SHALFORD TO ALBURY
The line of the Pilgrims' Way may be clearly followed from the banks of
the Wey up the hill. It goes through Shalford Park, up Ciderhouse Lane,
where the ancient Pesthouse or refuge for sick pilgrims and travellers,
now called Ciderhouse Cottage, is still standing, and leads through the
Chantrey Woods straight to St. Martha's Chapel.
The district through which it takes us is one of the wildest and
loveliest parts of Surrey. "Very few prettier rides in England," remarks
Cobbett, who repeatedly travelled along this track, and the beauty of
the views all along its course will more than repay the traveller who
makes his way on foot over the hills from Guildford to Dorking. One of
the most extensive is to be had from St. Martha's Hill, where the
prospect ranges in one direction over South Leith Hill and the South
Downs far away to the Weald of Sussex and the well-known clump of
Chanctonbury Ring; and on the other over the commons and moors to the
crests of Hindhead and the Hog's Back; while looking northward we have a
wide view over the Surrey plains and the valley of the Thames, and
Windsor Castle and the dome of St. Paul's may be distinguished on clear
days.
The ancient chapel on the summit, which gives its name to St. Martha's
Hill, was originally built in memory of certain Christians who suffered
martyrdom on the spot, and was formerly dedicated to all holy martyrs,
while the hill itself was known as the Martyrs' Hill, of which, as
Grose remarks,[8] "the present name is supposed to be a corruption." In
the twelfth century it became peculiarly associated with the Canterbury
pilgrims, and a new chancel was built for their use, and consecrated to
St. Thomas à Becket in the year 1186. In 1262 this chapel was attached
to the Priory of Newark, an Augustinian convent near Ripley, dedicated
to St. Thomas of Canterbury by Ruald de Calva in the reign of Richard
Coeur de Lion. The Prior already owned most of the hill-side, and the
names of Farthing Copse and Halfpenny Lane, through which the pilgrims
passed on their way to St. Martha's Chapel, remind us of the tolls which
he levied from all who travelled along the road. We have already seen
how in the earlier portions of the Way the Prior of Newark disputed the
rights of the Abbot of Waverley. Here he reigned supreme. A priest from
Newark Priory served St. Martha's Chapel, and is said to have lived at
Tyting's Farm, an old gabled house with the remains of a small oratory
close to the Pilgrims' Way. In latter days a colony of monks from
Newark settled at Chilworth, where the present manor-house contains
fragments of monastic building, and the fishponds of the friars may
still be seen near the terraced gardens. During the troubled times of
the Wars of the Roses the Chapel of St. Martha fell into ruins, and owed
its restoration to Bishop William of Waynflete, who in 1463 granted
forty days' indulgence to all pilgrims who should visit the shrine and
there repeat a Pater Noster, an Ave, and a Credo, or contribute to its
repair. After the dissolution of the monasteries both Newark Priory and
St. Martha's shrine fell into ruins, and the chapel was only restored of
late years. At Chilworth, south of St. Martha's Hill, lies the once fair
valley which has been defaced by the powder-mills, first established
there three centuries ago by an ancestor of John Evelyn, and now worked
by steam. This is the place which Cobbett denounces in his "Rural Rides"
with a vigour and eloquence worthy of Mr. Ruskin himself:
"This valley, which seems to have been created by a bountiful Providence
as one of the choicest retreats of man, which seems formed for a scene
of innocence and happiness, has been by ungrateful man so perverted as
to make it instrumental in effecting two of the most damnable of
purposes, in carrying into execution two of the most damnable inventions
that ever sprang from the mind of man under the influence of the devil!
namely, the making of gunpowder and of bank-notes! Here, in this
tranquil spot, where the nightingales are to be heard earlier and later
in the year than in any other part of England; where the first budding
of the buds is seen in spring; where no rigour of season can ever be
felt; where everything seems formed for precluding the very thought of
wickedness; here has the devil fixed on as one of the seats of this
grand manufactory; and perverse and ungrateful man not only lends his
aid, but lends it cheerfully. To think that the springs which God has
commanded to flow from the sides of these happy hills for the comfort
and delight of man--to think that these springs should be perverted into
means of spreading misery over a whole nation!"
One of these "inventions of the devil" has been removed. The paper-mills
which made the bank-notes in Cobbett's time are silent now, but the
powder-mills are in full activity, and Chilworth, with its coal-stores
and railway-crossing, has a blackened and desolate look which not all
the natural beauties of its surroundings can dispel.
