of Pevensey Castle with a salary of £22. 16s. 3d. existed so lately as 1553.
a. d. 1587. A survey of the Sussex coast was made with a view to its defence against the threatened Spanish invasion. Against the "Castle of Pevensey" there is a suggestion that it be either "re-edified or utterlye rased;" but, as we know, neither alternative was resorted to.
The subsequent history of Pevensey Castle involves little beyond that which the tooth of time and the pick-axe of the spoiler have inscribed upon its venerable towers.[1]
My friend and colleague, Mr. Charles Roach Smith, F.S.A., M.R.S.L., &c., whose knowledge of Roman antiquities has earned for him a European celebrity, and whose successful researches at Richborough, Reculver, Lymne, and other stations on the "Saxon shore" have qualified him præ ceteris for the undertaking, had long entertained the wish to make excavations at Pevensey.[2] At his instance, therefore, I was induced in the month of July 1852, to apply to the Earl of Burlington, the owner of the castle, for permission to make the desired explorations, and his lordship with his usual urbanity cheerfully acceded to the request. A subscription list was opened, and we soon succeeded in raising funds for the commencement of the work. The Brighton Railway Company also seconded our views by granting to Mr. Smith and myself free conveyance to the scene of operations.
We commenced our labours in the month of August by excavating within the great western gateway of the Roman work. By clearing the incumbent soil (the accumulation of many centuries) we found that the massive flanking towers of this entrance, twenty-eight feet apart, (a in the plan) had originally been connected by a wall, and that this had been pierced by an archway which formed the first porta or entrance. Within this we disclosed the solid foundations more than five feet in thickness, of an apartment of about
- ↑ See fuller particulars of the history and descent in Chronicles of Pevensey.
- ↑ It may be as well to mention here, that this report is drawn up independently of Mr. S. for the information of our Society. The result of my friend's observations will be embodied in the future numbers of his Collectanea Antiqua, or probably in a separate report.
