s dismal to add that much, also, that was old and venerable has been
destroyed. It is probably the worst restored of all old churches worth
restoring.

Stoke D'Abernon has a claim on the attention of those about to marry.
The manor-house is the first which is recorded as having been lent for a
honeymoon. So I learn from Mr. J.H. Round, writing in the _Ancestor_.
When William Marshall, in 1189, secured the hand of the heiress of the
Earls of Pembroke, who was as good as she was beautiful, he proposed
that they should be married on her own estates on the Welsh border. His
host, however, a wealthy Londoner, would not hear of such a thing, and
insisted on their being married in London and paying the cost of the
wedding himself. After the ceremony, as the Society papers of the time
might have put it, the young couple left for Stoke D'Abernon in Surrey,
the peaceful and delectable country mansion of Sir Enguerrand D'Abernon,
kindly lent for the occasion. Mr. Round has extracted this the earliest
known reference to an orthodox honeymoon in the country, from the
bridegroom's poetical biography, _L'histoire de Guillaume le
Marechal_:--

"Quant les noces bien faites furent,
E richement, si comme els durent,
La dame emmena, ce savon,
Chies sire Angeran d'Abernon,
A Estokes, en liu paisable
E aesie e delitable."

The bill for the trousseau of the heiress has also been discovered,
entered in the Pipe Roll of the year. It cost L9 12_s._ 1_d._

The road from Stoke D'Abernon runs north-west through the two Cobhams,
Church Cobham and Street Cobham. The little Plough Inn, which acts as
refreshment-room for Cobham railway station, suggests the proper spirit
of village revelry. A spreading yew arbour should shade good ale from
the summer suns, and by the side of the garden across the road, gay with
geraniums, see-saws and swings, runs a tiny stream, rippling down to the
Mole.

Unlike the Wey, the Mole runs by few churches. Only five, Horley,
Betchworth, Leatherhead, Stoke D'Abernon, and Cobham, stand near the
river, and only Stoke D'Abernon actually on its banks. Stoke D'Abernon,
too, has the best view from the churchyard across the stream, over a
broad stretch of grassland on which partridges call and rooks stalk
majestically. At Cobham you can scarcely see the Mole when you are in
the village, but there are few prettier glimpses of its stream than the
brimming pool by the road outside. A grey mill stands i