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VILLAGES AROUND BEXHILL 107
a dungeon; a stone pillar with a chain attached—a melancholy indication—existed in Grose's time.
" It would seem that the founder of Hurstmonceux wished posterity to know of him as a man addicted to hospitality, for the oven in the bakehouse is 14 feet in diameter. The bakehouse was near the S.W. angle, and the oven is still to be seen; according to tradition 24 women once sat down to tea in it. The kitchen, which nearly adjoined the bakehouse on the N., was of somewhat corresponding dimensions, for instance, it was 28 feet high and contained three large fireplaces. Two of these built in the W. wall, may be readily found, though they are now bricked up."
Addison's comedy " The Drummer," is founded on the Hurstmonceux tradition of a devilish musician who sent forth a mysterious tattoo.
Bulverhythe, mentioned in " Dymchurch Flit," is distant about a mile and a half from St. Leonards. On the right of the road are the ruins of an ancient church or chapel. Bulverhythe is said to take its name from the peculiar nature of the gift made by William the Conqueror to one of his followers—the grant being as much ground as could be compassed or covered by a bull's hide. In the ordinary manner this would have been but a poor territory had not the recipient resorted to the expedient of cutting the hide into as thin strips as possible, and thus enclosing a somewhat extended area. This is a very old story, and not |
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