23 chapters
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23 chapters
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
The Brighton Road : Old Times and New on a Classic Highway. The Portsmouth Road : And its Tributaries, To-day and in Days of Old. The Dover Road : Annals of an Ancient Turnpike. The Bath Road : History, Fashion, and Frivolity on an old Highway. The Exeter Road : The Story of the West of England Highway. The Great North Road : The Old Mail Road to Scotland. Two Vols. The Norwich Road : An East Anglian Highway. The Holyhead Road : The Mail Coach Route to Dublin. Two Vols. The Cambridge, Ely, and K
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CYCLE RIDES ROUND LONDON
CYCLE RIDES ROUND LONDON
RIDDEN WRITTEN & ILLUSTRATED BY CHARLES G. HARPER AUTHOR OF “THE BRIGHTON ROAD” “THE PORTSMOUTH ROAD” “THE DOVER ROAD” “THE BATH ROAD” “THE EXETER ROAD” “THE GREAT NORTH ROAD” “THE NORWICH ROAD” and “THE HOLYHEAD ROAD” London : CHAPMAN & HALL LTD. 1902. ( All Rights Reserved ) When that sturdy pioneer, John Mayall junior, first rode his velocipede from London to Brighton in 1869, in much physical discomfort, and left his two would-be companions behind him in a crippled condition,
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PREFACE
PREFACE
Few have anything like an adequate idea of how rich in beauty and interest is the country comprised roughly in a radius of from twenty to thirty miles from London. To treat those many miles thoroughly would require long study and many volumes, and these pages pretend to do nothing more than dip here and there into the inexhaustible resources, pictorial and literary, of the hinterland that lies without the uttermost suburbs. To have visited Jordans, where the early Quakers worshipped and are laid
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CHENIES AND THE MILTON COUNTRY
CHENIES AND THE MILTON COUNTRY
Sight-seeing with ease and comfort is the ideal of the cycling tourist, and this run into a corner of Buckinghamshire and the Milton country comes as near the ideal as anything ever does in a world of punctures, leakages, hills, headwinds, and weather that is either sultry or soaking. Starting from Southall Station, which will probably strike the tourist as in anything but a desirable locality, we gain that flattest of flat highways—the Oxford road—just here, and, leaving the canal and its cursi
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SURBITON TO LEATHERHEAD
SURBITON TO LEATHERHEAD
Although “Grant” died obscurely, and his name and his schemes had long before that time become discredited, it must not be supposed that he was personally ruined with the wreck of his projects. Not at all. He lived and died very comfortably circumstanced, while many of his creditors remained unsatisfied. He could pay debts when he chose, but when he chose not to, there were no means of compelling him. Where have we heard the same story in recent years? Esher, up along the hill, is a pretty villa
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IGHTHAM MOTE AND THE VALE OF MEDWAY
IGHTHAM MOTE AND THE VALE OF MEDWAY
The scene—the old inn, with the smoke curling peacefully upwards against the blue-black background of the pine-woods, and the picturesque sign swinging with every breeze—is a realisation of the places pictured in the glowing pages of romantic novelists. If one were only a few years younger, and conventions had not come to curb one’s first impulses, there would be no more suitable spot than this where to become an amateur Red Indian, or one of the robber chiefs suitable for such a spot. The place
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THE DARENTH AND THE CRAYS
THE DARENTH AND THE CRAYS
and so forth. The first turning out of the dusty high road to the right, and then to the left, for Bexley (not Bexley Heath, which is quite another and a very squalid place) leads to a pleasant road following the river. From it, on the left hand, within a mile, a glimpse is gained of Hall Place, a beautiful old Tudor mansion built in chequers of stone and flint. An excellent view of it may be had by dismounting and looking through the wrought-iron entrance gates. Then comes the long street of Be
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CROYDON TO KNOCKHOLT BEECHES AND THE KENTISH COMMONS
CROYDON TO KNOCKHOLT BEECHES AND THE KENTISH COMMONS
A welcome down gradient now leads along a good road for a mile, and then we turn to the right for Woldingham, to come immediately to a steep descent, followed by an equally steep rise. After a mile and a half of these experiences Woldingham is reached, and with it a high plateau whence there are magnificent views down to the dense woods of Mardon Park and the Caterham valley. Woldingham has a big and impressive name, a name perhaps descriptive of its geographical position—“the home on the wolds”
