صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

lambs, cows, horses, hogs, and toys; August 6, for black cherries, hogs, horses, cows, and toys; September 25, is a statute fair, for the hiring of servants of both sexes, and also for the sale of onions, hogs, horses, cows, toys, &c.

The residence of COWLEY is now a ruinous pile. In this situation the poet refused many preferments at court, to enjoy the calm pleasures of a country life. He had, during the usurpation, visited several European courts, and found he same ambition to rule, the same jealousies of those in power, and the same want of sincerity, was peculiar to them all. He had the utmost aversion to a mean slavish dependence on the great, as appears from the following lines in one of his poems:

"Were I to curse the enemy I hate,

"Attendance and dependence be his fate."

It is now the property of Richard Clarke, Esq. alderman and lord mayor of London in 1785, and the present worthy chamberlain of the same city; who resides at PORCH HOUSE, in this town, near the bridge, in which it is said Cowley died.

The principal articles manufactured at Chertsey are, malt, flour, iron hoops, thread, brooms, and bricks.

Over the river Thames, from Chertsey to the opposite shore at Littleton, is a very noble bridge, built with Purbeck stone, at the joint expence of the counties of Surrey and Middlesex, toll free, for the erection of which an act of parliament was obtained. It consists of seven arches; was begun by Mr. Brown, of Richmond, in 1783, and finished in 1785, from the architectural designs of James Payne, Esq. of Says, near Chertsey.

About a quarter of a mile below the bridge, is the place. denominated CoWAY STAKES, generally believed to be the spot where Julius Cæsar crossed the Thames when he led the Roman army into the kingdom of Cassivelaunus, who had encamped his forces on the opposite shore. The Britains did every thing in their power to prevent the Romans from crossing, by driving stakes into the bed of the

[ocr errors]

river, and fencing the banks with wood; but the discipline of the legions overcame the bravery of the barbarians. Bede, who lived in the beginning of the eighth century, tells us, that some of the stakes were then to be seen, and were as big as a man's thigh. Mr. Gough has doubted this being the place.

Within a mile west of Chertsey, is ST. ANN'S HILL, remarkable for its various, extensive, and variegated prospects over the counties of Surrey, Middlesex, Buckingingham, Berkshire, &c. Here is some remaining ruins of St. Ann's priory, subject to the monastery at Chertsey.

On the declivity of St. Ann's Hill, is MONK's GROVE, the residence of Thomas Ludbey, Esq. a neat brick building; the garden seems to have been cut out of the hill at a very great expence by some of its antient possessors, as it is secured from the intruder on the south and west sides by a high perpendicular sand precipice. Above the garden, in the grove, is a piece of ruinous building, of brick and stone. Its appearance seems to justify the idea that it has been a bathing place of the nuns who inhabited the priory, being secretly embosomed in the wood, at some distance. from the road. Adjoining this wall is a large bason, about twelve feet square, for the reception of the water, paved and lined with fine tiles; on one side is a spring, capable of much improvement.

On the south side of the hill is situated the seat celebrated for the retirement of the late right honourable Charles James Fox, a most compact residence. The gardens and pleasure grounds were laid out by him with taste and propriety. At the bottom of the garden, through a pleasant romantic walk, the grotto, a neat building, was completed in the year 1790. At the back of the mansion was a small dairy, fitted up in a pleasing manner, paved and lined with white tiles edged with green; the cream pans, skimmers, and ladles, of the same; the dressers and stands of marble, supported with fluted pillars, green and white. Nearly adjoining the dairy, was a large handsome green-house, supported by pillars, stored with a most ca

pital collection of odoriferous plants. The lawn and dif. ferent parts of the pleasure grounds pleasingly interspersed with statues of the most celebrated heathen gods, and other warlike heroes, produced in his classic mind the most pleasing effect. The whole forms a complete and charming country residence, well worthy the enjoyment of its founder.

BOTLEYS, the residence of the late Sir Joseph Mawbey, bart. an elegant stone mansion, suited to his classic taste, is admirably situated in the middle of a fine park, well stocked with timber and abounding with game. Here is a good piece of artificial water, with a bathing house at the head of it.

OTTERSHAW, the seat of James Bine, Esq. a noble stone edifice, was built by Sir Thomas Sewell, many years master of the rolls, and father of the late possessor.

