“My sledge and hammer lie reclin’d;
  My bellows, too, have lost their wind;
  My fire’s extinct, my forge decay’d,
  And in the dust my vice is laid;
  My coal is spent, my iron gone,
  The nails are driven, my work is done.”

Blake’s associations with the village came to a sudden end in consequence of a stupid and unwarranted prosecution for treason, the outcome of a struggle with a drunken soldier.  The mystic poet-artist gained some of his most characteristic inspirations while staying here, and it was in the garden of his cottage that he saw a “fairy’s funeral,” the description of which has been often quoted; it is difficult to judge how much of his visions were, to himself, poetic fancy or actual fact.

[Illustration:  FELPHAM.]

We now resume our journey towards Chichester at Walberton, north of which the high road runs west, with little of interest until a turning on the right brings us to the finest ecclesiastical building in the county excepting the Cathedral.

The Priory Church of St. Mary and St. Blaise Bosgrave was founded in the reign of Henry I by Robert de Haia of Halnaker.  Being a Benedictine church, the nave, now in ruins, formed the parochial section.  The choir, transepts and tower, which remain, belonged to the monks, and this portion, with the exception of the Norman tower, forms one of the most beautiful examples of Early English in the kingdom and dates from about 1200.  The fine Purbeck marble columns are much admired, as are also the graceful clerestory and vaulting.  The galleries of the transepts have ornamented oak fronts, and were used by the lay portion of the ancient congregation.  There is a frescoed ceiling belonging to the sixteenth century.  Notice the Renaissance tomb of Lord De la Warr (1532) on the south side of the chancel with its curious carvings and in the south transept those of Countess Phillippa of Arundel (1428) and her second husband, Adam de Poynings; also several others, some of which are without inscriptions, but possibly including those of the daughters of that Countess of Arundel who was once the first Henry’s queen.  The ruins of the priory may be traced and several of the beautiful Norman arches belonging to the cloisters still remain.

[Illustration:  BOXGROVE PRIORY CHURCH.]

Tangmere has a Norman and Early English church with a wooden tower.  The village is on the south side of the main road but need not detain us.  West Hampnett, nearer Chichester, is of more interest; here Saxon work in Roman materials may be seen; notice the fine tomb of Richard Sackville and the representation of the Trinity between the kneeling figures of Richard and his wife.  On the left of the road will be seen an old Tudor house which has been converted into a workhouse.  The road now enters the suburbs of Chichester.

[Illustration:  SKETCH PLAN OF THE CITY OF CHICHESTER.]

CHAPTER IX