The Sussex Coast - online book

A Literary & Historical travel guide to the Sussex Coast

	PEVENSEY                             307
	Some of the churchwardens' disbursements during 1776 are thus itemised:— Of the old houses in the town by far the most interesting is that once occupied by Andrew Boorde, supposed to be the original Merry Andrew. It is now called the Mint House, and is boomed by boards along the roads leading to Pevensey as the grandest sight in Sussex. That the Pevensey Mint, which existed till the reign of Stephen, was here is perhaps as likely as that it was in any other specific spot in the town (it would be rash to say more), but the so-called Mint Room is a very ordinary back kitchen or scullery whose chimney is partly of brick. A ghost lives in a small chamber near by. The outside of the house is largely weather-tiled and altered in character, but the interior is framed of solid oak timbers and in some places the plaster between them is frescoed, the subjects being chiefly foliage, in one case enclosing a cherub, in another a motto intended to be read "Give ye of that little to my bretheren also," though a word is miswritten. This is obviously from Tobit iv. 8. The character of the fresco work in the two rooms where it exists is different. Outside is a stone dated 1542 (which some one has tried