Glimpses of ancient Hackney and Stoke Newington. Being a reprint of a series of articles appearing in the Hackney Mercury ... With an appendix ... By F. R. C. S

Front matter

ERRATA— OVERLOOKED. Page 18, Chapter IIL, Papers vii., viii,, ix. — vi has been repeated, i omitted. Page 80, Chapter X., Papers xxviii., xxix., xxx. — xxix. misprinted. Page 121, Chapter XIV.— misprinted, should be xl., xii., xiii. Page 154, Chapter XVII. — misprinted lix. for [All Rights Reserved.] GLIMPSES OF ANCIENT HACKNEY AND STOKE NEWINGTON. BEING A REPRINT OF A SERIES OF ARTICLES APPEARING IN THE HACKNEY MERCURY, FROM APRIL 23rd, 1892, TO NOVEMBER 25th, 1893. With an Appendix Dealing with the Conversion of a Portion of Hackney Churchyard into an Open Space. BY F.R.C.S. Dedicated by Permission to LORD AMHERST of Hackney. LONDON : A. T. Roberts, Son & Co., Hackney Mercury Offices, The Grove, Hackney, and 5, Hackney Road, Shoreditch, TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE LORD AMHERST OF HACKNEY.

Dear Lord Amherst, To no other than yourself, as Lord of the Manor, would I dedicate these " Glimpses of Ancient Hackney," and its adjoining Village, Stoke Newington, and it affords me much pleasure to note that I have your ready acquiescence, with the assurance of your deep interest in all that concerns our Old Township. I subscribe myself as Tours faithfully, F.R.C.S. (the Author), Upper Clapton, Christmas, 1893.

Preface

. I presume it is but right, in accordance with the general custom, to introduce this attempt at literary work with a preface, if only to give my reasons for sending forth such a brochure, first, among my own fellow parishioners, especially those native born, and secondly (as it now appears from promised subscribers still farther away), to Hackney families, who may have a lingering regard for the old spot in their new homes in our distant Colonies. If, as has been asserted, the good old British word " Home" has no place in any other language, and is even difficult to render with due emphasis in a foreign tongue, how intensely must the ring of that word, and of that unrivalled sentence, " Home, sweet Home," sound to our brethren, now Colonists in foreign lands, especially to those, who, in the Antipodes, can enjoy no " Yule Log '• upon the Christmas fire, nor join in the mazy dance, and exciting frolics of a mid-winter season, beneath an almost tropical sun in the height of their summer.

Thank God ! among my fellow Countrymen altered conditions of climate and country, do not alter the sturdy Britisher's notion of Home. So my motto shall be in that style. It may be asked why I have spent hour after hourin the midst of my busy and uncertain calling, in thus holding up pictures of the past in my native Village ? Circumstances, which I care not to detail here, have made the quiet of my own dwelling, and the seclusion of my study, far more congenial to my feelings during the last three years, than the excitement of either political or social engagements in the outside world ; and as in the solitude of the closet fancy could best depict memories of the scenes long gone by, never to return, so the description of many a place in their neighbourhood, now altered beyond recognition, has proved a not ungracious task.

Trusting my readers will make due allowance for these efforts of an unaccustomed literary scribe, I leave the same unreservedly to their favourable criticism as their humble Servant, F.R.C.S, INDEX. DEDICATION AND

PREFACE.

. chapters. papers. headings. headings. 1 Nos. 12 3 Our Earliest Times. f Our Parish Boundaries — Original Foot-way from London 4 5 b \ —Church Path, Hackney Grove. t a a f Original Coach Road from London — Cambridge Heath — ' s 9 j Mare Street. inn 19 / Mare Street— St. Thomas' Square— Old Inhabitants — iu n i. | Madras House and its Scholars. .„ ., .. f Mare Street — Barber's Barn — Loddiges, and their Gardens i._ ii ij | —pleasant Place, now Paragon Eoad. ir 17 lt / Church Street— Tyer's Railway Signals — The Green Man \ —Morning Lane— Old Gravel -pit Chapel— Water-cress Beds. s Church Street — Black and White House — Queen of 19 20 21 J Bohemia— Our Queen's Descent -Hackney Notabilities— Old (^ Hackney Church, its Vicars and Rectors. ( Old Hackney Church— The Rowe Chapel— Dr. Spurstowe 22 23 24 { and his Charity— The Church House, now the Old Town { Hall— Old Churchyard. 052627 / 01d CIlul"ch and Yard— The Tyssen Family— Major Andree \ — The King's Briefs— Clarke and Thorold. 28 29 30 { The 01d Tower — Erection of Present Church — New \ Churchyard — Monuments Re-erected. , s Earl of Northumberland— Cardinal Wolsey— Bishop Wood 31 32 33 J —Monuments from Old Church— Archdeacon Watson— [ Joshua Watson— The Rev. T. O. Goodchild.

