Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/337

Rh which is late Norm. Indeed we may go still further back. Though the northern wall of the nave may be late Norm., Rottingdean church generally is E.E., consisting of nave and chancel, with a central tower, but no transepts, the whole being of an extremely substantial character. In the walls, for example in the northern side a little above the foundation of the tower, and even in the nave wall, numerous stones may be observed, particularly portions of columns, beside others, which must have belonged to a former building, and intimating the (probable) previous existence of a church upon the same spot; which inference receives some confirmation from the presence at the west end of a small part of the wall, having no manifest connection with the remainder, but seeming to have been an old fragment, perhaps of a Norm. buttress, worked into the more recent wall: and an erection merely dating subsequent to the Domesday Survey would scarcely have required renovation in the "E.E." era, beside that the demolished columns imply more ornamental architecture, than the church now standing displays. The floor of the nave originally ascended gradually from the western entrance to the tower, but was levelled when the church was new paved, and the present sash-windows inserted A.D. 1818, in which alteration the ground at the western tower-arch was lowered about a foot. Porstlade church is another, still existing, example of the inclined plane. That this church was formerly larger is unquestionable. On the outside of the south wall of the nave, three arches, now closed, are uite distinct, not only the soffits, but also the piers and their capitals, the latter having trefoil carving, being perfectly visible; and the arches might be reopened with no danger and little difficulty. Beside these marks, some of the foundation wall, and even that of the porch, of the south aisle appears among the grass of the churchyard. How or when this aisle was destroyed, as remarked in the Note on East Blatchington, it is impossible now to say; though it may be a probable conjecture, that it was effected during hostilities with some neighbouring nation. For it is recorded (See Horsfield's Suss. I, 187.) that A.D. 1377 the French landed at Rottingdean, and marched from thence with the intention of plundering Lewes, in which attempt they failed; also that they again committed various ravages on the coast of Sussex in 1514 and 1545.

Balsdean, pronounced "Baa'sdean," is a hamlet of four houses, beside one on the adjoining farm of Norton, in the parish of