[Illustration: HURSTMONCEUX.]
SEAWARD SUSSEX
THE SOUTH DOWNS
FROM END TO END
BY
EDRIC HOLMES
ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS BY
MARY M. VIGERS
MAPS AND PLANS BY THE AUTHOR
LONDON: ROBERT SCOTT
ROXBURGHE HOUSE
PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
MCMXX
"How shall I tell you of the freedom of the Downs--
You who love the dusty life and durance of great towns,
And think the only flowers that please embroider ladies' gowns--
How shall I tell you ..."
EDWARD WYNDHAM TEMPEST.
Every writer on Sussex must be indebted more or less to the researches
and to the archaeological knowledge of the first serious historian
of the county, M.A. Lower. I tender to his memory and also to his
successors, who have been at one time or another the good companions
of the way, my grateful thanks for what they have taught me of things
beautiful and precious in Seaward Sussex.
E.H.
CONTENTS
CHAP.
INTRODUCTION
I LEWES
II TO EASTBOURNE AND PEVENSEY
III SHAFORD TO BRIGHTON
IV BRIGHTON
V SHOREHAM AND WORTHING
VI ARUNDEL AND THE ARUN
VII THE VALLEY OF THE ROTHER
VIII GOODWOOD AND BOGNOR
IX CHICHESTER
X SELSEY AND BOSHAM
APPENDIX--
THE SUSSEX DOWNS FROM END TO END.
LONDON TO THE SOUTH DOWNS. THE WEALD.
RAILWAY ROUTES.
INDEX
The traveller through Sussex, as through every other English shire,
will find many reminders of the Great War in church, churchyard or
village green. Some are imposing or beautiful, some, alas, are neither,
or are out of keeping with the quiet peace of their surroundings. To
mention any, however striking in themselves or interesting in their
connexion, would be invidious as, at the time of writing, lack of
labour or material has prevented the completion of a great number of
them.
The local historian of the future will bring a woeful number of his
family records to a final close with the brief but glorious inscription
on the common tablet where plough-boy and earl's son are commemorated
side by side.
The sketch maps accompanying this book are simply for convenience in
identifying the route followed therein. Wanderers upon the Downs and
in the highways and byways at their feet will find Bartholomew's
"half-inch" map, sheet 32, the most useful. This scale is much to be
preferred to the "one inch" parent which lacks the contour colouring.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Hurstmonceux _Frontispiece_
Near Alciston
Market Cross, Alfriston
A Sussex Lane, Jevington
Willingdon
Lamb Inn, Eastbourne
Wannock
Old House, Petworth
The Barbican, Lewes Castle
St. Anne's Church, Lewes
The Priory Ruins, Lewes
Anne of Cleves House, Southover
The Grange, Southover
Cliffe
Firle Beacon
Alfriston Church
Alfriston
Lullington Church
Litlington
West Dean
East Dean
Beachy Head
Old Parsonage, Eastbourne
Jevington
Pevensey
Westham
Wilmington Green
Newhaven Church
Bishopstone Church Porch
Seaford Church
Seaford Head
Rottingdean
Brighton
The Pavilion, Brighton
St. Nicholas, Brighton
St. Peter's, Brighton
Poynings
Danny
Hurstpierpoint
Wolstonbury
Portslade Harbour
Shoreham and the Adur
New Shoreham
Old Shoreham
Sompting
Coombes
Upper Beeding
Bramber
St. Mary's, Bramber
Steyning
Grammar School, Steyning
Old Houses, Steyning
Chanctonbury Ring
Findon
Broadwater
Salvington Mill
Old Houses at Tarring
Beckets' Palace, Tarring
Arundel from the River
Arundel Castle
The Keep, Arundel
Arundel Gateway
Arundel Church
Lyminster
Clymping
Church Street, Littlehampton
Littlehampton Harbour
Amberley Castle
Stopham Bridge
Byworth
Petworth Church
Petworth House
Saddler's Row, Petworth
Cowdray
The Granary, Cowdray
Market Square, Midhurst
Midhurst Church
East Lavant
Felpham
Boxgrove Priory Church
Chichester Cathedral
Chichester Palace and Cathedral
Bell Tower, Chichester
Chichester Cross
St. Mary's Hospital, Chichester
Fishbourne Manor
Fishbourne Church
Bosham
Bosham Mill
Bosham, The Strand
Harting
Cowdray Cottage
Middle House, Mayfield
High Street, East Grinstead
Sackville College
Causeway, Horsham
Pond Street, Petworth
Steyning Church
North Mill, Midhurst
Knock Hundred Row, Midhurst
PLANS.
Geology of the Downs
Lewes
The Eastern Downs
The Brighton Downs
Old and New Shoreham
The Valley of the Arun
Arundel
Chichester
Chichester Cathedral
The Lowlands
The Western Downs
The Roads from London to the Downs
ARCHITECTURAL TERMS
_The following brief notes will assist the traveller who is not an
expert, in arriving at the approximate date of ecclesiastical
buildings._
SAXON 600-1066. Simple and heavy structure. Very small wall openings.
Narrow bands of stone in exterior walls.
NORMAN 1066-1150. Round arches. Heavy round or square pillars. Cushion
capitals. Elaborate recessed doorways. Zig-zag ornament.
