We now leave the Rother, turn south by the Chichester road and passing
over Cocking causeway reach, in three miles, that little village at the
foot of the pass through the Downs to Singleton, or better still, by
taking a rather longer route through West Lavington we may see the
church in which Manning preached his last sermon as a member of the
Anglican communion. The church and accompanying buildings date from
1850 and were designed by Butterfield; they are a good example of
nineteenth-century Gothic and are placed in a fine situation. In the
churchyard, which is particularly well arranged, lies Richard Cobden
not far from the farmhouse in which he was born. Dunford House is not
far away; this was presented to Cobden by the Anti-Corn-Law League, and
here the last years of his life were spent.

Cocking once had a cell belonging to the Abbey of Seez in Normandy but
of this nothing remains. This beautifully situated little place has a
primitive Norman church with a fine canopied tomb and an old painting
of Angel and shepherds. We are now at the foot of Charlton Forest
covering the slopes of the Downs which stretch eastwards to Duncton
Beacon; and along the edge of this escarpment it is proposed to travel.
This is one of the loneliest and most beautiful sections of the range.

"A curious phenomenon is observable in this neighbourhood. From the
leafy recesses of the layers of beech on the escarpment of the Downs,
there rises in unsettled weather a mist which rolls among the trees
like the smoke out of a chimney. This exhalation is called
'Foxes-brewings' whatever that may mean, and if it tends westwards
towards Cocking, rain follows speedily." (Lower.)

The hamlet of Heyshott need not tempt us from the hill, though