"Great-upon-Little"--The woods of Sussex--A maze of lanes--Frensham
Pond--A holiday haunt--The legend of the shivering reeds--Rural
inns--Roughing it (?)--Waverley Abbey--The monks of old--The sites
of abbeys--Quiet country towns--Stocks and whipping-post--A curious
font--"A haven of rest."
About a mile from West Hoathly, on the way we took, we were told of a
local "lion" in the shape of a huge rock, firmly balanced on a very
small one, which together have earned the title of "Great-upon-Little."
The great top rock looks insecure enough, and as though a push of the
hand would almost send it over. This curious rock stands in a romantic
and deeply wooded glen some half a mile or so from the main road,
and many other strangely shaped rocks are to be found there; shapes
manifestly due to the erosion of the softer stone leaving the harder
portions to stand out more or less prominently. To one who has beheld
the wonderful rock formations of the Yellowstone Valley in America,
this "Great-upon-Little" may appear but a trivial thing; still, in
its way it is striking. But it was the rock-girt glen with its green
woods, a glen steeply winding down the rough hillside, that charmed me
infinitely more than this natural freak--a veritable fairies' glen
that would have made the fortune of any watering-place were it only
near to it. Cobbett in his _Rural Rides_ thus discourses about this
rock in his own peculiar way: "At this place there is a rock which they
call 'Big-upon-Little,' that is to say, a rock upon another, the top
one being longer and wider than the top of the one it lies on. This big
rock is no trifling concern, being as big, perhaps, as a not very small
house. How, then, came this big upon little? What lifted up the big? It
balances itself naturally enough, but what tossed it up? I do not like
to pay a parson for teaching me while I have God's own Word to teach
me; but if any parson will tell me how big came upon little, I do not
know that I shall grudge him a trifle. And if he cannot tell me this;
if he say, 'All that we have to do is to admire and adore,' then I tell
him that I can admire and adore without his aid, and that I will keep
my money in my pocket." Which shows, however clever an agriculturist he
may have been, Cobbett was woefully ignorant of geology, whilst little
he cared for scenery. The reading of his _Rides_, allowing for much
skipping, was a wearisome task to me, and glad was I when I came to the
end of the book. After this dose of Cobbett and his grumblings, I had
to take a course of genial Charles Lamb to put me in good humour again.
Our road now took us by shadowy forests, which afforded us some
shelter from the quiet rain which began to fall, and here and there
we glimpsed, half drowned in foliage, a lowly cottage, with its film
of ascending smoke, and now and then we caught a warm and fragrant
whiff of burning wood that contrasted pleasantly with the cool scent of
the many trees, their leaves rain-washed and shining. So we drove on
through woods and woods again, with here and there a bit of wild waste,
a patch of pasture, or a furrowed field, and here and there the gleam
of water--driving first this way, then that, as it took our fancy. Some
ways were wide and good, and some were narrow and bad, but the country
had a remote and pleasant look; so with the roads I had no quarrel. The
scenery concerns me more than the road. I never hesitate to desert the
smooth highway for the rough and winding lane if the latter appear the
more attractive. My mind is set on exploring, on seeking out odd nooks
and corners, not on rushing from one town to another, though, when the
highway suits my humour, along it I go contentedly enough.
So we drove on till we came to a more open country of meadows and
tilled fields and stray farmsteads, but with woods beyond again, and
over these a peep of distant hills with misty clouds upon them. A
mellow, home-like land it was, where wandering streams kept fresh
the greenery of the fields, and ancient footpaths wound in and out,
and tangled hedges that so beautify the land, though they show poor
husbandry, bordered the roadside on either hand. Then we struck upon
a fair main road, though there was little traffic on it; in time the
road forked in two, and at the fork a signpost pointed with one arm the
way "To Guildford," and with the other arm the way "To Godalming."
We chose the road to Godalming because it looked the more inviting.
Now we passed other woods that climbed the low hills to our right,
then we began to climb the hills ourselves, to descend again into the
valley on the other side; so on through a rough country, dotted with
pleasant homes, both old and new, we reached the long-streeted town of
Godalming. I had an idea--how I came by it I cannot say--that Godalming
was a pleasant and a picturesque town; my drive through it effectually
got rid of that idea. I saw nothing pleasant or picturesque about it,
even allowing for the determined and depressing drizzle that dulled the
outlook. Perhaps I saw things crookedly that day, but to me, certainly,
Godalming looked a one-streeted affair of commonplace houses and shops,
with not a feature amongst the lot worth noticing, not even its old
market-house.
