William's fall as he stepped ashore, on ground now
grazed upon by cattle, an accident deemed unlucky until his ready wit
explained, as he rose with sanded fingers, "See, I have seized the land
with my hands."

Pevensey's later history included sieges by William Rufus in 1088, when
Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, supporter of Robert, was the defender; by
Stephen in 1144, the fortress being held by Maude, who gave in
eventually to famine; by Simon de Montfort and the Barons in 1265; and
by the supporters of Richard of York in 1399, when Lady Pelham defended
it for the Rose of Lancaster. A little later Edmund, Duke of York, was
imprisoned in it, and was so satisfied with his gaoler that he
bequeathed him _L_20. Queen Joan of Navarre, wife of Henry IV., was also a
prisoner here for nine years. In the year before the Armada, Pevensey
Castle was ordered to be either rebuilt as a fortress or razed to the
ground; but fortunately neither instruction was carried out.

The present owner of Pevensey Castle is the Duke of Devonshire, who by
virtue of the possession is entitled to call himself Dominus Aquilae, or
Lord of the Eagle.

[Sidenote: LETTER-WRITING]

Pevensey has another and gentler claim to notice. Many essayists have
said pleasant and ingenious things about the art of letter-writing; but
none of them mentions the part played by Pevensey in the English
development of that agreeable accomplishment. Yet the earliest specimen
of English letter-writing that exists was penned in Pevensey Castle. The
writer was Joan Crownall, Lady Pelham, wife of Sir John Pelham, who, as
I have said, defended the castle, in her Lord's absence, against the
Yorkists, and this is the letter, penned (I write in 1903) five hundred
and four years ago. (It has no postscript.)

My dear Lord,--I recommend me to your high Lordship, with heart and
body and all my poor might. And with all this I thank you as my
dear Lord, dearest and best beloved of all earthly lords. I say for
me, and thank you, my dear Lord, with all this that I said before
of [for] your comfortable letter that you sent me from Pontefract,
that came to me on Mary Magdalen's day: for by my troth I was never
so glad as when I heard by your letter that ye were strong enough
with the grace of God for to keep you from the malice of your
enemies. And, dear Lord, if it like to your high Lordship that as
soon as ye might that I might hear of your gr