THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 1
 
 > 

 
 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS.
 
 o
 
 THE 
 
 CH1LTEM HUNDREDS 
 
 BY 
 
 ALBERT J. FOSTER, M.A. 
 
 Vicar of Wootton, Bedfordshire 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE OUSE," "ROUND ABOUT THE CROOKED SPIRE," ETC. 
 
 illustrated bg the Author 
 
 LONDON 
 J. S. VIRTUE & CO., Limited, 26, IVY LANE 
 
 PATERNOSTER ROW 
 
 1897
 
 DA 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The intention of this little book is to add, 
 though ever so slightly, to the efforts which 
 are made for the better appreciation of the 
 archaeological and historical interests of our 
 Island. Perchance its publication may induce 
 some of the crowd who throughout the summer 
 float idly down the reaches of the Thames, or 
 moor their house-boats at its margin, occasion- 
 ally to leave the banks of the river and not to 
 leave unvisited some of the most beautiful and 
 interesting parts of the County of Buckingham. 
 Besidents also may perhaps not take it amiss 
 that they should have the stories connected 
 with their homes retold to them. An explora- 
 tion of the Chiltern Hundreds by those to 
 
 6323t>o
 
 8 PREFACE. 
 
 whom they are hitherto unknown will hence- 
 forth make the name convey to them something 
 more than that of an obsolete office, and if they 
 choose to carry on their explorations in onr 
 company we shall be both pleased and flattered.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IMUK 
 
 Introduction . . 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 On the Banks of the Thames ...... 24 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Valley of the Wyck 48 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Near Bttrnham Beeches . 71 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Valley of the Misb >tjrn . . . . . .93 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Valley of the Chess . . . . . .117 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Eton MO
 
 1 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PACK 
 
 'Twist Thames and Colx 158 
 
 CHATTER IX. 
 Hound Stoke Pogis 180 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A-BOVE COLNBKOOK BEIDGE 203
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 -Eton Frontispiece 
 
 Map of Disteict .12 
 
 Medmenham Abbey, East Feont 33 
 
 Medmenham Village 37 
 
 Marlow Weie ' 45 
 
 High "Wycombe 57 
 
 HuGHENDEN ChTJECH 63 
 
 The Mabket House, Ameesham 97 
 
 Chalfont St. Giles 101 
 
 Milton's House, Chalfont Ill 
 
 Joedan's Meeting House 115 
 
 The Russell Chapel, Chenies Chuech . . .129 
 
 Stoke Pogis Chuech . . . . . . . .185 
 
 Fulmeb Chuech 200 
 
 Denham Chuech 206 
 
 Old Houses at Taek Gate, Denham . . . .211
 
 I-
 
 THE CHILTEM HUNDREDS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Position of the Chiltern Hundreds— Diversity of Natural Features 
 — Nomenclature — Geological Aspect — Early Inhabitants — 
 Historical Reminiscences— The Stewardship of the Chilterns— 
 Its History and its present Condition. 
 
 The County of Buckingham is a long wedge- 
 shaped portion of our Island, which extends 
 from Northamptonshire and the Ouse in the 
 north to the Thames and Berkshire in the south, 
 and it has the apex of the triangle which 
 it forms at its extreme southern point on 
 the banks of the last-named river opposite to 
 Staines. If from this larger triangle we cut off 
 a smaller one by drawing a line from a point 
 about ten miles north of the Thames on the 
 Oxfordshire border to a point on the Hertford- 
 shire border near Great Berkhampstead, we 
 shall find that we have severed from the remain- 
 der of the county three of those ancient divi-
 
 14 THE CHILTEEN HUNDREDS. 
 
 sions, now so little heard of, called Hundreds. 
 These three Hundreds are those of Desborough, 
 Burnham, and Stoke, and they are bounded on 
 the south-western side by the Thames, and on 
 the east by the Coin, while their northern 
 boundary is the base line which we have drawn 
 across the central portion of the Chiltern Hills 
 nearly at their highest point. These three divi- 
 sions usually go by the name of the Chiltern 
 Hundreds, and they form the most beautiful 
 and interesting portion of the not unpicturesque 
 nor uninteresting county of Buckingham. 
 
 We probably only associate the name of the 
 Chilterns with high chalk-clowns, and deep 
 coombes dotted with ancient box- trees; with 
 smiling valleys whose sides are clothed with 
 beech-woods, and with breezy uplands, from 
 which we look down on the rich plains of the 
 Thames and the Coin. But the Chilterns give 
 a name also to other portions of the fair county 
 of Buckingham besides those parts which are 
 actually covered by the rolling downs them- 
 selves, for the three Hundreds with which we 
 are concerned spread not only over the hills 
 after which they are called, but over the low- 
 lying plains at their feet as well. 
 
 It will consequently be seen that these Hun- 
 dreds embrace many different forms of natural 
 scenery, and differ also in their aspects of his-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 torical interest ; for as we pass from hill to dale, 
 from upland ridge to broad flowing river, we 
 shall mark many a spot which owes what it 
 possesses of fame or notoriety directly or in- 
 directly to its natural features. Sometimes, 
 however, this idea has been carried too far ; as 
 by those who would derive the name not only 
 of the county, but of the county town itself, 
 from the trees which grow on the southern 
 hills. But to affirm that buchen or beech-trees 
 have supplied the first part of the name of 
 Buckingham is a statement a little too fanciful 
 for acceptance, since shires take their names 
 from their towns, and not the towns from the 
 shires ; and Buckingham is situated a good 
 deal too far away from the Chilterns to claim 
 any connection with their beech- woods. No ; 
 we must connect the first syllable probably 
 with the word book, and say that the little 
 town on the Ouse to the north of the county is 
 described as the Book-ing-ham, or the Home 
 in the Book or Charter meadow. 
 
 While we are on the subject of names let us 
 turn for a moment to that of the hills them- 
 selves. Chiltern is a difficult word to identify 
 in its present form, so let us content ourselves 
 with accepting the theory of the Father of 
 English antiquarians, William Camden, that it 
 is akin to a British word cylt or chilt. which
 
 16 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 signifies chalk. And we ought to say some- 
 thing about the chalk itself, as it forms the chief 
 natural feature in the Chilterns. In geological 
 terms the lowest bed, that is in order of forma- 
 tion, though not in position, is chalk marl, which 
 has a thickness of about eighty feet, and on the 
 top of which is the formation known as Tottern- 
 hoe Stone, a brownish sandy stone with dark 
 grains. The formation above this, which is 
 called lower chalk, is a bed about four hundred 
 feet thick. It is without flints, and contains 
 fossils known as whorls and spirals. The upper 
 portion of it is called chalk rock, and is so hard 
 that the well-sinkers have to blast it as they 
 make their way down. Next comes the upper 
 chalk with flints, a bed three hundred feet in 
 thickness, and containing fossil sea-urchins and 
 sponges. The making of lime out of the chalk 
 forms a staple industry of the Chilterns. The 
 highest point of the hills is to be found just 
 outside the boundary of our Hundreds at 
 "Wendover, and there they attain a height of 
 nine hundred feet. 
 
 The line of the Chilterns rises steeply from 
 the great Oolite plain which stretches away 
 beneath them towards the north-west. Here 
 it is therefore that we find the deep coombes 
 which form so distinguishing a feature of chalk 
 countries. These coombes are many of them
 
 INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 thickly clothed on their sides with curious old 
 gnarled box-trees, and where they open out 
 into the plain stand picturesque villages and 
 hamlets, with a little church perhaps perched 
 in some conspicuous position on an outlying 
 spur. 
 
 " Nor less attractive is the woodland scene, 
 Diversified with trees of every growth, 
 Alike, yet various. Here the gray smooth trunks 
 Of ash, or lime, or beech, distinctly shine 
 Within the twilight of their distant shades." 
 
 We have therefore in the Chiltern Hundreds 
 three distinct sorts of natural scenery — that of 
 the plain ; that of the cliff-like slopes clothed 
 with foliage, and in places, as at Clifden, run- 
 ning sheer down to the very edge of the water ; 
 and that of the lofty rolling downs above, 
 stretching away, line behind line, like gigantic 
 green and white billows petrified into rest. 
 
 We must return to what we were saying 
 about natural features making history. That 
 is certainly the case with the earliest historical 
 traces which we find in the Chiltern Hundreds. 
 To early inhabitants of the uplands we owe the 
 barrows and camps which crown so many of 
 the heights, as at Kimble, where is the tra- 
 ditional stronghold of 
 
 " The lofty cedar, royal Cymbeline," 
 
 from whose castle the villages beneath the
 
 18 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 downs here take their name. On the hills, 
 moreover, other members of the British tribe 
 of the Catieuchlani have perhaps left their 
 mark in the great "white leaf cross" which 
 shines out so brightly in the chalk above the 
 little town of Prince's Kisborough ; and of 
 British origin in all probability is the ancient 
 Ickneild way which winds along the edge of 
 the plain beneath the northern slope of the hills. 
 And if early inhabitants loved to make their 
 fortresses on the bleak downs, those of later 
 date preferred to settle in other parts of our 
 district, and construct their camps by the side 
 of the Thames as at States and Danesfield. 
 
 But before the Danes chose, according to 
 their wont, some spot where the water-way was 
 ready for their boats, the Saxons had peopled 
 all the slopes of the hills, for "hams" and 
 " tons " and " stokes " lie thick together at the 
 openings of the coombes, or in the broader 
 valleys of the Chess, the Misbourn, and the 
 Wyck. In time great territorial lords built 
 their mansions not only by the banks of the 
 Coin and the Thames, but high up on the hills 
 themselves, as at Chequers and Hampden, but 
 there are no medioeval castles. The feudal 
 barons do not appear to have erected strong- 
 holds on the Chilterns from which they might 
 make war on one another, or even hold out
 
 INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 against the royal forces, as they did elsewhere. 
 Kingly Windsor was perhaps too near to them. 
 And now we propose to explore each nook 
 and corner of the Chiltern Hundreds, to climb 
 the chalk downs, and walk through the valleys 
 which, beech-bordered, run up into the hills ; 
 to traverse the plains through which run the 
 Thames and the Coin ; to visit church and 
 mansion ; and to find our way into many a 
 well-wooded park, and by the banks of many 
 a clear chalk trout-stream, flowing through 
 sequestered dell. Nor shall we only look for 
 the beauties of natural scenery. We shall 
 attempt to gather up historical recollections 
 and scenes of bygone days. We shall visit 
 Eton, which surely has as much right to be 
 called "royal" as Windsor itself. Chalfont 
 and Horton will bring to us memories of 
 Milton. We shall pass into the churchyard 
 at Stoke Pogis, immortalized by Gray. Hugh- 
 enden manor and church will speak to us of 
 the life and death of a statesman of modern 
 days, Benjamin, first and last Earl of Beacons- 
 field. 
 
 There is one way in which the name of the 
 Chiltern Hundreds brings before us simply a 
 political matter, or rather a legal fiction, con- 
 nected with the House of Commons. To 
 accept the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hun-
 
 20 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 dreds is, as everyone knows, tantamount to the 
 vacation of a seat in Parliament ; but it may be 
 interesting to examine a little into the two 
 facts of, first, what the office really is, and 
 secondly, why its acceptance brings about the 
 result which it assuredly does. 
 
 To begin with, what do we mean by a 
 Hundred ? In Saxon times the administrative 
 unit in the country was the township called 
 in Norman times a manor. These manors or 
 townships were formed into Hundreds for pur- 
 poses of judicial administration and defence, 
 and many of them which had been the property 
 of Saxon kings became the property of Norman 
 sovereigns. They were managed by bailiffs or 
 stewards, who held a position of imparted 
 dignity. These officers accounted for the 
 revenues of the bailiwicks, and collected 
 tallages and aids and such-like feudal dues, 
 and they usually farmed their offices for a sum 
 paid down in the manner of the publicans of 
 old. In time, however, the stewards lost some 
 of their powers and rights, which were first 
 interfered with by the justices on circuit, and 
 were in reality curtailed by the appointment 
 of surveyors-general in the time of Henry 
 YIII. But it was not till the time of Charles 
 II. that the duties of stewards of Hundreds 
 ceased altogether, for when that king sur-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 rendered royal feudal dues for a fixed sum, 
 the royal manors were leased with all their 
 rights. 
 
 From the earliest Norman times the Chiltern 
 Hundreds had been in the hands of the king. 
 The manors were sold under the Common- 
 wealth but reverted to the Crown, and in 1GT0 
 were leased to Thomas D'Oyley, who may 
 be said to have been the last acting steward. 
 In after time the rents were sold as fee-farm 
 rents, and the powers, duties, and courts of 
 the steward came to an end. 
 
 We now come to the history of the steward- 
 ship as a sinecure office. It is in this aspect 
 an adaptation of the Place Act of 1708, but 
 that Act was not made use of in this way until 
 the middle of the eighteenth century. Its 
 original intention was to prevent the formation 
 of a court party, pledged by fruits of office, in 
 the House of Commons itself; inasmuch as it 
 required that all members who are appointed 
 to any place of honour and profit under the 
 Crown should by their acceptance of such office 
 vacate their seats. In no other way can a 
 representative get rid of the duties which his 
 constituents have placed upon him. The Place 
 Act was, it seems, first used for the convenience 
 of a member in this way in 1750, when Mr. 
 John Pitt was appointed to the stewardship of
 
 22 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 the Chiltern Hundreds for the purpose of 
 vacating his seat, as he wished to seek election 
 for a constituency other than that which he 
 represented. Other stewardships of manors are 
 also made use of in the same way, and when 
 two members wish at the same time to vacate 
 their seats, one of them is usually appointed to 
 the stewardship of Xorstead. In the Dublin 
 Parliament certain Escheatorships were used 
 in the same manner. The appointment of the 
 stewardship rests with the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, but it is a piece of patronage which 
 it is anything but an advantage to possess, for 
 on that Minister rests the responsibility of 
 seeing that the acceptance of the office is not 
 used for any improper purpose, and that the 
 member who seeks it does not wish to resign 
 his seat for any dishonourable or unworthy 
 reason. The actual signing of the warrant at 
 once strikes the member's name from the list 
 of the House of Commons, and the document 
 when sent to him does not contain the letters 
 M.P. in the address. 
 
 But it is said that the stewardship of the 
 Chiltern Hundreds is doomed. A select com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons has been 
 busied with the question of the resignation of 
 seats by members, and their report has been 
 embodied in a Blue Book. The history of the
 
 INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 subject has been gone into thoroughly by the 
 gentlemen who served on the said committee, 
 and that history is interesting enough. But 
 if we look at the result of their deliberations it 
 is evident that, although they have not 
 altogether arrived at their final determination, 
 it will sooner or later be decreed that the office 
 shall no longer exist. Should this take place, 
 a legal fiction, it is true, will be swept away, 
 but with it will disappear an interesting page 
 from the constitution of the country. Parlia- 
 mentary laws and histories have not always 
 been made, sometimes they have grown, or, we 
 may say, have developed themselves. We 
 have attempted to show how the present use of 
 the office of the steward partly owes its ex- 
 istence to law and partly to custom.
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. 
 
 Fawley Court and Church — Bulstrode Whitlock — Greenlands — 
 The Siege — Yewden — Hamhleden Church — St. Thomas de 
 Cantelupe, Sir Cope D'Oyley, Scrope, and Sheepwash— The 
 Manor House and Charles I. — Fingest— The Ghost of Bishop 
 de Burgwash and the Village Common — Thomas Delafield, the 
 Antiquary — Turville Park and General Dumoriez -Medmen- 
 ham Abbey — Cistercians and Franciscans — Remains of the 
 Mansion of the Duffields and of the Abbey — Medmenham 
 Tillage — The Lodge and the Church— Dane^field— The Camp 
 — Pugin's Chapel — States — Hurleyford House — Sir Robert 
 Clayton — Court Garden — Dr. Batty — Great Marlow — The 
 Church — Thomas Langley and Frank Smedley — The Old Par- 
 sonage — Marlow Place — Remnantz — The Croft — Percy Bysshe 
 Shelley — The Grammar School— G. P. R. James — Little Mar- 
 low Abbey and Church — The Despencers. 
 
 The banks of the Thames in that most beautiful 
 part of its course between Henley and Maiden- 
 head have been described many times, but we 
 must take a boat and once more coast along the 
 edge of the lovely hills which run down to its 
 waters, and from time to time make our way 
 inland if we are to visit the westernmost of the 
 Chiltern Hundreds — that of Desborough. 
 
 But we are going to begin with what we see 
 from the river itself. We shall start from
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. 25 
 
 Henley Bridge, and, making our way down 
 the Regatta course, so well known to all Thames 
 oarsmen, we soon arrive at the borders of 
 Buckinghamshire and Fawley Court. Down 
 to the river itself runs the beautiful park, and 
 in the park stands the mansion which was built 
 in 1684, from designs by Sir Christopher Wren. 
 There was an older house which was once the 
 residence of a distinguished man who played 
 a conspicuous part in the days of the Civil 
 "Wars and of the Commonwealth — Bulstrode 
 Whitlock. This statesman of those stormy 
 clays was the son of Sir James Whitlock, a 
 Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and the 
 father died here in 1G32. Ten years after- 
 wards the house was sacked by the Royalists 
 under Sir John Bvron, an officer famed for his 
 cavalry raids, in which he was not, however, 
 always successful. It is said that the troopers 
 destroyed the books and papers found in 
 Whitlock's library, carrying some away, and 
 using others for pipelights. The house was 
 wrecked to such an extent that the family 
 removed to Chilton, in Wiltshire. 
 
 We shall pass out of the park and into the 
 village, and visit the church which stands some 
 two miles from the river. There is carving 
 about the altar and on the pulpit, by Grinling 
 Gibbons, and in the south chapel we see the
 
 26 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 effigies of the father and mother of Bulstrode 
 Whitlock. The lady was the daughter of 
 Edward Bulstrode, of Bulstrode, a place to 
 which we shall come later on. Her son out- 
 lived the Commonwealth and died in 1676. 
 He refused to take part in the proceedings con- 
 nected with the trial of the King, and assisted 
 as commissioner in the negotiations which so 
 often took place between Charles and his 
 Parliament at Oxford, Uxbridge, and elsewhere. 
 He was in consequence allowed to live out his 
 days in peace and retirement after the Besto- 
 ration. It should, moreover, be remembered 
 that he was not only a statesman at home, 
 but also represented England when important 
 matters were transacted at Stockholm in 1653. 
 Altogether, he was one of the most able as well 
 as moderate councillors of Cromwell, and the 
 latter would have done well at times to follow 
 his advice instead of going his own way. 
 
 A little beyond Fawley Court we come to 
 The Island, the starting point of the races 
 which are rowed from hence to a point a little 
 below Henlev Bridge. But we are concerned 
 rather with what we can see on the banks than 
 with memories of hard-fought struggles on the 
 river itself, so we row on towards Hambleden 
 Lock. On our way we shall pass Greenlands, 
 lately the residence of of Mr. "W. H. Smith, the
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. 27 
 
 statesman, who died in 1893. The present 
 mansion occupies the site of — and is partly 
 formed out of — an older house which was 
 besieged by the Parliamentarians in 1644. 
 The Eoyalists had taken up a position here with 
 the idea of commanding the river and opposing 
 the passage of boats from the west towards 
 London. The besiegers battered the house with 
 cannon which they planted on the other side 
 of the river, and reduced it to a heap of ruins. 
 Hawkins, the governor, who held it for Sir John 
 D'Oyley, was forced to capitulate after a siege 
 which lasted for some months, but was allowed 
 to make honourable terms. Sir John D'Oyley 
 sold Greenlands to Bulstrode Whitloek. Many 
 marks of the attack in the shape of cannon 
 balls have been dug up from time to time, and 
 remains of fortifications may still be traced. 
 We shall note the large cedars of Lebanon 
 which form such an attractive feature in the 
 grounds. Greenlands, together with Yewden, 
 which we shall come to a little farther on, 
 once formed a separate manor in Hambleden, 
 which is a parish of large extent. 
 
 When we reach the lock, we land and turn 
 up the road which leads northwards. We soon 
 pass Yewden. The house is ancient, but has 
 been much altered. About a mile farther up 
 the side- valley which we have now entered,
 
 28 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 we find the village and church of Hambleden. 
 Few spots in the Chiltern Hundreds can com- 
 pete in quiet beauty with this place. The red- 
 tiled houses are grouped around the ancient 
 and interesting church, and are backed by fine 
 trees. Through rich meadows flows a little 
 stream, and on each side we have the wood- 
 clothed hills. 
 
 The church is one of those flint -built struc- 
 tures of which we shall find so many examples 
 about the Chilterns. It is a building of various 
 dates, and cruciform. We enter it by a rather 
 remarkable wooden porch on the south side. 
 "Within, the church has been a good deal 
 altered and restored, but we note the Norman 
 font, in which, probably, was baptized, in the 
 year 1218, Thomas de Cantelupe, a native of 
 the place. Bishop Thomas, or Saint Thomas 
 as he became, was the friend of Simon de 
 Montford, and the supporter of the popular 
 cause in the struggle between King Henry III. 
 and his Barons. In the reign of Edward I. he 
 was known as a statesman and administrator, 
 as well as an able prelate and theologian. In 
 1320 he was canonized by Pope John XXII. , 
 and was the last English saint thus duly 
 accepted. We shall find several monuments 
 worth notice. In the north transept is a very 
 fine one representing Sir Cope D'Oyley, his
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. 29 
 
 wife, and their ten children, all the figures 
 kneeling upright on a slab. Sir Cope was a 
 Justice of Oyer and Terminer, and was the 
 father of the Sir John D'Oyley who held 
 Greenlands against the Parliamentarians. He 
 died in 1633. Lady D'Oyley was the sister of 
 Francis Quarles, the author of "The Emblems," 
 and the more than flattering epitaphs to herself 
 and her husband were, in all probability, the 
 work of that poet. Other memorials have been 
 moved down into, or near, the tower. Amongst 
 them are some of an earlier family, that of 
 Scrope, and brasses of one still earlier, that of 
 Sheepwash. We also see in the tower a capital 
 example of wood-carving, now in the form of a 
 cupboard, but said to have been constructed 
 out of a bedstead which belonged to Cardinal 
 Wolsey. It bears the Castle of Castile, and 
 the Eose of York. 
 
 On the east side of the church we see a 
 delightful old mansion with mullioned windows, 
 and with many gables and many chimneys. 
 This is the Manor House, which was built 
 quite early in the seventeenth century by the 
 Earl of Sunderland. Charles I. took refuge 
 here on the 28th of April, 1646, when on his 
 way to St. Albans, and escaped, it is said, by 
 the connivance of Bulstrode Whitlock. 
 
 And now we must go higher up the pretty
 
 30 THE CHILTERX HUNDREDS. 
 
 valley which runs down between the wooded 
 hills, and visit two or three picturesque little 
 villages which lie on the Oxfordshire border. 
 The first of these is Fingest, a tiny place 
 situated amongst the hills, and possessing a 
 Norman church. Here, however, there was 
 once a Palace of the Bishop of Lincoln. The 
 prelates of that enormous diocese, which ex- 
 tended from the Trent to the Thames, had 
 palaces in various parts of the country, so that 
 they might have different centres for the 
 carrying out of their work. One of the bishops, 
 Henry de Burgwash, who was Chancellor of 
 England in the middle of the four teenth century, 
 encroached on the village common at Fingest 
 for the purpose of enlarging his park. After 
 his death his body was laid in the church, bui 
 his ghost, unable to rest on account of the 
 injury inflicted on the parishioners, was seen 
 in the park o'nights in the garb of a game- 
 keeper — so runs the tale — until he was able to 
 communicate with some of the old servants, 
 and desire them to give a message to the 
 Canons of Lincoln that the land should be 
 returned to tlie public. One can but suppose 
 that some bold villager who — 
 
 " The tyrant of his fields withstood," 
 
 took this roundabout method of conveying the
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. 31 
 
 grievances of himself and his fellows to the 
 Cathedral Chapter. But, however that may 
 have been, the result was satisfactory, and 
 Fingest had its common again. 
 
 Let us pass on to more authentic history. 
 Thomas Delafield was the curate here about 
 1746, and employed himself in collecting much 
 information with regard to the neighbourhood, 
 especially about his own parish, into three 
 manuscript volumes, two of which are in the 
 Bodleian Library, at Oxford, while the third 
 has been unfortunately lost. Thomas Langley 
 of Great Marlow made much use of this col- 
 lection in his "History of the Hundred of 
 Desborough and Deanery of Wycombe," pub- 
 lished in 1797. Lipscombe, the principal county 
 historian, also refers to the same set of papers, 
 so that Delafield's labours were not altogether 
 fruitless, though he never published his history 
 himself. 
 
 A little beyond Fingest is Turville or Turfield, 
 and at Turville House, a seventeenth-century 
 mansion, lived, nearly a century ago, Charles 
 Francois Dumoriez. Through the stormy years 
 of the close of the eighteenth century, Dumoriez 
 distinguished himself on the continent, both as 
 statesman and soldier; but notwithstanding his 
 conspicuous services on behalf of the French 
 Republic in Belgium and elsewhere, he came
 
 32 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 into suspicion with the Directory on account of 
 his more moderate views, and was forced to 
 leave his native country for which he had done 
 so much. He remained in exile, first at Ham- 
 burgh, but in 1804 he came over to England 
 and took up his abode in this little village above 
 the Thames valley. Here he died in 1823, and 
 he lies buried in Henley Church. General 
 Dumoriez was one of the many who, driven from 
 their own country, have found their last home 
 and their grave in our own island. 
 
 There is another little village close by, lb- 
 stone, which also has a church of stone and 
 flint, partly Norman. Many such little places 
 shall we find amongst the Chiltern Hills, as 
 
 " Advancing higher still 
 
 The prospect widens, and the village church 
 But little o'er the lowly roofs around, 
 Rears its gray belfry and its simple vane." 
 
 But just now, instead of climbing higher we 
 propose to descend from the high ground, and 
 again reaching the banks of the Thames, con- 
 tinue our voyage. We pass many a pleasant 
 mill-pool and foaming lasher, and rustling reed- 
 bed and lake-like broad, as we glide on between 
 the bright meadows "willow-veiled," and 
 fringed inland by the advancing hills. 
 
 " Ne'er hast thou been, ne'er shalt theu be forsook 
 By youth and pleasure, who with dripping oar
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. 33 
 
 Through the green meadows on thy banks explore 
 Each azure bend, and lily -bearing nook ; 
 The pool by bathers sought, glassy and still, 
 The steady reach where the dark willows bend, 
 Thine angler-haunted current by the mill." 
 
 It is in such meadows that we find the scanty 
 remains of the Abbev of Medmenham, the next 
 place at which we propose to stop. They con- 
 
 Medmenham Abbey. East Front. 
 
 sist now of only a few fragments worked into 
 buildings of far later date than that of the 
 Cistercian founders. The original Abbey was, 
 in its day, of some importance. It was an 
 offshoot of another Cistercian House, that of 
 Woburn, in Bedfordshire, and it was founded 
 in 1201, by Walter de Bolebec, to whose brother 
 
 c
 
 34 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 the Mother- Abbey owed its origin. Its Abbot 
 occupied the position of Epistoler to the Order 
 of the Garter, but at the time of its dissolution 
 the House had lost its former renown, and the 
 community consisted of two members only. 
 Shortly afterwards it was sold to the family of 
 Duffield, who, in the days of Elizabeth, or a 
 little later, built the still existing mansion on 
 its site, and the Abbey remained in their pos- 
 session until 1799. 
 
 It was during their tenancy that the Abbey 
 was again inhabited by those who called them- 
 selves by the name of a religious order, that of 
 the Franciscans. But they had nothing to do 
 with St. Francis of Assisi, for they took their 
 name from that of their patron and chief, Sir 
 Francis Dashwood, of West Wycombe Park. 
 The veil of years has now fallen over this story 
 in the history of the Abbey of Medmenham, 
 but strange tales were once told of the doings 
 here on the banks of the Thames in the middle 
 of the last century. u Fay ce que voudras" was 
 the motto of those jovial spirits, as we may still 
 read inscribed on the entrance door, but there 
 are many who say that nothing more took place 
 at Medmenham than a too free use of the wine- 
 bottle, a not uncommon failing of gentlemen of 
 that day. 
 
 The principal members of the Brotherhood
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. 35 
 
 were John Wilkes, Charles Churchill, Paul 
 Whitehead, Kobert Lloyd, Lord Melcombe 
 Begis, Sir William Stauhope, Loviboud, Eichard 
 Hopkins, Sir John Dashwood King, Sir John 
 Aubrey, and Dr. Benjamin Bates. The last 
 mentioned was travelling physician to Lord Le 
 Despencer. He first practised medicine at Ayles- 
 bury, and he died at Missenden in 1828, at the 
 age of ninety-eight, so that he was through hi? 
 long life a good deal connected with the county. 
 He was the last survivor of the Medmenham 
 Club, and always declared that though there 
 was plenty of hard drinking at the Abbey, there 
 was nothing more blameworthy. Some of the 
 members, in addition to Wilkes, were not un- 
 known to literary fame. Dr. Bates himself was 
 a patron of Art, and as such visited Borne in 
 company with Flaxman, the sculptor. Bob 
 Lloyd was a dramatist, and wrote a play called 
 The Capricious Lover, which was performed 
 at Drury Lane in 1761. Wilkes describes him 
 as "mild and affable in private life, of gentle 
 manner, and very engaging in conversation, an 
 excellent scholar, and a natural, easy poet." 
 He is said, however, to have drunk himself to 
 death, and to have died in the Fleet Prison in 
 1764. Another poet in the society was Paul 
 Whitehead, who was also known as the Secre- 
 tary. He died abroad in 1774, but his heart
 
 36 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 was sent to England. We shall have something 
 to say about that heart when we get to Lord 
 Le Despencer's mausoleum at West Wycombe. 
 The Club met in the low panelled room which 
 faces the river. Its fittings are of the time of 
 Queen Anne, but the wide chimney down which, 
 according to the popular legend, the huge ape 
 was lowered to the consternation of the com- 
 pany, who took it for an apparition of the evil 
 one, is of earlier date. 
 
 Now let us try and make out something of 
 the position and character of the buildings. 
 The cloisters and tower on the river front are 
 altogether a sham. Behind these lies the man- 
 sion of the Duffields, altered, as we have seen, 
 at the beginning of the eighteenth century. 
 The front of this mansion is towards the east. 
 It consisted of a centre and two wings, one of 
 which is shown in our sketch. The lozenge on 
 the porch bears the Dumeld arms, beneath 
 which is the motto of the eighteenth century 
 Franciscans. The mansion was evidently built 
 on the site of the Abbot's lodgings, a usual 
 arrangement when a religious house was handed 
 over to a lay proprietor. Behind we may find 
 a few remains of the Cistercians, a window or 
 two, and a round-headed doorway which was 
 probably the Abbot's door into the cloisters. 
 The conventual buildings have all disappeared,
 
 ON THE BANKS OE THE THAMES. 
 
 37 
 
 and so has the church, with the exception of 
 what appears to be one of the piers of the cen- 
 tral crossing, now standing out in the meado^vvs 
 by itself, a shapeless mass of ruins. 
 
