250 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



stock. The name of Sayers is well known throughout 

 Sussex, and in particular at Hand Cross, Burgess Hill, 

 and Hurstpierpoint. There is even, as we have already 

 seen, a Sayers Common on the road. Tom Sayers, 

 however, was born at Brighton. He worked as a 

 bricklayer at building the Preston Viaduct of the 

 Brighton and Lewes Railway : that great viaduct 

 which spans the Brighton Road as you enter the town. 

 He retired in 1860, after his fight with Heenan, and 

 when he died, in 1865, the reputation of prize-fighting 

 died with him. 



At the summit of Dale Hill stands Pyecombe, 

 above the junction of roads, on the rounded shoulder 

 of the downs. The little rubbly and flinty churches 

 of Pyecombe, Patcham, Preston, and Clayton are very 

 similar in appearance exteriorly and all are provided 

 with identical towers finished off with a shingled 

 spirelet of insignificant proportions. This little 

 Norman church, consisting of a tiny nave and chancel 

 only, is chiefly interesting as possessing a triple chancel 

 arch and an ancient font. 



Over the chancel arch hangs a painting of the Royal 

 Arms, painted in the time of George the Third, faded 

 and tawdry, with dandified unicorn and a gamboge 

 lion, all teeth and mane, regarding the congregation 

 on Sundays, and empty benches at other times, with 

 the most amiable of grins. It is quite typical of 

 Pyecombe that those old Royal Arms should still 

 remain ; for the place is what it was then, and then it 

 doubtless was what it had been in the days of good 

 Queen Anne, or even of Elizabeth, to go no further 

 back. The grey tower tops the hill as it has done 

 since the Middle Ages, the few cottages cluster about it 

 as of yore, and only those who lived in those humble 

 homes, or reared that church, are gone. Making the 

 circuit of the church, I look upon the stone quoins and 

 the bedded flints of those walls ; and as I think how 

 they remain, scarce grizzled by the weathering of 

 countless storms, and how those builders are not 

 merely gone, but are as forgotten as though they had 



