habitants of this village, it used to be said that "one half of the population of Ruislip would be found to answer to one of four surnames." Remote from other places, the inhabitants never went abroad for their wives. School-houses were built by King's College, Cambridge, about 1870. Mr. Thomas Clarke, of Swakeleys, established some schools here at the beginning of the present century for the gratuitous education of fifty poor children; and with the aid of subscriptions from other wealthy individuals, the children of the poorer inhabitants are partly clothed. The reservoir on Ruislip Common extends from Cannon's Bridge for nearly a mile towards Rickmansworth. It covers an area of 80 acres, and belongs to the Grand Junction Canal Company, who use it to supply the deficiency caused by the waste of water in working their canal. The reservoir is much frequented by anglers. Ruislip Park, which bounds the village on the east, is the seat of Frederick Tompson-Delmar, Esq. It covers upwards of forty acres of land, and is charmingly laid out with picturesque drives, and ornamented by rare old timber. It is a famous foxhunting meet. The hamlet of Eastcote, often called Ascot, lies about a mile eastward from the village of Ruislip, on the road towards Pinner, in the midst of a rich agricultural country. Eastcote House, the residence of Sir Samuel Morton Peto, was formerly the seat of the Hawtrey family, who were once of great note in this parish, and for many years lessees of the rectory, and of whom, as stated above, Ruislip church contains so many memorials. The mansion belongs to Mr. Francis H. Deane. On coming into the possession of his family it was considerably altered and modernised. High Grove, another mansion in this locality, is the seat of Sir Hugh H. Campbell, Bart. The house stands on a commanding site, and the grounds, about fifty acres in extent, are prettily laid out. Sir Thomas Franklyn resided at Eastcote in the early part of the last century. His house, which occupies a low site, was afterwards the seat of the Woodroffe family. Northwood, a long straggling hamlet in the parish of Ruislip, on the road towards Rickmansworth, was in 1854 formed into an ecclesiastical district, which includes within its bounds portions of the parishes of Watford and Rickmansworth, in Hertfordshire. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, is a handsome structure of flint and stone, in the Early English style, and many of the windows are filled with painted glass. 243 is the principal residence in this locality, most of the poorer inhabitants of which are occupied in agricultural pursuits or employed in the preparation of firewood. Before we quit Ruislip it may not be out of place to mention a story having reference to the place, which has been related by the Rev. Mr. Barham, and which has Theodore Hook for its hero. Hook and a friend having borrowed a horse and gig, took a drive in the country, and had reached this village when they bethought them of dining. "Of course, you have money with you ?" said Hook. "Not a sixpence; not a sou," was the reply. Theodore was in the same predicament— the last turnpike having exhausted his supply. "Stay," said Hook, reining up; "do you see that pretty little villa? Suppose we dine there." The suggestion was capital. "You know the owner, then?" inquired he. "Not the least in the world," was the reply. "I never saw him in all my life; but that's of no consequence. I know his name: it's E-w, the celebrated chronometermaker; the man who got the £10,000 premium from Government, and then wound up his affairs and his watches, and retired from business. He will be delighted to see us." So saying, up he drove to the door. "Is Mr. E――w at home?" Answer: "Yes." In they went. The old gentleman appeared, and after a little staring at each other, Hook began: "Mr. E——w, happening to pass through your neighbourhood, I could not deny myself the pleasure and honour of paying my respects to you. I am conscious that it may seem impertinent, but your ability overcame me in regard for the common forms of society, and I and my friend here were resolved, come what might, to have it in our power to say that we had seen you, and enjoyed, for a few minutes, the company of an individual famous throughout the civilised world." The old gentleman was caught. Shaking of hands and a few more compliments followed, and presently the remark, "But, gentlemen, you are far from town; it's getting late; pray do me the honour of staying and dining, quite, as we say, in the family way-now, pray, gentlemen, do stay." The two visitors consulted gravely. It was impossible. They must return to town, Hook adding a little more compliment, which elicited a still more pressing invitation from the chronometermaker. At