The Sussex Coast - online book

A Literary & Historical travel guide to the Sussex Coast

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26                    THE SUSSEX COAST
east quarter, called the Pallant, was recognised as belonging to the Primate, and it still retains its arrangement of four streets meeting in the centre, a miniature of the city itself. A series of archi-episcopal peculiars connected the Pallant and Pag-ham with the Diocese of Canterbury itself. In the north-east section Roger built or rather dug a castle for himself, of which remains the motte, a low mound covered with trees. It seems not to have been so much a proper castle as a defence to the city on the side where Nature, as represented by the River Lavant, had left it most exposed to attack. The north-west section contains even now no church or public building (except the Sub-deanery Church of St. Peter erected on West Street in 1853 on the removal of the congrega­tion from its old home in the north transept of the Cathedral) ; for a long time it seems to have contained very few houses, and sheep may still be seen there grazing within the city walls.
In addition to St. Olaf's, Chichester in late Saxon days contained a minster dedicated to St. Peter, where worshipped some devout nuns, " Sancti Petri monasterium et congregatio monialium" are William of Malmesbury's words. Out appar­ently they went, however, when in 1075, owing to the order of the Council of London that bishoprics should no longer be attached to villages, the see was moved into the city from Selsey, and the Bishop's stool was probably set up in their church, on whose site the magnificent cathedral was to rise.^ There are no remains of it, unless possibly the two bas-reliefs that represent our Lord raising Lazarus and visiting Mary and Martha. They are rather "Byzantine" in char-
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