Reviews

REVIEWS The Survey of Archbishop Pee ham's Kentish Manors 1283-85. Translated, edited and with introduction by Kenneth Witney. 216 x 138mm. Ixxxiv + 390pp. Seal of Archbishop Pecham + 2 b/w maps and I fig. Kent Records Series Volume XXVIII. Kent Archaeological Society, Maidstone, 2000. (Cased, £20.00 to members, £35.00 to non-members) ISBN 0-906746-40-X. This edition is the last substantial published work of the distinguished historian of medieval Kentish society Kenneth Witney, who died in 1999. As the foreword by Joan Thirsk makes clear, Mr Witney began work on it in 1989 but was handicapped in completing it by a serious motor accident in 1994. Its appearance now owes much to the help given to the author and the General Editor of the Kent Records series by Margaret Sparks and by Dr Thirsk herself. The volume consists of a 74-page introduction, and a translation of 92 folios of Canterbury Cathedral MS E.24 which takes up 342 pages. This text is an extremely full survey of the seventeen archiepiscopal manors in Kent and the services owed by their tenants, datable by internal references to 1283-85. The manuscript itself, however, is a fifteenth-century copy of a lost original. Information collected by local inquests in the manors, guided by earlier records, not all of which survive, is inevitably variable. The Wingham entry takes up 68 pages, those of Peth am and Bishopsbourne only 4 pages each, differences only partially explicable by the sizes of the individual estates. The editors have also added a translation, made by Dr Bridgett Jones, of the Kentish portion of Lambeth Palace Library MS E.D.2068, a text described by F.R.H. Du Boulay in The Lordship of Canterbury (1966) as 'a near-contemporary excerption of the same survey'. This adds useful comparative material, but its real relationship to the larger text remains unclear, and is not ascertainable by direct comparison, as other intermediary records were probably also involved. Just by putting such an important source into print, this volume performs a valuable service to Kent history. The edition and translation is as painstaking as it could be, with a helpful glossary, given that the meanings of some technical terms are still uncertain. The 413 REVCEWS introduction shows all the deep knowledge and feeling for local conditions characteristic of Mr Witney' s work and is a real achievement of sensitive reconstruction. His conclusions constitute a compelling vision of what medieval Kent, or parts of it, was like. The general context into which they fit, however, is more debatable. Witney's concern to emphasize that Kent was 'enterprising and vital', 'a society which profited from a happy combination of natural and historical advantages', may therefore understate the incidence of other features of this society, such as poverty, crime and conflict. And some of the elements he and others have regarded as specially characteristic of medieval Kent, such as free status, partible inheritance and an active peasant land market - conditions which made possible an enterprising society - have now been shown to be relatively widespread in other regions too. In some ways this makes Kent more significant; an important example for the study of national trends rather than a perennial exception to them. Finally it is important to alert the reader to those things which this edition does not set out to do. There is no index of people and places, except for a list of references to the seventeen manors, which makes use of the edition for local research rather more cumbersome, though the General Editor writes that an index may be separately issued in due course 'if there is demand for it'. There is no discussion, however cursory, of the appearance and layout of the fifteenth-century manuscript, or of the context in which it was copied from the thirteenthcentury original. Little is said either of the administrative system on which Archbishop Pecham relied to produce such surveys. The most recent item cited in the bibliography was published in 1992. The real strength of the introduction lies, as already indicated, in its descriptive analysis of customs and services in their local settings, which adds much to our knowledge and provides ample basis for the hope that 'this volume will stimulate further research'. RICHARD BALES Early Modern Kent 1540-1640. Edited by Michael Zell. 16 x 24 cm. x + 340 pp. 12 illustrations, 10 tables and 3 figures. Kent History Project, Boydell Press and Kent County Council, 2000. (Cased, £50.00) ISBN l 352-805X. This very welcome addition to the historiography of Kent covers a period of adaptation by the people of the county to changes in religion, political structure, agriculture and industry. The format of the Kent 414 REVIEWS History Project series, collections of essays by specialist historians, can create problems for the reader looking for a coherent picture. Hence the two excellent essays on the political framework, Chapter 1 'Governing the County' by Patricia Hyde and Michael Zell, and Chapter 9 'The Rise of Ideological politics in Kent, 1558-1640' by Jacqueline Eales are separated by essays on landholding, agriculture, industry, towns and religious change. It is somewhat frustrating to find that the list of MPs for the county appended to chapter l stops at 1558 and is never completed in the later sections. These chapters address the politics of Kent from both the perspective of the county and the crown and central government, and, taken together with chapter 2, 'Landholding and the Land Market' do succeed in drawing a coherent picture of the shifts in political power within the county. Both re-examine the apparent insularity of the Kentish gentry, with Dr Bales