In 1093, William II. staid at Hastings for a month, during which Anselm , Archbishop of Canterbury, and seven other bishops, assisted in the consecration of the Bishop of Lincoln . The ceremony we are told took place in the chapel in the Castle itself. This phrase suggests the idea , that there was either then, or at the time of the writer, another chapel without the Castle, with which the former was in some danger of being confused. This must have been the Chapel of the College of St. Mary, founded by the first Count of Eu, or by one of his immediate descend ants,and which was situated " infra claustrum ," i.e.,on the sloping ground outside the Castle, to the south, as has been already described . In the following year 1095 , William II. was again in our town, on the occasion of the consecration of Battle Abbey . During the reign of his brother Henry I, this was the station for the royal ship , which shews that Hastings at any rate then had a harbour, and that the King must have often visited the town ; which was no doubt much frequented during the union of England and Normandy.
Thus far we have had to treat of Hastings in her prosperity . Her decadence may have commenced in the troubled times of Stephen, as we find no mention of the mint after his predecessor's reign . Under Richard Cour De Lion , a Priory of Austin Friars was founded by Sir Walter Bricet in 1191,dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Its site is marked out by the Priory Farm House, close to which is a pond which was drained about 30 years ago, when a large hole -
