Part 1

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FROM PADDINGTON TO PENZANCE

By the Author of the Present Volume.

_Demy 8vo, cloth extra, 16s._

THE BRIGHTON ROAD:

_OLD TIMES AND NEW ON A CLASSIC HIGHWAY_.

WITH A PHOTOGRAVURE FRONTISPIECE AND NINETY ILLUSTRATIONS.

“The revived interest in our long-neglected highways has already produced a considerable crop of books descriptive of English road life and scenery, but few have been more attractive than this substantial volume. The author has gathered together a great deal of amusing matter, chiefly relating to coaching and life on the road in the days of George IV., wherewith to supplement his own personal observations and adventures. He wields a clever pen on occasion--witness his graphic sketch of the ‘ungodly tramp’ whom he met between Merstham and Crawley. The book, in brief, is inspired by a genuine love of the road and all its associations, past and present, animate and inanimate. Its ninety illustrations, partly sketches made by the author on the way, and partly reproductions of old-time pictures and engravings, will add greatly to its attractions.”--_Daily News._

“This is a book worth buying, both for the narrative and the illustrations. The former is crisp and lively, the latter are tastefully chosen and set forth with much pleasing and artistic effect.”--_Scottish Leader._

“The Brighton Road was merry with the rattle of wheels, the clatter of galloping horses, the bumpers of hurrying passengers, the tipping of ostlers, the feats of jockeys and ‘whips’ and princes, the laughter of full-bosomed serving-wenches, and the jokes of rotund landlords, and all this Mr. Harper’s handsome and picturesque volume spreads well before its readers. To the author, Lord Lonsdale, with his great feat on the road between Reigate and Crawley, is the last of the heroes, and the Brighton Parcel Mail is the chief remaining glory of what was once the most frequented and fashionable highway of the world. As Mr. Harper sadly says, ‘the Brighton of to-day is no place for the travel-worn;’ but, with his book in hand, the pedestrian, the horseman, the coachman, or the cyclist, may find the road that leads to it from town one of the most interesting and entertaining stretches of highway to be found anywhere.”--_Daily Chronicle._

“Space fails us to mention the many sporting events that have been decided upon, or near, the Brighton Road. They are duly recorded in this lively volume.... An old writer, speaking of Brighton shore, talks of the ‘number of beautiful women who, every morning, court the embraces of the Watery God;’ but these Mr. Harper found wanting, so he fled to Rottingdean.”--_Spectator._

“This handsome book on the Brighton Road should be attractive to three classes in particular--those who like coaching, those who enjoy cycling, and the ‘general reader.’”--_Globe._

“A pleasant gossiping account of a highway much trodden, ridden, driven, and cycled by the Londoner; a solid and handsome volume, with attractive pictures.”--_St. James’s Gazette._

“The Brighton Road is the classic land, the Arcadia, of four-in-hand driving. An ideally smooth, hard, high road, with no more of uphill and down than a coach could travel over at a canter going up, and at a rattling trot, with the skid on, going downhill, it was a road that every sporting Londoner knew by heart, and many a London man and woman who cared nothing for sport.... The ancient glories of the road live for the author, and when he walks along the highway from London to Brighton, he seems to tread on holy ground. He would never have written so pleasant a book as ‘The Brighton Road’ had he been less of an idealist. He has, however, other qualifications for bookmaking besides a delight in coaching and its ancient palmy days. Something of an archæologist, he can speak learnedly of churches, both as ecclesiologist and artist, and has an eye for the human humours as well as the picturesque natural beauties of the road. His book is enriched with over ninety good illustrations, mainly from his own hand. Add to this, that Mr. Harper writes English pleasantly and well, with thorough love for and knowledge of his subject, and the reader of this review will see that ‘The Brighton Road’ that I am inviting him to buy or borrow is a thoroughly honest, good, and readable book.”--_Black and White._

LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY.

FROM PADDINGTON TO PENZANCE

_THE RECORD OF A SUMMER TRAMP FROM LONDON TO THE LAND’S END_

BY CHARLES G. HARPER

AUTHOR OF “THE BRIGHTON ROAD,” ETC.

_ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FOUR DRAWINGS_ _Done chiefly with a Pen_

London CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY 1893

_To General Hawkes, C.B._

_MY DEAR GENERAL_,

_Although we did not tour together, you and I, there is none other than yourself to whom I could so ardently desire this book to be inscribed--this by reason of a certain happening at Looe, and not at all for the sake of anything you may find in these pages, saving indeed that the moiety of them is concerned with your county of Cornwall._

_I have wrought upon this work for many months, in storm and shine; and always, when this crowded hive was most dreary, the sapphire seas, the bland airs, the wild moors of that western land have presented themselves to memory, and at the same time have both cheered and filled with regrets one who works indeed amid the shoutings and the tumults of the streets, but whose wish is for the country-side. You reside in mitigated rusticity; I, in expiation of some sin committed, possibly, in by-past cycles and previous incarnations, in midst of these roaring millions; and truly I love not so much company._

_Yours very faithfully_,

CHARLES G. HARPER.

PREFACE

_Before I set about the overhauling of my notes made on this tour--afoot, afloat, awheel--from London to Land’s End, I confided to an old friend my intention of publishing an account of these wanderings. Now, no one has such a mean idea of one’s capacities as an old friend, and so I was by no means surprised when he flouted my project. I have known the man for many years; and as the depth of an old friend’s scorn deepens with time, you may guess how profound by now is his distrust of my powers._

_“Better hadn’t,” said he._

_“And why not?” said I._

_“See how often it has been done,” he replied. “Why should you do it again, after Elihu Burritt, after Walter White, and L’Estrange, and those others who have wearied us so often with their dull records of uneventful days?”_

_“I do it,” I said, “for the reason that poets write poetry, because I must. Out upon your Burritts and the rest of them; I don’t know them, and don’t want to--yet. When the book is finished, then they shall be looked up for the sake of comparison; at present, I keep an open mind on the subject.”_

_And I kept it until to-day. I have just returned from a day with these authors at the British Museum, and I feel weary. Probably most of them are dead by this time, as dead as their books, and nothing I say now can do them any harm; so let me speak my mind._

_First I dipped into the pages of that solemn Yankee prig, Burritt, and presently became bogged in stodgy descriptions of agriculture, and long-drawn parallels between English and American husbandry. Stumbling out of these sloughs, one comes headlong upon that true republican’s awkward raptures over titled aristocracy. The rest is all a welter of cheap facts and interjectional essays in the obvious._

_Then I essayed upon Walter White’s_ “Londoners Walk to the Land’s End”--_horribly informative, and with an appalling poverty of epithet. This dreadful tourist was used (he says) to sing and recite to the rustics whom he met._

_“’Tis a dry day, master,” say the thirsty countrymen to him; while he, heedless of their artful formula, calls not for the flowing bowl, but strikes an attitude, and recites to them a ballad of Macaulay’s!_

_And yet those poor men, robbed of their beer, applauded (says our author), and, like Oliver Twist, asked for more._

_Then an American coach-party had driven over part of our route, following the example of_ “An American Four-in-Hand in Britain,” _by Citizen Carnegie. Indeed, we easily recognise the Citizen again, under the name of Mæcenas, among this party, which produced the_ “Chronicle of the Coach.”

_The same Americanese pervades both books; the same patronage of John Bull, and the same laudation of those States, is common to them; but for choice, the Citizen’s own book is in the viler taste. Both jig through their pages to an abominable “charivari” of their own composing, an amalgam of_ “Yankee Doodle” _and the_ “Marseillaise,” _one with (renegade Scot!) a bagpipe “obbligato.”_

_They anticipate the time when we shall be blessed with a Republic after the model of their own adopted country; the Citizen (I think) commonly wears a cap of liberty for headgear, and a Stars and Stripes for shirt. This last may possibly be an error of mine. But at any rate I should like to see him tucking in the tails of such a star-spangled banner._

_These were the works which were to forbid a newer effort at a book aiming at the same destination, but proceeding by an independent route, and (as it chanced) written upon different lines--written with what I take to be a care rather for personal impressions than for guide-book history._

_We won to the West by no known route, but followed the inclinations of irresponsible tourists, with a strong disinclination for martyrdom on dusty highways and in uninteresting places. This, too, is explanatory of our taking the train at certain points and our long lingering at others. If, unwittingly or by intent, I have here or there in these pages dropped into history, I beg your pardon, I’m sure; for all I intended was to show you personal impressions in two media, pictures and prose._

CHARLES G. HARPER.

