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blage indeed is very famous for the number and splendour of the company, and principally because of the high-born Pelhams presiding there, who, as stewards, direct everything in the most sumptuous style.

26

The town of Lewes, though small indeed if compared with some we have, is prosperous, and has abundance of all things contributing to the necessities, uses, or even pleasure of life, lying in a very pleasant country, and placed on the ridge of a hill between two valleys. There is a continued slope downwards from west to east as far as the river, named the Ouse (Ouεora), from whence perhaps the town derives its name, which, as it flows along the plain, cuts the town in two. It is navigable, and about sixty furlongs off, falls into the sea, where the mouth of the harbour is called New Haven. Beyond the river a hill rises abruptly, very white and steep, but so overhanging and overshadowing all lying around it, that to a distant beholder the houses below seem as if they had been dug out of it. And who would not admire the street leading down to the river! Standing on the ridge, you see on the right and the left a well-peopled valley, vessels going up and down, well-watered meadows, and workshops for whatever is needed for navigation.

"I observe that the public buildings, being very old, are quite decayed and dirty, with nothing venerable or ornamental in them, but very many of the houses of individuals are well designed and handsome. Among these the magazine of ironmongery is the most complete and worth seeing. In it a marvellous preparation goes on of all things worked out of iron, such perhaps as you would not find even in the ironmongers' shops of London itself. The master of the house kindly received us who were strangers, desirous of gratifying us in every way, and he led us through the back of his house to gardens, marvellous in their height and arrangement; for in this uneven and precipitous situation enormous mounds are heaped and filled to a level, and parallel walks are laid out upon them, loftier than all the houses around, so that, as if from a watchtower, we could from thence clearly see all the environs to a distance, and vast and most beautiful they

25 ενταυθα προεδρεύεσιν οἱ ευγενεις Πηλαμίδαι, και απαντα χορηγοι διοικεσιν ὡς πολυτελεστατα.-Ρ. 42.

were. These wonderful gardens seem established on the ruins of the ancient castle, for traces appear there of a great broken wall, lofty-towers, an impassable ditch, and numerous fortifications advanced in front."27

This is not a very archæological account of Lewes Castle, but marks the uses to which the ruins were then turned by Mr. Harben, the great ironfounder of that time, whose house was to the west of the present County Hall. Dr. Burton, in a note written subsequently, says, that this great iron factory had already disappeared, and that "a certain ambitious citizen had modernized the old parts, in order to make a paradise in the desert and a palace in the ruins," p. 45.

"Going down from thence to the inn, we ate our dinner as we ought-quietly, and then proceeding by the valleys and rideable country towards the west, about seventy furlongs, we arrived just as the day was fading at Brighthelmstone (Βρειθηλαστώνην κωμην παραθαλασσίαν), a village on the seacoast, lying in a valley gradually sloping and yet deep. It is not indeed contemptible as to size, for it is thronged with people, though the inhabitants are mostly very needy and wretched in their mode of living, occupied in the employment of fishing, robust in their bodies, laborious, skilled in all nautical crafts, and, as it is said, terrible cheats of the custom-house officers.28 The village near the shore seemed to me very miserable,—many houses here and there deserted, and traces of overthrown walls. For that most turbulent of all winds with us, the south-west,

'The stormy blast across the boundless sea

Lifts high the waves, while trembles all the earth
Beneath hoarse Neptune's heavy-footed tread ;'

or, to speak in plain prose, the waves, at times dashing violently upon the shore, had shaken and loosened some of the rotten foundations, the ground above had given way, and all the dwellings on it had been at once dragged down and thrown forward into the sea," p. 47.

The wooden groins, built to retain the drift of the sea, as a

27 Επι τα της ακροπολεως παλαιας ερειπια δοκει επῳκοδεδομημενον. ενθαδε γαρ φαίνεται τα ιχνη μεγαλα τείχες απεῤῥωγοτος, και τυρσεων ήλιβάτων, και

χαρακώματος αδιαβατε, και δη επιτειχιστ
μάτων παμπολλων προβεβλημενων.
28 ὡς φασι περί το τα δημοσια ληστεύειν
δεινοι.

protection against such inroads, are then described with much praise; and Dr. Burton enjoys a delightful walk on the sands in the purple glow of a calm sunset, until he is warned by messenger from the inn that supper is ready.

