universally belov'd, and admir'd
She died as generally rever'd, and regretted,
A loss felt by all who had the happiness of knowing Her,
By none to be compar'd to _that_ of her disconsolate, affectionate, Loving,
& in this World everlastingly Miserable Husband,
Sir JOHN SHELLEY,
Who has caused this inscription to be Engrav'd.

Horsfield tells us that "the beechwoods in this parish [Patching] and
its immediate neighbourhood are very productive of the Truffle
(_Lycoperdon tuber_). About forty years ago William Leach came from the
West Indies, with some hogs accustomed to hunt for truffles, and
proceeding along the coast from the Land's End, in Cornwall, to the
mouth of the River Thames, determined to fix on that spot where he found
them most abundant. He took four years to try the experiment, and at
length settled in this parish, where he carried on the business of
truffle-hunter till his death."

Angmering, which we may take on our return to Arundel, is a typically
dusty Sussex village, with white houses and thatched roofs, and a rather
finer church than most. On our way back to Arundel, in the middle of a
wood, a little more than a mile from Angmering, to the west, we come
upon an interesting relic of a day when tables bore nobler loads than
now they do: a decoy pond formed originally to supply wild duck to the
kitchen of Arundel Castle, but now no longer used. The long tapering
tunnels of wire netting, into which the tame ducks of the decoy lured
their wild cousins, are still in place, although the wire has largely
perished.

[Sidenote: THE PALMER TRIPLETS]

At an old house near the Decoy (now converted into cottages), which any
native will gladly and amusedly point out, lived, in the reign of Henry
VIII., Lady Palmer, the famous mother of the Palmer triplets, who were
distinguished from other triplets, not only by being born each on a
successive Sunday but by receiving each the honour of knighthood. The
curious circumstances of their birth seem to be well attested.

[Illustration: _Gateway, Amberley Castle._]

CHAPTER IX

AMBERLEY AND PARHAM

Sussex fish--A straw-blown village--A painter of Sussex light--A
castle only in name--Parham's treasures--The Parham
heronry--Storrington and the sagacious Jack Pudding--A Sussex
audience.

[Sidenote: SUSSEX FISH]

Five miles to the north of Arundel by road (over the Arun at Hought