A History of Windsor Forest, Sunninghill, and the Great Park

Front matter

WINDSOR FOREST This Edition is limited to 400 Copies \ of which this is A HISTORY OF WINDSOR FOREST SUNNINGHILL AND THE GREAT PARK BA G. M. HUGHES LONDON AND EDINBURGH BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS The Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein, K.G. (by his gracious permission), {These pages are 3 inscribes* WITH EVERY FEELING OF RESPECT This privilege is the more valued by the Author, as to no one could the Dedication of a Work Professing to treat of the Great Park of Windsor, Be so appropriate as to him who holds its ancient office of Ranger, And who has for many years resided in its principal Lodge. '• Art and history must go side by side in archæology to supply and illustrate each other ; for what is history without poetry, and what is art without fact ? " — Gambier Parry. CONTENTS. CHAP. TAUE

Introduction

.... . ... I I. THE NEIGHBOURHOOD . . . . . . . C II. THE PEOPLE .... . . . 15 III. THE FOREST ... . ..... 26 IV. TRADITIONS OF THE FOREST ...... .60 V. THE FOREST HUNTING .... . .69 VI. THE ENCLOSURE OF THE FOREST ... ..... 80 VII. SUNNINGHILL . . . . 91 VIIL LOCAL DERIVATIONS ....... ... 97 IX. SUNNINGHILL IN NORMAN AND PLANTAOENET DAYS . . . . . 104 X. SUNNINGHILL IN STUART TIMES ....... ■ ''3 XI. SUNNINGHILL, AND THE NEVILLES . . . . . . .120 XII. THE VILLAGE UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH . . . . 125 XIII. SUNNINGHILL IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . . . . . . 134 XIV. VALUE OF LANDS . . . . . . . . . 151 XA\ POPULATION AND MORTALITY . . . . . . .154 XVI. OUR ROADS ............. I 58 XVII. THE CHURCH . . . . . . . . . . . .167 XVIII. THE VICARS AND THEIR VICARAGE . . . . . .187 XIX. SUNNINGHILL PARK ........... 200 XX.

SILWOOD TARE . . . . 214 xxi. king's wick . ■ ... ... 223 ll CONTENTS. vni CHAP. PAGE XXII. TUE CEDARS .... ....... 233 XXIII. BEECH GROVE .... ... ... 240 XXIV. C'OWORTII ............. 245 XXV. SOME OTHER HOUSES . . 250 XXVI. THE WELLS . . ......... 260 XXVII. THE CAMPS ............ 269 XXVIII. THE GREAT PARK AND VIRGINIA WATER . . . . . . .278 XXIX. CRANBODRN TOWER ........... 298 XXX. ASCOT . . . . . . . . . . . . .312 XXXI. BAGSHOT AND WINDLESHAM ......... 324 XXXII. THE NUNNERY OF BROOMHALL . . . . . . . . -343 XXXIII. THE ROMAN ROAD . ......... 358 XXXIV. OCKWELLS . . ......... 374 XXXV. THE ASCOT RACES .... ........ 384 XXXVI. THE GEOLOGY OF THE DISTRICT ........ 393 XXXVII. THE FAUNA ............ 402 XXXVIII. THE FLORA . . . . . . . . . . . .416