One mile south of Chertsey, is WOBURN FARM, the seat of the honourable R. Petre. It is a handsome brick edi. fice, situated in the bosom of the grounds, surrounded by shrubberies leading round a fine lawn, and extensive circles on the borders of the farm and pleasure grounds, which are laid out with much taste and judgment, are adorned with temples, and a ruin, on elevated situations, commanding the most pleasing prospects of the adjacent country. These are so numerous and diversified, that the scene is constantly and beautifully varied. Half a mile from the house, on the edge of the grounds, is a Catholic chapel, at the back of which is a neat dwelling house for the accommodation of the incumbent. Intermixing with the before mentioned beauties, this estate is agreeably refreshed by a serpentine canal, which, after turning and winding in a pleasing manner through the grounds, terminates in the river Wey, at the distance of a mile. Such are the real beauties and ornaments of this delightful spot, as planned and laid out by the late Philip Southcote, Esq. the inventor of the ferme ornée, and concerning whom Mason, in his English Garden, thus breaks forth:

On thee too, Southcote, shall the Muse bestow
No vulgar praise; for thou to humblest things

Couldst

4882

Couldst give ennobling beauties, deck'd by thee,
The simple farm eclips'd the garden's pride,
Ev'n as the virgin blush of innocence

The harlotry of art!

HARDOITCH, or HARDWICK, about two miles from Chertsey, is the place in which the inhabitants of the hundred of Godly are summoned to appoint and choose the king's officers, at a court leet appointed by the stewards of the manor and clerk of the crown lands: it is held annually on Whit Tuesday, in the forenoon; at which place the gentlemen dine in a large barn. In the afternoon. a fair is held, called Hardoitch Court Fair.

Coasting the Thames, at the distance of four miles, we arrive at WEYBRIDGE, four miles from Hampton Court: this village took its name from a bridge formerly erected here over the Wey. In the parish are Say's Place, and Brooklands, the seat of George Payne, Esq. The latter a charming place; and if it were not in the vicinity of Pains Hill and Oatlands, might be held in the highest estimation.

OATLANDS, the seat of his royal highness the duke of York, by whom it was purchased from the duke of Newcastle. It is a noble mansion, is situated in the middle of a park, nearly six miles in circumference. From the verge of the Terrace, which has a grand and majestic appearance, is seen a beautiful landscape. The serpentine river, though artificial, appears as if it were natural; and a stranger, from the view of Walton Bridge, would conclude it to be the Thames. The walks in the pleasure grounds are enchanting, formed for contemplation and retirement. The shrubbery is very fine, leading through a pleasant walk, to a romantic grotto, built by the duke of Newcastle, consisting of two superb rooms and a winding passage, in which is a very neat bath about six feet square, paved and lined with white tiles, supplied by water from the outside issuing through rocks. On the opposite side of the park, through an avenue of trees, are the duke's

stabling,

stabling, &c. a large building of brick and stone. The general beauties and ornaments of this delightful place, are replete with grace or majesty, so that the traveller leaves these romantic scenes with reluctance.. The greatest object of admiration, however, is her royal highness the duchess! Possessing the supereminent dignity of royal birth and connexion, she can descend into all the Arca dian scenes of rural retirement, blessed by the tenantry who adore her beneficence, and by their offspring who amply partake of her bounty. The festivities of the present year (1808) at Oatlands, on his royal highnesses birth-day, exhibited at the same moment all the radiance of royalty in the persons of their majesties and the princes and princesses, who visted this place on the occasion, and the benignity of disposition which centres in the dutchess; she withdrew the curtains of a pavilion, and displayed to her royal visitors a number of female children, whom she protects, educates, and clothes, enjoying themselves at the festive banquet given on the occasion by their patroness and benefactress. Such scenes confer and receive admimiration; it is here that princes appear and are truly amiable.!

At Oatlands were discovered, in 1725, some curious wedges; "the soil they were found in was a dry, loose sand, but an undisturbed stratum about twenty feet per pendicular below the surface: there were many different strata of sand, some yellow, some whitish, before you come to that where these wedges were fixed."* After the various opinions that have been broached for and against the probability of Julius Cæsar's attack of the Britons at the place now called Coway Stakes, it appears very extraordinary that such a discovery should occur to sanction the opinion of Camden, Gale, and others on that side of the question.

At Walton, between Weybridge and Moulsey, are the remains of an antient camp, supposed to have been Ro* Harl. MSS. 7017. p. 31. 3 A

VOL. V. No. 117.

man;

« السابقةمتابعة »