AMERICANS IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4356, 6 March 1875, Page 3

AMERICANS IN ENGLAND.

(From a Travelling Correspondent of the New York Herald.)

a duke’s castle and an old cathedral — ARUNDEL AND CHICHESTER. Bognor, October 23, 1874.

Within a ten mile radius of this pleasant little seaside village, where I am endeavoring, temporarily, to get rid of the “ dust and drought” of London.life, are two old memorials of ancient English greatness, which I should recommend any travelling American friends to visit. Indeed, they could not do better during the summer season than establish themselves .here, where the air is of the freshest and purest, the provisions of the best, and the sea magnificent in its wide expanse. Within easy access are Brighton for those who love gaieties, Portsmouth for those who love shipping, the Isle of Wight for those who delight in quiet marine scenery. Petworth, a purely English rural spot, and Goodwood, with its lovely park and racecourse. The House is just now, and Lord Henry Lennox, the Princess of Saxe-Weimar, Lady Biiigham, and others of the Duke of Richmond’s sisters and brothers, are staying at Bognor. It is, however, to hone of these places that I desire to invite special attention. Looking out of my. window over a wide expanse—the cricket field on which the Bognor eleven display their activity twice a week, the stubble fields from which the golden harvest has been cleared, and which ai*e now occasionally resonant with the sportsman’s gnn, the purple hills and the broad-shouldered Downs—l see, almost on the horizon, the new white spire of Chichester Cathedral, which, four or five years ago, was substituted for one which fell in, and placed upon a tower which was erected 750 years ago. Chichester, the capital of the county of Sussex, is itself an old and very interesting place. It was the Regnum of Ancient Britain and Cogldubnus, King of the Eegni and Legate in Britain, and the Emperor Claudius lies buried beneath the present city. Excavators are constantly coming up»n mosaic pavements, coins, and urns in all dix-ections. Roman tiles are frequently found, and a remarkable inscription recording the dedication of a temple of. the College of Smiths to Neptune and Minerva, the two great patrons of handicraftsmen, which was found some century since at Chichester, is still preserved at Goodwood. In the days of Charles I. the city stood a ten days’ siege from the Parliamentary troops, by whom it was subsequently taken. It has many -reminiscences of olden times ; crumbling city walls xrith semi-circular towers at intervals, a huge market.cross at the meeting of the four principal streets, which was completed about the year 1500, and a guildhall, which was formerly the chapel of the Grayfriars, is of early painted Gothic architecture, and is supposed to have been founded about the year 1233. But the most interesting building of all is, of course, the Cathedral,. which is the broadest in England, except Yox-k, and which has the special peculiarity of having five aisles—a peculiarity which it shares with the Dom of Cologne, the Duomo of Milan and the Cathedral of Seville, but which is found in no other English cathedral. It was founded by Ralph, the third Bishop, in 11 OS, but owes almost more to Bishop Sefrid, who lived in the commencement of the thirteenth century. Sefrid’s portion was dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and is marked by a certain tx-iplicity—the side shafts are triple throughout the bearing shafts, and the vaultings are clustered in threes, and branch out with three triple vaulting ribs above. In the Arundel chantry of the north aisle is the altar tomb of Richard Fitz Allan, fourteenth Earl of Arundel, who was beheaded in 1397, and his countess. The Earls of Arundel are the present Dukes of Norfolk, and this tomb was removed from the Church of the Grayfriars, where it was originally erected. The tomb of Bishop Serbome, a great benefactor to the Cathedral, is in the south aisle, and is regularly restored by the ‘ Society of New College, Oxford, of which the Bishop was a member. One of the most interesting monuments, to Americans, who are usually so well read in poetry, will be that of William Colling who waa ..bom anil tlieil al Chichester. It is by the great sculptor Elaxmau, and is in perfect taste. The figure of the poet is bending over the New Testament,: and his- “ Ode to the Passions ” lies at his feet. In the Lady Chapel are the tombs of Ralph and Sefrid, the Bishops to whom the Cathedral owes so much. , Underneath its floor is; the , Duke of Richmond’s vault, where the prinoipal members of the family are buried. The bell tower, or campanile, is the only English instance of a detached belfry adjoining a cathedral. It was built to ease the central tower of the weight of the bells after the erection of the spire, " and contrast's admirably ’ with the fight and graceful" architecture of the latter. The original spire fell in during the violent gale which did great damage over the southern counties .of England on the 21st February, 1861. It had been for a long time reckoned insecure ; cracks had appeared in the piers and In the. arches above them, and although these 1 were shored up during the tremendous gale above mentioned, the core of the southwest 'pier was seen-to pour out, a fissure ran like lightning up the spire, and in an instant the whole sunk down like the shutting Up of a telescope, preserving -its vertical position to the last. 1 It was immediately decided to rebuild 1 the spire." i 'Large' subscriptions were collected,and within a few years the work waa accomplished.' ! - - ' - ' ■ _ ! There-is a choral service everyday in the cathedral at 10 a.m.and ! 4 p.m,, and should the Dean be in residence, as is usually the, case, you wifi not, merely see an old cathedral,; but a-'.fine specimen-of-an old ecclesiastic." Dean Hook, who, when Dr7Hook,‘ was. well known as the Vicar of-Leeds, is-an old gentleman between seventy and - eighty years of age, whose'vigor of mind -remains'- unimpaired, although his,.bodily,-energy; Is son the wane. He is compelled to be drawn into the cathedral in a' wheeled .“chair))but he generally manages to take a portion of the service, .and his'voice is as rich and as round as ever. The,singing of the choristers is also excellent, and the organ superb. - , : A few miles further to the southwest is the little county town of Arundel, consisting of two steep streets which run over the,,little, river Arun up to the Castle, which is the great," and, until the last few years, the only Kon of the place. Arundel Castle was one of the ancient fortresses which guarded tfie river mouths all along this coast. It, with the earl-, ; dom of Arundel, was conferred after the Norman conquest on Roger De Montgomery, who at the battle of Hastings commanded the central body of Britain’s auxiliaries. In the. year 1243 the earldom passed-to" John Fitz Allan, one of whose descendants, Mary, by her marriage with Thomas Howard," fourth Duke of . Norfolk, brought the earldom and its castle into that famous family,, in. which they have ever since remained. The present owner, therefore, of Arundel Castle is Henry Fitz Allan" Howard, Duke of Norfolk and Earl Marshal and Premier Duke and Earl of England. He is a small, under-sized, dark-featured little man, who is believed to be of a kindly, disposition, but who, it is averred, is. completely under the thrall of ' his mother, the Dowager - Duchess, and the . Roman Catholic priests, by; whom he has; been persuaded to build at Arundel, in the immediate vicinity of the castle, and just outside one of the gates of his park, a magnificent cathedral. This building has already coat the Duke £BO,OOO, and it is., still unfinished. It will take another £40,000, it is reckoned,, to complete its designs. That portion of the castle which is constantly inhabited by the Norfolk family is of recent construction, having been erected in 1791- It is a kind of bastard Gothic architecture, heavy and imposing, and certainly benefited by the masses of ivy with which a great portion of it is overgrown. The public are not admitted to the interior, and, indeed, they would find nothing to repay their curiosity ; but'the castle keep, which is full of interest, can be. inspected on Mondays and Fridays by means iof * tickets, which are procurable in the town. The ascent of the keep, iwhich was, undoubtedly, a Saxon building, erected before the Norman conquest,; is made-through the clock tower and by a long flight of steps. The square tower nt the en- ; trance, with portcullis grooves and maohicoules, will remind readers of Scott’s wonder- ! ful description in “ Ivanhoo.” The keep itself

