Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/345

 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 Churchill, and Aston White Ladies were all 'in the forest' (fo. 173^). 271
 * English Village Community, pp. 207— 8, 211, 213.
 * The woods at Warndon, Cadley, and Pirie (in St. Martin's, Worcester), Bredicot,
 * Key to Domesday : Dorset, pp. 25-28. ■* It is also that of other antiquaries.