THAMES VIEWS BY COOKE 1811 and 1818

[ There are at least two different Thames publications by Cooke which here I name as 1811 and 1818 (though there appear to be a range of dates).
Much of the text is identical. Some of the images have changed and there are additional images in 1818.
One of the problems is that so many copies have been mutilated by taking prints to frame them - so that it becomes confusing as to which prints were included in which edition.
I have here included those prints found in the two indexes - finding them elsewhere if not present in my copies.
So my aim has been to include here all the elements, text and prints, of both. Where the text or images differ:
the 1811 words are in blue and the 1818 in red.
Headings in CAPITALS are original, headings in Lowercase are my additions.
Online find the 1811 Volume I. here;
the 1811 Volume II. here;
and
the 1818 (Text only) version here.
]

[ 2019 Editorial Introduction ]

The years 1811 to 1818 were significant for Cooke.
His idea of engraving changed particularly through his work for Turner and Peter Dewint.
But the years 1811 to 1818 were also very significant for the Thames.
The golden age of Thames Navigation was starting.
Railways had not yet arrived, and the canals were beginning to have an impact for good on the navigation, and works were in hand to remove shallows and reduce the current.
The work of Rennie and others in the 1790s was beginning to bear fruit.
The canals had taught how to make weirs and locks more efficient.
No longer was the purpose of a weir to send flashes to help boats over shallows - but increasingly to eliminate the shallows entirely.
We do not appreciate today how different the Thames has become.
It was originally a more or less rushing stream (3 or 4 miles per hour was usual).
Most of its drop was distributed along the reaches between weirs and locks.
But the process of conversion had begun whereby that sloping river was changed to the staircase situation we have today - where comparatively there is almost no drop between locks and at summer levels it is often hard to tell which way the river flows.
It had consequences - Jerome's heroes in Three Men in a Boat still in 1889 towed much of the way upstream and then came down with the current.
Today towing has disappeared because there is no point to it.
Of course Cooke's concern was with Architecture and Artistic work and Landscape rather than Navigation.
In particular in 1818 he notices the Dudsgrove Double Lock on the Thames & Severn Canal;
the building and opening of the Waterloo Bridge;
and the burning of the Custom House in 1814.

Adams (London Illustrated 1604-1851) says:

Of the 84 plates based on Samuel Owen's drawings of the 1811 edition, 38 are retained in [1818], all re-engraved and transformed by W.B. Cooke whose style had been romanticized through his work for Turner and his association with Peter de Wint.
The etched shades are now blacker, more highlights are introduced, skies are eventful with massing clouds and flights of birds, and the foliage has become less stylized.

[ The copies of the engravings here are very dependent on the quality of the images I can access. They are at reduced resolution and in monochrome since the purpose is study rather than artistic appreciation.
Where the same drawing (by Owen) is used the engravings are significantly different in quality. Occasionally small details change. Those interested in the artistic quality should look to more original versions than here!
]


THE THAMES:
Graphic Illustrations of Seats, Villas, Public Buildings and Picturesque Scenery
on the Banks of that Noble River
The Engravings Executed by William Bernard Cooke
from Original Drawings by Samuel Owen Esq. 1811

DESCRIPTIONS TO THE PLATES OF THAMES SCENERY.
Engraved by W.B.Cooke & G.Cooke
from original drawings by Eminent Artists. 1818.

Thames, the most loved of all the Ocean's Sons.


LIST OF PLATES [ In The Two Versions ]

18111818
Source of the Thames. Source of the Thames. Dewint
Thames Head [Canal Pumping House] Dudgrove Double Lock. S.Owen
Cricklade.
Inglesham Lock, with the Thames and Severn Canal, and Lechlade in the distance.
Lechlade. S.Owen Lechlade. S.Owen
Radcot Weir. S.Owen Radcot Weir. S.Owen
Oxford. P.Dewint [not found]
Wier at Oxford. P.Dewint
Oxford, from Ifley.
Nuneham Courtney. Nuneham Courtnay by J.Hughes, Esq
Cottage and Bridge.
Abingdon.
Junction of the Thame and Isis.
The Grotto House at Basildon.
Basildon Park and Combe Lodge.
Purley Hall.
Shiplake Lock and Paper-Mill, with Wargrave House.
Park Place (Henley). Park Place. P.Dewint
Henley. Henley. P Dewint
Fawley Court.
Culham Court, near Henley.
Medmenham Abbey.
Temple House. Temple House. S.Owen
Harleyford House. Harleyford House. S.Owen [not found as yet]
Bisham Abbey.
Great Marlow. Great Marlow. S.Owen
Cookham Church. View of Cookham. Frontispiece
An Osier Island near Cookham. P.Dewint
Taplow House.
Maidenhead Bridge. Bray, seen from Maidenhead Bridge. P.Dewint.
Monkey Island.
The Willows. The Willows. S.Owen
Windsor.
Windsor Castle. Windsor Castle. S.Owen
Eton Bridge. Eton Bridge. S.Owen
Old Houses near Eton Bridge. Old Houses at Eton. S.Owen
Eton College.
Beaumont Lodge, Old Windsor. Beaumont Lodge. S.Owen
Stone at Staines. G.Arnald. A.R.A.
Staines Bridge. Staines Bridge. S.Owen
Oatlands. Oatlands. S.Owen
Walton Bridge. Walton Bridge. S.Owen
Garrick's House, at Hampton. Garrick's House. P.Dewint
Hampton Court. Owen. Hampton Court. P.Dewint>
Lady Sullivan's Villa, at Ditton. Lady Sullivan's Villa. S.Owen
Kingston.[?] Kingston. S.Owen [?]
Strawberry Hill. Strawberry Hill. S.Owen
Lady Howe's Villa. Baroness Howe's Villa [Pope's]. S.Owen [?]
Twickenham.
Richmond Hill, from Twickenham.
Marble Hill Cottage, near Richmond. Marble Hill Cottage. P.Dewint
1811: PLATES TO VOL. II. 1818
The Thames from Richmond Hill.
Richmond from Isleworth. R.R.Reinagle A.R.A. [not found]
The Duke of Buccleugh's Villa, at Richmond.
Richmond [Bridge].
Mr. Keene's Villa, Richmond. Mr. Keene's Villa. S.Owen [not found]
Observatory, Richmond.
Keppel House, Isleworth.
Sion House. Sion House. R.R.Reinagle A.R.A.
Brandenburgh House.
Fulham.
Battersea. Battersea Bridge. S.Owen
The Little Belt breaking up. L.Francia
Chelsea Hospital. Chelsea Hospital. S.Owen
[Millbank Craft -Text implies image]
Randall's Mill, Nine Elms, (Portrait). Randall's Mill, Nine Elms. S.Owen
Randall's Mill, Nine Elms, (Landscape)
Lambeth Palace. Lambeth Palace. S.Owen
Westminster Abbey.
Waterloo Bridge opening 1817. R.R.Reinagle A.R.A.
Waterloo Bridge. E.Blore
Waterloo Bridge Works. E.Blore
Waterloo Bridge Arch Elevation. John Rennie. F.R.S. engineer
Waterloo Bridge Arch Centring. John Rennie. F.R.S. engineer
London [City] and Blackfriar's Bridge, from Hungerford.
Somerset House. Somerset House. S.Owen
London, with Blackfriars Bridge. London, from Blackfriars. L.Clennell
Fair on the Thames 1814. L.Clennell
London Bridge. London Bridge. S.Owen
Billingsgate. S.Owen
Custom House. Custom House, [before it was] burnt 1814. S.Owen
Tower of London. Tower. S.Owen
West India Docks.
Floating Dock Rotherhithe. L.Francia
Deptford. Deptford. S.Owen
Greenwich. Greenwich. S.Owen
Thames from Greenwich Park. P.Dewint
Mast House in the Dock, Blackwall. Mast House at Perry's Dock, Blackwall. S.Owen
Shooter's Hill, from Woolwich Reach.
The Nelson on the Stocks, Woolwich 1814. L.Francia
Launch of the Nelson, Woolwich 1814. L.Clennell
Woolwich.
Erith with Belvidere. Erith and Belvidere. S.Owen
Purfleet. Purfleet. S.Owen
Ingress, the seat of William Harlock, Esq. Ingress. S.Owen
Northfleet. Northfleet. S.Owen
Lime Kilns at Northfleet. Lime Kilns at Northfleet. S.Owen
Gravesend. Gravesend. S.Owen
Danish Greenlandmen breaking up, Gravesend. L.Francia
Tilbury Fort. Tilbury Fort. S.Owen
Gateway to Tilbury Fort. Gateway to Tilbury Fort. S.Owen
Hadleigh Castle, Essex. Hadleigh Castle. S.Owen
Leigh, taken near Southend. Leigh. S.Owen
The Crow Stone. S.Owen
Southend. Southend and mouth of the Thames. S.Owen.
Sheerness.

INTRODUCTION.

It is the design of these volumes, to display a succession of picturesque scenery on the banks of the Thames.
Some account of the river itself, will be naturally expected to form an introductory part, and that expectation we shall endeavour to gratify.

This river takes it rise from a copious spring, called the Thames head, near Cirencester in the county of Gloucester, which is particularly described in a succeeding page.
It has been very erroneously named Isis, till it is joined by the Thame or Tame, about fifteen miles below Oxford, when those who have supported this idle notion, allow it to assume the name of the Thames, supposed to be formed from a combination of the titles of these conjoined streams.
It does not appear that the origin of this popular error can now be traced; it has, however, been adopted by poetical fiction, and has thereby acquired a kind of classical sanction.
The authorities are all against it, neither can it be reconciled to any rational opinion that the Thames head, a denomination by which from a very remote period it has been distinguished, should give rise to a river called Isis, and after having run a very large proportion of its course, should re-assume the name of the Thames.
From its source it flows on in a rivulet character, till it reaches Crickladc in Wiltshire, where being increased by the contribution of several inferior streams, it assumes a more attractive appearance.
Approaching Kemsford, it re-enters its native country, dividing it from Berkshire at Inglesham.
The river enlarges as it approaches Letchlade, a town in Gloucestershire, situated on the confines of Berkshire and Oxfordshire, and receiving the waters of the Lech and the Coln, it becomes capable of navigating vessels from ninety to an hundred tons burthen; and at the distance, according to the river admeasurement, of one hundred and thirty eight miles from London.
The river now divides the counties of Berks and Oxford, passing by Buscot, Farringdon, Stanton Harcourt, and Ensham, till after a succession of beautiful meanders it reaches Oxford.
It then proceeds by Ifley, and flowing beneath the redundant[sic] swells and rich scenery of Nuneham, it approaches Abingdon.
In the course of a few miles it receives the waters of the Thame, an insignificant stream, and at no great distance flows beneath the ancient bridge of Wallingford.
The country through which it now runs is replete with beauty.
The Streatly Hills, the sweet village of Goring, the splendid seat of Basildon, the woods of Hardwick, the ancient magnificence of Maple-Durham, and the pretty village of Caversham, succeed each other, till the river approaches the vicinity of Reading.
The Thames now continues its course to Henley, and after washing the foot of that brow, which acknowledges the fine improvements of Park Place, it flows through the arches of Henley Bridge, one of the most elegant of the many structures that stretch across it, when its northern bank at Fawley is in the county of Buckingham.
We now come to the most beautiful part of a river that abounds in beauties.
From Henley to Maidenhead bridge there is a most delightful succession of them.
The Thames, before it reaches Marlow serpentines through its vale in a variety of pleasing curves, as if it lingered to reflect the richness of the scenery on either side of it.
The small remains of Medmenham, the ancient figure of Bisham Abbey, Harleyford House and its woody uplands, are succeeded by the town of Marlow, whence through various scenes of sylvan attraction, Hedsor and Cliefden appear in the near horizon, when the stream continues its course till it flows beneath them and the heights of Taplow to Maidenhead, and in a few miles reaches Windsor.
The magnificence of Windsor Castle, appearing on its brow on one side, and the Academic groves of Eton College on the other, form a scene of contrasted interest and contrasted beauty.
The stately towers of the former long continue to give splendour to the prospect, and they scarce cease to be visible when the river reaches Runnymede, where was obtained by our ancestors by threatened arms the charter of those liberties, which every Briton now enjoys beneath his own vine and his own fig-tree, in peace and security.
Here Cowper's Hill rises in the view, and here we shall pause in our course, and give those beautiful lines, in which the poet of the spot gives a description of the river, which will enliven and add importance to our own.

My eye, descending from the hill, surveys
Where Thames among the wanton vallies strays.
Thames, the most loved of all the ocean's sons
By his old sire, to his embraces runs;
Hasting to pay his tribute to the sea,
Like mortal life to meet eternity.
Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,
Whose foam is amber, and their gravel gold,
His genuine and less guilty wealth to_explore,
Search not his bottom but survey his shore,
O'er which he kindly spreads his spacious wing,
And hatches plenty for the ensuing spring;
Nor then destroys it with too fond a stay,
Like mothers who their infants overlay;
Nor with a sudden and impetuous wave,
Like profuse Knights, resumes the wealth he gave.
No unexpected inundations spoil
The mower's hopes, or mock the plowman's toil;
But Godlike his unwearied bounty flows,
First loves to do, then loves the good he does.
Nor are his blessings to his banks confined,
But free and common as the sea or wind;
When he to boast, or to disperse his stores,
Full of the tribute of his grateful shores,
Visits the world, and, in his floating towers,
Brings home to us, and makes both Indies ours;
Finds wealth where 'tis, bestows it where it wants;
Cities in deserts, woods in cities plants;
So that to us, nothing, no place is strange,
While his fair bosom is the world's exchange.
O could I flow like thee, and make my stream
My great example as it is my theme!
Though deep yet clear ; though gentle yet not dull;
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full;
Heaven her Eridanus no more shall boast,
Whose fame's in this, like lesser currents lost.

Staines and Chertsey with their respective bridges are the next places that are washed by the Thames.
The scenery of Ham Farm, Wooburn Farm, and Oatlands, give beauty and splendour to its banks; and having passed the small retired village of Shepperton, and flowed through Walton Bridge, its Middlesex side is decorated with a long line of handsome mansions that form the beauty of Sunbury and Hampton.
Here the palace is a magnificent object, and the stream glides on between the royal Park on the one side, and the elegant country houses of Thames Ditton on the other, till it reaches the ancient county town of Kingston in Surrey.
The river now assumes a more polished, and, as it has long possessed, a classical character.
Twickenham with its gardens and its meads, and Ham, scarce seen in its leafy bowers, adorn the banks of the river, till it flows beneath the lofty brow of Richmond; when it passes on, with the tide's accelerated wave, between the royal Gardens, and the lawns of Sion to Kew, where its rural character, may be said almost to end; or at least is blended, with the mill and the manufactory, the lengthened street, the active occupations of life, and the busy hum of men.
It now reaches the metropolis, and having washed the shores of the first city, it becomes itself the finest harbour, in the world.
It afterwards assumes a new and indeed a stupenduous character.
Forests of masts, docks of vast extent, the great naval arsenals, and the immense living navigation, possess and adorn it till after a course of more than two hundred miles, it yields its abundant waters to the sea.

The charms Italian meadows shower,
The orange grove, the myrtle bower,
The roaring cat'ract wild and white,
The Lotos flower of azure light;
The fields where ceaseless summer smiles,
The bloom that decks th' Ægean isles;
The hills that touch th' empyreal plain,
Olympian Jove's sublime domain;
To other streams all these resign:
Still none, oh Thames! shall vie with thine.
Far other charms than they possess,
Thy ever verdant margin bless.
Where peace with freedom, hand in hand,
Walks forth along the sparkling strand;
And cheerful toil and glowing health,
Proclaim a patriot nation's wealth.
The blood stained scourge no tyrants wield,
No groaning slaves invert the field;
But willing labour's careful train,
Crowns all thy banks with waving grain;
With beauty decks thy sylvan shades,
With livelier green invests thy glades:
And grace and bloom and plenty pours,
On thy sweet meads and willowy shores.
The field where herds unnumbered rove.
The laurelled path, the beechen grove;
The oak in lonely grandeur free,
Lord of the forest and the sea;
The spreading plain, the cultured hill,
The tranquil cot, the restless mill,
The lonely hamlet calm and still;
The village spire, the busy town,
The shelving bank, the rising down,
The fisher's boat, the peasant's home,
The woodland seat, the regal dome,
In quick succession rise to charm
The mind with virtuous feelings warm.
Till where thy widening current glides,
To mingle with the turbid tides;
Thy spacious breast displays unfurled,
The ensigns of the assembled world.


THE SOURCE OF THE THAMES.

Source in Thames by Cooke & Owen 1811
Source of the Thames, Owen, 1811.

Source in Thames by Cooke & Cooke 1818
Source of the Thames, P Dewint, 1818.

The source of the Thames, like that of the Nile, has been variously assigned in consequence of the different contributary springs which feed its early stream from the borders of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.
But on the authority of ancient maps, deeds, and other antiquarian documents, as well as the name of the spot itself, which in all time has borne the title of the Thames Head, the river must be said to issue in a small valley in the parish of Cotes, in Gloucestershire, at the distance of about two miles and an half from Cirencester, a considerable town in the same county.
The soil of the field where the spring rises is a fine gravel; a very uncommon circumstance in the open country of Cotswould.
At a small distance from the source it runs under the Akman-street[sic] Road, leading from Cirencester to Bath, and enters the parish of Kemble in the county of Wilts.
It runs for about a mile, widening very considerably from the accession of several other springs, till it comes opposite to the village already named, which rises prettily on its upland situation, crowned with its taper spire, an object that enlivens the surrounding country.
The stream now acquires the breadth of about twelve yards, over which there is a foot-bridge formed by large stones laid on piles, which may be considered as the first on the river, unless a couple of flat stones laid across its previous and much narrower stream, may claim that title.

Thames and Severn Canal. Sapperton Tunnel.

At a small distance from the spring, but on the high ground above it, runs the canal, made a few years since to form a junction between the Thames and the Severn: and about half a mile from hence, nearly opposite to the village of Cotes, is one of the entrances of the tunnel dug for the purpose of conveying the canal under Saperton Hill.
This tunnel was excavated in a direct line of two miles and a quarter through a variety of strata, though consisting chiefly of rock, underneath the hill, and presents a very novel and striking effect to those whose curiosity attracts them to visit it.
A boat is kept in constant attendance for this purpose at the entrance next the village of Cotes.
At the distance of near a quarter of a mile from the commencement of this subterraneous excursion, the opposite outlet towards Saperton, though as just mentioned in a direct line, is completely eclipsed by the broad glare of day, which penetrates the cavern to that distance from the mouth.
Proceeding onwards, as the gloom increases it first presents itself to the sight twinkling like the solitary star of evening in the broad expanse of heaven, and keeps continually increasing on the eye, till a delightful range of rural scenery beyond gives a grateful relief to the uniform insipidity of protracted gloominess and shade.

Thames Head.

Thames Head in Thames by Cooke & Owen 1811
ThamesHead 1811

The part of the Thames and Severn Canal which is represented in the annexed engraving, passes beneath the road from Cirencester to Tetbury, and so on to Bath, and at a small distance from the first rising of the Thames, in the Parish of Cotes, in the County of Gloucester.
The Steam Engine, which is a principal object in the picture, has been erected to throw water from springs below, to supply the Canal above.
This Engine throws up three hogsheads at a stroke, and gives sixteen strokes in a minute.
The Spire in the distance, rises from the Church of Kemble, a pleasant village, in which is the seat of Charles Cox, Esquire.

