The Free Grammar School is a curious brick building, founded in 1636 by Thomas Peacock, a jurat of the town; here is also a Free School for the instruction of poor children; and Meeting-houses for various classes of Dissenters, who are numerous here. Nearly in the centre of the town is a handsome Market-place, and Town Hall; and considerable business is done here on the market-days, which are Wednesday and Saturday, for corn, &c. and every second Wednesday for cattle. An annual Fair, principally for the sale of lambs, is held August 14.

The trade of Rye was formerly considerable, but it is now comparatively trifling; at present it principally consists in wool and hops. The fishery, for mackarel, herrings, and flat fish, is still rather extensively carried on; and a few small sloops are employed in bringing chalk from the cliffs near East Bourne to the Lime-kilns in this neighbourhood. The population, in 1821, was 3599.

SALVINGTON, a hamlet of the parish of Tarring, at a short distance from Worthing, is no otherwise remarkable than as containing the remains of an ancient house, in which the celebrated John Selden was born in December, 1584. He was educated at the Grammar School of Chichester, whence he removed to Oxford, and after a residence of three years, devoted himself to the study of the law, first in Clifford's Inn, and afterwards in the Inner Temple, London. Here he became acquainted with the most eminent and learned men of his time; and obtaining a seat in Parliament in 1623, distinguished himself by his spirited but constitutional opposition to the arbitrary measures of the pedantic tyrant James I, and his obstinate and ill-fated successor. In 1643 he was appointed a member of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and held several offices under the Parliamentary government, although his known virtue and probity secured him the esteem and respect of many eminent Royalists. He died in November 1654, in Whitefriars, and was buried in the Temple Church. His valuable and curious library was presented by his executors to the University of Oxford, and forms part of the Bodleian collection. His works are too numerous to be par

ticularized here; they treat on a variety of subjects, and were published collectively in 1726, in three volumes folio. Considering him as a patriot, a lawyer, a scholar, and an antiquarian, he is justly entitled to the honourable distinction bestowed on him by Grotius, of being "the glory of the English nation*."

SEAFORD,

Once a flourishing town, containing five Churches, is now little better than an insignificant village, 601 miles from London. Its decline was occasioned, in a great measure, by the devastations of the French, by whom it was plundered and burnt in the fifteenth century. It still, however, retains the distinction of a Cinque Port, and has returned two Members to Parliament, although with considerable intermissions, from the year 1298. It has also a Corporation, consisting of a Bailiff, twelve Jurats, and an uncertain number of Freemen.

The only Church now remaining, is an ancient edifice, which was formerly more extensive, and has

*That great painter of character, Lord Clarendon, although a political opponent of Selden, has given so impartial an account of this eminent man, that it would be injustice to both were it omitted:

"Mr. Selden was a person whom no character can flatter, or transmit in any expressions equal to his merit and virtue. He was of so stupendous learning in all kinds, and in all languages, as may appear from his excellent and transcendent writings, that a man would have thought he had been entirely conversant among books, and had never spent an hour but in reading and writing; yet his humanity, courtesy, and affability was such, that he would have been thought to have been bred in the best courts but that his good nature, charity, and delight in doing good, and in communicating all he knew, exceeded that breeding. His style in all his writings seems harsh, and sometimes obscure, which is not wholly to be imputed to the abstruse subjects of which he commonly treated, out of the paths trod by other men, but to a little undervaluing the beauty of a style, and too much propensity to the language of antiquity; but in his conver sation he was the most clear discourser, and had the best faculty in making hard things easy, and presenting them to the understanding, of any man that hath been known. Mr. Hyde [Lord Clarendon himself] was wont to say, that he valued himself upon nothing more, than upon having had Mr. Selden's acquaintance, from the time he was very young; and held it with great delight, as long as they were suffered to continue together in London: and he was very much troubled always when he heard him blamed, censured and reproached for staying in London, and in the Parliament, after they were in rebellion, and in the worst times, which his age obliged him to do; and how wicked soever the actions wère, which were every day done, he was confident he had not given his consent to them, but would have hindered them if he could with his own safety, to which he was always enough indulgent. If he had some infirmities with other men, they were weighed down with wonderful and prodigious abilities and excellencies in the other scale."

been much disfigured by clumsy reparations. It has a tower, and small spire; and in the interior are some curiously sculptured massive pillars. A National School, for children of both sexes, is established here.

