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Richard Jefferies lived a few yards from the milestone and described it as follows at the beginning of his essay 'Meadow Thoughts': 'The old house stood by the silent country road, secluded by many a long, long mile, and yet again secluded within the great walls of the garden. Often and often I rambled up to the milestone which stood under an oak, to look at the chipped inscription low down - "To London, 79 Miles." So far away, you see, that the very inscription was cut at the foot of the stone, since no one would be likely to want that information. It was half hidden by docks and nettles, despised and unnoticed. A broad land this seventy-nine miles - how many meadows and corn-fields, hedges and woods, in that distance?'