(New Churchyard — Dr. Pett— W. Jackson (clerk) — Prebendary Griffith— Cross Shaped Tomb Stone— The Hermit of Hertfordshire— Isaac Hensley— Sedgwick— The Whipping Post and Coockinge Stool. 37 38 39 / Church Street— Templars House— Blue Posts— Mermaid \ Gardens— Balloon Ascents— Ward, and Ward's Corner. 40 41 4" / , E°bs Hall Lane— Clapton Square— Dr. Pett— John R. D. \ Tyssen and Library— Hackney House— Homerton in the Past, 4*-; 4i dK / Homerton— Hackney Grammar School— Battle of Hackney _6 it io | _Sutton Place— Sir Thos. Sutton— Ram's Chapel. f Stephen Ram— Robert de Gravesend— Bishop's Palace— 46 47 48 J The " Lamb and Flag "— Brydge Street— Homerton College (^ —The Rev. Dr. Pye Smith— Homerton Village. r Homerton Church— Its Chief Builder and Vicars— Joshua 49 50 51 J Watson— Homerton Castle— Hackney Wick — Temple Mills (^ and Bridge-Wick House-Beaufoy Robbery-Coach Accident. o 3 1 s 6 7 8 9 10 ll 12 13 14 15 16 CHAPTERS.

PAPERS. HEADINGS ( White Post Lane — Cassland Road — Grove Street — Rev. \ H. H. Norris — George Offor — Shore Place and Road. {Well Street — The Eagles— Mr. De Kewer— Frampton House— The Priory and Palace— Old Well— The Lord Prior — John Thomas, Surgeon — Theological Seminary — Berger's Factory — The Old Brewery {Parochial Charity Schools — Grace Aguilar — Lower Clapton— Orphan Asylum — John Howard— Skinner Turner — Dr. Sacheveril — G. Gaviller — Clapton Pond — Wood's Alms Houses — Clapton House — Lea Bridge Road — Fredk. Huth — St. James' Church. (Clarence Road — Hackney Church of England School — Hackney Downs — Battle of Clapton — Brooke House — Earl of Pembroke and Earl of Northumberland — Lady M. Lennox- Lord Hunsdon— Lord Vaux — Anthony Andree — Major Andr6e — The Mount — Napoleon Bonaparte. {Hackney Lane — Low's Nursery — Wren's Park — St. Thomas' Church— St. Matthews' Church — Clapton Chapel — A Waterloo Incident — Clapton Common — Stamford Hill — Gothic Hall — James I. / High Street, Stoke Newington— The " Weavers Arms " — I The "Three Crowns" — West Hackney Church — Palatine -[ Estate — Kingsland Road — Devonshire Square Chapel — Balmes House — Richard de Beauvoir — Boundary line with (.Shoreditch — Stone Bridge. j" Kingsland Gate — Dalston Junction — Pigwell Fields — J Dalston and Dalston Lane — George II — Baroness de Bode ( —Shacklewell — Sir Thomas More. 18 „ 52 53 54 19 55 56 57 20 „ 58 59 60 21 61 62 63 22 64 65 66 23 67 68 69 24 „ 70 71 72 73 OLD STOKE NEWINGTON. s Introduction— Connection with Hackney — Its Boundaries I — South Hornsey — Original Names of Stoke Newington — -.

First Occupiers — New River — Church Street— Fleetwood's House — Defoe — Sir Thos. Abney — Isaac Watts — Abney Park Icemetery— Old Houses— The Manor House. t Hackney and Stoke Newington Early Dwellers Compared — Prebendaries and Rectors— Bishop Jackson and Howard— I Lord Beaconsfield — Corrections — " Three Crowns" — Dr. Aikin * —The " Red Lion '—Old Abney Chapel— The Old Rectory— The Old Church, and Churchyard. &c. — Clissold Park — Newington Green. 25 1 2 3 26 4 5 6 Hackney Old Churchyard as an Open Space, Appendix. <S!impc> of %ntimt iparliiieji.