Appendix

. CHARITIES AND ENDOWMENTS .......... 429 TOMBSTONES .......... ... 433 INDEX ... ... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FULL-PAGE ENGRAVINGS. PAG E Pope's Wood, Binfield, engraved by E. Radclyffe ...... 9 Claude Duval's Cottage, from a drawing by Miss Louisa Wale . . .17 Cooper's Hill, Runymede, engraved by E. Radclyffe ...... 38 Swinley Forest, from a drawing by Miss F. C. Fairman ..... 48 Cromwell Meeting Mr. Winwood for a Day's Hawking, from a drawing by Hugh Thomson for this work ....... 69 Cowley's House, Chertsea-, engraved by E. Radclyffe . . . .136 Old Silwood House, from a drawing by Miss Louisa Wale . . . 217 The Manor Farmhouse — the New House of 1668 219 The Avenue, King's Wick, from a drawing by R. Jones . . 225 The Old Wells Inn, from a drawing by Miss Louisa Wale . . 261 Cliefden Woods, engraved by E. Radclyffe . . . . . . -277 TnE Great Park, Bishopsgate, engraved by E. Radclyffe . . . . 279 TnE Duke of Cumberland showing the New Mandarin Barge to the Heir Apparent (it is believed), from an engraving of induce by T. and Paul Sandby ..... . ... 291 The Duchess op Marlbobougb . . 285 The Duke of Marlborough . . . . ... 288 Old Cranbourn Lodge, from a drawing early in this century .... 298 Bagshot in the Coaching Days, from a drawing by Hugh Thomson for this work 324 Ascot Races in the Last Century, from a picture by Paid Sandby in Her Majesty's possession .... . 384 Ockwells, from a drawing by Edward Hughes 375 Magna Charta Island, engraved by E. Radclyffe . . 366 Scotch Firs on the Lawn of Eversley Rectory . 424 Map of the Forest Country showing the Roman Road.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. X IN TEXT. ENGRA VINGS PAGE The Gibbet 25 William the Conqueror's Oak, Cranbourn Chase, Windsor, from a drawing by G. M. Hughes 31 Sunninghill Old Church, from a copy of a water-colour drawing made towards the end of the last century . . . . . . . . .91 Cottage in the Back Lane, from a drawing by G. M. Hughes 94 Old Staines Bridge, from a copy of an old engraving . . . . .161 The Old Windmill, from a drawing by Miss Louisa Wale . . . 165 Yew Tree in Sunninghill Churchyard . . . . . . . .169 Tombstone in Sunninghill Churchyard, from a drawing by G. M. Hughes . 170 Old Sunninghill Church before 1827, from a model ofthe Church made in 1827 171 Norman Door- Arch of the Old Church, from a drawing by G. M. Hughes 177 The Old Chancel, from a drawing by Miss Louisa Wale. . . . .179 The Vicarage, Sunninghill, from a drawing by Miss Louisa Wale . . .189 Arms of Carey, from a map made about 1630, in the p>ossession of General Crutchley . . . . . . . . . . . .201 Arms of Crutchley ... ........ 213 The Avenue, King's Wick .......... 225 Cranbourn Tower, Present State, from a drawing by R. Jones . .311 The Seal of the Nunnery, from the original at the Record Office .

INTRODUCTION.

. T has been said that the history of Berkshire has hardly been so AA'ell investigated as that of most other counties. The learned Elias Ashmole, the quaint Fuller, Camden, Aubrey, Heame, and others, have all contributed to it. Mr. Lysons, to Avhose valuable labours we are most indebted, has dealt with it more fully. But Avhen Ave turn from the wider area of a county history to the more limited one of a particular parish or district, an ample field for research is open to us. Of Sunninghill, for instance, we have scarcely any account. A feAv lines from some of these earlier writers have sufficed for its description. These have become stereotyped in the pages of all subsequent com pilers, and have been handed doAvn from one to another, until their very errors are so sanctioned by time as to be accepted Avithout question as veritable facts.

I may Avell, therefore, attempt a more particular account of our parish ; and although the facts connected Avith it may not be very important, they may help to clothe the dry bones even of parochial history Avith a more real life, and give a warmer colouring to many of its incidents. The little pictures of the social doings of our ancestors, which it is the province of archæology to reproduce, are not Avithout interest, nor altogether unprofitable as studies. They help to shoAV the gloom and the lights and shadoAVS that fell upon the chequered lives of our A forefathers; and by fair comparison, make us, it is to be hoped, the more contented with our own. In an account of a forest parish, it will be essential to give some idea of the forest of which it forms a part ; but of that I can venture only on a general sketch, my space not permitting me to notice some of the most interesting places within its limits.

Of Windsor, for instance, the most important of all, I do not propose to speak, for it has had many historians already ; but of the Great Park I may well give some account, as very little has been Avritten of that. In thus endeavouring to raise the ancient parish out of the oblivion in which it has long been buried, I have made it a labour of love to gather together its relics. These I have collected, as far as I have been able, from the Kecord Office, the British Museum, St. John's College, Cambridge, and other places open to my research ; and although I cannot hope to breathe a neAv life into these scattered remains, it is something to bring them to light, and to preserve them for the use of others. Very soon, hoAvever, in my explorations, I was reminded of that amusing incident related in Darwin's Life, how two neAvspapers in Kent, and one in Yorkshire, announced the remarkable fact that all the beans that year had groAvn on the Avrong side of the pod !

