CHAP. XIX.

Thorpe,

slain while hewing wood with others, his kinsmen were to have the tree and remove it from the land within thirty Vol. I., p. 70. days, or otherwise it should go to the owner of the wood. If, however, they had not been there oftener than once, the owner was to prove it and pay one shilling.

Iron Works.

Cod., p. 30.

Neither history nor archæological researches have, as yet, furnished us with information on the subject of the manufacture of iron in Kent under the AngloSaxons; and we do not find among their charters any reference to iron works in Andred, though in the year 689 Oswini of Kent grants to Rochester a ploughland at Vol. II., p. 69. Lyminge in which he says "there is known to be a mine of iron." Mr. Kemble remarks that "this document is not totally free from suspicion." If, however, any iron works were carried on in this shire or in Sussex previous to the Norman conquest they must have been most unimportant; at any rate we find no mention of them in Domesday. Mr. Smiles, who is generally correct, and to whom the public are so much indebted for his interesting biographies, is in error when he supposes that "many places still known by the name of Chart' in the Weald probably mark the lands chartered for the purpose of supplying the iron-works with their necessary fuel." Now Chart, or "Cert," in Kent is a name of great antiquity, and though like Buckland (in Saxon, "Bocland") it may have originally referred to the charter under which the land was held by the earliest grants, and have been afterwards discontinued in consequence of the confusion it occasioned, it could never have been so named for the purpose specified by Mr. Smiles.

p. 95.

Mr. Lower, in his Contributions to Literature, has written all that can be stated respecting the iron-works in the Wealds of Kent and Sussex at this period of our history. He says:

"With regard to the seven or eight centuries which succeeded the departure of the Romans from Britain, history and archiæology seem alike silent on the subject of the iron of the South. It can scarcely be doubted, however, that the Romanized Britains retained this most use

ful art of smelting and working iron, and that the Anglo-Saxons, after CHAP. XIX. them, continued it upon the old sites. Further examinations of our cinderbeds may hereafter bring to light Romano-British and Saxon remains, and prove for those peoples what Maresfield has proved for the Romans. In the meantime we are perhaps justified in assuming that when so valuable and necessary a manufacture had been once introduced it would be retained so long as the three essentials for its perpetuation—the ore, the fuel, and the flux-continued in sufficient abundance of supply; in other words, that the iron-trade of the South was carried on uninterruptedly from Roman times till its extinction, in consequence of the failure of fuel, almost within our own recollection."

P

CHAPTER XX.

A 1

THE NORMAN INVASION.

T the close of Chap. XIV. we recorded Harold's victory in the North. Three days afterwards (the 28th September, 1066), on the eve of St. Michael's Mass, the Norman William landed at Pevensey, and immediately constructed a castle (a temporary one of course) at Hastings. We learn that he did not land his army at one particular spot, but principally between Winchelsea and Bexhill. It, however, happened that a division of the Norman fleet, recognizing the authority of Cæsar that Kent was the "common landing place from Gaul," attempted with a portion of the army to enter the harbour of Romney, then an important Kentish sea port, and to the men of Romney was accorded the boasted privilege of the men of Kent of striking the first blow; they certainly drew the first Norman blood, and repelled the invaders.

Harold, we are told, hastened from the North, and collected the best army he could get together, from the men of London and Kent, and the adjoining shires and neighbouring cities and towns, including Canterbury: William of Malmesbury, however, says he was accompanied by very few forces: and he "met" (according to the AngloSaxon Chronicle), but more probably assembled, his army "at the estuary of Appledore." This would be at the outskirts of the forest. From thence he proceeded to Andred, and Mr. Hamper conjectures that either Waterdown or Ashdown forest (both originally part of it) must

have been the place of rendezvous for his army. Sir Henry CHAP. XX. Ellis gives the preference to Waterdown.

William offered Harold the choice of abdication, of single combat, of appeal to the Pope, or that he would cede Northumbria to Harold, and establish his brother Gurth in Kent. The selection of these two shires by William is somewhat significant. From Northumbria Harold had just returned a conqueror; and William must have had some misgiving that the fidelity and attachment of the men of Kent to their lawful sovereign, would make them formidable as opponents. All these proposals were rejected. The battle of Senlac took place Oct. 14th, 1066. The Kentish men were posted in the foremost rank. Lapp., Vol. II., p. 297. Harold's standard was first pitched at Battle, and there it remained until he and his two brothers had been slain on the battle field; and on this spot arose that magnificent edifice, the abbey of Battle, "an expiatory offering for the p. 72. slaughter which had taken place."

Lower's Contributions to Literature,

This memorable event took place 1121 years after Julius Cæsar led his Romans, and about 621 years after Hengist brought his sea rovers, to take possession of this country. The Normans so mercilessly ravaged the neighbouring country, that for twenty years afterwards this part of the forest district lay waste and desolate; and it is somewhat remarkable that the property of Harold, Earl Ellis' Godwin, and the Countess Goda, is comprised under the Introduction, general expression used in the Domesday of Sussex for this district, "Vastatum fuit."

Vol. I., p. 314.

After burying his dead and placing a garrison at Hastings, William's next object was to secure the coast and establish his communication with Normandy. Instead therefore of advancing from Hastings through the forest, his first route was to Romney, where he severely chastised Lingard, the inhabitants for their valour in repelling his invading army. A numerous force had assembled at Dover, and threatened to act on his rear if he proceeded to London;

* Camden says he divided his forces, but he gives no authority.

Vol. I., p. 218.

P. 151.

CHAP. XX.

Ellis,

Vol. I., p. 314, quoting Mr. Hayley.

Lingard,

Vol. I., p. 219.

Ib., p. 218.

Ib., p. 219.

he therefore traversed our Kentish coast to Dover (even then called, from its strength and importance, "the lock and key of the whole kingdom "), which he besieged. The fears of the garrison induced them to offer him the keys of the place. The eagerness of his men for plunder would not wait for the form of surrendering the castle, but during the parley they set fire to the town, and consumed a great part, if not the whole of it. Lambarde says that only twenty-nine houses were saved. The acquisition of this port was of great advantage to an invading army suffering at the time from dysentery to an alarming extent. William remained with his army at Dover eight days, and having obtained reinforcements from Normandy, he commenced his march towards London. He had now got on a wellconstructed Roman road, and had secured an uninterrupted passage to and from Normandy.

It was during this march that an incident is reported to have occurred which obtained, for a long time, belief among the credulous. The village of Swanscombe is situate near the main road, between Gravesend and Dartford; and here, as it has been gravely told by Thomas. Sprot (a monk of Canterbury who lived in the reign of Edward I.):

"William saw himself gradually enveloped by what bore the appearance of a moving forest; that on a sudden the branches, which had been taken for trees, fell to the ground, and in their fall disclosed a host of archers with their bows ready bent, and their arrows directed against the invaders; that Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, and Egelnoth, abbot of St. Augustine's, advancing from the crowd, demanded for the men of Kent the confirmation of their ancient laws and immunities; and that the demand was readily granted by the fears of the astonished Norman. This story is the fiction of later ages, and was unknown to the more ancient writers, from whom we learn that, on his departure from Dover, William was met by the inhabitants of Kent with offers of submission, and received from them hostages as a security for their obedience."*

I have quoted Dr. Lingard on this occasion, as his account partakes less of the ridiculous than most of our

"Occurrunt ultro Cantuarii haud procul a Dovera, magis jurant fidelitatem, dant obsides.-William of Poitou." This writer was with the army at the time.