Warenne who had built up Lewes between
his Castle on the height and his monastery in the vale. Almost nothing
remains to-day of that great and splendid building, but in 1845, in
building the railway, the coffins of the founders De Warenne and his
wife Gundrada were found. These now lie in St John's Church, here in
Southover close by, which belonged to the Priory. It was originally a
plain Norman building of which the nave remains, the rest of the
church as we see it, being for the most part either Perpendicular or
altogether modern.

Of course the Priory of St Pancras was not alone in the fate that
befell it at the hands of the Tudor in 1537. The only other religious
house in Lewes suffered a like fate. This was the convent of the
Franciscans, dedicated, as most authorities agree, in honour of Our
Lady and St Margaret. The Friars Minor were established in Lewes
before 1249, and their convent was one of the last to be surrendered,
in 1538.

From St John's Church, the visitor, not without a glance at the old
half timber house close by said to have been the residence of Anne of
Cleves, will pass up to the High Street where, under the Castle,
stands the parish church of St Michael, the only ancient part of which
is the round Norman tower, a rare thing. A fourteenth century brass to
one of the De Warennes is to be seen within. Further west is the
Transitional Norman church of St Anne, with curious capitals on the
south side of the nave. Here is a fine basket-work Norman font, and
in the south aisle at the east end a vaulted chapel. To the north of
the chancel is a recessed tomb.

But it is not in the churches we have in Lewes that we shall to-day
find the symbol, as it were, of that old town, still so fair a thing,
which held the passage of the Ouse through the Downs and in the
thirteenth century witnessed the great battle in which Simon de
Montfort, mystic and soldier, defeated and took captive his king. For
that we must go to the Castle ruin that crowns Lewes as with a
battlement.

The Castle is reached from the High Street near St Michael's church by
the Castlegate. It was founded, as I have said, by the first De
Warenne, but the gate-house by which we enter is later, dating from
King Edward's time, the original Norman gate being within. The Castle
had two keeps, a rare feature. Only one of these remains, reached by a
winding steep way, and of this only two of the fine octagonal towers
are left to us. These two are