Dudgrove Double Lock in Thames by Cooke & Owen 1811
Dudgrove Double Lock, Cooke & Cooke, 1818.

Of the machinery employed to assist the navigation of rivers or canals, in order to surmount the difficulties of impassable shallows or different levels; Lock-work has long been, as it continues to be, of the most essential utility.
To enter into a history of the mechanical construction of locks, and the application of their apparatus to different situations, is not necessary to picturesque illustration.
The artist gives such a representation as is understood to form a correct and pleasing picture, and leaves to the engineer the description of their operation and particular uses, where such information is requisite, but which would be foreign to the descriptive objects of this work.
The engraving conveys the view of Dudgrove Lock, as, on certain occasions, its reality appears to the beholder.

CRICKLADE

Cricklade in Thames by Cooke & Owen 1811
Cricklade 1811

Is an ancient borough town, in the county of Wilts, situate on the upper part of the Thames, and where that river becomes navigable for vessels of a small tonnage.
By some writers it has been called Greekislade, or Grekelade; which names they have fancifully derived from the accounts given by some of the monkish historians, of a school or college, for the cultivation of the Greek language; which they pretended was either founded or restored by Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, about the year of our Lord six hundred and sixty.
But in the more authentic opinion of the right reverend and learned editor of Camden's Britannia, this conjecture has arisen merely from an apparent resemblance of names, which has as little foundation as the derivation of Letchlade from Latin-lade, on the tradition of its having been at the same period, the seat of a school or college, for the cultivation of the Latin tongue.
It is, however, evident from the accounts of those antiquarian writers, whose character and learning justify a full reliance on their information, that Greke-lade and Latin-lade, the two places which originally bore these denominations, were contiguous to each other, and in the neighbourhood of Oxford or Oxenford, juxta Oxoniam; to which place, or to use the language of Grafton in his Chronicle,
"to the soil where Oxford now standeth, the philosophers allured, by the pleasant situation of the place, removed, and there taught the liberal sciences."
Thus, the learned author of the additions to Camden's Britannia is completely justified, in deriving the name of Cricklade from the British word Cerigrwâld, which signifies a stony country, and is descriptive of the soil in the environs of the place; or from two Saxon words, epacca, a brook, and ladean to empty; as the Churn and the Rey discharge their tributary streams into the Thames in its immediate neighbourhood.

This place was far more considerable in former times than in our day; as, in the Red Book of the Exchequer, it is recorded, that there once belonged to it a thousand and three hundred hide lands, and that it gave the name to an hundred, since united to that of Highworth, an adjacent market town in the same county.
It has sent members to parliament since the 20th year of the reign of Edward II. though for some notorious acts of bribery and corruption in the election of their representatives, it deservedly suffered the displeasure of the House of Commons; and by an act of parliament, passed in the twenty-second year of his present Majesty, the right of election was extended to the freeholders of the hundred, in common with the voters of the borough itself.
The advowson and manor were appropriated, in the seventh year of Henry the Sixth, to keep the spire of Salisbury in repair.
Here was also an hospital, in the reign of Henry the Third, which was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, and was valued at four pounds ten shillings.
The free-school was founded by Robert Jenner, Esquire, who endowed it with an annual revenue of forty pounds.
There are two churches, one of which has a large, lofty, and handsome tower, that serves as a landmark to the surrounding country.
There is[sic] also two ancient crosses still entire; one of them is situated in the lower church-yard, and is of a pretty shape; the other is in the centre of the high-street.
They remain as relics of former superstition; but no historical document exists to mark any particular circumstance connected with them.
The municipal government of the place is entrusted to the care of a Bailiff, who is appointed by the Lord of the Manor.
The appearance of the town is such as to discourage particular description.
Nothing curious or inviting belongs to it; but on an elevated spot of Cricklade Common, called Windmill-hill, about a mile from the town, on the road to Malmsbury, the view is equally varied and extensive.
To the north-west, the high country about Tetbury is the distant object, and to the north is seen the tower of Cirencester, with the Oakley woods, backed by the extending sweep of the Cotswold hills.
The interval is composed of rich, woody lowlands, where the village and the spire vary the scene; and through which, though the water is not visible, the early course of the Thames is marked by the meandering range of willows on its banks, by the misty exhalation that floats above it, or by some other half distinguishable, vapoury circumstance, which the eye can scarce discern, and language cannot describe.
To the east and south-east, the prospect is still more extensive.
Cricklade, with its stately tower, is seen in the bottom.
The Wiltshire hills, blending with those of Berkshire, form an high waving boundary to the right, and force the eye onwards over a rich country to Letchlade steeple, the town of Highworth, rising in the view, and Faringdon hill, which breaks the line of a remote horizon.
A spot of ground planted with trees, on the north-east part of the common, is just sufficient to divide the extensive prospect in these distinct pictures, which contain the leading features, or character of the country, through which the Thames flows from its source to Faringdon.

Inglesham.

Inglesham Lock in Thames by Cooke & Owen 1811
Inglesham Lock with the Thames and Severn Canal 1811

In the year 1782, Mr. Robert Whitworth, a very able engineer was employed by several very opulent and public spirited gentlemen, chiefly merchants of London, to form a plan and estimate of a canal that would form a junction between the Thames and the Severn; and in the following year an act passed to carry this beneficial project into execution.
This canal was executed in a most complete and masterly manner in the space of seven years.
Warehouses are also constructed in every requisite station on its banks, with all the machinery for lading and unlading vessels, and a system of lock-work, to remedy the various levels of the country through which it takes its course.
On the 19th of November, 1789, the first vessel passed from the Severn to the Thames in the presence of a vast concourse of people, who came from every part of the adjacent country to croud the banks and hail its passage, as the commencement of a benefit, whose present advantages and remote effects they did not attempt to calculate.
This important junction is formed very near, but a little below the village of Inglesham, about a mile above Lechlade, whose spire is seen in the picture.
A round tower as a dwelling- and wharf-house has been erected as a deposit for coals brought by the canal, in case the navigation should at any time or by any cause receive a temporary obstruction.
Thus is the Severn brought as it were to the Metropolis; and Thames introduced into all the ports of the Severn, with that of Bristol, and the range of them on the coast of Wales: a splendid enlargement of the interior commerce of the kingdom.

Lechlade.

Lechlade Bridge in Thames by Cooke & Owen 1811
Lechlade Bridge, 1811 S. Owen

[ 1818 version has what I think must have been an identical print drawn by Owen. ]

Lechlade is a town in Gloucestershire, situated on the confines of Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
The ground on which it stands was formerly called the Lade, which conjoined with that of the contiguous river Lech, gives the compound name which the place bears.
Here the Thames is so much encreased by the streams which flow into it as to be capable of receiving vessels from ninety to an hundred tons burthen.

Lechlade, which is described by Leland,
a praty old village with a stone spire to the church”,
is now a small market town in the south-eastern extremity of the county of Gloucester.
It derives its name from the river Lech, which directs its course through the north side of the parish, and the Saxon word Ladian, to empty, as it here falls into the Thames.
This river derives its name from the British word Lech, signifying a stone, from the petrifying quality of its water.
The parish church is large and handsome, with a lofty spire, which offers a pleasing object to the surrounding country.
The Thames, at this place, begins to be navigable for vessels of considerable dimensions.
Some of sixty tons burden and upwards reach this little town, and give it a commercial character:
but the frequent deficiency of water in the summer, as well as its floods in the winter, have hitherto rendered the navigation of the river so uncertain, as to deprive Lechlade of many advantages which it might be supposed to derive from its particular situation.
The Thames Committee have indeed made several improvements in the upper part of the river; and the patriotic spirit, which, in defiance of expense and almost insurmountable difficulties, has completed the canal that unites the Severn with the Thames, promises to continue its zealous and indefatigable efforts to remove every existing impediment; or, by opening new channels, to facilitate the navigation between this place and the metropolis.

St John's Lock, St John's Bridge

About half a mile below the town is Saint John’s Bridge, which tradition reports as being among the most ancient structures of that kind on the Thames.
It is of singular form, of great strength, and derives its name from the priory, part of whose lands are appropriated to its repair:
the road to London passes over it.
The spirit of improvement has already eased the navigation of the river, which, at this place, was liable to frequent obstruction, by a canal or cut that has been made a little below the town.
A handsome arch of stone is thrown over it, and forms a continuation of St. John’s Bridge.

... Buscot Lock, Grafton Lock ...

RADCOT WEIR

Radcot Weir in Thames by Cooke & Owen 1811
Radcot Weir, 1811, S. Owen

Radcot Weir in Thames by Cooke & Owen 1818
Radcot Weir, 1818, S. Owen

This spot, which is at some distance below Radcot bridge, near Faringdon, in the county of Berks, displays a charming little picture of rustic scenery.
These weirs, which are very frequent in the upper part of the Thames, and give a very pleasing variety to it, are artificial dams, or banks, carried across the river, in order to pen up the water to a certain height, for the services of the mill, the fishery, and the navigation.
A large range of frame-work, which resembles the railing of a bridge, rises from the bank below, and supports a number of small flood gates, sliding in grooves, and connected with a sill in the bottom.
When these are drawn up, the whole body of the stream, being collected into a narrow space, rushes through with great rapidity, and gives a temporary depth to the shallows, or, by the power of the current, forces the barges over them.
This machinery never fails, in a greater or less degree, to attract attention: in its most simple state, it affords variety to the view, breaks the line of the river, produces some kind of waterfall, and gives activity and eddy to the current.
But these weirs are generally connected with various accessory and diversifying circumstances; the mill, the fisherman's hut, or the cottage of the person who collects the toll, sometimes embowered in trees, but always connected with them, heighten and vary the character and humble beauties of the scene.
When the river is high, the overfall of the water forms a large cascade; but at all times the upper stream forces its way; in some parts, spouting through the apertures of the flood gates; in others, fretting through the moss-grown timbers, or rushing over the aquatic plants that cling to the frame-work; and thus, broken into a thousand various rills, falls into the lower water, and continues, as it enlivens the course of the river.
Radcot Weir is a very picturesque example of these necessary appendages to the upper division of the Thames navigation, and possesses a full proportion of the landscape effect which has just been described: it is a scene where the eye, satiated with the glare of extensive prospect, may delight to repose.

Radcot Bridge. [well above the weir]

We cannot quit this spot without a slight mention of the bridge in its vicinity, and which bears the same name.
Radcot bridge presents an object, not only picturesque in its appearance, and curious from its antiquity, as it is one of the oldest structures of its kind on the river, but is interesting also, from historical relation.
It is recorded to have been the scene of a remarkable battle, fought in the year 1387, and in the reign of Richard the Second, between the Earl of Derby, afterwards Henry the Fourth, and Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, Marquis of Dublin, and Duke of Ireland, who headed the discontented barons, among whom were Thomas Duke of Gloucester, the Earls of Derby, Warwick, &c. in which the troops of the latter were put to the rout: he, however, escaped, by plunging, on horseback, into the Thames, and thus passing it, at the imminent hazard of his life.
In the well known poem of the Thame and the Isis, this historical circumstance has an illustration from the pen of the muse.

Here Oxford's hero, famous for his boar,
While clashing swords upon his target sound,
And showers of arrows from his breast rebound,
Prepaid for worst of fates, undaunted stood,
And urged his beast into the rapid flood;
The waves in triumph bore him, and were proud
To sink beneath their honourable load.

After this defeat, the gallant, but unfortunate nobleman fled the realm, and closed his life, as an exile, at Louvain, in the Low Countries, about five years afterwards; in consequence, as some historians mention, of a wound he received from the tusks of a wild boar, while he was engaged in the pursuits of the chase.
His body was, three years after his death, brought to England, by order of the king, and, at the expence of his majesty, was buried with great pomp and solemnity, at Colne, in the county of Essex.
The death of this nobleman gave a curious subject for the ridiculous superstition of those days, in the coincidence of the crest, of the Veres, Earls Oxford, which was the very animal from whose ferocity he received the wound that caused his death.
Radcot bridge consists of three arches, in the shape of those of London bridge.
It is in the direct road from Burford to Faringdon; but, from a late improvement of the navigation, the stream, which flows lazily beneath it, is now entirely deserted, but by the fisherman, who, perchance, pursues his sport, or follows his occupation in its unfrequented water.
A cut was completed in the year 1787, which begins at a short distance from the bridge, winds round a meadow, and, after passing through a handsome stone arch, which continues the road, soon rejoins the main current of the river.

... Rushey Lock (1790), Shifford Lock (1896), Newbridge, Northmoor Lock (1896), Pinkhill Lock (1791),
Eynsham Lock (1928), Kings Lock (1928), Godstow Bridge, Godstow (1928), Osney Bridge, Osney Lock (?early) ...

OXFORD.

[ The 1811 View of Oxford from Iffley and its accompanying text is moved to it geographically correct place below Oxford.
The 1818 View of Oxford by P Dewint has not been found as yet.
]

This city must ever be considered with a venerating interest, in whatever way it is presented to the attention; and as an object for the pencil of the Artist, it displays a considerable portion of picturesque attraction.
From whatever part of its environs it is viewed, it offers a striking and stately feature to the eye of the beholder:
with the Towers, Domes, Spires, and pinnacled Structures, which are seen to spring up in the midst of it.


The University of Oxford, whether considered for its edificial magnificence, its great antiquity, the scientific apparatus it possesses, and the application which is and has for ages been made of it for the advancement of every branch of learning and science, is a proud boast of the country which it adorns.

The name of this renowned place has been the source of serious controversy among the etymological antiquaries; some deriving it from Ouseney ford, the ford at or near Ouseney, which is the more obvious derivation; while others contend for Oxenford, or the ford of Oxen.

But leaving this question to those who are disposed to attach importance to it, we shall proceed to give a brief account of the place itself.
It will be expected that we should say something of its origin, which by some fanciful writers is thrown back to a period so remote as to render their antiquarian researches not only incredible but ridiculous.
It will be sufficient for us, without attempting to trace its earlier history, to state in the year 886 it was the residence of Alfred and his three sons, Edward, Athelward, and Alsward, and that money was coined there called Ocsnafordia.
It shared with almost every other part of the kingdom the reverses which followed from the unsettled state of its government during the two succeeding centuries.
It appears, however, to have been fixed upon as a place of conference between Ethelred and the Danes in the year 1015; and that in seven years afterwards, in 1022, Canute assembled here a council of the nation, when the laws of Edward the Confessor were translated into Latin, and published for the regulation of all the subjects of the kingdom both English and Danes.
On the death of the latter monarch in 1036, another great national council was held, and it afterwards became the scene of many important transactions.
The Castle was erected by Robert D'Oilie, at the command of William the Conqueror in the year 1071; a work of great strength and considerable extent, as appears by the massy ruins which still remain.

The City, properly so called, was formerly surrounded with a wall and bastions, and is about two miles in circumference.
The principal street runs from east to west, the entire length of the town, but under different names: the High Street, beginning at Magdalen Bridge, includes at least two-thirds of the whole: the remainder is called Castle Street.
The former, when its length, breadth, and the buildings which form it are brought as it were into one view, may be considered as the finest street in Europe.
It is not quite straight, which, by the different scenery its curve affords, increases the beauty and heightens the picturesque effect of the whole.

Magdalen Bridge over the River Cherwell

The principal entrance into this place is over a stone bridge of eleven arches, and five hundred and twenty-six feet in length, stretching over two distinct branches of the Cherwell and the land that divides them.
It is a handsome structure, built from a design of Mr. Gwyn, who was a native of the city and architect to the University, which is indebted to him for many judicious alterations and improvements.

At the foot of this bridge is Magdalen College, whose lofty tower which is one hundred and fifty feet in height, is a very fine specimen of that which is generally called the Gothic style.
It was erected in the year 1492 under the direction of Cardinal Wolsey, at that time fellow and burser of the college.
The Chapel is a handsome and well-proportioned building.
The west window, painted in chiaro oscuro, was done after a design of Schwartz: there is somewhat of grandeur in the whole, which represents the Resurrection; but the beauty of the painting is much impaired.
The altar-piece was painted by Isaac Fuller, an English history painter of no great name, about an hundred and fifty years ago.
Beneath is a picture of Christ bearing his Cross: the principal figure is supposed to be by Guido; the accessory parts are evidently by a far inferior pencil.
The interior of the cloisters is decorated, or disgraced by hieroglyphics, which, Dr. Stukeley says, are whimsical figures that serve to amuse the vulgar, and must have been the licentious inventions of the mason.
The walks of this college form a beautiful scene of seclusion: a particular part of them is called Addison's Walk, it being traditionally said to have been a favourite scene of his juvenile meditations.

Nearly opposite to Magdalen College is the Physic Garden, whose gateway is of the Doric order, from a design by Inigo Jones; nor does it derogate from his great professional name.

On proceeding up the High Street, Queen's College appears on the north side of it.
This structure, which is of stone, was begun about the year 1072, and bears some resemblance to the style of the Luxemburgh Pslace in Paris.
The two projecting sides of the building are united by a wall with a spacious central gateway, over which is the statue of Queen Caroline, under a dome supported by columns; a noble ornament, but in a most tasteless situation.
The roof of the Chapel, which is arched, is painted by Sir James Thornhill.
The windows are of stained glass, the subjects of which are scriptural, and display an uncommon brilliancy in the colours.

University College is on the opposite side of the High Street.
Its noble front extends two hundred and sixty feet, replete with ancient and simple grandeur.
The altar window of the Chapel was given by Dr. Radcliffe, the celebrated physician, of whom there is a statue over the north gate.
In other parts of the College there are statues of King Alfred, James the Second, Queen Mary the consort of William the Third, and Queen Anne.

All Souls College is also in the High Street.
The altarpiece represents the Assumption of the founder, Archbishop Chichely, by Sir James Thornhill.
Beneath it, in the compartment over the communion table, is a picture by Mengs: the subject is Christ's first appearance lo Mary Magdalen after his Resurrection.
There is much clear and brilliant colouring in this picture, particularly in the body of the principal figure.
An engraving was made from it by the late Mr. Sherwin.
The Library is a noble room; and, among its valuable collection of contains all the drawings left behind him by that great architect Sir Christopher Wren, who was some time a fellow of the College.

St. Mary's Church is another superb ornament of the High Street, and is appropriated to the use of the University.
The body of it was erected in the reign of Henry the Seventh; and the ponderous tower, with its lofty and finely ornamented spire, was added by the first Bishop of Oxford in the reign of Henry the Eighth.
The elegant portico was raised by Dr. Owen, chaplain to Archbishop Laud, in the year 1637.

The High Street receives an additional decoration from the beautiful Church of All Saints.
This fabric is enriched within and without with Corinthian pilasters: an attic story and balustrade completes its exterior appearance; while a curious fret ceiling, handsome altar, and appropriate ornaments, compose its interior finishing.
The steeple is lofty and light, and rises into a spire.
The architect was Doctor Aldrich, Dean of Christ Church.

New College is an handsome spacious stone building; but its principal attraction is the Chapel, which may be indeed said to be the beauty of holiness.
The painted glass by Jervaise, after designs by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the architectural additions by Wyatt, have combined to produce a most solemn and striking effect on the mind.
If devotion may be supposed to receive an added ardor from exterior circumstances, in this place of worship that effect cannot fail of being produced.
The west window represents the Nativity, after the picture painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds for the late Duke of Rutland, and is now at Belvoir Castle.
The other windows are decorated with figures of the Christian and Cardinal Virtues, from cartoons by the same great master.
Over the altar-piece is a fine picture of the Shepherds visiting Christ after his Nativity by Augustino Caracci.
Here is also shewn a curious relic in the crosier of William of Wykeham, the founder of the College.
It is of silver gill, seven feet high, and very much enriched with Gothic ornaments.