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IN OLD-WORLD ESSEX
IN OLD-WORLD ESSEX
Although Havering has a long, long history as a royal domain and as the dower-house of queens, little or nothing is left to show the tourist its former importance. A few mounds near the rebuilt and uninteresting church alone bespeak the site of the palace. As you come up the hill to the tiny village and turn to the left by an ancient elm, whose hollow trunk has been bricked up to help preserve it, notice the old stocks on the green, designed for the accommodation of two. Down a gently sloping ro
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AMONG THE ESSEX HILLS
AMONG THE ESSEX HILLS
Turning off this high road here to the right, we make for Stock, along a hilly lane. Stock, a scattered village situated on high ground, commanding beautiful views southward toward the valley of the Thames, is of little interest for itself; but here, again, we find a very remarkable church, with ancient timbered and weather-boarded tower, surmounted by a shingled spire, springing from a roofed lower stage with cavernous eaves, the whole dating back to the close of the fifteenth century, and rest
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ABINGER, LEITH HILL, AND DORKING
ABINGER, LEITH HILL, AND DORKING
Suburbia is extending its frontiers in this direction, and breezy Ashtead, two miles farther on, down a pleasant road, is now set within the marches of the suburbs, where the opposing camps of market gardeners and speculative builders are pitched cheek by jowl, and bricks and plaster are banishing the broccoli and the peas. At Leatherhead the incursions of villadom are lost in the intricacies of the old-fashioned little town and in the embowering foliage that owes its density to that beautiful s
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RIPLEY AND THE SURREY COMMONS
RIPLEY AND THE SURREY COMMONS
The lodge gates of Claremont Park, beside the road, on the lovely common of Esher, are now passed, and within this, perhaps the best-wooded park near London, stands the great classic mansion begun by Lord Clive in 1768. Macaulay tells with dramatic effect how “the peasantry of Surrey looked with mysterious horror on the stately house which was rising at Claremont, and whispered that the great wicked lord had ordered the walls to be made so thick in order to keep out the devil, who would one day
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RURAL MIDDLESEX
RURAL MIDDLESEX
Now Perivale is one of the queerest little places it is possible to set eyes upon. “Little” is said, and the fullest sense of the adjective is to be understood; for besides the church—one of those claiming that curious wrong-end-of-the-telescope kind of dignity as “the smallest in England”—there is only one other building at hand; and that the rectory! Indeed, in the entire parish of 626 acres there are but five houses and thirty-four inhabitants; and this, let it be impressed upon the reader, w
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UNDER THE NORTH DOWNS
UNDER THE NORTH DOWNS
It is a charmingly happy circumstance that the southern face of the North Downs is followed for many miles—indeed, along the whole extent of that noble range, from Maidstone to Guildford and Farnham—by splendid roads, reasonably level, good, and direct. Those roads are traced in great measure in other pages of this book; let our route now lie from Redhill to Guildford. From the grim cluster of asylums, reformatories, and industrial schools at Redhill, one finds solace presently at Reigate, where
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THE SUBURBAN THAMES
THE SUBURBAN THAMES
That once pleasant village is rapidly being spoiled. Its healthy surrounding of heaths and pine-woods, and its position on the Wey and near the Thames, together with the fact of being situated on the South-Western main line, have caused the building of innumerable villas and the transformation of the quiet, old-fashioned village street into a suburban thoroughfare. The small green is still left, and on it a memorial column to the Duchess of York, who died more than eighty years ago at Oatlands P
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THE SOUTHERN SUBURBS: KINGSTON TO EWELL, WARLINGHAM, AND CROYDON
THE SOUTHERN SUBURBS: KINGSTON TO EWELL, WARLINGHAM, AND CROYDON