[Illustration: ST. MARTHA'S FROM CHILWORTH.]
Once more upon the hills, we can follow the line of yews which are seen
at intervals along the ridge from St. Martha's Chapel by Weston Wood and
the back of Albury Park, turning a few steps out of our path to visit
Newland's Corner, the highest point of Albury Downs, and one of the most
beautiful spots in the whole of Surrey. The view is as extensive as that
from St. Martha's Hill, and is even more varied and picturesque. Over
broken ridges of heathery down and gently swelling slopes, clad with
beech and oak woods, we look across to Ewhurst Mill, a conspicuous
landmark in all this country, and farther westward to the towers of
Charterhouse and the distant heights of Hindhead and Blackdown; while
immediately in front, across the wooded valley, rises St. Martha's Hill,
crowned by its ancient chapel. Here we can watch the changes of sun
and shower over the wide expanse of level country, and see the long
range of far hills veiled in the thin blue mists of morning, or turning
purple under the gold of the evening sky. Some of the oldest and finest
yew trees in all Surrey are close to Newland's Corner--the ancient yew
grove there is mentioned in Domesday--and their dark foliage offers a
fine contrast to the bright tints of the neighbouring woods and to the
snowy masses of blossom which in early summer clothe the gnarled old
hawthorn trees that are studded over the hill-side. We can follow the
track over the springy turf of the open downs and up glades thick with
bracken, till it becomes choked with bushes and brambles, and finally
loses itself in the woods of Albury.
Here, in the middle of the Duke of Northumberland's park, is the deep
glen, surrounded by wooded heights, known as the Silent Pool. A dark
tale, which Martin Tupper has made the subject of his "Stephen Langton,"
belongs to this lonely spot. King John, tradition says, loved a fair
woodman's daughter who lived here, and surprised her in the act of
bathing in the pool. The frightened girl let loose the branch by which
she held, and was drowned in the water; and her brother, a goat-herd,
who at the sound of her scream had rushed in after her, shared the same
fate. And still, the legend goes, at midnight you may see a black-haired
maiden clasping her arms round her brother in his cowhide tunic under
the clear rippling surface of the Silent Pool.
A little farther on is the old church of Albury--Eldeburie, mentioned in
Domesday, and supposed to be the most ancient in Surrey. The low tower,
with its narrow two-light windows, probably dates back to very early
Norman times, but the rest of the church is considerably later. The
south chapel was richly decorated by Mr. Drummond, who bought the place
in 1819, and is now used as a mortuary chapel for his family. Albury
formerly belonged to the Dukes of Norfolk. The gardens were originally
laid out by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, the accomplished collector
of the Arundel marbles, and whose fine portrait by Vandyck was
exhibited at Burlington House in the winter of 1891. His friend and
neighbour, Mr. Evelyn, helped him with his advice and taste, and
designed the grotto under the hill, which still remains. "Such a
Pausilippe," remarks the author of "The Sylva," "is nowhere in England
besides." But the great ornament of Albury is the famous yew hedge,
about ten feet high and a quarter of a mile long, probably the finest of
its kind in England. So thick are the upper branches of the yew trees
that, as William Cobbett writes, when he visited Albury in Mr.
Drummond's time, they kept out both the rain and sun, and alike in
summer and winter afford "a most delightful walk." The grand terrace
under the hill, "thirty or forty feet wide, and a quarter of a mile
long, of the finest green-sward, and as level as a die," particularly
delighted him; and the careful way in which the fruit trees were
protected from the wind, and the springs along the hill-side collected
to water the garden, gratified his practical mind. "Take it altogether,"
he goes on, "this certainly is the prettiest garden that I ever beheld.
There was taste and sound judgment at every step in the laying out of
this place. Everywhere utility and convenience is combined with beauty.
The terrace is by far the finest thing of the sort that I ever saw, and
the whole thing altogether is a great compliment to the taste of the
times in which it was formed." The honest old reformer's satisfaction in
these gardens was increased by the reflection that the owner was worthy
of his estate, seeing that he was famed for his justice and kindness
towards the labouring classes--"who, God knows, have very few friends
amongst the rich;" and adds, that he for one has no sympathy with "the
fools" who want a revolution for the purpose of getting hold of other
people's property. "There are others who like pretty gardens as well as
I, and if the question were to be decided according to the laws of the
strongest, or, as the French call it, _droit du plus fort_, my chance
would be but a very poor one."
[Illustration: ALBURY OLD CHURCH.]
[Illustration: THE MILL, GOMSHALL.]