We now proceed to the College of Christ Church, which may be considered as the chief glory of Oxford.
The stately west front of the great Quadrangle is a magnificent Gothic building, three hundred and eighty-two feet in length, terminated at each end with two corresponding turrets.
The central gate forms a noble entrance, and over it.
has a beautiful Gothic tower with a dome, which was added to the structure 1/v Sir Christopher, is most happily adapted to the character of the building, and crowns the whole.
It contains the bell which is so well known by the name of Great Tom of Oxford.
The great Quadrangle, of which this superb range of building forms a part, is two hundred and sixty-four by two hundred and sixty-one in the clear.
The Hall occupies a part of the south side, and the remainder of the surrounding structure contains the residences of the Deans and Canons.
It was built by Cardinal Wolsey, and partakes of the magnificence of his taste.
His statue, a fine animated piece of sculpture, occupies a niche in the south-east corner.
The Hall is a noble room, and richly adorned with portraits: that of Doctor Robinson, the Lord Primate of Ireland, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, is among the first of his works in that branch of his art.
The Church of the College is the cathedral of the diocese, which contains nothing remarkable but the stone roof and some beautiful paintings on glass.
The quadrangle called Peckwater, is an elegant enriched building of the Ionic order, after a design of Dr. Aldrich, then Dean of the College, who was equally distinguished for taste and learning.
One angle of it is entirely possessed by the Library, which is one hundred and forty-one feet in length.
The upper part is fitted up with book-cases, columns, &c.
of oak, and for beauty of effect, as well as appropriate accommodation, can scarce be exceeded.
The rooms below contain the collection of pictures bequeathed to the College by General Guise, among which are some very fine works of the first masters.
In a recess on the north side of the upper apartment is a fine statue of Mr.
Locke, who was a student of this college: the sculptor is Roubilliac.

The other Colleges contain objects worthy of attention and description; but the limits of these, volumes will not allow us to describe them.
In a work like this, however, which it is presumed we may consider as connected with the arts, we feel ourselves called upon to add, that Worcester College contains the drawings of Inigo Jones, which are preserved with great care.
The principal public buildings, from the circumstances connected with them, demand a more enlarged account than we can allow ourselves to give.
A very general mention is all that we can venture to adopt.

The University Library, usually called the Bodleian, from Sir Thomas Bodley, its principal founder, is a large and lofty structure in the form of a Roman H, and rivals the first libraries in Europe.

The Arundelian Marbles are placed to advantage in a large apartment on the north side of the building called Schools.

The Theatre where the great public acts are held, is built in imitation of the theatres of Greece, and is a work that would have done honour to an architect of Athens.
It is the work of Sir Christopher Wren.

The Museum, which was also built under the direction of the same distinguished person, is generally admired for its symmetry and elegance.
It contains the collections of Elias Ashmole, Esq. Windsor Herald in the reign of Charles the Second, and whose name it bears.
It has received considerable additions since his time, and will reward the attention of the visitor.

The Clarendon Printing-house, which was built-in the year 1711 with the profits arising from the sale of Lord Clarendon's History, is a very grand edifice.
The books printed here must have the privilege of the University.

The Radcliffe Library is a splendid ornament of Oxford.
The celebrated Dr. Radcliffe left the sum of forty thousand pounds for the erection, and funds for a suitable establishment.
It is a large circular stone building, crowned with a dome, and enriched to profusion within and without with all the decorations of the Corinthian order.
It was twelve years in building, and Gibbs was the architect.
The University, City, and County of Oxford are also very highly indebted to the trustees of Dr. Radcliffe's will for the building and completely fitting up an Infirmary, which is maintained by voluntary subscription; and while it relieves the poor, serves as a school for students in physic.
The same trustees have also erected a magnificent Astronomical Observatory: it is an elegant structure, after an appropriate design by Wyatt, and is furnished with an incomparable apparatus.
Such is the brief account, and it is all we are enabled to give, of the first University in the world.

[Iffley Lock] WIER NEAR OXFORD

[ This 1811 image and text moved here from above Oxford. ]

Iffley Lock and Oxford in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Oxford from Iffley, 1811 Cooke & Owen

Ifley, the beautiful spot from whence this view is taken, is situated on an eminence rising from the Thames, about a mile and an half from Oxford, and commands, as the engraving is intended to display, every towering object in that city.
The Castle, St. Peter's and St. Aldate's churches, Tom Tower Christ Church, the Cathedral of that College, All Saints Church, Merton College, St. Mary's Church, Radcliffe Library, All Souls College, and Magdalen Tower, are distinctly marked.

Iffley Weir in Thames, Cooke & Cooke 1818
[Iffley] Weir near Oxford from Iffley, 1818 Cooke & Cooke

These wiers, which are very frequent in the upper part of the Thames, and give a pleasing variety to it, are artificial dams or banks carried across the river, in order to pen up the water to a certain height, for the services of the mill, the fishery, and the navigation.
A range of framework, which resembles the railing of a bridge, rises from the bank below, and supports a number of floodgates, sliding in grooves and connected with a sill in the bottom.
When these are drawn up, the whole body of the stream, being collected into a narrow space, rushes through with great rapidity, and gives a temporary depth to the shallows, or by the power of the current, forces the barges over them.
This machinery never fails, in a greater or lesser degree, to attract attention.
In its most simple state it affords variety to the view, breaks the line of the river, produces some kind of waterfall, and gives activity and eddy to the current.
When the river is high the overfall of the water forms a large cascade; but at all times the upper stream forces its way; in some parts spouting through the floodgates; in others, fretting among the mossy timbers, or rushing over the aquatic plants that climb to the framework, and, broken into a thousand various rills, falls into the lower water, and continues the current of the river .
Such is the general character of these wiers, but the eye is referred to the engraving, for a description of that beautiful and picturesque little scene which occasioned these observations.

NUNEHAM COURTENAY

THE SEAT OF EARL OF HARCOURT.

Nuneham Courtney in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Nuneham Courteney, the Seat of Lord Harcourt. 1811. S.Owen

Nuneham Courtney in Thames, by J Hughes engraved Cooke 1818
Nuneham Courteney. 1818 J. Hughes

The view of this beautiful spot is taken from the bottom, of a wood, which declines from the upper part of the park to the banks of the Thames, which are here enlivened by two pleasing cottages: the bridge, by connecting the island with the shore, adds to the picturesque appearance of the scene, and the house in the distance crowns the whole.
As we consider this place to be the most distinguished for beauty along the course of the river, we consider ourselves as called upon to give an enlarged description of it.


As this place is acknowledged to be more distinguished for beauty of scenery, as well as extent of domain than any of the various seats on the Banks of the Thames, an enlarged description may be expected of it.
It is, however, a late possession of the Harcourt family, in this county.
Stanton Harcourt; from whence the title is derived, has belonged to them upwards of six hundred years; but it retains only the shadow of its former splendor, and has been deserted for the superior beauties of Nuneham, which will now be described.


Nuneham Conrtenay, at the General Survey, belonged to Richard de Curcy, and afterwards to the family of Riparyg or Redvers.
Mary, youngest daughter of William de Redvers, Earl of Devon, who, as well as his uncle William, was surnamed de Vernon, married Robert de Courtenay, Baron of Okenhampton, in 1214.
It is probable, that by this marriage the manor of Nuneham passed into the family of Conrtenay, and thence assumed the name of Nuneham Courtenay.
The Pollards of Devonshire next succeeded to the possession of it: from them it went to Audley, of the Court of Wards, called the rich Audley.
From him it passed to Robert Wright, Bishop of Litchfield, whose son, Calvert Wright, sold it to John Robinson, Merchant of London, in the time of Oliver Cromwell, who was knighted in 1660, by Charles the Second, and made Lieutenant of the Tower.
From the Robinsons it descended to David, Earl of Wemyss, who married Mary, daughter and co-heir of Sir John Robinson, Baronet, of whom it was purchased in the year 1710, by Simon, first Lord Harconrt, Lord High Chancellor of England.

The present house was built by the father of the late and the present earl, after a design of Ledbeater; but has been since much altered and enlarged under the direction of Mr. Brown, who superintended the disposition of the grounds and plantations.
It is a plain, regular, and elegant stone edifice, consisting of a principal floor, between a basement and attic story, and connected with two projecting wings, by inflected corridores, with galleries over them.
Of the simplex munditüs, it affords a very rare and most pleasing example.
Its interior arrangement comprehend! convenience, elegance, and magnificence.
Its principal apartments are of grand proportions, and fitted up both as to furniture and embellishment, in a very superior and splendid taste.
It may be said with great truth of this mansion, that it is not too small for the first station, nor too large for any comfort.

A considerable and very fine collection of pictures enhance its decoration; among which are those of the following distinguished masters:
Annibal Caracci, Murillo, Claude Lorrain, Albano, Guido, Salvator Rosa, Nicolo Poussin, Gasper Poussin, Domenichinô, Titian, Rubens, Tempeste, Andrea de Turto, Wouwermans, Ruysdaal, Snyders, Fytt, Teniers, Cuyp, Vandervelde, Wycke, Swanefeld, Van Artois, Filippo Lauri, Berchem, Taverner, Vandycke, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Cornelius Janssen, Rosalba, Angelica, Miss Read, Sir Peter Lely, Sir Joshua Reynolds, &c. &c. &c.

The immediate approach to the house, through the park, is on a descent, which, though gradual and judiciously broken by its lateral course, is a circumstance that will scarcely admit of grandeur: but, in the example before us, and considering all the concomitants of the spot, grandeur may, perhaps, be thought to yield to something better - to that calm tranquil appearance which the painters call repose.
This effect is, in a great measure, produced by three groupes of large elms, which, in different forms, present themselves at a short distance in the front, and are connected by side screens of trees, with the wings of the building.
One of these groupes is nearly central, and the others are at such distances from it, as to leave considerable intervals between them: and though they do not prevent the eye from ranging over a part of the park, they form a kind of venerable inclosure, that gives the verdant area before the house the tranquil appearance which we have endeavoured to describe.
Indeed, if it may be considered as a merit merely to produce effect, these circumstances may claim an ample share of it; because, on passing through this entrance to the apartments of the back front, the blaze of prospect, which there bursts upon the view, is greatly heightened by the comparative gloom of the passage to it.

The park is a noble domain, containing twelve hundred acres, is finely varied with wood and forest scenery.
The home part is broke into waving lawns, enlivened by single trees, and occasional groupes of them of various size and figure.
Thick woods form the general boundary, and where they offer an opening, prospects appear, which have the contrasted charms of distance, grandeur, and beautv.
On the eastern side, the scene is broken into two distinct views by the hills of Wettenham[sic for Wittenham], at the distance of about five miles; to the right of which the country opens to the distant parts of Berkshire, which border on Hampshire; and on the left there is a broad expanse of cultivated country, which is terminated by the hills that form the hithermost boundary of the county of Buckingham.
To the south, the horizon is varied by the long range of hills which rise above the vale of White Horse.
To the west, the park falls in thick wood or open grove towards the Thames; and, on the north, it is bounded by the village of Nuneham.

Nuneham is a curious, pleasing, and interesting object.
It is built on a regular and uniform plan; house answering to house, and garden to garden, on either side of the road; and though regularity is generally thought to, and certainly does, destroy picturesque effect, nevertheless, the screens of trees that stretch along before the cottages, with the intervals of garden ground, produce, in certain points of view, a peculiar mixture of trees and buildings, which the eye Cannot regard with indifference as a rural picture.
All these various objects, with their accessory circumstances, are seen in delightful succession and to the best advantage, in the course of a riding that leads from one charming scene to another, along the boundary of the park.

The garden part of Nuneham, and which may be considered as the pride of it, does not contain more than forty acres, but its command of country is very comprehensive, and the inlets of park scenery give an artificial extent to its beauties.
From the centre of the back front of the house, round the south side of the garden, and back again by a returning walk, is something more than half a mile.
From the same place along the terrace on the northern side, round the hill, at termination of it, and back again, is somewhat more than twice that length.
From this central point we shall begin our description.

The fore ground, from the house, is a small lawn, or rather large knoll, of a triangular form, which, however, softens off into the glades on either side, so as to be totally devoid of formality.
To the right it sinks to rise again, after an easy bend, to another knoll of corresponding acclivity, but different form, and crowned with thicker shade.
It falls more gently to the left, and continues in a succession of various undulating surface, to the rising woodlands of the park.
From the centre of this spot, a very extensive and, delightful prospect presents itself to the view, which is broken into two separate pictures by a groupe of fine elms on the projecting point of the lawn.

To the right, the eye, forced onwards by a grove to the north, glances over a charming glade, and is first caught by a long reach of the Thames, somewhat interrupted by trees, which flows, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile through the meadows in the bottom; it then passes over several gleamy snatches of the river, as it meanders on, in various directions, towards Oxford, whose towers, domes, and spires, compose a very superb object:
the high part of Blenheim park is seen beyond it; and the eye, returning over the dark mass of the distant woods, in Berkshire, and the fertile intervening country, completes its view of the right hand picture.

Its companion on the left, comprehends a larger foreground, from whence the eye, after passing a broad indented sweep of lawn, slightly broken by a clump of birches, rises to the verdant prominence that supports the venerable pile of Carfax, with the majestic oaks in which it is embosomed; and then stretches on to the park wood, beneath whose impending shade the Thames takes its course towards Abingdon, and after one lingering meander is seen no more.
The nearer part of the wood bounds one side of the prospect; but the extreme line of it, inclining gradually to the water, lets in the blue hills of Berkshire, which, ranging on to join those of Wiltshire, above the While Horse Vale, are at length lost in the azure of a very distant horizon.
Faringdon Hill, with the tuft of trees that crowns it, is distinctly seen at the distance of eighteen miles; and the eye, returning over the rich intermediate level, is relieved from its luxuriant sameness by the airy spire of Abingdon.
Such are the two distinct pictures which are divided by the central group of elms, in the front of which they are both united.

This spot being more prominent, not only comprehends more of the northern meadows, glades, and woods of Nuneham, but brings a great variety of new objects into the view.
The village of Heddington, situate on a range of high ground, at the distance of five miles, forms a pleasing boundary to the north, which falls gradually down to Oxford.
Here also Ifley Tower, on its high bank of the river, more sensibly unites with the towers of the city; and thus, by lengthening its form, aggrandizes its character.
The objects of the prospects are here in more determined contrast; the variety is increased, and the Thames is seen in all the meandering beauty with which it flows from Oxford; in its fine long reach as it passes before the grounds of Nuneham, and in its grand sweep beneath the park wood, when it takes its leave of them.
This description comprehends the exterior features of the principal views from Nuneham,

and we shall now proceed to trace the line of the garden, which, besides its own extensive beauties, gives so many charming subdivisions of the general prospect.
The terrace, disdaining the regularity annexed to its name, takes the natural form of the ground over which it passes, as well as the direction of the garden boundary; and keeping always above the slopes and declivities, maintains throughout its course an elevated situation.
It proceeds from the northern side of the house; when the eye passing over a glade rich in verdure, penetrates a long arch of foliage up to the west end of the church, which appears on an elevated situation, and the entrance from thence to the family closet, being decorated with a semi-rotunda of Ionic columns, supporting a dome, produces the elegant form of a temple of that Order.
A grove of fine elms ascends to the west end of the church, and the walk winding round it reaches the principal portico of that beautiful structure.
It consists of six large Ionic columns supporting a pediment, above which a dome springs from the centre of the building; the whole assuming the form of a Grecian temple.
This superb piece of architecture, though attached to, has no communication with, the church, the principal entrance being on the opposite side, and was erected merely as an ornament to the garden.
It stands on a brow of exuberant verdure, which takes a circular sweep to the right; is occupied by a grove of elms, and projects on the descent to the left.
In its front the ground falls in a various wave of surface to a glade, which steals away beneath the spreading branches of trees towards the meadows.
Elms of the most luxuriant foliage, and feathering down to the turf beneath them, form, in the bottom, an irregular boundary, that just admits the view of a verdant woody slope, beyond which the elevated village of Heddington, at the distance of a few miles, opposes itself the portico; and, being enriched with several handsome houses of stone, is suited to the scene.
The path now sweeps round the upper part of this delightful glade, beneath the shade of flourishing beech trees that crown its shelving sides, which stretch down to the trees, whose thick masses of foliage enrich the bottom; while Oxford appears through an opening in their upper branches.
A little onward from beneath a venerable elm on the upper part of the declivity, the Thames is seen through two separate branches of the glade; but in that immediately before it, the ground assumes such pleasing shapes, the foliage of the trees forms such grateful outlines, which correspond so happily with the undulating surface that descends towards them, while different clumps make out such various and natural divisions, that they altogether compose a consummate picture of sylvan beauty.
The walk now assumes a more regular form, and after giving a peep in a sequestered part of the park, ascends into a thick grove of gloomy shade; and, having made the circuit of an hill covered with stately trees, it returns to itself, and re-conducts to the house.
But though, in its returning progress, the same objects are seen, their appearance is so changed, and their perspective positions so varied, that the charm of novelty is still added to those of taste and nature.
On re-entering what may be called the Portico glade, a scene displays itself, which, in its kind, has no equal that we have ever seen, and is very superior, as we think, to the situation of the Temple of Victory and Concord, in Stow gardens, which has been so much admired by the landscape gardener.
Its character is grandeur, but the grandeur is twofold; beneath clouds it is solemn, nnd in sunshine it is splendid.
The walk now reskirts the glade, repasses the Portico, and gradually descends towards the house, and to a review of those extensive prospects which aggrandise its superior situation.

We now proceed from the house, as a central point, to the south side of the garden, and, rounding the left corner of it, just touch on the extremity of an expanding lawn, that falls towards the river, to enter a rich and beautiful plantation, which thickens along the upper part of it.
Here the extensive view of the country had originally no interruption, so that the uniformity of prospect, however attractive in itself, was liable to satiate the eye, and, being a continuation of the expansive view which is seen from the principal apartments of the house, lost the charm of variety.
This plantation, therefore, creates a new effect, by producing that temporary concealment, which gives fresh spirit, as it were, to the re-appearance of the prospect.
It is full of those varieties which arise from the form, growth, and colour of trees, connected by approaching similitudes to the shrubs intermixed with them.
It has also sufficient depth to admit of a returning walk, which, by being rather more enclosed, aids the variety, and confirms the effect, designed to be produced by it.
A broad gravel walk leads through this plantation, in a gently bending line, and with an easy rise, between unequal breadths of verdure, planted here and there, with the most elegant evergreens and before the shrubbery, on either side, is a border gay with a profusion of flowers.
This progressive scene of fragrant seclusion is suddenly enlivened by an opening into the park, where an expansive rising length of undulating lawn, beautifully wooded, and enlivened by herds of deer, unfolds itself to the view; which the visitor may be induced to prolong from a seat that here invites him to repose beneath an elm of immense shade.
A little further onward, near an oak of great beauty, is an urn, erected to the memory of the late William Whitehead, Poet Laureat.
It stands on a pedestal, encircled by the laurel, the bay tree, and the rose; and enriched by an elegiac inscription, from the Muse of Mason.
In the background of the picture, and a most elegant decoration of it, is a Corinthian portico, adorned with all the enrichments of that splendid order.
The accessory parts of the scene baffle description.
From the verdant prominence where the urn is placed, the view, screened by the plantation immediately to the right, pushes on through a broad savanna to Oxford.
Before it is Radley, the seat of Admiral Bowyer, on the Berkshire side of the river, rising from its own groves, with the woods beyond it: the intervening valley is watered by the Thames.
Towards Abingdon, the spire of whose church is alone visible, the prospect is broken by a fore-ground of scattered trees, hanging down the lawn.
To the left the ground falls abruptly into a glen in the park, but immediately rises into an irregular extensive brow, covered with oaks; which are so thick as to form a waving mass of foliage, in the distant view of them, and yet so distinct as, on a near approach, to disclose the verdure which they shade, and the individual beauty they possess.

