CHAPTER IX.
AMBERLEY AND PARHAM Sussex fish--A straw-blown village--A painter of Sussex light--A castle only in name--Parham's treasures--The Parham heronry--Storrington and the sagacious Jack Pudding--A Sussex audience.
[Sidenote: SUSSEX FISH] Five miles to the north of Arundel by road (over the Arun at Houghton's ancient bridge, restored by the bishops of Chichester in the fifteenth century), and a few minutes by rail, is Amberley, the fishing metropolis of Sussex, where, every Sunday in the season, London anglers meet to drop their lines in friendly rivalry.

"Amerley trout" (as Walton calls them) and Arundel mullet are the best of the Arun's treasures; and this reminds me of Fuller's tribute to Sussex fish, which may well be quoted in this watery neighbourhood: "Now, as this County is eminent for both _Sea_ and _River-_fish, namely, an _Arundel Mullet_, a _Chichester Lobster_, a _Shelsey Cockle_, and an _Amerly Trout_; so _Sussex_ aboundeth with more _Carpes_ than any other of this Nation.

And though not so great as _Jovius_ reporteth to be found in the _Lurian Lake_ in _Italy_, weighing more than fifty pounds, yet those generally of great and goodly proportion.

I need not adde, that _Physicians_ account the galls of _Carpes_, as also a stone in their heads, to be _Medicinable_; only I will observe that, because _Jews_ will not eat _Caviare_ made of _Sturgeon_ (because coming from a fish wanting Scales, and therefore forbidden in the _Levitical Law_); therefore the _Italians_ make greater profit of the _Spaun_ of _Carps_, whereof they make a _Red Caviare_, well pleasing the _Jews_ both in _Palate_ and _Conscience_.

All I will adde of _Carps_ is this, that _Ramus_ himself doth not so much redound in _Dichotomies_ as they do; seeing no one bone is to be found in their body, which is not _forked_ or divided into two parts at the end thereof." Amberley proper, as distinguished from Amberley of the anglers, is a mile from the station and is built on a ridge.