is surrounded by a deep, fosse; many of, the walls are ten feet thick. The fireplaces within the walls mark the position of the ancient chambers which were lighted from the inner side In the centre of the keep a shaft descends to the subterranean apartment, which the guide in attendance declares to have been the storeroom of the garrison. The ramparts are gained by a winding staircase, and from the top of them a good notion may be obtained of the strength and position of the castle.' The elevation on which it stands is one of the extreme spurs of the South, Downs hanging over the river Arua, and the' tide anciently flowed nearly up to its walls. A sharp fall in the hillside fortified at north-east and south-east ; a strong wall protected the south, and the other aide was the deep fosse, with a double line of wall. These defences were due to the importance of the site, when it guarded one of the great Sussex high roads to and from Normandy, and when the line of the coast was exposed to constant ravage from French ships and pirates. -,■■■■ ■ All over the keep is a close netting, placed there for the preservation of a colony of owls, which inhabit the niches and fireplaces. American visitors will have sympathy with these birds, the progenitors of which were imported from -North America, and which are somewhat illogically called the Bubo Virginianus. After the .keep one should visit the dairy, a pretty,, semi-ecclesiastical looking building, wonderfully clean and refreshing, with its white and blue tiles and its fountain playing in the middle, and where the farm produce is of the finest ; and, above all, no one should omit a stroll in the park, a wander under the avenue of huge elms to Swanbum Lake, and a glimpse of that magnificent view of park and castle which old J. M. W. Turner painted with such rare skill, ■ To see this at its best you must climb to the little hill north of what is called the keephold and nearly the highest portion of the park. Then the castle rises in the middle'’distance, oak and beech woods sweep down over the heights of the lake below, and far off the sea fringes the wide landscape, rich with homesteads and cattledotted meadows. The park consists of about 110 d acres, and contains many hundred head of deer. ■