TRANSITION 1150-1200. Round arched windows combined with pointed
structural arch. Round pillars sometimes with slender columns attached.
Foliage ornament on capitals.
EARLY ENGLISH 1200-1280 (including Geometrical). Pointed arches.
Pillars with detached shafts. Moulded or carved capitals. Narrow and
high pointed windows. Later period--Geometrical trefoil and circular
tracery in windows.
DECORATED 1280-1380. High and graceful arches. Deep moulding to
pillars. Convex moulding to capitals with natural foliage. "Ball
flower" ornament. Elaborate and flamboyant window tracery.
PERPENDICULAR 1380-1550. Arches lower and flattened. Clustered pillars.
Windows and doors square-headed with perpendicular lines. Grotesque
ornament. (The last fifty years of the sixteenth century were
characterized by a debased Gothic style with Italian details in the
churches and a beauty and magnificence in domestic architecture which
has never since been surpassed.)
JACOBEAN and GEORGIAN 1600-1800 are adaptations of the classical style.
The "Gothic Revival" dates from 1835.
[Illustration: NEAR ALCISTON.]
INTRODUCTION
"Then I saw in my Dream, that on the morrow he got up to go forwards,
but they desired him to stay till the next day also, and then said
they, we will (if the day be clear) show you the delectable Mountains,
which they said, would yet further add to his comfort, because they
were nearer the desired Haven than the place where at present he was.
So he consented and staid. When the Morning was up they had him to the
top of the House, and bid him look South, so he did; and behold at a
great distance he saw a most pleasant Mountainous Country, beautified
with Woods, Vineyards, Fruits of all sorts; Flowers also, with Springs
and Fountains, very delectable to behold."
Every one who has followed the fortunes of Christian in the stately
diction of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ must wish to know from whence came
those wonderful word pictures with which the dreamer of Bedford Jail
gems his masterpiece. That phrase "delectable mountains" conjures up in
each individual reader's mind those particular hills wherever they may
be, which are his own peculiar delight, and for which, exiled, his
spirit so ardently longs.
It is not presuming too much to suppose that the scene in Bunyan's mind
was that long range of undulating downs sometimes rising into bold and
arresting shape, and always with their finest aspect toward the Bedford
plains and him who cast longing eyes toward them. From almost any
slight eminence on the south of Bedford town on a clear day the
Dunstable and Ivinghoe hills are to be seen in distant beauty, and
there is the strongest similarity between them and those glorious
summits which every man of Sussex knows and loves so well.
The Chiltern Hills and the South Downs are built up of the same
material, have had their peculiarities of shape and form carved by the
same artificers--rain and frost, sun and wind; their flowers are the
same, and to outward seeming their sons and daughters are the same in
the way that all hill folk are alike and yet all differ in some subtle
way from the dweller in the plains.
Be this so or not our Downs are to us delectable mountains, and let the
reader who scoffs at the noun remember that size is no criterion of
either beauty or sublimity. That Sussex lover and greatest of literary
naturalists, Gilbert White, in perhaps his most frequently quoted
passage so characterizes the "majestic chain"; to his contemporaries
such a description was not out of place; our great grandfathers were
appalled when brought from the calm tranquillity of the southern slopes
to the stern dark melancholy of the mountains of Cumberland and
Westmoreland. The diary descriptions of those timid travellers of the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are full of such
adjectives as "terrible," "frightful," "awful." One unlucky
individual's nerves caused him to stigmatize as "ghastly and
disgusting" one of the finest scenes in the Lake District, probably
unsurpassed in Europe for its perfectly balanced beauty of form and
splendour of colouring. To the general reader of those times the
descriptive poems of Wordsworth were probably unmeaning rhapsodies. Our
ancestors, however, were very fond of "prospects." An old atlas of the
counties of England, published about 1800, came into the writer's hands
recently. The whole of the gentler hills, including every possible
vantage point in the Downs, had been most carefully and neatly marked
with the panorama visible from the summit; but even Kinder Scout and
the Malverns came in for the same fate as the Welsh and Cumberland
mountains, all of which had been left severely alone, though the
intrepid traveller had braved the terrors of the Wrekin, while such
heights as Barton Hill in Leicestershire and Leith Hill in Surrey were
heavily scored with names of places seen, the latter including that
oft-told tale--a legend, so far as the present writer is aware--of St.
Paul's dome and the sea being visible with a turn of the head. Though
our idea of proportion in relation to scenery has suffered a change,
Gilbert White's phrase must not be sneered at; and most comparisons are
stupidly unfair. The outline of Mount Caburn is a rounded edition of
the most perfect of all forms. The rolling undulations of the tamest
portions of the range are broken by combes whose sides are steep enough
to give a spice of adventure to their descent. The "prospects," as
such, are immeasurably superior to those obtainable from most of the
mountains of the north and west, where a distant view is rare by reason
of the surrounding chain of heights, and where the chance of any view
at all to reward the climber is remote unless he chooses that fortnight
in early June or late September when the peaks are usually unshrouded.
Really bad weather, long continued, is uncommon in the Down country. A
dull or wet spell is soon over. The writer has set out from Worthing in
a thin drizzle of the soaking variety, descending from a sky of lead
stretching from horizon to horizon, which in the north would be
accepted as an institution of forty-eight hours at least, and on
arriving at the summit of Chanctonbury has been rewarded by a glorious
green and gold expanse glittering under a dome of intense blue.
