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diff --git a/33042.txt b/33042.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d78860 --- /dev/null +++ b/33042.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1950 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hastings and Neighbourhood, by Walter Higgins + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Hastings and Neighbourhood + +Author: Walter Higgins + +Illustrator: E. W. Haslehust + +Release Date: July 1, 2010 [EBook #33042] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HASTINGS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + + +====================================================================== + +[Frontispiece: THE OLD TOWN, HASTINGS] + +A few old timbered houses, the two churches, one on each side of the +slope, form, with the castle, the sum total of the tangible reminders +of ancient days. + +(_See page 10_) + +====================================================================== + + +HASTINGS + +AND NEIGHBOURHOOD + + + +Described by Walter Higgins + +Painted by E. W. Haslehust + + + +[Illustration: Title page] + + + +BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED + +LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY + +1920 + + + + +BEAUTIFUL ENGLAND + +BATH AND WELLS--BOURNEMOUTH AND +CHRISTCHURCH--CAMBRIDGE--CANTERBURY--CHESTER AND THE DEE--THE CORNISH +RIVIERA--DARTMOOR--DICKENS-LAND--THE DUKERIES--THE ENGLISH +LAKES--EXETER--FOLKESTONE AND DOVER--HAMPTON COURT--HASTINGS AND +NEIGHBOURHOOD--HEREFORD AND THE WYE--THE ISLE OF WIGHT--THE NEW +FOREST--NORWICH AND THE BROADS--OXFORD--THE PEAK DISTRICT--RIPON AND +HARROGATE--SCARBOROUGH--SHAKESPEARE-LAND--SWANAGE AND +NEIGHBOURHOOD--THE THAMES--WARWICK AND LEAMINGTON--THE HEART OF +WESSEX--WINCHESTER--WINDSOR CASTLE--YORK. + + + +BEAUTIFUL SCOTLAND + +EDINBURGH--THE SHORES OF FIFE. + + +BEAUTIFUL IRELAND + +LEINSTER--ULSTER--MUNSTER--CONNAUGHT. + + +BEAUTIFUL SWITZERLAND + +LUCERNE--VILLARS AND CHAMPERY--CHAMONIX--LAUSANNE AND ITS ENVIRONS. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +HASTINGS + +PEVENSEY AND HURSTMONCEUX + +BATTLE ABBEY + +ECCLESBOURNE AND FAIRLIGHT + +WINCHELSEA + +RYE + +BODIAM + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +The Old Town, Hastings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + +Hastings Castle + +Hastings and St. Leonards from the Castle + +St. Leonards Gardens + +Pevensey Castle + +The Gateway, Battle Abbey + +Fairlight Glen + +The Strand Gate, Winchelsea + +Winchelsea Church + +Rye + +Rye Church + +Bodiam Castle + + +[Illustration: Hastings headpiece] + + + + +HASTINGS + +Hastings is the gateway into an enchanted garden. + +Between the hills and the sea it lies--the most romantic province in +this England of ours. Scarcely a place in it seems to belong to this +present: from end to end it is built up almost entirely of memories. +The very repetition of the names--Rye, Winchelsea, Pevensey, Battle, +Bodiam, Hurstmonceux--conjures up the past in all its magnificence and +all its sadness. Nowhere in so small a space shall you find so many +monuments to the greatness of England's former days, to the +imperishable glory of her people; nowhere in our coasts shall you find +a stretch of land so crowded with the ghosts of dead men and dead +empires. + +If for this alone, the territory, no matter how ill-favoured and +unattractive, would be worth visiting and revisiting. But there is yet +another call--that of the intrinsic beauty of the country-side. And +the call here is insistent. Hills and the sea; great folding downs and +little valleys dropping fatness; immense stretches of lonely marsh and +the nestling charms of copse-hidden villages; gentlest of streams +slipping lazily through peacefullest of domains; wildest of breakers +spending themselves at the base of steep tawny cliffs. Thus is the +land compact. One is always reminded of a passage from Mark Twain: +"That beauty which is England is alone; it has no duplicate. It is +made up of very simple details, just grass, and trees, and shrubs, and +roads, and hedges, and gardens, and houses, and churches, and castles, +and here and there a ruin, and over all a mellow dreamland of history. +But its beauty is incomparable and all its own." And search where you +will--north, south, east, west--nowhere can you come upon a spot to +which these words might with greater fitness be applied; for this +sequestered little area is the microcosm of England. + +Despite its wilderness of bricks and mortar, Hastings itself is, under +certain conditions, a place by no means unbeautiful. Possibly it is +from the sea that it appears in happiest mood. One can take a boat on +a high summer's morning, when the sun is shining gaily on its steep +grass-capped cliffs, its fragment of castle ruin, its red and blue-grey +roofs, when the sea is mazing away into every tint of emerald and +sapphire. Then it is a place fair to behold and pleasing to remember. +Or one can clamber to the top of the castle hill, and, Janus-like, +comprehend the town in its entirety--eastwards the old town and the +Past; westwards the modern watering-place and the Future. Then it is a +place for soliloquy and moralizing. + +Of the very early history of Hastings we know practically nothing, save +that it seems to have been for many years a place apart. Shut off from +the west by the invious flats of Pevensey, then one vast network of +lagoons: from the east by the greater marsh of Romney; secluded on the +north by the grey mystery of Andredesweald, which in those days came as +far south as the top of Fairlight Hill, the people experienced a +certain splendid isolation. So much so, in fact, that in the early +records it was quite customary to refer to them as a race apart, as +distinct as either of their nearest neighbours, the Jutes of Kent or +the Saxons of Sussex. "And all Kent and Sussex and Hastings" was a +phrase running easily from the pens of ancient chroniclers. + +No one knows their origin. There was a tribe of Hastengi dwelling on +the seaboard between the Elbe and what is now Denmark, having as a +chieftain one Haesten, a piratical Dane, with whose name that of the +town is often linked (erroneously, say some). In all probability, +following on some raid rather more extensive and successful than usual, +a party of these Hastengi came by this district as an allotment, and +chose to settle here, bringing over their families and herds. Maybe +thus the town was originated. + +One of their earliest tasks, doubtless, was the construction of a +stronghold, either the strengthening of an existing British earthwork +or the formation of an entirely new one. The conditions of life +demanded that they should possess such a fortification, a place which +should be at once the residence of the chief and a refuge for the +people in time of danger. And thus it happened that ere long there +came into existence the Hastinga-ceastre, mention of which is made in +the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1050: "A little before that [the murder of +Beorn by Sweyn] the men of Hastinga-ceastre and thereabouts won two of +his ships with two of their ships and slew all the men and brought the +ships to Sandwich to the King". But prior to 1050 the town must have +attained to a considerable maritime strength and commercial eminence, +for in 924 Athelstan founded a mint here. The site of this successful +Saxon town and harbour is a matter of conjecture; only the hurrying sea +knows where it lies. + +History proper begins with the coming of the Norman adventurer, +although, singularly enough, that worthy paid little attention to the +town. Landing at Pevensey on 28th September, 1066, William made his +way to Hastinga-ceastre, which he occupied without much show of +resistance (despite the picture of burning houses in the Bayeux +Tapestry), for the ships had gone north with Harold, and the folks +around had neither the means nor the mind to fight. He stayed in the +district a fortnight, scouring round for provisions and terrorizing the +natives. During that time he set to work to build some sort of a +castle, probably on or near the spot where the ancient camp had stood, +and where later the Castle proper eventually rose. This we gather from +the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the digging and timbering of a +makeshift stronghold. On 14th October William marched northwards to +meet Harold, and the famous Battle of Hastings, or Senlac, was fought. + +Thence onward the town seems to have had a very chequered career. +Previous to the coming of the Normans the encroachments of the sea and +the gradual silting up of the old harbour (wherever it was) had +rendered necessary the laying down of a new town in a securer place, +and in all probability the building of the town between the east and +west cliffs was in that way begun--at a spot far to the south of the +present Old Town, of course. The township thus commenced was the _New +Burgh_ afterwards mentioned in Domesday Book, and placed by William +under the jurisdiction of his kinsman, Robert, Count of Eu, and of the +Abbot of Fecamp. + +The Norman occupation heralded a period of prosperity, for everything +was done by William to foster good relationship between the kingdom and +the duchy. The continual passage of the monks between France and +England, the importation of Caen stone for the building of the abbey +(done until similar stone was discovered near at hand), made for +commercial growth and stimulated that shipbuilding industry which the +proximity of Andredesweald rendered possible. Robert of Eu at once +replaced the hastily-formed wooden fortress by a small stone castle, +and this was added to from time to time. And so the gradual progress +went on till the days of the completion of the Abbey in the reign of +the Red King: when Hastings reached its heyday. + +Not long, however, did it remain thus in the full flush of existence, +for from the time of Stephen onwards it began steadily to decay. Why +Hastings ever was the premier port of the Cinque Ports Confederacy it +is difficult to say. There were, as the name suggests, five +towns--Hastings, Sandwich, Dover, Romney, and Hythe; and in addition +there were Winchelsea and Rye, which differed merely in name, being +called the Antient Towns. If Hastings were ever the most successful of +these, it soon yielded pride of place to its neighbour and rival, +Winchelsea. The sovereigns, especially the Angevins, gradually +transferred their attentions to the more easterly rivals, proffering no +royal aid even when Hastings suffered badly. Slowly, therefore, but +certainly, the town sank to an insignificant position, with just here +and there a tiny patch of more glorious life; and it revived again only +as a result of one of the vagaries of fashion. + +It was about 1750 that it took on its second lease of life, soon after +the time when Brighton emerged from the obscurity of a small +fishing-village to form the fashionable watering-place. Society +doctors about that time discovered and began to recommend the +advantages of sea-bathing; and, the vogue spreading, Hastings began +rapidly to extend. When the Duke of Wellington brought his wife hither +in 1806 there were less than four thousand inhabitants; but little by +little the cosy valley, where the old town had so long nestled, ceased +to be big enough, so that the town overflowed its confines; and +eventually the modern resort commenced to flourish, west of the Castle +hill--like a garish fungoid growth at the end of some fallen monarch of +the forest. It was this modern development that excited the bitterness +of Charles Lamb when he wrote his well-known tirade: "I love town or +country; but this detestable Cinque Port is neither.... There is no +sense of home at Hastings. It is a place of fugitive resort, an +heterogeneous assemblage of sea-mews and stockbrokers, Amphitrites of +the town, and misses that coquet with the Ocean. If it were what it +was in its primitive state, and what it ought to have remained, a fair, +honest fishing-town, and no more, it were something--with a few +straggling fishermen's huts scattered about, artless as its cliffs, and +with their materials filched from them, it were something. I could +abide to dwell with Meshech, to assort with fisher-swains, and +smugglers.... But it is the visitants from town, that come here to say +that they have been here, with no more relish of the sea than a +pond-perch or a dace might be supposed to have, that are my +aversion.... What can they want here? What mean these scanty +book-rooms--marine libraries as they entitle them--if the sea were, as +they would have us believe, a book to read strange matter in? What are +their foolish concert-rooms, if they come, as they would fain be +thought to do, to listen to the music of the waves? All is false and +hollow pretension. They come because it is the fashion, and to spoil +the nature of the place." + +====================================================================== + +[Illustration: HASTINGS CASTLE] + +A fragment of the castle alone remains, grimly clinging to the edge of +the cliff. + +(_See page 13_) + +====================================================================== + +As we stroll about the streets of Hastings of to-day, it is difficult, +nay, it is impossible, to conjure up the past, to people these hills +and dales with the ghosts of days long since gone. True, there is the +Castle ruin, grimly clinging to the edge of the cliff; else there is +little but aggressive modernity. Such haven as there is now gives +cause rather for ridicule than pride. Few, standing at the Albert +Memorial, could ever conceive that here in this Priory valley was at +one time the great Port, protected on the east by the Castle hill, on +the west by the White Rock, and flushed from the north by the Old Roar +River. Well might our old Sussex poet, James Howell, sing: + + "Thou old sea-town, crouching beneath the rocks + Like a strong lion waiting for his prey! + Where are thy river, harbour, and the docks + In which the navy of Old England lay? + Why didst thou slumber, when in Pevensey Bay + The Normans' mighty host profaned our soil, + When thou, the Cinque-Port Queen, didst hold the key + Which locked the sea-gates of this freedom-isle?" + + +Who, standing towards the south of the old town, where now are those +black, bill-plastered structures famed as "the fishermen's huts", could +call to mind a great wall with a gate and portcullis defending the town +on the seaward side? Yet a writer as late as 1828 could say: "Hastings +was formerly defended, towards the sea, by a wall, which extended from +the castle cliff across the hollow in which the town lies, to the east +cliff.... A very small portion of this wall still exists, and may be +traced near the Bourne's mouth, where there was a portcullis or gate; a +considerable part of it is stated to have remained about forty years +since." (William Herbert, the unacknowledged author of "_The History +and Antiquities of the Town and Port of Hastings_", by W. G. Moss, +draughtsman to H.R.H the Duke of Cambridge.) + +Now all has gone. Only the town remains much as before. The +description penned in 1828 (_ibid._)--"The town consists principally of +two streets, High Street, and All Saints Street, each about half a mile +in length, running parallel nearly north and south, and separated by a +rivulet, called the Bourne, which runs into Hastings in a narrow and +inconsiderable stream, and empties itself into the sea. These narrow +streets are intersected by various smaller ones, or, more properly +speaking, alleys, which contain the dwellings of the fishermen and +other poor inhabitants of the place"--might well serve for the present +day, save that the inconsiderable Bourne has now entirely disappeared. +For the rest, a few old timbered houses, the two churches, All Saints +and St. Clements, one on each slope, form, with the Castle, the sum +total of the tangible reminders of ancient days. + +Nor has the town many definite associations as far as personalities go. +True, Titus Oates was baptized here in 1619, when his father was rector +of All Saints, and was himself curate in 1674; but the town can +scarcely be proud of him. One of the few old timbered houses in All +Saints Street is pointed out as the home of the mother of Sir +Cloudesley Shovell, but the only evidence in support of the claim is +the following extract (generally discredited) from De la Prynne's +diary: "I heard a gentleman say, who was in the ship with him six years +ago, that as they were sailing over against the town of Hastings in +Sussex, Sir Cloudesley called out: 'Pilot, put near; I have a little +business on shore.' They came to a little house--'Come,' says he, 'my +business is here; I came on purpose to see the good woman of this +house.' Upon which they knocked at the door, and out came a poor old +woman, upon which Sir Cloudesley kissed her, and then, falling down on +his knees, begged her blessing, and called her mother." + +Coventry Patmore and Sir John Moore both lived in the town for a time. +Otherwise the famous folk have for the most part been visitors. The +Duke of Wellington, then Major-General Wellesley, came hither with his +bride in 1806, he being then in charge of some twelve thousand soldiers +encamped near by. In August, 1814, Byron stayed for a period. "I have +been renewing my acquaintance with my old friend Ocean," he wrote, "and +I find his bosom as pleasant a pillow for one's head in the morning as +his daughters of Paphos could be in the twilight. I have been swimming +and eating turbot and smuggling neat brandies and silk handkerchiefs, +and walking on cliffs and tumbling down hills, and making the most of +the _dolce far niente_ of the last fortnight." Thomas Hood spent his +honeymoon in the town about a decade later. Garrick, while staying at +East Cliffe House, planted in the garden a slip from Shakespeare's +mulberry-tree. + +West of Hastings, and now merging into it, is the town of St. Leonards. +It was founded in 1828 by a Mr. Burton, and took its name from the +sixth-century hermit after whom the well-known forest and a number of +churches round about were called. Here, at St. Leonards, Thomas +Campbell, the poet, lived, and his well-known "Address to the Sea", +commencing: "Hail to thy face and odours, glorious Sea!" was inspired +by the view from this point. If ever the town needed a testimonial it +could scarcely find better than the following passage from Theodore +Hook: "From the meditation in which he was absorbed, Jack [Bragg] was +roused upon his arrival at the splendid creation of modern art and +industry, St. Leonards, which perhaps affords one of the most beautiful +proofs of individual taste, judgment and perseverance that our nation +exhibits. Under the superintendence of Mr. Burton, a desert has become +a thickly peopled town. Buildings of an extensive nature and most +elegant character rear their heads where but lately the barren cliffs +presented their sandy fronts to the storm and wave, and rippling stream +and hanging groves adorn the vale which a few years since was a sterile +and shrubless ravine." But perhaps the eulogy must not be taken too +seriously. + +====================================================================== + +[Illustration: HASTINGS AND ST. LEONARDS FROM THE CASTLE] + +West of Hastings, and now merging into it, is the town of St. Leonards, +"the splendid creation of modern art and industry. Buildings of an +extensive nature and most elegant character rear their heads where but +lately the barren cliffs presented their sandy fronts to the storm and +wave." + +(_See page 16_) + +====================================================================== + +Taken together, Hastings and St. Leonards form a typical modern +watering-place,--with the quieter portion to the west, as is usual on +the south coast. Here, as an old guide book puts it, "every reasonable +wish may be gratified, whether the object of the visitant be health or +pleasure". And certainly the place does offer a fine selection of +attractions. For your more strenuous visitor there are ample +facilities for golf, tennis, swimming, &c.; for your ardent angler +there is the unique combination of good deep-sea and river fishing; for +your artist or photographer there are countless objects of beauty and +historical interest. For those who are content merely to idle away the +time amid beautiful surroundings there are the magnificent public +gardens,--Alexandra Park, Gensing Gardens, and St. Leonards Gardens. +Few towns in England can boast so rich a possession as the park, with +its lake, its woodland glades, its fine stretches of greenest turf, its +indescribably beautiful flowers; and few municipalities realize so +adequately the value of such a possession, if one may judge by the care +bestowed upon