138 THE AMATEUR TRAMP IN ENGLAND 



And what a country ! Possibly you may say that it 

 is not very picturesque beyond Shooter's Hill, or over 

 Plumstead marshes ; but elsewhere you can hardly go 

 wrong. Even Essex deserves a higher reputation for 

 beauty than it bears, although long encroachment has 

 been making wild work with the oak-clumps and the 

 bramble-brakes of Epping Forest. There is much 

 that is pretty in Middlesex and Hertfordshire, between 

 the Chase of Enfield and the spires of Harrow-on-the- 

 Hill, without going so far afield as Hatfield. Of 

 course the river above Teddington Lock unrolls a 

 rarely bewitching panorama ; while as to Kent and 

 Surrey on the south, they boast the most enchanting 

 scenery of the English lowlands. What is strange, too, 

 is the rural, the almost desolate, aspect of districts 

 whence you can distinguish the dome of St. Paul's, and 

 which are enveloped in the folds of the city fogs, 

 when the wind chances to set in that direction. On 

 the other hand, fashion has occupied some of the most 

 seducing positions on the suburban heights, gradually 

 spreading and annexing the environs. The gipsies 

 that were wont to haunt Norwood and Chiselhurst in 

 the memories of comparatively youthful men, have seen 

 their sequestered retreats cut up into building lots. 

 Rows of brand-new villas, detached and semi-detached, 

 have enveloped the oak-glades in the park at Knole ; 

 and a township of structures, more or less fantastic 

 and substantial, has been run up among the fir-trees 

 at Weybridge and Claremont. Yet there are other 

 spots, scarcely less attractive, that somehow have been 



