What to See in England | Page 3

of the slave-trade."
With the exception of Knole Park, Holwood boasts some of the finest
beeches in the country. The present house took the place of the one
occupied by Pitt in 1825; the architect was Decimus Burton.
[Illustration: WILBERFORCE'S OR "EMANCIPATION OAK" IN
HOLWOOD PARK, KESTON.]

CHIGWELL, ESSEX
=How to get there.=--Train from Liverpool Street or Fenchurch Street.
Great Eastern Railway. =Nearest Station.=--Chigwell. =Distance from
London.=--12-3/4 miles. =Average Time.=--55 minutes. Quickest train,
31 minutes.
1st 2nd 3rd =Fares.=--Single 1s. 10d. 1s. 4d. 0s. 11d. Return 2s. 6d. 1s.
10d. 1s. 4d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"The King's Head."
In 1844 Charles Dickens wrote to Forster: "Chigwell, my dear fellow,

is the greatest place in the world. Name your day for going. Such a
delicious old inn facing the church--such a lovely ride--such forest
scenery--such an out-of-the-way rural place--such a sexton! I say again,
Name your day." This is surely sufficient recommendation for any
place; and when one knows that the "delicious old inn" is still standing,
and that the village is as rural and as pretty as when Dickens wrote over
sixty years ago, one cannot fail to have a keen desire to see the place.
"The King's Head" illustrated here is the inn Dickens had in his mind
when describing the "Maypole" in Barnaby Rudge, and the whole of
the plot of that work is so wrapped up in Chigwell and its immediate
surroundings that one should not visit the village until one has read the
story. One may see the panelled "great room" upstairs where Mr.
Chester met Mr. Geoffrey Haredale. This room has a fine mantelpiece,
great carved beams, and beautiful leaded windows. On the ground floor
is the cosy bar where the village cronies gathered with Mr. Willett, and
one may also see the low room with the small-paned windows against
which John Willett flattened his nose looking out on the road on the
dark night when the story opens.
Chigwell School, built in 1629, and founded by Archbishop Harsnett,
still remains, although there have been several modern additions. Here
William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was educated. (See Index
for Jordans and Penn's Chapel at Thakeham.)
Chigwell Church, facing "The King's Head," has a dark avenue of yews
leading from the road to the porch. A brass to the memory of
Archbishop Harsnett may be seen on the floor of the chancel. The
epitaph in Latin was ordered to be so written in the will of the
archbishop. Translated, the first portion may be read: "Here lieth
Samuel Harsnett, formerly vicar of this church. First the unworthy
Bishop of Chichester, then the more unworthy Bishop of Norwich, at
last the very unworthy Archbishop of York."
[Illustration: THE KING'S HEAD INN AT CHIGWELL.
The "Maypole" of Dickens's Barnaby Rudge.]

WALTHAM ABBEY AND CROSS
=How to get there.=--Train from Liverpool Street. Great Eastern
Railway. =Nearest Station.=--Waltham. =Distance from
London.=--12-3/4 miles. =Average Time.=--40 minutes. Quickest train,
23 minutes.
1st 2nd 3rd =Fares.=--Single 2s. 0d. 1s. 6d. 1s. 1d. Return 3s. 3d. 2s. 6d.
1s. 7d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=--"The New Inn," etc.
Waltham Abbey is a market town in Essex on the banks of the Lea,
which here divides into several branches which are used as motive
power for some gunpowder and flour mills. Harold II. founded the
stately Abbey Church in May 1060. William the Conqueror disputed
Harold's claim to the throne and landed in England at Pevensey in 1066.
At Waltham Abbey, troubled and anxious, Harold prayed for victory in
England's name before the fatal battle of Hastings, where he was slain.
William at first refused to give up Harold's body to his mother, Gytha,
but he afterwards allowed two monks from Waltham to search for the
body of the king. They were unable to find it amongst the nameless
dead, but his favourite, Edith the swan-necked, whose eye of affection
was not to be deceived, discovered it. His weeping mother buried the
disfigured corpse probably about 120 feet from the east end of the old
church.
At Waltham is one of the many crosses erected by Edward I. in
memory of his first wife, Eleanor of Castile, wherever her body rested
on its way to Westminster from Lincoln. At Northampton is another of
these famous crosses. When the king asked the Abbot of Cluny to
intercede for her soul, he said, "We loved her tenderly in her lifetime;
we do not cease to love her in death."
A little way to the left of Waltham Cross, now a gateway to the park of
Theobalds, stands Temple Bar, stone for stone intact as it was in the
days when traitors' heads were raised above it in Fleet Street, although
the original wooden gates have gone. A portion of the richly-carved top

of the gate is still in existence in London. Waltham Abbey