[Illustration: MARKET CROSS, ALFRISTON.]
From the wooded heights of the Hampshire border to that grand headland
where the hills find their march arrested by the sea, the escarpment of
the Downs is sixty miles long and every mile is beautiful. It would be
an ideal holiday, a series of holy days, to follow the edge all the
way, meeting with only three valley breaks of any importance; but the
charm of the hill villages nestling in their tree embowered and
secluded combes would be too much for any ordinary human, especially if
he were thirsty, so in this book the traveller is taken up and down
without any regard for his consequent fatigue, when it is assured that
his rest will be sweet, even though it may be only under a hawthorn
bush!
[Illustration: A SUSSEX LANE, JEVINGTON.]
"No breeze so fresh and invigorating as that of the Sussex Downs; no
turf so springy to the feet as their soft greensward. A flight of larks
flies past us, and a cloud of mingled rooks and starlings wheel
overhead.... The fairies still haunt this spot, and hold their midnight
revels upon it, as yon dark rings testify. The common folk hereabouts
term the good people 'Pharisees' and style these emerald circles
'Hagtracks.' Why, we care not to enquire. Enough for us, the fairies
are not altogether gone. A smooth soft carpet is here spread out for
Oberon and Titania and their attendant elves, to dance upon by
moonlight...." (Ainsworth: _Ovingdean Grange_.)
"He described the Downs fronting the paleness of the earliest dawn and
then their arch and curve and dip against the pearly grey of the
half-glow; and then among their hollows, lo, the illumination of the
east all around, and up and away, and a gallop for miles along the
turfy, thymy, rolling billows, land to left, sea to light below you....
Compare you the Alps with them? If you could jump on the back of an
eagle, you might. The Alps have height. But the Downs have swiftness.
Those long stretching lines of the Downs are greyhounds in full career.
To look at them is to set the blood racing! Speed is on the Downs,
glorious motion, odorous air of sea and herb, exquisite as the Isles of
Greece." (Geo. Meredith: _Beauchamp's Career_.)
The most delightful close springy turf covers the Downs with a velvet
mantle, forming the most exhilarating of all earthly surfaces upon
which to walk and the most restful on which to stretch the wearied
body. Most delightful also are the miniature flowers which gem and
embroider the velvet; gold of potentilla, blue of gentian, pink and
white of milkwort, purple of the scabious and clustered bell-flower;
the whole robe scented with the fragrance of sweet thyme. Several
unfamiliar species of orchis may be found and also the rare and
beautiful rampion, "The Pride of Sussex." The hills are a paradise for
birds; the practice of snaring the wheatear for market has lately
fallen into desuetude and the "Sussex ortolan" is becoming more
numerous than it was a dozen years ago. Every epicure should be
interested in the numerous "fairy rings," sufficient evidence of the
abundance of mushrooms which will spring up in the night after a moist
day. One of the most comfortable traits of our chalk hills however is
the marvellous quickness with which the turf dries after rain. Those
who have experienced the discomfort of walking the fells of Cumberland
and Westmoreland, which at most seasons of the year resemble an
enormous wet sponge, often combined with the real danger of bog and
morass, will appreciate the better conditions met with in Sussex hill
rambling. Where the chalk is uncovered it becomes exceedingly slippery
after a shower, but there is rarely a necessity to walk thereon.
The pedestrian on the Downs should use caution after dusk; chalk pits
are not seen, under certain conditions, until the wayfarer is on the
verge. Holes in the turf are of frequent occurrence and may be the
cause of a twisted ankle, or worse, when far from help.
The "dene holes" are of human origin. Once thought to be primitive
dwelling places, they are now supposed to have been merely excavations
for the sake of the chalk or the flints contained therein, and possibly
adapted for the storage of grain. Of equal interest are the so-called
"dew ponds," of which a number are scattered here and there close to
the edge of the northern escarpment. Undoubtedly of prehistoric origin,
the art of making the pond has become traditional and some have been
built by shepherds still living. These pools of clear cool water high
up on the crest of a hill gain a mysterious air by their position, but
their existence is capable of a scientific explanation. Built in the
first place to be as nearly as possible non-conducting, with an
impervious "puddled" bottom, the pond is renewed every night to a
certain extent by the dew which trickles down each grass and reed stem
into the reservoir beneath, and to a much greater extent by the mists
which drift over the edge to descend in rain on the Weald. The pools
might well be called "cloud ponds."
[Illustration: WILLINGDON.]
The most lovely scenes, the best view points, are described in their
proper place. The question as to which is the finest section of the
Downs must be left to the individual explorer. To some natures the free
bare wind-swept expanse at the back of Brighton will appeal the most.
By others the secret woods which climb from hidden combe and dry gully,
mostly terminating in a bare top, and which are all west of the Arun,
will be considered incomparably the best. To every man of Lewes the
isolated mass of hills which rise on the east of the town are _the_
Downs. But all must be seen to be truly appreciated and loved as they
will be loved.
Hotels will not be found in the Downs; the tourist who cannot live
without them will find his wants supplied within but a few miles at any
of the numerous Londons by the Sea; but that will not be Sussex pure
and undefiled, and if simplicity and cleanliness, enough to eat and
drink, and a genuine welcome are all that is required, he will find
these in our Downland inns.
