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Seaward Sussex - The South Downs from End to End

Edric Holmes

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Title: Seaward Sussex

The South Downs from End to End

Author: Edric Holmes

Release Date: June 11, 2004 [EBook #12585]

Language: English

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[Illustration: HURSTMONCEUX.]

SEAWARD SUSSEX

THE SOUTH DOWNS

FROM END TO END

EDRIC HOLMES

ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS BY

MARY M. VIGERS

MAPS AND PLANS BY THE AUTHOR

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LONDON: ROBERT SCOTT

ROXBURGHE HOUSE

PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.

MCMXX

"How shall I tell you of the freedom of the Downs--

You who love the dusty life and durance of great towns,

And think the only flowers that please embroider ladies' gowns--

How shall I tell you ..."

EDWARD WYNDHAM TEMPEST.

Every writer on Sussex must be indebted more or less to the researches

and to the archaeological knowledge of the first serious historian

of the county, M.A. Lower. I tender to his memory and also to his

successors, who have been at one time or another the good companions

of the way, my grateful thanks for what they have taught me of things

beautiful and precious in Seaward Sussex.

E.H.

CONTENTS

CHAP.

INTRODUCTION

I LEWES

II TO EASTBOURNE AND PEVENSEY

III SHAFORD TO BRIGHTON

IV BRIGHTON

V SHOREHAM AND WORTHING

VI ARUNDEL AND THE ARUN

VII THE VALLEY OF THE ROTHER

VIII GOODWOOD AND BOGNOR

IX CHICHESTER

X SELSEY AND BOSHAM

APPENDIX--

THE SUSSEX DOWNS FROM END TO END.

LONDON TO THE SOUTH DOWNS. THE WEALD.

RAILWAY ROUTES.

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INDEX

The traveller through Sussex, as through every other English shire,

will find many reminders of the Great War in church, churchyard or

village green. Some are imposing or beautiful, some, alas, are neither,

or are out of keeping with the quiet peace of their surroundings. To

mention any, however striking in themselves or interesting in their

connexion, would be invidious as, at the time of writing, lack of

labour or material has prevented the completion of a great number of

them.

The local historian of the future will bring a woeful number of his

family records to a final close with the brief but glorious inscription

on the common tablet where plough-boy and earl's son are commemorated

side by side.

The sketch maps accompanying this book are simply for convenience in

identifying the route followed therein. Wanderers upon the Downs and

in the highways and byways at their feet will find Bartholomew's

"half-inch" map, sheet 32, the most useful. This scale is much to be

preferred to the "one inch" parent which lacks the contour colouring.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Hurstmonceux _Frontispiece_

Near Alciston

Market Cross, Alfriston

A Sussex Lane, Jevington

Willingdon

Lamb Inn, Eastbourne

Wannock

Old House, Petworth

The Barbican, Lewes Castle

St. Anne's Church, Lewes

The Priory Ruins, Lewes

Anne of Cleves House, Southover

The Grange, Southover

Cliffe

Firle Beacon

Alfriston Church

Alfriston

Lullington Church

Litlington

West Dean

East Dean

Beachy Head

Old Parsonage, Eastbourne

Jevington

Pevensey

Westham

Wilmington Green

Newhaven Church

Bishopstone Church Porch

Seaford Church

Seaford Head

Rottingdean

Brighton

The Pavilion, Brighton

St. Nicholas, Brighton

St. Peter's, Brighton

Poynings

Danny

Hurstpierpoint

Wolstonbury

Portslade Harbour

Shoreham and the Adur

New Shoreham

Old Shoreham

Sompting

Coombes

Upper Beeding

Bramber

St. Mary's, Bramber

Steyning

Grammar School, Steyning

Old Houses, Steyning

Chanctonbury Ring

Findon

Broadwater

Salvington Mill

Old Houses at Tarring

Beckets' Palace, Tarring

Arundel from the River

Arundel Castle

The Keep, Arundel

Arundel Gateway

Arundel Church

Lyminster

Clymping

Church Street, Littlehampton

Littlehampton Harbour

Amberley Castle

Stopham Bridge

Byworth

Petworth Church

Petworth House

Saddler's Row, Petworth

Cowdray

The Granary, Cowdray

Market Square, Midhurst

Midhurst Church

East Lavant

Felpham

Boxgrove Priory Church

Chichester Cathedral

Chichester Palace and Cathedral

Bell Tower, Chichester

Chichester Cross

St. Mary's Hospital, Chichester

Fishbourne Manor

Fishbourne Church

Bosham

Bosham Mill

Bosham, The Strand

Harting

Cowdray Cottage

Middle House, Mayfield

High Street, East Grinstead

Sackville College

Causeway, Horsham

Pond Street, Petworth

Steyning Church

North Mill, Midhurst

Knock Hundred Row, Midhurst

PLANS.

Geology of the Downs

Lewes

The Eastern Downs

The Brighton Downs

Old and New Shoreham

The Valley of the Arun

Arundel

Chichester

Chichester Cathedral

The Lowlands

The Western Downs

The Roads from London to the Downs

ARCHITECTURAL TERMS

_The following brief notes will assist the traveller who is not an

expert, in arriving at the approximate date of ecclesiastical

buildings._

SAXON 600-1066. Simple and heavy structure. Very small wall openings.

Narrow bands of stone in exterior walls.

NORMAN 1066-1150. Round arches. Heavy round or square pillars. Cushion

capitals. Elaborate recessed doorways. Zig-zag ornament.

TRANSITION 1150-1200. Round arched windows combined with pointed

structural arch. Round pillars sometimes with slender columns attached.

Foliage ornament on capitals.

EARLY ENGLISH 1200-1280 (including Geometrical). Pointed arches.

Pillars with detached shafts. Moulded or carved capitals. Narrow and

high pointed windows. Later period--Geometrical trefoil and circular

tracery in windows.

DECORATED 1280-1380. High and graceful arches. Deep moulding to

pillars. Convex moulding to capitals with natural foliage. "Ball

flower" ornament. Elaborate and flamboyant window tracery.

PERPENDICULAR 1380-1550. Arches lower and flattened. Clustered pillars.

Windows and doors square-headed with perpendicular lines. Grotesque

ornament. (The last fifty years of the sixteenth century were

characterized by a debased Gothic style with Italian details in the

churches and a beauty and magnificence in domestic architecture which

has never since been surpassed.)

JACOBEAN and GEORGIAN 1600-1800 are adaptations of the classical style.

The "Gothic Revival" dates from 1835.

[Illustration: NEAR ALCISTON.]

INTRODUCTION

"Then I saw in my Dream, that on the morrow he got up to go forwards,

but they desired him to stay till the next day also, and then said

they, we will (if the day be clear) show you the delectable Mountains,

which they said, would yet further add to his comfort, because they

were nearer the desired Haven than the place where at present he was.

So he consented and staid. When the Morning was up they had him to the

top of the House, and bid him look South, so he did; and behold at a

great distance he saw a most pleasant Mountainous Country, beautified

with Woods, Vineyards, Fruits of all sorts; Flowers also, with Springs

and Fountains, very delectable to behold."

Every one who has followed the fortunes of Christian in the stately

diction of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ must wish to know from whence came

those wonderful word pictures with which the dreamer of Bedford Jail

gems his masterpiece. That phrase "delectable mountains" conjures up in

each individual reader's mind those particular hills wherever they may

be, which are his own peculiar delight, and for which, exiled, his

spirit so ardently longs.

It is not presuming too much to suppose that the scene in Bunyan's mind

was that long range of undulating downs sometimes rising into bold and

arresting shape, and always with their finest aspect toward the Bedford

plains and him who cast longing eyes toward them. From almost any

slight eminence on the south of Bedford town on a clear day the

Dunstable and Ivinghoe hills are to be seen in distant beauty, and

there is the strongest similarity between them and those glorious

summits which every man of Sussex knows and loves so well.

The Chiltern Hills and the South Downs are built up of the same

material, have had their peculiarities of shape and form carved by the

same artificers--rain and frost, sun and wind; their flowers are the

same, and to outward seeming their sons and daughters are the same in

the way that all hill folk are alike and yet all differ in some subtle

way from the dweller in the plains.

Be this so or not our Downs are to us delectable mountains, and let the

reader who scoffs at the noun remember that size is no criterion of

either beauty or sublimity. That Sussex lover and greatest of literary

naturalists, Gilbert White, in perhaps his most frequently quoted

passage so characterizes the "majestic chain"; to his contemporaries

such a description was not out of place; our great grandfathers were

appalled when brought from the calm tranquillity of the southern slopes

to the stern dark melancholy of the mountains of Cumberland and

Westmoreland. The diary descriptions of those timid travellers of the

late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are full of such

adjectives as "terrible," "frightful," "awful." One unlucky

individual's nerves caused him to stigmatize as "ghastly and

disgusting" one of the finest scenes in the Lake District, probably

unsurpassed in Europe for its perfectly balanced beauty of form and

splendour of colouring. To the general reader of those times the

descriptive poems of Wordsworth were probably unmeaning rhapsodies. Our

ancestors, however, were very fond of "prospects." An old atlas of the

counties of England, published about 1800, came into the writer's hands

recently. The whole of the gentler hills, including every possible

vantage point in the Downs, had been most carefully and neatly marked

with the panorama visible from the summit; but even Kinder Scout and

the Malverns came in for the same fate as the Welsh and Cumberland

mountains, all of which had been left severely alone, though the

intrepid traveller had braved the terrors of the Wrekin, while such

heights as Barton Hill in Leicestershire and Leith Hill in Surrey were

heavily scored with names of places seen, the latter including that

oft-told tale--a legend, so far as the present writer is aware--of St.

Paul's dome and the sea being visible with a turn of the head. Though

our idea of proportion in relation to scenery has suffered a change,

Gilbert White's phrase must not be sneered at; and most comparisons are

stupidly unfair. The outline of Mount Caburn is a rounded edition of

the most perfect of all forms. The rolling undulations of the tamest

portions of the range are broken by combes whose sides are steep enough

to give a spice of adventure to their descent. The "prospects," as

such, are immeasurably superior to those obtainable from most of the

mountains of the north and west, where a distant view is rare by reason

of the surrounding chain of heights, and where the chance of any view

at all to reward the climber is remote unless he chooses that fortnight

in early June or late September when the peaks are usually unshrouded.

Really bad weather, long continued, is uncommon in the Down country. A

dull or wet spell is soon over. The writer has set out from Worthing in

a thin drizzle of the soaking variety, descending from a sky of lead

stretching from horizon to horizon, which in the north would be

accepted as an institution of forty-eight hours at least, and on

arriving at the summit of Chanctonbury has been rewarded by a glorious

green and gold expanse glittering under a dome of intense blue.

[Illustration: MARKET CROSS, ALFRISTON.]

From the wooded heights of the Hampshire border to that grand headland

where the hills find their march arrested by the sea, the escarpment of

the Downs is sixty miles long and every mile is beautiful. It would be

an ideal holiday, a series of holy days, to follow the edge all the

way, meeting with only three valley breaks of any importance; but the

charm of the hill villages nestling in their tree embowered and

secluded combes would be too much for any ordinary human, especially if

he were thirsty, so in this book the traveller is taken up and down

without any regard for his consequent fatigue, when it is assured that

his rest will be sweet, even though it may be only under a hawthorn

bush!

[Illustration: A SUSSEX LANE, JEVINGTON.]

"No breeze so fresh and invigorating as that of the Sussex Downs; no

turf so springy to the feet as their soft greensward. A flight of larks

flies past us, and a cloud of mingled rooks and starlings wheel

overhead.... The fairies still haunt this spot, and hold their midnight

revels upon it, as yon dark rings testify. The common folk hereabouts

term the good people 'Pharisees' and style these emerald circles

'Hagtracks.' Why, we care not to enquire. Enough for us, the fairies

are not altogether gone. A smooth soft carpet is here spread out for

Oberon and Titania and their attendant elves, to dance upon by

moonlight...." (Ainsworth: _Ovingdean Grange_.)

"He described the Downs fronting the paleness of the earliest dawn and

then their arch and curve and dip against the pearly grey of the

half-glow; and then among their hollows, lo, the illumination of the

east all around, and up and away, and a gallop for miles along the

turfy, thymy, rolling billows, land to left, sea to light below you....

Compare you the Alps with them? If you could jump on the back of an

eagle, you might. The Alps have height. But the Downs have swiftness.

Those long stretching lines of the Downs are greyhounds in full career.

To look at them is to set the blood racing! Speed is on the Downs,

glorious motion, odorous air of sea and herb, exquisite as the Isles of

Greece." (Geo. Meredith: _Beauchamp's Career_.)

The most delightful close springy turf covers the Downs with a velvet

mantle, forming the most exhilarating of all earthly surfaces upon

which to walk and the most restful on which to stretch the wearied

body. Most delightful also are the miniature flowers which gem and

embroider the velvet; gold of potentilla, blue of gentian, pink and

white of milkwort, purple of the scabious and clustered bell-flower;

the whole robe scented with the fragrance of sweet thyme. Several

unfamiliar species of orchis may be found and also the rare and

beautiful rampion, "The Pride of Sussex." The hills are a paradise for

birds; the practice of snaring the wheatear for market has lately

fallen into desuetude and the "Sussex ortolan" is becoming more

numerous than it was a dozen years ago. Every epicure should be

interested in the numerous "fairy rings," sufficient evidence of the

abundance of mushrooms which will spring up in the night after a moist

day. One of the most comfortable traits of our chalk hills however is

the marvellous quickness with which the turf dries after rain. Those

who have experienced the discomfort of walking the fells of Cumberland

and Westmoreland, which at most seasons of the year resemble an

enormous wet sponge, often combined with the real danger of bog and

morass, will appreciate the better conditions met with in Sussex hill

rambling. Where the chalk is uncovered it becomes exceedingly slippery

after a shower, but there is rarely a necessity to walk thereon.

The pedestrian on the Downs should use caution after dusk; chalk pits

are not seen, under certain conditions, until the wayfarer is on the

verge. Holes in the turf are of frequent occurrence and may be the

cause of a twisted ankle, or worse, when far from help.

The "dene holes" are of human origin. Once thought to be primitive

dwelling places, they are now supposed to have been merely excavations

for the sake of the chalk or the flints contained therein, and possibly

adapted for the storage of grain. Of equal interest are the so-called

"dew ponds," of which a number are scattered here and there close to

the edge of the northern escarpment. Undoubtedly of prehistoric origin,

the art of making the pond has become traditional and some have been

built by shepherds still living. These pools of clear cool water high

up on the crest of a hill gain a mysterious air by their position, but

their existence is capable of a scientific explanation. Built in the

first place to be as nearly as possible non-conducting, with an

impervious "puddled" bottom, the pond is renewed every night to a

certain extent by the dew which trickles down each grass and reed stem

into the reservoir beneath, and to a much greater extent by the mists

which drift over the edge to descend in rain on the Weald. The pools

might well be called "cloud ponds."

[Illustration: WILLINGDON.]

The most lovely scenes, the best view points, are described in their

proper place. The question as to which is the finest section of the

Downs must be left to the individual explorer. To some natures the free

bare wind-swept expanse at the back of Brighton will appeal the most.

By others the secret woods which climb from hidden combe and dry gully,

mostly terminating in a bare top, and which are all west of the Arun,

will be considered incomparably the best. To every man of Lewes the

isolated mass of hills which rise on the east of the town are _the_

Downs. But all must be seen to be truly appreciated and loved as they

will be loved.

Hotels will not be found in the Downs; the tourist who cannot live

without them will find his wants supplied within but a few miles at any

of the numerous Londons by the Sea; but that will not be Sussex pure

and undefiled, and if simplicity and cleanliness, enough to eat and

drink, and a genuine welcome are all that is required, he will find

these in our Downland inns.

It is in the more remote of these hostelries that the inquisitive

stranger will hear the South Saxon dialect in its purity and the slow

wit of the Sussex peasant at its best. The old Downland shepherd with

embroidered smock and Pyecombe crook is vanishing fast, and with him

will disappear a good deal of the character which made the Sussex

native essentially different from his cousins of Essex and Wessex.

[Illustration: LAMB INN, EASTBOURNE.]

One of the most delightful records of rustic life ever printed is that

study in the "Wealden Formation of Human Nature" by the former rector

of Burwash, John Cocker Egerton, entitled _Sussex Folk and Sussex

Ways_. True, the book is mainly about Wealden men and we are more

concerned with the hill tribes, but the shrewd wit and quaint conceits

of the South Saxon portrayed therein will be readily recognized by the

leisurely traveller who has the gift of making himself at home with

strangers. It is to be hoped that in the great and epoch-making changes

that are upon us in this twentieth century some at least of the

individual characteristics of the English peasantry will remain. It is

the divergent and opposite traits of the tribes which make up the

English folk that have helped to make us great. May we long be

preserved from a Wellsian uniformity!

A brief description of the geological history of the range may not be

amiss here. It will be noted by the traveller from the north that the

opposing line of heights in Surrey have their steepest face (or

"escarpment") on the south side, while the Sussex Downs have theirs on

the north. A further peculiarity lies in the fact that the river

valleys which cut across each range from north to south are opposite

each other, thus pointing to the probability that the fracture which

caused the clefts was formerly continuous for fifty miles through the

great dome of chalk which extended over what is now the Weald. The

elevation of this "dome," caused by the shrinking and crumpling of the

earth's crust and consequent rise of the lower strata, was never an

actual smooth rise and fall from the sea to the Thames valley; through

the ages during which this thrust from below was in progress the crown

of the dome would be in a state of comparatively rapid disintegration,

and it is because of this that we have no isolated masses of chalk

remaining between the two lines of hills. The highlands called by

geologists the "Forest Ridge" are in the centre and are the lowest

strata of the upheaval; they are the so-called Hastings sands which

enter the sea at that town half-way between Beachy Head and Dover

cliffs. North and south of this ridge is the lower greensand, forming

in Sussex the low hills near Heathfield, Cuckfield and Petworth, and

which reaches the sea south and north of Hastings. It was at one time

supposed that the face of the Downs originally formed a white sea cliff

and that an arm of the sea stretched across what we know as the Weald,

but the simpler explanation is undoubtedly the correct one.

[Illustration: WANNOCK.]

The Downs themselves are composed of various qualities of chalk; some

of such a hard, smooth and workable material that, as will be seen

presently, the columns in some of the Downland churches are made from

this native "rock." While the upper strata is soft and contains great

quantities of flints, the middle layers are brittle and yield plenty of

fossils, lower still is the marl, a greyish chalk of great value in the

fertilization of the gault. This latter forms an enormous moist ditch

or gutter at the foot of the escarpment, and from the farmer's point of

view is essentially bad land, requiring many tons of marl to be mixed

with it before this most difficult of all clays becomes fertile.

Between the chalk and the gault clay is a very narrow band of upper

greensand, only occasionally noticeable in the southern range, but

strongly marked in the North Downs.

"The chalk is our landscape and our proper habitation. The chalk gave

us our first refuge in war by permitting those vast encampments on the

summits. The chalk filtered our drink for us and built up our strong

bones; it was the height from the slopes of which our villages,

standing in a clear air, could watch the sea or the plain; we carved

it--when it was hard enough; it holds our first ornaments; our clear

streams run over it; the shapes and curves it takes and the kind of

close rough grass it bears (an especial grass for sheep) are the cloak

of our counties; its lonely breadths delight us when the white clouds

and the necks move over them together; where the waves break it into

cliffs, they are characteristic of our shores, and through its thin

coat of whitish mould go the thirsty roots of our three trees--the

beech, the holly, and the yew. For the clay and the sand might be

deserted or flooded and the South Country would still remain, but if

the Chalk Hills were taken away we might as well be in the Midlands."

(Hilaire Belloc: _The Old Road_.)

[Illustration: GEOLOGY OF THE DOWNS.]

A description of these hills, however short, would be incomplete

without some reference to the sheep, great companies of which roam the

sunlit expanse with their attendant guardians--man and dog (who deserve

a chapter to themselves). Southdown mutton has a fame that is

extra-territorial; it has been said that the flavour is due to the

small land snail of which the sheep must devour millions in the course

of their short lives. But the explanation is more probably to be found

in the careful breeding of the local farmers of a century or so ago.

Gilbert White refers to two distinct breeds--"To the west of the Adur

... all had horns, smooth white faces and white legs, but east of that

river all flocks were poll sheep (hornless) ... black faces with a

white tuft of wool." Since that day, however, east has been west and

west east and the twain have met.

[Illustration: OLD HOUSE, PETWORTH.]

The traveller _may_ be fortunate enough to come across a team of oxen

ploughing. The phenomenon is yearly becoming more rare; but within

sight and sound of the Eastbourne expresses between Plumpton and

Cooksbridge this archaic survival from a remote past is more likely to

be seen than elsewhere.

The oxen are usually black and are the remnants of a particular breed,

the outcome of a long and slow experiment in getting the right sort of

draught animal. The ploughs themselves, as Jefferies says, "must have

been put together bit by bit in the slow years--slower than the ox....

How many thousand, thousand clods must have been turned in the furrows

before ... the curve to be given to this or that part grew upon the

mind, as the branch grows upon the tree!"

But the Downs are not scarred to any great extent by cultivation. The

sheep and the birds are mostly in sole possession and are almost the

only living moving things on the hills. The fox, though at one time

common, is now very rarely seen, for game, with the disappearance of

gorse and bramble, has almost vanished, and other beasts of prey,

weasel and stoat, shun the open uplands where the only enemy of field

mouse and vole is the eagle of the south country, the peregrine falcon.

[Illustration: THE BARBICAN, LEWES CASTLE.]

SEAWARD SUSSEX

CHAPTER I

LEWES

"Lewes is the most romantic situation I ever saw"; thus Defoe, and the

capital of Sussex shares with Rye and Arundel the distinction of having

a continental picturesqueness more in keeping with old France than with

one of the home counties of England. This, however, is only the

impression made by the town when viewed as a whole; its individual

houses, its churches and castle, and above all, its encircling hills

are England, and England at her best and dearest to those who call

Sussex home. The beauty of the surroundings when viewed from almost any

of its old world streets and the charm of the streets themselves make

the old town an ever fresh and welcome resort for the tired Londoner

who appreciates a quiet holiday. As a centre for the exploration of

East Sussex Lewes has no equal; days may be spent before the interest

of the immediate neighbourhood is exhausted; for those who are vigorous

enough for hill rambling the paths over the Downs are dry and passable

in all weathers, and the Downs themselves, even apart from the added

interest of ancient church or picturesque farm and manor, are ample

recompense for the small toil involved in their exploration.

[Illustration: SKETCH PLAN OF THE BOROUGH OF LEWES.]

The origin of Lewes goes back to unknown times, the very meaning of the

name is lost, its situation in a pass and on the banks of the only

navigable river in East Sussex inevitably made it a place of some

importance. It is known that Athelstan had two mints here and that the

Norman Castle was only a rebuilding by William de Warenne on the site

of a far older stronghold. To this de Warenne, the Conqueror, with his

usual liberality, presented the town, and it is from the ruins of his

castle that we should commence our exploration.

Of de Warenne's building only the inner gateway remains. The outer gate

and the keep date from the reign of the first Edward; the site of a

_second_ keep is shown in private grounds not far off, a feature very

rare in this country if not unique.

The summit of the tower is laid out as an old world garden; and here is

also the interesting museum of the Sussex Archaeological Society, but

the visitor will be best repaid by the magnificent view of the

surrounding country spread out before him. To the north-west rises

Mount Harry, and to the right of this stretches the wide expanse of the

Weald bounded by the sombre ridges of Ashdown Forest, dominated by

Crowborough Beacon slightly east of due north.

The quarries and combe of Cliffe Hill stand up with fine effect

immediately east of the town, which sinks from where we stand to the

Ouse at the bottom of the valley. More to the south-east is Mount

Caburn above the bare and melancholy flats through which the Ouse finds

its way to the sea; due south-west the long range of Newmarket Hill

stretches away to the outskirts of Brighton, and the Race Course Hill

brings us back to our starting point. Beautiful as is the distant

prospect the greatest charm of this unique view is in the huddle of

picturesque red-tiled roofs and greenery beneath us.

Of the history of the Castle there are but scanty records; its part in

the making of East Sussex seems to have been fairly quiescent, and in

the great struggle of May 1264 between the forces of the Barons and

Henry III, for which Lewes will always be famous, the fortress took no

actual part and merely surrendered at discretion.

"The battle was fought on the hill where the races are held. Simon de

Montfort, Earl of Leicester, headed the Baronial army. The Royal forces

were divided into three bodies; the right entrusted to Prince Edward;

the left to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans; and the

centre to Henry himself. Prince Edward attacked the Londoners under

Nicholas Seagrave with such impetuosity that they immediately fled and

were pursued with great slaughter. Montfort taking advantage of this

separation, vigorously charged the remaining division of the Royalists,

which he put to rout. The King and the Earl of Cornwall hastened to the

town, where they took refuge in the Priory. Prince Edward, returning in

triumph from the pursuit of the Londoners, learned with amazement the

fate of his father and uncle. He resolved to make an effort to set them

at liberty, but his followers were too timid to second his ardour, and

he was finally compelled to submit to the conditions subscribed by his

father, who agreed that the Prince and his cousin Henry, son of the

Earl of Cornwall, should remain as hostages in the hands of the Barons

till their differences were adjusted by Parliament. In this contest

5,000 men were slain. The King, who had his horse slain under him,

performed prodigies of valour. Richard, Earl of Cornwall, was taken

prisoner."

By all accounts it was a good fight, and the best men won. A touch of

humour is added to one record wherein it is related that Richard, King

of the Romans, took refuge in a windmill, wherein he was afterwards

captured amid shouts of "Come out, thou bad miller." This mill stood

near the old Black Horse Inn, but has long since been burnt down.

Accounts vary exceedingly as to the number of the slain, some

authorities giving as many as 20,000, others no more than 2,700.

"Many faire ladie lose hir lord that day,

And many gode bodie slayn at Leans lay.

The nombre none wrote, for tell them might no man.

But He that alle wote, and alle thing ses and can."

(Robert Brune.)

There are certain times, especially in the early hours of a fine autumn

day, when the mass of old grey stone is seen rising above its vassal

town through golden river mists which veil the modernities of the

railway and its appurtenancies, and one feels that the battle might

have taken place yesterday. Strange that this town is an important and

busy railway junction and yet so little has the old-world appearance

of the place suffered in consequence; here are no ugly rows of

railwaymen's cottages in stark evidence on the hillsides; in actual

fact the coming of the railway has added to the antiquarian and

historical interest of the town, as will be seen presently.

A short distance along High Street stands St. Michael's Church, which

has one of the three curious round towers for which the valley of the

Ouse is famous. The style of the tower is Norman, but the body of the

church is of later dates. Here are some fine brasses; one is supposed

to commemorate a de Warenne who died about 1380; another is to John

Bradford, rector, dated 1457. The monument to Sir Nicholas Pelham

(1559) has an oft-quoted punning verse--

"What time the French sought to have sacked Sea-Foord

This Pelham did repel-em back aboord."

St. Anne's Church is nearly a quarter of a mile farther on. The style

is Transitional. There are several interesting items, including a very

fine and ancient font of a "basket" pattern. Note the uncommon

appearance of the capitals on the south side pillars, an ancient tomb

in the chancel wall, and, not least, the doorway with Norman moulding.

There is in this church a window in memory of Lower, a fitting tribute

to the historian of Sussex, but his best memorial will always be that

work that is still the basis of most writings on the past of the

county.

The road continues to the Battlefield and Mount Harry, but to explore

the lower portion of the town a return must be made to High Street. At

the corner of Bull Lane, marked by a memorial tablet and with a queer

carved demon upon its front is Tom Paine's house. Note the unusual

milestone on a house front opposite Keere Street, down which turning is

presently passed (on the left) Southover House (1572), a good example

of Elizabethan architecture. Keere Street has another remnant of the

past in its centre gutter, the usual method of draining the street in

medieval times, but now very seldom seen except in the City of London.

At the foot of the street is the (probably dry) bed of the

Winterbourne, so called because, like other streams of the chalk

country, it flows at intermittent times. A short distance farther, to

the right, and just past St. John's Church, will be found the entrance

to the space once occupied by the first Priory of the Cluniacs in

England.

[Illustration: ST. ANNE'S CHURCH, LEWES.]

Founded in 1078 by William de Warenne and his wife Gundrada and

dedicated to St. Pancras, the Priory was always closely allied with the

parent house on the continent. At the Dissolution more than the usual

vandalism seems to have been observed and Cromwell's creatures must

have vented some personal spite against the monks in their wholesale

demolition of the buildings. A mound to the north-east is supposed to

be the site of a calvary, and until quite recently a "colombarium" or

dovecote was allowed to stand which contained homes for over three

thousand birds.

