114 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



the Archbishop's niece, and a ghastly representation 

 of Death as a skeleton digging a grave. But all these 

 things are seen but dimly, for the light is very feeble. 



XII 



The High Street of Croydon really is high, for it 

 occupies a ridge and looks down on the right hand on 

 the Old Town and the valley of the Wandle, or 

 " Wandel." The centre of Croydon has, in fact, been 

 removed from down below, where the church and 

 palace first arose, on the line of the old Roman road, 

 to this ridge, where within the historic period the 

 High Street was only a bridle-path avoiding the little 

 town in the valley. 



The High Street, incidentally the Brighton Road as 

 well, is nowadays a very modern and commercial - 

 looking thoroughfare, and owes that appearance, and 

 its comparative width, to the works effected under 

 the Croydon Improvement Act of 1890. Already 

 Croydon, given a Mayor and Town Council in 1883, 

 had grown so greatly that the narrow street was 

 incapable of accommodating the traffic ; while the 

 low-lying, and in other senses low, quarter of Market 

 Street and Middle Row offended the dignity and self- 

 respect of the new-born Corporation. The Town Hall 

 stood at that time in the High Street : a curious 

 example of bastard classic architecture, built in 1808. 

 Near by was the " Greyhound," an old coaching and 

 posting inn, with one of those picturesque gallows signs 

 straddling across the street, of which those of the 

 " George " at Crawley and the " Greyhound " at 

 Sutton are surviving examples. That of the " Cock ' 

 at Sutton disappeared in 1898, and the similar signs 

 of the " Crown," opposite the Whitgift Hospital, and 

 of the " King's Arms " vanished many years ago. 



The " Greyhound " was the principal inn of Croydon 

 in the old times. The first mention of it is found in 