 The village of Medmenham is only half-a- 
 mile or so away from the river, and we must 
 
 
 Medmeuham Village. 
 
 not fail to visit it. It is partly surrounded by 
 chalk cliffs, on one of which, just above the 
 church, is perched a charming Jacobean house, 
 built entirely of brick. Augustus Welby Pugin, 
 during his visits to Danesfield, used always to 
 visit the Lodge, as it is called, and study the 
 mouldings of the brickwork in windows and
 
 36 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 chimneys. The little church at the foot of the 
 hill is a long low building, without a chancel 
 arch. It contains a brass to Eichard Levyng 
 who died in 1412, and to his wife, Alice, who 
 died in 1419. The pulpit has carvings, repre- 
 senting sacred subjects, and in the windows 
 are small medallions, which are apparently of 
 about the same date as the well-known Eairford 
 windows. The south door, with its curious and 
 original bolt and lock, is also w 7 ell worth notice. 
 As we return to the river we must not fail 
 to enter the old house on the right-hand side, 
 which is a very ancient one. It is now divided 
 into two separate tenements, but these formed 
 the two ends of one building, and were con- 
 nected by a central hall, the beams and rafters 
 of which we may find if we go upstairs. 
 
 The first place which we shall stop at below 
 Medmenham isDanesfield, or as it perhaps ought 
 more properly to be called, Danes-ditches. 
 Here high up on the chalk cliffs which rise 
 perpendicularly above the river, we find a large 
 and strong camp. It is of horse-shoe shape, 
 the heel being protected by the river, and the 
 remaining portion being fortified by double 
 ramparts and ditches. The Danes had very 
 probably a stronghold here on one of their 
 favourite waterways, but nothing is known of 
 its history. The view from the edge of the
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. 39 
 
 camp is very striking. At our feet is the broad 
 Thames, here hurrying on to Hurley Weir, 
 which spans the stream a little below. To- 
 wards the west we see Medmenham Abbey, 
 standing amidst the flat meadows. In front we 
 have the Berkshire hills. Just outside the line 
 of the camp stands a modern house, which has 
 been added to from time to time. Amongst 
 these additions is a beautiful chapel designed 
 by Pugin. Another hill, which stands behind 
 the village of Medmenham, is also crowned by 
 a camp, called " States," which is probably of 
 British origin. If we happened to have walked 
 up this hill when we were in the village, we 
 should, perhaps, have noticed its most remark- 
 able feature, a curtained or protected path lead- 
 ing down from the camp to a beautiful spring 
 of water at the foot of the hill. 
 
 As we approach Marlow the houses and 
 mansions cluster more closely together along 
 the banks. Soon after passing Danesfield we 
 see Hurle} T ford, or as it is usually erroneously 
 written Harleyford, a red brick mansion, built 
 in 1715 for Sir Bobert Clayton, who was Lord 
 Mayor of London in 1G80, from designs by 
 Sir Bobert Taylor. Then about two miles 
 farther, just before we come to the suspension 
 bridge at Marlow, we see in the meadows at 
 the outskirts of the town, Court Garden, a
 
 40 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 mansion of the early part of the last century. 
 It was built by Dr. Batty, who was Censor of 
 the College of Physicians in 1763. 
 
 If we are fond of old houses we shall cer- 
 tainly land at Marlow and walk round the town, 
 which is also well known as a great boating 
 centre. Church and bridge are both new, and, 
 it must be confessed, not very handsome. There 
 was a bridge here at least as early as the time 
 of Edward III., and in the Civil Wars a part 
 of the bridge was destroyed by Major-General 
 Brown. The ancient bridge has entirely dis- 
 appeared, and an erection of quite another 
 character has taken its place. The time to be 
 on Marlow Bridge is on a bright day in the 
 summer. It is then that the river is alive 
 with boating parties — 
 
 " Dropping down the river, 
 Down the glancing river, 
 Through the fleet of shallops, 
 Through the fairy fleet, 
 '.Midst the golden noontide, 
 'Neath the stately trees.'' 
 
 The church was built in 1S34 on the site of 
 an ancient one. Attempts have been made 
 from time to time to improve its architectural 
 features. Thomas Langley, whom we have 
 already mentioned as the historian of the 
 Hundred of Desborough, was buried in the
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. 41 
 
 old church. His family were connected with 
 the town. He died in 1801, aged only thirty- 
 two, as we may read on a tablet erected to his 
 memory. There is also an inscription to another 
 writer and poet, Francis Edward S medley, 
 whose best-known work is that favourite of 
 schoolboys, " Frank Farleigh." Smedley was 
 born at Mario w in 1818, and came back to live 
 with his mother at Beech Lodge in 1863, but 
 his gentle life came to an end the next year. 
 There are two other literary characters about 
 whom we shall speak when we reach another 
 part of the town. 
 
 Let us go and look at some of the old houses. 
 A little way to the north-east of the church, 
 in a side street, we find a very interesting one, 
 known as the Old Parsonage. A portion of 
 the house is Jacobean, or a little later, but in 
 the centre there is a very unique specimen of 
 a large hall with a gallery of black oak round 
 two sides, and two large decorated windows, 
 one at each end, almost flamboyant in design 
 and ecclesiastical in character. In fact, there 
 is a decided Continental look about the build- 
 ing. Close by is another fine house, Marlow 
 Place, of a different style. It is a good speci- 
 men of early Georgian work, with pilasters 
 and overhanging cornices. Next we turn into 
 the broad High Street, which is closed at one
 
 42 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 end by the church, and at the other by an old- 
 fashioned inn, and turn westward along the 
 road which leads to Mednienham and Ham- 
 bleden. Soon on the left we see behind a high 
 wall the roof and chimneys of Remnants. Here 
 was housed for a time the Eoyal Military 
 College, which was founded at Marlow in 1799, 
 and removed to Sandhurst in 1861. William 
 Alexander, who was afterwards Keeper of 
 Antiquities at the British Museum, was for a 
 time Drawing Master at the Marlow College. 
 A portion of the house has been pulled down 
 since its educational days, but many of the 
 rooms we shall find, if we enter, have good 
 cornices and ceilings of the last centurv. The 
 gardens are, however, the chief attraction, with 
 their stiff yew hedges and arbours, in the style 
 of Queen Anne ; and over the stables is a clock 
 turret designed by Sir Christopher Wren. A 
 little farther along this road and on the same 
 side is The Croft with its many gables. 
 
 On the other side of the road, nearly opposite, 
 are two buildings which we shall notice. The 
 first is the house which was occupied by Percy 
 Bysshe Shelley from the spring of 1817 to the 
 spring of 1818. It was then called Albion 
 House, but is now known as Shelley House, 
 and an inscription records that it was the 
 residence of the poet. It is a mistake, how-
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. 43 
 
 ever, to say that he was here visited by Lord 
 Byron. A room was prepared for the latter, 
 and hung with black ! but the expected occu- 
 pant never came. Shelley first came to Marlow, 
 on a visit to his friend Peacock, in 1816. In 
 December of that year he paid a second visit, 
 and selected this house, to which he brought 
 his family in February, 1817. The largest 
 room he fitted up as a library. At Albion 
 House the Shelleys were visited by Claire 
 Clairmont and her child, the Hunts, and Hogg. 
 The poet spent much of his time in rambles 
 by the river side, in walks about the country, 
 and in boating. Sometimes he would be seen 
 in Bisham "Woods bareheaded, but crowned 
 with wild clematis. In this way he spent 
 the summer of 1817. He wrote some political 
 pamphlets while here on questions of the day, 
 from a strong Eadical point of view, under the 
 name of The Hermit of Marloiv, and was chari- 
 table to the poor, inquiring personally into 
 cases of distress which were brought before 
 him. He complained, however, that the house 
 was cold and damp, and he left it on the 7th 
 of February, 1818. 
 
 Next door to Shelley House we find the 
 Grammar School, which was founded in 1624 
 by Sir William Borlase, as a memorial to his 
 son Henry, who was the Member for Marlow.
 
 44 THE CHILTEEN HUNDREDS. 
 
 The town, we may mention, had returned 
 representatives to Parliament from a very 
 early date. The building is constructed of 
 flint, the favourite material for old houses in 
 these parts, as we must have observed again 
 and again, and new portions have been added 
 on in very good reproduction of the old work. 
 The last house in the town on this side is 
 Beech Lodge, which stands on a hill above the 
 road. We have already referred to it as the 
 last home of Francis Smedley. A house on the 
 Oxford Eoad, farther to the north, was the 
 residence of another well-known novelist, 
 George Payne Eainsford James, the author of 
 " Eichelieu" and many other historical and 
 romantic tales. He died at Venice, where he 
 was British Consul, in 1860. Certainly these 
 outskirts of Marlow are rich in literary 
 reminiscences. 
 
 But we must leave this pleasant town on 
 the Thames, and proceed on our voyage down 
 the stream. As we thread our way amidst 
 several islands which lie thickly in the 
 river below the bridge, we look back aud catch 
 a pretty glimpse of the church rising above 
 the foamiug weir-pool. On the other side we 
 have the lovely Quarry Woods, which are, how- 
 ever, in Berkshire, so we must not land, but 
 row on until we reach the extreme south-
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. 
 
 45 
 
 ■-j 
 o 
 
 B
 
 46 THE CHILTF.RN HUNDREDS. 
 
 eastern point of the Hundred which we are 
 now exploring, that of Desborough, just where 
 the white cliffs and hanging woods of Cliefden 
 rise up steep and sheer above the river. Clief- 
 den itself is not in our Hundred, for it is in 
 the parish of Taplow, so we shall leave it 
 undescribed for the present, but we shall note 
 just before we come to where the little Wyck 
 flows into the Thames, the Abbey Farm, which 
 marks the site of the Abbey of Little Marlow. 
 This religious house, which was sometimes 
 called, by a barbarous mixture of Latin and 
 French, by the name " de fontibus de Merlau," 
 was a Benedictine establishment, and was prob- 
 ably founded by Galfridus le Despencer, the 
 ancestor of those Despencers who were famous 
 in the days of Henry III. and the two first 
 Edwards, and who all bore the name of Hugh. 
 Hugh the elder was Chief Justiciary of Eng- 
 land, and played an important part in the 
 Barons 1 War. He was present at the battle of 
 Lewis in 1264, on the popular side, and in an 
 old ballad he is called — 
 
 " Despencer true, the good Sir Hugh, 
 Our Justice and our Friend," 
 
 but he fell at Evesham, that battle fatal to so 
 many of his party, in 1265. He had married 
 Aliva, the daughter of Philip Bassett, of High
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES. 47 
 
 Wycombe. Hugh the second, who married 
 Eleanor, the eldest daughter of Gilbert de 
 Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hereford, became 
 through his wife the possessor of the manor of 
 Great Marlow. His fate was a tragic one. 
 He had been made Governor of Bristol Castle 
 by Edward II., whose supporter he was, but 
 his garrison mutinied against him and delivered 
 him up to the King's enemies, and he was, 
 though nearly ninety years of age, hanged, 
 without trial, at Hereford. The third Hugh 
 was the favourite of Edward, and was also 
 made away with in the same lawless fashion. 
 
 We shall find nothing left of the Abbey, 
 but Browne Willis, the Buckinghamshire 
 antiquary, describes the Hall and Chapel as 
 existing in his time, that is, in the early part of 
 the last century. We shall, however, perhaps 
 look into the village church, which is not far 
 distant. It has tower and chancel of about the 
 date 1190. The nave and aisles were rebuilt 
 in the fifteenth century by Nicholas de Led- 
 wyck, who died in 1430, and whose tomb is 
 in the church.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE WYCK. 
 
 Hedsor House and Church — "Wooburn — Bishops of Lincoln — 
 Arthur Goodwin and John Hampden — Philip the Good Earl 
 "Wharton, and Thomas the Bad — Duke Philip — Pope's Lines — 
 John Longlandandthe Episcopal Palace — The Church — Monu- 
 ments of the Goodwins and Whartons — " Lovell the Dog " — 
 Paper Mills — High Wycombe — Roman Remains — Market 
 House and Guildhall — The Church — Sir William Petty, the 
 Earls of Shelburne, and the Marquis of Lansdowne — Loakes 
 House and Dr. Johnson — Sir Edmund Verney, the Standard 
 Bearer— Hughenden — The Church — Its Windows and Deco- 
 rations — The Effigies of the De Montforts — Lord Beacons- 
 field's Grave — The Manor House — West Wycombe House, 
 Church, and Mausoleum — Lord le Despencer — Bradenham — 
 Queen Elizabeth, the Clives, Isaac Disraeli — Puulnage and 
 Saunderton. 
 
 The eastern side of the valley of the Wyck, 
 just where it joins that of the Thames, is some- 
 times called NohlemarCs Corner from the fact 
 that three famous mansions, with their grounds 
 and parks, stand close together at this particular 
 spot. One of these, however, has ceased to be 
 the property of a peer, and the one which 
 stands the farthest to the west, Hedsor, is the 
 only one in the Desborough Hundred. But
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE WYCK. 49 
 
 Hedsor is not only a mansion it is a parish, a 
 very tiny one, as well. The church matches 
 the parish, for it is the smallest in the county. 
 It stands in the park close to the house, and 
 though partly of ancient date has been both 
 added to and provided with handsome but 
 modern fittings. It contains the monument of 
 Nathaniel Hook, who died in 1793, and was 
 of some note as a Roman historian. Hedsor 
 House was rebuilt in 1862.' It occupies a 
 charming position above the Thames. The 
 sham castle, which occupies a conspicuous 
 position overlooking Cookham, was built by 
 Lord Boston who was equerry to George III., 
 and erected this building to the honour of the 
 Sovereign in 1778. 
 
 But we must leave the banks of the larger 
 river and follow up the valley of the smaller 
 stream. Just on the other side of Hedsor we come 
 to Wooburn. Here we shall have to deal with 
 the past rather than with anything of particular 
 interest now visible. We have already noticed 
 that the Bishops of Lincoln had many palaces 
 in their great diocese, and one of these palaces 
 was at Wooburn. The manor also belonged to 
 the Bishops from the time of the Conquest, 
 and was exchanged for a Crown manor by 
 Bishop Holbeach in 1547. Foxe tells us some 
 stories about a dungeon called u Little Ease," 
 
 D
 
 50 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 which formed part of the palace, and of un- 
 fortunate heretics being tortured there by order 
 of the Bishops. For instance, he has a tale of 
 one Thomas Harding, who was treated in this 
 way and then burnt in a neighbouring dell. 
 But then Foxe is not always to be trusted, and 
 Bishops in England hardly behaved in this 
 high-handed way even in the sixteenth century. 
 
 In 1549, two years after the Crown had 
 acquired it, the manor was granted to John 
 Russell, Earl of Bedford, and Francis, the 
 second Earl, sold it to Sir John Goodwin, whose 
 ancestors had been tenants of the Bishops. 
 Of the Goodwin family the most famous was 
 Arthur, the friend and colleague of John 
 Hampden, who sat with him in the Long 
 Parliament for the county of Buckingham. 
 When the freeholders, learning that their 
 beloved and trusted representative, Hampden, 
 was in danger of arrest, went up to London in 
 a body several thousand strong to protect him, 
 Arthur Goodwin had much to do with the 
 demonstration. When the end came and 
 Hampden had ridden wounded from the Field 
 of Chalgrove to the house of Ezekiel Brown at 
 Thame, Goodwin followed his friend and was 
 with him on his death-bed. 
 
 Arthur Goodwin's daughter became the 
 second wife of Philip, Lord Wharton, and thus
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE WYCE. 51 
 
 introduced a new family who came from Shap 
 Abbey, in Westmoreland, which had been 
 granted to Thomas, first Lord Wharton, as a 
 reward for his services as Warden of the Scot- 
 tish Marches. The husband of Jane Goodwin 
 was the fourth Lord Wharton. He was a 
 strong but not a fanatical supporter of the 
 Puritan party, to which his marriage with 
 Goodwin's daughter would attach him. In 
 religion he was a Presbyterian, and he left by 
 will a rent charge on certain estates for the 
 purpose of providing Bibles, copies of a cate- 
 chism called " The Grounds and Principles of 
 the Christian Eeligion," and other books, for 
 the use of children in several parishes in Buck- 
 inghamshire, most of them in the neighbourhood 
 of Wooburn. Lord Wharton lived to a great 
 age, and was . actually amongst those who 
 invited the Prince of Orange to England. The 
 latter subsequently visited his venerable sup- 
 porter at Wooburn. 
 
 Thomas, the third son and the successor of 
 Philip, Lord Wharton, was a man of very 
 different character, and occupied a much more 
 prominent position than his father had done, 
 though not unfortunately on account of his 
 virtues. In 1706, he was created Earl of 
 Wharton; in 1708, he was made Lord Lieu- 
 tenant of Ireland ; in 1715, he became Marquis
 
 52 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 of Wharton, and in that year he died. He was 
 a keen sportsman, and his stud of race-horses 
 and kennel of greyhounds could be matched 
 nowhere in the kingdom. In politics he was 
 a strong Whig, admired and trusted by his 
 own party, but feared as well as hated by his 
 opponents. 
 
 Some idea of the extravagance of Wharton 
 may be formed from the fact that he expended 
 £10,000 on laying out the grounds at the old 
 palace alone, besides what he did in adding to 
 the episcopal building so as to make it a man- 
 sion worthy of himself. His unfortunate wife 
 — for she was surely such — was Anne Lee, the 
 second daughter of Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley 
 and Quarrendon, the latter place being in 
 Buckinghamshire. She died at the age of 
 twenty-six, thirty years before her worthless 
 husband. 
 
 Philip, the son of Earl Thomas, succeeded 
 his father in 1716, but he is hardly connected 
 with Wooburn. Alternately Jacobite and 
 Hanoverian, he was created Duke of Northum- 
 berland by King James, and Duke of Wharton 
 by King George. In character lie appears to 
 have much resembled his father, and Pope in 
 his " Moral Essays " seems, as it were, to be 
 describing both Whartons, for surely the lines 
 
 " A rebel to the very king he loves, 
 He dies sad outcast of each ch rch and 6tate,"
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE WYCK. 53 
 
 must apply to Duke Philip, who died in exile 
 and poverty in the monastery of the Charitable 
 Friars at Tarragona in 1731, a convert, it is 
 said, to the Church of Eome, leaving behind 
 him two volumes of poems and essays. 
 
 • ' Ask you why Wharton broke through every rule ? 
 'Twas all for fear the knaves should call him fool. 
 Nature well known, no prodigies remaiu, 
 Comets are regular, and Wharton plain." 
 
 We shall not find any remains of the Epis- 
 copal Palace, unless it be the fragment of a 
 garden wall. A modern house occupies its site. 
 John Longland, Dean of Salisbury and Chan- 
 cellor of Oxford, who favoured the divorce of 
 Henry VIII. from Katharine of Arragon, built 
 much of it. He also gave to the parish church 
 the second bell, which bears his name. 
 
 The church stands close to the water side. 
 It contains monuments of the Goodwin family, 
 and that of the first Lord Wharton of Wooburn, 
 a handsome mural monument of grey marble. 
 We note that the Goodwins are described as of 
 Uburne. From this some have supposed that 
 the original name of the place was Up-burne, 
 but it is well known that the first letter of the 
 word Wood was frequently unpronounced in 
 former days, so we may still consider that the 
 village takes its name from the Burn flowing 
 through the wood.
 
 54 THE CHILTEEN HUNDKEDS. 
 
 Another celebrity connected with Wooburn 
 was Francis Viscount Lovell, who held the 
 manor of Wooburn Deyncourt, to which he 
 succeeded through his grandmother. He was 
 that minister of Richard III. whose name has 
 been handed down in the rhymes of the unfor- 
 tunate William Colingbourne as "Lovell the 
 dog." His estates at Wooburn were escheated 
 to the Crown, but except for the fact that he 
 held the property, Lovell does not seem to have 
 had much to do with the place though he was 
 steward of the Chiltern Hundreds. Minster 
 Lovell, in Oxfordshire, where he met with his 
 tragic fate, being apparently starved to death 
 in a subterranean chamber, is at some distance. 
 
 The interest of Wooburn is, as we have 
 already said, chiefly connected with the history 
 of those who have had to do with the place, so 
 after looking round the very handsome and 
 interesting church which contains other objects 
 worth notice besides the monuments of the 
 Goodwins and Whartons, we will pass on up 
 the valley of the little burn. 
 
 We may notice that the Wyek has in this, 
 the lower part of his course, a good deal of 
 work to do in the matter of the manufacture of 
 paper. We passed paper mills at Cowes End, 
 and again at Wooburn. Others we find at 
 Londwater and at Wycombe Marsh, and all are
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE WYCK. 55 
 
 within a few miles of one another. A manu- 
 facturer of some note, John Bates, had the 
 last-mentioned mills rather more than a century 
 ago. He was specially successful in the pro- 
 duction of paper fitted for the reception of im- 
 pressions from engraved plates, and he received 
 the gold medal of the Society of Arts for his 
 inventions. 
 
 Five miles from "Wooburn we enter the im- 
 portant and bustling town of High, or Market 
 Wycombe, the centre of the chair-making 
 trade, the raw material for which is supplied 
 by the beech woods which clothe the adjacent 
 hills. 
 
 Wycombe is an ancient place. Its name pro- 
 claims its Saxon history, as it is sometimes 
 called Chipping, or Cheaping Wycombe, and 
 was, therefore, a market town in early clays. 
 But earlier people than the Saxons had settled 
 in this pleasant spot in the valley of the 
 Wyck, for Eoman remains have been dis- 
 covered in the Eye, or Common Meadow, to the 
 south of the town. In other matters, too, the 
 place has an ancient record, since the munici- 
 pality dates from the time of Henry I. In 
 coaching days also it had much importance, 
 situated as it was on the great high road from 
 London to Oxford, which runs across the centre 
 of the county.
 
 56 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 The old buildings of the town are disappear- 
 ing, but in the centre stands the Market-house, 
 with the Guildhall above, built by the Earl of 
 Shelburne in 1757. We shall go up into the 
 Council Chamber to look at the portraits of 
 Philip the " Good" Lord Wharton, and of his 
 wife, Jane Goodwin. There is also a portrait 
 of Henry, their fourth son, after Vandyke. 
 Thus, the Whartons, we see, were not only 
 connected with Wooburn, but with Wycombe 
 as well. The octagonal building adjoining was 
 erected a few years later. 
 
 The church, which also stands in the centre 
 of the town, is a large and handsome specimen, 
 chiefly of the work of the Decorated period. 
 It is, in fact, one of the shotv churches of the 
 county. There was first a Norman church, of 
 which, however, only a few stones remain, 
 but the rebuildings have, it seems, always been 
 on the same lines. Then there followed an 
 Early English church, to which belonged the 
 arch of the north chapel, and some of the 
 windows which we can still see. We can trace 
 on the outside the gables of this building. To 
 this period also belongs the beautiful south 
 porch. Next a Decorated nave was built, 
 and a clerestory was added. The central tower 
 was also taken down about this period. The 
 transepts of the cruciform building can only
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE WYCK. 57 
 
 be made out from the exterior. In Tudor 
 times the tower at the west end was built by 
 Richard Messenger, the then Vicar, who was 
 the friend of Cardinal Wolsey, and was his 
 clerk of the works at the building of Christ 
 Church, Oxford. The openings at the extreme 
 end of the north aisle were evidently a con- 
 
 High Wycombe. 
 
 nection with some building which once stood 
 in the churchyard. Lastly, Lord Shelburne also 
 tried his hand at church building, and added 
 the pinnacles of the tower in the last century. 
 The church was carefully restored under the 
 direction of George Edmund Street. In the 
 north chapel is a huge monument, by Schee-
 
 58 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 macher, to Henry, Earl of Shelburne. It repre- 
 sents the Earl, his wife, his son, his two 
 daughters, and his son's wife, all of whom died 
 before him. The son is represented in the 
 costume of a Eoman soldier. Possibly many 
 will prefer the monument, by Carlini, on the 
 south side of the church, to other members of 
 the Petty family. 
 
 In the centre of the great Shelburne monu- 
 ment is a medallion of Sir William Petty, the 
 founder of the family. He was the son of a 
 clothier at Eomsey, where he is buried. He 
 was born in 1G23, and studied medicine at 
 Leyden and Paris, and became Professor of 
 Anatomy, besides being also Gresham Professor 
 of Music. In 1652 he went to Ireland in the 
 double capacity of Physician to the Army, 
 and Secretary to Henry Cromwell, then the 
 Lieutenant-Governor of that island. Sir 
 "William died, very wealthy, in 1G87, and his 
 son purchased the manor of High Wycombe 
 in 1700, from Thomas Archdale, having been 
 created Baron Shelburne the previous year. 
 He resided at Loakes House, or, as it is now 
 called, Wycombe Abbey, and became Earl 
 Shelburne in 1709. But the most famous de- 
 scendant of Sir William was William, the third 
 Earl Shelburne, a well-known statesman of the 
 last century. He was born in 1737, and in
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE WYCK. 59 
 
 early life served in the army and was present 
 at the battle of Minden. He was a follower of 
 the Earl of Chatham, and in 1782, on the 
 death of Lord Eockingham, himself formed an 
 administration, though he was only in office 
 for a few months. But a good deal happened 
 during those few months, for it was then that 
 Lord Howe kept the French and Spanish fleets 
 in check, and finally sailed to the relief of 
 Gibraltar, where General Elliot had been 
 holding out for so long and with such courage 
 against far superior forces. It was also at this 
 time that the Royal George sank at Spithead, 
 an event which caused remarkable sensation. 
 Moreover, William Pitt first held office under 
 Lord Shelburne. The latter continued to re- 
 side at Loakes, and was frequently visited 
 there by Dr. Johnson. In 1784 he was created 
 Marquis of Landsdowne, and in 1798 he sold 
 his Wycombe property and the house to Lord 
 Carrington. He died in 1805, and is buried 
 in the north chapel of the church near the 
 great family monument ; but there is nothing 
 whatever to mark his grave. 
 
 Lord Carrington pulled down Loakes House, 
 and it was rebuilt by Wyatt. Why, or how 
 it came to be called The Alley ', is a difficult 
 question to answer. The same thing may be 
 said of another house in the town, which is
 
 60 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 called The Priory, apparently for no reason 
 whatever. 
 
 The Grammar School, which stands in the 
 High Street, has also been rebuilt, but a few 
 of the arches and piers of the chapel of the 
 Hospital of St. John, which formed the original 
 school, are still left standing in the grounds. 
 Edmund Waller, the poet, was a schoolboy 
 here in early days, though he was afterwards 
 at Eton. 
 
 There was another educational establish- 
 ment here in the last century, a military 
 training school, which, like the one at Marlow, 
 is now merged in the College at Sandhurst. 
 This establishment occupied the house to the 
 north-west of the church, which now contains 
 the free library. 
 
 There is one other local celebrity whom we 
 must not fail to remember at Wycombe. Sir 
 Edmund Yerney, of Claydon House, who fell 
 at Edgehill with the royal standard in his 
 hand, sat for this borough in the early days of 
 the Long Parliament. 
 
 About two miles north of Wycombe, in a 
 lovely valley, stands Hughenden. The older 
 name of Hitchenden has been almost lost. In 
 a pretty park which slopes down to the little 
 stream, a feeder of the Wyck, stand Hughenden 
 Manor, for many years the residence of Lord
 
 THE YALLEY OF THE WYCK. 61 
 
 Beaconsfield, and the beautiful church, beneath 
 the walls of which he lies buried. 
 
 Let us begin with the church. It has been 
 nearly rebuilt, but some portion of the tower 
 is Early English, and there is a Norman door- 
 way beneath the porch on the south side. 
 Within, it has been sumptuously decorated, 
 chiefly as a memorial to the late Earl. The 
 "Te Deuin" east window was erected by his 
 personal friends, Lord Eowton, Sir Nathaniel 
 de Eothschild, and Sir Philip Eose. The south 
 window was subscribed for by Undergraduates 
 of Oxford. The west window was provided 
 by the general memorial fund. Both these 
 windows are also "Angel" windows. It is 
 needless to say the church is dedicated to 
 St. Michael. The frescoes on the walls repre- 
 sent the Adoration of the Magi, the Evan- 
 gelists, and the nine Angelic Orders. On the 
 north side of the chancel, close to the seat 
 once occupied by the Earl, is a tablet erected 
 by the Queen, which contains his portrait in 
 profile, by E. C. Belt. Above hangs the 
 banner of the Earl as Knight of the Garter, 
 which was formerly over his stall in St. George's 
 Chapel at "Windsor. Another south window is 
 to two young baronets who died in the Crimean 
 campaign. The elder, Sir William Norris 
 Young, fell at the battle of the Alma, on
 
 62 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 September 20th, 1854, at the age of twenty- 
 one; and the younger, Sir George Young, 
 succeeded his brother for a few weeks only, 
 and died of cholera, at Sebastopol, in a little 
 more than a month, at the age of nine- 
 teen. 
 
 Hughenden Church was well known to 
 archaeologists long before the time of Lord 
 Beaconsfield, for there is a font of the thirteenth 
 century, and there are five very remarkable 
 tombs, with effigies, which are now in the 
 north chapel, but some of which have been 
 removed from their original places. 
 
 The principal and most interesting one repre- 
 sents a man in the usual military dress of the 
 end of the thirteenth century, and is a finely exe- 
 cuted piece of work. The sheath of his huge 
 sword bears seven small coats of arms, and on 
 his shield are the arms of De Montford. On his 
 surcoat are those of "Wellesborne. The effigy 
 is supposed to be that of Eichard de Montfort, 
 son of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, 
 the hero who fell at Evesham in 1265. It is 
 also supposed that he assumed the name of 
 AVellesborne, and settled at Hughenden. Ex- 
 perts in armour consider the effigy as particu- 
 larly interesting in many details. For instance, 
 it is clothed in armour, partly plate and partly 
 chain. Experts in heraldry are also interested
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE WYCK. 
 
 63 
 
 in the arms which it bears. The lion of the 
 
 Hughenden Church. 
 
 De Montforts, and the griffin of the Welles^
 
 61 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 bornes, have each an unfortunate child in their 
 clutches. Another figure in low relief has 
 also the arms of De Montford and Wellesborne. 
 On a third effigy we see the armour of the time 
 of the Black Prince. Then, again, we have 
 examples of the time of Henry VI., and all 
 bear the family arms. There are also many 
 interesting brasses, as well as one of those 
 emaciated figures, partly enveloped in a shroud, 
 which were introduced in some mediaeval 
 monuments as emblematical of death. 
 
 To visit the grave of Lord Beaconsfield we 
 must go outside the church. The body of the 
 great statesman is buried at the east end of the 
 chancel. 13 v his side lie the Countess of Beacons- 
 field, who died in 1872, and James Disraeli, his 
 brother, who died in LSGS. Here also is buried 
 Sarah, the widow of James Brydges Williams, 
 who left her fortune to Lord Beaconsfield, and 
 dying in 18G3, was laid here at her own re- 
 quest. The Earl himself died on April 19th, 
 1881, and the anniversary of his death is 
 always marked by the laying of wreaths on 
 the grave, or on his seat within the chancel. 
 Mr. James Searight, at whose expense almost 
 all the restoration of the church was carried 
 out, also lies in the churchyard. 
 
 The Manor of Hughenden was once held by 
 Edgitha, Queen of Edward the Confessor. It
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE WYCK. 65 
 
 was purchased by Lord Beaconsfield, whose 
 connection with Wycombe had begun in 1832, 
 when he contested the borough, almost as a 
 Eadical, in opposition to the old-fashioned 
 Whigs. To trace his after life would be to 
 write the political history of our country for 
 the next fifty years. Let us rather think of 
 the aged statesman coming to his lovely park 
 and pleasant country house, to rest awhile from 
 the turmoil of party conflict. Let us picture 
 him, as he is said often to have been seen, 
 seated on the terrace in front of his windows, 
 smoking his cigar, and watching with interest 
 the village cricketers in the park below him. 
 The house itself is a modern one, but is still 
 kept up as it was when Lord Beaconsfield 
 quitted it for the last time, for he died in 
 London. It contains his library and the por- 
 traits of his friends. The obelisk, on the crest 
 of the hill close by, bears inscriptions to his 
 Countess and to his father, Isaac Disraeli, 
 whose house we shall come to higher up the 
 valley of the Wyck. 
 
