And wet his grave with my repentant tears.
So he makes the hypocritical Duke of Gloucester speak. Cowley, the poet, lived in Chertsey for two years before his death. The house still stands; it has an overhanging storey and is covered with rough stucco. Charles James Fox was born in a house near, and this probably decided him in making choice of a residence many years later, for he chose St. Anne's Hill, only two miles away, which can be seen far and wide around. There he settled to indulge in the delightful hobby of improving his grounds.
Below Chertsey Bridge is an excellent punting reach, where the championship punting competition is held every year in the beginning of August. This is, doubtless, the reason why Chertsey is crowded with visitors in the summer, when out of all the innumerable lodgings scarcely a room is to be had.
The river about Weybridge and Shepperton is much more varied than at Chertsey, and to my mind variety is a direct element of beauty in river scenery. We have passed through flat meadows lined with straight ranks of Lombardy poplars that might belong to northern France, and then suddenly, at Weybridge, we begin once more curves and twists and unexpected islands and snug corners. There is a ferry across the river, and the place seems to get along wonderfully well without a bridge. In the middle of the stream is a well-kept island which belonged to the late Mr. D'Oyly Carte; it is hedged about with an exclusive wall, enclosing a pretty garden. In the centre is a neat white house with projecting tiles.
In every direction there are numerous boat-building establishments. The lock island is large and has other buildings on it besides the lock-keeper's cottage. It is a favourite camping ground in summer, and has rather an untidy appearance. The wide-mouthed Wey flows in beside a couple of other islands, and is itself a very attractive place to explore, winding away through meadows and beneath overhanging trees. It is, however, not free from locks, though of a somewhat simpler kind than those on the Thames. Weybridge is a fresh and pleasant place, rapidly growing in all directions, and in its gorsy common land and masses of pine woods it reminds one of the parts of Surrey about Camberley. On the green stands the column which once presented seven faces to the seven streets in London, called after it Seven Dials. Since then it has risen in life, having been bought and surmounted with a coronet instead of the dial stone; this was in honour of the Duchess of York, who died in 1820. She lived at Oatlands Park and was very popular.
Oatlands Park is the great place of the neighbourhood. It was once a hunting ground of King Henry VIII., but now belongs to a large residential hotel. Nothing remains of the building, which was used by many of our English monarchs. George IV. entertained here the Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia, and all the princes and generals who visited England after Waterloo. In 1790 the Duke of York, who is commemorated by the column in Waterloo Place, bought and rebuilt the house, and still later it was in the possession of the Earl of Ellesmere. Remodelled, the house still stands as the hotel. A large piece of ornamental water in the grounds is almost as great an attraction as Virginia Water. Just where the park touches the river is the place known as Cowey Stakes. It is said that here Cæsar crossed the river when in pursuit of Cassivelaunus, in 54 B.C. The stakes, which are no longer to be seen, are supposed to have been placed there to obstruct his use of the ford. They had been so long under water, that when found they were like ebony; they were about six feet long and shod with iron. They appear to have been too imposing and carefully formed to have been put in for the mere purpose of a river weir or for fishing; but, on the other hand, instead of running with the axis of the river, as would appear reasonable if they were meant to obstruct the passage of men, they were planted across it like a weir. They have afforded matter for endless discussion among antiquaries.
WALTON BRIDGE
What we know is that Cæsar, having landed at Pevensey, marched inland and came to the Thames at about eighty miles from the sea. The river was fordable only at one place, and here natives were drawn up to oppose him, and the ford fortified with sharp stakes. So the evidence certainly seems in favour of this place.