"The Priory building was probably irregular, varying in its form as the

increase of inmates demanded additional room. But though irregular, it

was certainly a noble edifice, faced with Caen stone, and richly

adorned by the chisel of the sculptor. Its walls embraced an area of 32

acres, 2 rods, 11 perches, and it was not less remarkable for its

magnificence than extent. The length of the church was 150 feet, having

an altitude of 60 feet. It was supported by thirty-two pillars, eight

of which were very lofty, being 42 feet high, 18 feet thick, and 45

feet in circumference; the remaining twenty-four were 10 feet thick, 25

feet in circumference, and 18 feet in height.[1] The belfry was placed

over the centre of the church, at an elevation of 105 feet, and was

supported by the eight lofty pillars above mentioned. The roof over the

high altar was 93 feet high. Its walls were 10 feet thick. On the right

side of the high altar was a vault supported by four pillars, and from

this recess branched out five chapels that were bounded by a wall 70

yards long. 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. The excavators in 1845 had a gruesome

experience, for they discovered a charnel pit containing thirteen cart

loads of bones of the fallen warriors at the battle of Lewes. Although

nearly six centuries had elapsed the stench was dreadful.

That the archaeological interest of Lewes owes much to the making of

the railway will now be seen.

[Illustration: THE PRIORY RUINS, LEWES.]

The following account appeared in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1845:--

"On the morning of Tuesday, October 28, a most interesting discovery

was made by the workmen employed in forming a cutting for the Lewes and

Brighton Railway, through the ground formerly occupied by the great

Cluniac Priory of St. Pancras, at Lewes. It is well-known that the

original founders, in 1078, were William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, of

a great Norman family, and his wife Gundred, the daughter of William

the Conqueror and his Queen Matilda; that they pulled down an old

wooden church to replace it by a stone one, and that after their deaths

in 1085 and 1088, they were buried in the chapter-house of their

Priory. So effectual, however, was the destruction of the buildings in

1537 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of Henry VIII that the very

site of the church has been uncertain, and there has long been nothing

visible of the ruins but a confused mass of broken walls and arches

half buried under the soil. The bold intrusion of a railway into these

hallowed precincts has thrown light upon this obscurity, and in the

course of their excavations the workmen have found, covered by some

slabs of Caen stone, two leaden chests containing the bones of the

founders, and inscribed with their names. They are not coffins, but

cists or chests, and are both of similar form and dimensions,

ornamented externally by a large net-work of interlaced cords moulded

in the lead. The cist of William de Warenne measures 2 feet 11 inches

long, by 12-1/2 inches broad, and is 8 inches deep, all the angles

being squared, and the flat loose cover lapping an inch over. On the

upper surface at one end is inscribed in very legible characters

'WillelMus.' The cist of the princess his wife is 2 inches shorter and

1 inch deeper, and the word 'Gvndrada' is very distinctly inscribed on

the cover. It is worth remarking that her father, the Conqueror, in his

charter, calls for Gundfreda, and her husband, who survived her, calls

her Gundreda in his charter.

"It is obvious, from the length of these receptacles, that their bones

have been transferred to them from some previous tombs, and it is not

difficult to suppose that, the chapter-house not being built at the

time of their deaths, the founders were buried elsewhere until its

completion, and that the bodies were then found so decayed that their

bones only remained for removal to a more distinguished situation, and

were, on that occasion, placed in these very leaden chests. A

rebuilding of the Priory Church was begun on the anniversary of William

the founder's death in 1243, and from the antique form of the letters G

and M the inscriptions cannot be fixed at a later period. The

characters, indeed, more resemble the form used in the twelfth century.

Of the genuine antiquity of these relics there cannot be the slightest

doubt. It is locally notorious that the black marble slab which

formerly covered the remains of Gundrada, beautifully carved and

bordered with nine Latin verses in her honour cut in the rim and down

the middle, was discovered in 1775 in Isfield Church, misappropriated

as a tombstone over one of the Shirley family, and by the care of Sir

William Burrel removed to the church of Southover, immediately

adjoining the ruins of the Priory. It is very singular that now, after

an interval of eight years, her very bones should be brought to the

same church (under the superintendence of the Rev. Mr. Scobell) there

to undergo a third burial under Gundrada's marble slab.

"The tombstone of Gundred Countess of Warren was discovered about the

year 1775, by Dr. Clarke, rector of Buxted, in the Shirley chancel of

Isfield Church, forming the table part of a mural monument of Edward

Shirley, Esq., by whose father probably it was preserved at the

demolition of the Priory, and conveyed to Isfield, his manorial estate.

At the expense of Dr., afterwards Sir William, Burrell, it was removed

from its obscure station, and placed upon a suitable shrine, in the

vestry-pew of Southover Church, that being the nearest convenient spot

to its original station. The stone is of black marble, sculptured in

very high relief. The lower end had been broken off before its

discovery at Isfield. Around the rim, and along the middle, is the

following inscription:

Stirps Gundrada ducum, decus evi, nobile germen,

Intulit ecclesiis Anglorum balsama morum,

Martir (is hanc aedem struxit Pancrati in honorem)

Martha fuit miseris, fuit ex pietate Maria;

Pars obiit Marthe, superest pars magna Marie.

O pie Pancrati, testis pietatis et equi,

Te facit heredem, tu clemens suscipe matrem.

Sexta kalendarum junii lux obvia carnis

Fregit alabastrum (superest pars optima coelo).

(_Conjectured words in parenthesis_.)

"Another leaden coffin, full of bones, but without any inscription, has

also been found, longer than those of the founder's, having a

semicircular top, and six large rings of 3-1/4 inches diameter attached

to the outsides. At a little distance from the two small chests, there

was also found the remains of an ecclesiastic, buried without any

coffin, but lying upon a bed of coarse gravel within a hollow space

formed by large flat stones. His hands were in a position indicating

that they had been joined together in the attitude of prayer over his

breast, as usual. Not only his bones, but much of his thick woollen

gown, his under-garment of linen, and his leather shoes have been

preserved. These, too, have been carefully transferred to Southover

Church. It has been conjectured with much probability that these

remains were those of Peter, the son of John, Earl de Warren, the

patron of the monastery, who was appointed prior contrary to the

nomination of the Pope in favour of the suggestion that the reinterment

of the remains of the founders took place about the beginning of the

thirteenth century."

[Illustration: ANNE OF CLEVE'S HOUSE, SOUTHOVER.]

A chapel specially designed to receive the leaden caskets was erected

in excellent taste at St. John's, Southover, in 1847. The names are

plainly decipherable. The tombstone on the floor is that of Gundrada,

brought here from Isfield. The effigy in the wall of the chapel is

conjectured to be that of John de Braose, who died in 1232.

The picturesque old house on the north side of the street is called

Anne of Cleve's House, but this title appears to be contradicted by the

date 1599 on the front of the building; there is a possibility that

this date was added when certain alterations took place; it is certain,

however, that when Thomas Cromwell's time was past the property was

made over to the King, of whom a very startling legend is told locally

to the effect that he murdered one of his wives on a stairway in the

Priory!

The rebuilt church of St. John-sub-castre has its ugliness redeemed in

the antiquary's eye by the round Saxon arch retained in the outside

wall and by the "Magnus Memorial" as certain stones, bearing a Latin

inscription in Anglo-Saxon characters, are called. Here is also a

fourteenth century tomb and an old font. The churchyard forms the site

of a Roman camp, the vallum of which may still be seen.

[Illustration: THE GRANGE, SOUTHOVER.]

St. Thomas-at-Cliffe has several interesting details including an

uncommon and elaborate "squint" with two pillars; a modern painting of

St. Thomas of Canterbury, patron saint of the church, and an old Dutch

representation of the Ascension.

Among the many famous men of Lewes must be mentioned Tom Paine who came

here in 1768, marrying in 1771 a daughter of the town named Elizabeth

Ollive and in due time succeeding to her father's business of

tobacconist. The house has already been noticed, it bears a memorial

tablet and also a very quaint carved demon. It is just off the High

Street and near St. Michael's Church. Lewes cannot claim the honour of

seeing the birth of _The Rights of Man_ (a rather dubious honour in

those days); the book was written while Paine stayed with his

biographer, Thomas Rickman the bookseller, in London.

Another famous resident of Lewes was John Evelyn, who spent a great

part of his schooldays in the Grammer School at Southover. Here also

was educated John Pell, the famous mathematician.

A house at the end of the town on the Newhaven road belonged to the

Shelleys, and Dr. Johnson once stayed here on his way to the Thrales in

Brighton.

The old "Star" Inn has been converted into municipal offices, but the

fine front still remains and most of the old work in the interior. In

the tower close by, in the Market-place, is "Great Gabriel," a bell

dating, it is said, from the time of Henry III. Lower has the following

lines on the bells of Lewes:--

"Oh, happy Lewes, waking or asleep,

With faithful _hands_ your time _archangels_ keep!

St. _Michael's_ voice the fleeting hour records,

And _Gabriel_ loud repeats his brother's words;

While humble _Cliffites_, ruled by meaner power,

By Tom the _Archbishop_ regulate their hour."

It was hereabouts that a great burning of heretics took place in 1557.

Among the honoured names recorded upon the Martyr's Memorial is that of

Richard Woodman, ironmaster, of Warbleton, whose protests against his

pastor's weathercock attitude during the Marian persecutions resulted

in the stake. The memorial perpetuates the names of sixteen persons who

suffered the fiery death at this time. The consequence is that the zeal

of the townsmen on the 5th of November is Orange in its fervour, and

the streets are given up to various "fireworks" clubs whose members

have been subscribing their spare shillings for months past. Crowds

ascend Saxon Down and the surrounding hills to see the display from a

distance; still greater crowds throng the streets to watch the

destruction in effigy of some unpopular local or national celebrity. Of

the Down land walks we have mentioned the most interesting, by reason

of its fine views of the town, is to Cliffe Hill. An extension may be

made to Saxon Down, a glorious expanse of wind-swept hill; and farther

on to the conical Mount Caburn, with magnificent marine views; from

this point a descent may be made to Glynde, which will be described

presently.

The long street of Cliffe leads northwards to South Malling; here is a

conventicle named "Jireh" erected by J. Jenkyns, W.A. These cryptic

initials mean "Welsh ambassador." In the cemetery behind is the tomb of

William Huntingdon, the evangelist, whose epitaph is as follows:--

"Here lies the coalheaver, beloved of his God, but abhorred of men.

The Omniscient Judge at the grand assize shall ratify and confirm

this to the confusion of many thousands; for England and her

metropolis shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.

"W.H., S.S." (Sinner Saved.)

The evangelist was wont to say "As I cannot get a D.D. for want of

cash, neither can I get a M.A. for want of learning, therefore I am

compelled to fly for refuge to S.S."

[Illustration: CLIFFE.]

Malling Church is of no interest except perhaps for the fact that John

Evelyn laid the foundation stone. At Old Malling once stood a Saxon

collegiate church founded by Caedwalla in 688 and therefore one of the

first Christian churches erected in Sussex. The Archbishops of

Canterbury had a residence near, and in the _Memorials of Canterbury_

Dean Stanley tells how Becket's murderers entered the house and threw

their arms on the dining-table, which immediately threw them off;

replaced, they were again thrown farther off with a louder crash. One

of the knights then suggested that the table refused to bear its

sacrilegious burden. This is still a popular local legend.

Ringmer, about two miles to the north-east, is closely connected with

Gilbert White; the oft-quoted letter in which he says "I have now

travelled the Downs upwards of 30 years, yet I still investigate that

chain of majestic mountains with fresh admiration year by year" was

written from here. There are several interesting monuments and brasses

in the church, especially those to the Springett family.

[Illustration: THE EASTERN DOWNS.]

CHAPTER II

TO EASTBOURNE AND PEVENSEY

Two miles distant from Lewes on the Eastbourne road is Beddingham,

whose church shows a medley of styles from Norman to Decorated. About

one hundred years ago a discovery was made near the village of a

quantity of human remains together with weapons and accoutrements,

pointing to the probability of a forgotten battle having taken place in

the pass between the hills. A religious house dedicated to St. Andrew

is conjectured to have existed at one time in or near the village.

Monkish records relate that a ship hailing from Dunkirk and having on

board a monk named Balger was driven into Seaford by a storm. This

Balger was of an enterprising turn; making his way inland he helped

himself to the relics of St. Lewinna, a British convert, which reposed

in St. Andrew's Monastery. The adventures that overtook the relics and

their illegal guardian during the journey back to Flanders make up a

medieval romance of much interest and throw a curious light on the

mental attitude of the religious, as regards the rights of property,

during the Dark Ages.

[Illustration: FIRLE BEACON.]

A mile farther along the high road is the turning which leads to Glynde

station and village, for which the most pleasant route is over the

hills. The name is possibly a Celtic survival and describes the

situation between opposing heights. "Glyn" is common throughout the

whole of Wales. The church is in a style quite alien to its

surroundings and might well belong to Clapham or Bloomsbury. It is a

Grecian temple built about 1765 by the then Bishop of Durham, Dr.

Trevor, and here the Bishop was buried. There are few more charming

groups of cottages in Sussex than this beautiful village. Glynde Place,

the seat of a former Speaker of the House of Commons, boasts the

largest dairy in Sussex if not in England; between 700 and 800 pounds

of butter are made here daily. John Ellman, the famous breeder of

Southdown sheep lived here for nearly fifty years (1780-1829.)

A short way farther, on the main road, is a turning to West Firle, on

the east of which is the fine Firle Park belonging to the Gage's, a

very ancient local family whose tombs and brasses may be seen in the

church. The pedestrian is advised to press on to Firle Beacon from

which a descent may be made to Alciston (pronounced "Aston") on the

high road. The heap of flints on the summit of the Beacon is 718 feet

above the sea, and therefore the hill is not so high as it looks, nor

is it, as was formerly supposed to be the case, the second highest

summit of the Downs. The view is superb both northwards to the Weald

and southwards over the Channel. Alciston calls for little comment, the

charm of the place consists in its air of remoteness and peace. The

small church is partly Norman, and in the walls of Court House Farm are

the remains of a religious house. Note the ancient barn and dovecote. A

mile to the north is another little hamlet called "Simson," and spelt

Selmeston. The curious wooden pillars in the church were fortunately

untouched when the building was restored. The old altar slab has five

crosses, and there are one or two interesting brasses.

[Illustration: ALFRISTON CHURCH.]

Berwick is a scattered village on the western slopes of the Cuckmere

valley; the Early English church is embowered in trees on a spur of the

Downs; there is a fine canopied tomb in the chancel, an old screen and

an uncommon type of font built in the wall. Note the eloquent epitaph

to a former rector.

Half a mile farther is a turning on the right that passes Winton

Street, where, a few years ago, there was a rich find of Anglo-Saxon

antiquities. In two miles this byway reaches Alfriston.

("_All_-friston.") The church has a very common legend associated with

it; the foundations are said to have been again and again removed by

supernatural agency from another site to the spot where the solemn and

stately old building now stands. It is a Perpendicular cruciform church

and has an Easter sepulchre and three sedilia. The register is said to

be the oldest in England, its first entry bearing the date of 1512. "A

few years since as many as seventy 'virgins' garlands' hung in

Alfriston Church at once" (Hare). Close by is a delightful

pre-Reformation clergy house. Antiquaries are perhaps as concerned with

the "Star" Inn, one of the most interesting in the south of England and

dating from about 1490. The front of the house is covered with quaint

carvings including St. George and the Dragon, a bear and ragged staff

and what appears to be a lion. On each side of the doorway arc mitred

saints conjectured to represent St. Julian and St. Giles. The inn is

reputed to have been a place of sanctuary under Battle Abbey; it stands

within the abbot's manor of Alciston and was undoubtedly the recognized

hostel for pilgrims and mendicant friars. Another old inn, once a noted

house of call for smugglers, is Market Cross House, opposite all that

remains of the Cross, a mutilated and battered stump, and the only

example, except that at Chichester, in the county.

[Illustration: ALFRISTON.]

Alfriston once had a race week, the course being on the side of Firle

Beacon; in those days the resident population was probably greater than

it is now. Not only were more souls crowded into the old houses still

standing in the village street but tradition tells that the place was

larger and more suited to its spacious old church which is now barely

half filled on an ordinary Sunday.

A footpath may be taken over the Cuckmere and up the hill beyond to the

little dependency of Lullington. The church calls itself the smallest

in Sussex but this depends upon what constitutes a church. The existing

building is actually the chancel of a former church, perhaps another

proof of a dwindling population.

[Illustration: LULLINGTON CHURCH.]

The winding lane on the eastern bank of the Cuckmere is thick with a

glaring white dust on the dry days of summer, but there is no other

practicable route to Litlington; where is a quaint and interesting old

church with arches formed of the native chalk. This village is growing

rather than decaying, and appears to be, in a small way, an asylum for

those who have grown weary of the broader highways. It is in a most

delightful situation and is even within reach of a morning dip in the

sea for those vigorous enough to undertake a three mile walk each way.

"Tea" placards nestling among the roses and ivy on the cottage walls

also testify its attractions to holiday wayfarers, though the way to

Litlington, even for the motor-cyclist, is too strenuous for the

village to become overcrowded or vulgar.

[Illustration: LITLINGTON.]

The Cuckmere now begins to widen its banks and the theory that the

waters once extended from side to side of the valley seems tenable as

we view the wide expanse of sedgy swamp through which the present

channel has been artificially cut. Cuckmere Haven is the name given to

the bay between the last of the "Seven Sisters" and the eastern slopes

of Seaford Head which should be ascended for the sake of the lovely

view up the valley, seen at its best from this end.

"The only light that suits the tranquillity and tender pathos of the

region is that which fills the dimples of the Downs with inexpressibly

soft and dreamy expressions, and quickens the plain by revealing the

individuality of every blade of grass and plough-turned clod by its own

shadow."

(Coventry Patmore.)

Nearly all the villages of the Cuckmere are in sight and make together

perhaps the most likely to be remembered of Sussex pictures. It is

surprising how little this tranquil vale is known except to the chance

visitor from Seaford. When one remembers the much exploited and spoilt

beauty spots of Dorset and Devon one feels nervous for the future of

these lesser known but equally charming sea-combes of Sussex.

A short distance from the haven a steep gulley leads to the beach with

a convenient chain and rope to prevent too sudden a descent. It has

been suggested that through this gap the Romans passed from their

moored fleets to the fortified settlements above. It was at one time

possible to descend by another opening higher up the cliff to a ledge

called "Puck Church Parlour." This is now inaccessible except to

seabirds. The well-known view of the "Seven Sisters" is taken

hereabouts and the disused "Belle Tout" lighthouse stands up well on

the western slopes of Beachy Head, looking no distance across the

Cuckmere bay.

On the way from Litlington a slight divergence of half a mile or so

might have been made to West Dean; this is a most sequestered little

hamlet, famous only as the meeting place between the great Alfred and

Asser, though some authorities claim the West Dean between Midhurst and

Chichester as the authentic spot. There is a Norman arch in the

tower of the church and also several canopied tombs and some good

stained glass. Here is another priest's house even older than the one

we have seen at Alfriston. George Gissing well describes the village

and the surrounding country in his novel _Thyrza_.

[Illustration: WEST DEAN.]

A Downland road can be taken from here to Friston, Eastdean and

Eastbourne, saving some miles of up and down walking, but the most

enjoyable though more strenuous route is by the cliff path from

Cuckmere Haven over the "Seven Sisters" cliffs to Beachy Head; a

glorious six miles with the sea on one side and the Downs on the other,

culminating in the finest headland on the south coast, 575 feet high,

the magnificent end of the Downs in the sea. All these cliffs provide

nesting-places for wild birds.

"I was much struck by the watchful jealousy with which the peregrines

seemed to guard the particular cliff--more than 500 feet from the

sea--on a lofty ledge of which their nest was situated, and which,

indeed, they evidently considered their especial property; with the

exception of a few jackdaws who bustled out of the crevices below, all

the other birds which had now assembled on this part of the coast for

the breeding season--it being about the middle of May--seemed to

respect the territory of their warlike neighbours. The adjoining

precipice, farther westward, was occupied by guillemots and razorbills,

who had deposited their eggs, the former on the naked ledge, the latter

in the crevices in the face of the cliff Here the jackdaws appeared

quite at their ease, their loud, merry note being heard above every

other sound, as they flew in and out of the fissures in the white rock

or sate perched on a pinnacle near the summit, and leisurely surveyed

the busy crowd below."

(A.E. Knox.)

At Birling Gap, just short of the Head, is a coast-guard station and

the point of departure for the cable to France where we may descend to

the coast by an opening which was once fortified. In history Beachy

Head (possibly "Beau Chef") is chiefly remembered for the battle

between the combined English and Dutch fleets and the French, in which

the English admiral did not show to the best advantage.

[Illustration: EAST DEAN.]

Before the erection of the Belle Tout Light wrecks off the Head were of

frequent occurrence and many are the tales of gallant fight and

hopeless loss told by the coast dwellers here. "Parson Darby's Hole"

under the Belle Tout is said to have been made by the vicar of East

Dean (1680) as a refuge for castaways. We can but hope that his

parishioners were as humane, but the probability is that the parson's

efforts were looked on askance by his flock, who gained a prosperous

livelihood by the spoils of the shore; and perhaps this feeling gave

rise to the unkind fable that the cave was made as a refuge from Mrs.

Darby's tongue.

"Sussex men that dwell upon the shore

Look out when storms arise and billows roar;

Devoutly praying with uplifted hands

That some well-laden ship may strike the sands.

To whose rich cargo they may make pretence."

(Congreve.)

The fine carriage-road which leaves Beachy Head leads directly into

Eastbourne and is called the Duke's Drive. It was owing to the

initiative of the grandfather of the present Duke of Devonshire, whose

local seat is at Compton Place on the west of the town that the little

hamlet of Sea Houses became the present beautiful and fashionable

resort, with a sea-front of nearly three miles of gardens backed by

hotels, boarding-houses and schools. As at Folkestone, education is

here a strong feature, and a few years ago demure files of young ladies

with attendant dragon taking the air between breakfast and study might

have been seen. The epoch-ending events of the last few years, however,

appear to have killed the "caterpillar."

Eastbourne seems to have carefully pushed its workers, together with

the gasworks, market gardens, and other utilitarian features round the

screen of Splash Point. The boulevards going west and north are full of

fine houses and brilliant shops and are lined with well grown trees.

The continuation of Terminus Road will take us in a little over a mile

to the old town; here is the parish church, mostly Transitional, and

with many interesting features which should on no account be missed.

Note the oak screen in the chancel; sedilia and piscina; also an Easter

sepulchre. There is some old Flemish glass in the east window of the

nave aisle; that of the chancel is modern but good. Near the church is

a farmhouse, once a priory of Black Friars. The ancient "Lamb Inn" has

an Early English crypt which may be seen on application.

[Illustration: BEACHY HEAD.]

The most popular excursion from Eastbourne after "The Head" is to

Willingdon, near which is Hampden Park and Wannock Glen, and, farther

afield, Jevington. Willingdon has an interesting old church and is

pleasantly situated, but the village is too obviously the "place to

spend a happy day" to call for further comment. On the other hand,

Jevington with its ancient but over-restored church, is quite unspoilt

and, lying in one of the most beautiful of the Down combes, should

certainly be visited.

We are now at the end of the Downs and the scenery eastwards takes on

an entirely different character:--

"The great and fertile plain stretching along the Sussex coast from the

eastward of Beachy Head in the direction of Hastings, and inland

towards Wartling, Hurstmonceux and Hailsham, now studded with fat

beeves, was at some remote era, covered by the sea, and what are known

as 'eyes,' or elevations above the surrounding level--such as Chilleye,

Northeye, Horseye, Richeye, &c.--must have been islands, forming a

miniature archipelago. As all these are of Saxon meaning, it may be

presumed that, at the time of the Saxon colonization, they were

frequently or constantly insulated."

[Illustration: OLD PARSONAGE, EASTBOURNE.]

(Lower.)

Five miles from Eastbourne across the dreary flats of Pevensey Level

lies all that remains of the city of Anderida, the headquarters of the

Roman "Count of the Saxon Shore" and one of the last strongholds of

Rome in Britain. The melancholy tale of the overthrow of ancient

civilization in this corner of England by the barbarous Saxon invaders

is summed up in the terse words of their own chronicle--"They slew all

that dwelt therein, nor was there henceforth one Briton left." The name

"Andredes Weald" is derived from the British--An tred--"No houses," and

it correctly described the surrounding country at the time of the Roman

occupation. The great Weald or forest actually extended from the coast

to the Thames valley, broken only by the "Old Road" along the side of

the North Downs, traversed by far-off ancestors of ours whose feelings

as they gazed fearfully down into the depths of the primeval wood must

have been on a plane with those of the earliest African explorers in

the land of Pygmies. Here were the very real beginnings of those

countless tales of Gnome and Fairy--ferocious tribe and gentle

tribe--with which our folk-lore abounds.

[Illustration: JEVINGTON.]

As to the existence of a British town here before the coming of the

Romans nothing is known, but that Pevensey Bay witnessed the landing of

Julius Caesar is tolerably certain, and here the custodians of Britain

erected a great stronghold of whose walls we shall see the remnants as

we first enter the castle. In 490 Ella besieged the city and, as quoted

above, put it to fire and sword in effectual fashion; from this period

therefore must be dated the foundations of the South Saxon kingdom.

After upwards of five hundred years another conqueror appeared on the

old Roman wall. On the twenty-eighth September 1066 William I landed,

stumbled and fell, and "clutched England with both hands." Pevensey

(Peofn's Island) was given to Robert of Mortain, and he it was who

built the massive castle of the "Eagle" which we see rising inside the

Roman wall. This name arose from the title "Honour of the Eagle" which

was given to de Aquila, holder of the fortress under Henry I. After

many changes of owners who included Edward I, Edward III and John of

Gaunt, and after being besieged by Stephen against Matilda, by the

Barons against Henry III, and by Richard II against Bolingbroke it fell

on evil times and was actually sold for forty pounds by the

Parliamentary commissioners as building material. The keep is in ruins

and the chapel can only be traced in the grassy floor; here may still

be seen the old font covered by an iron frame, and the opening of the

castle well, in which, as related by Hare, skulls of the wolves which

once roamed the great forest have been found.

In connexion with the Norman occupation of Sussex the curious and

arbitrary system of "Rapes" by which the county is divided should be

noticed. These six blocks of land have no apparent relation to the

natural features of the country; each contains a powerful castle to

overawe the division to which it belongs. The whole plan is eloquent of

the method by which the Norman ruled the conquered race and kept them

in subjection.

[Illustration: PEVENSEY.]

Pevensey shore is very trying for the pedestrian. The great expanse of

shingle is of that drifting variety which makes walking almost an

impossibility.

Pevensey church is to the east of the castle; the interior is graceful

and it has some interesting details. Note the case of local

curiosities, title deeds, etc. Westham, that part of the village

nearest the station, was the overflow settlement from the walled town;

this has a much finer church with Norman remains dating from the

Conqueror's time, and the tower is noble in its massive proportions.

Visitors should purchase the interesting little booklet shown on the

table within the porch. The church has a fine oak screen in the south

chancel and a stone altar with five crosses in the north aisle. Not far

away is a large farmhouse known as "Priest-house"; this was once a

monastic establishment.

[Illustration: WESTHAM.]

Close to Westham is Pevensey Station, from which the traveller can

proceed to Hastings, Rye and Winchelsea; this beautiful and interesting

district of Sussex is dealt with in Mr. Bradley's _An Old Gate of

England_, and we must regretfully turn westwards. The return journey to

Lewes may be made by the railway, though the Downs, for the unfatigued

traveller, should prove the most alluring route. After passing Polegate

a good view may be had on the left of the "Long Man of Wilmington" a

figure 230 feet in length with a staff in each hand cut in the

escarpment of Windover Hill; this is the only prehistoric figure on the

Sussex Downs. Its origin has never been satisfactorily explained. Lower

has suggested that it was the work of an idle monk of Wilmington. This

is most unlikely. The theory has lately been put forward that the

"staff" which the figure appears to be holding in each hand is really

the outline of a door and that the effigy is that of Balder pushing

back the gates of night. Wilmington village has an interesting Norman

Church with a very fine yew in the churchyard. Built into the walls of

a farmhouse close by are some remains of a Benedictine priory.

Beautiful walks into the nearer woodlands of the Weald are easily taken

from this pleasant village and the hill rambles toward Jevington are

delightful.

Before leaving this district mention must be made of Hurstmonceux. The

nearest station is Pevensey, from which there is a rather dull walk of

four miles across the Pevensey Levels. The more picturesque route is

from Hailsham, though this is longer and belongs more to a tour of the

Weald. The only village passed on the way from Pevensey is Wartling,

beyond which a footpath can be taken across the meadows with a fine

view of the ruins ahead. The present castle was built by Sir Roger de

Fiennes in the reign of Henry VI. The name is taken from the first Lord

of the Manor, Waleran de Monceux.

[Illustration: WILMINGTON GREEN.]

The outer shell is all that remains of what was once one of the

grandest fortified mansions in England; it is now but a subject for

artists and photographers, though at one time, since its dismantling,

it made a good secret wine and spirit vaults. The colour of the walls

is a surprise until it is realized that the building is of brick. The

southern entrance, by which we approach, is the most imposing part of

the ruin. We enter by a wooden bridge across the moat; this replaces

the drawbridge. In the recessed chamber behind the central arch a

ghostly drum was sometimes heard, and the supernatural drummer was

supposed to guard hidden treasure. This legend was made good use of by

the smuggling fraternity, the thumping of an empty keg being sufficient

to scare away inconvenient visitors. Within the walls we are in a

wilderness of broken brickwork covered with an enormous growth of ivy.

