Literary Surrey
Jacqueline Banerjee

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Published with the support of the R.C. Sherriff Rosebriars Trust …

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Front cover: The River Mole at Dorking, by Henry H Parker
Back cover: A view of John Evelyn's garden at Wotton

Paperback - 200 pages, illustrated
John Owen Smith; ISBN: 978-1-873855-50-8; August 2005

Associated titles: Heatherley by Flora Thompson; The Hilltop Writers by WR Trotter


Back Cover . Preface . Contents . List of Illustrations . List of Writers . Index . Reviews . About the Author


Back Cover

Surrey is a lovely county in which to live—and write. Down the ages, writers of all kinds have sung its praises, and used it as a setting for everything from romantic entanglements to alien invasions.

Jacqueline Banerjee is fascinated by the appearance of familiar scenes in their work, and by the whole impact of place on the literary imagination. She encourages us to look again (or perhaps for the first time) at these authors and the beautiful local places that inspired them, and to see them both with fresh eyes.

Each chapter has helpful suggestions about how to do our own literary detective work, whether by "reading on," or by exploring the Surrey countryside for ourselves.


Preface

Oddly enough, this book started with a plumbing problem. Busy with the caulking tape under the cistern, the plumber suddenly mentioned the name Forster. I pricked up my ears. Apparently, the running battle he'd been talking about, the one with his neighbour over some plaque or other, had nothing to do with his pipe-work at all. It was over which of their houses E.M. Forster had been living in when he wrote A Passage to India. And this was just down the road to us! It was a revelation to me.

Of course, I knew Surrey was steeped in history. All the home counties are, I suppose, thanks to being on London's doorstep. But Surrey does seem rather special. Even after the last shake-up of county boundaries, it still has within its postal district the coronation stone of the first Saxon kings at Kingston-on-Thames, and the birthplace of democracy at Runnymede where King John was forced into a corner by his angry barons and affixed his royal seal to the Magna Carta. Other old Surrey towns like Kew and Epsom are also known to people all over the world, for entirely different reasons. And almost anywhere in Surrey, a stretch of crumbling wall or a curious street name will suddenly evoke a wonderfully rich historical past.

But I'd never thought about this county's literary past. After all, it has no Stratford, no "Brontë country" or "Hardy country," no Lake District. Perhaps it lies too close to the capital, where writers and literary pilgrims alike have always been drawn to certain well-defined areas like Fleet Street, Southwark and Bloomsbury. Besides, isn't there something prosaic, not to mention materialistic, about its comfortable, stockbroker-belt image?

Nevertheless, as I began to discover, Surrey has been host to some of our best-loved literary figures, and some of the great masterpieces of our literature have been produced here.

For, after all, it has plenty to offer the creative mind. "Leafy Surrey" is still not a myth or a misnomer. This is the most thickly wooded county in England, and writers as different and far apart in time as the diarist John Evelyn and Forster himself have shared a delight in its ancient woodland. Then there are Surrey's rivers, from the busy Thames itself to the Wey, the aptly-named burrowing Mole, the beautiful Tillingbourne, and the Hogsmill, beloved of the Pre-Raphaelites John Millais and William Hollman Hunt. The great liberal humanist Matthew Arnold was not alone in revelling in these rivers, whether by bathing in them, rowing on them or fishing along them. Best of all, there are Surrey's views and vistas. As well as the vantage point of Box Hill, scene of the famously fraught expedition in Jane Austen's Emma, Surrey has Leith Hill and Hindhead, with the North Downs and the Weald at their feet. Little wonder, then, that over the years many writers have been drawn here.

What they wrote in this lovely landscape depended partly on the stage of their careers when they were here. H.G. Wells, for instance, came to stay in Surrey as a young man on the brink of success, not very fit but still fizzing with energy. Eager to build up his health, he threw himself into boating, cycling, even the losing battle with slugs in the garden—and into writing his extraordinarily inventive "scientific romances." Others, including William Cobbett who was born and raised here, found more of their material in the natural world, and never lost their passion for it. Then there were those, like George Meredith, who lived through the years of their maturity here, finding the Surrey setting a poignant background for poetry and novels about the struggles of the human heart. As for those who retired here for their more sedate later years, like George Eliot and her partner G.H. Lewes, who took a house in Witley at the end of 1877, the Surrey period was liable to be a time of reflection—of writing essays and letters, perhaps.

Admittedly, there were one or two who wished they were nearer the hum and thrum of the city. The seventeenth-century poet (and later Dean of St Paul's) John Donne, whose secret marriage had cut him off from court life, used his time here for studying the law, but felt increasingly wretched as his exile dragged on. He and his wife moved from her cousin's home at Pyrford Place, Pyrford, to Camberwell and then to Mitcham, at which point, with his growing family dogged by illness and poverty, he more or less gave up on the county. He found himself some lodgings in the Strand to be nearer the centre of power and patronage again. For him, Surrey had become more like a cage or a sickbay than anything else. But then, his circumstances during those years were truly desperate.

