Bygone Sussex
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8ygone g U S S E X Pf'ILLP'^M E. A, AXON -' VX^ ^ lor- Kit/ \ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Art "^^''/^v v ',i.Vv y^^im ' ^ .'j-^ W^^' Digitized by tine Internet Arcinive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/bygonesussexOOaxoniala ^V,:. & OLD ROMAN tiATB, WINCHKLSEA. : A.)-lucL Bygone Sussex. BY WILLIAM E. A. AXON. LONDON William Andrews & Co., 5, Farringdon Avenue, E.G. 1897. TO » C. p. SCOTT, M.P., , IN GRATEFUL REMExMBRANCE h OF THE KINDNESS OF MANY YEARS, ^ THESE GLEANINGS . IN THE BYWAYS OF HISTORY AND LITERATURE, ARE DEDICATED. Contente. PAGE of the The Land South Saxons .... i Pardon Brasses - - - - - - - lo Trial of Henry Robson in 1598 - - - - 28 In Denis Duval's Country - - - - - 36 The Long Man of Wilmington - - - - 72 The True Maid of the South - - - - - 81 "Old Humphrey's" Grave ----- 89 A Medieval Legend of Winchelsea - - - - 96 Poems of Sussex Places ----- ioi Spirits at Brightling in 1659 - • - - - - 129 The Monstrous Child of Chichester - - - 133 A RusKiN Pilgrimage -.-... 137 Rye in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries - 144 The Merchant of Chichester - - - - - 151 Drayton's Song of Sussex - - - - - 154 A Sussex Book ..-.-.. 165 The Mercer's Son of Midhurst . - - - 182 The Drummer of Herstmonceux .... 184 Sussex Sun-dials ...... 201 Tunbridge Wells Early in the Eighteenth Century 210 The Miller's Tomb ...... 224 The Sussex Muse ...... 236 Index. ........ 253 — — preface. nr^HE following essays are selected from material that has accumulated in the years that Sussex— with its picturesque scenery and varied associations—has had a special at- traction for the writer, who, though not to the manor born, feels as strongly as any of her sons the charm of the seaboard and the down. Perhaps some of the thousands of visitors who throng the Sussex coast in quest of health or amusement may find in these pages suggestions of historic memories that may add to the interest of their stay, and Sussex men themselves may recognise that a strong and healthy local senti- ment is no bad foundation for an enlightened patriotism. Of the illustrations several are from the facile and graceful pencil of Mr. Raffles Davison, who has also felt the charm of Sussex scenery a charm that Mr. A. C. Swinburne has put into the melodious lines, written between Lancing and Shorham : Fair and dear is the land's face here. And fair man's work as a man's may be ; Dear and fair as the sunbright air Is here the record that speaks him free ; Free by birth of a sacred earth, and regent ever of all the sea. BYGONE SUSSEX. > ^t^ < Zbc %m^ of the Soutb Sayons. INTRODUCTION. SUSSEX, the "land of the South Saxons," has had many chances and changes within the historic period. The traces of the Roman conquerors may still be seen in the relics of three great military roads, and in the encampments on its hills. T he Saxon Aella pushed the Britons eastward at the great battle of Mercredesbourne . and founded the Sud-seax Kingdom , which was the smallest of the Heptarchy, and at last was merged in Wessex by Caedwalla. Saint Wilfrid not only converted the people of what was then the most savage part of the island, but taught them the art of the fisherman, so that they could secure other than eels as the harvest of the river and sea. Thus the South Saxons found it profit- able to abandon their " vain idols." King Edilwach and his wife Ebba gave land at Selsey for the endowment of the first bishopric for 2 BYGONE SUSSEX. Sussex. Earl Godwin's possessions at Bosham became the home of his famous son, and it was thence that Harold journeyed to Normandy. The name of the last of the Saxon Kings is for ever connected with that famous battle when England was lost and won. Nor is William the Conqueror less associated with Sussex on whose coast he landed, and where he fought the decisive battle that made the Normans masters of the realm. Pevensey, that remarkable combination of Roman fortress and Norman castle, was besieged by the Red King. Arundel Castle was the scene of the reception of the Empress Maud by the Queen Dowager Adeliza, At Lewes was fought the great battle in which Henry HI. sustained a crushing defeat by his barons. Peace had her victories too, and Sussex was honoured by royalty in stately progresses. Henry VHI. received a royal welcome at Michelgrove, Edward VI. at Petworth, "Good Queen Bess" at Cowdray, and George I. at Stanstead. In modern times Brighton grew up under the patronage of George IV. and William IV. It was from Brighton—then the little fishing town of Brighthelmstone—that Charles II. escaped to France, and it was at Newhaven that Louis ' THE LAND OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 3 PhilUppe and his Queen, disguised