nday scholars, from a
Norman wall, looks down a hideous stone corbel. A clown's face stretches
a devil's mouth wide open with hands like rat's paws; the sharp teeth
grin like rat's teeth; perhaps in the Sunday school they make their own
faces at it.

Chipstead, to the west, is on a hill the other side of the railway. It
has some pretty modern cottages by a pond and shading elm-trees; a
post-office also, with the smallest possible aperture for introducing
letters to the notice of the post-mistress within. The church has some
quaint features; there are a number of oddly shaped lancet windows, a
curiously carved boss in the groining of the tower, and a strange
arrangement by which the members of the choir sit facing the east with
their backs to the pulpit. In the churchyard lies Sir Edward Banks,
perhaps Chipstead's most illustrious native. He was born poor and he
died rich; and he built three great bridges, Waterloo, Southwark, and
London. Chipstead churchyard, too, has a fine yew; but good yews are
common in the churchyards south of Croydon.

The best walk from Chaldon is over the hill to Merstham; the sign-posts
show you the path and mark it "The Pilgrims' Way" to Tollsworth Farm
with the utmost assurance. From Tollsworth Farm the path drops over a
plough down the side of the hill; before the railway and the tunnel came
the old Way perhaps went straight across to the church. Merstham itself
has little to show except one pretty little side street; but the church
is more full of curiosities than any other near. Its builders placed it
delightfully on a mound which is all air and sunlight, and though much
of the charm of the church was destroyed in 1861, much that is old and
curious remains. A queerly placed clock tells the time low down on the
tower; inside are ancient monuments, one a stone effigy recovered from
use as a pavement, others to the Elinbrygge family. That is only one
spelling of the name, and perhaps as good as any other; variations are
Elinebrigge, Elyngbrigge, Elinerugge, Ellerug, Elmerugge, Elmebrugge,
Elmridge, Elmbrige, Elmebrygge, Ellmbridge, Elinrugge, Ellyngbrugg,
Elenbrig, Elingbrig, Ellyngbrigg, and Ellynbrege. An Elinbrygge in those
days could spell practically anything. Other memorials are fragments of
stone carving, once belonging to the Southcotes and Waldegraves, and
built without reason into windows and walls. Over the west chancel arch
is a broken piece of carving from old London Bridge; and