Chapter I

Papers i. ii. iii. I crave pardon of your readers for the many imperfections '»_ t'3 4 o*7 sundry notes, now to be brought into form, which have . . , . .ttpi given m6) perhaps, more pleasure to write, than your subscribers to read. And where shall we begin ? " It is a far cry to Loch Awe " — it is farther still to Tyre and Sidon, the latter city called after Sidon, the son of Canaan, and built (it is said) about B.C. 2267, only a few centuries after the Flood. In these two maritime cities arose the first navigators of the sea in ships — the Phœnicians, whose naval and commercial prosperity was at its height between B.C. 1600 and B.C. 500. Their vessels crept along the shores of the Mediterranean until the Pillars of Hercules (now the Straits of Gibraltar) were reached, and from thence, with a boldness still characteristic of our own hardy sailors, the Bay of Biscay was crossed, the English Channel opened out to them, and Britain discovered about B.C. 1500.

Such may be gathered from the works, legendary and historical, of various ancient writers, whose veracity may be depended upon in certain leading statements in which all appear agreed. Moses speaks of tin and lead being found among the spoils of the Midianites, B B.C. 1450, and Homer names their presence in the Trojan War, B.C. 1 184, and Pliny tells us the best qualities and the most abundant were found in the British Isles. Have any of your readers visited the South Kensington Museum and stood in admiration over that funeral vase, containing the remains of some royal infant, enclosed in delicate filagree work or tissue of the finest gold, and found deep down in the ruins of ancient Troy ? Possibly we have looked upon the ashes of one who might, had he or she lived, have been one of our ancestors ; for legend and history alike agree that somewhere about the time of the Trojan War, B.C. 11 84, and during the time of the Judges in Israel, certain Trojans, headed by Æneas, escaped to the continent, and founded Rome and sundry other places on the Mediterranean.

Geoffry of Monmouth, quoting from old traditions, tells us that subsequently a Trojan chief named Brutus, a great grandson of Æneas, accidentally killed his father while hunting in an Italian forest. Obliged to leave the country, he went to Greece. There, meeting with fellow-countrymen, descendants of Trojans who had been carried captive to Greece, he offered to put himself at their head, and, through Phœnician traders, led them by sea to Britain. Here they founded several settlements, and, passing across South Britain eastward, reached a spot suitable alike for a city and a port. From the sea upwards was the Thames, far wider than now, running in its unembanked, unbridged channel, and where our great city now stands were hills clothed with mighty forests, surrounded, except on the north side, by extensive lake-like waters stretching over what is now Lambeth, Kennington, Camberwell, and Southwark to the foot of the Surrey hills, bounded on the east by the River Lea, then at least a mile wide, and on the west by the Brent, and hill streams still marked by what was the Fleet Ditch, and also the Serpentine in Hyde Park.

What better site for security could be chosen ? and, as if to verify the fact of the Mother Country of the strangers, they built their town or city and called it " New Troy," subsequently named " Trinovant," and afterwards, because it was a town on a lake, it is called by Tacitus " Llin-din " (Lin lake, Din town), and by its Roman conquerors "Londinium" (London). On the 26th of August, B.C. 55, Julius Cæsar, who had heard much of our land in his excursions through Gaul, effected a landing— and what did he find ? Not barbarians, half naked and stained with woad (although there might have been some such among our -country's defenders so attired), but practised troops under able commanders, and with war chariots armed with scythes and other lethal weapons, which bespoke a far more advanced civilization than Cæsar in his " Commentaries," and even our own earlier historians, seemed disposed to admit.

Our city was, probably, the capital of the Trinovantes. Doubtless your readers will vote this a long and unnecessary preamble, and ask what has it to do with Hackney ? I would reply, very much ; for until these first immigrants reached the Surrey Hills, or Blackheath, there was only land which could be occupied in this direction, say from the banks of the Lea, eastward, to Highgate and Hampstead on the west. And let it be specially noted that the most formidable building for defence as well as a royal residence — the Tower of London — has the Manor of Stebonheath or Stebonhythe, of which Hackney was once a part, in direct contiguity with it. In this direction our Roman invaders looked, and along the high land stretching terrace like from Hackney Wick, say Whitepost Lane to Stamford Hill, until, trending in a westerly and southerly direction, it nearly, if not quite, touched Highgate Hill, they found land secure from flood and having natural drainage, and only required what they set about to effect — military protection.

