WALLINGTON. 



19 



time workmen are employed to divert the river a second time, and a 

 stone bridge has been constructed. 



This Park was formerly a deer park,, but the deer were sold in 

 1852, and have not been replaced. 



Not far from Beddington Church, opposite the Plough inn, in the 

 grounds of Mr. Watney, there exists a cave, of which many fabulous 

 tales are told in the neighbourhood. By the courtesy of Mr. Watney 

 I visited it with Mr. Addy. We found that it was an excavation in 

 the bed of sand overlying the chalk, and possibly was formerly used 

 for the purpose of defeating the Excise laws. Certainly there was no 

 evidence of its having been continued to Reigate, as some persons 

 would fain have us believe. 



BEDDINGTON AT THE PRESENT TIME. 



Beddington Church (vign. iv.) has been restored; and is not only a 

 pleasing object from my garden (plate 6), but the church with its church- 

 yard is one of the most picturesque near London. It has been supplied 

 with a melodious peal of bells, which record the sorrow and declare 

 the joy of the inhabitants! The village is rather a residence for the 

 rich than for the poor, though Beddington Hall is now used as the 

 Female Orphan Asylum. The tower of the church is seen through a 

 vista of trees from my garden, and then reflected from the transparent 

 waters of the lake, as though Nature ordained that so good an abject 

 should be twice seen. The churchyard is overshaded by fine trees. 



" Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade. 

 Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap. 

 Each in his narrow cell for ever laid. 

 The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep." — Gray. ' 



Vign. K— Beddington Hall before the File. 



