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PLEASURE EXCURSIONS.

CROYDON,

ON THE CROYDON, BRIGHTON AND SOUTH-EASTERN RAILWAYS.

[From the Railway Chronicle.]

This Excursion, going and returning, to Croydon only, requires about four hours from the time of starting from the station.

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THE earliest railway for public traffic in England was one passing from Merstham to Wandsworth, through Croydon; a small single line, on which a miserable team of lean mules or donkeys, some thirty years ago, might be seen crawling at the rate of four miles in the hour, with small trucks of stone and lime behind them. It was commenced in 1801, opened in 1803, and the men of science of that day-we cannot say that the respectable name of Stephenson was not among them-tested its capabilities, and found that one horse could draw some 35 tons at six miles in the hour, and then, with prophetic wisdom, declared that railways could never be worked profitably. The old Croydon Railway is no longer used. The genius loci must look with wonder on the gigantic offspring of the little railway, which has swallowed up its own sire. Lean mules no longer crawl leisurely along the little rails with trucks of stone, through Croydon, once perchance during the day, but the whistle and the rush of the locomotive, and the whirr of the atmospheric, are now heard all day long. Not a few loads of lime, but all London and its contents, by comparison-men, women, children, horses, dogs, oxen, sheep, pigs, carriages, merchandise, food-would seem now-a-days to be passing through Croydon, for day after day more than one hundred journeys

with stooped to measure the cast, which the King espying, knew, and had seen her wear, and therewithal spurned away the bowl, and said, It may be so, but then am I deceived; and so broke up the game. This thing thus carried, was not perceived for all this of many, but of some few it was. For the King, resorting to his chamber, showing some discontentment in his countenance, found means to break this matter to the lady, who, with good and evident proof how the knight came by the jewel, satisfied the King so effectually, that this more confirmed the King's opinion of her truth than himself at the first would have expected."

During the "sweating sickness" Anne was sent for security to Hever, a place likely enough to encourage the epidemic. "As touching your abode at Hever," writes Henry, "you know what aire doth best suit you; but I would it were come to that, thereto if it please God, that neither of us need care for that, for I assure you I think it long." The love-letters which Henry addressed to her at Hever are the last positive evidences we find of Anne's connexion with the spot, and with a short extract from one of them we take our leave of Hever: "In order to remind you of my affection, and because I cannot be in your presence, I send you the thing which comes nearest that is possible, that is to say, my picture, and the whole device, which you already know of, set in bracelets, wishing myself in their place when it pleases you."

Near to the castle on the north-west is an old farm house, called "Polebrooks," which is worth walking to see for its picturesqueness. If the promised accommodation at the "Royal Harry" at Hever was not sufficiently tempting, then the tourist may take a pretty green lane walk about two miles further on to Edenbridge, where he will meet with treatment a few degrees more civilized; within a mile of this village the railway has a station.

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LONDON: PUBLISHED AT THE RAILWAY CHRONICLE OFFICE, 14, Wellington-street North, Strand.

PLEASURE EXCURSIONS.

CROYDON,

ON THE CROYDON, BRIGHTON AND SOUTH-EASTERN RAILWAYS.

[From the Railway Chronicle.]

This Excursion, going and returning, to Croydon only, requires about four hours from the time of starting from the station.

[graphic][merged small]

THE earliest railway for public traffic in England was one passing from Merstham to Wandsworth, through Croydon; a small single line, on which a miserable team of lean mules or donkeys, some thirty years ago, might be seen crawling at the rate of four miles in the hour, with small trucks of stone and lime behind them. It was commenced in 1801, opened in 1803, and the men of science of that day-we cannot say that the respectable name of Stephenson was not among them-tested its capabilities, and found that one horse could draw some 35 tons at six miles in the hour, and then, with prophetic wisdom, declared that railways could never be worked profitably. The old Croydon Railway is no longer used. The genius loci must look with wonder on the gigantic offspring of the little railway, which has swallowed up its own sire. Lean mules no longer crawl leisurely along the little rails with trucks of stone, through Croydon, once perchance during the day, but the whistle and the rush of the locomotive, and the whirr of the atmospheric, are now heard all day long. Not a few loads of lime, but all London and its contents, by comparison-men, women, children, horses, dogs, oxen, sheep, pigs, carriages, merchandise, food-would seem now-a-days to be passing through Croydon, for day after day more than one hundred journeys

Oftentimes in every hour during daylight the Londoner may transport himself to the Chalk Downs, and be freshened by the pure breezes of Duppers Hill, or to the sandy heights of the Addington Hills, and scent the fragrant wild thyme which he crunches at every step.

