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RAMBLES ABOUT BURWASH 31
smell of antiquity, and the great oak ceiling-beams scowl at the impertinent light admitted by-windows which are not quite in keeping with the ancientry of the house in general. Those windows have been there for close on a hundred years, but they seem modern to beams which have been in position three hunrded. The landlady, Miss Farley, will tell you that the house has been held by her family for nearly a hundred years, and one may take Lamberhurst beer in the low bar with much neighbourly conversation. I learnt that Burwash is pronounced " Berrish " in the district, and that an old matrimonial rhyme runs like this :
" To love and to cherish From Battle to Berrish, And round about Robertsbridge home."
Yes, the Bell Inn is that kind of house that receives a man like a friend. There is an open chimney in the smoking-room, and a spacious fireplace in which beech logs lend their pleasant fragrance to the flames during the long winter evenings.
A delightful old kitchen at the back deserves to be mentioned. Notice the brobdingnagian copper boiler hoisted up to the low ceiling, which is reminiscent of the days when the vestry meetings |
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