Highways and Byways in Sussex

CHAPTER XLII. Being a Postscript to the Second Edition 417

BEING A POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION 417

INDEX 439

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

THE BARBICAN, LEWES CASTLE Frontispiece

COWDRAY 4

BLACKDOWN 10

COWDRAY 22

CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL 31

CHICHESTER CROSS 35

THE RUINED NAVE OF BOXGROVE 39

BOXGROVE PRIORY CHURCH 41

BOXGROVE FROM THE SOUTH 43

EAST LAVANT 49

BOSHAM 54

ARUNDEL 68

THE ARUN AT NORTH STOKE 71

GATEWAY, AMBERLEY CASTLE 84

AMBERLEY CASTLE 87

AMBERLEY CASTLE, ENTRANCE TO CHURCHYARD 89

AMBERLEY CHURCH 91

PULBOROUGH CHURCH 93

AT PULBOROUGH 95

STOPHAM BRIDGE 97

THE ROTHER AT FITTLEWORTH 99

ALMSHOUSE AT PETWORTH 101

PETWORTH CHURCHYARD 104

THE CAUSEWAY, HORSHAM 112

COTTAGES AT SLINFOLD 118

RUDGWICK 121

CHURCH STREET, STEYNING 135

STEYNING CHURCH 138

BRAMBER 140

COOMBES CHURCH 142

CHANCTONBURY RING 145

SOMPTING 153

LANCING 157

NEW SHOREHAM CHURCH 185

OLD SHOREHAM BRIDGE 188

OLD SHOREHAM CHURCH 189

POYNINGS, FROM THE DEVIL'S DYKE 193

HANGLETON HOUSE 196

MALTHOUSE FARM, HURSTPIERPOINT 200

DITCHLING 207

OLD HOUSE AT DITCHLING 208

CUCKFIELD CHURCH 212

EAST MASCALLS--BEFORE RENOVATION 219

THE JUDGE'S HOUSES, EAST GRINSTEAD 228

ON THE OUSE, ABOVE LEWES 239

HIGH STREET, SOUTHOVER 241

ANN OF CLEVES' HOUSE, SOUTHOVER 246

ST. ANN'S CHURCH, SOUTHOVER 251

THE OUSE AT SOUTH STREET, LEWES 253

THE OUSE AT PIDDINGHOE 255

RODMELL 256

PIDDINGHOE 258

SOUTHOVER GRANGE 261

NEAR TARRING NEVILLE 263

GLYNDE 282

FRAMFIELD 293

IN BUXTED PARK 298

BEACHY HEAD 318

BEACHY HEAD FROM THE SHORE 325

PEVENSEY CASTLE 329

WESTHAM 333

HURSTMONCEUX CASTLE 335

BATTLE ABBEY--THE GATEWAY 349

MOUNT STREET, BATTLE 352

BATTLE ABBEY, THE REFECTORY 355

THE LANDGATE, RYE 359

SEDILIA AND TOMBS OF GERVASE AND STEPHEN ALARD, WINCHELSEA 363

THE YPRES TOWER, RYE 365

COURT LODGE, UDIMORE 370

UDIMORE CHURCH 372

BREDE PLACE 373

BREDE PLACE, FROM THE SOUTH 375

BODIAM CASTLE 377

SHOYSWELL, NEAR TICEHURST 388

THE PANTILES, TUNBRIDGE WELLS 391

BAYHAM ABBEY 396

ASHDOWN FOREST, FROM EAST GRINSTEAD 403

MAP OF THE COUNTY OF SUSSEX End paper

HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS IN SUSSEX

CHAPTER I. Midhurst

MIDHURST

The fitting order of a traveller's progress--The Downs the true Sussex--Fashion at bay--Mr. Kipling's topographical creed--Midhurst's advantages--Single railway lines--Queen Elizabeth at Cowdray--Montagus domestic and homicidal--The curse of Cowdray--Dr. Johnson at Midhurst--Cowdray Park.

If it is better, in exploring a county, to begin with its least interesting districts and to end with the best, I have made a mistake in the order of this book: I should rather have begun with the comparatively dull hot inland hilly region of the north-east, and have left it at the cool chalk Downs of the Hampshire border. But if one's first impression of new country cannot be too favourable we have done rightly in starting at Midhurst, even at the risk of a loss of enthusiasm in the concluding chapters. For although historically, socially, and architecturally north Sussex is as interesting as south Sussex, the crown of the county's scenery is the Downs, and its most fascinating districts are those which the Downs dominate. The farther we travel from the Downs and the sea the less unique are our surroundings. Many of the villages in the northern Weald, beautiful as they are, might equally well be in Kent or Surrey: a visitor suddenly alighting in their midst, say from a balloon, would be puzzled to name the county he was in; but the Downs and their dependencies are essential Sussex. Hence a Sussex man in love with the Downs becomes less happy at every step northward.