challenging Everitt' s thesis on the insignificance of political or religious ideologies in Kent, and arguing that 'ideological factors were important in moulding public opinion in Kent in the Elizabethan and early Stuart period'. In Chapter 2, Zell argues convincingly the case for the strength of Kentish landowners, from noble to yeoman peasant farmers, and for the retention of lands within Kentish born families both before and after the Dissolution. The essay is a tour de force on the nature of landholding and transactions, but barely goes beyond the mid- to later sixteenth century. This is not the case in Joan Thirsk' s contribution, 'Agriculture in Kent, l 540-1640' which brings together an exceptional array of knowledge of the geology, soils, cultivation and economy of the county. It would have been helpful if the distinctions between the agricultural regions could have been made clearer on the otherwise useful map (facing p. 77). The introduction to the third section, on the Weald, paints an evocative picture of the region, making sense of its geological structure and the changes wrought during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to anyone familiar with the area; a stranger might welcome a map locating the different sub-regions. The nature of a visual comprehension of Kent and its agriculture is pleasingly conveyed throughout this chapter, but perhaps the greatest value of Dr Thirsk' s contribution is her acute perception of the detail of practice beyond the common generalisation of agricultural trends in the early modern period. For example 'A picture of north Kent focusing on cattle and sheep and on arable crops in the normal rotation ... misses the remarkable diversity of this region. Distinctive specialities are glimpsed at every turn' is evidenced by references to 'poultry in Sheppey', 'beekeeping, hopgrowing and grafted fruit trees'. 415 REVIEWS By contrast Jane Andrewes' discussion of industries in the same period is a more solid survey, largely compiled from earlier secondary sources, of the development of an industrial base in Kent underpinned by European-wide commercial developments and Government policy. The maps in this section are however very useful with the textiles mapped separately, and there is a good, clear description of the process of cloth manufacture in the Weald (pp.112-114). In chapter 5 Jacqueline Bower examines the nature of the early modern Kentish town, highlighting the large number of relatively small towns with markets; Kent's largest urban centre, Canterbury, with a population of c. 5,000 in 1600 ranked only thirteenth in size in England. Her detailed research into the available population evidence is used in effective tables to demonstrate contrasting trends across the county, whether influenced by plague, migration, municipal policy or economic trends. For example, the excess of baptisms over burials in Maidstone in the early seventeenth century is followed by the dramatic excess of burials over baptisms in Milton-next-Gravesend for the same period (pp.156-57). The second half of the book deals with the religious upheaval of the Reformation and its impact, and Zell revisits the debate on the motivation of the English Reformation siding with those arguing that the Reformation in Kent was already in progress 'before the English Church broke its institutional ties with the "universal" Catholic church ... '. He then goes on to explain 'how [the) transformation took place in Kent', and it is helpful that these two central essays, 'The coming of religious reform' and 'The establishment of a Protestant Church' have been written by the same author. While the majority of this valuable compilation deals with the large themes of political, religious, and social and economic history, Malcolm Gaskill's compelling chapter, 'Witches and Witchcraft Prosecutions, 1560-1660', uses the detailed evidence of witchcraft prosecutions in Kent to examine the phenomenon which emerged in the early modern period, as well as clarifying the role and decline of the ecclesiastical justice system. The footnotes and the 'Guide to further reading' make clear the debt nearly all these essayists owe to the work of Christopher Chalklin on Seventeenth Century Kent (l 965). However, until the essays by Malcom Gaskill, and Jacqueline Bales, the book as a whole is predominantly a study of sixteenth century Kent and it is to be hoped that the forthcoming volume, The Government and Politics of Kent 1640- 1914, unlike its complementary study in this series on religion and society for the same period, does full justice to the seventeenth century. ELIZABETH EDWARDS 416 REVIEWS The Travel Diary of Robert Bargrave, Levant Merchant, 1647-1656. Edited by Michael G. Brennan. 25 x I 8cm. xix + 288pp. 17 illustrations. Hakluyt Society, Third Series, no. 3, London, 1999. (Cased) ISBN 904180638.m. The Bargraves of East Kent, according to one local historian, were of 'somewhat humdrum station' in the later sixteenth century. The grandfather of the author of these diaries, also Robert, was a yeoman with a tannery at Bridge. It was his eldest son, John, who raised the family to gentry status and built Bifrons, a handsome Jacobean house at Patrixbourne, largely on the basis of a substantial dowry provided by his bride Jane Crouch, the daughter of a wealthy London haberdasher. The Bargraves, it seems, were skilled at finding rich and well-connected wives, and their link with the Boys family, through the marriage of John's youngest sister to the future Dean of Canterbury, John Boys, eased the path of ecclesiastical preferment for Isaac, John's youngest brother. Isaac Bargrave, perhaps the most able and distinguished member of the clan, succeeded