GRINSTEAD (EAST), a parish and borough and market-town,
in the hundred of EAST-GRINSTEAD, rape of
PEVENSEY, county of SUSSEX,
19 miles (N.) from
Lewes, and 29 (S. by E.)
from London, containing
3153 inhabitants. The town
is pleasantly situated on an
eminence near the northern
border of the county, on
the road from London
to Brighton: it was formerly a place of considerable
importance, having given name to the hundred. It
is irregularly built, but contains several neat modern
houses; it is paved, but not lighted, and is supplied
with water from wells. The market is on Thursday
and there is a market for cattle and live stock on
the last Thursday in every month; fairs are held,
April 21st, July 13th, and December llth, the first and
last of which are large cattle fairs; and at Forest
Row, about three miles from the town, there are fairs
annually on June 25th and November 8th. East Grinstead
is a borough by prescription, under a bailiff, who
is chosen yearly by a jury of burgage holders, at the
court leet for the manor. It has returned two members
to parliament ever since the first of Edward II., the
right of election being vested in the holders of thirtysix
burgage tenements, twenty-nine of which belong to
the Duke of Dorset, who is thus the proprietor of the
borough: the bailiff is the returning officer. The
Lent assizes for the county were formerly held here,
but have been discontinued since 1799. This place is
within the liberty of the duchy of Lancaster. The
living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Lewes, and
diocese of Chichester, rated in the king's books at £20,
and in the patronage of the Duke of Dorset. The
church, dedicated to St. Swithin, is a handsome edifice
in the later style of English architecture, consisting of
a nave, aisles, chancel, and chantry chapels, and con-
taining several interesting monuments. The tower,
which was rebuilt after having fallen down in 1785, is
well proportioned structure, ornamented with angular
pinnacles, and surmounted by a lofty spire. There is a
place of worship for a congregation in the late Countess of
Huntingdon's connexion. A free school was founded in
1708, by Robert Payne, and endowed with land producing
about £40 per annum, now paid to the master of aNational
school recently established, and principally supported
by voluntary contributions, in which seventy-five chil.
dren are educated. At the east end of the town is
Sackville college, a charitable institution, founded in the
reign of James I., by the Earl of Dorset, for the support
of twenty-four aged men and women, who receivers
per annum each, and are under the government of a
warden and two gentlemen assistants; there is a neat
chapel belonging to the institution, and a suite of rooms
is appropriated to the use of the Duke of Dorset.