This they fully accomplished during their stay with us, leaving our country somewhere about A.D. 410, never having thoroughly conquered us, and hence, even at this early period, our national grand refrain was justifiable, " Britons never shall be slaves." Before I close this sketch of our earliest history, let me state that in the brick-earth dug out in the marshes at the back of Lee Place, Upper Clapton, bones of the woolly-haired rhinoceros and of the elephant have been discovered ; and in the case of one imperfect rhinoceros' skeleton (which I examined in situ), while only a few of the bones were discovered intact, yet it was plainly perceptible in the surrounding clay that the creature, having died from some unknown cause, had left its carcase stranded in the mud on the shore, just as we see dead dogs on the banks of our streams in the present day.

I have also, mounted, a pair of beautiful antlers of a stag that must have roamed the forest about the time of our Lord's nativity, as they are only semi-fossilized, and evidently belonged to an animal which, coming down to drink, had been mired, i.e., caught in the bog and drowned by the incoming tide. To check all cavil as to the character and zoological history of the above-named bones, it is but fair to state that they were submitted to our greatest living comparative anatomist, Sir Richard Owen,* and that the above was his diagnosis. Referring in recapitulation to the fact that first as traders the Phœnicians sought our islands for their mineral wealth, and that subsequently others came here — the Trojans — as to a place of refuge, it may be well to note that for a long time the Phœnicians kept the source whence they obtained their tin and lead a secret.

Refugees! and among them, doubtless, many Israelites, escaping prior to the Exodus from the tyranny of Egyptian bondage, found their way across the Isthmus of Suez to the lands bordering the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean Sea, thence to the ports of Tyre and Sidon, and the districts occupied by Dan and Asher (the maritime tribes of Israel) after their entrance into Palestine, and, joining the Phœnician mariners in their voyages, became, probably, partly identified with them, for Deborah, the judge and prophetess in Israel, thus accounts for their absence when their martial help was required. Subsequently the fierce and merciless inroads of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires again forced them to seek some place of refuge, and they found at last this island home of ours as their permanent resting-place from all their foes — so aptly eulogised by Shakespeare as — This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden and demi-paradise, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone, set in a silver sea, This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings.

This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land, Dear for her reputation through the world. We return to London, which, surrounded as it was by wide streams and extensive lakes, could be readily defended in other and less protected parts by strong stockades, easily formed from the heavy timber on the spot itself, which had to be cleared, and the adjacent forests. Here, for some few centuries, we leave them practising their simple arts, showing, in some things, a marvellous similarity to Hebrew dogmas and religious * Since deceased. polity, and holding ofttimes meetings in the surrounding woods— perhaps near the very spot where I am now writing — and preferring for their woodland assembly the ancient and giant oak, as though a reminder that under an oak in Mamre God and man (in the person of Abraham) took counsel together.

From this seclusion warlike Rome aroused them, under the all-conquering Julius Cæsar, and on the 26th August, B.C. 55, his fleet reached the shores of Britain off Dover, whose high cliffs he found to be covered with armed men. So, coasting along, he cast anchor between Walmer Castle and Sandwich, and, after a long and bloody conflict, effected a landing. Retiring after three weeks, he did not return until the following year; landing at the same spot he pushed on to Canterbury, where he had a fierce engagement with the Britons, commanded by Cassivelaunus, whose capital was near the present city of St. Albans. This the Romans afterwards took, and an attack of the Britons on Cæsar's ships and naval encampment having failed, they sued for peace, which was at once granted. Again we were left, and internecine conflicts filled up the gap until the island was invaded by the Emperor Claudius.

Under Tiberius, during the time of our Lord's life on earth and crucifixion, the two nations were on friendly terms, but again war broke out and every effort was made to subjugate the country, but with only partial success, for, in A.D. 47, the Romans had only secured a small strip — London, on the north of the Thames, and a like portion, Southwark, on the south. Again the Romans took up arms, ravaged the country, and took the Isle of Anglesey, destroying the Druidic groves and slaughtering their priests. This aroused the Britons, but the brutal treatment which Boadicea, the widowed Queen of the Iceni (eastern part of our country), and her two daughters received, under the orders of the Roman Procurator, Catus, roused them to the utmost fury. She marshalled her forces— her camp in Epping Forest is still traceable (8 acres in extent, near Copt Hall)— destroyed Camalodunum (Maldon) with fire and sword, thence on to London, destroying nearly all the inhabitants that remained, and involved Verulamium (St. Alban's) in a similar ruin.

