one hundred and sixty-five feet, and from east to west one hundred and fifty feet. The inner court is, according to Burrell, from N. to S., 87 ft. 3 in.; from E. to W., 78 ft. 9in. :but Cotton's measurement is somewhat different, viz., 89 ft. 4 × 76 ft. 7. The Kitchen, inclusive of the buttery, is 59 ft. 9 in. long, by 24 ft. 2 in. wide; and the dimensions of the Great Hall are similar. The chapel measures 30 ft. 6 in. by 19 ft. 2 in. The towers are sixty-five feet high from the surface of the moat, and the average thickness of the walls is from 6 to 7 feet.

The thanks of archæologists are due to the present respected proprietor of the Castle, as well as to his predecessor, for the care they have taken of these venerable remains. There is however some reason to fear, that the superabundant growth of ivy, which conceals some of the architectural features, will, without a timely check, disintegrate the masonry, and hasten the destruction of what even Time and the hand of violence have spared.

The arms of the successive lords of Bodiam (as shown over the great gate) are thus blazoned:-Bodiam : Or, a fesse dancetté sable bezantée.-Wardeur; Sable, six martlets, three, two, and one, Or.—Dalyngruge: Or, a cross engrailed Gules. -The central place is however assigned to Dalyngruge, as founder of the edifice.

The steep field lying immediately to the northward of the Castle, and known as the Castle Field, has strong marks of earthworks. It was formerly called the "Gun Garden," and "Gun-Battery Field," and there is a tradition of the Castle having been once taken by an assault from that spot. If there be any foundation for such a statement, it must refer to the time of the mandate of Richard III. for "retaking" the Castle from Sir Thomas Lewknor.

The original mansion of the De Bodiam and Wardeux families has been referred to on a previous page. Its site lies due north of the Castle, near the "Kent Ditch," the boundary of the two counties; and a line drawn from it to the Castle would pass close to the church, which lies midway between the two points. The area of the moat surrounding it measures 3 roods 18 perches, and the inclosed space, now a plantation, contains 23 perches.

NOTICES OF AN ENAMELLED CHALICE, AND OF OTHER ANCIENT RELIQUES, FOUND ON

THE SITE OF RUSPER PRIORY.

BY ALBERT WAY, ESQ., M.A.

ON a former occasion I communicated to the Society certain documents relating to the Benedictine Priory of St. Mary Magdalen, at Rusper, accompanied by the few scattered notices which I had been enabled to collect regarding that conventual establishment, situated on the borders of Sussex and Surrey. These have been printed in the fifth volume of the Sussex Arch. Coll., pp. 244-262.

The site of the Nunnery of Rusper is now occupied by a modern house. Some alterations were made in 1840, and in digging foundations several interments were brought to light, supposed to be those of a prioress and some of the sisterhood, with certain reliques, of which I purpose to give a description, supplementary to my former notices. The remains were reinterred in the churchyard at Rusper; a small tablet was affixed to the outer wall of the church, by direction of the late James Broadwood, Esq., of Lyne, as a memorial of their discovery and removal. The objects found were preserved by the late Robert H. Hurst, Esq., of Horsham, and were exhibited, by his permission, at the Meeting of the Sussex Archæological Society, at that place, in July, 1855.1

I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. John Honywood, of Horsham, for the following detailed narrative of the discoveries in question, which occurred under his immediate observation:

"In the spring of 1840 considerable additions were made to the Nunnery Mansion, and in digging out the earth for the foundations of the new buildings, some human bones were

1 Sussex Arch. Collections, Vol. III. p. x.

first discovered without any coffins. As the excavations proceeded, a stout oak coffin was discovered, very much decayed; the lid and bottom were nearly pressed together, the sides being too weak to resist the pressure of the earth above. On lifting up the lid nothing appeared beneath it but a dark blueish mud, or clay; but on the under side of the lid I observed a small round substance, which proved to be an amber bead. A careful search was then made in the muddy deposit lying on the bottom of the coffin, and twenty or twentyfour beads of amber and jet were found, together with a small gold crucifix, a gold ring se with stones, and a silver brooch. The brooch was so oxidized that it fell to pieces; these I afterwards united together as well as I could, to show the form of the ornament. There had also evidently been a staff deposited in this coffin, a id it had been gilded, but it was so completely decayed that only a black line of decayed matter remained, with the particles of gold leaf about it. I always thought that this coffin had,contained the remains of one of the prioresses, and that this might have been her official staff. In the progress of the works the remains of about forty of the sisterhood were unavoidably dug up; the bones were carefully collected, and placed in two new coffins covered with black cloth, and decently buried in the churchyard at Rusper. Some of the skeletons lay without any trace of coffins; all the coffins that were found were of greater width at the head than at the foot. In several of the coffins I discovered pewter chalices, or cups resembling chalices in form, and each of these was covered by a paten. The position of these chalices would indicate that they had been placed in the hand or between the hands of the corpse, on the breast. In one of the graves, which appeared to have been disturbed at some previous time by digging through it (unknown probably to the persons who did it), a chalice of enamelled copper was found, with a cover or paten of gilded copper, engraved, but so much oxidized as to crumble to powder. The chalice was also much corroded, but, at Mr. Hurst's desire, I repolished the enamel, and in other respects, by gilding the surface of the metal (perhaps injuriously to its authentic aspect as a relic of antiquity), restored it as nearly as possible to its original appearance. One of the coffins was formed of por