/2 HISTORY OF HARTING. 



but doubtless developed in early life the mathematical 

 and mechanical powers for which he was still more 

 famous than his tutor Chillingworth. As Sir Edward 

 Ford, lord of East Harting manor was born, lived, and 

 was buried at Harting, we must closely follow his 

 public career. 



The autumn of 1643 ushered in the second of the four 

 years of Civil War. The king and his rival Parliament 

 was at Oxford, and what may be called his depot, under 

 Lord Hopton at Winchester : Parliament in London, 

 and their officer, Sir William Waller, at Farnham. The 

 county of Sussex was one in which "the king had 

 hitherto had no footing " ; * but a message was sent 

 from some Sussex loyalists by Sir Edward Ford, who 

 had been knighted at Oxford and made Sheriff of 

 Sussex, and who commanded a regiment of horse in 

 Lord Hopton's troops, begging that Arundel Castle, 

 might be seized for the king before the winter set in. 

 Charles having heard that Kent was on his side, and 

 wishing to unite Sussex with Kent, approved of the* 

 scheme. Lord Hopton marched from Winchester to 

 Chichester, and his cavalry passed through Harting, 

 while the infantry attacked Lord Lumley at Stanstead. 

 " The exceeding hard frost," as Lord Clarendon says, 

 " made his march more easy through those deep dirty 

 ways than better weather would have done." Arriving 

 at Arundel by surprise, he took it on the third day, 

 Saturday, Dec. Qth, and left it in Sir Edward Ford's 

 keeping, in fulfilment of the ancient service rendered 



College, Oxford, June 20, 1620, Fellow 1628 : became Roman 

 . Catholic, but was converted again to the Protestant faith by Laud 

 at Oxford, 1631, when he wrote a book against Rome. He was 

 a staunch Royalist, and helped the king's troops at Gloucester, 

 being an eminent engineer. He accompanied Lord Hopton's 

 troops as Chaplain, died after the siege of Arundel, 1643, and 

 was buried with insult from the Puritan clergy, in Chichester 

 Cathedral. He is the author of the well known saying : " The 

 Bible, the Bible only the religion of Protestants." 

 Clarendon. 



