What to See in England Part 5

=Accommodation Obtainable.=--At Sevenoaks--"Royal Crown Hotel,"

"Royal Oak Hotel," "Bligh's Private Hotel," etc.

Sevenoaks is famous for its beautiful situation near the Weald of Kent.

It possesses still some old inns, relics of coaching days. The Grammar School was founded in 1432 by Sir William Sevenoke, who, from being a foundling, became Lord Mayor. St. Nicholas' Church is a large building in the Decorated and Perpendicular style, much restored.

The chief charm of Sevenoaks is Knole House, a splendid example of the baronial dwellings that were erected after the Wars of the Roses, when the fortress was no longer so necessary. The demesne of Knole was purchased in the fifteenth century by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, who rebuilt the mansion on it. It was taken from Cranmer by the Crown and granted in 1603 to Thomas Sackville, Baron Buckhurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset, who is now represented by the Sackville-West family, the present owners.

The first Earl of Dorset greatly improved Knole, employing, it is said, 200 workmen constantly. The building surrounds three square courts and occupies about 5 acres. Knole possesses an extremely valuable collection of paintings, and the mediaeval furniture is untouched from the time of James I. There are famous pictures by Flemish, Dutch, Venetian, and Italian painters. In the dressing-room of the Spangled Bedroom are to be seen some of Sir Peter Lely's beauties. The Cartoon Gallery has copies of Raphael's cartoons by Mytens, and in the Poet's Parlour are portraits of England's famous poets--some by Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds.

The banqueting-hall has a screened music gallery. It is said that there are as many rooms in the house as there are days in the year. The drives and walks of the large park are always open, and the house is shown on Fridays from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., and on Thursdays and Sat.u.r.days from 2 to 5 P.M. at a charge of 2s.; there is a reduction for a party. Tickets are procurable at the lodge.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photochrom Co., Ltd._

KNOLE HOUSE.

One of the finest examples of a baronial residence of the period immediately succeeding the Wars of the Roses.]

GREENSTEAD CHURCH

A SAXON CHURCH WITH WOODEN WALLS

=How to get there.=--Train from Liverpool Street or Fenchurch Street.

Great Eastern Railway.

=Nearest Station.=--Chipping Ongar (1 mile from Greenstead Church).

=Distance from London.=--22-3/4 miles.

=Average Time.=--Varies between 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

1st 2nd 3rd =Fares.=--Single 3s. 11d. 2s. 10d. 1s. 11-1/2d.

Return 5s. 9d. 4s. 2d. 3s. 1d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=--Inn, etc., at Ongar.

Entering Ongar from the railway station one finds on the right a footpath leading into a fine avenue. About ten minutes' walk down this brings one to Greenstead Hall, a red brick Jacobean house, with the church adjoining it. Set among a profusion of foliage, the simple little building would be quite interesting as an ideally situated little rustic church, but when one realises how unique it is, the spot at once becomes fascinating. The walls of the diminutive nave, as one may see from the ill.u.s.tration given here, consist of the trunks of large oak trees split down the centre and roughly sharpened at each end. They are raised from the ground by a low foundation of brick, and inside the s.p.a.ces between the trees are covered with fillets of wood. On top the trees are fastened into a frame of rough timber by wooden pins. The interior of the building is exceedingly dark, for there are no windows in the wooden walls, and the chief light comes from the porch and a dormer window.

This window in the roof, however, was not in the original design, for the rude structure was only designed as a temporary resting-place for the body of St. Edmund the Martyr. It was in A.D. 1010 that the saint's body was removed from Bury to London, its protectors fearing an incursion of the Danes at that time. Three years afterwards, however, the body was brought back to Bury, and on its journey rested for a time at Greenstead--a wooden chapel being erected in its honour. The remains of this chapel, built nearly half a century before the Conquest, are still to be seen in the wooden walls just referred to. The length of the original structure was 29 feet 9 inches long by 14 feet wide. The walls, 5 feet 6 inches high, supported the rough timber roof, which possessed no windows. The chancel and tower were added afterwards.

Ongar Castle, a huge artificial mound surrounded by a moat, is close to the main street. The church contains in the chancel, hidden by a carpet, the grave of Oliver Cromwell's daughter. A house in the High Street is a.s.sociated with Livingstone.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREENSTEAD CHURCH, ESs.e.x.

Built in 1013, is remarkable for its nave, constructed of solid tree trunks.]

CHALFONT ST. GILES

HOME OF MILTON

=How to get there.=--Train from Baker Street. Metropolitan Railway.

