oblong shape, and this was divided up into
thirty-nine or forty squares by means of wide streets intersecting at
right angles.

On the north the town stood upon a cliff overhanging the Brede fiord;
on the east the land fell away precipitously to the sea itself. At the
north-east and north-west corners of the plateau, roads were made down
to the sea, with quays at the bottom of each, and great gates, the
Strand and Ferry, at the top. At the land end yet another gate was
built, the New, and the extremity protected by a moat and stone walls.
A castle was built, and full provision made for the resumption of the
commerce of the port.

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[Illustration: THE STRAND GATE, WINCHELSEA]

Winchelsea stands upon a plateau, at the north-east and north-west
corners of which roads were made down to the sea, with quays at the
bottom of each, and great gates, the Strand and Ferry, at the top.

(_See page 49_)

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The various religious houses were reproduced as in the dead town, and
ere long the lusty life of the old place began again in earnest. The
town became self-supporting with its shipbuilding and fishing, and its
galaxy of representative craftsmen, and offered a splendid channel for
trade to and from the mainland. Being a serviceable defensive port, it
rehabilitated itself as a rendezvous for the navy, and combined with
that importance the added attraction of being the best base on the
coast for pirates. So well was the latter occupation organized that we
read of one of the mayors of the town--one Robert de Battayle--being
caught red-handed and summarily punished for acts of piracy.

And what remains? Very little. At the northern end certain of the
spacious streets are inhabited but generally grass-grown. These show
the original divisions and dimensions; but southwards and westwards the
majestic squares have become merely green fields, until at last the
boundaries have been lost altogether. Ancient words of doom ring in
our ears as we survey the scene: "Thorns shall come up in her palaces,
nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof.... They shall be left
altogether unto the fowls of the mountains and to the beasts of the
earth; and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the
earth shall winter upon them."

The church, or rather a certain portion of it, stil