Walk in and welcome; honest friends, repose;
  Thief, get thee hence, to thee I’ll not unclose.

Selden’s father was a wandering minstrel and the birthplace of the great jurist was humble even for those days.

[Illustration:  BECKET’S PALACE, TARRING.]

A short walk southwards brings us to West Tarring, which is practically a suburb of Worthing.  Here is a very fine Early English and Perpendicular church with a lofty spire.  Notice the beautiful modern mosaics depicting the Prophets and Apostles.  Also the old miserere seats and an ancient muniment chest.  The window under the tower is in memory of Robert Southey whose daughter married a onetime vicar of Tarring.  Another incumbent here was Stripe the historian.

A peculiarity noticeable in many country churchyards may be remarked here—­the reluctance to bury on the north side of the church (though strangely enough this has been reversed at near-by Ferring).  In many churchyards, where the ground is as extensive on the north side as on the others, the grave digger’s spade has left it either quite untouched or the graves are few in number and mostly of recent date.

West Tarring was once a market town and several good specimens of medieval and Tudor domestic architecture still exist.  It was once a “peculiar” of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and the remains of the archiepiscopal palace may be seen in the school house on the east of the church.  In the rectory orchard close by is the “columbarium,” or all that is left of it.  Becket is said to have occupied the palace.  The celebrated fig orchard is supposed to have been raised from slips planted by him, though another story has it that the original planter was St. Richard.  The present orchard is of much interest and dates from the year of the “forty-five,” though it can well be believed that some of the trees are older; the venerable patriarch in the centre is known as “St. Thomas,” but this is of course impossible.  A most remarkable occurrence takes place annually at the ripening of the fruit; a small bird similar to, if not identical with the Beccafico ("Figeater”) of Italy visits the orchards here and at Sompting, stays a few weeks and then departs until the next season; it is seen in no other part of England.

CHAPTER VI

ARUNDEL AND THE ARUN

There is a choice of roads between Worthing and Arundel:  that which keeps to the low lands has been partly traversed in the journey to West Ferring.

About two miles east of this village, and close to Angmering station, are the twin villages of East and West Preston; the former has a Norman and Transitional church with one of the four stone spires in Sussex.  At Rustington, a mile farther, is a more interesting Early English church with a Transitional tower.  Note the ancient sculpture in the north transept, also the squint and rood-loft steps.  This village is but a short distance from Littlehampton, which may be approached by the shore road.