The same old floor in the chancel concealed, together with Wybarne's slab, two other monumental slabs, all which will be replaced and in sight.

On the smallest slab, which is 2 ft. 2 in. by 1 ft. 3 in., is the following inscription :—

"Here resteth the body of Robert Coles, son of Dr. Gilbert Coles and Mary his wife, who departed this life the 14th of September 1697, aged 25 years."

On the other, which is a very large slab-6 ft. 6 in. by 3 ft. 4 in., is the following inscription:

:

"Here lys the body of Mary, Relict of Myles Edgar, Gentleman, Daughter of Thomas Woodcock of Newtimber. She died 7 July 1710 in the 87th year of her age.

"The above named Myles Edgar and also her former husband William Hartridge, Gent. of ys Parish, lys both interr'd likewise in ys Chancell."

A square-shaped squint, or hagioscope, opening from the Pashley or southern chancel into the great chancel, was also laid open to view at the same time with the above; together with a very elegant small piscina having a trefoil head.

Much more might be added on the architectural beauties of the Church of Ticehurst, which stands on a spot commanding a most enchanting prospect. It may be satisfactory also to learn that a church so deserving of admiration is shortly to be restored in unison with the great chancel; but the peculiar character of the clerestory windows will not only attract the scrutinizing observation of the archaeologist as to their precise original form, but they will require and, we hope, receive the care of the architect (Mr. Slater) and masons to restore them correctly, and render this church as good an example of the Perpendicular style as any in this district.

ON SEDGWICK

CASTLE.

BY THE REV. EDWARD TURNER.

READ AT HORSHAM, JULY 12, 1855.

THIS Castle was situated about two miles and a half from Horsham, eastward, in that detached part of the parish of Broadwater which lies between Horsham and Nuthurst. It was one of those minor castellated buildings, the small dimensions of which would seem to imply that they could not have been the principal residences of their owners, but occasional places of resort only. Of these smaller castles, the remains of several interesting examples are to be found in this county, and the sites of others may be traced; the early history and subsequent descent of which, for want of that free access to public records and documents which we of the present day happily possess, have been heretofore involved in great obscurity and doubt. Our county historians have enlightened us but little on these points. The conclusion they seem to have arrived at, from an investigation of their general features and character, and from the occasional notices which they met with of them, is, that they were the original residences of the Norman barons; and that, as they obtained greater possessions and larger castles, these smaller ones were abandoned and suffered to go to decay. Altogether disregarding the fact, that upon these lordships-at all events, upon those of Pevensey and Bramber and Arundel, if not upon all-the barons, to whom they were assigned after the Conquest, found castles upon them already erected for their use, which they proceeded at once to occupy; and that these minor castles are for the most part, as far as we have a knowledge of their history, of a somewhat later date than the castles by which they are supposed to have been superseded. That some of these castles were used as hunting seats by the lords of the baronial castles to which they were known to have been appendant, there can, I think, be no doubt. These

baronial residences being situated in the southern portion of the county, and the manors attached to them running for many miles in a northerly direction, they would, as men devoted to the chase, naturally provide themselves with residences in distant manors, to enable them to pursue with greater facility their favourite pastime. Such, doubtless, was Verdley Castle, the ruins of which are still to be seen in a wood in the parish of Fernherst. Camden, speaking of the remote situation of this castle in his day, says of it, that it was "known only to those that hunt the marten cat.' The Earls of Arundel had their hunting-seats in the extensive forest tracts of Stanstead and Charlton. And that the castle of Knepp also is to be regarded in the same light, the large sporting establishment of men and dogs shown, by the documents relating to this castle published in the third volume of our Collections, to have been kept up here in the time of King John, sufficiently testify. They prove it to have been used as a hunting-seat by the Braose family, the lords of the castle of Bramber, to which it was appendant. The barons of Pevensey had their hunting-seats at Hartfield and Maresfield. For though no ruius exist in either of these localities similar to those which are to be seen at Verdley and Knepp, there is a field to the north of the village of Hartfield called "the Castle Field," the unevenness of the surface of which, and a large mound standing about the centre of it, clearly show that a small castle once stood on this spot, the foundations of which might possibly, if searched for, still be discovered beneath the surface. With regard to the hunting-seat in Maresfield, traces of it may still be seen in what is now a wooded tract of Ashdown Forest called "the Vetchery." That this was the occasional residence of royalty, "the Chase of Ashdon or, as it was called after it was enclosed by John-a-Gaunt, "Lancaster Great Park," being a favourite royal sporting district, we have documentary evidence1 to prove. Edward II concludes a deed, "diversas concessiones abbati et canonicis de Begeham" (Bayham Abbey) "factas confirmans," as follows: "Data per manum nostram apud Marsfield ;" and a writ issued by the same king, requiring the mayor and bailiffs of Winchelsea to search their ports for suspected persons, is also

