r priests and other refugees is in the long gallery,
access to it being gained through a window seat. There was hidden
Charles Paget after the Babington conspiracy.

[Sidenote: THE PARHAM HERONS]

Parham Park has deer and a lake and an enchanted forest of sombre trees.
On the highest ground in this forest is the clump of firs in which the
famous herons build. The most interesting time to visit the heronry is
in the breeding season, for then one sees the lank birds continually
homing from the Amberley Wild Brooks with fishes in their bills and long
legs streaming behind. The noise is tremendous, beyond all rookeries.
Mr. Knox's _Ornithological Rambles_, from which I have already quoted
freely, has this passage: "The herons at Parham assemble early in
February, and then set about repairing their nests, but the trees are
never entirely deserted during the winter months; a few birds, probably
some of the more backward of the preceding season, roosting among their
boughs every night. They commence laying early in March, and the greater
part of the young birds are hatched during the early days of April.
About the end of May they may be seen to flap out of their nests to the
adjacent boughs, and bask for hours in the warm sunshine; but although
now comparatively quiet during the day, they become clamorous for food
as the evening approaches, and indeed for a long time appear to be more
difficult to wean, and less able to shift for themselves, than most
birds of a similar age. They may be observed, as late as August, still
on the trees, screaming for food, and occasionally fed by their parents,
who forage for them assiduously; indeed, these exertions, so far from
being relaxed after the setting of the sun, appear to be redoubled
during the night; for I have frequently disturbed herons when riding by
moonlight among the low grounds near the river, where I have seldom seen
them during the day, and several cottagers in the neighbourhood of
Parham have assured me that their shrill cry may be heard at all hours
of the night, during the summer season, as they fly to and fro overhead,
on their passage between the heronry and the open country.

[Illustration: _Amberley Castle, entrance to Churchyard._]

[Sidenote: MANY MIGRATIONS]

"The history or genealogy of the progenitors of this colony is
remarkable. They were originally brought from Coity Castle, in Wales, by
Lord Leicester's steward, in James the First's time, to Penshurst, i