Bosham and history--An expensive pun--The Bosham bells--Chidham wheat--The Manhood peninsula--Selsey's adders--Selsey Bill--St. Wilfrid and the Sussex heathen--Pagham Harbour in its palmy days--Bognor--Felpham's great rider--Mr. Hayley and Mrs. Opie--An epitaph and a poem--A fairy's funeral--William Blake in Sussex--The trial of a traitor. On leaving Chichester West Street becomes the Portsmouth Road and passes through Fishbourne, a pleasant but dusty village. A mile or so beyond, and a little to the south, is Bosham, on one of the several arms of Chichester Harbour, once of some importance but now chiefly mud. Bosham is the most interesting village in what may be called the Selsey peninsula. Yet how has its glory diminished! What is now a quiet abode of fishermen and the tarrying-place of yachtsmen and artists (there are few Royal Academy exhibitions without the spire of Bosham church) has been in its time a very factory of history. Vespasian's camp was hard by, and it is possible that certain Roman remains that have been found here were once part of his palace. Bosham claims to be the scene of Canute's encounter with the encroaching tide; which may be the case, although one has always thought of the king rebuking his flatterers rather by the margin of the ocean itself than inland at an estuary's edge. But beyond question Canute had a palace here, and his daughter was buried in the church. [Sidenote: A COSTLY PUN] Earl Godwin, father of Harold, last of the Saxons, dwelt here also. "Da mihi basium"--give me a kiss--he is fabled to have said to Archbishop Aethelnoth, and on receiving it to have taken the salute as acquiescence in the request--"Da mihi Bosham": probably the earliest and also the most expensive recorded example in England of this particular form of humour. It was from Bosham that Harold sailed on that visit to the Duke of Normandy which resulted in the battle of Hastings. In the Bayeux tapestry he may be seen riding to Bosham with his company, and also putting up prayers for the success of his mission. Of this success we shall see more when we come to Battle. Bosham furthermore claims Hubert of Bosham, the author of the _Book of Becket's Martyrdom_, who was with Saint Thomas of Canterbury when the assassins stabbed him to the death.