Carfax

The character of the spot around Whitehead's urn, considered in an insulated state, is pensive elegance: while its sober charms are elevated by the grand expanse of prospect before it, the solemn, sylvan beauty of the grove beside it, and the venerable form of Carfax, on a projecting swell above it.
This grove is beyond the boundary of the garden, and it is of too much importance in the general scenery not to attempt to give some account of the interesting circumstances connected with it.
Grandeur belongs to a wood, beauty is the characteristic of a grove, - and this spot possesses both.
It contains a large assemblage of the finest oaks, covering a deep, indented, and extensive brow, sinking into glens, or rising into knolls, in which every individual tree retains much of its own peculiar beauty, and transfers, whatever it loses from itself, to the superior character of the whole.
Old Carfax, on a bold prominence, at the extent of it, aids the awful character of the place, and appears to surpass in age the venerable trees that shade it.
This curious building bears the record of its own history, in the following inscription :—

This building, called Carfax, erected for a Conduit at Oxford, by Otho Nicholson, in the year of our Lord 1590, and taken down, in the year 1787, to enlarge the High Street, was presented, by the University, to George Simon, Earl Harcourt, who caused it to he placed here.

The general character of Nuneham is elegant grandeur.
Its predominant feature is variety of surface.
It contains that pleasing arrangement of pleasing parts which constitutes beauty, with a splendid inlet of country, and a bold display of its own scenes, which may be said to compose grandeur.
The ample space is divided in a number of successive parts, every where various, every where consistent, and no where licentious.
Object succeeds to object, naturally and pleasingly, or, which is the same thing, there are seen different views of the same object.
The several beauties appear in natural succession, and the succession is never lost in the divisions.
The vast expanse of open country is frequently divided into separate pictures, but never subdivided into diminutive parts.
The uniformity of the grand prospect is occasionally diversified, but the diversification never diminishes its greatness.
The forms of the swells, slopes, and vallies, are every where graceful, and the groves on the declivities are rich and elegant.
The correspondence of the parts does not produce sameness, and, in their contrast, there is neither abruptness or singularity.
The ‘woods are extensive; beautiful in themselves, and ennobled by the Thames, which flows beneath them.
The meadows, refreshed by the silver stream, are, here and there, enlivened by single trees, or groupes of them, just suflicient to break the long level of coarser verdure, and to make them harmonise with the highly embellished grounds above them.
The whole is a place of the first order : nature gave the outline, and taste has completed the picture.
The buildings are but few, but they aid the grandeur or elegance of their respective scenes, without producing frivolous display or sumptuous affectation.
The flower garden, which is unrivalled, may be considered as an episode in the great work, and demands distinct notice.
It has no visible connection with the general range of pleasure ground, and is entered by a Doric gateway, on whose pediment is inscribed the following sentence of J. J. Rousseau, so beautifully allusive to the world of flowers.
Si l’auteur de la Nature est grand dans les grandes choses, il est tres grand dans les petites.

The first object on the entrance of the garden, is the bust of Flora, on a therm, with an appropriate inscription.
On passing along the shady path which leads round this Elysian spot, there are busts also of other sylvan deities, and men illustrious for their genius and their virtues.
The buildings consist of a grotto possessing all “the pensive secresy of desert cell.”
The Temple of Flora, after a Doric portico, at Athens; a bower, against which are planted roses, woodbines, jessamines, and several kinds of creeping plants; and the conversatory, in which are planted bergamot, cedrati, limoncelli, and orange trees.
In summer, the whole of the building is removed, and the trees appear to stand in the natural ground.
There is also an urn to the memory of Lady Palmerston, and a similar sepulchral memorial to the poet Mason, who assisted the late Lord Harcourt in the arrangement of this unrivalled spot.
The whole of the space, within this circuitous path, is filled with flowers of every name that will flourish in our climate, and with a selection of those trees which are most admired for their elegance and beauty.
The whole is entirely secluded by a thick belt of choice trees and flowering shrubs, and an exterior boundary of wide spreading elms.
And here it will scarcely be believed, that this nest of sweets, this board of floral beauties, this example of consummate taste, occupies little more than an acre of ground, but such is the irregularity of its surface, the disposition of its trees, the arrangement of its flowers, the succession of its artificial embellishments, and the judicious conduct of its surrounding path, that it becomes apparently magnified into ample extent.
The patches of flowers and clumps of shrubs are of various shapes and unequal dimensions; and its trees are of a growth and figure, which at once harmonize with and diversify the scenery of the place.
Every therm has its motto or its poesy, and every building its inscription, all happily selected to heighten or suggest appropriate sentiment, and aid the moral influence of the garden.
In this description it may, indeed, appear, that the artificial objects are too numerous for the small limits of the spot which they adorn; but they are so managed as to be seen only in unexpected succession, or in such careless glimpses of them as to avoid the least appearance of ostentation, while they enrich the composition of the scene.
In a flower garden, where all is bloom and fragrance, and where nature appears in her gayest embroidery, picturesque embellishment demands all the elegance that art can bestow; but taste alone could not have formed the picture which has heen so imperfectly described.
Such an Arcadian scene must have been produced by an Arcadian imagination.
Indeed, so much is there of invention and original fancy in the piece, that the genius of poetry could alone have composed it.
Nuneham is a place of the first beauty: Nuneham, however, may in the course of varying opinion, be thought to have an equal; but its flower gardeu transcends all rivalry, and is itself alone.

We shall conclude this article, which might have been much prolonged if our limits would have allowed it, with some account of the virtuous and accomplished nobleman, whose superior taste gave us the subject of the foregoing description.
George Simon Harcourt died April 20, 1809, at his house in Cavendish Square: nor ought this nobleman to pass to the sepulchre of his ancestors, without that tribute which truth owes to superior virtue.
Earl Harcourt possessed very cultivated understanding.
His mind was stored with no common portion of general knowledge, and the whole was refined by an exquisite taste.
No man ever felt an higher sense of honour, no man ever acted from stronger impressions of moral duty, both as it regards the common offices of social life, or as it is enlarged and purified by the spirit of that religion which he seriously professed.
No man reflected more upon the part he was called to perform in the world or acted with greater rectitude on the principles which he had adopted.
A natural love of tranquillity, a taste for the fine arts and the more flowery parts of literature, to which not only the circumstances of his early life, but the tendencies of his genius may have disposed him; and a constitution which never appeared to be calculated to encounter the fatigues of public business, might have combined to prevent his being engaged in any of the active departments of the state.
The embassy to Spain, during the Marquis of Lansdown's administration, was pressed upon and declined by him.
The office of Master of the Horse to the Queen was, we have equal reason to believe, conferred upon him, as a mark of personal regard, by their Majesties; and he enjoyed it to the close of his life.
Hence it is, that this nobleman was only known in the great circle of the world, by an appearance suited to his rank and office, the polished urbanity of his manners, and as a lover and admirable judge of the fine arts, in which, as far as he chose to indulge himself, he may be said to have excelled.
Whether it was a mere juvenile caprice, which had possessed him during his foreign travels, or whether he was influenced by his descent from an ancient and distinguished family among the peers of France, it is not necessary to consider; but his entrance into public life was marked by such a decided preference to French manners and fashions, and his appearance so adapted to it, as almost to disguise his exterior as an Englishman.
But the whimsical propensity did not affect his mind, or gallicise his character, nor did he render it offensive to others.
He indulged his fancy, and when his intimate friends made it an object of their sportive sallies, he would enliven them by his own good humour, and turn aside any pleasant ridicule by the display of his own admirable temper.

If, however, he had one fashionable folly, he had no fashionable vice, and his leisure hours were passed in the pursuits and embellishments of science.
It was, we believe, at this period that he produced the set of etchings, which are highly estimated by the collectors in that branch of art, and which the late Lord Oxford mentions in his works as a very beautiful specimen of it.
The French fancy, however, wore away, and was lost in the easy affability of the accomplished English gentleman.
Lord Harcourt considered good breeding as the first of the minor virtues, and never deviated from it; but as his notion of it partook rather de la vielle cour, he might he represented by those who only knew him in the public circles, as an inflexible observer of every rule of courtly etiquette; and especially at a time when the manners and appearance of our young men of fashion and fortune are scarcely superior to those of their grooms, and very often inferior to that of their valets and butlers.
But he had no unbecoming pride; his behaviour never overawed the poor, nor did it trench upon the ease of familiar association.
His punctilios were those of a refined and dignified benevolence, and never served as a check but to such indecorums as are ever held, by those of correct understanding, to be inadmissible in the sphere of polished life.
He might think as many men of superior minds have done, that, on certain occasions, it is the duty of rank and station to preserve certain forms, and to dress behaviour with somewhat of appropriate ceremony; and it may be owing, in some degree, to a neglect of those forms, which at present prevail too much in rank and station, that a respect for the higher orders has so materially diminished among the inferior classes of the people.
But in his family, among his private friends, in his intercourse with his tenants, and in all his ordinary avocations, his carriage was such as to give pleasure to all who had communication with him.
With his more ennobling qualities he possessed a comic elegance of thought, and a classical facetiousness, which rendered his private society infinitely pleasant; and even in his nervous moments, for he was occasionally troubled with them, he would describe himself in such a way, as not only to relieve the distress of his friends, but force that hilarity upon them, wbich would operate also as a temporary relief to himself.
At Nuneham, his country residence, and whose native beauties his taste had so embellished and improved, he was a blessing to all who lived within the sphere of his protection; while to its neighbourhood it is well known, that the village of Nuneham is so ordered, by the regulations he framed, by the encouragements he afforded, by the little festivals he established, and the rewards he distributed, as to display a scene of good order, active industry, moral duty, and humble piety, of which it were to be wished there were more examples.
To these qualities may be added his capacity for friendship; nor can we pass unnoticed a very signal example of it, in the asylum he afforded to the Duc d'Harcourt, and his family, when the French Revolution drove them from the proud situation, the exalted rank, and extensive property, which they possessed in their own country, to a state of dependence in this.
Indeed to all, whatever their condition might be, who had shewn him kindness, or done him service, his friendship was appropriately directed.
Mr. Whitehead, the Poet Laureat, and Mr. Mason, the poet, were among those whom he distinguished by his early regard, and it accompanied them to the end of their lives;
nor did it quit them there: - in certain spots of his beautiful garden at Nuneham, which they respectively preferred, the urn and the tablet commemorate and record their virtues.
The old and faithful domestics who died in his service are not without their memorials; and in the parochial church-yard, the grave of an ancient gardener is distinguished by the flowers which are cultivated around it.
These may be said to be little things, but they nevertheless mark the character of that heart which suggested them.
It is almost superfluous to add, that, in the nearer and dearer relations of life, be exercised the virtues which they required of him.
Above all, Earl Harcourt was a sincere christian; and it pleased that Being, who measures out days and years at his pleasure, to suffer him to attain an age beyond the common allotment of man.
In his seventy-fourth year, he closed his venerable, useful, and honourable life.

Nuneham Cottage and Bridge

Nuneham Cottage and Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Nuneham Cottage and Bridge. 1811. S.Owen

ABINGDON.

Abingdon in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Abingdon Bridge. 1811. S.Owen

This place is situated on the Berkshire bank of the Thames, between Oxford and Wallingford.
It can boast a very remote antiquity: - Camden conjectures that synods were held here as early as the year 742: and an anonymous writer observes,
"that it was in ancient times a famous city, goodly to behold, full of riches, encompassed with very fruitful fields, green meadows, spacious pastures, and flocks of cattle abounding with milk.
Here the king kept his court, and hither the people resorted while consultations were depending about the greatest and most weighty affairs in the kingdom."
Ciss, a king of the West Saxons, built a spacious abbey here about the year 675, when the place assumed the name of Abandun, or the Abbey's Town.
This religious house, however, was soon after destroyed by the Danes; but by the liberality of King Edgar and the activity of the Norman abbots, it recovered its magnificence, and rivalled in wealth and grandeur the first abbeys in the kingdom.
William the Conqueror resided here for some time; and in this abbey his son Henry received his education.
The abbey was a principal support of the town till the reign of Henry the Fifth, by whom a bridge was constructed over the Thames at Culham, and another at Burford across the river Ouse.

[ I think this was an old name for the Isis as in 'Oseney'. Anyway it is, or was, the main river. ]
From that time Abingdon acquired so much additional traffic as to rank among the first towns in the county.
The building of these bridges in 1416 was evidently under the immediate order of the king, as appears from the following Latin distich, formerly inscribed on a window in the church of St. Helen, within the place:
Henricus Quintals, quarto fundaverat anno,
Rex, pontem Burford super undas atque Culhamford.

An handsome wharf has some years since been completed at the extremity of the town ; and beyond it the new cut, forming a small curve, joins the main river a little below Culham Bridge, which, with the neighbouring town, affords no unpleasing object.
[ That new cut is, I think what we now know as the main channel through Abingdon, the old channel being the Swift Ditch. ]
There is a very handsome town-hall and two parish churches; one of them possesses a lofty spire, which is a kind of land-mark to a very extended distance of circumjacent country.

THE JUNCTION OF THE THAME AND THE ISIS.

Junction of Thame & Isis in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
The Junction of the Thame and Isis, 1811. S.Owen

The painter has the same liberty as the poet.
Invention is an essential quality to them both.
The former, therefore, is justified in describing with his pencil, what the fancy of the latter has dictated to his pen.
The view of that part of the river where the supposed junction of the Thame and the Isis is formed, is perfectly correct as to the existing objects.
but the Thame, which rises in the county of Buckingham, and is a very inferior stream, there pours its tributary waters into the Thames, as no such river as the Isis exists, except in the fabling of the poet, who most probably availed himself of the Latin appellation Thamesis, by which the river is described in the most ancient maps of England, to form the subject of the old Latin poem, named, The Marriage of the Tame and the Isis, which Camden's biographer attributes, among other poetical effusions, to the great antiquary himself.
The learned author of the additions to Camden's Britannia has fairly and fully decided that this river was anciently called the Thames, long before it receives the waters of the Tame, and produces the following authorities in support of that opinion.
"In an ancient charter granted to Abbot Aldhelm, of Malmsbury, there is particular mention made of certain lands on the east side of the river,
cujus vocabulum Temis juxta ad vadum qui appellatur Somerford; and this ford is in Willshire.

The same appears from several charters to the Abbies of Malmsbury and Evesham, and from the old deeds relating to Cricklade: indeed it never occurs in any charter, authentic history, or ancient chart, under the name of Isis.
The common people from its head to Oxford, called it by no other name than that of Thames.
"The Saxon word Temeye, from whence the name of the river is derived, evidently proves that the supposed is a modern notion.
But further, - All our historians who mention the incursions of Wherwold into Wiltshire, in the year 905; and of Canute, in the year 1016, tell us, that they passed over the Thames at Cricklade."
Its source is universally known to all the country round it by the appellation of the Thames head.
It is not only the traditional, but the geographical, and legal title, of the spot as well as of the infant river.
In the old maps laid down by the Monks, in which the titles of places are given in the Latin tongue, the course of the river is marked throughout by the term Tamesis Fluvius.
To these notices it may be added, that the most ancient street in Oxford, is called Thames-Street.
That a river, after a course of at least sixty miles, should lose the appellation of the parent spring, and at a considerable distance onwards resume and retain it to the sea, is an absurdity which could alone prevail from the beautiful poetry, by which it has been adopted.
The high ground which is seen in the view to rise above the river is Whittenham[sic] Hill, on which are the vestiges of a Roman encampment.

THE GROTTO HOUSE, NEAR BASILDEN PARK.

Grotto House near Basilden Park in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
The Grotto House near Basilden Park, 1811. S.Owen

This house stands on an highly enriched bank on the Thames, on the Berkshire side of it, near Pangbourn, and at the foot of the declivities of Basilden park, from which it is separated by the road leading from Reading to Wallingford.
It is a small spot, but very tastefully disposed, and luxuriantly planted: it is very ornamental to the river, and adds very much to the general richness of the landscape which surrounds it.
This pleasing retreat derives its name from a grotto which was the offspring of the late Lady Fane's taste and elegant industry, when this spot was the place of her residence.
Though it remains a proof of her skill, and the great expense which must have accompanied the progress of her favourite occupation, as many specimens of the finest shells were employed in its construction, it is no longer seen in that state of perfection, when it was the boast of Basilden, and the wonder of that part of Berkshire.
It will, however, live in recording praise of the muse, whose celebration of it is to be found among the poetry, so judiciously preserved in Mr. Dodsley's collection of fugitive verse.
The imitations of natural caverns find a place among the ornamental and characteristic objects of modern gardens.
There are very fine examples of them at Stourhead, Pains Hill, and Park Place, where they give a very impressive variety to the scenery of those distinguished places.
Many others also might be named, whose effect is equally pleasing; but the shell-room, whether above or below the earth, has long been disowned by an improved and purer taste, which, disdaining works merely artificial, professes alone to copy or improve nature.
The only grottos which we recollect to be preserved, are those of this place, at Oatlands, the seat of his Royal Highness the Duke of York, and in the gardens of Wanstead House, in Essex.
The Grotto House is the property of the Sykes family, the owners of Basilden House.
It was lately inhabited by Mr. Lamotte, and is now the residence of Mr. Ogilvie.

BASILDEN PARK AND COMBE LODGE.

Basilden Park and Combe Lodge  in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Basilden Park and Combe Lodge, 1811. S.Owen

Pangbourne and Whitchurch

The view of these two places is taken from Pangbourn, a very large and populous village, in Berkshire, with a wooden bridge, crossing over to Whitchurch, a smaller place on the Oxfordshire side of the river.
The former has somewhat of antiquity connected with it, being mentioned in the Domesday book, as then held by Miles Crispin of William the Conqueror.
Its manor and church were afterwards granted to the Abbey of Reading, as appears from the confirmation of the charter of Henry the Second, its founder, by Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Robert, Bishop of Sarum.
It afterwards formed a part of the great possessions of Edward, Duke of Somerset, who was executed in the last year of Edward the Sixth; and after various successive grants, &c. this manor and estate were finally conveyed, in the year 1671, to John Breadon, Esq. whose descendant is the present possessor of them.
This view comprehends the upper part of Basilden Park, a place which may boast a very large portion of decorated, sylvan beauty, both from nature and disposition.
The park was improved by Mr. Browne, and is one among the many proofs which he has left of excellence in his art.
The house was erected by the late Sir Francis Sykes, after a design of that eminent architect, Mr. Carr, of York.
It is a large regular edifice of Portland stone, with correspondent wings, and a central loggio in the principal front.
The prospect from it is very rich, but, strange as it may appear, not a glimpse is caught, from the principal floor, of the river which flows beneath it.
The attic story alone catches a sight of the Thames.
The other part of this view embraces Combe Lodge, the seat of Samuel Gardner, Esq. in the parish of Whitchurch.
It is an handsome villa, constructed within a few years, and is situated in the centre of an acclivity, which gives it a very commanding view of the Thames.
The Grotto House presents a very pleasing object on the opposite bank of the river, behind which, Basilden and its woods, with the Streatley Hills, rise in great beauty.
The village of Whitchurch, to which it belongs, has no other distinction than that of having been the residence of the celebrated grammarian and mathematician, Doctor Wallis, one of the professors of Gresham College, and to whose work, on the English language, all subsequent writers on that interesting and important subject, either have, or ought to have, acknowledged their obligations.

