he foot of wooded hills, and with its bordering
meadows stretching out to the river-bank. It is an ancient town,
appearing in the Domesday Book under the name of Dorchinges, and
standing on the route which Julius Caesar took through these hills on his
invasion of Britain. After the Norman Conquest the manor became the
property of Earl Warrenne, and as a favorite halting-place on the road
between London and the south coast in the Middle Ages it throve greatly
and was noted for the number of its inns. Its chief street--High
Street--runs parallel with the chalk-hills, and presents a picturesque
variety of old-time houses, though none are of great pretensions. Among
them is the long, low structure, with a quaint entrance-gate in the
middle, suggestive of the days before railroads, and known as the "White
Horse Inn." The ancient "Cardinal's Cap" has been transformed into the
"Red Lion Inn," and the "Old King's Head," the most famous of these
hostelries, has been removed to make room for the post-office. This
latter inn was the original of "The Marquis of Granby, Dorking," where
that substantial person, Mr. Weller, Senior, lived, and under the sway
of Mrs. Weller the veteran coachman smoked his pipe and practised
patience, while the "shepherd" imbibed hot pineapple rum and water and
dispensed spiritual consolation to the flock. An old stage-coachman who
lived years ago at Dorking is said to have been Dickens's original for
this celebrated character, and the townsfolk still talk of the venerable
horse-trough that stood in front of the inn wherein the bereaved
landlord immersed Mr. Stiggins's head after kicking him out of the bar.

The parish church is the only public building of any pretension in
Dorking, and it is quite new, replacing another structure whose
registers go back to the sixteenth century, containing, among other
curious entries, the christening in 1562 of a child whose fate is
recorded in these words: "Who, scoffing at thunder, standing under a
beech, was stroke to death, his clothes stinking with a sulphurous
stench, being about the age of twenty years or thereabouts, at Mereden
House." The Dorking fowls all have the peculiarity of an extra claw on
each foot, being white and speckled, and a Roman origin being claimed
for the breed, which is most delicate in flavor and commands a high
price. On the southern outskirts of the town is Deepdene, a mansion
surrounded by magnificent trees and standing on the slope of a