Those who found their time in Surrey more congenial are generally remembered with pride by the individual towns and villages whose streets they once walked. Here, the prize must go to Woking, which marked H.G. Wells's fruitful stay in Surrey with a tall, eye-catching steel Martian war-machine in its town centre. Even the bacteria which finally overcome these devastating tripods in The War of the Worlds are recalled in a series of mosaics set into the pavement—a unique kind of literary memorial, I should think, and likely to remain so. There are more glimpses of Wells in Woking's new town gate, in murals under a railway bridge and in a pedestrian underpass, and in the local Wetherspoons pub. Shaw's stay in Woking is commemorated in some of those places too. Although Shaw moved around a lot during these years, he completed his "Don Juan" comedy, Man and Superman, there in 1903.

Some of Surrey's other literary associations are also celebrated locally, by brass plaques in churches, or blue plaques on houses. The museums of Farnham and Guildford, respectively, do William Cobbett and Lewis Carroll proud, and Haslemere Museum has a whole galaxy of local writers from Surrey's south-western border to celebrate. Branch libraries often have interesting collections of material on even the less widely read authors who once lived nearby, and such figures still have a real presence in the neighbourhood. The nineteenth-century satirist Thomas Love Peacock, for instance, needs little introduction in Shepperton, where Peacock House occupies a prominent place facing Lower Halliford Green, and is graced with a fine peacock weathervane as well as a blue plaque.

In fact, Surrey has such a rich literary heritage that I had to be selective about the authors I covered, mentioning some only in passing, and leaving out a few who perhaps spent less time here, or whose stay here didn't particularly affect their writing or throw light on their writing careers.

For what interests me most is the interaction of mind and place in these authors' works. Knowing the spot in Surrey where, for example, Keats was inspired to complete his first major poem, helps us to appreciate better both the poem and the area—Keat's delight in the River Mole there ("a little river," "a crystal Rill") is particularly infectious. Similarly, to read of Matthew Arnold's pleasure in walking from Cobham to Weybridge is to warm to the human being behind the humanist, and also to sense the romance of the old Surrey roads. And to imagine Siegfried Sassoon and E.M. Forster standing together at the gates of Ashley Park in Walton-on-Thames, shortly before it was demolished, is to glimpse not only a fruitful literary friendship, but a whole bygone era of great Surrey estates as well.

So, just as we go to Runnymede to feel close to the dawn of civil liberties, we might also go to such places as Box Hill and Cobham, to reflect on the other messages which our culture has sent out into the world-and to enjoy the surroundings with those messages in mind. Of course, it isn't always necessary to set off by road or rail. Although I suggest a few places to visit at the end of each chapter, this isn't really intended as a guidebook. It's for anyone who is interested in the highways and byways of our literature, even if they only wish to travel them in their mind's eye, and from the comfort of their own armchair.

Finally, I'm so grateful to my family and to all the other kind people who have lent their time, advice, information and illustrations to this project, especially to my husband, who has taken me round (and round) Surrey in pursuit of the literary past. Special thanks also to Teruhiko Nagao and Wendy Hughes for their interest and encouragement; to the Rehs Gallery, New York, and Devonshire Fine Arts (at antique-maps-online.co.uk); to the artists Tim Frost, Janet Gale and Diane Setek; to the photographers Chris Head and John Powell; to the librarians of King's College, London, for permitting me to copy old frontispieces etc.; to the helpful staff of the Imperial War Museum, London, the Juniper Hall Field Centre, Keats House, Painshill Park, the Surrey History Centre and Wotton House; and above all to John Owen Smith for his patience, kindness and technical expertise and the Rosebriars Trust for their generous publication grant. As I explain at the end of Chapter 10, the Trust was established with the proceeds of the estate of local playwright and screenwriter, R.C. Sherriff. I was thrilled to have the support of one of "my" authors, and I hope I've done him justice here.

Jacqueline Banerjee
Walton-on-Thames, April 2005


Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
1. John Evelyn, FRS, A True Surrey Gentleman
2. Fanny Burney (Madame d'Arblay) of Westhumble
3. Country Writers in Surrey: William Cobbett and Richard Jefferies
4. Excursions in the Countryside: Box Hill and the River Mole
5. Another Side to Matthew Arnold
6. George Meredith and Modern Love
7. Curiouser and Curiouser: Children's Writers in Surrey
8. On Target! H.G. Wells in Woking
9. Abinger Ironist, E.M. Forster
10. The Quill and the Sword: Surrey Writers in Times of War
Index