 Let us return to Wycombe, and proceed up 
 that valley. As soon as we leave the town 
 we pass, high up on the left-hand side, earth - 
 works, known as Danesborough or Desborough 
 Camp. It is this camp which gives its name 
 to our Hundred. About two miles further the 
 
 E
 
 68 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 valley bends westward, and hereabouts the little 
 river rises. Just at the bend is a little village 
 once called Haverington or Harrington, but now 
 known as West Wycombe. It lies nestling 
 down between two hills. On that to the south 
 stands West Wycombe House. The house 
 itself was built by Sir Francis Dashwood, and 
 enlarged by his son, Lord Le Despencer, of 
 Medraenham Abbey fame. The park is very 
 pretty, running down the sides of the hill, 
 and the grounds were laid out by that skilled 
 landscape-gardener, Bepton. 
 
 On the opposite hill is the church, which 
 was also built by Sir Francis Dashwood. It 
 replaced an ancient one of which only the 
 lower portion of the tower remains. Its date 
 is 1763, and it is a curious example of the 
 style of that period. It is what is commonly 
 called classical in design, and the fittings are 
 very remarkable. Mahogany chairs serve for 
 pulpit and reading-desk, and the font is a bronze 
 basin on a tripod. It is no longer used for 
 service in the winter, however, as there is a 
 modern church, much more accessible, down in 
 the village below. In front of the church is a 
 large mausoleum, an hexagonal building, open 
 to the sky in the centre. Within are monuments 
 of Lord Le Despencer, who died in 1781, and of 
 his two wives Lady Mary Fane and Mary King.
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE WYCK. 67 
 
 Here, too, was held, on the 16th of August, 
 1775, a solemn service for the burial of the 
 heart of Paul Whitehead, of Twickenham, the 
 poet and secretary of the Medmenham Society, 
 who died abroad, but left that portion of his 
 body by will to Lord Le Despencer. It was, 
 however, at some time or other taken from its 
 resting-place. 
 
 Lord Le Despencer did not confine himself to 
 church-building in what he did for his village. 
 He constructed the broad straight road which 
 leads to High Wycombe, and set up a monu- 
 mental sign -post, as we may see, to comme- 
 morate the undertaking. He also ordered the 
 formation of the caves which we may find 
 about half-way up the Church Hill, as a means 
 of providing work for the labourers during a 
 hard winter. Strange to say, this extraordi- 
 nary and, if reports are true, most dissolute 
 country gentleman, found his way into the 
 office of Chancellor of the Exchequer under 
 Lord Bute in 17 G3. He was at that time Sir 
 Francis Dashwood, and his budget as Chan- 
 cellor was a remarkable one. It was more than 
 a failure, it was a blunder. Amongst other 
 things, he proposed to put a heavy tax upon 
 cyder, and the apple-bearing counties were at 
 once in revolt from the Government. However, 
 Lord Bute resigned shortly afterwards, and his
 
 68 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer resigned likewise 
 and was raised to the peerage. 
 
 We have now arrived at the head of the 
 valley, and. find ourselves on the bare chalk 
 uplands. But there are a few little villages 
 nestling in the coombes beneath, which belong 
 to Desborough Hundred. The first which we 
 come to is Bradenham. Here Queen Elizabeth 
 was, in 15G6, entertained by Edward, Lord 
 Windsor of Bradenham, in the Manor-house 
 which stands on the slope of the hill at the 
 head of the village green. The mansion had 
 been built by the second Lord Windsor, but it 
 was much altered by the Johnson family in the 
 time of Queen Anne and George I. The en- 
 trance-hall, however, though remodelled, is 
 the original hall of the Clives. Most of the 
 rooms are panelled, and many of the door- 
 frames are beautifully carved. 
 
 The house was occupied for twenty years by 
 Isaac Disraeli, who took it on a lease in 1827, 
 and died in it in 1847. In his time the room 
 now used as the drawing-room was entirely 
 lined with bookshelves, but all the best books 
 were removed to Hughenden by his son, Ben- 
 jamin Disraeli, who spent a good part of his 
 early life in this house. 
 
 We shall take a walk on the beautiful yew 
 terraces formed on the hill above the house,
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE WTCK. 69 
 
 and then we shall look into the church which 
 stands on the other side of the mansion. There 
 is a richly-worked Saxon south door, and there 
 are also some Saxon windows. The chantry 
 chapel to the north was built by William Lord 
 Windsor in 1542. It contains some monu- 
 ments of the Pye family, and an inscription to 
 an old lady, Joanna Mincher, who died at the 
 age of one hundred and three. There is a 
 mural tablet to Isaac and Maria Disraeli, who 
 lie buried in the vault below amongst the 
 Clives. Campanologists will be interested to 
 learn that two of the bells are of the date 
 1312, and were cast by Michael de Wymbis. 
 
 At Eadnage, which stands a little farther to 
 the east, and is nearly shut in by the hills, 
 there is a little Late Decorated church with a 
 Norman tower. 
 
 There is still one more parish which occu- 
 pies a long narrow slip of county, and forms 
 the extreme north-western point of Desborough 
 Hundred. This place is Saunderton. It once 
 consisted of two manors, and possessed two 
 churches. One of these, St. Nicholas, has, 
 however, entirely disappeared, but the other, 
 St. Mary, is a decorated edifice, and contains 
 the brass of William Saunderton, dated 1430. 
 
 We have now finished our exploration of the 
 western side of the Hundred of Desborough,
 
 70 THE CHILTEItN HUNDREDS. 
 
 and away to the north-east we can discern the 
 highest points of the Chilterns. A little be- 
 yond Princes Risborough we can .see the 
 mouths of the lovely glens which run up into 
 the hills above the two villages of Kimble. 
 Farther to our right, but concealed behind a 
 ridge, is the house that was once the home of 
 John Hampden, and farther north of this is 
 Chequers. 
 
 We have crossed the water-shed, and we are 
 looking towards the basin of the Thame and 
 the rich Yale of Aylesbury. But we must not 
 leave the hills, nor follow the little brooks 
 which now begin to trickle northwards. We 
 will content ourselves with the many pleasant 
 glimpses of upland scenery around us. 
 
 "Where woods of ash and beech, 
 And partial copses fringe the green hill-foot, 
 The upland shepherd rears his modest home ; 
 There wanders by a little nameless stream 
 That from the hill wells forth, bright now and clear, 
 Or after rain with chalky mixture gray, 
 But still refreshing in its shallow course 
 The cottage garden." Charlotte Smith.
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 NEAR BURNHAM BEECHES. 
 
 Cliefden — George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and the Countess 
 of Shrewsbury — Taplow — Hiteham — Dorney and the Palmers 
 — Richard Montagu — Boveney — Burnham Church — Rector 
 William Cole — Robert Aldrich— Burnham Beeches — Drop- 
 more and its Gardens — View from the Terrace— Farnham 
 Royal — The Manor and its Customs — Hedgerley House and 
 Church — The Bulstrodes of Bulstrode — Chancellor Jeffreys- 
 Mrs. Montague — Edward, Duke of Somerset — Captain Mayne 
 Reed — Wilton Park — James Du Pre — Beaconsfield Church 
 — Tombs of Burke and Waller — Gregories and Hall Barns — 
 Penn and Lord Howe. 
 
 We have now finished with the Hundred of 
 Desborough, and we will begin to explore that 
 of Burnham, which takes its name from the 
 parish so famous for its Beech-woods. Let us 
 return to the Thames, and take those places 
 first which are to be found on its banks. We 
 first row beneath the white cliffs of Cliefden, 
 and its hanging woods. Enormous yew-trees 
 grow in the clefts of the chalk, and winding 
 paths lead along ledges to caves and fissures. 
 On the summit, surrounded by beautiful 
 grounds, is Cliefden House, but the mansion is
 
 72 THE CHILTEEN HXNDBEDS. 
 
 of more recent date than its surroundings. In 
 fact there have been several houses on this 
 site. The first seems to have been the one 
 built by George Villiers, the second Duke of 
 Buckingham, whose architect was Archer. 
 This was burnt down in 1795. A second 
 house was pulled down, and a third was built 
 in 1830. This third house was also burnt, and 
 a fourth was built, as we see it now, in 1849, 
 from the designs of Sir Charles Barry. 
 
 Of the early owners of Cliefden, by far the 
 most remarkable was the first builder. Many 
 writers have described his character, but none 
 of them have been able to speak favourably of 
 him, though all praise his genius. Bishop 
 Burnett says that "he gave himself up to a 
 monstrous course of studied immoralities." 
 Ilorace Walpole tries to say what he can good 
 of him by praising his genius, and "laments 
 that such a man should have been devoid of 
 every virtue." Poets have introduced him 
 into their verses. Dryden has portrayed 
 Buckingham under the name of Zimri. 
 
 " In the first ranks of these did Zimri sland ; 
 A man so various, that he seemed to be 
 Not one, but all mankind's epitome ; 
 Stiff in opinion, always in the -wrong, 
 Was everything- by starts, and nothing long ; 
 But, in the course of one revolving moon, 
 Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon :
 
 NEAR BURNHAH BEECHES. <3 
 
 Then all for women, painting, rhyming, drinking, 
 Besides ten thousand freaks that died in thinking. 
 Blest madman, who could every hour employ, 
 With something new to wish, or to enjoy." 
 
 Absalom and Architophel. 
 
 This George Villiers, son of the Duke of 
 Buckingham, favourite of James I., who 
 perished so tragically at Portsmouth, succeeded 
 to the title on the murder of his father in 1028. 
 Through the Civil Wars he fought for the 
 Eoyal cause, and was present at the battle of 
 Worcester. He was with Charles II. during 
 his exile in Holland, and returned with him 
 at the Eestoration. He fell into disgrace at 
 Court, where he had been admired for his 
 wit and abilities, on the supposition that he 
 was acting in opposition to the King, and in 
 1676 was committed to the Tower. Philip, 
 the good Lord Wharton, a man of character 
 strangely different to his own, was mixed up 
 in political affairs with him, and shared his 
 imprisonment. In 1G80 the Duke was again 
 in violent opposition to the Court, and retired 
 to the country in failing health. Seven years 
 later, when fox-hunting on his estates in York- 
 shire, he caught a chill from sitting on the 
 grass when heated by the chase. In a few days 
 he died in the house of one of his tenants on 
 Kirby Moorside. His death is described by 
 Pope as having been that of a beggar, and amidst
 
 74 THE CEILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 miserable surroundings. This is not true as 
 regards the first point, for Buckingham, though 
 extravagant, had not utterly ruined himself. 
 The other fiction is from its character rather 
 severe on the unfortunate tenant of the Duke. 
 Pope has caught hold of part of the popular 
 idea, but only for the sake of marking a con- 
 trast between the farm-house on the moors and 
 the splendours of Cliefden twenty years before. 
 
 " In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hnng, 
 The floors of plaster, and the walls of dung, 
 On once a flock-bed, but repaired with straw, 
 With tape-tied curtains, never meant to draw, 
 The George and Garter dangling from that bed, 
 Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red, 
 Great Villiers lies — alas ! how changed from him, 
 That life of pleasure, and that soul of whim ! 
 Gallant and gay in Cliefden's proud alcove, 
 The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love ; 
 Or just as gay at council, in a ring 
 Of mimic statesmen and their merry king. 
 No wit to flatter, left of all his store, 
 No fool to laugh at, which he valued more. 
 There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends 
 And fame : this lord of useless thousands ends." 
 
 Moral Essays. 
 
 His burial is thus recorded in the parish 
 register: "April 17th, Georges Yillers, forth 
 dooke of bookingham." 
 
 The words in Pope, " wanton Shrewsbury," 
 refer to the elopement of Villiers and the Coun- 
 tess of Shrewsbury to Cliefden, and the subse- 
 quent duel between the Duke and the wronged
 
 NEAR BURNHAH BEECHES. 75 
 
 husband. The story of this famous duel has 
 been much embellished. Let us hope that the 
 woman, bad though she was, was not actually 
 present dressed as a boy, and holding her lover's 
 horse, according to the popular story. Even 
 worse things were said of her, too monstrous 
 to be repeated. Samuel Pepys, who dearly 
 loved to set down in his diary a bit of Court 
 scandal, tells of the affair in lengthy but sober 
 terms, under date January 17th, 1667: — 
 "Much discourse of the duel yesterday be- 
 tween the Duke of Buckingham, Holmes, and 
 one Jenkins on one side, and my Lord of Shrews- 
 bury, Sir John Talbot, and one Bernard Howard 
 on the other side ; and all about my Lady 
 Shrewsbury, who is at this time, and hath for 
 a great while been, a mistress to the Duke of 
 Buckingham. And so her husband challenged 
 him, and they met yesterday in a close near 
 Barn Elms, and there fought ; and my Lord 
 Shrewsbury is run through the body, from the 
 right breast through the shoulder, and Sir John 
 Talbot all along up one of his arms, and Jenkins 
 killed upon the place, and the rest all in a 
 little manner wounded. This will make the 
 world think that the King hath good counsel- 
 lors about him, when the Duke of Buckingham, 
 the greatest man about him, is a fellow of no 
 more sobriety than to fight about a mistress.
 
 76 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 And this may prove a very bad accident to the 
 Duke of Buckingham, but that my Lady Castle- 
 maine do rule well at this time as much as ever 
 she did, and she will, it is believed, keep all 
 matters well with the Duke of Buckingham ; 
 though this is a time that the Xing will be very 
 backward, I suppose, to appear in such a busi- 
 ness. And it is pretty to hear how the King 
 heard some notice of this challenge a week or 
 two ago, and did give it to my Lord General 
 to confine the Duke, or take security that he 
 should not do any such thing as fight ; and the 
 General trusted to the King, that he, sending 
 for him, would do it, and the King trusted to 
 the General." 
 
 Two days later, Pepys wrote, " Lord Shrews- 
 bury is likely to do well." But the prospects 
 of recovery lasted only for a short time, and 
 in a few days the unfortunate husband was as 
 dead as poor Jenkins. Buckingham had a wife 
 of his own, Mary, the daughter and heiress of 
 Lord Fairfax, the Parliamentary general, 
 " whom he deserted when living, and left with- 
 out a memento at his death." 
 
 Villiers spent enormous sums of money, not 
 only on the house, but on the grounds, and some 
 of the terraces, walks, and "proud alcoves" 
 which we still see are probably his work. lie 
 was not content with the natural beauties of
 
 NEAR BUENHAM BEECHES. 77 
 
 the spot alone, but introduced many productions 
 from foreign countries ; and the gardens must 
 have been one of the most marvellous of the 
 rather artificial horticultural creations of his 
 day. 
 
 Cliefden is situated in the parish of Taplow, 
 and leaving the beautiful cliffs we soon arrive 
 at that place, which stands near the foot of the 
 hills. The church is a red brick creation of 
 this centurv, but contains some brasses which 
 were in an older building. About a mile to 
 the west is Hitcham, with a little church full 
 of brasses and monuments of the sixteenth, 
 seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. 
 
 Presently we pass Maidenhead, with its 
 seething weir-pool, rustling reed-beds, and fleet 
 of row-boats, which, backed up as they are by 
 the Taplow hills, form so pretty a picture when 
 viewed from the old bridge, or from that of later 
 date which carries the Great "Western Eailway. 
 The town is, however, in Berkshire ; so we pass 
 beneath these bridges without resting, and rind 
 ourselves in the flat far-stretching meadows 
 through which the Thames, after having for so 
 long hugged the slopes of the Chilterns, now 
 begins to flow. 
 
 We pass Monkey Island with its painted halls 
 adorned with pictures of monkeys — hence the 
 name — and then come to where the river sweeps
 
 78 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 around the two southernmost villages of the 
 Hundred of Burnham, Dorney and Boveney. 
 They stand on very flat ground, and were prob- 
 ably once surrounded by water, and from this 
 circumstance acquired the last syllable of their 
 names, eye or eyot, which means an island. 
 Dorney has a manor-house, the ancient residence 
 of the Palmer family, who have been here since 
 the early part of the seventeenth century. Two 
 of the family, Sir Thomas Palmer and his son 
 Philip, were distinguished in the Civil Wars, 
 and are buried in the church. The latter was 
 cup-bearer to Charles II. 
 
 The church, which is mostly Perpendicular, 
 contains the monument of Sir William Garrard, 
 who died just before the Palmers came. Eichard 
 Montagu, Bishop of Chichester, and afterwards 
 Bishop of Norwich, was born at Dorney, in 
 1578. He was a great friend of Archbishop 
 Laud, and ran considerable risk from the 
 Parliamentary party on account of his teach- 
 ing on the question of the royal supremacy. 
 He escaped, however, by giving security to 
 the amount of two thousand pounds for his 
 appearance before the House of Commons, and 
 died in 1G41, just on the eve of the Civil War. 
 
 We will now strike inland, across Dorney 
 Common to the parish which gives its name to 
 the Hundred, the " Home by the Burn." Burn-
 
 NEAR BURNHAM BEECHES. 79 
 
 ham was a place of importance in Saxon days, 
 for the kings of Mercia had a palace at Cippen- 
 ham, a part of the parish which we come to 
 soon after we leave Dorney. Close by is the 
 site of Burnham Abbey, a Benedictine house, 
 founded by Eichard, Xing of the Eomans, in 
 1265, and endowed by the family of De Molyns. 
 The village itself is about a mile or so north of 
 the Abbey. The church contains brasses of the 
 family of Eyre, of the sixteenth century, and 
 many monuments of later date. Archaeologists 
 will remember that William Cole was Eector 
 of Burnham from 1774 to 1780. This early 
 antiquary had been previously Eector of Bletch- 
 ley, in quite another part of the county, but 
 was a native of Cambridgeshire. He collected 
 an enormous amount of archaeological informa- 
 tion, especially about parishes near Cambridge, 
 and was assisted by other antiquarians of his 
 day, such as James Granger, who was vicar 
 of a parish higher up the Thames — Shiplake ; 
 and Eichard Gough, of the " Sepulchral Monu- 
 ments." He became Eector of Burnham at the 
 close of his life, for he died in 1782. Another 
 antiquary, Jacob Bryant, lived at Cippenham, 
 and died there in 1804. 
 
 A rather famous native of Burnham was 
 Eobert Aldrich, Master and Provost of Eton, 
 and afterwards Bishop of Carlisle, who died in
 
 80 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 1555. In early life he was a correspondent of 
 Erasmus, who called him " Blandoe eloquentiae 
 juvenis." 
 
 But to most people the name of Burnham is 
 associated not with deceased celebrities, but 
 with some of the loveliest woodland scenery to 
 be found in our island. The special feature 
 which distinguishes Burnham Beeches from all 
 other beech-woods is the unusual appearance of 
 the trees. This is owing to the fact that here 
 the beeches have been pollarded, and we have, 
 therefore, instead of the usual drooping branches 
 which are characteristic of this class of tree, 
 delightful gnarled and twisted limbs forming 
 by their variety a splendid series of diversified 
 forms for the woodland-painter. 
 
 The poet Gray sometimes came to stay with 
 his uncle in this neighbourhood, and wrote to 
 Horace Walpole the following account of his 
 visit, and his impression of The Beeches. " I 
 arrived safe at my uncle's, who is a great hunter 
 in imagination ; his dogs take up every chair in 
 the house, so I am forced to stand at this present 
 writing ; and though the gout forbids him gal- 
 loping after them in the field, yet he continues 
 still to regale his ears and nose with their com- 
 fortable noise and stink, lie holds me mighty 
 cheap, I perceive, for walking when I should 
 ride, and reading when I should hunt. My
 
 NEAR BURNHA.M BEECHES. 8L 
 
 comfort amidst all this is, that I have, at the 
 distance of half-a-mile, through a green lane, a 
 forest (the vulgar call it a common) all my own, 
 at least as good as so, for I spy no human being 
 in it but myself. It is a little chaos of moun- 
 tains and precipices ; mountains, it is true, that 
 do not ascend much above the clouds, nor are 
 the declivities quite so amazing as Dover cliff ; 
 but just such hills as people, who love their 
 necks as well as I do, may venture to climb, 
 and crags that give the eye as much pleasure 
 as if they were more dangerous ; both vale and 
 hill are covered with most venerable beeches 
 and other reverend vegetables, that, like most 
 other ancient people, are always dreaming out 
 their old stories to the winds. 
 
 " And as they bow their hoary tops relate, 
 In murm'ring sounds, the dark decrees of Fate ; 
 While visions, as poetic eyes avow, 
 Cling to each leaf, and swarm on every bough. 
 
 " At the foot of one of these squats me I 
 (II Penseroso) ; and there grow to the trunk for 
 a whole morning. The timorous hare and 
 sportive squirrel gambol around me like Adam 
 in Paradise, before he had an Eve ; but I think 
 he did not use to read Virgil, as I commonly do 
 there. In this situation I often converse with 
 my Horace — aloud, too ; that is, talk to you, 
 
 F
 
 82 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 but I do not remember that I ever heard you 
 answer me." 
 
 If we want to see woods of a more formal 
 character we must look into Dropmore Park, 
 which lies to the west of Burnham. In this 
 space of ground, enclosed from the common by 
 Lord Grenville, is a magnificent collection of 
 pines and cedars. But the park is not alto- 
 gether taken up by fir-woods, for from time to 
 time we come to some spot which commands the 
 Thames valley. It is said that the view from 
 one of these terraces inspired Thomas Gray to 
 write his " Ode on a distant prospect of Eton 
 College," for hence we can — 
 
 " Th' expanse below 
 
 Of grove, of lawns, of mead, survey, 
 Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among 
 Wanders the hoary Thames along 
 His silver winding way." 
 
 On the other side of Burnham Common we 
 find Farnham Boyal. This manor was held by 
 the service of putting the glove on the right- 
 hand of the King, and supporting his arm while 
 he held the sceptre, at his coronation. When 
 the Earl of Shrewsbury exchanged the manor 
 with Henry VIII. , he retained this service. 
 Henceforward this Home in the Ferns was dis- 
 tinguished as royal. 
 
 The church was rebuilt in 18G8, and nothing
 
 NEAR BURNHAM BEECHES. 83 
 
 ancient is left, except a portion of the chancel. 
 There are, however, some old monuments; 
 amongst them a brass plate to Eustace Mar- 
 shall, who, like Yicar Messenger of Wycombe, 
 was clerk- of-the- works at the building of Christ 
 Church, Oxford, and who died in 1564. Here, 
 also, is buried Edward Chandler, the author of 
 the "Defence of Christianity." He was Bishop 
 successively of Lichfield, Lincoln, and Durham, 
 and died in 1750. Jacob Bryant, the antiquary 
 of Cippenham, also lies here. 
 
 About three miles north of Farnham Eoyal 
 we come to Hedgerley. The church stands on 
 a little hill north of the park, but has been 
 rebuilt. There is a curious brass which was 
 originally that of Thomas Totyngton, Abbot of 
 Bury St. Edmund's, who died in 1312, but was 
 appropriated in 1540, after the dissolution of 
 that abbey, for the use of Dame Margaret Bul- 
 strode. Such instances of brasses reversed and 
 used for later inscriptions are, however, not 
 unknown elsewhere. 
 
 Hedgerley is about a mile away from Bul- 
 strode Park. Here was the seat of the old 
 family of Bulstrode, one of whose daughters 
 was the mother of Bulstrode "Whitlock of Faw- 
 ley Court, the Parliamentary statesman. We 
 had something to say of that remarkable man 
 when we began our tour. There is a legend of
 
 84 THE CHILTEEN HUNDEEDS. 
 
 the family having taken their rather curious 
 name from an event in the history of one of 
 their Saxon ancestors in the days of the Con- 
 queror. The doughty thane had a strong ob- 
 jection to handing over his estates to a follower 
 of the Norman Duke, and appeared, together 
 with his seven sons, all mounted on bulls for 
 lack of horses, at the head of their men, to resist 
 the intruder. William, it is said, came to the 
 opinion that it would be better to let the right- 
 ful owner continue in possession. However 
 tli is may have been, the Bulstrodes remained 
 here till the seventeenth century, and in the year 
 168G Judge Jeffreys, of evil fame, built him- 
 self a mansion in their park. 
 
 Horace Walpole got to Bulstrode in one of 
 his Buckinghamshire tours, and this is what he 
 has to say of the house as he found it : — " A 
 melancholy monument of Dutch magnificence, 
 having a brave gallery of old pictures, and a 
 chapel with two fine windows of modern painted 
 glass ; and a ceiling formerly adorned with the 
 Assumption, or rather the presumption, of Chan- 
 cellor Jeffreys, to whom it belonged ; but a very 
 judicious fire hurried him somewhere else." 
 Jeffreys was created a baronet — Sir George 
 Jeffreys of Bulstrode — in 1681, and he was 
 visited here by James II. Bulstrode passed 
 to the Chancellor's son-in-law, Charles Dive,
 
 NEAR EUENHAM BEECHES. 85 
 
 and the old house was pulled down in this cen- 
 tury, after it had changed hands several times. 
 The "Bloody Assize," or "Jeffreys' Cam- 
 paign," as King James called it, in which the 
 unfortunate followers of the unlucky Duke of 
 Monmouth were so cruelly punished, was held 
 in 1685, and it is possible that Jeffreys built 
 his house at Bulstrode out of the ill-gotten 
 gains which he gathered in from bribes and 
 fines in the west country. 
 
 Let us turn to happier days at Bulstrode 
 than when this monster lived there. Mrs. Mon- 
 tague of " The Letters," in her maiden days, as 
 Elizabeth Robinson, here visited her friend, 
 Margaret, Duchess of Portland, the daughter of 
 the second Earl of Oxford. The two ladies be- 
 came acquainted at Wimpole, in Cambridge- 
 shire, the residence of Lord Oxford, as Miss 
 Eobinson's parents lived in the same neigh- 
 bourhood. When Lady Margaret Harley 
 married and went to live at Bulstrode, she in- 
 vited her young friend to stay with her, and 
 the visit lasted for about two years, beginning 
 in October, 1741. Miss Eobinson thus de- 
 scribes Bulstrode to her sister : — 
 
 " We arrived on Sunday at the most charm- 
 ing place I ever saw ; a very magnificent house, 
 fine gardens, and a beautiful park. A part of 
 the apartment I inhabit could make you and
 
 86 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 me a very comfortable house in the state of 
 our virginity, when we are poor old maidens." 
 
 She also enlarged on the pleasures of her life 
 here in a letter to Mr. Freind : — 
 
 " The agreeable freedom I live in, and the 
 rural beauties of the place, would persuade me 
 that I was in the plains of Arcadia; but the 
 magnificence of the building, under whose 
 gilded roofs I dwell, has a pomp far beyond 
 pastoral." 
 
 Twelve years afterwards she still keeps up 
 her interest in this pretty Buckinghamshire 
 park, for she writes to Gilbert West in 1753 : — 
 
 " I believe the menagerie at Bulstrode is ex- 
 ceedingly well worth seeing, for the Duchess of 
 Portland is as eager in collecting animals as if 
 she foresaw another deluge, and was assembling 
 every creature after its kind to preserve the 
 species." 
 
 In the park is an ancient earthwork, which 
 may have been the early home of the Bul- 
 strodes. 
 
 The present house is quite modern, and was 
 built by Edward Duke of Somerset, the mathe- 
 matical Duke, who died at the age of eighty-one, 
 in 1885. The church, in Byzantine style, which 
 stands on the common at Gerrard's Cross just 
 outside the park, is also modern. It was 
 erected in IS 02 from designs by Sir William
 
 NEAR BURNHAM BEECHES. 87 
 
 Tite, and seems perhaps a little out of place in 
 an English village. At The Ranche, close by, 
 lived Captain Mayne Eeid, the popular writer 
 of stories for boys, who died in 1883. He was 
 the son of a Presbyterian minister in Ireland, 
 and was intended for the ministry himself, but 
 found his way into the United States army. 
 
 Leaving Bulstrode, we turn westward, and 
 climbing higher up the hills, reach the little 
 town of Beaconsfield which stands on flat table- 
 land. As we enter the town we see on the 
 right-hand side Wilton Park. Here lived Mr. 
 James Du Pre, who died in 1870 at the age of 
 ninety-two, and had in the year 1802 a curious 
 experience of a borough contest in the days of 
 bribery. The borough in question was Ayles- 
 bury, and it was soon discovered that the can- 
 didate had not distributed the usual "benev- 
 olences" amongst the free and independent 
 electors. Accordingly, to his astonishment, he 
 found the members of his own party engaged 
 one day in carrying out a funeral procession, 
 which they stated was that of their deceased 
 candidate. Mr. Du Pre was obliged to give 
 way against his will, and as " benevolences " 
 were the rule, or almost the rule, in those 
 times, distributed the next day what was on 
 this occasion called "resurrection money" to 
 the amount of three guineas a head. It is need-
 
 88 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 less to say that he was returned at the top of 
 the poll. 
 
 We take a look at the pretty park as we pass, 
 and then go on into the little town, which con- 
 tains, including the outlying portions of the 
 parish, less than two thousand inhabitants. We 
 tind that it chiefly consists of two very broad 
 streets, which are lined by ancient and pleasant- 
 looking houses. At the crossing stands the 
 church, which has a tower of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, adorned with lofty pinnacles at the angles. 
 We enter the church to find the grave of 
 Edmund Burke. It is said to be in the south 
 aisle, where there is on the wall a slab with 
 inscriptions to himself and his son, his brother 
 Richard, and his wife Mary. A brass plate 
 with an inscription, now in the centre of the 
 nave, appears to have been removed from its 
 proper position over the grave. 
 
 Burke's connection with Buckinghamshire 
 began in his early political life, for he became 
 member for Wendover in 17 Go, when he was 
 thirty-five years of age. Three years later he 
 purchased the estate of Gregories, at Beacons- 
 lield, for £23,000, a large sum to be paid by a 
 man whose means were very limited. A portion 
 of the purchase-money was his own, part came 
 from William Burke, and it is probable that 
 the remainder was provided by Burke's patron,
 
 NEAR BURNHAM BEECHES. 89 
 
 the Marquis of Buckingham, to be repaid at a 
 future time, which future never came. It is 
 said that later on in his career a peerage was on 
 the point of being offered to him, and that he 
 would have taken the title of Lord Burke of 
 Beaconsfield. But his health was declining, 
 and he was completely broken by the death of 
 his only son, which event occurred in 1794. 
 Three years later the body of the father was 
 laid beside that of the younger man. There 
 was a large gathering of distinguished persons 
 in Beaconsfield Church at the funeral of the 
 great orator, for the pall-bearers were the Duke 
 of Portland, Earl Fitzwilliam, the Bight Hon. 
 William Wyndham, Lord Chancellor Lough- 
 borough, Addington, Speaker of the House of 
 Commons, the Duke of Devonshire, the Earl 
 of Inchiquin, and Sir Gilbert Elliot, afterwards 
 Lord Minto. 
 
 Another distinguished man lies outside 
 Beaconsfield Church, for on the south-east side 
 of the churchyard we see the large and taste- 
 less monument of Edmund Waller, the poet. 
 It is in the form of a lofty pyramid, with four 
 funereal urns at the corners, and the whole 
 rests on a square block over which is draped 
 a pall in black marble. 
 
 On the west side of the church we see the 
 picturesque remains of the old rectory, a timber-
 
 90 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 framed house in black and white. William 
 Barons, who was Master of the Eolls in 1502, 
 and who negotiated the marriage treaty 
 between Prince Arthur and Katharine of 
 Arragon, and succeeded Warn am as Bishop 
 of London in 1504, was Eector of Beacons- 
 field. 
 