it. + +====================================================================== + +[Illustration: ST. LEONARDS GARDENS] + +Few towns in England can boast so rich a possession as the park, with +its lake, woodland glades, and beautiful flowers. + +(_See page 17_) + +====================================================================== + +However, the surroundings of Hastings must still be its greatest asset. +To quote once more the grandiloquent old guide book,--"The vicinity of +the town abounds with delightful rides and walks; the pleasantness and +diversified character of which it is impossible not to admire; and +these are not only of a description superior, perhaps, to what are to +be found in almost any other part of the coast, but so numerous as to +afford that change which prevents the satiety arising from repetition". + +Still farther west lies Bexhill, a typically modern seaside resort. +Then follows a considerable stretch of meadow land, and at the other +side the first of the romantic centres in this cradle of English +history. + + + + +PEVENSEY AND HURSTMONCEUX + +In all this storied region there is no spot so rich in memories as +Pevensey (or Pemsey, as it is called locally). Before such ancient +settlements as Rye and Winchelsea were dreamed of, while yet Hastings +was the merest collection of barbarian huts, Pevensey, or rather its +Roman predecessor, Anderida, was a fortified place with all the ebb and +flow of a flourishing life. + +Like Winchelsea, it has seen great changes--not quite so tragic +perhaps, but no less momentous--and like Winchelsea, too, in its tide +of fortune or disaster, it has been at the idle mercy of the fickle +sea. Where now--from the Channel inland for three or four +miles--stretches a wide plain, centuries ago the sea went on its way, +reaching inland as far as Hailsham, and leaving Pevensey and other +"eys"--Horseye, Chilleye, Rickney--islanded in its midst. In those +days Pevensey served a double purpose: it was an island stronghold and +a port--a gate to shut out and a gateway to welcome the alien mariner, +according to his intentions and its own will. Then the waters of the +Channel receded, and the puissant fortress, robbed of its vital +strength, sprawled helplessly at the mercy of any Philistine invader. + +It has had just this much of compensation: through its centuries of +serviceable isolation it has seen real life as a castle--withstood +sieges, beaten off marauding foes, taken sides in internal strife--and +in that it has had the cry over the most of our Sussex fortresses. + +Originally a Celtic stronghold, it became, by reason of its unique +situation, the Anderida of the Romans, a fortified enclosure following +roughly the shape of the knoll on which it stood. This was in the +third century. Two hundred years later, when the Romans had departed +and left behind an enervated British race, the invading Saxons +descended on the stronghold, put to death every Briton they could find, +and destroyed all traces of the Roman settlement within the walls. For +centuries after this the enclosure was unoccupied; but the port +continued its activities, for we read that in the years 1042 and 1049 +Earl Godwin and his sons, Sweyn and Harold, fell upon the place with +sword and torch, and carried off many ships. + +But its real value as a castle site was only completely realized when, +in September of the year 1066, William the Norman landed there with his +hordes of mailed warriors. He straightway gave the derelict to his +half-brother, Robert of Mortain, who proceeded to erect a Norman +fortress at the east end of the enclosure, using the strengthened Roman +walls as an outer line of defence. To this was added, two centuries +later, a strong inner keep. + +Since the time of the Norman landing Pevensey seems to have sustained +at least four earnest sieges. The first took place in 1088, when Odo, +Bishop of Bayeux, and supporter of Robert of Normandy, defended the +castle against the Red King: the second in 1147, when the place was +held for the Empress Matilda against King Stephen; and in both of these +cases the defenders were compelled by famine to surrender. The third +important attack was that of 1264, following the battle of Lewes, when +Simon de Montfort and the Barons sought in vain to reduce a garrison of +obstinate Royalists. It was during this particular siege that the +larger gap in the original Roman wall was initiated. The fourth and +last storming happened during the Wars of the Roses, when Lady Pelham, +a stanch supporter of the Lancastrian cause, successfully held out +against a force of local followers of Richard of York. + +After that the glory of the place departed, and it became a State +prison, wherein were incarcerated such illustrious personages as +Edward, Duke of York; James the First of Scotland; and Queen Joan of +Navarre, wife of Henry the Fourth. From the days of the seventh Henry +onwards it gradually fell into decay; and its present dilapidated +condition is due not so much to the violence of the sieges as to the +habit of the local gentry of using the remains as a handy quarry for +house-building purposes. For the presence of any remains at all our +thanks are due to that much-reviled thing the Spanish Armada. In the +year previous to the sailing of the fleet, orders were given for the +complete restoration or total demolition of the castle. Happily, in +the general confusion of the time, the instructions seem to have been +forgotten. Pevensey now is one of the most picturesque spots in the +south of England. The knoll on which it stands is sufficiently high to +give the castle a dignified appearance, as it rises up out of the +encompassing marshes; and yet there is none of that grim, forbidding +aspect generally so noticeable about castles perched on an eminence. +Rather is there about these ivy-mantled walls an atmosphere of sunlit +serenity quite out of keeping with the story of the place. Around the +little hill still stretch those amazing ancient Roman walls, with but +two considerable breaches. These walls for the most part fail to get +the attention they deserve. Visitors enter the little western gate and +pass across the meadow--once the outer ward--and so come to the +mediaeval castle; but the outer walls are nearly a thousand years older +and of transcendent interest. What magnificent masons those old Romans +were! And what a secret they must have possessed for the making of +mortar and cement! In several places here the cement has endured +through all these hundreds of years, while even the outer stones have +crumbled away. At other points, too, the actual marks of the masons' +tools are visible in the ancient mortar. + +====================================================================== + +[Illustration: PEVENSEY CASTLE FROM THE MEADOWS] + +Through centuries of serviceable isolation it has seen real life as a +castle--withstood sieges, beaten off marauding foes, and taken sides in +internal strife. + +(_See page 23_) + +====================================================================== + +At the eastern end of the enclosure is the castle itself, with a +reed-grown moat on the northern and western sides. Most of this ruin +dates back only to the time of Edward the First, for the original +Norman fabric suffered too many sieges to endure in any completeness. +One of the great towers flanking the main gateway still stands, but the +other, like the drawbridge, has long since disappeared; three others +project from the wall at various intervals. Inside, very little +remains. Fragmentary ruins reveal the original site of the keep: the +extent of the chapel may be traced on the sward. But, for all the +scarcity of definite relics, the place is one to linger in and conjure +up the past, when these grass-grown spaces were instinct with a +hurrying life, when the meadows where now the cattle browse were filled +with anxious faces and beating hearts. + +Pevensey can own to one famous son at least, Andrew Borde, a man of +many parts. Carthusian monk, physician to Henry the Eighth, +litterateur, poor Borde died a prisoner in the Fleet Prison in 1549. +He was one of those unfortunates who seem never to do or say the right +thing at the right time. Born at the vicarage early in the sixteenth +century, he developed a turn for jesting, and it proved his undoing, +for bishops and kings had not his lively wit, and failed lamentably to +appreciate what was at once his gift and his failing. To his ready pen +have been ascribed the immortal epic "Tom Thumb", and the oft-told +"Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham"--the latter collected and put +into literary form from the oral traditions of the country-side. + +Just up under the eastern wall of the castle is the so-called Mint +House, where Borde is reputed to have spent many of his days. It was +an interesting old place, with its panelled walls and numerous +passages; but it has now been rendered quite impossible by reason of +its conversion into a glorified old curiosity shop with a heterogeneous +collection of antiques. Other delightful houses there are, too, in +this double village of Pevensey and Westham, straggling away at either +side of the castle--low, picturesque timbered dwellings, at once the +delight and despair of would-be artists. At Westham is a noble old +church, the first built by the Conqueror, with remnants of the original +Norman fabric still serving their purpose. + +Striking east from the castle, the way out to Hurstmonceux lies down +through the village street, with the sea away to the right and the +marsh to the left. All along the coast here stand the Martello towers, +monuments to the hysteria of a former day. Poor Cobbett, in his _Rural +Rides_, could scarce find words bitter enough for these works. "To +think that I should be destined to behold these monuments of the wisdom +of Pitt and Dundas and Perceval! Good G--! Here they are, piles of +brick in a circular form about three hundred feet (guess) circumference +at the base, about forty feet high, and about one hundred feet +circumference at the top.... Cannons were to be fired from the top of +these things, in order to defend the country against the French +Jacobins! I think I could have counted along here upwards of thirty of +these ridiculous things, which, I dare say, cost five, perhaps ten, +thousand pounds each: and one of which was, I am told, _sold_ on the +coast of Sussex, the other day, for two hundred pounds...." Some have +now been dismantled, having