Surrey Wilderness
SIR,—I have recently been reviving memories of places in Surrey which belong to the lives and books of two English authors. One is Pains Hill Cottage, Cobham, where Matthew Arnold spent the last fifteen years of his life, and wrote of his dogs—Grist's Grave and Kaiser Dead—and his garden. The other is Chessington Hall, where Fanny Burney, as she told Sir Walter Scott, danced a jig round a mulberry tree in joy at Dr. Johnson's praise of Evelina.
Pains Hill Cottage is now separated into flats ; the garden is a wreck. Chessington Hall, surrounded by model cottages, belongs to the British Legion, and the mulberry tree, as a passer-by •told me, was cut down three weeks ago. On a board under the house walls is a notice: " This is the property of the Kingston-upon-Thames Corporation. Persons damaging buildings or trees will be prosecuted."—Yours, &c.,
Feathercombe, Hambledon, Godalming. ERIC PARKER.
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