Notice the great oven, and the ruins of the private chapel on the north

side. The circuit of the walls should be made as far as is practicable;

the magnificent row of Spanish chestnuts is much admired.

The story of the demolition of Hurstmonceux is unhappy reading; the act

of vandalism for which the architect Wyatt was officially responsible

seems to have been prompted by family spite.

The church is of great interest. The Dacre chantry and the splendid

tomb of Thomas Fiennes, Lord Dacre, must be noticed; also a brass of

Sir William Fiennes, 1405. The association of the place with the Hares,

who are buried under the yew in the churchyard, although of recent date

is nevertheless of much interest. The property and the living, which

passed in 1855, came to the family through George Naylor of Lincoln's

Inn, who bought them in 1708.

Near the church stands a fine fourteenth-century barn. The village is

remarkable for a local industry--the making of "trug" baskets for the

carriage of fruit.

CHAPTER III

SEAFORD TO BRIGHTON

The direct route to Brighton for pedestrians is by a footpath which

leaves Lewes at the west end of Southover Street; this leads to the

summit of Newmarket Hill and thence to the Racecourse and Kemp Town. No

villages are passed and but few houses, and the six miles of Down,

although so near a great town, are as lonely as any other six in

Sussex. The high road leaves the town by the Battlefield road past St.

Anne's church and follows the railway closely until the tram lines on

the outskirts of Brighton are reached; this route passes Falmer,

north-west of which lies the beautiful Stanmer Park, seat of the Earl

of Chichester.

[Illustration: THE BRIGHTON DOWNS.]

It will be best, however, to take the Newhaven road from Southover

which hugs the foot of the Downs and in a short two miles reaches

Iford. About half-way a turning to the right leads to the snug little

village of Kingston with the hills rising closely all round. This place

was once the property of Sir Philip Sidney. The remains of an ancient

house belonging to the Priory at Lewes are to be seen in the old

farmhouse named Swanborough which lies between Kingston and Iford. The

architecture is Perpendicular, and Early English; permission should be

obtained to examine the interesting details which, include a venerable

oak table in the kitchen. Iford Church is a Norman building with a

central tower and an Early English font.

A little over a mile farther is Rodmell with very fine Norman details

in the church, which has the rare feature of a baptistery. The early

Decorated screen is good; note also the squint with a shaft in the

centre. Here is a brass dated 1433 in memory of Agatha Broke, on the

back of which is another inscription to some one else of the

seventeenth century. The church is surrounded by magnificent trees,

and of especial note is the huge holm oak which overshadows the rest.

The village inn has on its walls a quaint and amusing collection of

precepts for its habitues which might well be duplicated elsewhere.

Southease, the next village, has another of the three round towers of

Sussex, and Piddinghoe, two miles farther, the third. These towers are

a matter of puzzled conjecture to archaeologists; all three, Lewes,

Southease and Piddinghoe are on the western bank of the Ouse. The

suggestion that they were originally beacon towers is not very

convincing, though the Ouse at the time they were built was a wider and

deeper stream, forming in fact an estuary haven. The more prosaic

explanation is that lack of stone for the quoins, which every square

flint tower must have, led the builders to adopt this form. In any

case, a beacon fire from a square tower is as effectual as from a round

one. Piddinghoe has many associations with the smuggling days which

have given birth to some quaint sayings, as "Pidd'nhoo they dig for

moonshine,"--"At Pidd'nhoo they dig for smoke," etc., but we fail to

see the point in "Magpies are shod at Pidd'nhoo."

[Illustration: NEWHAVEN CHURCH.]

Seven miles from Lewes stands the rather mean port of Newhaven. After

many years of neglect and decay this Elizabethan sea-gate is once more

of great importance in continental traffic. Much money and skill were

expended during the latter half of the nineteenth century in improving

the harbour and building a breakwater and new quays. Louis Philippe

landed here in 1848, having left Havre in his flight from France in the

steamer "Express"; he was received by William Catt, who at one time

owned the tide mills at Bishopstone; this worthy was a well known

Sussex character and is immortalized by Lower. Newhaven has little to

show the visitor beyond the small Norman church which has a chancel

apse at the east of the tower. This portion is interesting but the nave

has suffered from ignorant tinkering under the alias of "restoration."

In the churchyard is a monument to those who perished in the wreck of

the "Brazen" sloop of war in 1800 off the harbour, and another to a

local brewer of the one-time famous "Tipper" ale, made from brackish

water. The town was once called Meeching; this name is perpetuated in

"Meeching Place" where a descendant of William Catt still lives.

[Illustration: BISHOPSTONE CHURCH PORCH.]

On the east of the Ouse is a much more interesting halt for the

tourist in the small village of Bishopstone. The small remains of the

tide mills just referred to are near the station. The very fine Norman

church is about a mile away on the road to the Downs. The four storied

tower is almost unique. Each stage diminishes in size, thus dispensing

with buttresses; in this respect it is similar to Newhaven. Notice

under the short spire a quaint corbel table. The south porch is

extremely interesting as Saxon work though the mouldings are probably

later enrichments by Norman workmen. Over the door is a stone dial with

a cross and the name EADRIC. The interior is a good example of the

change from round to pointed, the pure Norman of the east end gradually

changing to Early English at the west. The combination of Norman

ornament with the later style is almost unique in Sussex. In the vestry

an interesting stone slab is shown; this was discovered during the

restoration. It bears the carved presentment of a lamb, a cross, and

two doves drinking. At this time a stone coffin lid, and a hidden

fourteenth-century niche in the porch were also discovered. In the

chancel is a memorial to James Hurdis, formerly Vicar of the parish,

the author of _The Village Curate_, which has been likened to Cowper's

_Task_; the verses are full of shrewd wit and local colour.

One mile south-east is the village of East Blatchington, now a suburb

of Seaford; the restored church is Norman and Early English. In the

south wall is a curious recess in Decorated style, the real use of

which has not yet been discovered. Notice the sedilia and projecting

piscina, and the tablet to the memory of the famous aeronaut, Coxwell,

who died here in 1900.

Seaford was once an ancient port at the mouth of the Ouse before that

river forsook its old channel for the outlet where is now the "New

Haven." An important satellite of Hastings and ranking as one of the

lesser Cinque ports, the old town saw much history-making during the

French wars and suffered accordingly. Its actual foundation dates at

least from Roman times as is proved by the fragments of sculpture,

coins, etc., dug up at different times during the last two hundred

years. At the rear of the East Cliff, near a footpath leading to

Chyngton, are traces of a Roman cemetery with possible evidence of

earlier British burials.

In the town itself are some interesting though scanty remains of

mediaeval times. In the garden of a house named "The Folly" is a

vaulted room the origin of which has never been satisfactorily

explained. It is possibly part of the Ancient Hospital of St. Leonard.

The open space at the higher end of the town is called "The Crouch" a

name that is a corruption of "The Crux." The fine old Hardwicke House

in Broad Street is dated 1603. At one time it was a lodging-house, but

its fortunes have lately risen. Seaford House was once the temporary

residence of Tennyson.

Seaford church is dedicated to St. Leonard and is Norman as far as the

tower is concerned, of which the embattlement is modern; note the

crosses in black flints on three of the sides. The base of the walls of

the church date from this period, rising through Transitional to

Perpendicular. The detail has been largely spoilt through restoration.

Note the capitals of the pillars which are most elaborately worked,

that near the south door having a representation of the Crucifixion

carved upon it.

[Illustration: SEAFORD CHURCH.]

Millburgh House was once the property of a noted smuggler named

Whitfield, whose immunity from punishment was obtained by judicious

presents of choice wines in high quarters. Tales of the old smuggling

days would fill many pages, and undoubtedly the profession formed the

major commercial asset not only of Seaford but of more important Sussex

towns both on the coast and on the roads leading to the capital.

Lower has recorded many interesting facts about the long war between

the revenue officers and the natives, relieved at all times by the

unfailing humour of the law-breakers, who took a keen delight in

fooling the exciseman. It was but infrequently that real tragedy took

place; considering the times, and the manner of those times, the

records of Sussex are fairly clean. Such brutal murders as that of

Chater in 1748, which crime was expiated at Chichester, were rare. The

professionals were nearly all men of substance and standing in the

land. The marine smuggler was of course a separate breed whose

adventures and danger were of a different sort and, despite the glamour

of the sea, of much less interest and excitement; on the other hand

most of the inhabitants of such places as Alfriston had one or more of

the male members of the family engaged in the trade, and many are the

houses which still have secret vaults and chambers for the reception of

the goods, chiefly wine, brandy, silk and tea. Most of the churches

between Seaford and Lewes have at one time or another proved convenient

temporary storage places, and on more than one occasion Sunday service

has had to be suspended, on one excuse or another, until the building

could be cleared of its congregation of tubs. Lower records that at

Selmeston the smugglers actually used an altar tomb as a store for

spirits, always leaving a tub for the parson.

Seaford in its new role as a holiday resort has a serious obstacle to

surmount; the only sea "front" possible is a wide shingle beach

separated from the old town by a nondescript stretch of sandy desert;

when and if this is filled in or converted into a garden the town

should prosper exceedingly, for it has great natural attractions in

Seaford Head which rises to the east and in the glorious Down walks

within easy distance. In actual distance by rail it is, next to

Brighton, the nearest South Coast resort to London and without doubt

has a successful future before it. It is but little over two miles to

the Cuckmere valley past the Roman camp and over the Head. The views of

the "Seven Sisters" and on to Beachy Head from this point are very

fine, and the great cliff itself, though much lower, is almost as

interesting as the Eastbourne height. For one thing the wild life of

the precipice is more easily studied, the crowds which on most summer

days throng the more popular Head are not met with here. The writer has

spent a June morning quite alone but for the myriad birds wheeling

around and scolding at his presumption in being there at all.

[Illustration: SEAFORD HEAD.]

The route now follows the coast road from Newhaven westwards. From the

Portobello coastguard station, four miles from Newhaven Bridge, a road

runs across the downs to the beautiful little village of Telscombe,

nestling in a secluded combe in the heart of the hills; by-roads and

footpaths also lead here by delightful ways from Southease and

Piddinghoe. The church is old and interesting, quite unspoilt by any

attempt at restoration; note the beautiful font on a marble platform.

Both here and at Rottingdean the artificial height of the churchyard

above the surrounding land will be noticed. Cobbett's explanation for

this is the obvious but rather gruesome one that dust added to dust has

more than doubled the contents of the consecrated ground. From the

comparative heights of the enclosure the author of _Rural Rides_

reckoned the age of the building, a method which made a greater appeal

to him than the rule of Norman round or English point.

Rottingdean has lately made a name for itself by reason of its modern

literary associations. Its connexion with William Black and Rudyard

Kipling is well known. Cardinal Manning and Bulwer Lytton both attended

a once celebrated school kept here by Dr. Hooker. Edward Burne-Jones

has left a lasting memorial of his association with the place in the

beautiful east window of the church which was designed and presented by

the artist. Certain columns in the walls point to the existence of a

Saxon building of which these are the remains. Notice the effect of the

tower in its unusual position between chancel and nave.

The village has a deserved place in the national history, as the

following account will show:--

"In 1377 Hastings was burnt by the French, who also attempted to burn

Winchelsea, but were foiled. They also attacked Rye, where they landed

from five vessels. After plundering and setting it on fire they went

away, leaving the town desolate. They landed at Rottingdean, advanced

over the Downs with the design of laying waste Lewes, but in this were

disappointed by the valour of John de Cariloce, Prior of Lewes, Sir

Thomas Cheney, Constable of Dover Castle, Sir John Falsley, and others,

who upon apprisal of it, hastened their vassals, and were joined by a

number of peasantry, who boldly ascended the Downs, resolved to repel

the invaders. They were insufficient both in number and skill to cope

with the well-trained troops of France. The brave peasantry were

totally routed, but not till one hundred of their party had sacrificed

their lives, and the Prior and the two knights had been made prisoners.

The loss which the French had sustained prevented further

encroachments, and they returned to their ships with their prisoners,

who were conducted to France."

That Rottingdean was known and appreciated over one hundred years ago

will come as a surprise to many. The following account appeared in the

_Gentleman's Magazine_, 1801:--

"The pleasant and delightful village of Rottingdean is situated on the

Newhaven Road, at the distance of nearly four miles from

Brighthelmstone, a popular watering place. This place is no otherwise

remarkable than for its wells, which are nearly empty at high water,

but which rise as the tide declines. This little village has of late

been the resort of a considerable number of genteel company, for which

bathing-machines and every accommodation have been provided. Here are a

variety of lodging houses, a good inn, with convenient stables,

coach-houses, etc. It is most frequented by such families as prefer a

little retirement to the bustle and gaiety of Brighthelmstone, and who

occasionally may wish to mix with the company there, for which its

situation renders it at any time perfectly convenient. The road from

Rottingdean to Brighthelmstone is delightfully pleasant in the summer

season. On one side you have an extensive view of the sea, and on the

other the Downs, covered with innumerable flocks of sheep, so justly

held in estimation for their delicious flavour."

[Illustration: ROTTINGDEAN.]

About two and a half miles from Rottingdean in a lonely dene surrounded

by the Downs is the little hamlet of Balsdean; there is nothing to see

here but a building locally called "The Chapel" (the architecture is

Decorated, with an ancient thatched roof) but the walk will give the

stranger to the district a good idea of the solitude and unique

characteristics of the chalk hills. The curious T-shaped cuttings still

to be seen in the sides of the Downs may be remarked; these are where

the traps set to catch wheatears were set. A great trade was once done

by the Downland peasantry in these "Sussex Ortolans," as they were

called, but of late years the demand has dwindled to vanishing point.

The lover of the picturesque will feel grateful to the powers who

refuse to destroy the deserted windmills which stud the Downs and of

which there is one good example near here. One cannot suppose however

that the object of letting them stand is other than utilitarian; after

a long life of service in their original capacity these daylight

beacons perform the duty of landmarks for seamen in the Channel.

A footpath from Rottingdean just a mile long crosses the Downs to

Ovingdean, another lonely hamlet without inn or shop. An ancient

church, possibly Saxon in part, and a few houses hidden by trees make a

goal of a favourite walk from Brighton. Harrison Ainsworth has made the

little place famous in "Ovingdean Grange," in which romance the

novelist makes it one of the scenes in the flight of Charles II; this

however is incorrect, as it is certain that Brighton was the limit of

the royal fugitive's journey eastwards. The large building on the hill

above Ovingdean is Roedean College for girls; its fine situation and

imposing size make it a landmark, and the seascape from its windows

must be unrivalled.

[Illustration: BRIGHTON.]

CHAPTER IV

BRIGHTON

"Kind, cheerful, merry Dr. Brighton." Thackeray's testimonial is as apt

to-day as when it was written, but the doctor is not one of the

traditional type. Here is no bedside manner and no misplaced sympathy,

in fact he is rather a hardhearted old gentleman to those patients who

are really ill in mind or body and his remedies are of the "hair of the

dog that bit you" type.

Londoners take Brighton as a matter of course and--as Londoners--are

rarely enthusiastic. It takes a Frenchman to give the splendid line of

buildings which forms the finest front in the world the admiration that

is certainly its due. When one has had time to dissect the great town,

appreciation is keener; there are several Brightons; there is a town

built on a cliff, another with spacious lawns on the sea level, and a

third, the old Brighton, bounded by the limits of the original fishing

village, and, with all its brilliance, having a distinctly briny smell

as of fish markets and tarred rope and sun-baked seaweed when you are

near the shingle. This last is nearly an ever-present scent, for the

sun is seldom absent summer or winter; in fact it is when the days are

shortest that Brighton is at its best; The clear brilliance of the air

when the Capital is full of fog and even the Weald between is covered

with a cold pall of mist, makes the south side of the Downs another

climate. Richard Jeffries, almost as great a town hater as Cobbet, has

a good word for Brighton. "Let nothing cloud the descent of those

glorious beams of sunlight which fall at Brighton" (referring to its

treelessness). "Watch the pebbles on the beach; the foam runs up and

wets them, almost before it can slip back the sunshine has dried them

again. So they are alternately wetted and dried. Bitter sea and glowing

light, dry as dry--that describes the place. Spain is the country of

sunlight, burning sunlight, Brighton is a Spanish town in England, a

Seville."

The history of Brighton is the history of Piccadilly, but although the

Prince Regent is usually credited with the discovery of the town, this

title to fame must be given to a doctor of Lewes named Russel, who

wrote a book on the virtues of sea water as applied to the person. This

was published in 1750, and from that time must be dated the rise of

England's first sea resort, for almost immediately patients eager for

the new cure came thronging from London by post-chaise and family

coach, and the doctor soon removed from his native town to attend them.

The "cure" became the mode, and in 1783, when the Prince made his first

visit, the fortune of the town was assured.

After a hundred years that ended with the Mid-Victorians the

exclusiveness of Brighton gave way to the excursion train, and though

still a fashionable place, it is now more than ever London-by-the-sea

and caters with true courtliness for coster and duke.

Brighton was never a "steps to the sea" for anywhere but London, and

its beginnings as a small but independent fishing settlement are very

remote; according to some seventeenth century writers it once boasted

walls and upwards of two thousand inhabitants, but through the

depredations of the sea, it had dwindled to a mere hamlet, and cut off

by the Downs and away from all the usual channels of communication, the

self-sufficiency of the place must have received a rude shock when the

first visitors arrived, but natives of the coast are notoriously

adaptable and know a "sure thing." The following account written in

1766 shows how quickly the town was preparing for its great future.

"Brighthelmstone, in the County of Sussex, is distant from London 57

miles, is a small, ill-built town, situate on the sea coast, at present

greatly resorted to in the summer time by persons labouring under

various disorders for the benefit of bathing and drinking sea water,

and by the gay and polite on account of the company which frequent it

at that season. Until within a few years it was no better than a mere

fishing town, inhabited by fishermen and sailors, but through the

recommendation of Dr. Russel, and by the means of his writing in favour

of sea water, it is become one of the principal places in the kingdom

for the resort of the idle and dissipated, as well as the diseased and

infirm."

"It contains six principal streets, five (East Street, Black Lion

Street, Ship Street, Middle Street, West Street) lie parallel with each

other, and are terminated by the sea. The sixth, North Street, running

along the ends of the other five, from the assembly house almost to the

church. The church, which is a very ancient structure, is situate at a

small distance from the town, upon an eminence, from which there is an

exceedingly fine view of the sea, and in the churchyard is a monument

erected to the memory of Captain Nicholas Tattersell, who assisted King

Charles II in his escape after the Battle of Worcester.

"The house in which the King was concealed is kept by a publican who

has hung the King's head for his sign. The church is a rectory, and the

Rev. Mr. Mitchell is the present incumbent; besides the church there

are three other places of worship, one for Presbyterians, another for

Quakers, and a third for Methodists, which last is lately erected at

the expense of the Countess of Huntingdon adjoining her house, through

which there is a communication. There are two assembly rooms, which are

opened on different nights, one kept by Mr. Shergold, and the other by

Mr. Hicks, who also keeps the coffee-house. The place on which the

company usually walk in the evening is a large field near the sea,

called the Stean, which is kept in proper order for that purpose, and

whereon several shops with piazzas and benches therein are erected, as

is also a building to perform in when the weather will permit. There is

also a small battery towards the sea. At a little distance from the

town is a mineral spring which is said to be a very fine one though

little used. Upon the hills near the church the Isle of Wight is

frequently seen on a clear day. About the town are very pleasant Downs

for the company to ride on, the air of which is accounted extremely

wholesome, and about eight miles from Brighthelmstone on the Downs is

one of the finest prospects in the world called Devil's Dyke."

The literary associations of Brighton are many and various. Charles

Lamb lived for some years is Sussex House, Ship Street. Paston House

was the home of William Black before he removed to Rottingdean.

Ainsworth produced a goodly portion of his historical novels at No. 5,

Arundel Terrace, and at 4 Percival Terrace, Herbert Spencer spent the

last years of his life and here died. The name of Holyoake, the social

reformer, is connected with Eastern Lodge, Camelford Street. A list of

such names might be extended indefinitely, and if the celebrities who

have been regular visitors were mentioned the record would be endless,

though it is said that Robert Browning never entered the town. Dr.

Johnson stayed in West Street, when the Thrales lived there; he bathed

with the rest and, unlike the rest, abused the surroundings in his

usual manner, declaring that a man would soon be so overcome by the

dismalness of the Downs that he would hang himself if he could but find

a tree strong enough to bear his weight!

Every Dickensian would like to identify the house which the creator of

Paul Dombey had in mind when he painted the inimitable portrait of Mrs.

Pipchin, "ogress and child queller," whose castle "was in a steep bye

street.... where the small front gardens had the property of producing

nothing but marigolds, whatever was sown in them; and where snails were

constantly discovered holding on to the street doors.... In the winter

time the air couldn't be got out of the Castle, and in the summer time

it couldn't be got in.... It was not naturally a fresh smelling house;

and in the window of the front parlour, which was never opened, Mrs.

Pipchin kept a collection of plants in pots, which imparted an earthy

flavour of their own to the establishment."

Little Paul afterwards went to Dr. Blimber's, which "was a mighty fine

house fronting the sea"; this has been identified as being on or near

the site now occupied by the Metropole. Thackeray, whose verdict on the

town is quoted at the head of this chapter, laid several scenes among

these squares and crescents and gave to one of his greatest characters

the town's best known feature as a title.

The extraordinary and incongruous building in the Steyne known as the

Pavilion was built by Nash at the instigation of George IV. The

architect cannot be entirely blamed for the monstrosity, the general

idea and "style" was no doubt conceived by his patron. This is how the

Pavilion impressed Cobbett: "Take a square box the sides of which are

three feet and a half and the height a foot and a half. Take a large

Norfolk turnip, cut of the green of the leaves, leave the stalk nine

inches long, tie these round with a string three inches from the top,

and put the turnip on the middle of the top of the box. Then take four

turnips of half the size, treat them in the same way, and put them on

the corners of the box. Then take a considerable number of bulbs, of

the Crown-Imperial, the narcissus, the hyacinth, the tulip, the crocus

and others; let the leaves of each have sprouted to about an inch more

or less according to the size of the bulb; put all these pretty

promiscuously but pretty thickly on top of the box. Then stand off and

look at your architecture."

[Illustration: THE PAVILION, BRIGHTON.]

The building now belongs to the town, and the stables (The "Dome") form

a very fine concert hall. The adjacent buildings, all part of the

Pavilion, are used as Museum, Library and Picture Gallery. The

residence of Mrs. Fitzherbert still overlooks the Steyne, up the steps

of this house Barrymore drove his carriage and pair to the great

detriment of both house and equipage. The Y.M.C.A. now occupy the

premises. One of the best descriptions of the Regent's Brighton is in

"Rodney Stone."

It was about 1826 that the greatest growth in building took place; from

about this period date those magnificent squares, Regency and Brunswick

in Hove, and Sussex Square in Kemp Town.

The Steyne is now a pleasant public garden; it was originally the

"Stane" or rock upon which fishing nets were dried. St. Peter's

Church at the north end was built in 1824 by Barry, and for its

period is not unpleasing. In Church Street is the only ancient church

in Brighton; it is dedicated to St. Nicholas; and was to a great

extent rebuilt in 1853. Note its fine gilt screen and the Norman font

with a representation of the Lord's Supper and certain scenes connected

with the sea, but too archaic to be actually identified. In a chantry

chapel is the Wellington memorial, an ornate cross eighteen feet high.

The Duke was a worshipper here while a pupil of the then vicar, and the

restoration of the church was a part of the memorial scheme. Captain

Tattersell, who was instrumental in the escape of Charles II, is buried

in the churchyard and a monument sets forth--

"When Charles ye great was nothing but a breath,

This valiant soul stept between him and death."

Here is also a memorial to Phoebe Hessel, who fought as a private in

the fifth regiment of foot at the Battle of Fontenoy and died here aged

108.

There are several fine churches which have been built during recent

years, including St. Paul's in West Street; every excursionist knows

this, and to thousands it is the only church in Brighton, being on

the direct route from the station to the sea. St. Martin's and St.

Bartholomew's are open all day and are well worth a visit. Trinity

Chapel was the scene for six years of the incumbency of F.W. Robertson,

and another preacher of more recent fame, R.J. Campbell, was for a time

the Minister of Union Street Congregational Church.

[Illustration: ST. NICHOLAS, BRIGHTON.]

The old Chain Pier was, next to the Pavilion, the most distinctive

feature of the town; built in 1823 and paved with stone, it was

historic as the first pleasure pier. Swept away by a storm on the night

of December 4, 1896, old Brightonians must have felt that something had

gone from their lives when they looked from their windows next morning.

One of the "institutions" of Brighton is the Aquarium; it contains a

very good collection of Marine exhibits, not as much appreciated as

they should be. Of late years extra attractions have had to be added

and concerts and other entertainments help to keep the glass tanks and

their occupants popular.

Kemp Town, named after its speculative builder, has been but briefly

alluded to; it is to many the most attractive part of the great town,

rising at the east end to a respectable height above the sea and with

fine views of the Channel. Unlike its parent it has no "history"

whatever. King Edward, during the last years of his life, took a liking

to this part of Brighton, and in his honour the district was officially

renamed "King's Cliff," but the new style does not seem to have become

popular. On the other hand Hove, with its "Lawns" and imposing squares,

has a past; the following note appears in the _Gentleman's Magazine_

dated 1792: "Hoove, by some spelled Hove or Hova, lies on the road

between Brighthelmstone and New Shoreham, about two miles from the

former and four from the latter. It was one of the many lordships in

the county of Sussex which the Conqueror's survey records to have been

the estate of Godwin Earl of Kent, in Edward the Confessor's time, and

which after his death passed to his eldest son Harold, who being

afterwards King, was slain by the Norman Duke, who seized his lands and

gave them to his followers. Long after this time, this place was as

large and as considerable a village as the county could boast; but it

is reduced, by the encroachment of the sea at different times, to about

a dozen dwellings. This place gives title to a prebend in the cathedral

of Chichester; and the living, which is a vicarage united to Preston,

is in the gift of the prebendary. Divine service is only performed in

the church once in six weeks, and, by appearance of the ruinous state

in which it at present is, that will be soon entirely neglected." This

church, dedicated to St. Andrew, has been practically rebuilt, though

some of the ancient features have been retained. Near the chancel door

is the grave of Charlotte Elliot, the hymn writer. Admiral Westphal,

one of the officers of Nelson's "Victory," is also interred here. The

new parish church--All Saints--is of great magnificence and has cost

about L50,000.

[Illustration: ST. PETER'S, BRIGHTON.]

The western end of Hove, if we may believe some experts, has claims to

a higher antiquity than any other locality between Pevensey and Bosham.

Aldrington, as this district is called, is conjectured to have been the

Roman "Portus Adurni," of which Shoreham would then be the lineal

descendant. On the other hand the identification of this mysterious

place with any part of Sussex has been seriously challenged. The

estuary of the Adur then extended to Bramber. A glance at the two-inch

Ordnance map of the district will make the old course of the river

quite clear. In Hove Park is the famous "grey wether," called the

"Goldstone." This used to lay in Goldstone Bottom between the railway

and the Downs. Inspecting antiquaries proved such a nuisance that the

farmer on whose land it lay determined to bury it out of sight; this

almost superhuman task was performed in 1833 and the stone remained in

the ground until 1902 when it was exhumed.

Preston, the northern extension of Brighton, originally a small place

on the London road, has a pleasant park from which the suburb takes its

name. The one object of interest to the tourist is the Early English

church which has some remarkable frescoes; these represent the murder

of St. Thomas of Canterbury, with Our Lord revealing himself to the

martyr; on the opposite side St. Michael is shown weighing a soul. In

the nave is another picture of the nativity. A destructive fire, a few

years ago, greatly damaged these and also the fabric of the church.

Careful repair, however, has to a great extent restored the building to

its original condition The altar consists of a seventeenth century

tomb. The old font was taken away to St. Saviour's Church, but has been

very properly replaced.

Brighton is not the best centre for the exploration of the central Down

country. If a coast town is chosen Worthing is much better; from there

the real country is quickly reached, although the hills themselves are

farther away. But there are one or two excursions which obviously

belong to Brighton, the most important being that to the Devil's Dyke

and Poynings. A rather dull walk of over five miles from the Steyne,

retrieved during the last two by fine views on the left hand, will

bring us to the old stone posts labelled "The Dyke." This road passes

an interesting Museum of Ornithology collected by the late E.T. Booth.

Here are to be seen cases of wild birds in their natural surroundings

planned with greatest care by Mr. Booth, who gave a lifelong study to

the habits and environment of British birds. On the occasions on which

the writer has visited the collection no other persons were present,

and few residents seem to have heard of it.

Trains run at frequent intervals from Brighton Central to the Dyke and

public conveyances from the Aquarium. The excursion should not be

missed, though the visitor who is a stranger must be prepared for a

regrettable amount of waste paper and broken bottles left about to mar

what would otherwise be one of the finest scenes in the Downs.

Refreshment stalls and tea gardens help to vulgarize the surroundings,

though the added desecration of aerial railway across the Dyke has been

removed.