1 Monast. Angl., vol. vi, part 2, p. 914; Pat. 6 Edw. III, p. 230.

dated Marsfield.2 The former of these deeds is dated the 23rd and the latter the 24th of September 1326. I have met too with charters of Edward III, dated from the same place. King John is said to have made this hunting-seat a frequent place of residence. To it was attached a free chapel, an account of which will be found among the Notes and Queries at the end of volume.

From the circumstance, that these minor castles were all of them moated, some with a single, this of Sedgwick with a double fosse, it has been farther inferred, that they were built with some reference to the personal security of their owners in times of danger. As the baronial residences, to which they were for the most part appendant, were situated near to the sea, which circumstance would render them liable to be attacked in case of foreign invasion, these minor castles would be safe places to retire to, during these or any similiar times of hostile emergency, situated as they were in remote parts of a vast trackless forest.

But, to come to the more immediate subject of my present memoir. The castle of Sedgwick differs in this material respect from the other minor castles of Sussex, that it was not, as far as I have been able to discover, originally appendant to any other castle, but an entirely independent residence. For rather more than two centuries and a half after the Norman conquest, it appears to have belonged to a family known by the somewhat opprobrious title of "le Salvage," "Salvagius," or in plain English, "the savage," a title probably derived from the wild and erratic, not to say ferocious, dispositions and habits of him to whom it was first assigned. The term Salvagius is not to be found in any classic writer that I am acquainted with; nor does Ainsworth condescend to notice it. For its meaning I am indebted to the charter rolls of the 1st of John, where a wild cat is called "Salvagius Catus." And this is the only instance of its use that I have met with, except as ignobly connected with these Sedgwick lords.

But from whatever cause this family obtained this unenviable designation, they were the early lords of Broadwater; and appear to have had considerable possessions in the rape of Bramber. The Robert of Domesday, who is represented 2 Rymer's Fod., vol. xi, p. 642; Cooper's Winchelsea, p. 66.

VIII.

5

as holding Broadwater and Ordinges (Worthing), was, there can be little doubt, Robert le Savage; and it is equally probable that the same Robert is alluded to as holding Lancing and Ashington of William de Braose, with whom he might have been connected by birth or marriage, and whom he probably accompanied from Normandy to this country. The similarity of their coats of arms 3 seems to imply a relationship by blood or alliance. Of the first three of his descendants-all of them Robert le Savage-I have been able to find no other mention than is to be derived from the early charters of the lords of Bramber, particularly those relating to the Priory of Sele; among the attesting witnesses of which their names occur. Of the fifth Robert le Savage, Maddox, in his History of the Exchequer, states, that in the year 1197, he gave 20s. to King John to be allowed to have his plaint in the King's Court against John le Combe on account of the marriage of his daughter Agnes, which this Robert claimed to be in his gift: a singular feudal privilege.

appears

The only child of this Robert was a daughter named Hawisa, who married-1st, John de Gaddesden, who to have been a resident of Shoreham, and to have had property in different parts of the rape of Bramber, and who was for three years sheriff of Sussex during the reign of Henry III; and 2dly, a de Nevill. In an early document 5 relating to Sedgwick, Hawisa le Savage is described as having carried this manor to the former of these two husbands. In 1268, William de Braose, being from his unthrifty habits in need of money, determined to supply his wants by exonerating various estates held under him from the claim of murage.6 And this led to a final concord between her and this William, by which, for the sum of 96 marks, which was rather less than one-third of the whole sum he was empowered to raise, the lands of her manor in Broadwater were to be acquitted of this charge upon them for ever. In this deed 7 she is described as "Hawisa de

3 I am indebted to Mr. Ellis, of Hurstperpoint, for this suggestion.

Mag. Rot. Ric. I, Rot. 18 b. Sussexia, Maddox Exc. In this and all the earlier deeds relating to this family, they are called "le Salvage."

5 Placit. de Jur. et Assis., 7 Edw. I.

6 Ped. fin., 52 H. III. Murage was the right which the lord possessed of taxing estates held under him for the repair of his castle.

7 The deed is in the Chapter-house, Westminster.