* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Nonsuch Palace._--Our antiquarian friends may not be aware that traces of
this old residence of Elizabeth are still to be seen near Ewell. Traditions
of it exist in the neighbourhood and Hansetown, and Elizabethan coins are
frequently dug up near the foundations of the "Banquetting House," now
inclosed in a cherry orchard not far from the avenue that joins Ewell to
Cheam. In a field at some distance is an old elm, which the villagers say
once stood in the court-yard of the kitchen. Near this is a deep trench,
now filled with water, and hedged by bushes, which is called "Diana's
Dyke," now in the midst of a broad ploughed field, but formerly the site of
a statue of the Grecian goddess, which served as a fountain in an age when
water-works were found in every palace-garden, evincing in their subjects
proofs of the revival of classical learning. The elm above-mentioned
measures thirty feet in the girth, immediately below the parting of the
branches. Its age is "frosty but kindly;" some two or three hundred summers
have passed over its old head, which, as yet, is unscathed by heavens fire,
and unriven by its bolt. The ground here swells unequally and artificially,
and in an adjoining field, long called, no one knew why, "the Conduit
Field," pipes that brought the water to the palace have lately been found,
and may be seen intersected by the embankments of the Epsom railway.
The avenue itself is one of the old approaches to the palace, and was the
scene of a skirmish during the civil wars. {237}
Your readers may, perhaps, forget that this palace was the scene of the
fatal disgrace of young Essex.