The road we took out of the town chanced to be the famous Portsmouth
road, much favoured by motorists and other vehicular traffic, and not
caring for so much company, in due course we took a by-road to our
right without a thought as to where it might lead. We soon got into a
tangle of narrow, signpostless lanes; so narrow in one part, indeed,
became our way that our hood actually at times brushed the hedges on
either side, a lane where almost "two barrows might tremble when they
meet." Indeed, had we met any cart, conveyance, or another motor I
cannot imagine what we should have done, but we met nothing; for miles
the tangle of lanes appeared to be endless, one as narrow as the
other; then at last I espied a cottage and got down to ask where the
lane led, for I felt like a man in a maze. Thrice I rapped loudly at
the cottage door before I got an answer; then at the third emphatic rap
an old woman appeared. "I be hard o' hearing," she remarked, by way of
apology for her long coming. "The lane do lead to the pond. It's only
about a mile farther on." "To the pond!" I exclaimed in astonishment.
"What pond? We don't want to go to a pond!" "Why, _the_ pond, to be
sure," responded she; "but I've left my baking." And that was all I
could get out of her, for, doubtless anxious about her baking, she
rushed incontinently indoors and left me wondering. I could only
presume that we were driving to a village pond, with the uncomfortable
idea that there the narrow lane might end. There was nothing to do but
to drive on--there was no space to turn; for miles we had not seen
a soul, so unfrequented are some of the byways of populous England,
but at last a man actually appeared trudging along the road. To him I
repeated my query, and got the same reply!--"To the pond"--adding, "It
be only a bit farther on." I was more puzzled than ever. "What pond?"
asked I. "Why, Frensham Pond, to be sure." Then it dawned upon me that
a friend of mine had spoken of Frensham Pond, to which he frequently
went a-fishing, and where he told me was a good inn--"the very place
for a quiet holiday," and he was an artist not likely to speak
favourably of a spot that had no scenic attractions.
Right glad were we to escape from the narrow lane and to find
ourselves at Frensham Pond, where the road widened out beside the still
water, and where the little balconied inn my friend had told me about
stood facing it. Now Frensham Pond is a large and beautiful sheet of
water over a hundred acres in extent, and to go round it means a good
three miles' walk, so the term pond is somewhat of a misnomer; "mere,"
I think, would be a better and less misleading title, more picturesque
besides. A good deal depends on a name; at least one does expect a
pleasant spot to bear a pleasant name: now "pond" is not one to conjure
with.
It was raining again, so we pulled up under the shelter of a spreading
tree opposite the hotel, whereupon the landlord appeared at the door
and invited me within; but I explained that I was only halting there,
as I thought the shower would soon be over, and I wished to admire the
view. I was neither hungry nor thirsty, so what need had I of an inn?
"It's a lovely spot," the landlord remarked, and as I looked over the
little lonely lake with its near background of pines, of heathery hills
beyond these, and nothing else in view, I fully agreed with him. Even
in the rain the prospect pleased me; there was an individuality about
it, it was fresh to my eye, nothing quite like it had I seen before.
"You really should make up your mind to stop here," the landlord
continued, doubtless with an eye to business. "There's fine fishing in
the pond, and a boat at your service; there's plenty of big pike and
perch that are willing to be caught"--which was very kind of the fish;
I have not found them so obliging in other parts. There was a man in
a boat on the water getting wet, but catching nothing, as far as I
could make out, unless it were a cold. It seemed poor sport to me to
sit thus patiently in a boat with the rain coming down, watching for
the bob of a float on the chance of catching a fish not worth eating.
Fly-fishing is quite another story. When you wander along the banks
of some fair mountain river or stream, even if you have poor sport,
you have a pleasant ramble over rock and boulder and amongst pleasant
scenes; moreover, your time is ever agreeably occupied in casting your
flies and watching them dance on the running water till comes a splash,
a tug, and a tasteful trout good to look at, good to eat, and worth the
basketing!
