that the prestige attaching to the post is of quite as much importance as its pecuniary profits. Mr. Cooper, no doubt, valued this appointment for the periodical opportunity it afforded him of keeping up his connection with his native town, and with his old friends there; and as the business of the chief day was terminated by a pleasant dinner, the conviviality which then ensued, we may be sure, was not the least agreeable feature of the Lewes Leet.
Another post, not of a public character, to which Mr. Cooper succeeded in 1843, and upon which he set a high value, was the auditorship of an ancestral estate in the district of Cleaveland, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, whereon stands Skelton Castle, "a noble embattled mansion presenting a very extensive front," on whose site formerly stood "an ancient fortress, built, soon after the Conquest, by Robert de Brus, from whom descended some of the Scottish kings." Readers of the Sussex Archaeological Collections will hardly need to be reminded of the connection of the Brus family (with its various spellings of Braose, Braoze, Breuze, Brewes, Brewis, Brewose, Brewosa, Brewus, Brewys,&c.) with our southern county, and its large holdings therein. Adam de Brus, one of the early owners of Skelton Castle, on the marriage of his only daughter, Isabel, with Henry de Perci, lord of Petworth, gave to the latter a manor in Cleaveland, on the condition that "the said Henry and his heirs should repair to Skelton Castle every Christmas day, and lead the lady of that castle from her chamber to the chapel to mass, and from thence to her chamber again, and after dining with her to depart."[1] As Skelton Castle is distant from Petworth a good three hundred miles and more, Henry de Perci and his successors must have had many a perilous and weary winter jaunt, to fulfil the condition of the tenure of this manor. This custom has, of course, long ceased, but, although centuries have passed away, Skelton Castle is still possessed by a worthy descendant of its original owner, Robert de Brus, uncle of the just named Adam de Brus. Nor is this all. Skelton Castle
- ↑ 14 S. A. C., p. 3, note.
