Chapter I

MILE
FROM
WESTMINSTER
BRIDGE

This is followed by a long series of stones of one pattern, probably dating from 1800, marking every _half_ mile. The series starts with the stone on the kerb close by the tramway office at the triangle, where the Brixton Road begins. It records on two sides "Royal Exchange 2-1/2 miles," and on a third "Whitehall 2 miles," and is followed, opposite No. 158, Brixton Road, by a stone carrying on the tale by another half a mile. These silent witnesses may be traced nearly into Croydon, with sundry gaps where they have been removed. Those recording the 4th, 6th, 8-1/2th, 9-1/2th, and 10th miles from Whitehall are missing, the last of the series now extant being that at the corner of Broad Green Avenue, making "Whitehall 9 miles, Royal Exchange 9-1/2 miles." The 10th from Whitehall, ending the series, stood at the corner of the Whitgift Hospital.

These were succeeded by one of the old eighteenth-century series, marking eleven miles from Westminster Bridge and twelve from the "Standard," but neither new nor old stone is there now, and the only one of the thirteen mentioned by the _London Evening Post_ of 1743 is this near Purley Corner.

This, marking the 13th mile from the "Standard" and the 12th from Westminster Bridge is common to both routes, but is followed by the first of a new series some way along Smitham Bottom, on which Brighton is for the first time mentioned: