and is reached by an ascent of six steps. On the east wall of the Brackenbury chapel is a monument, bearing a long Latin inscription, to the memory of Sir Richard Newdigate, Bart., who died in 1678. Sir Roger Newdigate, the last baronet of his family, who died in 1806, is also commemorated by a tablet, as also are many other members of that ancient house. The monument of Milton's friend above mentioned, Alice, Countess Dowager of Derby, who died in 1637, occupies the southeast corner of the chancel. It is an elaborate work of art, after the fashion of the above period, being gorgeously decorated with drapery and heraldic ornaments. The effigy of the countess, in her state dress, reposes beneath a lofty canopy, while the lower compartment, which is level with the floor of the chancel, contains the kneeling effigies of her three daughters, Lady Chandos and the Countesses of Bridgewater and Huntingdon. The countess, as stated above, became the wife of Lord Keeper Egerton, who, as the inscription on this monument states, had, by his first wife, an only daughter, who was mother of Juliana, Lady Newdigate. The monuments of various members of the Newdigate family might be said to "adorn" the walls of the church, if it were not that such cumbrous and costly structures sadly detract from the beauty of the sacred edifice itself, and tell rather of human pride and vain-glory than of humility and repentance. Among others is a kneeling effigy of Lady Newdigate, formerly one of the maids of honour to Queen Elizabeth. When Mr. Newdigate, as lord of the manor and squire, "restored" the church, he ordered the monuments to be repaired, and their inscriptions and heraldic bearings repainted.

On the north side of the chancel is a parclose, screening off the chantry and burial-place of the family of Ashby of Brakespeare. A mural tablet on the north wall, bearing the effigy of a man in armour, kneeling at a faldstool beneath a canopy, commemorates Sir Robert Ashby, who died in 1617; and close by is another mural tablet, to the memory of Sir Francis Ashby, who died in 1623. Between this aisle and the nave is a monument to the memory of John Pritchett, Bishop of Gloucester, who died in 1680. He was promoted to the see of Gloucester in 1672, after having been curate of this parish for nearly thirty years.

On the outside of the north wall of the chancel is a most curious monument and epitaph. It consists of a medallion, with a portrait, in rather slight relief, of a gamekeeper with his dog and gun, passing through a background of trees. Beneath it

is the following inscription, which I believe has never been printed in any collection of epitaphs, though its quaintness well merits such an honour:

"William Ashby of Brakespeare, Esquire, erected this to the memory of his faithful servant, Robert Mossenden, who departed this life Feby. 5th, 1744, aged 60 years.

"In frost and snow, through hail and rain,
He scour'd the woods and trudg'd the plain;
The steady pointer leads the way,
Stands at the scent, then springs the prey;
The timorous birds from stubble rise,
With pinions stretch'd divide the skys;
The scatter'd lead pursues the sight,
And death in thunder stops their flight.
This spaniel, of true English kind,
Who's gratitude inflam'd his mind :
This servant in an honest way,

In all his actions copy'd Tray."

The village of Harefield stretches away along the roadside for a considerable distance through a quiet valley, having on the north and east wellwooded uplands, dotted over with lordly domains, and on the south-west broad green meadows, bordering the canal and River Colne. Harefield numbered altogether in 1881 between 300 and 400 houses, with a population of 1,500, being a slight diminution upon the census returns for 1871. The village, with its Lecture Hall and Working Men's Club, possesses a quiet and flourishing appearance, and the name of one of its principal local worthies of bygone times is perpetuated in the "Brakespeare Arms," the sign given to a quiet roadside hostelry.

It may be added, that, lying as it does so far out of the beaten tracks, this parish is perhaps richer than any other within Middlesex in country seats. Towards the northern end are Harefield Park, the seat of Colonel Vernon, and Harefield House, of Sir John Byles. Brakespeare, formerly the seat of the Ashbys, now the seat of Mrs. Drake, is nearer to the church, and towards the centre of the parish. It is said to have got its name from having once belonged to the family which gave Pope Adrian IV. to the Western Church. The house is old-fashioned, and stands on high ground in a pleasantly-wooded park.

