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.
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