Over the undulating surface of the park, barely a mile away, can be seen
the pretty spire of Saffron Walden Church, with the village clustering
around it. Here on a hill stand the church and the castle, originally of
Walden, but from the extensive cultivation of saffron in the
neighborhood the town came to have that prefix given it; it was grown
there from the time of Edward III., and the ancient historian Fuller
quaintly tells us "it is a most admirable cordial, and under God I owe
my life, when sick with the small-pox, to the efficacy thereof." Fuller
goes on to tell us that "the sovereign power of genuine saffron is
plainly proved by the antipathy of the crocodile thereto; for the
crocodile's tears are never true save when he is forced where saffron
groweth, whence he hath his name of croco-deilos, or the saffron-fearer,
knowing himself to be all poison, and it all antidote." Saffron attained
its highest price at Walden in Charles II.'s time, when it was as high
as twenty dollars a pound, but its disuse in medicine caused its value
to diminish, and at the close of the last century its culture had
entirely disappeared from Walden, though the prefix still clings to the
name of the town. While saffron was declining, this neighborhood became
a great producer of truffles, and the dogs were trained here to hunt the
fungus that is so dear to the epicure's palate. The church of St. Mary,
which is a fine Perpendicular structure and the most conspicuous feature
of Saffron Walden, was built about four hundred years ago, though the
slender spire crowning its western tower is of later date, having been
built in the present century. In the church are buried the six Earls of
Suffolk who lived at Audley End, and all of whom died between 1709 and
1745. The ruins of the ancient castle, consisting chiefly of a portion
of the keep and some rough arches, are not far from the church, and
little is known of its origin. There is a museum near the ruins which
contains some interesting antiquities and a fine natural-history
collection. The newly-constructed town-hall, built in antique style,
overhanging the footway and supported on arches, is one of the most
interesting buildings in Saffron Walden: the mayor and corporation
meeting here date their charter from 1549. Not far away, at Newport,
lived Nell Gwynn in a modest cottage with a royal crown over the door.
She was one of the numerous mistresses of Charles II., and is said to
have been the only one who remained faithful to him. She bore him two
sons, one dying in childhood, and the other becoming the Duke of St.
Albans, a title created in 1684, and still continued in the persons of
his descendants of the family of Beauclerc. Nell was originally an
orange-girl who developed into a variety actress, and, fascinating the
king, he bought her from Lord Buckhurst, her lover, for an earldom and a
pension. Nell is said to have cost the king over $300,000 in four years.
She had her good qualities and was very popular in England, and she
persuaded the king to found Chelsea Hospital for disabled soldiers, and
he also bore her genuine affection, for his dying words were, "Let not
poor Nelly starve." She survived him about seven years. Also in the
neighborhood, at Littlebury, was the home of Winstanley, the builder of
the first Eddystone Lighthouse, who perished in it when it was destroyed
by a terrific storm in 1703.
[Illustration: JETTIES AT HARWICH.]
Digressing down to the coast of Essex, on the North Sea, we find at the
confluence of the Stour and Orwell the best harbor on that side of
England, bordered by the narrow and old-fashioned streets of the ancient
seaport of Harwich. Here vast fleets seek shelter in easterly gales
behind the breakwater that is run out from the Beacon Hill. From here
sail many steamers to Rotterdam and Antwerp in connection with the
railways from London, and the harbor-entrance is protected by the
ancient Languard Fort, built by James I. on a projecting spit of land
now joined to the Suffolk coast to the northward. One of the most
interesting scenes at Harwich is a group of old wrecks that has been
utilized for a series of jetties in connection with a shipbuilder's
yard. Weather-beaten and battered, they have been moored in a placid
haven, even though it be on the unpicturesque coast of Essex.