 There is not much to see besides the church 
 in the town itself, so we will pass out to look 
 at the houses, or rather the sites of the 
 houses, of the two men whose tombs we have 
 just now visited. The country close round 
 Beaconsfield is not particularly beautiful in 
 itself, for the town stands in the middle of a 
 level though elevated plain, and consequently 
 the three parks which surround it, "Wilton, 
 Gregories, and Hall Barns, are all somewhat flat. 
 Gregories, sometimes called Butler's Court, lies 
 to the north-west of the town. Of the house 
 once occupied by Burke nothing is left, but a 
 large shapeless mound marks its site. It was 
 burnt down in 1813. Behind, however, still 
 stand, in ruins, the stables. They are over- 
 hung by a cedar and a magnificent chestnut. 
 Dark fir woods back them up. It is a gloomy 
 corner of the park, which is moreover just here 
 cut up into small closes. Hither Burke re- 
 turned from Bath to die. The few years which 
 had elapsed since the death of his son had been
 
 NEAR BURNHAM BEECHES. 91 
 
 a time of depression and gloom. It is said that 
 he could never bear even to look towards the 
 church where his hopes lay buried, and when 
 driving to London he went round by a side lane 
 to avoid passing beneath its shadow. 
 
 In happier days he had received at Gregories 
 Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Eeynolds. Upon 
 one occasion the latter happened to go with his 
 host into the house of his bailiff, Mr. Eolfe. 
 The President of the Eoyal Academy noticed a 
 remarkably fine child sprawling on the floor, 
 and obtained permission to immortalize young 
 Eolfe as the model for his well-known "Infant 
 Hercules." 
 
 Due south of the town we find Hall Barns, 
 where lived Edmund Waller, who was born at 
 Coleshill, an outlying part of Hertfordshire 
 immediately to the north of Beaconsfield, in 
 1G05, but did not take up his residence here in 
 the house which he built for himself, until the 
 time of the Commonwealth. From the age of 
 sixteen, as he has told us, until extreme old age, 
 he frequently sat in Parliament as member for 
 the Buckinghamshire boroughs of Amersham 
 or High Wycombe. One can hardly say that 
 there is anything of local colouring in Waller's 
 poems. In those days our poets did not often 
 draw their imagery from the surrounding 
 natural scenery. Milton was perhaps an ex-
 
 92 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 ception. We shall have opportunity of ex- 
 amining into that question when we arrive at 
 the house of the great poet at Horton. His 
 eyes had been closed to the beauties of nature 
 for many years at the time of his second sojourn 
 in Buckinghamshire, at Chalfont. 
 
 The present house at Hall Barns is almost 
 altogether modern. The oldest part is the en- 
 trance hall. We, however, find here some 
 traces of Waller. An obelisk which he put up 
 to commemorate the completion of the beech 
 avenue, bears on it an inscription which states 
 that a former Waller took prisoner at Agincourt 
 Charles, Duke of Orleans, who was brought to 
 England by his captor and lived with him at 
 Groomsbridge. The poet evidently delighted 
 in finding incidents in his family history. A 
 relic connected with Edmund Burke is also 
 preserved at the modern Hall Barns, it is the 
 dagger, supposed to be of foreign manufacture, 
 which the orator flung down on the floor of the 
 House of Commons. He had been speaking 
 about the French Eevolution and its dangers. 
 " We must keep, sir," he said, " French dag- 
 gers from our throats." As he spoke he flung 
 the weapon, with which he had provided him- 
 self, from his hand. He intended the action 
 to be tragic, but Sheridan, alas ! turned it 
 into comedy. " The honourable member has
 
 NEAR BURNHAM LEECHES. 93 
 
 brought the knife," exclaimed the wit, "but 
 where is the fork ? " 
 
 North of Beaconsfield the ground rises con- 
 siderably, and about three miles from the town 
 we come to the village of Penn, which occupies 
 a high point overlooking the valley of the 
 Wyck. From this village the family of William 
 Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, took its 
 name, and in the Perpendicular church we find 
 monuments and brasses of that family and of 
 those of Curzon and Eok. Eichard, Earl Howe, 
 one of our greatest naval officers, and the victor 
 in the famous fight on " the glorious first of 
 June," 1794, has left his name at Penn. His 
 daughter, Sophia, who inherited her father's 
 title, which was a creation passing through 
 females in defect of male heirs, married into 
 the Curzon family of Penn Howe, which we 
 may see a little farther to the north. The 
 Curzons had succeeded the Penn family by the 
 marriage of Sir Nathaniel Curzon with the 
 heiress of the Penns. We shall have more to 
 do with William Penn the Quaker when we 
 come to the Chalfonts. The house is an ancient 
 one of brick. 
 
 We have now explored the western slopes 
 of the Hundred of Burnham, and have reached 
 the highest ground. Prom the tower of Penn 
 Church it is said that not only Windsor Castle
 
 94 THE CHILTEEN HUNDREDS. 
 
 but portions of twelve counties can be seen. 
 We are now going to cross the bills eastward 
 and make our way to the pretty valleys which 
 run down the eastern sides of the hills to 
 the borders of the county and the river 
 Coin.
 
 CHAPTEB Y. 
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE MISBOTTRN. 
 
 Course of the Misbourn — Amersham — Market-house, Church, and 
 Monuments — Bishop Grey — Walter d'Agmondesham — Ed- 
 mund Waller - Algernon Sidney — Shardeloes — Chalf ont — The 
 Vache, G-ardyners, and Fleetwoods — Sir Thomas Clayton — 
 Bishop Hare — Sir Hugh Palliser — Church of St. Giles — Oliver 
 Cromwell — John Milton — Thomas Ell wood — Horace Walpole 
 — The Grove — Jordans Meeting House — William Penn — The 
 Grange — Isaac Penington. 
 
 We now pass over the hills which hem in Bea- 
 consfield on the north, and make for the pretty 
 valley of the Misbourn which runs through the 
 centre of the upper portion of the Hundred of 
 Burnham. This is one of those pleasant streams 
 of which we find so many a one flowing — 
 
 " Through quiet meadows 'round the mill," 
 
 as we cross and recross the Chiltern hills. It 
 is also the most important, for it rises on the 
 high ground near Hampden, and has a com- 
 paratively long course for a wholly Bucking- 
 hamshire river before it joins the Coin at Den- 
 ham. The valley itself is green with many a
 
 96 THE CHILTERN HUNDEEDS. 
 
 meadow and park, and is bordered by beech- 
 clothed hills. 
 
 We come, when we have passed Coleshill 
 and the birthplace of Edmund Waller, to the 
 quiet little town of Aniersham, or as it was 
 once called, Agmondesham. These hill-towns 
 of South Buckinghamshire are all alike in this, 
 that they consist mainly of one long wide street, 
 which is often planted with trees. There is 
 also usually a cross street of considerably less 
 length. In the centre of the town and extend- 
 ing half-way across the broad street stands a 
 red-brick market-house of the date 1682, with 
 open arcades below, and a curious turret rising 
 above its tiled roof. Turning round to the 
 north at the market-house, we come to the 
 church, rather a fine building, the exterior 
 symmetry of which has, however, been sadly 
 marred by the addition on the north side of a 
 huge burial chamber which stretches out be- 
 yond the east end of the chancel. 
 
 Within we find that the church is full of the 
 monuments of the Drakes of Shardeloes. We 
 shall walk on to Shardeloes Park when we have 
 finished with the town. We first look at those 
 monuments which are in the chancel, which 
 portion of the church is lofty and lighted by 
 clerestory windows on the south side. The 
 Drake monuments date from 1623. Amongst
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE MISBOURN. 97 
 
 them, however, is that of a member of another 
 family, and a very curious monument it is. 
 It represents a boy of fourteen, Henry Cur wen, 
 who belonged to an old family at Workington, 
 in Cumberland, and who died at the Eectory 
 House in 1G36, while a pupil of Dr. Cruke, the 
 
 The Market House, Amershain. 
 
 Rector. The figure is that of a thin and long- 
 faced individual who stands, clad in a dressing 
 gown, in a sort of closet, with his hand resting 
 on a globe. The poor boy looks as if he might 
 have died from overwork while in the Doctor's 
 hands. The sculptor of this remarkable and 
 melancholy looking figure was Edward Mar- 
 
 o
 
 98 THE CH1LTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 shall, and the date of the work is 1638. On 
 each side, against the wall, stand many repre- 
 sentations of departed Drakes, some of them 
 in the huge wigs of the time of William III. 
 A door in the north wall of the chancel leads 
 to the chapel or burial chamber which we have 
 already mentioned. This also is filled with 
 monuments of the same family. The largest is 
 by Scheemacher. It was erected to Montague 
 Drake, who died in 1728. The figures and 
 cherubim are good examples of the art of the 
 day. A more pleasing monument is a figure 
 by Weekes, the Academician, of the date 1834. 
 Beyond this chapel, and still farther to the 
 north, is the vestry, a large building, which also 
 contains many monuments of the Drakes. But 
 amongst these examples of sepulchral monu- 
 ments, we must not fail to take notice of the 
 west window of the chancel, which contains 
 figures of Apostles and Evangelists, and is a 
 curious and interesting specimen of the stained 
 glass of 1610. It was removed here from 
 Lamer Manor House, in Hertfordshire, in 
 1761. Those who take an interest in brasses 
 also will notice many to members of the 
 family of Brudenel, of the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries. 
 
 William Grey, a distinguished Bishop of 
 Ely, was Ecctor of Amersham about the year
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE MISBOURN. 99 
 
 1437. He was also High Treasurer of England, 
 and died at the Episcopal Palace at Downham, 
 in the Isle of Ely, in 1748, having done much 
 towards the improvement and restoration of his 
 Cathedral Church. At Hanger Hill, in the 
 year 1713, died Thomas Ell wood, the friend 
 of John Milton, whom we shall come across 
 again at Chalfont. Walter de Agmondesham, 
 who was Chancellor of England and was ap- 
 pointed by Edward I. to settle, in conjunction 
 with the Bishop of Caithness, the rights of the 
 various claimants for the crown of Scotland 
 after the death of the Maid of Norway, was a 
 native of this place. So also was John of 
 Amersham, a monk of St. Albans, and a great 
 friend of the famous Abbot Wheathamstead. 
 He is described by Fuller in his " Worthies/' 
 as " pious, painful, and a profound scholar." 
 
 Edmund Waller was baptized in Amersham 
 Church on the 9th of March, 1G05, and, as 
 we have noticed, states that he sat for the 
 Borough at the age of sixteen ! Algernon 
 Sidney, the brother of Dorothy Sidney the 
 Poet's " Saccharissa," also sat for Amersham 
 not many years before his execution in 1683. 
 
 We go on up the street westward, passing 
 many an old house on our way. On our left 
 we see some picturesque alms-houses, sur- 
 rounding a little court, which were built, as an
 
 100 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 inscription over the gate informs ns, in the 
 year 1657 by Sir William Drake. Farther on, 
 and on the same side of the road, we pass a 
 curious gabled-house, the last one in the street, 
 which is called Little Shardeloes. A mile 
 farther we come to Shardeloes Park, which runs 
 high up on to the hills. At the foot of the hill 
 stands the mansion, which was designed by 
 Adams. It has a large portico with a pediment, 
 and small square windows in the fashion of the 
 middle part of the last century, which were so 
 much affected by the builders of the " Adelphi." 
 Theirs was not a cheerful style of architecture, 
 and the valley of the Misbourn deserves larger 
 windows through which to look out on its 
 beauties. The grounds were laid out by 
 another much employed designer of the time, 
 Bichmond. An older Manor House at Shard- 
 eloes was the occasional residence of Queen 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 There are two interesting villages farther 
 down the valley, those of Chalfont St. Giles 
 and Chalfont St. Peter. Chalfont St. Giles is 
 about three miles from Amersham, and as we 
 approach the village we see on the left hand 
 the large park known as The Vache. Here 
 lived the family of De la Yache, who also had 
 property in Oxfordshire and elsewhere, but of 
 whom we find traces on this spot from at least
 
 THE ViLLEY OF THE MISBOUEN. 101 
 
 jf <^y 
 
 4 
 
 *^V/ 
 
 
 ■ ?*V- ~1 
 
 
 & 
 
 
 
 
 
 :--- 
 
 * 
 
 !* 
 
 SI 
 
 o 
 
 
 Pfe i 
 
 .•~ 

 
 102 THE CHILTEEX HUXDEEDS. 
 
 the middle of the fourteenth century. In 1505, 
 however, the Chalfont property was sold to 
 the Crayfords, and a few years afterwards the 
 Crayfords sold it to William Gardyner. The 
 son of this William Gardyner married the 
 heiress of the other principal estate in Chal- 
 font — the Grove — and the family thus became 
 the chief landowners in the parish. In 1564, 
 however, The Vache was sold to Thomas 
 Fleetwood, Master of the Mint, and the Gar- 
 dyners henceforth resided at The Grove. 
 
 We have now come to the Fleetwoods, a 
 family better known than their predecessors, 
 the Gardyners, for Charles Fleetwood, great- 
 grandson of the purchaser of The Vache, mar- 
 ried, about 1553, Bridget, daughter of Oliver 
 Cromwell and widow of General Ireton, and 
 became General of the Parliamentary army, 
 and afterwards Lord Deputy of Ireland. His 
 elder half-brother George was also an officer 
 in the forces of the Parliament, and was one of 
 those who signed the death-warrant of Charles I. 
 He was, after the Eestoration, brought to trial 
 and pleaded guilty. With great difficulty his 
 life was saved, and he retired to Xew England, 
 where he died. 
 
 But it was a younger branch of the Fleet- 
 woods which was more particularly connected 
 with Chalfont, for the fifth son of Thomas, the
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE MISBOURX. 103 
 
 founder of the family here in Buckinghamshire, 
 succeeded his father at The Yache. This son, 
 who was the first Sir George Fleetwood, had 
 a grandson, also named George, and like his 
 cousin, the George whom we mentioned before, 
 a distinguished Puritan officer and a regicide. 
 He also was tried for high treason in 16 61, 
 and escaped with difficulty. 
 
 William, the seventh and youngest son of 
 the first Sir George Fleetwood, was a Eoyalist. 
 He acted as Chaplain to the King's army, and 
 was entrusted with the care of the young 
 princes, Charles and James, at the battle of 
 Edgehill. After the Eestoration he was made 
 Chaplain to Charles II. He was presented to 
 the rectory of Denham, the next parish to 
 Chalfont, in 1669, and also became Provost of 
 King's College, Cambridge. Finally he was 
 consecrated Bishop of Worcester in 1675. 
 There he died, in 1683, at the age of eighty- 
 one. 
 
 A rector of Amersham, Benjamin Eobert- 
 shaw, has inserted some notes about the Puri- 
 tan families in his neighbourhood in his 
 register, where we read as follows: — 
 
 "1655. October ye 12. Edward Cutler, 
 the late Eegister then died, and was buried 
 the 11th day of the same month." 
 
 " October ye 19th. Paul Ford was then
 
 104 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 lawfully elected Eegister, and sworne by 
 ffrancis Russell, Esqe., Justice of the Peace, 
 the 20th of the same month. This Francis 
 Russell lived at ye Hill Farm, in ye Parish of 
 Chalfont St. Giles, and on ye confines of this 
 Parish : he was one of Oliver's Justices, and a 
 tit man for ye times. I knew his son, a kind 
 of Non. Con., who came to poverty and sold ye 
 Farm. General Fleetwood lived at Ye Yache, 
 and Russell on ye opposite Hill, and Mrs. 
 Cromwell, Oliver's Wife, and her daughters, at 
 Woodrow, High House, where afterwards lived 
 ( aptain James Thompson, so ye whole country 
 Avas kept in awe, and became exceeding zealous 
 and very fanatical, nor is ye poison yet eradi- 
 cated. But ye Whartons are gone, and ye 
 llampdens agoing. — B. R. 1730." There is a 
 little doubt as to whether "Wharton" is the 
 last name but one to be read, for the register 
 is not just here very legible. 
 
 The rebellion of the second George Fleet- 
 wood brought to an end the connection of his 
 family with The Yache. Although his life was 
 - ared, the estates were confiscated and given 
 to the King's brother, the Duke of York, who 
 sold them to Sir Thomas Clayton, Warden of 
 Mcrton College at Oxford, who was related 
 by marriage to the Fleetwoods. Sir Thomas 
 Clayton was in principle more like William
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE MISBOURN. lOo 
 
 than George Fleetwood, for, while residing at 
 The Vache, he made himself very zealous, as a 
 magistrate, against the Quakers, who were at 
 that time in the habit of meeting at The 
 Grange. He was appointed Warden of Merton 
 in 1GG0, and died at The Vache on the 4th 
 of October, 1G93, but was "buried on the 8th 
 of October near the body of his sometime Lady, 
 in a little vault of bricks, under the Belfrey or 
 Tower" of his College Chapel. He was suc- 
 ceeded by his son, James Clayton, who, dying 
 in 1714, left the estate to his wife, and she 
 passed it on to her niece, Margaret Alston, 
 who married Francis Hare, Dean of St. Paul's 
 and Bishop of Chichester, and thus brought a 
 new family to The Yache. Dr. Hare had been 
 chaplain to the Duke of Marlborough, and had 
 been present at the battles of Blenheim and 
 Bamillies. He died in 1740, and was laid in 
 a burial-place constructed on the south side of 
 the church. In 1771 The Yache was sold by 
 the Hares to a distinguished naval officar, 
 Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, who was one of the 
 principals in a serious professional dispute in 
 the last century. Sir Hugh and his brother 
 admiral, Keppel, quarrelled as to the conduct 
 of the former in their attack on the French 
 fleet off Ushant in 1778, and as they were both 
 in Parliament, naval tactics and political ques-
 
 106 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 tions were mixed up together. A court-martial 
 was held ou Keppel, but after a trial of thirty- 
 two days he was acquitted, and the mob in 
 London, with whom he was the hero, attacked 
 and raided Sir Hugh Palliser's house in Pall 
 Mall. The monument at The Vache to the 
 memory of Captain Cooke, the famous navigator 
 and discoverer, was erected by Sir Hugh. 
 
 There is now nothing old left about the 
 mansion, famous though it is on account of its 
 former occupants, so we will pass on into the 
 village, and to the church, the history of which, 
 as well as that of the parish, has been written 
 by the Eector, the Rev. P. W. Phipps. It is 
 a very interesting building both in itself and 
 for the monuments which it contains. Many 
 of these have to do with the families who in 
 turn owned The Vache. The walls, we notice, 
 are composed of flint stones and blocks of 
 chalk or clunch, for we are still on the borders 
 of the downs, and there is perhaps some con- 
 nection between the first half of the name 
 Chalfont and the British chilt. We can find 
 remains of Norman work here and there, but 
 much has been cut away when the building 
 was remodelled in Decorated and Perpendicular 
 times. On the walls are remains of frescoes, 
 which have, however, been partly covered over 
 by later paintings. For instance, the Ten
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE MISBOURN. 107 
 
 Commandments have been painted across a 
 fresco above the chancel arch, and we may find 
 portions of texts which have covered the earlier 
 pictures in other places as well. The frescoes 
 are chieflv along the southern side. Near the 
 chantry chapel of the Gardyner family of The 
 Grove we see the Blessed Virgin delivering 
 a soul from purgatory, which is represented 
 somewhat in the form of a baker's oven. Near 
 the south door is a representation of the Cruci- 
 fixion, and beyond this are some groups which 
 are supposed to represent the daughter of 
 Herodias first dancing in front of a banqueting 
 table, and then carrying the head of the Baptist 
 in the charger. We may notice that the young 
 lady is represented as standing on her head 
 and kicking her nether limbs in the air. This 
 was a favourite attitude with mediaeval artists 
 in which to represent this dancing girl who 
 was supposed to have amused King Herod and 
 his court with the antics of a tumbler at a fair. 
 From the net head-dresses and other peculiari- 
 ties of the costumes of the female figures, it is 
 probable that these pictures are of about the 
 middle of the fourteenth century, the date of 
 the rebuilding of this south aisle. The fittings 
 in the church are of various dates. There is 
 a Norman font with square base and basin, 
 connected by a stout circular central column.
 
 108 THE CHILTERX HUNDREDS. 
 
 The four corner shafts of marble are restora- 
 tions, but a portion of one of the original ones 
 was afterwards discovered buried in a wall. 
 The alms-box, supported on a baluster shaft, 
 is of Jacobean work, and the Holy Table, which 
 now stands in the vestry, is of the same date. 
 The altar rails, of fine old oak, with richly 
 carved foliage instead of balusters, were the 
 gift of Bishop Hare. They are said to have 
 come from St. Paul's, for Dr. Ilare was. as we 
 have said, Dean of that cathedral. The church 
 was completely, perhaps almost too completely, 
 restored by Sir G. E. Street, E.A., from 1801 
 to 1807, when some of the later windows, which 
 marked points in the history of the building, 
 were taken out, and some of the old monuments 
 destroyed. 
 
 It is time to pass on to these monuments. 
 There are many old brasses, one of which is a 
 Palimpsest, such as that which we noticed at 
 Hedgerley. It was first used for Thomas and 
 Ann Brcdham in 1521, and then employed to 
 commemorate John Salter and Elizabeth his 
 wife in 1G2G. Those of the Gardyner family 
 are to be found at the east end of the south 
 aisle. Here we have AVilliam Gardyner, 
 together with his wife Anne, who was one of 
 the family of Newdigate from Hareneld, not far 
 off, and their five sons and three daughters, a
 
 THE VALLEY OE THE S1ISB0UHN. 109 
 
 very interesting and well-engraved set of effi- 
 gies. It is of the date 1558. Then we come, 
 in the chancel, to the altar-tomb of Thomas 
 Fleetwood, his two wives, and his eighteen 
 children. This was the Fleetwood who pur- 
 chased The Yache from the Gardyners in 15G4. 
 There is also in the chancel the slab of the 
 monument of James Clayton, the son of 
 Thomas Clayton the Warden of Merton Col- 
 lege. This is the tomb which was broken up 
 at the restoration in 18G1. We have to hunt 
 about in the vestry and elsewhere for its frag- 
 ments. It was probably a fine example of 
 early eighteenth-century work, for James 
 Clayton died in 1714. The Fleetwoods' tomb 
 opposite was also on the point of being 
 removed ! 
 
 There had been other destroyers of the church 
 before these iconoclasts of our own day aj> 
 peared, for Oliver Cromwell once visited 
 Chalfont, and resided at Stone House, then 
 occupied by the family of Eadcliffe. He was 
 not unaccompanied, and the soldiers who were 
 with him, and who were encamped in the 
 Silsden Meadow, close to the church, amused 
 themselves by firing at the sacred building. 
 Their target was the east window of the 
 chancel, which still bears marks of ill-usage, 
 and the balls which the Roundheads discharged
 
 110 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 have, some of them, "been found embedded in 
 the oaken roof. 
 
 But we have not yet mentioned the most 
 distinguished name which we may connect 
 Avith Chalfont St. Giles. AVe leave the church, 
 and, passing up the village street, presently 
 arrive at a small, timber-framed house, some 
 few hundred years old. Here it was that John 
 Milton came to live for a few months in the 
 year 1665, soon after his marriage with his 
 third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, and when he 
 was about fifty-seven years of age. The house 
 has been altered since the clays of the poet. 
 A porch which ran up to the first floor was 
 taken down about fifty years ago, and the large 
 chimney which abuts on the street has been 
 rebuilt. The large window of the principal 
 room still remains, however, probably in the 
 same state in which it was when the blind poet 
 may have sat there to bask in the sun. for 
 this is the apartment traditionally known as 
 "Milton's Boom." Some of the old fittings 
 still remain in the house, as, for instance, in 
 the room on the other side of the entrance, 
 where we may see an old wooden mantel-piece. 
 
 Milton came to this retired Buckinghamshire 
 village when anxious to be away from London 
 on account of the plague ; but he had a reason 
 for choosing this particular spot. Thomas
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE MISEOUEN. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Ell wood, the Quaker, his young reader and 
 pupil, was at the time living at Chalfont, and 
 the poet requested him to find him a lodging 
 in the village. Ellwood has himself given us 
 an account of the visit to Chalfont, and of his 
 first reading of "Paradise Lost," and his sug- 
 
 ]Uilton's House, Chalfont. 
 
 gestion that there should also be a "Paradise 
 Regained." 
 
 " Some little time before I went to Ayles- 
 bury Prison," he writes, " I was desired by my 
 quondam master, Milton, to take a house for 
 him in the neighbourhood where I dwelt, that 
 he might go out of the city for the safety of 
 himself and his family; the pestilence in 1GG5
 
 112 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 then growing hot in London. I took a pretty 
 box for him in St. Giles's, Chalfont, a mile 
 from me, of which I gave him notice. Being 
 now released and returned home, I soon made 
 a visit to him, to welcome him into the country. 
 After some common discourse had passed 
 between us, he called for a manuscript of his, 
 which, being brought, he delivered to me, 
 bidding me take it home with me, and read it 
 at my leisure, and when I had so done, return 
 it to him, with my judgment thereupon. When 
 I came home, and had set myself to read it, I 
 found that it was that excellent poem which 
 he entitled ' Paradise Lost.' After I had, with 
 the lest attention, read it through, I made him 
 another visit, and returned him his book, with 
 due acknowledgment of the favour he had 
 done me. He asked me how I liked, and 
 what I thought of it ; which I modestly, but 
 freely, told him — and after some further dis- 
 course about it, I pleasantly said to him, 
 ' Thou hast said much here of Paradise Lost ; 
 but what hast thou to say to Paradise Found ? ' 
 He made me no answer, but sat some time in a 
 muse ; then broke off that discourse, and fell 
 upon another subject. After the sickness was 
 over, and the city well cleansed, and become 
 safely habitable again, he returned thither ; 
 and when afterwards I went to wait on him
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE MISBOUKN. 113 
 
 there, lie showed his second poem, called 
 'Paradise Regained,' and, in a pleasant tone, 
 said to me, ' This is owing to you, for you put 
 it into my head by the question you put to me 
 at Chalfont, which before I had no thought of.' " 
 
 There was dread of the terrible pestilence even 
 in this healthy village — and more than dread, 
 suspicion also, for we read entries in the parish 
 register for the year 16G5 to the following 
 effect : — " Aug. 26th. A stranger was buried 
 out of ye Yatch ffamily, suppost to die of ye 
 Plague." And, " Sept. 3rd. John, ye son of 
 Obadiah Heywood, was buried, 'tis suppos'd 
 he died of ye sickness." 
 
 About a hundred years later another writer, 
 but of very different character to Milton, paid 
 occasional visits to these villages, for Horace 
 Walpoleat times came to stay with his brother- 
 in-law, Charles Churchill, at Chalfont House, 
 and has left an account of many places in the 
 neighbourhood, written in his delightful chatty 
 fashion. General Churchill's house was on the 
 London side of Chalfont St. Peter. 
 
 Nearly half-way between the two Chalfonts 
 is The Grove, to which, as we have seen, the 
 Gardyners removed after the sale of The Vache. 
 The house is, however, quite modern. Behind 
 The Grove, about a mile to the west, and 
 situated in a pretty little coombe, we find an 
 
 H
 
 114 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 interesting place, the old Quakers' Meeting 
 House and Burial Ground, called Jordans. 
 Here, amongst the graves of many of "The 
 Friends," we find those of Isaac Penington, 
 who died in 1679 ; of Thomas Ell wood, who 
 died at Hanger Hill, near Amersham, in 1713 ; 
 and of the chief man amongst the Quakers of 
 those days, William Penn, the founder of 
 Pennsylvania, who died at Kuscombe, near 
 Twyford, in Berkshire, in 1718. His two 
 wives and five of his children also lie here. 
 "William Penn does not seem to have had any 
 fixed abode in this part of Buckinghamshire, 
 but in 1G72, after his first marriage, he settled 
 at Eickmansworth, which is on the borders of 
 Hertfordshire, and only a few miles distant on 
 the other side of the Coin. From this place he 
 would be able to visit his friends and relations 
 at Chalfont. 
 
 Let us go on to The Grange, which lies just 
 on the other side of the village of Chalfont 
 St. Peter. The church of St. Peter need not 
 detain us long on our way. It is a red-brick 
 erection of the last century, which contains, 
 however, some early brasses removed from the 
 old church. The Grange Ave find to be a 
 modern house, but memories of the Quakers of 
 the time of Charles II. cluster round it. It 
 was the abode of Alderman Penington, who
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE MISBOURN. 
 
 115 
 
 was one of the judges of Charles I., but it was 
 given up by the Alderman to his son Isaac at 
 the time of the marriage of the latter with 
 Lady Springett, the widow of Sir W. Springett. 
 William Penn's first wife was the daughter 
 of Lady Springett by her first husband — hence 
 his connection with Chalfont, and probably his 
 
 t! 59 
 
 3ff 
 
 
 
 
 ^Pl- ■■ 
 
 Jordans Meeting House. 
 
 settlement at Kickmansworth. To The Grange 
 came also Thomas Ellwood, and hither, perhaps, 
 Milton occasionally came while living in the 
 "pretty box » at Chalfont St. Giles. 
 
 Isaac Penington and Thomas Ellwood suffered 
 considerably for their opinions. We have 
 already read that Ellwood records that he was
 
 116 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 unable to visit Milton when the latter first 
 arrived at Chalfont, on account of his enforced 
 sojourn in Aylesbury gaol. He had been, with 
 several others, attending the funeral of a 
 Quaker at Amersham, when the party was 
 suddenly arrested by a magistrate, one Ambrose 
 Bennett, who was on his way to Aylesbury 
 Sessions. Ellwood was after a time released, 
 but Penington and others remained in prison. 
 Isaac Penington, it seems, never returned to 
 The Grange at Chalfont. The house had, after 
 the confiscation of his father's estates on account 
 of the part which the Alderman had taken in 
 the trial of the King, been given by Charles II. 
 to the Duke of Grafton, and the son had only 
 been allowed to remain there on sufferance. 
 During his imprisonment his wife and children 
 were ejected. 
 
 At Denham the Misbourn joins the Coin, 
 but we will leave that place for a future 
 excursion.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE CHESS. 
 
 Chesham Church and Monuments — Source of the Chess — The Bury 
 — Chesham Bois — Latimers — Horace Walpole's Account of 
 the Place— The Church— Chenies— The Village Green— The 
 Manor-House— John Russell — His Exploits and his Honours 
 —The Church— The Russell Chapel— Effigies and Historical 
 Groups— The Earls and the First Duke— Lord William Rus- 
 sell — Other Monuments and Brasses. 
 
 The little river Chess, whose valley we are 
 now about to enter, has but a short course. It 
 rises in the high ground above Chesham, and 
 enters the Coin at Rickmansworth. But what 
 the valley loses in length it makes up for in 
 beauty, and we shall find round the village of 
 Chenies some of the prettiest woodland and 
 river scenery in the county, the Thames valley 
 only excepted. 
 