Suddenly the rain stopped, the grey clouds vanished, the sun shone
forth again out of a sky as blue as the summer sea; the erst leaden
lake looked like molten gold, the hills became a burning purple, but
the dark pines seemed darker still by the contrast with the brightness
around. What wind there was had dropped, but all the reeds were
quivering, and I thought of the legend of the shivering reeds.
Leaving Frensham--where, by the way, in the tower of its church is
preserved an ancient copper cauldron that tradition asserts once
belonged to Mother Ludlam, a reputed local witch--we drove by devious
roads through a sandy and heathery land, and into pine woods, the
resinous odours of which filled pleasantly the air. We passed one or
two lonely little inns on our way. To me a picturesque, though little
regarded, feature of the roadside is the cosy country inn of the class
that rises superior to the public-house but is less pretentious than
an hotel, where I have found, during my old tramping days, humble
doubtless, but sufficiently comfortable quarters, and where I got in
touch with the simple and friendly country folk, and so could learn how
the world treated them, and what they thought of it, and their ideas
in general. The only way to do this is to mix with the country folk
on their own ground, and clad in a suit of homely tweed, with often
muddy boots, I was not looked upon as a superior person, so the talk I
listened to was not curbed; only perhaps at times my speech, I feared,
might betray me, for I could in no way manage the country accent, but I
spoke little, whilst my ears did me silent service.
Imagination fondly stoops to trace
The parlour splendours of that festive place;
The whitewash'd wall, the nicely sanded floor,
The varnish'd clock that click'd behind the door.
[Illustration: "A GOOD HONEST ALEHOUSE."]
Dear old Izaak Walton called such an inn "a good honest ale-house,"
and that title takes my fancy. "I'll now lead you to a good honest
ale-house," says that rare old angler, "where we shall find a cleanly
room, lavender in the windows, and twenty ballads stuck upon the
walls.... Come, hostess, where are you? Is supper ready?... Be as
quick as you can, for I believe we are all very hungry." That is the
sort of inn for me; I do not desire luxury when I go a-touring. The
more homely my hostelry the more to my taste, so long as I find
cleanliness, civility, and reasonable comfort thereat. I even enjoy
what some people might term "roughing it" at times; in truth I have
spent many delightful red-letter days (some of the most healthful and
enjoyable I have ever spent) "roughing it" in a log-hut on the wild
far-off Californian mountains, and there I found a wealthy and a titled
Englishman doing the same thing, purely for the pleasure of it. If
in some remote parts and on rare occasions I was doubtful as to the
cleanliness of my inn, I made a point of not unpacking the car before
I had sampled the landlord and the accommodation offered. I am glad to
say that never once, on this journey, did I find the inn I selected
fail to satisfy my modest requirements.
Loitering along we came at the foot of a long hill, passing first
through gloomy woods, to a spot low down where the indolent winding
Wey widened out into a quiet, clear-watered pool, and all around were
pine-clad hills; an old water-mill and one or two ancient cottages
completed the scene, just serving to humanise it and nothing more. It
was a lovely spot, and there we pulled up to enjoy its beauties at
our leisure. I know no other country in the wide world with spots so
peace-bestowing as, here and there, one finds in England, and to come
upon them unawares intensifies the charm of them; I cannot think of a
word that precisely defines their special character, but "benign" is
not far out.
Then I consulted the map and traced on it the river's course, and so
made out, roughly, where we were, and it chanced I noticed on the
map "Waverley Abbey" marked apparently near by. Now I had a dim
recollection, but nothing more, that there was such an abbey, ruined of
course, somewhere in England, but as to where it stood I had not given
a thought up till that moment; if I had to hazard a guess as to its
location, I am afraid I should have guessed Yorkshire, though the fact
came back to me that Waverley Abbey suggested to Scott the title of one
of his famous novels. Ivinghoe in Bucks is also credited with having
given him the slightly altered title of _Ivanhoe_. Rumour asserts that
his attention was called to the uncommon name by the local rhyme:
Tring, Wing, and Ivinghoe,
Hampden of Hampden did forego,
For striking ye Prynce a blow,
Glad that he might escape it so.
