PREFACE. 



IT is generally allowed that the story of each parish 

 ought to be written separately. County histories, 

 however imposing, are generally wholesale collections 

 of fragmentary gossip, full of inaccuracies which, once 

 printed, have been copied with all care from one book 

 into another. The fault does not arise from lack of 

 material, for there is scarcely an acre of Old England, 

 especially if it nestles under an ancient church, that 

 has not a history of its own, which, if told, might 

 help local education and even inspire patriotism ; and 

 so great is the wealth of public historical documents 

 in England as compared with France (which in this 

 respect lost irretrievably by the wanton destruction 

 of her records in the Revolution), that search of the 

 most ordinary diligence will be sure to recover some 

 historical title-deeds for the dullest hillside. 



A humble attempt has been made in the following 

 pages to describe a corner parish in West Sussex 

 of 7,832 acres (nearly thirteen square miles), interest- 



