profusion and variety. During spring and leap tides the waves, backed
by a strong wind, may cause great excitement by dashing across the
front and invading the back streets; until the present wall was built
this was of frequent occurrence. Bognor has a very mild winter
temperature and runs Worthing very close for sunshine.

The old parish church is at South Bersted. It is of Norman origin with
some remains of this period and possibly of Saxon times; the main
portion is, however, Early English. Note the stone slabs outside the
porch; these were brought from Bosham by a former incumbent. There is a
sixteenth-century fresco on one of the nave pillars depicting St.
Thomas Aquidas disputing with the doctors. In the churchyard are
several interesting graves and a very ancient yew reputed to be over
800 years old.

Felpham is now the eastern suburb of Bognor, and is linked to the town
by a small bungalow colony. Here Hayley came after selling Eartham, but
the place is now more famous for its associations with the poet's
friend Blake, who lived for three years in the small thatched cottage
which still stands at the seaward end of the village. Hayley was buried
in the churchyard, which also contains the tomb of Dean Jackson, once
tutor to George IV. The church is a mixture of styles, one row of
pillars being Early English the other Transitional. The much quoted
epitaph on a blacksmith written by Hayley runs as follows:--

"My sledge and hammer lie reclin'd;
My bellows, too, have lost their wind;
My fire's extinct, my forge decay'd,
And in the dust my vice is laid;
My coal is spent, my iron gone,