dimensions, and nearly similar description, in point of soil and situation, in a narrow valley between the headlands formed by the range of downs by which this district of the county is intersected. It contains 4682 acres 2 roods and 33 perches from actual measurement,[1] with down and forest land in the same large proportion; and abounds in beautiful groves of beech wood. The confines are Singleton on the west, Cocking and Heyshot on the north, Up-Waltham on the east, and Eastham on the south. The village lies on the western extremity of the parish, about seven miles from Chichester [and the same distance south by east from Midhurst].
"Domesday includes this parish in Silleton, and gives no distinct description of it. In the 23rd of Henry II. the manor was held by William de Albini, Earl of Arundel, of the King in capite, as of the honor of the Castle of Arundel. It passed by partition, on the demise of Earl Hugh, to John Fitz Alan, whose descendants made a large park with a mansion there; and in the 18th of Henry VI. it was found to have been a member of the jointure settled upon Beatrice, relict of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, who died in 1414 without issue. Having devolved to John, Lord Lumley,[2] it was by him for the first time aliened by sale, in 1589, to Peter Garton, of Gray's Inn, London, who was afterwards knighted.
"Selhurst Park, containing 886 acres, descended to Philip, Earl of Arundel; and in 1797 was transferred by sale to the late Charles, Duke of Richmond, by the late Charles, Duke of Norfolk.
"In the family of Garton, the manor appears to have been vested considerably above a century, when it was inherited by Garton Orme, Esq., of Peterborough, in pursuance of the will of the last William Garton, Esq., who died without issue.
"In 1752, in consequence of an Act obtained in 1750 for that purpose, the manorial property was sold to Sir Matthew Fetherstonehaugh, Bart., as held of the paramount manor of Stanstede,[3] who exchanged it with Charles, the late Duke of
