| Share page |
|
SEAFORD AND CUCKMERE VALLEY 139
understand it, over-indulgence in them, for amongst the town records is a document which may be regarded as the prototype of our " beer license," in which this word is so supplied. The word tipler, in the sense of a seller of ale, occurs likewise in other Corporation documents of this period.
That the Romans had a settlement in the neighbourhood of Seaford is satisfactorily shown by a cemetery discovered in 1825, which is about half a mile east of Corsica Hall, along the valley. Here a number of sepulchral urns were exhumed, and another was found in the cliff near the mouth of the Cuckmere.
A number of coins of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius were subsequently found in the neighbourhood of Seaford, and in 1854 a fine medal of Antonia, daughter of Mark Antony, was picked up on the beach below high-water mark. It is of the finest gold, weighing 5 dwts. 3 grs., and has on the obverse the following legend :
" Antonia Avgsta : Reverse, Sacerdos Divi Avgvsti."
These coins and urns and jewellery, together with the encampment on the cliff between Seaford and the Cuckmere, show that it was evidently a place of importance in Roman times. |
||