been rendered useless or dangerous by the +encroachments of the sea. Here and there is to be found one providing +habitation for a fisherman or a coastguard, or let out for the purpose +of a summer residence to some more than usually enterprising +holiday-maker. + +As soon as the water of Pevensey Haven is crossed, the way to +Hurstmonceux turns sharply to the north; and thence onward the road is +a perfectly flat one, winding in and out across the levels with seeming +aimlessness. Ahead, visible nearly all the way, the castle nestles +among the low hills that break sharply away from the flats, outposts of +the uplands of that same sandstone Forest Ridge which presses on +eastwards to form the cliffs beyond Hastings. On either side, away to +the distant hills, stretch the greenest of meadows, intersected by +innumerable watercourses, with but a few stunted thorns and an +occasional tuft of rushes to break the trackless level. Here the +soft-eyed Sussex beasts browse knee-deep in luxuriant pasturage. It is +a lonely spot, a place of drowsy solitude, where the plaintive call of +the plover seems the most natural melody. Yet, on a spring morning, +when great white clouds ride across the clear blue sky, when the thorn +is in bloom, and every ditch is brocaded with the gold of myriad +kingcups, then, indeed, it is a place of indescribable sweetness. + +Built at the time of the "last of the barons", Hurstmonceux marked the +transition in domestic architecture from the heavily-defended fortress +to the comfortable and luxurious manor-house. As early as the reign of +Edward the Third attempts had been made to combine the strength of +massive masonry with the convenience of more sumptuous apartments, such +castles as Raglan and Warwick leading the way. We have only to stroll +round the present remains to find ample evidence of this double +service. The great arched gateway and battlemented walls, the +machicolated octagonal towers, the moat and drawbridge, the loopholes +for cross-bows, the oeillets for the matchlock guns,--all witness to +the one purpose; while the size and number of the windows in the +dwelling-rooms quite well testify to the other. + +In these days the ruined castle is a place of great beauty. Time has +dealt less hardly with it than with some. The colour of the huge +red-brick front has been softened down by wind and rain to a restful +mellow tint in full harmony with the sombre green of the overhanging +masses of ivy; and, though the broken walls with their towers and +half-towers still have a martial air, they have lost much of their +severity of outline. + +In the full flush of its being it was a magnificent structure. Just +inside the great gateway there was a courtyard, generally known as the +"Green Court", surrounded by the cloisters. Just beyond this stood the +great dining-hall, a spacious chamber, 54 feet long and 28 wide, with +massive timbered roof and tiled floor; and, opening from it, the Pantry +Court, from which again a paved passage led to the garden. The east +side of the castle included the principal dwelling-apartments,--the +enormous drawing-room, where Grinling Gibbons's vine, a masterpiece of +carving, spread its magnificence over the walls and ceiling; the +chapel, extending up through the two stories; and, on the upper floor, +the "Ladies' Bower" with its peculiar oriel window--a room wherein, +tradition says, one of the fair daughters of Hurstmonceux was starved +to death in her twenty-first year. On the west were the domestic +apartments, among them the great kitchen and bakehouse, with an oven in +which, it was declared, a coach and horses might easily turn. On the +upper floor, lighted by the open space of the Green Court, were the +Bethlehem chambers, otherwise the guest-rooms, and the Green Gallery, a +room filled with pictures and hung with green cloth. One old writer +speaks of these upper rooms as "sufficient to lodge a garrison"; and +adequate provision would seem to have been necessary, for in its heyday +Hurstmonceux had many and illustrious visitors. Everything seems to +have been done on such a lavish scale that we are fully prepared for +such interesting details as the record that at the marriage of Grace +Naylor "butts of beer were left standing at the park gates for the +refreshment of chance passers-by"; also that twenty old female +retainers were kept constantly employed at the weeding and tidying of +the Green and other courtyards. + +For long it was a mere skeleton, at the mercy of nature and man. As +late as 1752 Horace Walpole could write of it in a letter to his friend +Richard Bentley: "It was built in the reign of Henry VI, and is as +perfect as the first day. It does not seem to have ever been quite +finished, or at least that age was not arrived at the luxury of +whitewash, for almost all the walls are in their native brick-hood." +And yet, despite Mr. Walpole's assertions as to its continued +perfectness, so soon after this as 1777 the castle was dismantled. The +truth is: if the castle has escaped the general fate of this region and +avoided the scourge of the invader, it has nevertheless suffered much +at the hands of its friends. In the year mentioned the owner was a +Mrs. Henrietta Hare, ancestor of the author of _Memorials of a Quiet +Life_, a volume which deals very faithfully with this ancient fabric. +This lady, desiring to use the materials for the construction of a new +mansion on a higher site, called in the arch-vandal Wyatt, and he (to +quote Augustus Hare's _Memorials_) "declared that the castle was in a +hopeless state of dilapidation, though another authority had just +affirmed that in all material points its condition was as good as on +the day on which it was built.... The castle was unroofed.... A great +sale was held in the park, whither the London brokers came in troops, +and lived in an encampment of tents during the six weeks which the sale +lasted. Almost everything of value was then dispersed. Mrs. Hare and +her husband afterwards resided at Hurstmonceux Place, the new house +which Wyatt was commissioned to build, and lived there in such +extravagance that they always spent a thousand a year more than their +income, large as it was, and annually sold a farm from the property to +make up the deficiency. It was a proverb in the neighbourhood at that +time that 'people might hunt either Hares or foxes'." + +And thus it stood, a ruined shell, until comparatively recent years. +The many curious staircases built in the thicknesses of the walls, the +secret underground passages, and the general isolation on the edge of +the marsh, all contrived to render the ruin an ideal rendezvous for +smugglers and a suitable depository for their stores of contraband. + +Now, fortunately, the castle is in the hands of one who, appreciating +such a possession, is taking steps to prevent any further decay, and +with a loving care and a sense of fitness is proceeding with the +delicate task of necessary restoration. + + + + +BATTLE ABBEY + +To Battle is the excursion of paramount interest from the popular point +of view. The association with one of the most momentous events in the +history of the land, the peculiar entertainment of standing on the +actual ground where the battle took place and the "last of the English" +fell, the intrinsic pleasure in the inspection of a ruin at once rich +in memories and comely in setting,--all contrive to make it the +pilgrimage into the country around. Other ruins may surpass it in +degree of preservation, in individual reminiscence, in charm of +situation, but none, not even Pevensey, can vie with the Abbey in +strength of appeal. + +It was erected on the actual place of the contest. On the eve of the +battle, when the rival forces were assembled and ready for the shock of +arms, William, in a sudden fit of piety--or nervousness--made a solemn +vow that, should victory be his, he would found a mighty church, in +token of his thankfulness for the Divine intervention. And when it was +all over, and the English had fallen, he quickly made good his promise. +Practical men came to him urging the unsuitable nature of the site, +high up on the hill-side away from all water. Rather would they build +down there in the hollow, where the springs ever gushed forth freely. +But not so William: the church should rise on the field of blood, and +the high altar should mark the spot where his adversary had fallen. +And for the matter of water: if that were lacking, well, wine should be +more plentiful in the new Abbey than water in other religious houses. +Thus came the venerable Abbey of St. Martin into existence. + +The story of the battle is perhaps the most fascinating in all our +catalogue of worthy fights. When William landed on these shores Harold +was at York, recuperating after the superhuman efforts which culminated +in the battle of Stamford Bridge, where he entirely defeated an +invading force under Harold Haardrada and his own brother, Tostig. He +had marched two hundred miles or more to defeat one foe, and it was now +necessary for him to carry out a still greater expedition to engage a +second. He halted several days in the capital while the process of +collecting troops from the midlands and the south went on. At last, on +October the twelfth, he moved on to meet William. With him he took but +a small army. Had he waited just a short time longer (the delay would +not have mattered, for William had no intention of leaving the coast) +he could have gathered a force sufficiently large to overwhelm the +invaders; but he made the common mistake of holding the enemy too +cheaply. A series of forced marches commenced in the hopes of catching +William unawares came to nought, owing to the vigilance of the Duke's +marauding bands. On the night of the thirteenth he arrived at the +fatal hill, and pitched his camp on the site of the present town of +Battle. + +====================================================================== + +[Illustration: THE GATEWAY, BATTLE ABBEY] + +The Abbey was erected on the field of the Battle of Hastings. The +gateway was added in 1338 to the work begun by William the Conqueror. + +(_See page 36_) + +====================================================================== + +Harold apparently knew this part of Sussex quite well, being the lord +of several manors round about; and so his well-chosen ground does not +surprise us. A long spur of upland here thrusts out boldly from the +main mass of wooded hill-side, and