the Anglo-Saxon pal is not English at all, but a mere
corruption of Latin palus, a stake. So the sense is ' stake'.
Laine would rather suo-p-est some such Ano-lo-Saxon form
as IcBn (pronounced lain), which in Anglo-Saxon com-
monly means ' a gift'; but the corresponding Norse word
len (pronounced precisely the same as laine) is the regu-
lar legal word for a fief, fee, grant, or holding."

The Tenantry Laines of Brighton contained, according

4-



52 OLD BRIGHTON.

to the 1738 terrier, 921 acres, 1 rood, or 7,370 pauh (eight
pauls in the tenantry measure bein^ equal to an acre).
This quantity of land was divided into no less than 1,258
paul-pieces ; but these were only held by twenty-five
persons, as many had ^9«?/ /-pieces in various parts of the
same furlong. There was also another measurement, by
yard-lands, the total number being 84.

The parisli of Brighton consisted of the Old Town, the
Tenantry Laines, and the Eastern and Western Tenantry
Downs ; and over the latter the owners of land in the
laines had certain riglits of pasture termed hazes, so
named from the Anglo-Saxon Icesu, pasture or common.
It is very difficult to trace how the right of pasture be-
came exclusively vested in the owners of land in the
laines, for there is no doubt that in earlier times the in-
habitants of the town generally had some rights. Tlie
Brighton Costumal of 1580 provided that the constable
should have a horse-lease, and the two head-boroughs
one cow-lease and twenty-five sheep-leases, " for their
pains and troubles in their ofiice". The common flock of
sheep was kept on the Tenantry Downs. About the year
1750, on the Eastern Down, twenty sheep in summer,
and fifteen sheep in winter, were allowed to be kept in
respect of each yard-land ; and the common shepherd, in
consideration of his labours, could pasture eighty sheep
in summer, and seventy in winter.

It appears that the custom of Tenanti^y Laines pre-
vailed also in most of the South Down parishes near
Brighton, and is found in the parishes of Rottingdean,
Kodmill, Alfriston, Denton, Berwick, Beeding, and
Kingston-near-Lewes, and can probably be traced in all
the South Down parishes from Brighton to Eastbourne.
Amongst these, the laines were best developed in Kings-
ton parish, where we find in the Swanborough and West
Laines, no less than 60 furlongs, and many other furlongs
in the Brooks, etc.

It seems probable that the land in the Brighton Laines
was cultivated on the " Common Field" system, especially
as the earlier Court Rolls contain frecpient allusions to
the Common Fields ; and the Terrier of 1738 is expressly
termed " Terrier of the Common Fields of Brighton."
The pauls, pdls, or stakes, M'ere ])robably placed at the



OLD P.KICIITOX. 53

edges of the fiiilongs, and indicated tlie [)ai-ts of tlie crop
to be reaped by eacli owner. The leakwaijs apparently
took the place of the baulks of turf referred to by Mr.
Seebohm, which in other places, under the Mark cultiva-
tion, separated the fields.

The tenantry flock was (as Mr. Kemp's affidavit shows)
usually kejDt on the Sheep Down ; but when taken from
the Down, mvariably kept on the fallow lands, or grat-
tens, in the Tenantry Laines.

Professor Nasse, referring to the development of village
communities into manors, remarks that in very many
cases the lord of the manor shared in the comnmnism,
and his land had to be tilled according to the common
rules, was subject to the sgkme rights of pasture, and his
cattle grazed with those of his tenants upon the common
pasture-land.^ This, perhaps, accounts for the number
of divisions of Atlingworth Manor, which early in this
century consisted of no less than eighty-three detached
fragments.

At the time of the Domesday Survey Brighthelmstone
included three manors, and a church is mentioned, and
also a fish-rent of herrings, showing the occupation of
some of the inhabitants ; and as about a hundred males
are referred to in connection with the town, it would not
be unreasonable to suppose the population was then quite
a thousand in number. Earl Godwin, who is described
by the late Mr. J . R. Green as the first great lay states-
man of English history who owed his elevation to sheer
ability, was the owner of one of the manors.

The town has suffered severely from sea-incursions, and
between the Taxation of Pope Nicholas in 1292, and the
Noyiarum Inquisition in 1341, no less than forty acres of
land were washed away. Defoe, in describing the eft'ects
of" the great storm" of the 27th of November 1703, says:
" Brighthelmstone, being an old built and poor, tho' popu-
lous town, was most miserable torn to pieces, and made
the very Picture of Desolation, that it lookt as if an
Enemy had Sackt it."

