II. HERNE-HILL ALMOND BLOSSOMS 35

considered a precipitous slope, to our valley of Chamouni (or of Dulwich) on the east; and with a softer descent into Cold Harbour-lane* on the west: on the south, no less beautifully declining to the dale of the Effra, (doubtless shortened from Effrena, signifying the “Unbridled” river; recently, I regret to say, bricked over for the convenience of Mr. Biffin, chemist, and others); while on the north, prolonged indeed with slight depression some half mile or so, and receiving, in the parish of Lambeth, the chivalric title of “Champion Hill,” it plunges down at last to efface itself in the plains of Peckham, and the rural barbarism of Goose Green.

38. The group, of which our house was the quarter, consisted of two precisely similar partner-couples of houses, gardens and all to match; still the two highest blocks of buildings seen from Norwood on the crest of the ridge; so that the house itself, three-storied, with garrets above, commanded, in those comparatively smokeless days, a very notable view from its garret windows, of the Norwood hills on one side, and the winter sunrise over them; and of the valley of the Thames on the other, with Windsor telescopically clear in the distance, and Harrow, conspicuous always in fine weather to open vision against the summer sunset. It had front and back garden in sufficient proportion to its size; the front, richly set with old evergreens, and well-grown lilac and laburnum; the back, seventy

* Said in the History of Croydon to be a name which has long puzzled antiquaries, and nearly always found near Roman military stations.¹

¹ [“The hardships incident to travelling must have been much increased by the fewness of houses of entertainment along the roads. Where no religious house existed to receive the wayfarer, he would usually be compelled to content himself with the shelter of bare walls. The ruins of deserted Roman villas were no doubt often used by travellers who carried their own bedding and provisions, as is done by the frequenters of the khans and dak houses of the East. Such places seem commonly to have borne the name of COLD HARBOUR. (Compare the German Herberg, shelter, and the French auberge. See Notes and Queries, second series, vol. vi. pp. 143, 319.) In the neighbourhood of ancient lines of road we find no less than seventy places bearing this name, and about a dozen more bearing the analogous name of CALDICOT, or ‘cold cot.’” (Isaac Taylor’s Words and Places, 2nd edition, 1865, pp. 255-256.)]

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