alienate it from this house, or mutilate it, let him be anathema maranatha." A subsequent possessor (circ. 1327), alarmed at this formidable curse, relieves his conscience by inserting as follows:-" I, John, Bishop of Exeter, know not where the aforesaid house is, nor did I steal this book, but acquired it in a lawful way."41 That our abbey did not escape the common exaction of forced loans, we have certain evidence. In 1315 (8 Edw. II) it appears in Rymer12 as one of a long list of religious houses from which various sums were required to aid the king in a war with Scotland-Robertsbridge having to furnish £40. During the reign of Henry IV (A.D. 1399-1413), a similar demand was made, as we gather from a supplicatory letter written by the abbot to the king's council, in answer to one which he had received from Simon Blakebourne, Serjeant-atArms, conveying the king's commands.43 The sum demanded is not mentioned; but the abbot strenuously pleads extreme poverty on behalf of himself and his brethren,44 which rendered them utterly unable out of their own resources to satisfy the royal demands. He promises however to do his best to raise the money among his foreign friends, so far as his credit could go,45 and transmit it for the king's use. A royal pardon of 14 Henry VI (July 17, 1436) acquits the abbot not only of all infringements of the statute law of which an upright man might unintentionally be guilty, but of other gross crimes which we cannot suppose that he had committed, but which were then, I presume, included as words of course in instruments of this nature. "All kinds of robberies, murders, rapes of women, rebellions, insurrections, felonies, conspiracies," &c., are among the offences condoned, provided they were committed prior to September 2, in the tenth year" of this king's reign. Several licenses occur, granted (probably with more reason) by Edw. II in 1309, and by Edward III in 1332, for infractions of the law of mortmain, and authorising the convent to acquire lands and tenements to the value of £100 a year, in consideration of the great losses it had sustained by inundations of the sea in the marsh-lands of Rie, Wynchelse, and Bromhill; and specially allowing them to become possessed, through the gift of William de Echingham,46 of the churches of Salherst, Odymere, and Mundefeld, then valued at fifty marks annually, in part satisfaction of the £100 land and rents above allowed. These churches, with two carucates of land called Badilond in Yweherste, were attached to the prebend of Salehurst in the collegiate church of St. Mary at Hastings, founded by Henry Earl of Eu, in the reign of Henry the First. The college consisted of a dean or warden, and several secular canons. Being at first in the patronage of the Earls of Eu, it fell into the king's hands with the barony of Hastings, and was thenceforth considered as a royal free chapel, in which the canons were appointed by the crown. Sir William of Echingham's grant occasioned at first some collision of interests between the abbot and the prebendary for the time being; and one Vincentius, who appears to have held the stall of Salehurst, formally agrees to relinquish his claim to the lands "called Badilond in Yweherste," which formed the body of his prebend, upon certain conditions. To remove difficulties, several royal mandates of Edward II and Edward III were issued, and covenants were made between the college and the abbot. At chapters held by Walter de Lindregges in 1337, and afterwards by John Wade (in 1344), his successor in the wardenship, these mandates were read and acquiesced in 46 This man's son and heir, Simon de Echingham, granted to the monks of Robertsbridge all that watercourse between his fee of Salehurst and Ocham, and a property which had been granted to them by an ancestor of his of the same VIII. name (temp. Hen. III), but had since been in dispute (see Dugd. Baronage, ii, 60); and also the fishery (piscariam) which they held of the heirs of Robert de Ruenden at the yearly rent of three pence. (Hayley Collections, f. 74.) 21 and it was finally resolved that the Abbot of Robertsbridge and his successors should have, as the king required, a stall as canon in the choir of their church, and a place in their chapter, in virtue of his prebend of Salehurst. At the same time, provision was made for the payment of vicars for the several churches annexed to the prebends, out of a common fund appropriated for that purpose. It is not without interest to know that Thomas à Beckett was once dean or warden of this college at Hastings. The chapel appears to have stood within the precincts of the castle, where some small remains of it may yet be seen. Notwithstanding its early losses, the revenue of our monastery was not inconsiderable. Pope Nicholas' Taxation (A.D. 1291) shows it to have then been estimated at £109. 