It has been stated by some local historians that tlie

' " Village Coinrauuities." Suo The Coulciiqior(i,[/ Ucvicic, May 1872,
p. 751.



54 OLD BRIGHTON.

town was burnt by the French in 1377; but as a letter
in the State Paj^ers of 1635 says it had then been twice
burnt by them, it would appear that the references were
to the attacks in 1512 and 1545, and not to the former
date, when many Sussex towns were destroyed. In 151 2
Monsieur Pregian (vulgarly termed " Prior John") landed
and burnt the town. Hall's Chronicle states that in the
6th Henry YIII, Sir John Wallop was Admiral and Com-
mander of the English fleet sent to revenge the burning.
Dr. Cobham Brewer, in his Dictionary of Phrase and
Fable, attributes the origin of the term " wallop" as sig-
nifying a good thrashing, to the reprisals of Sir John
Wallop on the French coast, when he burnt twenty-one
towns and villages. It must, therefore, be a grim satis-
faction to us as Brightonians, and also " Britons who
never will be slaves", to have been the cause of adding
the term " wallop" to the English language. Great de-
struction was effected by the French in this attack on
Brighton, and the Chantry of St. Bartholomew, which
stood near the site of the present Town Hall, w^as then
reduced to ruins, although its name is preserved in the
street called " The Bartholomews." In consequence of
the injury the town then sustained, it was exempted from
the heavy subsidy of 4.9. in the pound granted in 1522.

In 1579 disputes had arisen between the fishermen
and landsmen as to the payment to the churchwardens
of a share in the profits of the fishing-boats, etc., to the
maintenance of the church and the defence of the town.
The ancient customs were accordingly (under royal author-
ity) reduced to writing, and the original book is still in
the custody of our veteran Vestry Clerk (Somers Clarke,
Esq.), and signed by Lord Buckhurst and Sir Thomas
Shirley or Shelley. The customs, which are very curious,
are too numerous to mention.

In 1618 the inhabitants, of their own authority, revised
their customs. It has been truly said, " there is nothing
new under the sun", for we find that in 1618 the people
of Brighton had fully anticipated the Permissive Bill (as
the writer has pointed out to Sir Wilfrid Lawson), and
they declared that " Forasmuch as the said inhabitants
of the said town of Brightlielmston hatli of long time,

^ TJit' lieif/n of Jlcitri/ VIII, utc. (J. iS. Brewer), i, p- 481.



OLD BRIGHTON. 55

and yet still are, to the making hereof been over-charged
and suppressed by the multitude of poor people, which
daily are thought to increase by the means of many ale-
house keepers and victuallers, which do harbour and
receive all comers and goers, to the great hurt and hin-
drance of the said inhabitants' consent, it is now ordered
by the said inhabitants, for the suppressing of the said
number of ale-houses and victualling-houses, that from
henceforth for ever hereafter none of the said inhabitants
whatsoever shall at any time hereafter draw, sell, or keep
any victualling or ale-house within the said town without
a letter or testimonial of the said inhabitants in writing
first had and obtained by and with the consent of the
constable, vicar, or curate, or six other substantial men
of the said inhabitants, whereof four to be of the seamen,
and two of the landmen, in their behalf, to be made unto
the Justices of the King's Majesty's Peace, whereby they
or so many of them, and not more, may be law^fuUy
licensed to use the said trade of victualling and ale-house
keeping; and also that such a competent number may
be by the said Justices of the King's Majesty's Peace
(whereof one to be of the quorum), and by and with the
consent of the said inhabitants, nominated and appointed ;
and that none other of the said inhabitants may use or
occupy the said trade of victualling or ale-house keeping
in the said town, but so many of them as shall be laiv-
fally licensed as is aforesaid, upon pain or peril of every
one so doing contrary to the true meaning of this present
order, to forfeit for every barrel of beer so drawn six shil-
lings and eight pence."

_ One of the most interesting events connected with the
history of Brighton was the escape of Charles II from the
town in 1651 (after the battle of Worcester), in the boat
of Captain Nicholas Tettersell. The various accounts of
the matter have been carefully collated by the writer in
a paper in vol. xxxii of the Su.^sex Archceologiccd Collec-
tions. The inn visited by the King w^as " The George",
which appears to have been situated in Middle Street,
but is now pulled down. It is quite clear, from the Court
Kolls, that the so-called " King's Head", in West Street,
was not the place, for it is not even described as an inn
until 1754, when first called "The George".



