with four bushels extra (fo. 23). There is even one case of a swine-rent for four mills in Steyning, which paid ']s. and sixty-eight swine in addition (fo. 17). Rents in kind were also sometimes paid from the fisheries, the payment here as in the case of the mills being made in eels. The entries of herring renders are important as implying that the herring fishery was then carried on from Brighton and from the Ouse, where herrings were received from the adjacent parishes of Southease, Rodmell, and Iford, if not from Lewes itself.' At Iford they formed part of the consideration for the pasture ; at Brighton they appear to have repre- sented rent [gablum). The largest payment of herrings was at South- > In the case of ' Estone,' where the large number of 1,500 swine is given, it is possible that the formula should read ' wood for 1,500 swine,' but see note on p. 426. 2 Suss. Arch. Coll. xli. 50. » V.C.H. Hants, i. 405. « Round, Cal. of Docts. France, p. 37. B The Rodmell entry looks as if the herrings formed part of the rent due from appurtenant houses, but careful consideration of the entries as a whole favours the view that they were due from Rodmell. 366