SMITHAM 133 



the victor with a bank-note from the enthusiastic 

 Prince. 



Until 1898 Smitham Bottom remained a fortuitous 

 concourse of some twenty mean houses on a wind- 

 swept natural platform, ghastly with the chalky 

 " spoil-banks " thrown up when the South Eastern 

 Railway engineers excavated the great cuttings in 

 1810 ; but when the three railway-stations within one 

 mile were established that serve Smitham Bottom — 

 the stations of Coulsdon, Stoat's Nest, and Smitham 

 — the place, very naturally, began to grow with the 

 magic quickness generally associated with Jonah's 

 Gourd and Jack's Beanstalk, and now Smitham 

 Bottom is a town. Most of the spoil-banks are gone, 

 and those that remain are planted with quick-growing 

 poplars ; so that, if they can survive the hungry soil, 

 there will presently be a leafy screen to the ugly 

 railway sidings. Showy shops, all plate-glass and 

 nightly glare of illumination, have arisen ; the old 

 " Red Lion " inn has got a new and very saucv front ; 

 and. altogether, " Smitham " has arrived. The second 

 half of the name is now in process of being forgotten, 

 and the only wonder is that the first part has not been 

 changed into " Smytheham " at the very least, or 

 that an entirely new name, something in the way of 

 " ville ' or " park." suited to its prospects, has not 

 been coined. For Smitham, one can clearly see, has 

 a Future, with a capital F, and the historian confidently 

 expects to see the incorporation of Smitham, with 

 Mayor, Town Council, and Town Hall, all complete. 



It is here, at Marrowfat, now " Marlpit," Lane, that 

 the new link of the Brighton line branches off from 

 Stoat's Nest.* One of the first trials of the engineers 

 was the removal of threequarters of a million cubic 

 yards of the " spoil," dumped down by the roadside 

 over half a century earlier ; and then followed the 

 spanning of the Brighton Road by a girder-bridge. 

 The line then entered the grounds of the Cane Hill 



* The name derives from a farm so called, marked on a map of 

 1716 " Stotes Ne/s." 