his brother-inlaw as Dean in 1625, following service as chaplain, first to the English Ambassador in Venice, Sir Henry Wootton, and later, to Prince Charles. Robert Bargrave, the diarist, was the fourth son of Dean Isaac Bargrave. His father's attachment to an important embassy, coupled with Wootton's friendship and patronage, probably played a significant role in inclining Robert towards a diplomatic career in the expanding arena of Anglo-Mediterranean commerce. In I 647 he joined the entourage of Sir Thomas Bendish, the new ambassador to the Porte, and in I 660 was appointed secretary to the Levant Company at its factory in Constantinople. Had he lived into middle age, Robert might have become a successful and influential Levant merchant, on the pattern followed by Sir Dudley North, a nearcontemporary. In fact Bargrave died at the age of 33, after contracting a severe fever in Smyrna, and never actually reached his official post in Constantinople. Nor, from the evidence of these diaries, did he conduct any trade on his own account, either during his first period in the Levant, from 1647 to I 652, or during his travels in Spain and Italy in I 655. The nearest he came to engaging in commodity trade was during his 'third journey' of 1654-56 when he acted as supercargo, as he put it, 'to govern the Merchants Interes[t]s for the whole voyage', with the responsibility of selling a consignment of corn on their behalf. After delivering the corn in Barcelona, a cargo of raw wool was shipped from Alicante to Venice, but no return cargo was secured. The diaries suggest that Bargrave was far too interesting a 417 REVIEWS man to allow business matters to take precedence over his musical, antiquarian and scholarly pursuits. In the mid-seventeenth century, gentlemen's younger sons destined for a career in business would usually obtain an apprenticeship with a great London merchant, and the prestigious Levant Company was much favoured by the gentry. The route taken by Robert Bargrave suggests, instead, that a profession was intended: first to Clare College, Cambridge, and then to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. But the royalist sympathies of the Bargraves became increasingly pronounced during the 1640s - two of his uncles played leading roles in the Kentish rising of 1648. Around 1647 therefore, at the age of nineteen, Robert was apprenticed to the Levant merchant James (later Sir James) Modyford in Constantinople, a decision which clearly owed more to political expediency than personal choice. For both Robert and John Bargrave, as for many royalist families, foreign travel provided a prudent di version from domestic political crisis, with ample opportunities to learn foreign languages, to meet, conspire with and console fellow exiles, and to taste the pleasures of an 'age of curiosity'. Robert Bargrave did all of these things to alleviate 'perpetual) domesticke discontents through the unreasonable taskes imposed upon me be an unsatisfyed master'. He was happiest when composing dialogues, songs, masques 'and other An ticks', and in discovering the glories of Venetian opera and church music, described with close attention. His enthusiasm for observing social as well as architectural detail was immense, yet his interest in collecting was modest compared with his cousin John, who assembled three notable cabinets of coins, curiosities and exotica on his return from travels in France and Italy. The pair met on occasion, in Augsburg, Siena and Padua, where Robert also met the celebrated virtuosi John Finch and Thomas Baines, described as 'two remarkeable patternes for Learning and Virtue'. Michael Brennan has produced a first-rate edition of these important diaries, transcribed and referenced with meticulous care. One's only criticism must be that Bargrave is described by the mid-l 650s, as an experienced English merchant, which clearly he was not. DA YID ORMROD 418 REVIEWS Faversham Tudor and Stuart Muster Rolls, Vol.3 Faversham Hundred Records. By Patricia Hyde and Duncan Harrington. 14 x 21.5cm. xxxvi + 216 pp. 6 line illustrations. Arden Enterprises, 2000 (Cased, £25 .00). ISBN 0-9530998-1-4. (Available from: Ashton Lodge, Church Road., Lyminge, Folkestone, Kent, CT18 8JA.) This is another valuable input into the urban morphology of Faversham Historic Records. Like other lists of available militiamen and sailors, such as the enormous archive of naval muster books at the P.R.O. and Kent Enrolments under the Navy Act 1796 by Gillian Rickard (Canterbury 1996), these lists of men, recorded street by street, in Tudor and Stuart Faversham encapsulate a census-like picture of those populations. It supplements the editors' previous work in Volumes 1 and 2 by bringing us through the period from the 1578 Arms Act to the early Stuart period. There are some gaps in the evidence, but they do not detract from the overall picture of this town from 1570 to 1666. Similar work on registers and extant lists has been done by others such as R. Godfrey with his publication by the Faversham Society of the Freedom Register of the Mercers Company, formed in 1616. These studies can only add positively to the growing taxonomy and historical record of Faversham and its people. Patricia Hyde's previous definitive work on Arden of Faversham, the Man Behind The Myth (Faversham Society 1996), brought the record into sharp limelight with its illuminating picture of the life (and death) of this town in the mid-sixteenth century. This illustration of the conduct and manners of the period culminating in the murder of Thomas Arden and subsequent events has been described in the minor English tragedy 'Arden of Paversham'; this play was recently staged, most appropriately, in