ancient boroughs--possibly to equalise his
theft of acres of good park at Selsey. Once a Cinque Port of the first
magnitude, Winchelsea is now an inland resort of the antiquary and the
artist. Where fishermen once dropped their nets, shepherds now watch
their sheep; where the marauding French were wont to rush in with sword
and torch, tourists now toil with camera and guide-book.

The light above the sheep levels changes continually: at one hour Rye
seems but a stone's throw from Winchelsea; at another she is miles
distant; at a third she looms twice her size through the haze, and
Camber is seen as a fortress of old romance.

Rye stands where it always stood: but the original Winchelsea is no
more. It was built two miles south-south-east of Rye, on a spot since
covered by the sea but now again dry land. At Old Winchelsea William the
Conqueror landed in 1067 after a visit to Normandy; in 1138 Henry II.
landed there, while the French landed often, sometimes disastrously and
sometimes not. In those days Winchelsea had seven hundred householders
and fifty inns. In 1250, however, began her downfall. Holinshed
writes:--"On the first day of October (1250), the moon, upon her change,
appearing exceeding red and swelled, began to show tokens of the great
tempest of wind that followed, which was so huge and mightie, both by
land and sea, that the like had not been lightlie knowne, and seldome,
or rather never heard of by men then alive. The sea forced contrarie to
his natural course, flowed twice without ebbing, yeelding such a rooring
that the same was heard (not without great woonder) a farre distance
from the shore. Moreover, the same sea appeared in the darke of the
night to burne, as it had been on fire, and the waves to strive and
fight togither after a marvellous sort, so that the mariners could not
devise how to save their ships where they laie at anchor, by no cunning
or shift which they could devise. At Hert-burne three tall-ships
perished without recoverie, besides other smaller vessels. At
Winchelsey, besides other hurte that was doone, in bridges, milles,
breakes, and banks, there were 300 houses and some churches drowned with
the high rising of the water course."

[Sidenote: WINCHELSEA'S VICISSITUDES]

The Winchelsea people, however, did not abandon their town. In 1264
Henry III. was there on his way to the Battle of Lewes, and later,
Eleanor, wife of Henry's conqueror, de Montfort, was there too, and
encouraged