List of Illustrations

The River Mole, Dorking, by Henry H. Parker (courtesy of the Rehs Galleries, Inc., New York City) – front cover
Sheridan's Walk at Polesden Lacey – frontispiece
Map of Surrey in the late eighteenth century, by John Aikin (courtesy of Devonshire Fine Arts) 12
"There will the river whisp'ring run…." (John Donne, "The Bait"). The Wey at Pyrford, where Donne spent the early years of his marriage 17
John Evelyn in 1689: "I sat for my Picture to Mr Kneller … holding my Sylva in my right hand" (© The Royal Society) 19
Wotton House: "large and antient, suitable to those hospitable times" 21
The Evelyn Terrace at Albury Park (courtesy of John Powell) 22
Today's "Church-porch of Wotton" 24
A pond on the Wotton House estate: "I made a triangular Pond … with an artificial rock" 26
Mary Evelyn as a young woman (from The Diary of John Evelyn, ed. Austin Dobson, Vol. 2, 1906) 27
Entwined E(velyn) and W(otton) on the front of Wotton House 30
"Wotton chur[c]h in my deare native County Surry" 31
Claremont in Victorian times (from Great Britain and Her Queen, by Anne E. Keeling, 2nd ed. 1897) 34
Fanny Burney (from Fanny Burney at the Court of Queen Charlotte, by Constance Hill, 1912) 38
Chesington Hall (from Juniper Hall: A Rendezvous…, by Constance Hill, reproduced by permission of the British Library, 010360.f.2) 39
Norbury Park (from Juniper Hall: A Rendezvous…, see above) 40
Juniper Hall, Box Hill 43
Alexandre d'Arblay (from Juniper Hall: A Rendezvous…, see above) 44
St Michael and All Angels, Mickleham 45
The Hermitage, Great Bookham, today 46
Camilla Cottage. Sketch by Ellen G. Hill (from Juniper Hall: A Rendezvous…, see above) 47
The archway on which Fanny Burney's stay at Westhumble is commemorated 48
Memorial to the Reverend Samuel Cooke in St Nicolas Church, Great Bookham 51
Watercolour at Juniper Hall, possibly by General D'Arblay (courtesy of the Juniper Hall Field Studies Centre) 53
Cobbett's birthplace: The William Cobbett, Farnham. Watercolour by Janet Gale (courtesy of the artist) 56
William Cobbett (courtesy of the Museum of Farnham) 57
The gardens of Farnham Castle, where Cobbett worked as a boy 59
The valley of the Tillingbourne, "which seems to have been created by a bountiful providence" 62
Cobbett memorial in St Andrew's Church, Farnham 63
Richard Jefferies (from Great Britain and Her Queen, by Anne E. Keeling, 2nd edition, 1897) 64
A bridge over the Hogsmill: "There must be something in so sweet a stream" (courtesy of Chris Head) 66
Blue plaque to Jefferies at 196, Ewell Road 69
Cobbett's bust in the garden of the Museum of Farnham 71
Carved wooden plaque to Richard Jefferies in Surbiton Library 72
Box Hill and Burford Bridge, c.1810. Engraving (courtesy of Heaton's of Tisbury) 73
The stepping stones across the River Mole at the foot of Box Hill 74
Jane Austen (from A Memoir of Jane Austen, by J.E. Austen-Leigh, 1870) 75
St Nicolas Church, Great Bookham, where Jane Austen's godfather was once the vicar 77
The Old Crown at Great Bookham, just across from a likely model for the Bates's home 78
John Keats (from "Keats Listening to the Nightingale…" by Joseph Severn, courtesy of Keats House) 80
The Burford Bridge Hotel today. Keats stayed here in 1817 when it was The Fox and Hounds 81
The "Old Road" as it passes through Compton 86
Matthew Arnold (from The Poems of Matthew Arnold, 1840–1867, 1922) 90
Muncaster House, Laleham 92
The Thames at Laleham: "It changes less than any place I ever go to" 94
All Saints, the little brick church at Laleham 96
Pains Hill Cottage, Arnold's "rural Grub Street" (courtesy of David Taylor) 97
One of Arnold's favourite trees: the only surviving cork oak at Painshill Park (courtesy of the Trustees of Painshill Park) 100
The lake at Painshill Park, where Matthew Arnold skated in winter 102