4s. 2d.; and four years before it was surrendered to the king (30 Hen. VIII), it was found to be £272.98. In the interim we have, among the documents preserved at Penshurst, a complete account of receipts and expenditure for the year ending 25th March 1418 (5 & 6 Hen. V), as rendered in quarterly periods by John Othewy (Ottaway), the convent bursar. From this we find that the actual receipts for that year were £108. 138. 74d., whilst the expenses amounted to £122. 10s. 3d., showing an excess of expenditure above income of £13. 168. 8d. But, as in the preceding year he had left a balance in hand of £11. 13s. 11d., we must not conclude that this unfavourable financial statement conveys a fair impression of the bursar's management. It will be observed that the income in 1418, contrary to one's natural expectation, falls a little short of what it was in 1291, notwithstanding any acquisitions of property in the intervening period. This no doubt must be explained by the repeated damages sustained by its lands near the seacoast. În the estimate for Pope Nicholas' Taxation it may also have happened that sufficient allowance was not made for the real detriment occasioned by the storm of 1287. From this statement of accounts I will only give one quarter's receipts complete, as showing the sources of the conventual revenue; and a selection from the expenditure of such items as are curious, either as indicating the prices of com modities in those days, or throwing light upon the habits of the times. From Christmas-day 1417, to Lady-day 1418, the receipts were as follows: ditto 0 Odymere (Uddimer) Peplesham (in Bexhill). Mondefeld (Mountfield) rent of house-tenants at Woderove 0 ditto 1 120 ་; Popeshurst (in Salehurst and Mountfield) Wynhamforde (alias Winham, in Brightling) ditto Master William the priest,48 for his table between the 7 0 0 8 0 0 37 0 16 8 £21 5 64 Besides their rents, certain casual sources of income are inserted in these accounts, of which the last item above is an instance. Other instances are From Sir Roger ffenys (Fiennes) for ij quarters of wheat the Lady of Bodyham, for the piece of land called freymed 0 1 0 دو Master peter leverych, rector of Adelborg,48 for one month, 1 6 8 with various other sums for copsewood, timber, pasturage, &c. sold to different individuals. For this reason, and because some of the rents were paid half-yearly and others quarterly, the quarter's income varies considerably in amount. 47 Woodrove is in the parish of Ebeney, Oxney hundred: next to Robertsbridge, it was their most valuable manor. In 26 Henry VIII, the abbot and convent demised this manor with its appurtenances and royalties, including the swans and cygnets on its waters, to Edward Godfrey of Apuldore, for thirty years, at a yearly rent of £5. 13s. 4d., 10 qrs. of wheat, 10 qrs. of barley, 2 bushels of mustard-seed, 1200 reeds, and the keeping of three horses from the feast of St. George (April 23) to that of All Saints (Nov. 1). After the Sidneys, it passed through various hands, till it came to the Lords Le Despenser. 48 These appear to have been sojourners at the abbey, who paid for their board. Among the items of expenditure, the following are some of the most remarkable : £ s. d. Provision for the common table and for hospitality, "In companagio conventus et hospitii" (the regular charge for each quarter) 13 0 0 For clothing of eight monks for the year [this occurs half-yearly, in two sums of £2. 88. 4d. and £2. 128.] For one spectacle, with ij wax-lights (ceris) 5 0 4 Given to the servant of the Abbot of Stratforde, and to the king's valets (valettis domini regis). 1 811 0 3 0 11 8 1 10 0 The expenses of Brother John Ottewy (the bursar) to Wynchelse For ij pipes of wine A brief procured for the rector of Warbylton Given to his clerk, the king's messenger, and others To the reapers of the manor . Repaid to the sub-cellarer for bacon sold ("pro bacon vendito") "In rata" of our Lord the Pope, for ij years 49 Smallhyth, a hamlet belonging to Rother into the Isle of Oxney. Tenterden, where is a passage over the |