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30 |
KIPLING'S SUSSEX |
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They never heard his whistle blow which made them all full sore afraid :
Then Horsly said, ' My Lord, aboard, for now Sir Andrew Barton's dead.'
But we must return to the story.
Hal rides to Brightling and tells Sir John Pelham of the gun-running, who comes with thirty stout knaves, and with much of the guile peculiar to " silly Sussex," adroitly hands the guns over to Cabot without finding cause to quarrel with Master John Collins, the founder, or to convict those associated with him in his treasonable traffic in cannon.
The reader of this story will have no difficulty in connecting "St. Barnabas" with Burwash Parish Church, which has an early Norman tower and a thirteenth century chancel. On the font, which is fifteenth century, will be seen the buckle of Sir John Pelham of Brightling, who is of the same family as the Lord Pelham mentioned in the " Ballad of Minepit Shaw." The old Bell Inn, opposite the church, is also referred to by Kipling in " Hal o' the Draft," and we learn that Ticehurst Will and other gun-runners " wagged their sinful heads " over their cups of ale in this place of entertainment.
" The Bell " deserves a visit. Here the rooms |
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