SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES 
199 
a brief visit was made to the cottage occupied by John Milton and his third wife, 
during ten months of the Plague year. Here it was that, with Thomas Kllwood, 
he continued working at his manuscript of Paradise Lost, and it is worthy of 
note that this cottage is the only building now left of all his residences ; conse- 
quently we find some American enthusiasts conceived the idea of buying the 
house and removing it to America, just as the attempt has been made with 
Shakespeare’s house at Siratford-on-Avon, and with William Penn’s body which 
lies at Jordans, some two miles away. Happily, public-spiritedness has frustrated 
this contemplated act of barbarous vandalism, and the “ pretty box,” as he called 
it, remains much the same as it was in the middle of the seventeenth century. 
A peep at the church concluded the visit, where the garrulous custodian expatiated 
on the import and antiquity of the mural paintings with their superimposed in- 
scriptions, giving vivid and pathetic details concerning the monuments, brasses, 
and objects of interest relating to bygone (lardyners, Godolphins, Osbornes, 
RadclitTes, P’leetwoods and others, who have had a hand in making the history 
of the English people. Time alone curtailed the fulness of his recital. A de- 
lightful sunset followed the ramblers through cornfields and a striking pine 
avenue to Grove Park, whence their way by the woods, amidst the falling shadows, 
found them once again at the point of departure. 
Salurday, September 7. — A party of fifteen Selbornians assembled at Leyton- 
stone and proceeded to Wanstead Church, a severe classic structure dating from 
1790, but containing a fine monument in white marble of Sir Josiah Child, Bart., 
who died in 1699. He was the founder of the banking house of that name, and 
did, with his successor. Sir Richard, more than anyone to lay out Wanstead Park 
in its present condition, spending immense sums on it. A visit was also paid to 
the site of the old church, now only marked by the flat tombstones that formed 
the floor of the chancel and central aisle, and also to the tomb of the vandal 
(Dr. Glasse), who had the old building destroyed. The party then repaired to the 
kennels behind the church to see the Essex drag hounds belonging to Dr. Horsley, 
and were fortunate in finding them at a meal. Their fine points were much 
admired. Tea beside a picturesque red-tiled cottage, surrounded by fields in 
which a large colony of rooks held parliament, prepared all for a long ramble 
in Wanstead Park, where the meeting took place between Queens Mary and 
Elizabeth, on the former’s journey from Norwich to be crowned, and where the 
Earl of Leicester frequently entertained Queen Elizabeth. Those who stayed for 
a prolonged ramble were rewarded by seeing five of the herons from Lincoln’s 
Island in flight. Returning from the park the outskirts of Lake House were 
passed (now alas, handed over to the builders), where Tom Hood lived and is 
reputed to have written “The Song of the Shirt,” and where he certainly wrote 
“The Epping Hunt” and the novel “ Tilney Hall.” Then the fine double 
avenues of elms, known as Evelyn Avenue, in Bush Wood, was dimly seen in 
the twilight as the party returned to the railroad. 
Saturday, September 21.- — Assembling atTotteridge Station, on the northern 
boundary of Middlesex, the party crossed the Dollis Brook, one of the upper 
waters of the Brent, here forming the Hertfordshire boundary, and walked to the 
picturesque Green, at one extremity of which is the small eighteenth-century 
church of St. Andrew, with a yew tree undoubtedly far older. It was pointed 
out by the Guide, Professor Boulger, that this village and that of Mill Hill are 
situated on patches of pebble-sand, apparently Pliocene, which permit of surface- 
wells. Opposite the Church, which the party inspected, is Copped Hall, the 
biith-place of Cardinal Manning. Following a lane by the side of this estate, 
according to the directions given in the recently issued Afew Ra?nble Routes in 
Middlesex and Herts, and crossing several meadows and numerous stiles, they 
reached Mill Hill, with the extensive buildings of the St. Vincent’s Schools. 
The goal was, however, the large public school a little farther on, where the 
name of one of the “ houses ” at once recalled the botanist, Peter Collinson. On 
the beautiful lawn in front of the fine college the Selbornians were kindly re- 
ceived by Dr. McClure, the Headmaster, and entertained to tea. Professor 
Boulger then gave an account of Peter Collinson and Richard Antony Salisbury, 
who both resided on this site. This account will appear in a future issue of 
Nature Notes. Under the guidance of Mr. N. G. B. fames, the historian of 
