: accordingly ordered what boats I would have to
my assistance: and about 12 at night I did itt effectually, w^th the
loss of but one man, and 5 or 6 wounded.

_July 23._--At 4 this morning, adm^l Byng began w^th his ships to
cannonade, a Dutch rear-adm^l and 5 or 6 ships of thairs along w^th
him, w^ch made a noble noise, being within half shott of the town.
My ship, not being upon service, I desired Sir George to make me his
_aducon_ to carry his commands, from tyme to tyme, to adm^l Byng,
which he did....

P.S. This is rite all in a hurry, sir, y^t I hope you'le excuse me."

The aide-de-camp had not forgotten the concluding formula of the
schoolboy complete letter-writer.

Beyond Carshalton is Sutton, not less exuberant than Croydon. The Cock
Hotel of coaching days has been rebuilt; the railway is convenient for
Epsom or London.

CHAPTER XXXVI

CHALDON TO THE DOWNS

Coulsdon.--A giant Christian prince.--Chaldon.--The Ladder of
Life.--The Brig of Whinney Moor.--Chipstead.--Merstham.--A Wizard
Rector.--Addington.--The little churches.--Horne Tooke's
_Diversions_.

It is possible to escape from Croydon's railway-stations. You can push
out from its ringing streets into green and quiet country, and find
little old churches within a mile or two of the railway, as undisturbed
as if no railway were yet running. You may leave the line at Purley, and
within an hour's walk find yourself in the wind on the downs, among
Anglo-Saxon barrows and immemorial yews; you may even be able (though
not without thought) to exclude from a generous view of hill and valley
the enormous lunatic asylums which fate and County Councils have piled
and multiplied in this part of Surrey.

There is a strip of country lying south of Purley in which you cannot
get more than a mile and a half or so from the railway, but which
contains tiny hamlets and lonely roads. Purley and Kenley will one day
come out to Coulsdon, perhaps, but Coulsdon's day is not yet. The
village itself is nothing more than a cottage or two with a church. But
the road to Coulsdon opens on broad slopes of grass and plough, bordered
with a line of yews--an ancient trackway, perhaps. Such a line, or
rather lines, for there are several along the sides of the downs a
little further south, would certainly be claimed as evidence of a
"pilgrims' way" if they ran east and west between Guildford, say, and
Dorking. Fields w