he Mole. Both develop magnificent scenery on the flanks
of the chalk-ranges that surround them; and we will now go about thirty
miles south-west from London and visit Guildford, whose origin is
involved in the mystery that surrounds the early history of so many
English towns. It was a royal manor in the days of King Alfred, being
granted to his nephew, and it was here a few years before the Norman
Conquest that the aetheling AElfred was captured. Harold, the son of
Canute, wished to destroy him to secure the succession to the throne. He
forged a letter purporting to be from his mother, Queen Emma, inviting
AElfred to come to England, and sent his minister Godwine forward, who
met and swore allegiance to AElfred, lodging him at Guildford, and most
of his comrades in separate houses there. In the night Harold's
emissaries suddenly appeared, slew his comrades, and carried AElfred off
to Ely, where he was loaded with fetters, and, being tried by some sort
of tribunal, was blinded and then put to death. The monks of Ely
enshrined his body, and of course miracles were wrought by it. The
castle was built on the Wey after the Norman Conquest, and Henry II.
made it a park and royal residence, so that it was long called the
King's Manor. In Charles I.'s time it was granted to the Earl of
Annandale. The situation of Guildford is picturesque; the chalk-range is
narrowed to a line of steep, ridgy hills almost as straight as a wall
and severed by the valley of the Wey. This pretty stream escapes from
the Weald to the southward between the Hog's Back on the west and Albury
Down on the east, the valley narrowing so as to form a natural gateway
just where the river emerges. A bridge was built here, and this
determined the site of the town, which straggles up the Hog's Back and
the Down, and also spreads out in the broadening valley of the emerging
river. High up in the hills that make the eastern slope of the valley is
the old gray castle-keep, with an ancient church-tower lower down and a
new church by the waterside. From the bridge runs straight up this hill
the chief thoroughfare of the town, High Street. The shapeless ruins of
the old castle, the keep alone being kept in good condition, are not far
away from the upper part of this street, crowning an artificial mound
encompassed by what once was a ditch, but now is chiefly a series of
gardens. The ancient church-tower, part way down the hill, is dedicated
to St. Mary, but has been sho