1824.] Compendium of County History-Sussex. 327 harassed the besiegers, that they were obliged to apply for more reinforcements, with which they took the city by assault; and in revenge, ordered all the inhabitants to be put to the sword, without distinction of age or sex. The rest of the district submitted without further opposition*. On his second coming from Germany, Ella landed at Old Shoreham, with the reinforcements which enabled him to accomplish the conquest of this province. 485. A hard battle was fought between Ella and the Britons" near Mercreadesbourne," which lies near Pevensey. The great battle was probably between the camp at Burting-gap and East Bourne. The Britons fought with desperation, and the victory appears to have been doubtful, though claimed by the Saxons. It is certain, however, that Ella suffered so considerable a loss, as to retard him in his career of conquest, and to compel him to remain quiet for about five years, when he was recruited by new arrivals of his countrymen. 490. Ella besieged Anderida, and having gained it, he resolved to exterminate the inhabitants by fire and sword. A more complete destruction was never effected by human vengeance, and from this period may be dated the foundation of " Sud-Seaxnapice." 650. Ethelwald, King of Southsex, was attacked, vanquished, and taken prisoner by Wolphur, King of Mercia; but having at the court of the latter embraced the Christian religion, he was re-instated in his dominions. During his reign Ceadwella, a prince of the blood royal of Wessex, sought to usurp the supreme authority, but his designs being timely discovered and frustrated, he was obliged to quit the kingdom: upon which he fled to Anderida forest, now the weald of Sussex. Ethelwald afterwards expelled him from his territories, but in another engagement Ethelwald was defeated, and killed; Berthun and Anthun, two South Saxon nobles, compelled the invader to retire with great loss. When Ceadwalla came to the throne of Wessex. He again entered the country with a strong army. He was opposed by Berthun and Athun, the former of whom was slain in battle, their forces were dispersed, and the whole province was miserably ravaged by the enemy. 668. Ceadwalla annexed Southsex to the powerful kingdom of Wessex. 693. Brightelm was slain on the Down immediately about Brighthelmstone, to which place he gave name. 803. Egbert, King of Wessex, annexed Southsex to his dominions. 876. The Danes returning from the siege of Exeter, in their way landing on the coast of Sussex, the men of Chichester sallied out and slew of them many hundreds, taking also some of their ships. 893. At the latter end of the year the Danish pirates arrived near Rye, took Apuldore in Kent, landed at Hastings, under the command of Hastings their leader, who fortified the place. 900. Kingly Bottom, near West Stoke, it is conjectured, is the site of that dreadful slaughter of the Danes by the men of Chichester. Their sea-kings, or piratical chiefs, were then probably slain, and interred in the burrows on the summit. 902. A battle was fought at Holmwood between the Danes and the Kentish men. (To be continued.) Mr. URBAN, Barnstaple, Sept. 16. HAVE of late been perfectly convinced that the task of criticism is executed by steam or conjuration. Thus, Mr. Dibdin's LIBRARY COMPANION, a pretty tough volume to di S. T. gest, run in the course of a month's reading, is no sooner out than it is in for such criticism as I have just mentioned. Some process of this kind must have been adopted in regard to two monthly publications which ap * Such is the account given by Mr. Hay in his History of Chichester; on what authothority does not appear. It seems not improbable that he has transferred to this place an event (which belongs to the ancient city of Andenda) supposed by Mr. Dallaway to have occurred in 490. peared 328 Defence of Mr. Dibdin's "Library Companion." peared scarcely within three days of the contents of these works going to press and the publication of the Library Companion. One of these journals tells us that Mr. Dibdin's book contains "no natural and moral philosophy, no science nor archæology, medicine, popular elementary books," &c. " and entirely omits to notice the books which are objects of universal concern and study." Indeed!