176 ON SURREY HILLS. 



ing a grand view, which includes many varied points 

 of interest. The firm and smooth highroad leads 

 right over the common. In certain conditions of 

 the atmosphere the huge dome of St Paul's Cathedral 

 is distinctly visible, far away on the horizon, over 

 distant woodlands ; nearer to us the palace of glass 

 and iron glistens in the sunlight ; nearer still the 

 grand stand on the Epsom Downs race-course shows, 

 looking from this distance, like a small fleet of old- 

 fashioned three-deckers. As the cloud-shadows pass 

 over it, I seem to see once more the 120-gun boats 

 at anchor off the garrison point of Sheerness. Old 

 houses of some note lie at your feet, so to speak : 

 the Deep Dene mansion, Juniper Hall — the home of 

 French refugees of repute who fled from the Reign 

 of Terror — Camilla Lacy, Polesden. On our left 

 stands the house of the Master of Denbies. 



As we pass on, a wilder country — the Weald of 

 Sussex — opens out. That tower in the far distance 

 marks the edge of the forest that at one time ran 

 the whole length and breadth of a county, according 

 to what the old chroniclers tell us. Redlands and 

 Coldharbour, Leith Hill, Holmbury, and Ewhurst, 

 •with the Blackdown range of hills, are all before us, 