... Hardwick House, Mapledurham Lock, Mapledurham House ...

PURLEY.

Purley Hall  in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Purley Hall, 1811. S.Owen

This village is situate on the Berkshire side of the Thames, about four miles from Reading, in the road to Wallingford.
The particular part of it which is the subject of the engraving is the seat of the late Anthony Storer, Esq. a gentleman well known in the literary and fashionable world.
This spot was formerly in possession of the Bolingbroke family, and, we believe, formed a temporary residence of the nobleman, who, by his superior talents, has given so much celebrity to that title.
By his immediate successor, it was separated from the family property, and, after several changes in its owners, became finally vested, by purchase, in Mr. Storer, who erected the present house, and was indulging his fine taste in decorating its environs, when he was called to his long home.

Tu secanda marmora
Locas sub ipsum funus, et sepulcri
Immenior, struis domos.
                      Hor.

You, with fortune's smiles elate,
Unconscious of impending fate,
Command the pillared dome to rise,
When lo! thy tomb forgotten lies.

The mansion is on a plan in which elegance and accommodation have been united: it was suggested by the owner, with such improvements as the best professional assistance could give.
The situation is inexpressibly pleasing.
The shape of the grounds is of the happiest cast; and it need not be added, that nature would receive every help that art could offer, when it is considered, that the work of improvement was entrusted to the direction of Mr. Repton, the first landscape gardener of his own, and perhaps any other day.
When, therefore, we add to intrinsic beauties the charm of the river which flows before it, and the range of rich, woody, upland country, on the opposite side of the stream, more need not be said to enhance the character of the place, which was, in every respect, suited to that of the late amiable owner of it.
He was a man of considerable fortune, and was equally known and admired in the world of fashion, as in the better region of taste and literature: he did not, as he thought and acted like a gentleman, disdain to maintain, in every respect, the exterior appearance of that character.
In the higher circles of society, he was ranked among the most accomplished and elegant men of his day; but no inconsiderable portion of his time was devoted to science, and he appeared to the same advantage as a scholar, among those who were eminent for literary attainments.
He had been in parliament, but never ventured to make himself conspicuous as a senator.
In the only public station that he filled, as Secretary of Legation to the Duke of Manchester's Embassy to France, he gave great satisfaction, at home and abroad, and, by his attractive manners, gained the uniform regard of all who had official communication with him.
He was not advanced beyond the middle stage of life when he was called from it for ever, to the sincere regret of all who knew him.
His choice and beautiful library he left to Eton College, where he had received his education, and to which place he did equal honour in his life and in his death.

His saltern accumulem donis, hie fungar inani
Munere.

This last sad tribute of my love receive;
'Tis all surviving friendship has to give.

... Caversham Bridge, Reading, Caversham Lock, Sonning Lock ...

SHIPLAKE LOCK AND PAPER MILL.

Shiplake Lock and Paper Mill and Wargrave House in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Shiplake Lock and Paper Mill, and Wargrave House, 1811. S.Owen

The several objects which are represented in the annexed engraving, compose a very pleasing picture.
They consist of a Lock and Paper Mill, on the Thames, in the parish of Shiplake, in the county of Oxford; and the residence of Joseph Hill, Esq. in the parish of Wargrave, in the county of Berks, which is remarkable for the extent, beauty, and variety of its prospect.
Shiplake is a small retired village, which has acquired some degree of notoriety[sic], from its having possessed for its pious, learned, and exemplary minister, the Rev. Mr. Grainger, the most eminent biographical writer of the times in which he lived.
He died in the year 1776, while he was performing the sacramental functions at the altar of his parish church.
Wargrave is now no more than a pleasant village, but was in former times a considerable market town.
Some years past it became remarkable for the theatrical exhibitions of the late Earl of Barrymore.

...Wargrave...

PARK PLACE.

Park Place in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Park Place, 1811. S.Owen

Park Place in Thames, Cooke & Cooke 1811
Park Place, 1818. P Dewint

This beautiful and highly decorated spot, which is the property and the residence of the Earl of Malmsbury, is situated on the banks of the Thames, in the county of Berks, at a small distance from the town of Henley, in Oxfordshire, which is on the other side of the river.
The place we are about to describe, in whatever point of view it may be regarded, whether as to landscape charm; provincial position, interior accommodation, and domestic convenience, has few rivals anywhere, and certainly may be classed among the first ornaments of the river which washes and reflects it.
Park Place was originally the seat of Lord Archibald Hamilton, the uncle of the present duke of that title; it was afterwards the residence of his Royal Highness Frederic, Prince of Wales, the father of his present Majesty, and which he left for Cliefden, the seat of the Orkney family, another proud situation on the Thames, and some years since unfortunately destroyed by fire.
General, afterwards Field Marshal, Conway became the purchaser of it, and to him it is indebted for all its decorative improvements.
There were no hills to form, or vales; nature had already moulded it into an abundant variety of pleasing shapes; and the most beautiful stream, in a country that abounds in every kind of water, was prepared to enrich it; but its enrichments, its decorations, its artificial arrangements of every kind have proceeded from the happy judgment, and risen under the creative taste of its late possessor on whose death it was purchased by the Earl of Malmsbury, who has since made it a place of his residence.
This venerable and distinguished nobleman found but little to do in the way of improvement.
The latter plantations of Marshal Conway are rising into height and thickening into shade, and consequently in a continual state at advancement towards that effect which their matnre growth, it is supposed, will hereafter produce.
But his lordship has done that which must be allowed to add to the possessional importance of the place - he has made several purchases, by which the domain is enlarged, and the property consequently enhanced: this circumstance may ultimately produce an extent of ornamental improvement, and add even to the decorative beauties of the spot, by calling in more space and new features into its service.
Having made these preliminary observations, we shall proceed to give as detailed an account of Park Place as the limits of this work will allow.
A volume might be filled with the description, if every particular part, and all its abundant varieties, were adequately examined; and a few pages is all that can be spared to it.
Nor will it be considered as disrespectful to the noble lord who now possesses it, whose private virtues and amiable qualities endear him to the circle of his friends, and whose eminent talents and distinguished services have rendered him an object of national estimation, if, in describing the place he now enjoys, (and may he long enjoy it), I dwell upon the taste, the feeling, and picturesque taste of that accomplished, excellent, and venerated person who must be considered as the new creator of it.
In speaking of Park Place scientifically, as a rare example of landscape gardening, its first character is grandeur of composition, in which it is unrivalled on the banks of the Thames.
The brow of Cliefden is, in itself, a nobler, but it is only a single, object.
The terrace of Oatlands possesses, perhaps, a more superb range of sylvan beauty; but that is all, and there is no fine part to lead to, or succeed it.
The fine rising grounds which form the base of Nuneham, and stretch on to such a length above the river, in such striking variety, and clad in all the richness of splendid cultivation, are combined with nothing of peculiar beauty beyond them: they are, as it were, the frontispiece to a noble park, whose extent, woods, and animated circumstances give it the specific, but general character of such a domain.
Park Place, on the contrary, is a combination of beautiful parts, in shape and position, which vary with, and are most happily contrasted to each other: thus, a succession of the most pleasing, and, as they may be truly called, Arcadian pictures are continually, and oftentimes most unexpectedly, produced; so that the sensation of delight, on viewing these objects, is occasionally heightened by the emotion of pleasurable surprise.
Its successive and ever-varying projections, with, their intervening vallies, its rich woods, spacious groves, wide-spreading lawns, and bold declivities, are in a style and form which the landscapes, that are enlivened and reflected by the Thames, do not display in any other port of its course.
Nature has done much, nor has taste done less: the genius of the place has every where been consulted, and the resulting conformities completed.
Marshal Conway seems ever to have had in view the precepts of Mr. Pope, who had himself broke from the formality of fashion, and stole a peep of nature in his garden at Twickenham.

To build, to plant, whatever you intend,
To rear the column, or the arch to bend,
To swell the terrace, or to sink the grot;
In all let nature never be forgot;
But treat the goddess like a modest fair,
Nor over-dress, nor leave her wholly bare;
Let not each beauty every where be spied,
Where half the skill is decently to hide;
He gains all points who pleasingly confounds,
Surprises, varies, and conceals the bounds.
Consult the genius of the place in all,
That tells the waters or to rise or fall,
Or helps the ambitious hill the heavens to scale,
Or scoops in circling theatres the vale,
Calls in the country, catches opening glades,
Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades;
Now breaks, or now directs the intending lines,
And in one whole involves the fair designs.

The charms of this distinguished place had long demanded a better house, and they at length enjoy it; an improved, and, in some part, new mansion was the last embellishment which Marshal Conway gave to the paradise he had formed.
The old house, though it had been occupied by the heir apparent to the crown, and received various subsequent additions, still wanted room, and was deficient in convenience: the new edifice possesses both, and somewhat more.
The alterations and additions have been contrived with such a judicious attention to their object, as to give the building not only a very handsome, commodious range of apartments, but an exterior that has a claim to architectural importance; and, while the principal front, which presents itself to the river, has acquired extent, without violating uniformity, the new elevation, which looks along the glade to the south, is in a style of the most chaste and elegant simplicity.
It may be supposed to have been borrowed from a design of Inigo Jones, without depreciating the established character of that great architect.
The part of the park where the house stands is near three hundred feet above the river, but is so happily sheltered by woods and plantations, that it has every advantage, and none of the inconveniences of an elevated situation, or, at least, such as are very frequently connected with it.
The garden entrance is near a very luxuriant shrubbery, behind the house, from whence a path, after skirting an ornamented lawn, where some of the more beautiful kinds of trees are agreeably scattered, winds through a woody scene to the flower garden and the menagerie.
The former is inclosed by a wall, and, being solely applied to the culture of flowers, is disposed in regular parterres, with a bason for gold and silver fish in the centre: four small statues, allusive to their situation, with something of treillage about them for creeping plants, occupy as many corresponding positions; the whole being formed upon the plan, and answering to the uniform prettiness of a French design.
In this point of view it is very beautiful, and contrived to give a rich display of the world of flowers.
In the floral season, it is an hoard of sweets, a region of odours, and presents such a carpet as is seldom seen spread for the decoration of mother earth.
It does not possess the elegance, beautv, variety, and classical character of the flower garden at Nuneham, which is the most perfect example of its kind, any where known; but, as a spot solely adapted to the cultivation and display of flowers, it forms a most interesting, fragrant, and lovely scene.
The menagerie presents a picture of cheerful seclusion, charming in itself, and admirably suited, in all its accessory parts, both in lawn, cover, and building, to its purpose; and peopled, as might be supposed, from the mind that formed it, with those birds, both foreign and domestic, whose natures, from their beauty and rarity, are most congenial to the spot which they inhabit.
Though it is perfectly characteristic of the purposes for which it is contrived, and to which it is applied; there is a certain elegance in its arrangement, as well as in its plantation and its receptacles, that one could scarce expect to see a barn-door fowl, however beautifully feathered, an inhabitant of it: the peacock, unfolding its splendors to the sun, or the gold and silver pheasants, with their gorgeous and finely pencilled plumage, would appear to be the more associated denizens of this peaceful republic.

At the entrance of an adjoining wood, near the summit of the bill to the east, is a subterraneous passage, two hundred and seventy five yards in length, of simple contrivance, and without the affectation of ornament, that leads to a valley of superlative beauty; at whose upper end, and forming a side scene to the cliff, which the cavern perforates, is a large, massy, artificial ruin, whose front presents a double range of mutilated columns and broken entablatures, exhibiting, altogether, the best imitation we ever remember to have seen of a decayed state of Grecian architecture.
The original design is very chaste, and of the finest proportions, and so admirably assorted are all the necessary appendages to denote the ravage of time, that it might be very readily supposed to have been the natural victim of that destructive power.
Mr. Stuart, the architect, particularly known by the title of Athenian Stuart, which he derived from his long residence in Athens, who was undoubtedly a man of genius, and had visited so many of the vestiges which are to be found in Greece of delapidated cities, was employed by Mr. Anson to erect a structure of this kind in the gardens of his fine seat, near Ousely bridge in Staffordshire: but with all the professional knowledge and experience acquired in his travels, he did not produce an erection which could be brought in comparison with that raised at Park Place, by the consistent taste, and appropriate attention of Field Marshal Conway.
The valley in which this ruin stands is of considerable length, and stretches on in a very gradual descent to a large rustic arch of curious construction.
This enchanting spot comprehends a rare example of garden scenery.
What may be considered as the highest polish of rural elegance is here displayed: the painter, whose subject leads him to enquire after a study for viewing Arcadia, will find his warmest fancy realised here.
The undulating, but ever-varying lines which shape its sides, the taste with which they are planted, the beauty of the trees, and the richness of the verdure, with the woody ridges that form its lateral boundaries, produce an independent beauty, and render it a scene to charm, though it were far distant from the Thames, and without any aid from artificial embellishment.

Bridge on the Henley to Wargrave Road.

The arch through which, on a nearer approach, the river and its casual accompaniments, its mechanical animation is seen, forms a span of forty-three feet; and while it continues the road from Henley to Twyford, affords a passage beneath it, to the margin of the stream.
This structure produces a very noble effect, whether seen from the valley, the water, or the meadows.
It is, indeed, formed with so much skill, and such a blended attention to picturesque shape and utility, that we are almost deluded from lamenting how many of the huge stones which compose it, were brought from the violated remains of Reading Abbey.
Many instances, indeed, might be named, where the seats of solitary sanctity, have not only been neglected, but suffered to tumble about in rude confusion: indeed, in some case their Vandal owners have allowed them to be considered as so many mouldering quarries, to serve the ordinary repairs of the most ordinary buildings.

Netley Abbey, so interesting from its form, its situation, and curious, historical circumstance, was suffered to be treated in this disgraceful manner; and was continually diminishing to repair the farm houses, cottages, and even walls in its vicinity, till the very pleasing poem of Mr. George Keate on that subject, awakened the indignation of the neighbourhood, and induced its owner to give it the protection which it has since received.
Every visitor of Southampton, every lover of sacred antiquity, every admirer of landscape beauty, is indebted to the poet who called, in strains of the most tender character, for its preservation.

Park Place Boathouse

Near the arch, which has already been mentioned, on a steep bank, and delightfully embosomed in trees, in a scene of elegant seclusion, is a cottage, containing a room, of appropriate character, and fitted up in that judicious style of accommodation, which all must admire; but is peculiarly suited to the philosopher of the world.
It is chearful but solitary, and is admirably calculated to compose and sooth the cultivated mind, and assist the contemplations which at once improve and embellish it.
The Thames is seen before and beside it, near and at a distance, through surrounding foliage, but in that indistinct glitter of its water, which chequers the gloom and animates the shades.
From the north window, the tower of Henley church, a fine object of its kind, appears with the best effect, and the wood-clad hills of Fawley rising beyond it.
Here is something uncommonly fine in this view: the parts are few, but they form a beautiful whole, and harmonize most happily with each other.
From hence a willow-walk leads to a tomb of white marble, a solemn object; and a little onward the river is seen through an arch of natural stones, which gives a varrying view of the beautiful object which it unfolds.
It is a delightful little spot, and all the surrounding circumstances are happily suited to it by that taste and spirit of appropriation, so necessary to the arrangement of art and the decoration of nature.

The tomb, the cavern, and the cottage, must now be repassed, as well as the great arch, in order to gain the terrace, which leads to the northern side of the place: it is of considerable length, and stretches on above those swelling prominences, which rise with such a bold effect from the water.
On the bank that shelters it from the east, are trees of every growth, with plants and shrubs of every odour; beneath it is the Thames flowing on with a tempered current; beyond it is the town of Henley, with its stately tower and beautiful bridge; while before it is a various extent of prospect, combining objects of uncommon variety, and which receives the contribution of several counties.
This enchanting walk leads to the margin of a deep and expansive glen in the front of the house, another feature full of intrisic charm, and independent of exterior circumstance.
It is not so bold as to exclude beauty, and so beautiful as to exclude grandeur.
It is of great breadth at its top, nor is it narrow in the bottom.
On three sides it shelves down from wood and lawn in graceful undulations: on the fourth is the Thames: the whole is clothed with the softest verdure; and a rustic habitation on the descent of the northern declivity gives to the scene a pastoral character.
The natural and expected accompanyments are flocks of sheep, or herds of the larger cattle, or of deer, the most ornamental animal of our country: they may, indeed, be said to constitute the embroidery of sylvan scenery.
One of the incidental beauties of such a valley is derived from a sunny-day, and the playful change of shadows, which must be occasioned by the inequalities of its surface.
But it so happened that when we stood on the lawn above it, the day was gloomy; the sun did not appear even to give it a momentary gaiety; no fleeting clouds above produced their fleeting shadows below; no sheep hung adown its steeps; nor did herds occupy the bottom; yet with little external accession from art, nature or accident, it communicated to our minds the mingled emotions of surprize and pleasure.
Such a feature must every where be beautiful; but, on the banks of the Thames, where nature has worked with so soft a pencil, it may appear to verge towards the sublime.
The Park is not distinguished by any striking circumstance: it consists only of an extensive flat, sprinkled with trees, and forms a fine approach to the house; and by its unvarying appearance encreases the contrast of those varieties which succeed to it.
The entrance is from the turnpike road on approaching Henley bridge.

Thus have we endeavoured to trace, for we attempt no more, the principal beauties of Park Place, which may be said, as it ought, and as truth demands, to owe their first creation and subsequent improvements to the late possessor of it.
But Field Marshal Conway did not only consider the application of art to the embellishment of the territory around him; he also amused himself with directing his attention to the productions of it.
Agricultural experiments, and chemical experiments, have also shared his mind, his purse, and his patience.
A distillery was erected by him near the river, not far from his plantations of lavender, which he successfully cultivated; and to the extracting oil from, that fragrant shrub, its operations are said to be at present confined.
He had began, it seems, a very extensive plan of chemical elaboration, but that was the project of his active mind, which did not afford him the gratification he expected, and was discontinued before his death.
A little Tnscan villa, of uncommon elegance, and a very charming example of architectural simplicity, was built on the spot, for the Field Marshal's chemical professor; and which a royal professor of taste and sentiment might be happy to enjoy.
Ou an appropriate eminence, beyond the northern part of the ornamented grounds, is a Druidical temple, which presents a singular but curious and interesting object to certain parts of Park-Place, as well as to the adjacent country.
This ancient structure was presented to Field Marshal Conway by the inhabitants of Jersey, of which island he was Governor, and where it was erected at the remote period when the Druids reigned there, as well as in Britain.
It was accompanied with an inscription, that enhanced the offering by the unaffected language of respect and veneration.

Cet ancien Temple des Druides,
deouvert le 12 Aoút, 1785,
Sur la Montagne de St. Helier,
dans l'isle de Jersey,
a été presenté par les habitans
à son Excellence le General Conway,
leur Gouverneur.