-are Divinity, Ecclesiastical and Civil History, Voyages and Travels, Biography, Memoirs, Anecdotes, Philology, and Belles Lettres, Poetry, and the English Drama, subjects merely for "public credulity to sport with?" and of which all notices with little prejudice to knowledge, might lie mouldering in monasteries and on the shelves of second-hand booksellers?" I should think that the BIBLE at least is "an object of universal concern and study;" and that the historians of the ancient and modern world, the very BEST voyages and travels, the BEST and most amusing pieces of biography, as well as the BEST philologists, poets, and dramatists, in our country, might be as valuable and interesting as any portions of the arts and sciences omitted by Mr. Dibdin, or even "elementary books of education." The critic says, that the Library Companion contains only "an account of black-letter and absurd books;" whereas if any man will examine the complete Index to that work, there is scarcely an author of celebrity or popularity in the several departments treated of, but what will be found to have received perfect justice in the body of the volume. A word now for the other publication alluded to. In a garbled account [Oct. of the historians of Great Britain, which occupy not fewer than 145 pages of the Library Companion, the writer says that he has "copied THE WHOLE, dull as it is." The fact is, he has not copied the half, having confined himself entirely to the early Latin historians and English chroniclers. He begins with the Saxon Chronicle, and ends with the Chronicle of Strutt. In round numbers, let us say that Mr. Dibdin has noticed fifty Chronicles in Latin, French, or English, relating to our own country; and who would expect vivacity in such a notice? But it so happens that these fifty Chronicles do not occupy more than fifty-two pages of the hundred and forty-five devoted to British history; and that the remaining pages are occupied by the following writers, not ONE of whom is mentioned in the reviewer's extract, which professes to "copy the WHOLE, dull as it is." The historians which succeed the Chronicles in Mr. Dibdin's book, are the following: Polydore Vergil, Speed, Slatyer, Daniel, Du Chesne, Milton, Whitelock, Brady, Tyrrell, Kenett, Echard, Sandford, Lord Clarendon, Rapin, Hearne, Sammes, Lewis, Ralph, Hume, Smollet, Andrews, Sharon Turner, and Lingard; these for Great Britain. For Ireland not fewer than thirty-six authors are named by Mr. Dibdin. For Scotland thirty; for Wales six; and Acts of Parliament, Records, and State Papers, occupy the remaining pages; the whole of which contain an account of a hundred and sixty-two authorities. Yet a writer who quotes only fifty-two tells the public that he has COPIED THE WHOLE!" Yours, &c. PHILO-BIB. Let us see, in these three departments alone, WHO are the authors noticed by Mr. Dibdin. In Philology and the Belles Lettres, we have Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, Plutarch, Esop, Athenæus, Lucian, Cicero, Sencca, Boetius, Apuleius, Aulus Gellius, Pliny, Petronius Arbiter, Quintilian, Plautus, Terence, Bartholomeus, Alain Chartier, Sir Thomas More, Sir Thomas Elliot, Roger Ascham, Sir A. Fitzherbert, Sir T. Wilson, William Thomas, Abraham Fraunce, Robert Greene, Thomas Rash, Gabriel Harvey, Thomas Dekker, George Whetstone, Stubbes, Braithwait, Peacham, Gervase Markham, Robert Burton, Cornwallis, James Howell, Sir William Temple, Dryden, Addison, Swift, Steele, De Foe, Dr. Johnson, Bacon, Boyle, Locke, Newton, and Milton. Are THESE the men whose works (recorded in the Library Companion) are fit only to "lie mouldering în convents, as objects of no concern or study?" In Poetry, there is every GOOD and READABLE author from Homer to Crabbe. In the English Drama, it strikes me that NOT ONE writer of note is omitted. And yet the public are told that the work in question contains none but "obsolete and black-letter authors!" 