commands a view over a wide stretch +of rolling ground away to the sea. On a crest of this spur he ranged +his army, with the mailed warriors in front forming a continuous +shield-wall. + +The descriptions of the night before the battle--all from Norman +sources, by the way--make vastly interesting reading. Albeit they vary +in certain minor matters, they are in one accord concerning the +characters of the rival armies--the drunken English and the pious +Normans. The former spent the night in one big carousal--dancing, +singing, drinking immense quantities of liquor; the latter devoted +their time to prayers and the confession of their sins. And yet, +strange to say, the English seem to have been quite fit in the morning, +for they put up a remarkably good fight. They held their own through +the best part of the day, and in the end were defeated only by their +own eagerness. + +Hour after hour the Normans surged up the hill, assailing the English +position, and again and again were they driven back by the terrible +battle-axes of their opponents. So well was Harold's position chosen +that they could make little impression; and it is fair to hazard that +in the end they would have met with defeat, had not some of the +less-disciplined troops forsaken their advantage and impetuously +pursued the panic-stricken enemy into the valley below. Here the +conditions were different, and the sword was more than a match for the +battle-axe and javelin, with the consequence that the rash English were +badly cut up. William noticed this, and determined to try the +"strategic retreat" on a larger scale. Accordingly one wing--the +western--was ordered to turn tail and retire as though in disorder. +This they did. The English, lured on by their wily foes, readily gave +up their more favourable position, and then, as before, the French +turned and engaged them, while a wedge of cavalry inserted itself and +harassed them in the rear. This descending movement had left open a +considerable portion of the English line, and on this William +concentrated the pick of his forces. But still the English fought on +stubbornly. In one place they also saw the advantage of the feigned +flight, and induced the French cavalry to charge into an unsuspected +ravine, whence not a man escaped. + +As the shades of evening fell no one might say where the advantage lay: +the English shield-wall was broken in places, but it still presented a +formidable line; the French still pressed on eagerly. Then to Duke +William came the great inspiration which turned the day, and won for +him the battle and the crown. So far his archers had done little to +justify their presence on the field. Now William saw that if they were +ordered to shoot their arrows high into the air these would descend +with terrific force upon the heads of the foe, and work great +execution. The command was carried out, and one of the first to fall +was the English king himself, his right eye pierced by a shaft. + +With Harold fell the English fortunes. His soldiers struggled on +desperately till night closed down, but their valour was in vain, and +after a day's continuous fighting the Normans were left the victors of +the field. + +Building operations were duly commenced, and proceeded apace. The +growing Abbey was richly endowed, and its Superior granted numerous and +great privileges. Not, however, till William had been dead some seven +years was it finished. Then for several centuries it enjoyed a +flourishing existence, extending its scope and increasing its wealth. +The great gateway was added in 1338, and was the work of Abbot Retlyng. + +The income of the Abbey was enormous, and the wanton generosity of the +brothers made Battle a happy hunting-ground for the pilgrims and +vagabonds and ne'er-do-wells in the south-east of England. But its +long years of prosperity proved its undoing, for slothful ease gave way +to greater evils. The great place decayed in every sense, and when, in +1538, Henry's commissioners appeared at its gate, it was in a fit +condition to be suppressed. Layton, the chief commissioner, says of +it: "So beggarly a house I never see, nor so filthy stuff. I will no +20s. for all the hangings in this house, as the bearer can tell you.... +So many evil I never see, the stuff is like the persons"; and he +further speaks of the inmates as "the worst that ever I see in all +other places, whereat I see specially the blake sort of dyvellyshe +monks". + +As we pass through the magnificent gateway, worthy indeed to guard the +treasure within, our pleasure increases at every step, for though the +ruins are but few and fragmentary they are enshrined in that most +glorious of settings, a beautiful garden. The great church itself has +long since disappeared, for Sir Anthony Browne, to whom the place was +given after the visit of the vandal commissioners, saw nothing of worth +in it. Just a fragment of the nave wall is pointed out in the woodyard +at the back of the modern mansion, and a piece of the cloister arcading +on the east side. But we can get a very good idea of its great size +from the disposition of the ruins. The spot to which we turn with +eagerness is the site of the high altar, the death-place of Harold. It +is a spot of beauty now, with its moss-grown stones, its ferns and +greenery; and we would fain linger awhile to think on all the Norman +invasion brought, all its woes and its brightnesses; but the guide is +inexorable: we must pass on with the flock of tourists to view the only +considerable remain, the Early English hall, generally known as the +Refectory. The walls of this stand roofless to the sky, with a lawn in +place of a floor. Below there are three fine vaulted chambers--one, +the Scriptorium, with a good geometrical window and a vaulted roof +supported by graceful pillars. + +But after all we come away with no very clear idea of the place; and +perhaps it is as well. Instead, we have a vague, an impressionist +picture of flowers and ruins, grey stones mantled with gorgeous +blossoms; and over all a brooding serenity. + +The pedestrian's route, by which we may either come to Battle or +return, passes through Hollington and Crowhurst. At the latter place +is one of the most famous yews in the country; at the former is the +notorious "Church in the Wood". Just why this little church should +ever have attained to its present eminence as a goal of pilgrimage we +fail utterly to comprehend. There is nothing remarkable about the +edifice itself, either in the way of structure or ornaments; the +graveyard is too crowded with the hideous monuments of parvenu +strangers to be interesting; the approach is little more than +commonplace. Yet for all that, thousands come and go through the +summer months, and on fine Sundays the little sanctuary is packed to +the door, doubtless to the entire satisfaction of the clergy. Charles +Lamb discovered the place many years ago, when the surroundings were +rather more favourable; and we should certainly give thanks, for the +visit gave rise to an inimitable passage: "It is a very Protestant +Loretto, and seems dropt by some angel for the use of the hermit, who +was at once parishioner and a whole parish.... It is built to the text +of 'two or three are assembled in my name'. It reminds me of the grain +of mustard seed. If the glebe land is proportionate, it may yield two +potatoes. Tithes out of it could be no more split than a hair. Its +first fruits must be its last, for 'twould never produce a couple. It +is truly the strait and narrow way, and few there be--of London +visitants--that find it.... It is secure from earthquakes, not more +from sanctity than size, for 'twould feel a mountain thrown upon it no +more than a taper-worm would. Go and see, but not without your +spectacles." + + + + +ECCLESBOURNE AND FAIRLIGHT + +East of the old town is a stretch of cliffs several miles long, made +up, like the Forest Ridge, of Lower Cretaceous rocks. Several little +wooded valleys extend from the high lands right down to the sea, and +two of these have attained to a desirable celebrity under the names of +Ecclesbourne and Fairlight Glens. + +Many folk, visiting these two spots in August, go away with a feeling +of utter disappointment, for the grass is rusty and the place strewn +with the indescribable litter of a myriad picnic-parties. But in the +spring of the year, when the little watercourse at the bottom is at its +fullest, when there are countless primroses beneath the fine old trees, +when everything is green down to the water's edge, then do these glens +deserve their reputations. + +====================================================================== + +[Illustration: FAIRLIGHT GLEN] + +In the spring of the year, when the little watercourse is at its +fullest, there are countless primroses beneath the fine old trees, and +everything is green down to the water's edge. + +(_See page 39_) + +====================================================================== + +In Fairlight there are two famous spots--the Dripping Well and the +Lovers' Seat. The well, situated at the northern end of the glen, +shows a decided tendency to follow the custom of most local waters, but +we can nevertheless get some idea of what a pretty little spot it must +have been at its best. The Lovers' Seat is a little to the east, high +up on the face of a steep, shrub-grown cliff. A large rock overhangs +at the top, and beneath is a tiny platform, slowly disappearing. It is +a fine place, especially on an early summer morning, when the air is +athrob with the tumultuous melody of the birds in the glen below, and +the sea birds wheel round the aerie--a place well fitted to stir even +Charles Lamb to praise: "Let me hear that you have clambered up to +Lovers' Seat; it is as fine in that neighbourhood as Juan Fernandez, as +lonely too, when the fishing-boats are not out; I have sat for hours +staring upon a shipless sea. The salt sea is never so grand as when it +is left to itself." Of course it has a story: what similar romantic +spot has not? Doubt has been cast on the veracity; but such pretty +tales certainly _ought_ to be true. + +East of the glen lies Cliff End, where the brown sandstone cliffs dip +down sharply once more to the level marshlands. The path thither +meanders along the top of the cliffs, now approaching perilously near +the edge to give a glimpse of some sweet little hanging dell with trees +right down to the waves, now wandering inland a little