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ARCHEOLOGY IN SUSSEX a.

WE have before now had to speak of Sussex as one of our English counties that possesses a truly working Archeological Society. The reports of its meetings that we publish from time to time fully bear us out in this, and we are glad to introduce to our readers a new volume of its Collections, particularly as a longer period than usual has elapsed since the last was issued; but the time has been well spent in producing it, as it is replete with interest. Beside the customary Report, list of members, &c., it has fifteen articles, contributed by such wellknown antiquaries as Sir Henry Ellis, the Rev. Messrs. Campion, Dennis, Hutchinson, Ley, and Turner, and Messrs. Blaauw, Butler, Durrant Cooper, Figg, M. A. Lower, and Smart, most of whom have selected subjects of real importance.

First we have Some Memorials of Old Lewes, by Mr. Figg, a very pleasantly written paper, which is illustrated by engravings, some of which the Council of the Society have courteously placed at our disposal. Mr. F. inclines to the opinion that Lewes, if not a Roman station, was at least in the neighbourhood of one. He investigates its topography and antiquities, through the convenient medium of a walk abot the town, dwells on the ruined churches and religious houses, speaks of the mansions of the county families which formerly made Lewes their winter residence, and touches on scenes of persecution in various ages, from the Marian burnings in the High-street, to the maltreatment of the Quakers by the Independents in the time of the Commonwealth. We draw from his paper the following account of the illustrations::

"The West Gate stood across the High-street, about forty feet eastward of Cutlers' Bars. It is difficult to form an idea of its strength from any existing drawings, of which there is one by Lambert, made in 1772, shewing the inside of the southern tower.

"From another view looking at the west front, it seems to have been flanked with round towers, one of which appears for many years to have been used as the town prison."-(p. 10.)

"On the south side of the High-street, and a short distance eastward of the Star Inn, is St. Nicholas-lane, which derived its name from the church dedicated to that saint, which stood in the open space opposite, in front of the present Crown Inn. This lane leads from the High-street southwards, into the way which runs from Southover to the East Gate, and which was within the walls of the town.

"Some time subsequently to the year 1319, the church of St. Nicholas, which probably belonged to the priory of St. Pancras, and which stood on the north side

■"Sussex Archæological Collections, relating to the History and Antiquities of the County. Published by the Sussex Archæological Society." 8vo., xx. and 345 pp. Lewes: G. P. Bacon. 1861. b GENT. MAG., Nov. 1860, p. 537.

GENT. MAG. VOL. CCXIII.

C

of the High-street, at the top of School-hill, became dilapidated, and was afterwards long known as the 'Broken Church.' The tower remained until the year 1761, and in it hung Gabriel, the town bell; the lower part being used as a blacksmith's shop. In 1834, when the pipes for the purpose of supplying the town with water were laid, the trench was dug through this spot, and the ashes and other matters found proved that it had been a smithy.

"Little further is known about this church until the 34th of Queen Elizabeth (1592). On the 30th of March, in that year, the Queen granted (amongst other hereditaments in Sussex and many other counties in England) to William Tipper and Robert Dawe, of London, gentlemen, to hold of the Queen, as of her manor of East Greenwich, in free and common soccage, 'All that the late chapel or church of St. Nicholas, decayed and ruined, commonly called the 'Broken Church,' now converted into a tenement, situate, lying, and being in the town of Lewes, in the county of Sussex:' annual rent 8d.

"The constables of the borough appear to have had possession of this site before the grant to Tipper and Dawe, for in the Town Book, in 1571, it is stated that 'this year the Constables and Fellowship leased, for twenty-one years,' a piece of waste ground within the walls of the Broken Church, at the yearly rent of 3s. 4d., towards the defrayment of the town charges.

"On the twelfth of April, in the year 1592, Tipper and Dawe sold the Broken Church to John Corle, of Lewes, 'shomaker;' and on the twentieth day of May following, John Corle enfeoffed the same unto 'Richard Byshopp, Edmunde Aspten, George Freeman, William Stempe, John Pelland, William Claget, Thomas Springet, Edwarde Newton, John Puckell, jun., John Harman, Edwarde Homewood, Richarde Aspten, William Burrell, jun., Richard Kidder, jun., John Holter, jun., John Byshopp, George Claget, Thomas Trayton, jun., and William Pennell.' This deed is witnessed by Lawrence Newton, constable in 1584 and 1593, and others.

