de Hodlega" occurs in the Chartulary of Lewes Priory, temp. William, third Earl Warenne; but it may mean either East or West Hoathly.—This church comprises chancel, nave, south porch, and massive square west tower with battlements and stair-turret. There is also a late Perp. chapel on the northern side, with square-headed windows, the whole precisely resembling that on the south side of Chidingly church. In the east end are three lancet windows, the central the highest, the upper termination being trefoiled: the side windows of the chancel have similar tops; but these are evidently insertions. The wall is of rubble masonry. In the north wall of the nave a round-headed door has been bricked up, and the frame chiselled even with the wall. The tower is Perp. The porch is modern, of brick. The south wall of the nave has recently been repaired. The hood of the west door, as at Chidingly, contains the Pelham buckle. Horsfield (Lewes, II, 89) gives a woodcut of an ancient bowl, then, apparently, belonging to Mr. Wisdom, a resident of the parish. Of what material the bowl was formed is not stated, but the stem was decorated with a pair of large ram's horns.
127. Hoathly, West.—(A.D. 1291) "Ecclia de Hogligh" is considered to mean West Hoathly; the ecclesiastical divisions named distinguishing between the two places, East Hoathly being in the deanery of Pevensey, the other in that of Lewes.—The church comprises chancel, nave with south aisle and porch, and west tower with a good shingled spire, which, from its elevated position, is a conspicuous object. The chancel is E.E., but the east window is a very debased square insertion within the original arch, which still retains its side shafts. There are, an unusually wide piscina, and three sedilia, all trefoil-headed. The west end of the nave is earlier than the remainder, probably Tr. Norm. The aisle is E.E., having its own chancel. The font is mutilated, of Weald marble, probably E.E. Some windows are Dec., some Perp. In the interior near the south door are remains of a stoup. The walls, where original portions are visible, are of rubble masonry, like those of Ardingly. Two iron grave-slabs to Infields, dates 1619 and 1624, are used as stepping-stones at the entrance of the tower.—In this parish is a curiosity of a kind, whereof few examples exist in this part of the kingdom. It is a large rock, estimated to weigh from 487 to 500 tons, poised upon the edge, almost the point, of another, upon the summit of a sandstone cliff. The country people call it
