is the inn Dickens had in his mind when describing the “Maypole” in Barnaby Rudge, and the whole of the plot of that work is so wrapped up in Chigwell and its immediate surroundings that one should not visit the village until one has read the story.  One may see the panelled “great room” upstairs where Mr. Chester met Mr. Geoffrey Haredale.  This room has a fine mantelpiece, great carved beams, and beautiful leaded windows.  On the ground floor is the cosy bar where the village cronies gathered with Mr. Willett, and one may also see the low room with the small-paned windows against which John Willett flattened his nose looking out on the road on the dark night when the story opens.

Chigwell School, built in 1629, and founded by Archbishop Harsnett, still remains, although there have been several modern additions.  Here William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was educated. (See Index for Jordans and Penn’s Chapel at Thakeham.)

Chigwell Church, facing “The King’s Head,” has a dark avenue of yews leading from the road to the porch.  A brass to the memory of Archbishop Harsnett may be seen on the floor of the chancel.  The epitaph in Latin was ordered to be so written in the will of the archbishop.  Translated, the first portion may be read:  “Here lieth Samuel Harsnett, formerly vicar of this church.  First the unworthy Bishop of Chichester, then the more unworthy Bishop of Norwich, at last the very unworthy Archbishop of York.”

[Illustration:  The king’s head inn at chigwell.

The “Maypole” of Dickens’s Barnaby Rudge.]

WALTHAM ABBEY AND CROSS

=How to get there.=—­Train from Liverpool Street.  Great Eastern
  Railway.
=Nearest Station.=—­Waltham. =Distance from London.=—­12-3/4 miles. =Average Time.=—­40 minutes.  Quickest train, 23 minutes.

                    1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=—­Single 2s. 0d. 1s. 6d. 1s. 1d. 
          Return 3s. 3d. 2s. 6d. 1s. 7d.

=Accommodation Obtainable.=—­“The New Inn,” etc.

Waltham Abbey is a market town in Essex on the banks of the Lea, which here divides into several branches which are used as motive power for some gunpowder and flour mills.  Harold II. founded the stately Abbey Church in May 1060.  William the Conqueror disputed Harold’s claim to the throne and landed in England at Pevensey in 1066.  At Waltham Abbey, troubled and anxious, Harold prayed for victory in England’s name before the fatal battle of Hastings, where he was slain.  William at first refused to give up Harold’s body to his mother, Gytha, but he afterwards allowed two monks from Waltham to search for the body of the king.  They were unable to find it amongst the nameless dead, but his favourite, Edith the swan-necked, whose eye of affection was not to be deceived, discovered it.  His weeping mother buried the disfigured corpse probably about 120 feet from the east end of the old church.