is the chosen end of
the walk from Cranleigh, is Blackheath, well named. In winter the
flowerless heather darkens the whole moorland; and through it the roads,
the rough roads the Roman legionaries knew well, run ribands of white
sand.

[Illustration: _Chertsey._]

CHAPTER XVI

CHERTSEY

Through the hayfields.--The Abbey.--John de Rutherwyk.--Cowley in
his garden.--Bill Sikes at Chertsey.--The curfew.--A duel of
hearts.--The Chertsey legend.--St. Anne's Hill.--Digging for
treasure.--St. Paul's like a mushroom.--Charles James Fox.--Sunshine
and turnips.--Triumphant rooks.

Chertsey might well be taken as the centre from which to explore
north-west Surrey, but it is less generally convenient as regards the
railway than Weybridge, which allows exploration north, east, south and
west, whereas Chertsey lies on a branch line. Besides, there is the walk
from Weybridge to Chertsey to be taken, and there are few more
delightful near the Surrey Thames. The high road from the bridge over
the Wey runs between double ribands of water; on one side lies the
sunny, slow canal, edged with iris and forget-me-nots, and banked up
higher than the road; on the other, a shady stream, dun and
bleak-haunted. Before the road turns into Addlestone there is a
field-path, breaking off at right angles, which leads to a wooden bridge
crossing the clear, brown little Bourne, and beyond the bridge lies
Chertsey Mead, one huge hayfield, bounded on the left by wooded slopes,
on the right by the Thames itself. Two or three narrow paths intersect
the level of waving grass; the turf underfoot is as springy as peat, and
the standing crop scents the June wind, rich with daisies and clover.
Beyond Chertsey before you lies St. Anne's Hill, dark and incumbent over
the town; but you do not guess that the Thames edges that shining
hayfield until you catch sight of a boat-sail, leisurely dipping and
nodding under the Lombardy poplars that line the stream. The path leaves
the meadow close to Chertsey Bridge, graceful with seven stone arches.

A thousand years ago Chertsey was the centre of a very large tract
indeed. Chertsey Abbey, up to the Dissolution, was one of the greatest
religious houses in the kingdom, and one of the oldest. It was in
666--the date is suspiciously exact--that Frithwald, viceroy of Surrey
under Wulfer, king of the Mercians, gave the land on which the building
was to stand, and he and Erkenwald, its first ab