56 OLD BRIGHTON.

Tettersell's mate on the occasion of the royal flight was
Richard Carver, who was a Quaker ; and from an inte-
resting letter from their founder, George Fox, to his
sweetheart, Margaret Fell, in 1669, it appears that Car-
ver carried the King ashore on his back, and in November
1669 had gone to the King to desire the release of some
imprisoned Quakers. The King, astonished at not seeing
him before, inquired the cause, when our Brighton Quaker
nobly rejilied " that he was satisfied in that he had peace
and satisfaction in himself; that he did what he did to
relieve a man in distress, and now he desired nothing of
him but that he would set Friends at liberty."^ The
ultimate result of his efforts was the release of four hun-
dred and seventy-one Quakers and twenty other Noncon-
formists, including the author of the immortal Pilgrims
Progress. Mr. Oifor, in his edition of Bunyan's works,
says "It is an honour to Christianity that a labouring
man preferred the duty of saving the life of a human
being, and that of an enemy, to gaining so easily the
heaps of glittering gold."

The Boyal Pavilion, in which w^e are now assembled,
is perhaps too recent to be of much interest to archaeolo-
gists, but we may mention two or three matters con-
nected with its history. The original building was erected
by Louis Weltjie, cook to His Royal Highness the Prince
of Wales (afterwards George IV), and, as the writer has
discovered, was then leased by Weltjie to the Prince,
the lease containing a purchasing clause. It may reason-
ably be assumed His Royal Highness was the first and
only Prince who hired his jxdace from his cook ! The
Pavilion cost upwards of a million pounds sterling, and to
this fact Byron alludes in Don Juan (canto xiv) :

" Shut up, — no, not the King, but the Pavilion,
Or else 't will cost us all another million."

The chief event in our national history, associated with
the Pavilion, was the betrothal of the ill-fated Princess
Charlotte to Prince Leopold (afterwards King of the Bel-
gians), which took place here in 1816.

1 LcUcr published in "A Select Scries, Biogi-apliical, Narrative, etc.,
of Productions ol' Early Friends." Edited by John Barclay. Loudon,
]«41.



57



THE ROMAN VILLA AT BIGNOR,
NEAR CHICHESTER.

BY WALTER DE GRAY BIRCH, ESQ., F.S.A., HON. SEC.

{Read 18 AW. 1885.)

The recent Congress held at Brighton enabled those
among our members and visitors who took part in it to
inspect one of the finest, if not the finest, series of
Romano-British mosaic pavements now extant ; that,
namely, at Bignor, near Chichester, in Sussex, not far
from the Roman^ road known as Stone Street, leading in
a north-easterly direction from Chichester to Hardham
Camp and Pulborough, en route for Billinghurst, Dorking,
Tooting, and London.

Our visit to that important relic of early history was
not, I am happy to say, hurried over ; for although it
has sometimes been charged against us that sufficient
time is not always a,llowed for examination, in situ, of the
antiquities we have undertaken to examine (and in some
cases, I fear, with good grounds of complaint), the Associ-
ation devoted considerable time to the Bignor villa, under
the excellent arrangements of Mr. G. R.Wright, F.S.A.,
Hon. Congress Secretary ; and we were further fortunate
in the lucid account of the villa given on the spot by our
veteran Vice-President, Mr. Charles Roach Smith, F.S.A.
But it has since occurred to me that a short account of
some of the salient points of archceology which the villa
and its pavements exhibit, and an opportunity of inspect-
ing the plan and the facsimiles of the mosaics, would not
be unacceptable to those who were unable to avail them-
selves of the opportunity of taking part in the ]jilgrimage
to what is certainly an antiquity of the first class among
the many which we still possess.

Aiiti(piaries owe a deep debt of gratitude to the late
Rev. S. Lysons for the praiseworthy zeal he evinced in
collecting: and fifrnrino- all matters concerning'- this villa.

^ Journ.^ Gluicccater Voliunc, p. 1*8.



58 ROMAN VILLA AT BIGNOR.

Ill 1815 he published in his Reliquice (itself a reprint of
communications to the Society of Antiquaries, published
in Arclueoloyia, vols, xviii, xix) an exhaustive treatise
copiously illustrated with coloured plates, executed in the
highest manner of art, and faithfully accurate in detail,
which compare favourably with the best antiquarian
illustrations of the present day.

