belonging to the Rev, John Grace, vicar of Westham, who kindly permitted us to dig there. Openings were therefore made at the point marked i, where at the depth of two feet and a half, we succeeded in exposing a large drain, carefully constructed with large stones, as shown in the annexed woodcut. It runs about north-west and south-east, but of its purpose, or the period of its construction, I cannot hazard any conjecture. The opening was about 18 inches high.[1]
Our next point was to solve the problem, whether the south side of the area had been originally defended, like the other portions, with a Roman wall. Few traces of one remain upon the surface, and I confess that it had always been my own opinion, that the precipitous ground on this side, flanked as it was by the sea — -on at any rate by water and impassable bogs — formed a sufficient natural defence. The notion, however, after several laborious trenches had been sunk, was rendered untenable, for at the points marked e, e, e, e, walls exhibiting every characteristic feature of Roman masonry were discovered; and but for a land-slip (of which even a glance at Mr. Figg's map will furnish sufficient proof), at some unknown era, the continuity of the wall in this part would no doubt be still traceable. At f there were traces of a very narrow postern-gate.
The land-slip referred to must have taken place since the erection of the medieval castle, as it carried away one of its best defences, the southern branch of its moat — leaving the ground southward of the drawbridge dry, thus rendering the gateway which ought to have been the strongest, one of its most vulnerable points. By this convulsion the massive walls and
- ↑ Priesthawes is presumed to have been originally some kind of religious establishment — perhaps a monastic grange with its chapel and priest. Wherever, throughout East Sussex, a castle and a monastery or other religious foundation stand in moderate proximity to each other, an underground communication according to the popular notion always exists. Lewes Castle and Priory, Hastings Castle and Priory, Burlough Castle (near Alfriston) and Wilmington Priory, and Bodiam Castle and Robertsbridge Abbey, may be named aa sites connected with this whimsical "folk-lore." Considerable disappointment was felt by some of the rustic inhabitants of Pevensey at the non-realisation of the popular theory in the present instance. "Why, Sir," said one of them to me, "so this here subterreenous passage as we've so long heard an, turns out to be nothin' but gurt dreen!"