It is in the more remote of these hostelries that the inquisitive
stranger will hear the South Saxon dialect in its purity and the slow
wit of the Sussex peasant at its best. The old Downland shepherd with
embroidered smock and Pyecombe crook is vanishing fast, and with him
will disappear a good deal of the character which made the Sussex
native essentially different from his cousins of Essex and Wessex.
[Illustration: LAMB INN, EASTBOURNE.]
One of the most delightful records of rustic life ever printed is that
study in the "Wealden Formation of Human Nature" by the former rector
of Burwash, John Cocker Egerton, entitled _Sussex Folk and Sussex
Ways_. True, the book is mainly about Wealden men and we are more
concerned with the hill tribes, but the shrewd wit and quaint conceits
of the South Saxon portrayed therein will be readily recognized by the
leisurely traveller who has the gift of making himself at home with
strangers. It is to be hoped that in the great and epoch-making changes
that are upon us in this twentieth century some at least of the
individual characteristics of the English peasantry will remain. It is
the divergent and opposite traits of the tribes which make up the
English folk that have helped to make us great. May we long be
preserved from a Wellsian uniformity!
A brief description of the geological history of the range may not be
amiss here. It will be noted by the traveller from the north that the
opposing line of heights in Surrey have their steepest face (or
"escarpment") on the south side, while the Sussex Downs have theirs on
the north. A further peculiarity lies in the fact that the river
valleys which cut across each range from north to south are opposite
each other, thus pointing to the probability that the fracture which
caused the clefts was formerly continuous for fifty miles through the
great dome of chalk which extended over what is now the Weald. The
elevation of this "dome," caused by the shrinking and crumpling of the
earth's crust and consequent rise of the lower strata, was never an
actual smooth rise and fall from the sea to the Thames valley; through
the ages during which this thrust from below was in progress the crown
of the dome would be in a state of comparatively rapid disintegration,
and it is because of this that we have no isolated masses of chalk
remaining between the two lines of hills. The highlands called by
geologists the "Forest Ridge" are in the centre and are the lowest
strata of the upheaval; they are the so-called Hastings sands which
enter the sea at that town half-way between Beachy Head and Dover
cliffs. North and south of this ridge is the lower greensand, forming
in Sussex the low hills near Heathfield, Cuckfield and Petworth, and
which reaches the sea south and north of Hastings. It was at one time
supposed that the face of the Downs originally formed a white sea cliff
and that an arm of the sea stretched across what we know as the Weald,
but the simpler explanation is undoubtedly the correct one.
[Illustration: WANNOCK.]
The Downs themselves are composed of various qualities of chalk; some
of such a hard, smooth and workable material that, as will be seen
presently, the columns in some of the Downland churches are made from
this native "rock." While the upper strata is soft and contains great
quantities of flints, the middle layers are brittle and yield plenty of
fossils, lower still is the marl, a greyish chalk of great value in the
fertilization of the gault. This latter forms an enormous moist ditch
or gutter at the foot of the escarpment, and from the farmer's point of
view is essentially bad land, requiring many tons of marl to be mixed
with it before this most difficult of all clays becomes fertile.
Between the chalk and the gault clay is a very narrow band of upper
greensand, only occasionally noticeable in the southern range, but
strongly marked in the North Downs.
"The chalk is our landscape and our proper habitation. The chalk gave
us our first refuge in war by permitting those vast encampments on the
summits. The chalk filtered our drink for us and built up our strong
bones; it was the height from the slopes of which our villages,
standing in a clear air, could watch the sea or the plain; we carved
it--when it was hard enough; it holds our first ornaments; our clear
streams run over it; the shapes and curves it takes and the kind of
close rough grass it bears (an especial grass for sheep) are the cloak
of our counties; its lonely breadths delight us when the white clouds
and the necks move over them together; where the waves break it into
cliffs, they are characteristic of our shores, and through its thin
coat of whitish mould go the thirsty roots of our three trees--the
beech, the holly, and the yew. For the clay and the sand might be
deserted or flooded and the South Country would still remain, but if
the Chalk Hills were taken away we might as well be in the Midlands."
(Hilaire Belloc: _The Old Road_.)
[Illustration: GEOLOGY OF THE DOWNS.]
A description of these hills, however short, would be incomplete
without some reference to the sheep, great companies of which roam the
sunlit expanse with their attendant guardians--man and dog (who deserve
a chapter to themselves). Southdown mutton has a fame that is
extra-territorial; it has been said that the flavour is due to the
small land snail of which the sheep must devour millions in the course
of their short lives. But the explanation is more probably to be found
in the careful breeding of the local farmers of a century or so ago.
Gilbert White refers to two distinct breeds--"To the west of the Adur
... all had horns, smooth white faces and white legs, but east of that
river all flocks were poll sheep (hornless) ... black faces with a
white tuft of wool." Since that day, however, east has been west and
west east and the twain have met.
[Illustration: OLD HOUSE, PETWORTH.]
The traveller _may_ be fortunate enough to come across a team of oxen
ploughing. The phenomenon is yearly becoming more rare; but within
sight and sound of the Eastbourne expresses between Plumpton and
Cooksbridge this archaic survival from a remote past is more likely to
be seen than elsewhere.
