Surrey: Painted by Sutton Palmer; Described by A.R. Hope MoncrieffMoncrieff, A. R. Hope (Ascott Robert Hope)
History
Surrey: Painted by Sutton Palmer; Described by A.R. Hope Moncrieff
Moncrieff, A. R. Hope (Ascott Robert Hope)
Surrey (England) -- Description and travel
Below the Castle, on the opposite side of the high-road, stands the
Parish Church, among whose memorials the most interesting is the tomb of
William Cobbett beside the porch. Inside the building also is a tablet
in his honour, as could hardly have been foreseen by that porcupinish
Tory-democrat, whose quills were so readily roused at the very name of a
parson. He is believed, not without question, to have been born at the
"Jolly Farmer" Inn, near the station; and he died at Normandy Farm, on
the north side of the Hog's Back. Amid his crabbed grumblings and
cross-grained whims, his heart always warms at the recollection of
boyish toils and pranks about Farnham, his early entrance on life as an
unschooled bird-scarer, his games of rolling and sliding down the sandy
sides of Crooksbury, his bird's-nesting sport on its tall trees, his
trotting after the hounds, and his malicious trick of drawing a red
herring across a hare's scent to revenge himself for a cut from the
huntsman's whip.
Another memory honoured at Farnham is that of Augustus Toplady, author
of "Rock of Ages," better known than "Rural Rides," who was born here,
1740. Izaak Walton was a sojourner at the Castle, and must have had many
a day on the Wey, as in his old age on the Itchen. A writer of our own
time connected with Farnham was "Edna Lyall," more than one of whose
novels contains sympathetic descriptions of the scenery around
"Firdale," the quiet market-town that "wound its long street of
red-roofed houses along a sheltered valley, in between fir-crowned
heights."
But more resounding names are familiar in this neighbourhood. Just
outside of the town, down the Wey, lies Moor Park, the seat of Sir
William Temple, whose saturnine dependant Swift here ate the bitter
bread of servitude, and at least began _A Tale of a Tub_, that would
make such an inspiring model for Cobbett, the gardener's boy, who on his
runaway trip to Kew spent all the coppers he had left on a copy of it,
curiosity being for once stronger than hunger. For a time Moor Park was
turned into a Hydropathic Establishment. A recent owner tried to shut up
the old right of way through it, but was sturdily withstood by the
Cobbetts of this generation; and one can walk unquestioned right beside
the house and garden, where Temple's heart is buried under a sundial;
then on past the cavern keeping green the name of Mother Ludlam, a
mistily white witch, whose caldron is still shown in Frensham Church.
Thus may be reached the farther gate near the Wey, beside which a
restored cottage is pointed out by vague tradition as the abode either
of Swift or of Stella, or as their meeting-place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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