As the chief marketing-place of the barge population, whose women, in their picturesque sun-bonnets and rough-and-ready costumes, may often be seen hurrying through its streets, the old town on the Brent is still to some extent in touch with rural England; but from the adjacent Ealing, that is its parent parish, and from its dependencies Acton and Gunnersbury, all individual character seems to have been eliminated, little remaining to recall the days when the manor-house of Ealing was one of the outlying residences of the Bishop of London, and the whole neighbourhood was dotted with the country seats of the great nobles. Acton, the name of which signifies the oak-town, now a singular misnomer, was once the proud owner of a fashionable spa, but is now chiefly given over to washerwomen; and Gunnersbury, the history of which can be traced back to Saxon times, for it is named after Gunyld, a niece of King Canute, has lost nearly all its historic landmarks, though the modern Gunnersbury House, on the site of a mansion designed by Inigo Jones, once occupied by Princess Amelia, preserves to it a certain distinction. [Sidenote: Greenford Parva] Very different from Brentford, Ealing, Acton, or Gunnersbury is the not distant Greenford Parva, that, though it is scarcely more than eight miles from Hyde Park Corner, is still, and seems likely to remain, one of the most secluded-looking spots in suburban Middlesex. Romantically situated in the valley of the Brent in the midst of beautiful meadows, the hamlet of Greenford Parva, the name {278} of which, now condensed into Perivale, is said to signify the green ford in the pure vale, consists of but a few farms and cottages, but it prides itself on the possession of a church of its own, a quaint little building of unknown dedication, uncertain date, and doubtful style, with a narrow nave, a yet smaller chancel, in the south-west corner of which is a tiny hagioscope, and a square wooden tower, surmounted by a low spire. Within this primitive structure, one of the smallest places of worship in England, is an old font, the lid of which bears the date 1665, and some very ancient stained glass has been skilfully dovetailed into the comparatively modern windows. [Illustration: PERIVALE CHURCH]