uw, the Sussex antiquary, the whole story is
told.

Lewes has played but a small part in history since that battle; but, as
we saw when we were at Rottingdean, it was one of her Cluniac priors
that repulsed the French in 1377, and her son, Sir Nicholas Pelham, who
performed a similar service in 1545, at Seaford. As the verses on his
monument in St. Michael's Church run:--

What time the French sought to have sackt Sea-Foord,
This Pelham did repel-em back aboord.

[Illustration: _Ann of Cleves' House, Southover._]

[Sidenote: THE CLUNIAC PRIORY]

The Cluniac priory of St. Pancras was dissolved by Henry VIII. in 1537,
Thomas Cromwell, that execrable vandal, not only abolishing the monks
but destroying the buildings, which covered, with their gardens and fish
ponds, forty acres. The ruins that remain give some idea of the extent
of this wonderful priory, another relic being the adjacent mound on
which the Calvary stood, probably constructed of the earth removed for
the purpose from the Dripping Pan, as the hollow circular space is
called where Lewes now plays cricket. One very pretty possession of the
monks was allowed to stand until quite recent times--the Columbarium,
which was as large as a church and contained homes for 3,228 birds. It
has now vanished; but an idea of what it was may be gained from the
pigeon house at Alciston, a few miles distant, which belonged to Battle
Abbey.

The priory's possessions were granted to Cromwell by Henry VIII., who,
tradition asserts (somewhat directly in the face of historical
evidence), murdered one of his wives on a winding stair in the building,
and may therefore have been glad to see its demolition. Which wife it
was, is not stated, but when Cromwell went the way of all this king's
favourites, the property was transferred to Ann of Cleves, who is
supposed to have lived in the most picturesque of the old houses on the
right hand side of Southover's street as you leave Lewes for the Ouse
valley.

Southover church, in itself a beautiful structure of the grave red type,
with a square ivied tower and the most delicate vane in Sussex, is
rendered the more interesting by the possession of the leaden caskets of
William de Warenne and Gundrada and the superb tomb removed from Isfield
church and very ingeniously restored. These relics repose in a charming
little chapel built in their honour.

[Sidenote: TOM PAINE]

A notable man who had association with Lewes was