the garden of Arden's House in Abbey Street. The Muster Rolls not only list the men and their weapons, but also, in many cases, their occupations. These rolls cover the same period as the famous play and provide a significant genealogical and statistical backdrop to the turbulent period. We are fortunate in that the survival of valuable primary sources such as this and the meticulous research of historians like Hyde and Harrington is the basis of so much material in the field of records. Others, such as Gillian Rickard, with her Guide and Catalogue to the Kent Settlement Records from 1602 (Canterbury 1994) point up the importance of reading and recording the unwitting testimony behind local sources. Archaeologia Cantiana's own study by W. K. Jordan, 'Social Institutions in Kent 1480-1660' (lxxv 1961), published as part of a larger work, lists many of the social problems and discusses their remedial legislation along with an enlightened phi Ian- 419 REVIEWS thropic discipline. The Quarter and Petty Session records that are available along with information in publications like Kentish Sources (Elizabeth Melling ed. Maidstone, 1964) can only help to enhance our historical knowledge of towns like Faversham. The growing proliferation of 'books of lists' may not appeal to everyone, but these taxonomies certainly benefit historians of all disciplines. Faversham's Tudor and Stuart Muster Rolls provide not only testimony of a population changing over time but also give us a valuable record of part of the economic and genealogical milieu. This reviewer notes with some satisfaction that in sixteenth century Abbey Street at least eleven Master Mariners are recorded - today there at least five, along with their twenty-first century contemporaries, chief engineers and yachtsmen and women. Whether there are any Thomas or Alice Arden relicts remains to be seen. MARTIN LEE Lambeth palace: A History of the Archbishops of Canterbury and their Houses. By Tim Tatton-Brown. 20 x 27cm. xii+ 116 pp. 40 b/w illustrations, 30 drawings, 33 colour photographs. SPCK, London, 2000 (Cased, £17.50). ISBN 0-281-05347-2. This handsomely illustrated volume is a welcome addition to the literature on Lambeth palace, which is otherwise largely to be found in learned tomes, many of considerable antiquity, or in specialist articles. This new work is presented in accessible, readable and wellillustrated form. It contains, as the title suggests, rather more than just a history of Lambeth palace, since it draws upon the author's extensive knowledge of Episcopal residences in general. Twenty-two of the seventy illustrations specifically dealing with buildings are not of Lambeth but of other houses held by the archbishops, and the book also traces the lives of the archbishops themselves, touching upon their religious and political as well as their building activities. Thus the story of Lambeth is set into a wider context. The text is arranged chronologically, extending from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day, with a chapter devoted to each period or century. This means that Lambeth hardly figures at all before Chapter 3 which deals with Archbishop Baldwin's proposal to build a college of canons there in 1189. From then on its place in text and illustration increases as the centuries go by. The history of the Lambeth site was a chequered one. Baldwin's attempt to found a college was not successful, and not until a later 420 REVIEWS foundation by Hubert Walter in 1197 does its story really begin. Of the buildings which were erected soon after, only the chapel of the 1220s survives, although it is clear that there was an extensive residence in place by the end of the thirteenth century. Indeed, the chapters on the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are largely illustrated by comparable buildings elsewhere in the South East, for at this time the archbishops had many residences and were constantly on the move between one property and another. The remains of some of these houses, which were lost to the archiepiscopacy at the Reformation, are far more extensive than those of Lambeth itself. From the fifteenth century the Lollards' Tower of Archbishop Chichele (1414-43 ), later heightened and extended, and the splendid gatehouse of Archbishop Morton (1487-1500), remain. But most of the building history still depends on documents and analogies with other archiepiscopal residences. In fact, despite quite a lot of recorded building work, little survives even from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, except for the great hall, built by Archbishop J uxon (1660-3 ). However, descriptions, maps, drawings and water colours become increasingly plentiful, so that we know the overall plan of buildings and grounds, and have a good idea of how some parts were furnished and used. After the Reformation, comparison with other archiepiscopal properties becomes less relevant, since the archbishop ended up with residences only at Lambeth, Croydon and Canterbury, of which the latter was destroyed in the 1650s and only rebuilt in the late nineteenth century. To a large extent Lambeth is a work of the nineteenth century, for in 1829, when most of the buildings were in a poor state of repair, Archbishop William Howley decided to undertake extensive alterations. His architect was Edward Blore, and a great deal of what we see today was Blore's creation. The towers, chapel and great hall were retained, but as the book makes clear, well over half the medieval and Tudor palace, including all the private apartments, were replaced in 'perpendicular Gothic'. Finally, a considerable amount of restoration was necessary in the twentieth century to repair war damage. This is not a very long book, but it packs in a great deal. One is left with the impression that the author could have written far more had he been allowed the space. As he says in the preface 'a large and fully researched volume now needs to be written' .... and .... 