LONDON, _October 1893_.

CONTENTS

I. PAGES Leaving London--The Spirit of the Silly Season--An Unimportant Residuum--The Direct Road--And the Indirect--To Richmond by Boat 1–5

II.

Radical Richmond and its Royal Memories--The Poets’ Chorus--The Social Degradation implied by Tea and Shrimps--No Water at Richmond 6–9

III.

Rural Petersham--The Monuments of Petersham Church--Ham House-- Beer, Beauty, and the Peerage--The Earls of Dysart and their Curious Preferment--Village Hampdens and Litigation-- Ham and the Cabal--Horace Walpole and his Trumpery Ghosts--Kingston--The Dusty Pother anent Coway Stakes-- The Author “drops the Subject”--The King’s Stone--The Reader is referred to the Surrey Archæological Society, and the Tourists pursue their Journey--The Philosophy of the Thames--To Shepperton 9–17

IV.

Windsor and Eton--The Terrific Keate--Persuasions of Sorts-- Bray and its Most Admirable Vicar--Taplow Bridge--Boulter’s Lock--Cookham 17–23

V.

An Indignant Man--Advantages of Indignation and a Furious Manner--_Al fresco_ Meals--Medmenham Abbey--Those unkind Topographers--The Hell Fire Club--From Hambledon to Henley 23–28

VI.

Regatta Island--Its Shoddy Temple--The Preposterous Naiads and River Nymphs of the Eighteenth Century Poets--Those Improper Creatures _v._ County Councils--A Poignant Individual--Mary Blandy, the Slow Poisoner 28–33

VII.

Picturesque Wargrave--The Loddon River and Patricksbourne-- Sonning--A Typical Riverside Inn--Filthy Kennet Side-- Reading to Basingstoke 33–35

VIII.

Hampshire Characteristics--White of Selborne as a Vandal--Holy Ghost Chapel 35–38

IX.

A Dreary Road--Micheldever--Hampshire Literary Lights--The Worthies--“Johēs Kent de Redying” 38–41

X.

Winchester--The City Lamps--The Cathedral--Saint Swithun 41–48

XI.

Wykeham--The Renaissance in the Cathedral--The Puritans-- Winchester Castles, Royal and Episcopal--A Graceless Corporation--The Military--Saint Catherine’s Hill 48–55

XII.

A Literary Transfiguration--Wyke--An Unique Brass--The Romance of Lainston--Sparsholt 56–59

XIII.

A Rustic Symposium 60–64

XIV.

Camping-out of Necessity--The Tramp _en amateur_--Soapless Britons--The Livelong Day 64–65

XV.

Restoration at Romsey--Prout justified--An Unsportsmanlike Palmerston 66–68

XVI.

The New Forest--The Woodman’s Axe--The coming Social Storm-- Lyndhurst--Brockenhurst--Avon Water 68–74

XVII.

A Superior Pedestrian--Christchurch--An Enigmatical Epitaph 74–76

XVIII.

Bournemouth--The Interesting Invalid--Languorous Romances-- Bournemouth, the Paradise of the Unbeneficed 76–79

XIX.

Our Encounter with an American 79–81

XX.

By the Sea to North Haven--Studland--Our Coldest Welcome at an Inn--To Swanage 82–83

XXI.

The Isle of Purbeck--Purbeck Marble--Domesticated Swanage--The Rush for Ground-rents 83–86

XXII.