In a few days 70,000 persons thus lost their lives. Soon after, Boadicea was defeated in a battle, which, it is said, cost the lives of 80,000 Britons, and, although for 16 years after they waged petty wars, they never gained head again. Tacitus, the historian, was however, obliged to confess, " The Britons are conquered, not spirit broken; they may be reduced to obedience, not to slavery." An irregular Roman occupation followed. Roads were made (which are a wonder to this day), earthworks raised, towers, and palaces and villas, with all their strength, their luxury and refinement, until A.D. 407, when they left the country for good. Their highways, whether the great roads as Ermine and Watling Streets, which traversed the whole country, or their smaller ways, also, were constructed with the greatest care, and the stations they occupied at various points along these sundry highways and bye-ways would, doubtless, be specially marked.

That our parish of Hackney had some Roman inhabitants is, therefore, very certain from the interesting find of a sarcophagus, cut out of a solid block of marble, near an old pathway still known as Brooksby's Walk, leading from Homerton High Street, and now along Chatsworth Road to Lea Bridge. It was of white coarse-grained marble, having a beautifully carved side — only one side — with a medallion in the middle of that side, like a bust in alto relievo on a Roman altar. The face and costume would be just such as would denote an engineer officer, but not of military rank ; there were three lines of inscription too damaged to be deciphered, the lid was wanting (it could not be found anywhere), although the marks of the clamps were there. The sarcophagus had evidently been fixed in a wall, exposing only the sculptured side ; there were a few bones in it indicating a man about six feet high ; it was almost certainly a Pagan interment.

It was found in the natural gravel, two feet six inches from the surface. The impression is that the sarcophagus had been taken out of a wall — perhaps the wall had been removed — it had been opened, rifled of its contents, if there were any apart from the skeleton, and then had been carefully lowered into a hurriedly-made grave, the lid, probably, broken in the forcing open of the coffin and destroyed. Reverting once more to the sarcophagus, which was mentioned in my last article as having been found at Clapton, it is generally stated that this is the most beautiful, except a like sarcophagus found at the old Roman city of Grantchester, near Cambridge, and now called Ermes werch, which was taken by the monks to bury in it the holy virgin St. Ætheldryth, who founded the monastery of Ely and died in A.D. 679.

Her sister Sexburga, then abbess of Ely and contemporary with Bede had her remains collected in A.D. 695, and took a fair white marble chest — which had been the last home of some Pagan Roman — for that purpose. Doubtless this last, and the Clapton sarcophagus also, were carved out and sculptured in Italy. The nearest approach to this find is one dug out in Haydon-square in the Minories, but it is of rough stone grit, and far inferior. To fix the approximate date a coin of Galienus, A.D. 259-268, was found near it. Now it so happens that for long years Clapton-passage has been believed to be an old Roman bye-way, passing westward along the top of Clapton-square, thence along a line of old elm trees in the playground of St. John's Grammar School ; from thence all traces are lost, but it is reasonable to suppose that it terminated in the highway from Bishopgate to Ware (so named in John Strype's edition of fo/m Stow's Survey of London, 1720); and in Rocque's map of Hackney, 1745, I find the southern extremity of Shacklewell, across which such causeway would run, called " The Crossway," but why so called I cannot discover ; Dr. Robinson never mentions the spot, although it is in Rocque's map in his History.

Eastward crossing Clapton High-road was an old farm road in line with Clapton-passage, and where this causeway, if continued, met the path then known as Brooksbys-walk, the sarcophagus was found. Thence following a line due north-east across the marshes it touched the old River Lea at a spot known in days gone by as the " Boys' bathing place," because the bottom of the river, elsewhere mud and clay, consisted of some hard substance, smooth, and with greyish sand, no doubt the hydraulic cement with which the Ancient Romans made their fords — the river is here about 64 feet wide, and at most some 4 feet 6 inches deep. On the opposite bank, keeping the same line, is the old Marsh road to Low Leyton. Some years ago a hard, well-made road of forest gravel was found six feet below the present surface on this Essex bank, and tending towards the north-east — probably towards the old copper mills.

