Copt Hall and Upshire.
The road back to Waltham turns out of the Epping highway directly opposite the camp, and takes us by the main entrance and lodges of Copt Hall, once the stately seat of the abbots of Waltham, who frequently entertained royal heads, potent princes, and great nobles here. Robert Fuller, the last abbot, surrendered the beautiful mansion and domain to Henry VIII. at the Dissolution. In later times Copt Hall was the residence of the Princess Mary, subsequently the seat of the Earl of Middlesex, patron of old Thomas Fuller, and is now held by the Wythes family. Half a mile further on we enter the pretty hamlet of Upshire, with its broad expanse of green and pretty little church, built a year or two ago by Sir T. Fowell Buxton, Bart., lord of the manor, whose fine domain of Warlies stretches far away over the undulating country to the north. The entrance to Warlies is passed at the bottom of the hill. Thence the way is by a pleasant country road, running through fields and pastures, with here and there a farm-house or a group of cottages, to Waltham Abbey again.
CHAPTER III.
WALTHAM CROSS AND THEOBALDS
Waltham Cross, which is not to be confounded with Waltham Holy Cross, commonly called Waltham Abbey, for whilst the latter is in Essex, the former is in Hertfordshire, and forms part of the parish of Cheshunt. To reach Waltham Cross, the visitor must retrace his steps towards the railway, and passing over this, the historic monument, which stands at the junction with the old Great North Road—is reached by a walk of five minutes’ duration.
Waltham Cross was one of the several similar monuments erected to the memory of Queen Eleanor by her devoted husband, Edward I. She died at Herdby, near Grantham, on November 12, 1290, whence her remains were conveyed to Westminster for interment by stages which were marked by ten crosses. Of these only the crosses at Geddington, Northampton, and Waltham remain.
Waltham Cross has long been admired as an elegant specimen of Early English or Middle Pointed architecture. It is hexagonal in form, and consists of three handsome stages or storeys, each terminated by an embattled frieze, whilst the angles are respectively supported by a graduated buttress, ornamented with foliated finials. Within the panels of the lower storey are shields bearing the arms of England, Castile, and Leon and Poictou; whilst statues of Queen Eleanor occupy niches on the second storey.
The Four Swans Inn.
Each corner of the road that here debouches upon the main high road is occupied by an inn, that nearer London being the Falcon, and the other the Four Swans. Both are survivals of that period of prosperity when the coaches between London and Cambridge sped along the road. Whilst, however, the Falcon has been rebuilt in recent times—a work which made possible the widening of the roadway and the preservation of the Cross—the Four Swans retains very much of its old-time glory, and its sign is still stretched across the main street, forming an advertisement of such a conspicuous character as would not be admissible now-a-days. The interior of this inn possesses many of those interesting features which are generally attached to old coaching and posting houses, and in its oldest portion is a handsome Jacobean staircase. Its foundation, however, dates far beyond even coaching days, for the house originally formed part of the possessions of the Abbey, of which it was a guest house, whilst the Abbot’s manorial court was held here. The oldest part of the house is that to the left of the gateway on entering, and it is highly probable that the suite of rooms in which the tenants assembled—described by Dr. Stukeley in 1752 as being “where the chimneys are”—were contained in this wing, whilst the older portion of the spacious apartment over the gateway, now used as a masonic hall, formed the abbot’s court-room. At other times the place was used for the lodgement of pilgrims and similar purposes. The sign of the Four Swans, the only one that I have met with, is derived from the arms of Earl Harold, whose shield had emblazoned upon it a cross with four swans.
