COLNBROOK 97 



anciently spread over the road at this spot. The ford 

 was eventually replaced by the bridge, called " Queen's 

 Bridge," which now carries the highway over the 

 stream close by the old inn now called the " Peggy 

 Bedford," from a well-]emembered landlady who kept 

 the house in coaching days, and died in 1859. The 

 real name of it, however, now almost forgotten, is the 

 " King's Head." The spot is picturesque in the 

 grouping of gnarled old wayside trees with the quaint 

 house and its luxuriant garden ; and more so, perhaps, 

 because it comes as a surprise from the hitherto 

 unrelieved monotony of the flat road all the way from 

 Cranford Bridge. 



In another mile and three-quarters the road reaches 

 Colnbrook, in midst of whose lono- street one of the 

 numerous channels of the Colne divides the counties 

 of Middlesex and Bucks. The boundaries of EnoHsh 

 counties are rarely marked for the information of 

 Avayfarers along the highways and byeways of the 

 country, but here the brick bridge over the Colne, 

 built in 1777, has inscriptions wliich mark where 

 the frontiers march too;ether : and when the Bath 

 Road is crowded with cyclists on Saturday afternoons 

 in summer-time one or more can generally be found 

 standing on the bridge with one leg in each county. 



There are no fewer than four channels of the Colne 

 here, and the laud all round about is flat and water- 

 logged. The entrance to Colnbrook from London is 

 in fact quite a little Hollaud in appearance, where 

 streams flow sluggishly beside the road and are 

 spanned by many footbridges that give access to 

 the gardens of the pleasant country cottages on either 



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