Darwin was appealed to as to this wonderful phenomenon, and on inquiry he found many most intelligent farmers and gardeners ready to bear testimony to its truth, but one of them went a trifle too far, and declared it was quite a mistake, for they only grew so in leap-year ! Nevertheless, over a Avide breadth of England people Avere found as convinced of the fact as some sailors are that Avhistling raises the wind. Just so in my researches, I found a prolific crop of little historical assertions which seemed almost all of them growing, as it were, " on the wrong side of the pod." We have been told, for instance, that our church bells had been given to us by Queen Elizabeth ; that our yew tree was a Domesday landmark ; that the Ascot Baces were founded by the Duke of Cumberland in 1752, and the very forest itself Avas created only by Henry VIIL ; that Lord Banelagh built Cranborne House ; that the Duchess of Marlborough never lived at Cumberland Lodge ; that the Old Wells Inn had been but a superior tea-garden, " neatly designed ; " and that the Manor Plouse

INTRODUCTION.

. 3 was the home of the eccentric author of " Sandford and Merton," as Sunninghill for a time was of the " baby " queen of Bichard II. But for this wrong-headedness or AA-rong-sidedness of the beans, the Lime Avenue of King's Wick would never have been haunted by the ghost of Nell Gwynn ; nor King Charles' spaniels have reposed (as was really believed by some) under the Stone Vase in the meadoAv there ; Sunninghill Park need not have had that " herd of sixteen head of deer " to guard it from tithes, as so often related ; and Charters Avould not be mistaken for the site of a Carthusian Monastery. I have been compelled in my ruthlessness, one by one, to sweep aAvay this crop of the curiosities of parochial literature, although by doing so I lose that piquant flavour of Avhich my account may stand so much in need.

But Avhy have troubled about these things at all ? Having taken some interest in our ancient history, and having from musty old records, and the lips of intelligent old people, gleaned facts that I thought ought not to be entirely lost, I ventured to publish them. I sat doAvn to Avork, " surveyed the plot, dreAv the model, and found," of course, "the cost of the erection to outAveigh the ability," and then perhaps it Avould have been better had I " desisted to build at all." But here is the result of my Avork, and Avhatever it may be, I must not omit to acknoAvledge the courtesy of those avIio have rendered me assistance. The more especially am I indebted to Mr. B. F. Scott, the Bursar of St. John's College, Cambridge, for his kindness in facilitating my inspection of the records and papers of that college ; to Major Holmes, for his attention in affording me help at the Boyal Library at Windsor ; to the Dean of Westminster, for his courtesy in reference to my search for the Seal of the Nunnery of Bromhall, supposed to haA-e been in the Chapter Library ; to Mr. Alan SteAvart, for obtaining for me the perusal of the Manor Court Bolls, ahvays so valuable in such Avork as this ; and to Mr. Ferard also, for so kindly alloAA'ing me access to his manorial papers ; to Mr. Kensington of the British Museum ; Mr. Hellard of the Office of Woods and Forests ; Mr. Atthill of the Heralds Office ; and Mr. Thompson and Mr. Salisbury of the Eecord Office, for their unvarying readiness to help me on many occasions.

I must on no account, too, forget to thank Mr. W. Barr Brown, Miss Louisa Wale, and my other local friends, Avho have been most kind in affording me information. Where I have differed from, or presumed to correct other Avriters, I hope I have not done so with any sIioav of discourtesy, for I have enter tained no such feeling, but, on the contrary, gratitude for the help their labours have afforded me. To Messrs Tighe and Davis' valuable work on Windsor I am especially indebted. An important history recently published deals so similarly with the subjects of my chapters one and tAvo, that in self-defence, to avoid the charge of plagiarism, I think it right to say that those chapters were written twelve months at least before the volume I allude to Avas brought out. For the errors which my book contains I must ask the indulgence of its readers, trusting to their good-natured criticism.

I may here observe that I shall be grateful for the sight of any old draAvings, or for information that will throw further light on the subjects I have treated.

Chapter I

Zbe IReiobbourboofc. ROM WINDSOR, towards the south and south -AA-est, extends for many miles an open country, remarkable for its salubrious climate, its Avild beauty, and the poverty of its soil. A cluster of royal forests, and the in numerable heaths and commons that ran into them, formed until lately almost one continuous uncultivated Avaste to the A'ery shores of the Solent. Windsor, Alice Holt, Wolmer, Chute, Pamber, East and West Bere, Avere as a Avedge, on the one side of Avhich lay the Ncav Forest and the chases of Waltham and Cranborne, and the Avide tract of Salisbury Plain ; and on the other side, AshdoAA-n, and those numerous Avoodland patches Avhich still re main of the great Wealden forests of Sussex. EastAvard of us extended far over the hills of Nonvood, and the chalk doAvns of Kent, an equally barren country.

