Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/604

 A HISTORY OF SUSSEX describes the latter as ' a pretty house beside Chichester,' and refers to Cowdray as ' a goodly house of Sir Anthony Brown's where we were marvelously, yea rather excessively banketted.' ' Some idea of the magnificence of Cowdray may be gathered from the details preserved of the entertainment offered Qiieen Elizabeth in 1593/ in which figure many of those quaintly elaborate ' conceits ' so familiar in the pages of ' Kenilworth.' But feasting and loyalty are only one side of the picture, and during the troubled year 1 549, when rebellion was rife in Norfolk and Corn- wall, Sussex was evidently disaffected, for Sir John Markham, writing early in August to the Earl of Rutland, refers to ' a general plague of rebelling,' and adds that ' Kent, Sussex, Essex, and all the parts near London have meekly confessed their folly and pray for the King's most gracious pardon.' ' In the following May, however, the sheriffs of Kent and Sussex were warned of a conspiracy of the Commons of those counties to assemble at Heathfield on Whit Monday,^ and in 1551 ' one Flynt of Sussex ' was in the Fleet as ' a seditious stirrer imprisoned for being a doer amongst the rebelles.' ° Outside troubles were also rife ; the lord lieutenant of the county had been warned to see that the beacons were watched and the soldiers ready to assemble at an hour's notice, ° and the authorities at Rye were busy fortifying their town, for which they asked leave to use the stone and mortar brought together for Camber Castle/ This latter was one of a series of block-houses erected along the south-east coast about 1 540, and its ruins still testify to the low state of military architecture at this date.* It was apparently the only fort on the Sussex coast that was in use at this date ; the castle at Pevensey had so fallen into decay that in June 1548 certain Scots lying at Dieppe considered it would fall an easy prey to any invader, while still strong enough to afford valuable assistance to a force occupying it.^ This design, however, came to nothing, if indeed it had ever been seriously considered. The history of Sussex during the reign of Elizabeth is almost entirely military, and resolves itself into a string of orders for the levying of troops, either for defence against invasion, or for warfare in Flanders and the Low Countries. The drain of men for the French wars was as great as in the time of the Edwards and Henries, but in this reign they were often required to assist the French king against the Spaniards. In 1562 the Earl of Arundel was ordered to raise 500 men in the county for foreign service," and next year 2,000 men from Hants and Sussex were sent to Havre." Another 300 were levied in 1577," and ' Suss. Arch. Coll. X. 201. 2 Ibid. v. 185-7. 3 Hist. MSS. Com Rep. xii, pt. iv. p. 42. 6 Cal. S.P. Dom. Edw. VI. Add. ii. ' Ibid. vii. 20. 8 In 1540, 1,272 men were employed on the construction of this castle (i. y P. Hen. VIII. xv. 598). William Oxenbridge, as surveyor of the works, was paid ;^3,ooo in 1542, and another ;^4,ooo next year; but in less than a century the place was abandoned and in ruins. S.P. Dom. Edw. VI. iv. 13. '0 Cal. S.P. Dom. Eliz. xxiv. 35. " Ibid. xxix. 36. " Acts of P.C. ix. 329. 5^6
 * Acts of P.C. iii. 35. 6 Ibid. 383.