"Ye Prynce" was the Black Prince, and Hampden an ancestor of John
Hampden, so tradition says, and the blow was given over a dispute about
a game of racquets that Hampden lost. I love these old local rhymes
and sayings that the inquiring traveller so often comes upon, for they
frequently relate to past historical or traditional happenings that
have been wholly or half forgotten, and are only otherwise to be found
in odd musty volumes that no one cares to read.
We stopped the car in a sheltered corner not far from the lodge
entrance to a pleasant park, and seeing no one around I ventured to
ask at the lodge the whereabouts of the abbey. "You're close to it,"
responded the young woman, who promptly and civilly came at my call;
"it's only a short walk across the fields." Moreover, she came outside
and pointed me out the way, bidding me keep to the path by the river
till I came to a bridge, "then to your left you will see the ruins."
Clearer instructions could no one give, and so I found the abbey.
Pleasant indeed was the short stroll to it by the side of the lazy
river, with the greenest of green meadows on one hand so soft to the
tread, and wide spreading trees on the other that threw "tangles of
light and shadow below." So listlessly the water flowed it hardly
seemed to flow at all; manifestly the river was loth to leave so fair
a spot to join the stormy sea, and fain would linger there in peace.
I think it was Wordsworth who first endowed Nature with a living
personality.
Of Waverley's once stately pile little now is left but crumbling
walls and vacant archways; still, its low, roofless remains cover
much ground, a fact that attests its former size and glory. The quiet
country around, I imagine, has not changed noticeably, if at all,
since the abbey stood proudly there in its prime--to stand, as the
early builders doubtless thought, till the Day of Doom; but the future
was not at their command. As in the past the placid river flows by it
without a murmur, the hills beyond rise boldly to the sky, the luscious
meadows round about are the same luscious meadows that the old monks
trod; but their erst lordly edifice is mostly dust, its stones having
been basely used for other buildings, and for a long while to make and
mend the roads; still, the country looks as green and fresh as ever,
its youth renewed by every recurring summer. I can recall no spot of
which so poignantly and so pregnantly may be said, "Sic transit gloria
mundi."
An almost saintly silence brooded there; I heard neither stir of leaf
nor song of bird, nor caught I sight of any living thing to break the
solitude. It was as though the monks had laid a spell of profound peace
over all, a spell unbroken yet--and may it never be!
A region of repose it seems,
A place of slumber and of dreams,
Remote among the wooded hills.
The peace-bestowing silence and restful solitude of the spot will
linger with me as long as my memory lasts. Great must have been the
temptation, in a troublous age, to be a monk, so to escape from all the
turmoil of it, and to live at peace and at ease in some such earthly
paradise. Many a world-weary man to-day well might sigh for such a
harbour of rest.
Truly those monks of old had an eye for pleasant places; they built
"in fair grounds," as the sites of their many abbeys prove. Father
Gonzague, Prior of Storrington, puts it: "Some were built in the valley
by the running stream, or on the jutting hill, overhanging the river
bank, like St. Agatha's and Eggleston in Yorkshire; others close on
the seashore, within hearing of the perpetual cadence of the waves,
like Torre, the wealthiest of the English houses in Devonshire, on a
spot the charm of which is not easily surpassed, backed by hills and
uplands, with just room enough on the plain for the noble church,
the monastery and its outbuildings, its gardens, its fish ponds, and
its mill; or again among the deep and narrow dales of Derbyshire;
or the gentle swell of the Kentish hills; in the forest land of
Nottinghamshire, like Welbeck; or else in remote and wild retreats,
speaking of penance and detachment, like the Abbey of Magdalen's Vale
at Shap, in Westmoreland." Then there are others in situations quite
as romantic and as gracious: there is Tintern by the winding Wye,
Bolton by the tumbling Wharfe, Fountains sheltered amongst the woods,
Rievaulx amongst the hills, Llanthony lone amongst the mountains,
Cleeve secluded in the "Vale of Flowers," and many another--all in
well-favoured spots and tranquil ones in ancient days, and some, like
Waverley, as tranquil now.