From Ascot Heath to Bexley Heath, a distance of about thirty miles, it AA'as, but with feAv inconsiderable exceptions, all Avaste.* Our neighbour, General Crutchley, remembers his uncle tell ing him of having ridden across the country from Sunninghill Park to Topham Lane, beyond Basingstoke, thirty miles in another direction, without touching upon a high road. We were surrounded, it Avas estimated, by 100,000 acres of wild heathland. Without going so far back as when after the signing of Magna Charta, the Barons, to do honour to the occasion, held a tournament in a glade of the forest at a place called " Stanes Wood near HounsloAV," in Ogilby's time (about the middle of the last century), the open lands began at the very outskirts of London ; Kennington and Walworth * See Marshall's Rural Economy of Southern Counties, vol. ii. p. 82.

But Bexley Heath is in Kent, not Sussex, as the author states. Commons led out to Battersea Heath, tAvo miles across, and to HounsloAV, Avith its 4000 acres of waste. It is of the north-eastern portion of this area, comprising Avhat was formerly the great forest of Windsor, that I uoav propose to speak. A bold sAveep of the river Thames, as it Aoavs from Reading by Windsor to Chertsey, encloses this district on the northern and eastern sides ; while on the south it is margined by the range of chalk hills known as the North Doaa'us. Through the centre of this country, which formerly formed part of the Saxon kingdom of the Bibroci, ran the Roman road from London to Silchester. But of this I shall speak more fully hereafter, and only notice noAV the interesting encampment at East Hampstead, near Wellington College, as forming a characteristic feature of our forest.

On this beauti ful spot Ave must linger aAvhile. From the top, although encroached on by recent planting (AA'hich I trust ere long may be removed from the immediate proximity of the hill), peeps are still left that shoAV hoAV glorious the vieAv must once have been of the Avide expanse of open heathland, and of the great forest adjoining ; for on the north of this Roman road lie Avoodlands covering hill and dale for many miles, once the home of the Avild boar and the ox, and, until quite recently, of roaming herds of the red deer. Hard by the primeval oaks of SAvinley still exist in all their ancient glory. From an elevation such as this, or from the loftier one of Hish Curley Hill, above the village of Bagshot, a vieAv of our forest country may be obtained, as beautiful as it is interesting.

One may eA-en iioav traverse its woodlands in perfect solitude. Rambling across these high ridges on a fine summer morning, the air, so pure and bracing, comes to us a moving atmosphere of light and freshness. " Beneath a broad and equal blowing wind " Ave look over this Avide expanse of heath-land, and the innumerable Avavelike undulations in Avhich it fades away in the distance, and agree with Lacordaire that " the mountains, the sea, and the forests, are the three great works of Nature." Even in winter, when the sun-gleams pass over the dark heath like cloud-shadoAvs over the sea, it is beautiful — on the warm tints of the withered brake, and the white stones that crop up on the moorland, with their patches of rich orange lichen, the eye rests, it may be, with relief; but in summer, and on through the autumn, Avhen these sandy slopes THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 7 are carpeted Avith heather and ling so soft in colour, they are especially charming.

But Avhat a change this country has undergone ! It resisted inno vation for many hundred years, but surrendered at last to the great enclosure movement of the early part of the present century. The deer were killed off, or removed, and the land Avas allotted for cultivation. Plantations of Scotch fir and larch Avere soon made, as the most profitable Avay of utilising the land ; and even Avhere man did not plant, if he only enclosed and cleared, Nature, in her own silent way, worked back to her original forest state. A clump of Scotch firs, as Kingsley obsen-ed, soon shoAA-ed a line of youthful descendants, rising up towards the east like a great comet's tail, the cones borne, of course, by the prevailing westerly winds ; seedlings also of the oak, and birch, and beech, no longer browsed and kept under by cattle and deer, spread 0A-er every protected spot, till the Avhole face of the country has changed ; the clay districts are cleared for agriculture, while the heathlands have become more thickly wooded.

