JORDAN'S.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20419, 14 December 1931, Page 3

JORDAN'S.

QUAKER MEETINQ HOUSE. (By T.C.Li.) If you leave the harsh highway from London to Baraet a few miles south of the latter town, and turn south-west you find yourself in a different countryside. Once over the Buckinghamshire border you are in a rural England of which the predominant note is peace. There are stately homes and timbered cottages as ancient an the manors the forebears of their occupants used to serve. It is a country of quiet contrasts and placid Boenes. Even the larger towns have no important Indus tries, though probably bowlers all over the world are aware that bowls , are made in Aylesbury, a relic no doubt of the day when beech forests covered what is now the peaceful country of Buckingham. "Eiko all England, it has its history. Captured by Saxons 500 years before the Norman conquest, ravaged by Danes Inter, the vale of Aylesbury has had its share in moulding English history. North and south of the valley lio smaller one, nearly all Of them sheltering a quiet English village. In one of these, off the main ro&d from Barnct to High WyCombo, is the quaint old township of Chalfont le Giles. With its village green and pool, its square towered parish church, and its old timbered houses it is p favourite place with artists in search of rural beauty spots. i It was here that Milton, blind, always nervous lest his Puritan creed should bring him into conflict with the. State, with hia home, in London, miserable since -his wife's death, came to escape the contagion of tlw Great Plague, and here he finally revised tlio manuscript of his wonder work, "Paradise' Lost." The cottage he occupied is now miich an it was then. There is a Milton Preservation Society, Winch has restored the cottage with its meagre furniture and pictures to its former states The Walls are of cob and the ceiling low and the ventilation indifferent, but it is Milton's cottage, and that is all that matters. The caretaker, an authority on Miltoh and his Works, tells his Story to the visitor With enthusiasm, and does not press you souvenirs like some Other caretakers do. Founded in Stuart Times. You reluctantly leave hia .and the cottage to pass V> halfo ,"£ Jordan's Valley. Situated B, °P® is 0110 of the most sacred of the Quaker meeting-houses in Great Britain. It was founded in. the troublous Btuait days when dissent Was a seriOUs_crime. To George Fox the Society of Friends owes the organisation of a religious movement into an institution that has had its effect upon the destinies dt Great Britain. The meeting-house stands at the junction of two roads. It is a very plain and "homely brick building, with tiled roof and lattice windows, capable of seating over two hundred persons. Onfe-tliird of tV.c bttilaiflS still used as a cottage for the caretaker. The interior of the meeting-room has white-washed walls, the lower -part panelled with unvarnished wood, the forms also being unvarnished. The floor is of brick, and a narrow platform runs along one end .with a seat intended for the leading Friends. _ In repairing Hhe floor at the opposite end of the room Workm'en recently found traces of a f party wall about 18 inches from the present partition. From the single living-room of the cottage a narrow staircase nsoends to the two hedrooms. The principal bedroom, like the kitchen, is divided from tho meeting-houso by shutters only, so that when the room was crowded the accommodation could he increased hv lowering the shutters, thus turning the room into a sort of gallery. Tt is a queer provision that greatly intrigues the present-day visitor. "Well-chosen Spot. At the back of the building is a long stable, large enough to accommodate tJj!> to 20 horses. 'Stabling was a necessity for a country hotise iii the early t'ays of the Quakers, for it was necessary at times for them to lean to horse and flee from the military. Theirs werd unlawful assemblies and they always inn tli* ;i/Jf of arrest and ioioriAftc^

mc-nt. The locality must have been specially selected for its possibilities of eluding the arm of the law. Several roads or, rather, country wooded lanes, radiate from the building. Here it was that William Penn worshipped when his home was at Rickmansworth, just over the border in Hertfordshire. In the' burial ground adjoining, plain in lay-out and appearance, as the meeting-house, small head- 1 stones (about as large as those over our soldiers' graves) mark tile graves of Penn, his two wiveß, and his seven children. Penn's last days were sad. His son liad broken faith and with most of the' decencies of life, his trusted steward in Pennsylvania had robbed him, religious controversy grew more bitter, and much of his substance had bwn lost. The quiwt corner of a Buckinghamshire valley was not altogether unfitting for the resting place of one who had knpwn so much strife, had seen well-meant plans betrayed or misunderstood, but who had written his name indelibly on the scroll of great men. At Jordan's he had known many hours of peace amidst conflict, and when the fight was over be came "home." Meetings Still Held. Devotional meetings are still being held every month at Jordan's. Some years ago Old Jordan's farm nearby was purchased and is now used as & lioStel. The house had been altered from what it originally was when'the Quaker# attended meetings undeterred by the risk of fine ana imprisonment, but the kitchen, the principal room of the house, with its brick floor and great open fireplace, was unspoilt. The great barn attached to the farm is noted because of the tradition that the timber for the rafters. Was taken from the Mayflower, the ship that carried the British Nonconformists to what is now the United States or America. The vessel was broken up in and there is evidence that the farm-hou&e and barn were built within a year or two of that date. Ihe beams used are certainly ship's timbers, and a doOr in the hostel, perhaps originally a cabin-door, has a floral design carved upon it. The barn is used as a lecture rooto or conference hall, and the stables been turned into a refectory, kitchen and dormitories for the convenience of summer schools. Societies have been glad to take advantage of the simple conditions amid surroundings of sylvan beauty, life and thought no doubt being stimulated by the memories of those "Confessors" of olden days who so often trod the path • between farm and meeting-house.