A HISTORY OF SURREY 



near the east side, and an abundant supply a little 

 way down the hill. The entrance was at the north- 

 west corner, by a causeway across the ditches, the 

 banks being raised slightly to command it on either 

 side. 4 The arrangement of the old parishes about it 

 was curious, and can scarcely be fortuitous. The 

 work was in Ockley, which was also outside it to the 

 south-east. Ewhurst was bounded by the works on 

 the south-west. Shiere enveloped it to the north- 

 west, north, and east, bounded by its ditches. But 

 across a strip of 200 yds. of Shiere on the east were 

 three patches of Ewhurst, Cranleigh, and the far- 

 distant Ockham, and just outside these the old parish 

 of Abinger. An archer on the banks in Ockley 

 parish could have shot into four other parishes with 

 ease, and nearly into Abinger. The bits of 

 Ewhurst, Cranleigh, and Ockham were on habitable 

 ground, with wood and water. 



The visitor to Holmbury Hill is not usually 

 interested in the banks and ditches as his first object. 

 It commands what may fairly challenge the place of 

 the finest view in Surrey. The whole expanse of the 

 Weald, with the South Downs as a background, from 

 Portsdown Hill to Lewes ; the adjacent range of sand 

 hills, with Leith Hill forming a half distance on the 

 one hand and Pitch Hill on the other ; the Hindhead 

 range, with Hampshire behind it, crossing the 

 western distance ; the chalk hills to the north and the 

 country beyond them offer a panoramic view only 

 surpassed by that from Leith Hill, which, 100 ft. 

 higher, here cuts off the country to the east. But the 

 growth of trees on the back of Leith Hill intercepts 

 the sight northward, except from the top of the 

 tower. The immediate foreground to Holmbury 

 Hill is more broken and picturesque. The Pilgrims' 

 Way from Winchester to Canterbury passes north 

 of the parish at the foot of the North Downs. 



Close to the west end of Abinger Church, by the 

 farm which was the old manor-house of Abinger, is a 

 mound which seems to have been raised from a ditch 

 round it, part of which remains as a pond. It is 

 marked on the Ordnance map (6-in.) as a barrow ; 

 but it is large for a barrow, and perhaps not too 

 small for a fortress a mota, standing, as often happened, 

 close by the church. It has never been explored. 



At Abinger Cross Ways is a fine old brick house, 

 dating from the latter half of the lyth century. 

 Abinger Hatch, the well-known inn, has ancient 

 features, and there are many picturesque farms and 

 cottages, especially to the south, in the Weald. 



Abinger Hall, under the chalk down in the north of 

 the parish, has succeeded a small house called Daniells 

 belonging to a family named Dibble, many of whom 

 occur in the Parish Registers. It was bought by the 

 Dowager Countess of Donegal after the death of her 

 husband in the War of the Spanish Succession, 1 706, 

 and she resided here 'during her son's minority," 

 which terminated in 1716. It was in the hands of 

 her grandson, John Chichester, whose heir was his 

 elder brother Arthur, first Marquis and fifth Earl of 

 Donegal, who about 1783 sold it with 1 6 acres of 

 land to Captain Pitts of the Engineers, who had 

 previously bought other land in the neighbourhood.' 

 He rebuilt the house, then called Paddington House, 



on the site of the present cricket ground. This house 

 was built in 1783." Captain Pitts sold it in 1797 to 

 Commodore Robinson of the H.E.I.C. Marine 

 Service, who died in 1803.' His executors sold it to 

 Mr. Shardon, who died in l8lo. 10 In 1 8 14 it was 

 bought by Sir James Scarlett, who became chief 

 baron of the Exchequer, was created Lord Abinger, 

 and died 1844. The third Lord Abinger sold it in 

 1867 to Mr. Gwynne, who sold it to Thomas Farrer, 

 subsequently Lord Farrer, in 1869. He built the 

 present Abinger Hall in 1872. The second Lord 

 Farrer now resides there. 



At the north-eastern edge of Pasture Wood, adjoin- 

 ing the Common, is a house called Parkhurst, which 

 in 1766 belonged to John Spence, "formerly of 

 Wandsworth, Dyer," who sold it in that year to 

 Richard Durnford, of Gracechurch Street, pin-maker. 

 He in the year 1799 sold the property to Charles 

 Lynd, of Berners Street, from whom it passed to his 

 nephew and heir, Charles Lynd, of Belfast, and 

 was by him conveyed in 1786 to the Right 

 Honourable George Lord Macartney, whose greatest 

 service was that of going on the first embassy to 

 China in 1792. In 1795 he sold Parkhurst to 

 William Philip Perrin, who partly rebuilt and 

 enlarged the house, and with great public spirit 

 made good the road hereabout at his expense. 11 On 

 Mr. Perrin's death in 1820 he left Parkhurst to his 

 nephew, Sir Henry FitzHerbert, by whom in 1838 

 it was sold to Mr. Edmund Lomax, of Netley Park, 

 Shiere, who had resided at Parkhurst since before 

 1827. Mr. Lomax died in 1847, leaving the estate 

 to his daughter, Mrs. Peter Scarlett, from whom it 

 passed to her son, Colonel Leopold Scarlett. He in 

 1884 sold the property to Colonel T. H. Lewin, its 

 present owner, who considerably enlarged the house 

 and gardens. There is a priest's hiding-place in the 

 north-west corner of the older portion of the house. 



Parkhurst is remarkable for possessing the first 

 larch trees introduced into the south of England. 

 Tradition has it that the seedlings were sent to 

 Lord Macartney, the then owner of Parkhurst, by 

 John, Duke of Atholl, in 1780. The trees stand in 

 the Long Meadow, on the east side of the park. The 

 largest is I oft. 6 in. in circumference, and n8ft. 

 high. The park contains remarkably fine timber. 



In all the earlier documents relating to Parkhurst 

 prior to 1 8 14 it is described as ' a tenement and farm,' 

 but after that year it takes the style of ' mansion.' 



The celebrated scene in Bulwer Lytton's novel, My 

 Novel, where Riccabocca is put in the stocks, is laid at 

 Abinger Church, near Parkhurst, where the stocks are 

 to be seen to this day. During Mr. Spence's tenure 

 of Parkhurst he was visited there by the French 

 philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau, who stayed with 

 him some days, but being haunted by fear of spies 

 fled in terror, having accidentally met the curate of 

 Abinger, who he was persuaded was an emissary of 

 the Government. Mr. William Bray, the dis- 

 tinguished historian of Surrey, left some diaries 

 which have been privately printed, in which the fol- 

 lowing entry occurs: 'July 23, 1759. To the 

 "Hatch" to dinner, Mr. Evelyn, Mr. Godschal, 

 Mr. Bridges, Mr. Steere, Mr. Spence," Mr. Cour- 



fi Surr. Arch, Coll, rvii, 71. 

 8 Manning and Bray, Hitt. of Surr. 

 ii, 136. 



' Inform, from Lord Farrer. 



8 Leaden tablet found in the founda- 

 tions inscribed Henry Pledge November 1 8, 

 1783. Tbit House was till. 



9 Monument in church. 10 Ibid. 



130 



11 Manning and Bray, Surr. ii, 136. 



13 'Of Parkhurst, where Rousseau was 

 his guest for some time.' This note is 

 in Mr. Bray's handwriting. 