A better judge of scenery than the monk of old there could not be;
where stood his abbey there was a pleasant land, well watered,
overflowing with beauty, and not seldom "overflowing with milk and
honey" too. If one could trust that rare romancer Time, the monks were
a jovial lot--"peace to their ashes"--reaping where they had not sown,
and garnering where they had not toiled; making sure of heaven above
whilst also making sure of the good things of the world below, ay, and
enjoying them to the full as much as any sinner. To make the best of
both worlds, especially this one, that was their motto, and they lived
up to it. Of the modern monks that I have seen, one half look fat and
lazy, the other half lean and sour, with an aspect of piety that would
not have disgraced the strictest Puritan. But I know not if one can
fairly judge of the old by the new. "Tempora mutantur," and possibly
monks with them, and this is all that need be said.
Of the scant abbey ruins the only portion not wholly exposed to the
weather is what looks like the crypt, with its fine and delicate Early
English pillars and groined roof; but it has a fireplace, and from a
label attached to its walls I learned it was the "Layman's Refectory."
The rest of the ruins are roofless, and it is difficult to make out,
with any certainty, even the site of the church--at least I found
it so. On the greensward I noticed, level with the ground surface,
a stone coffin vacant and exposed to the sky, presumably discovered
there and left undisturbed save for the removal of its covering; this
was hollowed out to the shape of a body, with a place for the head;
probably it belonged to one of the stately abbots' dust and ashes long
years ago, but the interior of the stone still preserves the chisel
marks of the ancient mason, as sharp almost to-day as when first made.
Somehow those marks so old, yet so clear, that but for the time-stains
upon them might be of recent date, bridged over the centuries and
brought the past quite close to me.
Leaving the old abbey to its peaceful seclusion, we once more resumed
our way and soon found ourselves at Farnham, far famed for its castle
and its ancient coaching hostelry--"The Bush," to wit--and possibly
also for hops and ale, but of these I am not so sure. "The Bush," says
Thackeray in his _Virginians_, "is a famous inn which has stood in
Farnham town for these three hundred years." But why I refer to this
old house, in passing, is that its sign is the oldest of signs, which,
in ancient days, consisted simply of a bush hung out at the end of a
pole to show that wine, or ale, was sold there. Hence doubtless the
saying of Shakespeare, "Good wine needs no bush."
After Farnham we struck the Winchester highway, dusty with much traffic
at the time, so to escape both the traffic and the dust we took the
first lane we came to--a lane that led past hop-gardens, up hill and
down again; next winding round a well-wooded park it brought us to the
little out-of-the-world village of Crondall, where I noticed one or
two quaint half-timber houses of sufficient charm to cause me to stop
and sketch them. Then after a short stretch of tree-bordered road we
arrived at Odiham, a sleepy, sunny, wide-streeted town to which "no
noisy railway speeds"; perhaps because of this it retains unhurt so
much of its past-time naturalness. On a previous journey we had driven
through Odiham, without however stopping, even though it pleased us,
but we reached it by a different way. There is often a great deal in
the first impression of a place, and this frequently depends upon how
you approach it. No doubt there is a certain charm in the first view of
fresh places, when such places possess the power to please and present
themselves under favourable aspects, but it is wisdom not to linger
in them overlong lest the eye should discover imperfections, so their
poetry lose much of its glamour, or wholly vanish like a dream that has
passed.
Before, when at Odiham, the "George" inn there, facing the roadway
with its cheerful front and projecting sign, attracted my attention:
a typical old coaching hostelry that looks as though it had seen more
prosperous days, yet it had not retired from business but kept open
wide its doors, bravely facing changed circumstances. "Posting House"
in letters large is still boldly displayed on its front, but its
posting is done to-day by the landlord's motor-car! _Paterson's Roads_,
the Bradshaw of our ancestors, mentions the "George" as the inn of
the place, and nearly every old roadside inn one comes across still
retains the very title given to it in that rare eighteenth and early
nineteenth-century road-book, according to which of its many editions
one consults.
Now being, by chance, at Odiham again, I thought I would put up at the
"George" and sample its entertainment. Quarters in the real country
best please me, but they do not always materialise; next I prefer a
modest hostelry in some quiet little town, and here I had my desire.
So beneath the sign of the "George" I slept that night, and there I
found a pleasant garden in the rear, good fare of the simple sort, much
civility, and a most moderate bill; so, when next morning I departed, I
left it with my blessing. I discovered that the inn was, unfortunately,
for sale; it may have been sold by now. I can only trust that the old
house may fall into the hands of worthy successors, and that it will,
for as long as it stands, and long may that be, retain its good old
name; for it must be remembered it is the landlord makes the inn.
