as it was he who had brought in the Catholic bark of dogs, the hum of traffic in the streets; then Bill." To the readers of "Barnaby Rudge," the assertion that a century ago highwaymen and foot pads were to be met with on the road between Chigwell and Whitechapel will be no news at all. This road too, probably about Stratford, must have been in Dickens's eye when he drew the following picture of the meeting of Barnaby Rudge and Gabriel Varden :-" And now he approached the great city, which lay outstretched before him like outlines might be traced-tall steeples looming in the air, and piles of unequal roofs oppressed by chimneys; then the noise swelled into a louder sound, and forms grew more distinct and numerous still, and London-visible in the darkness by its own faint light, and not by that of Heaven-was at hand." The following lines show us the same road under a different aspect :-"Everything was fresh and gay, as though the world were but that a da shadow on the ground, reddening the sluggish air with a deep dull ght, that told of labyrinths of public ways and shops, and swarms of busy people. Approaching nearer and nearer yet, this halo began to fade, and the causes which produced it slowly to develop themselves. Long lines of poorly-lighted streets might be faintly traced, with here and there a lighter spot, where lamps were clustered round a square or market, or round some great building; after a time these grew more distinct, and the lamps themselves were visible-slight yellow specks, that seemed. to be rapidly snuffed out, one by one, as intervening obstacles hid them from the sight. Then sounds arose the striking of church clocks, the distant CHIGWELL. morning made, when Mr. Chester rode at a tranquil pace along the forest road. . . . In the course of time, the 'Maypole's' massive chimneys rose upon his view; but he quickened not his pace one jot, and with the same cool gravity rode up to the tavern porch. John Willet, who was toasting his red face before a great fire in the bar, and who, with surpassing foresight and quickness of apprehension, had been thinking, as he looked at the blue sky, that if that state of things lasted much longer it might ultimately become necessary to leave off fires and throw the windows open, issued forth to hold his stirrup; called lustily for Hugh." "It was a long time before there was such a country inn as the Maypole' in all England: indeed, it is a great question whether there has ever been such another to this hour, or ever will be. It was a long time, too-for Never, as the proverb says, is a long day—before they forgot to have an interest in wounded soldiers at the 'Maypole,' or before Joe omitted to refresh them, for the sake of his old campaign; or before the sergeant left off looking in there now and then; or before they fatigued themselves, or each other, by talking on these occasions of battles and sieges, and hard weather, and hard service, and a thousand things belonging to a soldier's life. As to the great silver snuff-box which the king sent Joe Willet with his own hand, because of his conduct in the Riots, what guest ever went to the 'Maypole' without putting finger and thumb into that box, and taking a great pinch, though he had never taken a pinch of snuff before, and almost sneezed himself into convulsions even then? As to the purple-faced vintner, where is the man who lived in those days and never saw him at the 'Maypole,' to all appearance as much at home in the best room as if he lived there? And as to the feastings, and christenings, and revellings at Christmas, and celebrations of birthdays, wedding-days, and all manner of days, both at the 'Maypole' and the 'Golden Key'--if they are not notorious, what facts are? 457 door to look at them, and coming forth again, suffused with the liveliest satisfaction. * "It was remarkable that although he had that dim sense of the past, he sought out Hugh's dog, and took him under his care; and that he never could be tempted into London. When the Riots were many years old, and Edward and his wife came back to England, with a family almost as numerous as Dolly's, and one day appeared at the Maypole' porch, he knew them instantly, and wept and leaped for joy. But neither to visit them, nor on any other pretence, no matter how full of promise and enjoyment, could he be persuaded to set foot in the street; nor did he ever conquer his repugnance or look upon the town again." About a mile and a half to the south-east of the church is Chigwell Row, or, as it really ought to be called, Chigwell Rough,* a hamlet running along the high ridge which extends eastward towards Lamborne and Romford. Half a century ago one would have naturally described it as lying on the borders of Hainault Forest; but, thanks to the lax administration of the Woods and Forests, and the greed of the lords of the surrounding manors and other landowners, those pleasant glades have long since been disafforested and enclosed, and the beauty of the district is gone. It may have come to be called the "Row" because a series of villas and mansions were built along the north side of it, the south side being left open. It commands a fine view of the Thames from London to Gravesend, and over Kent from Shooter's Hill to the Knockholt Beeches near Sevenoaks. At its easternmost end is a "Maypole" Inn, but not the veritable "Maypole" of Charles Dickens's novel. of the villas on the north side was occupied for some years by Mr. Thomas Faed, R.A., the celebrated Scottish artist; Woodlands, the only large house on the south, was the residence of the late Mr. Joseph Walford, Q.C., a man whose name will be long remembered in these parts, not only