The Sussex Coast - online book

A Literary & Historical travel guide to the Sussex Coast

	HASTINGS	343
	The old town itself, confined in its valley, with step lanes winding among and sometimes even under the houses, does something to recall Whitby, but is less picturesque. The fishing community, in whose dialect some French words are strangely incorporated, with its brown-sailed boats and tarry smells does perhaps more than anything else about Hastings to sustain its character of an old Cinque Port^ In All Saints Street there are a few old tim­bered houses with projecting windows or upper floors, but on the whole the general effect is more attractive than the details. The Church of All Saints is, like St. Clement's, Perpendicular but later in the style. The arcades of four bays have octagonal pillars, and an interesting old fresco of the Last Judgment surmounts the chancel arch; the west tower is vaulted with a procession of little animals round the bell-hole, its arch has short shafts with concave sides resting on corbels. Thus it is painted on the north wall— "This is a belfry that is free for all those that civil be and if you please to chime or ring it is a very pleasant thing. there is no musick playd or sung like unto Bells when theyr well rung then ring your bells well if you can silence is best, for every man. But if you ring in spur or hat sixpence you pay be sure of that and if a bell you overthrow pray pay a groat before you go. 1756."