REIGATE TO CHEVENING
Although the town of Reigate lies in the valley, it certainly takes its
name from the Pilgrims' Road to Canterbury. In Domesday it is called
Cherchfelle, and it is not till the latter part of the twelfth century
that the comparatively modern name of Rigegate, the Ridge Road, was
applied, first of all to the upper part of the parish, and eventually to
the whole town. In those days a chapel dedicated to the memory of the
blessed martyr, St. Thomas, stood at the east end of the long street,
on a site now occupied by a market-house, built early in the last
century, and part of the ancient foundations of this pilgrimage shrine
were brought to light when the adjoining prison was enlarged some eighty
or ninety years back. Another chapel, dedicated to St. Laurence the
Martyr, stood farther down the street; and a third, the Chapel of Holy
Cross, belonged to the Augustine Canons of the Priory founded by William
of Warrenne, Earl of Surrey, in the thirteenth century. In Saxon days
Reigate, or Holm Castle, as it was then termed, from its situation at
the head of the valley of Holmesdale, was an important stronghold, and
the vigour and persistence with which the incursions of the Danes were
repelled by the inhabitants of this district gave rise to the rhyme
quoted by Camden--
"The Vale of Holmesdale
Never wonne, ne never shall."
[Illustration: REIGATE COMMON.]
At the Conquest the manor was granted to William of Warrenne, and from
that time the castle became the most powerful fortress of the mighty
Earls of Surrey. In the days of John it shared the fate of Guildford
Castle, and was one of the strongholds which opened its gates to Louis
VIII., King of France, on his march from the Kentish Coast to
Winchester. The Fitzalans succeeded the Warrennes in the possession of
Reigate, and in the reign of Edward VI., both the castle and the Priory
were granted to the Howards of Effingham. Queen Elizabeth's Lord High
Admiral, the victor of the Invincible Armada, lies buried in the vault
under the chancel of Reigate Church. In Stuart times the castle
gradually fell into decay, until it was finally destroyed by order of
Parliament, during the Civil War, lest it should fall into the King's
hands. Now only the mound of the ancient keep remains, and some spacious
subterranean chambers which may have served as cellars or dungeons in
Norman times. The Priory has also been replaced by a modern house, and
is the property of Lady Henry Somerset, the representative of the Earl
Somers, to whom William III. granted Reigate in 1697.
Reigate is frequently mentioned in Cobbett's "Rural Rides," and it was
the sight of the Priory that set him moralising over monasteries and
asking himself if, instead of being, as we take it for granted, _bad
things_, they were not, after all, better than _poor-rates_, and if the
monks and nuns, who _fed the poor_, were not more to be commended than
the rich pensioners of the State, who _feed upon the poor_.
Close to this ancient foundation is the hilly common known as Reigate
Park, a favourite haunt with artists, who find endless subjects in the
fern-grown dells and romantic hollows, the clumps of thorn-trees with
their gnarled stems and spreading boughs, their wealth of wild flowers
and berries. The views over Reigate itself and the Priory grounds on one
side, and over the Sussex Weald on the other, are very charming; but a
still finer prospect awaits us on the North Downs on the opposite side
of the valley, where the Pilgrims' Road goes on its course. The best way
is to climb Reigate Hill as far as the suspension bridge, and follow a
path cut in the chalk to the summit of the ridge. It leads through a
beechwood on to the open downs, where, if the day is clear, one of the
finest views in the whole of England--in the whole world, says
Cobbett--breaks upon us. The Weald of Surrey and of Sussex, from the
borders of Hampshire to the ridge of East Grinstead, and Crowborough
Beacon, near Tunbridge Wells, lies spread out at our feet. Eastward, the
eye ranges over the Weald of Kent and the heights above Sevenoaks;
westward the purple ridge of Leith Hill and the familiar crest of
Hindhead meet us; and far away to the south are the Brighton downs and
Chanctonbury Ring.
[Illustration: LOOKING EAST FROM GATTON PARK.]
The line of yew trees appears again here, and after keeping along the
top of the ridge for about a mile, the Pilgrims' Way enters Gatton Park,
and passing through the woods near Lord Oxenbridge's house, joins the
avenue that leads to Merstham. Gatton itself, which, like Reigate, takes
its name from the Pilgrims' Road--Saxon, Gatetun, the town of the
road--was chiefly famous for the electoral privileges which it so long
enjoyed. From the time of Henry VI. until the Reform Bill of 1832, this
very small borough returned two members to Parliament. In the reign of
Henry VIII. Sir Roger Copley is described as the burgess and sole
inhabitant of the borough and town of Gatton, and for many years the
constituency consisted of one person, the lord of the manor.
