BOUNDS OF CAMBER BEACH AND SALTS.-The bounds of the Camber beach and salts were fully ascertained in 1590, under a royal commission issued to Sir Thomas Pelham and others, and are fully set forth in an exemplification made 4th July, 1666, (18 Charles II) after the sale to Mr. Carryll.1 It recites a certain record before the Barons of the Exchequer of the 39th Queen Elizabeth: vizt., Among the records of Easter Term, roll the first, on the part of the remembrancer and treasurer, being a commission dated 30th June, 38 Elizabeth, to Thomas Pelham, James Thetcher, George Chewte, Edward Pelham, Henry Cupesley, and Edward Henden, Esqrs., or any five, four, three, or two, to look over and perambulate a certain great quantity of salt marsh and lands called the Camber Beach and Camber Salts; and to enquire as to the quantity and number of acres, and of the ancient metes, limits, and bounds, and within what liberties, parishes, and manors lying; and by sufficient metes, limits, and bounds, to separate and divide from all other manors, &c., lying contiguous; and to make a plot or map. It then goes on to give the return of Thomas Pelham, James Thetcher, and Edward Pelham, three of the commissioners, with the following inquisition, and a plot or map to the same annexed.

Sussex. An inquisition indented, taken at Rye, in the county aforesaid, the 23rd day of September, in the 38th year of the reign of our Lady Elizabeth, by the grace of God, Queen of England, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c., before Thomas Pelham, James Thetcher, and Edward Pelham, Esqrs., commissioners of the said Queen, by virtue of a certain commission of the said Queen, issued out of her Court of Exchequer, and to them and others from thence directed, and to this inquisition annexed, by the oaths of Richard Portriffe, Thomas Fisher, John Fisher, William Mellowe, John Benbricke, Edward Seringe, John Robinson, John Osborne, John Dowce, William Sharpe, Thomas Young, John Allen, Thomas Shether otherwise Stace, Richard Fribody, Richard Sheather otherwise Stace, Francis Iordan, William Davye, Christopher Edwards, Thomas Bennett, Thomas Harwood, John Holman, Nicholas

1 Pat. Penes Mr. E. N. Dawes.

White, Richard Gossepp, and Henry Walter, who, upon their oaths, say that the marsh and lands in the said commission specified, called the Camber Beach and Camber Salts, contain in the whole, 1,368 acres, of which 135 acres only are enclosed within a certain wall there, among other lands, now or late in the occupation of one Thomas Godfrey. And that the said marsh and lands, called the Camber Beach and Camber Salts, in the said commission specified likewise, lie near and abut on a certain place called the Camber Head, by the sea shore on the east, towards Lydd, bordering upon Bowcliffe, otherwise Beach Cliffe; and from thence beyond the said marsh or lands below the aforesaid wall, in a straight line northward as far as a certain creek or river called Camber Haven, otherwise Wayne Way Water, towards a certain limit or boundary hundred of Goldspurr, called Kent Dike; and from thence abutting by the aforesaid creek or river, called Camber Haven, otherwise Wayne Way Water, as far as to the Camber Head aforesaid; and also that the said marsh and lands called Camber Beach and Camber Salts so abutting as aforesaid, lie between the high sea, called the Main Sea, on parts of the south and west; and lands called Bates Lands, and lands now of Richard Smith, Esquire, on the part of the east; and the aforesaid river or creek called the Camber Haven, otherwise Waine Way Water, on the part of the west; which limits and bounds aforesaid are the ancient limits and bounds of the marsh and lands aforesaid, called Camber Beach and Camber Salts. And that the said marsh and lands called Camber Beach and Camber Salts, are and, from time whereof the memory of man is not to the contrary, have been parts and parcels of the manor of Igham, otherwise Heigham, in the county of Sussex aforesaid, and for all the time aforesaid have been and did lie, and as yet are and do lie, within the liberties of the town of Winchelsea, one of the ancient Cinque Port towns of the lady the Queen, and within the parish of Saint Thomas the Apostle, in Winchelsea aforesaid. And they further say, that for the separation and division of the aforesaid marsh and lands, called the Camber Beach and Camber Salts, from all other manors, lands, and tenements lying contiguous thereto, they have placed two posts of wood in the same lands on the day of taking this inquisition, vizt., one near the sea shore, not far off (in English, a little too short) from the view of Bowcliffe, and the other on a part of the river or creek aforesaid, called Camber Haven, otherwise Waine Way Water, towards the aforesaid boundary hundred of Goldspurr, called Kent Dike. And they further say, that the print or description (in English, the map or plot) to this inquisition annexed, is a true and perfect print (in English, a plot or map) of the same marsh and lands, called Camber Beach and Camber Head. In testimony whereof to both

parts of this inquisition, as well to the aforesaid commission as to the inquisition aforesaid, they have affixed their seals on the day and year, and at the place abovesaid. The exemplification is stated to be at the instance and request of the mayor and commonalty of the town of Winchelsea, one of the ancient Cinque Port towns.

The beach has continued to increase; and the accumulation of land has been much facilitated by planting the grass named Ammophila Arundinacea, sea reed, marum or matweed. It was brought from Holland by Mr. Sotherden, when tenant of Camber farm, and planted on the east side of the harbour. In Holland, as well as in Norfolk, Cleveland in Yorkshire, Durham, Cheshire, and other places in England, it is extensively employed in forming the banks of sand, which preserve the land against the encroachments of the This it does by means of its extensively creeping roots, which meet together and spread far and wide. The seeds drop into the sand, which gathers round the roots, vegetate and collect more sand until banks are formed. It only grows in the very driest sandy soils. It is common as far north as Orkney, and is found as far south as the Mediterranean.

sea.

CASTLE.-Winchelsea or Camber Castle is in that part of the manor of Higham, which is in the parish of Icklesham.

The castle stands in the marshes, on a peninsula, about two miles north-east of the town. We give a view as it existed in 1737. Its main walls are entire: many of them are brick, cased with square stone. It has one large tower, which serves for the keep, surrounded by a number of smaller ones of nearly the same figure, connected by short curtains.