Fairlight Downs, near Hastings, terminate the prospect. This hill is supposed to have been a military station of the Danes.

CUCKFIELD is a neat and pleasant little town, about 14 miles from Brighton, on the London road, and had, in 1921, 2385 inhabitants. The Church is a spacious and handsome edifice, with a lofty spire, which has suffered from lightning, as the body of the building has from the hand of time. In the interior are many monuments, principally in memory of the Burrell family, ancestors of Lord Gwydir; a marble tablet commemorates Sir W. Burrell, who died in 1796, having bequeathed to the British Museum his maguificent and voluminous collection of materials for a history of his native county, comprising nine large portfolios of views, &c. and 33 other volumes, principally thick folios, containing an immense mass of historical, antiquarian, and general information on every subject connected with Sussex.

At Cuckfield a Free Grammar School was founded in the reign of Elizabeth, by private munificence, and a residence for the master was afterwards built at the expense of Lady Dorothy Shirley. A weekly Market is held here on Friday, and four annual Fairs contribute to the business of the town. About half a mile from hence is Cuckfield Place, a fine old mansion, erected towards the close of the sixteenth century, and standing in a handsome park.

DITCHLING is a village, seven miles from Brighton, with about 800 inhabitants. The Church is a small and ancient edifice, possessing nothing remarkable; and there is a National School for children of both sexes. This place is situated on the margin of the South Downs, and has in its vicinity a hill called Ditchling Beacon, which rises 858 feet above the level of the sea, and commands, from its summit, an extensive and richly varied prospect.

EASEBOURNE, about a mile from Midhurst, had formerly a weekly Market, which has been abandoned; and a small Convent of Benedictine Nuns, of which the Church still remains, in tolerable preservation, and is used as the parish church. It contains

an ancient monument, without any inscription, on which lies the figure of a knight in armour, supposed to represent Sir David Owen, a natural son of Henry VIII, who died in 1542.

EAST BOURNE, a fashionable sea-bathing place, is situated in a valley almost surrounded by hills which command an extensive prospect; it is 61 miles from London, by the Uckfield road, and, in 1821, had 2607 inhabitants. The parish is divided into four districts, two of which, nearest the sea, are called Meades and Sea Houses, of which the latter is the most visited; South Bourne and East Bourne are at a distance of nearly a mile and a half inland. The Church is a large and handsome building, with a fine old tower, and an elegant altar-piece. It contains several monuments, among which is one to the memory of Dr. Lushington, who died in 1779, having been vicar here 44 years; over this tomb is a marble monument, with a bust of his son Henry, who, going to the East Indies at 16 years of age, was one of the unfortunate persons imprisoned in the Black Hole at Calcutta; and having survived this scene of horror, was in 1763 taken prisoner at Patna, and after a long confinement, was, with two other persons, condemned to be put to death, by order of Ally Kawn. While the murderers were engaged with the first of their victims, Mr. Lushington, although unarmed, rushed upon them, seized one of their scymetars, and after killing three and wounding two others, fell, covered with wounds, in the 26th year of his age. Beside the Church, three places of worship for Dissenters have been established.

The bathing on this part of the coast is remarkably good, and a number of machines are employed; and a Chalybeate Spring, which rises about a mile from the Sea Houses, and whose waters are said to be similar in their effects to those of Bristol, adds to the number of visitants. A small Theatre, a Subscription Ball Room, and a Library and Reading Rooms, delightfully situated fronting the sea, form the amusements of the place, while the walks and rides in the neighbourhood are rendered exceedingly pleasant by the luxuriant growth of trees, so unusual on the coast. In the months of July and August

large flights of wheat-ears are caught near this town, and are considered a great delicacy.

Several relics of antiquity have been discovered in the vicinity of East Bourne, particularly in 1717, when a mosaic pavement, a bath, and other remains of a Roman villa, were found, about a foot below the surface; some coins have also been met with; and this place has been supposed by a learned antiquary of the last century, Dr. Tabor, to occupy the site of the Roman city of Anderida.

