The Brighton Road: The Classic Highway to the SouthHarper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
The Brighton Road: The Classic Highway to the South
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
Brighton Road (London, England); England -- Description and travel; England -- Social life and customs
At the right-hand turning, in midst of a group of fir-trees, stands the
prehistoric tumulus known to the rustics as "Tumble Beacon." "Tumble" is
probably the rural version of "tumulus."
Beyond this point, on a site now occupied by a cottage, stood the
once-famed "Tangier" inn. Originally a private residence, the seat of
Admiral Buckle,[10] who named it "Tangier," in memory of his cruises on
the north coast of Africa, it became a house of call for coaches, and
especially for post-chaises. Here, we are told, George the Fourth
invariably halted for a glass of Miss Jeal's celebrated "alderbury"--that
is to say elderberry-wine--"roking hot," to keep out the piercing cold,
and Miss Jeal brought it forth with her own fair hands. Other travellers,
who were merely persons, and not personages, had to be content with the
less fair hands of the waiter.
The "Tangier" was burnt down about 1874. For some years after its
destruction a platform that led from the house to the roadside, on a level
with the floors of the coaches and post-chaises, survived; but only the
cellars now remain. The woods at the back are, however, still locally
known as "Tangier Woods."
Burgh Heath, at the summit of these downs, is a curious place called
usually "Borough" Heath: it is in Domesday "Berge." As its name not
obscurely hints, and the half-obliterated barrows show, it is a place of
ancient habitation and sepulture; but nowadays it is chiefly remarkable
for the descendants of the original squatters of about a century ago, who,
braving the cold of these heights, settled on what was then an exceedingly
lonely heath and stole whatever land they pleased. That was the origin of
the hamlet of Burgh Heath. The descendants of those filibusters have in
most cases rebuilt the original hovels, but it is still a somewhat forlorn
place, made sordid by the tumbledown pigsties and sheds on the heath in
which they have acquired a prescriptive freehold.
[Sidenote: RUSSELL OF KILLOWEN]
Passing Lion Bottom, or Wilderness Bottom, we come to Tadworth Corner,
past the grounds of Tadworth Court, late the seat of Lord Russell of
Killowen, better known as Sir Charles Russell. He was created a Baron in
1894, on his becoming Lord Chief Justice: but the title was--at his own
desire--limited to a life-peerage, and consequently at his death in 1900
became extinct. At Tadworth, in the horsey neighbourhood of Epsom, he was
as much at home as in the Law Courts, and neither so judicial nor
restrained, as those who remember his peppery temper and the objurgatory
language of his "Here, you, where the ---- -- are you ---- -- coming to,
you ---- ----, you!" will admit. There seems, in fact, an especial fitness
in his residence on this Regency Road, for his speech was the speech
rather of that, than of the more mealy mouthed Victorian, period.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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