130 THE BRIGHTON ROAD 



XIII 



MILES 



FROM 



WESTMINSTER 



BRIDGE 



38i 



MILES 



TO 



BRIGHTON 



The character of the lettering and the general style 

 of this series would lead to the supposition that they 

 are dated about 1820. There are three stones in all 

 of this kind, the third marking 15 miles from West- 

 minster Bridge and 36j to Brighton, followed by a 

 series of triangular cast-iron marks, continued through 

 Redhill, of which the first bears the legend, " Parish 

 of Merstham." On the north side is " 16 from West- 

 minster Bridge, 35 to Brighton," and on the south 

 " 35 from Brighton, 16 to Westminster Bridge." It 

 will be observed that in this first one of a new series 

 half a mile is dropped, and henceforward the mileage 

 to Brighton becomes by authority 51 miles. Like 

 the confectioner who " didn't make ha'porths," the 

 turnpike trust which erected these mile-" stones 

 refused to deal in half miles. 



55 



XV 



The tramway terminus at Purley Corner is now a 

 busy place. Those are only the " old crocks ' who 

 can remember the South Eastern railway-station of 

 Caterham Junction and the surrounding lonely downs ; 

 and to them the change to " Purley ' and the 

 appearance in the wilderness of a mushroom town, 

 with its parade of brilliantly lighted shops, its Queen 

 Victoria memorial, its public garden and penny-squirt 

 fountain, and — not least — its hideous waterworks, are 

 things for wonderment. " How strange it seems, and 

 new," as Browning — not writing of Purley — remarks. 