"Departing therefore to the inn, like the heroes of Home after a battle, so did we perform our part most manfully, a then turned to bed, intending to sleep; but this sweet lull of the senses was begrudged us by some sailors arriving a night long, and in the middle of their drink, singing out with their barbarous voices, clapping, and making all manner The women also disturbed us, quarrelling and fight

noises.

ing about their fish:

'Nor lacked there in the house

Mud-footed Thetis with her briny friends.""

Getting up early next morning, his route westward le Dr. Burton along the shore, where he observed "in som places the land made into sea, in others the sea become land," ill he came to "Shoreham (E), a village despicable in appearance, but nevertheless with a market and shipyards and officers of the customs.

Moreover the villagers have votes for two senators elected to the Great Council of Five Hundred. They are especially valued on this account, and it is said they get rich every seven years by pocketing gifts for

their votes. 29

As the passage over the river did not look

either convenient or free from danger, we turned to the right, and, traversing the country obliquely rather upwards, sought the security of the bridge. We crossed the smooth and open part of the Downs to arrive at Findon, seemingly a prosperous village, and so at length at Chichester, the metropolis of all

Sussex. "30

The Greek Diary stops at Chichester. Dr. Burton's Latin and later journey from Shermanbury leads him across the usual bad roads to the South Downs, and he rides again along them, enraptured with the beautiful views of sea and land, to Brighthelmstone, where, after a short walk on the beach, he says, "time and a longing for our dinner not far

* το των Πεντακοσίων μεγα βελευτη

ριον πρέσβεις δυο εξαίρετες επιψηφίζεσιν
οι κωμηται. επι τούτῳ μαλιστα σεμνυον
· δη, ώς φασι, καθ' έκαστην ἑπταε

ται, και

τιαν εκ ψήφων τοιωνδε δωροδοκώντες
πλετίζονται.

80 Χιχηστρίαν, την των Σεσσηξιακών
απασων μητροπολιν.

warned us, however unwilling, to depart. We resume r journey therefore, often, turning our eyes meanwhile back the seacoast; and about the third hour we were received, expected guests, in the happy mansion of Henry Campion, iced near the roots of the Downs (Hen. Campioni beata la, montium radicibus subjecta). Oh! how especially I conatulate myself and exult, whenever I have chanced to see y head of a family of ancient repute and of the best times, uly the gentleman in fortune, manners, and learning, such this day brought before me, at once the glory and reproach country squires. Never did any one more elegantly than m chequer the intervals of rustic operations with lettered ise, ever busily occupied as he was, to his own great praise nd to the benefit of all belonging to him, between the tudies of agriculture and literature and the duties of friendhip," p. 65.

After his former ridicule of the Sussex squires, it is agreeable to find Dr. Burton finishing his journeys in the county with this warm eulogy on the owner of the venerable edifice and park of Danny; and, though we will not doubt this gentleman having then been the model of squires, yet at the present day we might perhaps not find it difficult to recognise similar characters in many other parishes in the county.

34

VIII.

SUSSEX NOTES AND QUERIES.

THE Committee have much satisfaction in observing the numerous contributions to this department of their volume, which was commenced experimentally last year, and hope to be enabled to continue it.

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The following letter (the original of which is in my possession) was written by an ancestor of mine, who was the son of Richard Weekes of Ewhurst, in this county. He was born about 1662 at Tenterden, where for some time his ancestors lived,-descended, it is believed, from Richard Weekes, proprietor of iron works in Mountfield, Sussex, in 1574 (vide Sussex Arch. Collections, vol. III). He seems, probably not very long after the date of the letter, to have quitted the fortunes and perils of military life, and settled on his patrimonial estate; for, in 1703, he married Jane, daughter of a Mr. Boureman, a considerable Kentish landowner, by whom he had three sons and one daughter. The letter is sealed with a coat of arms-three arrows-which were the arms of the ancient family of Hales of Tenterden, who dwelt there for several generations, and who, it may therefore be supposed, were related to the writer of the letter. I should be obliged by any information to this effect, and concerning the Captain Burgiss to whom it is addressed. GEORGE WEEKES.

Hurstpierpoint.

"Dear Grandfather,

..

"BENSFORD, February ye 29th, 1695-6.

I and two of my Sarjeants are here prisoners, taken upon suspicion. I have shew'd my commission, beating orders and warrant to take up desarters, but it would not prevaile. Therefore I shall desire you to speake to Sir John Newton, or ye Captain, to write ye leaste word imaginable to

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