THE E X E T E R R O A D

THE STORY OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND HIGHWAY By CHARLES G. HARPER Author of ‘The Brighton Road,’ ‘The Portsmouth Road,’ ‘The Dover Road,’ and ‘The Bath Road’ Illustrated by the Author, and from Old-Time Prints and Pictures London: CHAPMAN & HALL, Limited 1899 All rights reserved

THIS, the fifth volume in a series of works purporting to tell the Story of the Great Roads, requires but few forewords; but occasion may be taken to say that perhaps greater care has been exercised than in preceding volumes to collect and put on record those anecdotes and floating traditions of the country, which, the gossip of yesterday, will be the history of to-morrow. These are precisely the things that are neglected by the County Historians at one end of the scale of writers, and the compilers of guide-books at the other; and it is just because this gossip and these local anecdotes are generally passed by and often lost that those which are gathered now will become more valuable as time goes on.

For the inclusion of these hitherto unconsidered trifles much archæology and much purely guide-book description have been suppressed; nor for this would it seem necessary to appear apologetic, even although local patriotism is a militant force, and resents anything less than a detailed and favourable description of every village, interesting or not.

How militant parochial patriots may be the writer already knows. You may criticise the British Empire and prophesy its downfall if you feel that way inclined, and welcome; but it is the Unpardonable Sin to say that Little Pedlington is anything less than the cleanest, the neatest, and the busiest for its size of all the Sweet Auburns in the land! Has not the writer been promised a bad quarter of an hour by the local press, should he revisit Crayford, after writing of that uncleanly place in the Dover Road? and have the good folks of Chard still kept the tar and feathers in readiness for him who, daring greatly, presumed to say the place was so quiet that when the stranger appeared in its streets every head was out of doors and windows?

Point of view is everything. The stranger finds a place charming because everything in it is old, and quiet reigns supreme. Quietude and antiquity, how eminently desirable and delightful when found, he thinks. Not so the dweller in such a spot. He would welcome as a benefactor any one who would rebuild his house in modern style, and would behold with satisfaction the traffic of Cheapside thronging the grass-grown market-place.

No brief is held for such an one in these pages, nor is it likely that the professional antiquary will find in them anything not already known to him. The book, like all its predecessors, and like those that are to follow it, is intended for those who journey down the roads either in person or in imagination, and to their judgment it is left. In conclusion, let me acknowledge the valuable information with regard to Wiltshire afforded me by Cecil Simpson, Esq., than whom no one knows the county better.

CHARLES G. HARPER.

Petersham, Surrey, October 1899.

SEPARATE PLATES

PAGE

1. The Lioness attacking the Exeter Mail, ‘Winterslow Hut.’ (After James Pollard) Frontispiece.

2. The ‘Comet’ 13

3. The ‘Regulator’ on Hartford Bridge Flats 19

4. The ‘Quicksilver’ Mail:—‘Stop, Coachman, I have lost my Hat and Wig’ 23

5. The West Country Mails starting from the Gloucester Coffee House, Piccadilly. (After James Pollard) 35

6. The Duke of Wellington’s Statue 39

7. The Wellington Arch and Hyde Park Corner, 1851 41

8. St. George’s Hospital, and the Road to Pimlico, 1780 43

9. Knightsbridge Toll-Gate, 1854 45

10. Knightsbridge Barracks Toll-Gate 49

11. Brentford 57

12. Hounslow: The Parting of the Ways 67

13. The ‘White Hart,’ Hook 111

14. The Ruins of Basing House 117

15. Whitchurch 129

16. ‘Winterslow Hut’ 159

17. Salisbury Cathedral. (After Constable, R.A.) 171

18. View of Salisbury Spire from the Ramparts of Old Sarum 189

19. Old Sarum. (After Constable, R.A.) 193

20. The Great Snowstorm of 1836; The Exeter ‘Telegraph,’ assisted by Post-Horses, driving through the Snow-drifts at Amesbury. (After James Pollard) 197

21. Stonehenge (After Turner, R.A.) 201

22. Sunrise at Stonehenge 207

23. Ancient and Modern: Motor Cars at Stonehenge, Easter 1899 213

24. Coombe Bissett 235

25. The Exeter Road, near ‘Woodyates Inn’ 239

26. Tarrant Hinton 243

27. Blandford 259

28. Town Bridge, Blandford 263

29. The ‘White Hart,’ Dorchester 269

30. Dorchester 277

31. Winterbourne Abbas 281

32. ‘Traveller’s Rest’ 287

33. ‘The Long Reaches of the Exeter Road’ 301

34. Exeter, from the Dunsford Road 311

ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT

PAGE

Vignette(Title-page)

Preface (Stonehenge)vii

List of Illustrations (Hartford Bridge Flats)xi

The Exeter Road1

‘An Old Gentleman, a Cobbett-like Person’38

The Pikeman47

The ‘New Police’51

Tommy Atkins, 183853

Old Kensington Church54

The Beadle56

The ‘Bell,’ Hounslow65

The ‘Green Man,’ Hatton72

The Highwayman’s Retreat, the ‘Green Man’73

East Bedfont79

The Staines Stone84

The ‘Bells of Ouseley’88

Bagshot97

Roadside Scene. (After Rowlandson)103

Roadside Scene. (After Rowlandson)104

Roadside Scene. (After Rowlandson)105

Roadside Scene. (After Rowlandson)107

Funeral Garland, Abbot’s Ann154

St. Anne’s Gate, Salisbury182

Highway Robbery Monument at Imber231

Where the Robber fell Dead233

Judge Jeffreys’ Chair273

Kingston Russell284

Chilcombe Church285

Chideock293

Sign of the ‘Ship,’ Morecomblake294

Interior of the ‘Queen’s Arms,’ Charmouth295

‘Copper Castle’298

The Exeter City Sword-bearer307

‘Matty the Miller’313

The End314