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LEWES 245 |
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place, purchased by the Kempe family in 1639, later passed by marriage to Dr. Russel of Brighton fame (p. 185), who is buried there. His son took the name of Kempe. The Primates in earlier days had a residence at Mailing, of which a fragment of Norman walling remains. It was here that the four knights who had murdered Becket rested for a while and piled their sacrilegious arms on a table, which, refusing to bear the burden, twice threw them off, the noise and the distance to which they were sent being much increased on the second occasion. No one seems to have been in the room when it happened, and as no apparent cause could be found, the supernatural explanation was accepted.
On the far side of Lewes, among the Downs but overlooking the Ouse valley, is the little village of Kingston. It was always closely associated with Lewes Priory, whose dedication to St. Pancras its little church preserves. He was a boy at Rome martyred in the persecution of Diocletian. It is a plain little sanctuary, the chancel and nave of early fourteenth century date with Decorated windows and the tower with lancets a little earlier. The churchyard has a large yew-tree. It is a typical Down village, quite unspoilt, but not so beautiful as some.
Note to P. 228.—Clauditur is a very common beginning to a medicsval epitaph, probably because it scanned easier than clausus est, but the position of this inscription would be unusual for an epitaph. |
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