'a much more detailed study of the fabric of the surviving buildings' needs to be undertaken. However, he has provided us with a very good start. In places the information almost tumbles over itself, and he often has to check himself in his chronological gallop and return to discuss a particular aspect in more depth. 421 REVIEWS A book of this density needs to be extensively illustrated. And so it is. Not only are there many photographs and early views, but excellent plans and cut-away drawings have been provided by TattonBrown's usual architectural draughtsman, John Atherton Bowen. Unfortunately, however, these are not very well integrated into the text. For example, on p. 62 he implies that the plans Blore made in 1828 before he started work are essential for understanding the fifteenth and sixteenth-century palace, but we are not told where to find the relevant illustration which happens to be on p . 89. Likewise, the plan based on the parliamentary Survey of 164 7 and other documents, which is critical if we are to follow the detailed descriptions of the sixteenth and seventeenth-century buildings, is tucked into an Appendix at the back of the book, with the only reference to it occurring well into the description of what it shows. Since this is a book without references - presumably because it was assumed that the general public would shy away from one which contained them - one can only imagine that systematic references to illustrations were also thought to be superfluous. The omissions are unfortunate, for a little more guidance of this sort would have made the complex and ever-changing arrangements of the palace much easier to follow. Despite these minor criticisms, the book should go a long way to lift Lambeth out of the obscurity in which it has languished for so long. It provides a good introduction both to the palace itself and to the wider history of the archbishops and their other buildings. SARAH PEARSON Ash - An East Kent Village. By David Downes. 250 x 185mm. xii+ 164 pp. The Street, c. 1890 + 99 b/w illustrations, map, aerial photograph. Phillimore, Chichester, 2000 (Cased, £15.00). ISBN 1-86077- 134-3. Ash being one of the largest parishes in Kent, occupying 7,011 acres and containing the third-century Roman fortress of Richborough Castle, has attracted more than one history, like its near neighbour, the old Cinque port of Sandwich. Published in 1864 was James Robinson Planche's A Corner of Kent or some account of Ash-nextSandwich. Local history has moved on since then, widening both in scope and in the literature and sources at its disposal. These changes are reflected in Ash - An East Kent Village. compiled by a retired local solicitor long 'hooked' on local history, familiar with the area, 422 REVIEWS having lived in Ash since 1953, where he has been a member of the Parochial Church Council since 1954 and its archivist for almost as long, as well as clerk of Ash Parish Council for thirty years from 1954. Not surprisingly the parish archives feature prominently among his manuscript sources, as does the Ash parish magazine among newspapers and periodicals, not to mention other manuscript and printed sources, Victorian and twentieth-century trade directories and fifty-seven secondary works (pp. 155-8). Supported financially by Ash Parish Council and 209 named subscribers (pp. viii-x), this book deserves a wider readership and ownership. It is well researched, shows awareness of a wider background, is full of interesting and comparative detail, devotes 45 pages to the twentieth century, exhibits a consistently readable style, benefits from 100 black and white illustrations and concludes with an Index extending over twelve columns (pp. 159-64 ), with illustration page numbers being indicated by bold type. This reviewer favours illustrations and is not disappointed by their number and range: the horned head-dress of Jane (d. 1455), unique on a brass (19, p. 28); Guilton sand pit, from the south, showing that three windmills still existed there in 1854 (29, p. 59); cottages in Goodban Square rented by the Ash Vestry as the parish poorhouse in 1725 (32, p. 65); nine cottages in Mount Pleasant Row built by the Ash Vestry in 1822 to house some of the parish poor (33, p. 67); Brooke House, c. 1910 and Ingram Godfrey's 13 female domestic staff plus one boy (38 and 39, pp. 78-9); several good farming illustrations (42-44, 46-50, pp. 83-5, 90-2); the workmen and boys at Gardner's Brewery, c. 1899, for many years the largest employer in the village (66, p. 113) and the Ash Home Guard at Guilton, 1940 (92, p. 135). Two of the book's eighteen chapters are of particular interest. Chapter 10 : 'The Vestry and the poor' (pp. 63-72) and Chapter 12: 'Farming in Ash 1600 - 1900' (pp. 83-92). The overseers gave 2s. to 'a wench that has a great belly to get her clear of the parish' in 1713 and sent two women to London 'to be cured of the Itch and the Venereal disease' in 1732 (p. 64). 