The local legend is almost too well known to bear repetition. The

Sussex native has a dislike, probably derived from his remote

ancestors, to refer directly to the Devil, so the story has it that the

"Poor Man," becoming enraged at the number of churches built in the

Weald, conceived the idea of drowning them by letting in the sea; he

had half finished the great trench, being forced (like his remote

prototype) to work at night, when an old lady, hearing the noise of

digging, put her candle in a sieve and looked out of the window. The

Devil took it for sunrise and disappeared, a very simple fiend indeed!

[Illustration: POYNINGS.]

The view from the edge of the escarpment with Poynings just below to

the right is very beautiful; away to the south-west is an eminence

called "Thunder's Barrow," probably Thor's Barrow; at the lower end of

the Dyke is the Devil's Punch Bowl, here are two more barrows "The

Devil's Grave" and "The Devil's Wife's Grave."

A visit to Poynings (locally "Punnings") should be combined with this

excursion; this is a really pleasant and, as yet, unspoilt village. One

feels nervous for its future, but the good taste of the inhabitants,

combined with the formidable barrier of the hills, will, it is hoped,

prevent it ever becoming a mere congeries of tea gardens and like

amenities. The fine cruciform church has a central tower and is Early

Perpendicular; built by Baron de Poynings in the late fourteenth

century it has many interesting details. Note the old thurible used as

an alms box. The great south window was brought here from Chichester

Cathedral. There is some good carved wood in the pulpit and rails. The

ruins of Poynings Place, the one-time home of the Fitz-Rainalts, Barons

of Poynings, may still be seen.

Newtimber Hill immediately east of the village is rarely visited and

therefore is not rendered unsightly in the manner of the Dyke. The view

is equally good and the Downs westward appear to even better advantage

from this outlying point. A return could be made from Newtimber to

Pycombe, once famous for its manufacture of shepherds crooks--"Pycoom

Hooks." The village lies in the pass by which the London-Brighton road

crosses the Downs. The old church has a twelfth century leaden font and

a double piscina and is one of the highest in Sussex, being situated

400 feet above the sea. This walk could very well be extended to

include Wolstonbury Hill and Hurstpierpoint.

The road running west from Poynings at the foot of the Downs would

bring us to Fulking where is a memorial fountain to John Ruskin erected

by a brewer. Another two miles along it is Edburton, an unspoilt

village under the shadow of Trueleigh Hill; the fine Early English

church has a pulpit and altar rails presented by Archbishop Laud and a

leaden font of the early twelfth century. Nine miles north of Brighton

by road, and about half-way between the two London highways, either of

which may be taken, lies the large village or small town locally called

"Hurst" and by the world at large, more romantically, Hurstpierpoint.

The situation, with its wide and beautiful views over the surrounding

country from Leith Hill and Blackdown to the ever present line of the

Downs on the south, make it one of the pleasantest places in Sussex for

a prolonged stay. St. John's College is one of the Woodard schools in

connexion with Lancing foundation (see page 103); it is a fine building

with an imposing chapel. The church is modern and was designed by Sir

Charles Barry. In the south transept is an effigy of an unknown

crusader and another of a knight in the north aisle. A brass in the

chapel commemorates the fact that the martyred Bishop Hannington was

born and held a curacy here. There are a number of memorials to the

Campions, local squires and present owners of Danny; one of them runs

thus:--

"Reader, bewail thy country's loss in the death of Henry Campion. In

his life admire a character most amiable and venerable, of the Friend

and Gentleman, and Christian."

[Illustration: DANNY.]

Danny is a beautiful specimen of the Elizabethan mansion at its best;

it is built under the shadow of Wolstonbury Hill, one of the finest in

shape of the outstanding bastions of the Downs, on the top of which is

a circular camp with several pits within the vallum. The twin woods on

the slope of the hill are locally known as "Campion's Eyebrows," they

are well seen in the accompanying sketch.

[Illustration: HURSTPIERPOINT.]

Hurstpierpoint may also be easily visited from Hassocks Station (2

miles), from which we may also start on the last stage of our return to

Lewes. One mile east of the station is Keymer, a pleasant little place

with an uninteresting church which has been practically rebuilt.

Ditchling, a mile further, has a very fine Transitional and Early

English church which will repay a visit. The nave is severely plain in

the older style; the chancel shows some untouched and very beautiful

workmanship. The east window is Geometrical, as are several in the

nave, others are Decorated and, in the transept, Perpendicular. Note

the old font which was evidently at one time coloured; also the aumbry,

piscina and sedile. The chalk arches are finely worked. In the village

are several old timber houses, including one said to have been

inhabited by Anne of Cleves.

A walk of about two miles past Wick Farm or by Westmeston, over half a

mile farther, brings the traveller to the summit of this section of the

Downs--Ditchling Beacon (813 feet). Until more accurate surveys were

made this was supposed to be the highest point of the whole range.

"This most commanding down is crowned with the grassy mound and

trenches of an ancient earthwork, from whence there is a noble view of

hill and plain. The inner slope of the green fosse is inclined at an

angle pleasant to recline on, with the head just below the edge, in the

summer sunshine. A faint sound as of a sea heard in a dream--a sibilant

'sish, sish'--passes along outside, dying away and coming again as a

fresh wave of the wind rushes through the bennets and the dry grass."

(Richard Jefferies.)

[Illustration: WOLSTONBURY.]

The views from Ditchling, though fine, are not nearly the best, for

there is a tameness in the immediate country to the north. A glorious

walk, however, can be taken by keeping along the edge past "Black Cap,"

the clump of trees about two miles east, and then either over or round

Mount Harry to Lewes. Those who must see all the settlements of men

should proceed downwards to Westmeston, a beautiful little place

embowered in trees, some of which are magnificent in shape and size,

particularly the great ash at the east of the church which is literally

overshadowed by the Beacon. The building is uninteresting and the mural

paintings dating from the twelfth century, which were discovered about

fifty years ago, have not been preserved. It was near here that Baring

Gould speaks of seeing the carcasses of two horses and three calves

hanging in a elm; on inquiry he was informed that this was considered

"lucky for cattle."

About a mile and a half north and two miles east of Ditchling village

is the lonely hamlet of Street. The "Place" is a grand old house dating

from the reign of the first James; behind the chimney of the hall was

once a spacious hiding place and a story is told of a Royalist fugitive

who _rode into it on his horse_ and was never again seen. The restored

church has a number of iron grave slabs and a monument to Martha

Cogger, who was a "Pattern of Piety and Politeness."

Nearly two miles on the Lewes road is Plumpton, chiefly famed for its

steeplechases which are held two miles away in the Weald and close to

Plumpton station. The church is uninteresting. The "Place" is an old

moated house, the property of Lord Chichester. The Leonard Mascall who

lived here in the sixteenth century is said to have introduced the

first carp from the Danube, the moat being used as their nursery.

Notice the great V in firs on the face of the Downs; this is a memorial

of the Victorian Jubliee; not particularly beautiful and leading one to

speculate upon its permanence. A cutting in the chalk would probably

recommend itself to the pious care of coming ages when the personage

commemorated had either been entirely forgotten or had developed into a

legendary heroine of fictitious character. That even cuttings are not

always permanent is proved close by, for only occasionally can the

cross cut to commemorate the great battle of Lewes be seen; the turf

shows but a different shade of green at certain times and under certain

atmospheric conditions.

The road to Lewes continues under the shadow of Mount Harry and

eventually drops to the Lewes-London highway near Offham, remarkable as

being the first place in the south where a line of rails was used for

the passage of goods. A turn to the right and we soon reach Lewes near

St. Anne's Church.

CHAPTER V

SHOREHAM AND WORTHING

Public conveyances run from Brighton to Shoreham several times each day

by Portslade and Southwick; the railway to Worthing also follows the

road and little will be lost if the traveller goes direct to New

Shoreham. Portslade and Southwick churches have some points of

interest, the latter a one time church of the Knights Templar, but they

are not sufficient compensation for the melancholy and depressing

route. After passing Hove the road is cut off from the sea by the

eastern arm of Shoreham Harbour, and there follows a line of gas works,

coal sidings and similar eyesores, almost all the way to Shoreham town.

However, the explorer will be amply recompensed when he arrives at the

old port at the mouth of the Adur.

The original Saxon town had its beginnings at Old Shoreham, but, as the

harbour silted up, the importance of the new settlement under Norman

rule, exceeded all other havens between Portsmouth and Rye. The

overlords were the powerful De Braose family, who have left their name

and fame over a great extent of the Sussex seaboard.

[Illustration: PORTSLADE HARBOUR.]

King John is known to have landed here after the death of Richard, and

Charles II sailed from Shoreham after the Battle of Worcester. The

fugitive came across country accompanied by Lord Wilmot, and at

Brighton fell in with the Captain Tattersell, whose grave we have seen

there. An arrangement was made by which he was to leave Shoreham in the

captain's vessel; this was done the next morning and the King in due

time reached Fecamp safely. At the restoration the gallant captain

received an annual pension of one hundred pounds.

Shoreham is decidedly not the town to visit for an hour or two or for

half a day. No one can possibly gain a correct impression of these

smaller English towns by a casual call, as it were, between trains. A

short stay, or two or three day visits (_not_ on "early closing" day)

is the least one can do before claiming to know the place.

New Shoreham is almost certain to disappoint on first acquaintance. In

fact it may be described as mean and shabby! Other and competent judges

have felt the charm of this old Seagate and one--Algernon Charles

Swinburne--has immortalized it in his glowing lines "On the South

Coast":--

"Shoreham, clad with the sunset glad and grave with glory that death

reveres."

Shoreham church is second only to the Cathedral at Chichester and

Boxgrove Priory in interest. As will be seen by the fragments in the

churchyard a nave once made the building cruciform, and its proportions

then would not have disgraced a small cathedral. A movement has been on

foot for some time to rebuild the nave on the old site and an offertory

box for this purpose will be seen within the church.

[Illustration: SHOREHAM AND THE ADUR.]

The prevailing effect of both exterior and interior is of solemn and

stately age. The upper part of the tower is Transitional with certain

later additions. The base of the tower, the choir transepts, and the

fragment still remaining of the nave are Norman and Transitional of

very noble and dignified proportions.

The vaulting will be noticed. This is Early English, also the beautiful

ornament on the capitals and the interesting mason's marks on the

pillars. The marble font is a very good specimen of the square type

common in this locality. A brass in the nave of a merchant and his lady

should be noticed, also a piscina with trefoil ornament and a modern

window in the north transept to the infants who died between 1850 and

1875. There are a number of memorials to the Hooper family hereabouts.

In this portion of the building the election of parliamentary

candidates once took place.

The church owes nothing of its stateliness to a past connected with

priory or monastery, it has always been a parish church and is of

additional interest thereby. That it always will hold this rank is

another matter; in these days of new sees one cannot tell that the

parish church of to-day will not be the cathedral of to-morrow.

Certainly Shoreham would wear the title with dignity.

There are many quaint corners left in the town (which since 1910 has

been officially styled "Shoreham by Sea "), but the individuality of

the place is best seen on the quay where a little shipbuilding is still

carried on; in the reign of Edward III it supplied the Crown with a

fleet of twenty-six sail. The figure-head sign of the "Royal George"

Inn may be noticed; this was salvaged from the ill-fated ship of that

name which sunk in Portsmouth Harbour.

The Norfolk Suspension Bridge, still retaining its old-fashioned toll,

carries the Worthing road across the river, at high tide a fine

estuary, but at low a feeble trickle lost in a waste of mud. The view

of the town from the bridge is very charming, especially in the evening

light.

[Illustration: SKETCH PLAN OF OLD & NEW SHOREHAM.]

At Old Shoreham, a mile up stream, is another bridge which, with the

church, is the most painted, sketched and photographed of all Sussex

scenes; few years pass without it being represented on the walls of the

Academy. This bridge is a very ancient wooden structure which has been

patched and mended from time to time into a condition of extreme

picturesqueness. The bridge leads to the "Sussex Pad," a noted

smuggling hostelry in a situation ideal for the purpose, and then on to

Lancing and Sompting.

The sturdy and grey old church which has seen so many centuries of

change and decay in the life around it, which has even seen the very

face of nature alter in the haven beneath, has not changed in any

essential since the great De Braose of the eleventh century built it on

the foundations of its Saxon predecessor, whose massive walls still

support a goodly part of the Norman building. Almost the whole of the

upper part of the church is Norman, though the chancel appears to have

been restored at a later date. Note the fine pointed screen and the

rich moulding of the arches and door, also the carved tye-beam above

the great arch which leads to the crossing. The nave is curiously dark,

through the absence of windows; here may be seen the remains of the

Saxon wall projecting beyond the line of the newer work. A low side

window near the southwest corner has been variously described as a

confessional, a hagioscope, and a leper window.

The few small houses to the south of the church are all that now remain

to show where the one time port stood; though none of the existing

buildings are contemporary with that period.

[Illustraton: NEW SHOREHAM.]

There is now a choice of ways. The direct route to Worthing goes across

the Norfolk Bridge and then by South Lancing ("Bungalow Town ") and

calls for no comment other than its fine marine views. The valley road

to Bramber and Steyning we propose to travel presently, and we will now

cross the old bridge by the "Sussex Pad," lately rebuilt. Half a mile

from the inn the Down road to the right leads direct to the prominent

group of buildings on a spur of the Downs which have been constantly in

view during the walk from Shoreham. St. Nicholas', or Lancing, College

was founded in 1849 by Nicholas Woodard, an Anglican priest. It is part

of a larger scheme, other colleges in connexion being at Hurstpierpoint

and Ardingly. The original school, established in 1848 at Shoreham, may

still be seen at the corner of Church Street; it is now a laundry. The

buildings are dominated most effectively by the great pile of the

college chapel 97 feet from roof to floor. The general effect is most

un-English and gives the west side of the Adur an air reminiscent of

Normandy or Picardy.

Lancing is supposed to be derived from Wlencing, one of the sons of

Ella. The church, originally Norman, has been much altered at various

times and is mainly Early English. The remains of an Easter Sepulchre

may be seen in the north wall of the chancel and at the door the

mutilated fragment of a stoup.

[Illustration: OLD SHOREHAM.]

At the third mile from Shoreham is Sompting, famous for its church and

well known to Worthing visitors, who have a pleasant walk of about two

and a half miles by shady road and field path through Broadwater. The

church stands in a group of elms on the slope to the north of the

village. The tower and part of the chancel are undoubtedly Saxon, the

remainder of the church having been rebuilt in Norman and Early English

times. Notice the characteristic bands of stonework which run round the

tower and the long capitals of the central ribs. The gabled spire is

almost unique in this country and will awaken memories of Alsace for

those who know that land. A similar spire may be seen in another Down

country, at Sarratt in Hertfordshire, and a modern example at

Southampton. Between the north side of the tower and the nave are the

remains of a chapel erected by the Peverells. The interior of the

church is equally uncommon and interesting, and the distressing newness

which follows most restorations is not seen here, the work of the

restorer, Mr. Carpenter, having been most careful and sympathetic. The

outline of the original windows may be traced in the chancel which is

now lit by Perpendicular openings. Over the altar is a tabernacle, not

very well seen. Notice the piscina with triangular arch, and a tomb, it

is supposed, of Richard Bury, dating from the time of Henry VII; also

the curious corbel face in the east aisle of the vaulted north

transept. The south transept is below the level of the nave; here are

two mutilated pieces of sculpture, representing Our Lord with a book

and a seated bishop with his crozier. The font is placed in a recess

which formerly held an altar. The church became the property of the

Knights Templar and a portion of the manor was held by the Abbey of

Fecamp; the adjoining manor-house being still known as Sompting

Abbotts; this house was for a short period the home of Queen Caroline.

[Illustration: SOMPTING.]

Enjoyable rambles may be taken by any of the numerous by-roads which

lead northwards into the heart of the Downs by Roman Ditch, Beggar's

Bush and Cissbury. It is proposed, however, to leave a more particular

description of this country to that portion of our longer route to

Worthing via Washington, for which we must return to Shoreham, and now

to take the road which runs by the Adur to Upper Beeding. On the way

will be noticed the little church at Coombe backed by the Downs; this

has an unmistakable Saxon window in the nave, and a medieval crucifix

discovered in 1877. Higher up the river is the little old church of

Botolph's, which may be Saxon so far as the chancel arch is concerned,

Both these churches are very old and quite untouched by the restorer.

At Upper Beeding the Priory of Sele once stood where is now the

vicarage; the Early English church is of small interest and need not

detain us.

[Illustration: COOMBES.]

Bramber (Brymburgh) Castle holds the same position for the valley of

the Adur that Lewes does for the Ouse and Arundel for the Arun. The

stronghold antedates by many centuries the great Norman with whose name

it is always coupled. Some authorities claim Bramber to have been the

Portus Adurni that we have already connected with Aldrington; however

that may be, Roman remains have been discovered here in the form of

bridge foundations and it is more than possible that a British fort

stood either on or near the hillock where William de Braose improved

and rebuilt the then existing castle; this, with the barony, was

granted to him by the Conqueror, and the family continued for many

years to be the most powerful in Mid-Sussex. After the line failed, the

property went to the Mowbrays and afterwards to the Howards, in whose

hands it still remains. It was through this connexion that the title of

Duke of Norfolk came to the holders of Arundel. Thomas Mowbray was made

first Duke in 1388, and when the line ceased and the property changed

hands the title went with it. It is possible that the army of the

Parliament destroyed the castle in the Civil War, though no actual

records prove this. A skirmish took place here between the Royalists

and their opponents and is described in a letter addressed to a certain

Samuel Jeake of Rye by one of the latter:--

"The enemy attempted Bramber Bridge, but our brave Carleton and

Evernden with his Dragoons and our horse welcomed them with drakes and

muskets, sending some eight or nine men to hell, I feare, and one

trooper to Arundell prisoner, and one of Captain Evernden's Dragoons to

heaven." It was the scene of a narrow escape for Charles II in his

flight to Brighton. The poor remnants of the Castle are now an excuse

for picnickers who are not always reverent, in point of tidiness,

towards what was once a palace of the Saxon Kings.

[Illustration: UPPER BEEDING.]

Bramber village is most picturesque and attractive; its size renders it

difficult to believe that within living memory it returned two members

to Parliament. Some amusing stories are told of the exciting elections

in olden days, when as much as L1,000 were offered and refused for a

single vote. This "borough" once returned Wilberforce the Abolitionist,

of whom it is told that on passing through and being acquainted with

the name of the village exclaimed "Bramber? why that's the place I'm

member for."

[Illustration: BRAMBER.]

The church lies close under the south wall of the castle; only the nave

and tower remain of the original cruciform building. Although the

arches are Norman and show the original frescoes, a claim was made by

Dr. Green, Rector in 1805, that "in rebuilding the church at his own

expense about twenty years before, he had no assistance except that the

Duke of Rutland and Lord Calthorpe, joint proprietors of the borough,

each gave L25, Magdalen College L50 and Mr. Lidbetter, an opulent local

farmer, L20; but the Duke of Norfolk, Lord of the Manor, nothing!" This

"rebuilding" refers to the re-erection of the tower arches, the space

between being converted into a chancel. New windows in Norman style

were inserted in 1871 to bring the east end into harmony with the nave.

[Illustration: ST. MARY'S, BRAMBER.]

St. Mary's is the first house to be seen on approaching the village

from the east. It is a beautiful specimen of a timber-built Sussex

house; notice the open iron-work door with its queer old bell-pull.

Every visitor should inspect the quaint museum of taxidermy in the

village street; here guinea-pigs may be seen playing cricket, rats

playing dominoes and rabbits at school; the lifelike and humorous

attitudes of the little animals reflect much credit on the artist.

Steyning is a short mile farther on our way (both Bramber and Steyning

are stations on the Brighton Railway). This was another borough until

1832 but, unlike its neighbour, it was of considerable importance in

the early middle ages and at the Domesday survey there were two

churches here. The one remaining is of great interest; built by the

Abbey of Fecamp to whom Edward the Confessor gave Steyning, it was

evidently never completed; preparations were made for a central tower

and the nave appears to be unfinished. The styles range from Early

Norman to that of the sixteenth century when the western tower was

built. Particular notice should be taken of the pier-arches which are

very beautifully decorated; also the south door.

The original church was founded by St. Cuthman. Travelling from the

west with his crippled mother, whom he conveyed in a wheelbarrow, he

was forced to mend the broken cords with elder twigs. Some haymakers in

a field jeered at him, and on that field, now called the Penfold, a

shower has always fallen since whenever the hay is drying. The elder

twigs finally gave way where Steyning was one day to be and here

Cuthman decided to halt and build a shelter for his mother and himself.

Afterwards he raised a wooden church and in this the saint was buried.

The father of the great Alfred was interred here for a time, his

remains being afterwards taken to Winchester when his son made that

city the capital of united England, though the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

asserts that the King was buried at Worcester.

[Illustration: STEYNING.]

Steyning was once known as Portus Cuthmanni and to this point the tidal

estuary of the Adur then reached. There are a number of fine old houses

in the little town, some with details which show them to date from the

fifteenth century. The gabled house in Church Street was built by

William Holland of Chichester as a Grammar School in 1614; it is known

as "Brotherhood Hall." The vicarage has many interesting details of the

sixteenth century and in the garden are two crosses of very early date,

probably Saxon.

[Illustration: GRAMMAR SCHOOL, STEYNING.]

The bygone days of Steyning seem to have been almost as quiet as its

modern history. A burning of heretics took place here in 1555; and the

troops of the Parliament took quiet possession of the town when

besieging near-by Bramber, but Steyning had not the doubtful privilege

of a castle and so its days were comparatively uneventful.

[Illustration: OLD HOUSES, STEYNING.]

The main road may be left at the north end of Steyning by a turning on

the left which rises in a mile and a half to Wiston ("Wisson") Park and

church; this is the best route for the ascent of Chanctonbury. The park

commands fine views and is in itself very beautiful; the house dates

from 1576, though several alterations have spoilt the purity of its

style. This manor was once in the hands of the de Braose family, from

whom it passed by marriage to the Shirleys, another famous family. Sir

Thomas Shirley built the present house about 1578. It was Sir Hugh

Shirley to whom Shakespeare referred in _King Henry IV_.

"Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like

Never to hold it up again. The spirits

Of Shirley, Stafford, Blount, are in my arms."

His great-grandsons were the famous Shirley brothers, whose adventures

were so wonderful that their deeds were acted in a contemporary play.

One went to Persia to convert the Shah and bring him in on the side of

the Christian nations against the Ottomans. On the way he discovered

coffee! His younger brother, who accompanied him, remained in Persia

and married a Circassian princess. The elder, after being taken

prisoner by the Turks, was liberated by the efforts of James I and then

imprisoned in the Tower by the same King for his interference in the

Levant trade. Ruined in pocket and with a broken heart he sold Wiston

and retired to the Isle of Wight. The estates soon afterwards passed to

the Gorings, who still own them.

Wiston church, which stands in the park and close to the house,

contains several monuments to the Shirleys and one of a child, possibly

a son of Sir John de Braose; a splendid brass of the latter lies on the

floor of the south chapel; it is covered with the words 'Jesu Mercy.'

There are a number of dilapidated monuments and pieces of sculpture

remaining in the church, which has been spoilt, and some of the details

and monuments actually destroyed, by ignorant and careless

"restoration."

To the north-west of Wiston Park is Buncton Chapel, a little old

building in which services are occasionally held. The walls show

unmistakable Roman tiles.

Chanctonbury (locally "Chinkerbury"), one of the most commanding and

dignified of the Down summits, rises 783 feet on the west of Wiston;

the climb may be made easier by taking the winding road opposite the

church. The "ring" which is such a bold landmark for so many miles

around makes a view from the actual top difficult to obtain. The whole

of the Weald is in sight and also the far-off line of the North Downs

broken by the summits of Holmbury and Leith Hill with Blackdown to the

left. In the middle distance is St. Leonard's Forest, and away to the

right Ashdown Forest with the unmistakable weird clump of firs at Wych

Cross. But it is the immediate foreground of the view which will be

most appreciated. The prehistoric entrenchment is filled with the

beeches planted by Mr. Charles Goring of Wiston when a youth (about

1760). In his old age (1828) Mr. Goring wrote the following:--

"How oft around thy Ring, sweet Hill,

A Boy, I used to play,

And form my plans to plant thy top

On some auspicious day.

How oft among thy broken turf

With what delight I trod,

With what delight I placed those twigs

Beneath thy maiden sod.

And then an almost hopeless wish

Would creep within my breast,

Oh! could I live to see thy top

In all its beauty dress'd.

That time's arrived; I've had my wish,

And lived to eighty-five;

I'll thank my God who gave such grace

As long as e'er I live.

Still when the morning sun in Spring,

Whilst I enjoy my sight,

Shall gild thy new-clothed Beech and sides,

I'll view thee with delight."

Chanctonbury must have had an overpowering effect on our ancestors; the

correspondent quoted below perhaps saw the hill through one of the

mists which come in from the sea and render every object monstrous or

mysterious.

"Chanckbury, the Wrekin or Cenis of the South Downs, is said to be

1,000 _perpendicular yards_ above the level of the sea; on the summum

jugum, or vertex, is a ring of trees planted by Mr. Goring of Whiston,

and if they were arrived at maturity, would form no indifferent

imitation of an ancient Druidical grove." (_Gentleman's Magazine_,

1819.)

The descent from the ring is made past a pond whose origin is unknown;

judging by its appearance it may well have supplied the men who first

occupied the fortifications on the hill top. The white path below

eventually leads, by a narrow and steep gully, very slippery after

rain, directly to the village of Washington on the Horsham-Worthing

high road. The church stands above the village in a picturesque

situation, but is of little interest. With the exception of the tower,

it was rebuilt in 1866. Here is a sixteenth-century tomb of John Byne

from the old building, and in the churchyard may be seen the grave of

Charles Goring. Hillaire Belloc has immortalized the village inn

thus:--

"They sell good beer at Haslemere

And under Guildford Hill;

At little Cowfold, as I've been told,

A beggar may drink his fill.

There is good brew at Amberley too.

And by the bridge also;

But the swipes they takes in at the Washington Inn

Is the very best beer I know."

A great find of silver coins of the time of the last Saxon Kings was

made in 1866 on Chancton Farm; a ploughman turning up an urn containing

over three thousand. This was an effective rebuke to those who laugh at

"old wives' tales," for a local tradition of buried treasure must have

been in existence for eight hundred years.

[Illustration: CHANCTONBURY RING.]

A motor-bus runs here from Worthing and then westwards as far as

Storrington on the branch road to Pulborough. Storrington has almost

the status of a small town and lays claim to fame as the birthplace of

Tom Sayers, the prize-fighter, and of an equally famous prince of

commerce in whose honour a metropolitan street has recently been

renamed "Maple" (late "_London_") Street. The church has been almost

spoilt by "restorers," but there are fine tombs by Westmacott and a

brass of the sixteenth century. Near the church is a modern Roman

Catholic Priory; the beautiful chapel is always open and should be

seen. It is, however, for its fine situation opposite Kithurst Hill

and its convenience as a centre from which to explore this beautiful

section of the Down country that Storrington is important to the

explorer of Downland. Within easy reach are the quiet stretches of the

Arun at Pulborough and Amberley, and Parham (p. 191) is within three

miles. The line of lofty hills on the south are seldom visited, most

tourists being content with Chanctonbury. Near the Downs, about a mile

south-east, lies the little church of Sullington under its two great

yews, very primitive and at present unrestored; most of the work seems

to be Early English. Here is an effigy of an unknown knight, also an

old stone coffin. A footpath leads direct to Washington where we turn

towards the sea, climbing by the Worthing road the narrow pass which

cuts between the Downs and drops to Findon. This is another beautifully

placed village with a Transitional and Early English church in an

adjacent wood and, for strangers, rather difficult to find. In the

chancel is a doorway in a curious position between two seats. A Norman

arch, probably the relic of an older building, fills the opening of a

transept on the south side. A former rector in 1276 must have broken

all records in the matter of pluralities; besides Findon he held

livings in Salisbury, Hereford, Rochester, Coventry, two in

Lincolnshire, and seven in Norfolk, also holding a canonry of St.

Paul's and being Master of St. Leonard's Hospital in York.

[Illustration: FINDON.]

Findon is noted for its racing stables; the hills and combes on the

east forming an ideal galloping ground. The walks over Black Patch and

Harrow Hill are among the best in the central Downs. East of the

village a path leads to Cissbury Ring (603 feet). "Cissa's Burgh" was

the Saxon name for this prehistoric fortress which was adapted and used

by the Romans, as certain discoveries have proved. Cissa was a son of

Ella and has given his name to Chichester also. The foundations of a

building may be seen in dry summers within the rampart; this is

probably Roman. On the western slopes are some pits which may be the

remains of a British village. But stone weapons, some of rude form and

others highly finished, prove the greater antiquity of the camp. About

sixty acres are enclosed within the trench, and approaches to it were

made on the north, east and south. Cissbury is thus the largest

entrenchment on the Downs and must have been one of the most important

in the south. The views seawards are very fine and the stretch of coast

is one of the longest visible from any part of the range Below the

southern side of the fosse, on the slope that brings us down to

Broadwater, is the reputed site of a Roman vineyard; the locality still

goes by this name and certainly the situation, a slope facing south and

protected from cold winds, is an ideal one for the culture of the

grape.

