A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



Dove, &c. On the lid is a carving of the arms of the see our Lord, with 

 the two-edged sword in His mouth. It bears the date XLV E R, i.e. 1603. 

 Seventeenth-century chests occur at Rusper, Lurgashall, Arundel, &c. 

 The sepulchral monuments of Sussex may be classed under : 

 -i. Coffin-slabs. The oldest of these is the child's coffin-slab in Bexhill 

 church, with Celtic interlaced patterns, 'battle-axe' crosses, &c. 

 an important example, dating probably from the eighth century. Next 

 in date is a priest's slab from Arundel Castle, bearing a representation 

 of a pectoral cross (c. A.D. 1000). At Stedham, Chithurst, Elsted, 

 Cocking, Aldingbourne, Fittleworth, and Steyning numerous coffin-slabs 

 have been discovered built into the foundations and structure of eleventh 

 and twelfth century walls. These bear rude crosses and other designs, such as 

 a Y figure at Stedham and Chithurst, and are in many cases of pre-Conquest 

 date. Others, perhaps of the twelfth century, are built upright inside the 

 chancel walls at Elsted. The richly carved slab of black ' touch ' that formed 

 the gravestone of Earl William de Warenne and Gundrada in Lewes Priory 

 church (now in St. John's Southover Lewes), is a most important example 

 of twelfth-century art ; so also are the coffin-slab of Bishop Ralph (died 

 1123) in Chichester Cathedral, and that bearing the beautiful design of doves 

 drinking, an Agnus Dei, and a cross in Bishopstone church. Lyminster has 

 a slab with a curious herring-bone fluting and a central ridge : and others of 

 the twelfth century have been found in the Infirmary chapel at Lewes. 

 Early stone coffins are preserved at Walberton and Sullington. A slab marking 

 a heart burial and many other thirteenth-century coffin-slabs are to be seen in 

 Chichester Cathedral, and at Aldingbourne, Arlington, Barnham, Battle, 

 Boxgrove, Eastdean, Little Horsted, Icklesham, Isfield, Lewes (St. John-sub- 

 Castro), Lyminster, East Lavant, Yapton, &c. Fourteenth-century examples 

 occur at Arlington, Alfriston, Poynings, Rogate, Trotton, &c. Head-stone 

 crosses of this period have been preserved at Trotton and West Wittering ; 

 and ledgers of a much later date are found in many churches having heraldic 

 and emblematical designs in low relief, as e.g. one with a skull and palm 

 branches at Rustington. 



2. Connected with the foregoing is the peculiarly Sussex group of 

 cast-iron grave-slabs. The oldest of these is perhaps the slab at Burwash 

 to Ihone Coline, probably of the fourteenth century. Others of four- 

 teenth- and fifteenth-century date are found at Rotherfield (ornamented 

 with al sword or double cross) and Playden (with Flemish inscription), 

 and sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century examples occur at 

 Burwash\ All Saints' Hastings, Lamberhurst, Mayfield, Mountfield, Pen- 

 hurst, Sa^Iehurst, Sedlescombe, Wadhurst, and Withyham. 



3. The monumental brasses of Sussex, considered as a series, have not as 

 yet received the attention that they merit at the hands of experts. It is 

 impossible tiere to name every brass, but it may be said that the best examples 

 are as follows : Trotton : to Margaret de Camoys, c. 1300 (the second oldest 

 brass of a lady in England) ; Thomas, Baron Camoys, and lady, 1419, under 

 canopy and supper-canopy; Bodiam : a knight, 1360 ; Rusper: John Kygges- 

 forde and wifel c. 1373; Etchingham : Sir William de Etchingham, 1387, 

 Sir William th\e younger, his wife and son, under triple canopy, 1444, and 

 other members\ of this family ; Fletching : a knight of the ? Dalyngruge 



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