Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/593

 ELMBRIDGE HUNDRED

��ESHER

��Sir William Inwood, and secondly the Rev. William Weston, on whom she settled the rectory, and died in 1692. Her only child Elizabeth married Mr. Skrine, and alienated part of the rectory, but on her death left the rest with the advowson to her first cousin Henry Weston of West Horsley. His son Henry Weston sold the tithes which he held in 1801 to the Rev. John Simpkinson, vicar of Cobham, 6 ' and the advowson after 1823 was conveyed to the son of the latter. The present patron is Mr. Charles Combe of Cobham Park.

Smith's charity is distributed as in CHARITIES other Surrey parishes.

In 1 614 Mr. Rogers Bellow left i a year to the poor in bread on Good Friday.

In 1629 Mr. Edward Sutton left 2 a year to the poor.

In 1638 Mrs. Cecily Darnelly and Mrs. Sarah Cox, sisters, gave So to buy a house in Ripley, the rent to be applied in sums of zo/. to the vicar for a sermon on Good Friday, the remainder in bread to the poor after the service.

��In 1 641 Mr. Owen Peter left 1 a year to the poor, charged on his house in Claygate.

In 1656 Mr. John Downe of Downe Place left 2 to the vicar for sermons on Christmas Day and Ash Wednesday, and zo/. to the poor in bread on Ash Wednesday. As the celebration of these days was then contrary to the law Mr. Downe was evidently a churchman and a Royalist.

Mr. James Fox before 1724" endowed a charity school for forty children.

Mr. James Sutton (date unknown) left z to the vicar for a sermon, and 3 to the poor for bread on 5 November. 59

In 1829 Miss Isabella Saltonstall left 253 year to the vicar on consideration of his preaching every Sun- day afternoon in the parish church.

In 1850 a school was built at Hatchford End.

In 1 860 a school (National) was built at Cobham by Miss Coombe in memory of her brother.

In 1867 girls' and infants' schools were built at Downeside.

The Almshouse on Cobham Tilt was built in 1867.

��ESHER

��Aissela (xi cent.) ; Esere, Eshere, Esschere (xiii cent.) ; Eschere &c' Episcopi, Eschere &c" Watevil (xiii and xiv cents.) ; Asher (xvi cent.).

Esher is a village 4 miles south-west from Kingston. The parish is bounded on the north by East Molesey, on the east by Thames Ditton, on the south by Cobham, and on the west by Walton on Thames. It measures barely 3 miles from north to south, and scarcely 2 miles east to west. It contains 2,044 acres f ' anc ^ and 50 of water. The River Mole forms the greater part of the western boundary. The village itself and most of the parish lie upon the only considerable elevation of Bagshot sand which rises east of the Mole Valley, a situation which has at once rendered it picturesque, dry, and a favourite site for houses. The borders of the parish however touch the alluvium of the Mole Valley on the west and the London clay on the east, and in the north the sandy gravel of Ditton Marsh.

Esher is agricultural and residential. Esher Common is an extensive piece of open land now largely planted with conifers and birches, and adjoins other open land at Fairmile and Ockshot in Cobham parish. The London and Portsmouth road passes through the village. The main line of the London and South Western Railway has a station at Esher, and the Cob- ham line to Guildford skirts the eastern boundary of the parish.

Claremont, which was originally part of the manor of Esher Episcopi, was bought by Sir John Vanbrugh, who built a small house for himself, and began to ornament the grounds (Guest's poem ' Claremont ' attributes the first improvements to Vanbrugh). The Earl of Clare (Duke of Newcastle 1715) bought the property in 1714 on coming of age, and called it after his own title 'Clare Mont.' On his death in 1768 the whole was bought by Lord Clive, who employed 'Capability' Brown to build the present house. It was unfinished at his death in 1774, and was sold to Viscount Galway. He

��sold to the Earl of Tyrconnel, who in 1807 sold to Mr. Charles Rose Ellis. He in 1816 conveyed it to the Commissioners of Woods and Forests for the use of the Princess Charlotte on her marriage with Prince Leopold. After her death in 1817 Prince Leopold continued to reside here. When he became King of the Belgians it was occupied occasionally by Queen Victoria, to whom the king conveyed all his rights for life in the house. In 1 848 it became the home of Louis Philippe, the exiled king of the French and of his family. He died here in 1850, and his queen Marie Amelie in 1866. It was granted to the late Duke of Albany on his marriage in 1882, and is now the seat of H.R.H. the Duchess of Albany. The house is of brick, with window- frames, portico and cornice of stone. The portico is supported by Corinthian columns, and the pediment bears Lord Clive's arms. Marble is extensively used in the internal decorations, and the rooms are very spacious and handsome.

Another phase of the associations of Esher is of a very different kind. At Sandon was a small hospital, founded in the I2th century. 1 In 1436, after an unfortunate history, during which in 1 349 all its brethren had died of the plague, and later, great suffering had resulted from dishonest or incompetent masters, it was suppressed and its property granted to St. Thomas' Southwark. Sandon remained as the name of a farm only, till in 1875 the first meeting of the Sandown Park Racing Club revived public know- ledge of it. The racecourse lies south of the line, close to Esher station, and is chiefly in Esher parish, but partly in Thames Ditton. The meetings stand at the head of the inclosed racecourse meetings in the kingdom.

Esher is an urban district with the Dittons, under a Local Government Board Order issued April 1895.'

There is an iron mission church at West End. The Baptist chapel was built in 1852, and the Wedeyan

��Manning and Bray, loc. cit.

��M Will!. Visitation.

��" Ibid.

��. Surr. ii, 118-19.

��"No. 32638.

��447

�� �