This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1862. Excerpt: ... SOME ACCOUNT OP THE HAMLET OF EAST BURNHAM The Hamlet of East Burnham is situated about half-way between Beaconsfield on the north and Slough on the south. The land and houses--the far larger portion, at least--were for centuries the property of one family, the last male member of which died at East Burnham as long ago as the year 1810. Up to a recent period few visitors ever wandered into this hamlet, unless it were now and then a sportsman. The old forest, called "Burnham Beeches," composed chiefly of aged and hollow-trunked trees, forms a part of the Manor of "Allards" (otherwise East Burnham), in which the scattered hamlet is situated, and a wild open heath, called East Burnham Common, adjoins the same. But a small number of persons seem to have known anything of this picturesque tract, although the poet Gray speaks of it in his letters; the road communicating between Windsor and Beaconsfield--never much travelled--passing at Mr. Gray used often to ramble into this forest from Stoke Poges, and compose poetry therein. Some of the lines in his Elegy may fairly be taken as descriptive of the scenery of this spot. . some distance from it; but after the year 1840, when the railroad came into use, the neighbourhood became somewhat more resorted to, and the "Burnham Beeches," hitherto almost a sylvan solitude, gradually became the favourite resort of summer pleasureparties from the surrounding districts. Tourists and book-makers likewise began to talk of this singular and picturesque spot, so that now there probably are few persons residing within twenty miles of the "Burnham Beeches" who have not either visited or heard of them. The ancient tradition of the locality has it, that the Beeches were pollarded by the Parliament army, which encamped here during ...