Pour des siecles caché aux regards des Mortels,
Cet ancien monument, ces pierres, ces autels,
Ou le sang des humains, offert en sacrifice,
Ruissela pour des dieux qu' enfantoit le caprice.
Ce monument, sans prix par son antiquité,
Temoignera pour nous à la postérité,
Que dans tous les dangers Cesarée eut un père.
Attentif et vaillant, genereux et prospère:
Et redira, Conway, aux siécles avenir,
Qu' en vertu du respect dû à ce souvenir,
Elle te fit ce don, acquis à ta vaillance,
Comme un juste tribut de sa reconnoissance.

This ancient temple lay concealed on the summit of an high hill, near the town of Saint Helier, in the island of Jersey, in the summer of 1785.
It was entirely covered with «arth, having the appearance of a large tumulus; and was discovered by workmen who were employed, by the Colonel of the Saint Helier militia, to level the ground, for the more convenient exercise of his corps.
Of the time when, or on what occasion it was thus secreted, there can be no serious hope of any authentic information.
Of the existence of such a building, the inhabitants of the island had no idea.
No records of any kind made allusion to it, and no antiquarian researches had awakened the least suspicion that this place had been a seat of Druidieal retirement.
Conjecture is equally baffled when it attempts to give any clue for the reasonable gratification of curious enquiry.
That this ancient structure was purposely and carefully buried, is evident from the situation in which it was found; and no better reason can be assigned for its having been thus entombed, than a pious wish in the Druids themselves, to preserve their altar from the profanation of the Romans, from whom they had suffered, at different periods, very barbarous persecutions.
There can, indeed, be little doubt of that people having obtained possession of the island, not only from its Latin name Cæsarea, but from other Roman vestiges, which have been sometimes found in it.
Roman coins have, from time to time, been collected by the well-digger and the ploughman; and within this temple itself, two medals were discovered; one of the Emperor Claudius, and the other so defaced by time, as to be altogether illegible.
This curious structure measures sixty-five feet in circumference, and is composed of forty five large stones, each of them about seven feet in height, from four to six in breadth, and from one to three in thickness; and contains six perfect lodges or cells.
The supposed entrance or passage faces the east, and is fifteen feet in length; four feet and upwards in breadth, and about four feet in height; with a covering of rude stones, from eighteen inches to two feet thick.
In the removal of this curious temple from Jersey, all the parts were marked with such care, as to be correctly placed in their original form and precise direction, when they were re-erected on the charming spot which is now distinguished by them.
In the eighth volume of the Archæologia, published by the Society of Antiquaries, a particular account is given of this venerable, ancient, and curious structure.
In its appearance and general form, it bears a strong resemblance to Stone-henge, the wonder of the Wiltshire plains, and which has excited so much learned, toilsome, and ingenious disquisitions among several of our antiquaries, without being able to come to any final decision as to the age or object of those singular and wonderful remains of the early art, and the remote antiquity of Britain.

It must have been obvious to the reader, that this description of Park Place has been written, as the Italians express it, con amore, with a fondness for the subject.
This we acknowledge, but we are not afraid to challenge those who have seen it, to controvert the truth of our narrative; and we are not afraid to anticipate the acknowledgment of those who may hereafter visit the place we have described, with our description in their hands.
Nor shall we apologize for the small addition we are about to make to this place, in giving a slight sketch of that excellent and distinguished man, who employed his leisure, in forming the place, which has given so pleasing an occupation to us.

Field Marshal Conway was the younger brother of the late Earl of Hertford.
His profession was the army; but he first became an object of public attention in a civil capacity, when he was appointed secretary to the Marquis of Hartington, on his appointment to the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland, in the year 1753; where his amiable manners, aud general character seemed to soften the asperity of those who were most violent in their opposition to that government, which it was his duty to support.
Indeed in his civil employments he may be said to have been more generally known; as must ever be the case in a constitution like our own, where the army is a subordinate engine of state, when an individual blends them both in himself.
Marshal Conway had never been appointed to the care of any important military service; he was, indeed, second in command of the British forces in Germany, during the seven years war; and was distinguished in the House of Commons, by one of our great statesmen, by the title of an enlightened General, on some military opinion which he had given in parliament.
Nor was this an idle or unmerited compliment; for there was not an officer of his time who possessed an higher degree of theoretic attainments.
His history of the German war was declared, by those who had seen it, to have been a work of first rate merit, both as a professional and literary, production; but unfortunately for his own fame and that of the nation, whose glories it described, the manuscript was consumed, in the fire which took place in his town residence, with all the materials from which it was composed; and he was thereby disqualified for renewing a labour of which no common expectations bad been, formed.
He certainly possessed superior talents, and the character of pre-eminent virtue was never denied him.
But though he was good - he was not gifted with those qualities which, in the general acceptation of the term, render a man great.
He was deficient in that spirit of decision, and in that promptitude of action, which are necessary to produce the more splendid actions of human life.
In all important and exalted stations they are leading qualities; but in no character are they so essential as in that of a soldier, in which without what is called presence of mind, and an ever ready spirit of activity, such laurels as were worn by a Wolf and a Marlborough, a Hawke and a Nelson, cannot be reaped.

The want of these qualities, though it did not prevent Marshal Conway from being a good man, nay the very defect might aid his private virtues, certainly obstructed his being what is called a great one.
This inferior state of his mind, which might, as we doubt not it did, arise from an anxious principle of rectitude, certainly unfitted him for taking the lead in his military or civil capacities, though it was calculated to render him efficiently useful; as a counsellor in both.
As a secretary of state, he maintained his station with ability; as a speaker in parliament he was always heard with a respectful attention; and even Junius, in his severe phillipics against his colleagues, touched but lightly upon him, and softens his expression, when he mentions -
"the gentle Conway's undetermined discretion."
Of his taste nothing need be said, when Park Place has been seen, or the foregoing description been read.
As a man of literature, he must not be forgotten.
There is one, if not more, of his political pamphlets, which if they had been written at an earlier period, would have secured him a distinguished place in the late Lord Orford's work on Royal and noble Authors.
Many of his poetic effusions are in the port-folios of high life, and they, according to their subjects, beam with fancy, wit, or tenderness.
He once gave a comedy to the stage, which, as it disdained ribaldry, and was not a vehicle for grimace, but such a picture of the mind and human life, as he had been accustomed to contemplate; though it was well received, and gave great delight to the polished auditors which attended its representations, was not formed to be a stock play; and is now known only to those who knew its author.
In private life, as an husband, a father, a master, and a neighbour, we wish it were in our power to recollect more than we do who are his equals.
He married the Countess Dowager of Aylesbury, who was the counterpart of himself, and who united with him to give a very long, uninterrupted, and rare example of matrimonial felicity.
That lady cannot be named, in a work of this nature, without mentioning the extraordinary productions of her needle; and which were the most interesting decorations of the different apartments in Park Place house.
They consisted of imitations of Cuyp, Rosa de Tivoli, Vandyck, Gainsborough, and other eminent masters, and are scarce inferior, in effect, to the originals.
They are worked in worsteds with so much taste, and the various tints so happily managed, as, at a small distance, to be absolute deceptions.
Among them, a portrait of Vandyck was so successfully imitated, that it actually appeared, across the room, to be an undoubted work of that great master.
Some years have passed away since, at a very advanced age, they left the world which they had adorned.
Lady Aylesbury was the survivor.

...Marsh Lock...

HENLEY.

Henley Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Henley Bridge, 1811. S.Owen

Henley Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Cooke 1818
Henley Bridge, 1818. Peter de Wint

Henley is a market and a corporate town, beautifully situated in the county of Oxford.
The Thames flows before it, and a fine amphitheatre of woody hills rises behind it.
Doctor Plot, the historian of Oxfordshire, represents it as the most ancient town in that county.
That learned antiquary forms the derivation of its name from Hen old, and Ley place.
He also supposes it to have been the capital of the Ancalites, who revolted to Caesar, as mentioned in the Commentaries, Bell. Gall. I.5.
It was also called Hanleganz and Hanneburg, in the ancient records of the corporation.
Doctor Gale considers it to be the Calleva or Galleva Attrebatum of Antoninus, and Celeba of Ravennas, on account of a Roman road, running directly from Spinæ or Spene hither, and the Roman coins found about it.
He supposes also, that the Attrebates of Ptolemy and Antoninus were the same with the Ancalites of the Romans.
Camden, who flourished in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, relates that, in his time, the inhabitants of this place were principally supported by carrying wood to London in boats, and bringing back corn.
It then had a wooden bridge, which was supposed to have succeeded a very antient one of stone, whose foundations Leland mentions as visible in shallow seasons.
The latter has been supposed by some antiquaries to be the bridge over which, according to Dion Cassius, the Romans passed in pursuit of the Britons, who swam across a lower part of the river; though this fact is contested; and some have insisted that Essex was the scene of this flight of the British forces from the legions of Rome.
The corporation of this town consists of a Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses.
The church is large, with a lofty tower of beautiful proportions, which is a distinguished and predominating object to the surrounding country.
Here is a Free-school, founded by James the First; another, by Lady Periam; and an Alms-house, by Longland, Bishop of Lincoln.
The principal trade of the place is in meal, malt, and corn.

The principal ornament of this place is its bridge.
It is built of stone, consisting of five arches, and is an object of uncommon simplicity and elegance.
This beautiful structure is enriched with sculpture from the chisel of Mrs. Damer.
The masks of the Tame and the Isis, which decorate the consoles of the central arch, are the works of that accomplished lady.
This bridge was finished in the year 1787; but the architect, Mr. Hayward of Shropshire, died before the work was begun; and his remains are interred in Henley church, where a monument is erected to his memory.

FAWLEY COURT.

Fawley Court in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Fawley Court seen from Henley Bridge, 1811. S.Owen

Fawley Court, the seat of Strickland Freeman, Esq. is seen to the greatest advantage from Henley Bridge; from whence it appears to give a kind of dignity to the northern bank of the Thames, as well as to the scene around it.
It is situated in Buckinghamshire, and on the very verge of it; as the line which marks the boundary between that county and Oxfordshire, passes across the lawn on which the house stands.
This place was formerly the property of the Whitelocke family, who obtained possession of it in the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Sir James Whitelocke, the celebrated Judge, died here, in the year 1632, and left the estate to his son, Bulstrode Whitelocke, an eminent Lawyer and Statesman, during the usurpation of Oliver Cromwell; and author of the Memorials, which form an interesting part of the history of that period.
That memorable person died in 1676, and his son, James Whitelocke, sold it, in the year 1680, to Colonel William Freeman, an ancestor of the gentleman who, at present, possesses it.
The old manor-house received great, and indeed almost irreparable, damage, from a body of cavalry, in the service of Charles the First, which look up its quarters there, in the latter end of the year 1642.
They are represented to have acted with the most hostile disposition to it, and, though their officers had commanded the utmost care to be taken of the property, the soldiers acted as if they had been commanded not only to disturb, but to destroy.
"Of divers writings of consequence, and which were found in the study, some they tore in pieces, and others they employed to light their tobacco, and others they carried away.
They littered their horses with sheaves of wheat, and gave them all sorts of corn, in the straw.
They also broke down the park pales, killed most of the deer, carried off, or destroyed, the furniture, and rendered the place unfit for future residence.
The title deeds of the estate, many valuable manuscripts, and some very ancient courtrolls, relating to the manor, were among the papers wantonly destroyed at this period."

The present house is a large, square, handsome, brick structure, erected in the latter end of the seventeenth century, and supposed to be after a design of Inigo Jones, though so many years subsequent to the death of that great architect.
It contains a succession of spacious and commodious apartments.
With the marbles, &c. which furnish the hall, is a fine cast of Mr. Locke's Discobolus.
The saloon is adorned with pictures by Cuyp, G. Poussin, Titian, Rembrandt, &c. among which there is a head of an old man, by Elmer, so well known for his excellence as a painter of dead game, &c.
It is a very finely painted picture, and maintains its situation among some very good specimens of the old masters.

The lawns, which surround the house, are deficient in variety of surface; but a judicious and gentle sinking of a part of it, between the house and the river, gives the former an appearance of elevation, which greatly relieves the actual level of its situation.
The surrounding hills, however, make ample amends for the flatness of the bottom.
The ground rises rather boldly from the meads, beyond the river, on the Berkshire side of it; some parts being richly cloathed, and others only fringed with wood; while the opposite part of the picture consists of the uplands of Fawley, clad with beeches, in clumps and groves; and the more distant woods of Hambledon.
The view up the river embraces Henley-Bridge, one of the most pleasing structures of its kind on the Thames, and adorned with the sculpture of the Honourable Mrs. Darner; with the rich brow of Park Place, the seat of the Earl of Malmsbury, and its varied plantations, rising above it; while the stately and venerable tower of Henley Church appears over a thick grove, which has been planted to prevent any part of that town from being seen but that principal and pleasing object.

Temple Island.

The view down the river includes a very fine reach of it, which is enlivened by an island, tastefully planted, and decorated with a building of some elegance.
The eye then, stretches on to Greenland[sic] and Medmenham, and the high grounds that hang over Culham Court.

The church of Fawley, which is situated in the upper part of the parish, is a neat, ancient structure; and that its interior appearance is of a superior kind will be readily believed, when it is known that it is fitted up with the entire furniture of the chapel at Cannons, the magnificent seat of the Duke of Chandois, near Edgeware, in Middlesex.
On the dilapidation of that stately pile, for sale, about the middle of the last century, the wainscoting, seats, gallery, pulpit, &c. were purchased by an ancestor of the present Mr. Freeman, for the purpose to which they have been so well applied.
In the church-yard there is also an elegant, and well-constructed, mausoleum, for the final repose of the Freeman family.
The parsonage-house, though not visible from the Thames, possesses one of the most beautiful situations, in point of extent, variety, and romantic character, that is to be found in the vicinity of the river, from its source to the sea.
The last incumbent was the Rev. Dr. Powys, Dean of Canterbury, an elegant scholar, and an excellent man; who, while this page was preparing for the press, concluded his venerable and valuable life.

... Greenlands, Hambleden Lock, Aston Ferry ...

CULHAM COURT.

Culham Court in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Culham Court, 1811. S.Owen

The Thames is no where more abundant in beauty, than between Henley and Marlow: while the river itself, as if sensible of the superior charms of its banks, lingers, as it were, in its course, by a greater variety and succession of meanders, than it any where displays, from its fountain to the sea.
Culham Court is among the ornamental objects which distinguish the Berkshire side of the stream.
The manor of Culham belonged, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to the family of the Nevilles: it was, in the beginning of the last century, the property of Serjeant Stevens, and latterly of Robert Mitchell, Esq. who erected the house, which, with the home scenery, forms the subject of the engraving.
On his death it descended to one of his two daughters, the co-heiresses of his property, who married the Honourable Mr. West, a brother of the Earl of De Lawarr.
From Henley, to this part of the river, the Berkshire side sinks in a comparison with the woody theatres of the opposite country: at Culham Court it recovers its former character, and at this place, Berkshire, which is full of landscape beauty, may boast of one of its most delightfu prospects.
It is not of great extent, but embraces a variety of charming objects, and distinctly commands every thing it comprehends.
The mansion-house is an handsome modern building, and stands half way down an expansive irregular brow, with large, wide-spreading trees scattered over it, which gradually declines, in swelling and unequal slopes, towards the river beneath it.
To the right the view occupies the meads, through which the stream serpentines in superior beauty, with their rich and various boundaries.
Before it, and on the Buckinghamshire side of the water, is Medmenham, with its church, abbey-house, and upland farms.
To the left the eye advances up the enchanting vale of Hambledon, and finds a more distant termination in the groves of Fawley.
From the high grounds above the house, there is a still more commanding view of the windings of the river, with Danesfield, the seat of Mr. Scott, on its shaggy cliff, and the less perceptible mansion of Hurley place, on the Berkshire bank.
On the same line of elevation, and in the same range of improvement as Culham Court, but receding rather more from the river, is Rose Hill, a very pleasant but singular villa, which belongs to the proprietor of Culham, and, in its original state, appeared to be an ornamental building in the grounds of the former.
It was fancifully built in the precise form and arrangement of a Chinese habitation.
It had its bells, its dragons, and spiral turrets, with all the gawdy colourings of that species of oriental architecture.
These decorations it no longer possesses: it retains, however, its primaeval distribution of apartment, and its single floor.
It is placed in the recess of a wood, which forms two side screens that narrow the river from it, but it nevertheless commands several parts of that scenery which has been the subject of our description.

MEDMENHAM ABBEY.

Medmenham Abbey in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Medmenham Abbey, 1811. S.Owen

Medmenham Abbey is pleasantly situated in the parish of the name it bears, on the banks of the Thames, about four miles to the south-west of Great Marlow, in the county of Buckingham.
This manor being given, before the second of King John, by Hugh de Bolbec, to the Cistercian monks of Wooburne, in Bedfordshire, they transferred some of their society to this spot, about the year 1204, and it became a small Abbey of that order, being rather a daughter, to use their own precise expression, than a cell to its monastic parent.
It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and valued, in the twenty-sixth year of Henry the Eighth, when it was inhabited only by two monks, at twenty pounds six shillings and two-pence per annum.
In the twenty-ninth year of Henry the Eighth, it was made part of the new Abbey of Bristleham, or Bisham, in its immediate vicinity,.
on the opposite side of the river, in the county of Berks.
After the suppression of that religious house, it was granted to Robert More and others, in the thirty-eighth year of the same king.
Such are the particulars which Tanner, in his Notitia, gives of this Abbey.
Browne Willis, in his Survey, &c. observes,
"that the account of the Abbots of Medmenhani is very imperfect, as it was only a cell to the Abbey of Wooburne, and altogether subordinate to the government of that house.
All he can find are, Roger, who was abbot in the year 1256; Peter, who was elected to that office on the eleventh day of September, in the year 1295; and two others, after long intervals, the one named Henry, who presided here in the year 1416; and the other, named Richard, who appears to have been abbot in the year 1521, and is supposed to have been the last of these solitary dignitaries.
There was only one monk, whose name was Guy Strenshill."
The return of the commissioners, appointed in the reign of Henry the Eighth, to examine into the state of the religious houses, is rather curious.
It is as follows:
"Medmenham Abbey is a monastery of the order of Saint Bernard.
The clear value twenty pounds six shillings and twopence per annum.
Monks two; and both desyren to go to houses of religion: servants none.
Bells, &c. worth two pounds one shilling and eight-pence.
The house wholly in ruine.
The value of the moveable goods, one pound one shilling and eight-pence. Woods none. Debts none."
The abbot was epistolar of the Order of the Garter.
"The walls of the north isle of the Abbey church," says Browne Willis, who visited it in 1712, "are still standing; it is in length sixteen, and in breadth four, yards.
The church, therefore, must have been a neat stately building, well wrought with Ashler work, and the windows lofty and spacious: it appears to have consisted of a body, two side isles, and chancels, with a tower at the west end."

