At Arundel

Since William rose and Harold fell There have been earls at Arundel.

Sussex Saying.

Through the market town of Arundel and up the Hill of Bury toward the ancient round grey towers of Arundel Castle traveled and trudged last week, in their traditional best, 5,000 town and country folk. Some had traveled 70 miles down from London; most had trudged from nearer homes in the West Sussex country which spreads its downs and rivers below high Castle Hill. All had come to be birthday guests of Bernard Marmaduke FitzAlan-Howard, Premier Duke and Earl and Hereditary Marshal & Chief Butler of England, Duke of Norfolk, Earl of Arundel, Earl of Surrey, Earl of Norfolk, Baron Maltravers, Baron FitzAlan. Baron Clun, Baron Oswaldestre, scion of one of England's oldest families--who was to be 21, and a man, next day. From all the corners of his 49,900 English acres the Duke of Norfolk's men were coming, as they had come for 15 dukes before him. And with them came wives and children, for the coming-of-age festivities of England's Premier Duke & Earl were to last four days, were to be unparalleled in Arundel's history Dukes for of splendor Norfolk and date lavish their titles from hospitality.

Dukes of Norfolk date their titles from 1483, Earls of Arundel from 1139. Arundel Castle, many times rebuilt, was a stout stronghold in King Alfred's time. Many, therefore, were the traditions to be observed last week by England's Norfolk, and to their strict observance he diligently attended.

Because he is a Roman Catholic and because it was the feast of Corpus Christi, the young Duke rose early on his birthday beautiful morning, church went of St. Philip Neri (built the by his Solemn father in 1873), and there attended solomn High Mass, heard and the there monks from Storrington intone a sonorous Te Deum. Followed, in the afternoon, a solemn procession through the wide castle grounds, and benediction services under the castle trees, with monks and nuns from neighboring convents.

With the sunset gone and darkness settling down upon Bury Hill, the master of Arundel Castle had still to set the final signal of his coming of age. Just outside the castle grounds at a bald spot on the hill there towered 40 feet into the night a pile of 3,000 faggots cut from Arundel copses, woodsmen had guarded the pile from pranksters and now watched with relief their master approach and throw the flaming torch to set the fire off. Yellow tongues licked up the oil and shot toward the dark sky. Soon in all the seven counties which lie about Bury Hill and to the south far out at sea, folk noted the birthday fire of the Hereditary Earl Marshal and Chief Butler of England.

On the hill the guests returned to the Castle. Peers and commoners, shopmen and farmers, maidservants and menservants, crowded into the Gothic-vaulted Baron's Hall, eyed each other across weighted tables that stretched the whole hundred feet of the hall. Before them at their places shone goblets and pieces of family plate, all golden, a service said to weigh one and one-half tons and to be worth -L-50,000. Above hung dusty tapestries and ancient pieces of armor. Dead and gone Dukes of Norfolk seemed not far away. Oldsters recalled their histories--how the third Duke of Norfolk was brother-in-law to Henry VII; how the fourth Duke of Norfolk, kinsman to Queen Elizabeth, was the only Duke in the court of the Virgin Queen and was besought in marriage by Queen Mary of the Scots.

Unlikely seems the 16th Duke of Norfolk to provide historians with biographical delight. Quiet and reserved of manner as his late father, he appears almost stolid, achieves a slight distinction with spectacles. Little known in social circles, he has spent a sheltered life in the hands of private tutors. Two years ago, at 19, he flunked Responsions--college entrance examinations at Oxford--and decided upon a military career. He now serves as an officer of the Royal Horse Guards. Cinema has been for years his pastime, race horses lately have become his hobby.

Besides the management of his vast estates, grave social and state duties will now devolve upon the youthful peer. As Earl Marshal and Hereditary Marshal and Chief Butler of England he is one of the greatest officers of State, ranking fifth below the Prime Minister and is head of the College of Arms.