by the rector. Parsonage house &c. in good order. Families 49—no dissenters—no papists. Value in the king's books £8. 8s. 4d., discharged from first-fruits. Divine service and sermon by the rector ; the holy sacrament administered at the three solemn sacraments and at Michaelmas. Communicants about 15. Nine acres of glebe.
The church at that period was extremely small, consisting, besides the tower and apse, of a nave only. Subsequently the latter was considerably enlarged in the worst possible taste. Quite recently, it has undergone a thorough renovation.
The only ancient portions of the building are the tower and the very small semicircular apse attached to its eastern side. The Rev. J. L. Petit, in his account of this church, in the Archæological Journal (vol. vi. p. 138), observes, that it is "almost, if not quite, unique, as an English specimen of a tower with an eastern apse immediately annexed to it without the intervention of any other chancel." He adds, "The arrangement is common enough on the Continent." Though I have a great penchant for continental churches, I cannot boast of a large acquaintance with them, and the only one I have seen, in this respect like Newhaven, is at Yainville in Normandy, on the right bank of the Seine, between Duclair and Jumièges. This I encountered, quite unexpectedly, in a summer excursion during the present year. When, at a sudden turn in the road, it burst at once upon my view, I involuntarily exclaimed, "Why, here's Newhaven church!" As a matter of course I sketched it; and having subsequently taken a sketch of Newhaven from the same point of view, one may on inspection easily note the extraordinary points of resemblance—the same corbelled band beneath the eaves ; the same double belfry-window in each face of the tower ; and the same flat-buttressed, semicircular apse, with the same diminutive eastern window. There are however some points in which the Norman and the Sussex churches disagree ; yet so strong is the general likeness of these sister edifices, that there is no great stretch of probability in assigning them both to precisely the same epoch, if not actually to the same architect, in the twelfth century.
I may observe here, that both Mr. Hussey,[1] in his account
- ↑ Notes on Churches, p. 258.