Caricature of Arnold by "Spy" (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, 11 November 1871 103
The Arnold family plot at All Saints, Laleham 105
Memorial to Arnold at St Andrew's Church, Cobham 106
George Meredith (from George Meredith: Some Characteristics, by Richard Le Gallienne, 1894) 107
Peacock's house in Shepperton as it is today 109
The Thames between Weybridge and Shepperton, with the foot ferry in mid-stream 110
Vine Cottage, Shepperton 111
Mary Ellen Meredith. Pencil portrait by Henry Wallis (from the Works of Thomas Love Peacock, Halliford Edition, 1934) 112
The Thames at Shepperton, looking across at Pharaoh's Island 114
A "small cottage in a very beautiful country": Flint Cottage as it is today 116
Meredith's modest headstone at Dorking Cemetery: "Our life is but a little holding" 119
St Nicholas Church, Shepperton, where Peacock's baby daughter is buried 120
A rabbit pops down a hole at Millmead, Guildford 122
Mary Howitt (courtesy of Mark Groombridge) 123
West End today: the village pond 125
Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll (from The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll by Stuart Dodgson Collingwood, 1899) 126
The Chestnuts, Guildford 127
"In another moment Alice was through the glass": the Alice statue in Guildford Castle's grounds 129
"All this time the Guard was looking at her": Sir John Tenniel's illustration for the ticketless Alice 130
Dodgson's grave in The Mount Cemetery, Guildford 132
Jacqueline Wilson (courtesy of the author) 136
Alfred Bestall memorial in Surbiton Library 140
H.G. Wells (from Analysing Character, by Katherine Blackford and Arthur Newcomb, 1922) 141
The Woking Martian looms above the pavement in Crown Passage 142
A "small resolute semi-detached villa": H.G. Wells's house in Woking as it is now 143
Guildford Castle: "the old bramble-bearing, fern-beset ruin" 145
An angel presides over a grave in Brookwood Cemetery 147
"There, among some young pine-trees and furze-bushes…": the sandy area of Horsell Common, where the first Martian cylinder lands 148
"It's a cylinder-an artificial cylinder, man!" 149
The War of the Worlds mural in the Victoria Way underpass 151
The Invisible Man reading a book in Woking's Wetherspoons 155
E.M. Forster (reproduced by permission of King's College Library, Cambridge, EMF/27/305) 157
The clock at Abinger Hammer. Pen and ink by Tim Frost (courtesy of the artist) 158
Abinger Hall in 1906 (reproduced by permission of the Surrey History Service) 159
"It's quite pretty in some ways": Forster's house at Monument Green, Weybridge 161
Monument Green, Weybridge, today. Watercolour by Diane Setek (courtesy of the artist) 162
The "new stone church" at Holmbury St Mary 163
Holmbury St. Mary, from the churchyard 164
It "reminded one of swimming in a salad": the pond on the way to Holmbury Hill 165
Syed Ross Masood (reproduced by permission of King's College Library, Cambridge, EMF/27/305) 166
The view from West Hackhurst 168
Piney Copse, Forster's wood at West Hackhurst 170
The Gatehouse of Farnham Castle today 175
The Sword and the Quill, heraldic device 176
George Wither (from Wither's Hymns and Songs of the Church, 1895) 176
John Galsworthy in his study (courtesy of Birmingham University Library, Special Collections) 178
Coombe Leigh, now the Holy Cross Preparatory School on Coombe Hill 179
The view from Coombe Hill 180
Warwick Deeping around the beginning of the twentieth century 182
Siegfried Sassoon at the Fourth Army Training School, 1916 (courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London) 184
Part of the old gateway to Ashley Park 186
R.C. Sherriff coaching a crew on the Thames (courtesy of the R.C. Sherriff Rosebriars Trust) 187
The R.C. Sherriff Rosebriars Trust logo (courtesy of the Trust) 190
A view of John Evelyn's garden at Wotton – Back cover