Broadwater is now a suburb of Worthing. Here is a very interesting

Transitional-Norman cruciform church, at one time magnificent in its

appurtenances, no fewer than six chantry chapels being attached; the

remains of these were done away with in the early nineteenth century.

Note the old altar stone in the floor of the chancel, also on the

exterior north wall a dedication cross in flints. In the chancel is a

brass to John Mapleton, 1432, chancellor of Joan of Navarre, and there

are two fine tombs, one of Thomas Lord de la Warre (1526) and the other

of the ninth of that line (1554). John Bunnett, interred in 1734, aged

109, had six wives, three of whom he married and buried after he was

100! The church has a modern association which will be of interest to

all lovers of wild nature; here in 1887 Richard Jeffries was buried.

One cannot but think that the great naturalist would have been more

fittingly laid to rest in one of the lonely little God's-acres which

nestle in the Downs he loved so well.

[Illustration: BROADWATER.]

Worthing until the end of the eighteenth century was a mere suburb of

Broadwater; its actual beginnings as a watering place were nearly

contemporary with those of Brighton. When the Princess Amelia came here

in 1799 the fortunes of the town were made, and ever since it has

steadily, though perhaps slowly, increased in popular favour. The three

miles of "front," which is all that fifty per cent, of its visitors

know of Worthing, are unimposing and in places mean and rather

depressing in architecture, but this is atoned for by the stretch of

hard clean sands laid bare at half tide, a pleasant change after the

discomfort of Brighton shingle. As a residential town, pure and simple,

Worthing is rapidly overtaking its great rival, and successful business

men make their money in the one and live in the other, as though the

Queen of Watering-places were an industrial centre. Worthing has a

great advantage in its fine old trees; as a matter of fact the place

would be unbearably arid and glaring without them in the summer months,

for it has undoubtedly proved its claim to be the sunniest south coast

resort; a claim at one time or other put forth by all. The most

convincing proof to the sceptical stranger will be the miles of glass

houses for the culture of the tomato with which the town is surrounded.

Its chief attraction lies in the number of interesting places which can

easily be reached in a short time and with little trouble. The Downs

here are farther off than those at Brighton, but are of much greater

interest, and public motors take one easily and cheaply into their

heart as we have already shown. The South Coast Railway runs east and

west to Shoreham and Arundel, reaching those super-excellent towns in

less than half an hour; and of the walks in the immediate

neighbourhood, all have goals which well repay the effort expended in

reaching them.

Sompting, which can be combined with Broadwater as an excursion, has

already been described; we therefore turn westward again and passing

the suburb of Heene, now called West Worthing, arrive, in two and a

half miles from the Town Hall, at the village of Goring. Its rebuilt

church is of no interest. Here Richard Jeffries died in the August of

1887. A mile farther is West Ferring with a plain Early English church;

notice the later Perpendicular stoup at the north door and the piscina,

which has a marble shelf. The Manor House is on the site of an ancient

building in which St. Richard of Chichester lived after his banishment

by Henry III, and here the saint is said to have miraculously fed

three-thousand poor folk with bread only sufficient for a thirtieth of

that number.

[Illustration: SALVINGTON MILL.]

A pleasant ramble through the lanes north of the village leads to

Highdown Hill, perhaps the most popular excursion from Worthing; the

top has an earthwork probably dating from the stone age. Human remains

of a later date were found here in 1892, also coins, weapons and

personal ornaments belonging to the time of the Roman occupation. The

"Miller's Tomb" is on the side nearest Worthing; it has representations

of Time and Death with some verses composed by the miller, John

Olliver. A cottage on the other side of the hill stands on the site of

the mill. The view is particularly fine both Downwards and seawards,

though the hill is not half the altitude of Cissbury. Northwards are

the beautiful woods of Castle Goring, once the residence of the

Shelleys, through which we may walk to Clapham and Patching, villages

on southern spurs of the Downs; the latter has a restored Early English

church with a very beautiful modern reredos. Clapham has a Transitional

church containing memorials of the Shelley family. Notice the

blocked-up Norman arch which proves the existence of an earlier

building. On the south is a venerable farmhouse, ancient and

picturesque.

[Illustration: OLD HOUSES AT LARRING.]

The return journey to Worthing may be taken through Salvington, passing

the ruins of Durrington chapel; at the south end of the village at the

cottage named "Lacies" John Selden was born in 1584. On the door post

is a Latin inscription said to have been composed by him when ten years

old; it runs thus:--

Gratus, honeste, mihi, non claudar, initio sedebis,

Fur abeas non sum facta soluta tibi.

Translated by Johnson:--

Walk in and welcome; honest friends, repose;

Thief, get thee hence, to thee I'll not unclose.

Selden's father was a wandering minstrel and the birthplace of the

great jurist was humble even for those days.

[Illustration: BECKET'S PALACE, TARRING.]

A short walk southwards brings us to West Tarring, which is practically

a suburb of Worthing. Here is a very fine Early English and

Perpendicular church with a lofty spire. Notice the beautiful modern

mosaics depicting the Prophets and Apostles. Also the old miserere

seats and an ancient muniment chest. The window under the tower is in

memory of Robert Southey whose daughter married a onetime vicar of

Tarring. Another incumbent here was Stripe the historian.

A peculiarity noticeable in many country churchyards may be remarked

here--the reluctance to bury on the north side of the church (though

strangely enough this has been reversed at near-by Ferring). In many

churchyards, where the ground is as extensive on the north side as on

the others, the grave digger's spade has left it either quite untouched

or the graves are few in number and mostly of recent date.

West Tarring was once a market town and several good specimens of

medieval and Tudor domestic architecture still exist. It was once a

"peculiar" of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and the remains of the

archiepiscopal palace may be seen in the school house on the east of

the church. In the rectory orchard close by is the "columbarium," or

all that is left of it. Becket is said to have occupied the palace. The

celebrated fig orchard is supposed to have been raised from slips

planted by him, though another story has it that the original planter

was St. Richard. The present orchard is of much interest and dates from

the year of the "forty-five," though it can well be believed that some

of the trees are older; the venerable patriarch in the centre is known

as "St. Thomas," but this is of course impossible. A most remarkable

occurrence takes place annually at the ripening of the fruit; a small

bird similar to, if not identical with the _Beccafico_ ("Figeater") of

Italy visits the orchards here and at Sompting, stays a few weeks and

then departs until the next season; it is seen in no other part of

England.

CHAPTER VI

ARUNDEL AND THE ARUN

There is a choice of roads between Worthing and Arundel: that which

keeps to the low lands has been partly traversed in the journey to West

Ferring.

About two miles east of this village, and close to Angmering station,

are the twin villages of East and West Preston; the former has a Norman

and Transitional church with one of the four stone spires in Sussex. At

Rustington, a mile farther, is a more interesting Early English church

with a Transitional tower. Note the ancient sculpture in the north

transept, also the squint and rood-loft steps. This village is but a

short distance from Littlehampton, which may be approached by the shore

road.

The country about here seen from the flats appears to be thickly

wooded, an effect that is produced by the screen of tall trees in every

hedgerow, untouched until time levels them, in return for their

protection of the growing crops from the searching sea winds which

sweep across the level fields to the Downs. Vegetation here has a

different aspect from that on the other side of the wall of hills. In

May and early June one may come from the tender green of the Washington

lanes over the pass through Findon and find the spring livery of the

lowland hedgerows temporarily blackened and withered.

[Illustration: THE VALLEY OF THE ARUN.]

The direct way to Arundel, and also the most interesting and beautiful,

is by Castle Goring, reached by the Broadwater road. A short distance

past the Goring woods a side road on the left leads to Angmering. Here

the rebuilt church retains its old chancel and tower with an inscribed

stone over the doorway. Returning by a shorter lane northwards to the

main road we pass New Place, once a mansion but now converted into a

group of cottages; it is famous as the birthplace of the three sons of

Sir Edward Palmer, who were born on three consecutive Sundays, a

circumstance probably unique in natal annals. All three were afterwards

knighted by Henry VIII.

The foothills of the Downs to the right are hereabouts very beautiful;

one of the spurs is occupied by Angmering Park belonging to the Duke of

Norfolk. At Poling, on a tributary of the Arun southwards, is a decoy

for wild fowl. Here is a Perpendicular church containing a

fourteenth-century brass to a former priest, one Walter Davey. A chapel

belonging to a commandery of the Knights of St. John still stands near

the church; it has been converted into a modern dwelling house.

[Illustration: ARUNDEL FROM THE RIVER.]

The first view of Arundel as it is approached from the Worthing road or

from the railway station is almost unique in England. Bridgnorth, the

northern Richmond, Rye, all cities set on a hill, come to the mind for

comparison, but none have the "foreign" look of Arundel; this is to a

large extent helped by the towering church of St. Philip Neri; the

apsidal end and the great height of the building in proportion to its

length, appear more in keeping with northern France than southern

England. The town, when one comes to close quarters with it, has a

feudal air, and indeed this is as much a matter of fact as of fancy.

Arundel is a survival, and depends for its existence on the magnificent

home of the Howards which dominates domestically and ecclesiastically

the town at its feet. The castle has the same relation to the pass of

the Arun that Bramber and Lewes have to the Adur and Ouse, but the fact

that it is still the ancestral home of an ancient and historic family

gives it a far greater interest than either of the others possesses.

The castle is mentioned in Domesday Book, and prior to this in the will

of Alfred the Great. The earldom was given by the Conqueror to Roger of

Montgomery; in addition to the castle and its immediate neighbourhood

it comprised wide and rich possessions in the surrounding country. By

their treason to the Crown the Montgomerys soon forfeited the estates

and the Earldom passed through the hands of Queen Adeliza, and her son

de Albrin, and then to the Fitz-Alans, who held it for over three

hundred years. The daughter of the last Earl married the fourth Duke of

Norfolk and this family have held it ever since. They have made it

their principal home and have built in recent years the magnificent

temple of the older faith which dwarfs and overshadows the parish

church. This itself has felt the might of the great family who, as we

shall presently see, imposed their will on the representatives of the

Establishment.

[Illustration: ARUNDEL CASTLE.]

"What house has been so connected with our political and religious

annals as that of Howard? The premiers in the roll-call of our nobility

have been also among the most persecuted and ill-fated. Not to dwell on

the high-spirited Isabelle, Countess Dowager of Arundel, and widow of

Hugh, last earl of the Albini family, who upbraided Henry III to his

face with 'vexing the church, oppressing the barons, and denying all

his true born subjects their right'; or Richard, Earl of Arundel, who

was executed for conspiring to seize Richard II--we must think with

indignation of the sufferings inflicted by Elizabeth on Philip, Earl of

Arundel, son of the 'great' Duke of Norfolk, beheaded by Elizabeth in

1572 for his dealings with Mary Queen of Scots. In the biography of

Earl Philip, which, with that of Ann Dacres his wife, has been well

edited by the fourteenth Duke, we find that he was caressed by

Elizabeth in early life, and steeped in the pleasures and vices of her

court by her encouragement, to the neglect of his constant young wife,

whose virtues, as soon as they reclaimed him to his duty to her,

rendered him hated and suspected by the Queen, so that she made him the

subject of vindictive and incessant persecution, till death released

him at the age of thirty-eight. To another Howard, Thomas, son of Earl

Philip, the country is indebted for those treasures of the East, the

Arundel marbles."

(_Quarterly Review_: Hare.)

[Illustration: THE KEEP, ARUNDEL.]

The castle, though not that portion at which we have been looking, has

been besieged on three important occasions; in 1102 by Henry I, to whom

it surrendered. By Stephen, on its giving hospitality to the Empress

Maud; and by Waller, who captured it after seventeen days' siege with a

thousand prisoners. Artillery mounted on the tower of the church played

great havoc with the building and it remained in a ruinous condition

until practically rebuilt by the tenth Duke in the latter part of the

eighteenth century.

We commence the ascent of the keep, which is the only part shown to the

public (usually on Mondays only) by way of the clock tower which once

formed the entrance to the inner courts. We can now see the remnants of

Richard Fitz-Alan's buildings (1290). A flight of steps leads to the

Keep, the older portion of which was built by the same Earl; the walls

are in places ten feet thick. In the centre a well descends to the

storeroom of the garrison, which is cut out of the solid chalk. Over

the entrance note the remains of St. Martin's chapel; from the window

is a magnificent view towards Littlehampton. The openings in the floor

suggest the use of boiling liquid for the heads of besiegers.

The Keep was once famous for its owls, the older members of the colony

being known by appropriate names, such as that recorded in the story of

the Ducal butler who convulsed the guests one evening by announcing,

"Please, your Grace, Lord Thurlow has laid an egg."

[Illustration: ARUNDEL GATEWAY.]

The views in every direction are very fine and the nearer prospect

proves to the observer the unrivalled position which the fortress held

as guardian of one of the most important of the routes between London

and the Continent by way of the Port of Littlehampton. In the distant

view "The Island" is conspicuous on clear days with Chichester

Cathedral spire in the middle distance. Eastwards is Highdown Hill and

the country round Worthing, North the beautiful valley of the Arun and

the lovely tree-clad slopes of the Downs of which the nearer spurs form

Arundel Park.

The "state" and residential portions of the castle are never shown to

the general public. In the fine collection of pictures are a number of

Van Dycks and Holbeins, mostly portraits of the Fitz-Alans and Howards.

The entrance to the chancel of Arundel Church, now the Fitz-Alan

Chapel, is from the castle grounds. Permission to inspect the famous

tombs is rarely given. A lawsuit in the last century attempted the

recovery of the chancel for the parishioners of Arundel, but was

ineffectual owing to the fact that the chapel was originally that of

the college of Holy Trinity, founded in 1380 by Richard Fitz-Alan; this

passed to its present possessors at the Dissolution. The Lady Chapel

retains its old altar stone with consecration crosses, and above is a

window with some fragments of stained glass. In the centre is the tomb

of the sixteenth Earl (1421) and a modern tomb of Lord Henry Howard. A

number of interesting brasses may also be seen. The main portion of the

chapel contains the more famous tombs, the effigies being highly

interesting studies of the state dress of various periods. Earl Thomas

and his Countess, daughter of King John of Portugal, (1415) occupy the

centre; the others are Earl John (1435) under the east arch. William,

nineteenth Earl (1488), in a chantry on the south side. On the north

are Thomas (1524) and William (1544). A tablet over Earl William's

chantry is in memory of the last Fitz-Alan, Earl Henry (1580).

[Illustration: ARUNDEL CHURCH.]

The fine parish church is separated from the chancel by a screen wall.

It dates from 1380 and now consists of nave and transepts, the space

under the tower being used as the choir. An ancient canopied pulpit is

placed against the south-west pier. On the north side are frescoes of

the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Works of Mercy. The modern ornate

reredos shows with great effect against the curious arrangement of iron

grill and bare brick which forms the screen wall. The church was once

attached to the Monastery of Seez in Normandy.

The magnificent modern Roman Catholic church of St. Philip Neri is open

to visitors between the services. It is built in the purest style of

Decorated Gothic and has already cost over one hundred thousand pounds.

Notice, before entering, the statues of the Twelve Apostles at the west

end beneath the fine "rose" window. On entering, the imposing effect of

the clustered columns and beautiful apse will be admired. Unlike most

Roman churches there is but little colour displayed, the "Stations of

the Cross" being bas-reliefs in the aisle walls. The subdued yet

glowing tints in the stained glass help the general effect of

restrained dignity.

[Illustration: PLAN OF THE CASTLE & TOWN, ARUNDEL.]

In the lower portion of the town, the scanty remains of Maison Dieu

show the position of that retreat, founded by Earl Richard, who built

the church; the house provided for twenty inmates. The piers of Arun

bridge were built out of the ruins in 1742.

The park will probably prove the most satisfactory of the sights of

Arundel to the ordinary visitor, who is here allowed to wander where he

will. The road passing under the castle to the right should be taken as

far as a small gate on the left, by the mill, entering which we

immediately see the Swanbourne Lake in all its beauty.

"The mill is situated beneath the castle, on the east side, at the head

of the stream by which the ancient Swanbourne Lake discharges itself

into the river, and most probably occupies the site of the original

building mentioned in _Domesday_. Perhaps, of all the beautiful spots

in the neighbourhood of Arundel, none comprises more real beauty than

this. The valley in front, shaded by the willows and the ash which

adorn the little islands of the lake, and winding its way in the

distance among the hills; the castle projecting boldly from the

eminence on the left; the steep acclivities on each hand, clothed to

their summit with luxuriant forest trees ... present a scene in whose

presence the lapse of centuries will be easily forgotten." (Tierney.)

The charm of the spot is not in any way spoilt, obvious care being

taken to keep the surroundings spotless; although picnickers are

allowed where they will, here are no scraps of paper or broken bottles,

the efficient service of "clearing up" is at work in the early hours of

the morning, which is the right time to see the park. The visitor

should continue round the left bank and up the hill to Hiorne's Tower,

from which a magnificent view of the Arun valley and the surrounding

Downs is to be had. Equally beautiful is that from the brow of the hill

overlooking the Arun, from which point the castle makes an effective

picture with the broad sweep of the sea and lowlands behind. The Downs

are here at their best and the glorious woods of beech and oak are

superb in October, and that month, with late May as an alternative, is

the best time to see the western Downs. The Castle Dairy is open to the

public, usually on the same days that the Keep may be seen. The Dairy

dates from 1847 and has the appearance more of a monastic establishment

than of farm buildings.

[Illustration: LYMINSTER.]

The exploration of the valley of the Arun must be commenced by turning

down the stream to see that least interesting section which lies

between Arundel and the sea. At the mouth of the river stands the old

port of Littlehampton, the direct road to which leaves the Arun to the

right and passing Lyminster (Lemster), sometimes spelt Leominster,

which has a restored Transitional church, enters Littlehampton near the

Railway station. The river road goes by way of Ford, where there is a

little church interesting by reason of its many styles. According to

Mr. P.M. Johnson they range from Norman (and perhaps Saxon) right

through to Caroline. Nearly two miles west is another interesting

church at Yapton, which has a black granite font, ornamented with

crosses and probably pre-Norman. The interior of the church shows work

of an archaic character usually described as early Norman. The inn here

has a sign--"The Shoulder of Mutton and Cucumbers"--which must be as

unique as it is mysterious.

[Illustration: CLYMPING.]

Continuing south we reach in another mile the very fine Early English

church at Clymping. The tower is Transitional. The artist has sketched

the beautiful doorway, one of the finest in Sussex. Notice also the old

stone pulpit and ancient chest. The road running directly south leads

to the coast at Atherington, where are the remains of a chapel attached

to the "Bailiff's Court House," a moated mediaeval building with

portions of a cloister. The Bailiff was the local representative of the

Abbey of Seez already referred to. The Littlehampton road turns east

half a mile beyond Clymping and after a dull stretch of over a mile

crosses the Arun by Littlehampton (swing) Bridge.

The ancient seaport, never of more than local importance, has given way

to a watering place almost entirely devoted to children. From the

number of nursemaids seen on the beach on an average summer day and the

scarcity of other adults one is forced to the conclusion that patrons

of this resort use it as a dumping ground for their offspring while

they enjoy themselves elsewhere. The firm clean sands are ideal for

paddling and castle building, and many ephemeral Arundels arise between

tides. The ebb and flow in the Arun interfere with what would otherwise

be an enjoyable trip up stream, but with skill and care there is little

danger. Littlehampton shows few traces of its antiquity, the church was

rebuilt in the last century and is of no interest, but there are many

good walks in the neighbourhood and the immediate country is

beautifully wooded, with the distant Downs as an occasional background.

[Illustration: CHURCH STREET, LITTLEHAMPTON.]

To explore the valley of the Arun to the north a return must be made to

Arundel, and either the path through the park or the road to South

Stoke may be taken. The latter runs between park and river and soon

reaches the two villages of North and South Stoke, both charming little

hamlets without any communication by road, though a footpath unites the

two. The first village, South Stoke, has an Early English church with

sedilia and other details. North Stoke has a fine Norman door worthy of

inspection. Here a British canoe was discovered in the last century; it

may be seen in the Lewes Museum. Across the river, and only to be

approached by a detour past Amberley Station, is Houghton. From the

bridge over the Arun is a very beautiful retrospect of the valley

towards Arundel with the hills falling in graceful curves to the river.

The church is Early English of a severe type; here is a fifteenth

century brass but nothing more of much interest.

A mile from Houghton Bridge will bring us to Amberley. The village is

built on a low hill or cliff immediately above the "wild brooks" or

water meadows of the Arun, and is famous for the picturesque remains of

the palace of the Bishops of Chichester, which still edge the sandy

hill in front of the village. Amberley Castle, as the residence has

always been called, was built in the reign of Richard II, about 1379,

and then consisted of a crenellated building with square corner towers

and two round gate towers; the present house, which stands within the

walls, was erected in the early sixteenth century by Bishop Sherbourne.

This has probably been the site of an episcopal residence since before

the Conquest and is in as beautiful a situation as is to be found in

Sussex, though judging by a local saying quoted by Lower, it would not

appear to be as perfect in the winter. An Amberley man when asked from

where he comes then answers "Amberley, God help us," but in the

summer--"Amberley, where _would_ you live?" "Amerley" is immortalized by

Izaac Walton for its trout, and by Fuller, who speaks of them as "one

of the four good things of Sussex."

[Illustration: LITTLEHAMPTON HARBOUR.]

Amberley Church is a small Norman building with Early English

additions; note the brass to John Wantle (1424) and the beautifully

ornamented door in the south aisle. There is an hour-glass stand in the

pulpit. Notice also the ancient font and the remains of frescoes at the

east end of the nave.

The road now runs eastwards with the fine escarpment of Rackham Hill to

the right and in about two miles reaches Parham Park, the seat of Lord

Zouche. A short distance further east is Storrington, which we have

seen on our way to Worthing. Delightful walks may be taken across the

park, which is freely open to the pedestrian. This stretch of sandy and

picturesque wild land is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful domains

in the south. Its fir-trees are characteristic of the sandstone

formation which here succeeds the chalk. Visitors should make their way

to the lake where the scene, with the Downs as a background, is one of

extreme beauty. The Heronry here is famous; the birds were originally

brought from Wales to Penshurst, from which locality they migrated to

Angmering and then to Parham.

Lady Dorothy Nevill, in her interesting "Leaves," refers to Parham as a

favourite resort of smugglers. A former Lady de la Zouche, while a

little girl, was made to open a gate for the passage of a long

procession of pack-horses laden with kegs.

Parham House is a fine Elizabethan manor, although partly spoilt by

some modern additions; built by Sir Thomas Palmer about 1520 it passed

to the present family in 1597. The house is famous for the magnificent

collection of works of art, early printed books and ancient illuminated

MS.; permission to inspect these may be obtained by written application

when the family are not in residence and for purposes of research this

important collection is always available. Some time since the most

valuable items were removed to the British Museum for safety. The house

contains a priest's hole, the entrance to which is from a window seat

in the long gallery; one of the Babington conspirators--Charles

Paget--was hidden here. South of the house is Parham Church, possessing

one of the three leaden fonts of Sussex.

[Illustration: AMBERLEY CASTLE.]

It is now proposed to visit Pulborough and the valley of the Rother.

Though rather far afield from Seaward Sussex and the chalk lands, this

district comes naturally within the Down country, but must have a

chapter to itself. From Parham we may either go direct to Pulborough by

the highroad or, more profitably, by Greatham to Coldwaltham on the

Roman Stane Street, the great highway from Chichester to London; here

we turn north east and in a mile (just past the railway) note the

scanty ruins of Hardham Priory on the right; another mile and, crossing

the old Arun bridge, we are in Pulborough.

[Illustration: STOPHAM BRIDGE.]

CHAPTER VII

THE VALLEY OF THE ROTHER

Pulborough on Stane Street was once a Roman station. Relics of the

occupation are constantly turning up in the neighbourhood. Near the

church is a mound, on which stood the "castellum." A glance at the map

will show the commanding position the station held over the meeting of

the Arun and Rother. There are traces of a Roman villa at Borough Hill

north-east of the village.

The fine church is mostly Perpendicular, though there are Early English

portions. Note the archaic Norman font and several interesting brasses,

especially that of Thomas Harlyng, Canon of Chichester and rector here

in 1420; also the restored sedilia and beautiful modern reredos.

Not far from the church are the remains of the ancient "Old Place" once

belonging to the Apsleys; the neighbouring barn is even older than the

house; "New Place," a little farther north, is another picturesque

house with a fine hall.

Pulborough is, with Amberley, a Mecca for weekend anglers; it has a

famous inn, the "Swan," and is a good halting place before proceeding

westwards, in which direction our road now runs. A mile out of the town

we take final leave of the Arun at Stopham Bridge, a fine medieval

structure of many arches. The Rother joins the larger river just below

the bridge and between the two streams may be seen Stopham House, the

home of the Bartelotts, seneschals of the Earls of Arundel; their

monuments and brasses for several centuries are in the church, an

ancient building among trees some distance from the bridge.

We now approach Fittleworth, another favourite place for anglers, whose

rendezvous must be looked for nearly a mile away near the bridge and

station. The Early English church, unrestored and interesting, has in

the vestry a curious stone coffin lid with a Greek cross upon it. The

famous "Swan" Inn is a well-known feature of the little town and a

great resort for artists, who find endless subjects in the beautiful

district we are now traversing.

Egdean has a church dating from the early seventeenth century. About

fifty or more years ago it was "restored" in a way which even among

restorers must be unique, "Early English" details being imposed upon

the original work. Byworth is picturesque, as Miss Vigers sketch will

show; but, apart from its situation, it calls for no other comment.

The scenery around Petworth is characteristic of the Lower Greensand

country and the picturesque wooded outcrop north-east of Byworth is

perhaps as beautiful as any other part of this distinctive belt. In no

part of this miniature range, about three miles long, is the altitude

over 450 feet, but the charm of the woodland dells and meandering

tracks which cross and traverse the heights between the "Fox" on the

north-west and the Arun at Hardswood Green, is quite as great as in

localities of more strongly marked features and greater renown.

[Illustration: BYWORTH.]

The road trends north-west by Egdean and Byworth to Petworth. Petworth

town consists of a number of old-world streets extremely crooked,

narrow, and picturesque. Seen from any near point the grouping of roofs

is as artistically good as any in Sussex. Petworth Church has been

practically rebuilt. The north chantry contains the tombs of some of

the Percy family, including that of the ninth Earl, who was imprisoned

in the Tower on suspicion of being concerned in the Gunpowder Plot.

Here is also the monument to Lord Egremont (1840), a fine seated

figure. Notice several interesting brasses and a sixteenth century tomb

of the Dawtreys. Near the church is an old house belonging to this

family. One of the rectors of Petworth was Francis Cheynell, the

antagonist of Chillingworth. Just below the church is the Somerset

Hospital, eighteenth century almshouses founded by a Duke of Somerset.

In North Street is Thompson's Hospital, another picturesque group. In

the centre of the town stands the Market House built by the Earl of

Egremont. In its front is a bust of "William the Deliverer."

[Illustration: PETWORTH CHURCH.]

Petworth is another instance of feudal foundation. The manor, at

present owned by Lord Leconfield, was for centuries in the possession

of the Percy family. The house is said to have the finest private

collection of pictures in the kingdom, most of which are due to the

collecting zeal of the third Earl of Egremont; they are usually shown

on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and visitors are handed a list of the

paintings by the guides. The hurried round of the pictures takes about

an hour. A wide range of schools are represented, but the most

interesting is perhaps the splendid show of Turners.

[Illustration: PETWORTH HOUSE.]

The present mansion is one of the ugliest in the county and replaced in

1730 a beautiful medieval pile; the latter had been the scene of some

historic visits, notably that of Edward VI, and in 1703 Charles III of

Spain, who was met by Prince Consort George of Denmark. The Prince

Regent with the Allied Rulers visited the Earl of Egremont in 1814.

Three interesting relics shown are a piece of needlework made by Lady

Jane Grey, the sword of Hotspur used at the battle of Shrewsbury, and

an illuminated Chaucer MS. The chapel is the only portion of the old

building remaining.

Petworth Park is quite free and open to the pedestrian. The entrance is

in the Tillington road. Although of an entirely different character

from the scenery we have already passed through, partaking more of the

nature of an East Midland demesne, especially in the lower, or south

end, the magnificent stretches of sward interspersed with noble groups

of native trees will amply repay the visit. For those who have time to

extend the ramble to the Prospect Tower in the northern portion of the

park there is a magnificent view in store, especially south and west.

Herds of deer roam the glades and there are two fine sheets of water.

[Illustration: SADDLER'S ROW, PETWORTH.]

The author of _Rural Rides_ thus describes Petworth: "The park is very

fine and consists of a parcel of those hills and dells which nature

formed here when she was in one of her most sportive moods. I have

never seen the earth flung about in such a wild way as round about

Hindhead and Blackdown, and this park forms a part of this ground. From

an elevated part of it, and, indeed, from each of many parts of it, you

see all around the country to the distance of many miles. From the

south-east to the north-west the hills are so lofty and so near that

they cut the view rather short; but for the rest of the circle you can

see to a very great distance. It is, upon the whole, a most magnificent

seat, and the Jews will not be able to get it from the _present_ owner,

though if he live many years they will give even him a _twist_."