length they agreed to stay and dine, and join in a bottle of "Barnes's best." The dinner despatched, the bottle was multiplied by six. The host was as happy as a king, and would not allow his new friends to depart without a pledge to repeat Northwood Hall, the seat of Mr. Daniel Norton, their visit. Harefield, to which place we now direct our steps, adjoins Uxbridge on the north, and occupies a wide extent of country lying to the north-west of Ruislip. It is a long and scattered village, and, like Ruislip, extends to the extreme north of the county, where it is bordered by the parish of Rickmansworth. It consists mostly of pleasant upland scenery, from which a good view of the long broad meadows on either side of the river Colne is obtained. The Colne and the Grand Junction Canal, which unites the Thames at Brentford with Staffordshire and the North, serve as a boundary on the left as you walk from Uxbridge to Harefield, and cut off the wayfarer from the pleasant groves and fisheries of Denham. In fact, the Colne bounds the parish on the west for nearly five miles. This river and its surroundings are evidently alluded to by Milton in the following lines in "L'Allegro": "Meadows trim, with daisies pied, Shallow brooks and rivers wide." Harefield is more rich in historical associations perhaps than any rural village within the county of Middlesex. When Milton was resident at Horton the old manor house was the residence of Lord Keeper Egerton and his wife, the Countess Dowager of Derby, whom Queen Elizabeth had once honoured by a visit of three days in one of her royal progresses. The courtly knight and his lady survived the costly visit. But we are anticipating the order of events. nearly 600 years—a fact without parallel in Middlesex. came But the greatest event in the history of Harefield was the three days' visit of Queen Elizabeth to Sir Thomas Egerton, to which we have already alluded. It took place in July-August, 1602, and is fully described, from the Newdigate MSS., in J. G. Nichols's "Progresses of Queen Eliza. beth," vol. iii., pp. 586-93, and also in the "Pictorial Shakespeare," from which we quote the following particulars :-"The Queen to Harefield on the 31st of July, and remained there during the 1st and 2nd of August. In those days Harefield Place was a 'fair house, standing on the edge of the hill, the river Coln passing near the same through the pleasant meadows and sweet pastures, yielding both delight and profit. . . .' The weather, we learn from a copy of verses presented to the Queen on the occasion, was unpropitious: "Only poor St. Swithin now Doth hear you blame his cloudy brow.' Some great poet was certainly at work on this occasion, but not Shakespeare. It was enough for them to present the sad story of "The gentle lady married to the Moor.' Another was to come within some thirty years, who should sing of Harefield with the power of thus makes the genius of the wood address a noble rare fancy working upon classical models, and who audience in that sylvan scene :— Of the early history of Harefield Lysons tells us "Yet know, by lot from Jove, I am the power that in the time of Edward the Confessor the place Of this fair wood, and like in oaken bower belonged to the Countess Goda, and that at the To nurse the sapling tall, and curl the grove Domesday survey it was held by Richard, the son With ringlets quaint, and wanton windings weave; of Gilbert, Earl of Briou. It afterwards passed And all my plants I save from nightly ill into the hands of the Bacheworths, and from them Of noisome winds and blasting vapours chill; And from the boughs brush off the evil dew, by marriage to the Swanlands, and from them in And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue; the same manner to the Newdigates; but was Or what the cross dire-looking planet smites, alienated by them to the Andersons, by whom Or hurtful worm with canker'd venom bites. the property was sold at the commencement of When evening grey doth rise, I fetch my round the 17th century to the Egertons, from whom it Over the mount and all this hallowed ground; And early, ere the odorous breath of morn passed in marriage to Grey, Lord Chandos. In Awake the slumbering leaves, or tassel'd horn 1655 Lord Chandos bequeathed Harefield to his Shakes the highth thicket, haste I all about, widow, who re-married, first with Sir William Number my ranks, and visit every sprout Sedley, Bart., and secondly, on the decease of With puissant words, and murmurs made to bless.' Sir William, with Mr. George Pitt. By this latter Doubly-honoured Harefield! Though the mansion husband (in whom and his heirs she had vested all has perished, yet are thy groves still beautiful. her estates) the manors of Harefield and More Still thy summit looks out upon a fertile valley, Hall of which latter we shall speak presently where the gentle river wanders in silent beauty. were sold to Sir Richard Newdigate, Bart., Serjeant-But thy woods and lawns have a charm which are at-law, and grandson of Mr. John Newdigate, who wholly their own. Here possibly the Othello of Will had exchanged the estate with Sir Edmund Ander- Shakespeare was acted by his own company; here son, and so came back to a squire whose ancestors is the scene of the 'Arcades' of John Milton." have held it, with only a temporary interval, for The visit of the virgin queen to Harefield was within a year or two of her death, and when she was upwards of seventy. In the Newdigate MSS. above referred to the curious reader will find how her Majesty was met near the dairy-house by a dairy-maid and a bailiff, who celebrated her praises in alternate verse, whilst the royal personage herself sat on her horse beneath a tree on account of the rain. In another part of the grounds her Majesty was entertained by a "dialogue of welcome" between some fanciful characters, called "Place" and "Time;" and again on the next morning she was serenaded as— "Beauty's rose and virtue's book, Angel's mind and angel's look." It should be added that the queen was addressed in the same style of fanciful and fulsome flattery at her departure. "It has been said," observes Mr. Thorne, in his Handbook of the Environs of London, "that the Lord Chamberlain's company was brought down to Harefield to play Othello before her, Shakespeare himself being present probably to direct the performance." But this statement he sees reason to distrust, both on other grounds and on account of the silence of the Newdigate MSS. on the subject. Still, the Egerton Papers, published by the Camden Society, under date August 6th, 1602, give us the following entry among the steward's expenses during Elizabeth's visit to Harefield: "Rewards to the Vaulters, Players, and Dancers, £64 18s. 1od.;" and it is known that Shakespeare was one of the company so indicated. One would like to be certain, however, that the eyes of Shakespeare as well as those of Milton, once looked on these scenes. We gather from the Life of Milton that during the five years of his early manhood, which he spent mainly at his father's house at Horton, he was a frequent visitor at Harefield; and the heading of his "Arcades" tells us that it formed "part of an entertainment presented to the Countess Dowager of Derby at that place by some noble persons of her family." As her ladyship was then advanced in years, it is more than probable that these "noble persons of her family' were her little youthful grandchildren, the issue of the Earl of Bridgewater (son of the Lord Keeper Egerton), who had married Lady Frances Stanley, the second daughter of the Countess. One would like to have been there to witness their graceful appearance on the scene "in pastoral habit, and moving toward the seat of state," whereon sat the Countess as a "Rural Queen," as they sang the first stanza of " Arcades," probably alluding to Queen Elizabeth's previous visit 'Look, nymphs and shepherds, look, This, this is she 245 "There let Hymen oft appear In saffron robe with taper clear, And pomp, and feast, and revelry, With masque and antique pageantry; Such sights as youthful poets dream On summer eve by haunted stream." Harefield Place was burnt to the ground in 1660, the fire being traditionally referred to the carelessness of the witty and accomplished Sir Charles Sedley, the profligate companion of Charles II., who is said to have been reading in bed. “This tradition," observes the author of "The Beauties of England," "is not altogether destitute of an air of probability, for although Sir William Sedley died in 1656, and his widow had in the meantime taken a third husband, George Pitt, Esq., yet it is by no means unlikely that the gay and careless Sir Charles might, in 1660, be at Harefield, on a visit to his sister-in-law." The mansion was rebuilt by Sir Richard Newdigate, who had re-purchased the property of Mr. Pitt, in 1675, but not quite on the same site as the old house. Sir Roger Newdigate was residing at Harefield Place, in 1743, when he was elected M.P. for Middlesex. Sir Roger was the founder of the prize for English Verse which bears his name at Oxford, and causes him to be commemorated among the benefactors of the University. Having fixed his principal residence at Arbury, in Warwickshire, Sir Roger sold Harefield Place, disjoined from the manor, to John Truesdale, Esq., from whose executors it was purchased, in 1780, by William Baynes, Esq., whose son, Christopher, was created a baronet, by the title of Sir Christopher Baynes, of Harefield Place. Mr. Charles Newdigate Newdegate, who inherited