Highways and Byways in Sussex - online book

An illustrated appreciation, of the most interesting districts in Sussex.

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XXXIX
TURNER IN SUSSEX
381
satisfied him he presented the church with nine bassoons, I cannot say.
John Fuller has a better claim to be remembered in Sussex by his purchase of Bodiam Castle, when its demolition was threatened, and by his commission to Turner to make pictures in the Rape of Hastings, five of which were engraved and published in folio form, in 1819, under the title Views in Sussex. One of these represents the Brightling Observatory as seen from Rosehill Park. As a matter of fact, the observatory, being of no interest, is almost invisible, although Mr. Reinagle, A.R.A., who supplies the words to the pictures, calls it the " most important point in the scene." Furthermore, he says that the artist has expressed a shower proceeding "from the left corner." Another picture is the Vale of Ashburnham, with the house in the middle distance, Beachy Head beyond, and in the foreground woodcutters carrying wood in an ox waggon. " The whole," says Mr. Reinagle, A.R.A., " is happily composed, if I may use the term." He then adds : M The eye of the spectator, on looking at this beautifully painted scene, roves with an eager delight from one hill to another, and seems to play on the dappled woods till arrested by the seat of Lord Ashburnham." Other pictures in the folio are " Pevensey Bay from Crowhurst Park," a very beautiful scene, "Battle Abbey,"and "The Vale of Heathfield," painted from a point above the road, with Heathfield House on the left, the tower on the right, the church in the centre in the middle distance, and the sea on the horizon: an impressive but not strictly veracious landscape.
In Brightling church is a bust to John Fuller, with the motto : 11 Utile nihil quod non honestum." A rector in Fuller's early days was William Hayley, who died in 1789, a zealous anti­quary. His papers relating to the history of Sussex, are now, like those of Sir William Burrell, in the British Museum.
Our next village is Burwash, three miles in the north, built, like all the villages in this switchback district, on a hill. We
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