1613. We answer that all persons within our parish that are of sufficient age have received the communion in the last year, except one Mr. Henry Roper and his wife.

2. That there are no Popish Recusants in our parish that deny to come to church to common prayer, except the wife of Mr. Henry Roper.

3. That there are no women in our parish that after childbirth deny to come to church to give God thanks for their delivery, except one Mrs. Roper, wife to Mr. Henry Roper. (Fol. 95.)

1615. We have no Bible of the largest volume of the last edition, neither convenient carpet for the communion table, but purpose shortly after harvest to provide them.—(Vol. 1610-17, fol. 216.) [To be continued.]

HUNGERFORD HOUSE.-In January last a curious discovery was made at Charing Cross. The workmen who were sinking a shaft in connection with the "tube" railway, came on some extensive vaulted cellars beneath the cab-yard of the present railway station. They were twenty feet below the surface, and extended under about a quarter of the yard, and also under part of the pavement in the Strand. There seems little reason to doubt that these cellars are the remains of Hungerford House, which gave its name subsequently to Hungerford Market and Hungerford Bridge. This mansion was destroyed by fire on April 25th, 1669. Pepys duly records the event: "A great fire happened in Durham Yard last night, burning the house of one Lady Hungerford, who was to come to town to it this night; and so the house is burned, new furnished, by carelessness of the girl sent to take off a candle from a bunch of candles, which she did by burning it off, and left the rest, as is supposed, on fire. The King and Court were here, it seems, and stopped the fire by blowing up the next house." There is a good account of Hungerford Market and its vicissitudes in Mr. MacMichael's "Story of Charing Cross" which is reviewed on another page.

RAMBLES IN THE HOME
COUNTIES, NO. XIX.

Misbourne Valley; Denham; Chalfont St. Peter; Chalfont St. Giles;
Chesham.

I

N an earlier article of this series (No. xiii; vol. vi, p. 298), an interesting account was given of the road between London and Uxbridge. Beyond the latter town, however, along the valley of the Misbourne stream, lie several interesting villages which well repay a visit.

Leaving Uxbridge by the broad Oxford Road, about a mile and a half from the town, a digression should be made to the picturesque village of Denham. This little village consists of one street composed of ancient red-brick houses, the eastern extremity terminated by the church, the western by the seventeenth century Denham Place, once the residence of the Peckham family. In the grounds of this house the little Misbourne stream has widened out into a lake of considerable size, and in summer time this piece of water, backed by the warm red-brick mansion, makes a picture of great beauty.

The church should be visited on account of the Peckham monuments and brasses. The building, of flint, consists of nave, chancel, two aisles, and square embattled tower. The most interesting brass is in the chancel floor, and commemorates Dame Agnes Jordan,' last Abbess of the monastery of Syon, who died in 1545. Robert Thornhill of Tuxford (1612), Vicar of the parish, Thomas Leydell and two wives (1527), are also commemorated by brasses, while on one of the chancel window frames is a palimpsest brass to a friar, having a figure of Amphyllis Peckham (1545), on the reverse. This brass is now hung in a hinged frame so that both sides may be seen. There are numerous memorials to the Bowyer family who long resided at Denham Court, and also at Radley, Berks. The oldest of these is a tablet to Sir William Bowyer (1616). In the chancel is an altar tomb with mutilated, but restored, figures of Sir Edward Peckham and his wife. The date is given as 1564. Another early seventeenth century monument, near by, commemorates Sir Robert Peckham, whose heart was buried at Den

1 The marginal inscription is now lost. The brass is engraved in Aungier's History of Syon and Isleworth," p. 89; "Trans. Lond. and Midx. Arch. Soc., ii, p. 158; Haines' "Monumental Brasses," Introd., p. 88. Her will, dated Oct. 28, 1545, was proved in P.C.C. (4 Alen) on Feb. 9, 1545-6.

ham, his body being interred in the Church of St. Gregory at Rome. Other objects of interest in the church are the Early English font, a fresco over the south door, and incised slabs in the chancel to John Sowthern (1631), and Philip Edelen (1656).

Leaving Denham and retracing our steps to the main road, we continue to travel westward, until soon after passing the "Gravel Diggers' Arms" (Uxbridge 3 miles), we turn to the right and begin to descend into the Misbourne valley.

The woods shut in this road on every side. The way winds up and down, with hardly a sign of any habitation until, two and a half miles further on, the village of Chalfont St. Peter is reached.

Until a recent date the Misbourne used to flow right across the village street, a small bridge allowing foot passengers to cross dry shod, carts and carriages having to make their way through the ford. Now, alas, this picturesque feature has vanished. The river runs through a culvert, like an ordinary drain, because the drivers of motors objected to driving their cars axle deep through the stream.

The church of Chalfont St. Peter contains no features of special interest, save a few brasses, the oldest being one to William Whappelode (1446). The church was largely rebuilt in the last century. The "Greyhound Inn" is a large rambling building, dating from the seventeenth century.

Leaving Chalfont St. Peter, and following the Misbourne stream, which is almost dried up in summer, after a journey of two miles we reach the village of Chalfont St. Giles.

Here, after the battle of Aylesbury, came the Roundhead soldiers under Cromwell, and from the fields on our left they amused themselves by shooting their canon balls into the tower of the church. The village lies a little to the left of the road. The church is entered by one of those ancient fifteenth century lych-gates of which another example may be seen at Hayes, Middlesex. Near the south door is a curious fresco, the subject being the daughter of Herodias dancing before Herod. Another fresco may be seen over the chancel arch. In the reign of Elizabeth all these paintings were covered with scrolls bearing texts, and when these were cleared away the frescoes were discovered beneath. There are brasses to Thomas Fleetwood, High Sheriff of Bucks and Beds, with his family of two wives and eighteen children (1570), a palimpsest with inscriptions to John and Elizabeth Salter (1526), Thomas and Anne Bredham (1521), William Gardyner and his wife, Anne Newdigate (1558), and two more without dates. Ten hatchments show the alliances of the Fleetwood, Gardyner and Radcliffe families. The "Mecca" of all pilgrims to Chalfont St. Giles, however, is Milton's cottage. The poet's "pretty box," situated

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