Nearer to Uxbridge stands the modern Harefield Place, lately sold by Mr. Newdegate, and now the property and residence of Colonel Cox. All the game hereabouts is strictly preserved; and in consequence, as you walk along the shady lanes leading to the "Brakespeare Arms" from the church, you may see partridges and pheasants strutting about to their heart's content, and secure from harm.

It is refreshing, after the many miles of dead level river-side scenery through which we have travelled, to "break ground" afresh, and to come at once upon new country. We have left the grassy vale which stretches across the west of the county from Uxbridge and Hayes, and find ourselves, after some four or five miles' walk, at the foot of the only steep ascent which Middlesex can produce, except the "northern heights" of Hampstead and Highgate. The soil is a deep stiff clay; and we shall find that Harrow differs from those other links of the hilly chain of which it once formed part in having no deposit of gravel and sand on its summit.

The broad vale of Harrow, which stretches from the foot of the hill to Edgware and Stanmore in the north-east, and to Uxbridge and Hayes in the south-west, has really no history, and is quite a modern Boeotia. The roads are muddy and miry in winter, and till the beginning of the present century it took a waggoner and his team the best part of a day to carry a load of hay up to London; and even then he often had to lay down a faggot of sticks in the ruts in order to enable him to get along at all. The district, however, smiles sweetly in early June, and has its attractions for the hunter in the depth of winter.

Norden, writing in the reign of Elizabeth, gives the following account of this parish :-"It may be noted how nature hath exalted that high Harrowon-the-Hill, as it were in the way of ostentation to shew it selfe to all passengers to and from London, who beholding the same may saye it is the centre (as it were) of the pure vale; for Harrow standeth invironed with a great contrye of moste pure grounds, from which hill, towardes the time of harveste, a man maye beholde the feyldes rounde about, so sweetly to address themselves to the sicle and syth, with such comfortable habourdance of all kinde of grayne, that it maketh the inhabitants to clappe theyre handes for joye to see theyr

valleys so to laugh and singe. Yet this fruiteful and pleasante country yeldeth little comforte unto the wayfaringe man in the winter season, by reason of the clayish nature of the soyle, which after it hath tasteth the autombe showers it beginneth to mix deep and tirtye, yeldinge unsavory passage to horse and man. Yet the countrye swayne holdeth it a sweet and pleasant garden, and with his whippe and whysell, can make himself melodye, and dance knee deepe in dirte, the whole daye not holdinge it any disgrace unto his person, Such is the force of hope of future proffitt.

The deepe and dirdiest lothsome soyle
Yeldes golden grayne to carefull toyle.

And that is the cause that the industrious and painful husbandman will refuse a pallace, to droyle in theys golden puddles."

Pinner, through which we must pass before reaching Harrow, is situated on the main road running north-westward to Rickmansworth and Amersham, about equi-distant from Ruislip and Harrow-on-theHill, being about three miles from each of those places, a mile and a half south-west from Pinner Station on the North-Western Railway, and about thirteen miles from London. It is a busy and thriving village, the main street being broad, well paved, and lighted with gas, and containing several respectable shops and private houses of modern growth, interspersed with many of a more picturesque and antiquated appearance, of the lath-and-plaster style of building, with projecting storeys and gabled roofs. Not the least interesting among these houses is the "Queen's Head," an old-fashioned roadside tavern on the north side of the street, dating its erection from early in the last century, as the date 1705, painted upon its front, bears witness.

In 1871 the number of inhabited houses in Pinner was set down in the census returns as 396, the population amounting to 2,332, of whom about 250 were inmates of the Commercial Travellers'

Schools, of which we shall speak presently. The number of the inhabitants had increased during the succeeding ten years to a little over 2,500.

