Thames Valley Villages, Volume 2 (of 2)Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
Thames Valley Villages, Volume 2 (of 2)
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
Thames Valley (England)
What constitutes such? The answer is that it largely depends upon the
distance from London. Here we are some twenty miles from town, and by
reason of that fact, and all it means, the suburban residences are
expensive and imposing, and stand, many of them, in their own somewhat
extensive grounds. Thus, the original village and village green, to which
these developments of modern times have been added, remain not altogether
spoiled, and come as a pleasant surprise to that explorer who first makes
acquaintance with Weybridge from the direction of the railway station,
from which a typically conventional straight suburban road leads,
lengthily and formally. On the village green stands a memorial column to
a former Duchess of York, who died in 1820, at Oatlands Park, near by,
and has another monument in the church. The column is intrinsically much
more interesting for itself than as a monument to a duchess whom every
one has long since forgotten, for it is nothing less than the original
pillar set up at Seven Dials in London, about 1694, and thrown down in
1773. It remained, neglected and in fragments, in a builder’s yard, until
it was purchased for its present use, and removed hither in 1822. Another
memorial of that forgotten duchess is found in Weybridge church, a great
modern building, built in 1848, and enlarged in 1864, with an additional
south aisle. It stands on the site of an older church, is remarkable
rather for size than excellence, and contains some really terrible
stained glass. The sculptured memorial to the Duchess is by Chantery, but
it is not a very good example of his work. She is represented kneeling,
with her coronet flung behind. This, and other memorials removed from the
older building, are all huddled together in the tower. Among them is a
truly dreadful brass, representing three skeletons—among the very worst
products of a diseased imagination to be found in the length and breadth
of the land. It ought to be destroyed; and it really seems as though some
one had entertained the idea, for the head of one of the figures has
disappeared.
The river winds extravagantly at Weybridge, where it receives the waters
of the river Wey and the Bourne, and is full of islands and backwaters.
Some way downstream, and on the Middlesex shore, is little Shepperton,
one of the most secluded places imaginable, consisting of a church,
a neighbouring inn—the King’s Head—and some old-fashioned country
residences. It forms a pretty scene. In the churchyard there will be
found a stone with some verses, to
Margaret Love Peacock, Born 1823, Died 1826, one of the
children of Thomas Love Peacock who lived many years at Lower
Halliford, and died there, 1866.
[4] The battle of Sedgemoor was fought beside the Bussex Rhine.
[Illustration: INTERIOR, LITTLETON CHURCH.]
CHAPTER VIII
COWAY STAKES—WALTON-ON-THAMES—THE RIVER AND THE WATER
COMPANIES—SUNBURY—TEDDINGTON—TWICKENHAM.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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