the Middlesex estates of Sir Roger, re-purchased Harefield Place from Sir Christopher Baynes, and having chosen for his residence a seat near at hand, called Harefield Lodge, he pulled down Harefield Place towards the end of the last century. in the last century may be seen in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1815. The old manorhouse must have been well off for the accessories of shady trees in Milton's time, if he wrote of it, The avenue of elms through which Queen Eliza- as doubtless he did, without exaggeration beth rode from Dew's Farm to the house is gone, though several of the trees were still standing in the time when Lysons wrote, and one or two even as late as 1814-15, if we may believe "Sylvanus Urban;" but, alas! they are now no more, though vigorous successors have taken their place. The house, too, as above stated, is gone, but its site can still be plainly seen in the rear of the church, where the old garden walls and fine level terraces still attest its former grandeur. A view of it as it was "O'er the smooth enamell'd green, And touch the warbled string, Of branching elm star proof, I will bring you where she sits, Such a rural queen All Arcadia hath not seen. " Harefield.] MOOR HALL. 247 And the whole demesne must have had beauties consider that the building was not a chapel, and charms, which have disappeared with the old but a refectory, but for this there are no grounds. mansion, if he could write with truth Nymphs and shepherds, dance no more By sandy Ladon's lilied banks; Bring your flocks and live with us; To serve the lady of this place." The "Arcades" was performed here, as we learn from Milton's Life, in 1635, and the worthy "lady of this place" did not long survive. Her fine marble monument in the chancel of the church bears the date of her death, 1637. What would one not have given to have seen with his own eyes the poet brushing the morning dew, as he sauntered through the meadows along the bank of his favourite river, the Colne, with its "brimming waves," or quietly trudging along the road through Uxbridge, on his way from Horton to Harefield Place, which doubtless then was, in his own words "Bosom'd high in tufted trees." The elms and beeches and evergreens behind the site of the house are still fine, but few, except one stately cedar, would seem to be able to recall the look of the poet. About a furlong south-west of the site of the old manor-house, abutting on the edge of the meadows of the Colne, opposite the "Fishery" at Denham, and standing a little from the road, is an old farmhouse, some parts of the interior of which retain the ancient panelling and large fire-places, suggesting that in the olden time large logs were burnt here in the winter, and profuse hospitality was exercised. The house is now cut up into three labourers' cottages. It is still called the Moor Hall, and is the most ancient manor-house in the parish. The greater part of the old hall was pulled down towards the end of the last century. Lysons tells us that the manor of Moor Hall was the property of the Knights Hospitallers, to whom it was given by Alice, daughter of Baldwin de Clare. Close by it, indeed almost adjoining it, is an Early English chapel, with lancet windows, externally almost perfect, though quite "gutted " in its interior of every vestige of its once sacred uses. The timber roof stands sound and good, just as it did in the days of the Tudors and Plantagenets. This chapel was probably a cell subject to the Priory of St. John at Clerkenwell. Some persons The building and cottages are rich in red and grey tints, and they have been often sketched by artists. A short walk across some upland grass fields leads from Moor Hall to the church, which is situated, as was so often the case, in the middle of the squire's park, some three or four hundred yards from the road. The church, so far as can be ascertained through the veil thrown over it by a poor modern "restora tion," seems to be of the "Decorated" period, but perhaps a somewhat late specimen. It consists of nave and chancel, with aisles on either side. Probably no country church is so rich in mural monuments, mostly of the Tudor and Jacobean eras. The Egertons, Ashbys, and Newdigates innumerable here mix their aristocratic dust with that of their poorer brethren. A really fine collection of helmets, casques, gloves, and other funeral armour, once belonging to the Bacheworths and Swanlands and Egertons, but now taken down from the walls, lies heaped together, dusty and uncared for, on the sedilia to the south of the communion-table. The Brackenbury chapel, which forms the south aisle, is constructed of alternate dice-work, or diversified compartments of flint and stone. The chancel is elevated above the nave, |