r except the proximity of the
railway, which has been allowed to pass nearer the ruin than dramatic
fitness would dictate. Let it, however, be remembered that the railway
through the St. Pancras Priory at Lewes led to the discovery of the
coffins of William de Warenne and Gundrada, and also that, in Mr.
Kipling's phrase, romance, so far from being at enmity with the iron
horse, "brought up the 9.15."

[Illustration: _Pevensey Castle._]

Pevensey, which is now divided from the channel by marshy fields with
nothing to break the flatness but Martello towers (thirteen may be
counted from the walls), was, like Bramber Castle in the west, now also
an inland stronghold, once washed and surrounded by the sea. The sea
probably covered all the ground as far inland as Hailsham--Pevensey,
Horseye, Rickney and the other "eyes" on the level, being then
islands, as their termination suggests.

There is now no doubt but that Pevensey was the Anderida of the Romans,
a city on the borders of the great forest of Anderida that covered the
Weald of Sussex--Andreas Weald as it was called by the Saxons. But
before the Romans a British stronghold existed here. This, after the
Romans left, was attacked by the Saxons, who slew every Briton that they
found therein. The Saxons in their turn being discomfited, the Normans
built a new castle within the old walls, with Robert de Moreton, half
brother of the Conqueror, for its lord. Thus the castle as it now stands
is in its outer walls Roman, in its inner, Norman.

[Sidenote: WILLIAM'S LANDING]

Unlike certain other Sussex fortresses, Pevensey has seen work. Of its
Roman career we know nothing, except that the inhabitants seem to have
dropped a large number of coins, many of which have been dug up. The
Saxons, as we have seen, massacred the Britons at Anderida very
thoroughly. Later, in 1042, Swane, son of Earl Godwin, swooped on
Pevensey's port in the Danish manner and carried off a number of ships.
In 1049 Earl Godwin, and another son, Harold, made a second foray,
carried off more ships, and fired the town. On September 28, 1066,
Pevensey saw a more momentous landing, destined to be fatal to this
marauding Harold; for on that day William, Duke of Normandy, soon to
become William the Conqueror, alighted from his vessel, accompanied by
several hundred Frenchmen in black chain armour. A representation of the
landing is one of the designs in the Bayeux tapestry. The embroiderers
take no count of