“The Priory building was probably irregular, varying in its form as the increase of inmates demanded additional room.  But though irregular, it was certainly a noble edifice, faced with Caen stone, and richly adorned by the chisel of the sculptor.  Its walls embraced an area of 32 acres, 2 rods, 11 perches, and it was not less remarkable for its magnificence than extent.  The length of the church was 150 feet, having an altitude of 60 feet.  It was supported by thirty-two pillars, eight of which were very lofty, being 42 feet high, 18 feet thick, and 45 feet in circumference; the remaining twenty-four were 10 feet thick, 25 feet in circumference, and 18 feet in height.[1] The belfry was placed over the centre of the church, at an elevation of 105 feet, and was supported by the eight lofty pillars above mentioned.  The roof over the high altar was 93 feet high.  Its walls were 10 feet thick.  On the right side of the high altar was a vault supported by four pillars, and from this recess branched out five chapels that were bounded by a wall 70 yards long.  A higher vault supported by four massive pillars, 14 feet in diameter, and 45 feet in circumference, was probably on the left side of the high altar, and corresponded with the one just mentioned, from which branched out other chapels or cells of the monks.  How many chapels there were cannot be ascertained; the names of only three are known, the Virgin Mary, St. Thomas the Martyr, and St. Martin.  The chapter-house and church were by far the most splendid apartments of this stately pile; the latter was richly adorned by the painter and the sculptor.”

    [1] These measurements are confusing, unless the pillars were of
    an unusual shape.  A round column 18 feet thick would be 54 feet
    in circumference.

The wooden chapel of St. Pancras which existed here in Saxon times probably stood where later the high altar of the great Norman church was reared, and across this site the Eastbourne trains now run.  The station itself is supposed to be on the site of the convent kitchens and consequently the present ruins are very scanty.  Though the foundations laid bare at the cutting of the railway in 1845 show the great extent of the buildings, the battered walls which now remain give but little indication of the imposing dimensions quoted above, and the visitor will have to depend on sentiment and the imagination rather than on actual sightseeing.  The excavators in 1845 had a gruesome experience, for they discovered a charnel pit containing thirteen cart loads of bones of the fallen warriors at the battle of Lewes.  Although nearly six centuries had elapsed the stench was dreadful.

That the archaeological interest of Lewes owes much to the making of the railway will now be seen.

[Illustration:  The priory ruins, Lewes.]

The following account appeared in the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1845:—­