MERSTHAM 



139 



XVI 



Merstham is as pretty a village as Surrey affords, 

 and typically English. Railways have not abated, 

 nor these turbid times altered in any great measure, 

 its fine air of aristocratic and old-time rusticity. At 

 one end of its one clearly-defined street, set at an angle 

 to the high-road, are the great ornamental gates of 



MERSTHAM. 



Merstham Park, setting their stamp of landed 

 aristocracy upon the place. To their right is a tiny 

 gate leading to the public right-of-way through the 

 park, which presently crosses over the pond where 

 rise fitfully the springs of Merstham Brook, a congener 

 of the Kentish " Nailbournes," and one of the many 

 sources of the River Mole. To the marshy ground by 

 this brook, and to its stone-quarries, the place owes 