Seaford has some pretensions to be considered a bathing-place; it has its hot and cold baths, machines, &c. and a few visitors are annually attracted by the pleasant situation and quietness of the town. The fishery off this place is abundant, and prawns of a peculiarly fine flavour and large size are taken here. On the beach is one of the Martello towers, erected for the defence of this coast during the late war.

SELSEA ISLAND,

(which might with more propriety be styled a peninsula,) is a flat tract, about six miles south of Chichester, running out into the sea, by which it is surrounded at high water on all sides but the west. This was the original site of the episcopal see, afterwards transferred to Chichester; and here also the first monastery in this county was founded by Wilfrid, as already related. The spot on which the monastic buildings were erected, and "the adjoining city," have long been covered by the sea, but were, in Camden's time, "visible at low water." This is no longer the case; but about a mile and a half out, some stony fragments, supposed to be the ruins of the buildings alluded to, are discoverable; the best anchorage off the island still bears the name of the Park, and some rocks beyond these are called the Streets, among which an inscribed tombstone is said to have been taken up some years ago by a fisherman. The present Church, nearly two miles from the village, is a very ancient building, which appears to have been once much larger than it now is. In the middle aisle are several remarkable stones, shaped like coffins, two of which are marked with crosses. Near the Churchyard are some indications of an ancient fortified camp.

SHOREHAM.

Two places, bearing this name, are distinguished by the appellations of Old and New. The former, 55 miles from London, once a town of some consequence, has sunk into an unimportant village, with

little more than 200 inhabitants. It is said to be the place at which Ella, afterwards King of Sussex, landed on his second and successful expedition to this island. The sole relic of its former importance is its Church, which is extensive, but in a ruinous and dilapidated condition. Its architecture evinces it to have been erected previouly to the Norman invasion, and it presents an interesting specimen of the style of that early period. The river Adur is here of considerable width, and is crossed by a light and neat wooden Bridge, built in 1782.

New Shoreham is about half a mile to the south of the old town, and owes its comparative prosperity to its more convenient situation for the purposes of trade. Notwithstanding its name. it is by no means a new town, having returned two Members to Parliament from the year 1298 to 1771, when, in consequence of the shameless corruption discovered to have been practised by a portion of the electors, they were disfranchised, and the elective franchise was extended to the whole Rape of Bramber. The government of the town is vested in two Constables, appointed at the annual court leet. A weekly Market is held here on Saturday, and a yearly Fair on the 25th July. The population, in 1821, was 1047.

Saxon and early pointed style, and its form was originally that of a cross, now rendered imperfect by the destruction of the nave. A lofty square tower rises from the intersection of the transepts, and consists of two stories, the lower of which is entirely Saxon, while the upper has arches of the pointed form. The eastern front is handsome, and in good preservation, and exhibits several beautiful windows. The sides are adorned with flying buttresses, and the appearance of the whole is venerable and interesting. The decorations of the interior are elegant and diversified. A Chapel for Dissenters has been established in this town. The Markethouse is a modern, but by no means handsome, erection.

The harbour of Shoreham, which runs along by the town parallel with the sea, is capable of receiving ships of 400 tons burthen, and has within a few years been much improved, by the addition, at an immense expense, of a new dry dock for the repair of vessels. A Custom House is also established here, and three or four trading vessels sail regularly every week to London; while a good deal of business is done in ship-building, and vessels of 700 tons have been launched here.

SLINDON is a small village, four miles from Arundel, with about 500 inhabitants, and a National School. In this parish is Slindon House, a fine old mansion, delightfully situated on an eminence, commanding magnificent and extensive views in every direction. The house is a good specimen of the domestic architecture of the reigns of Elizabeth and her successor; it is handsomely fitted up, and contains some good portraits, among which is one of Lord Derwentwater (from whom Lord Newburgh, the present proprietor of this estate, is lineally descended,) who was beheaded for his adherence to the Stuarts in the rebellion of 1715.

STEYNING,

A market-town, and a borough by prescription, is 50 miles from London, and about five from New Shoreham. It is pleasantly situated at the foot of an eminence rising from the river Adur, and consists