List of Writers covered in this book


Index

1917 Club, Soho, 157, 167
Abinger Hammer, 158, 168, 173
Albany, Duke and Duchess of, 34, 101
Albury, 55, 114
Albury Park, 22, 36
Allen, Grant, 70
 The Woman Who Did, 153
Anstey, F. see Guthrie
Arnim, Elizabeth von, 163
Arnold, Matthew, 90-106
 'Literature and Science', 98
 'The Scholar Gipsy', 90
 Culture and Anarchy, 90, 96
 Empedocles on Etna and other poems, 94
 Last Poems, 101
 The Strayed Reveller and Other Poems, 94
Arnold, Thomas, 91, 92, 105
Ash, 63
Ashley Park, Walton-on-Thames, 15, 167, 186, 193
Austen, Jane, 46, 50, 75-80
 Emma, 14, 76, 77, 79, 91
 Lady Susan, 77
 Mansfield Park, 77
 Northanger Abbey, 51
 Persuasion, 75, 80
 Pride and Prejudice, 79
 Sense and Sensibility, 47
Ballard, J(ames) G(raham), 70, 136, 190
Barbauld, Anna Laetitia, 80
Barrie, Sir J(ames) M(atthew), 84, 117, 118
Basingstoke Canal, 144, 155
Beerbohm, Max, 168
Belloc, Hilaire
 Cautionary Tales, 85
 The Old Road, 85
Bestall, Arthur Edmeades, 133, 140
Blackwood's Magazine, 177
Blagge, Margaret (maid of honour, later Mrs Godolphin), 33
Blyton, Enid, 123, 134-36, 137
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 42, 49
Bott, Caroline, 133
Box Hill, 13, 27, 40, 55, 73-88, 96, 107, 115, 118, 121
Bradnack, Samuel Wesley (school principal), 133
Britten, Benjamin, 171
Brontë, Charlotte, 79
Brookwood Cemetery, 147, 156
Brown, Capability, 34
Browning, Robert, 103
Buckingham, Bob (E.M. Forster's friend), 169
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward, 110
Burford Bridge Hotel, 81, 84, 87
Burney, Charles, Dr (Fanny Burney's father), 39
Burney, Fanny (Mme d'Arblay), 38, 73, 88, 115, 168
 Camilla, 46
 Cecilia, 42, 52
 Evelina, 40
Burney, Susanna, Dr (Fanny Burney's sister), 40, 44
Byron, Ada. see Lovelace
Caesar, Julius, 174
Camden, William, 75
Camilla Cottage, 47, 48, 54
Carrington, Dora (artist), 173
Carroll, Lewis. see Dodgson, Charles
Castles
 Farnham, 58, 72, 175, 192
 Guildford, 127, 145, 155, 175
 Reigate, 175
Charles I, King, 26
Charles II, King, 28, 177
Charlotte, Queen (wife of George III), 41
Charnock, Richard, 108
Chatterton, Thomas, 112, 121
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 193
Chertsey Abbey, 175, 176
Chesington Hall, 39, 40
Chesney, George, 177, 192
Chestnuts, The (the Dodgson family home), 127, 128, 139
Chobham, 156, 175
Churches, chapels and cathedrals
 All Saints', Laleham, 91, 93, 96, 105
 Savoy Chapel, Strand, 193
 St Andrew's, Cobham, 106
 St Andrew's, Farnham, 63, 72
 St George's, Esher, 36, 121
 St George's, Hanover Square, 109
 St James', Weybridge, 121
 St John the Evangelist, Wotton, 31
 St Mary the Virgin Church of England, Chessington, 39, 53
 St Mary's, Guildford, 127, 132, 139
 St Mary's, Holmbury St Mary, 164, 173
 St Michael and All Angels, Mickleham, 45, 54, 115
 St Nicholas, Deptford, 27, 37
 St Nicholas, Shepperton, 109, 115, 120, 121, 149
 St Nicolas, Great Bookham, 45, 54, 77, 88
 St Paul's Cathedral, 20, 28, 68
 Westminster Abbey, 38, 49, 54, 103, 106, 118
Claremont, Esher, 34, 36, 101, 121, 128
Clarke, George Herbert, 174, 190
Claygate, 67, 125, 139
Clive, Robert (Clive of India), 34
Cobbett, William, 55-63, 71
 Cottage Economy, 61
 Journal of a Year's Residence in the United States, 63
 Rural Rides, 36, 55, 60, 70
 The Farmer's Friend, 61
 The Farmer's Wife's Friend, 61
 Weekly Register (later Hansard's), 56, 59
Cobham, 15, 77, 80, 88, 91, 97, 99, 103, 106, 133, 145, 175
Compton, 86, 106
Conrad, Joseph, 149
Cooke, Mrs Cassandra (Jane Austen's mother's cousin), 50
Cooke, Reverend Samuel (Jane Austen's godfather), 50, 54, 76, 80, 88
Coombe Hill, 178, 180, 193
Corelli, Marie, 84
Cowey Sale, 183
Cowley, Abraham, 34
Crisp, Samuel, 39, 43, 53
Cromwell, Oliver, 35, 177
Cross, Mrs (George Eliot's mother-in-law), 121
Croydon, 85
d'Arblay, Alexander (Fanny Burney's husband), 43, 45, 48, 54
d'Arblay, Alexander (Fanny Burney's son), 46, 48
d'Arblay, Fanny. see Burney, Fanny
de Rothschild, Lady (Matthew Arnold's friend), 97, 100
Deeping, Warwick, 182-83, 193
Defoe, Daniel, 57, 88
 Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain, 75
Denham, John, 176-77, 192
Dickens, Charles, 47, 98, 107, 124, 130, 138, 155
Dodgson, Charles (Lewis Carroll), 122, 126-32, 139
 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 126
 The Hunting of the Snark, 131
 Through the Looking Glass, 129
Domesday Book, The, 20, 174
Donne, John, 14
Dorking, 20, 47, 70, 75, 76, 96, 114, 118, 121, 152, 158, 170, 177
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 16, 117, 194