The oxen are usually black and are the remnants of a particular breed,
the outcome of a long and slow experiment in getting the right sort of
draught animal. The ploughs themselves, as Jefferies says, "must have
been put together bit by bit in the slow years--slower than the ox....
How many thousand, thousand clods must have been turned in the furrows
before ... the curve to be given to this or that part grew upon the
mind, as the branch grows upon the tree!"
But the Downs are not scarred to any great extent by cultivation. The
sheep and the birds are mostly in sole possession and are almost the
only living moving things on the hills. The fox, though at one time
common, is now very rarely seen, for game, with the disappearance of
gorse and bramble, has almost vanished, and other beasts of prey,
weasel and stoat, shun the open uplands where the only enemy of field
mouse and vole is the eagle of the south country, the peregrine falcon.
[Illustration: THE BARBICAN, LEWES CASTLE.]
SEAWARD SUSSEX
CHAPTER I
LEWES
"Lewes is the most romantic situation I ever saw"; thus Defoe, and the
capital of Sussex shares with Rye and Arundel the distinction of having
a continental picturesqueness more in keeping with old France than with
one of the home counties of England. This, however, is only the
impression made by the town when viewed as a whole; its individual
houses, its churches and castle, and above all, its encircling hills
are England, and England at her best and dearest to those who call
Sussex home. The beauty of the surroundings when viewed from almost any
of its old world streets and the charm of the streets themselves make
the old town an ever fresh and welcome resort for the tired Londoner
who appreciates a quiet holiday. As a centre for the exploration of
East Sussex Lewes has no equal; days may be spent before the interest
of the immediate neighbourhood is exhausted; for those who are vigorous
enough for hill rambling the paths over the Downs are dry and passable
in all weathers, and the Downs themselves, even apart from the added
interest of ancient church or picturesque farm and manor, are ample
recompense for the small toil involved in their exploration.
[Illustration: SKETCH PLAN OF THE BOROUGH OF LEWES.]
The origin of Lewes goes back to unknown times, the very meaning of the
name is lost, its situation in a pass and on the banks of the only
navigable river in East Sussex inevitably made it a place of some
importance. It is known that Athelstan had two mints here and that the
Norman Castle was only a rebuilding by William de Warenne on the site
of a far older stronghold. To this de Warenne, the Conqueror, with his
usual liberality, presented the town, and it is from the ruins of his
castle that we should commence our exploration.
Of de Warenne's building only the inner gateway remains. The outer gate
and the keep date from the reign of the first Edward; the site of a
_second_ keep is shown in private grounds not far off, a feature very
rare in this country if not unique.
The summit of the tower is laid out as an old world garden; and here is
also the interesting museum of the Sussex Archaeological Society, but
the visitor will be best repaid by the magnificent view of the
surrounding country spread out before him. To the north-west rises
Mount Harry, and to the right of this stretches the wide expanse of the
Weald bounded by the sombre ridges of Ashdown Forest, dominated by
Crowborough Beacon slightly east of due north.
The quarries and combe of Cliffe Hill stand up with fine effect
immediately east of the town, which sinks from where we stand to the
Ouse at the bottom of the valley. More to the south-east is Mount
Caburn above the bare and melancholy flats through which the Ouse finds
its way to the sea; due south-west the long range of Newmarket Hill
stretches away to the outskirts of Brighton, and the Race Course Hill
brings us back to our starting point. Beautiful as is the distant
prospect the greatest charm of this unique view is in the huddle of
picturesque red-tiled roofs and greenery beneath us.
Of the history of the Castle there are but scanty records; its part in
the making of East Sussex seems to have been fairly quiescent, and in
the great struggle of May 1264 between the forces of the Barons and
Henry III, for which Lewes will always be famous, the fortress took no
actual part and merely surrendered at discretion.
"The battle was fought on the hill where the races are held. Simon de
Montfort, Earl of Leicester, headed the Baronial army. The Royal forces
were divided into three bodies; the right entrusted to Prince Edward;
the left to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans; and the
centre to Henry himself. Prince Edward attacked the Londoners under
Nicholas Seagrave with such impetuosity that they immediately fled and
were pursued with great slaughter. Montfort taking advantage of this
separation, vigorously charged the remaining division of the Royalists,
which he put to rout. The King and the Earl of Cornwall hastened to the
town, where they took refuge in the Priory. Prince Edward, returning in
triumph from the pursuit of the Londoners, learned with amazement the
fate of his father and uncle. He resolved to make an effort to set them
at liberty, but his followers were too timid to second his ardour, and
he was finally compelled to submit to the conditions subscribed by his
father, who agreed that the Prince and his cousin Henry, son of the
Earl of Cornwall, should remain as hostages in the hands of the Barons
till their differences were adjusted by Parliament. In this contest
5,000 men were slain. The King, who had his horse slain under him,
performed prodigies of valour. Richard, Earl of Cornwall, was taken
prisoner."
By all accounts it was a good fight, and the best men won. A touch of
humour is added to one record wherein it is related that Richard, King
of the Romans, took refuge in a windmill, wherein he was afterwards
captured amid shouts of "Come out, thou bad miller." This mill stood
near the old Black Horse Inn, but has long since been burnt down.
Accounts vary exceedingly as to the number of the slain, some
authorities giving as many as 20,000, others no more than 2,700.
"Many faire ladie lose hir lord that day,
And many gode bodie slayn at Leans lay.
