At the end of the hall,
opposite the picture, a third of the way up towards the roof, was a
gallery. All these things that I have enumerated were in perfect
condition, without rust, untouched by decay or injury of any kind; but
yet they seemed to belong to a past age, and were mellowed, softened in
their splendor, a little dimmed with time,--toned down into a venerable
magnificence. Of all domestic things that I have seen in England, it
satisfied me most.
Then the Frenchwoman showed us into various rooms and offices, most of
which were contrived out of the old abbey-cloisters, and the vaulted
cells and apartments in which the monks used to live. If any house be
haunted, I should suppose this might be. If any church-property bring a
curse with it, as people say, I do not see how the owners of Battle Abbey
can escape it, taking possession of and dwelling in these holy precincts,
as they have done, and laying their kitchen hearth with the stones of
overthrown altars. The Abbey was first granted, I believe, to Sir
Anthony Browne, whom I saw asleep with his lady in the church. It was
his first wife. I wish it had been his second; for she was Surrey's
Geraldine. The posterity of Sir Anthony kept the place till 1719, and
then sold it to the Websters, a family of Baronets, who are still the
owners and occupants. The present proprietor is Sir Augustus Webster,
whose mother is the lady that so kindly let us into the Abbey.
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