TEN-THOUSANDYEAR LEASE

Hokitika Guardian, 21 June 1929, Page 3

TEN-THOUSAND-YEAR LEASE

Jntercsfin ;• light : 6ll life in Eiigland in the Aliddle Ages is revealed by an exhibition of -old Sussex deeds and estate maps, arranged by Lady AA’olse* iey and displayed in the public library

at Hove. The deeds-arc on parchment, excellently preserved, and in most cases they still hear the old court seals (says tho>“Ghristian Science Alonit r”)

c* earlKst deed ;n the collection dates from 1282. It is 111 tlie usual Norman "Vitin and relates to Pash ley Manor. Another is dated '1455 and bears the signatures of Geoffrey and Tiioma.s ~o!evn, relatives of the unhappy Anno “oleyn. Another ancient document strikes deep into English history, boom the original authority for the restoration of the Norfolk title to the Poward family. Apparently those who I'ved in England at the beginning <Jf the seventeentli century had a very firm opinion of the future stability of property tenure, because a lease of land at .Stevning dated March 1.1601, is for a term off 10,000 years. The old estate maps are m many cases illustrated and illuminated in a manner reminiscent of the manuscripts of medieval monasteries. Some pi the estate maps in the present exhibition show farmyards with their buildings, : c.gether with drawings'of the agrmullurtf! implements then in use. These drawings are of great value in tracing the history of mechanical devices applied to the land—a history which is almost incredibly slow of development from Biblical times to about the third decade of the nineteenth century. The maps give striking evidence off' the 1 slowchanging nature of the English countryside in districts where iirhaii“dovelopment has not taken place. Outlines of fields and roads can he traced which have not been altered in many centuries.