The nombre none wrote, for tell them might no man.
But He that alle wote, and alle thing ses and can."
(Robert Brune.)
There are certain times, especially in the early hours of a fine autumn
day, when the mass of old grey stone is seen rising above its vassal
town through golden river mists which veil the modernities of the
railway and its appurtenancies, and one feels that the battle might
have taken place yesterday. Strange that this town is an important and
busy railway junction and yet so little has the old-world appearance
of the place suffered in consequence; here are no ugly rows of
railwaymen's cottages in stark evidence on the hillsides; in actual
fact the coming of the railway has added to the antiquarian and
historical interest of the town, as will be seen presently.
A short distance along High Street stands St. Michael's Church, which
has one of the three curious round towers for which the valley of the
Ouse is famous. The style of the tower is Norman, but the body of the
church is of later dates. Here are some fine brasses; one is supposed
to commemorate a de Warenne who died about 1380; another is to John
Bradford, rector, dated 1457. The monument to Sir Nicholas Pelham
(1559) has an oft-quoted punning verse--
"What time the French sought to have sacked Sea-Foord
This Pelham did repel-em back aboord."
St. Anne's Church is nearly a quarter of a mile farther on. The style
is Transitional. There are several interesting items, including a very
fine and ancient font of a "basket" pattern. Note the uncommon
appearance of the capitals on the south side pillars, an ancient tomb
in the chancel wall, and, not least, the doorway with Norman moulding.
There is in this church a window in memory of Lower, a fitting tribute
to the historian of Sussex, but his best memorial will always be that
work that is still the basis of most writings on the past of the
county.
The road continues to the Battlefield and Mount Harry, but to explore
the lower portion of the town a return must be made to High Street. At
the corner of Bull Lane, marked by a memorial tablet and with a queer
carved demon upon its front is Tom Paine's house. Note the unusual
milestone on a house front opposite Keere Street, down which turning is
presently passed (on the left) Southover House (1572), a good example
of Elizabethan architecture. Keere Street has another remnant of the
past in its centre gutter, the usual method of draining the street in
medieval times, but now very seldom seen except in the City of London.
At the foot of the street is the (probably dry) bed of the
Winterbourne, so called because, like other streams of the chalk
country, it flows at intermittent times. A short distance farther, to
the right, and just past St. John's Church, will be found the entrance
to the space once occupied by the first Priory of the Cluniacs in
England.
[Illustration: ST. ANNE'S CHURCH, LEWES.]
Founded in 1078 by William de Warenne and his wife Gundrada and
dedicated to St. Pancras, the Priory was always closely allied with the
parent house on the continent. At the Dissolution more than the usual
vandalism seems to have been observed and Cromwell's creatures must
have vented some personal spite against the monks in their wholesale
demolition of the buildings. A mound to the north-east is supposed to
be the site of a calvary, and until quite recently a "colombarium" or
dovecote was allowed to stand which contained homes for over three
thousand birds.
"The Priory building was probably irregular, varying in its form as the
increase of inmates demanded additional room. But though irregular, it
was certainly a noble edifice, faced with Caen stone, and richly
adorned by the chisel of the sculptor. Its walls embraced an area of 32
acres, 2 rods, 11 perches, and it was not less remarkable for its
magnificence than extent. The length of the church was 150 feet, having
an altitude of 60 feet. It was supported by thirty-two pillars, eight
of which were very lofty, being 42 feet high, 18 feet thick, and 45
feet in circumference; the remaining twenty-four were 10 feet thick, 25
feet in circumference, and 18 feet in height.[1] The belfry was placed
over the centre of the church, at an elevation of 105 feet, and was
supported by the eight lofty pillars above mentioned. The roof over the
high altar was 93 feet high. Its walls were 10 feet thick. On the right
side of the high altar was a vault supported by four pillars, and from
this recess branched out five chapels that were bounded by a wall 70
yards long. A higher vault supported by four massive pillars, 14 feet
in diameter, and 45 feet in circumference, was probably on the left
side of the high altar, and corresponded with the one just mentioned,
from which branched out other chapels or cells of the monks. How many
chapels there were cannot be ascertained; the names of only three are
known, the Virgin Mary, St. Thomas the Martyr, and St. Martin. The
chapter-house and church were by far the most splendid apartments of
this stately pile; the latter was richly adorned by the painter and the
sculptor."
[1] These measurements are confusing, unless the pillars were of
an unusual shape. A round column 18 feet thick would be 54 feet
in circumference.
The wooden chapel of St. Pancras which existed here in Saxon times
probably stood where later the high altar of the great Norman church
was reared, and across this site the Eastbourne trains now run. The
station itself is supposed to be on the site of the convent kitchens
and consequently the present ruins are very scanty. Though the
foundations laid bare at the cutting of the railway in 1845 show the
great extent of the buildings, the battered walls which now remain give
but little indication of the imposing dimensions quoted above, and the
visitor will have to depend on sentiment and the imagination rather
than on actual sightseeing. The excavators in 1845 had a gruesome
experience, for they discovered a charnel pit containing thirteen cart
loads of bones of the fallen warriors at the battle of Lewes. Although
nearly six centuries had elapsed the stench was dreadful.
That the archaeological interest of Lewes owes much to the making of
the railway will now be seen.
[Illustration: THE PRIORY RUINS, LEWES.]
