LEWES AND ITS COUNTRY 79 



light-sparring publication "The Gridiron." He 

 had already had a few words, you know, on the 

 subject in his '' History of the Reformation," and 

 could have so easily worked up to his own 

 *' Gridiron " through natural steps afforded by 

 Henry V HI. (how he loved the Bluff old Blue- 

 Beard ! also the Virgin Queen with the vermilion 

 hair and general tendency to very high colour), 

 Sir Thomas Cromwell, and Lewes's Great Priory 

 of St Pancras, which master and man broke up 

 for building materials. William, William, you 

 were a fine journalist for your times, and wrote 

 jolly good English, also handbooks of quality 

 and usefulness never surpassed, but you missed 

 picking up cues when you failed to play gridiron. 

 The identical gridiron on which between a dozen 

 and a score of men and women were stood to be 

 burnt alive in Lewes, is shown to this day ; 

 likewise, like Flora's back drawing-room in 

 ''Little Dorrit," there is the spot where the 

 roastings came off, still at the top of School Hill, 

 and still almost in front of the White Hart — 

 where doubtless fancy prices were paid for a 

 good window to see the show; and where now 

 the greatest of all the Lewes bonfires — every 

 division of the town has one to itself — blazes 

 annually in memory of the martyrs and defiance 

 of the system which they did so pluckily defy. 

 And if the true Lewesians seem rather over 

 tenacious and vindictive in keeping up such 

 unpleasant memories, be it remembered that the 

 roastees were one and all Sussex folk, some from 

 the town itself, and very likely related to many 

 of those who saw them burn. Suppose your 

 cousin or your sister — ? I think you would hand 

 down the record pretty vividly to your descend- 



