Lewes.
In reply to the Query respecting the sword of William the Conqueror (Vol.
iii., p. 24.), I am enabled to inform you that the sword, and also the
coronation robes, of William the Conqueror, were, together with the
original "Roll of Battel," kept in the church or chapel of Battel Abbey
until it was dismantled at the Reformation; when they were transferred to
the part of the abbey which remained, and which became the possession and
habitation of Sir Anthony Browne, Master of the Horse to Henry VIII. These
precious relics continued in the possession of his descendants, who were
created Lords Mountacute; and when Battel Abbey was sold by them to the
ancestor of the present owner, they conveyed them to Cowdray Park, Sussex,
where they remained until they were destroyed in the lamentable fire which
burned down that mansion; and which, by a singular coincidence, took place
on the same day that its owner, the last male representative of the Brownes
Lords Mountacute, was drowned in a rash attempt to descend the falls of
Schaffhausen in a boat.