The village is pleasantly located on the rising ground which forms the north-western side of the vale of Harrow, and from this elevated spot flows one of the feeders of the River Colne, a little rivulet, called the Pin, which is crossed at the bottom of the main street by an antiquated bridge of one arch. Near the bridge stand three dwellings for widows of officers, founded by Miss Maria Charlotte Howard, of York Place, about half a century ago. Miss Howard, it appears, left the sum of £45,000 in money and land to found a charity, to erect twenty-one houses on her property here. They were to have been built in the form of a crescent: the centre house for the trustees, and the remainder to be appropriated to twenty widows, who were to live in them rent and tax free, and to receive each a stipend of £50 a year. The widows of naval men were to have the preference, after them the widows of military men, and afterwards the widows of clergymen. This munificent bequest, however, was never fully carried out, for, owing to some family feud, the estate got into Chancery, with the result that only three of the houses have as yet been built. They are good, substantial brick-built residences, and, in accordance with the stipulation of the bequest, are in the occupation of the widows of officers.

Pinner was simply a hamlet and chapelry of Harrow, and part of the same demesne, but was made into a separate parish about a quarter of a century ago. The village, nevertheless, formerly possessed a weekly market, which was granted by Edward III. in 1336 to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was at that time lord of the manor. Two yearly fairs were also granted at the same time, of which, however, only one survives. This has degenerated into an insignificant pleasure-fair, which is held annually on Whit Monday.

At the eastern or upper end of the main street stands the parish church, the picturesque effect of which, as seen on approaching it, is heightened by the almost leafless trunk of an aged elm-tree. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is of ample dimensions, consisting of chancel, with a side aisle or chapel, appropriated to the use of the children of the Commercial Travellers' Schools, transepts, a clerestoried nave of five bays, aisles, south porch, and an embattled tower at the west end. The tower has a pyramidal tiled roof, surmounted by a tall wooden cross, and at the north-west corner a bold turret rises high above the battlements. The interior of the tower is

open to the nave, and the bells bear the date of 1772. The building is constructed mainly of flint and stone; and although its erection was completed in 1321, the lancet-shaped windows of the transepts and south aisle would appear to have belonged to a building of much earlier date. The church has been considerably altered and enlarged at various periods, the chancel aisle having been added as recently as 1879, at which time the edifice was thoroughly restored. The nave is separated from the aisles by Pointed arches, springing from octangular pillars. In the south transept are the remains of a piscina of the Perpendicular period. The font is large and of about the same above-mentioned date; the exterior of the basin forms an octagon, the different compartments of which are ornamented with devices of roses, &c., in quatrefoils, the basin itself resting upon an octangular pillar. Several of the windows contain painted glass, that of one of the lancets being of ancient date. The east window, of Perpendicular design, is modern, a reproduction of its predecessor, but is now filled with stained glass. It is of five lights, and was inserted in memory of the Rev. Edward Thomas Burrow, incumbent, who died in 1861. The reredos, which is very handsome, was erected in 1871 by Mr. John Weall, of this parish, in memory of his wife and two daughters. This church contains but few monuments, and even those are but of little interest. Among them is a mural tablet, of black marble, to the memory of John Day, minister of Pinner, who died in 1662. On this tablet is represented the effigy of the deceased in profile, kneeling before a desk; and it has also upon it an inscription, commencing

"This portraiture presents him to thy sight
Who was a burning and a shining light."

The families of Clitherow, Page, and Hastings, are also commemorated by monumental inscriptions in the church. In the vestry is preserved a small brass, originally in the chancel, to the memory of a "chrysom child," the daughter of Eustace Bedingfeld, dated 1580.

In the churchyard, close by the south porch, is the gravestone of Sir Bartholomew Shower, of Pinner Hill, who died in 1701, and who, if an entry in the parish register is to be believed, was "buried in sheep's wool only." If we may judge from the ages recorded on many of the head-stones here, Pinner would appear to be a healthy place to live in, or at all events one favourable to longevity. Several may be noticed buried here whose ages have exceeded the allotted "three score years