But since Browne Willis wrote, most of the remains, which he mentions, have fallen, or been taken down.
Some buildings, in imitation of ruins, have of late years been erected on the site of the Abbey, with a very pleasing effect.
Robert Moore, to whom this Abbey was granted in the year 1547, conveyed the estate, in 1558, to the family of Duffield, who resided at the Abbey, and continued in possession till 1778, when the site of it was purchased by John Morton, Esq. Chief Justice of Chester, and was sold by his widow, in 1786, to Robert Scott, Esq. of Danesfield, which formed a part of the same purchase.
About the middle of the last century, the Abbey-house became an object of curiosity, from having been made a place of occasional seclusion by a society of men of wit and fashion; who, during their residence here, assumed the title of monks of St. Francis, and wore the habit of the Franciscan order.
They consisted of Sir Francis Dashwood, afterwards Lord Le Despencer; the Earl of Sandwich; Sir Thomas Stapleton; John Wilkes; Paul Whitehead, and a few others: but their conventual institutes were more likelv to have proceeded from Petronius Arbiter, than the self-denying saint whose name they adopted.
Many idle tales have been propagated to the dishonour of this monkish society, which had no foundation but the ill nature of those who invented, or the folly of those who propagated them.
That it was convivial there can be no doubt, and that the conviviality was not subject to the strict rules of moral decorum, will be readily believed.
But the horrid and disgusting account of their conduct, as given in a novel, entitled Chrysal, or the Adventures of a Guinea, was known to be false by the author of it, who had not even taken the pains to inform himself of the circumstances and situation of the house, which he pretends to describe with so much minuteness, as the scene of such abominable enormities.
The picture which graced the refectory of the monks, was, after their dissolution, transferred to West Wickham, the seat of Lord Le Despencer, and was to be seen by all who visited that charming place.
The noble lord was painted in the habit of St. Francis, and in the act of tapping the globe, the cock protruding from the province of Champagne, in France.
Fay ce que voudras, the appropriate motto of the last order, was inscribed, and still remains, over the door of the Abbey house.
The following description of the present state of this place, is given by Mr. Langley, in his history of the hundred of Desborough.
"The Abbey-house, with its ivymantled roof and walls, forms a very picturesque object.
The late addition of a ruined tower, cloister, and other corresponding parts, is made with so much taste and propriety, that when time shall have worn off all traces of the rule, and blunted its sharp edges; when the ivy shall have continued its embraces, and the mosses of various hues overspread the surface, some future writer will be disposed to class it with the more ancient pile.
Within the cloister a room is fitted up with the same good taste, and the glare of light is excluded by the pleasing gloom of ancient stained glass; consisting of roses, coronets, and portcullises.
The figure of the Virgin, (the Abbey seal,) seated on a throne, and holding the infant Saviour in her arms, carved in marble, still remains, and is placed in a niche in the tower."

... Hurley Lock ...

TEMPLE HOUSE.

Temple House, Hurley in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Temple House, 1811. S.Owen

Temple House, Hurley in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Temple House, 1818. S.Owen

The scenery of the country through which the Thames flows, between Henley and Marlow, offers more delightful pictures of sylvan beauty, than are to be seen in any part of its course.
Nor does the river make an inadequate return to its banks, when it displays, in this part of its course, such a varying succession of serpentines, which a poet might personalize into a desire of lingering to reflect the ever-changeful, but Arcadian landscapes, on either side of it.

Here lofty hills lift up their woody heads,
There its green lap the grassy meadow spreads;
Enclosures here the sylvan scene divide,
There plains extended spread their harvests wide;
Here oaks, their mossy limbs wide-stretching, meet,
And form impervious thickets at our feet:
Through aromatic heaps of ripening hay,
The silver Thames here wins her winding way;
While many a tower, and many a spire between,
Shoots from the groves, and cheers the rural scene.

The poet might have added to his beautiful description, the various mansions which ancient piety, or modern taste and opulence have erected on the banks of this part of the river.
That there are not more of them must be occasioned by the difficulty of procuring situations for their erection: for who, but a man insensible to the charms of nature, where, in the inanimate part of it, she is most charming, - or driven to the last distress, by some disastrous passion or insurmountable misfortune, would content to separate himself from the delightful patrimony.

Of the more modern houses which decorate this beautiful part of the Thames, is Temple House, the seat of O. Williams, Esq. on the Berkshire side of the stream, at a short distance from Marlow.
It is such an edifice as opulence, assisted by taste, may be expected to erect.
It, in common with the greater part of the mansions in this part of the country, is not only an ornament to the banks of the river, but to the environs of it.
It possesses more of the character of what we understand by a villa, than of a country seat.
A contracted circumference of highly ornamented ground is the accompaniment of the one, while the extensive and less enriched domain forms the usual state of the other.
The principal front presents a very elegant and pleasing elevation.
The centre consists of a pediment, with columns, and wings of correct proportion.
The interior answers in taste and arrangement to the exterior appearance; while the plantations are so judiciously managed as, in the view from the house, to break the surrounding country into several distinct, varying, and beautiful pictures.

HARLEYFORD HOUSE.

Harleyford House, Hurley in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Harleyford House, 1811. S.Owen

{ 1818 version not found as yet. ]

This handsome mansion is the seat of Sir William Clayton, Bart, and is situated on the banks of the Thames, near the borough town of Marlow, in the county of Buckingham.
It was erected in the year 1755, after a design, and in the peculiar style of architecture which distinguishes the works of Sir Robert Taylor.
It occupies part, and but a small part, of the ancient manor-house, which was an edifice of very old date, and resembled in form and appearance, as it equalled in antiquity, the venerable mansion of Hurly-house, the seat of Mr. Wilcox, on the Berkshire side of the river; so that the surrounding scenery must have lost somewhat of its picturesque effect, from the change of such an object for the modern structure.
It is built of a red brick, and though not on a large plan, contains something more than a mere commodious suite of apartments.
It was ever a leading and favourite circumstance in the edificial designs of Sir Robert Taylor, and, indeed, it first brought him into notice, that, however deficient his elevation might be in classical beauty and correctness, or in the lesser domestic arrangements of the houses which he built, he never failed to give a succession of as spacious rooms on the principal floor, as the quantity of square feet allotted him, or the expence to which he was limited, would admit.
He never spared his semi-circular sweeps to encrease the dimensions of the apartments; - so that the exterior outline of many of his houses have a singular though not irregular appearance.
The uncommon height also which he gave to what may be called the living rooms, when raised upon a basement sitory, threw his building rather in a disproportionate manner into the air.
He was fond of balls, but on what principles of taste or beauty, we do not understand, as decorations.
Harleyford house is not without them, and possesses the peculiarities which have been just enumerated.
The house might certainly have been shaped with a much better adaption, than it possesses, to the surrounding scenery, which is not without a considerable portion of beauty.
Zucarelli made a painting of it, of which there is an engraving by Major; and the truth of our observation, would, we think, be confirmed by an examination of that very pleasing picture.
The mansion is placed on an easy slope, rising from the margin of the river, which comprehends a fine view in each direction, - to the town of Marlow, with its spire and bridge, one way; and to Bisham-Abbey, the seat of Mr. Vansittart, the other.
The grounds on the opposite side of the water form a pleasing acclivity, varied with wood and agricultural cultivation.
The house is sheltered from the north by a fine grove of beech and other trees.
The lawn is ornamented with the oak and chesnut.
The walks are extensive, and open to very charming views.
Several small buildings are dispersed through the grounds, the principal of which is a temple, dedicated to Friendship, and was a tribute of regard to the Clayton family, by the late Doctor Thomas, Bishop of Rochester, who erected it.

... Temple Lock, Temple Mill Island ...

BISHAM CHURCH AND ABBEY.

Bisham Church & Abbey in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Bisham Church and Abbey, 1811. S.Owen

Bisham is a very pleasant village, situate on the Berkshire bank of the Thames, about two miles from Hurley, and at a lesser distance, across the river, from Great Marlow in Buckinghamshire.

The Manor House, which is on the site of the Old Abbey, and, notwithstanding the various alterations it has undergone, may be, in some measure, considered as a part of it, is now the seat of George Vansittart, Esq. one of the representatives in parliament for the county in which it stands.
This monastery is said to have been dedicated, on its first foundation, to our Lord Jesus Christ, and the blessed Virgin his Mother, and on the second to the Virgin only.
At the same time it appears in the records of the reign of Richard the Second, to be styled the Conventual Church of the Holy Trinity.
At the dissolution, a pension of sixty-six pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence, was assigned to Cowdrey the Abbot, who, according to Browne Willis, either voided the same by death, or the appointment to some other ecclesiastical situation before the year 1553, when only the following persons remained in charge, viz. William Walker, John Myllist, William Roke, William Biggs, John Rolfe, and Edward Stephenson.
It appears to have been erected by William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, in the year 1338, for canons regular of the order of Saint Augustin.
In 1530, it was surrendered to Henry the Eighth; its revenues at that time being valued at two hundred and eighty-five pounds eleven shillings per annum.
In the following year it was founded anew by that monarch, and more amply endowed for the maintenance of thirteen benedictine monks and an abbot, who was to have the privilege of sitting in parliament.
No particular reason appears to account, for the various dedications of this religious house, previous to the period, when he confiscated all its possessions to his own use.
This abbey was frequently favoured with the visits of that monarch.
Queen Elizabeth also, among her many progresses, made a journey thither, and continued to reside there during some weeks.
A large state apartment in the house yet retains the name of the Queen's Council Chamber.
The late Sir Joseph Ayloffe was in possession of a masque, printed by Caxton, which was presented to Henry the Eighth, on his approach to the abbey, with the dramatis personæ of the family who then resided there.

Bisham church, which is situated near the river, contains a very sumptuous monument, erected to the family of the Hobys, to whom the abbey was granted by Edward the Sixth.
The bones of the founder are said to have been removed by Maud, his widow, from Cirencester, in consequence of a license granted by Henry the Fifth.
In some points of view the church unites with the mansion house, and produces a very picturesque effect.
From the grounds of Mr. Davenport at Marlow, Bisham abbey appears to very great advantage.

GREAT MARLOW.

Marlow Bridge and Weir in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Marlow Church, Bridge and Weir, 1811. S.Owen

Marlow Bridge and Weir in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Marlow Church, Bridge and Weir, 1818. S.Owen

Great Marlow is a market and borough town, situated in a pleasant part of the county of Buckingham, and on the banks of the Thames.
Camden, in his Britannia, traces the etymology of its name to the chalk called Marle, which he remarks,
"being laid on the land around this place, communicates such vigour to it, that the next year it is fit for tillage, and yields a double increase."
" A more unsatisfactory and unphilosophical derivation of a name we seldom remember to have read.
Mr. Langley, in his history of the hundred of Desborough, which involves this part of the county, very properly observes, that the learned antiquary has erred not only in the derivation, but the illustration of the name;
"as Marle and Chalk are two distinct substances, and possess opposite qualities: of the former, too small a quantity is found here to give name to a parish, and the Saxon name for Chalk cannot be strained to this etymology.
Marlow is called in the Domesday Book Merlaw, which appears to me to signify a Mere, or standing water, and this might then be the situation of the place, for near the town are some peat moors, in which stag's horns and other animal remains have been found; and these moors were probably standing water at that period."
This derivation is certainly very superior to that of Camden, and is imagined with ingenuity: but it does not altogether satisfy us as being the correct etymology of the name of this place.
We shall leave it, therefore, in the state of obscurity in which we have found it.

The manor of Marlow, previous to the conquest, was in the possession of Alger, Earl of Mercia, and descended to his son, from whom it was taken by King William, and granted to his Queen Matilda.
At the period of the survey it was found to be taxed for fifteen hides of land.
Its woods are represented as capable of supplying pannage for a thousand swine; a term which denotes the feeding of that animal upon the mast, or fruit of wild forest trees, such as oak, beech, chesnuts, &c. and its fishery produced a thousand eels.
Henry the First, who received the manor by inheritance from his mother, bestowed it on Robert Malhent, his natural son, from whom, after a succession of intermarriages, it became the property of Gilbert, Earl of Clare.
In his posterity it continued till the reign of Edward the Second, whose unhappy favourite, Hugh Le Despencer, the younger, having married Eleanor, the heiress of the Clares, obtained possession, but soon after lost both his estates and bis life.
Parliament having, however, reversed the attainder of the Spencers, their possessions were restored, and Marlow continued to be the property of this family, till Isabel, the daughter of Thomas Lord Despencer, Earl of Glocester, who was afterwards degraded and beheaded at Bristol, conveyed it by marriage to Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, who, dying in the year 1439, was succeeded by his son Henry.
"This hopeful branch," says Dugdale, "was cropped in the flower of his youth, before the fruits of his heroic disposition could be manifested to the world; for he died at Hanley Castle, in Worcestershire, June 11, 1445, being but twenty-two years of age."
On the death of Henry's infant daughter, who survived him but a short time, this manor devolved to his sister's husband, Richard Nevil, afterwards created Earl of Warwick, who was so eminently conspicuous for his conduct during the reigns of Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth, and obtained such a commanding influence in the political state and government of the kingdom.
In the civil convulsions which ensued, it seems that the Earl of Warwick's property had gone into other hands; for an act was passed, in the third year of Henry the Seventh, which commanded restitution of all the estates, of which the Countess of Warwick had been dis-seized, with power to alienate all or any part of them.
The design of this act soon appeared; for the Countess was obliged to convey the whole of her possessions in perpetuity to the king, and received the grant of Marlow and some other estates, for life, in return.
On her death it reverted to the crown, and was leased to different persons; but, in the reign of Philip and Mary, it was granted to William, Lord Paget, for one thousand, two hundred and fifty-two pounds.
From the family of the Pagets it passed through several intermediate possessors to Sir William Clayton, who obtained it by purchase in the year 1736; and in the younger branches of his family it still remains.

The town of Great Marlow has been supposed, from the denomination of Chipping Marlow, which occurs in ancient records, to have been a market town in the time of the Saxons.
It consists of two principal streets in the form of a Roman T, and three smaller ones.
The High Street is spacious, and contains some good houses.
There is a very handsome mansion, situated on a pleasing ascent from the Thames, belonging to Mr.
Davenport, whose grounds stretch along the river to a considerable distance, and command, with the wood-crowned uplands on the Berkshire side of the stream, a very pleasing view of Bisham Abbey.
In this house there is a select collection of pictures, and, among the rest, a very fine one of Wilson the portrait-painter.
That artist lived about the middle of the last century, and, we believe, was a scholar of Hudson's.
He was in some repute before Sir Joshua Reynolds drew the attention of the public from his contemporaries.
We have seen a portrait of Wilson's, of the Duke of Roxburgh, K.G. which had considerable merit.
But the picture in question is a very masterly work; and, as if he were favoured by a temporary ray of genius, he has on this canvas almost rivalled the pencil of Rembrandt, whose style he adopted.
It is a very large canvas—the subject, The Vision of the Hand writing on the Wall, as recorded in the Book of Daniel.
As it was the only historical picture of this artist, and the only exhibition of genius which he had displayed in any of his works, it occasioned a considerable degree of curiosity, as well as astonishment, among the professors of the pencil and the connoisseurs in the fine arts, at the time it was produced; and we believe that the painter was honoured, during the remainder of his life, in consequence of it, with the title of Rembrandt Wilson.

Marlow Royal Military College

Marlow has been, for some years, in an improving state, to which the provisional establishment of the Royal Military College must have contributed, though it will be soon removed to a more suitable and convenient situation.
Such has for some time been, and such actually is the state of Europe, that a very large military establishment, or what was formerly considered as such a bug-bear,—a standing army,—or, at least, what is so in effect, is now essential to our existence.
The old Whigs, of a former period, considered an armed establishment, not only as hostile, but as dangerous to our liberties; such, however, is the change and chance of human affairs, the modern Whigs of the present period, look to it as a guardian of our freedom.
We are assuming, if we may not be already said to have assumed, the character of an armed nation, and such we must continue to be, or share the fate of the greatest part of Europe.
Under these circumstances we cannot but consider military establishments as of the utmost consequence to our political salvation, and that it was a very wise and patriotic spirit which suggested such an institution, as we are about to describe: nor can the country be too grateful to those, who by their public zeal, professional knowledge, and superior understanding, have brought it to that state of perfection which promises such real advantage to the British empire.
Nor can we proceed without acknowledging what all, who are acquainted with the subject, are ready to acknowledge, the unwearied and effectual exertions of Colonel Le Merchant, the Lieut. Governor, in framing and completing such a grand national institution.

The Royal Military College was established in the year 1799.
The senior department, at High Wycombe, is for the further instruction of officers in military affairs.
The junior department is at Great Marlow, where the sons of noblemen and gentlemen receive a regular military education, at one hundred pounds per annum.
The expences of other cadets, who are the sons of officers, are in proportion to the rank and pay of their respective parents, being from fifty to ten pounds per annum.
Orphans, and the children of subaltern officers, are educated and provided gratis.
This institution will be removed to Sandhurst, near Blackwater, Berks, where a new College is about to be erected.

Some traces of a corporation are discernible in the records concerning this town; but it does not appear that any charter was ever obtained.
The first return for this borough occurred in the twenty-eighth year of Edward the First, and it continued to send members till the second year of Edward the Second, after which no returns were made till the twenty-first year of James the First, when, on a petition to the House of Commons, the privilege was restored.

Marlow Church

The church is a large ancient structure, dedicated to All Saints.
It consists of a body and two aisles, with a transept dividing it from the chancel.
From the tower rises a wooden spire, which is painted white.
About the middle it is encircled with a black line to mark the place from whence a workman, employed in some repair, fell, not many years since, into the church-yard, a very considerable height, without receiving the least injury.

Marlow Bridge

The old bridge appears to be of very remote origin.
The records state that, in the reigns of Edward the Third, Richard the Second, and Henry the Fourth, the bailiffs were allowed, in consequence of a grant for that purpose, to take certain tolls of wares, merchandize, &c. passing over and under the bridge, to be applied for the maintenance of it.
In 1787, this structure became so ruinous, that an application was made to the county for rebuilding it, but it appearing not to be a county bridge, the Marquis of Buckingham proposed a subscription, when a considerable sum was raised, and, in the year 1793, the present bridge was erected.
The view from it of the adjacent country is full of beauty.

... Quarry Woods, Bourne End ...

COOKHAM.

Cookham View P.Dewint in Thames, Cooke & Cooke 1818
View of Cookham, 1818. P. Dewint [ 1818 Frontispiece moved here ]


Cookham Church in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Cookham Church, 1811. S.Owen


Osier island near Cookham in Thames, Cooke & Cooke 1818
An Osier Island near Cookham, 1818. P.Dewint

Cookham is a considerable village, about two miles up the river from Maidenhead Bridge, and with the ivy mantled tower of its church, and scattered villas, forms a very pleasing object on the Berkshire bank of the Thames, opposite the wood-clad height of Cliefden,

The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and Love.

Here the stream, which is of a considerable breadth, loses itself, as it were, among the islands which divide it.
The view embraces no very distant object, but those which compose it are of great individual beauty, and from their contrasted shapes and character, collectively, compose a most delightful picture.
The Thames branches off into three different channels, forming several islands, one of which contains fifty-six acres, and is a scene of various agriculture, but sufficiently embowered to give large masses of foliage; the others are covered with the alders and the osier, and enrich the bottom.
To the right is Cookham church, and what is seen of the village; and, beyond it, Cookham House, with its lofty elms, rising behind it.
On the left is a large level mead of common pasturage, enlivened by herds of cattle, and the uplands of Buckinghamshire rising beyond it;
nor is the ferry boat, which is continually crossing from Cookham to it, to be forgotten as an enlivening object of the scene.

Hedsor

Onwards, are the waving grounds of Hedsor, the seat of Lord Boston, which nature tumbled about when she was in one of her gayest humours, and produce a fine display of sylvan beauty.
On the summit, from a grove of beeches, rises the mansion of the family, and crowns that feature of the prospect.

... Cookham Lock ...

