2l8 HISTORY OF HARTING. 



which offence both were made to do penance by wearing 

 white sheets during service one Sunday morning in the 

 early part of this century. When the service was over 

 Bryder had the wit to say to a byestander, still living 

 in Billingsgate, alluding to the white sheets as sur- 

 plices, and the unusual congregation, "that a many 

 people came to church that day to hear the new 

 parsons" 



The superstitions of the Sussex aboriginal have 

 generally some sensible tendency. For instance, it is 

 supposed to token death within a year to you if you 

 gather apples from a tree that has a blossom upon it : 

 the object here being to protect the unripe fruit from 

 young hands. Also to bring May-blossom (white ' 

 thorn) into the house is forbidden, the object again 

 being to save the fruit for the coming winter for the 

 birds, a lesson of humanity that may have come from 

 the Monks. In like manner, if your plough turns up a 

 mouse's nest, you must stop it, or be undone. The 

 Humane Society would doubtless support this last 

 superstition. Some years ago a man, grubbing a fence 

 near Compton down, pulled up an ash stump that 

 disclosed a nest of silver pieces of the time of Queen 

 Elizabeth, no doubt hidden there in the time of civil 

 war. He ran away in terror, for to find a treasure 

 signifies that you belong to Mercury, the god of death 

 as well as the god of luck in the old pagan creed. 

 Recovering himself he told the cause of his fear to 

 another, who at once accompanied him to the spot, 

 and the two soon shared the spoil. The love of money 

 is stronger than any superstition. 



The population of Harting has very slowly increased 

 to its present size. In two years of the early part of 

 the seventeenth century Harting would seem to be 

 fast emptying if we take the following summaries in 

 the Register for our guide : 



"From the 25th of March, 1612, to the 25th of 

 March, 1613, were 



