Note 31 — PENSHURST.

In 1863 Penshurst was visited by the Kent and Sussex Archæological Society, when Mr. Parker, of Oxford (to whom archæology owes a large debt of gratitude), read a paper descriptive of the seat of the Sidneys. From that paper we shall quote:—“Mr. Parker said that in the time of William the Conqueror there was a house of importance in that place, occupied by a family named after it, Penchester (the castle on the hill), which showed that the house was fortified at that time, doubtless according to the fashion of the age, with deep trenches and mounds and wooden palisades, as represented in the Bayeux tapestry; and the house within the fortifications must have been a timber house, because if a Norman keep had been there built, there would certainly be some remains of it.”