rs, eight
of which were very lofty, being 42 feet high, 18 feet thick, and 45
feet in circumference; the remaining twenty-four were 10 feet thick, 25
feet in circumference, and 18 feet in height.[1] The belfry was placed
over the centre of the church, at an elevation of 105 feet, and was
supported by the eight lofty pillars above mentioned. The roof over the
high altar was 93 feet high. Its walls were 10 feet thick. On the right
side of the high altar was a vault supported by four pillars, and from
this recess branched out five chapels that were bounded by a wall 70
yards long. A higher vault supported by four massive pillars, 14 feet
in diameter, and 45 feet in circumference, was probably on the left
side of the high altar, and corresponded with the one just mentioned,
from which branched out other chapels or cells of the monks. How many
chapels there were cannot be ascertained; the names of only three are
known, the Virgin Mary, St. Thomas the Martyr, and St. Martin. The
chapter-house and church were by far the most splendid apartments of
this stately pile; the latter was richly adorned by the painter and the
sculptor."

[1] These measurements are confusing, unless the pillars were of
an unusual shape. A round column 18 feet thick would be 54 feet
in circumference.

The wooden chapel of St. Pancras which existed here in Saxon times
probably stood where later the high altar of the great Norman church
was reared, and across this site the Eastbourne trains now run. The
station itself is supposed to be on the site of the convent kitchens
and consequently the present ruins are very scanty. Though the
foundations laid bare at the cutting of the railway in 1845 show the
great extent of the buildings, the battered walls which now remain give
but little indication of the imposing dimensions quoted above, and the
visitor will have to depend on sentiment and the imagination rather
than on actual sightseeing. The excavators in 1845 had a gruesome
experience, for they discovered a charnel pit containing thirteen cart
loads of bones of the fallen warriors at the battle of Lewes. Although
nearly six centuries had elapsed the stench was dreadful.

That the archaeological interest of Lewes owes much to the making of
the railway will now be seen.

[Illustration: THE PRIORY RUINS, LEWES.]

The following account appeared in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1845:--

"On the morning of Tuesday, October 28, a most interesting