Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/294

 240 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.ix. saw. 17,1021. will in some cases be at fault, for the book contains a fair amount of matter that is new. We should therefore have welcomed some systematic,' even if partial, indication of authorities. The illustra- tions are, on the whole, clever and charming, but we would have deprecated inserting the rather crudely conceived imaginary pictures such as that of Charles II. on board Tattersall's ship, or that of the people drinking the King's health which are more suitable for a novel or a juvenile magazine than for these pages. We regret also the absence of a map of Shoreham and the neighbouring country and coast an omission which, we imagine, will not prove difficult to re- Eair, for we shall consider Sussex ungrateful ideed if more than one edition of this work is not called for. A coast-town, a bridge and some form of fortification might be reckoned on as inevitable in the tract of ground through which the Adur runs down, by an ever -shifting estuary, into the Channel that is, so soon as settlers possessing any kind of polity had established themselves there. Whether the Romans had or had not a military station on the Adur is the first strictly historical problem that presents itself one which there seems to be no means of finally solv- ing, though the Roman remains in that part of Sussex sufficiently attest Roman influence in the neighbourhood. With Ella come the Saxons, with Wilfred the Christian Church and in the century after Wilfred the Adur valley possessed a saint of its own, Cuthman, who founded the first church at Steyning and whose grave-slab (there is every reason to believe) is still to be seen in the porch of the church built in later times upon his site. With the Normans de Braose arrives, who built his castle at Bramber, where once there had been a Saxon stronghold ; and thereafter, under the shadow of the castle, Shoreham grew and prospered, sharing both in the busy life of the south-coast ports the coming and going across the Channel, the threats of invasion, the struggle with the sea and also in the fortunes of the great families or the religious houses which rose and fell beside it. Mr. Cheal has selected with great skill from his masses of material, giving plenty of clues, and, after all, no inconsiderable amount of information for those whose interest in local history centres on names and families, but, wisely, expanding his narrative in the direction of incident, and record- ing a multitude of curious traits of medieval life and character. These are largely preserved under the heading of pardons, or in the documents of law-courts, violence and robbery being the main occasion of them ; but there is plenty of diversity in detail and not a little comedy. A very good chapter is devoted to the Parlia- mentary history of the town. Its first members were Roger de Beauchamp and Thomas Pontoyse, summoned to represent New Shoreham by Ed- ward I. in 1295 : its last was Sir Walter Burrell, elected in 1880. In the eighteenth century Shoreham may be said to have afforded illustration of the worst abuses in the way of bribery and corruption. Mr. Cheal gives a lively account of the proceedings of the " Christian Society " under whose auspices the unholy traffic in votes was carried on. Among the members of those days, nevertheless, are some not unattractive figures such as the Sir William Williams for whom Gray wrote that most uninspired epitaph " Here foremost in the dangerous paths of fame "- which he himself could not like. (Mr. Cheal quotes Mason's version of the epitaph and seems to say that it is the version to be seen in tho church at La Palais. Is that so ?) It is well known that the Church of St. Nicholas, Old Shoreham, and that of St. Mary-at-Haura, New Shoreham, are both of great interest archi- tecturally. Without going very deep into the matter which was beyond his scope Mr. Cheal sets out the essential and most remarkable features of each of them. The prefixes " Old " and " New " date from the thirteenth century, " New " Shoreham, down by the ferry, having advantages which early drew to it the life and importance at first settled somewhat higher up stream. An old name for the place, Hulkes- mouth, survives on the ancient borough seal. For many years of the nineteenth century a rather sleepy little port, whose name was men- tioned chiefly in connexion with King Charles, Shoreham acquired a new interest for the general public upon the foundation, shortly before the war, of the aerodrome, and then, after war had been declared, through the formation of the camp on Slonk Hill. The history of the town during the war naturally could not be attempted in this book, nor yet much detail of the progress of aviation here. Yet we think the dates, circum- stances and persons concerned in the foundation of the aerodrome might have been supplied ; and the account of the camp might have been more workmanlike, to match the rest of the book. We congratulate both Mr. Cheal and his pub- lishers on a piece of work which, we may repeat, has laid Sussex men and women under a real obligation to them. to ALL communications intended for insertion in our columns should bear the name and address of the sender not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. EDITORIAL communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' ' ' Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lishers " at the Office, Printing House Square. London, E.G. 4 ; corrected proofs to The Editor, ' N, & Q.,' Printing House Square, London, E.C.4. WHEN answering a query, or referring to an article which has already appeared, correspondents are requested to give within parentheses im- mediately after the exact heading the numbers of the series, volume, and page at which the con- tribution in question is to be found. WHEN sending a letter to be forwarded to another contributor correspondents are requested to put in the top left-hand corner of the envelope the number of the page of ' N. & Q.' to which the letter refers. CORRIGENDUM. The Editor greatly regrets that through an inadvertent reading of 4.10 as 10.4 the date of the funeral cf Sir Alfred East should have been given (ante, p. 211) as April 10. It should, of course, have been October 4, 1913.