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178 THE SUSSEX COAST
building that dates earlier than the eighteenth century. A road is shown leading up to the church. Windmills and a beacon are supported on single posts. The fighting on this occasion is thus described by Holinshed : " After this, the eighteenth of Iulie, the admerall of France monsieur Dane-balte hoisted vp sailes, and with his whole nauie came f oorth in to the seas, and arriued on the coast of Sussex before bright Hamsteed, and set certeine of his soldiers on land to burne and spoile the countrie : but the beacons were fired, and the inhabitants thereabouts came down so thicke, that the Frenchmen were driuen to flie with losse of diuerse of their numbers : so that they did little hurt there.
"The French . . . drew along the coast of Sussex; and a small number of them landed againe in Sussex, of whome few returned to their ships, for diuerse gentlemen of the countrie, as Sir Nicholas Pelham (p. 261) and others, with such power as was raised vpon the sudden, tooke them vp by the waie, and quicklie distressed them. When they had searched euerie where by the coast, and saw men still readie to receiue them with battle, they turned sterne, and so got them home againe, without anie act atchieved worthie to be mentioned."
Brighton still maintains close relations with the French, but they are of vastly more friendly character. The excellent excursion steamers that ply from both the modern piers make it possible to spend several hours at Boulogne without sleeping out of Sussex, and during a warm summer a plea-santer way of spending a day can hardly be imagined. The steamers also make frequent trips along the English shore from Dover on the east to the Isle of Wight on the west. |
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