places where this cruel "sport" was practised by the roughs of North London when out on a holiday.

There are a few good mansions and seats in the neighbourhood. Among them may be mentioned Oak Hill Park, the seat of Mr. Young, and formerly the residence of Sir Simon Clarke. The house occupies an elevated site in the midst of an extensive park, on the east side of the village. Another mansion, near to Oakleigh Park Station, called Belmont, but formerly known as Mount Pleasant, was at one time the home of Elias Ashmole, the founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.

Totteridge lies to the south-west of East Barnet, on the western side of the Great North road. It is really a "spur" of the long ridge of which Mill Hill forms the central and southern part; and it occupies the extreme south-eastern angle of Hertfordshire, between Highwood Hill and Whetstone, in Middlesex. As to its etymology, it is supposed to have been derived from its situation on the ridge of a hill. The first syllable of the name is derived probably from the Anglo-Saxon word "Tot," or "Toot," a beaconhill, or from the Welsh word "Twt," a sloping or rising; and it may have been given to it as in the case of Tot-hill, Westminster*-from a beacon placed here, as the highest spot in this district. Taylor, however, in his "Words and Places," thinks such places as Tot Hill and the like "may possibly have been seats of Celtic worship, the names coming from the Celtic deity, Taith, the Teutates of Lucan." The antiquary, Mr. Wykeham Archer, too, derives the name from Teut, the chief divinity of the Druids, and the equivalent of Thoth, the Egyptian Mercury, adding that the "Tot," "Teut," "Tut," or "Thoth "-often, by the way, styled "Tuttle" or "Tut-hill" was the spot on which solemn proclamations were made to the people. "Tot" or "Toot," also, in one of its varied forms, is not an uncommon prefix to the names of other places in different parts of England -as Totnes, Totham, Tooting, Tottenham, Tutbury, &c.; and, it may be added that all these places are considerably elevated, in comparison with the surrounding parts.

The manor of Totteridge in early ages formed part of the possessions of the monks of Ely, and afterwards of the bishops of that see, from one of whom, in the reign of Elizabeth, it was alienated to the Crown, together with Hatfield, in consideration of an annual sum of £1,500, to be paid to

See "Old and New London," Vol. IV., p. 14.

him and his successors in the see of Ely. In 1590 the queen granted this manor to John Cage, from whom it passed in succession to the Peacocks and the Whichcotes. Sir Paul Whichcote, in the year 1720, sold the property to James Brydges, Duke of Chandos; but it was again disposed of by the second duke to Sir William Lee, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. The manor is now held by the representatives of the late John Lee, LL.D. The advowson of the living is still held, with that of Hatfield, by the Marquis of Salisbury, the annual value of the combined livings being £2,500.

Totteridge is neither a town nor a village, but a group of isolated villas and gentlemen's seats and small parks. The small cluster of houses and shops forming the street fringe the roadway to Mill Hill, at a short distance westward of the church. The village green extends at least a quarter of a mile south from the church, gradually widening out into a leg-of-mutton form, and fringed on either side with rows of elms and other trees of a dark foliage. It is very picturesque and rural.

Totteridge has lately been brought more near to the great metropolis by the opening of a new station in the low ground between it and Whetstone, on the High Barnet branch of the Great Northern Railway.

At the beginning of the present century Totteridge had 48 houses and a population of 280 souls. The census returns for 1871 showed that these had increased respectively to 91 and 474. In 1881 the number of the inhabitants was 656.

The roads about Totteridge are still anything but good in the winter, the soil being hereabouts a stiff clay; but they are better now than a century or two ago, when the carriage folk would send fagots to be laid in the ruts on the road which they intended to travel, and put four horses to their carriages, not by way of display, but of necessity. We find Lord Montague writing to the Privy Council, in the reign of Charles II., to apologise for his absence from one of its meetings on the plea of the badness of the roads.

The church is generally said to be dedicated to St. Andrew, and Thorne, in his "Environs of London," repeats the blunder. Being attached to Bishop's Hatfield, and thereby connected with the see of Ely, it was dedicated to St. Etheldreda, who was generally known as St. Audrey, and the transition from "St. Audrey" to "St. Andrew" was easy.

The former church, having become rickety and unsafe. was pulled down in 1789, when the present

on the property was possessed successively by Sir John Aubrey, Sir Thomas Aleyne, Sir Peter Mayer, and Sir John Sheffield, from whom it passed to the Pugets, with whose family it still continues.

Copped Hall, which stands on the Green, facing the Church, was for some years the seat of Sir E. Bulwer Lytton. Whilst staying here he would constantly pay visits to the battle-field of Barnet, to which he has given such interest in his "Last of the Barons."* The estate is about a hundred acres, well timbered, and planted with avenues of limes and other trees. A fine dining-room and conservatory have been added by the present owner, Mr. Bolton.

Half a century ago the property was owned by Mr. William Manning, M.P., and Governor of the Bank of England, the father of Cardinal Manning, who was born here in 1809. The Cardinal was educated at Harrow, and Balliol College, Oxford, and was afterwards a Fellow of Weston College. He resigned his rectory of Graffham, Sussex, and the Archdeaconry of Chichester in 1851, when he became a Roman Catholic. In 1865 he was consecrated Archbishop of Westminster, and he was created a Cardinal in 1875. The Cardinal's elder brother, who died young, lies buried at the east end of the churchyard. Mr. Manning probably came to live at Totteridge on account of its proximity to Highwood, at Mill Hill, where Mr. William Wilberforce was then living, both being "pillars" of the "Evangelical" faith, as taught by Wesley and Simeon.

