Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 2 (of 2)Clark, George Thomas
History
Mediæval Military Architecture in England, Volume 2 (of 2)
Clark, George Thomas
Architecture -- England; Architecture, Medieval; Military architecture
Sir Richard Herbert, the commander for Edward IV. Harlech was held for
Charles I., and surrendered on articles to General Mytton in 1647.
The borough seal represents a castle triple towered, but the design
is evidently conventional. The first constable was Hugh de Wonkeslow,
appointed about 1283 by Edward I.; the last was the late W. W. E.
Wynne, Esq., of Peniarth, as good a man as he was an eminent antiquary.
HASTINGS CASTLE, SUSSEX.
The Rape of Hastings is the most eastern of the six divisions of
the county of Sussex which are supposed to derive their somewhat
peculiar name from the early occupation of the district by emigrants
from Jutland. The Rape of Hastings, probably, is so called from its
principal town, which was also the seat of its lords both before and
after the Norman Conquest. Like the other rapes, it had its river and
its forest, its castle and its castelry, often designated as an Honour.
The river, the Rother, is the common boundary of Kent and Sussex,
and joins the sea at Rye. The forest, long since disafforested and
enclosed, is represented by frequent patches of woodland, scattered
over the least fertile parts of the district, and by the numerous
and well-timbered parks by which it is characterised. The town once
possessed a small port, now silted up. It was situate at the mouth of a
stream, which still brings down its inconsiderable tribute, flowing at
the foot and to the west of the castle hill.
The origin and etymology of the name of Hastings are lost in obscurity.
It is so uncommon, that it has been supposed to come from Haesten,
the celebrated pirate and Danish Viking, who infested the southern
coasts of England and the valley of the Seine in the ninth century,—a
period when warriors of Northern descent gave their names to their
possessions, instead of, like their descendants of two centuries later,
reversing the practice. Mr. Lower, familiar with Sussex topography,
has suggested that the small stream of the Asten, a few miles west of
Hastings, may play some part in its etymology, and that Hasting, or the
Haesten-Ceaster of the English, may have stood upon its margin. It has
also been regarded as the seat of the Hastinges, a tribe said to have
been warred upon by Offa of Mercia in 792. Another not less interesting
point connected with the place is the fact that it gave name to the
ancient family who long ago bore the title of Pembroke, and still bear
that of Huntingdon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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