 "We have now arrived at the easternmost 
 border of the Hundred of Burnham, which 
 stretches in a bow shape from the Thames to 
 Hertfordshire, and here, on the edge of the 
 county, we find the little town known as 
 the Home on the Chess. Chesham differs from
 
 118 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 Beaconsfield and Amersham in appearance, in- 
 asmuch as it does not altogether consist of one 
 long street, but is clustered around its hand- 
 some church, which stands on a hill almost in 
 the centre. Let us visit the church, for there 
 is not much more to be seen in the town, with 
 the exception of some old houses, unless we 
 are interested in the manufacture of chairs 
 and other articles formed from the wood 
 of the beech-trees which grow so plentifully 
 all around. "We enter by a fine Decorated 
 south porch, and find ourselves in a building 
 not only architecturally interesting, but also 
 containing many monuments well worth notice. 
 A sort of south transept is the burial place of 
 the family of Cavendish of Latimers, and the 
 archway into the chancel has been bricked up. 
 In this chapel we see the tomb of Sir John 
 Cavendish, son of the Earl of Devon, a good 
 example of early seventeenth-century style, 
 and decorated according to the taste of the 
 period with emblems of death, such as spade, 
 scythe, and sculls, bound together by a tan- 
 gled ribbon. This monument of 1618 con- 
 trasts very well with one of rather more than 
 a hundred years' later date, which stands close 
 by. This last is to the memory of Mary, wife 
 of Sir Thomas Whichcote, who died in 1728. 
 The artistic instinct in this case does not run
 
 THE VALLEY OE THE CHESS. 119 
 
 beyond a tall meaningless pyramid, with a me- 
 dallion of the lady inserted at the base. In 
 the chancel we can also compare monuments of 
 different dates. Note, for instance, the coloured 
 effigy of Eichard Woodcock, represented 
 preaching in his pulpit, and contrast this work 
 of 1G23 with a mourning figure, by Bacon, on 
 the monument to Nicholas Skottowe and Grace 
 his wife, who died in 1798 and 1792 respec- 
 tively. There is more life and vigour about 
 the quaintly conceived representation of the 
 parson than there is about the cold classical 
 correctness of the work of the later sculptor. 
 Then, for a different style of work, look at the 
 mural tablet to Eichard Bowie, who died in 
 1G2G, and note its coloured and well-worked 
 frame. 
 
 When we have finished with the church 
 and its monuments, we shall perhaps stroll out 
 of the town into the Bury Park, and look for 
 the sources of the Chess amongst the water- 
 cress beds which fill the bottom of the valley. 
 The stream rises with great force out of the 
 chalk, and is able very soon to begin its work 
 of turning mill-wheels, in addition to its orna- 
 mental duty of forming a lake in the park. 
 The Bury House stands close to the church. 
 It is a red-brick building of about the end of 
 the seventeenth century or a little later, stand-
 
 120 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 ing in a good position on the side of the 
 hill. 
 
 Passing out of the town southwards, we 
 soon arrive at the outlying chapelry of Chesham 
 Bois, once the property of the family of De 
 Bosco, and afterwards of that of Cheyne. In 
 the much-restored church we find the tomb of 
 Sir John Cheyne, who presented "Judicious " 
 Hooker to the Eectory of Drayton Beauchamp, 
 which is on the other side of Aylesbury. 
 
 We go on down the valley past several mills, 
 until we come to a spot where the hills rise a 
 little more steeply, and here we have on the 
 one side Latimers and on the other Chenies. 
 Let us visit the former place first. The house 
 at Latimers stands pleasantly in the pretty park 
 which runs down to the river, here dammed 
 up so as to form a lake. Its stands on the site 
 of a former mansion to which Charles I. was 
 brought as a prisoner by the army. His son 
 also slept here for a night when escaping to 
 the Continent. Horace Walpole has given us 
 some description of the old house and its sur- 
 roundings. He writes on the 28th September, 
 1749, to his friend Mr. Montague, of a visit 
 which he had been making to Harry Conway 
 at Latimers. " This house which they have 
 hired is large, and bad, and old, but of a bad 
 age ; finely situated on a hill in a beech- wood,
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE CHESS. 121 
 
 witji a river at the bottom, and a range of hills 
 and woods on the opposite side, belonging to 
 the Duke Bedford. They are fond of it. The 
 view is melancholy." He was at Latimers 
 again six years afterwards, but was not much 
 better pleased with the place, for he writes, "I 
 have lived here formerly with Mr. Conwa}^, 
 but it is much improved since ; yet the river 
 stops short at an hundred yards just under 
 your eye, and the house has undergone Batty- 
 Langley discipline ; half of the ornaments are 
 of his bastard Gothic, and half of Hallett's mon- 
 grel Chinese. I want to write over the doors 
 of most modern edifices, ' Bepaired and beau- 
 tified, Langley and Hallett, Churchwardens.' 
 The great dining-room is hung with the paper 
 of my staircase, but not shaded properly like 
 mine." 
 
 The church stands near the house. It has 
 suffered much from restorers, and there is 
 hardly anything left of the old building. In 
 1749 Benjamin Hynmers left money for its 
 repair, and it has been almost rebuilt since 
 then. There are several good modern stained- 
 glass windows, one of which is to the memory 
 of Bector Burgess, who was for thirty-two 
 years at Latimers and the next parish Flaun- 
 den, which is in Hertfordshire. The window 
 was erected by the clergy of the rural deanery.
 
 122 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 There is also a marble block which has on it a 
 long inscription in Latin, in eulogy of an 
 actress named Mary Campion, who died at the 
 age of nineteen, and is here buried. The 
 monument was set up by George Duke of 
 Devonshire. 
 
 On the opposite side of the valley we see 
 the woods of Chenies. We leave the river and 
 take a path which runs up through these woods. 
 It leads us to a pretty village green, shadowed 
 by large trees and surrounded by trim cottages. 
 In the centre is a well. The whole place, we 
 cannot fail to notice, is well-cared for. "We 
 pass out of the green on the western side, and 
 before us we see the tall twisted chimneys of 
 an ancient manor-house. This is the building 
 which the first Earl of Bedford erected on the 
 site of the old home of the family of Cheyne 
 who had been here and in the neighbourhood 
 for many a year. We may remember that we 
 came across the tomb of Sir John Cheyne at 
 Chesham Bois. The full designation of the 
 parish is Isenshampstead Cheynes, but the 
 place-name has been lost, and that of the family 
 alone remains. We shall look in vain for any 
 features of the older mansion in the ivy-clad 
 building before us. As Leland, writing about 
 the year 1538, tells us : — 
 
 " The olde house of the Cheyncis is so trans-
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE CHESS. 123 
 
 lated bv Lord Russell, that hath this house iu 
 right of his wife, that little or nothing re- 
 maineth untranslated : and a great deal of the 
 house is even newly set up, made of brick and 
 timber, and faire lodgings be new erected in 
 the garden. The house is within divers places 
 richly painted with antique works of white and 
 black." When thus translated it became the 
 family residence of the Eussells until they took 
 up their abode at Woburn Abbey, but the 
 church, as we shall see, still remains the family 
 burial place. 
 
 When the Russell s ceased to reside here, 
 the house fell for a time into disrepair; the 
 gardens disappeared, and the place was shorn 
 of its former beauty. Horace Walpole, when 
 he was staying at Latimers with Mr. Conway, 
 in 1749, came over to look at Chenies, and 
 found it in a sad state of dilapidation. " There 
 are but piteous fragments," he says, "of the 
 house remaining, now a farm, built round three 
 sides of a court. It is dropping down in several 
 places without a roof, but in half of the win- 
 dows are beautiful arms in painted glass. As 
 these are totally neglected, I propose making a 
 push and begging them of the Duke of Bed- 
 ford. They would be magnificent for Straw- 
 berry Castle." Walpole was always prowling 
 about on the look-out for what he might find
 
 124 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 wherewith to furnish his house at Twicken- 
 ham. 
 
 But the Eussells did not succeed the Cheynes 
 directly. Sir John Cheyne, in 1469, devised 
 the manor of Chenies to his wife Agnes, daugh- 
 ter of Sir William Lexham, and she in turn 
 devised it first to Sir David Philyp and his 
 wife, next to Anne St. Medard, and then to 
 Sir Grey Sapcote. Sir Grey's grand-daughter 
 Anne, the daughter of his son, a second Sir 
 Grey, was left the heiress of her family, and 
 therefore of Chenies. She married three times. 
 Her first husband was Sir John Broughton, 
 the second was Sir Eichard Jerniugham, and 
 the third was Sir John Eussell. The last was a 
 far more remarkable man than his predecessors, 
 in fact, he was one of the foremost men in the 
 country in Tudor times, and we ought to recall 
 a few facts in his life as we stand in front of 
 the house which he built. 
 
 It was a happy chance which first brought 
 John Eussell to the Court of King Henry 
 VII. His family came originally from Le 
 Eozel, in Normandy, hence their name — though 
 spelling and pronunciation have both been 
 changed — but were at the beginning of the six- 
 teenth century already settled at Barwick, in 
 Dorsetshire. Now it so happened that in the 
 month of January, 150C, Philip, the Archduke
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE CHESS. 125 
 
 of Austria, son of Maxmilian Emperor of Ger- 
 many, was together with his bride Joanna, the 
 daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile 
 and Arragon, making his way down the chan- 
 nel towards Spain. Eough weather came on, 
 and the ship which contained the royal pair 
 was, with two others, driven for shelter into 
 the harbour of Weymouth. Sir Thomas Tren- 
 chard, governor of the Dorsetshire Coast, went 
 down to meet the distinguished strangers, and 
 invited them to his house at Wolverton. Hither 
 also he invited his young cousin, John Eussell, 
 who lived close by, and who had lately returned 
 from a continental tour, supposing that his 
 society would be agreeable to the Archduke 
 and Archduchess. He was not wrong. So 
 acceptable did the young man become to Philip 
 that when the latter went on to Windsor at the 
 request or command of the King, he asked Mr. 
 Eussell to accompany him ; and from this time 
 the rise of the latter was an assured fact. We 
 will only just mention some of the points in his 
 career to show that in almost all the important 
 events of the day he had a share. He was 
 present at the Battle of Spurs, and at the taking 
 of Therouenne and Tournay in 1513. He 
 attended, as one of the suite, at the marriage 
 of the Princess Mary Tudor with Louis XII. 
 in 1514. He was one of the splendid royal
 
 126 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 retinue on the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 
 1520. In 1523 he assisted in the attack on 
 Morlaix, in Brittany, and was for his valour on 
 that occasion knighted by the Earl of Surrey. 
 The exploit, however, cost him an eye. 
 Again and again was he sent on important 
 diplomatic missions to the Continent, and he 
 was present as a spectator at the battle of Pa via, 
 on the 23rd February, 1525. In the early part 
 of 1526 he married the heiress of the Sapcotes, 
 and then began his connection with Chenies. 
 In 1527 he was sent on a mission to Borne, and 
 left that city only a short time before it was 
 sacked, on the 6th May, by the troops of Con- 
 stable Bourbon. He was the friend, first of 
 Wolsej 7 , and then of Thomas Cromwell. He 
 received his reward for his share in the spolia- 
 tion of the monasteries by the grant of the 
 Abbey of Tavistock in 1540, and that of Wo- 
 burn in 1550. Before these dates, however, 
 honours had come thickly on him. In 1538 
 he was created Baron Russell of Chenies. In 
 1539 he was made a Knight of the Garter. In 
 1541 he was Lord High Admiral, and in 1550 
 he became first Earl of Bedford. In 1554 he 
 was one of an embassy to Spain for the purpose 
 of making the final arrangements for the mar- 
 riage of Philip, the graudson of his earliest 
 patron, and Mary of England j and on the 25th
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE CHESS. 127 
 
 of July in the same year lie was one of the 
 group of distinguished noblemen who under- 
 took the duty of presenting their Queen to the 
 bridegroom at her marriage. This was nearly 
 his last public act. On the 14th March, 1555, 
 he died full of years and honours. And so 
 nearly through four eventful reigns, those of 
 Henry VII., of his son, and of two of his 
 grandchildren, John Russell was a conspicuous 
 figure. Prudence, for such we may call it, 
 w r as his distinguishing characteristic. "When 
 the heads of many leading men of his own day 
 were falling around him, he ever remained safe, 
 but not by any means because he was unwilling 
 or unable to take part in public affairs, what- 
 ever might be their aspect. He was always to 
 the front, and yet the changes which proved so 
 fatal to many left him scathless and prosperous. 
 Let us now pass into the church and view the 
 monuments of Earl John and of his descendants. 
 The Church of St. Michael stands close to the 
 Manor-house, and is itself rather an interesting 
 building, but the principal attraction to histo- 
 rian or artist is the large burial-chamber, with 
 vault beneath, which runs along the north side 
 the whole length both of nave and chancel. 
 An inscription over the east window tells us 
 that — "Thys Chapel ys built by Anne, Countess 
 of Bedford, wyfe to John Erie of Bedi'orde,
 
 128 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 according to ye last will of the sayd Erie, a.d. 
 1556." The Countess herself was laid by the 
 side of her husband in 1557. The chapel con- 
 tains in all fifteen monuments of Kussells, 
 besides an earlier memorial effigy, which it is 
 supposed commemorates some members of the 
 Cheyne family. Coats- of- arms hang on the 
 walls, and from the roof hang banners, many of 
 which are those of Knights of the Garter, 
 brought hither when the stalls above which 
 they floated in the chapel of St. George at 
 Windsor were vacated by the death of the 
 occupants. The east window also is filled with 
 family arms in stained glass. 
 
 The earlier monuments are magnificent ex- 
 amples of the very best style of the end of the 
 sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth 
 centuries, and the effigies in marble and ala- 
 baster which lie on the altar-tombs are surpassed 
 by no others in existence for excellence of 
 design and delicacy of detail. Earl John oc- 
 cupies, as is right, the central position beneath 
 the east window. By his side is the Countess 
 Anne, the heiress of the Sapcotes. The Earl is 
 in plate-armour, and round his neck is a collar 
 of roses and monograms. He wears a long 
 beard, and the eyelid droops over the eye which 
 was blinded by the arrow-wound at the siege 
 of Morlaix. The Countess is in ermine robes.
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE CHESS. 
 
 129 
 
 Bound the tomb are coats-of-arms, and the often- 
 repeated motto of the family, adopted, it is said, 
 by Earl John, and so fatalist in its meaning, 
 die sara sara. The monument was probably 
 executed in Italy, but the face of the Earl is 
 evidently copied from the portrait painted by 
 Holbein, which hangs in Woburn Abbey. 
 
 I 
 
 Jr:'l 
 
 The Russell Chapel, Chenies Church. 
 
 This monument to his father and mother was 
 set up by Francis, whose own altar-tomb is on 
 the left hand of that of his parents. Earl Francis 
 had chiefly to do with the affairs of Scotland and 
 with Mary Queen of Scots, and he was present 
 at the baptism of her son, Prince James. In 
 1570 his own sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, paid
 
 130 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 a visit to Chenies. The Earl wrote as follows 
 to Sir William Cecil touching the royal visit : 
 " In your second letter I understand Her 
 Majesty's coming to Chenies ; where if the 
 home was sweet, and the lodging commodious, 
 I shall be glad thereof; but as to the soil and 
 seat thereof, as no art nor diligence can amend 
 nature's doings, so am I sorry that it cannot 
 now be amended, if ever it might be for a time, 
 to ease thereby so noble a guest, and so large a 
 train." If Elizabeth was not satisfied with 
 "soil and seat," that is the position of 
 Chenies, she must have been hard to please. 
 
 Earl Francis died on the 28th of July, 1585, 
 and his eldest surviving son, also named Francis, 
 had fallen in a border raid at Hexpeth Gate- 
 head the previous day, so that he was succeeded 
 by his grandson. Margaret, his wife, lies by 
 his side. She was doubly connected with 
 Bedfordshire, for she was the daughter of Sir 
 John St. John, of Bletroe Castle in that county, 
 and the widow of Sir John Gostwick, who 
 had been Master- of- the-Horse to Henry VIII. 
 The effigies, both of the Earl and of the Coun- 
 tess, arc coloured, and at their heads is a lofty 
 trophy containing arms, crests, and coronets. 
 We may notice that the supporters at the feet 
 of almost all the figures take the form of the 
 ■\vhite goat — the crest of the family.
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE CHESS. 131 
 
 On the right-hand of the first Earl is the 
 tomb of his grand-daughter Anne, Conntess of 
 Warwick, the daughter of Earl Francis. She 
 was a lady of some note, for she acted as 
 guardian to her young nephew, Earl Edward, 
 who succeeded his grandfather when only 
 eleven years of age, and she was the intimate 
 friend of Queen Elizabeth. She died in 1604, 
 a year after her royal mistress. It was to 
 herself and to her sister, the Countess of Cum- 
 berland, that Edmund Spenser dedicated his 
 hymns on " Celestial Love and Beauty." " The 
 two honourable sisters," he calls the ladies, 
 " the most excellent and rare ornaments of all 
 true love and beauty." The effigy, which 
 rests on a slab supported by four columns in- 
 stead of on a solid base, represents the Countess 
 in scarlet and crimson. In addition to the 
 usual goat, we find on the slab four little cheru- 
 bim. The monument is, therefore, an example 
 of the manner in which gradually the principal 
 effigy was surrounded by attendant figures, 
 until in the eighteenth century a monument 
 became more or less a synonym for a group. 
 
 Immediately at the feet of the Countess of 
 "Warwick, almost level with the floor, is the 
 ancient effigy removed from some other part of 
 the church, which is supposed to represent Sir 
 John Cheyne.
 
 132 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 In front of the tomb of Earl John, and 
 standing out by itself in the centre of the 
 chapel, is a plain marble slab, without an effigy, 
 standing on four columns. It is to the memory 
 of Lady Frances Bourcher, the daughter of the 
 Countess of Bath, who was herself a Eussell, 
 the daughter of Earl Francis, and the sister of 
 the Countess of Warwick and the Countess of 
 Cumberland. 
 
 Against the wall and at the feet of the 
 second Earl Francis ; is the monument of the 
 fourth Earl of the same name, his grandson, 
 who succeeded his cousin Edward, the third 
 Earl in 1621. This was the Earl who drained 
 so much of the Fens, especially in the neigh- 
 bourhood of his estates at Thornhaugh or 
 Thorney, under the superintendence of Sir 
 Cornelius Yermuydenthe Dutch engineer, who 
 there constructed what is called the Old Bed- 
 ford Biver and the Bedford Level. This Earl 
 Francis also took an important part in the 
 public affairs of the first part of the reign of 
 Charles I., and died just before the outbreak 
 of tie Civil War. The Earl died of small-pox 
 at Bedford House on the 9th of May, 1641, 
 and was buried at Chenies on the 14th. Three 
 hundred Peers' coaches accompanied the funeral 
 procession of the " wise Earl," as he was called, 
 from London into Buckinghamshire. His
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE CHESS. 133 
 
 monument is perhaps the most artistic next to 
 that of his great-grandfather, but then there is 
 nothing in the whole chapel which can rival 
 that exquisite piece of work. By the side of 
 his own effigy is that of .his Countess Katharine, 
 daughter of Giles Brydges, third Lord Chandos 
 of Sudeley, and above, in a sort of second 
 monument fixed upright against the wall, are 
 representations of their two daughters, Elizabeth, 
 a young maiden, and Frances, a baby. The 
 effigies are coloured, and the whole arrangement 
 wants quiet and repose. For instance, the 
 family goats instead of remaining couchant at 
 the feet of the effigies are standing erect. The 
 double character of the monument, with the 
 lower portion in commemoration of the parents 
 and the upper of the daughters, is also distracting. 
 The solid base of the lower portion is, however, 
 in massive grandeur of design, fit to rank with 
 the similar part of the monument of Earl John. 
 
 Against the wall on the opposite side of the 
 chapel is the monument of Frances, Lady 
 Chandos, the mother of Countess Katharine. 
 
 We now come as we go down the chapel to 
 monuments of a different character. Against 
 the wall, west of the double monument of Earl 
 Francis and his family, is a large white marble 
 group to Wriothesley, the second Duke of 
 Bedford. On the top of a very tasteless sar-
 
 134 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 cophagus kneel the Duke and Duchess in 
 flowing robes, and a little cherub looks down 
 on them from the centre of a conventional sun 
 half veiled in clouds. The monument is plain 
 white marble throughout, and was the work of 
 William Chambers in 1711. We are taking 
 the monuments not in their chronological order, 
 but according to the positions in which they 
 are placed, and we see on one side of this 
 monument to Duke Wriothesley a wall tablet 
 to Major-General Lord William Eussell, who 
 was Minister Plenipotentiary at Berlin, and 
 who died in 184G ; and on the other a tablet 
 to Lady William Eussell. These two were 
 father and mother to Hastings, the ninth Duke, 
 who died in 1888, and to Lord Ampthill, who 
 was, as Lord William had been, Ambassador at 
 Berlin, and who died in 1880. There is a 
 tablet to Lord Ampthill close to that of his 
 mother, and opposite is one to his brother, 
 Duke Hastings. There is yet one more modern 
 tablet, which is to the memory of George, the 
 tenth Duke, who died in 1893. It is on the 
 wall opposite to that of his father, Hastings. 
 In front of these, standing detached on the 
 floor of the chapel, is a plain slab supported on 
 pillars and evidently copied from the monument 
 of Lady Chandos, which commemorates the 
 first Earl Paissell of the new line, better known
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE CHESS. 135 
 
 as Lord John Eussell, the hero of the Beform 
 Bill of 1831. 
 
 We have now arrived at the west end of the 
 chapel, and we find that the whole west wall is 
 taken up by an enormous monument in white 
 marble to William, the first Duke. We must 
 now go back two hundred and fifty years in 
 the history of the Eussell family. Duke 
 William was the son of Francis, the fourth Earl, 
 and succeeded to the title in 1G41. . His father 
 had been, as we have noticed, known by the 
 name of" the wise Earl," and it was expected 
 that the son would step into his father's place 
 in public affairs. He did so for a time, but 
 matters were coming to a crisis between King 
 and Parliament, and public men were ranging 
 themselves on one side or the other. The Earl 
 of Bedford at first joined the Parliamentary 
 party. He was soon given a command under 
 the Earl of Essex, and when actual warfare 
 commenced at Edgehill, he had charge of the 
 reserve of horse in that action, and in this 
 position is said "to have done extraordinary 
 service." But in a year he had come over to 
 the Boyalist side, and in 1643 fought for the 
 Xing at the battle of Newbury. But he never 
 came fairly into range with the Royal party, 
 and during the remainder of the Civil War, 
 and during the Commonwealth, he took no
 
 136 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 particularly active part in public affairs. lie 
 wanted the steady perseverance of his great 
 ancestor, Earl John, and of his own father. He 
 received King Charles at "Woburn, however, in 
 1644, and again in 1G45 and 1G47. At the 
 Restoration he was selected to bear the sceptre 
 of St. Edward at the Coronation, and he was 
 made a Knight of the Garter in 1672. He also 
 assisted at the Coronation of William and 
 Mary, and was created first Duke of Bedford 
 in 1094. The venerable Peer, who had lived 
 through as almost stirring times as those of 
 Earl John, died in 1700 at the great age of 
 eighty-seven. His Countess, for she did not 
 live to become a Duchess, who is also repre- 
 sented on the monument, was Lady Anne 
 Carr. She was the daughter of the unhappy 
 Countess of Somerset, the divorced wife of the 
 Earl of Essex, and the worthless Robert Carr, 
 Earl of Somerset, the favourite of James I. 
 The future Countess of Bedford was actually 
 born in the Tower of London, where her mother 
 was at the time in custody on suspicion of 
 participation in the murder of Sir Thomas 
 Overbury. Happily the young lady had been 
 permitted to grow up in ignorance of this dark 
 page in the history of her parents. She did 
 not learn the story until in her old age a 
 pamphlet containing an account of the affair
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE CHESS. 137 
 
 came by chance into her hands. She read it, 
 was overwhelmed on learning the history of her 
 mother's disgrace, and shortly afterwards died. 
 
 But to go back to her early life. She was a 
 newly introduced young beauty of nineteen at 
 the Court of Charles I., when William Eussell 
 first met her in 1635, on his return from the 
 continental tour usually undertaken at that 
 time by young men of position. The father of 
 William Eussell strongly opposed the match, 
 as was but natural, but the young couple were, 
 notwithstanding, married in 1G3T. 
 
 The monument at which we are gazing is 
 more than a mere collection of portraits. It is 
 meant to tell a story as well. The figures of 
 the father and mother are bowed down with 
 grief, and their faces are convulsed with agony. 
 They turn away from an object which is 
 represented between them, the portrait on a 
 medallion of their son, Lord William Eussell, 
 the unfortunate victim of the Duke of York 
 and his brother. The portrait of the Whig 
 hero occupies the principal place, but the por- 
 traits of others of the family are on medallions 
 elsewhere on the huge monument. The group 
 may be interesting historically, and as the 
 commemoration of a tragic event, but when we 
 contrast it with the effigies of Earl John and 
 Countess Ann at the other end of the chapel,
 
 138 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 so dignified in their calm repose, we cannot 
 hesitate in forming an opinion as to which 
 of the two monuments is the most suitable for 
 this chamber of death. 
 
 Horace Walpole of course visited the church 
 as well as the house, when on his visit to 
 Larimers. " I have just seen," he writes, " a 
 collection of tombs like those you describe; 
 the house of Eussell robed in alabaster and 
 painted ; there are seven monuments in all, 
 one is immense, in marble, cherubimed and 
 seraphimed, for the first Duke of Bedford and 
 his Duchess." "Walpole, it will be noted, had 
 not taken account of the date of the Lady's 
 death. The chapel was evidently not as well 
 cared for then as it is now, for the funereal 
 processional helmets were lying about, and 
 Conway put one of them on to his head. " You 
 cannot imagine," says his companion, "how it 
 suited him, how antique and handsome he 
 looked. You wouldhave takenhim for Einaldo." 
 
 We have been so long amongst the Eussell 
 monuments that we have almost forgotten that 
 there are others in the church. In the chancel 
 are those of former Rectors of many dates, from 
 1517 and onwards, and against the walls are 
 some brasses of the Cheyne family. 
 
 With the memories of departed Russclls, 
 and with their pretty village, we finish our tour
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE CHESS. 139 
 
 through the Hundred of Burnham, for from the 
 high ridge on which Chenies stands we look 
 across the valley of the Chess into Hertford- 
 shire. We have now finished with the Chiltern 
 Hills and their outlying spurs, for the third 
 and last Hundred which we have to visit is 
 contained for the most part in the lowlands on 
 the borders of the Thames and the Coin.
 
 CHAPTER Y1T. 
 
 ETON. 
 
 The High Street— Horace Walpole at " The Christopher "—The 
 Old and New Parish Churches — Henry VI. and his Original 
 Foundation — The College — William of "Waynflete — Visit of 
 Samuel Pepys — The great Quadrangle — Upper atid Lower 
 Schools — Long Chamber and its Inconveniences — The Chapel 
 — Sir Henry Wotton and Sir Henry Saville — Lord Bacon — 
 Francis Ross and Richard Allestree— Lupton's Chantry— The 
 Green Yard — Election Chamber — The Playing Fields — Dr. 
 Keate— Growth of the School. 
 
 As we drifted down the Thames on our way 
 from Cliefden, we stayed our boat when we 
 arrived at Boveney and struck inland. We 
 were almost in sight of Eton, and Royal Wind- 
 sor was certainly standing out well before us. 
 Had we bent our way round one more reach, 
 we should have seen the cupola-shaped tur- 
 rets — 
 
 " That crown the watery glade 
 Where grateful science still adores 
 Her Henry's holy shade." 
 
 We will suppose that we have regained our 
 boat, and rowing along the course so famous 
 for many a hard struggle or gay procession,
 
 ETON. 141 
 
 presently arrive at that, it must be confessed, 
 most ugly iron bridge which connects Berk- 
 shire and Buckinghamshire, and brings into 
 contact the two most famous places in those 
 counties. "We land and pass up the narrow 
 crowded High Street of Eton, and probably 
 because most visitors are sure to do so, make 
 at once for the College. We may note, how- 
 ever, as we pass along, that the little town 
 contains many a picturesque old house, es- 
 pecially near the banks of the river, as well as 
 here and there in the street itself, which latter 
 chiefly constitutes what we may call extra- 
 collegiate Eton. Amongst such buildings we 
 are pretty sure to single out one in particular, 
 though by no means the most ancient, "The 
 Christopher," where every parent is sure to 
 put up if he happens to come down and stay a 
 day or so when he brings his boy, and to which 
 every old Etonian will turn for a comfortable 
 lodging when he comes to revisit his old 
 haunts. 
 
 Horace Walpole came down on just such an 
 occasion, expecting to hear an old schoolfellow, 
 Thomas Asheton, now arrived at the dignity 
 of a fellow of the College, preach in the chapel 
 the next day. We must almost apologise for 
 quoting from the delightful gossiping letters so 
 often, but we will not turn to them again while
 
 142 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 we are in the Chiltern Hundreds. Mr. 
 "VValpole dates his letter to Montagu from 
 " The Christopher," and the very fact of writing 
 down the name causes him at once to go back 
 to the days when he was a boy. " The Christo- 
 pher," he writes, "Lord! how great I used to 
 think anybody just landed at The Christopher. 
 But here are no boys for me to send for — here 
 I am like Noah just returned into his old world 
 again, with all sorts of queer feels about rae. 
 By the way, the clock strikes the old cracked 
 sound — I recollect so much, and remark so 
 little, and want to play about — and am so afraid 
 of my playfellows — and am ready to shirk 
 Asheton — and can't help making fun of my- 
 self — and envy a dame over the way that has 
 just locked in her boarders, and is going to sit 
 down in a little hot parlour to a very bad 
 supper, so comfortably ! and I could be so jolly 
 a dog if I did not fat, which, by the way, is 
 the first time the word was ever applicable to 
 me. In short I should be out of all bounds if I 
 was to tell you half I feel, how young I am 
 again one minute and how old the next. But 
 do come and feel with me when you will — to- 
 morrow — adieu ! If I don't compose myself a 
 little more before Sunday morning when Ashe- 
 ton is to preach, I shall certainly be in a bill for 
 laughing at church ; but how to help it, to see
 
 ETOX. 143 
 
 him in the pulpit, when the last time I saw him 
 here was standing up funking over against a 
 Conduct to be catechised." 
 
 But although we see many an old house we 
 shall look in vain for an ancient parish church. 
 Eton is an old parish, and it had once an old 
 church, but the site of that church is now 
 occupied by the great chapel of the College. 
 The foundation of Henry YI. swallowed up as 
 it were parish, church, and all, and the Provost 
 of Eton was until lately parish priest as well, 
 and his chapel remained until quite recent days 
 the place of worship for the parishioners. It 
 was not until the year 1769 that William 
 Hetherington, one of the Fellows, increased 
 the church accommodation of the place by 
 building a chapel-of-ease, which became more 
 or less the exclusive place of worship for the 
 townspeople. This chapel was rebuilt in 1854, 
 and at length, in the year 1875, ecclesiastical 
 connection between College and town was 
 entirely severed, and the rebuilt chapel-of-ease 
 of the town became an independent parish 
 church, and the College chapel became the 
 religious home of its own community only. 
 
 There have been then, we may say, two 
 Etons. First, there was the little collection of 
 houses standing in the meadows beneath the 
 lordly hill of Windsor, a mere village of no
 
 144 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 note, for though we have called it a town it has 
 never had a market, much less a mayor and 
 corporation. Then there came the great change, 
 the result of Henry's new foundation, which 
 in time made Eton, the second Eton, what it is, 
 and made the little village to thrive and prosper 
 under the shadow of the College, which remains 
 to the present day the principal landowner in 
 the parish. 
 
 But this magnifying of the village of Eton 
 was a matter never contemplated by the royal 
 founder, much less provided for. The idea of 
 a school as part of his foundation was only a 
 secondary consideration with him. Eton as a 
 school, such as we know it to be now and such 
 as it has been known for the last two hundred 
 years, has grown into existence, and this growth 
 was in its beginning quite a chance. 
 
 The pious king of humble and feeble mind, 
 the one weak one amongst all the strong race of 
 Plantagenets, had, in the year 1440, emerged 
 from his long minority, and bethought him 
 that he would like to found a college of secular 
 priests, who were to live in community but do 
 active clerical work according to a common 
 enough arrangement of the times. There was 
 nothing at all unusual in the way in which the 
 parish church was made collegiate under the 
 title of " The King's College of our Lady of
 
 ETON. 145 
 
 Eton," and there was nothing very remark- 
 able in the body which was created, consisting 
 as it did of a Provost, ten " sad " priests, four 
 lay clerks, six choristers, twenty-five poor 
 grammar-scholars, and twenty-five poor men 
 whose duty it was " to pray for the King." 
 When Pope Eugenius IV. ratified these pro- 
 visions he was probably only doing what he 
 had done in substance for almost precisely 
 similar bodies in scores of instances through- 
 out Europe. But the provision for the small 
 band of grammar-school boys became in 
 time the little leaven which leavened the 
 whole lump in a manner never dreamt of 
 by the King nor by the early rulers of his 
 foundation. 
 