"These feoffees appear to have been among the principal inhabitants of the borough of Lewes, and most of them, either previously or afterwards, served the office of constable. Richard Byshopp was in that office in 1592, and probably on that account his name stands at the head of the list.

"After this time the Broken Church seems to have been held by the borough of Lewes. On the 18th of January, 1667, another feoffment was made by Richard Kidder, 'sonne and heire of Richard Kidder, late of Lewes.'

"This deed of 1667 expressly sets forth the uses to which the Broken Church is conveyed to the new feoffees; namely, 'To the intent, neverthelesse, that they and their heires shall and doe, from tyme to tyme, and at all tymes hereafter, permit and suffer the Constables for the tyme being for the borough of Lewes, aforesaid, to receive, take, and enjoy, all and singular, the rents, yssues, and profitts of the said decayed church or chappell, and premises, for and toward the defraying of the necessary charges and expenses which they are at during the time that they continue Constables, according to the ancient custome, which hath been used beyond the memory of man.'

"This deed is witnessed by Ferdinand Brian, who was constable in 1668, 1676, and 1683; and others.

"Gabriel,' the Town Bell, seems to have been used as the curfew bell, for, under the year 1690, the Town Book states that an agreement was entered into with Thomas Barrett, of Lewes, an eminent clock-maker, by which he was to have twenty shillings for mending the clock, 'to be paid to him as sone as hee hath mended him.' 'Also hee is to have four pounds paid to him yearely for ringing the bell at four in the morninge, and eight at night.'

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"The remains of the Broken Church continued in the possession of the constables till the year 1761, when the tower (the only portion left) was pulled down, on account of its ruinous state, and the site was thrown into the High-street."(pp. 29-31.)

"On the north side of the High-street stands the mansion (so long inhabited by that branch of the Shelleys which settled in Lewes), formerly distinguished as an inn, by the sign of 'The Vine;' it was evidently an Elizabethan house, by the inscription in the spandrils of the doorway of the porch, 'I. S., 1577.' It has since been modernized, and nothing remains to identify it with the late Tudor period except the front doorway. Adjoining this property is the Grammar-school, a building of recent erection. Immediately in front of the school, on the opposite side of the street, stood St. Peter's Church, of which some portions remained about the middle of the last century, and were of late Perpendicular character. The site is now occupied by the rectory and two modern houses.

"Richard Samson, Bishop of Chichester, having received a complaint from the inhabitants of the parish of St. Peter, of their inability to support a rector and repair the church, with the permission and authority of Thomas, Lord Cromwell, the King's Vicar-General, with the consent of the Archdeacon of Lewes, and the assent of the Dean and Chapter of Chichester,' the parishes of St. Peter and St. Mary Westout were united by deed, dated at Aldingbourne, March 20, 1538.

"The ancient boundaries of the parish of St. Peter are now wholly unknown, but it has been stated that it was all within the borough of Lewes." (p. 8.)

Mr. M. A. Lower contributes two papers. One is the Will of Henry Marshall, parish priest of Wilmington, who died in 1550 or 1551; and the other, Old Speech and Old Manners in Sussex. Of the first we need only say that it is suitably furnished with genealogical and topographical notes, and makes a welcome addition to our knowledge of the well-to-do incumbent of the time of the Reformation; as the testator appears to have been learned, rich, and charitable. From the second paper we shall make a few extracts, as the best way of at once enlivening our own pages and exhibiting the author's mode of dealing with a thoroughly congenial subject:—

