Chapter X: The Brighton Roads 224 (7)

Here one might turn aside on either hand through fine country. Near the station, shared by Limpsfield with Oxted, to the west of it stands the Church of the latter village, looking up to the Downs, which may be ascended by steep ways. A little beyond this Church is Barrow Green, the summer home of Jeremy Bentham, where he entertained James Mill and his well-taught son. By Oxted, an hour or so's walk leads westward to Godstone, past or not far from Tandridge and Godstone Churches, both finely restored by Sir Gilbert Scott, who lived here under the brow of Marden Park. His alabaster monument to his wife in Tandridge churchyard, and the view from its ancient yew, are worth a slight bend to the south, bringing one in the latitude of Tilburstow Hill, that rises between Godstone Green and its far-off station; then along that sand ridge one might keep on for half a dozen miles to Redhill. There is a still finer walk to the east of Limpsfield, across

its common, with a windmill and the little Chart Church as landmarks to the left, then up an avenue-like road to Kent Hatch, where the wooded heath of Crockham Hill slopes suddenly to the Kentish Weald. A most beautiful round might be made of this excursion into Kent, by taking the path through Squerryes Park, behind Crockham Hill, to descend into the pretty town of Westerham, with its memories of Wolfe, from which some three miles bring one back over the Surrey border to Limpsfield.

But there still remains to be seen the south-eastern corner of the Surrey Weald, containing some notable sights. For them, from the "Plumbers' Arms" cross-roads at Limpsfield, let the traveller trace out his way along labyrinthine byroads near the straight course of the L.B. & S.C. rail southward. Three miles on, a little to the west of this line, soon after it has been intersected by the S.E.R., he will find the old-world village of Crowhurst standing up among the remains of Wealden woods. The restored Church has two brasses, and one of the cast-iron tomb-stones common in this Black Country of old days; but its lion is the churchyard yew, taken as the oldest and largest in Surrey, thirty-two feet in girth, its fame sometimes confused with that other great yew's, that distinguishes likewise the Sussex Crowhurst. The yew-hedged farm close by was the manor-house of the Angell family, whose name revives in the highly respectable but commonplace Angell Road, Brixton. A mile farther south, to the right of the road, lies Crowhurst Place, one of the old moated granges of Surrey, still a delight to the artistic and antiquarian eye. A little more to the south, and rather farther off the road, Moat Farm is another old house to be sought out; and indeed the whole of this district makes a happy hunting-ground for the sketcher or photographer.

The road from Crowhurst goes on with the railway to Lingfield. If one have strayed as far west as the high-road through Godstone, at Blindley Heath a byroad turns off it for Lingfield, to which a footpath leads from Moat Farm. Lingfield is a place of varied note, not least for its quaint timber-fronted houses, and its "Star" inn, a type of hostelry now rare about London. The noble Church, formerly a collegiate one, is to be visited for its show of Cobham monuments and brasses, and other old features. The old College has disappeared; but a modern foundation here is the "Homestead" colony for the afflicted in mind, body, or estate, a praiseworthy effort of the Christian Union for Social Service. Then, as the nettle grows near the dock, Lingfield has its noted racecourse, which may have ruined such lives as that colony strives to reclaim. What looks like a small-pox hospital to the south of Lingfield station turns out to be the Grand Stand and stables that bring noisy crowds to this else peaceful neighbourhood.

On a height to the south of the racecourse stands the last and latest village of Surrey, making a strong contrast with its time-weathered neighbours. This is the group of bungalows originally entitled Bellaggio, which a generation or so ago was built as a sort of co-operative country home for Londoners, standing in its own grounds round the tower of a club-house. The enterprise did not succeed very well; and the place has sought to gain a fresh start under the name of Dormans Park, the club being turned into an hotel, that does good business at the race meetings, and at other times would make a centre for exploring the skirts of Surrey, Kent, and Sussex, here converging. Beyond the grounds, ornamented with wood and water, across a dip rises in Sussex the edge of the Forest sand ridge, where the towers of East Grinstead beacon us to "fresh woods and pastures new" of a county no less beautiful than Surrey.

But the reader must not be led farther afield, when space fails me to do justice to my proper theme. I have said nothing of Farley and Chelsham, that look so finely over Kent from the high and dry north-east corner of Surrey. I have barely mentioned the wooded and parked northern edge of the Downs which, so far back as Defoe's time, could be spoken of as one line of gentlemen's houses between Guildford and Leatherhead. I have not said enough of the stretch of broken land between the Wey valley and Leith Hill, nor of picturesque old villages and "greens" hidden among its wild commons and copses. Other points may have been unwillingly or unwittingly passed over, as not readily brought into view from the various routes by which we have crossed nearly every part of Surrey. But enough has been said at least to hint what are the varied leaves of chalk, sand, and clay with which nature makes up such a noble bouquet of landscapes laid at the feet of London.

