Page:The Antiquities of Hastings and the Battlefield.pdf/55

heirs by the aforesaid abbot and monks for ever, as freely and quietly as they held Winchelsea and Rye, by reason of the gift made to them by St. Edward of happy memory, and of the concessions and confirmations had afterwards from William and Henry, Kings of England, of the land of STEYNING (Staninges) with all its appurtenances amongst which were reckoned Winchelsea and Rye, the liberties of which are set forth in the Charter of King William , in manner following , viz., " That the aforesaid abbot and monks of Fecamp should hold the lands of Steyning' . . . . . for that this is a perfect royal immunity, and is quit of all service, as in the charters of the aforesaid kings, Saint Edward, William and Henry ,more fully is contained." Where then was the " New Burg " in the hundred of Guestling and manor of Rameslie ? It was neither Rye nor Winchelsea, for at that very time we have the above indisputable evidence that they were appurtenances of the hundred of Steyning - Fairlight, Icklesham , or St. Leonards, near Winchelsea , are out of the question. Guestling and Pett, though included in the hundred of Guestling, formed no part of the manor of Rameslie, being referred to inde pendently in Domesday Book ; but in one, and only one corner of Brede or Rameslie, we find a town , forming in fact great part of what we now familiarly understand by Hastings. Its insulated position , in a distinct valley, defended by separate fortifications, (which Mr. ROBERTS, at our recent inspection of the town wall, pronounced to be earlier than the Conquest, i.e., contemporary with the -