as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, landed on their escape from France. We do not now think of Sussex as a seat of manufacture, yet here was the earliest seat of the 1 iron industry. Roman coins have been found in 1 the old cinder beds, and in the Middle Ages the iron- works flourished greatly. The tomb of Henry III. was guarded by Sussex railings, and the horses that went to the fatal field of Bannock- burn were shod with Sussex horse-shoes. When artillery came into use, the first cannon were cast here. The great forests which covered nearly all the county were destroyed in the process of smelting. The savage animals that once roamed in the sylvan glades were exterminated, though the wild cat survived at Ashdown to the sixteenth century. But by the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Sussex iron industry was on the wane, and the manufacture passed from the South to the North of England. The manufacture ofj glass, though perhaps never very extensive, was] another branch of the early trade of Sussex. The! shepherd and the fisherman are the characteristic special types of the industry of the county. The Southdown breed of sheep has attained great fame. To the maritime industry we owe the 4 BYGONE SUSSEX. Cinque Ports, of which Sussex claimed the Port of Hastings, the ancient towns of Rye and Win- chelsea, with those less noble members the towns of Pevensey and Seaford, and the five villages of Bulverhithe, Petit Shaw, Hidney, Beakesbourne, " and Grange. The " barons of the Cinque Ports were men of mark in the Middle Ages. They found ships for the defence of the empire. They had their own chancery, and at the coronation they bore aloft the silken canopy. Smuggling, the prohibited importation of brandy, tea, and other articles, and "owling" the prohibited exportation of wool or sheep were once great activities on the Sussex coast, but they are now happily as extinct as the Sussex iron-trade. There are many names of interest associated with the county. " Many shires have done worthily," says Fuller, "but Sussex surmounteth them all, having bred five Archbishops of Canter- bury." These were John Peckham, Thomas Bradwardine, Thomas Arundell, and William Juxon. Sussex gave Percy Bysshe Shelley to English poetry, and John Selden to learning. The Howards, the Fiennes, the Sackvilles, the Pelhams, the Ashburnhams, the Percys, and the Montagues, are amongst its noble and gentle THE LAND OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 5 families who have won distinction. The three Sherley brothers gained a remarkable position in the seventeenth century. The three Palmer brothers had also picturesque careers. The three Smiths of Chichester have a humble niche in the temple of fame for contributions to art and verse. Jack Cade has been claimed as a Sussex man. The gentle and unfortunate poet, William Collins, was a native. Dr. Andrew Borde, " Merry Andrew," was born at Pevensey. The county claims four saints, Richard de la Wych, the canonised Bishop of Chichester, St. Wilfrid, St. Cuthman, and Lewinna, the virgin martyr, slain by the Saxons of the seventh century. The names of John Fletcher and the unfortunate Thomas Otway are illustrious in dramatic literature. Other Sussex worthies are Pell, the mathematician, James Hurdis, the gentle poet, Richard Cobden, the apostle of free trade, the Hares, Dr. E. D. Clarke, the traveller, Henry Morley, and M. A. Lower, the antiquary. Gibbon, the historian, is buried at Fletching ; and Cartwright, the inventor of the power loom at Battle. Nor should we forget Henry Burwash, Bishop of Lincoln, of whom Fuller says : " Such as mind to be merry may read the pleasant story of his apparition, being condemned after his — ; 6 BYGONE SUSSEX. death to be viridis viridarius, 'a green forester,' because in his lifetime he had violently enclosed other men's grounds into his park." William Barlow, Bishop of Chichester, had a prosperous career, in spite of an enforced exile in the days of Queen Mary. His wife's epitaph is rendered by Fuller : " Barlow's wife Agathe, doth here remain. Bishop, then exile, Bishop then again. So long she lived, so well his children sped, She saw five Bishops her five daughters wed." Less fortunate, in a worldly sense, were the ten Protestants, burned in one fire at Lewes, or the other sufferers in that time of persecution. But Sussex has had worthies of all creeds—Gregory Martin, the Roman Catholic exile, who had the principal hand in what is called the Douay Bible Matthew Caffyn, the controversial '* Battle-axe of Sussex ;" Richard Challoner, the learned titular Bishop of Debra ; and Colonel John Michelborne, who was Governor of Londonderry, and held that city for William III. in the famous siege in which he lost his wife and seven children by famine and disease.