The country about here seen from the flats appears to be thickly wooded, an effect that is produced by the screen of tall trees in every hedgerow, untouched until time levels them, in return for their protection of the growing crops from the searching sea winds which sweep across the level fields to the Downs.  Vegetation here has a different aspect from that on the other side of the wall of hills.  In May and early June one may come from the tender green of the Washington lanes over the pass through Findon and find the spring livery of the lowland hedgerows temporarily blackened and withered.

[Illustration:  THE VALLEY OF THE ARUN.]

The direct way to Arundel, and also the most interesting and beautiful, is by Castle Goring, reached by the Broadwater road.  A short distance past the Goring woods a side road on the left leads to Angmering.  Here the rebuilt church retains its old chancel and tower with an inscribed stone over the doorway.  Returning by a shorter lane northwards to the main road we pass New Place, once a mansion but now converted into a group of cottages; it is famous as the birthplace of the three sons of Sir Edward Palmer, who were born on three consecutive Sundays, a circumstance probably unique in natal annals.  All three were afterwards knighted by Henry VIII.

The foothills of the Downs to the right are hereabouts very beautiful; one of the spurs is occupied by Angmering Park belonging to the Duke of Norfolk.  At Poling, on a tributary of the Arun southwards, is a decoy for wild fowl.  Here is a Perpendicular church containing a fourteenth-century brass to a former priest, one Walter Davey.  A chapel belonging to a commandery of the Knights of St. John still stands near the church; it has been converted into a modern dwelling house.

[Illustration:  ARUNDEL FROM THE RIVER.]

The first view of Arundel as it is approached from the Worthing road or from the railway station is almost unique in England.  Bridgnorth, the northern Richmond, Rye, all cities set on a hill, come to the mind for comparison, but none have the “foreign” look of Arundel; this is to a large extent helped by the towering church of St. Philip Neri; the apsidal end and the great height of the building in proportion to its length, appear more in keeping with northern France than southern England.  The town, when one comes to close quarters with it, has a feudal air, and indeed this is as much a matter of fact as of fancy.  Arundel is a survival, and depends for its existence on the magnificent home of the Howards which dominates domestically and ecclesiastically the town at its feet.  The castle has the same relation to the pass of the Arun that Bramber and Lewes have to the Adur and Ouse, but the fact that it is still the ancestral home of an ancient and historic family gives it a far greater interest than either of the others possesses.  The castle is mentioned in Domesday Book, and prior to this in the will of