"The old pronunciation of local names is rapidly disappearing; though whether this be altogether for the better I will not undertake to decide. Herstmonsoo is certainly some improvement upon Horsemowncez (Herstmonceux) and Hailsham upon Hellsom, though both are obnoxious to criticism. Bodgam, Norjam, Hefful, and Maövel have pretty well succumbed to Bodiam, Northiam, Heathfield, and Mayfield. Chalvington and Selmeston seem to be irremediably fixed to Chanton and Simson, and with the fashionable example of Brighton, olim Brighthelmston, before them, they can scarcely aspire to orthoepical reform. The changes I most object to are those which shorten the final syllables ford, ly, and ham. These are old generic terms, and ought to be retained in their full, honest, Anglo-Saxon length. 'Genteel' people are beginning to call Seaford, Scafõrd—a pronunciation that would have greatly astonished Sir Nicholas Pelham, its gallant defender in the days of Henry VIII., for his epitaph assures us that—

What time ye French sought to have sack'd Seafoord,
This Pelham did repel 'em back aboord.'

rid of our old

"So again in the search after orthoepical truth some people get Sussex lys, and instead of Hothly, Ardingly, say Hothlé, Ardinglé. Ham in like manner is shortened into h'm, as, for instance, Bayh'm, Beddingh'm. 'Can you

'No,' was

tell me,' once asked a stranger to the locality, 'where Withyh'm is ?' the reply,' 'never heerd on it.' Then you don't live hereabouts?' 'Yes, I live jest over yender, at Withyham, I do,' was the answer.

"Being Susseriensis Sussexiensium, a thorough-bred South Saxon, I feel a special interest in picking up and jotting down a few matters which, though 'unconsidered trifles' to most people, may hereafter be of use in shewing the revolution which the present age seems destined to effect in the usages and habits of society.”—(pp. 210, 211.)

"I have some thoughts of writing a treatise on the irregular verbs of the English language, which appear to have been formed more upon caprice than reason. In many respects the Sussex talk seems more proper than that which grammarians now recognise as correct. Any departure from a regular formation, though tolerated by usage, and explainable on philological grounds, is to be regretted; although, in the present state of our language, it cannot be avoided. The Sussex peasant says catched, and blowed, and bursted, and choosed, and creeped, and drawed, and freezed, and growed, instead of caught, blew, burst, chose, crept, drew, froze, and grew—making regular what in literary English is abnormal.

"In other instances the irregularity of the imperfect tense, in Sussex talk, differs from that of literary English. Brung, crope, holp, and rid, for example, are used instead of brought, crept, helped, and rode. The verb do makes dud, which I take to be a synæresis of do-ed. There was an ancient boast among the Hastings fishermen in regard to the capture of a whale, which had eluded the strength or the skill of the people of another southern port :

"A mighty whale comed sailin' down the flood;

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The Folkstoners couldn't catch un, but the Hastin'ers dud !"-(pp. 214, 215.) One extract more, on the stay-at-home habits of Sussex men in former days, is all that we have room for :

"Our county, only in comparatively recent times hewn as it were out of the great primeval forest of Anderida, which covered the south-east of England, was among the last of southern shires to receive civilizing influences, while the proverbial badness of its roads was a still greater obstacle to improvement. Oak timber felled near the county-town, less than two hundred years ago, was three years in its transit to Chatham from the latter cause; and even at a much later date the carriages of our country squires were dragged to church by an equipage (if one may so abuse terms) of six oxen. Deterred by bad roads and dangerous forest-haunting vagabonds, the King's justices in eyre durst approach no nearer the county-town than East Grinstead and Horsham, for holding their courts of assize. These are matters of history; it is therefore no wonder that Sussex men in general, and Sussex peasants in particular, were no great travellers. People coming from a distance of twenty miles were looked upon as 'furriners,' and there is a story told of a labourer, who upon the spur of an altercation with his 'better half,' deserted his home at Heathfield and travelled as far as Ditchling, where feeling quite out of his element, he returned homewards, and finding himself again at Hefful, exclaimed—‘I've had quite enough of furrin parts—nothin' like old Englan' yet!"-(p. 218.)

A good Biographical Sketch of Samuel Jeake, sen., of Rye, by Dr. Smart, collects together all that is known of the author of " The Charters of the Cinque Ports;" it is drawn up from a collection of MSS. at Brickwall, Northiam, and is really a paper of much interest.

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