 There seems to be no particular reason why 
 this College of secular priests should have been 
 founded at Eton rather than anywhere else. 
 We can only surmise that Henry, looking 
 down one day from the Castle of Windsor in 
 which he had been born nineteen years before, 
 was struck with the thought that a large 
 church with conventual buildings around it 
 would look very well standing in the flat 
 meadows which he saw beneath him on the 
 other side of the river. And so he soon put 
 his project into effect, and the religious estab- 
 lishment arose on the Buckinghamshire side 
 
 K
 
 146 THE CHILTEEN HUNDBEDS. 
 
 of the Thames, and had it not been for that 
 clause in the charter of foundation about the 
 five-and-twenty schoolboys, his College might 
 have been suppressed, or destroyed, or absorbed 
 into some larger establishment. Such a fate, 
 indeed, as the last nearly overtook the College 
 in the next reign, when it was proposed to 
 transfer the ecclesiastical body to the Chapter 
 at Windsor. The Yorkist king, Edward IV., 
 did not look, it is probable, with a very 
 favouring eye on the establishment which had 
 been set up by his Lancastrian predecessor. 
 Put appeal was made to the Pope, and 
 Provost and Fellows remained undisturbed 
 in their old home. Jane Shore is said to 
 have stood their friend with the King on this 
 occasion. 
 
 But as we talk about the origin of the 
 College of our Lady of Eton, we may suppose 
 that we have walked up the High Street until 
 we are immediately under the buildings them- 
 selves. On our left we see many new schools 
 and boardiug-houses, which probably will 
 concern us not. The attraction is all to our 
 right haud. We pass a spot where a small 
 bridge once crossed a little brook which 
 formed the limit of the College domains. 
 From this point we catch a glimpse of the 
 southern side of the old buildings, but in front
 
 ETON. 147 
 
 of us, dwarfing all else, rises the lofty chapel. 
 Let us stay a moment as we pass round the 
 western end of that building. We note that 
 a figure of William of Waynflete has lately 
 been most fittingly placed here against the 
 chapel wall. This Prelate and Chancellor 
 had much to do with the early history of the 
 College as Provost, carrying out the intentions 
 of the royal founder, and completing the 
 chapel as we see it now the year after the 
 tragic fate of the unfortunate King. But we 
 have halted at this spot not merely to look at 
 the modern effigj^ of the Bishop, but to recall 
 the fact that, had the original plan been 
 carried out in its fulness, we should be stand- 
 ing in the centre of the crossing of an enormous 
 church which would have ranked in size with 
 some of the largest of our cathedrals. What 
 we call the chapel is merely the choir of the 
 contemplated building, the transepts of which 
 would have run north and south along the 
 present line of street, while a great nave would 
 have stretched far away over the plot of 
 ground now occupied by the new buildings on 
 the farther side of the road. 
 
 We pass a little farther along the street, 
 which is here, on the school side, pleasantly 
 bordered by trees, and pass in at the principal 
 gateway as many visitors have done before, and
 
 148 THE CHILTEKN HUNDREDS. 
 
 as Samuel PejDys did when he went over the 
 College two hundred years ago in the company 
 of Dr. "William Child, the organist of St. 
 George's Chapel at Windsor. We shall, how- 
 ever, have the advantage of Pepys, inasmuch 
 as we can have Maxwell Lyte's "History of 
 Eton College ' in our hands as we walk 
 round. Nothwithstanding, it will be, perhaps, 
 interesting to read the old diarist's descrip- 
 tion of the place, and to note how much has 
 remained unchanged since his time. 
 
 " At Eton," he writes, " I left my wife in 
 the coach, and he," that is the Doctor, " and I 
 to the College, and there we find all mighty 
 fine. The school good and the custom pretty 
 of boys cutting their names in the shuts of the 
 windows when they go to Cambridge, by which 
 many a one hath lived to see himself a Provost 
 and Fellow that hath his name on the window 
 standing. To the Hall and there find the boys' 
 verses ' De Peste'; it being their custom to 
 make verses at Shrovetide. I read several, 
 and very good they were ; better, I think, thaii 
 ever I made when I was a boy, and iu rolls as 
 long and longer than the whole hall by much. 
 Then to the Porter's, in the absence of the 
 Butler, and did drink of the College beer, which 
 is very good ; and went into the back fields to 
 see the scholars play. And so to the Chapel,
 
 ETON. 149 
 
 and there saw, amongst other things, Sir H. 
 "Wotton's stone, with this epitaph : — 
 
 ' Hie jacet primus hujus sententiee Author 
 Disputandi pruritus fit ecclesice scabies.' 
 
 Bnt iid fortunately the word 'Author' was 
 wrong writ, and now so basely altered that it 
 disgraces the stone." 
 
 Pepys did not copy the inscription quite 
 correctly and has written down the word 
 " author" in English fashion. 
 
 But we are not yet in the Chapel, but have 
 only entered the first court or quadrangle of 
 which it forms the southern side. In the centre 
 of the court stands, as is right, a statue of 
 Henry YI. The prevailing style of architec- 
 ture is red brick, with stone dressings, and the 
 old buildings remind us somewhat of those at 
 Hampton Court. On our right, as we enter, is, 
 however, a cloister of Wren's time, above which 
 is the Upper School, well furnished with names 
 cut on the panelling, as described by Pepys. 
 On the north side is the Lower School, above 
 which is the Long Chamber, famous in former 
 days as the uncomfortable lodging-place of the 
 foundation scholars until the year 1846. The 
 discomforts of this abode have been often de- 
 scribed, and we will not go through them again. 
 
 But this last-mentioned block of buildings
 
 150 THE CHILTEEN HUNDREDS. 
 
 contains the oldest and original part of the 
 domestic and school arrangements. The ground 
 floor was the first and only school-room, and 
 the boys, the few grammar- scholars, slept as 
 well as studied at the ground level. Above 
 lived the usher and the lay clerks. But it 
 was a roughly-floored building with great 
 chinks between the boards. These chasms 
 were a great inconvenience both to those above 
 and those below. The occupants of the down- 
 stairs rooms were exposed to the danger of a 
 flood from above, and were only too ready to 
 retaliate from that part which was used as a 
 kitchen. Here is an account of some such 
 attack made on those who lived upstairs. It 
 is from the complaint of the last-named against 
 the servants of the French Ambassador who 
 at one time, in the reign of Elizabeth, occupied 
 a part of these buildings. "Whereas," so 
 runs the remonstrance, "their kitchen is under 
 the Usher's chamber, they have sundry times 
 thrust up spits in such places as the boards 
 be not close joined, and also discharged their 
 daggers upon other places of the said boards 
 to the great danger of those that be above ; 
 bat which of them did it cannot be known, 
 because they that be above cannot see them 
 that be beneath, save that the first of January, 
 about three of the clock at afternoon, one of
 
 ETON. 151 
 
 them was seen thrust up a spit wherewith he 
 had almost hit a little boy that was in the cham- 
 ber, and he that did this was in a grey frieze 
 coat or jerkin." This account will give us some 
 idea of the discomforts, which, bar the attacks 
 from below, lasted in part down to the middle 
 of this century in Long Chamber. 
 
 The south side of the first quadrangle is 
 almost taken up by the chapel, which is by far 
 the most important building in the College 
 group, rising high above both schools and hall. 
 If figures convey a meaning to any it may be 
 well to mention that it is 173 feet long, 
 40 feet wide, and 90 feet high. The date 
 of its erection gives us its style, which 
 is Perpendicular. We may compare it with 
 King's College Chapel, Cambridge, Henry's 
 other foundation, but at the same time 
 remember that it was not intended to leave it 
 in the shape and form of a college chapel, 
 where all the members of the society worship 
 together in the choir, but to make it the 
 chancel of a huge church. The Wars of the 
 Roses interfered with these projects, and it 
 was left to William of Waynflete to complete 
 it, in usual college fashion with an ante- 
 chapel, as we see it now, in the reign of 
 Edward IV. Brasses and monuments there 
 are manv to Provosts and others. Let us
 
 152 THE CHILTEKN HUNDREDS. 
 
 look at a few of the most remarkable of them, 
 that is remarkable for those whom they com- 
 memorate, rather than in themselves. 
 
 For instance, we shall note that of Sir Henry 
 "Wotton, scholar, poet, ambassador, not to say 
 fisherman and bosom friend of Isaac Walton, 
 who was Provost from 1623 to 1G39. "We 
 have already referred to his epitaph, which 
 seems to insinuate that Sir Henry was some- 
 thing of a cynic. Such a character is also 
 indicated by his advice to a young diplomatist, 
 which is as follows : — " Speak the truth, and 
 you shall never be believed, and by this means 
 your truth will secure yourself if you shall 
 ever be called to any account ; and 'twill put 
 your adversaries, who will still hunt counter, 
 to a loss in all their disquisitions and under- 
 takings." But then his definition of an 
 ambassador had been "Legatus est vir bonus 
 peregre missus ad mentiendum reipublicse 
 causa." 
 
 AVotton took Deacon's orders when appointed 
 Provost, but his predecessor, Sir Henry Saville, 
 who had been tutor to Elizabeth, had not 
 qualified for his semi-ecclesiastical position in 
 this manner. But layman though he was, he 
 was a great student, and, moreover, set up a 
 printing-press at Eton, with which he produced 
 an edition of the works of St. John Chrysostom
 
 ETON. 153 
 
 and other books. The press was probably set 
 up somewhere in the College itself. 
 
 After the death of Sir Henry Saville in 1622, 
 the great Lord Bacon made an attempt to 
 secure the office of Provost, and applied to the 
 King for the post. But James handed over the 
 nomination to his favourite "Steenie," the 
 Duke of Buckingham, who failed to appoint 
 the great scholar, whereby Eton was probably 
 the loser. 
 
 But we are getting away from the chapel 
 and its monuments. Dr. Francis Eous, the 
 Puritan Provost, lies buried here. Here, too, 
 we see the tomb of Eichard Allestree, who was 
 the royalist Provost after the Eestoration. 
 There is an odd story about his appointment. 
 The King one day challenged his courtiers to 
 produce a man more ugly than himself, and 
 one of them, after a long search, introduced 
 Dr. Allestree to the monarch. Charles, think- 
 ing that he ought to do something for the man 
 who had been brought to his notice in so 
 curious a manner, appointed him to Eton. 
 But Provost Allestree is chiefly to be remem- 
 bered as the builder of the west cloisters and 
 Upper School. He died at Eton in 1680. An 
 earlier Provost, Lupton, who lived in the time 
 of Henry VII. , has a little chantry chapel 
 which he shares with Provost Bost, on the
 
 154 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 north side near the altar. It contains a magni- 
 ficent brass of the Provost, and the Lupton 
 rebus , a punning device, the word lup over a 
 tun in the spandrel of the doorway. The mural 
 paintings on each side of the chapel, now 
 covered by the woodwork, are supposed to be 
 of the same date as the chantry. They repre- 
 sent various legends connected with the cultus 
 of the Blessed Virgin. The ante-chapel has, 
 Ave notice, a door and staircase leading into the 
 street. This was for the use of the towns- 
 people during the many years that the chapel 
 was their parish church. 
 
 And now we pass on beneath the handsome 
 tower built by Provost Lupton in the early part 
 of the sixteenth century, which divides the 
 two courts, and enter the Green Yard. This 
 inner quadrangle, surrounded by its cloisters, 
 is almost monastic in its character. Here is 
 the hall which is approached by a flight of 
 steps from the southern walk of the cloister, 
 and we observe that the old doorway has been 
 cut away in later days for the purpose of 
 making these stairs less steep. There must 
 have been many an ugly rush down the break- 
 neck steps when the collegers, boy-fashion, 
 hurried away after their dinner. The hall 
 also has been altered from time to time, though 
 it has now been well restored, and its three
 
 ETON. 155 
 
 fireplaces have been uncovered. It is fitted up 
 according to the usual plan of a dining-hall, 
 with a screen at the lower end, and a dais or 
 platform at the upper end for the high table. 
 The panels bear the arms of Provosts and other 
 notabilities, and above hang the portaits of a 
 whole host of famous Etonians. If we go 
 outside the hall to the south, we can see how 
 the late Elizabethan or early Jacobean builders 
 added on to the upper portion of the old walls 
 of Henry or Waynflete according to their own 
 style. But, notwithstanding, the building 
 remains much as it was when Henry's Provost, 
 and the Fellows, and the clerks and the 
 grammar-scholars, first sat down to their meals 
 in it, and we may be thankful that both hall 
 and chapel have suffered so little from addi- 
 tions or restorations. 
 
 We must not fail to pass through the 
 eastern entrance into the Playing Fields, if it 
 be only for the sake of the glorious view of 
 Windsor Castle which we have from the 
 Buckinghamshire side of the river, or the view 
 of the College buildings if we turn round when 
 we have reached the river's banks. As for 
 what goes on in the Playing Fields, and as for 
 the school-life in general, have not such 
 matters been written in the chronicles of Eton 
 by many different hands ?
 
 156 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 We will suppose that we have been simply 
 chance visitors, like Samuel Pepys, just walk- 
 ing round quadrangle, chapel, and hall, takiug 
 note of such things as we may see in each 
 building, but not diving down deeply into the 
 early history of the College of our Lady of 
 Eton. We have, however, just dwelt suffi- 
 ciently on that early history to be able to see 
 from what the Eton, as we know it now, 
 arose. The oppidans, or commensals, as they 
 were once called, the outsiders so to speak, 
 were a body unheard of at first. Such boys 
 found their way to the school no one can 
 exactly say how, and now they swamp the 
 foundationers, though the latter have been 
 increased in number, and a band of seventy 
 collegers represents the original body of 
 twenty-five poor grammar-scholars. In the 
 same way the staff of masters has, as a neces- 
 sity, grown in like proportion, and the original 
 master and usher have become the head and 
 lower masters respectively. A change, too, 
 has come over the Provosts. The post which 
 they fill is now one chiefly of dignified ease, 
 and the responsible chiefs have been for many 
 generations of schoolboys, at any rate since 
 the time of Dr. Keate, the headmasters. 
 
 Eton has become not merely a page but 
 rather many pages in the history of England,
 
 ETON. 157 
 
 for here the intellects of, may we not say, 
 most of our leaders of the last two hundred 
 years have been trained? We cannot even 
 walk through the Chiltern Hundreds as we are 
 doing without finding many a place where an 
 Etonian has left his name conspicuous. Thus 
 it is that we associate Beaconsfield with the 
 name of Edmund Waller and Stoke Pogis with 
 that of Thomas Gray, or read the happy 
 descriptions jotted down by Horace Walpole, 
 and remember that these men were once 
 Eton boys.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 'TWIXT THAMES AXD COLN. 
 
 The Thames Valley— View of Eton— " The Black Pots "- Sir 
 Henry Wotton, Isaac Walton, and Charles II. — Datchet 
 Mead and Falstaff— Christopher Barker, the Queen's Printer 
 — Wyrardsbury — Gordon Gyll and the Funeral of George 
 Lipscombe— Place Farm— Magna Charta Island — Ankerwycke 
 Priory — Sir Thomas Smyth and Bishop John Taylor — 
 Horton— The Church and the Grave of Sara Milton — 
 John Milton at Horton— Berkin Manor-House — Scenery of 
 the Sonnet to the Nightingale, V Allegro, and II Penseroso — The 
 Surrey Hills — Visits to London— Windsor — Masques — The 
 Lawyers at Whitehall — Henry Lawes — Harefield House — The 
 Countess of Derby and the Egertons — A rcades— Ludlow Cas- 
 tle and Comus— The Plague Year — Lycidas — Correspondence 
 between Wotton and_ Milton — The Bulstrodes and the Manor- 
 House — Colnbrook. 
 
 Xoav that we have regained the Thames valley 
 we shall continue in it for a time. We are 
 not, however, going to pass through such lovely- 
 scenery as that which we passed above Maiden- 
 head Bridge, and the banks on each side of us 
 will be, for the most part, low-lying meadow 
 land. The places which we are going to visit 
 will not be situated on wooded slopes, but 
 still even this lowland scenery has its own 
 quiet beauty.
 
 'TWIXT THAMES AND COLN. 159 
 
 " Where Thames along the daisied meads 
 His wave in lucid mazes leads, 
 Silent, slow, serenely flowing, 
 "Wealth on either side bestowing." 
 
 We cast off from Windsor Bridge, and soon 
 we are coasting along by the side of the Eton 
 playing fields, and have on our left the most 
 charming view that there is of the College. 
 The red-brick buildings, partly veiled with 
 ivy, peep out between the trees, and in the 
 centre we see the two turrets of Provost Lup- 
 ton's tower rising above their roofs, while the 
 picturesque group on the left is flanked by 
 the stately chapel. On the other side of the 
 river we have the trees of Windsor Home 
 Park, with the grand mass of the Castle tower- 
 ing above them. 
 
 But we must not leave the Buckinghamshire 
 side, and must content ourselves with a view 
 from the river only of Windsor Forest and 
 Surrey hills. As soon as we have come to the 
 end of the Playing Felds, we find ourselves at 
 a well-known fishing station, called The Black 
 Pots. We may connect this spot with the 
 names of several illustrious fishermen from Eton 
 and elsewhere. Hither came Provost Sir Henry 
 Wotton with his friend Isaac Walton, and no 
 more enthusiastic fisherman friend could he 
 have had. Walton describes the Provost as 
 an " undervaluer of money," by which we may
 
 160 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 suppose that lie intended to convey that he 
 was a bad man of business and a spendthrift, 
 which indeed seems to have been the case. 
 Perhaps, however, all defects were in the 
 opinion of the gentle Isaac more than counter- 
 balanced by the fact that Sir Henry was "a 
 dear lover and frequent practiser of the art of 
 angling," and found it " after tedious study " a 
 " rest to his mind, a cheerer of his spirits, 
 a diverter of sadness, a calmer of unquiet 
 thoughts, a moderator of passions, a procurer 
 of contentedness, and that it begat habits 
 of peace and patience in those that professed 
 and practised it." Walton also describes 
 his own sport at the Black Pots, where he 
 would fish for ' ' a little samlet or skegger 
 trout, and catch twenty or forty of them at a 
 standing." 
 
 The Provost built himself a fishing-house on 
 the spot, and the great decorative artist, Verrio, 
 afterwards erected a summer-house, to which 
 Charles II. came at times to fish. Pope has 
 described the royal sport : — 
 
 " Methinks I see our mighty monarch stand, 
 The pliant rod now tremhling in his hand. 
 And see, he now doth up from Datchet come, 
 Laden with spoils of slaughtered gudgeons, home." 
 
 Hither was borne, against his will, another 
 famous but ficticious character, Sir John
 
 'TWIXT THAMES AND COLN. 161 
 
 Falstaff : "Being thus crammed in the basket, a 
 couple of Ford's knaves, his hinds, were called 
 forth by their mistress, to carry me in the name 
 of foul clothes to Datchet Lane, to be thrown 
 into the Thames and cooled, glowing hot, in 
 that surge, like a horseshoe ; think of that : — 
 hissing hot — think of that, Master Brook." 
 And drowned the fat knight would have been, 
 as he had." a kind of alacrity in sinking, but 
 that the shore was shelving and shallow." The 
 hero of the buck-basket was fortunate in the 
 place selected for his bath, for the banks, as 
 we pass, appear to us as rather steep. 
 
 The village of Datchet stands almost on the 
 river's edge. It has a pleasant wide street, in 
 which grow large elm-trees. The church was 
 rebuilt in 1860, but contains, rescued from an 
 earlier building, a brass to Bichard Hanbury, 
 of the date 1593, and on the north side of the 
 chancel the monument of Christopher Barker, 
 who was Queen's printer in the time of Eliza- 
 beth, and was born here in 1529. Christopher 
 Barker and his son Robert carried on their 
 business at " The Tyger's Head," in Pater- 
 noster Row, and at "The Grasshopper," in St. 
 Paul's Churchard. 
 
 About a mile north of Datchet lies Ditton 
 Park. The house was rebuilt in 1813 by Eliza- 
 beth, Duchess of Buccleugh. 
 
 L
 
 162 THE CHILTEEN HUNDREDS. 
 
 We pass another bend in the river, and come 
 to Wyrardsbury, or as it is pronounced, Wrays- 
 bury, the extreme south-eastern parish of the 
 Hundred of Stoke. The village itself, which 
 stands a mile or so from the river, has no- 
 thing of any particular interest about it, and 
 the church, which stands on the side next to 
 the meadows, has been nearly rebuilt. Here 
 lived Gordon Gyll, a local historian, .who wrote 
 accounts of his own village and of the neigh- 
 bouring ones, about half-a-century ago. He is 
 also to be held in remembrance by Bucking- 
 hamshire men, because he rescued the body 
 of a brother-archaeologist from a pauper's 
 grave. This latter unfortunate antiquary was 
 Dr. George Lipscombe, whose " History of 
 Buckinghamshire " is still the standard work 
 on the countv, and who died in extreme 
 poverty in the Liberties of the Fleet. Dr. 
 Lipscombe belonged to another part of the 
 county, for he was born at Quainton, near 
 Aylesbury. It was quite by chance that Mr. 
 Gyll heard of his death and contemplated igno- 
 minious funeral. 
 
 If we want to go thoroughly into the history 
 of this corner of Buckinghamshire we shall 
 read up Gordon Gyll's book, but in the mean- 
 time we will visit some of the places which he 
 describes. Close to the river is an old house,
 
 'TWIXT THAMES AND COLN. 163 
 
 Place Farm, sometimes known as King John's 
 Hunting Lodge, for we are now hard by a spot 
 closely connected with that worthless indi- 
 vidual. The house stands in damp orchards 
 close to the stream, and one wonders what 
 King John could have found to hunt here, 
 unless it had been frogs and water-fowl. In- 
 deed, the whole of this corner of the county is 
 as flat as flat can be. Of course, the building 
 itself, with some of its furniture, is, according 
 to popular tradition, of the time of King John 
 himself. Even the table is or was shown on 
 which he signed Magna Charta ! Magna 
 Charta Island is a little lower down the river. 
 It is now only divided by a moat from the 
 mainland, and a house stands on it. 
 
 Still farther down the stream w r e come to 
 Ankerwycke, where we have the scanty, the 
 very scanty, remains of a Priory of Benedic- 
 tine nuns, founded by Sir Gilbert Mountfichet 
 in the time of Henry II. What ruins are to 
 be seen stand in a grove near the river. Two 
 archways and some walling are all that we can 
 discover. These probably formed part of the 
 domestic buildings of the priory. They are 
 overshadowed by magnificent cedars and chest- 
 nuts, and the broad river circles round between 
 these trees and the wooded slopes of Cooper's 
 Hill on the Surrey side. In a house built on
 
 161 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 the site of, or constructed out of the remains 
 of the priory, lived Sir Thomas Smyth, who 
 had possession of the estates of the nunnery 
 in the time of Elizabeth. He was Provost of 
 Eton, and Ambassador to France in 1551, but 
 for some reason he afterwards came under the 
 royal displeasure, and retired to this secluded 
 spot for some years. John Taylor, the deprived 
 Bishop of Lincoln, died here in 1553. 
 
 We strike inland to visit a place where we 
 shall ac;ain come across memories of John 
 Milton, Horton. The village itself is a particu- 
 larly quiet and secluded one, and it is chiefly 
 for its associations that we make our way to it. 
 It lies amidst flat meadows, and the various 
 branches of the river Coin, as they spread out 
 over the level country, run through it in many 
 places. The place has changed in one way 
 since the time of Milton. Many of the houses 
 have disappeared and more modern ones have 
 taken their places. The house which the poet 
 himself occupied is no longer to be found. 
 The church, however, has not been much 
 altered since the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century, though it is a building of various 
 dates. There is a Norman doorway on the 
 south, in front of which stands a very beau- 
 tiful wooden porch. The south arcade is 
 Transitional, and the north chapel is Perpen-
 
 'TWIXT THAMES AND COLN. 1G5 
 
 dicular. There is no clerestory, and as the nave 
 arches are not very lofty, it is somewhat 
 gloomy. The spot which we particularly 
 associate with Milton is the grave of his 
 mother. It is in front of the altar, and a slab 
 of dark blue stone marks the place. The slab 
 bears the simple inscription — "Beneath this 
 stone lie the remains of Sara, the wife of John 
 Milton." 
 
 The son lived at Horton from July, 1632, to 
 April, 1638, a period of nearly six years. 
 They were important years, for he came here 
 at the age of twenty-four, fresh from Cam- 
 bridge, and left when he was thirty. Conse- 
 quently his first residence in Buckingham- 
 shire covers the years of his early manhood, 
 and the years in which he produced his most 
 exquisite work. This is what he says of this 
 period himself : " At my father's country 
 residence, whither he had retired to pass his old 
 age, I, with every advantage of leisure, spent 
 a complete holiday in turning over the Greek 
 and Latin writers ; not but that sometimes I 
 exchanged the country for the town, either for 
 the purpose of buying books or for that of 
 learning something new in mathematics or in 
 music, in which sciences I then delighted. 
 Having passed five years in this manner, after 
 my mother's death, I, being desirous of seeing
 
 166 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 foreign lands, and especially Italy, went abroad 
 with one servant, having by entreaty obtained 
 my father's consent." Most critics are agreed 
 that, in addition to what he mentions himself, 
 these five years at Horton saw the produc- 
 tion of " The Sonnet to the Nightingale," 
 " L'Allegro," "II Penseroso," " The" Arcades," 
 " Comus," and " Lycidas." 
 
 A tradition, and nothing more, gives ns as the 
 residence of John Milton, senior, a house called 
 Berkin Manor, situated opposite the church on 
 the other side of the road. In the garden an 
 aged apple-tree was pointed out under which 
 his son was, according to the popular opinion 
 concerning poets, accustomed to compose and 
 write. Berkin Manor-House was pulled down 
 in 1798, and a new house has been erected on 
 its site. 
 
 There was a great difference between the 
 first residence of Milton in Buckinghamshire 
 at Horton, and his second sojourn at Chalfont. 
 During these five years by the banks of the 
 Thames and the Coin he was, as he strolled 
 through lanes and meadows and walked by the 
 waterside, able to take in those views of rural 
 nature which are usually considered a necessary 
 part of a poet's equipment. When he was 
 living by the banks of the upper Coin thirty 
 years afterwards, his eyes were closed to all
 
 'TWIXT THAMES AND COLN. 167 
 
 earthly sights. If, however, we are inclined 
 to seek out any reference to local scenes in the 
 poems written at Horton, we must remember 
 that three of them, " The Arcades," " Comus," 
 and " Lycidas," require their own local 
 setting, and it is in "The Sonnet to the 
 Nightingale," " L' Allegro," and "II Pense- 
 roso," therefore, that we must seek for any 
 description of sights and sounds within reach 
 of the flat meadowland wherein the poet's lot 
 was cast for the time. He was evidently 
 studying Italian when he wrote the two last- 
 mentioned pieces, with a view doubtless to his 
 contemplated Italian tour. This study resulted 
 in his giving titles in a foreign language to 
 the pieces, but with only a few exceptions the 
 scenery described might have been found close 
 at home. In the spinnies and groves at 
 Horton he might frequently have listened to 
 the— 
 
 " Nightingale, that on yon bloomy spray 
 Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still." 
 
 The walks by the Coin supplied for 
 "L' Allegro"— 
 
 ' ' Meadows trim with daisies pied, 
 Shallow brooks and rivers wide." 
 
 The farm-houses and homesteads around him 
 could furnish his descriptions of the poultry-
 
 168 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 yard, the scenes of rural labour, and the rustic 
 superstitions of the ''friar's lantern" and the 
 u lubber fiend! " 
 
 Sometimes he crossed the Thames, we may 
 suppose, and found his way to the Surrey 
 hills, whence he looked down on the — 
 
 " Russet lawns and fallows grey 
 Where the nibbling flocks do stray." 
 
 Though these gentle slopes could hardly sug- 
 gest to him — 
 
 " Mountains on whose barren breast 
 The labouring clouds do often rest." 
 
 There is, moreover, a plain reference to his 
 frequent j ourneys to London, a ride of a couple 
 of hours, in the lines — 
 
 ' ' Tower'd cities please us then 
 And the busy hum of men." 
 
 Perchance during these visits his time was 
 not altogether taken up with book- buying, and 
 with the study of mathematics and music, but 
 he found his way occasionally — 
 
 " To the well-trod stage anon, 
 If Jonson's learned sock be on, 
 Or sweetest Shakespeare, Fancy's child, 
 Warble his native wood notes wild." 
 
 Nor did he neglect the glories of Eoyal "Wind- 
 sor so close at hand. He might easily cross
 
 'TWIXT THAMES AND COLN. 169 
 
 the Thames by the ferry at Place Farm or at 
 Datchet, and strolling through the Park, when 
 the Xing' s hounds were out — 
 
 " Oft list'ning how the hounds and horn 
 Cheerly rouse the slumb'ring morn," 
 
 would reach the Castle with its " towers and 
 battlements " — 
 
 " Bosom' d high in tufted trees. 
 
 Perhaps the huge Pound Tower — it was not 
 so high though in the time of Milton as it is 
 now, for Wyattville, the Restorer, added many 
 feet to its height — suggested the idea in "II 
 Penseroso " of — 
 
 " Some high lonely tower, 
 Where I may oft outwatch the Bear, 
 With thrice great Hermes." 
 
 B-* 
 
 St. George's Chapel, combined with memories 
 of King's College Chapel at Cambridge, may 
 have led him to speak of — 
 
 " The high embowered roof 
 With antique pillars massy proof, 
 And storied windows richly dight 
 Casting a dim religious light." 
 
 That services such as those which he would 
 find there were a delight to his musical ear, he 
 tells us in the liues —
 
 170 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 ' ' Then let the pealing organ blow, 
 To the full-voiced quire below 
 In service high, and anthems clear, 
 As may with sweetness, through mine ear, 
 Dissolve me into extasies, 
 And bring all Heav'n before mine eyes." 
 
 The two masques which Milton composed 
 were certainly written, or at least thought out, 
 at Horton. It was the time of masques. They 
 were not only popular but fashionable, and all 
 the upper classes, royalty included, were taking 
 part in them. Even the grave lawyers took 
 them up hotly, and the leaders of the bar turned 
 from their briefs to give attention to theatrical 
 management. 
 
 Bulstrode Whitlock has given us a very 
 full account of a masque performed by 
 members of the Inns of Court in the Banquet- 
 ing House at Whitehall in 1633, the music 
 for which was composed by Henry Lawes. 
 Milton probably heard much of this masque, 
 and of one which followed a few months after. 
 His brother, Christopher, was a student at the 
 Inner Temple, and Henry Lawes was his 
 intimate friend. Moreover, there was a near 
 relationship between Bulstrode Whitlock and 
 Milton's neighbours, the family at the Manor 
 House in Horton. What occupied such learned 
 men as Whitlock, Hyde, and Selden might 
 not be beneath the attention of the grave young
 
 'TWIXT THAMES AND COLN. 171 
 
 poet in Buckinghamshire, and we find Milton 
 writing in this year of 1634, at the suggestion, 
 in all probability, of Lawes, the words for two 
 of these fashionable masques, which were to be 
 performed in aristocratic mansions by members 
 of aristocratic families. 
 