through acres of +bee-thronged gorse and heather. It is such a spot as Richard Jefferies +loved: "All warmly lit with sunshine, deep under liquid sunshine like +sands under the liquid sea, no harshness of man-made sound to break the +isolation amid nature". + +Once at Cliff End we marvel, and yet offer up fervent thanks that it is +not one of the "show places" of the district. The low rolling hills, +having constituted the coast-line for half a dozen miles, at this point +break away inland to form a delightful country-side. By so doing they +enclose what was formerly a great lagoon or inland sea, having long +arms, or fiords, running up into the different river-valleys of Brede, +Tillingham, and Rother. Now the sea has gone, and there, in its place, +stretch away acres upon acres of marshland, marked out like a piece of +old patchwork by the countless watercourses--a place of stressless +labour and contentment. + +As we stand at this place and gaze out eastwards upon those broad acres +of sun-washed, wind-swept meadow-land, where now the cattle and sheep +graze peacefully and the shepherd slumbers at his post, it is difficult +to realize that here the fishermen once dropped their nets, and the +ships of war rode majestically at anchor--ready at any moment to +venture forth against marauding foes. Yet Winchelsea, which stands out +in the distance--seeming one day miles away and another barely a +stone's throw--and Rye, a tiny town, perched on its little hill some +three miles farther on, were each ports of the first +magnitude--veritable cradles of the navy and the Empire. + +From the Cliff End here we have a choice of two routes: either we can +proceed by road to Icklesham, a place well worth a visit for the sake +of its interesting old church, and then on to Winchelsea; or, better +still, we can tramp the few miles beside the old military canal, which +serves to link up that town with the sea. This latter is certainly a +delightful walk, and well worth the fatigue of an extended effort. As +we drop down the slope, we note, on the lower ridges of the hills, +Pett, the insignificant village which has given its name to the Level, +or tongue of "polder", stretching away to Rye, and extending eastwards +into that greater flat, the Romney Marsh; and, farther on, Guestling. +Not hastily, however, must Guestling be passed by, for though the +village is commonplace enough to the eye, the name is charged with +ancient memories. Originally the "Guestling" was a sort of conference +between the Ports and distant fishing colonies such as Yarmouth; but +gradually it developed into a local Parliament held to settle disputes +among the folks of the rival fisher towns as to questions of rights and +privileges. It met in the church itself, and possessed a Speaker and +something of the paraphernalia of full judicial power. Here is what +the good old Jeake says about it in his ancient _History of the Cinque +Ports_: "By the same name of _Guestling_, is also a Court called, that +consisteth but of _part_ of the _Ports_ and _two Towns_, as suppose +Hastings, Winchelsea, and Rye, raised upon request of one of them; +where by consent, and as by brotherly invitation, they appear to agree +on something necessary to their respective Towns." + +The old canal, like the Martello towers, roused the scorn of Cobbett: +"Here is a canal _to keep out the French_; for these armies who had so +often crossed the Rhine, and the Danube, were to be kept back by a +canal, made by Pitt, thirty feet wide at the most". But despite +Cobbett's words it was no mean feat of military engineering for those +days, as the following particulars, culled from Horsfield, the old +county historian, will show: "The Military Canal, which was cut, during +the late war with France, as a protection to the lowlands in the +eastern part of this county and the adjoining portion of the county of +Kent, by impeding the progress of an enemy, in the event of a landing +on this shore, commences at Cliffe End, in the parish of Pett, and +following the course of the rising ground, which skirts the extensive +flat forming Walland and Romney Marsh, crosses the Roman Road near +Hythe, and extends, in nearly a straight direction, along the coast to +its termination at Shorne Cliffe, in Kent; a distance of about +twenty-three miles. Its breadth is about twenty yards, and its depth +three; with a raised bank or redan on the northern side to shelter the +soldiery, and enable them to oppose the foe with greater advantage." +Now everything is changed; this monument of warlike stupidity has +become a haunt of peace. Thus has Time effected another of its little +travesties. + +Following the reed-grown, bird-haunted waterway, we skirt the peninsula +on which the town is perched, and come finally to the foot of the road +which winds diagonally up to the Strand Gate. Thus is the town entered +by its most beautiful approach. + + + + +WINCHELSEA + +Every spot in this delectable corner of England--Pevensey, +Hurstmonceux, Hastings itself, Bodiam, Rye--is redolent of the triumph +of change; but Winchelsea stands before us a perfect memorial to the +futility of man's efforts against Nature, a tangible reminder of the +irony of Time. + +This ancient town, perched, like Rye, on a solitary hillock projecting +into the midst of a vast plain, is, despite its years and its ruins, +really a _new_ Winchelsea. The old town--the city proper--a prosperous +place of seven hundred householders and fifty odd inns, lies beneath +the ever-changing sea, some two miles (some say, five) south-east of +the present site. Serious trouble began in 1250 with a great tempest, +concerning which Holinshed writes: "On the first day of October (1250) +the moon, upon her change, appearing exceeding red and swelled, began +to show tokens of the great tempest of wind that followed, which was so +huge and mightie, both by land and sea, that the like had not been +lightlie knowne, and seldome, or rather never heard of by men then +alive. The sea forced contrarie to his natural course, flowed twice +without ebbing, yielding such a rooring that the same was heard (not +without great woonder) a farre distance from the shore.... At +Winchelsey, besides other hurt that was doone in bridges, milles, +breakes, and banks, there were 300 houses and some churches drowned +with the high rising of the watercourse." Not even then did the people +give in; but from 1250 to 1287 Neptune and other sovereign powers +descended mightily on the poor old town, and its tragedy was completed +when, during an utterly disastrous tempest, the whole district between +Pett and Hythe was inundated. + +At this time Edward the First was Warden of the Cinque Ports, and the +planning of the new town seems to have been to him and his associates a +simple and congenial task. The present triangular plateau was chosen, +falling precipitously on three sides, with its narrow end towards +Hastings; and the new town was projected and begun on truly magnificent +lines. Edward seems to have been quite a pioneer in the modern science +of town-planning, for Winchelsea, like several other towns set out by +him, was given an oblong shape, and this was divided up into +thirty-nine or forty squares by means of wide streets intersecting at +right angles. + +On the north the town stood upon a cliff overhanging the Brede fiord; +on the east the land fell away precipitously to the sea itself. At the +north-east and north-west corners of the plateau, roads were made down +to the sea, with quays at the bottom of each, and great gates, the +Strand and Ferry, at the top. At the land end yet another gate was +built, the New, and the extremity protected by a moat and stone walls. +A castle was built, and full provision made for the resumption of the +commerce of the port. + +====================================================================== + +[Illustration: THE STRAND GATE, WINCHELSEA] + +Winchelsea stands upon a plateau, at the north-east and north-west +corners of which roads were made down to the sea, with quays at the +bottom of each, and great gates, the Strand and Ferry, at the top. + +(_See page 49_) + +====================================================================== + +The various religious houses were reproduced as in the dead town, and +ere long the lusty life of the old place began again in earnest. The +town became self-supporting with its shipbuilding and fishing, and its +galaxy of representative craftsmen, and offered a splendid channel for +trade to and from the mainland. Being a serviceable defensive port, it +rehabilitated itself as a rendezvous for the navy, and combined with +that importance the added attraction of being the best base on the +coast for pirates. So well was the latter occupation organized that we +read of one of the mayors of the town--one Robert de Battayle--being +caught red-handed and summarily punished for acts of piracy. + +And what remains? Very little. At the northern end certain of the +spacious streets are inhabited but generally grass-grown. These show +the original divisions and dimensions; but southwards and westwards the +majestic squares have become merely green fields, until at last the +boundaries have been lost altogether. Ancient words of doom ring in +our ears as we survey the scene: "Thorns shall come up in her palaces, +nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof.... They shall be left +altogether unto the fowls of the mountains and to the beasts of the +earth; and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the +earth shall winter upon them." + +The church, or rather a certain portion of it, still stands, with a +generous margin of green surrounding it, and within its walls the fine +canopied tomb of Gervase Alard, admiral of the Cinque Ports. A short +distance down the road, south-east of the church, is the mansion known +as "The Friars": in its beautiful grounds stands practically all that +remains of the religious houses--the ivy-grown ruin of the chapel of +the Franciscan Monastery. With this mansion and with the brothers +Weston, the rogues who dwelt in it, all lovers of Thackeray's _Denis +Duval_ will doubtless be familiar. The gates of the town still frown +down on the approaching roads; but wall, castle, quays, all are gone, +and the place is now, to use Wesley's words, "that poor skeleton of +ancient Winchelsea". + +====================================================================== + +[Illustration: WINCHELSEA