BURIED SUMS OF MONEY.

with each gift of nature and of art, And wanting nothing but an honest heart;

A fool, with more of wit than half mankind,
Too rash for thought, for action too refined,
A tyrant to the wife his heart approves,
A rebel to the very king he loves.”

49

Earl Wharton, the father of the last mentioned, is said to have spent £100,000 over Woburn, in altering the house and grounds, and the gardens were among the most celebrated in England; they occupied the side of the hill, which was afterwards converted into pasture. This great building was taken down in 1750, and the materials were sold for £800!

In the wilderness near the house, Langley says that, during the great Rebellion, Lord Wharton concealed £60,000 in a plantation called West Wood, and he could not remember where he had put it, the only other persons privy to the transaction being either dead or in exile; but two acres were cleared, and the whole of the treasure found. £50 was discovered in gold angels last century, but we have no means of knowing the truth of the other story; still, we have the ingenuous confession of Mr. Pepys in his own experiences; and as for burying large sums, there is, indeed, a tradition, which appears in some Chester

E

local histories, of a large sum having been abstracted from the cellars of the house where these lines are written, and buried in a garden near the city walls in George II.'s time. It did not approach in magnitude that which legend says lay concealed at Woburnindeed it was not more than a quarter the amount; but it was used by the enterprising captors for their own purposes, and even partially invested. The singular part of the story is that, from what I have heard recently, it does not seem to be legendary.

The part of England we have been considering, and the country that lies in the immediate vicinity, is among the most charming in the whole kingdom, for we are near Cliveden, Marlow, and Medmenham.

BEACONSfield.

5!

CHAPTER III.

Burke and Waller-Butler's Court-Milton--The River Colne-Hughenden -Hughenden Church-Church Restoration-Benjamin DisraeliChalfont St. Peter's.

IF, instead of going by the train as far as High Wycombe, we stop at Loudwater, we shall not be far from Beaconsfield. A walk of four miles will land us in this ancient country town, and the walk is one of beauty and interest; it is undulated and well wooded, and many are the panoramic views we may get, especially if we ascend the high land on our left-hand side. About a mile before we reach Beaconsfield we pass between two well-known residences, the abodes of Burke and Waller. Butler's Court lies about a mile and a half on the north of the road, and it was here that Burke spent the latter part of his days; Hall Barn was the seat of Waller. In speaking of this place Britton says: "Hall Barn, the once celebrated

seat of Waller, by whom it was built, is about one mile south of Beaconsfield, and before the improvements of

inodern times it was considered a magnificent abode. It is now the property of Mr. Edmund Waller, a de

scendant of the poet, whose family have long been inhabitants of the neighbourhood." The road from Loudwater to Beaconsfield is so lonely that, if we except a few residents who live at the county town, we may hardly meet half a dozen people in the four miles. The chimney which is shown on the opposite page is a very excellent example of an ancient external chimney, and it is absurd to suppose that these are relics of barbarism. On the contrary, there

is much more to be said in their favour than at first might appear, and they do their work much more effectually than some of the contrivances of modern times. It is commonly urged that all the heat is lost, and that it would be retained if the fireplace were in an inner wall; but against this may be said, that the outside of the house is itself warmed in the course of a day, and the thick stone walls retain the heat for a long time. The concrete floor of a Roman chamber, it is believed, would retain the heat for twenty-four hours after the fires of the hypocaust were out. The date of this massive chimney is not very certain, but it is characteristic of the time of Richard II. or Henry IV., and it seems to have belonged to a much more extensive building than that to which it is now attached. The road, though undulating, gradually rises towards