Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722

by Daniel Defoe

One Robert Fitzwalter, a powerful baron in this county in the time of Henry III., on some merry occasion, which is not preserved in the rest of the story, instituted a custom in the priory here: That whatever married man did not repent of his being married, or quarrel or differ and dispute with his wife within a year and a day after his marriage, and would swear to the truth of it, kneeling upon two hard pointed stones in the churchyard, which stones he caused to be set up in the Priory churchyard for that purpose, the prior and convent, and as many of the town as would, to be present, such person should have a flitch of bacon.

I do not remember to have read that any one ever came to demand it; nor do the people of the place pretend to say, of their own knowledge, that they remember any that did so. A long time ago several did demand it, as they say, but they know not who; neither is there any record of it, nor do they tell us, if it were now to be demanded, who is obliged to deliver the flitch of bacon, the priory being dissolved and gone.

The forest of Epping and Hainault spreads a great part of this country still. I shall speak again of the former in my return from this circuit. Formerly, it is thought, these two forests took up all the west and south part of the county; but particularly we are assured, that it reached to the River Chelmer, and into Dengy Hundred, and from thence again west to Epping and Waltham, where it continues to be a forest still.

Probably this forest of Epping has been a wild or forest ever since this island was inhabited, and may show us, in some parts of it, where enclosures and tillage has not broken in upon it, what the face of this island was before the Romans’ time; that is to say, before their landing in Britain.

The constitution of this forest is best seen, I mean as to the antiquity of it, by the merry grant of it from Edward the Confessor before the Norman Conquest to Randolph Peperking, one of his favourites, who was after called Peverell, and whose name remains still in several villages in this county; as particularly that of Hatfield Peverell, in the road from Chelmsford to Witham, which is supposed to be originally a park, which they called a field in those days; and Hartfield may be as much as to say a park for doer; for the stags were in those days called harts, so that this was neither more nor less than Randolph Peperking’s Hartfield—that is to say, Ralph Peverell’s deer-park.

N.B.—This Ralph Randolph, or Ralph Peverell (call him as you please), had, it seems, a most beautiful lady to his wife, who was daughter of Ingelrick, one of Edward the Confessor’s noblemen. He had two sons by her—William Peverell, a famed soldier, and lord or governor of Dover Castle, which he surrendered to William the Conqueror, after the battle in Sussex, and Pain Peverell, his youngest, who was lord of Cambridge. When the eldest son delivered up the castle, the lady, his mother, above named, who was the celebrated beauty of the age, was it seems there, and the Conqueror fell in love with her, and whether by force or by consent, took her away, and she became his mistress, or what else you please to call it. By her he had a son, who was called William, after the Conqueror’s Christian name, but retained the name of Peverell, and was afterwards created by the Conqueror lord of Nottingham.

This lady afterwards, as is supposed, by way of penance for her yielding to the Conqueror, founded a nunnery at the village of Hatfield Peverell, mentioned above, and there she lies buried in the chapel of it, which is now the parish church, where her memory is preserved by a tombstone under one of the windows.

Thus we have several towns, where any ancient parks have been placed, called by the name of Hatfield on that very account. As Hatfield Broad Oak in this county, Bishop’s Hatfield in Hertfordshire, and several others.

But I return to King Edward’s merry way, as I call it, of granting this forest to this Ralph Peperking, which I find in the ancient records, in the very words it was passed in, as follows. Take my explanations with it for the sake of those that are not used to the ancient English:

The Grant in Old English.	The Explanation in Modern English.
IChe Edward Koning,	I Edward the king,
Have given of my Forrest the kepen of the Hundred of Chelmer and Dancing.	Have made ranger of my forest of Chelmsford hundred and Deering hundred,
To Randolph Peperking, And to his kindling.	Ralph Peverell, for him and his heirs for ever;
With Heorte and Hind, Doe and Bocke,	With both the red and fallow deer.
Hare and Fox, Cat and Brock,	Hare and fox, otter and badger;
Wild Fowle with his Flock;	Wild fowl of all sorts,
Patrich, Pheasant Hen, and Pheasant Cock,	Partridges and pheasants,
With green and wild Stub and Stock,	Timber and underwood roots and tops;
To kepen and to yemen with all her might.	With power to preserve the forest,
Both by Day, and eke by Night;	And watch it against deer-stealers and others:
And Hounds for to hold, Good and Swift and Bold:	With a right to keep hounds of all sorts,
Four Greyhound and six Raches,	Four greyhounds and six terriers,
For Hare and Fox, and Wild Cattes,	Harriers and foxhounds, and other hounds.
And therefore Iche made him my Book.	And to this end I have registered this my grant in the crown rolls or books;
Witness the Bishop of Wolston. And Booke ylrede many on,	To which the bishop has set his hand as a witness for any one to read.
And Sweyne of Essex, our Brother,	Also signed by the king’s brother (or, as some think, the Chancellor Sweyn, then Earl or Count of Essex).
And taken him many other	He might call such other witnesses to sign as he thought fit.
And our steward Howlein, That By sought me for him.	Also the king’s high steward was a witness, at whose request this grant was obtained of the king.