CHURCH] + +The church, or a certain portion of it, still stands, with a generous +margin of green surrounding it, and within its walls the fine canopied +tomb of Gervase Alard, Admiral of the Cinque Ports. + +(_See page 48_) + +====================================================================== + +And small wonder too, for every hand has been against it. At the time +of its building the Black Death made its appearance, destroying +countless inhabitants and dispersing the craftsmen. The town was +sacked by the French in 1359, when three thousand entered with sword +and torch. Again, in 1378, the same catastrophe occurred. In 1449 +they visited once more, but did little damage. For by this time +another enemy had set to work--the worst enemy of all. The sea, which +in its inconstancy had made the new Winchelsea at the expense of the +old, was calmly receding and leaving the Antient Town high and dry, +with a perpetually increasing bank of shingle in between. + +Now, as we stand at the Strand Gate, and watch the sea away to the +south, with its ever-changing pageant of azure and amethyst, and as we +turn about and enter through the old gate to walk the grass-grown +streets, we laugh at Neptune's jest; but there is something tragic in +the laughter. + + + + +RYE + +Rye, as it stands, is the completest place in England. A little +conical hill rises abruptly out of the encompassing marshes, and all +around that little hill, wherever it can gain secure hold, clings the +town. The tall houses rest tier upon tier, as if standing on tiptoe to +get a better view of the approaching enemy; and the cobble-paved +streets wind in and about, so that every available inch of space may be +utilized for house or hanging garden. Crowning it all rises the +ancient church with its high red roofs and tower. + +====================================================================== + +[Illustration: RYE] + +A conical hill rises abruptly out of the encompassing marshes, and all +around that little hill, wherever it can gain secure hold, clings the +town. + +(_See page 50_) + +====================================================================== + +Probably the best approach is from Camber. We can tramp the three long +dusty miles of the military road from Winchelsea, catching just a +glimpse of the massive, low-lying structure of Camber Castle on the +other side of the stream; or else we can take the road to the right, +and, sweeping seawards, come round to the castle itself, pausing a +while to wander about these walls which have stood the rough usage of +the south-westerly gale so well since the time of the eighth Henry. +Leaving Camber, the way across to Rye is hazardous. So many waterways +intersect the shingly meadows that by the time we come out at the right +place an extraordinarily tortuous path has been followed. + +The history of Rye is much akin to that of the sister town, a story of +one long succession of struggles against the two enemies, the sea and +the French. Although the place was a natural stronghold by reason of +its unique formation, yet, after a time, the necessity for artificial +works was felt, and in the twelfth century a small tower, afterwards +known as the Ypres, was constructed near the top of the southward +cliffs, a square structure of two stories with a circular turret at +each angle. A few years afterwards, in the reign of Richard the First, +licence was granted for the building of a town wall; and still later, +in the reign of Edward the Third, the fortifications were completed by +the building of a gateway with portcullis at the north-east end of the +town. + +These fortifications were rendered necessary by the _inning_ of the +shallows which separated Rye from the mainland, the sea having set to +work, with the true ironic touch, depositing shingle where salt water +was essential, and irrupting where it was most unwelcome. And, sure +enough, as the one enemy did its worst, filling in the harbour and +making access to the little hill more easy, so the other enemy took +advantage of the facilities offered, and the raids of the French +gradually became more frequent and more severe. In the fourteenth +century things were parlous for the island town. When it was not the +turn of Winchelsea, Rye suffered, and vice versa. They set upon the +town in 1337 with no great success, but in 1360 they spoiled both +Hastings and Rye. Immediately after the death of Edward they came +again, and "within five hours brought it wholly into ashes, with the +church that was there of a wonderful beauty, conveying away four of the +richest of the towne and slaying sixty-six; left not above eight in the +towne. Forty-two hogsheads of wine they carried thence to the ships +with the rest of their booty, and left the towne desolate." + +In 1378 the men of the Cinque Ports took some sort of revenge, +according to the following interesting account in Fuller's _Worthies of +England_: "May never French land on this shore, to the losse of the +English! But if so sad an accident should happen, send them our +Sussexians no worse success than their ancestors of Rye and Winchelsey +had, 1378, in the reign of Richard the Second, when they embarked for +Normandy: for in the night they entered a town called Peter's Port, +took all such prisoners who were able to pay ransome, and safely +returned home without losse, and with much rich spoil; and amongst the +rest they took out of the steeple the bells, and brought them into +England, bells which the French had taken formerly from these towns, +and which did afterwards ring the more merrily, restored to their +proper place, with addition of much wealth to pay for the cost of their +recovery." But their triumph was short-lived, for in 1380 the place +was again burned, despite the wall. Comparative quiet then reigned +till 1448, when the last and most terrible invasion occurred. Then, +according to Jeake, Rye was entirely burned, with the exception of the +Landgate, the walls of the parish church, Ypres Tower, and the +so-called Chapel of the Carmelite Friars in Watchbell Street. The town +was devastated to such an extent that it was unable to furnish its +quota of ships to the navy. + +Then the sea encroached once more, and, washing away the cliffs on the +east, destroyed the walls built under commission of Richard the First; +and such was the condition of the town that Chaucer could write: + + "As many another town is payrid and y-lassid + Within these few years, as we mow se at eye + Lo, Sirs, here fast by Wynchelse and Ry". + + +Folks discovered that by skilful artificial drainage they could assist +the inning, and so obtain an additional field at the extremity of their +rightly-acquired land. In 1724 we have Defoe writing: "By digging +Ditches, and making Drains there are now Fields and Meadows where +antiently was nothing but Water. By this means Ships of but a middle +Size cannot come to any convenient distance near the Town, whereas +formerly the largest Vessels, and even whole Fleets together could +anchor just by the Rocks on which the Town stands." + +But still, despite its struggles--perhaps by reason of them--Rye has +always managed to carry on. It has had its systole and diastole of +success; but, unlike Winchelsea, it has never given up the fight. +Periods there have been when every hand has seemed against it; but +times there have been too--the Commonwealth, for instance--when the +town has enjoyed a compensating prosperity. It has fought for its +existence, and it has survived; and there are no more apt words +concerning the two Antient Towns than those of Coventry Patmore: +"Winchelsea is a town in a trance, a sunny dream of centuries ago, but +Rye is a bit of the Old World living on in happy ignorance of the New". + +At Winchelsea the church is the centre of everything: you cannot move a +hundred yards without coming into sight of it. But you might walk +round and about Rye all day and not notice it. Shut away at the top of +the hill, behind and away from all the everyday business of life, in +its isolation it somewhat resembles a cathedral. But there the +resemblance stops: there is no cathedral atmosphere. True, there is a +quiet in the square, but it is not the cold ghostly hush of the close +or the cloister. Instead, all is sunlight and warmth. The walls are +grey, the buttresses are grey, the tombs are grey, but it is a warm +familiar colour, at one with the red of the lichen-grown roofs, in full +harmony with the surrounding mosaic of colour. + +====================================================================== + +[Illustration: RYE CHURCH] + +Rye church stands at the top of the hill, behind and away from all the +everyday business of life. Its walls are grey, but it is a warm +familiar colour, at one with the red of the lichen-covered roofs. + +(_See page 54_) + +====================================================================== + +Just below the churchyard, in the south-east corner, the Ypres (or, as +it is called locally, the Wipers) Tower still stands, a squat, +heavy-looking building, not altogether beautiful; and at the other end +of the town the Landgate, the sole survivor of the town's five portals. +Between these two, dotted about here and there in the winding, +cobble-stoned streets, are buildings of great beauty, some +unfortunately modernized on the outside. One is the old rubble-stone +building in Watchbell Street, commonly known as the Carmelite Friary. +It is an interesting specimen of a small mediaeval hall with chambers +below, but its association with the order is now pretty generally +recognized as a mistake. Steep little Mermaid Street--perhaps the most +beautiful of all the quaint turnings--has two notable buildings, the +Old Hospital and the Mermaid Inn. The Hospital is a fine timbered +structure with huge gables. The Inn is a Tudor building, surrounding a +tiny court. Little is to be seen from the road; but inside it is a +charming old-world place, with latticed windows and massive oak beams, +fine panelling and great fireplaces. In the stately red house at the +head of the street Mr. Henry James for many years found inspiration for +his wonderful studies of modern temperaments,--about as remote as +possible from the atmosphere of the quaint little grass-grown street. +Perhaps the most interesting of all the buildings is the Old Flushing +Inn. It possesses some fine oakwork, but the greatest attraction is +the quaint mural painting in imitation of tapestry, covering