1824.] : [ 329 ] REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 82. The History of Modern Wiltshire. Hundred of Heytesbury. By Sir Rich ard Colt Hoare, Bart. Folio. pp. 336. Nichols and Son. productive of every kind of grain. In the neighbourhood of Longleat the sand stratum, no longer overlaid by the chalk, is raised into ridges of some elevation, which ITH sincere pleasure we hail give a pleasing variety to the ground of that Wthe publication of another noble domain: it is, however, more adapt portion of the History of Wiltshire, by the indefatigable Author of the preceding Hundred of Mere. The present portion contains the Hundred of Heytesbury to which are added, for the sake of clearer arrangement, several detached Parishes and Tythings from other Hundreds. The Volume is with singular propriety dedicated to the Marquess of Bath, as the Mansion and Demesnes of Longleat form so distinguished at feature in the work. The "Hundred of Heytesbury" not only exceeds the foriner Volume in the number of pages, but in the interest excited by the importance of the places described. "It is," says Sir R. Hoare, "the most interesting Hundred within our County, and not to be rivalled, perhaps, in any other within the Kingom. It is full of anecdote and antient record, and rendered amusing by the eventful life of Edmund Ludlow, the early history of the noble families of Hungerford, Thynne," &c. The general History of the Hundred of Heytesbury is thus concisely given. "This Hundred, independent of the ad ditions which I have made to it for convenience of description and reference, contains one ancient Borough, thirteen other Parishes, and three Hamlets or Tythings. It is bounded on the East by the Hundreds of Warminster and Westbury, on the West by that of Branch and Dole: on the North by Swanborough: aud on the South by Dunworth and Mere. There are within it 14 parish churches, and about 900 houses and cottages. The population of the whole Hundred was returned in 1801, at 4526; in 1811, 4620; and in 1821, at 5145. "The soil of this Hundred is generally fertile, and seldom disappoints the hopes of the agriculturist, unless from some incle mency of season or other cause not peculiar to it. The high grounds are almost invariably chalk, and afford excellent pasture for sheep. The banks of the Wily and its tributary streams are rich in water-meadow, and between these higher and lower grounds are numerous compact and excellent farms, GENT. MAG. October, 1824. ed to the growth of pine, beech, &c. than to purposes of agriculture, and of that pro pensity advantage has been taken; nearly the whole being occupied by plantations. "The most remarkable circumstance in the disposition of strata in this Hundred is perhaps to be found in the neighbourhood of Chitterne. On a part of the Downs, at a considerable elevation, and entirely surrounded by the chalk, is a small ridge consisting of the purest white sand, intermingled with rounded pebbles of various sizes and colours, and which seem to have taken their present form from the long continued action of sea waters. It appears, indeed, to be a part of that alluvium which, in the neighbourhood of London, rests on the chalk; but it is here so widely detached from any thing similar, that I cannot omit to notice it. "The civil history of this Hundred may be given in few words. It was always in the Crown till 2 Henry II. when the Manor of Heytesbury being granted to Robert de Dunstanville, he procured a Charter for the Hundred also, and they have ever since passed together." Ecclesiastically considered, the whole of this Hundred is within the Deanery of Wily; but the Collegiate Church of Heytesbury, with the three Prebends of Horningsham, Hill-Deverill, and Tytherington, are exempted from episcopal jurisdiction, and are peculiars of the Dean of Sarum. Of the fourteen Parish Churches in this Hundred, six are Rectories, three Vicarages, and the remaining five are Perpetual Curacies. "The dissolved Priory of Longleat was a peculiar of the Dean : as is also the Hospital of Heytesbury." In Biography the Volume is particularly rich, abounding in memoirs of distinguished families. That of Gene ral Ludlow is given at great length, and his Portrait re-engraved in a superior style by Worthington. Under the parish of Horningsham occurs the noble Elizabethan Mansion of Longleat, built by Sir John Thynne, and improved by the present Marquess. Of this magnificent House an exterior view is given; and also an internal view of the grand Hall, both tastefully drawn 330 REVIEW.