In the month of July 1811, the accidental discovery of
a pavement in " Bury" Field, Bignor (then in occupation
of Mr. George Tupper, whose son has now become tenant
of the property), was followed by the removal of the ad-
jacent soil, with the result of further discoveries, which
showed that there w^ere two pavements in one apartment:
the one a representation of the "Rape of Ganymede",
\yell designed and well executed, looking to the difficult
nature of the materials employed ; the other filled with
six hexagonal compartments, within which are figures of
nymphs dancing, which Lysons considers to be much in
the style of those which appear on Roman pavements
found in Italy. He might as well have said all over the
Roman world, for there is a remarkable unity in the form
and employment of details found on all Roman pave-
ments. Take, for example, that at Nennig, in Prussia,
published by Mr. J. W. Grover, F.S.A., in our Collectanea ;
and those from Halicarnassus in Asia Minor, of one of which
I exhibit a coloured reproduction. It is a curious fact
tliat the lower limbs of these fairy groups are incorrectly
drawn in the Bignor pavement; but it maybe sufficiently
accounted for by the fact that the Roman artist did not
altogether understand the method of foreshortening. In
point of fact it is doubtful if any one understood this
thoroughly until the beginning of the fifteenth century.

The figures and the surrounding ornamentations and
geometrical patterns of the pavement are stated to re-
semble one found about a hundred years previously at
AveRticum (now Avenches), in Switzerland ; and, as I
shall show presently, there is another very prominent
point of similarity in this Bignor series of pavements with
those found at Avenches, whence Lysons very reasonably
pi'opounds the theory that the two are the work of the
same artist. The tendency of opinion bears towards the
conjecture that the Avenches pavements were executed




BIGNOR.



ROMAN VILLA AT BIGNOR. 59

in tlie reigns Df Vespasian or Titus, a.d. GO-79; and this
helps us to assign a elate to the Bignor pavement, if we
accept Ly sons' theory of resemblances. This fact bears
out my previous remark as to the sameness of the art in
the whole series of known pavements.

The circular compartment with the nymphs is furnished
in the centre with a hexagonal piscina or stone cistern,
4 feet diameter, 1 foot 7^ inches deep, with a step at
half depth ; having also at bottom a round hole, 3 inches
wide, connected with a leaden pipe for carrying off the
water. This exactly compares with what was found at
Avenches ; and these two examples of cisterns are
believed to be the only ones of the kind yet known.

To the west of these another pavement was found,
which when whole measured 44 feet by 17 feet, formed
of two large squares. One included, among other orna-
ments, ovals in the spandrils ; a boy, perhaps Arion ; a
dolphin ; and a pheasant, sacred to Artemis or Diana ;
and a cornucopia of Ceres or Pomona. In another part
of this were four octagonal divisions, each including a
star composed of two interlaced squares, — a style of orna-
ment much affected by later artists ; and probably, in
this instance, not so much the outcome of invention as of
conventionality.

It is unfortunate that three of the four pictures em-
braced or framed, so to speak, within these squares have
perished. One, however, remains ; and when seen in the
summer it had, I regret to say, suffered materially since its
first discovery in 18 11. It is the head of Hiems, or Win-
ter, personified, with downcast countenance, to which the
cunning skill of the operator has deftly managed to im-
part a subtly mournful expression ; the head enveloped
in an ample cloth, the neck and breast covered, and over
the left shoulder a bare and leafless branch. In the other
compartments there can be little doubt that Spring,
Summer, and Autmnn were contained.

In what manner these personifications were treated we
are in a great measure enabled to judge by an inspection
of the emblematical figures of Spring and Summer which
occur among the magnificent collection of mosaic pave-
ments brought from Halicarnassus by Mr. Newton to the
British MuseuuL I am inclined to consider tlie ])ak' vel-



60 ROMAN VILLA AT BIGNOR.

low background which is seen here is not the result of
mere caprice, but intended in a measure to represent the
pale gloom of wintry days, hardly then diftering from
what we experience generally in the English winter. It
is worthy of notice that one of our greatest poets has in-
vested Winter with this identical and certainly very
appropriate attribute of a leafless branch :

" The swallow Summer comes again,
The owlet Night resumes her reign,
But the wild swau Youtli is fain

To fly with thee, false as thou.
My heart each day desires the morrow,
Sleep itself is turned to sorrow,
Vainly would mi/ Winter borrow

Sunny leaves from any hoU(jhy

It would almost seem that Shelley had visited the pave-
ments, or taken notice of Lysons' work, which was at
the very time of his writing the above (1821) attracting
the attention of all antiquaries.