The following account appeared in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1845:--
"On the morning of Tuesday, October 28, a most interesting discovery
was made by the workmen employed in forming a cutting for the Lewes and
Brighton Railway, through the ground formerly occupied by the great
Cluniac Priory of St. Pancras, at Lewes. It is well-known that the
original founders, in 1078, were William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, of
a great Norman family, and his wife Gundred, the daughter of William
the Conqueror and his Queen Matilda; that they pulled down an old
wooden church to replace it by a stone one, and that after their deaths
in 1085 and 1088, they were buried in the chapter-house of their
Priory. So effectual, however, was the destruction of the buildings in
1537 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of Henry VIII that the very
site of the church has been uncertain, and there has long been nothing
visible of the ruins but a confused mass of broken walls and arches
half buried under the soil. The bold intrusion of a railway into these
hallowed precincts has thrown light upon this obscurity, and in the
course of their excavations the workmen have found, covered by some
slabs of Caen stone, two leaden chests containing the bones of the
founders, and inscribed with their names. They are not coffins, but
cists or chests, and are both of similar form and dimensions,
ornamented externally by a large net-work of interlaced cords moulded
in the lead. The cist of William de Warenne measures 2 feet 11 inches
long, by 12-1/2 inches broad, and is 8 inches deep, all the angles
being squared, and the flat loose cover lapping an inch over. On the
upper surface at one end is inscribed in very legible characters
'WillelMus.' The cist of the princess his wife is 2 inches shorter and
1 inch deeper, and the word 'Gvndrada' is very distinctly inscribed on
the cover. It is worth remarking that her father, the Conqueror, in his
charter, calls for Gundfreda, and her husband, who survived her, calls
her Gundreda in his charter.
"It is obvious, from the length of these receptacles, that their bones
have been transferred to them from some previous tombs, and it is not
difficult to suppose that, the chapter-house not being built at the
time of their deaths, the founders were buried elsewhere until its
completion, and that the bodies were then found so decayed that their
bones only remained for removal to a more distinguished situation, and
were, on that occasion, placed in these very leaden chests. A
rebuilding of the Priory Church was begun on the anniversary of William
the founder's death in 1243, and from the antique form of the letters G
and M the inscriptions cannot be fixed at a later period. The
characters, indeed, more resemble the form used in the twelfth century.
Of the genuine antiquity of these relics there cannot be the slightest
doubt. It is locally notorious that the black marble slab which
formerly covered the remains of Gundrada, beautifully carved and
bordered with nine Latin verses in her honour cut in the rim and down
the middle, was discovered in 1775 in Isfield Church, misappropriated
as a tombstone over one of the Shirley family, and by the care of Sir
William Burrel removed to the church of Southover, immediately
adjoining the ruins of the Priory. It is very singular that now, after
an interval of eight years, her very bones should be brought to the
same church (under the superintendence of the Rev. Mr. Scobell) there
to undergo a third burial under Gundrada's marble slab.
"The tombstone of Gundred Countess of Warren was discovered about the
year 1775, by Dr. Clarke, rector of Buxted, in the Shirley chancel of
Isfield Church, forming the table part of a mural monument of Edward
Shirley, Esq., by whose father probably it was preserved at the
demolition of the Priory, and conveyed to Isfield, his manorial estate.
At the expense of Dr., afterwards Sir William, Burrell, it was removed
from its obscure station, and placed upon a suitable shrine, in the
vestry-pew of Southover Church, that being the nearest convenient spot
to its original station. The stone is of black marble, sculptured in
very high relief. The lower end had been broken off before its
discovery at Isfield. Around the rim, and along the middle, is the
following inscription:
Stirps Gundrada ducum, decus evi, nobile germen,
Intulit ecclesiis Anglorum balsama morum,
Martir (is hanc aedem struxit Pancrati in honorem)
Martha fuit miseris, fuit ex pietate Maria;
Pars obiit Marthe, superest pars magna Marie.
O pie Pancrati, testis pietatis et equi,
Te facit heredem, tu clemens suscipe matrem.
Sexta kalendarum junii lux obvia carnis
Fregit alabastrum (superest pars optima coelo).
(_Conjectured words in parenthesis_.)
"Another leaden coffin, full of bones, but without any inscription, has
also been found, longer than those of the founder's, having a
semicircular top, and six large rings of 3-1/4 inches diameter attached
to the outsides. At a little distance from the two small chests, there
was also found the remains of an ecclesiastic, buried without any
coffin, but lying upon a bed of coarse gravel within a hollow space
formed by large flat stones. His hands were in a position indicating
that they had been joined together in the attitude of prayer over his
breast, as usual. Not only his bones, but much of his thick woollen
gown, his under-garment of linen, and his leather shoes have been
preserved. These, too, have been carefully transferred to Southover
Church. It has been conjectured with much probability that these
remains were those of Peter, the son of John, Earl de Warren, the
patron of the monastery, who was appointed prior contrary to the
nomination of the Pope in favour of the suggestion that the reinterment
of the remains of the founders took place about the beginning of the
thirteenth century."
[Illustration: ANNE OF CLEVE'S HOUSE, SOUTHOVER.]
A chapel specially designed to receive the leaden caskets was erected
in excellent taste at St. John's, Southover, in 1847. The names are
plainly decipherable. The tombstone on the floor is that of Gundrada,
brought here from Isfield. The effigy in the wall of the chapel is
conjectured to be that of John de Braose, who died in 1232.