Corfe--Corfe Castle--Those Ubiquitous Roundheads 86–88

XXIII.

Lulworth Castle--The Dorset Coast--Osmington 88–90

XXIV.

Weymouth and George the Third--An Old-time Jubilee--A Gorgeous Individual--Railways and Derivatives--Hotel Snobbery 91–93

XXV.

Abbotsbury--The Abbey Ruins--Saint Catherine’s Chapel-- Historic Wessex--The Chesil Beach--West Bay, Bridport--A Hilly Country 93–97

XXVI.

Chideock--One who fared at Dead of Night--Early Rising 97–99

XXVII.

Charmouth--Concerning Rainy Days by the Sounding Sea--The Devon Borders--A Humorous Wheelman 99–101

XXVIII.

Axminster--The Battle of Brunenburgh--The “Book of Remembrance”--Axminster Carpets 102–104

XXIX.

Drakes of Ashe--Axmouth--The Fearful Joys of the Day-tripper-- Seaton 105–107

XXX.

Exeter, a Busy City--Richard the Third--A Chivalric Myth-- Northernhay--The Cathedral: Black but Comely--St. Mary Steps 108–111

XXXI.

The Suburb of Saint Thomas--Alphington--Exminster 112–116

XXXII.

A Grotesque Saint--The Pious Editor 116–118

XXXIII.

Beside the Exe to Powderham--The Courtenays--The Atmospheric Railway 118–120

XXXIV.

Starcross and its Aspirations--The Warren--Langstone Point-- Mount Pleasant--The Limitations of Dawlish 120–124

XXXV.

The Legend of the Parson and Clerk 124–127

XXXVI.

Teignmouth--The Sad Tale of the Market House--Doleful Ratepayers--Teignmouth Harbour--Devon Weather--Society-- To Shaldon 127–133

XXXVII.

The (more or less) True Story of an Artist--Labrador Tea-gardens--Peripatetic Organ-grinders--The Author’s Indignation moves him poetically--And he reflects upon Comic Songs 133–137

XXXVIII.

Devon Combes--Maidencombe--Where the Devil died of the Cold-- Who was Anstey, of Anstey’s Cove?--“Thomas” of Anstey’s 137–140

XXXIX.

Torquay--Still growing--The Witchery of Tor Bay Scenery-- Charter Day--Napoleon on board the “Billy Ruffian” 140–144

XL.

Teutonic Paignton--Thoughts on German Bands--The Present Author loves a Comely Falsehood, but destroys a Lying Tradition-- Berry Pomeroy and the Seymours 144–149

XLI.

Totnes--Brutus the Trojan--“Oliver, by the Grace of God”--To Dartmouth 149–153

XLII.

Down the Dart--Nautical Terms 153–154

XLIII.

Dartmouth--Castles of Dartmouth and Kingswear--Fighting the Foreigner--An Unrestored Church--Paternal Government 154–159

XLIV.

Dittisham and the Dart--Tea at Dittisham, and so “Home” 159–162

XLV.

Stoke Fleming--A Country Coach--Slapton Sands--To Kingsbridge 163–165

XLVI.

Kingsbridge--Its one Literary Celebrity--“Peter Pindar” upon his Barn--Kingsbridge Grammar School 165–171

XLVII.

Salcombe River--Voyage to Salcombe--Hotel hunting--Salcombe Shops--The Castle 171–176

XLVIII.

Voyage to Plymouth--The Tourists are Extremely Ill--Land at last--The Hoe and its Memorials--Politics and Patriotism-- The Hamoaze--Saltash 176–183

XLIX.

An Old Author on the Characteristics of Cornwall--Saint Budeaux--The Three Towns--Stained Glass extraordinary 184–187

L.

Antony--Richard Carew: a Seventeenth Century Poet--The Tourists are entreated despitefully, and quarrel 187–190

LI.

Carew’s Epitaph at Antony--Downderry 191–192

LII.

A Lovely Valley, a Moorland Stream, and what befell there 193–195

LIII.

Looe--Stage-like Picturesqueness--Hotel Visitors’ Books 195–201

LIV.