Notice the curious fishing temple built into the park wall, overhanging the pond. On the left-hand road, leading to London, is the modern parish church, with the romantically ivied tower of the old building still standing beside it. There are many and puzzling roads at Ewell, but, fortunately, there are many people about of whom to ask the way, and sign-posts are not wanting. If it were a lonely place they would be sought in vain. Take the road to Cheam, resisting all temptations to turn to the
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EWELL TO MERSTHAM, GODSTONE, AND LINGFIELD
EWELL TO MERSTHAM, GODSTONE, AND LINGFIELD
Passing through Kingswood, we come up and down hill, and finally down, to Gatton, against the lodge gates of Gatton Park, once the seat of Lord Monson, but now the property of Mr. Colman, of the famous mustard firm. There is a public footpath through this very beautiful park, and the house is shown from 2 p.m. to 4. Cycles, however, must be left within the lodge gates. But although the pictures are very fine, and the Marble Hall worth seeing, the average visitor will doubtless be much more inter
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HEVER CASTLE, PENSHURST, AND TONBRIDGE
HEVER CASTLE, PENSHURST, AND TONBRIDGE
Edenbridge is old-world and pretty, as surely it should be with such a name. It savours of Arcadian delights; and, indeed, when you have left Edenbridge Station behind you are come to a village that has little commerce with the outer world. True, folks hereabouts call Edenbridge “the town”; but there are towns and towns, and this is no centre of activity. The station is half a mile away, the railway conveniently out of sight of the village street, and life here flows as gently, and with as even
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TO STOKE POGES AND BURNHAM BEECHES
TO STOKE POGES AND BURNHAM BEECHES
Leaving Old Windsor Church behind, the second turning to the right leads into Windsor town. But instead of making for the Royal Borough, we will take the right-hand fork, duly sign-posted, and crossing the Thames by the Albert Bridge, enter Buckinghamshire. In half a mile’s run by the river bank, Datchet is reached by turning to the right and so over the level crossing by Datchet railway station. This is a very much rebuilt village, which in another hundred years (when its modern Elizabethan vil
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DARTFORD TO ROCHESTER, AYLESFORD, AND BOROUGH GREEN
DARTFORD TO ROCHESTER, AYLESFORD, AND BOROUGH GREEN
Coming uphill from where Dartford is seated in its deep hollow beside the Darenth, a high tableland is reached, and with it a parting of the ways. Our own route is plain to see—straight ahead—and is made additionally clear by the aid of a specially informative sign-post. For those, however, who would take the opportunity, when so near, of seeing one of the most interesting parish churches in the country, it may be hinted that two miles down the Dover road—the left-hand turning—is Stone. Let the
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MIDDLESEX AND HERTFORDSHIRE BYWAYS
MIDDLESEX AND HERTFORDSHIRE BYWAYS
But it will not do to linger at Waltham Abbey, however great the inclination may be to do so. So we retrace our course, and passing the station again, come to Waltham Cross, where the Eleanor Cross, tinkered by restorers, but still lovely, stands in midst of the road beside the old “Four Swans,” whose sign, straddling across the highway, bears the wooden effigies of those fowls. Turning to the right at this point, and wheeling through the village of Waltham Cross, a railway bridge spans the road
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THE BACK WAY TO BRIGHTON
THE BACK WAY TO BRIGHTON
On the height above Caterham we are on the crest of the North Downs, 777 feet above sea-level, and after admiring the widespread view southward, may reap the reward of the long climb in a breathless coast down two miles of road, past Marden Park, into Godstone, an old-world village rejoicing in the possession of a village green, a pond, and an ancient and picturesque hostelry, recently renamed the “Clayton Arms,” but really the “White Hart,” established in the reign of Richard the Second, whose
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BARKING TO SOUTHEND AND SHEPPEY
BARKING TO SOUTHEND AND SHEPPEY
There is a mingled agricultural and maritime air about the distant view of Barking that is not a little alluring; and foreground windmills and fields, and distant views of rust-red sails of barges, peering over ancient roofs, ill prepare the exploratory cyclist for the raw newness and meanness that many of its streets display on a closer acquaintance. Enshrined amid all these modern excrescences are the old Market House and the still older Abbey Gatehouse; this last the sole relic of the once ri
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