are coins existing of several reigns struck at this Mint bearing the name of Bridd and sometimes Brid. For all the known recorded evidences relating to Saxon Hastings, readers should refer to Dawson's History of Hastings Castle. Only peeps of it can be found and these are interestingly dealt with. The best known history of the Old Town commences with the Norman Conquest, after which the Conqueror took steps to make himself acquainted with the country over which he reigned. He ordered a Castle to be dug, on the site of the ruins of which now crown the heights of the West Hill, and the Domesday record which he had compiled remains a monument of his sagacity as a ruler. Dawson mentions the probability of the town of Hastings being destroyed at the time of the Norman Invasion in 1066. The "New Burg" of Domesday not improbably refers to the beginning of the new town of Hastings to the eastward, where it now stands, "in the valley of the Bourne," which forms part of the present Manor of Brede, and was presented to the Abbey of Fecamp of which mention is made elsewhere in this work.
NORMAN HASTINGS.
For two centuries prior to the Norman Conquest the country was in an unsettled state. It was overrun by the Danes when, in 871, King Alfred, after many vicissitudes, vanquished this warlike people and framed a code of laws, formed an army and navy, surveyed and subdivided the country and promoted education. In the following reign (Athelstan) the Mint was established within the fortress at Hastings. Edward the Confessor restored the Saxon dynasty in 1042 and from the Abbey of Fecamp received the important grant of Rye, Winchelsea, and the Bourne Valley in Hastings already alluded to. In 1050 the famous Godwin Earl of Wessex was engaged in naval warfare in which Hastings played her part, first against and then on his side. It was in the reign of the Confessor that Hastings was joined with Dover, Sandwich, Hythe, and Romney in the famous and privileged community of the Cinque Ports, the institution of which and the honours conferred upon the Cinque Ports in recognition of their provision of the Navy of England, have been kept alive to the present day although their ancient rights are now recognised by courtesy only and their attendance at the Coronation of King Edward VII. and George V. is but a shadow of their former privilege. Edward the Confessor died on the eve of Epiphany, 1066, when Harold was crowned King of England. Then followed that great event which changed the destinies of our country, the conquest of Britain by William of Normandy, which has made Hastings so familiar to the whole civilised world, and deprived Harold of his life and crown. The circumstances attending the invasion are matter of the chronicles of the time, and appertain to the general history of the period, -
