The King would not grant permission for its
crenellation, Renan thereupon disposed of most of the materials and
they were used to build the campanile at Chichester. Footpaths lead
across the meadows to Donnington where is another Early English church
of but little interest. A mile away on the banks of the disused
Chichester and Arundel canal is the strangely named "Manhood End." This
is a corruption of Mainwood, and refers to the great forest which once
stretched from the Downs to the sea. A rather dull walk westwards past
Birdham to West Itchenor, a remote little place on the shores of the
creek, is amply repaid by the fine views northwards up the Bosham
channel, with the far-flung line of the Downs beyond. (A ferry can be
taken from here which would make a short cut to Bosham or Fishbourne
practicable.) Returning past the church with its interesting font, a
footpath is taken to West Wittering and its very fine Transitional
church, the most interesting ecclesiastical building in the Selsey
Peninsula; note the two rude sculptures of the Annunciation and
Resurrection at the ends of a canopied altar tomb; and a coffin lid
with pastoral staff possibly of a "boy-bishop.
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