About a mile and a half to the east, at Langley Point, are two Forts; and on an eminence about a mile distant is a Battery; there are also several other fortifications in the vicinity, and the whole of this line of coast is defended by Martello towers, erected as a protection against the threatened French invasions. To the westward of Meades is Beachy Head, the most stupendous cliff on this coast, being 564 feet in perpendicular height, and having many caverns, one of the most remarkable of which is called Parson Darby's Hole, from a tradition that a clergyman of that name took up his residence here, about a century ago, from the benevolent motive of affording shelter to distressed mariners, or of warning them off this dangerous coast by the lights which he erected at the entrance of his cave. It contains two apartments, scooped out of the chalk; the entrance was closed by a door, and approached by a flight of rude steps. Beachy Head is memorable in history for an event of which there are fortunately but few examples; the defeat of the combined English and Dutch fleets, consisting of 56 sail of the line, by a French force of 84 ships of the line, beside frigates, fireships, &c. This battle took place June 30th, 1690; the loss of the English was two ships and 350 men; that of the Dutch six ships, two admirals, and a considerable number of sailors. The Admiral, Earl Torrington, was committed to the Tower, and afterwards tried before a court martial, by which he was fully and honourably acquitted, it appearing that the battle had been fought in compliance with positive orders from the Court, and in direct opposition to his own judgment. The King, however, who was exceedingly exasperated by the loss of the Dutch, dismissed him the next day from all his employments;

and he lived in retirement, from that period until his death, in 1716.

EAST GRINSTEAD,

A market town and borough by prescription, is pleasantly situated on an eminence near the Surrey border, 29 miles from London, and the prospect on every side, as it is approached, is beautiful and extensive. It is a town of considerable antiquity, but not now of much business; although it has still a weekly Market on Thursday, a monthly cattle market, and two annual Fairs; its population in 1821 was 3153.

This town has sent two Members to Parliament ever since 1307, who were elected by the whole of the inhabitants, but since 1695 this privilege has been confined to the burgage-holders, who are 36 in number. The Lent Assizes for the county were formerly held here, but this practice has ceased since 1799, on account of the distance from which the prisoners had to be brought for trial, and the inconvenience of the Sessions House, which was rebuilt in 1684, in consequence of an accident thus related in Sir W. Burrell's MS. collections: On the 17th of March 1684, the second day of the Assizes, a jury being sworn, consisting mostly of knights and gentlemen, on a trial between Lord Howard and another person of distinction, the floor of the Nisi Prius Court fell down, and with it all the jury, gentlemen, counsel and lawyers, into the cellar; yet no person received any considerable harm except one witness, who was cut across the forehead. The bench where the judge sat fell not, but hung almost to a miracle." The rest of the trials were heard in the Crown Court, and the Sessions House was soon after pulled quite down.

The parish of East Grinstead is one of the largest in the county, and gives name to the hundred in which it is situated. The Church stands in the High Street, and is a large and handsome stone building, "founded, indued, and inorned to the lawde of God, with divers ornamentis," according to an inscription on one of its monuments, by Richard Lewkenor, Esq. of Brambletye, and his wife Katherine, who was one of the Ladies to the Queens of Edward IV and Henry VII, and died in 1505. It has a fine and lofty tower, which being destroyed by lightning in 1683,

was rebuilt in the following year; but being badly constructed, fell down, and did great damage to the body of the Church, in 1785. It has been since rebuilt, apparently in a better manner. In this town is also a place of worship for Dissenters; and a Free School for twelve boys, founded in the last century by two gentlemen named Payne, who endowed it with a farm in this parish called Serryes.

At the eastern end of the town is a large quadrangular stone building, called Sackville College, founded in 1616 by the Earl of Dorset, and endowed by him with a revenue of £330 per annum, for the maintenance of 24 poor aged persons of both sexes, with a warden and two assistants, each of whom has a separate apartment, and an annual allowance of money. A neat Chapel forms a part of the building, in which the warden reads prayers every morning; and a suite of rooms is reserved for the Duke of Dorset, by whom they are seldom, if ever, occupied; they were used by the Judges when the Assizes were held in this place.

About a mile to the south of East Grinstead are the ruins of Brambletye House, familiarized to the reader by Mr. H. Smith's recent novel of that name. The edifice, however, of which the present remains form a part, was not erected until the time of James I; and is said to have been deserted towards the close of the seventeenth century, in consequence of its owner, Sir James Richards, being informed, while hunting, that it was intended to apprehend him for high-treason, upon which he immediately made his escape to the continent, and entered into the service of Spain; this mansion, being thus neglected, fell into ruin, and some of the materials have been since employed in the erection of other buildings.

ERIDGE CASTLE, the seat of the Earl of Abergavenny, is situated in the parish of Frant, two miles from Tunbridge Wells. The manor to which it is attached, and which is very extensive, formed a part of the possessions of Godwin, Earl of Kent; and in the reign of Henry VI, it became, by marriage, the property of Sir Edward Neville, ancestor of the present peer. The ancient mansion, of which some considerable portions have been incorporated in the modern edifice, was very spacious, and appears to