Many old men are now struck Avith its altered aspect ; where, in their boy hood, they could see for miles, now thick foliage shuts in the vieAv. In ancient times, so bare were certain portions of the forest, that a clump of trees or bushes was a noticeable object, and gaA'e name to the spot ; as Burley Bushes, Beggars-bush Heath, Wickham Bushes, Hag-thorns, Shrubshill, Beech-hill. Our climate is fine, and the air on the hills pure and bracing ; but in the A'alleys the white mists hang Avhen not fifty feet aboA'e, the air is Avarm and diy. The Thames fogs rarely reach us. The rainfall has probably not much increased, though by drainage the surface Avater has diminished, and the climate has improved. Our pine woods, although known here only during the last two or three centuries, have become a very striking and beautiful feature of the neighbourhood : in winter, by their evergreen foliage, giving warmth ; and in summer, breathing forth a balmy aroma.

Dr. Gram'ille, who in 1 84 1 reported on the capabilities of Bournemouth, dAvelt on this aroma as a great advantage. But the physical character of the country has not changed more than the taste of the nation has in its estimate of Avild scenery. Eighty years ago, the love of Nature in its wilder aspects, so characteristic of the present age, Avas not knoAA'n as a national taste. The epithets applied to the moorlands or the recesses ofthe forest were "desolate or dreary wastes," "savage woods." Our remote ancestors loA-ed Windsor Forest only for the great game, and as a splendid hunting ground. Our more immediate forefathers had very little to say in admiration of it, and some of them very hard things to its discredit. Three of the most active and intelligent men of the seventeenth century were, probably, Nicholas, the Secretary' of the Navy to Charles I. ; his successor, the ever memorable Samuel Pepys ; and John Evelyn, the accomplished diarist.

They all paid visits to our forest, and Avhat did they say of it ? Nicholas, we know, liked it so much that when he fled from the plague it was to Sunninghill he came to live for aAvhile. Pepys made some eventful journeys to Cranborne Lodge, noticed hereafter. Evelyn also visited it ; but what did they think of the forest ? Mr. Pepys admired Cranborne for " its most noble prospect ; but othenvise," said he, " it is a very melancholy place, and of little variety save only trees." Evelyn is quite silent as to our scenery, but Ave can well imagine Avhat his opinion of it Avas from the description he gives us of Fontaine bleau — a forest, he says, " so prodigiously encompassed with hideous rocks of Avhitish hard stone, heaped one on another in mountainous heights, that I think the like is noAvhere to be found more horrid and solitary."

Seeing them now, one thinks those horrid rocks the most beautiful features of the scene. There is an amusing notice of our country, hoAvever, by an eminent personage, Avho, although in noAvise of æsthetic tendencies, loved her rubber of Avhist, and did not despise good ale ! — the celebrated Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, happy possessor of all the good things that royalty could bestoAv, and among them the Rangership of Windsor Great Park, Avith its lodges. Writing to dear Mrs. Jennens in 171 7, she says — "I mean to make this place your home Avhen the Aveather is Avarme, and they all come to settle here. You may go as often as you please to London, and I am sure this air will do you good, and no place can be more agreeable than this is in the three warme months." Again she Avrites, and I cannot omit this, as it shows so characteristically the fashion of the age — " Lady Pembroke will play but half-crowns.

I Avon't desire you to dine here if it is uneasy, but we never go to dinner till half-an-hour after tAvo. All I can say is, you will both be very Avellcome, and I haA'e wonderful good ale ! " But there was one of bright and gifted fancy Avho dAvelt in the solitudes of these very woods, and a poet too. He must have left us gloAving pictures of it ? No ; he lived in an unpoetic age— the beginnino of the eighteenth century; and though his life here was as a transient THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 9 gleam of light across the gloom of the forest, he Avas hardly a true lover of Nature. His narroAv-minded old father, Avho Avould never trust his fortune to such an apostate government as that of Protestant William, little kneAv what he did for English literature when he brought his bright-eyed, weakly boy to Avander among the glades of Binfield.

Alexander Pope, as Ave are told, wrote his " Ode to Solitude " before he was twelve, and part of his " Windsor Forest " at sixteen. He speaks of the " Inspiring shade, Scene of my youthful loves and happy hours ; ' yet he talks of the pines diffusing a " noxious shade," and of the "dreary desert" and the "gloomy Avaste," and finally " Crowns the forests with immortal greens ! This love of Nature Avas inspired by Virgil; and his "Windsor Forest" eA'er seems but a beautiful incongruity. His fancy found a more con genial home in the fashionable draAving-rooms of Queen Anne's time than in the shades of Binfield. Hoav different to Pope's artificial admiration is the genuine love of Nature that Chaucer everywhere reveals. He tells us of "The green laurel and the wholesome pine. Pope AA'as much in our neighbourhood.