From the Mannings the estate of Copped Hall passed to the Scarletts, and from them to a building speculator, who sold it to Lord Lytton. His lordship, however, lived here only occasionally, his chief seat being in another part of the county, at Knebworth, near Stevenage. He added largely to this place, however, and re-faced the outside, which he made to resemble an Italian villa, with a terraced front, adorning the upper portion with classical heads, copied from genuine antiques. He hung the library with tapestry, painted the

See ante, p. 326.

,,

ceilings of the chief rooms in the Italian fashion, repeating in several compartments his own initials E. B. L., and adding over the mantelpiece the motto so accordant with his taste, "Absque Musis frigent Lares." He stayed here off and on between 1858 and 1875, during which time he wrote "Pelham," "Lucretia," and the "Last of the Barons." The terrace in the rear of the house commands extensive views, extending to Hampstead, Highgate, and Harrow, with peeps of the Surrey Hills beyond. The rivulet which divides the two counties, flows at the bottom of the parklike grounds, and is dammed up into a lake which covers four acres. Mr. Manning planted in the grounds a "spinney," or circular plantation, consisting of a variety of forest trees, to commemorate the jubilee of George III.

The mansion in Totteridge Park, at the western extremity of the village, on the right-hand side of the road leading to Hendon, occupies the site of the old manor house, and its successor, a small hunting-seat, which was purchased from Lord Bateman by Sir William Lee, the Lord Chief Justice mentioned above. He enlarged the mansion, and resided there for many years. The present house, which has been recently converted into a boarding-school for boys, is a large red brick edifice, consisting of a centre and wings, and crowned by an octagonal domed clock-turret. It stands in a finely-wooded park, about 100 acres in extent, and is approached through a broad avenue of elms. In the "Memoirs of Baron Bunsen" it is stated that the Baron lived here in 1848 and the following year, and that during that time he here entertained many distinguished visitors, and greatly enjoyed the grounds, with their "grand trees, those lofty firs, the pride of Totteridge, the fine terrace, the charming garden," and its general surroundings. "Oh, how thankful," he wrote, "I am for this Totteridge! Could I but describe the groups of fine trees, the turf, the terrace walks!"

Among other mansions at Totteridge is one standing in what is now called the Wykeham Rise Estate. It was formerly well known as the residence of the late Dr. Shuttleworth, Bishop of Chichester.

Whetstone.]

335

WHETSTONE lies to the east of Totteridge, from which village it is distant about a mile, the station of Totteridge and Whetstone, on the High Barnet branch of the Great Northern Railway, serving as a means of communication for both places. Till recently it was a portion of the parish of Friern Barnet, which lies to the east of it. It was, however, cut off from the mother parish, and made a separate ecclesiastical district in 1833, a portion of Finchley being at the same time embodied in it. The district round about it still retains some features of its once rural character, in spite of large building operations, and is situated at the northeastern extremity of the hundred of Ossulston.

Whether the name of Whetstone has anything to do with that vicious locality called Whetstone Park, on the north side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, we know not. Neither Lysons nor the author of the "Beauties of England" offer any suggestion as to the derivation of the name; they simply state that it is the name given to "a manor in Friern Barnet." The local tradition that the place derived its name from a large stone which was there found, and on which the soldiers sharpened their swords and battle-axes preparatory to the Battle of Barnet, is almost too absurd to be mentioned seriously, and may be dismissed with a smile.

The church, dedicated to St. John, stands on the west side of the road at the south end of the village. It is a small brick structure, of the commonplace type of the time, and is shut in from the roadway by a high brick wall, partly overhung with ivy. A chapel is supposed to have been originally built here early in the fifteenth century, in the Perpendicular style. The present building, however, as may be guessed from the date of its erection, is but a poor attempt at Gothic architecture. Till 1879 it was an oblong chapel-like building, with small rectangular turrets or pinnacles at each of its four corners, and a small bell-turret in the centre of the west gable. In the above year, however, a chancel was added to the existing nave, a vaulted roof replaced the old flat ceiling, and EarlyEnglish windows were inserted. The window at

the east end is of stained glass, and was inserted as a memorial of two members of the Baxendale family, whose residence is in the neighbourhood.

The village contains one or two chapels and schools, and since the opening of the railway the place has rapidly increased in growth and population. In 1871 the number of the inhabitants was over 2,300, and in the course of the next decade this has been considerably increased. A large district, called Oakleigh Park, has lately become in part built over with terraces and modest villas; these, however, have not materially altered the oldfashioned look of the main street, which, as of yore, still contains, for the size of the village, a large number of roadside inns, taverns, and alehouses.

George Morland, the artist,* whose delight was to pass his time in village taverns, and then perchance to balance his "score" by painting a signboard for the worthy host, met with a slight contretemps on one occasion when passing through this village. Allan Cunningham, in his "Life of Morland," tells the following anecdote about him. "He once (we are told) received an invitation to Barnet, and was hastening thither with two friends, when he was stopped at Whetstone turnpike by a lumber or jockey cart, driven by two persons, one of them a chimney-sweep, who were disputing with the toll-gatherer. Morland endeavoured to pass, when one of the wayfarers cried, 'What! Mr. Morland, won't you speak to a body!' The artist endeavoured to elude further greeting, but this was not to be; the other bawled out so lustily that Morland was obliged to recognise at last his companion and crony, Hooper, a tinman and pugilist. After a hearty shake of the hand, the boxer turned to his neighbour the chimney-sweep, and said, Why, Dick, don't you know this here gentleman ? 'tis my friend, Mr. Morland.' The sooty charioteer, smiling a recognition, forced his unwelcome hand upon his brother of the brush; they then both whipt their horses and departed. This rencontre

See "Old and New London," Vol. V., p. 222.