INDEX

Abinger, 175

Addington Park, 244

Addlestone, 31

Albury, 127

Aldershot, 219

Anningsley, 29

Anstiebury Camp, 164

Ashtead, 157

Bagshot Heath, 210

Banstead, 230

Barn Elms, 52

Barnes, 50

Basingstoke Canal, 85

Battersea, 54

Beddington, 228

Bellaggio, 251

Betchworth, 108

Bisley Camp, 212

Blackdown, 193

Blackheath, 84

Bletchingly, 140

_Boating on Thames_, 36

Botley Hill, 141

Box Hill, 108, 134

Bramley, 69

Brighton Road, the, 224

Brockham Green, 108

Brookwood, 213

Burford Bridge, 107

Burstow, 238

Byfleet, 85

Camberley, 210

Camilla Lacey, 104

Cane's Hill, 240

Capel, 110

Carshalton, 228

Caterham, 241

Chaldon, 138

Chalk Downs, the, 5

Chantries Wood, 123

Charlwood, 110

Charterhouse School, 67

Cheam, 230

Chelsham, 252

Chertsey, 28

Chessington, 149

Chiddingfold, 190

Chilworth, 124

Chipstead, 240

Chobham, 204

---- Ridges, 211

Claremont, 94

Cobham, 96

Coldharbour, 164

Compton, 119

Cooper's Hill, 22

Coulsdon, 240

Cowey Stakes, 35

Cranleigh, 180

Crohamhurst, 245

Crooksbury Hill, 64

Crowhurst, 249

Croydon, 242

Deepdene, 162

Denbies, 133

Devil's Jumps, 194

---- Punch-bowl, 184

Dorking, 159

Dormans, 251

Earlswood Common, 236

Eashing, 66

Effingham, 84

Egham, 25

Elstead, 64

Ember River, 89

Englefield Green, 23

Epsom, 149

Esher, 91

Evershed's Rough, 133

Ewell, 147

Ewhurst, 180

Farley, 252

Farnborough, 218

Farnham, 59, 117

Farthing Downs, 240

Felday, 178

"Fold" Country, 181

_Footpaths_, 20

Frensham, 197

Friday Street, 174

Frimley, 218

Gatton, 136

Gatwick, 237

Gibbet Hill, 188

Godalming, 68

Godstone, 248

Gomshall, 139

Grayshott, 195

Great Bookham, 98

Guildford, 71

Ham House, 44

Hampton Court, 38

Haslemere, 193

Headley-on-the Hill, 158

Hersham, 95

High Down Ball, 70

Hindhead, 183

Hogsback, the, 117

Hogsmill River, 148

Holloway College, 15

Holmbury Hill, 178

Holmesdale Valley, 134

Holmwood, 169

Horley, 237

Horsley, 84

Juniper Hill, 105

Kenley, 242

Kent Hatch, 247

Kew, 48

Kingston-on-Thames, 40

Leatherhead, 99

Leigh, 108

Leith Hill, 167

Limpsfield, 247

Lingfield, 250

London suburbs, 29

"Lonesome," 12

Long Ditton, 39

Losely, 121

Magna Charta Island, 25

Marden Park, 140

Merstham, 135

Morton, 146

Mickleham, 101

Milford, 70

Mitcham, 227

Mole, the, 87-110

Molesey, 87

Moor Park, 61

Morden, 147

Mortlake, 50

_Necropolis, the_, 213

Newark Priory, 83

Newdigate, 110

Newlands Corner, 124

Nonsuch Park, 148

Norbury Park, 100

Oakwood, 166

Oatlands Park, 33

Ockham, 83

Ockley, 165

Oxshott, 97

Oxted, 248

Pease Marsh, 70

Peperharow, 66

Petersham, 44

Pilgrims' Way, 111-143

Pirbright, 83

Pirford, 218

Polesden, 103

_Population_, 11

Purley, 240

Putney, 53

Puttenham, 118

Ranmore Common, 133

Redhill, 239

Redland Woods, 169

Reigate, 135, 223

Richmond, 44

Riddlesdown, 241

Ripley, 83

_Rivers of Surrey_, 7, 57

Roman Road, the, 144-166

Rotherhithe, 55

Runnymede, 24

St. Anne's Hill, 29

St. Catherine's Chapel, 122

St. George's Hill, 32

St. Martha's Chapel, 123

Sanderstead, 246

Sandown Park, 90

Seale, 118

Send, 82

Shalford, 122

Shere, 130

Shirley, 245

Shottermill, 189

"Silent Pool," the, 129

Stoke D'Abernon, 97

"Stone Street," 145

Surbiton, 39

Suspension Bridge view, 233

Sutton, 229

Sutton Place, 80

"Swallows" (of the Mole), 100

Tadworth, 232

Tandridge, 248

Tatsfield, 142

Thames, the, 22

Thames Ditton, 39

Thursley, 187

Tilburstow Hill, 248

Tilford, 64

Tillingbourne, the, 127

Titsey, 141

_Towns and villages_, 12

Virginia Water, 24

Waggoner's Wells, 195

Wallington, 228

Walton-on-Thames, 35

Walton-on-the-Hill, 232

Wandle, the, 228, 245

Warlingham, 246

_Watts Gallery, the_, 120

Waverley Abbey, 62

Weald, the, 6

Westcott, 170

Wey River, 58-86

Weybridge, 32

White Hill, 139

Wimbledon, 41

Windlesham, 210

Windsor Park, 24

Wisley, 84

Witley, 189

Witley Common, 199

Woking, 82

Woldingham, 141

"Wolsey's Tower," 90

Wonersh, 74

Woodmansterne, 231

Worcester Park, 148

Wotton, 172

_Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.