His friend Bridges Avrites to him from East Hampstead, in July 1715, that he had receiA'cd a proposal to meet an acquaintance of Pope's at dinner at Sunninghill, and that if he could spare a feAv moments from Homer, his company Avould be reckoned a favour by the gentleman. This unnamed gentleman Avas probably Sir George BroAvn " of Berkshire," as he is invariably described, the " Sir Plume " of " The Rape of the Lock," for he Avas certainly resid ing at Sunninghill early in the century, and in 1 703 had a son baptized in our Church. Mrs. Rackett's residence at Hall Grove also dreAv him to this side of the forest, and Avhen Mr. Rackets (or Ragget, as it was usually spelt here) died in 1729, Hall GroA'e Avas let, and the widow (Pope's sister) may haA'e come to Sunninghill to live, for in October 1738 our Registers shoAv the marriage, by banns, of "Ann Ragget of this parish, and John Leicester of the parish of Yately."

That Pope was often here is clear from Dennis's retort — " Inquire betAveen Sunninghill and Oakingham for a young, short, squab gentle man, the very boAv of the God of Love, and tell me Avhether he be a proper author to make personal reflections." That he did not enjoy his seclusion is seen in one of his letters to Parnell, Avherein he says — " I can easily imagine the solitary hours of your eremitical life in the mountains from some parallel to it in my OAvn retirement at Binfield ; Ave are both miserably enough situated." * But while disparaging Pope's ideas of natural scenery, I quite admit his genius in other directions. To proA-e that the new field to Avhich his tastes inclined was the right one, Ave have only to turn to that inimi table effort of his fancy, " The Rape of the Lock," Avhich he wrote, hoAv ever, while he Avas in our forest, sighing for the gay world.

The old house at Binfield in Avhich he lived is gone. On its site stands a more imposing successor, that in no way, however, enables us to realise the Poet's own description of — " My paternal cell. A little house Avith trees a-row, And, like its master, very low." These trees were elms, as stated by Mr. BoAvles in 1806, and again by Mr. Carruthers, who tells us two remained in 1852. I mention this because Mrs. Oliphant (folloAved by Mr. Courthope in his able Avork) describes them as a i'oav of big-branched, storm-Avorn firs, with great trunks gleaming red in the sun. But this, hoAvever poetical, is entirely imaginative — suggested, no doubt, by the fact of there being Scotch firs there noAV — but had these been Pope's trees, they Avould be nearly 250 years old now ; and I A-enture to say that Avhen Pope lived at Binfield, there Avas not a Scotch fir of any size in the parish.

The trees now there are indeed noble trees, and of great age for Scotch firs in this country, but hardly 150 years old. It would be interesting if it could be shoAA'n that they were planted by Pope. It is more likely they Avere planted, and the present house built, by William Pitt, Esq., who purchased the property of Pope's successor. Pope's or Priest's Wood, too, is gone. The trees were all beeches, and on one of the largest, tAvelve feet from the ground, were the words, " Here Pope sang." They were cut by George Lord Lyttelton, who was often a visitor in this neighbourhood. (See Gent. Mag., vol. lxxxvi. part ii. p. 200.) * Pope's chief patrons here were the Dancastles, who brought his father to Binfield ; and Sir William Trumbull, aD old gentleman of much culture, who lived at East Hampstead, and after an important official career, weary of State affairs, he came back to "enjoy the glory to be great no more," and died at East Hampstead in 1716.

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 11 Here Pope lived for the first fifteen years of the century. Just a hundred years after, in 1814, the Windsor and Eton Express an nounced, " that beautiful green Knoll and Glade called Pope's Wood, and 125 acres of waste, for sale in building lots, by order of the Enclosure Commission." Swift knew this country Avell. He writes to Stella, reminding her of their call at the Golden Farmer, in his Avalk once from Moor Park to London, but he has left us no eulogy of the prospects that lay open to him on his way, nor, although Ave find him riding out from Windsor round Sunninghill, has he said a word of Avhat he thought of our neighbourhood. He did say Avhat he thought of Windsor, and perhaps remembering his uncomplimentary description of that place, we may have lost nothing by his silence.