Drayton, Michael, 75
East Horsley, 100, 106
Eliot, George, 14, 107, 121
 Middlemarch, 127
Eliot, T(homas) S(tearns), 99
Ellesmere, Lady (Matthew Arnold's friend), 99
Epsom Downs, 39
Erasmus, Desiderius, 121
Esher, 34, 36, 76, 79, 86, 114, 123, 139, 145, 187, 189
Esher Place, 76
Evelyn, John, 19-37, 55
 Acetaria, A Discourse of Sallets, 35
 Compleat Gard'ner, 20
 Diary, 23, 28, 31, 33, 73
 Fumifugium, 20, 28
 Sylva, 20, 32, 169
Evelyn, John Patrick, 20
Ewhurst, 25, 99
Farnham, 57, 176
Fishponds, Surbiton, 65, 72
FitzGerald, Edward, 84
Flint Cottage, Box Hill (Meredith's house), 83, 88, 115, 118, 121
Forster, E(dwin) M(organ), 13, 157-73
 'The Celestial Omnibus', 171
 A Passage to India, 13, 157, 160, 167
 A Room with a View, 158, 163, 173
 Howard's End, 160, 165
 Maurice, 163, 168
 Where Angels Fear to Tread, 162
Frith, William (artist), 110
Galleries
 National Portrait Gallery, 64, 72, 140, 156, 173
 Tate Britain, 121
 The Watts Gallery, Compton, 106
 Wallace Collection, 101
Galsworthy, John, 178-82
 The Forsyte Saga, 178, 181
Gaskell, Elizabeth, 124
George III, King, 41, 53
Gibbons, Grinling (wood carver), 20, 35, 37
Gissing, George Robert
 Esther Waters, 153
Godolphin, Sidney (courtier, later Earl), 33
Goldsmith, Oliver, 173
Great Bookham, 45, 46, 50, 54, 74, 76, 78, 88
Guildford, 76, 106, 114, 122, 126, 127, 129, 131, 139, 145, 155, 162, 175, 190
Guthrie, Thomas Anstey, 132-33
Hampton Court Palace, 184
Hansard (official reports of parliamentary debate), 56
Hardy, Thomas, 84, 116, 117, 138
Haslemere, 70, 114, 127, 130, 139
Hazlitt, William, 58, 81
Helena of Waldeck-Pyrmont (Duchess of Albany), 129
Hemlow, Joyce (Burney scholar), 39, 49, 52
Holman Hunt, William (artist), 13
Holmbury St Mary, 163, 173
Hook, 134, 140
Horne, Catherine, 112
Horne, Richard Hengist, 112
Horsell Common, 142, 148, 150, 156
Horsley Towers, 106
Howitt, Mary, 123-25, 126, 138, 145
Howitt, William, 124
Hudson, W(illiam) H(enry), 69
Hughes, Thomas, 94, 106
Huxley, Aldous, 128
Huxley, Julia (née Arnold), 128
Huxley, T(homas) H(enry), 148
illustrations, list of, 8
Ishiguro, Kazuo, 190
James, Henry, 84, 101, 103, 117
Jefferies, Richard, 55-56, 64-72
 After London, 68
 Bevis, 66
 Nature near London, 65, 66
 Round About a Great Estate, 66
 The Gamekeeper at Home, 66
 The Story of a Boy, 64
 The Story of my Heart, an autobiography, 56, 64, 68
 Wild Life in a Southern County, 66
 Wood Magic, a Fable, 66
Jerome, Jerome K(lapka), 153, 163
John, King, 13, 175
Johnson, Samuel, 38, 41, 53
Juniper Hall, 43, 53, 73, 83
Keats, John, 80-83, 89
 'Ode to a Grecian Urn', 83
 'Ode to a Nightingale', 83
 'Stanzas (In a drear-nighted December)', 82
 Endymion, 80, 82, 87
Kew Gardens, 32, 53, 54, 58
Kew Palace, 42, 54
Kilvert, Rev Francis, 36
Kingston, 13, 23, 50, 55, 78, 115, 136, 145, 177, 187
Kipling, Rudyard, 84
Laleham, 91, 93, 94, 96, 97, 103, 105, 128
Lawrence, D(avid) H(erbert), 69, 85, 165, 171
Leatherhead, 74
Leith Hill, 14, 73, 99, 158
Lenin, Vladimir, 153
Leopold, Prince (Duke of Albany), 34, 101, 128
Locke, William and family (of Norbury Park), 40, 44, 47, 54
Lovelace, Ada (née Byron), 106
Lovelace, Jane, Countess of, 106
Lovelace, William, Earl of, 100, 106
MacDonald, George, 128
Mackay, Charles, 84, 88
MacKenzie, Norman and Jeanne (biographers), 154
Marlowe, Christopher, 37
Masood, Syed Ross, 166
May, Derwent, 60
Mee, Arthur, 58
Meredith, Arthur (Meredith's elder son), 111, 121
Meredith, Augustus (father of George), 108
Meredith, George, 83, 84, 107-21, 152, 160
 An Essay on Comedy, 116
 Diana of the Crossways, 108, 116, 153
 Modern Love, 108, 112
 Poems, 1851, 110
 The Adventures of Harry Richmond, 108
 The Egoist, 108
 The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, 108, 113
 The Shaving of Shagpat, 115
Meredith, Marie (née Vulliamy, Meredith's second wife), 115, 118
Meredith, Mariette (Meredith's daughter), 115
Meredith, Mary (née Peacock, Meredith's first wife), 109, 112
Meredith, William (Meredith's younger son), 115
Mickleham, 40, 45, 54, 85, 114
Mill, John Stuart, 83
Millais, John Everett (artist), 13
Milton, John, 75
Morison, Sir Theodore, 166
Museums
 Dorking and District, 88
 Elmbridge, 84
 Farnham, 14, 58, 71
 Geffrye, 37
 Guildford, 14, 139, 191
 Haslemere, 14, 139
 Kingston, 67
 Richard Jefferies, 64
 Twickenham, 193
National Council for Civil Liberties, The, 168
Neale, James Mason, 121
Nokes, David (critic), 50
Norbiton, 193
Norbury Park, 40, 44, 48, 54, 83, 118, 160, 168
Norton, Caroline, 117
Omar Khayyám Society, 84
Painshill Cottage, 97
