Amberley boasts a Castle and stands right in the mouth of one of those
gaps in the Downs as Bramber does, the gap of the Arun, and it might
well be thought that Amberley held this pass. As a fact she did not.
That gap is held by Arundel; the Castle at Amberley was a palace of the
Bishop of Chichester, granted to the Bishop of Selsey long before the
Conquest; it was only castellated in the fourteenth century. It is none
the less an interesting ruin, very picturesque, with remains of a
chapel, while the beautiful house built within the castle walls early
in the sixteenth century is altogether lovely. And as for the church, I
can never hope to tell of all its interest and beauty. Certainly a
Norman church once stood here, of which the nave of that we see was
part, as was the very noble chancel arch; but the chancel itself, the
south aisle, and the tower are of the thirteenth century, while the
south door is very early Decorated, most beautifully carved. There is
not surely in all Sussex a more delightful spot than this lying so
quietly in the meads, with its beautiful church, its ruined castle, and
fine old Elizabethan house, where Arun bends slowly and lazily towards
the Downs and the sea.
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