It is not my intention to trespass on the time (short as
it is) at the disposal of the meeting, by going one by one
through the rooms and pavements of this villa. The plan
indicates the immense area and the unusual size of the
apartments, and Mr. Lysons' work may be easily con-
sulted either in the original edition, in the reprint by
the learned Dalloway in The Historij of Western Sussex,
and more easily still in the excellent reprint by our
printers (Messrs. Whiting and Co.), who have sold out
their first and far too limited impression of Lysons, with
a plan of the western part of the villa, and five chromo-
lithographic productions of the tessellated pavements. I
believe also that our Hon. Treasurer, Mr. T. Morgan,
F.S.A., proposes to devote some considerable amount of
attention, in his forthcoming work on Komano-British
mosaic pavements, to this example of Bignor.

The general plan is, like other villas, conceived as a
rectangular court, more or less rhomboidal, with apart-
ments along two sides. No two Boman villas have been
yet met with which could bear any slight amount of
comparison in the matter of ichnographical detail. In
this point of their constructive arts, Roman villas are
in a certain way connected with prehistoric rather than



T!():\IAX VTU.A AT IlKJNOR. 01

civilised structures. I sliow small })laiis of the Tlonian
villas ill Gloucestershire. You will see how they differ
inter se.

The year following, 1812, revealed to scientific and
judicious explorations further new and interesting results:
among others the triclinium at the north-west angle, with
wall of stucco covered with plain red colour, whereas the
wall of « (first room) had paintings on the stucco. We may
here notice that the very recent explorations of our Hon.
Associate, Dr. Schliemann, on the site of the archaic city
of Tiryns, have yielded several important paintings of
stuccoed walls, principally ornaments of a feather like pat-
tern. These are reproduced in his work on that city, just
published; and the occurrence there of Greek art-pottery
of the most archaic styles, which must be referred to at
least the remote period of 500-600 B.C., shows how great
is the antiquity of painted walls. The tombs of Etruria,
{teste Dennis) demonstrate the same tendency of wall-
decoration ; and we are bound, in view of these instances,
to admit the high antiquity of this elegant fashion, which
is probably seen at its height in Pompeii and Hercula-
neum, but here only in a subordinate and fragmentary
condition.

The room c, on the north of h, and west of a, yielded
a very beautiful geometrical design in tessellation, 20 ft.
by 9 ft. 9 ins., quite perfect, and when seen in the sum-
mer of this year still intact.

Mr. liomilly Allen has shown the occurrence of the
simple ornament, consisting of two oval links interlaced
at right angles, on sculptured stones of a period which
may be taken to embrace even the twelfth century,
while the fylfot, or cross-tau, which, according to some,
represents thunder and lightning, is seen in the very
earliest style of painted vases of Greek and Cypriote
styles, that unquestionably belong to five centuries
before Christ. Hence we have in this beautiful design a
common ground where the symbolic imagery of inci-
pient art, fostered and nurtured unintentionally by the
Roman mosaic worker down to a post-classical epoch, is
shown side by side with other emblems which grew into
important factors under the hands of those who cut the
elaborate crosses of Wales and western England ; — who



62 ROMAN VILT.A AT BIC4X0R.

illuminated the wondrous da3dalian MSS. of the sixth,
seventli, and succeeding centuries ; and which even set
patterns worthy of being, as they indeed were, imitated
by Celtic goldsmiths and British and Saxon workers in
silver and bronze.

No one can inspect these two geometrical designs,
pleasing to the eye by the cunning balance of lines,
curves, cable-twists, angles, and stellar patterns (like, and
yet unlike, each the other), without acknowledging that
the artistic skill of the designer and faculty of the fabri-
cator must have been of the very highest order. In the
centre of one is the flower known in after ages as the ^0.9
amoris, or quatrefoil d' amour, the "flower of love", com-
posed of four heart-shaped petals in cross. Into how
many architectural sculptures of the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries has not the adoption of this one detail
alone passed, where it is better known as the " ball-
flower" ornament.

The cable-twist, like the link, possessed powerful attrac-
tion for the art-student of the early centuries of the
Christian era. Accustomed to wander through the de-
serted villas of the Romans (then, no doubt, far less difii-
cult of access than now, when the progress of time has
covered them over with the mould which happily shields
them from mischief and further decay), the educated eye
of the wandering neophyte of art became familiar with
patterns which were seen to be beautiful in symmetry and
tastefully harmonious in colouring ; and with but slight
adaptation to the outline of the cross, or the border of
the painted page, he reproduced in such books as The
Durham Book of St. Cuthbert, The Book of Kells at Dub-
lin, and many others (of which Mr. Allen has given a list
in the last number of our Journal), ornaments almost
identical, and not seldom absolutely the same, with the