SEAWARD SUSSEX - online book

A Description of Travels in Sussex During the early 1900s

	Capel (28¾ m.). We are now in quiet wealden scenery and there is nothing of special interest until we cross the Sussex boundary, about half a mile beyond the railway bridge. Kingsfold (31½ m.). We now bear left and again 1½ miles farther by Warnham Pond, with memories of Shelley. Horsham (36 m.). This prosperous and pleasant county centre makes a good halting place. The Early English and Perpendicular church is worth a visit, although practically rebuilt in the middle of the last century. The fine proportions and spacious and lofty interior will at once strike the visitor. Notice the altar tomb of Thomas de Braose (1396), Lord Hoo (1455), Eliz. Delves (1645), and a brass of Thomas Clerke (1411). Also the ancient font. The old "Causeway," which leads to the church from Carfax, as the centre of the town is called, should be more popular with artists than it is. The wonderful colour of some of the Horsham roofs will be noticed; this is due to the local stone with which the older roofs are covered. It seems a pity from an aesthetic point of view that the quarries are no longer used. The great weight of the covering had another advantage, it made for sturdy building and honest workmanship. Horsham no longer has the artificial importance of returning members to Parliament (at one time, two; and as lately as 1885 one), but is now merged in the western division of Sussex, of which district it shares with Midhurst the position of chief agricultural and commercial centre. The town is also becoming residential as East Grinstead, on the other side of the county, has already done.