the whole +of one wall, and dating from 1574. In olden days the place was a +popular rendezvous among gentlemen of the "free trade", for in the rear +it possessed a courtyard which extended right to the edge of the +cliff--at that point practically vertical and about sixty feet +high--and it was a simple matter to beach a boat just below. + +In High Street, almost facing the turning which leads up to the church, +is a dark red-brick building of the seventeenth century: this is +Pocock's Grammar School, which readers of Thackeray will remember as +the place where Denis Duval was sent to be educated. A little farther +along we come to Conduit Hill, in which is situate the Ancient +Monastery of the Austin Friars--a fair building, possessing that rare +thing, flamboyant tracery. If the ghosts of the little brothers of +bygone days ever return to their former haunts, they must be deeply +grieved or intensely amused, for the building has been everything from +a malt-house to a Salvation Army barracks. + +As we leave the town a flood of questions surges into the brain, +perhaps never to be answered. Why is it there is such an attraction +about Rye? Why will men and women travel half across the world to see +these crooked streets once more? Why should the very mention of the +name conjure up such haunting memories of the past? There is very +little in the place that is actually old--a gateway, one or two houses, +a small tower, a church--yet the impression is one of remotest +antiquity. + + + + +BODIAM + +When in 1377, following on other successful raids, the French descended +on Rye and sacked and fired the town, it became evident that Hastings +could no longer afford sufficient protection to that stretch of the +coast, or to the important river valley leading thence inwards; and the +necessity for another stronghold was immediately realized. Thus did +Bodiam come into existence. + +It so happened that, at the moment when the defenceless condition of +the Rother became apparent, there had come into the district a knight +well skilled in all the military arts, one Edward Dalyngrigge, a member +of an old Sussex family and brother to the sheriff of the county. +Dalyngrigge had spent many years in France, and taken part in numerous +expeditions, some of them scarcely creditable. Following a fierce but +capable warrior, one ready for almost any emergency, he had learned not +only the art of the soldier but also the science of the castellan. +Now, Sir Edward was married to Elizabeth Wardeux, the heiress of the +manor of Bodiam, and therefore possessed of the old moated manor-house +some distance from the river. Consequently, in virtue of the necessity +of the times, Sir Edward had little difficulty in extracting the +licence to build a suitable castle. + +====================================================================== + +[Illustration: BODIAM CASTLE] + +The castle is a ruin--a mere empty shell--but outwardly its towers and +walls rise sheer from the lily-covered waters of the moat in a fine +state of preservation. + +(_See page 59_) + +====================================================================== + +The site selected was the left bank of the Rother, at a spot some +thirty feet above the level of the water. Partly by excavation, partly +by damming up, a great reservoir was constructed, 525 feet from north +to south and 330 feet from east to west; and in the centre an island +was left, a little over an acre in extent. On this island the castle +was erected; and the basin was flooded from a little stream which the +premeditating builder had previously diverted and dammed. Northward +the ground rose pretty steeply from the moat, a circumstance which +seems to detract somewhat from the strength of the castle, till we +remember that the planning and building were done in the days before +artillery had become the deciding factor in warfare. Southwards the +ground fell away to the river, and because of this much doubt has been +cast on the efficacy of the stronghold. It has been pointed out +frequently that an investing army would have had little difficulty in +piercing the bank of the basin; but there was no mediaeval siege whereby +its strength might have been tested. + +The castle was built in the form of a parallelogram, after the French +model, with four strong curtain walls protected at the angles by boldly +projecting round towers, 54 feet high and 29 in diameter. Three of the +curtain walls had intermediate square towers, while the fourth, that on +the northern side, had a double tower flanking the great gateway. +Between this deep and well-protected portal and the land stood an +octagonal platform on which was built an advance work, or barbican, the +intervening spaces being bridged by drawbridges. Thus was the way into +the castle strongly held by a succession of defences. + +As we approach the castle now from any side, it is difficult to realize +that it is a ruin--a mere empty shell. Outwardly its towers and walls +rise sheer from the lily-covered waters of the moat in a fine state of +preservation: curtain walls, round towers, square towers, +battlements,--all are there as in the days that were. True, the +drawbridges are gone, and of the barbican only a fragment remains; but +of the great donjon itself nothing appears to be missing until--until +we cross the causeway where once the drawbridge rose and fell, and so +come to the interior. Then do we realize the antiquity of the place; +for everything has crumbled to dust, leaving just here and there a +suggestion of what has been--a window, a buttress, a fireplace. Lines +from Lord Thurlow's sonnet come to mind: + + "Thou hast had thy prime, + And thy full vigour, and the eating harms + Of age have robb'd thee of thy warlike charms, + And placed thee here, an image in my rhyme; + The owl now haunts thee, and oblivion's plant, + The creeping ivy, has o'er-veil'd thy towers; + And Rother looking up with eye askant, + Recalling to his mind thy brighter hours, + Laments the time, when fair and elegant + Beauty first laugh'd from out thy joyous bowers". + + +From the ruined fragments we mentally reconstruct the scene of the +interior, the single courtyard in the centre, the two-story buildings +all around with the chapel going up through both stories, and we note +with astonishment the comparative convenience and comfort of the +arrangements of the compact little fortalice. + +Certainly Bodiam (or Bojum, as it is pronounced locally) is the most +picturesque castle in the south, many say in the whole, of England. +Nestling in the little valley, surrounded by luxuriant greenery, it has +not the impressive grandeur of the stronghold flaunting its strength at +the head of some precipitous cliff, or bidding defiance to the hungry +seas, but it has a beauty more at one with the spirit of Sussex and the +south. + +And yet, Bodiam is a place of inviolate mystery. You can fall in love +with its unique situation, with its delightful lily-covered, +bird-haunted setting; you can be impressed by its note of artistic +completeness; but always there is something of loneliness and horror +about the place. Its walls are grey, but not with the grey of other +castles. It is a cold, pitiless grey, no matter how the sun shine, no +matter how the water throw up again the quivering light. There is a +shudder in the air on the blithest summer day. Perhaps it is that +places, no less than men, gradually take upon them a personality. If +that is so, then surely Bodiam has taken the personality of its old +founder, Dalyngrigge, a bleak enough man, if records speak truly, a man +dark in deed and light of word. + +At Bodiam we leave this Enchanted Garden; and as we go we begin to +wonder that a place so rich in memories and in charm has no +representative poet, or, indeed, school of poets. Sussex in general +seems to have been sadly neglected by our singers. Kipling has +probably sung most in her praises; but even for Kipling the great chalk +downs have always been Sussex. And most of our other poets--Habberton +Lulham, Arthur F. Bell, Rosamund Watson, Wilfred Scawen Blunt--have +followed in his steps. Only occasionally has one ventured down into +the marshlands and the low rolling hills and the little river valleys +in quest of beauty. And yet beauty indescribable is here for the +seeking. Probably the poet who knows us best is Ford Maddox Hueffer, +whose volume, _The Cinque Ports_, contains some magnificent +word-pictures of these happy little hills and dales, and whose novel, +_The 'Half Moon'_, gives such a faithful picture of Rye of ancient +days. The following fragment from one of his poems gives the marsh in +all its beauty: + + "Up here, where the air's very clear, + And the hills slope away nigh down to the bay, + It is very like Heaven.... + + "For the sea's wine-purple and lies half asleep + In the sickle of the shore and, serene in the west, + Lion-like purple and brooding in the even, + Low hills lure the sun to rest. + + "Very like Heaven.... For the vast marsh dozes, + And waving plough-lands and willowy closes + Creep and creep up the soft south steep; + In the pallid North the grey and ghostly downs do fold away. + And, spinning spider-threadlets down the sea, the sea-lights dance, + And shake out a wavering radiance...." + + +We close with a short passage from the volume on the Cinque Ports. It +was written concerning the old military canal at Winchelsea, but in its +brooding spirit of contentment it applies but little less to the whole +of this wonderful area. "Nowhere is one so absolutely alone; but +nowhere do inanimate things--the water plants and the lichens on the +stiles--afford so much company. It must not be hurried through, or it +is a dull, flat stretch. But linger and saunter through it, and you +are caught by the heels in a moment. You will catch a malady of +tranquillity--a kind of idle fever that will fall on you in distant +places for years after. And one must needs be the better, in times of +storm and stress, for that restful remembrance." + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Hastings and Neighbourhood, by Walter Higgins + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HASTINGS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD *** + +***** This file should be named 33042.txt or 33042.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/0/4/33042/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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