, and a quiet, retired common,
flat and marshy, with a flock of geese, some Scotch firs, and a fine
view of Wolstonbury rising in the east. It was on Henfield common that
Mr. Borrer once saw fourteen Golden Orioles on a thorn bush. Adventures
are to the adventurous, birds to the ornithologist; most of us have
never succeeded in seeing even one Oriole.

[Sidenote: STAPLETON'S MERITS]

William Borrer, the botanist, uncle of the ornithologist, was born in
Henfield and is buried there. In his Henfield garden, in 1860, as many
as 6,600 varieties of plants were growing. Beyond a small memoir on
Lichens, written in conjunction with Dawson Turner, he left no book.
Another illustrious son of Henfield was Dr. Thomas Stapleton, once Canon
of Chichester and one of the founders of the Catholic College of Douay,
of whom it was written, somewhat ambiguously, that he "was a man of mild
demeanour and unsuspected integrity." Fuller has him characteristically
touched off in the _Worthies_:--"He was bred in New Colledge in Oxford,
and then by the Bishop (Christopherson, as I take it) made Cannon of
Chichester, which he quickly quitted in the first of Queen _Elizabeth_.
Flying beyond the Seas, he first fixed at _Douay_, and there commendably
performed the office of _Catechist_, which he discharged to his
commendation.

"Reader, pardon an Excursion caused by just _Grief_ and _Anger_. Many,
counting themselves Protestants in England, do slight and neglect that
_Ordinance_ of _God_, by which their Religion was _set up_, and _gave
Credit_ to it in the first _Reformation_; I mean, CATECHISING. Did not
our _Saviour_ say even to Saint _Peter_ himself, 'Feed my Lambs, feed my
Sheep'? And why _Lambs_ first? 1. Because they were _Lambs_ before they
were _Sheep_. 2. Because, if they be not fed whilst _Lambs_ they could
never be _Sheep_. 3. Because _Sheep_ can in some sort feed themselves;
but _Lambs_ (such their tenderness) must either be _fed_ or _famished_.
Our Stapleton was excellent at this _Lamb-feeding_."

An epitaph in Henfield Church is worth copying for its quaint mixture
of mythology and theology. It bears upon the death of a lad, Meneleb
Raynsford, aged nine, who died in 1627:--

Great Jove hath lost his Gannymede, I know,
Which made him seek another here below--
And finding none--not one--like unto this,
Hath ta'en him hence into eternal bliss.
Cease, then, for thy dear Meneleb to weep,
God's darling