FARNHAM HUNDRED 



and in 1622 the Mores were requisitioned, under 

 the signet and sign manual warrant of the king, 

 to surrender the rights to which they had a claim 

 since the death of Bilson in 1616, in favour of the 

 Earl of Holderness.i» The king had frequently 

 visited Farnham, and before this date, in 1620, 

 had been entertained at great expense by Bishop 

 Andrewes, who had resumed possession of the castle. 

 Bishop Buckeridge, the preacher of Andrewes' 

 funeral sermon, calls it ' as beautiful and great 

 an entertainment as ever a king received from a 

 subject.' 



King Charles slept at Farnham, in a private 

 house called Vernon House, in West Street, on 

 20 December 1648, on his way from Hurst Castle 

 to the final scene at Whitehall. He was taken 

 in charge at Farnham by General Harrison, by 

 whose appearance he was favourably impressed, 

 as he said, so that had he seen him before he should 

 not have formed so ill an opinion of him as to 

 believe that he had intended to murder him at 

 Hampton Court, before his flight to Carisbrooke. 

 Charles left a silk cap which he wore as a memento 

 to the owner of the house, Henry Vernon, for his 

 courtesy to him. It is mentioned in the will of 

 his grandson George Vernon in 1733,'° and is still 

 preserved by the family. 



On 28 March 1648 Cromwell passed through 



ELSTED 



Farnham, and wrote thence to Colonel Norton 

 concerning his son Richard's marriage to the 

 daughter of Mr. Mayor of Hursley." But it does 

 not appear that he was in the castle. More 

 probably he was at the Bush. 



After the Restoration the castle had a different 

 class of inmates from King James. Morley's 

 chaplain was Ken, and Ken's brother-in-law, 

 Isaac Walton, was given a lodging in the castle, 

 where perhaps he wrote his lives of Donne and 

 Hooker. Morley, the great builder, is said by 

 tradition to have contented himself with a little 

 room at Farnham, under the entrance tower, 

 only eight feet square, where he died after a life 

 of more than monastic austerity. Though William 

 III.'s army was expected to march through 

 Farnham in 1688, it did not really appear. Sir 

 William Temple however left Moor Park for fear 

 of fighting in the neighbourhood. One other 

 sovereign, George III., used frequently to visit 

 his old tutor. Bishop Thomas, at Farnham. 



The castle contains a fine collection of portraits 

 of the Bishops of Winchester, copies or originals, 

 though not a complete series, from the time of 

 Fox onwards. The Communion Plate in the 

 chapel was presented by Bishop Morley. In the hall 

 IS a modern stained glass window, with the arms of 

 the bishops who have been chancellors. 



ELSTED 



Helestede (xii. cent.). 



The parish of Elsted, like Frensham and Seale, 

 and also Bentley in Hampshire, was formerly one 

 of the chapelries of Farnham, and is probably 

 coterminous vdth the ancient tithing of Elsted. 

 It is now included in the manors of Farnham and 

 Frensham Beale. The parish is roughly wedge- 

 shaped, being about sfcs miles in length, and at the 

 northern end two miles broad, tapering to the 

 south, and contains about 4,105 acres. The waste 

 was enclosed in 1856. Seale and Puttenham lie on 

 the north, Farnham and Frensham on the west, 

 and Peperharow and Thursley on the east. The 

 north and west boundaries, on waste land, are un- 

 defined. The river Wey crosses the northern 

 part of the parish, which abuts on Crooksbury 

 Common. The part next to this southward is 

 cultivated, and the village lies in this part, about 

 5 miles south-east of Farnham. The village green 

 is 171 feet above the sea level. The southern part 

 of the parish, which tapers down to Hindhead 

 Common, mostly consists of barren heaths. El- 

 sted Common and Hankley Common, which are 

 parts of the heath, have no distinct boundaries. 

 The former is crossed by a long ridge called 

 Kettlebury Hill, which rises to over 440 feet above 

 the sea level. With the exception of a strip of 



alluvial soil along the river Wey, or some river 

 gravel on its southern side left at a higher level 

 than the present stream, the soil of Elsted is ex- 

 clusively the lower greensand. Carrots used to 

 be supposed to grow well in this sandy soil. The 

 crop is not so common as it was, but the natives of 

 Elsted are still supposed to be specially good at 

 the management of carrots, and are in request 

 elsewhere for the work. 



The road from Godalming to Farnham runs 

 through the village and crosses the ^e.y to the 

 west over an old stone bridge with a later brick 

 parapet. In the seventeenth century a rent of 

 2s. a year was set apart for repairing the bridge.' 

 Somerset bridge over the '^ty on the road to 

 Shackleford, on the parish boundary, perhaps 

 preserves the name Sumaeres forda, one of the points 

 in the boundary of Edward's charter of 909. 

 There seems to be an old road still existing running 

 along the higher ground, from the direction of 

 Seale towards Hindhead, and marked by the nama 

 of Ridge in Seale parish and Ridgeway Farm 2 in 

 Elsted. 



There are earthworks on Charles Hill, an em- 

 bankment stretching from the brow along the 

 summit in a northerly direction. These are more 

 like a boundary line than any relic of military 



IS Loseley MSS. i. 12. 

 ^^ Proved at London, 1735. From 

 the Reg. P.C.C. 



21 Carlyle, Letters & Speeches. 

 1 Mr. Howard's papers, 1647, xi. 



605 



2 This existed^ as Rigway in 1.654 

 (Par. Reg.). 