At the beginning of the present century there were only eight houses in
the whole parish, a fact which naturally roused the ire of William
Cobbett. "Before you descend the hill to go into Reigate," he writes in
one of his Rural Rides, "you pass Gatton, which is a very rascally spot
of earth." And when rainy weather detained him a whole day at Reigate,
he moralises in this vein--"_In_ one rotten borough, one the most rotten
too, and with another still more rotten _up upon the hill_, in Reigate
and close by Gatton, how can I help reflecting, how can my mind be
otherwise than filled with reflections on the marvellous deeds of the
collective wisdom of the nation?" These privileges doubled the value of
the property, and when Lord Monson bought Gatton Park in 1830, he paid
a hundred thousand pounds for the place; but the days of close boroughs
were already numbered, and less than two years afterwards the Reform
Bill deprived Gatton of both its members. The little town hall of
Gatton, where the important ceremony of electing two representatives to
serve in Parliament was performed, is still standing, an interesting
relic of bygone days, on a mound in the park, almost hidden by large
chestnut trees.
[Illustration: GATTON TOWN HALL.]
Gatton House is chiefly remarkable for the marble hall built by the same
Lord Monson in imitation of the Orsini Chapel at Rome, and adorned with
rich marbles which he had brought from Italy. The collection of
pictures, formed by the same nobleman, contains several good Dutch and
Italian pictures, including the "Vierge au bas-relief," a graceful Holy
Family, which takes its name from a small carved tablet in the
background. It was long held to be an early work by the great Leonardo
da Vinci, and was purchased by Lord Monson of Mr. Woodburn for £4,000,
but is now generally attributed to his pupil, Cesare da Sesto.
Like so many of the churches we have already mentioned, like Seale and
Wanborough, and the chapels of St. Katherine and St. Martha, like the
old church at Titsey and the present one at Chevening, Gatton was
originally a Pilgrims' church. Now it has little that is old to show,
for it was restored by Lord Monson in 1831, and adorned with a variety
of treasures from all parts of the Continent. The stained glass comes
from the monastery of Aerschot, near Louvain, the altar-rails from
Tongres, the finely carved choir-stalls and canopies from Ghent, and the
altar and pulpit from Nuremberg. Like most of the mediæval wood-work and
glass which has come to England from that "Quaint old town of toil and
traffic, Quaint old town of art and song," these last are said to have
been designed by the great master of the Franconian city, Albert Dürer.
[Illustration: MERSTHAM CHURCH.]
The Pilgrims' Way, as has been already said, runs through Gatton Park,
and brings us out close to Merstham, and through lanes shaded with fine
oaks and beeches we reach the pretty little village, with its old
timbered cottages and still older church buried in the woods. Local
writers of the last century frequently allude to the Pilgrims' Road as
passing through this parish, although its exact course is not easy to
trace. It seems, however, certain that the track passed near Lord
Hylton's house, and south of the church, which stands close by. In
mediæval times, Merstham formed part of the vast estates held by the
monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, and was bestowed upon them by
Athelstan, a son of Ethelred the Unready, in the tenth century. There
was a church here at the time of the Norman Conquest, but the only
portion of the present building dating from that period is a fine old
square Norman font which, like several others in the neighbourhood, is
of Sussex marble. Of later date, there is much that is extremely
interesting. The tower and the west door are Early English, and the
chancel arch is adorned with curious acanthus-leaf mouldings, while the
porch and chancel are Late Perpendicular.
After passing Merstham Church the track is lost in a medley of roads and
railway cuttings, but soon the line of yews appears again, climbing the
crest of the hill, and can be followed for some distance along White
Hill, or Quarry Hangers, as these downs are commonly called. The next
object of interest which it passes is the War Camp, or Cardinal's Cap,
as it is sometimes termed, an old British earthwork on the face of the
chalk escarpment. Then the path turns into a wood, and we leave it to
descend on Godstone. This is a fascinating spot for artists. The low
irregular houses are grouped round a spacious green and goose-pond,
shaded by fine horse-chestnuts, and there is a charming inn, the White
Hart or Clayton Arms, with gabled front and large bay-windows of the
good old-fashioned type. "A beautiful village," wrote Cobbett, ninety
years ago, "chiefly of one street, with a fine large green before it,
and with a pond in the green;" and he goes on to speak of the neatness
of the gardens and of the double violets, "as large as small pinks,"
which grew in the garden of this same inn, and of which the landlady was
good enough to give some roots. Happily for his peace of mind, he adds,
"The vile rotten borough of Bletchingley, which lies under the downs
close by, is out of sight."
[Illustration: THE WHITE HART, GODSTONE.]
[Illustration: OLD HOUSE IN OXTED.]
From Godstone it is a pleasant walk over the open commons, along the top
of the ridge, looking over the Weald of Sussex and across the valleys
of Sevenoaks and Tunbridge to the Kentish hills. Once more we track the
line of the Pilgrims' Way as it emerges from the woods above the
Godstone quarries and, passing under Winder's Hill and by Marden Park,
reaches a wood called Palmers Wood. The name is significant, more
especially since there is no record of any owner who bore that name.
Here its course is very clearly defined, and when, in the autumn of
1890, pipes for carrying water out of the hill were laid down, a section
of the old paved road was cut across. A little farther on, at
Limpsfield Lodge Farm, just on the edge of Titsey park, it formed the
farm road till 1875. At this point the path was ten feet wide, and the
original hedges remained. Before entering the park of Titsey, the way
runs through part of Oxted parish, where a spring still bears the name
of St. Thomas's Well, and then reaches Titsey Place.