as a lawyer, but as a Toxophilite, and the life and soul of the Epping and Harlow Archery Balls. "Mr. Willet the elder, having been by some extraordinary means possessed with the idea that Joe wanted to be married, and that it would be well for him, his father, to retire into private life, and enable him to live in comfort, took up his abode in a small cottage at Chigwell, where they widened and enlarged the fire-place for him, hung up the boiler, and furthermore planted in the little garden outside the front-door a fictitious maypole; so that he was quite at home directly. To this, his new habitation, Tom Cobb, Phil Parkes, and Solomon Daisy, went regularly every night, and in the chimney-corner, they all four quaffed, and smoked, and prosed, and dozed, as they had done of old. It being accidentally discovered after a short time that Mr. Willet still appeared to consider himself a landlord by profession, Joe provided him with a slate, upon which the old man regularly scored up vast accounts for meat, drink, and tobacco. As he grew older this passion increased upon him; and it became his delight to chalk against the name of each of his cronies a sum of enormous magnitude, and impossible to be paid; and such was his secret joy in these entries, that he would be perpetually seen going behind the corruption of "rough." One Chigwell Row has lately been made a separate ecclesiastical district, and a church has been erected for its wants on some waste land, which abutted on the forest. At the corner of Chigwell Row stands Bowls, the seat of the Stuart family. It probably derived its name from an old inn where bowls were played which once covered its site. Indeed, it is generally supposed that the word "row is only a The celebrated picture of "The Woodman," by Gainsborough, from which many prints and drawings have been made, was done from a hale woodcutter who worked for Dr. Webster, of Chigwell Row. Near Chigwell Row was a spring of mineral waters, of a purgative character. It was discovered about the reign of James II. or William III., and written up by Dr. Frewen, a native of Chigwell, but it never attained any great celebrity or popularity. CHAPTER XLIX. WOODFORD AND WALTHAMSTOW. A brotherhood of venerable trees."-WORDSWorth. Boundaries of Woodford-Its Etymology-Its Subdivision-Descent of the Manor-The Manorial Custom of "Borough English "-Woodford Hall-Census Returns-Woodford Bridge-The Church-Claybury Hall-Ray House-Church End, Woodford-The Parish ChurchWoodford Hall-Mrs. Gladstone's Convalescent Home-A Pauper's Legacy-Woodford Green - Congregational Church-The Union Church -Art and Industrial Society, and Social Institutions-Harts-Monkhams-The Firs-Prospect Hall-Woodford Wells-"The Horse and Well "-Knighton House-The Manor House-Noted Residents-Walthamstow-Its Area and General Appearance-Walthamstow SlipCensus Returns-Etymology of Walthamstow-Descent of the Manor-Highams-Salisbury Hall-Chapel End-Bellevue House-The Parish Church-Almshouses-Walthamstow House-Benjamin Disraeli's School-days-Noted Residents of Walthamstow-The Town Hall, and other Public Institutions-Hoe Street-Hale End-Marsh Street-St. James's-The Reservoirs of the East London Waterworks Company -Geological Discoveries -An Old Bridge-St. Stephen's Church-Whip's Cross-St. Peter's Church, Forest Side-Forest Grammar School. ONCE more, as may be inferred from the lines | lordships given by Earl Harold to the Abbey of which we have chosen as a motto for this chapter, we have found ourselves back amidst the dingles and shady groves of Epping Forest, of which there is still a considerable slice remaining within the boundary of the parish of Woodford. This is a very large and scattered parish, extending from Walthamstow in the west to Chigwell in the east, and from Chingford and Buckhurst Hill in the north to Snaresbrook and Wanstead in the south. The parish derives its name from the "ford" over the river Roding, where now is Woodford Bridge, on the road to Chigwell, but which once, doubtless, was in the midst of a "wood" of oaks and hornbeams. The river Roding, it may be added, was at that time of more importance than now, and is said to have been navigable for light barges as high above Woodford as Abridge. Woodford includes the four districts of Old Woodford (or Church End, as it is popularly called), Woodford Green, Woodford Wells, and Woodford Bridge. Of these, the three first lie, in the order above named, along the high road from London to Epping. They are all remarkable for the broad belts or tracts of open woodland which skirt the road on either side, compelling the houses for the most part to retreat gracefully from the dusty highway. The parish forms part of the Hundred of Becontree-the last hundred in the county Londonward. This hundred, with the privilege of baronial authority, anciently belonged to the monastery of Barking, but after the dissolution it passed to the Crown. "Woodford," writes Mr. James Jones in his local Directory, 66 was one of the seventeen Waltham, and was confirmed to that house by the denotes its derivation from our Saxon ancestors. According to Littleton's 'Tenures,' it is very improperly called Borough-English. His words are: 'Some boroughs have a custom that if a man have issue many sons, and dieth, the youngest shall inherit all the tenements which were his father's within the said borough as heir unto his father, by force of the custom which is called Borough-English.' Upon which Sir Edward Coke makes this remark: 'Neither in an uplande towne can there be a custom of Borough-English, or gavelkinde; but these are customs which may in cities or boroughs."" The manor-house of Woodford, called the