'Bulk' agreements were negotiated with doctors, Dr Carder being paid £4 during the 1660s 'for all cures made by him for the poor of Ash' (p. 64 ). In 1810 Mr Spencer undertook 'to attend ... paupers ... within five Miles from the Church, by a written order from a parish officer, including Fractures, Midwifery, and everything belonging to the Medical business (Inoculation only excepted) for the sum of Fifty pounds per Annum' (p. 67). One measure of the parish's farming prosperity can be seen in an inventory of 'Cattle and provision that may be removed from the parish' in the event of a French invasion, appended to the roll-call of 423 REVIEWS 297 Ash volunteers in 1798 : 206 oxen, I 93 cows, 149 young cattle, 2,041 sheep, 442 pigs, 1,295 quarters of wheat, 2,005 quarters of barley, 260 quarters of oats, 387 loads of hay, 31 loads of straw, 27 sacks of potatoes, 10 sacks of flour, 196 draught horses, 27 riding horses, 48 four-wheel waggons and 83 two-wheel carts (pp. 61, 84). Further evidence of prosperity is to be seen in the farm diary kept by William Friend of Weddington for 1813, 1815 and 1817, including the sale of six heifers at £18 each, 10 'runts' at £22 each, and 48 wethers at 68s. each to a Margate butcher in 1813 (pp. 84-5). The markets of 'neighbouring towns and watering-places' and those of London, notably Covent Garden, became increasingly important during the nineteenth century. In I 899 Charles Herbert kept poultry, producing 28,000 eggs a year and concentrated on apples, pears, cherries, strawberries, currants, gooseberries and raspberries. There were then 35 market gardens in the parish, rising to 45 in 1924 (pp. 87, 92). Statistics given on p. 93 do not point to a continuous decline of population in Ash from 1831. There were two small falls prior to 1901: 63 or 2.9% between 1831 and 1841, and 57 or 2.7% between 1851 and 1861, interrupted by a slight rise of 19 or 0.9% between 1841 and 1851, with 58 deaths from a diphtheria outbreak in 1856-7 (p. 95) contributing to the second decline between 1851 and 1861. Archaeologia Cantiana, I (1938), 177, noted how 'Richborough is in the widest sense the most valuable Roman coin-site in the country', followed a year later by the observation that 'casual coins are found everywhere at Richborough', ibid., Ii ( 1939), 227. David Downes refers interestingly to October 1941 when the 229th Battery of the 58th Field Artillery was stationed at Richborough Castle, where 'even at that critical stage of the War, the men were ordered to sift all the earth they dug from their trenches and fox-holes, so as to be sure of bringing to light any buried Roman coins' (p. 140). JOHN WHYMAN The Baptists of Smarden and the Weald of Kent, 1640-2000. By Norman Hopkins. 14 x 21cm. 214pp. Fully illustrated with photographs, line drawings, maps and plans. Published by the author, 2000. (Paperback, £10.00 + £1 p+p if obtained from the author, Tyndale Cottage, Egerton, Ashford, Kent TN27 9DJ, email, nlhopkins@talk2l .com.) At the time when the reviewer was reading this book, his own (Folkestone) Baptist Church was preparing to celebrate its 250th 424 REVIEWS Anniversary. To realise that the Baptists of Smarden were active 100 years earlier than this was a sobering thought. Norman Hopkins' motives in writing this book, based on a lecture given to the Smarden Local History Society in 1998, are laid out on the book's back cover ' ... to contribute to the social history of Kent, give a faithful account of these Christian communities, and unravel some of the more obscure points of baptist life'. His own credentials he describes thus, 'I write as a Kentish man and an evangelical Christian but this and a love of my subject are my only qualifications'. Certainly the book is more than one of pure scholarship and it contains the author's more personal comments on the history of, and changes to, the Baptist movement in Kent. The early chapters of the book provide the context in terms of the geography, and the styles and history of Christian (and in particular non-Conformist) worship at the beginning of the story. Smarden village is • set in the Weald of Kent, that flat, low-lying area of gault clay in the south-west corner of the county'. The economy of the area is mentioned, involving the iron and wool trades. Links with the latter connect with a succession of religious refugees from mainland Europe: Huguenots, Lollards, Anabaptists - the latter meaning 'rebaptised', having been previously baptised as infants. Norman Hopkins makes use of the characters to tell the story and Chapters 2 and 3 refer to Richard Kingsnorth and Christopher Blackwood. Kingsnorth, a 'founding father' whose home, Spillshill (which graces the front cover), was the church's original meeting place. Blackwood is described as the church's 'first minister', although the chapter goes on to cast this into doubt. The reason for the doubt forms the basis of the two Baptist communions that exist to the present day. Kingsnorth adhered to the 'Particular' Baptist view that Christ died 'only to save his people from their sins', while Blackwood was sympathetic to the 'General' Baptist view (which was Anabaptist) that 'Christ's atoning death was for the world in general'. It should be said that these two words were not formally used at such an early date. Chapter 4 lays out the 'Six principles and practices' which were the General Baptist beliefs adopted by the Spillshill church as laid down in Hebrews 6: 1-2. These were Repentance; Faith; Baptism; Laying on of Hands [for healing]; Resurrection of the Dead; and Eternal Life. These would have been affirmed by those one hundred and fifteen names, not all founder members, appearing on the 'Mundell of consent' forming the first two pages of the Smarden Church Book, dated 1640-1644. The first page is illustrated in Hopkins' book. Then the story takes a negative turn, with the Years of Persecution 425 REVIEWS I 660- I 689, and the Division, which related to the doctrinal schism mentioned above and which ended in a parting in 1705-6 which led to the existence in Smarden of two distinct Baptist churches, with the original church having shifted towards the particular. Ultimately the two churches were to be