A well-behaved castle--Rail and romance--Britons, Romans, Saxons and Normans at Pevensey--William the Conqueror--A series of sieges--The first English letter--Andrew Borde, the jester, again--Pevensey gibes--A red brick castle--Hurstmonceux church--The tomb of the Dacres.--Two Hurstmonceux clerics--The de Fiennes and the de Monceux--A spacious home--The ghost--The unfortunate Lord Dacre--Horace Walpole at Hurstmonceux--The trug industry. Pevensey Castle behaves as a castle should: it rises from the plain, the only considerable eminence for miles; it has noble grey walls of the true romantic hue and thickness; it can be seen from the sea, over which it once kept guard; it has a history rich in assailants and defenders. There is indeed nothing in its disfavour except the proximity of the railway, which has been allowed to pass nearer the ruin than dramatic fitness would dictate. Let it, however, be remembered that the railway through the St. Pancras Priory at Lewes led to the discovery of the coffins of William de Warenne and Gundrada, and also that, in Mr. Kipling's phrase, romance, so far from being at enmity with the iron horse, "brought up the 9.15." [Illustration: _Pevensey Castle._] Pevensey, which is now divided from the channel by marshy fields with nothing to break the flatness but Martello towers (thirteen may be counted from the walls), was, like Bramber Castle in the west, now also an inland stronghold, once washed and surrounded by the sea. The sea probably covered all the ground as far inland as Hailsham--Pevensey, Horseye, Rickney and the other "eyes" on the level, being then islands, as their termination suggests. There is now no doubt but that Pevensey was the Anderida of the Romans, a city on the borders of the great forest of Anderida that covered the Weald of Sussex--Andreas Weald as it was called by the Saxons. But before the Romans a British stronghold existed here. This, after the Romans left, was attacked by the Saxons, who slew every Briton that they found therein. The Saxons in their turn being discomfited, the Normans built a new castle within the old walls, with Robert de Moreton, half brother of the Conqueror, for its lord. Thus the castle as it now stands is in its outer walls Roman, in its inner, Norman. [Sidenote: WILLIAM'S LANDING]