om Paine who came
here in 1768, marrying in 1771 a daughter of the town named Elizabeth
Ollive and in due time succeeding to her father's business of
tobacconist. The house has already been noticed, it bears a memorial
tablet and also a very quaint carved demon. It is just off the High
Street and near St. Michael's Church. Lewes cannot claim the honour of
seeing the birth of _The Rights of Man_ (a rather dubious honour in
those days); the book was written while Paine stayed with his
biographer, Thomas Rickman the bookseller, in London.

Another famous resident of Lewes was John Evelyn, who spent a great
part of his schooldays in the Grammer School at Southover. Here also
was educated John Pell, the famous mathematician.

A house at the end of the town on the Newhaven road belonged to the
Shelleys, and Dr. Johnson once stayed here on his way to the Thrales in
Brighton.

The old "Star" Inn has been converted into municipal offices, but the
fine front still remains and most of the old work in the interior. In
the tower close by, in the Market-place, is "Great Gabriel," a bell
dating, it is said, from the time of Henry III. Lower has the following
lines on the bells of Lewes:--

"Oh, happy Lewes, waking or asleep,
With faithful _hands_ your time _archangels_ keep!
St. _Michael's_ voice the fleeting hour records,
And _Gabriel_ loud repeats his brother's words;
While humble _Cliffites_, ruled by meaner power,
By Tom the _Archbishop_ regulate their hour."

It was hereabouts that a great burning of heretics took place in 1557.
Among the honoured names recorded upon the Martyr's Memorial is that of
Richard Woodman, ironmaster, of Warbleton, whose protests against his
pastor's weathercock attitude during the Marian persecutions resulted
in the stake. The memorial perpetuates the names of sixteen persons who
suffered the fiery death at this time. The consequence is that the zeal
of the townsmen on the 5th of November is Orange in its fervour, and
the streets are given up to various "fireworks" clubs whose members
have been subscribing their spare shillings for months past. Crowds
ascend Saxon Down and the surrounding hills to see the display from a
distance; still greater crowds throng the streets to watch the
destruction in effigy of some unpopular local or national celebrity. Of
the Down land walks we have mentioned the most interesting, by reason
of its fine views of the town, is to Cliffe Hill. An extension