known as Tilden Chapel, after its founder and benefactor, which followed the General Baptist school of thought, and the 'Bell Meeting' (later Zion) following the particular. With a leap in time, the chapters from 7 onwards refer to Tilden Chapel which was built in 1726, its benefactor the 'yeoman carpenter' James Tilden, and Tilden's Trust and School. The book continues with later ministers of the Tilden Chapel and its satellites, ranging from Thomas Haffenden the 'gentleman farmer and apothecary', through Josiah Lewis, the first 'imported' minister who was appointed from London in 1766, and then on to the end of the twentieth century. Hopkins includes here a section on 'Characteristics of Rural Baptist Life': the distances travelled to worship' the parlous state of the roads and tracks; the free provision of stabling to those who came on horseback or by farm cart. 'It was said that in these times you could tell church men by their prayer books and dissenters by their dinner baskets', such were the time and distance involved. The book continues along these lines of ministerial biography and doctrinal and other changes (such as the use of music) until chapter 20 when, in a sense, the story starts again with the history of the Zion Chapel following the Division of 1705. Hopkins takes the reader through the history of these two Baptist churches. He has detailed many things beyond the events and characters involved: hardship in the church and community through fluctuations in the rural economy; the associated movement of country people including emigration; the effects of war; the strong disciplinary hold that a church leadership had over its fellowship in secular as well as spiritual matters, and so on. It is difficult to do justice briefly to the wealth of information. Norman Hopkins pays tribute to the work of the late Revd. Kenneth Howard whose 'meticulous and accurate transcription of the Smarden Church Book' made the book possible. The book itself is well-researched and documented, as witnessed by the copious notes and generous illustrations. The reviewers complaints are trifling by comparison; terms such as evangelical Calvinism and Peodobaptism merit explanation and the index was found to be not entirely accurate. The book should be recommended to anyone with an interest in the local and social history of Kent, as well as those interested in Baptist history or that of Christian worship in a wider sense. COLIN PA TIEN CB 426 REVIEWS The Quoit Brooch Style and Anglo-Saxon settlement: a casting and recasting of cultural identity symbols. By S. Suzuki. 25 x 18 cm. xiv + 218 pp. 138 b/w illustrations (including both figures and plates) The Boydell Press, Woodbridge/Rochester, 2000. (Cased £50.00) ISBN O 85115 749 1 This is a scholarly book in a difficult field. The analysis of style is notoriously subjective, and fifth/sixth century sub/post-Roman Britain/early Anglo-Saxon England always a tricky subject (as the problems with terminology imply). The Quoit brooch style in particular has been an area of lively debate among archaeologists for many years. The focus has been the derivation of the style. Was it Jutish, Frankish, Gaulish, Romano-British or Kentish? Many people have pointed out recognisable affinities with metalwork styles characteristic of every region from Scandinavia to Britain. The balance of opinion has gradually been shifting towards the view that the Quoit brooch style is an insular development, unique to Britain, and particularly, to Kent. It owes much to other styles of decoration, but was fundamentally a new type of ornament, both in terms of the details of the style, and the objects which it decorates, many of which are unparalleled geographically and chronologically. Suzuki provides additional support to this theory by means of a careful dissection of the formal design elements of the Quoit brooch style, in particular, the spatial arrangements of the design fields. He elaborates a number of rules to which the style conforms, and identifies a total of 39 objects which can be categorised as belonging to the Quoit brooch style. The unavoidably small number of items (data problems beset the scholar of this period) on which Suzuki's interpretation is based should be borne in mind throughout the subsequent chapters, as he himself would no doubt reiterate. The Quoit brooch style objects assembled are divided into a further two groups, earlier objects, chiefly belt-fittings, with more idiosyncratic decoration, and later Quoit brooches, with a finely developed design grammar including proliferating quantities of zoomorphic motifs. Each metalwork style which has formerly been associated with the Quoit brooch style is then examined, drawing attention to salient features which may have had an influence on the style. For example, Suzuki discusses the relationship between the Quoit brooch style and the other contemporary development in post-Roman Britain, the buckle and belt set with characteristic long, narrow plate and buckle ornamented with backwards facing horses heads. Both can be regarded as a very late/post-Roman development indigenous to Britain, and the two distinct distribution zones, in the South-East and South-West res- 427 REVIEWS pectively, can be paralleled in other late Roman object types. It is concluded that the Quoit brooch style is indeed unique and cannot be said to be dependent on any one contemporary or earlier metalwork style, but that it is derived from several sources, including the Romano-British west, late Roman Gaul and Scandinavia. Suzuki argues that the novelty of the style is a strong indication of the emergence of a new cultural identity in post-Roman Kent. Where Suzuki carries the study of the Quoit