Does not Alonzo of Aragon say that the recommendations of age are
"old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old
authors to read"? and I should like to add old inns to rest at, and by
preference those inns of the candle or lamp, mahogany or oak furniture,
and wood-fire-on-the-hearth period, and these, the Fates be praised,
are still to be found by the diligent searcher, and when found the
wise traveller will not tell everybody about them. In this respect
selfishness is a virtue, a moral obligation for the benefit of other
quiet-loving travellers; for it is so easy to convert the old into
the new, but the new cannot be converted into the old. I was tempted
to photograph one of these ancient little inns I chanced upon, on
account of its artistic signboard, for it is rare to meet with such
artistic creations, though a few may be found to delight the eye of the
wayfarer. My photograph, here reproduced, will show the skilful and
effective painting of this signboard.
Having still an hour or two of daylight left, I took a stroll round the
little town; it did not take me long; then I came to the church, and in
the roadway before it I discovered, carefully roofed over, its ancient
stocks and whipping-post; evidently the Odiham people prize these
relics of "the good" or bad "old days." Then I took a glance within the
church, where I found much to interest me; there I noticed seven old
brasses in an excellent state of preservation--for old brasses--and
these were kept both bright and clean; they were fixed against the
south wall all in close order, being doubtless removed from the floor
at some former restoration. Though removed thus from their proper place
over the dust they commemorate, and where they should rightly be, they
certainly are seen to better advantage where they are--and their dead
owners are not far off. All the brasses but two happily retain their
inscriptions; the earliest bears date of 1400; one to a priest in his
vestments that of 1498; and there is one to a man in armour, roughly
but effectively engraved. The piscina, I noticed, had an ornamented
pillar support; I do not remember having seen such an arrangement
before. I noticed also the finely carved Elizabethan or Jacobean
pulpit, and besides, a thing you seldom nowadays see in churches, an
oak gallery, of considerable antiquity, upheld by stout oak posts. Then
I became aware that I was not alone in the building, for I heard quiet
footsteps, and looking round observed a man at the font, apparently
examining it with considerable interest, so too I needs must go and
examine it. Said the stranger to me, "This is a curious font and a
very ancient one." "It certainly looks it," I replied. "Perhaps you
may not know," he continued, "but it possesses a peculiar feature only
to be found in one other font in England, and that is at Youlgrave in
Derbyshire. Permit me to point out to you the cup-like projection on
the top; this is provided to drain back into the basin any drops of
water that might be accidentally spilt at a christening." Some people
delight to be informing, but the information they impart depends for
its value on their special knowledge of special subjects. I observed
that the stranger was carefully consulting a handbook when I approached
him, which he put away in his pocket, and I thought to myself possibly
the stranger has just read up about the font in that book, and is
merely imparting to me second-hand information gleaned from it just
for the self-importance of imparting it, and to show his cleverness.
I might have done him an injustice, but he spoke in a manner so
authoritative as to challenge criticism. Anyway I have not the implicit
faith in handbooks most people have, for more than once I have found
them wrong in facts beyond dispute. So I have examined for myself the
"curious" projection, being a bit of an archaeologist, though not a
learned one, and came to the conclusion that there was nothing curious
about it, and that it had merely been intended to receive a hinge for
a font cover. But such an explanation is perhaps too simple to be
satisfactory to certain minds to which only the singular or mysterious
appeals.
[Illustration: AT "THE QUEEN'S HEAD."]
Round the top of the font runs a much-worn inscription in long
Lombardic, or other early lettering, of which I could make nothing; no
more could the stranger, but he made excuse that the light was very
poor; so it was. "If we only had a guide-book," I said suggestively,
but he failed to take the hint.
Leaving the church I noticed some picturesque alms-houses adjoining its
quiet "God's Acre," built of brick but grey with age, of one story,
uneven-roofed, with shapely chimney-stacks, which houses with their
enclosed garden, full of flowers--and weeds--reminded me of Walker's
famous picture "A Haven of Rest," though they were not the original of
it. Then as the sun was setting I sought "mine inn."