The cliffs come out to the edge of the sea at Winchelsea, and it is a
pleasant walk along them to Hastings, with its ruined castle, the last
of the Cinque Ports. This was never as important a port as the others,
but the neighboring Sussex forests made it a convenient place for
shipbuilding. The castle ruins are the only antiques at Hastings, which
has been gradually transformed into a modern watering-place in a pretty
situation. Its eastern end, however, has undergone little transition,
and is still filled with the old-fashioned black-timber houses of the
fishermen. The battle of Hastings, whereby William the Conqueror planted
his standard on English soil, was fought about seven miles inland. His
ships debarked their troops all along this coast, while St. Valery
harbor in France, from which he sailed, is visible in clear weather
across the Channel. William himself landed at Pevensey, farther
westward, where there is an old fortress of Roman origin located in the
walls of the ancient British-Roman town that the heathen Saxons had
long before attacked, massacring the entire population. Pevensey still
presents within these walls the Norman castle of the Eagle Honour, named
from the powerful house of Aquila once possessing it. The Bayeux
Tapestry depicts the landing of William at Pevensey, which was a "limb"
of Hastings. Its Roman name was Anderida, the walls enclosing an
irregular oval, the castle within being a pentagon, with towers at the
angles. Beyond it the Sussex coast juts out at the bold white chalk
promontory of Beachy Head.
[Illustration: HURSTMONCEUX CASTLE.]
A short distance inland from Pevensey is the great Sussex cattle-market
at Hailsham, where the old Michelham Priory is used as a farm-house and
its crypt as a dairy. Not far away is Hurstmonceux Castle, a relic of
the times of Henry VI., and built entirely of brick, being probably the
largest English structure of that material constructed since the Roman
epoch. Only the shell of the castle remains, an interesting and
picturesque specimen of the half fortress, half mansion of the latter
days of feudalism. The main gateway on the southern front has flanking
towers over eighty feet high, surmounted by watch-turrets from which the
sea is visible. The walls are magnificently overgrown with ivy,
contrasting beautifully with the red brick. Great trunks of ivy grow up
from the dining-room, and all the inner courts are carpeted with green
turf, with hazel-bushes appearing here and there among the ruined walls.
A fine row of old chestnuts stands beyond the moat, and from the towers
are distant views of Beachy Head, its white chalk-cliffs making one of
the most prominent landmarks of the southern coast.