names go for aught-be a stupendous keep of the Torquilstone type, but it is, sad to say, nothing of the kind, being merely a flat circular grassy space, approached over the Mole and doubly

islanded by two concentric moats. It stands upon the estate of Harrowslea-" Harsley," as the countryfolk call it supposed to have once belonged to King Harold.

There seems to be no doubt whatever that the

THUNDERFIELD CASTLE

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Anglo-Saxons did name the place after the god Thunor. It was known by that name in the time of Alfred the Great, but no one knows what it was like then; nor, for that matter, what the appearance of it was when the Norman de Clares owned it. It seems never to have been a castle built of stone, but an adaptation of the primitive savage idea of surrounding a position with water and palisading it. Thunderfield was a veritable stronghold of the woods and bogs, and the defenders of it were like Hereward the Wake, who could often remain a “passive resister" and see the invaders struggling with the sloughs, the odds overwhelmingly in favour of the forces of nature.

The history of Thunderfield will never be written, but if a guess may be hazarded, the final catastrophe, which was the prime cause of the half-burnt timbers and the many human remains discovered here long ago, was a storming of the place by the forces of the neighbouring de Warennes, ancient and bitter enemies of the de Clares; probably in the wars of the twelfth century, between King Stephen and the Empress Maud.

It is an eminently undesirable situation for a residence, however suitable it may have been for defence; and the Saxons who occupied it must have known what rheumatism is. Dark woods now enclose the place, and cluttering wildfowl form its garrison.

XXX

THE "Chequers" at Horley is not quite half way to Brighton, but in default of another it is the halfway house. Its name derives from the old chequy, or chessboard, arms of the Earls of Warren, chequered in gold and blue. They were not only great personages in this vale, but enjoyed in mediæval times the right of licensing ale-houses : hence the many Chequers" throughout the country. The newer portions of the house are typically suburban, but the old-world front, with its quaint portico, the whole shaded by a group of ancient oaks, remains untouched. Here the Parcel Mails still meet and exchange drivers at one o'clock every morning.

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It is the unexpected that happens. Forty-five years after the old Brighton Mail had left the road, at a time when steam was triumphant everywhere, the Post Office again sent its mail-bags by coach. The story of this reversal of history begins with the establishment of the Parcel Post in 1883, when Parliament and the Post Office between them made a very unbusiness-like agreement with the railway companies, to give them 55 per cent. of the postage for their share of the carrying. This proportion was very soon found to be extravagantly high; but the contract had been made, and the companies would make no concessions.

The London and Brighton Parcel Mail was conveyed by rail for close upon four years, but the historic sense survives at St. Martin's-le-Grand,