Talland--Humorous Memorials of the Dead--Epitaph on a Smuggler--“John Bevyll of Kyllygath”--A Notable Devil-queller 201–207

LV.

The Road to Polperro--The “Three Pilchards” Inn--Saturday Night at Polperro--John Wesley’s Experiences of that Place 207–213

LVI.

Lanteglos-juxta-Fowey--A Cornish Cross--Polruan--Again the Comic Song!--Fowey--Tourists’ Lumber 214–218

LVII.

Par: a Cornish Seaport 219–220

LVIII.

An Old-time Adventure--Deserted Mining Fields--Saint Austell 220–225

LIX.

By Carrier’s Cart to Mevagissey--John Taylor, the “Water Poet,” on his Adventure there--Exceptional Britons 225–228

LX.

Mevagissey--Gorran Haven--The Inhospitable Hamlet of Saint Michael Caerhayes--In the Dark to Veryan--Hospitality of the Village Inn 228–234

LXI.

Treworlas--Philleigh by the Fal--Truro City--Truro Cathedral 234–239

LXII.

A “Lift” to Redruth--Local Tales--Saint Day--Redruth--The Tourists are taken for “Hactors,” and are sorrowfully obliged to disclaim the Honour 239–242

LXIII.

A Rainy Day--Available Literature of the Hotel--The Cornishman and the Church--Cornish Livings 242–245

LXIV.

Cam Brea--The Disillusionments of Exploration--Pool _v._ Poole--Dolcoath Mine--Squalid Camborne 246–249

LXV.

The Hamlet of Barrepper--Cornish Names--Marazion 249–252

LXVI.

Alverton--Mount’s Bay--Penzance--German Band-itti--Pellew’s Birthplace--Saint Michael’s Mount, and the Loyal Saint Aubyns--The Newlyn School--Bridges, Potsherds, and Old Boots 252–262

LXVII.

To Land’s End--Saint Buryan--The First and Last House in England 262–268

LXVIII.

Home again 268–269

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

“GREAT SHIPS LAY ANCHORED” _Frontispiece_

VIGNETTE _Title-page_

Page DECORATION v

PREFACE HEADING vii

DECORATION xi

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxi

THE WRECK 1

RICHMOND LOCK WORKS 5

RICHMOND BRIDGE 6

NEW INN, HAM 11

HAM HOUSE 14

BELOW KINGSTON 15

“HER HENRY” 18

“W. E. GLADSTONE” 19

STAIRCASE IN ETON COLLEGE 20

WINDSOR: EARLY MORNING 20

CLIEVEDEN 22

DOVE COTE, HURLEY 25

ABOVE HURLEY 26

MEDMENHAM ABBEY 27

POIGNANT INDIVIDUAL 29

EVENING AT HENLEY 33

SONNING BRIDGE 34

INSCRIPTION: SHERBORNE SAINT JOHN 36

HOLY GHOST CHAPEL, BASINGSTOKE 37

ENTRANCE TO THE CLOSE, WINCHESTER 43

WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL 45

ST. SWITHUN AND THE INDIGNANT TOURIST 47

THE DEANERY, WINCHESTER 50

BISHOP MORLEY’S PALACE 52

HIGH STREET, WINCHESTER 52

A PEEP OVER ROOF-TOPS, WINCHESTER 54

SAINT CATHERINE’S HILL FROM ITCHEN MEADS 55

“AD PORTAS,” WINCHESTER COLLEGE 56

BRASS, WEEKE 58

INTERIOR, SPARSHOLT CHURCH 59

ROMSEY ABBEY 66

LYNDHURST 71

A FORD IN THE NEW FOREST 73

“FLASHED PAST” 75

CORFE CASTLE 86

“POLITICS AND AGRICULTURE” 89

“GAZED AFTER US” 90

“EXTREMELY AMUSING, I DO ASSURE YOU” 92

“HUMOROUS WHEELMAN, GARBED FEARFULLY” 101

AXMOUTH, FROM SEATON 105