The road now goes directly west and in a mile reaches Tillington, which

has a Transitional church modernized and practically rebuilt by the

Earl of Egremont; here are several interesting tombs and brasses. A

divergence two miles further will take us downhill across the Rother to

Selham (with a station close to the village). The Norman and Early

English church has a chancel arch with finely carved and ornamented

capitals. Proceeding westwards between high banks of red sandstone our

road soon approaches Cowdray Park, across which it runs without hedge

or fence.

[Illustration: COWDRAY.]

The park is a beautiful pleasaunce for the inhabitants of Midhurst;

thickly carpeted with bracken and heather and broken by many

picturesque knolls and hollows. The famous burned and ruined mansion

lies on the west, close to the town and river. This beautiful old house

was destroyed in 1793 through the carelessness of some workmen employed

in repairing the woodwork of some of the upper rooms. Within a month of

the calamity the last of the Montagues, a young man of 22, was drowned

while shooting the falls of the Rhine at Schaffhausen. These tragic

happenings were supposed to fulfil a curse of the last monk of Battle

pronounced against Sir Anthony Browne when he took possession of the

Abbey. "Thy line shall end by fire and water and utterly perish."

The following is a contemporary account of the tragedy: "Lord Montague

was engaged to the eldest daughter of Mr. Coutts (the present Countess

of Guildford) and, with a view to his marriage on his return to

England, the mansion house had been for several months undergoing a

complete repair and fitting up. The whole was completed on the day

preceding the night on which it was consumed, and the steward had been

employed during the afternoon in writing the noble owner an account of

its completion. This letter reached his hands. On the following day the

steward wrote another letter announcing its destruction: but in his

hurry of spirits, he directed it to Lausanne instead of Lucerne, by

which accident it was two days longer in its passage to his lordship's

place of abode than it otherwise would have been. Had it not been for

that fatal delay, in all human probability this noble family would not

have had to deplore the double misfortune by which its name and honours

have become extinguished; for the letter arrived at his lordship's

lodging on the morning of his death, about an hour after he had left

them, and, as nearly as can be computed at the very moment in which he

was overwhelmed by the torrent of the Rhine."

[Illustration: THE GRANARY, COWDRAY.]

The turreted entrance gateway is less ruinous than the remainder of the

buildings and, with the banqueting hall, is as fine a specimen of early

sixteenth-century architecture as will be found in England. Notice the

vaulted entrance to the Hall. On the north side, looking towards the

Guard House is the State Bedchamber, wherein Queen Elizabeth slept in

1591. There are several contemporary accounts of the stately

merrymakings which took place during the visit, including the "hunting"

scene in which buck deer were guided past Gloriana's bower, from which

she made dead shots at them, reminding one of the "bulls-eyes" with

which a later Queen opened the national shooting competition for her

worshipping subjects.

On St. Ann's Hill near the town may be traced the outlines of the

stronghold erected by the de Bohuns; the town and surrounding country

remained in their hands until Sir David Owen, uncle of Henry VII,

married the last of the line. Sir David sold the estate to the Earl of

Southampton, whose son left it to his half brother Sir Anthony Browne,

Standard Bearer of England; his son became the first Viscount Montague.

The estate is now held by Lord Cowdray, who has a modern mansion, built

in a flamboyant Elizabethan style, near-by.

Midhurst is a pleasant old place with some good ancient houses here and

there. Those in the centre which form the subject of Miss Vigers'

sketch, are being demolished as this is written; their disappearance

will be appreciated by motorists in a hurry but by no one else. The

Perpendicular church has been largely rebuilt during the last century

and the Montague Chantry lacks its tomb, which has been removed to

Easebourne. Richard Cobden was educated in the Grammar School (founded

in 1572). During the last few years Midhurst has become to some extent

a resort for Londoners who appreciate a quiet country town amid

beautiful surroundings which may be explored easily. The walks, not

only to the Downs on the south but northwards to the lovely and remote

hills which culminate in Blackdown, are among the best in West Sussex.

South, west, and east the town is well served by the Brighton and

South-Western Railways, a single line in each direction.

[Illustration: MARKET SQUARE, MIDHURST.]

The road to Henley is one of the loneliest as it is one of the

loveliest in south-west Sussex. The writer has tramped the long miles

to Henley (uphill all the way) without meeting a single pedestrian.

Even the advent of the great Sanatorium on the southern slopes of

Bexley Hill does not seem to have made any difference. Possibly

visitors use the public motor which runs between Midhurst and

Haslemere. By so doing they miss one of the finest woodland walks in

the south, indescribably beautiful in the scarlet and gold of late

autumn.

The traveller in Downland is advised for once to turn his back on the

hills and walk as far as the summit of the Haslemere road where the new

route turns sharp round to the left and hugs the escarpment of Bexley

Hill. In front will be seen an overgrown track, the old highway,

plunging down the face of the hill. A few feet down this causeway,

paved with large slabs of stone, brings us to a surprising hamlet

clinging to the hillside and, with its "Duke of Cumberland" Inn,

looking across the wide Fernhurst vale to where Blackdown lords it on

the other side.

[Illustration: MIDHURST CHURCH.]

At Easebourne, about a mile north-east of Midhurst, is a Benedictine

Priory used, until quite lately, as a farmhouse. It is close to the

church, which, with the buildings of the nunnery, form three sides of a

hollow square. The restoration has been carried out with taste and care

and the whole is worth seeing. The nuns of Easebourne would seem to

have been "difficult females," for a Bishop of Chichester in 1441 was

obliged to call the Prioress to order for wearing sumptuous clothes

with fur trimmings and for using too many horses when travelling, the

penance being a restriction to four. The nuns were spoken of by a

contemporary writer as "wild females of high family put at Easebourne

to keep them quiet."

The church, besides the tomb of the first Viscount Montague, removed

from Midhurst, contains a figure of Sir David Owen (1540); also a

Transitional font.

CHAPTER VIII

GOODWOOD AND BOGNOR

We now leave the Rother, turn south by the Chichester road and passing

over Cocking causeway reach, in three miles, that little village at the

foot of the pass through the Downs to Singleton, or better still, by

taking a rather longer route through West Lavington we may see the

church in which Manning preached his last sermon as a member of the

Anglican communion. The church and accompanying buildings date from

1850 and were designed by Butterfield; they are a good example of

nineteenth-century Gothic and are placed in a fine situation. In the

churchyard, which is particularly well arranged, lies Richard Cobden

not far from the farmhouse in which he was born. Dunford House is not

far away; this was presented to Cobden by the Anti-Corn-Law League, and

here the last years of his life were spent.

Cocking once had a cell belonging to the Abbey of Seez in Normandy but

of this nothing remains. This beautifully situated little place has a

primitive Norman church with a fine canopied tomb and an old painting

of Angel and shepherds. We are now at the foot of Charlton Forest

covering the slopes of the Downs which stretch eastwards to Duncton

Beacon; and along the edge of this escarpment it is proposed to travel.

This is one of the loneliest and most beautiful sections of the range.

"A curious phenomenon is observable in this neighbourhood. From the

leafy recesses of the layers of beech on the escarpment of the Downs,

there rises in unsettled weather a mist which rolls among the trees

like the smoke out of a chimney. This exhalation is called

'Foxes-brewings' whatever that may mean, and if it tends westwards

towards Cocking, rain follows speedily." (Lower.)

The hamlet of Heyshott need not tempt us from the hill, though

Graffham, one of the loveliest villages in Downland, might well be

visited. Where at last it is necessary to drop toward the Petworth

Chichester road a divergence may be made to East Lavington with its

associations and memories of Samuel Wilberforce, who is buried here and

in whose memory a memorial brass may be seen in the church; note also

the Bishop's pastoral staff fixed to the wall near the altar. There are

still "oldest inhabitants" of this peaceful place who remember the

celebrated Victorian, whose rather unkind sobriquet was really but a

tribute to his genial kindliness of disposition. Here he married in

1828 the local heiress, Miss Emily Sergent, and here Mrs. Wilberforce

was buried in 1841. It is said that at Oxford, or wherever the Bishop

was resident, there hung in his bedroom a picture of Lavington

churchyard "that I may ever see my own resting place."

Directly south of Lavington rises the _summit_ of the Downs--Duncton

Beacon (837 feet), like many other "highest tops" a great

disappointment after visiting some of the lesser heights, for the

Beacon, which is named "Littleton Down" on the Ordnance map, is not on

the edge of the range but stands back among encircling lesser heights

and is itself partly covered with trees which to a great extent cut off

the view. Barlavington Down, about half the height of Duncton, and Farm

Hill face east and both command fine views in this direction. The

latter is above Bignor, to which village we now descend. This is a

place beloved of archaeologists, for here is the site of the famous

Roman villa. Bignor church is remarkable for the chancel arch which

most authorities admit to be a genuine Roman work. Note also the long

lancet windows in the chancel and the magnificent yews in the

churchyard. Enquiry must be made in the village for the farm at which

the keys of the villa enclosure are kept. (Notice the beautiful old

house, timbered and with a projecting upper story, near the lane

leading to the villa.) Authorities are at variance as to the actual

history of the remains which were discovered in 1811. The conjecture

that this was the fortified station on Stane street (which may be seen

descending the hills south-west), at the tenth milestone, "Ad Decimum,"

seems lately to be discredited, and the supposition gains ground that

the villa was simply the country palace of a great Roman, or possibly a

civilized British prince. However that may be, the discoveries revealed

one of the most important and interesting remains of the Roman

occupation in Britain, and cover an area of no less than 600 feet in

length by 350 feet in breadth. The principal pavement may be that of

the Banqueting hall, in the centre of which is a stone cistern,

probably a fountain. The hypercaust below has caused the floor to give

way in several places. The pavement of a smaller room is perfect and

shows a finely executed design; another is decorated with cupids

fighting. The details of the building, too numerous to be mentioned

here, deserve careful attention even by the uninitiated and prove more

forcibly than history-books the magnificence of the civilization which

once was, before Sussex became an entity, and which the first Sussex

men so wofully destroyed.

The old Roman way could be followed directly across the hills for four

miles until the high road is joined near Halnaker Hill, where we shall

presently arrive from Goodwood, but a longer route must be taken to

explore the lovely and retired part of the Downs which lies between

Bignor and Singleton. A path between Farm Hill and Barton Down leads to

Up Waltham where is a little Early English church with the rare feature

of a circular apse. Just south of the village an exquisite combe opens

out to the south-west and is traversed by a rough and stony hill road

leading to East Dean; this claims to be the _real_ East Dean where

Alfred met Asser, but its beautiful situation will be its chief

recommendation to the traveller. Another mile brings us to the hamlet

of Charlton from which the extensive forest to the north takes its

name. A short distance further and the Midhurst-Chichester road is

joined at Singleton, which village, very pleasantly situated, has a

Perpendicular church with a Norman tower, so ancient that some

authorities name it Saxon; it is at the latest very primitive Norman.

Notice the quaint wooden gallery and the stairs to the rood loft, and

also a stoup in good preservation. The village is in a most beautiful

situation, surrounded by groups of low wooded hills. There is a station

here on the Midhurst railway.

The high road now winds through West Dean to Mid-Lavant and Chichester.

Both villages have "restored" churches. The first named contains a

notable monument--the Lewknor. Near by is the beautiful West Dean Park.

Mid-Lavant church is Early English but boasts a Norman window. The name

of this village perpetuates a phenomenon which is becoming more rare

each year. At one time erratic streams would make their appearance in

the chalk combes in the head of the valley and combining, cause serious

floods or "lavants." For some unknown reason the flow of water is

gradually becoming smaller and of late years it has been quite

insignificant.

[Illustration: EAST LAVANT.]

To resume the route a return must be made to Singleton and the path

taken which leads over the Goodwood hills past the Race Course to

Halnaker. The whole of this beautiful stretch of Downland is open to

the stranger; the best views are undoubtedly from the Race Course,

which dates from 1802. This is the most fashionable of all

race-meetings and the course is in the most beautiful situation. To the

west of the course, on an isolated eminence, sometimes called "Roche's

Hill" and sometimes "The Beacon" is an ancient camp with double vallum

and fosse enclosing over five acres. On the slope due south of Roche's

Hill are some caves supposed to have been prehistoric dwelling-places.

A mile to the south is Goodwood House (Duke of Richmond), on certain

days and during certain seasons open to the public. The house, so far

as its exterior is concerned, is exceedingly ugly, but contains a

magnificent collection of paintings, chiefly portraits, the most famous

of which are by Lawrence, Gainsborough, Romney and Vandyke, the last

named being represented, among other works, by the well-known painting

of Charles I with his queen and children.

The most striking view in the neighbourhood of the house is from

"Carney's Seat" above the pheasantry, a magnificent prospect of the

coast extending for many miles in each direction. There are grand

groups of cedars here and throughout the park; these add materially to

the foreground of the prospect. The timber generally is very fine, as

is almost always the case in the enclosed parklands of West Sussex. In

High Wood is a temple which contained until recently an inscribed slab

discovered in Chichester when the foundations of the Council chamber,

erected in 1731, were being excavated. This stone, of the greatest

interest to antiquaries, has been returned to the town and will be

noticed when we arrive there.

The ruins of Halnaker are on the south-east of the park. The house was

built in the reign of Henry VIII by Sir Thomas West, Lord De la Warr.

Before being allowed to fall into ruin the best of the fittings were

removed to the "Chantry" in Chichester.

At the distance of a mile south of Halnaker, Stane Street is reached at

a point about four miles from Chichester. There are, however, still

some interesting places to be seen before, for almost the last time, we

turn west. These include Boxgrove, which must on no account be missed.

Eartham is a beautifully situated village about two miles directly east

of Halnaker. It is chiefly of interest for its associations with the

poet Hayley, who lived at Eartham House, now the residence of Sir P.

Milbanke. The house became for a time the rendezvous of many

celebrities, including Cowper, Flaxman, Blake and Romney. A very fine

Flaxman monument in memory of Hayley's son may be seen in the church;

notice also the memorial of William Huskisson the statesman, who lived

near here and who was afterwards killed at the opening of the Liverpool

and Manchester Railway. The church has a Norman arch in the chancel,

much admired for its graceful proportions and details.

Even more beautiful a village is Slindon, about two miles farther east

and about three miles from Arundel. Its perfect situation is enhanced

by the picturesque clumps of beech trees on the sides of the hills that

encircle it. In the restored church, which was built at various

periods, is the effigy of a knight in wood. Note the curious shorn

pillars in the nave. Here is an old Elizabethan hall, and the park,

with its magnificent beech woods, is very fine. Slindon is becoming a

favourite resort for those who desire a quiet holiday in delightful

rural surroundings.

Two miles south of Slindon lies Walberton. The church walls have Roman

bricks worked into Saxon masonry. The upper part of the nave is of the

usual heavy Norman type. Eastergate, the next village on the main road

to Bognor, has an untouched Saxon chancel, with a good deal of Roman

masonry mixed with later material built into the walls. These

interesting little villages may be easily reached from Bognor.

The last years of the eighteenth century were prolific in the birth of

south-coast watering places or in the transformation of decayed ports

or remote seaside hamlets into fashionable bathing places. Bognor is a

case in point and comes within the latter category. A successful hatter

of Southwark named Hotham, having "made his pile" built himself a house

near the little manor hamlet of Bognor, which boasted a single inn but

no church. The example of Brighton and the nearer neighbour Worthing

being constantly before the then member of Parliament and one-time

business man, the possibilities of the land he had acquired, with its

fine fringe of firm sand, soon made themselves apparent, and the

Crescent, Hothampton Place and several other terraces in what is now

the centre of modern Bognor quickly appeared. A determined attempt to

change the name to Hothampton failed, and as soon as the speculator

died, his gamble a personal failure, the town reverted to the original

Saxon Bognor (Bucganora).

The young town had the usual royal send-off; the Princess Charlotte

stayed here for a short time and was followed in due course by the

little princess who was one day to become so famous a Sovereign.

It will be seen that Bognor has nothing to interest the visitor who

requires something besides a rather homely home from home with good

air, bright sunshine and almost the nearest stretch of good sand to

London, which delights the shoals of juveniles who give to the front

its air of busy animation. The famous Bognor rocks provide an

additional attraction; the sea at low tide retires for a considerable

distance and exposes a line of rocks which indicate the general trend

of the ancient coast. Here treasures of the sea may be found in

profusion and variety. During spring and leap tides the waves, backed

by a strong wind, may cause great excitement by dashing across the

front and invading the back streets; until the present wall was built

this was of frequent occurrence. Bognor has a very mild winter

temperature and runs Worthing very close for sunshine.

The old parish church is at South Bersted. It is of Norman origin with

some remains of this period and possibly of Saxon times; the main

portion is, however, Early English. Note the stone slabs outside the

porch; these were brought from Bosham by a former incumbent. There is a

sixteenth-century fresco on one of the nave pillars depicting St.

Thomas Aquidas disputing with the doctors. In the churchyard are

several interesting graves and a very ancient yew reputed to be over

800 years old.

Felpham is now the eastern suburb of Bognor, and is linked to the town

by a small bungalow colony. Here Hayley came after selling Eartham, but

the place is now more famous for its associations with the poet's

friend Blake, who lived for three years in the small thatched cottage

which still stands at the seaward end of the village. Hayley was buried

in the churchyard, which also contains the tomb of Dean Jackson, once

tutor to George IV. The church is a mixture of styles, one row of

pillars being Early English the other Transitional. The much quoted

epitaph on a blacksmith written by Hayley runs as follows:--

"My sledge and hammer lie reclin'd;

My bellows, too, have lost their wind;

My fire's extinct, my forge decay'd,

And in the dust my vice is laid;

My coal is spent, my iron gone,

The nails are driven, my work is done."

Blake's associations with the village came to a sudden end in

consequence of a stupid and unwarranted prosecution for treason, the

outcome of a struggle with a drunken soldier. The mystic poet-artist

gained some of his most characteristic inspirations while staying here,

and it was in the garden of his cottage that he saw a "fairy's

funeral," the description of which has been often quoted; it is

difficult to judge how much of his visions were, to himself, poetic

fancy or actual fact.

[Illustration: FELPHAM.]

We now resume our journey towards Chichester at Walberton, north of

which the high road runs west, with little of interest until a turning

on the right brings us to the finest ecclesiastical building in the

county excepting the Cathedral.

The Priory Church of St. Mary and St. Blaise _Bosgrave_ was founded in

the reign of Henry I by Robert de Haia of Halnaker. Being a Benedictine

church, the nave, now in ruins, formed the parochial section. The

choir, transepts and tower, which remain, belonged to the monks, and

this portion, with the exception of the Norman tower, forms one of the

most beautiful examples of Early English in the kingdom and dates from

about 1200. The fine Purbeck marble columns are much admired, as are

also the graceful clerestory and vaulting. The galleries of the

transepts have ornamented oak fronts, and were used by the lay portion

of the ancient congregation. There is a frescoed ceiling belonging to

the sixteenth century. Notice the Renaissance tomb of Lord De la Warr

(1532) on the south side of the chancel with its curious carvings and

in the south transept those of Countess Phillippa of Arundel (1428) and

her second husband, Adam de Poynings; also several others, some of

which are without inscriptions, but possibly including those of the

daughters of that Countess of Arundel who was once the first Henry's

queen. The ruins of the priory may be traced and several of the

beautiful Norman arches belonging to the cloisters still remain.

[Illustration: BOXGROVE PRIORY CHURCH.]

Tangmere has a Norman and Early English church with a wooden tower. The

village is on the south side of the main road but need not detain us.

West Hampnett, nearer Chichester, is of more interest; here Saxon work

in Roman materials may be seen; notice the fine tomb of Richard

Sackville and the representation of the Trinity between the kneeling

figures of Richard and his wife. On the left of the road will be seen

an old Tudor house which has been converted into a workhouse. The road

now enters the suburbs of Chichester.

[Illustration: SKETCH PLAN OF THE CITY OF CHICHESTER.]

CHAPTER IX

CHICHESTER

The Brito-Roman city of Regnum has left its mark on modern Chichester

in the regularity of the streets, which follow the lines of the ancient

thoroughfares. The actual beginnings of the town may antedate the

Romans, but of this we know nothing. It was to the British chief Cogi,

whose name was Romanized into Cogidubnus, that the foundation of

Chichester was probably due; this Briton was a chief of the native

tribe of the Regni who inhabited the Down country and the adjacent

seaboard. Instead of opposing the conquerors this astute statesman

welcomed and allied himself to them and in return received the unique

honour, for a native, of the title "Legate of the Emperor."

It is probable that the city was built on the fork of two important

existing roads, Stane Street--the new stone causeway from London to the

harbours on the coast between modern Bosham and Portsmouth--and the

adapted and straightened ancient trackway running parallel to the sea

and serving the settlements and ports east and west of the junction. At

that time small ships were able to approach within a short distance of

the meeting place and here the new town would naturally arise.

Many remains of the Roman period have from time to time been excavated;

a pavement was found in 1866 below the retro-choir of the cathedral and

some ancient graves in St. Andrew's churchyard were found to have the

coffins resting on a tessellated pavement. Old buildings in various

parts of the town, notably St. Olave's church, have much Roman

brickwork, and the usual treasure of denarii and broken pottery is

found whenever an exceptional turning over of the foundations of the

town takes place.

But the most remarkable of all these earlier relics is the so called

"Pudens Stone" to which reference has been made in speaking of Goodwood

Park. This slab was discovered while digging the foundations of the

Council Chamber and after being kept at Goodwood for many years has

been returned to the Council House in North Street, where it may now be

seen. The stone is Purbeck marble and bears the following inscription:--

(N)eptuni et Minervae templum

(pr)o salute d(omus) divinae

(Ex) auctoritat(e Tib) Claud.

(Co)gidubni r. leg. aug. in Brit.

(Colle)gium fabror. et qui in eo

(A sacris) sunt d.s.d. donati aream

(Pud)enti Pudentini fil.

(The conjectural restorations are given in parentheses.)

(_Translation_.) "The temple of Neptune and Minerva, erected for the

health and preservation of the Imperial family by the authority of the

Emperor Tiberias Claudius and of Cogidubnus, the great king of the

Britons. The company of Artificers, with others, who were ambitious of

supplying materials, defrayed the expense. Pudens, son of Pudentinus,

gave the ground." (Hare.)

The great interest of the inscription is in that part which refers to

Pudens; a controversy raged for a long time during the middle of the

last century around the question of the identity of this individual,

the results of which seem to favour the connexion between Chichester

and the Pudens of St. Paul's second Epistle to Timothy.

The town seems to have been of little importance in South Saxon times,

although the modern name dates from that period--"Cissa's Ceaster."

Cissa was one of the sons of Ella who landed on the Selsey peninsula.

During the Conqueror's reign Chichester regained some of its former

dignity when the seat of the Sussex see was removed hither from Selsey.

At the same time the town was presented to Roger Montgomery, Earl of

Alencon, together with most of South-west Sussex. The Earl built a

castle, but nothing of this remains, though the mound in the Priory

Park is said to be the site.

The troops of the Parliament--led by Sir William Waller, besieged

Chichester in 1642; after ten days the city fell and much ill work,

especially in the cathedral, followed. Since then its history has been

uneventful.

Some days may be spent in this pleasant town without exhausting its

interest and charm and the cathedral cannot be seen in one visit

without fatigue. As a centre for the exploration of West Sussex

Chichester is much better than one of the smaller towns. (I am not now

advising that adventurous traveller who, fearing nothing, will trust

himself to a remote village hostelry among the Downs.) The South Coast

Railway runs in three directions and all high roads converge on the

city.

[Illustration: CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL.]

Chichester Cathedral is the second on the site, and much of this

building has been added to and altered at various dates. The original

cathedral is supposed to have been for a time the adapted church of St.

Peter's monastery which stood on or near the south-west corner of the

city cross-roads. Bishop Ralph's building, erected in 1107, was

destroyed by fire in 1114. The same bishop started to build the older

portions of the church which we now see.

The most striking object in the exterior view is the modern spire,

built by Scott to replace the tower which fell in 1861 while repairs to

the piers were in progress. The summit is exactly equidistant from the

west porch and the end of the Lady Chapel. The most effective, if not

the most picturesque view, is from the north, where the sturdy

campanile makes a good foil to the graceful spire. Until the enormous

bulk of the new Liverpool Cathedral rose above the great city in the

north, Chichester was the only English cathedral visible from the sea.

[Illustration: SKETCH PLAN OF CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL.]

The nave should be entered from the west porch, a much admired specimen

of Early English. We are at once aware of the fine effects of light and

shade produced by the four aisles. The Cathedral is one of the widest

in England (though those usually quoted as excelling it--York Minster

and St. Paul's, are actually excelled themselves by Manchester, which

also has four aisles). The nave and the inner aisles are Norman, the

outer being Geometrical; these were added to make room for the various

chapels and shrines which were found necessary as the development of

the church progressed. The base of the south-west tower is possibly of

an earlier date than the remainder of the nave and the suggestion has

been put forward that it forms part of the original monastery church of

St. Peter; the style of it is very rude and archaic.

Proceeding by the left-hand or north aisle we see first, close to the

north door, the chapel of the Baptist, which contains an unknown tomb

and an ancient chest reputed to be over a thousand years old and to

have been brought from Selsey. Following come the Collins tomb and the

Arundel chantry containing the altar-tomb of Richard Fitz-Alan and his

countess. At the end of this aisle is an unknown female effigy

conjectured to be Maud of Arundel (1270). Some good modern stained

glass will have been noticed in the nave. The pulpit, a memorial to

Dean Hook, was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. The south aisle of the

nave has the tomb of Bishop Arundel (1478), Bishop Durnford, and Agnes

Cromwell and a brass to William Bradbridge three times mayor of

Chichester (1592).

In a spirit of ruthless improvement the beautiful old stone screen

between nave and choir was removed in 1859, and replaced by the present

rood-screen in memory of Archdeacon Walker. The finely carved throne

and stalls in the choir are also modern but are in excellent taste and

keeping with the solemn Norman stone which surrounds them. The east

window was placed in 1844, and it is no worse than other examples of

this period.

The north transept was for many years used as the parish church of St.

Peter. Note the pictures by Bernhardi of the English Bishops; those

after Elizabeth were destroyed when the tower fell. On the west are the

tombs of three bishops, Grove (1695), King (1669) and Carleton (1705).

King was the defender of Chichester during Waller's attack and the

latter described him as a "pragmatical malignant." The cathedral

library is in this transept, entered from the north choir aisle. It

contains several treasures, notably the service book of Hermann,

Archbishop of Cologne, once the property of Cranmer and bearing his

autograph. From this book the Reformer adapted many phrases for the

Book of Common Prayer. There are several interesting relics from the

stone coffins discovered under the choir in 1829, including a papal

absolution cross, an abraxas ring and a twelfth-century silver chalice

and paten. These are displayed in a case by the wall. In the north

choir aisle is a beautiful altar cloth in a glass case. We now pass the

fine canopied tomb of Bishop Moleynes (1449). In the Early English

chapel at the end, dedicated to St. Panthelon, is the modern tomb of

Bishop Otter (1840). Before entering this chapel note the stone built

into the wall and known as "Maudes Heart." The screens separating the

aisles from the presbytery are made of native Sussex iron.

We now return and cross to the south transept, on the north side of

which is the tomb once supposed to be the shrine of St. Richard de la

Wych, Bishop (1253) but now definitely accepted as that of Bishop

Stratford (1362). This tomb, with several others, was barbarously

"restored" in the last century; near it may be seen the modern brass in

memory of Dean Burgon (1888). The pictures on the west wall are by

Bernhardi and represent Ceadwalla giving Selsey to St. Wilfrid and the

confirmation made by Henry VIII to Bishop Sherborne. Part of the

transept is used as a consistory court. The sacristy is on the west

side and on the east is St. Catherine's Chapel. In the wall of the

aisle, proceeding east, note two slabs which are said to have been

brought from Selsey Cathedral. The subjects are the Raising of Lazarus

and the Saviour meeting Martha and Mary. Note between them the tomb of

Bishop Sherborne (1536); near by is a memorial of Dean Hook (1875) also

the coffin slabs of Bishop Neville (1224) and Bersted (1262).

[Illustration: CHICHESTER PALACE AND CATHEDRAL.]

We now enter the Transitional Retro-choir; here is the altar tomb of

Bishop Story (1503) who built Chichester Market Cross, and of Bishop

Day (1556). The columns of Purbeck marble which grace this part of the

cathedral are of great beauty. The screens of native iron have already

been noticed, they are of simple but effective design.

We pass the terminal chapel of the south aisle, dedicated to St. Mary

Magdalene and restored in memory of Dean Cross, and enter the Chapel of

Our Lady, noting (left) the tombs of Bishops Hilary and Ralph, and

(right) Bishop Seffrid II, the builder of the Early English portions of

the Cathedial. This beautiful chapel was finished in the early

fourteenth century and in the eighteenth was considered unworthy of

repair and handed over to the Duke of Richmond, whose private property

it for a long time became. The floor was raised to allow of a burial

vault being constructed below, and the upper portion became the

library.