=Nearest Station.=--Chalfont Road (2-1/2 miles from Chalfont St. Giles).

An omnibus runs between the village and the station during the summer months.

=Distance from London.=--23-3/4 miles.

=Average Time.=--51 minutes. (Convenient trains, 10.27 A.M., 12.17 and 2.27 P.M.)

1st 2nd 3rd =Fares.=--Single 3s. 2d. 2s. 4d. 1s. 7d.

Return 4s. 9d. 3s. 5d. 2s. 5d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"The Merlin's Cave Inn," etc.

This pretty little Buckinghams.h.i.+re village has become almost as celebrated as its neighbour Stoke Poges, on account of having been the home of John Milton. The poet's cottage is the last on the left side at the top of the village street. As one may see from the ill.u.s.tration, it is a very picturesque, half-timbered house, whose leaded windows look into a typical country garden. In 1887 a public subscription was raised and the cottage was purchased. Visitors are therefore able to see the interior as well as the exterior of Milton's home, which, it should be mentioned, is the only one existing to-day of the various houses he occupied. For those who are not residents in the parish a charge of sixpence is made for admission. The poet's room, which is on the right on entering, is rather dark, and has a low ceiling. One notices the wide, open fireplace where the white-bearded old man would sit in winter days, and the lattice-paned windows through which in summer-time came the humming of bees and the scent of the flowers growing in the old-fas.h.i.+oned garden. The pleasant indications of his surroundings must have been a great solace to the blind old man. In these simple surroundings one must picture Milton dictating his stately verse, with his thoughts concentrated on the serried ranks of the hosts of heaven.

Milton came to Chalfont in 1665, in order to escape from the plague. His eldest daughter was at that time about seventeen years of age, and as she and her sisters are supposed to have remained with their father until about 1670, it is probable that they came to Chalfont with him.

The church of Chalfont St. Giles has a Norman font, and there are other traces of Norman work in the bases of the pillars and elsewhere. The south wall of the nave and the north chapel are specially interesting on account of their frescoes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MILTON'S COTTAGE, CHALFONT ST. GILES.

Milton moved here from London in 1665, to avoid the Plague.]

WESTERHAM

THE HOME OF GENERAL WOLFE

=How to get there.=--Train from Charing Cross, Cannon Street, or London Bridge. South-Eastern and Chatham Railway.

=Nearest Station.=--Westerham.

=Distance from London.=--25 miles.

=Average Time.=--Varies between 1 to 2 hours.

1st 2nd 3rd =Fares.=--Single 3s. 10d. 2s. 5d. 2s. 0d.

Return 6s. 8d. 4s. 10d. 4s. 0d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"The King's Arms," "The Bull,"

"The George and Dragon," etc.

Westerham as a small country town is not very remarkable in itself, although not devoid of interest, but as containing the birthplace of General Wolfe it becomes a place worthy of a pilgrimage. Colonel and Mrs. Wolfe, the parents of the hero of Quebec, had just come to Westerham, and occupied the vicarage at the time of the birth of their son James in 1727. This, being previous to 1752, was during the old style, when the year began on March 25. The day was December 22, now represented by January 2. Colonel Wolfe's infant was christened in Westerham Church by the vicar, the Rev. George Lewis; but although born at the vicarage, James's parents must have moved into the house now known as Quebec House almost immediately afterwards, for practically the whole of the first twelve years of the boy's life were spent in the fine old Tudor house which is still standing to-day. The vicarage is also to be seen, and though much altered at the back, the front portion, containing the actual room in which Wolfe was born, is the same as in the past. It has a three-light window towards the front, and two small windows in the gable at the side. Quebec House is near the vicarage. It does not bear its name upon it, but it will be pointed out on inquiry.

The front is a most disappointing stucco affair, but this merely hides the beautiful Elizabethan gables which originally adorned the house from every point of view. Two private tenants now occupy the house, but the interior is on the whole very little altered since little James Wolfe played hide-and-seek in the old pa.s.sages and rooms. Squerryes Court, the seat of Lieut.-Colonel C.A.M. Warde, J.P., is the local storehouse of Wolfe relics. Numbers of letters, portraits, and other interesting objects are all carefully preserved there. Young Wolfe was constantly at Squerryes, and the spot in the park where he received his first commission is marked by a stone cenotaph.

[Ill.u.s.tration: QUEBEC HOUSE, WESTERHAM.

Where General James Wolfe spent the first twelve years of his life.]

GUILDFORD, SURREY