Hall, trustees of Mrs. Gladstone's Convalescent Home, and most happily utilised in aid of suffering humanity, mostly in the person of Londoners. The parish of Woodford contains within its bounds some 2,150 acres. In 1821 the population was 2,700, which number had increased in 1871 to 4,600, and this again during the next ten years to upwards of 7,100. Woodford has two stations on the Epping and Ongar branch of the Great Eastern Railway, about a mile apart one at George Lane, for Church End; and the other further eastward, in Snake's Lane, for Woodford Green and Woodford Bridge. The hamlet of Woodford Bridge, as stated above, is so called because it stands near a bridge across the Roding, which here is quite a pretty rural stream, making its way between green meadows and pollard willows, and looking as if it was the haunt of kingfishers and other aquatic birds. A triangular village green, planted with tall elms, stands on the rising ground by the roadside, near Claybury Hill. Here a new church was erected in 1854. It is built in the Early English style, and forms an ornament. It is sad to record the fact that the beauty of this spot has been sadly spoilt by speculative builders, who have contrived to disfigure the green with most hideous and abnormal structures. "The road over the bridge, leading to the pretty village of Chigwell," writes a local historian, "is one of the ancient Essex roads into Suffolk and Norfolk. Along this road probably the monks travelled when conveying from London the re mains of King Edward the Martyr for re-interment at Bury St. Edmunds in 1013, and which, on their way there, were deposited for one night by the monks in a wooden chapel, or shrine, now the little ancient church of Greenstreet, or Greensted, near Chipping Ongar, Essex." The following brief notice of this place appeared in the Ambulator, published in 1793:-" Woodford Bridge, a village in the parish of Woodford, nine miles from London, on the road to Ongar, situated on a fine eminence, forming a very picturesque appearance. Near the bridge is a neat pump of excellent water, brought hither in 1776 at a great expense by the proprietor of the estate for the accommodation of the poor inhabitants; and not far from this is a manufactory of artificial stone. Near the village is Ray House, the seat of Sir James Wright, Bart. (the proprietor of the artificial stone manufactory), and a pretty villa built by Cæsar Corsellis, Esq., on the site of a house that had been the residence of Mrs. Eleanor Gwynne, mother of Charles first Duke of St. Albans." But the abode of Nell Gwynne in this locality, it is to be feared, is not 2 very trustworthy tradition. Claybury Hall stands on high ground southward of Woodford Bridge, near the green, and at one time commanded some extensive views of forest scenery. Towards the end of the last century the estate was enlarged by the then owner, Mr. James Hatch, who had purchased the mansion and grounds of Luxborough House, mentioned in the preceding chapter, the former of which he pulled down, and the latter, with some others, he added to his own demesne. The Ray House is still standing, in Snake's Lane, a little to the west of Woodford Bridge. It was formerly the seat of the Clevelands and Hannots, and was purchased in 1770 by the above-mentioned Sir James Wright, who was some time Governor of Virginia, and afterwards minister at Venice. manufactory which he established here was for the production of artificial slates, "by a process he had learned at Venice." Lysons, in his "Environs of London" (1796), in speaking of this manufactory, says: "This slate is used for covering roofs and fronts of houses; for making pendent frames for hay-ricks and stacks of corn, and safe guards to preserve them from vermin; it is also used for water pipes and gutters. The buildings where the manufacture is carried on are of this slate, and were erected about thirty years ago." The western end of Snake's Lane opens into the main road through Woodford to Epping. The principal part of Woodford, or Church End, lies a little to the south. It is a village of scattered mansions, nearly all standing in their own grounds. It comprises no regular High Street, and scarcely a row of shops. The church, dedicated to St. Margaret, is, with the exception of the tower, a commonplace specimen of the Gothic style of architecture which was in vogue at the time of its erection, in 1817, when it was built on the site of a previous structure, ruthlessly demolished in the previous year. There is a print of the old church as it was before it was pulled down in 1816, but it is very scarce. It was an irregular nondescript edifice, covered over with plaster, so as to conceal any distinctive features. The tower was surmounted by a cupola, and had small pinnacles at the corners, instead of being battlemented, as now. The present church, which is built of brick, coated with stucco, consists of a nave, aisles, chancel, and south porch, with the tower above mentioned, which has been left standing. The nave is separated from the aisles by six pointed arches, carried up to the roof, which is of open wood-work, supported by eight pillars, and surmounted in the centre by an octagonal lantern. The east window is filled with painted glass, containing figures of our Saviour, the four Evangelists, and St. Peter and St. Paul. A monument in the north-east corner of the church commemorates Elizabeth Lee, Countess of Lichfield; and there is a brass on the south wall to a Mr. Wynche, dated 1590. Near it is a tablet to the memory of Mr. Errington, who died in 1595. On the east wall is a tablet to the memory of a daughter of Sir Josiah Child, brought from Wan |