The restoration was resolved upon in 1870 as a memorial to Bishop

Gilbert, and the then Duke being in sympathy with the revived canons of

good taste no opposition was encountered. It may be of interest to

quote an anonymous correspondent in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (1829,

part II) which shows how the leaven was at work even then.

"Some ten years since a Goth, by some untoward chain of circumstances,

possessed sufficient influence with his brethren in the Chapter to

induce that body to whitewash the church, and by way of ornament, and

with a view to compensate for the loss of the original paintings on the

groining of the choir destroyed by the whitewash, the said gentleman

had the archivolt mouldings and all the lines of the building which

were in relief, tastefully coloured in yellow ochre. The name of the

perpetrator of this outrage on good taste and good feeling it is

unnecessary to add, as he will never plan or design any further

embellishment to the cathedral, but if any of his coadjutors in the

daubing and smearing line have survived him, and still possess

influence, I tremble for the effects of the present repair.

"The curious chantry of St. Richard, an object of veneration among

Catholics even to our own days, and the elegant stone screen of the

roodloft, have been literally plastered with whitewash, the rich

sculptured bosses being converted into apparently unshapely lumps of

chalk, and the flat spaces within the heads of the Norman arches of the

nave, which are sculptured with scales and flowers, are almost reduced

to a plane surface.... The removal of this rubbish would be a work of

time; it should be gradually and effectually performed arch by arch, or

its removal may carry away with it many of the sculptures it may

conceal. This will certainly be the case if any London architect, with

a contractor at his heels, sets about a thorough repair to be completed

in a given time....

"The more ancient injuries which the appearance of the cathedral had

sustained were, in the first instance, occasioned by the erection of a

breastwork in front of the triforium, which concealed the bases and

half the shafts of the columns; this might now be easily removed as the

object of its erection, to protect from accident the spectators of the

ancient processions, has ceased to exist. Since the Reformation a great

portion of the nave has been fitted up with pews, the congregation

adjourning from the choir to the nave to hear the sermon. I need not

point out the injury the nave sustains in appearance from this cause

and many points of perspective, highly picturesque, which would arise

from the singular duplication of the aisles of this church are entirely

lost through the existence of the sermon place."

On the south side of the nave is the entrance to the irregularly built

cloisters; here are several monuments and a good view of the

interesting details of the exterior of the cathedral. The Bishop's

Palace is at the west end; it has an Early English chapel in which is

an interesting fresco of the Virgin and Child. At the south-east angle

of the cloister is the Chantry of St. Faith dating from the early

fourteenth century.

[Illustration: BELL TOWER, CHICHESTER.]

The Bell Tower, which is an unique feature of the Cathedral, dates from

the late fifteenth century; it was built to relieve the central tower

of the main building from the weight of the eight bells, most of them

ancient, with quaintly worded and spelt inscriptions. The Arundel

screen has been placed within the tower, but special permission must be

obtained to see this.

The old documents in the Cathedral muniment room are quaint reading,

especially in these post-war days; here are a few items taken at random

from an old book of accounts:--

Payd Thomas the broderer for his labors in amendyng of

dyverse cooppes vestments and other ornaments of the

church workynge thereabouts by the space of IIII wyks

after Chrystmas VI s

For hys comones so longe IIII s

Payd unto Wolsey the masson for amendynge of the tumbe

in our Lady Chapell that was broken uppe when the

Commissionars were here from the Councell to serch

the same XV d

(This was possibly the shrine of St. Richard.)

Payd to Mother Lee for apparellinge of XV

mens albes XIIII d

unto hyr for a dosen of childrens albes IIII d

unto hyr for the makinge of a towell I d

Payd unto Thomas Nowye for pollynge and shavinge of

the chorusters crounes for VI quarters ending at our

Ladye in Lente VIII s

In 1553 Lambart Barnard the painter received an annual payment of

L3 6s. 8d. for his works in the church "in arte suae facultate sua

pictoria" (_sic_).

This Barnard was probably a relative of Bernhardi.

The surroundings of the Cathedral on the south side are very pleasant

and the second visit should be made by way of the Canon Lane Gate in

South Street. On the right is the Vicar's Close and, farther on, the

Deanery (1725). The passage called St. Richard's Walk gives a

particularly beautiful view of the Cathedral.

[Illustration: CHICHESTER CROSS.]

Chichester Cross is the next object of general interest. It was built

by Bishop Story in 1500 and received rough treatment from Waller's men.

On the east side is a bronze bust of Charles I. The clock was presented

by Dame Elizabeth Farringdon in 1724 as "an hourly memento of her

goodwill to the city"; it has not, however, added to the beauty of the

cross. The central column is surrounded by a stone seat which bears

witness to the generations who have used it as a resting place. The

stone lantern which crowns the whole dates from the eighteenth century.

We may now proceed up North Street, passing on the right St. Olave's

Church. A quantity of Roman materials have been found in the walls, and

some authorities declare the south door to be actual Roman work; it is

undoubtedly the oldest building in the town. The Council House is at

the corner of Lion Street; here may be seen the Pudens Stone already

described.

At the end of Lion Street stands St. Mary's Hospital. This was

originally a convent founded in 1158; for some unknown reason the nuns

were evicted in the following century, since then it has been an

almshouse, probably the oldest foundation of its kind in the county. It

supports eight poor persons who live in tiny two-roomed dwellings round

the sides of the great hall. At the end of this is the Decorated chapel

separated from the remainder of the building by an open screen. The

main portion of the building is Early English and a great deal of

timber has been used in the construction. Visitors should enter without

waiting for permission, and one of the courteous ladies will, if

required, show the chapel. The whole makes a quaint and pleasing

picture, quite unique in its way.

[Illustration: ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL, CHICHESTER.]

We may continue along St. Martin's Lane northwards to the Guildhall, no

longer used as such. This was originally the chapel of the Grey Friars.

It has a very fine Early English window; the sedilia should also be

seen. The building was for many years used as a court of justice; its

future is still uncertain.

The city walls are not far distant; though not continuous, considerable

portions have been laid out as public promenades. They are for the most

part constructed of flints and undoubtedly have a Roman base. Some

lines of fortifications about a mile north of the walls, locally called

the "Broyles," are supposed to be Roman works, possibly in connexion

with the military station or garrison.

Returning to the city's centre at the Cross, St. Andrew's Church in

East Street may be visited; this has a Roman pavement at a depth of

about five feet. The poet Collins is buried within the church. Note the

slab on the outside wall which up to the present has kept its secret

from archaeologists.

A very interesting museum in South Street contains a quantity of local

finds. Particular note should be made of the pottery removed from a

British tomb at Walberton; also of the curious old lantern called the

"moon," formerly carried in municipal processions after dark.

The "Pallant," a corruption of Palatinate, was once an ecclesiastical

peculiar; it consists of four streets between South and East Streets.

In West Street is the Prebendal school at which Selden commenced his

education. This street has a very fine specimen of seventeenth-century

architecture, built by Wren and dated 1696. There are several good old

residences of about this date in South Street.

CHAPTER X

SELSEY AND BOSHAM

Chichester Harbour ends just west of the town and close to the

Portsmouth high road at New Fishbourne, a pleasant little place with a

restored Early English church. This may be said to be the north-western

limit of the Selsey Peninsula, one of the most primitive corners of

southern England. The few visitors who make use of the light railway to

Selsey have little or no knowledge of the lonely hamlets scattered over

the wind-swept flats, in which many old customs linger and where the

Saxon dialect may be heard in all its purity.

[Illustration: THE LOWLANDS.]

Selsey--"Seals' Island"[2]--was the scene of the first conversions to

Christianity in Sussex and, for this reason, a semi-sacred land to the

early mediaeval church in the south.

[2] Two seals were seen on the west of the Selsea Peninsula in

December, 1919, and one of them was shot for preservation in a

local museum.

St. Wilfrid's first visit was unpremeditated; he was shipwrecked while

returning from a visit to France, where his consecration had taken

place in A.D. 665. His reception was so hostile that after getting

safely away he decided to return at some future date and convert the

Barbarians to more gentle ways. Not for fifteen years did his

opportunity come. Then, despoiled of his northern bishopric, for

Wilfrid was a turbulent Churchman, he came prepared, we must suppose,

for the reception usually meted out to the saints in those days. The

heathen Saxons, however, were now in a different mood, for "no rain had

fallen in that province for three years before his arrival, wherefore a

dreadful famine ensued which cruelly destroyed the people.... It is

reported that very often, forty or fifty men, being spent with want,

would go together to some precipice, or to the sea-shore, and there

hand in hand perish by the fall, or be swallowed-up by the waves."

(Ven. Bede.)

The efforts of the missionary saint met with success. The unprecedented

sufferings of the people had been ignored by their tribal deities and

the offer of a new faith was eagerly accepted. The King had been

converted, possibly in secret, before this. The baptism of the leading

chieftain was followed by the breaking of the terrible drought. The

fruits of the woods came to feed the bodies of those who had accepted

the food of the spirit, and "the King being made pious and gentle by

God, granted him (Wilfrid) his own town in which he lived, for a

bishop's see, with lands of 87 houses in Selesie afterwards added

thereto, to the holy new evangelist and baptist who opened to him and

all his people the way of everlasting life, and there he founded a

monastery for a resting-place for his assembled brothers, which even to

this day belongs to his servants." (Eddi's _Life of Bishop Wilfrid_.)

The monastery site was probably the same as that of the cathedral, now

beneath the waves, about a mile east of the present Selsey church.

[Illustration: FISHBOURNE MANOR.]

To explore the peninsula a start should be made at Appledram, a small

village close to Chichester Channel and about two miles south-east of

the city; here is a fine Early English church, on the south of which is

an ancient farm-house, originally a tower built by one Renan in the

reign of Edward II. The King would not grant permission for its

crenellation, Renan thereupon disposed of most of the materials and

they were used to build the campanile at Chichester. Footpaths lead

across the meadows to Donnington where is another Early English church

of but little interest. A mile away on the banks of the disused

Chichester and Arundel canal is the strangely named "Manhood End." This

is a corruption of Mainwood, and refers to the great forest which once

stretched from the Downs to the sea. A rather dull walk westwards past

Birdham to West Itchenor, a remote little place on the shores of the

creek, is amply repaid by the fine views northwards up the Bosham

channel, with the far-flung line of the Downs beyond. (A ferry can be

taken from here which would make a short cut to Bosham or Fishbourne

practicable.) Returning past the church with its interesting font, a

footpath is taken to West Wittering and its very fine Transitional

church, the most interesting ecclesiastical building in the Selsey

Peninsula; note the two rude sculptures of the Annunciation and

Resurrection at the ends of a canopied altar tomb; and a coffin lid

with pastoral staff possibly of a "boy-bishop." We are now on that

portion of the coast which approximates most nearly to the original

spot, now beneath the waves, where the first colonists of Sussex

landed.

[Illustration: FISHBOURNE CHURCH.]

At East Wittering a short distance away is an Early English church with

a Norman door. This is not far from Bracklesham Bay, an adventurous

excursion for Selsey Beach visitors who come here treasure hunting for

fossils, of which large numbers repay careful search. To reach Selsey

"town" devious ways must be taken past Earnley, which is surely the

quietest and most remote hamlet in the kingdom, on the road from

nowhere to nowhere; or we may, if impervious to fatigue, follow the

beach all the way to Selsey Bill. The settlement is easily approached

from Chichester and the South Coast line by the Selsey Tramway (8

miles). The charm of the place, which consists in a great measure in

its air of remoteness, is likely to be soon destroyed. Pleasant

bungalows, of a more solid type than usual, are springing up everywhere

between the railway and the Bill, though here we may still stand on the

blunt-nosed end of Sussex and watch the sun rise or set in the sea.

It would be interesting to know if the quality of the buildings erected

will enable them to last until the sea eventually disposes of Selsey.

The encroachment of the waves, especially on the eastern side of the

Bill, has been more rapid than on any other part of the coast, except

perhaps certain parts of Norfolk. The sea immediately east of Selsey is

called the "Park"; this was actually a deer-park no longer ago than

Tudor times and in Camden's day the foundations of Selsey Cathedral

could be seen at low water.

The Transitional church was rebuilt in 1867 from the materials of the

older church, two miles away at Church Norton, where the chancel still

remains among its old mossy tombs. Each stone and beam was placed in

the same position on the new site. The old chancel at Church Norton

contains a battered tomb to John Lewes and his wife (1537). Near-by is

a mediaeval rectory, once a priory, dating from the fourteenth century,

very quaint and picturesque.

We now follow the line of the light railway. At Sidlesham, the first

halt, is a restored Early English church containing a fine old chest.

Note the curious epitaphs within and also on the gravestones in the

churchyard, and, not least, the queer names that accompany

them:--"Glue," "Gravy," "Earwicker" etc.

From the station a footpath may be taken to Pagham and what is left of

the harbour of that name. Here there was until late years a curious

phenomenon known as the "Hushing Well." A rush of air would burst

through the water in the harbour at the time of the incoming tide. The

"well" was destroyed by draining operations which also caused the

disappearance of large numbers of rare water fowl and aquatic insects,

though the naturalist will still be repaid by a visit to this lonely

coast and its immediate surroundings. A short time ago the sea made an

entrance, but without reconstructing the old conditions. It is no

longer practicable to walk along the coast to Bognor.

Pagham Church is an interesting Early English building dedicated to St.

Thomas of Canterbury and erected by a successor to St. Augustine's

Chair. Note a slab in the chancel with Lombardic lettering and the old

glass in the east window. The scanty remains of the episcopal palace

may be seen southeast of the church.

From Hunston Halt a walk of about a mile westwards leads to another

remote and straggling village, North Mundham. In the restored church is

a Saxon font and certain curious sculptures may be seen outside the

door. From here it is only two miles to Chichester, passing

Rumboldswyke church, which has interesting features, including Roman

brickwork in the chancel arch.

The Portsmouth road, in three miles from Chichester, reaches Walton,

where a turning to the left leads in another mile to Bosham, certainly

the most interesting relic of the past in West Sussex. Bosham (pron.

_Bozam_) to-day seems existent solely in the interest of artists; it is

certainly the most besketched place on the South Coast and is rarely,

in fine weather, without one or more easels on its quiet quay. The best

loved hours of the day for the painting or sketching fraternity--those

of low tide, when every boat lies at a different angle--will be the

most unpopular for the ordinary visitor, who will be eager for the

friendly smoke-scented parlour of the inn as a refuge from the flavour

of the malodorous flats; at low tide Bosham is certainly picturesque,

at the full she is comely and clean.

[Illustration: BOSHAM.]

The harbour, from British, through Roman, Saxon and Norman times to the

later middle ages, was one of the principal entrances to and exits from

this county. It was on several occasions harried by the Danes and, as

depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, Harold left here on that visit which

was to have such dire consequences for himself and his line, and such

untold results on the history of the nation-to-be. The great Emperor of

the North--Knut--was a frequent visitor to the creek in his

dragon-prowed barque. His palace, also the home of Earl Godwin and

Harold, is supposed to have been on the northeast of the church, where

a moat is still in existence. It is here that the incident recorded in

every school reader, the historic rebuke to sycophantic courtiers, is

said to have taken place.

The church is of venerable antiquity. The tower has certain indications

which point to its being Saxon work. The chancel arch may be still

older in its base, and some authorities suggest that the lower portions

are actually the remains of the basilica erected in the time of

Constantine, on the site of which the church now stands. The east

portions of the chancel are Early English and once formed the chapel of

a college founded by William Warlewaste, Bishop of Exeter (1120). Note

the figure in the north wall, said to be that of the daughter of Knut

who died here while on a visit to Earl Godwin. The effigy is, however,

of much later date. The fine arcaded font is placed upon high steps

against a column. At the east end of the south aisle the floor is

raised over an Early English crypt or charnel-house, the entrance to

which is close to a canopied tomb. This tomb is that of Herbert of

Bosham, secretary to Becket, who wrote the _Book of Becket's

Martyrdom_.

[Illustration: BOSHAM MILL.]

The church was restored in 1865 and during this work the most

interesting discovery was made of the traditional burial place of

Knut's daughter. How often has a local tradition, accepted as fact by

the peasant, but looked upon as an idle tale by his educated superior,

proved to have more than a grain of truth in it and sometimes to be a

very circumstantial record of actualities, and fully supported by

antiquarian research. The exact position of the grave is shown by the

figure of a Danish raven painted upon a tile, and a stone slab with an

inscription upon it placed by the children of Bosham in 1906.

One of the ancient bells was stolen by Danish pirates; the story goes

that when half way to the open sea a storm arose which swamped the boat

in consequence of the great weight of the metal on board. On high

festivals of the Church, a Bosham man will tell you, its sound can be

heard from the waves mingling with the chimes of the modern bells of

the tower. As a matter of fact the echo of the peal, thrown back by the

woods of West Itchenor, is, in certain favourable conditions of the

atmosphere, distinctly like a second chime, and might deceive a

stranger into thinking that another church lay across the water.

[Illustration: BOSHAM. THE STRAND.]

A most interesting fact recorded by the Venerable Bede is that when

Wilfrid of York came here in 681 he found a religious house ruled by a

monk named Dicul. It was this monk who had converted King Ethelwalch

before Wilfrid arrived. The existence of this tiny community in the

midst of hostile tribes, over two hundred years after the extinction of

Christianity in the south, is a matter of high romance in the history

of the faith in Britain.

There are two other isolated bits of Sussex on the south of the high

road to Emsworth, the first containing the small hamlet of Chidham with

a beautiful little Early English church; the next is occupied by West

Thorney. Here is another church of the same period with a Transitional

tower and a Norman font. This peninsula was until quite recently an

island and the home of innumerable sea fowl.

Emsworth is almost entirely in Hampshire and therefore outside our

limits, but we can well make it the starting place for the last corner

of seaward Sussex unexplored.

Westbourne, one mile north of Emsworth, has a fine Transitional church

with a large number of monuments and an imposing avenue of yews. At

Racton to the north-east is the well-known seamark tower used by

mariners in the navigation of the channels of Chichester Harbour. The

church has a monument to an ancestor of that Colonel Gunter who took

part in the escape of Charles II. Near by is Lordington House, erected

by the father of Cardinal Pole and said to be haunted by the ghost of

that Countess of Salisbury who, when an old woman upwards of seventy,

was beheaded by the order of Henry VIII, and caused the headman much

trouble by refusing to place her head upon the block; an illustration

by Cruickshank depicts the executioner chasing the Countess round the

platform.

[Illustration: THE WESTERN DOWNS.]

Several roads lead north through beautiful country, covered by lonely

and unfrequented woodlands, to the Mardens. West Marden is about five

miles from Emsworth and close to the Hampshire border; all the four

villages which bear this name are among the most primitive in southern

England. At North Marden is a plain unrestored Norman church, the only

one in the immediate vicinity which is worth a visit for its own sake.

Compton, a mile beyond West Marden, has a Transitional Norman church

partly rebuilt; this is close to Lady Holt Park, a favourite retreat of

Pope; and Up Park, a fine expanse of woodland, where the Carylls once

lived; their estates were forfeited for their championship of the

Stuarts. The northern end of the park rises to the edge of the Downs

close to Torberry Hill, the last summit in Sussex, though the traveller

who is so inclined may, with much advantage to himself, penetrate into

the lonely recesses of the Hampshire hills, sacred to the shade of

Gilbert White, and, still within the probable limits of the _ancient_

kingdom of Sussex, finish his travels at Butser Hill and Petersfield.

Butser Hill is 889 feet above the sea, and therefore higher than any

point of the range within Sussex. This well-known summit is familiar to

all travellers on the Portsmouth road, from which it rises with

imposing effect on the west of the pass beyond Petersfield. Here the

South Downs, so called, may be said to end. The chalk hills are

continued right across Hampshire, slowly diminishing in height until

they are lost in the great plateau of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.

[Illustration: HARTING.]

Between a fold of the hills lies picturesque Harting in a most

delightful situation; an ideal spot for a restful time away from

twentieth-century conditions. The tourist, if amenable to the simple

life, might well make a stay of a few days to explore the lovely

country of which this village forms the centre. The finely placed Early

English cruciform church has several interesting monuments to members

of former local families, including sixteenth century memorials of the

Cowper-Coles. Here is buried Lord Grey, who was connected with the Rye

House Plot. Notice the embroidery in the reredos, an unusual style;

also the fine wooden roof and shorn pillars; the latter detract from

the general effect of the interior and have been noticed in other

Downland churches on our route. Quite close to the church are the old

village stocks, undoubtedly placed in this position for the sake of

convenience, the "court" in more remote districts having been held, in

former times, in the church itself. Harting was for a time the home of

Anthony Trollope, and Cardinal Pole was rector here.

There are few districts in England and certainly none south of the

Trent where old customs and queer legends persist with so much vitality

as in these lonely combes and hollows. The effect of being out of the

world is perhaps enhanced in these western Downs by the ring fence of

dark woods through which we have to pass to reach the bare, wind-swept

solitudes and lonely hamlets within them. The northern escarpment and

southern flanks of the hills are clothed in vast forests of beech which

add that grandeur to the great ramparts of chalk which the eastern

ranges lack. Seen through the ever-shifting sea mists which creep up

from the channel these heights take on an appearance of greater

altitude and an added glamour of mystery.

South-east of Harting is the isolated Beacon Hill, once a semaphore

station between Portsmouth and London; but instead of taking at once to

the heights, the pedestrian should first visit Elsted up on its own

little hill, and Treyford a mile farther; both churches are ruined and

deserted. A new church with a spire that forms a landmark for many

miles, stands midway between the two and serves both. Elsted has an inn

from the doorway of which the traveller has a superb view of the Downs.

From Treyford a bridle-path leads directly south to the summit of

Treyford Hill, where are five barrows called "The Devil's Jumps." From

here the track running along the top of the Down will bring us in two

miles to the bold spurs of Linch Down (818 feet), the finest view-point

on the western Downs, the views over the Weald being magnificent in all

directions. A track will have been noticed on the west side of the

summit, and a return should be made to this, and then by striking

southwards through the Westdean woods we eventually reach Chilgrove. We

might then climb the opposite spur and keep southwards until the ridge

rises to the escarpment of Bow Hill, but the finest walk of all and the

most fitting termination to our tour will be to keep to the rough road

which runs down the valley south-east to Welldown Farm. Here a road

turns right and in a little over a mile drops to the romantically

beautiful Kingley Vale.

This vale is a cup-shaped hollow in the south side of Bow Hill; its

steep sides are clothed in a sombre garb of yews and at the farther end

of the combe is a solemn grove of these venerable trees amid which

broad noon becomes a mystic twilight filled with the spirit of awe; a

fitting place for the burial of warrior kings with wild, barbaric rite.

Tradition has it that many Danish chieftains were here defeated and

slain and that here beneath the yews they rest. But who shall say what

other strange scenes these lonely deeps in the bosom of the hills have

witnessed before Saxon or Dane replaced the Celt; who in turn, for all

his fierce and arrogant ways, went, by night, in fear and trembling of

those spiteful little men he himself displaced, and whose vengeance or

pitiful gratitude is perpetuated in the first romances of our

childhood. Though their living homes were in the primeval forests of

the Britain that was, their last long resting places were under the

open skies on the summits of the wind-swept Downs. Many of the smooth

green barrows that enclosed their remains have been ruthlessly rifled

and desecrated by greed or curiosity. It is to be hoped that the

votaries of this form of archaeological research have now discovered all

that they desired to know, and that our far-off ancestors will be left

to the peace we do not grudge our more immediate forefathers.

Appendix

THE SUSSEX DOWNS FROM END TO END

The following summary will suggest to the stranger how his time, if

limited, could be so disposed as to take in the whole range with those

villages which are essentially Downland settlements and those which lie

immediately at the foot of the escarpment. For this purpose the order

of the book is reversed and the tourist should start at the western or

Hampshire end and finish his walk at Beachy Head. The enjoyment of this

tour will of course be greatly enhanced if half the distance is

traversed each day, thus doubling the time.

[Illustration: COWDRAY COTTAGE.]

1ST DAY.

Midhurst (Angel Inn) or Cocking Station via Lynch Down, Beacon Hill, to

Harting, 9 miles (Ship Inn).

2ND DAY.

Harting to Bow Hill and Kingley Bottom via North and East Marden, 8

miles; on to West Dean, Singleton and Cocking (Inn), 17 miles; or

Midhurst, 20 miles.

3RD DAY.

Cocking by Heyshott Down and Duncton Beacon to East Dean, 7 miles

(Inn); on by Burton Down and Bignor Hill (Stane Street) to Bignor, 13

miles (Inn); on to Amberley, 19 miles (Inn).

4TH DAY.

Amberley to Rackham and Kithurst Hills; down to Storrington (White

Horse Inn), 5 miles. By the main road to Washington (Inn) and Wiston.

Ascend Chanctonbury Ring, 10 miles; on to Cissbury Ring and over Downs

at Steyning, 16 miles (White Horse).

5TH DAY.

Steyning via Bramber and Upper Beeding to Trueleigh Hill and Devil's

Dyke, 6 miles (Inn); down to Poynings, round Newtimber Hill to Pyecombe

and Wolstonbury, thence by hill road to Ditchling Beacon, 12 miles; on

by edge of Downs to Mount Harry and down to Lewes, 18 miles (White

Hart, Crown, etc.)

6TH DAY.

Lewes over Cliffe Hill and Mount Caburn to Glynde and West Firle, 4

miles (Inn); over Firle Beacon and along edge of Downs to Alfriston, 9

miles (Star Inn); by Lullington to Windover Hill ("Long Man of

Wilmington") down to Jevington, 12 miles (Inn); up to Willingdon Hill

and thence by eastern edge of Downs all the way to Beachy Head, 17

miles. Eastbourne, 20 miles.

[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF THE ROADS FROM LONDON TO THE DOWNS.]

Appendix II

LONDON TO THE SOUTH DOWNS--THE WEALD

The writer of the preceding chapters has often been tempted to trespass

outside the limits imposed upon him, and penetrate the woody fastnesses

of the Weald. In this separate section a short description will be

given of some of the most characteristic scenes and interesting towns

and villages between London and the coast.

A certain proportion of the pleasure of a holiday is, or should be,

obtained on the journey toward the goal. This is, of course, much more

the case where road rather than rail is taken, and most of the routes

to the south run through a lovely and varied countryside which will

repay a leisurely mode of progression. To the writer there is no way of

seeing England equal to doing that on foot; however, it would be

unreasonable to expect every one to adopt this mode of travelling even

if they were able, and these notes can easily be followed by motorist

or cyclist without undue loss of time.

LONDON TO LEWES BY WESTERHAM AND MARESFIELD

This road keeps within Kent until the boundary of Sussex is reached,

and runs via Catford Bromley and Keston, climbing gradually to

Westerham Hill, after which there is a steep and dangerous descent to

the small town of Westerham (23 miles) pleasantly situated between the

North Downs and the sandy hills of the Surrey Weald. It is famous as

the birthplace of Wolfe, whose statue adorns the green, around which is

grouped the quietly dignified assemblage of inns, shops and houses that

are typical of this part of Kent. The large and finely situated church

also has a memorial to the local hero, who was born in the vicarage

here and buried at Greenwich.

The road continues through pleasant country over Crockham Hill to

Edenbridge (28 m.) on the small river Eden. Although the immediate

surroundings are dull and featureless this is a good centre from which

to explore the district eastwards to Hever, Penshurst, and Tonbridge.

One mile out of the town we bear left and, in another three, cross the

Kent Water into Sussex. In 7-1/2 miles the road passes over the Medway

to Hartfield (33-1/2 m.) on the edge of Ashdown Forest. The Early

English church has a lych-gate dating from 1520. Inside may be seen

three piscinas, one in an uncommon position near the south door.

[A long mile east is Withyam, with a Perpendicular church famous

for its monuments of the Dorset family. Only a gateway remains of

the ancient Buckhurst mansion, the greater part of the materials

going to the erection of Sackville college at East Grinstead.]

From Hartfield we climb steadily towards the centre of the Forest with

occasional wide views between the close woods which line the northern

slopes.

[Before reaching Camp Hill and near the summit, a path leads left

to Crowborough, which of late years has become suburban and a

second Haslemere. The Beacon commands wide views, but the

immediate surroundings have been spoilt.]

We now drop towards Maresfield with grand forward views over the Weald

to the South Downs.

Maresfield (41 m.) has a small Decorated church with a Norman window in

the nave. Note the ancient woodwork and restored oak porch, also two

stoups, one within and the other outside the church. This was once an

important "Black Country" centre. Local names, such as "The Forge"

perpetuate the memory of this strange period in the history of Sussex,

which was at its busiest about 1680, the last furnace being quenched in

1828.

"It is a strange thing to remember, when one is standing on the cold

desolate hills about Crowborough Beacon, or in the glens of the Tilgate

Forest--now the very picture of quiet, and rest, and loneliness--that

this same Sussex was once the iron mart of England. Once, spotted over

these hills and through these forests, there were forges that roared

from morning till night, chimneys that sent up their smoke and their

poisonous vapour from one year's end to another; cannon were cast ...

where now there is no harsher voice than the tap of the woodpecker....

