62 THE EXETER ROAD 



massive old stone tower of St. Lawrence's Clmrcli, 

 the parish church of the so-called ' New ' Brentford, 

 itself old beyond compute. The tower dates back 

 four hundred vears or so, but the body of the church 

 was rebuilt in C4eorgian days and is very like, and 

 only a little less hideous than, the gasworks up the 

 street. 



An extraordinary story is told by Cyrus Redding, 

 in his Fifty Years Recollections, of a countryman's 

 adventures in London just before the introduction of 

 railwavs. The adventures beo-an at Brentford : ' I 

 had a relative,' he says, ' who, on stating his inten- 

 tion to come up to town, was solicited to accept as 

 his fellows-traveller a man of property, a neighbour, 

 who had never been thirty miles from home in his 

 life. They travelled by coach. All went well till 

 they reached Brentford, where the countryman sup- 

 posed he was nearly come to his journey's end. On 

 seeing the lamps mile after mile, he expressed more 

 and more impatience, exclaiming, " Are we not yet in 

 London, and so many miles of lamps ? " At length, 

 on reaching Hyde Park Corner, he was told they had 

 arrived. His impatience increased from thence to 

 Lad Lane. He became overwhelmed with astonish- 

 ment. They entered the " Swan with Two Necks," 

 and my relative bade his companion remain in the 

 coffee-room until he returned. On returning, he 

 found the bird flown, and for six long weeks there 

 were no tidino-s of him. At lensfth it was discovered 

 that he was in the custody of the constables at Sher- 

 borne in Dorsetshire, his mind alienated. He w^as 

 conveyed home, came partially to his reason for a 



