144

THE FURNITURE SWINDLE

CH. XV

an ignorant peasant fifteen shillings for an article which they know to be worth as many pounds. But suspicion of the plausible furniture collector has, I am glad to say, begun to spread, and the palmiest days of the spoliation of the country are probably over. It must not, however, be thought that the peasant is always the under dog, the amateur the upper. A London dealer informs me that the planting of spurious antiques in old cottages has become a recognised form of fraud among less scrupulous members of the trade. An oak chest bearing every superficial mark of age that a clever workman can give it (and the profession of wormholer, is now, I believe, recognised) is deposited in a tumble-down, half-timbered home in a country village, whose occupant is willing to take a share in the game; a ticket marked "Ginger-beer; sold Here" is placed in the window, and the trap is ready. It is almost beyond question that everyone who bids for this chest, which has, of course, been in the family for generations, is hoping to get it at a figure much lower than is just; it is quite certain that whatever is paid for it will be too much. Ugly as the situation is, I like to think of this biting of the biter.

CHANCTONBURY, WASHINGTON, AND WORTHING

Chanctonbury Ring-The planter of the beeches-The Gorings-Thomas Fuller on the Three Shirleys-Ashington's chief-Warminghurst and the phantasm-Washington-An expensive mug of beer--Findon-A champion pluralist-Cissbury-John Selden's wit and wisdom-Thomas à Becket's figs-Worthing's precious climate - Sompting church.

FOR nothing within its confines is Steyning so famous as for the hill which rises to the south-west of it-Chanctonbury Ring. Other of the South Downs are higher, other are more commanding: Wolstonbury, for example, standing forward from the line, makes a bolder show, and Firle Beacon daunts the sky with a braver point; but when one thinks of the South Downs as a whole it is Chanctonbury that leaps first to the

L

146

CHANCTONBURY RING

CHAP.

inward eye. Chanctonbury, when all is said, is the monarch

of the range.

The words of the Sussex enthusiast, refusing an invitation. to spend a summer abroad, express the feeling of many of his countrymen :

For howsoever fair the land,

The time would surely be

That brought our Wealden blackbird's note
Across the waves to me.

And howsoever strong the door,
'Twould never keep at bay
The thought of Fulking's violets,
The scent of Holmbush hay.

And ever when the day was done,

And all the sky was still,

How I should miss the climbing moon

O'er Chanctonbury's hill !

It is Chanctonbury's crown of beeches that lifts it above the other hills. Uncrowned it would be no more noticeable than Fulking Beacon or a score of others; but its dark grove can be seen for many miles. In Wiston House, under the hill, the seat of the Goring family, to whom belong the hill and a large part of the country that it dominates, is an old painting of Chanctonbury before the woods were made, bare as the barest, without either beech or juniper, and the eye does not notice it until all else in the picture has been examined. The planter of Chanctonbury's Ring, in 1760, was Mr. Charles Goring of Wiston, who wrote in extreme old age in 1828 the following lines:

How oft around thy Ring, sweet Hill,

A Boy, I used to play,

And form my plans to plant thy top

On some auspicious day.

How oft among thy broken turf

With what delight I trod,

XVI

SIR ANTHONY SHIRLEY

With what delight I placed those twigs
Beneath thy maiden sod.

And then an almost hopeless wish

Would creep within my breast,

Oh! could I live to see thy top

In all its beauty dress'd.

That time's arrived; I've had my wish,
And lived to eighty-five;

I'll thank my God who gave such grace

As long as e'er I live.

Still when the morning Sun in Spring,

Whilst I enjoy my sight,

Shall gild thy new-clothed Beech and sides,
I'll view thee with delight.

147

Most of the trees on the side of Chanctonbury and its neighbours were self-sown, children of the clumps which Mr. Goring planted. I might add that Mr. Charles Goring was born in 1743, and his son, the present Mr. John Goring, in 1823, when his father was eighty; so that the two lives cover a period of one hundred and sixty years-true Sussex longevity.

Wiston House (pronounced Wisson) is a grey Tudor building in the midst of a wide park, immediately under the hill. The lofty hall, dating from Elizabeth's reign, is as it was; much of the remainder of the house was restored in the last century. The park has deer and a lake. The Goring family acquired Wiston by marriage with the Faggs, and a superb portrait of Sir John Fagg, in the manner of Vandyck with a fine flavour of Velasquez, is one of the treasures of the house.

Before the Faggs came the Shirleys, a family chiefly famous for the three wonderful brothers, Anthony, Robert, and Thomas.

Fuller, in the Worthies, gives them full space indeed considering that none was interested in the Church. I cannot do better than quote him:-"SIR ANTHONY SHIRLEY, second Son to Sir Thomas, set forth from Plimouth, May the 21st, 1596, in a Ship called the Bevis of Southampton, attended with six lesser vessels. His design for Saint Thome was violently diverted by the contagion they found on the

148

SIR ROBERT SHIRLEY

CHAP.

South Coast of Africa, where the rain did stink as it fell down from the heavens, and within six hours did turn into magots. This made him turn his course to America, where he took and kept the city of St. Jago two days and nights, with two hundred and eighty men (whereof eighty were wounded in the service), against three thousand Portugalls.

"Hence he made for the Isle of Fuego, in the midst whereof a Mountaine, Ætna-like, always burning; and the wind did drive such a shower of ashes upon them, that one might have wrote his name with his finger on the upper deck. However, in this fiery Island, they furnished themselves with good water, which they much wanted.

"Hence he sailed to the Island of Margarita, which to him did not answer its name, not finding here the Perl-Dredgers which he expected. Nor was his gaine considerable in taking the Town of Saint Martha, the Isle and chief town of Jamaica, whence he sailed more than thirty leagues up the river Riodolci, where he met with great extremity.

"At last, being diseased in person, distressed for victuals, and deserted by all his other ships, he made by New-found-land to England, where he arrived June 15, 1597. Now although some behold his voyage, begun with more courage then counsel, carried on with more valour then advice, and coming off with more honour than profit to himself or the nation (the Spaniard being rather frighted then harmed, rather braved then frighted therewith); yet unpartial judgments, who measure not worth by success, justly allow it a prime place amongst the probable (though not prosperous) English Adventures.

"SIR ROBERT SHIRLEY, youngest Son to Sir Thomas, was, by his Brother Anthony, entred in the Persian Court. Here he performed great Service against the Turkes, and shewed the difference betwixt Persian and English Valour; the latter having therein as much Courage, and more Mercy, giving Quarter to Captives who craved it, and performing Life to those to whom he promised it. These his Actions drew the