-Sir R. C. Hoare's Heytesbury Hundred, Wilts. [Oct. drawn by Mr. J. Buckler, F.S.A. The very detailed account of the family of Botevile and Thynne, with the Portrait of Sir J. Thynne, the founder of the Mansion, are worthy of commendation. The Borough of Heytesbury leads the author to treat of its early lords, the Hungerfords; and the very minute account of this antient family is perhaps the most interesting article in the whole Volume. This family first settled in Wilts at Heytesbury, from which place it spread its branches over various other places in the West, &c.. the life, and worthy acts, the last will, &c. of the celebrated Margaret Lady Hungerford, and her signet or seal is well-engraved by Basire. Two beautiful portraits of Walter Lord Hunger. ford deserve notice; especially the one where he is represented on horseback, clothed in armour, with helmet and plume upon his head, accompanied by a greyhound, leveret, and hawks. The following is engraved at the top and bottom of the portrait. "Sr. Walter Hungerforde, knight, had in Queene Elizabeth's tyme, the second of her raine, for fouer yere together, a baye horse, a blacke grehounde, a leveratt; his offer was for fouer yeare together to all Eynglande not above his betters, he that shoulde show the best horse for a man of armes-a grehounde for a hare-a haucke for the ryver to wine III hundred poundes, that was a hundred poundes a pese.-Also he had a gerfalcon for the herne in her Majesty's tyme, wich he kept xvIII yere, and offered the lyke to flye for a hundred pounde, and were refused for all." There is another portrait of the same personage, holding a hooded hawk on his left arm, with this motto beneath it: "Vive tibi, teque habita, nec grandia tentes, Effugit immodicas parvula puppis aquas. Ao Di 1574, æt. 42. . "The family of Hungerford, of whom we find very little before the reign of Edw. II. began about the close of that reign to rise in wealth and importance. Considerable accessions had been made by the two heiresses of Heytesbury and Fitz - John; Robert de Hungerford, uncle of Sir Thomas, had acquired lands in North Wilts and Berks, and dying without issue, these descended to him. Sir Thomas himself, having been a citizen and merchant of New Sarum, married to his second wife Joan, dau. and coheir of Sir Edmund Husee, of Holbrook, Somerset, and thus acquired a great succession of landed property, but his own purchases in Wilts and Somerset far exceeded all the previous acquisitions of his family. He was eschaetor and sheriff for Wilts 30 Edw. III. and several following years. In 51 Edward IH. he was Speaker of the House of Commons, being the first regular Speaker of that Body. 7 Rich. II. having fortified his castle of Farley Mountfort without the royal license first We have dwelt the longer on the obtained, he was compelled to pay a fine of Hungerford family, from the interest 1000 marcs to procure pardon. The fol- it has lately excited among our Cor lowing spirited Portrait of him [which we respondents, occasioned by Sir R. C. have been permitted to insert on the op- Hoare's previous publication of " Hunposite page] still exists in the painted glass gerfordiana," reviewed in vol. xc of one of the North windows of Farley. 330. See biographical notices of Church, and on another are the initials of T. H. with the arms of Fitz-John scattered over with sickles, the well-known cognizance of this family." The circumstances connected with Sir Thomas Hungerford's election as Speaker have been noticed by our intelligent Correspondent "H.W." in part i. p. 10. He was, it appears, steward and confidant of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, whose interest procured him his promotion. He was 'buried in Farley Church, Somerset, and a fine monument was erected to his memory by his son Walter, Lord Hungerford, in the Chapel of Farley Casile, the chief residence of the Family. Many pages are occupied in relating Amicis Amicissimus." This motto was most probably dictated by the unfortunate end which many of his predecessors met with. other worthies of the family in the same Volume, pp. 307. 508; vol, XCIV. i. pp. 10. 136. 606, 607. The present possessor of Heytesbury is Sir William A'Court, Bart. our very intelligent Ambassador in Spain and Portugal, of whose family an account, with a pedigree, is given. In describing the parish of Boyton, the author gives a long and correct account of the unique and singularlyextensive Herbarium of Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Esq. V.P. L.S. a gentleman universally known for his great skill in Natural History, more particularly of Botany. Towards the conclusion of the topographical description, we are treated |