The picturesque old house on the north side of the street is called
Anne of Cleve's House, but this title appears to be contradicted by the
date 1599 on the front of the building; there is a possibility that
this date was added when certain alterations took place; it is certain,
however, that when Thomas Cromwell's time was past the property was
made over to the King, of whom a very startling legend is told locally
to the effect that he murdered one of his wives on a stairway in the
Priory!
The rebuilt church of St. John-sub-castre has its ugliness redeemed in
the antiquary's eye by the round Saxon arch retained in the outside
wall and by the "Magnus Memorial" as certain stones, bearing a Latin
inscription in Anglo-Saxon characters, are called. Here is also a
fourteenth century tomb and an old font. The churchyard forms the site
of a Roman camp, the vallum of which may still be seen.
[Illustration: THE GRANGE, SOUTHOVER.]
St. Thomas-at-Cliffe has several interesting details including an
uncommon and elaborate "squint" with two pillars; a modern painting of
St. Thomas of Canterbury, patron saint of the church, and an old Dutch
representation of the Ascension.
Among the many famous men of Lewes must be mentioned Tom Paine who came
here in 1768, marrying in 1771 a daughter of the town named Elizabeth
Ollive and in due time succeeding to her father's business of
tobacconist. The house has already been noticed, it bears a memorial
tablet and also a very quaint carved demon. It is just off the High
Street and near St. Michael's Church. Lewes cannot claim the honour of
seeing the birth of _The Rights of Man_ (a rather dubious honour in
those days); the book was written while Paine stayed with his
biographer, Thomas Rickman the bookseller, in London.
Another famous resident of Lewes was John Evelyn, who spent a great
part of his schooldays in the Grammer School at Southover. Here also
was educated John Pell, the famous mathematician.
A house at the end of the town on the Newhaven road belonged to the
Shelleys, and Dr. Johnson once stayed here on his way to the Thrales in
Brighton.
The old "Star" Inn has been converted into municipal offices, but the
fine front still remains and most of the old work in the interior. In
the tower close by, in the Market-place, is "Great Gabriel," a bell
dating, it is said, from the time of Henry III. Lower has the following
lines on the bells of Lewes:--
"Oh, happy Lewes, waking or asleep,
With faithful _hands_ your time _archangels_ keep!
St. _Michael's_ voice the fleeting hour records,
And _Gabriel_ loud repeats his brother's words;
While humble _Cliffites_, ruled by meaner power,
By Tom the _Archbishop_ regulate their hour."
It was hereabouts that a great burning of heretics took place in 1557.
Among the honoured names recorded upon the Martyr's Memorial is that of
Richard Woodman, ironmaster, of Warbleton, whose protests against his
pastor's weathercock attitude during the Marian persecutions resulted
in the stake. The memorial perpetuates the names of sixteen persons who
suffered the fiery death at this time. The consequence is that the zeal
of the townsmen on the 5th of November is Orange in its fervour, and
the streets are given up to various "fireworks" clubs whose members
have been subscribing their spare shillings for months past. Crowds
ascend Saxon Down and the surrounding hills to see the display from a
distance; still greater crowds throng the streets to watch the
destruction in effigy of some unpopular local or national celebrity. Of
the Down land walks we have mentioned the most interesting, by reason
of its fine views of the town, is to Cliffe Hill. An extension may be
made to Saxon Down, a glorious expanse of wind-swept hill; and farther
on to the conical Mount Caburn, with magnificent marine views; from
this point a descent may be made to Glynde, which will be described
presently.
The long street of Cliffe leads northwards to South Malling; here is a
conventicle named "Jireh" erected by J. Jenkyns, W.A. These cryptic
initials mean "Welsh ambassador." In the cemetery behind is the tomb of
William Huntingdon, the evangelist, whose epitaph is as follows:--
"Here lies the coalheaver, beloved of his God, but abhorred of men.
The Omniscient Judge at the grand assize shall ratify and confirm
this to the confusion of many thousands; for England and her
metropolis shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.
"W.H., S.S." (Sinner Saved.)
The evangelist was wont to say "As I cannot get a D.D. for want of
cash, neither can I get a M.A. for want of learning, therefore I am
compelled to fly for refuge to S.S."
[Illustration: CLIFFE.]
Malling Church is of no interest except perhaps for the fact that John
Evelyn laid the foundation stone. At Old Malling once stood a Saxon
collegiate church founded by Caedwalla in 688 and therefore one of the
first Christian churches erected in Sussex. The Archbishops of
Canterbury had a residence near, and in the _Memorials of Canterbury_
Dean Stanley tells how Becket's murderers entered the house and threw
their arms on the dining-table, which immediately threw them off;
replaced, they were again thrown farther off with a louder crash. One
of the knights then suggested that the table refused to bear its
sacrilegious burden. This is still a popular local legend.
Ringmer, about two miles to the north-east, is closely connected with
Gilbert White; the oft-quoted letter in which he says "I have now
travelled the Downs upwards of 30 years, yet I still investigate that
chain of majestic mountains with fresh admiration year by year" was
written from here. There are several interesting monuments and brasses
in the church, especially those to the Springett family.
[Illustration: THE EASTERN DOWNS.]