he caused a strict enquiry to be made for such in the circuit of four miles, and then gave them annual pensions proportionable to their wants, and the number of their children. He likewise clothed large numbers of poor, at the same time that he denied himself more than two suits of apparel at one time. He was so strictly chaste that he would never speak to women but at confession. He was a constant frequenter of church service and sermons; and would not be absent for any matters of state. And, as to discipline, he was very remarkable, and would often go into the chapter-house and shut the door upon him, where he used corporal penance; insomuch that after his death, his thigh bones were laid almost bare, and the flesh livid with blows, and the bloody and watery substance visible, which some conjectured was occasioned by the hardness of the bed, but others, more justly, by his scourging. And however severe and strict he was in observing upon himself, he was to others, at table and elsewhere, affable, free, and pleasant, but hated parasites, oppressors, and sportsmen. He was as to his person lusty, but had a fair and pleasant complexion. He was moderate in his diet, and if any dainties were at his table, he never tasted them, but distributed them to women and ancient men. He was a very great devotee to the Virgin Mary, and used frequently to say the Salutation of the Angel, or the Ave, upon his fingers; and if we may credit the writers of this monastery, at his burial was a wondrous miracle, for while that was repeated over his grave, one saw the thumb of the dead corpse traverse over the fingers as usual in his life time. He visited the Convent of Worcester, and preached in the chapter-house there; and went the same day to Wyke, to visit Bishop Godfrey, who then lay sick; and the day following visited the Priory, and when he came into the great hall, it was filled with strangers, whereupon he and his retinue went away, and would not dine. Not long after, he went again into the chapter-house and deposed the sub-prior, precentor, and chamberlain; and

suspended the third prior, and the pitanciary, from going out of the monastery for one year and three days. After, he was at Hayles Abbey, in Gloucestershire, with the king and many nobles, at the burial of Edmund, Earl of Cornwall. And three years after, he took from that convent the church of Doderhulle, given them by Godfrey, the bishop, for which the monks there charged him with injustice.

In the Cotton MSS. there are two Constitutions of Robert of Winchelsey: one showing in what lordships the archbishop ought to provide for the parochial duties, and in what others it was the duty of the rector: and the other in 1305, regulating the jurisdiction and obedience of rectors and vicars in celebrating the service. There is also a memorandum of his death, and of the election and enthronement of Walter Reginald, his successor. Cotton MSS., Faust. A. viii, 41 b., 116 b., 173 b.; and in the same MSS. Galba, E. iv, 67, there is a copy of the Archbishop's Statutes on his first visitation, in 1298. He bore for his arms, Argent, between two bars, erm., a barrulet gules, in chief three cinque foils vert. Lans. MSS., 255, p. 3.

MODERN WINCHELSEA.

BUILDING.-When it had become evident that a restoration of the old town was impossible, and after Edward I had paid his visit, in 1277, he sent here John Kirkeby, Bishop of Ely and Treasurer of England, to view a plot to make a new town; and thereupon a site was fixed, on which a new town should be built. That site was a hill at a place in the adjoining parish of Icklesham, then called Iham, partly within the manor of Iham, which, together with the manor of Iden, then belonged to William de Grandison and Isabella his wife, but was afterwards acquired by the King, and partly on land belonging to SIR JOHN TREGOZ, to Battle Abbey, and to others. The spot was principally an

uneven sandstone rock, fit only for, and used as a rabbit warren; but there was a portion of meadow land at the north-west corner. This rock was washed by the waters on the east and north sides; on the north-west there was a communication by means of a ferry with Udimore,

whence the direct road led to Battle and London; and on the south there was a road leading to Pett and Fairlight. The site is now table land, and seems to have been made level by using the surface stone for the buildings required in the new town. The whole land ultimately assigned for this town was 150 acres ; and to make up the required quantity, the King, in the eighth year of his reign (1280,) directed his writ to Ralph of Sandwich, his steward, to exchange or buy

of John de Langherst and John Bone, if they would sell, lands that lay near Iham, and fit for the building of the new town of Winchelsea; and it is there mentioned that the greatest part of Old Winchelsea was drowned, and the sea prevailing more and more against it, the rest was hopeless long to stand.1 An exchange was effected, and on the 27th November, 1281, the King issued forth the following commission to Stephen de Penecester and others, to assign places at Iham (being a hill near) for the inhabitants of Old Winchelsea to plant themselves at.

Edwardus Dei gratia, Rex Angliæ, Dominus Hiberniæ, et Dux Acquitaniæ, dilectis et fidelibus suis Stephano de Pencester, Iter. Engolisma, et Henrico le Waleys, salutem. Sciatis quod assignavimus vos ad assidend. placias apud Ihamme, et eas per certam arrentationem, juxta legalem extentam per vos inde faciend. Baronibus et probis hominibus nostris de Wynch. edificand. et inhabitand. juxta discretiones vestras committend. Et ideo vobis mandamus, quod vos omnes, vel duo vestrum, quos ad hoc vacare contigerit, in propriis personis vestris apud Ihame accedatis, et placias ibidem assideatis, et eas præfatis Baronibus edificand. et inhabitand. commitatis in forma prædicta; salva tum Dominis immediatis placiarum prædictarum rationabili extenta cujuslibet acræ per vos assessæ, et ad inhabitan. commissæ, juxta discretiones vestras prædictas, sicut prædictum est. In cujus rei testimonium has literas nostras fieri fecimus patentes. Teste me ipso apud Westm. xxvii., die Novembris, anno regni nostri decimo. Which letters were made patent on 15th March following. John de Cobeham was joined with them.

And to give greater confidence to those who should be willing to adopt the new town as their home, Edward, by his commission, dated at Acton Burnell, on 13th October, 1283, after reciting that he had provided a new town at Yham, “in lieu of our town of Winchelsea, which is in great part submersed by the inundations of the sea, and whose total submersion is feared," declared that he had resolved to commit the lands and tenements there to the barons of the port and town of Winchelsea, and willed that the same barons, when