nn Fitzroy, a natural daughter of Charles II., and was
made Earl of Sussex. Financial losses compelling him to sell
Hurstmonceux, a lawyer named George Naylor bought it in 1708, leaving
it, on his death, to the Right Rev. Francis Hare, Bishop of Chichester.
It remained in the family as a residence until, in 1777, an architect
pronounced it unsafe, and the interior was converted into materials for
the new Hurstmonceux Place in the park to the north-west. Since then
nature has had her way with it.

[Sidenote: WALPOLE AT HURSTMONCEUX]

Horace Walpole's visit, as described in one of his letters, gives us an
idea of Hurstmonceux in the middle of the eighteenth century, a little
before it became derelict:--"The chapel is small, and mean; the Virgin
and seven long lean saints, ill done, remain in the windows. There have
been four more, but they seem to have been removed for light; and we
actually found St. Catherine, and another gentlewoman with a church in
her hand, exiled into the buttery. There remain two odd cavities, with
very small wooden screens on each side the altar, which seem to have
been confessionals. The outside is a mixture of grey brick and stone,
that has a very venerable appearance. The draw-bridges are romantic to a
degree; and there is a dungeon, that gives one a delightful idea of
living in the days of soccage and under such goodly tenures. They showed
us a dismal chamber which they called _Drummer's_-hall, and suppose that
Mr. Addison's comedy is descended from it. In the windows of the gallery
over the cloisters, which leads all round to the apartments, is the
device of the Fienneses, a wolf holding a baton with a scroll, _Le roy
le veut_--an unlucky motto, as I shall tell you presently, to the last
peer of that line. The estate is two thousand a year, and so compact as
to have but seventeen houses upon it. We walked up a brave old avenue to
the church, with ships sailing on our left hand the whole way."

[Sidenote: TRUGS]

Hurstmonceux is famous not only for its castle, but for its "trugs," the
wooden baskets that gardeners carry, which are associated with
Hurstmonceux as crooks once were with Pyecombe, and the shepherds' vast
green umbrellas, on cane frames, with Lewes.

CHAPTER XXXVI

HASTINGS

The ravening sea--Hastings and history--Titus Oates--Sir Cloudesley
Shovel--A stalwart Nestor--Edward Capel--An old Sussex harvest
custom--A poetical mayor--Picturesque Hastings--Ha