Elias, clerk of Pevensey, here presented two pikes and bream. (d) A horse had been hired in London to carry to Pevensey in two days' journey, 500 pears and 1000 large nuts, and a basket of filbert nuts (nuces de Sancto Philiberto)
The derivation of the word 'filberts' has been variously stated. The old poet Gower derives it from Phillis, who hanged herself on that tree.
"And after Phillis, Philberd
This tree was cleped in the yerd." — Confess, Amant. 4.
Skinner supposes it to mean "full beard." Phihbert, a French saint of the seventh century, abbot of Jumieges, and founder of Nermoutier on the small island of Heis, though many miracles are imputed to him, is not recorded to have swollen the size of nuts, and it is therefore probable that these filberts were imported from one of the many villages or towns in Normandy and Brittany, bearing the name of St. Philibert, where the climate may have been propitious to their growth. There was a family of the name in England. King John and Henry III frequently employed Hugh de St. Philibert, who held land in fee in Cornwall and Norfolk, to transport arms and men to garrison Jersey and Guernsey. (Rot. Glaus).
The king dated at Pevensey, on Thursday, August 30th, the appointment of Edmund de Passelewe as warden of the port of Rye, and also that of William de Echyngham for Winchelsea, alleging as motive that, "as all the vessels of the Cinque Ports had been appointed to be at Portsmouth on the Monday after the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, against the arrival of the French king, during the absence of the Winchelsea vessels from their own port, various damages might arise, which God forbid, by foreigners coming there, in which port on account of its large space (propter amplitudineni portus) many ships may ride at the same time (insimul applicare) (f); a description which sounds fabulous to modem ears.
On the same Thursday, August 30th, the king was at "Bourne," East Bourne, and considerable presents were made for the king's use, the donors of which are not named:
"1 Cheese, 14 sext. 1 picher, 3 qu. wine, 15½lbs. wax, 1 qu. 6½ bushel oats, 3 quarters beef, 3 carcases mutton, 1½ hog, 5 rabbits, 1 bream, (g) And from the prior of Wymondsle, 2 carcases oxen, 6 muttons, 25 flagons of wine, 4 score and 3 flagons beer." (d)
