Jordans and William Penn
=How to get there.=–Train from Baker Street. Metropolitan Railway.
=Nearest Station.=–Chalfont Road (3 miles from Jordans).
=Distance from London.=–22 miles.
=Average Time.=–51 minutes. (Convenient trains, 10.27 A.M., 12.17
and 2.27 P.M.)
1st 2nd 3rd
=Fares.=–Single 3s. 2d. 2s. 4d. 1s. 7d.
Return 4s. 9d. 3s. 5d. 2s. 5d.
=Accommodation Obtainable.=–None at Jordans.
=Alternative Route.=–Train to Uxbridge. Great Western Railway.
Jordans, the burial-place of William Penn, the great English Quaker and
philanthropist, lies on a by-road in Buckinghamshire, leading from
Chalfont St. Peter to Beaconsfield. The place itself, though full of the
typical charm of English scenery in the home counties, does not contain
anything of particular interest, and it owes its reputation to the
associations with the wonderful man who lived and died there. Jordans is
visited by many hundreds of tourists during the summer, mainly
Americans. One of these offered to remove Penn’s remains to
Philadelphia, capital of Pennsylvania, and there build a mausoleum over
them; but the offer was declined.
The road runs south-west from the village of Chalfont St. Peter, and
after a sharp curve brings the visitor to the Meeting House, a very
plain and unobtrusive structure, dating from about the end of the
seventeenth century. In the secluded burying-ground surrounded and
overhung by great trees lies William Penn. Five of his children also
rest among these quiet surroundings; and here are buried two well-known
Quaker leaders, Isaac Penington and Thomas Ellwood. At the actual time
of burial there were no gravestones, but these have since been added.
Though the house as a regular place of meeting has long fallen into
disuse, there is still an annual gathering of Quakers there in memory of
the great dead.
Penn was the son of Sir William Penn, an eminent admiral, and was born
in 1644. His violent advocacy of the Quaker creeds led him into
continual trouble and several times into prison. In 1681 he obtained, in
lieu of the income left by his father, a grant from the Crown of the
territory now forming the state of Pennsylvania. Penn wished to call his
new property Sylvania, on account of the forest upon it, but the king,
Charles II., good-naturedly insisted on the prefix Penn. The great man
left his flourishing colony for the last time in 1701, and after a
troublous time in pecuniary matters, owing to the villany of an agent in
America, Penn died at Ruscombe in Berkshire in 1718.
[Illustration: H.C. Shelley.
THE JORDANS.
The burial-place of William Penn.]
Continue...
Preface •
Ham House and Petersham •
Walton-On-Thames (scold’s Bridle) •
Harrow •
Holwood House, Keston •
Chigwell, Essex •
Waltham Abbey and Cross •
Downe •
Epsom: Its Races and Its Salts •
Epping Forest •
Hampton Court •
Rye House, Broxbourne •
Hatfield House, Herts •
Runnymead, the Signing of Magna Charta •
The Oldest Brass in England •
St. Albans •
Stoke Poges Church, Bucks •
Windsor •
Jordans and William Penn •
Knole House and Sevenoaks •
Greenstead Church •
Chalfont St. Giles •
Westerham •
Guildford, Surrey •
Gad’s Hill •
Ightham Mote, Kent •
Penshurst •
St. Michael’s Mount and Marazion •
Rochester Cathedral •
Tunbridge Wells •
The Quintain Post At Offham and Malling Abbey •
Eversley •
Farnham, Surrey •
Hindhead, Surrey •
Shottermill •
Penn’s Chapel At Thakeham, Sussex •
Chawton the Home of Jane Austen •
Selborne •
Elstow •
Lewes, Sussex •
Bodiam Castle, Sussex •
Colchester, Essex •
Layer Marney •
Battle Abbey •
Cambridge •
Arundel Castle •
Olney, Bucks •
Wantage and the Country of Alfred the Great •
Canterbury and Its Cathedral •
Reculvers •
Oxford •
Midhurst •
Pevensey Castle •
Savernake Forest •
Ely Cathedral •
St. Ives, Huntingdonshire •
Winchelsea and Rye •
Blenheim Palace •
Peterborough Cathedral and Crowland •
Peterborough •
Southampton •
Helmingham Hall •
Stonehenge, Wiltshire •
Netley Abbey •
Salisbury and Its Cathedral •
Sandwich, Kent •
New Forest, Hampshire •
Osborne House •
Carisbrooke Castle •
Lutterworth •
Compton Wynyates •
Kenilworth Castle •
Belvoir Castle •
Bath •
Boston and the Pilgrim Fathers •
Warwick •
Gloucester and Its Cathedral •
Norfolk Broads •
Norwich Cathedral •
Lichfield •
Sherborne and Its Abbey Church •
Newark •
Wells and Its Cathedral •
Stratford-On-Avon •
Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk •
Lulworth Cove, Dorsetshire •
Corfe Castle •
Lincoln and Its Cathedral •
Somerset, the Birthplace of Tennyson •
Glastonbury Abbey •
Walsingham, Norfolk •
Cheddar Caves, Cheddar, Somerset •
Newstead Abbey •
The Wessex of Thomas Hardy’s Romances •
Tintern Abbey •
Chesterfield, Derbyshire •
Dukeries •
Haddon Hall, Derbyshire •
The Isle of Athelney, and Sedgemoor •
Raglan Castle •
Dovedale •
Wellington and the Wrekin, Shropshire •
Wroxeter and the Roman City of Uriconium, Salop •
Buildwas Abbey, Shropshire •
Ludlow and Its Castle •
Shrewsbury •
Buxton and the Peak District •
Tewkesbury •
Exeter and Its Cathedral •
Market Drayton, Salop •
Chester •
Exmoor •
Knutsford •
Torr Steps On the Barle, Somerset •
Cleeve Abbey, Somerset •
Hawarden •
York Minster •
Coxwold, Yorkshire •
Llangollen and Valle Crucis Abbey •
Knaresborough, Dripping Well •
Fountains Abbey •
Ripon Cathedral •
Dartmoor •
Haworth •
Rievaulx Abbey •
Brixham, Devon •
Conway Castle •
The Doone Valley, Exmoor •
Llandovery, South Wales •
Dartmouth, Devon •
Richmond, Yorkshire •
Tintagel •
Whitby •
Carnarvon Castle •
Plymouth •
Durham and Its Cathedral •
Raby Castle, Durham •
Snowdon •
Harlech Castle •
Grasmere and Rydal Mount •
The Lake District •
St. Davids Cathedral •
Furness Abbey, Lancashire •
Monkwearmouth, Near Jarrow •
The Isle of Man •
Brantwood •
Fowey •
Hexham and Hadrian’s Wall •
The Lake District •
Keswick •
Alnwick Castle •
Lanercost Priory, Cumberland •
Lanercost Priory and Stepping-Stones.] •
St. Ives, Cornwall •
Bamborough Castle, Northumberland
![[Buy at Amazon]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0006ADKOC.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg)