Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/307

249 arch, but with no indication of any erection beyond it. The chancel arch is very lofty, with projecting abaci dividing the piers into two stages; but of the chancel only the north wall is original, the remainder being E.E. with late Perp. windows inserted. The font is a plain square block of Weald marble hollowed out, and supported by a stem and four shafts of the same stone, in the Norm, style. The porch appears to have been of open woodwork, but the sides are now built up with brick. The ancient barge-board remains.—Leominster was bequeathed in the will of K. Alfred to his nephew Osferd; and a small nunnery existed here in Saxon times, it being stated in the Jorval Collection, that "Suane, son of Godwin Earl of Kent, inveigled Edwina, abbess of Lyminster, with intent to marry her." It seems to have been subsequently a small Augustine priory. (Cartwright's Dallaway.)

An alien priory or cell to Almanesche in Normandy is concluded by Tanner to have been founded at Leominster before A.D. 1178. (Notit. Monast. Sussex, xix, in Monast. VI, 1032.) This notice may be considered to allude to the Saxon nunnery; of which establishment no vestiges exist. Among the names of places in Sussex occurring in K. Alfred's will, Mr. Wise (in his edition of Asser's Alfred, 77) gives "Bullingminster;" which seems an evident misreading for Lullingminster, and is so regarded by others, as, for example, in the quotation above.

157. —In (A.D. 1291) we find "Ecclia Sancti Leonardi" mentioned along with "Bixle," that is Bexhill: and I conceive this church alone can be intended by the St. Leonard's, Hastings, (of N.R.), as the town contained no church with that appellation.—This, though small, is an ancient parish, adjoining Hastings on the west. When the old church was destroyed does not appear, but "the registers were included in those of Hollington, until the recent consecration of the chapel" (of the new town of St. Leonard's on the Sea, which is partly in this parish) "by act of parliament." (Horsfield's Suss. I, 441.) The above statement respecting the registers of St. Leonard's tends to confirm the conjecture in the Note on Hollington, that the church of St. Leonard may be intended by the "free chapel of Hollington," which is mentioned in (Val. Eccl.). See also the Note on Wilesham. 158. .—Though the "customs" of the borough of Lewes are enumerated in (D.B.) nothing is said of any church there. However presumptive evidence still exists, that the town