 The first of these, Arcades, was given at a 
 house not very far distant from Horton. If 
 Milton had followed up the Coin valley, 
 passing through the village of Chalfont, where 
 he was afterwards to sojourn for a time, and 
 had then turned to the right across the river 
 at Denham, he would arrive at Harefield 
 House, where was then living a venerable and 
 distinguished lady, Alice, Countess-Dowager 
 of Derby, and daughter of Sir John Spencer, 
 of Althorpe, in Northamptonshire. Though 
 Harefield is across the borders of the county, 
 we cannot but make some reference to the 
 performance of Arcades while we have the life 
 of Milton at Horton before us. Lady Derby 
 was closely connected with the family of 
 Egerton. Her second husband, though she 
 still kept her title of Countess-Dowager of 
 Derby, was Lord Chancellor Egerton, and her 
 son-in-law, John Egerton, who was created 
 Earl of Bridgwater, the husband of her 
 second daughter by her first marriage, was 
 also her step-son. The Earl and Countess
 
 172 THE CHILTEEN HUNDEEDS. 
 
 of Bridgwater had a numerous family, ten of 
 whom were alive in 1634. Of these children 
 two only were boys, Lord Brackley, the heir, 
 who was then about twelve years old, and 
 Thomas Egerton about a year younger. All 
 their sisters were older than they were, and 
 the one just above the boys was Lady Alice 
 Egerton, a young damsel of about fifteen. The 
 Egertons were a very musical family, and the 
 younger members were pupils of Lawes. The 
 two boys had taken part in the masque at 
 Whitehall, and had perhaps suggested to their 
 musical tutor that they would like to perform 
 an entertainment of similar character in honour 
 of their grandmother. The result was the 
 production at Harefield House, some time in 
 1633, of Arcades, and thus Milton came to 
 close the long list of poets who had done 
 honour to the venerable Lady from Edward 
 Spenser onwards, so that, as was said by 
 Warton, "The peerage-book of this Countess 
 is the poetry of her times." 
 
 One would like to know whether Milton, 
 attended the representation himself, and heard 
 his lines chanted to the music of his friend. 
 Did he stand on one side of the stately avenue 
 which led up to Harefield House, and watch the 
 procession move up to the State, on which was 
 seated the Countess ? Did he see the bevy of
 
 'TWIXT THAMES AND COLN. 173 
 
 handsome grand- daughters, the " fair silver- 
 buskin'd nymphs," and their two young 
 brothers trip through the wood singing as 
 they went ? Did he hear Lawes, as " Genius 
 of the Wood," chant the graceful words in 
 honour of the Lady of the house ? One would 
 have liked to have assisted at such a first 
 ni(j7it&$ that. 
 
 It is a far cry from Harefield to the Marches 
 of "Wales and the romantically situated town of 
 Ludlow, and it is thither that Comus would 
 transport us. But we must not stray so far 
 from the Chiltern Hundreds. Let us merely 
 consider the circumstances which brought 
 about the production and performance of what 
 is perhaps the very gem of musical English 
 poetry. The young Egertons had been highly 
 delighted with the success of their performance 
 at their grandmother's home, and Lady Alice 
 and the two young boys pressed their father, 
 the Earl of Bridgwater, to allow them the 
 next year to perform something of the same 
 sort at the magnificent castle on the banks of 
 the Teme in which he had taken up his 
 residence as President of Wales. The music- 
 master is consulted again, and he, as before, 
 applies to his friend to write the words of 
 the contemplated masque, and the result is 
 Comus.
 
 174 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 We know that Milton had a dread of the 
 plague, and to escape from its presence in 
 London thirty years later he moved down to 
 Chalfont. Perhaps it was the remembrance of 
 the year 1637 which gave him such a horror 
 of that awful sickness. It was the year of 
 the death of his mother, and also a time in 
 which Horton and the neighbourhood were 
 terribly visited by the plague. 
 
 But it was also the year of the production 
 of " Lycidas." Edward King, the subject of 
 that beautiful threnody, was lost in a founder- 
 ing ship off the coast of Wales on his way to 
 Ireland on the 11th August, and at the close 
 of the year King's friends of Christ's College, 
 and elsewhere at Cambridge, Milton amongst 
 them, mourned his loss in copies of verses, 
 amongst which the only one now remembered 
 is " Lycidas." Two more poetical pieces, 
 classical ones, are also assigned by some to 
 this period of the poet's life, " Ad Patrem," to 
 be found in the " Syl varum Liber," and the 
 Greek translation of the one hundred and four- 
 teenth Psalm in the same collection. 
 
 In 1638 the connection between Milton 
 and Horton came to an end. He had watched 
 over the death-bed of one of his parents, and 
 had at last received permission from his father 
 to undertake the much longed-for journey to
 
 'TWIXT THAMES AND COLN. 175 
 
 Italy. His surviving parent he left in all 
 probability in charge of his brother Christopher, 
 who had lately married, and was prepared to 
 come and live at Horton. But there is one 
 more event to record in the Horton life. It. 
 was only on the eve of his departure from the 
 neighbourhood of Eton College that Milton 
 appears to have made the acquaintance of Sir 
 Henry Wotton, the fishing Provost. Let us 
 close what we have to say of Milton in this 
 part of the Chiltern Hundreds by quoting a 
 valedictory letter from the head of Eton to 
 his newly discovered and congenial acquaint- 
 ance. 
 
 " From the College, this 13th of April, 1638. 
 
 "Sir, — It was a special favour when you lately 
 bestowed upon me here the first taste of your acquaint- 
 ance, though no longer than to make me know that I 
 wanted more time to value it, and to enjoy it rightly ; 
 and, in truth, if I could then have imagined your further 
 stay in these parts, which I understood afterwards by 
 Mr. H., I would have been bold, in our vulgar phrase, 
 to mend my draught (for you left me with an extreme 
 thirst), and to have begged your conversation again, 
 jointly with your learned friend, at a poor meal or two, 
 that we might have banded together some good authors 
 of the ancient time ; among which I observed you to 
 have been familiar. 
 
 " Since your going, you have charged me with new 
 obligations, both for a very kind letter from you dated 
 the 6th of this month, and for a dainty piece of enter-
 
 176 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 tainment which came therewith, wherein I should much 
 commend the tragical part if the lyrical did not ravish 
 me with a certain Doric delicacy in your songs and 
 odes ; whereunto I must plainly confess to have seen yet 
 nothing parallel in our language, fysa niollities ! But 
 I must not omit to tell you that I only owe you thanks 
 for intimating unto me (how modestly soever) the true 
 artifices. For the work itself I had viewed some good 
 while [before with singular delight, having received it 
 from our common friend Mr. E., in the very close of the 
 late B.'s "Poems," printed at Oxford; whereunto it is 
 added, as I now suppose, that the accessory might help 
 out the principal according to the art of stationers, and 
 to leave the reader con bocco dolce. 
 
 "Xow, Sir, concerning your travels, wherein I may 
 challenge a little more privilege of discourse with you. 
 I suppose you will not blanch Paris on your way ; there- 
 fore I have been bold to trouble you with a few lines 
 to Mr. M. B., whom you shall easily find attending the 
 young Lord S., as his governor, and you may surely 
 receive from him good directions for the shaping of your 
 future journey into Italy, where he did reside by my 
 choice some time for the King, after mine own recess 
 from Venice. 
 
 " I should think that your best line will be through 
 the whole length of France to Marseilles, and thence by 
 sea to Genoa, whence the passage into Tuscany is as 
 dismal as a Gravesend barge. I hasten, as you do, to 
 Florence or Siena — the rather to tell you a short story 
 from the interest you have given me in your safety. 
 
 "At Siena I was tabled in the house of one Alberto 
 Scipioni, an old Roman courtier in dangerous times — 
 having been steward to the Ducadi Pagliano, who, with 
 all his family, were strangled, save this only man, that 
 escaped by foresight of the tempest. With him I had
 
 'TWIXT THAMES AND COLN. 177 
 
 often much chat of those affairs, into which he tool? 
 pleasure to look back from his native harbour ; and, at 
 my departure towards Rome (which had been the centre 
 of his experience), I had won confidence enough to beg 
 his advice how I might carry myself securely there, 
 without offence of others or of mine own conscience 
 ' Signor arrigo mio,' says he, ' I pensit i i stretti et il visa 
 sciolto ' (Thoughts close, looks loose) will go safely over 
 the whole world. Of which Delphian oracle (for so I 
 have found it) your judgment doth need no commentary ; 
 and, therefore, sir, I will warrant you with it to the b 
 of all securities, God's dear love, remaining your friend, 
 as much at command as any of longer date, 
 
 " Henry Wotton. 
 
 "Postscript, — Sir, I have expressly sent this my 
 footboy to prevent your departure without some acknow- 
 ledgment from me of the receipt of your obliging letter, 
 having myself through some business, I know not how, 
 neglected the ordinary conveyance. In any part, where 
 I shall find you fixed, I shall be glad and diligent to 
 entertain you with home novelties ; even for some 
 fomentation of our friendship, too soon interrupted in 
 the cradle." 
 
 The "dainty piece of entertainment ' is 
 ComuSj a copy of which appears to have 
 been sent to "Wotton by Milton. The Provost, 
 however, seems to have received a previous 
 copy bound up with some poems. 
 
 We shall perhaps walk on to Colnbrook. It 
 is only a mile distant, but there is not much 
 to see. It had certain importance in coaeh-
 
 178 THE CHILTEKN HUNDREDS. 
 
 ing days, for it is situated on the great west 
 road, and it once abounded in inns, some of 
 which, curious old buildings, still remain. 
 Colnbrook also once possessed a market and 
 a corporation, which latter dated from 1543. 
 It has, moreover, a much earlier history if it 
 be true that it represents the " Ad Pontes " of 
 Antoninus. At any rate, it has plenty of 
 bridges at the present day over the Coin and 
 its branches. 
 
 Perhaps we shall take a walk down the 
 street and take a look at some of the old inns 
 of which we have spoken. There is a grue- 
 some storv connected with one of the Coin- 
 
 mi 
 
 brook hostelries, not one of those still remain- 
 ing, however. The landlord of the said inn, in 
 days long ago, contrived a wicked death-trap 
 for his more wealthy guests, for at the time of 
 which the story speaks merchants and others 
 travelled with much money on their persons. 
 The evil host ushered the traveller with much 
 ceremonv into the bed-chamber, where was a 
 bed large and sumptuous. At dead of night 
 he lowered the bedstead by a cunning con- 
 trivance of ropes and weights into a vault 
 beneath, where his murderous deeds were 
 done, and the bodies of his victims were then 
 cast into the Coin which flowed below. More 
 than sixty murders were committed in the days
 
 'TWIXT THA.MES AND C0LN. 179 
 
 of the Norman kings by the wicked host, as is 
 duly set forth in a book published at the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century, which 
 gives a full and minute description of the mak- 
 ing away of the last victim, one Master Cole, 
 a wealthy carrier of Heading. For this murder 
 the landlord paid with his own life, but the 
 name of the unfortunate carrier, adds the story, 
 was given to the stream " Whereinto Cole was 
 cast," which u did ever since carrie the name of 
 Cole, and the town Colebrooke." As we have 
 seen, however, the town has a history which 
 goes a good deal farther back than the time of 
 the Normans, and the river Coin had a name 
 before the body of the murdered Master Cole 
 was tumbled into it in the days of Henry I. 
 "What the origin of the name may be, however, 
 is a matter which we may leave to experts.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ROUND STOKE POGIS. 
 
 Upton Church — Grave of Sir William Herschel — Slough — The 
 Herschels— Salt Hill— Eton Montem - Miss Edgeworth's 
 Drama — Stoke Place and Sir George Grote — Stoke Pogis — 
 The Churchyard — Grave of Thomas Gray — His Eton Life — 
 His Visit to Uncle Rogers and Description of the House — 
 Winter of 1741 and 1742 at Stoke— " The Ode on Eton College" 
 and "The Elegy" — Death of Richard West — Second Residence 
 at Cambridge and Reconciliation with Horace Walpole — Letter 
 to Walpole on "The Elegy " — "A Long Story"— Death of 
 Mrs. Gray — Another Letter to Walpole on " The Elegy"— The 
 Church — Monuments of Molyns and Hastings Families — Stoke 
 House — Erroneous Tradition about Sir Christopher Hatton — 
 Sir Edward Coke — His Marriage, and Residence and Death at 
 Stoke — Sir John Gayer and "The Lion Sermon" — Baylies — 
 Wexham — Langley Church and Park — Black Park— Fulmer — 
 Visit of Professor Owen to Fulmer Place. 
 
 We propose to start for Stoke Pogis from 
 Eton, and the first place which we come to, as 
 we proceed northwards, is Upton, which lies 
 a little to the south of the great road to the 
 west. We find here a fine old church, restored 
 in 1852, small but interesting. It is Norman, 
 with the exception of the Early English south 
 aisle, and it has a central tower, and a groined
 
 ROUND STOKE POGIS. 181 
 
 roof to the chancel. Here we again come 
 across the family of Bulstrode, and find a 
 brass to Sir Edward Bulstrode, who was 
 Squire of the Body to the two first Tudors. 
 In the churchyard we shall notice the grave 
 of Sir William Herschel, the astronomer, who 
 lived and died at Upton. 
 
 When we reach the great high-road, we find 
 that a new town has sprung up along its 
 course for some distance. This newly-built 
 district is called Slough, a name more familiar 
 to most people than that of the mother-parish. 
 The church here is, of course, modern, but it 
 stands almost on the site of the Observatory 
 erected by Sir William Herschel. This re- 
 markable man, who was a native of Hanover, 
 began life as a musician and organist, after a 
 few vears' service in the Hanoverian Guards. 
 He was, when he arrived in England, at first 
 a member of the band of the Durham Militia, 
 and then became an organist, first at Halifax 
 and afterwards at the Octagon Chapel at Bath. 
 Together with his musical studies he carried 
 on that of mathematics, and soon turned his 
 attention to the construction of lars;e tele- 
 scopes. King George III. gave him a pension 
 to enable him to devote himself entirely to 
 astronomv, and Herschel settled down close to 
 Windsor, first at Datchet, and then in this
 
 182 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 house at Slough, where, iu 1789, he con- 
 structed his largest telescope, and where he 
 lived, engaged in his astronomical observations, 
 until his death in 1822. 
 
 With Sir William Herschel lived his cele- 
 brated sister Caroline. She was twelve years 
 younger than her brother, and came to join 
 him in England when he was occupying a 
 leading musical position in Bath. She moved 
 with him to Slough, and remained there, 
 assisting him in his works, and making re- 
 searches of her own, until his death, when 
 she returned to her native Hanover, and died 
 there in 1848, at the remarkable age of ninety- 
 eight. 
 
 Yet one more member of this distinguished 
 family is connected with Slough, for here was 
 born, in 1792, Sir John Herschel, who has 
 left even a greater name than did his father. 
 He was Senior Wrangler at Cambridge, and 
 devoted his whole life to astronomy, not only 
 in the northern hemisphere, but in the southern 
 also. They were a long-lived family, the Her- 
 schels, for Sir John, though he lived to the 
 age of seventy-nine, was five years younger 
 than his father, and nineteen years younger 
 than his aunt had been, at their respective 
 deaths. 
 
 When we reach the old Bath road we shall
 
 ROUND STOKE POGIS. 183 
 
 probably turn westward for a little distance 
 to visit the tumulus called Salt Hill, so famous 
 in the history of Eton. Hither it was that the 
 boys came in procession on Whitsun Tuesday, 
 making their way, as they termed it, ad 
 montem — hence the name of Eton Montem — 
 and collecting the Salt. The procession, 
 which originated from a manorial custom by 
 which the College held the manor, became a 
 very costly affair, as many of the boys sported 
 handsome fancy dresses for the occasion. The 
 salt, which sometimes amounted to more than 
 a thousand pounds, was given to the Captain 
 of the Collegers towards his expenses at King's 
 College, Cambridge. 
 
 Does anyone read Maria Edgeworth's 
 "Parent's Assistant" now, and turn to "Eton 
 Montem," there to make the acquaintance of 
 Lord John, the proud young aristocrat, with 
 "the back that never was bent" ; Talbot, the 
 over-sensitive hero ; Wheeler the toady ; and 
 Bursal the purse-proud; Eory O'Ryan, the comic 
 Irish boy ; and Talbot's pretty sister Louisa, 
 not to mention Finsbury the man-milliner, with 
 his load of fancy dresses, caps, and helmets ? 
 
 But we must pass on to the village which 
 gives its name to the Hundred, Stoke Pogis. 
 On the way we pass the home of another dis- 
 tinguished man. Sir George Grote, the his-
 
 184 THE CHTLTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 torian of Greece, lived at Stoke Place, on the 
 right-hand side of the road. 
 
 A mile farther and we reach the park, 
 churchyard, and church of Stoke Pogis. 
 Now it must be confessed that the churchyard 
 of Stoke is not situated in a very romantic 
 position. It lies, pleasantly enough, on one 
 side of a somewhat flat park, and is surrounded 
 by large trees ; but there is no remarkable 
 beauty about it. "We might come across 
 such a God's-acre almost anywhere in Eng- 
 land. Graves, paths, and turf are trim and 
 formal, and " the ivy-mantled tower " has been 
 surmounted by a hideous extinguisher steeple. 
 The spot to which we shall most likely first 
 make our way is to be found just beneath the 
 st wall of the chancel. Here lie the bodies 
 of Thomas Gray, of his mother Dorothy Gray, 
 and of his aunt Mary Antrobus. The poet 
 sleeps in the graveyard which he has immor- 
 talised, and we may sit down — 
 
 " Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, 
 WTiere heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap," — 
 
 and run over some of the points in his life, 
 especially ;it Stoke Pogis, and his connection 
 with the Chiltern Hundreds. To begin with, 
 we think of him first as the Eton boy, studious 
 beyond his years, solemn and reserved, for, as
 
 ROUND STOKE POGIS. 
 
 185 
 
 Walpole says, " Gray never was a boy " ; but 
 yet forming a close intimacy with the rattling 
 Horace, as well as with the more congenial 
 Richard West. Asheton, the Asheton to whom 
 Walpole refers in his letter to Montague from 
 "the Christopher," was the fourth member of 
 
 
 Stoke Poaris Church. 
 
 what was sometimes called u the quadruple 
 alliance." Did the future poet, we wonder, 
 ever wander in an afternoon stroll as far as 
 this quiet churchyard ? 
 
 It is not until his Cambridge life at Peter- 
 ham has commenced that we find Gray first 
 connected with Stoke. We have referred to a 
 letter to Walpole, in which he describes a visit
 
 186 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 to his uncle's house, which was situated close 
 to Burnham Common and Burnham Beeches. 
 The old uncle, so attached to his dogs, and 
 once so keen a sportsman, was a retired lawyer, 
 it seems, named Eogers, who had married the 
 sister of Mrs. Gray. Philip Gray, the father of 
 the poet, and his brother-in-law, Mr. Eogers, 
 died about the same time, in the year 1741 ; 
 and the two widows, together with an un- 
 married sister, Mary Antrobus, joined house- 
 keeping in the house of Mrs. Eogers, at Stoke. 
 Gray described the house, long afterwards, 
 in a letter to a friend, Mr. Palgrave, who was 
 making a tour in Scotland in 1758. 
 
 " I do not know how to make you amends, having 
 neither rock, ruin, nor precipice near to send you ; they 
 do not grow in the south ; but only say the word, if you 
 would have a compact neat box of red brick with sash 
 windows, or a grotto made of flints and shell-work, 
 or a walnut-tree with three mole-hills under it, stuck with 
 honeysuckles round a basin of gold fishes, and you shall 
 be satisfied ; they shall come by the Edinburgh coach." 
 
 It was the year 1737, the last of his first 
 residence at Cambridge, when Gray paid his 
 visit to Uncle Eogers. It was five years later, 
 just after the conclusion of that foreign tour 
 which had been begun in the company of 
 Horace Walpole, but finished in solitude, that 
 he began to make his home with his mother
 
 ROUND STOKE POGIS. 187 
 
 and aunts in the little house at Stoke Pogis. 
 For a year or more he lived there, before 
 beginning his second residence at Cambridge, 
 and he afterwards made it his country home 
 during the vacations, not only up to the time 
 of his mother's death, but, as we may gather 
 from his letters, also after that event. 
 
 That winter of 1741 and 1742, spent at 
 Stoke, probably saw some of his best-known 
 writings begun, if not completed. Then it was 
 that he wrote the "Ode on the Prospect of 
 Eton College," and began the " Elegy written 
 in a Country Churchyard." It was the time, 
 moreover, of the death of his Eton friend, 
 Richard West, hence, probably, the note of 
 extreme sadness in the words about the old 
 school-life. 
 
 In the autumn of 1742 Gray's second resi- 
 dence at Cambridge, which was first at Peter- 
 ham, and then at Pembroke Hall, commenced. 
 We do not propose to follow him thither, nor 
 to tell again some of the stories of the poet's 
 University life, or recount the practical jokes 
 played by the undergraduates on their unfortu- 
 nate senior. We may refer, however, to the 
 reconciliation with Horace Walpole which 
 took place about this time, for we may consider 
 the latter almost as much a Buckinghamshire 
 man, from his frequent visits to this neigh-
 
 188 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 bourhood, as Gray himself. We know not 
 exactly how it was that the disagreement took 
 place between the old school friends on their 
 Italian journey. What Walpole himself says 
 is that Gray was "too serious a companion' 1 
 for him. He u was for antiquities, &c, while 
 I was for perpetual balls and plays." But 
 surely the owner of Strawberry Hill a little 
 disparages himself in hinting that antiquities 
 were not to his taste. The quarrel was made 
 up in 1745, some five years from its com- 
 mencement. Gray's own account of the recon- 
 ciliation is amusing. The meeting put the 
 two men on to letter- writing terms again. 
 
 "I went," he wiites, "the following even- 
 ing to see the party (as Mrs. Foible says ), and 
 was somewhat abashed at his confidence : he 
 came to meet me, kissed me on both sides, 
 with all the ease of one who receives an 
 acquaintance just come out of the country, 
 squatted me into a fauteuil, began to talk of 
 the town, and this event, that, and t'other, 
 and continued, with little interruption, for 
 three hours, when I took my leave very in- 
 differently pleased, but treated with monstrous 
 good-breeding. I supped with him next night 
 (as he desired); Asheton was there, whose 
 formalities tickled me inwardly, for he (I 
 found) was to be angry about the letter I
 
 ROUND STOKE POGIS. 189 
 
 had written him. However, in going home 
 together, our hackney coach jumbled us into a 
 sort of reconciliation ; he hammered out some- 
 what like an excuse, and I received it very 
 readily, because I cared not twopence whether 
 it were true or not, so we grew the best ac- 
 quaintance imaginable, and I sat with him on 
 Sunday some hours alone, when he informed 
 me of abundance of anecdotes, much to my 
 satisfaction, and, in short, opened (I really 
 believe) his heart to me with that sincerity, 
 that I found I had still less reason to have a 
 good opinion of him than (if possible) I ever 
 had before. Next morning I breakfasted 
 alone with Mr. Walpole, when we had all 
 the eclaircissement I ever expected, and I 
 left him far better satisfied than I have been 
 hitherto." 
 
 In 1747 the "Ode on Eton College" was 
 published, and, in 1749, in which year the 
 family party at Stoke was diminished by the 
 death of his favourite aunt, Mary Antrobus, 
 Gray completed his "Elegy," though he did 
 not then give it to the world at large. He 
 sent "Walpole a copy of the poem, together 
 with the following letter, the next June : 
 "As I live in a place, where even the ordinary 
 tattle of the town arrives not till it is stale, 
 and which produces no events of its own, you
 
 190 THE CHILTEKN HUNDREDS. 
 
 will not desire any excuse from me for writ- 
 ing so seldom, especially as, of all people 
 living I know, you are the least a friend to 
 letters spun out of one's own brains, with all 
 the toil and constraint that accompanies senti- 
 mental productions. I have been here at 
 Stoke a few days (where I shall continue a 
 good part of the summer), and having put an 
 end to a thing, whose beginning you have seen 
 long ago, I immediately send it you. You 
 will, I hope, look upon it in the light of a 
 thing with an end to it ; a merit that most of 
 my writings have wanted, and are like to 
 want, but which this epistle, I am deter- 
 mined, shall not want." 
 
 It was about this time that Gray made the 
 acquaintance of his neighbours, the ladies 
 at Stoke House. The " Elegy," handed about 
 in manuscript, had come under the notice of 
 Lady Cobham, who was then living at the 
 Manor-house, and she sent her two cousins, 
 Lady Schaub and Miss Speed, to call upon the 
 poet. They did not find him in, but left a 
 card, a proceeding which, it would seem, 
 hardly justified the production of the very 
 fantastic piece called " A Long Story," which 
 is interesting, however, for the reference to 
 the traditional history of Stoke House, with 
 which Gray had made himself acquainted.
 
 ROUND STOKE POGIS. 191 
 
 But we must leave any description of the 
 mansion until we have quitted the church- 
 yard. 
 
 In 1753 Mrs. Gray died. The epitaph 
 which her son has placed over her grave ex- 
 presses prettily the fact that all the little baby 
 brothers and sisters were gone before. Thomas 
 was the fifth and only one who passed beyond 
 infancy out of a family of twelve. " The 
 careful, tender mother," he calls her, "of 
 many children, one of whom alone had the 
 misfortune to survive her." 
 
 A letter to Walpole, written two months 
 before her death, mentions her illness, and 
 also tells us something about Gray having at 
 last made up his mind to allow his produc- 
 tions to be published in print, instead of re- 
 maining in their original or copied manuscript. 
 The " Elegy " had already found its way into 
 a periodical, called the Magazine of Magazines, 
 but in so garbled a condition that Gray had 
 given a commission to Dodsley to reprint it, 
 with corrections. This letter to Walpole 
 evidently speaks of a subsequent publication 
 by Dodsley, which was to have, amongst 
 other illustrations, one representing a village 
 funeral, and also, if it had not been absolutely 
 forbidden by the poet, a head of Gray him- 
 self, engraved from a portrait by Echart.
 
 192 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 " I am at present at Stoke, to which place I came at 
 half-an-hour's warning, upon the news I received of my 
 mother's illness, and did not expect to have found her 
 alive ; but when I arrived she was much better, and 
 continues so. I shall, therefore, be very glad to make 
 you a visit at Strawberry Hill, whenever you give me 
 notice of a convenient time. I am surprised at the print 
 which far surpasses my idea of London graving ; the 
 drawing itself was so finished, that I suppose it did not 
 require all the art I had imagined to copy it tolerably. 
 My aunts seeing me open your letter, took it to be a 
 burying ticket, and asked whether anybody had left me 
 a ring ; and so they still conceive it to be, even with all 
 their spectacles on. Heaven forbid they should suspect 
 it to belong to any verses of mine, they would burn me 
 for a poet. On my own part I am satisfied, if this de- 
 sign of yours should succeed so well as you intend it ; 
 and yet I know it will be accompanied by something 
 not at all agreeable to me. (While I write this I receive 
 your second letter.) Sure, you are not out of your wits ? 
 This I know, if you suffer my head to be printed, you 
 will infallibly put me out of mine. I conjure you imme- 
 diately to put a stop to any such design. Who is at 
 the expense of engraving it ? I know not ; but if it is 
 Dodsley, I will make up the loss to him. The thing as 
 it was, I know, will make me ridiculous enough ; but to 
 appear in proper person at the head of my works, con- 
 sisting of half-a-dozen Ballads in thirty pages, would be 
 worse than the piliory. I do assure you, if I had 
 received such a book, with such a frontispiece, without 
 any warning, I believe it would have given me a palsy ; 
 therefore, I rejoice to have received this notice, and shall 
 not be easy till you tell me all thoughts of it are laid 
 aside. I am extremely in earnest, and cannot bear even 
 the idea."
 
 ROUND STOKE POGIS. 193 
 
 We have already quoted a letter written 
 to Mr. Palgrave from. Stoke so late as the 
 year 1758, and, two years before, he writes 
 to his friend and biographer, Mr. Mason, to 
 let him know that he is " at Stoke, hearing, 
 seeing, doing absolutely nothing." It was 
 a retreat of quiet and calm, however, as he 
 himself has told us, 
 
 " Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife." 
 
 Let us pass from the churchyard into the 
 church. This is a building of various dates. 
 We have already noticed the recently added 
 spire. The tower has been also otherwise 
 mutilated, for a western door has been blocked 
 up, and a window inserted. There is a brick 
 chapel to the family of Hastings, and there 
 are monuments of earlier proprietors, amongst 
 them the tomb of Sir John Molyns, who was 
 treasurer to Edward III., and died in 1425 ; 
 and brasses to Sir William Molyns, who fell 
 at the siege of Orleans, in 1429, and to the 
 Ladies Margaret and Eleanor Molyns. In 
 1749, when the publication of the "Elegy" 
 brought Stoke Pogis Church under his notice, 
 Walpole wrote to Montague to go over there, 
 and copy for him the inscription on the tomb 
 of one of his ancestors, a Hastings. We shall 
 notice also the ancient stained-glass windows, 
 
 N
 
 194 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 containing the arms of these and other fami- 
 lies. Before the family of Molyns was that of 
 Pogis, who came here by the marriage of Bobert 
 Pogis, Knight of the Shire, in 1310, with 
 Amicia de Stoke. 
 
 And now let us go into the park, within 
 which once stood the home of these different 
 families. We notice a very conspicuous object 
 between the church and the road. It is a huge 
 sarcophagus, erected as a monument to Gray 
 by one of the Penn family, descendants of 
 William Penn. The churchyard was sufficient 
 memorial to the Poet in itself. 
 
 The mansion, built by Hastings, Earl of 
 Huntingdon, in the time of Elizabeth, was 
 pulled down by the Penns in 1789, and the 
 present building erected on its site. The 
 Elizabethan house had been purchased by Sir 
 Edward Coke, the celebrated Chief Justice, 
 from the third Earl of Huntingdon, quite at 
 the close of the sixteenth century, and he 
 entertained the Queen here very sumptuously 
 in 1601. Late in life he married, as his 
 second wife, the widow of Sir William New- 
 port, sister's son to Lord Chancellor Hatton, 
 who became his uncle's heir, and took his 
 name. This marriage of Sir Edward Coke 
 has been sufficient to hang on to Stoke House
 
 ROUND STOKE POGIS. 195 
 
 the tradition that the dancing Chancellor 
 once resided here. This is hardly probable, 
 since the Chief Justice, as we have seen, suc- 
 ceeded to the family of Hastings. Gray has, 
 however, followed the tradition in " A Long 
 Story," and has made the Hattons succeed to 
 the Huntingdons : — 
 
 " In Britain's isle, no matter where, 
 
 An ancient pile of building' stands ; 
 The Huntingdons and Hattons there 
 
 Employed the power of fairy hands. 
 To raise the ceiling's fretted height, 
 
 Each panel in achievements clothing, 
 Rich windows that exclude the light, 
 
 And passages that lead to nothing. 
 Full oft within the spacious walls, 
 
 When he had fifty winters o'er him, 
 My grave Lord-Keeper led the brawls ; 
 
 The seals and masses danced before him. 
 His bushy beard and shoe-strings green, 
 
 His high-crowned hat and satin doublet, 
 Moved the stout heart of England's Queen, 
 
 Though Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it." 
 
 It was more likely at Holdenby House, in 
 Northamptonshire, that Sir Christopher Hatton 
 indulged in these light-hearted festivities, 
 especially at the marriage of his nephew and 
 heir, when, as we are told, he " danced the 
 measures at the solemnity," leaving his gown 
 on his chair with the words, " Lie thou there, 
 Chancellor."
 
