Monday, December 16.--I rode to Dorking, where were many a people; but none were
cut to the heart. Tuesday, 17. I went on to Ryegate-place. In King Henry the Fourth's time,
this was an eminent monastery. At the dissolution of monasteries, it fell into the hands of
the great spoiler, Henry the Eighth. Queen Elizabeth, pleased with the situation, chose it for
one of her palaces. The gentleman who possesses it now has entirely changed the form of
it, pulling down whole piles of ancient building and greatly altering what remains. Yet, after
all that is taken away, it still looks more like a palace than a private house. The staircase is
of the same model with that at Hampton Court; one would scarcely know which is the original. The chimney-piece in the hall is probably one of the most curious pieces of woodwork
now in the kingdom. But how long? How many of its once bustling inhabitants are already
under the earth! And how little a time will it be before the house itself, yea the earth shall
be burned up!
The Journal of John Wesley
The Journal of John Wesley
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