a time of depression and gloom. It is said that he could never bear even to look towards the church where his hopes lay buried, and when driving to London he went round by a side lane to avoid passing beneath its shadow.

In happier days he had received at Gregories Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds. Upon one occasion the latter happened to go with his host into the house of his bailiff, Mr. Rolfe. The President of the Royal Academy noticed a remarkably fine child sprawling on the floor, and obtained permission to immortalize young Rolfe as the model for his well-known "Infant Hercules."

Due south of the town we find Hall Barns, where lived Edmund Waller, who was born at Coleshill, an outlying part of Hertfordshire immediately to the north of Beaconsfield, in 1605, but did not take up his residence here in the house which he built for himself, until the time of the Commonwealth. From the age of sixteen, as he has told us, until extreme old age, he frequently sat in Parliament as member for the Buckinghamshire boroughs of Amersham or High Wycombe. One can hardly say that there is anything of local colouring in Waller's poems. In those days our poets did not often draw their imagery from the surrounding natural scenery. Milton was perhaps an ex

ception. We shall have opportunity of examining into that question when we arrive at the house of the great poet at Horton. His had been closed to the beauties of nature for many years at the time of his second sojourn in Buckinghamshire, at Chalfont.

eyes

The present house at Hall Barns is almost altogether modern. The oldest part is the entrance hall. We, however, find here some traces of Waller. An obelisk which he put up to commemorate the completion of the beech avenue, bears on it an inscription which states that a former Waller took prisoner at Agincourt Charles, Duke of Orleans, who was brought to England by his captor and lived with him at Groomsbridge. The poet evidently delighted in finding incidents in his family history. A relic connected with Edmund Burke is also preserved at the modern Hall Barns, it is the dagger, supposed to be of foreign manufacture, which the orator flung down on the floor of the House of Commons. He had been speaking about the French Revolution and its dangers. "We must keep, sir," he said, "French daggers from our throats." As he spoke he flung the weapon, with which he had provided himself, from his hand. He intended the action to be tragic, but Sheridan, alas! turned it into comedy. "The honourable member has

brought the knife," exclaimed the wit, "but where is the fork?"

North of Beaconsfield the ground rises considerably, and about three miles from the town we come to the village of Penn, which occupies a high point overlooking the valley of the Wyck. From this village the family of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, took its name, and in the Perpendicular church we find monuments and brasses of that family and of those of Curzon and Rok. Richard, Earl Howe, one of our greatest naval officers, and the victor in the famous fight on "the glorious first of June," 1794, has left his name at Penn. His daughter, Sophia, who inherited her father's title, which was a creation passing through females in defect of male heirs, married into the Curzon family of Penn Howe, which we may see a little farther to the north. The Curzons had succeeded the Penn family by the marriage of Sir Nathaniel Curzon with the heiress of the Penns. We shall have more to do with William Penn the Quaker when we come to the Chalfonts. The house is an ancient one of brick.

We have now explored the western slopes of the Hundred of Burnham, and have reached the highest ground. From the tower of Penn Church it is said that not only Windsor Castle

but portions of twelve counties can be seen. We are now going to cross the hills eastward and make our way to the pretty valleys which run down the eastern sides of the hills to the borders of the county and the river Coln.

CHAPTER V.

THE VALLEY OF THE MISBOURN.

Course of the Misbourn-Amersham-Market-house, Church, and Monuments-Bishop Grey-Walter d'Agmondesham-Edmund Waller - Algernon Sidney-Shardeloes-Chalfont-The Vache, Gardyners, and Fleetwoods-Sir Thomas ClaytonBishop Hare-Sir Hugh Palliser-Church of St. Giles-Oliver Cromwell-John Milton-Thomas Ellwood-Horace Walpole -The Grove-Jordans Meeting House-William Penn-The Grange-Isaac Penington.

WE now pass over the hills which hem in Beaconsfield on the north, and make for the pretty valley of the Misbourn which runs through the centre of the upper portion of the Hundred of Burnham. This is one of those pleasant streams of which we find so many a one flowing

"Through quiet meadows 'round the mill,"

as we cross and recross the Chiltern hills. It is also the most important, for it rises on the high ground near Hampden, and has a comparatively long course for a wholly Buckinghamshire river before it joins the Coln at Denham. The valley itself is green with many a