brooch style further is in his subsequent dissection of trends within the style. He shows that the earlier style phase associated with belt fittings is more strongly related to late Roman chip-carved belt sets, while the later style phase owes more to Jutish style Scandinavian metalwork, and has a more restricted distribution in east Kent (though it is not related to a later and more substantial influx of Scandinavian-derived material culture in this area). The two phases are then related to the construction of the cultural identity of various groups who wished to associate themselves with a Romano-British or Jutish identity; a point at which the argument begins to seem a little too slick, especially when combined with a digression into the available historical sources. The association of the earlier style phase with Hengest and a 'sub-Roman elite' will be rather jarring from the point of view of the archaeologist who has spent years trying to encourage a movement away from the 'explanation' of archaeological data by reference to historical sources which are themselves of dubious accuracy. The underlying connection between style and the construction of cultural identities should not be dismissed; but it may not be as explicit or deliberate as Suzuki seems to suggest and many would shrink from its further association with questionable historical accounts. This is not an easy book to read, and only those already embroiled in the intricacies of metal work styles may want to plough through the jargon, which could perhaps have been more simply expressed. There is no doubting the attention to detail, however, which underpins many of Suzuki's arguments, and his work on design fields certainly provides a precise means of identifying and quantifying style features. The elucidation of two style phases in the Quoit brooch style (and a precise resolution of their differing dependence on late Roman and Scandinavian metalwork) is a valuable contribution, and his focus on the construction of cultural identity will no doubt provoke a heated debate. This books gives new life-blood to the discussion of a perennial archaeological favourite. ELLEN SWIFT 428 REVIEWS Also received and deposited in the Society's Library: In Foreign parts, Books and pamphlets on the World beyond Western Europe printed before 1900 in Canterbury Cathedral Library (Canterbury Sources 2). Compiled by Helen Southwood, revised by David Shaw. 167 .5mm x 242.5mm, 128 pp., illustrated. Canterbury, 2000. (Paperback, £12.00 +£1.50 p+p, from Canterbury Cathedral Library, The Precincts, Canterbury CTl 2EH) ISBN 0950 13923. An annotated catalogue, with useful geographical index and contextual introduction by Glenn Bowman. Vikings, Monks and the Millennium: Canterbury in about 1000 A.D. Two Millennium Lectures. Lectures delivered to the Canterbury Archaeological Society on 30th March 2000 by Richard Bales and Richard Gameson. AS, 42 pp., 2 maps, 12 colour illustrations. Canterbury Archaeological Society 2000. ISBN O 901589 04 7. (Paperback, £5.00 from The School of History, Rutherford College, The University, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NX.) In and Around Bromley at the Turn of the Century, Bromley Local History No.10 (2000). A5, 92 pp., 55 illustrations. Bromley Local History Society, 2000. (Paperback, £3.00 plus 50p p+p from John Clark, 41 Sandford Crescent, Hayes, Kent BR2 7DP) ISBN 09056851 l 3. A millennium survey of all the various parts of Bromley at the turn of the twentieth century following on from the Society's Bromley a Century Ago, compiled in 1985. Copperas and the Castle. By Geoffrey Pike. A5, 75 pp., illustrated with black and white prints, drawings and maps. Friends of Whitstable Museum and Gallery (2000) (Paperback, £4.95) ISBN I 871716 09 8. An Anthology of Faversham Verse 1430-1998. Compiled by Arthur Percival. Faversham papers No. 7. A4, 85 + xvi pp. The Faversham Society, 1999. (Paperback, £2.95. or £4.45, post free from the Society, the Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre, 13 Preston Street, Faversham, Kent ME13 8NS). ISBN 1900214 23 7. A collection of verse with some useful commentary and including 'The Complaint and Lamentation of Mistress Arden of Faversham' first published in 1633, and 'Dick and Sal' or 'Jack and Joanses Fair', 429 REVIEWS which made its first appearance in about 1820, and inter alia, 'A Few Verses on the late Explosion at Messrs. Hall's Gun-Cotton Works (l 847)'. Herne Bay Clock Tower. By Mike Bundock. Herne Bay Historical Records Society. AS, pp. 32, illustrated with 13 b/w drawings and photographs. Pierhead Publications, 2000. (Paperback, £2.95 post free from Herne Bay Museum and local bookshops, or from Pierhead publications Limited, P.O. Box 145, Herne Bay, Kent CT6 8GY). ISBN 0953877 0 2. The History of a Downland Church: Saint Mary the Blessed Virgin, Crundale. By Albert J. Lancefield. 15.5 x 22 cm. 221 pp., Crundale Church from the north-east and 17 b/w and coloured illustrations. Rex Lancefield, 1999 (Cased, from Rex Lancefield, Toad Hall, Burnetts Lane, Horton Heath, Eastleigh, Hampshire). ISBN 0 9536280 8. A Faversham Story. By Edward D. Perfett, Faversham Papers No. 75. A4, 96 + viii pp. The Faversham Society, 2000. (Paperback, £3.95. or £5.45, post free from the Society, the Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre, 13 Preston Street, Faversham, Kent ME13 8NS). ISBN 1 900214 24 5. Growing up in Faversham 1918-1938. By Sid Belsom, Faversham Papers No. 67. A4 48 + xii pp. The Faversham Society,1999. (Paperback, £3.45. or £4.95, post free from the Society, the Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre, 13 Preston Street, Faversham, Kent MEI 3 8NS). ISBN 1 900214 14 8. 430