Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/517

 12 S. I. JUNE 24, 1916.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

511

education was on the system of Pierce Egan's ' Life in London,' with results ac- cordingly. It will not be forgotten that it was Berkeley who felled James Fraser, the publisher, with a blow because a maiden work of his had been savagely reviewed by Dr. William Maginn in Fraser 's Magazine for August, 1836. Berkeley also wrote ' The Reminiscences of a Huntsman,' and both books contain good stories of Harlington and the neighbourhood.

The first volume of Grantley Berkeley's ' My Life ' should be consulted by your -correspondent. Much of Berkeley's youth was spent in the open with a gamekeeper, about one hundred and twenty years ago :

" Among other things he taught us to apply to a gun the sexual distinction of ' she,' and to drink beer at the Coach and Horses, a public-house that then stood on the verge of Harlington Common. We also had a footman named Reece to take charge of us, but both he and the gamekeeper shared our libations. They certainly took care that we should not drink too much, knowing that in such an event discovery would take place, and their discharge follow as a matter of course ; but that was the only restraint they exercised on our inclinations.

"All day we were together fishing, shooting, setting traps for vermin, rat-hunting in short, seeking sport wherever it was attainable. We very fortunately got into no scrapes, and enjoyed ourselves immensely

" Such was my daily life ; my mornings and evenings being passed under the strict surveillance of my nurse, my dear Mary Oldacre, who, as the daughter of the famous old hunter Tom Oldacre, was probably not averse to a liberal amount of indulgence in my sporting predilections, at least with hounds." Vol. i. pp. 101-2.

The newspapers of the eighteenth century abound with stories of the highwaymen of the neighbourhood. Many of these have been told in the various chronicles of crime which exist. Berkeley came on the scene when these stories were all fresh in every one's memory :

" In these days Hounslow Heath was as cele- brated for highwaymen as it was for its plovers' eggs. Its lonely commons, thick furze bushes, thorns, and wide extent, running as it did to Hatton, Harlington, and Hampton commons, and so on to Bagshot Heath ; and its intersection by the Thames, the Mole, and other smaller streams, made the pursuit of a malefactor on a fast horse very difficult, the latter of course well acquainted with all the galloping paths between the furze bushes, while his pursuers, if there were any mounted, would be riding at random, and in the dark blundering over every impediment.

" The vicinity of Hounslow Heath to London also rendered it a convenient place for the nightly occupation of villains of all descriptions, who, either from necessity or a love of adventure, liked to 'clip purses' and to resort to violence as a relief to the more peaceful and less exciting pur.

suits of the day. Nor was the occupation of these highwaymen confined to the lower classes, for even a dignitary of the Established^ Church was found on the heath collecting tithes in rather a pro- miscuous way. Thus, the archives of the British Museum tell us that the ' Lord Bishop Twysden. of Raphoe,' a member of the old Kentish family of that name, was found suspiciously out at night on Hounslow Heath, and was most unquestionably shot through the body. A correspondent of The Gentleman'* Magazine asks the question ' Was this the bishop who was taken ill on Hounslow Heath, and carried back to his friend's house, where he died of an inflammation of the bowels ? ' " Vol. i. pp. 212, 213.

Another story typical of many is as follows :

" Mr. Mellish was shot through the back of his postchaise near the little, in those days solitary, inn on the confines of Hounslow Heath, or, more properly speaking, on Harlington Common ; and the maid-servants travelling from London to Cranford House were also stopped on the heath and robbed ; but on the thieves depriving Mary Oldacre, after- wards my nurse, of her watch, by which she set immense store, she cried so that they relented, and gave it her back.

" In those days, Cranford House, with its manors of Cranford le Mote, Cranford St. John, Harlington, and Harlington-cum-Shipeston, was as isolated and lonely a place as it is possible to conceive ; and it was my father's custom to drive down from London with four long-tailed black horses, that took two hours to get over the twelve miles, on a Saturday night, and to remain at Cranford till Monday morning. On one of these occasions he was accom- panied by his sister, Lady Granard, and they arrived at Cranford on the afternoon of Saturday, bringing with them no additional servants, but trusting simply to the maids in charge of the house." Vol. i. pp. 217, 218.

A ghost haunted the Berkeleys' house, and was seen by Grantley Berkeley and his brother. A full account may be found in chap. viii. The ghost

"was dressed, or seemed to be dressed, as a maid- servant, with a sort of poke bonnet on, and a dark shawl drawn or pinned tightly across her breast. On my entrance she slowly turned her head to look at me, and as she did so, every feature ought to have stood forth in the light of the fire, but I at once saw that there was beneath the bonnet an indistinctness of outline not to be accounted for.

" Holding the door open with my left hand with the right against the post, I addressed to my brother, who was behind me, simply the word "Look." As I uttered this, the figure seemed to commence gliding rather than proceeding by steps, slowly on, up the kitchen towards the fireplace, while I lowered my right arm from the post, and turned to let my brother in, then closed the door, locked it, and put the key into my pocket." Vol. i. p. 209.

I may say that Cranford House was originally a house of the Knights Templars, and subsequently became vested in the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusa- lem. In 1618 it was bought by Elizabeth,