There is, however, authentic
evidence of its being here long before his time, for Henry de Buxeto
(i.e. Henry of Box Hill) and Adam de Buxeto were witnesses to deeds in
the reign of King John.
John Evelyn, who wrote about the middle of the seventeenth century,
says, "Box-trees rise naturally at Kent in Bexley; and in Surrey, giving
name to Box Hill. He that in winter should behold some of our highest
hills in Surrey, clad with whole woods of them, might easily fancy
himself transported into some new or enchanted country."
In Aubrey's posthumous work on Surrey, published in 1718, the northern
part of the hill is described as thickly covered with yew-trees, and the
southern part with "thick boscages of box-trees," which "yielded a
convenient privacy for lovers, who frequently meet here, so that it is
an English Daphne." He also tells us that the gentry often resorted here
from Ebbesham (_Epsom_), then in high fashion. Philip Luckombe, in his
"England's Gazetteer," says, on Box Hill "there is a large warren, but
no houses; only arbours cut out in the box-wood on the top of the hill,
where are sold refreshments of all sorts, for the ladies and gentlemen
who come hither to divert themselves in its labyrinths; for which reason
a certain author has thought fit to call it the Palace of Venus, and the
Temple of Nature; there being an enchanting prospect from it of a fine
country, which is scarce to be equalled for affording so surprising and
magnificent an idea both of earth and sky.
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