Seaward Sussex: The South Downs from End to EndHolmes, Edric
History
Seaward Sussex: The South Downs from End to End
Holmes, Edric
Sussex (England) -- Description and travel
Westbourne, one mile north of Emsworth, has a fine Transitional church
with a large number of monuments and an imposing avenue of yews. At
Racton to the north-east is the well-known seamark tower used by
mariners in the navigation of the channels of Chichester Harbour. The
church has a monument to an ancestor of that Colonel Gunter who took
part in the escape of Charles II. Near by is Lordington House, erected
by the father of Cardinal Pole and said to be haunted by the ghost of
that Countess of Salisbury who, when an old woman upwards of seventy,
was beheaded by the order of Henry VIII, and caused the headman much
trouble by refusing to place her head upon the block; an illustration
by Cruickshank depicts the executioner chasing the Countess round the
platform.
[Illustration: THE WESTERN DOWNS.]
Several roads lead north through beautiful country, covered by lonely
and unfrequented woodlands, to the Mardens. West Marden is about five
miles from Emsworth and close to the Hampshire border; all the four
villages which bear this name are among the most primitive in southern
England. At North Marden is a plain unrestored Norman church, the only
one in the immediate vicinity which is worth a visit for its own sake.
Compton, a mile beyond West Marden, has a Transitional Norman church
partly rebuilt; this is close to Lady Holt Park, a favourite retreat of
Pope; and Up Park, a fine expanse of woodland, where the Carylls once
lived; their estates were forfeited for their championship of the
Stuarts. The northern end of the park rises to the edge of the Downs
close to Torberry Hill, the last summit in Sussex, though the traveller
who is so inclined may, with much advantage to himself, penetrate into
the lonely recesses of the Hampshire hills, sacred to the shade of
Gilbert White, and, still within the probable limits of the _ancient_
kingdom of Sussex, finish his travels at Butser Hill and Petersfield.
Butser Hill is 889 feet above the sea, and therefore higher than any
point of the range within Sussex. This well-known summit is familiar to
all travellers on the Portsmouth road, from which it rises with
imposing effect on the west of the pass beyond Petersfield. Here the
South Downs, so called, may be said to end. The chalk hills are
continued right across Hampshire, slowly diminishing in height until
they are lost in the great plateau of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.
[Illustration: HARTING.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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