deliver up Rochester Castle to the King, in which were the chief Norman Lords shut up, under the command of Eustace, Earl of Boulogne.

In the year 1144, King Stephen having invested the ancient castle, found it was not to be readily reduced; he therefore quitted the attack, and was contented to leave a blockading force to reduce it by famine.

King John sent a precept to William, sixth Earl of Warren, to deliver up to Matthew Fitzherbert *, the Castle of Pevensey, who was commanded to destroy the same, by reason of the Earl of Warren having joined the Dauphin Lewis. Earl Warren was brother-in-law of Gilbert de Aquila, who had fled to Normandy, and held the temporary occupation of Pevensey Castle; having also to receive, out of the manor, his sister's dower, whose husband, Gilbert, is supposed to have died in Normandy, in the 6th of King John.

A. D. 1265, the Barons, in the reign of Henry III., thinking it of great consequence to their party to be entire masters of the coast of Sussex, Leicester, with this view, sent John FitzAlan orders, in the King's name, to deliver

up

his

* Vide article Winchelsea, for an account of the Hereberts of Winchelsea, who afterwards changed their name to Finch, on espousing an heiress of that family; one of whom is recorded by Leland to have been a captain of celebrity, and engaged in the warfare in this county.

son and heir, or the Castle of Arundel, by way of hostage for his fidelity. The Castle of Pevensey being still left very convenient for receiving supplies from France, Simon de Montford had marched from London with a body of the City Militia, and another of the Baron's troops, to invest the castle; but losing a great deal of time before it, was called away by his father, who wanted his assistance, and returned to London.

In 47th of Henry III., we also find that John, Earl Warren, had the royal fortification of the Castle of Pevensey committed to his charge; after having first joined himself with the associated barons, he repaired to the King, at Oxford.

King Henry IV., in the year 1405, confined Edward, Duke of York, in close custody in Pevensey Castle, whose descendant, Edward, afterwards deprived Henry VI. of the crown. For a

noble and affecting portrait of the sorrows of the Duchess of York, vide Shakspeare.

PLATE L.

Remains of Robertsbridge Priory, taken from the Burrell MS. Drawings.

THE remains of the Abbey of Robertsbridge are situated on the south side of the river Rother, a

short distance from Bodiam Castle.

This abbey

was built and endowed by Robert, or Alured, de St. Martin, A. D. 1174, for monks of the Cistertian Order, and dedicated to St. Mary. The plate, descriptive of these ruins, of which but a small portion now remains, gives a south-west view of the same.

PLATE LI.

Remains of the Chapel of Robertsbridge Abbey, taken from the Burrell MS. Drawings.

THE river Rother is here divided into three channels, and its bridge is supposed to be called Robertsbridge, by corruption, as regards the similarity of name with that of the river itself, This point is by no means certain, for the bridge was probably built here upon the founding of the abbey ; and the account of it furnished in the chronicles of the time, point pretty evidently to the christian name of the founder, as that which was continued to the abbey and manor in after-times. "Robert de Saint Martin, in the reign of Henry II. who was in favour with the king, founded, upon the river Rother, the Abbey of Robert's Bridge*.

* Anno 1176 Robertus de Sancto Martino, regnante Henrico Secundo, eique familiaris, condidit super flumen Rothori Abbatiam de Ponte Roberti.

Amongst the lands possessed by this abbey, were those given by Alured de Saint Martin, in the rape of Hastings; certain lands which it held of the canons of Hastings College; others purchased by the abbot; also, seventy acres granted to the abbey of Robertsbridge, by Alicia, Countess of Eu, and confirmed by her son, Earl Henry. The manor of Robertsbridge was possessed, in the time of Elizabeth, by Henry Sidney. In the 28th Queen Elizabeth, Sir Philip Sidney died seized of this manor; his daughter, and heiress, Elizabeth Sidney, married Roger, Earl of Rutland. Elizabeth, Countess of Rutland, died in the 10th James I., seized of the site, circuit, and precincts of the monastery of Robertsbridge, holden of the king in capite by the service of one twentieth part of a knight's fee. The manor was subsequently possessed by the Earls of Leicester, until 1720, when John, Earl of Leicester, made sale of it to John Sambroke, Esq. Five years afterwards, Sir Thomas Webster, Bart. purchased the manor of Robertsbridge. By a document, dated 1609, in the possession of Sir Godfrey Webster, Bart. the present possessor of this manor, it appears that John Hawes then held, for the rent of four pounds, in farm at will, the scite of the manor, with all the houses, buildings, orchards, and gardens, lying in the parish of Salehurst, upon a level, between two fresh-water rivers, abutting at the great stone

bridge at the Forge Pond, twenty-two acres and a half, sometime called Elam, whereupon there was, at that time, a capital mansion, of which all the rooms, outhouses, and stables, are enumerated; also a house of office, lately used for a hawke's mew; also various buildings for the steel-makers, wherein were eight steel forges*; also a mill-house, covered with straw, standing over the river, containing a wheat-mill, a malt-mill, an apple-mill, and a garner; also one great gate-house, called the West Gate, built of lime and stone, and covered with tile, used in part as a dove-house, and in part for the steel-makers; also a great gate called the East Gate, employed as a store-house for iron, with a house attached to it for James Lamye, the hammerman. How many of the recited buildings, the number and extent of which I have not room to specify here, were a part of the ancient monastery, cannot now be ascertained: their erection may account in a great measure for the dilapidation of Robertsbridge Abbey. For my views of the ruins, I am obliged to the splendid collections of Sir William Burrell, whose drawings of Robertsbridge were taken about the year 1776; the great utility

* Sussex has long been famous for its mines and manufacture of iron, and is said to have many pools of water, formed solely with the intention of driving the hammer mills constructed at various periods.

I