idavit_ of a Poet carrieth but a small credit in the _court of
History_; and the _Comedy_ made of them is but a _friendly foe_ to their
Memory, as suspected more accomodated to please the present spectators,
then inform posterity. However, as the belief of Mitio (when an
_Inventory_ of his adopted _Sons misdemeanours_ was brought unto him)
embraced a middle and moderate way, _nec omnia credere nec nihil_,
neither to _believe all things nor nothing_ of what was told him: so in
the _list of their Atchievements_ we may safely pitch on the same
proportion, and, when abatement is made for _poeticall embelishments_,
the remainder will speak them Worthies in their generations."--Such were
the three Shirleys.

Wiston church, which shelters under the eastern wall of the house,
almost leaning against it, has some interesting tombs.

[Sidenote: BIOHCHANDOUNE]

Walking west from Wiston we come to the tiny hamlet of Buncton, one of
the oldest settlements in Sussex, a happy hunting ground for excavators
in search of Roman remains, and possessing in Buncton chapel a quaint
little Norman edifice. The word Buncton is a sign of modern carelessness
for beautiful words: the original Saxon form was "Biohchandoune," which
is charming.

Buncton belongs to Ashington, two miles to the north-west on the
Worthing road, a quiet village with a fifteenth-century church (a mere
child compared with Buncton Chapel) and a famous loss. The loss is
tragic, being no less than that of the parish register containing a full
and complete account, by Ashington's best scribe, of a visit of Good
Queen Bess to the village in 1591. A destroyed church may be built
again, but who shall restore the parish register? The book, however, is
perhaps still in existence, for it was deliberately stolen, early in the
eighteenth century, by a thief who laid his plans as carefully as did
Colonel Blood in his attack on the regalia, abstracting the volume from
a cupboard in the rectory, through a hole which he made in the outside
wall. No interest in the progress of Queen Elizabeth prompted him: the
register was taken during the hearing of a law suit in order that its
damning evidence might not be forthcoming.

[Sidenote: WILLIAM PENN IN SUSSEX]

While at Ashington we ought to see Warminghurst, only a mile distant,
once the abode of the Shelleys, and later of William Penn, who bought
the great house in 1676. One of his infant children is buried at
Coolham, close by, where h