One cannot fancy the forests of St. Leonards and Ashdown, the

Wolverhampton of their age. But so it was; and not the least remarkable

thing ... is the absence of traditions about the life and customs of

the manufacturers so employed." (Lower.)

[From Maresfield a round of about thirty miles could be made

through the beautiful East Sussex Weald, rejoining the main road

at Uckfield. In two miles is Buxted, which has an interesting

Early English church standing high amidst woods. In the Decorated

chancel is the brass of Britellus Avenel (1408) and J. de Lewes

(1330), by whom the church was founded. Note the old muniment

chest in the north aisle and the mortuary chapel of the Earls of

Liverpool south of the chancel. Not far from the church is "Hog

House," note the hog carved over the door and dated 1581. The

Hogge family, ironmasters, once lived here. In 1543 was cast the

first iron cannon made in this country.

"Master Huggett and his man John,

They did cast the first cannon."

Not far away is the one time cell of a hermit, carved out of the

rock, and named "The Vineyard." The road now winds through a

remote country, which once resounded with the clangour of the

forge, to Hadlow Down and Butcher's Cross and in seven miles

reaches Mayfield. The village street is according to Coventry

Patmore the "sweetest in Sussex." The half-timbered "Middle

House" nearly opposite the church is the best example of this

style of architecture in the south, it is dated 1575. Lower House

was built about 1625. The fine Perpendicular church is on the

site of the traditional building erected by St. Dunstan. This was

made of wood, and the Saint, finding that the orientation was not

quite true, set his shoulder to the wall and pushed it straight!

The visitor will note the fine effect of the raised chancel, the

roof of which is composed of a one time gallery. Note, among

other objects, the old screen and choir stalls; a squint; font

dated 1666; iron slabs in the nave to the Sands (1668 and 1708);

monument to T. Aynscombe (1620); chandeliers; and curious east

window; and, not least, the glorious view from the churchyard.

The Palace of the Archbishops is now a convent: it was restored

by Pugin after being in a state of ruin for many years. Certain

portions may be seen at uncertain times. In the ancient

dining-room are preserved the hammer, tongs and anvil of St.

Dunstan. The Saint's well is in the garden. It was hereabouts

that St. Dunstan had his great tussle with the Devil, holding the

fiend by the nose with his tongs; eventually the Evil One

wrenched himself free; making an eight mile leap he cooled his

nose in a pool of water, giving it for ever "a flavour of warm

flat irons" and making the fortune of the future Tunbridge

Wells. Mayfield has another claim to a niche in history, not a

quaint old tale like the above but a sombre fact:--

"Next followed four, which suffered at Mayfield, in Sussex, the

twenty-fourth of September 1556, of whose names we find two

recorded, and the other two we yet know not, and therefore,

according to our register, hereunder they be specified, as we

find them: John Hart, Thomas Ravendale, a shoemaker and a

carrier, which said four being at the place where they should

suffer, after they had made their prayers, and were at the stake

ready to abide the force of the fire, they constantly and

joyfully yielded their lives for the testimony of the glorious

Gospel of Jesus Christ." (Foxe.)

The scenery hereabouts is distinctly of Devonian character. Rich

and varied views reward the leisurely traveller who will make a

side excursion to Rotherfield, passing, halfway the conical Argos

Hill crowned with a windmill. The village, though not so

interesting as Mayfield, is well placed and has a fine

Perpendicular church, the spire being a landmark for many miles.

Here is an east window by Burne Jones and several other good

examples of modern stained glass which make fine splashes of

colour in the old building. A quaint saying in reference to the

handsome presence of the Rotherfield women is that they have an

"extra pair of ribs."

The beautiful district between here and Tunbridge Wells deserves

a chapter to itself. Frant Wadhurst and Ticehurst belong more

naturally to West Kent than East Sussex. These three beautiful

villages and the glorious Eridge Park could be combined in this

excursion by the traveller who has unlimited time.

We may now follow the valley of the Rother through scenery of

much quiet beauty to Burwash, 6-1/2 miles from Mayfield. Here is

an old church with a (possibly) Saxon tower and an interesting

iron slab inscribed "Orate p Annima Johne Colins," probably the

oldest piece of local ironwork in existence. The outline of the

village is eminently satisfying to the artist, especially the

house called "Rampyndens." Burwash is connected with the Rev. J.

Cocker Egerton, to whom reference has already been made. From the

natives of this particular district was gleaned that record of

rustic humour which makes the Sussex peasant depicted in his

writings so real to those who know him. The village has lately

become the home of Rudyard Kipling, who lives at "Batemans," a

beautiful old house in an adjacent valley surrounded by wooded

hills. "Puck of Pooks Hill" is said to have been inspired by the

locality. Brightling Beacon, three miles farther, commands the

finest prospect of the western Weald, the immediate foreground

being of great beauty. Brightling church should also be seen.

A return could now be made by way of Heathfield, from Brightling,

passing Cade Street. Here a monument commemorates the death of

Jack Cade, who was shot by an arrow discharged by Alexander Iden,

Sheriff of Kent, in 1450. Cade had been hiding at Newick Farm;

gaining confidence he came out for a game of bowls and met his

end while playing. Heathfield _old_ village and church are off

the main road to the left; our route passes the railway station

and runs westwards to Cross-in-Hand and Blackboys; this road is a

succession of lovely views throughout the seven miles to Framfield,

where there is a Tudor church. A short two miles more brings us to

our main route at Uckfield.]

[Illustration: MIDDLE HOUSE, MAYFIELD.]

Uckfield (43-1/2 m.) old church was pulled down in the early nineteenth

century, and its successor is of no interest. An old stone house in

front of the "King's Head" was once the village lock-up. A picturesque

outcrop of the Hastings sandstone around a small lake forms a beauty

spot of local fame: it is within the demesne of "The Rocks" on the west

of the town.

[An alternative route to Lewes could be taken from Uckfield

through the best part of the Ouse valley; nearly half-way and on

the right is Isfield ("Eyefield"), the church is interesting.]

The road now bears south-east to High Cross and then by Halland to East

Hoathly (48-1/4 m.). The church here has the Pelham buckle as a

dripstone. Note the Norman piscina. In five miles the little hamlet of

Horsebridge is reached. We are now in the Cuckmere valley.

[One mile short of this a round of four miles could be made via

The Dicker to Mickleham Priory and Hailsham. The Priory is now a

farmhouse; the position of the chapel is shown by some arches

built into the wall. The interior has a fine cowled fireplace and

Early English crypt. The gatehouse is the only complete portion

of the Priory buildings. Permission must be obtained to view the

interior.]

The Eastbourne road crosses the Cuckmere and turns sharp to the right

before reaching the railway.

Hailsham (55-1/2 m.). The fine pinnacled tower of the church shows up

well above the roofs of the old market town, which, however, has little

to show the visitor and is not particularly picturesque. The immediate

surroundings of the road are tame until we enter the woodlands, which

surround the route almost to Polegate (58-1/2 m.). We now have fine

views of the Downs on our right front though Willingdon to Eastbourne

(63 m.).

LONDON TO SEAFORD BY EAST GRINSTEAD AND LEWES

This route follows the Brighton road through Croydon to Purley (12-1/2

m.). Here we bear south-east and follow the Eastbourne road through

suburban but pleasant Kenley and Whyteleafe to Caterham (17-1/2 m.).

The North Downs are crossed between Gravelly hill (Water Tower) and

Marden Castle, followed by a long descent to Godstone (20 m.), built

around a charming green with a fine old inn ("Clayton Arms") on the

left. A lane at the side of the inn leads to the interesting church and

almshouses. The direct road onwards, runs over Tilburstow Hill (500

feet), but the better route bears left and passes Godstone station,

rejoining the old road at Springfield (23 m.).

[At Blindley Heath a road bears left to Lingfield, a pretty

village with an interesting church, once collegiate. Note

misererie seats and choir screen (fifteenth century). Tombs of

the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Lord Cobhams and other interesting tombs and

brasses.]

[Illustration: HIGH STREET, EAST GRINSTEAD.]

At Fellbridge, just past the Horley road, we enter Sussex and, after a

short rise and fall, arrive at East Grinstead (30 m.). This is one of

the pleasantest towns of the Weald, with many old houses here and there

in the High Street. The church, though of imposing appearance from a

distance, is, on closer acquaintance, disappointing; the fabric dating

from 1790. Note an iron tomb slab (1570). Not far from the church is

the Jacobean Sackville College. Here the celebrated Father Neale was

warden for twenty-five years. (In barely two miles from the centre of

the town a lane leads over the railway to the right in 1/3 mile to the

picturesque ruins of Brambletye.)

Forest Row (33 m.), on the river Medway. The road now climbs steadily

between woods to Wych Cross (35 m.). Grand views south and west. This

is one of the finest passes over the Forest Ridge and the peculiar

characteristics of the Hastings sands are here seen to the best

advantage. These high sandy moors, covered with glorious stretches of

bracken and heather, here and there clothed in dense growths of oak and

beech, with occasional distinctive clumps of Scots fir and beneath all

a thick tangle of bramble, a perfect sanctuary of wild life, are more

reminiscent of Radnor or Galloway than of the south country.

[Illustration: SACKVILLE COLLEGE.]

The right-hand road is taken at the fork and there follows a long coast

down to Danehill, where the Lewes road bears left to Sheffield Green

(40 m.).

[A road to the left would bring us in 2 miles to Fletching, where

the forces of Simon de Montfort started on their march to Mount

Harry and subsequent victory of Lewes. The village is the centre

of a delightful neighbourhood and is delightful in itself, not

only for the charm of its surroundings, but for its quaint and

attractive architecture of the humbler sort. The Early English

church has been well restored and beautified by the Earl of

Sheffield, whose estate lies to the west. Gibbon the historian

lies in the Sheffield mausoleum. Note the old glass in the small

lancet windows; this was buried in the churchyard during some

forgotten trouble and discovered and replaced during the

restoration. Several old helmets and gauntlets with the crest of

the Nevill's are hung in the north transept. A small brass should

be noticed; the inscription refers to a local worthy, P. Devot,

who took part in the Cade rebellion.]

Sheffield Park on the left is full of fine timber; at the end we cross

the Ouse and the railway and keep straight forward to Chailey (43-1/2

m.) with occasional views ahead of the Lewes Downs. Passing Chailey

potteries on the left the road calls for no comment until we pass

Cooksbridge station and draw near the Downs.

Offham (48 m.). Lewes (50 m.). There is a choice of routes to Seaford;

that passing Southease (54 m.) enters Newhaven and crosses the Ouse

there. The alternative road crosses the river in Lewes, runs under

Mount Caburn and going through Beddingham (51-1/4 m.) bears right.

South Heighton (55-1/2 m.).

Seaford (59 m.).

THE BRIGHTON ROAD

This classic fifty-two miles, the scene of many records in coaching,

running, cycling and walking, is the shortest way from London to the

sea, but not by any means the most interesting either for the lover of

nature or the tourist of an antiquarian turn. Distances are reckoned

from Westminster Bridge ("Big Ben"). After Kennington comes a two-mile

ascent from Brixton to Streatham and then a fairly level stretch to

Croydon (10 m.), Whitgift Hospital (1596), Archbishop's Palace, fine

rebuilt church. We now enter the chalk country and pass through

suburban Purley to Merstham (18 m.).

[Reigate (2 m. right). Large Perpendicular church. The town is

pleasant and picturesque but rapidly becoming suburban.]

The road drops between spurs of the North Downs to Redhill (20 m.); a

busy railway junction. Thence over Earlswood Common.

Horley (24-3/4 m.). Interesting church; note yews in churchyard.

Lowfield Heath. Three miles from Horley we pass into Sussex and shortly

reach Crawley (29-1/4 m.). Decorated church. Note the quaint lines on

one of the roof beams. Mark Lemon lived at Vine Cottage in the village.

[The tiny village of Worth, south of the East Grinstead road and

nearly 3 miles from Crawley, should be visited for the sake of

its unique Saxon church, the only one remaining which is complete

in its ground plan. Notice the typical band of stones supported

by pillars which runs round the building; also the curious double

font; pulpit dated 1577 and ancient lych-gate. On the north side

of the church is a "Devil's Door." The exorcized spirit passed

out this way at the sacrament of Baptism.]

We now enter the forest zone. Note the fine retrospect when approaching

Pease Pottage (31-1/4 m.).

[On the left is Tilgate Forest, which is continued by Worth

Forest, whence many lovely and lonely paths lead to Horstead

Keynes and West Hoathly, whose church has a land-mark spire

visible for many miles. Underneath the tower will be seen two

iron grave slabs. Within the church notice the Geometrical

windows and the triple sedilia. The village is picturesque and

well placed, and the local "lion"--"Great upon little," an effect

of denudation, is well known. The village is much nearer the

Seaford road at Wych Cross, but from the present route we have

the advantage of seven miles of woodland otherwise unexplored.

On the right from Pease Pottage, in the recesses of St. Leonard's

Forest, and two miles from the main route, is Holmbush Beacon

Tower. This should be visited for the sake of the magnificent

woodland views; in the distance are the south Downs visible from

Butser Hill behind Portsmouth to the hills surrounding Lewes.

Hindhead, Blackdown, Leith Hill, the North Downs and the

Hampshire Heights are all visible on a clear day.

We are here in a remote district, the haunt of legend and

folk-lore almost unequalled in the south. Here St. Leonard put an

end to the career of a fierce and fiery dragon, but not before

the saint was grievously wounded, and where his blood fell now

grow the lilies of the valley, common here but nowhere else in

the neighbourhood. Headless horsemen, who have an unpleasant

habit of sharing the benighted traveller's steed; witches and

warlocks; white-ladies and were-wolves are in great plenty, and

the normal inhabitants of the forest must have a fervent

appreciation of the high noon and the hours of daylight.]

The two miles south of Pease Pottage are the highest on the road

culminating at Handcross, 504 feet (33-1/2 m.). The road now descends

the steep and dangerous Handcross Hill.

[At the foot of the hill, half mile right, is Slaugham ("Slaffam")

with a Decorated church, old font and brasses.]

Bolney Common (37-1/2 m.) in lovely surroundings. The church has early

Norman, or as some authorities declare, Saxon features. The Norman

south door, covered by a wooden porch dating from the eighteenth

century, should be noticed.

[Cuckfield ("Cookfield") 3 miles left, amidst beautiful scenery,

with a fine Early English church commanding a glorious view. Note

monuments and handsome reredos. Cuckfield Place is the original

of "Rookwood," but has been "improved" out of its ancient

character. The Jacobean gate house still stands unrestored at the

end of the avenue. Close by is Leigh Pond, a fine sheet of

water.]

Albourne Green (42 m.), for Hurstpierpoint (1 m.), beautiful views of

the South Downs which we now ascend to Pyecombe (45-1/2 m.).

Preston (49-1/2 m.).

Brighton (front 51-1/2 m.).

THE HORSHAM ROAD

At Kennington Church we leave the Brighton Way and pass Clapham Common,

Tooting and Merton to Cheam (11-1/4 m.) Ewell and Epsom (14-1/2 m.) The

Downs and Race-course are up to the left.

Ashtead.

Leatherhead (18-1/2 m.). This little town has some picturesque streets,

but is rapidly becoming suburban. The Perpendicular church contains

interesting windows. The scenery now greatly improves and becomes

beautiful after passing Mickleham, a pretty village with a Transitional

church.

[Illustration: CAUSEWAY, HORSHAM.]

Norbury Park, on the right, is one of the most charming places in

Surrey. Box Hill (590 feet), which may easily be ascended from the

well-placed Burford Bridge Hotel, is on the left. The road, river and

rail run through a deep cleft in the North Downs forming the Mole

valley and facing the sandstone hills of the Weald. In the shallow

depression between the two ranges lies Dorking (23-1/4 m.). The town is

pleasant but has nothing of much interest for the visitor. It is for

its fine situation from a scenic point of view and as a convenient

headquarters from which to explore the best of Surrey that it will be

appreciated. The rebuilt parish church is imposing and stands on the

site of the ancient Roman Stane Street. We leave the town by South

Street and proceed to Holmwood, from which Leith Hill may be visited,

though there are more direct and much finer routes from Dorking.

Capel (28-3/4 m.). We are now in quiet wealden scenery and there is

nothing of special interest until we cross the Sussex boundary, about

half a mile beyond the railway bridge. Kingsfold (31-1/2 m.). We now

bear left and again 1-1/2 miles farther by Warnham Pond, with memories

of Shelley.

Horsham (36 m.). This prosperous and pleasant county centre makes a

good halting place. The Early English and Perpendicular church is worth

a visit, although practically rebuilt in the middle of the last

century. The fine proportions and spacious and lofty interior will at

once strike the visitor. Notice the altar tomb of Thomas de Braose

(1396), Lord Hoo (1455), Eliz. Delves (1645), and a brass of Thomas

Clerke (1411). Also the ancient font. The old "Causeway," which leads

to the church from Carfax, as the centre of the town is called, should

be more popular with artists than it is. The wonderful colour of some

of the Horsham roofs will be noticed; this is due to the local stone

with which the older roofs are covered. It seems a pity from an

aesthetic point of view that the quarries are no longer used. The great

weight of the covering had another advantage, it made for sturdy

building and honest workmanship. Horsham no longer has the artificial

importance of returning members to Parliament (at one time, two; and as

lately as 1885 one), but is now merged in the western division of

Sussex, of which district it shares with Midhurst the position of chief

agricultural and commercial centre. The town is also becoming

residential as East Grinstead, on the other side of the county, has

already done.

[Illustration: POND STREET, PETWORTH.]

THE SHOREHAM ROAD

The high road from Horsham skirts Dene Park, which is quite open and

commands fine views of the town and the surrounding Weald. To the right

may be discerned the buildings of Christ's Hospital and Southwater

Station (38-1/2 m.).

Burrell Arms (41-1/2 m.). A halt must be made to view the scanty

remains of Knepp Castle, a one time stronghold of the de Braose family.

Close by is a beautiful lake, the largest sheet of water in the south

of England. The road now bears south-east. To the right and close to

the Adur is West Grinstead. The church, partly Norman, should be seen.

Note the two naves. The old oak seats bear the names of the farms to

whose occupants they have from time immemorial belonged. Behind the

altar of the north nave is an aumbry, and in the roof above is a cover

once used for suspending the canopy over the Host. There are several

interesting monuments including two altar tombs in the Burrell chantry

with fine fifteenth century brasses. Note the font, an old stone

coffin, foliated lancets, fragments of old stained glass and some

remains of ancient frescoes. The rectory is a good specimen of

Elizabethan building. West Grinstead House, once the home of the

Carylls, friends of Pope, "This verse to Caryl, Muse, is due," _Rape of

the Lock_. The poem is said to have been written under the shade of

"Pope's Oak" in the park.

[Cowfold, 3 miles east, is chiefly remarkable for the Carthusian

Monastery dedicated to St. Hugh. Its spire is a landmark for many

miles. This has been the home of exiled French monks since 1877.

Visitors are very courteously shown over the greater part of the

building, which is of much interest and contains several venerated

relics brought from the monastery of the Grand Chartreuse. The

magnificent brass to Nelond, Prior of Lewes, in the parish church

should also be seen.]

We now continue south-east and cross the railway to Shoreham. The tall

spire seen on the left is St. Hugh's Monastery (above). Partridge Green

station (44-1/4 m.), Ashurst (46-1/4 m.), with an Early English church.

At the top of every rise we are rewarded with glorious views of the

Downs crowned by Chanctonbury Ring.

Steyning (49-1/4 m.).

Bramber (50-1/4 m.).

New Shoreham (54-1/4 m.).

[Illustration: STEYNING CHURCH.]

THE WORTHING ROAD

As above to the Burrell Arms. The route runs south and then south-west

to Dial Post (43-1/4 m.), and so with striking views ahead through

Ashington (46-1/4 m.) to Washington (48-1/4 m.).

Findon (51 m.).

Broadwater (54-1/4 m.).

Worthing (55-1/2 m.).

THE ARUNDEL--CHICHESTER ROAD

This route leaves the Horsham road nearly two miles south of the

village of Kingsfold.

Warnham (33-1/4 m.). The district is the scene of Shelley's childhood

and youth. The poet was born at Field Place, about 1-1/2 miles south on

the right of the road.

Broadbridge Heath (35-1/4 m.).

Five Oaks (39 m.). We now join the Roman "Stane Street" from London

Bridge to Chichester.

Billingshurst (40-3/4 m.). Norman and Perpendicular church. Note fine

oak panelled ceiling.

[Across the Adur valley, 2-1/2 miles west is the interesting

church at Wisborough Green. The situation is delightful and the

antiquarian interest more than ordinary. Kemble identifies the

mound on which the church is built as being the site of a temple

dedicated to Woden (Wisc or "Wish"). Restoration brought to light

early Norman (perhaps Saxon) remains in this late Norman church.

The chancel is Early English. Notice the tower walls inside.

There are some ancient frescoes, a stoup, and other interesting

details.]

Adversane (42-3/4 m.).

Pulborough (46 m.).

Bury (50-3/4 m.).

Arundel (55-1/4 m.).

_To Chichester_ at 1-3/4 m. past Bury turn S.W.

Balls Hut Inn (56-1/2 m.).

Chichester (62 m.).

THE CHICHESTER ROAD VIA GUILDFORD AND MIDHURST

This route follows the Portsmouth Road from Westminster through

Wandsworth and over Putney Heath to Kingston (12 m.). Here we bear left

past the King's stone and then by way of the river bank through Thames

Ditton to Esher (16 m.), then by the famous "Ripley Road" over Fairmile

Common and through Street Cobham (19-1/2 m.).

Ripley (23-3/4 m.).

Guildford (29-3/4 m.). A prosperous and good-looking old town in danger

of becoming smug and suburban; the steep and picturesque High Street,

however, keeps its old time amenities. The ruins of the castle keep may

be seen south of the High Street. Abbott's Hospital (1619), the

Guildhall with projecting clock (1683); St. Mary's church, Norman and

Early English. Note paintings in north chapel. St. Nicholas' Church has

been mostly rebuilt. Our road turns left just beyond the Wey bridge and

passes under the ruins of St. Catherine's Chapel on the left. At

Shalford (30-3/4 m.), bear right to Godalming (34-1/4 m.) in the centre

of a lovely country. Here is a large cruciform church, Norman and Early

English, with interesting brasses and pulpit.

[Illustration: NORTH MILL, MIDHURST.]

Milford (35 m.). A long rise follows to Brookstreet (39-1/4 m.) and a

dangerous drop just beyond. Haslemere (43 m.). Although the scenery is

very beautiful on all sides of this once remote hamlet, the late

nineteenth century saw a colonization of the slopes of Hindhead, with

the attendant outbreak of red brick, which has almost completely spoilt

the neighbourhood. Branch excursions may be made towards the Hampshire

border and to Chiddingfold country. We cross the Sussex boundary one

mile south of the town and are immediately in the lonely and very

lovely Blackdown country. A climb follows to Kingsley Marsh and a steep

descent to Fernhurst (46-1/4 m.).

[Blackdown, the highest point in Sussex (918 feet) can be easily

reached from here, the distance is about two miles in each

direction with woodland most of the way. The view from the summit

is magnificent in every direction. Aldworth, where Tennyson died,

is on a spur of the hill slightly east of north.]

Henley (48-1/2 m.). A picturesque hamlet below the road commanding

magnificent views of Blackdown. A steep descent, then a road through

lovely woodlands brings us to Midhurst (51 m.).

Cocking (54 m.). Steep hills.

West Dean (57-1/2 m.).

Chichester (63 m.).

RAILWAY ROUTES

LONDON TO EASTBOURNE BY OXTED AND HEATHFIELD

Only slow trains, with possible change of carriage, by this route; the

Eastbourne expresses run by Three Bridges and Lewes. After Croydon the

long ascent between the northern slopes of the Surrey Downs extends to

Woldingham Tunnel. Wide views and retrospect of the Downs. Oxted (20

m.) (church and village right).

Edenbridge (25 m.).

Hever.

Cowden. The line crosses the Kent water and enters Sussex. Ashurst

(Infant Medway right). Eridge (35-1/2 m.) (a good centre from which to

explore north-east Sussex). Rotherfield. Mayfield (scenery reminiscent

of Devon). Hailsham (49-3/4 m.) for Hurstmonceux. Polegate. Eastbourne

(57 m.).

LONDON TO SEAFORD BY EAST GRINSTEAD AND LEWES

(To Oxted above.) Lingfield (picturesque village and well-known racing

headquarters.) West Hoathly (34 m.). (Ashdown Forest left). Horsted

Keynes. Newick. Lewes (50-1/4 m.). Newhaven (56-1/2 m.). Seaford (59

m.).

LONDON TO BRIGHTON BY REDHILL AND THREE BRIDGES

This is the line of the fast expresses, and in the summer one of the

busiest 50 miles of railway in the kingdom. Croydon. Purley. Merstham.

Redhill (20-1/2 m.). Express Trains pass to the left of this station

(fine views). Horley. Gatwick (race-course, right). A long climb over

the Forest Ridge followed by a drop to the Ouse viaduct (St. Saviour's

College, Ardingley, left). Hayward's Heath (37-3/4 m.) (a suburban

growth). Wivelsfield. Burgess Hill (Ditchling Beacon, left front).

Hassocks (43-1/2 m.) (Clayton Tunnel). Preston Park. Brighton (50-1/2

m.).

LONDON TO SHOREHAM AND WORTHING

Sutton (15 m.) (an outlier of villadom). Ewell. Epsom (18-1/2 m.).

Ashtead. Leatherhead (22-3/4 m.). The scenery rapidly improves and

before reaching Box Hill Station attains much beauty. Dorking (26-3/4

m.). Holmwood (31-3/4 m.) (Leith Hill, right, conspicuous by its

tower). Capel. Horsham (40-1/4 m.). Christ's Hospital (left).

Southwater. West Grinstead (Chanctonbury Ring, right). Henfield (52-3/4

m.). The Adur valley is followed to Steyning and Bramber. New Shoreham

(60-1/4 m.). Worthing (64-3/4 m.).

[Illustration: KNOCK HUNDRED ROW, MIDHURST.]

LONDON TO ARUNDEL AND CHICHESTER

(To Horsham above.) Billingshurst (46 m.). Pulborough (junction for an

alternative route to Chichester via Midhurst). Views (left) of the long

escarpment of the Downs. Villages on the Arun (right). Amberley Castle

(left) and (exceedingly fine) Arundel Castle (right). Arundel (59-1/4

m.). Ford. Barnham. Chichester (70-1/2 m.).

Index

Adeliza, Queen

Adur

Ainsworth, Harrison

Albourne Green

Albrin, de

Alciston

Aldrington

Aldworth

Alfred the Great

Alfriston

Amberley

Anderida

Andredes Weald

Angmering

Angmering Park

Anne of Cleves

Anne of Cleves' House

Appledram

Apsleys

Ardingley

Argos Hill

Arun, The

Arundel

Arundel Church

Arundel Park

Arundel Bishop

Ashdown Forest

Atherington

Babington Conspirators

Bailiff's Court House

Balsdean

Barlavington Down

Barrymore

Bartelotts, The

Barton Down

Beachy Head

Beacon, The

Beacon Hill

Beckett, Thomas a

Beddingham

Beggar's Bush

Berwick

Bexley Hill

Bignor

Birdham

Birds, Booth Museum of

Billingshurst

Birling Gap

Bishopstone

Blackboys

Black Cap

Blackdown

Black Wm.

Blake

Bognor

Bolingbroke

Bolney Common

Borough Hill

Bosham

Botolphs

Bow Hill

Boxgrove

Box Hill

Bracklesham Bay

Bradford, John

Bramber

Brambletye

Braose, de

Brightling

Brighton

Broadbridge Heath

Broadwater

Brotherhood Hall

Browne, Sir Anthony

Browning, Robert

Buncton Chapel

Burrell Arms

Burrel, Sir Wm.

Burwash

Butcher's Cross

Butser Hill

Buxted

Byworth

Cade, Jack

Cade Street

Campions, The

Capel

Cariloce, John de

Carylls, The

Castle Goring

Catt, William

Chailey

Chanctonbury Ring

Charles II

Charles III of Spain

Charlotte, Princess

Charlton

Charlton Forest

Cheyney, Sir Thomas

Chichester

Chichester Cathedral

Chidham

Chilgrove

Chiltern Hills

Church Norton

Chyngton

Cissa

Cissbury Hill

Clapham

Clark, Dr.

Cliffe

Cliffe Hill

Clymping

Cobden, Richard

Cocking

Cogidubnus

Cold Waltham

Compton

Coombe

Cornwall, Earl of

Cowdray Park

Cowdray Ruins

Cowfold

Cowper

Cowper-Coles

Crawley

Cromwell, Thomas

Cross in Hand

Crowborough

Croydon

Cuckfield

Cuckmere Haven

Cuckmere Valley

Dane Hill

Danny

De la Warr, Lord

Devil's Dyke

Dickens, Charles

Dicker, The

Dicul

Ditchling

Ditchling Beacon

Donnington

Dorking

Duncton Beacon

Dunford House

Durrington Chapel

Earnley

Eartham

Easebourne

East Blatchington

Eastbourne

East Dean, (East Sussex)

East Dean, (West Sussex)

Eastergate

East Grinstead

East Hoathly

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