One cause of the unique character of the Sussex Downs is their virginal security, their unassailable independence. They stand, a silent undiscovered country, between the seething pleasure towns of the seaboard plain and the trim estates of the Weald. Londoners, for whom Sussex has a special attraction by reason of its proximity (Brighton's beach is the nearest to the capital in point of time), either pause north of the Downs, or rush through them in trains, on bicycles, or in carriages, to the sea. Houses there are among the Downs, it is true, but they are old-established, the homes of families that can remember no other homes. There is as yet no fashion for residences in these altitudes. Until that fashion sets in (and may it be far distant) the Downs will remain essential Sussex, and those that love them will exclaim with Mr. Kipling,

God gave all men all earth to love, But since man's heart is small, Ordains for each one spot shall prove Beloved over all.

* * * * *

Each to his choice, and I rejoice The lot has fallen to me In a fair ground--in a fair ground-- Yea, Sussex by the sea!

If we are to begin our travels in Sussex with the best, then Midhurst is the starting point, for no other spot has so much to offer: a quiet country town, gabled and venerable, unmodernised and unambitious, with a river, a Tudor ruin, a park of deer, heather commons, immense woods, and the Downs only three miles distant. Moreover, Midhurst is also the centre of a very useful little railway system, which, having only a single line in each direction, while serving the traveller, never annoys him by disfiguring the country or letting loose upon it crowds of vandals. Single lines always mean thinly populated country. As a pedestrian poet has sung:--

My heart leaps up when I behold A single railway line; For then I know the wood and wold Are almost wholly mine.

And Midhurst being on no great high road is nearly always quiet. Nothing ever hurries there. The people live their own lives, passing along their few narrow streets and the one broad one, under the projecting eaves of timbered houses, unrecking of London and the world. Sussex has no more contented town.

The church, which belongs really to St. Mary Magdalen, but is popularly credited to St. Denis, was never very interesting, but is less so now that the Montagu tomb has been moved to Easebourne. Twenty years ago, I remember, an old house opposite the church was rumoured to harbour a pig-faced lady. I never had sight of her, but as to her existence and her cast of feature no one was in the least doubt. Pig-faced ladies (once so common) seem to have gone out, just as the day of Spring-heeled Jack is over. Sussex once had her Spring-heeled Jacks, too, in some profusion.

Cowdray Park is gained from the High Street, just below the Angel Inn, by a causeway through water meadows of the Rother. The house is now but a shell, never having been rebuilt since the fire which ate out its heart in 1793: yet a beautiful shell, heavily draped in rich green ivy that before very long must here and there forget its earlier duty of supporting the walls and thrust them too far from the perpendicular to stand. Cowdray, built in the reign of Henry VIII., did not come to its full glory until Sir Anthony Browne, afterwards first Viscount Montagu, took possession. The seal was put upon its fame by the visit of Queen Elizabeth in 1591 (Edward VI. had been banqueted there by Sir Anthony in 1552, "marvellously, nay, rather excessively," as he wrote), as some return for the loyalty of her host, who, although an old man, in 1588, on the approach of the Armada, had ridden straightway to Tilbury, with his sons and his grandson, the first to lay the service of his house at her Majesty's feet. A rare pamphlet is still preserved describing the festivities during Queen Elizabeth's sojourn. On Saturday, about eight o'clock, her Majesty reached the house, travelling from Farnham, where she had dined. Upon sight of her loud music sounded. It stopped when she set foot upon the bridge, and a real man, standing between two wooden dummies whom he exactly resembled, began to flatter her exceedingly. Until she came, he said, the walls shook and the roof tottered, but one glance from her eyes had steadied the turret for ever. He went on to call her virtue immortal and herself the Miracle of Time, Nature's Glory, Fortune's Empress, and the World's Wonder. Elizabeth, when he had made an end, took the key from him and embraced Lady Montagu and her daughter, the Lady Dormir; whereupon "the mistress of the house (as it were weeping in the bosome) said, 'O happie time! O joyfull daie!'"

These preliminaries over, the fun began. At breakfast next morning three oxen and a hundred and forty geese were devoured. On Monday, August 17th, Elizabeth rode to her bower in the park, took a crossbow from a nymph who sang a sweet song, and with it shot "three or four" deer, carefully brought within range. After dinner, standing on one of the turrets she watched sixteen bucks "pulled down with greyhounds" in a lawn. On Tuesday, the Queen was approached by a pilgrim, who first called her "Fairest of all creatures," and expressed the wish that the world might end with her life and then led her to an oak whereon were hanging escutcheons of her Majesty and all the neighbouring noblemen and gentlemen. As she looked, a "wilde man" clad all in ivy appeared and delivered an address on the importance of loyalty. On Wednesday, the Queen was taken to a goodlie fish-pond (now a meadow) where was an angler. After some words from him a band of fishermen approached, drawing their nets after them; whereupon the angler, turning to her Majesty, remarked that her virtue made envy blush and stand amazed. Having thus spoken, the net was drawn and found to be full of fish, which were laid at Elizabeth's feet. The entry for this day ends with the sentence, "That evening she hunted." On Thursday the lords and ladies dined at a table forty-eight yards long, and there was a country dance with tabor and pipe, which drew from her Majesty "gentle applause." On Friday, the Queen knighted six gentlemen and passed on to Chichester.

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