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236 THE SUSSEX COAST
supposed to have died, would show that the scene of his destined torments lay in that direction, probably in the crater of Mount Hecla in Iceland."
Allowance should certainly be made for the jealousy that the Benedictine house of Ely would inevitably feel on the introduction into England of the first priory of the reformed Cluniac order, but the whole matter is rather too delicate to be discussed in such a work as the present. The mortal remains of William and Gundrada in small coffins of lead, with cord patterns, being found in the chapter-house, a small chapel in the Norman style was in 1847 added to the Church of St. John, Southover, to receive them. Gundrada's coffin slab or tombstone had formed part of a Shirley monument at Isfield, but about 1775 it was restored to Lewes and is now in the centre of the chapel. It is inscribed—
" Stirps Gundrada ducum, decus evi, nobile germen. Intulit ecclesiis Anglorum balsama morum Martiri? hanc cedem struxit Pancrati in honorem. Martha fuit miseris, fuit ex pietate Maria, Pars obiit Marthe, superest pars magna Marie. O pie Pancrati, testis pietatis et equi, Te facit heredem, tu clemens suscipe matrem. Sexta kalendarum Junii lux obvia carnis Tregit alabastrum, superest pars optima ccelo."
The slab, which is broken in parts, is of " touch," and has remarkable ornaments, including leopards heads. The windows of the chapel have modern glass representing St. Pancras, William, and Gundrada; it also contains a later recumbent effigy some old keys, and encaustic tiles, all from the Priory. The church has some remarkably |
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