Croydon has always been a great centre for excursions. It has been rendered still more so by the opening of the Atmospheric : but its own attractions are somewhat insignificant compared with those of its neighbourhood. Still, as a centre, pilgrims after health and pleasure will like to glance at its chief features. It has a pretty clear history of its own, at least since the Conquest, but it does not retain so many visible vestiges of its antiquity as could be wished. Its inhabitants have been too well off, and have dabbled too much in "improvements," which clear away evidences of the past.

Antiquarians carry back the history of this place much more remotely than the days of the Conqueror, making it the ancient Roman station Noviomagus, and they consider it to be situate on the high Roman road from London to Arundel. The evidence of all this, and its subsequent Danish history, is very loose, and we shall not venture upon historical speculation or inquiry, other than those which the chief objects themselves, now manifest in the town, legitimately suggest.

Among noticeable things, first there are the remains of the old Archiepiscopal Palace in the lower part of the town, and adjoining the Church. This palace, even before the Conquest-having been given by King Ethelbert to St. Augustine-until the end of the eighteenth century, had been the residence of the archbishops of Canterbury, when the whole domain was sold, and a new residence built at Addington, a village about three miles south-east of Croydon, on a site which tradition says was one of Harry the Eighth's numerous hunting-seats.

At Croydon Palace Thomas à Becket (ob. A.D. 1170), the earliest of Englishmen enrolled in the calendar of saints, probably sojourned; like

Arch near Croydon Palace.

wise the beneficent Robert Winchelsea (ob. A.D. 1313), whose memory was so respected that an unsuccessful attempt was made to obtain even his canonization; and Henry Chichele (ob. A.D. 1443), founder of All Souls College, Oxford, pious, learned and generous; and Thomas Cranmer, burnt in 1555; and Mathew Parker (ob. A.D. 1575), a diligent collector of manuscripts, which he bequeathed to Christ's Church, Cambridge, and a vigorous defender of priests' marriages; and John Whitgift, who, of all the Archbishops of Canterbury, seems to have been the best patron of Croydon, a man described by Sir Henry Wotton as being of

most reverend and sacred memory, "and even of the primitive temper;" and George Abbot (ob. A.D. 1633), a great benefactor to Guildford, of whom we have spoken more at large in our Excursion to that very picturesque town; and William Laud, beheaded on Tower Hill, Jan. 10, A.D. 1644-5, sacrificed by his vacillating King, Charles I.; and John Tillotson (ob. A.D. 1694); and Thomas Tenison, names more familiar to present times.

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But old as the palace is, none of the apparent remains manifest any higher antiquity than the time of Richard II. Its state indeed has changed; and it requires a stretch of imagination to picture Queen Elizabeth and her court entertained in great pomp in the murky old hall, now choked in a curious beehive fashion by the countless rafters and drying-poles of washerwomen. The great Lord Burleigh was with her Majesty, and her dancing Chancellor, Christopher Hatton, and Lady Carewe, for whom "no place with a chymeney could be found." The court was there in 1573, and not only Archbishop Parker, but his successor, Whitgift, on another occasion, received the "virgin" queen as a guest, in the identical hall now steaming with soapsuds. The whole of the palatial buildings and grounds were in the centre of a park in the days of Richard II.,-William Walworth, of Wat Tyler memory, being keeper, but now serve the purposes of a great washing and bleaching factory. The proprietor will permit the curious to explore the place, the chief remains of which are the hall and the chapel. The timber roof of the hall seems to be pretty perfect, but it is almost wholly concealed by counterpanes and blankets hung up for drying. By dint of exploring, we have

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satisfied ourselves of its character, and stripping it of modern "hangings," have ventured to restore it somewhat to its ancient look. Its architecture is perpendicular.

The chapel, which is entered from the churchyard, is outwardly a Tudor brick structure, the windows being left pretty perfect; the woodwork inside is partly coeval with the outside, and partly of a late cinque-cento style, the latter having been inserted by Archbishops

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