tended, it is difficult to say. Tradition reports that it was thrown up by one of the Earls of Dorset, lest he should be overlooked by a brother living in Lewes, with whom he was at enmity1. It may be so: it was certainly the work of folly, and nothing is more productive of folly than resentment.

Pl. XX. fig. 1, is a signet ring, containing a sapphire: it is said to have been found amongst the ruins of the priory.

Fig. 4, is a brass gilt ring, also from the priory.

Fig. 5, is a brass signet ring from the same. The above are in the session of Mr. William Lee.

pos

Fig. 9, Is a brass utensil found amongst the priory ruins, and is in the possession of Mr. Mantell.

I have now given the history of this once splendid establishment, and noticed its present devastated state. How few traces remain of its primitive magnificence! The very form of the building is unknown to us; the scite of its splendid chapter-house cannot be traced: and the high altar, around which magnificent tombs were raised, bearing inscriptions intended to immortalize the distinguished individuals whose ashes they contained, is searched for in vain amongst the moldering ruins. Could the high-minded progenitors of the illustrious house of Warren, have foreseen the comparatively short duration of their favourite house of religion, on which they had lavished untold wealth, how would their pride have been humbled! The goat browses and reptiles crawl over their buried magnificence, and the owl and the black bird build amongst the twisted ivy that creeps over the walls that once re-echoed with the matins and vespers of long-forgotten monks.

'Beauties of England and Wales-Sussex, p. 134.

CHAPTER XIV.

LEWES CASTLE' AND GATEWAY.

Ah! what avails that o'er the vassal plain,
His rights and rich demesnes extended wide;
That honour and her knights composed his train,
And chivalry stood marshall'd by his side!
Tho' to the clouds his castle seem'd to climb,
And frown'd defiance on the desperate foe;
Tho' deem'd invincible, the conqueror Time
Level'd the fabric, as the founder, low.

CUNNINGHAM.

MR. GROSE, in giving an account of Lewes Castle, says, "a castle is mentioned here in the Saxon times, anno 887 or 928." Where he obtained this information, he does not say, but I am inclined to believe that it was from Mr. Elliot's MSS., the greater part of which were written long before the publication of the Antiquities of England and Wales. Mr. Elliot says, "it was a castle in the Saxon reigns in 887 or 928," but he gives no authority whatever for the statement. Indeed he expressly affirms a few pages before, that "the year 928 is the first time the town of Lewes appears to be mentioned in any history or record of this kingdom," and the mention that is then made of it is in the Saxon laws of Athelstan, before quoted. It is, therefore, certain, that Mr. Elliot had met with no document that justified him in stating that a castle was erected here in 887, and that such was the case in 928 is equally gratuitous. No evidence of it is to be found either in the Saxon laws or chronicles. I notice this merely to shew the grounds upon which Mr. Grose's statement was made. Although there is no positive proof that a castle was built here in the Saxon

1

The annexed view, Pl. XVIII., of the remains of the castle, is taken from the north-west, near the road leading to Offham. I regret that the character of the Keep of the Castle is not preserved so well as it might have been: instead of

the towers being hexagonal, they have too much the appearance of being square; but as a nearer view of the Keep is given in Pl. XIX., this oversight did not appear of sufficient consequence to require the suppression of the drawing.