Painshill Park, 76, 88, 97, 102, 105
Pall Mall Gazette, 66
Peacock, Edward, 109
Peacock, Thomas Love, 15, 109, 120
Penton Hook, 94, 105
Pepys, Samuel, 23, 29, 31, 32, 33, 193
Pilgrims' Way, The, 74, 85, 87, 173, 183
Polesden Lacey, 6, 76, 88, 117
Pollock, Major Hugh (Enid Blyton's first husband), 135
Pope, Alexander, 176, 191, 192
Porter, Anna Maria and Jane, 86
Public Houses
 The Abinger Arms, 173
 The Bear Inn, Esher, 121
 The Cap in Hand, Hook, 140
 The Hand & Spear, Weybridge, 84
 The John Evelyn, Deptford, 36
 The Old Crown, Great Bookham, 78, 88
 The Ship Inn, Shepperton, 120
 The White House, Guildford, 139
 The William Cobbett, Farnham, 56, 57, 71
 Wetherspoons, Woking, 14, 155
 Wotton Hatch, Wotton, 36
Pugin, Augustus (architect), 36
Pyrford, 14, 17
Reynolds, J(ohn) H(amilton), 81
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 41
Richmond, 34
Rivers
 Hogsmill, 13, 65, 72, 144
 Mole, 13, 15, 45, 73-88, 81, 85, 97, 105, 124, 150
 Thames, 13, 27, 35, 70, 75, 91, 95, 113, 120, 149, 153, 162, 174, 183, 191, 192
 Tillingbourne, 13, 61
 Wey, 13, 17, 57, 99, 123, 147, 149
Rogers, Pat (critic), 52
Roosevelt, Franklin D, 153
Rosebriars (R.C. Sherriff's house), 189, 191, 193
Rosebriars Trust, The R.C. Sherriff, 190, 193
Rowling, J(oanne) K(athleen), 134
Runnymede, 13, 15, 175, 176
Sassoon, Alfred (Siegfried Sassoon's father), 184
Sassoon, Siegfried, 153, 167, 183-87
 'The General', 185
 Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, 167, 191
 Old Century and Seven Years, 185
 The Weald of Youth, 185
Sayes Court (Evelyn's Deptford home), 27, 29, 32, 36, 48, 55
Scott, Sir Walter, 83
Scruton, Roger (philosopher), 66
Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, 142, 155
Sharp, Richard 'Conversation', 83
Shaw, George Bernard, 188, 194
 Man and Superman, 14
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 120
Shepperton, 15, 70, 107, 111, 113, 121, 147, 149
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 76, 88, 117
Sherriff, R(obert) C(edric)
 Journey's End, 187-90
Smith, George (publisher), 101
Southey, Robert, 83
Spater, George (biographer), 63
Spenser, Edmund, 74, 85
Spicer, John William, of Esher Place, 76, 86
Stack and Bonner (estate agents, Surbiton), 65
Staines, 92, 93, 175
Stalin, Joseph, 153
Stephen, Sir Leslie, 83, 160
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 117
 Child's Garden of Verses, 84
 Treasure Island, 84
Stopes, Marie (birth control pioneer), 54, 168
Strachey, Lytton, 157
Surbiton, 52, 65, 66, 69, 72, 132, 133, 134, 140, 144, 145, 172, 177, 179
Tennyson, Alfred Lord, 16, 36, 103, 106, 110, 117, 124, 127, 130, 138, 139, 194
Thackeray, William Makepeace, 49, 52, 155
Thomas, Edward, 58, 67, 91
Thompson, Flora Jane, 84, 194
Thoreau, Henry David, 68
Thornycroft, Theresa, 184
Thrale, Henry, 41
Thrale, Hester Lynch (Mrs), 41, 53
Topolski, Feliks (artist), 156
Trevelyan, Bob (E.M. Forster's friend), 162
Tupper, Martin, 36
Twickenham, 191, 193
Vanbrugh, Sir John, 34
Vaughan Williams, Ralph (composer), 36, 158, 168, 176
Victoria, Queen, 34, 121, 128
Wallace, Sir Richard (art collector), 101
Wallis, Henry (artist), 112, 115, 121
Walton Bridge, 150, 174, 183
Walton Regatta, The, 169
Walton-on-Thames, 15, 99, 101, 106, 150, 153, 167, 174, 190, 193
War Propaganda Bureau, 181
Watts, George Frederic (artist and sculptor), 90, 106
Wells, Amy Catherine (née Robbins, Wells's second wife), 143, 145, 153
Wells, H(erbert) G(eorge), 14, 84, 141-56, 181
 Ann Veronica, 152
 Kipps, 144
 Love and Mr Lewisham, 152
 The Invisible Man, 150
 The Island of Dr Moreau, 151
 The Sleeper Wakes, 152
 The Time Machine, 143
 The War of the Worlds, 142, 148-50, 153
 The Wheels of Chance, 142, 144
West End, Esher, 124, 139, 145
West, Anthony (Wells's son), 146, 151, 153
West, Rebecca, 146, 147
Westhumble, 38, 48, 96
Westminster Abbey, 38, 49, 54, 103, 106, 118
Weybridge, 15, 84, 101, 110, 115, 121, 149, 158, 161, 162, 166, 167, 173, 177, 182, 193
Weybridge Literary Institute, 166
White, Gilbert, 60
Whitman, Walt, 68
Wilde, Oscar, 116, 168
Williams, Vaughan, 36, 158, 168, 176
Wilson, Jacqueline, 123, 136-37, 190
Wither, George, 176-77, 193
Wodehouse, Sir P(elham) G(renville), 192
Woking, 14, 128, 141-56, 155, 175, 183, 190
Woking Martian, The, 14, 142, 155
Wollstonecraft, Mary, 47
Woolf, Leonard, 157
Woolf, Virginia, 34, 83, 157
Worcester Park, 151, 153, 156
Wordsworth, William, 80, 91, 98, 124
Wotton, 20-31, 36, 38, 55, 61, 73, 97, 99, 106
Wragham, Francis (Wordsworth's friend), 80
Wren, Sir Christopher, 29