[Illustration: OXTED CHURCH.]
Few places in this part of Surrey are more attractive than this old home
of the Greshams. The purity of the air, praised by Aubrey long ago for
its sweet, delicate, and wholesome virtues, the health-giving breezes of
the surrounding downs and commons, the natural loveliness of the place,
and the taste with which the park and gardens have been laid out, all
help to make Titsey a most delightful spot. Its beautiful woods stretch
along the grassy slopes of Botley Hill, and the clump of trees on the
heights known as Cold-harbour Green is 881 feet above the sea, and marks
the loftiest point in the whole range of the North Downs. Wherever the
eye rests, one ridge of wooded hill after the other seems to rise and
melt away into the soft blue haze. Nor is there any lack of other
attractions to invite the attention of scholar and antiquary. The place
is full of historic associations. A whole wealth of antiquities, coins,
urns, and pottery, have been dug up in the park, and some remains of
Roman buildings were discovered there a few years ago, close to the
Pilgrims' Way. After the conquest Titsey was given to the great Earls of
Clare, who owned the property at the time of the Domesday Survey. In the
fourteenth century it belonged to the Uvedale family, and two hundred
years later was sold to Sir John Gresham, an uncle of Sir Thomas
Gresham, the illustrious merchant of Queen Elizabeth's court, and the
founder of the Royal Exchange. A fine portrait of Sir Thomas himself, by
Antonio More, now hangs in the library of Titsey Place. Unfortunately
the Greshams suffered for their loyalty to Charles I., and after the
death of the second Sir Marmaduke Gresham in 1742, a large part of the
property was sold. His son, Sir John, succeeded in partly retrieving the
fortunes of the family, and rebuilt and enlarged the old manor-house,
which had been allowed to fall into a ruinous state. But the Tudor
arches of the east wing still remain, as well as much of the fine oak
panelling which adorned its walls; and the crest of the Greshams, a
grasshopper, may still be seen in the hall chimney-piece. The present
owner, Mr. Leveson-Gower, is a lineal descendant of the last baronet,
and inherited Titsey from his great-grandmother Katherine, the heiress
of the Greshams. The fourteenth-century church was unluckily pulled down
a hundred years ago, because Sir John Gresham thought it stood too near
his own house, but an old yew in the garden and some tombstones of early
Norman date still mark its site. The course of the Pilgrims' Way through
the Park is clearly marked by a double row of fine ash trees, and the
flint stones with which the road itself is paved may still be seen under
the turf. Further along the road is a very old farmhouse, which was
formerly a hostelry, and still bears the name of the Pilgrims' Lodge.
From Titsey the Way runs along the side of the hills, under Tatsfield
Church, which stands on the summit of the ridge, and about a mile above
the pretty little towns of Westerham and Brasted. Here the boundary of
the counties is crossed, and the traveller enters Kent. Soon we reach
the gates of Chevening Park, where, as at Titsey, the Pilgrims' Way
formerly passed very near the house, until it was closed by Act of
Parliament in 1780.
[Illustration: BRASTED.]
The manor of Chevening, originally the property of the See of
Canterbury, was held in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the
family of Chevening, from whence it passed to the Lennards, who became
Barons Dacre and Earls of Sussex. In the last century it was bought by
General Stanhope, the distinguished soldier and statesman, who, after
reducing the island of Minorca, served King George I. successively as
Secretary of State and First Lord of the Treasury. Inigo Jones built the
house for Richard Lennard, Lord Dacre, early in the seventeenth century,
but since then it has undergone such extensive alterations that little
of the original structure remains, and the chief interest lies in a
valuable collection of historical portraits, including those of the
Chesterfields, Stanhopes, and the great Lord Chatham. The last-named
statesman, whose daughter Hester married Charles, Lord Stanhope, in
1774, was a frequent visitor at Chevening, and is said to have planned
the beautiful drive which leads through the woods north of the house to
the top of the downs. The little village of Chevening lies on the other
side of the park, just outside Lord Stanhope's gates and close to the
old church of St. Botolph, which was one of the shrines frequented by
the pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. There are some good Early
English arches in the nave and chancel, and a western tower of
Perpendicular date. The south chapel contains many imposing sepulchral
monuments to the different lords of the manor. Amongst them are those of
John Lennard, who was sheriff of the county and held several offices
under the crown in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, and of his
son Sampson, who with his wife Margaret, Lady Dacre in her own right,
reposes under a sumptuous canopy of alabaster surrounded by kneeling
effigies of their children. There is also a fine black marble monument
to the memory of James, Earl of Stanhope, the prime minister of George
I., who was buried here with great pomp in 1721. He was actually in
office at the time of his death, and was taken ill in the House of
Lords, and breathed his last the next day. But the most beautiful tomb
here is Chantrey's effigy of Lady Frederica Stanhope sleeping with her
babe in her arms, and an expression of deep content and peace upon her
quiet face.
[Illustration: CHEVENING CHURCH.]
"Storms may rush in, and crimes and woes
Deform the quiet bower;
They may not mar the deep repose
Of that immortal flower."
[Illustration: OTFORD CHURCH.]