Returning to our terrace-line from the site of this find — much that was clear to all observers has been lost by the excessive building on what is now known as Clapton Park — many of the houses are on so small a scale that the trenches for their foundations would be proportionately shallow ; hence much might still be found indicating early Roman occupation, in the shape of coins, and, perhaps, earth interments, for only the great and the wealthy were thus left above ground. For instance, at East Ham, between West Ham and Barking, the burials of a Roman magnate and his family were found, evidently in his own grounds, although Imperial Rome appointed and set out extra-mural cemeteries. Again, Roman urns were dug up in 1849 at the bottom of Shrubland road, Dalston. During certain repairs at Temple Mills, the south eastern extremity of our parish, an urn, full of Roman coins in a high state of preservation, from Julius Caesar to Constantine the Great (the latter emperor born at York, and son of the daughter of a British chieftain, born at Colchester), several medals, and a stone coffin contain ing an entire skeleton, were found in 1783.* Continuing our course along these gentle heights, we cannot but note how extensive the view of Epping and Hainhault Forests must have been, with the River Lea between carrying its volume of water to the Thames along a channel at least one mile wide as far as the ancient town of Ware.

Along these eminences, doubtless, the Roman sentry walked — keeping watch and ward — and from this spot, most probably, the advance was sighted of the avenging hosts of the shamefully used Boadicea from her forest encampment, to fall upon London, and thus by timely notice many of its inhabitants escaped the vengeful doom dealt out to the many thousands by the justly incensed queen. Pond lane and Mill Fields-lane (now Lea Bridge-road) may have been in existence, but I think they were subsequently made. Jeremy's Ferry and Morris' Ferry, so marked and named in Rocque's map, 1745, might also be of much later date, but skirting Lee's brickfield, where the bones were found — as named in the previous article — and thence along Comberton-road to Mount Pleasant-lane, we tread along still higher ground, and our terrace-line culminates in the beautifully swellin°* plateau forming the grounds of Mr. Bros — well named " Springfield " Upper Clapton, and above Morris' Ferry.

Here, in 1814, were discovered all the marks of a Roman cemetery. A coffin of hewn stone was found six feet under ground, and on the slope of the land, sixty feet above the marsh from which it rises, in 1837 *In a work published in 1762 the following appeared :— " There have been discovered * U JL X -- — — ■ A.UV4V cUHllj fc/Wll '.IIO'v'L'^lCU of late years in the bottom of Hackney Marsh, between Old Ford and the Wycke, the remains of a " great stone causeway," which is supposed to have been the highway or great road from London to Essex, not far from Temple Mills and passing by a large, ancient farmhouse known as " Rockholt," Low Leyton, Essex. This road was used' instead of that which now leads over the bridge between Bow and Stratford, the present Essex high road. Roman coins and other antiquities have been found along its course." another coffin was found near the former, and at the same depth — they were lying north and south.

In one coffin two skeletons, male and female, were found. Around them a great many human bones were dis covered, mixed up with rude pottery. If not an actual cemetery, then most probably, it was a reflex of the interments at East Ham, and we may fairly conjecture that on this rising ground, most beautifully and and strategically situated, may have stood a Roman villa — part dwelling and part fortress or watch-tower — and the residence of the military com mandant of this prominent and therefore important outpost of Roman London. May I here venture to suggest to any who may come after me — to those who in years to come shall witness the still further advance of the insatiable builder — that whenever this lovely oasis in our brick-built wilderness shall come under the same curse, all excavations be carried on with as much watchfulness and care as possible, that thus additional light may be thrown on my native parish, Hackney, during its Roman occupation.

To the north-western boundary of our parish, round Clapton Common to Stamford Hill, the same high land is prolonged, gradually falling until it reaches the valley through which the New River flows. To those of our readers who have not yet visited the few remaining spots of beauty in our parish I would say : Go to Springfield, take your stand in front of the house once the residence of the late Mr. Charles Jacomb, looking to the north-east, and though, alas, buildings have cropped up, and are yet cropping up, in the distant landscape, yet I would venture to affirm that no more beautiful landscape of meadows, forest, hill and water, is to be found, either so near London or anywhere near London, in so small a space. Despite the railway which crosses the track, I have often thought Dr. Watts' lines appropriate: — " Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood Stand dressed in living green ; So to the Jews old Canaan stood, While Jordan rolled between."