Reviews

"Eagle-eyed readers of This England will be familiar with the author of this book. She has contributed a number of articles to the magazine, including two in our regular "Literary landscapes of England" feature. These explored the lives of William Cobbett (see the Winter 2005 issue) and E.M. Forster (Winter 2006). In fact both were edited versions of chapters from this book, which contains more material on both these writers and excellent profiles of numerous other novelists and poets associated with the county.
"She obviously knows this corner of England well, but has also been conscientious in her research. There are famous names aplenty, including Matthew Arnold, Enid Blyton, Lewis Carroll and H.G. Wells, but also several with whom readers might not be so familiar: Thomas Anstey Guthrie (F. Anstey), for example, author of the classic children's school story Vice Versa (1882), country writer Mary Howitt, and a novelist, the author of Sorrell and Son (1925), who was once extremely popular but of whom you now hear very little, Warwick Deeping.
"This book, illustrated with black-and-white photographs, is full of interest in its own right. What are particularly pleasing and useful, however, are the extensive 'Suggested reading' and 'Places to Visit' sections, inviting readers to delve deeper and discover even more." (This England)

"Literary Surrey, a new book by local writer Jacqueline Banerjee, chronicles a whole host of authors who held the county close to their hearts" (Elmbridge Lifestyle)
 
"Literary Surrey ... celebrates the colourful literary history of Surrey ... and will appeal to anyone interested in how the countryside and history of the county have influenced some of Britain's most respected writers" (Woking News & Mail)
 
"It may not be as hallowed as Shakespeare Country or Austen Country but Jacqueline has proved Surrey has an authorial history to be proud of" (Walton and Weybridge Guardian)
 
"Read all about it: Jacqueline Banerjee ... has made it her mission to uncover secrets of famous literary figures and story locations in Surrey"  (Surrey Herald)
 
 "County is a bounty of literary history: a book called Literary Surrey explores the rich literary history of the county, including Surbiton and Kingston" (Kingston Informer)
 
"The literary history of Surrey is unveiled in a new book, which looks at the lives of famous authors who resided in the county. Literary Surrey, by Jacqueline Banerjee, highlights the works of, among others, a Hollywood screenwriter, a dramatic author, and a children's storyteller" (Esher News & Mail) 

"Excellent ... very readable and full of interesting facts which will encourage an exploration of Surrey very shortly!" (Rosemary Culley, Alliance of Literary Societies Newsletter)

"Surrey is the only county to provide the sole location for an entire Jane Austen novel, and … [Jacqueline Banerjee's] riposte to Charlotte Brontë's naive accusation that there is "no open country--no fresh air--no blue hill--no bonny beck!" in Pride and Prejudice would lift the heart of any Janeite....
"Evelyn and his garden at Wotton House near Dorking are given the opening chapter and he is rightly given his due as a writer on gardening (there is a reproduction of Kneller's portrait, in which he is holding his Sylva). Rural writers such as Cobbett and Jefferies are discussed, and devotees of Lewis Carroll will be delighted to learn that the journey to the Fourth Square in Through the Looking Glass, in which Alice travels on the train without a ticket, was based on a real incident that once happened to Dodgson when he was going to Guildford.
"Among the many other writers who had a connection with Surrey, among them Meredith, Matthew Arnold, Forster, Galsworthy, H.G. Wells, none is too lightweight (Enid Blyton) or too unfashionable (Warwick Deeping) to merit inclusion. The book finishes with an interesting section on R.C. Sherriff…" (David Selwyn, Editor, The Jane Austen Society News Letter)

"I've read and greatly enjoyed [Literary Surrey]. Your style is so pleasant to read and I loved all the anecdotes. I've been leading literary tours to England for the past 3 years and knew many of the literary connections, but you had some that were new to me. Congratulations!" (Susannah Fullerton, President, Jane Austen Society of Australia)

"I was delighted to come across Jacqueline Banerjee's Literary Surrey.... Plentifully illustrated with recent photographs, as well as reproductions of old paintings and engravings, this book convinces the reader of the beauty of the Surrey countryside and the mesmerising effect it had on those sensitive souls who experienced it in earlier, more bucolic era.... an interesting book, attractively produced, and entertainingly written.... well worth the read." (Prof. Lorna Clark, The Burney Letter, the newsletter of the Burney Society)

"This volume serves as a surprisingly detailed overview for those interested in the history of the area and its relation to Wells' masterwork…  I often hear from Wellsians and The War of the Worlds fans planning trips to Woking to 'walk the hallowed ground.'  I would recommend anyone planning such an excursion to give Literary Surrey more than a cursory glance.  At a mere £9.95 you almost cannot afford not to."  (Charles Keller, Newsletter of the HG Wells Society, the Americas)


About the Author

Jacqueline Banerjee received her BA and PhD degrees from King's College, London, and has been a Research Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She has taught English Literature at universities in England, Canada, Ghana and Japan, and publishes regularly in scholarly journals, newspapers and magazines.

Her two previous books are Through the Northern Gate: Childhood and Growing Up in British Fiction, 1719-1901 (1996), and Paul Scott (1999).

Now home in Surrey again, she loves treading in the footsteps of some of her favourite authors.


Please feel free to contact me if you would like to share information on the topics covered by this book. See address details on Home Page