 196 THE CHILTE11N HTJNDEEDS. 
 
 But there was no question of merriment 
 when poor old Sir Edward Coke brought his 
 wife to Stoke Pogis. They were married in 
 1598, but the Lady stipulated that the wed- 
 ding should be in private, and that she should 
 retain her title of Lady Hatton, for her first 
 husband had been created a peer. She was 
 a daughter of Lord Burleigh, and for this 
 irregular marriage, performed without banns 
 or licence, the two great lawyers, the husband 
 and the father, together with the bride and 
 the officiating minister, were cited into the 
 ecclesiastical court. 
 
 There was one daughter born to the ill- 
 matched pair, and it is not to be wondered at 
 that this young lady turned out very badly. 
 She was married to Sir John Villiers, who was 
 created Viscount Purbeck and Baron Villiers 
 of Stoke Pogis, but she left him for Sir Robert 
 Howard. It must be mentioned, however, 
 to the credit of the lady, that she came to her 
 old father when he " felt himself alone on the 
 earth, was suspected by his King, deserted by 
 his friends, and detested by his wife." The 
 wife also set off for Stoke Pogis when she heard 
 that her husband was on his death- bed, not 
 to take leave of him, however, but to take 
 possession of the house. When she had 
 reached Colnbrook a messenger met her, and
 
 ROUND STOKE POGIS. 197 
 
 told her that Sir Edward was alive and mend- 
 ing. Thereupon she turned back to London 
 in disgust. 
 
 The suspicions of the King resulted in a 
 search of the house by Sir Francis Winde- 
 bank, Secretary of State, when Coke's papers, 
 including his will, were carried off, and not 
 returned to the family until 1641. This 
 search was made only three days before the 
 death of the poor old man, which event 
 occurred on the 3rd of September, 1634. lie 
 had reached the age of eighty-four. Charles I. 
 was himself brought here as a prisoner in 
 1647, when in the custody of the army. 
 
 There was another celebrity connected with 
 Stoke House. This was Sir John Gayer, 
 Lord Mayor of London, who was knighted by 
 Charles I. in 1646. He, for a short time, 
 owned and occupied the mansion, but he is 
 better known as the Indian merchant who, in 
 his travels, had the adventure with the lion, 
 which led to his founding, in memory of his 
 escape, the annual Lion Sermon at the church 
 of St. Katharine Cree in the City. The Gayer 
 family were strong supporters of the Stuarts, 
 and Sir John's successor, Eobert Gayer, re- 
 fused to allow William III., when he called 
 at Stoke, to enter the mansion. 
 
 We shall find in the village some alms-
 
 198 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 houses, which were founded by Lord Hastings 
 in 1557, and rebuilt by the Penns in 1765. 
 The Penns also erected the lofty monument 
 to the memory of Sir Edward Coke, which we 
 see near the House. 
 
 There is another old house at Stoke which 
 is worth notice, Baylies, which was built by 
 Dr. Godolphin, Provost of Eton in 1695, and 
 the residence afterwards of Dr. Gregory 
 Hascard, Dean of Windsor, to whom there is 
 a monument in the church, and of Lord 
 Chesterfield of the letters. 
 
 East of Stoke Pogis is the tiny village of 
 Wexham, with a little low-built church, as 
 plain in its architectural features as that at 
 Upton, though of later date. Beyond this is 
 Langley Park, which is some distance from 
 the village of that name. The house was built 
 about 1750 by the second Duke of Marl- 
 borough, who also planted the Black Park, 
 a large fir-wood farther to the north, in the 
 centre of which is a gloomy lake. The church 
 at Langley has a Norman nave, and an Early 
 Decorated chancel, in which is the monument 
 of Sir John Ivedermister, with his wife and 
 their five children. Sir John obtained a grant 
 from the Dean and Chapter of Windsor, in the 
 year 1613, to erect a building adjoining the 
 church on the south side, and forming a very
 
 ROUND STOKE POGIS. 199 
 
 conspicuous feature, both without and within. 
 First, we enter a sort of transept, raised high 
 above a vault, and furnished at the end with 
 a long, comfortable, family pew, in front of 
 which is a wooden screen, carved and painted 
 in the style of the early part of the seventeenth 
 century. We note that the screen is provided 
 with little casements, which can be closed at 
 pleasure, one in front of each seat, so that 
 every occupant of the pew can, if he wishes 
 so to do, retire from the congregation, and 
 from public worship. Out of this pew we 
 pass through a door into another building, 
 occupying the place usually taken by a north 
 aisle, and which we find to be a small room, 
 surrounded by bookshelves, also ornamented 
 with paintings, and containing a large collec- 
 tion chiefly of theological books, handsomely 
 printed and bound in the best style of the 
 time. This is the Kedermister Library, 
 founded by Sir John for the use of the rector 
 of the parish and of other neighbouring parsons. 
 Nor did the worthy Sir John confine himself 
 to providing for men's minds alone, for we 
 see on each side of the churchyard the pic- 
 turesque blocks of almshouses which he built 
 for the benefit of the old people of the parish. 
 
 To the north-east of Stoke is Fulmer, which 
 was formerly a ehapelry of Datchet. The
 
 200 
 
 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 church is a specimen of Jacobean Gothic, 
 erected in 1610 by Sir Marmaduke Darell, 
 whose effigy, together with that of Dame 
 Alice, his wife, we see in the chancel. Sir 
 Marmaduke, as the inscription informs us, was 
 a servant to Queen Elizabeth in her wars by 
 
 Fulmer Church. 
 
 sea and land, and cofferer to James I. and 
 Charles I. 
 
 At Fernacres Cottage in Fulmer lived Sir 
 William "White Cooper, the distinguished 
 oculist. Here he was visited by his friend, 
 Professor Eichard Owen, whose great-grand- 
 father had built Fulmer Place, which stands in 
 the village, and which descended to the Pro-
 
 ROUND STOKE POGIS. 201 
 
 fessor's father. Cooper accompanied his guest 
 to his paternal home, and thus describes the 
 visit : " We paused for a moment on crossing 
 the common where the tower of the church 
 first comes into view in the centre of the 
 beautifully wooded hollow. As he walked on, 
 Owen mentioned his recollection of his father 
 telling him that when he was a little boy he 
 helped to lead his grandfather, who was nearly 
 blind, down to the fish-ponds at Fulmer Place 
 to feed the carp. After passing the village 
 and turning across the fields, the six large 
 fish-ponds came into view. We turned down 
 towards them, Owen walking with eager 
 steps. ' Ah ! ' said he, ' I can fancy that was 
 the very spot where the old man stood as he 
 fed the fish.' We lingered hereabouts for 
 some time, then strolled to the garden almost 
 in silence — to the garden where stands an 
 enormous tree, known as the Balm of Gilead 
 Pine. This, likely enough, was planted by 
 Owen's great-grandfather, Eichard Eskrigge, 
 and certainly from its size was coeval with 
 him. The house had been completely re- 
 modelled with great taste ; but it was with the 
 park that Owen was most interested. He 
 examined the outline of the boundary wall, 
 which could not have been altered ; he put a 
 fragment of a brick in his pocket, and I
 
 202 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 gathered a twig of an old Scotch fir which he 
 carried away. We then walked through the 
 village home, my friend expressing the satis- 
 faction he felt at having realised at length that 
 which had been — ever since he came to London 
 — his most earnest hope."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ABOVE COLNBROOK BRIDGE. 
 
 The Coin Valley — Richings Lodge— Henry, Earl Bathurst— Alger- 
 non, Duke of Somerset, and his Duchess — Her Account of the 
 Place and Shenstone's Description — Iver Church— Monuments 
 of the Salters — Denham — The Church— Monuments of the 
 Peckhams, Sir Roger Hill, the Bowyers, and others -Dtnham 
 Place— Distinguished Residents and Visitors — The Chapel — 
 Interior Decorations — Denham Court— John Dryden — Adven- 
 tures of Charles II.— Conclusion — Thomas Gray on Anti- 
 quarianism. 
 
 The last place which we visited, Fulmer, was 
 pleasantly situated in a little side-valley run- 
 ning down into that of the Coin, and the 
 scenery reminded us somewhat of what we 
 found when we were nearer to the Chiltern 
 Hills, but we are now, in our last excursion 
 through the Hundreds, goiug to follow up the 
 river which forms the eastern boundary of 
 Buckinghamshire, and our way will be by flat 
 meadows and low-lying marshes. We shall on 
 the banks of the Coin return to such scenery 
 as that which we found when we were by the 
 side of the Thames at Wyrardsbury and 
 Ankerwycke.
 
 204 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 Just north of Colnbrook we come to Eichings 
 Lodge, which belonged, in the early part of 
 the last century, to Henry, Earl Bathurst, the 
 statesman and patron of literature, the opponent 
 of Sir Eobert Walpole, and the intimate friend 
 of all the eminent writers of the time, many of 
 whom came to visit him here. Earl Bathurst 
 sold the house in 1739 to Algernon, Earl of 
 Hertford, who became Duke of Somerset in 
 1748, but died at Eichings two years later. 
 His widow was also much in the literary set of 
 the period, and was, according to the poetical 
 taste of the day, addressed under the name of 
 EuseUa by Dr. Watts, and under that of Cleora 
 by Mrs. Eowe. This lady was much pleased 
 with the grounds at Eichings, or Percy Lodge 
 as it was then called, as laid out by her 
 husband's predecessor, for, as Pope had said, 
 
 ' ' Who plants like Bathurst ? " 
 
 and she wrote in high praise of them to her 
 friend, Lady Pomfret. 
 
 William Shenstone, moreover, poured out a 
 poem of twenty-five stanzas in praise of 
 " Percy Lodge " and the Duchess. One of 
 these stanzas may suffice. 
 
 " Eatigu'd with form's oppressive laws, 
 When Somerset avoids the great, 
 When cloy'd with merited applause, 
 She seeks the rural calm retreat." 
 
 Eichings Lodge is in the parish of Iver, and
 
 ABOYE COLNBROOK BRIDGE. 205 
 
 the village we shall find about two miles farther 
 to the north, close to the river. The church 
 is interesting, for it is of various dates from 
 Norman to Perpendicular. There is a curious 
 monument to the family of Salter, two members 
 of which, Sir George and Sir Edward Salter, 
 were carvers to Charles I. Mary, Lady Salter, is 
 represented as rising from her coffin in a shroud. 
 We follow the river up and in about four 
 miles come to Denham, the last parish which 
 we have to visit in the Chiltern Hundreds. 
 Fortunately it is one of the most picturesque 
 and interesting of all which lie in this part of 
 Buckinghamshire. We do not, it is true, find 
 the beautiful wooded hills which we have seen 
 elsewhere, but in the midst of the quiet river 
 scenery which surrounds us we have a village 
 in itself well worth a visit. Denham lies re- 
 mote and shut off, about half-a-mile away from 
 the high-road, and is built upon the flat land 
 which marks the meeting-place of the Coin and 
 the Misbourn. The houses are almost all of 
 them of red brick with ornamental gables, 
 either stepped or of some other unusual archi- 
 tectural design. They have also windows of 
 Queen Anne or early Georgian style, and 
 therefore may safely be set down in date to the 
 time when Sir Eoger Hill, of whom we shall 
 have to speak later on was Squire here.
 
 206 
 
 THE CHILTEEN IIUNDEEDS. 
 
 We first make our way through the winding 
 
 I * 
 
 JJeuLaiu Church. 
 
 village street to the church, which stands by
 
 ABOVE COLNBROOK BEIDGE. 207 
 
 itself to the east. We find that it is a building 
 almost entirely of Perpendicular date, though the 
 tower, in which later windows have been inserted, 
 bears some marks of early work. Notwith- 
 standing its distance from the downs of the 
 Chiltems, we notice that the church is entirely 
 of flint work. We enter and find that it is full 
 of monuments which commemorate, most of 
 them, members of the families connected with 
 the two principal houses in the parish. Here, 
 for instance, on the north side of the altar we 
 find the effigies of Sir Edmund Peckham and 
 his wife, Anne. Sir Edmund died in 1564, 
 and the figures are capital examples of the 
 sculpture of the period. On the other side of 
 the chancel is a brass to Sir Robert Peckham, 
 son of Sir Edmund, who died at Rome. His 
 body was buried in the church of St. Gregory, 
 but his heart was sent to Denham, as is duly set 
 forth in a long inscription. The son, who had 
 been Privy Councillor to Queen Mary, only 
 outlived his father five years. South of the 
 altar is a curious late brass to Philip Eclelin, 
 who died in 1656, and underneath the chancel 
 arch are several brasses of earlier date, amongst 
 them that of Agnes Jordan, Prioress of Sion 
 House, near Isleworth. 
 
 The Peckhams belonged to Denham Place, 
 and their successors there were the Hills.
 
 208 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 There is a large monument to Sir Eoger Hill, 
 the first of this family, and Abigail, his wife. 
 There are also many tablets to members of the 
 Bowyer family of Denham Court. 
 
 The two houses which we have mentioned 
 lie to the east and west of the village re- 
 spectively. Leaving the churchyard by the 
 eastern side we see before us a remarkably 
 handsome pair of iron gates. Passing through, 
 them we enter an avenue of lime-trees, about 
 half-a-mile in length, which leads across the 
 park to the House. The remains of another, 
 and more ancient, avenue of elms may be traced 
 alongside. 
 
 Denham Court is a house of some age, 
 but has been much pulled about and added 
 to. The oldest part seems to be the wing 
 which we see in front of us as we cross the 
 bridge over the little hurrying Misbourn, 
 where it skirts the gardens. At any rate there 
 are some old windows in this part which have 
 been walled up or replaced by others of Queen 
 Anne date. At right angles to this is the 
 river front which consisted at first of the central 
 block only. Two wings were added afterwards, 
 and all this part of the house has a very modern 
 appearance. When we go inside, however, the 
 thickness of the now interior walls tells us that 
 the modern addition is but a shell built over
 
 ABOVE COLNBROOK BRIDGE. 209 
 
 more ancient work. In one of these walls there 
 is a secret hiding-place, which is approached 
 through the floor of an upstairs-room. 
 
 A very famous person is said to have been 
 hidden at Denham Court, though not perhaps 
 actually in this room. Charles II. came here, 
 we are told, in his wanderings after Worcester 
 fight — where, indeed, did he not wander if all 
 traditions be true? — and was concealed by 
 Lady Bowyer. In the drawing-room is a set 
 of pictures, let into panels over the doors, 
 which commemorate the adventures of the 
 merry monarch at this particular crisis of his 
 life. One of these shows us the King disguised 
 as a scullion in the kitchen. Another repre- 
 sents a panel behind which he is supposed to 
 be concealed. A bleeding turkey has been 
 hung over it for the purpose of throwing the 
 bloodhound, who has been tracking the Xing, 
 off his scent. A third represents Charles as no 
 longer daring to remain in the house, but 
 hiding amongst the rushes in a pond. Over 
 the chimney-piece is a portrait of Lady Bowyer 
 herself. The pictures are of no great value 
 from an artistic point of view ; for instance, the 
 head of the bloodhound in the sliding panel 
 scene is more like that of an Italian grey- 
 hound. Paintings of this character represent- 
 ing incidents in the escape of the young 
 
 o
 
 210 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 king -were frequently executed after the Ee- 
 storation. 
 
 AYe shall not fail to notice the beautiful 
 grounds, along one side of which sweeps the 
 broad and shallow but, just here, quickly 
 flowing Coin, for they have been immortalized 
 by Diyden, who was frequently a visitor here 
 as the guest of Sir William Bowyer. Under 
 the great cedar- tree in front of the house he is 
 said to have found his favourite seat, and here, 
 at the close of his life, he finished his translation 
 of the first Georgic and part of the last iEneid. 
 He describes the grounds as a place where 
 " nature has conspired with art to make the 
 garden one of the most delicious spots in 
 England." Outside the gardens are some 
 fish stews and ponds, one of which may 
 have been the hiding-place of Charles. Other 
 visitors at the Court besides Charles II. and 
 Glorious John have been Dr. Johnson, Sir 
 Humphrey Davy, who came for an occasional 
 day's fishing, and George IY. 
 
 Let us now retrace our steps through the 
 village street — in any part of which an artist 
 might sit down with a picturesque bit of 
 cottage architecture before him — and make for 
 the mansion situated to the west, Denham 
 Place. This house, happily, has not been 
 altered in any way, but remains just as it was
 
 ABOVE COLNBROOK BRIDGE. 
 
 211 
 
 3 
 
 o3 
 
 o 
 
 
 o 
 
 B 
 o 
 
 .V 
 
 -?*,
 
 212 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 when first turned out from the hands of its 
 builder. The latter was not, however, one of 
 the Peckhams, but their successor in the estates, 
 Sir Roger Hill. Sir Roger began his mansion 
 in 1670, and finished it in 1701. The cost of 
 it, as we may see by his accounts which have 
 been carefully preserved in the house itself, 
 was £5,519 10s. 9d. The old house of the 
 Peckhams seems to have been pulled down 
 entirely, and the present large square building 
 rests on an excellent underwork or crypt with 
 a vaulted roof. Though the house stands some- 
 what low, this basement or cellar is never 
 flooded, and the rooms above are therefore at 
 all times perfectly dry. Another architectural 
 feature which we shall notice is the deep over- 
 hanging cornice which runs all round the 
 exterior walls. 
 
 The interior is full of tapestry and family 
 portraits, and the most interesting apartment 
 is a small private chapel. The screen, seats, 
 and other fittings of the chapel, which are 
 painted and gilt, are evidently of earlier date 
 than the house. In fact, they are ecclesiastical 
 work of the sixteenth century, and are said to 
 have been brought from a chapel in the old 
 house at Bulstrode. The chapel window is 
 filled with family arms. The Place soon passed 
 away from the family of Hill. Sir Roger's
 
 ABOVE COLNBROOK BRIDGE. 213 
 
 grand-daughter, Abigail Lockey, a widow, 
 married, as a second husband, Lewis Way, the 
 ancestor of the present owner, and was herself 
 his third wife. The portraits are to be found 
 in nearly all the rooms. In the ante-room to 
 the library, where there are beautiful oak 
 panels, hangs that of Sir Roger Hill. In the 
 library itself, which is also oak-panelled, is that 
 of Lewis Way and his family. Abigail, the 
 heiress, who brought him Denham Place, is in 
 the dining-room. The billiard-room has a 
 remarkable frieze. It represents a landscape 
 and buildings, such as those which Dutch 
 painters of the seventeenth century frequently 
 introduced into their pictures, executed in 
 plaster -work in high relief and coloured. 
 Through the park runs the Misbourn, the 
 upper portion of which we visited at Chalfont. 
 
 And now we have finished our wanderings 
 up and down the famed Hundreds of the 
 Chilterns. We have walked across the chalk 
 downs, and have strolled along the banks of 
 the Thames and the Coin. We have stood 
 beneath the shade of the beech woods, and we 
 have followed many a country lane and foot- 
 path. We have in short tried to see every 
 part of this most interesting southern portion
 
 214 THE CHILTERN HUNDREDS. 
 
 of the county of Buckingham. No church nor 
 monastic house, no mansion nor college has, 
 we trust, escaped our notice, if it was worthy 
 of it from its beauty, its antiquity, or its asso- 
 ciations. We have tried to catch glimpses, as it 
 were, of men and women not unknown to fame 
 and history, who have been in any way connected 
 with the places which we have visited. Let ns 
 conclude our attempt to make this attractive 
 little bit of onr country still better known than 
 it is, by quoting once more from the letters 
 of the poet who has made the quiet little village, 
 which forms nearly the centre of our district, 
 world-known by his " Elegy written in a Coun- 
 try Churchyard." "The drift of my present 
 studies," writes Thomas Gray, "is to know, 
 wherever I am, what lies within reach that may 
 be worth seeing, whether it be building, ruin, 
 park, garden, prospect, picture, or monument; 
 to whom it does or has belonged, and what has 
 been the characteristic and taste of different 
 ages. You will say this is the object of all 
 antiquaries ; but pray what antiquary ever saw 
 these objects in the same light, or desired to 
 know them for a like reason?" Conscious of 
 many imperfections, though we have done our 
 very best to make this sketch of the Chiltern 
 Hundreds attractive and trustworthy, we dare
 
 ABOVE COLNBROOK BRIDGE. 215 
 
 not add as applicable to our own efforts the 
 words which follow : "In short, say what you 
 please, I am persuaded whenever my list is 
 finished you will approve it, and think it of no 
 small use." — Letter to Dr. Wharton, February 
 21**, 1758.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Agmondesham, Walter de, 99 
 
 Aldrich, Robert, 79 
 
 Allestree, Provost Richard, 153 
 
 Amersham, 96 
 
 Ankerwycke, 163 
 
 Asheton, Thomas, 141, 185, 188 
 
 Aubrey, Sir John, 35 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacon, Lord, 153 
 Barker, Christopher, 161 
 Barons, Bishop William, 90 
 Bates, Dr. Benjamin, 35 
 Bathurst, Henry, Earl of, 204 
 Batty, Dr., 40 
 Baylies, 198 
 Beaconsfield, 87 
 Beaconsfield, Earl of, 63 
 Bedford, Earls and Dukes of, 
 
 122 
 Black Park, 198 
 Borlase, Sir William, 43 
 Boston, Lord, 49 
 Boveney, 78 
 Bowyer, 208 
 Bradenham, 68 
 Brudenel, 98 
 
 Bryant, Jacob, 79 
 Buckingham, George, Duke of, 
 
 72 
 Bulstrode, 83 
 Burgwash, Henry de, 30 
 Burke, Edmund, 88 
 Burnham, 78 
 Burnham Beeches, 80 
 Byron, Sir John, 25 
 
 C. 
 
 Cantelttpe, St. Thomas de, 28 
 
 Chalfont, 100 
 
 Chandler, Bishop Edward, 83 
 
 Charles I., 29, 120, 197, 200 
 
 Charles II., 160 
 
 Chenies, 122 
 
 Chesham, 117 
 
 Chesham Bois, 120 
 
 Chess, River, 117 
 
 Cheyne, 124 
 
 Churchill, Charles, 35, 113 
 
 Cistercians, 33 
 
 Clayton, Sir Robert, 39 
 
 Clayton, Sir Thomas, 104 
 
 Cliefden House, 71 
 
 Coke, Sir Edward, 194 
 
 Cooke, Captain, 106
 
 218 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cole, William, 79 
 Coleshill, 91, 96 
 Coin, River, 164 
 Colnbrook, 177 
 Cooper, SirW. W., 200 
 Court Garden, 39 
 Croke, Dr., 97 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 109 
 Curwen, Henry, 97 
 Curzon, 93 
 Cymbeline, 17 
 
 D. 
 
 Danesfield, 38 
 
 Darell, Sir Marmaduke, 200 
 
 Datchet, 161 
 
 Davy, Sir Humphrey, 210 "• 
 
 Delafield, Thomas, 31 
 
 Denham, 205 
 
 Derby, Countess of, 171 
 
 Desborough, 65 
 
 Despencer, 46 
 
 Despencer, Francis Lord le, 66 
 
 Disraeli, Isaac, 68 
 
 Ditton, Park, 161 
 
 Dorney, 78 
 
 Drake, 96 
 
 Dropmore, 82 
 
 D'Oyley, 28 
 
 Dryden, John, 72, 210 
 
 Duffield, 34 
 
 Dumoriez, General, 31 
 
 Du Pre, James, 87 
 
 E. 
 
 Egerton, 171 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 68, 194 
 Ellwood, Thomas, 111, 116 
 Eton, 141 
 
 F. 
 
 Farnham Royal, 82 
 Fawley, 25 
 Fingest, 30 
 Fleetwood 102 
 Franciscans, 34 
 Fulmer, 199 
 
 G. 
 
 Gardyitor, 102 
 Gayer, Sir John, 197 
 Geological Features, 16 
 Godolphin, Provost, 198 
 Goodwin, Arthur, 50 
 Grange, The, 114 
 Gray, Thomas, 80, 184, 214* 
 Greenlands, 26 
 Gregories, 90 
 Grey, Bishop, 98 
 Grote, Sir George, 183 
 Grove, The, 102 
 Gyll, Gordon, 162 
 
 H. 
 
 Hall Barns, 91 
 
 Harableden, 28 
 
 Hampden, John, 50 
 
 Hare, Bishop, 105 
 
 Harefield House, 171 
 
 Hastings, 193 
 
 Hatton, Sir Christopher, 194 
 
 Hedgerley, 83 
 
 Hedsor, 48 
 
 Henry VI., 144 
 
 Herschel, 181 
 
 Hill, Sir Roger, 212 
 
 Hitcham, 77 
 
 Hopkins, Richard, 35
 
 INDEX. 
 
 219 
 
 Horton, 164 
 Howe, Earl, 93 
 Hughenden, 60 
 Hurleyford House, 39 
 
 Iver, 204 
 
 J. 
 
 James, G. P. R., 44 
 Jeffries, Chancellor, 84 
 Johnson, Dr., 59, 210 
 Jordans, 114 
 
 K. 
 
 Kedermister, Sir John, 198 
 King, Sir John Dashwood, 35 
 
 Langlet, 198 
 
 Langley, Thomas, 31, 40 
 
 Lansdowne, Marquis of, 59 
 
 Latimers, 120 
 
 Lawes, Henry, 170 
 
 Lipscombe, George, 31, 162 
 
 Lloyd, Robert, 35 
 
 Loakes, 58 
 
 Longland, Dean John, 53 
 
 Lovell, 54 
 
 Lovibond, 35 
 
 Lupton, Provost, 153 
 
 M. 
 
 Magna Charta Island, 163 
 Mayne Reid, Captain, 87 
 Marlborough, Duke of, 198 
 
 Marlow, Great, 40 
 Marlow, Little, 46 
 Marshall, Eustace, 83 
 Medmenham, 33 
 Melcombe Regis, Lord, 35 
 Messenger, Richard, 57 
 Milton, John, 110, 164 
 Milton, Sara, 165 
 Misbourn, The, 95 
 Molyns, 79, 193 
 Montague, Mrs., 85 
 Montem, Eton, 183 
 Montfort, De, 62 
 
 O. 
 
 Owen, Professor Richard, 201 
 
 Pallisee, Sir Hugh, 105 
 Palmer, 78 
 Peckham, 207 
 Penington, Isaac, 114 
 Perm, 93 
 
 Perm, William, 114 
 Pepys, Samuel, 75, 148 
 Petty, Sir William, 58 
 Place Farm, 163 
 Pope, Alexander, 74 
 Portland, Duchess of, 85 
 Pugin, A. W., 37, 39 
 
 Q. 
 
 Quaeles, Francis, 29 
 
 R. 
 
 Radnage, 69 
 Remnantz, 42
 
 220 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Richings, 204 
 Rogers, 186 
 Rous, Francis, 153 
 Russell, 122 
 
 S. 
 
 Salt Hill, 183 
 Salter, 205 
 Saunderton, 69 
 Saville, Sir Henry, 152 
 Scheemacher, 57, 98 
 Scrope, 29 
 Shardeloes, 96, 100 
 Sheepwash, 29 
 Shelburne, Earl of, 58 
 Shelley, P. B., 42 
 Shenstone, William, 204 
 Shrewsbury, Countess of, 74 
 Sidney, Algernon, 99 
 Slough, 181 
 S medley, Frank, 41, 44 
 Somerset, Algernon, Duke of, 
 
 204 
 Somerset, Duchess of, 204 
 Somerset, Edward, Duke of, 86 
 Stanhope, Sir "William, 35 
 States, 39 
 
 Steward of the Chilterns, 19 
 Sunderland, Earl of, 29 
 
 T. 
 
 Tat-low, 77 
 
 Taylor, Bishop John, 164 
 Taylor, Sir Robert, 39 
 Turville Park, 31 
 
 IT. 
 
 Upton, 180 
 
 Vache, The, 100 
 Verney, Sir Edmund, 60 
 
 W. 
 
 Wallek, Edmund, 89, 99 
 Walpole, Horace, 84, 113, 121, 
 
 123, 138, 142 
 Walton, Isaac, 159 
 Wayneflete, William of, 147 
 Wellesborne, 62 
 West, Richard, 185, 187 
 Wexham, 198 
 Wharton, Lord, 50 
 Whitehead, Paul, 35 
 Whitlock, Bulstrode, 25, 29, 83, 
 
 170 
 Whitlock, Sir James, 25 
 Wilkes, John, 35 
 Wilton Park, 87 
 Windsor, Lord, 68 
 Wooburn, 49 
 Wotton, Sir Henry, 152, 159, 
 
 175 
 Wray, Lewis, 213 
 Wyrardsbury. 162 
 Wycombe, High, 55 
 Wycombe, West. 66 
 Wyck, River, 48 
 
 Yewden. 27 
 Young, 61 
 
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 THE PILGRIM'S WAY 
 
 From Winchester to Canterbury. 
 
 By JULIA CARTWRIGHT 
 
 (Mrs. Henry Ady). 
 
 With 46 Illustrations by A. Quinton, and 2 Maps 
 
 of the Route. 
 
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 lrom gloomy church crypts and silent pools to breezy landscapes and 
 sunny village greens." — The Times. 
 
 " A really good book ; well written and well illustrated .... 
 Readers will find in the author a guide well acquainted with the literary 
 and historical associations of her theme." — Spectator. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, 
 ENLARGED, WITH ADDITIONAL CHAPTER. 
 
 Small Royal Zvo, cloth, \2s. 6d. 
 
 CAIRO: 
 
 Sketches of its History, Monuments, and 
 Social Life. 
 
 By STANLEY LANE-POOLE, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 "THE ART OF THE SARACENS IN' EGYPT," "STUDIES IN A MOSQUE," &C. 
 
 With numerous Illustrations on Wood by G. L. 
 Seymour and others, and a Plan of Cairo, showing the 
 positions of the principal Mosques. 
 
 "Likely to become the favourite authority for Cairo." — Liverpool 
 Mercury. 
 
 " A most interesting as well as valuable publication." — The World. 
 
 "Will prove most useful to the innumerable travellers who now every 
 winter visit the Nile Valley." — The Saturday Review. 
 
 London: J. S. Virtue & Co., Ltd., 26, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, E.C.
 
 Illustrated 
 Biographies of Artists, 
 
 BEING THE 
 
 ART AJVJVUJLS, 
 
 or Extra Numbers of "THE ART JOURNAL." 
 
 With Three Full-page Etchings and Engrayings, 
 and Forty Illustrations in the Text. 
 
 Price 2S. 6d., or cloth gilt, gilt edges, §s. each. 
 
 THE LIFE AND WORE OF 
 
 SIR F. LEIGHTON, BART., P.R.A. 
 
 SIR J. E. MILLAIS, BART., P.R.A. 
 
 L. ALMA TADEMA, R.A. J. C. HOOK, R.A.. 
 
 J. L. E. MEISSONIER. ROSA BONHEUR. 
 
 BIRKET FOSTER. BRITON RIVIERE, R.A. 
 
 HUBERT HERKOMER, R.A. 
 
 W. HOLMAN HUNT. 
 
 SIR EDWARD BURNE JONES, BART. 
 
 LUKE FILDES, R.A. G. F. WATTS, R.A. 
 
 MARCUS STONE, R.A. 
 
 " The series of Art Annuals or Christmas Numbers issued by the Proprietors 
 of the Art Journal, if continued in the excellent style of those already published, 
 will form a most valuable addition to the history of contemporary Art, as well as 
 a charming gift book to the student or connoisseur." — Illustrated London News. 
 
 ALSO 
 
 The Life and Work of SIR J. NOEL PATON 
 
 (Her Majesty's Limner for Scotland). 
 
 Being the Special Number of "THE ART JOURNAL" for Easter, 1895. 
 
 Paper is. 6d., or cloth gilt, gilt edges, qs. 
 
 London ; J. S. Virtue & Co., Ltd., 26, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, E.C
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 DEC 2 9 1986 
 
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