Cliveden House (1678 - 1795, 1824 - 1849, 1851 - date)

It were to be wished that we could give a similar character of the abrupt and shaggy brow of Cliefden, as rich as foliage can make it; but the splendid structure which it bore has not only ceased to form a part of the landscape which we are attempting to describe, but to be the proud ornament of the country round it.
Some years ago [1795] it was destroyed by fire, and another phoenix has not yet arisen from what little the conflagration spared.

Such are the beauties of which Cookham possesses the view, and to which it offers in return its village scenery; in which the tower of the church is seen to predominate.

True splendid mansion, built by George Villars Duke of Buckingham, and recorded by Pope,
“as the bower of wanton Shrewsbury and Love”,
in allusion to a disgraceful connection between that Lady and the Duke, and was for some time the residence of Frederic Prince of Wales, was destroyed by fire on the 20th of May, 1795.
The conflagration spread with such violence, that its rich furniture, various paintings, and many other articles of great value, were irrevocably consumed.
The wings alone escaped the fury of the flames.
The terrace occupies the brow of the very lofty eminence on which the house was situated, and is said to enjoy an higher degree of elevation than that of Windsor, whose castle is a distinguished object, with the rich, woody distance of its parks and forests, rising behind it.
The gardens and pleasure grounds were suited to the character of the edifice, while the woods are of a form and extent to confirm the grandeur of the place.
This elevated situation commands a vast expanse of country, and though not bounded by mountains, or varied by features of peculiar distinction, it is nevertheless magnificent from its space, as well as pleasing from the variety of cultivation that overspreads it ;
and should the eye be satiated with the unvaried luxuriance of the more distant landscape, it returns with new delight to retrace the Thames, winding through its meads, and reflecting the woods that hang down the declivities to its silver margin.
The long range of wood, from the variety of its trees, the richness of its foliage, the irregularity of its surface, and the inequality of its heights, connected also with other characteristic circumstances, must he considered, in whatever point of view it may be seen, as a fine combination of grandeur and beauty.

... Cliveden Reach, Boulters Lock, ...

TAPLOW.

Taplow House in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Taplow House, 1811. S.Owen

Taplow House is an ancient edifice, belonging to the Earl of Orkney, the possessor, also, of what once was Cliefden, and is a very picturesque object on the southern point of the long range of woody hills, whose northern and more elevated extremity was occupied by Cliefden.
The walks formed in the hanging woods, that fall from and adorn it, are of considerable extent; and from buildings judiciously placed in commanding points, or openings, tastefully made, as inlets to particular objects, the country is seen in various directions; and the circumstances of it selected into distinct pictures.
From an opening at the termination of the upper walk, what may now be called the mutilated brow of Cliefden, is seen across a woody chasm.
In the bottom, the Thames appears divided into two branches, which form an island, whereon is distinguished the mansion of Sir George Young: beyond are the insulated grounds of Cookham House, the meads of Hedsor, and the rising country of Buckinghamshire.
The lower walk, in Taplow woods, though it loses the great expanse of prospect, acquires something better in the perspective distinctness of its objects.
The extent of horizon is lost, but the partial glimpses of it from particular points, or through selected openings, which the hand of taste has curiously provided for particular scenes, produces in the mind a more composed delight.
From one shady seat, Windsor Castle appears insulated in foliage; and, from another, Eton College is seen in a similar frame-work of branching verdure.
But this is not all:—many circumstances, both natural and accidental, which, from the higher stations, are either overlooked or involved in the wide circumference of prospect, acquire, from the more distinct and insulated view, an individual and interesting importance instead of being lost, as it were, in the extent of surface, over which the eye hurries with indiscriminating impatience, they become predominant features in the chosen landscape.

The mills, which stretch from the banks of the river to the islands, with their rushing waters;
the farms and cottages that are scattered about the nearer part of the country;
the rural mansions which grace the shore
with all the navigating machinery of the stream,
enliven, vary, and complete the prospect.

Taplow House was a place of confinement to the Princess Elizabeth, during the reign of her bigotted and tyrannic sister, Mary: and, in a predominating situation in the park, is a venerable oak, which tradition represents as having been planted by her during the period of her solitary residence at this place: but its present state of decay appears to suggest a much earlier period for its infant growth, if we may compare it with the Fairlop oak, and other trees of the same class, whose far greater antiquity has been clearly ascertained.

Maidenhead.

Maidenhead is a market and corporate town, situate on the declivity of a hill, on the Berkshire side of the Thames.
Leland calls it South Arlington, and Stow Sudlington, and according to the description of the former was, in his time, neat and well built.
Its present name, in the opinion of Camden, was derived from the veneration paid there to the Head of some British Virgin, of whose virtues or miraculous powers no record is to be found.
In the Fourteenth century, the passage over the river was higher up; but after a wooden bridge was built, the place began to acquire some degree of consideration.
It is now governed by a High Steward, Mayor, and Aldermen.
The Mayor, and his Predecessor in office, are Justices of the Peace; and the former is also Clerk of the Market, Coroner, and Judge of the Town Court, which is held once in three weeks.
A handsome chapel stands near the entrance of the high street, and an elegant town hall has some few years since been erected.

MAIDENHEAD BRIDGE.

Maidenhead Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Maidenhead Bridge, 1811.

Maidenhead bridge is a handsome structure of Portland stone, consisting of seven principal and six lesser arches, and was built after a design of Sir Robert Taylor.
In passing over it the Thames presents two such different views, that the eye can scarce be brought to reconcile the contrasted appearance.

To the north is seen the bold range of woody heights, crowned with Taplow, Cliefden, and Hedsor; while to the south the river flows through one unvaried, uninteresting level, enlivened with no other objects than the summer buildings on Monkey Island, and the tower of Bray church.

Bray seen from Maidenhead Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Cooke 1811
Bray seen from Maidenhead Bridge, 1818, P.Dewint.

BRAY.

This village is about a mile below Maidenhead on the Berkshire side of the Thames.
Camden entertains an opinion that this part of the kingdom was occupied by the Bibroci, who submitted to Caesar and obtained his protection.
This conjecture is not without a plausible foundation; though we cannot but think him fanciful, when he endeavours to form the name of Bray, from a contraction of the original denomination.
Phillippa, the Queen of Edward the Third, had rents assigned her from this manor, as well as that of Cookham.
But this place is chiefly indebted for the celebrity it possesses, to the dubious tradition of an accommodating vicar, who is related to have changed and rechanged his religion at four different periods, under as many successive sovereigns; being governed by no other principle than that of living and dying in possession of this Vicarage.
He is said to have been twice a Papist and twice a Protestant.
Some writers have described these circumstances as happening in the reigns of Charles II, James the Second, &c.
but the story appears to have been first published by Fuller, in his Church History, and as that author died in the year 1661, it must have been in a state of previous circulation.
The archives of the parish do not support this versatile character in any of its vicars; and some lively writers have suggested that the Ballad upon the subject was a piece of general characteristic satire on some of the Clergy, who had sacrificed their spiritual to their temporal interests, without alluding to any particular divine.
There are other villages of the same name in different parts of England; and Bray might suit both the rhyme and measure of the song.

... Bray Lock, M4 Bridge ...

Islands.

The Thames abounds with small islands, which, from their situation and circumstances, might seem to invite the pleasurable cultivation of those who possess them; and yet, how few have been employed to any purpose of amusement, either in the way of aquatic recreation, or that kind of sporting which rivers afford.
It must be acknowledged that our climate is by no means suited to insulated situations: and the moats which surrounded the mansions of our ancestors, were rather intended for protection and security, than for pleasure or beauty.
How few days are there in one of our years, and allowing even the most sultry summer, in which such a residence as an island in the Thames could afford, would be comfortable throughout them.
For even supposing all has been done that embankment can do, still the flood may come, and in a rainy season, how often must the inhabitant have recourse to an upper room and a consoling fire.
We do not recollect a single house so situated, but that of Sir William Younge, beneath the hanging woods of Cliefden, near Cookham, where a great deal of taste has been employed to render it beautiful, and all possible means, we doubt not, are used to make it comfortable: but we have never considered this place, with all the charms it possesses, but with symptoms of shuddering at the idea of that damp and chillness, which all the warmth of hospitality will not, at times, be able to disperse.
[Temple Island in the Regatta Reach at Henley] The island belonging to Mr. Freeman, of Fawley, and whose decorative building is so pleasing an object in that part of the river, and particularly when viewed from Henley Bridge, is only used on such days as invite to the amusements of the water, and the patient pursuits of the angler: and such was the original design of improving Monkey Island.

MONKEY ISLAND.

Monkey island in Thames, Cooke & Cooke 1811
Monkey Island, 1811.

It is a small spot, situated below Maidenhead-Bridge, and near the village of Bray.
The last Duke of Marlborough originally improved, planted, and erected two pretty pavilions upon it.
His Grace then frequently resided at Langley-Park, in that part of the country ; and used occasionally to enjoy such recreations as this place afforded.
One of the rooms being painted in the Arabesque style, in which monkies were the predominant figures; the island, from that circumttance, received the name by which it is distinguished.
When the present Duke disposed of Langley, this pleasant little spot, which was a kind of appendage to it, was also sold.
It has had several successive possessors, but who they were it is of little consequence to know.
At present it belongs to Mr. Townley Ward, of the Willows, near Clewer, in the vicinity of Windsor.

THE WILLOWS.

The Willows, house above Windsor in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
The Willows, 1811.

The Willows, house above Windsor in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
The Willows, 1818.

This delightful retirement is situated on the Berkshire banks of the Thames, between Bray and Windsor, and owes its immediate beauty to the last possessor, the late Henry Townly Ward, Esq.
- It has not indeed either extent or circumstance sufficient to rank it among those places, which are described as the boast of the river whose bosom reflects it: but so happily has taste exerted itself in improvement; such has been the consequent transformation from its original appearance, that it now offers a most pleasing object to the voyager of the river who gladly suspends the oar to regard it.
The spot of which it consists has now attained an enrichment, with which those who knew it in its former state are agreeably astonished, from the interesting and unexpected novelty of its improved appearance, while those who view it for the first time, are sufficiently gratified to anticipate a pleasure when they shall see it again.
It was originally a cold swamp covered with osiers, which, by a skilful and effectual drainage, has been converted into a verdant sloping lawn, replete with rural elegance.
—The ornamental ground is connected by a subterraneous passage, with a small farm, called Bullock's Heath, which not only adds to its extent, but .
encreases its accommodations as a country residence.
Of literal description it will admit but little, but what it does admit the Engraving will more correctly display.
At the same time it may be safely observed, that a spot, where the Towers of Windsor Castle are seen to rise in such splendid magnificence, from their elevated brow; where the Turrets of Eton College are beheld amid its surrounding groves; and where the Thames flows immediately before it, must receive the grandeur of distant prospect, in addition to its own native and tranquil beauty.
There are, however, circumstances connected with this villa, which cannot be addressed to the eye, but must have reached the hearts of those who were admitted as visitors there.
—They were long felt, will be long remembered, and may be surely considered as a superior characteristic of it: we allude to the well-known and constant hospitalities which distioguished it.
The annual aquatic festival of the Eton Scholars, which their Majesties have sometimes been pleased to attend, not only received an enlivening display to its show, but a most elegant addition to their pleasure, from the reception which The Willows failed not to afford them on the occasion.
Some years have passed away since Mrs. Ward, whose mind and manners qualified her, in a peculiar manner, to enhance the pleasantness of the spot, has been regretted by her surviving friends; and all who knew her wished for that distinction:
— and within the last year Mr. Townly Ward's generous and friendly spirit has closed its earthly career.
[The Willows] was bequeathed by him to his friend Patrick Crawford Bruce, Esq. of Taplow Lodge, who is the present possessor of it.

--- Boveney Lock, Queen Elizabeth Bridge ...

[ In 1818 Cooke inserted here "Old Houses near Eton Bridge". I have retained the more geographically correct 1811 order. ]

WINDSOR.

Windsor in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Windsor, 1811. [is this from the Cobler below the bridge?]

WINDSOR.

Windsor is situate at the east end of the county of Berks, on a rising hill, on the banks of the Thames, and has always had the additional title of New, to distinguish it from Old Windsor, a place of higher antiquity; and which is now a charming village beyond it.
Camden conjectures, plausibly enough, that the winding course, or shore, of the river, gave rise to the name being, by the Saxons, called Windleyhopa.
In ancient records it is called Windleshora; and, by Leland, Windlesore; and became famous, in succeeding ages, by the favour and residence of our princes, as well as from being appointed the seat of the most noble Order of the Garter.

The earliest, and most authentic notice of Windsor, is found in the instrument of donation which King Edward, the Confessor, made of it, among other lands, to the monastery of St. Peter, Westminster.
It did not, however, continue long in their possession, as William the Conqueror, in the first year of his reign, being enamoured of its pleasant situation, prevailed on the abbot and monks of Westminster to exchange it for certain manors and estates in the county of Essex.
Thus it again became the property of the crown; and, except the period of the usurpation, by Oliver Cromwell, such it has remained to the present day.

Edward the First constituted Windsor a free borough, and granted several privileges to its inhabitants, which were afterwards confirmed and enlarged by succeeding monarchs.
It shared the fate of many other places, during the civil wars, by the loss of its franchises and immunities;
but, at the restoration, a new charter was granted by Charles the Second, who loved the place, of which it was in a great measure deprived by his successor;
but was restored at the revolution, and continues in full force, to the present day.

The Corporation consists of thirty brethren, ten of whom have the title of Aldermen; the rest are denominated Benchers and Burgesses.
The Mayor, and a Justice, are annually chosen from the Aldermen; and, on the same day, two Bailiffs are elected from the Burgesses.
There are also an High Steward, a Chamberlain, Under Steward, Town Clerk, and other subordinate officers.
It sends two members to parliament.

The Guildhall is an handsome, regular, edifice, supported with columns and arches, of Portland stone, and was erected in the year 1686.
The room where the Corporation meet to transact public business is a spacious apartment.
It is adorned with the portraits of the sovereigns of England, from James the First to Queen Anne; and also with those of George, Prince of Denmark; Prince Rupert; Archbishop Laud, &c.
At the north end is placed, in a niche the statue of Queen Anne, in her royal robes, with the globe and other regalia.
In the frieze of the columns below, is the following inscription:—

Anno Regni Vi.
Dom. 1707.
Arte Tua, Sculptor, Non Est Imitabilis Anna,
Annæ Vis Similem Sculpere? Sculpe Deam.
S. Chapman Prætore.

In another niche, on the south side, is the statue of George, Prince of Denmark, her majesty's royal consort, in a Roman military habit.
Beneath is the following inscription:—

Serenissimo Principi
Georgio Principi Daniæ,
Heroi Omnis Sæculo Venerando,
Christopherus Wren, Arm.
Posuit. MDCCXIII.

The church is an ancient and spacious fabric, dedicated to St. John the Baptist.
There are several haudsome monuments to perpetuate the respectable inhabitants and others.
It contains also a very noble organ, which formerly belonged to St. George's Chapel, and was presented by the king to the parish, when the new instrument was erected in the collegiate place of worship.

WINDSOR CASTLE.

Windsor Castle in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Windsor Castle, 1811.

Windsor Castle in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Windsor Castle, 1818. [from the lock].

This princely and magnificent residence of the British Monarchs, is situated on the summit of an hill, which commands the most beautiful, rich, and luxuriant prospects.
The silver Thames flows beneath it, and, by its serpentine course through the vale which its waters fertilize, heightens and completes the unrivalled scene.

This castle originated in the preference which William the Conqueror gave to the spot on which it stands.
He was so delighted with it, that having obtained the possession of it from the monks of Westminster, as we have already mentioned, he did not delay to erect a royal seat, or fortified castle; for, as early as the fourth year of his reign, it is recorded that he kept his court, and ordered a synod to be held here, at the festival period of Whitsuntide.
He also designed the parks, laid out extensive forests where he might enjoy the pleasures of the chase, and enacted laws for the preservation of the deer and other game.
This castle is described in Domesday Book as containing half an hide of land, parcel of the Manor of Clewer.

Henry the First not only enlarged it with many stately buildings, but strengthened it with walls and ramparts; and, in the tenth year of his reign, summoned his nobles to attend him here at the feast of the Pentecost, which was celebrated with great pomp and magnificence.
So many, indeed, and so important were the improvements which this monarch made in the castle, that some of our antiquarian writers have represented him as the original founder of it.

In the succeeding reign, in a treaty of peace between King Stephen and Duke Henry, afterwards Henry the Second, this castle is called Mota de Windesor, the fortress of Windsor.
In the year 1177, Henry the Second held a grand council or parliament here, at which were present the great barons, the king's chief tenants, William King of Scotland, and his brother David: and when Richard the First departed on his romantic expedition to the Holy Land, Hugh de Pudsey, Bishop of Durham and Earl of Northumberland, being appointed a regent of the kingdom, during the king's absence, made Windsor the place of his residence, on account of its strength and security.

King John, for the same reason, in the year 1215, lodged in the castle previous to his granting Magna Charta; which accounts for Runnymede, a meadow on the banks of the Thames, and at a small distance from Windsor, being appointed for the scene of that renowned festival of liberty.
That king, however, soon after manifesting a disposition to break his late solemn engagement, this castle was besieged by the barons, though without success.

In the year 1263, when Henry the Third and his barons were in a state of hostility, it was delivered up by treaty to the latter; but in the same year it was recovered by surprize, and made a place of rendezvous for the royal party.
Edward the First and his Queen Eleanor took great delight in this castle, and four of their royal offspring were born within its walls.
Edward the Second made it also the place of his residence; and his son, afterwards Edward the Third, of glorious name, was born here, and, on that account, called Edward of Windsor.

The affection which this prince bore to his native place induced him to take down the whole of the old castle, except the three towers on the west end, in the lower ward, and to rebuild it in a new and more stately form: and a principal part of the structure, as it now stands, was accordingly erected.
He also made it the seat of the most noble Order of the Garter, which he had previously instituted in the year 1349.
Nor should it be forgotten that, at this period, the kings of France and Scotland were both prisoners in this castle.
It may be presumed to have been about the thirty-fourth year of this king's reign when the most considerable enlargement or re-edification was made; as it appears that writs, as related by Ashmole, in his history of the Order of the Garter, dated the fourteenth of April in the same year, were directed to several sheriffs to impress diggers, hewers of stone, carpenters, and various other artificers, from London and other parts of England, into the king's service at Windsor.
Four years after, two commissioners were appointed to provide stone, timber, lead, iron, &c. and privileged to seize carriages for the conveyance of materials necessary for this great undertaking.
The magnificent works were carried on under the direction of William of Wyckham, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, with a salary of a shilling per day, and three shillings per week to his clerk.
The ability displayed by the reverend and superintending architect, won the regard and confidence of the monarch, who, in the year 1360, committed to him the sole care of the castle and all its appurtenances, as well as the entire command of the manors of Old and New Windsor.
The buildings appear to have been forwarded with great diligence and dispatch for some time, but were afterwards so much interrupted, by a contagion which prevailed among the workmen, that the king found himself under the necessity of having recourse, a second time, to compulsory measures, to satisfy his desire to have this favourite work completed.
Accordingly, writs were issued, dated the thirtieth day of March, 1363, by which the sheriffs were commanded, under severe penalties, to send to Windsor a specified number of masons and labourers by the approaching Easter.
In the course of the following year, it appears that the buildings were in a sufficient state of preparation to be glazed, and agents were appointed to collect and purchase glass, wherever it was to be found.
Twelve glaziers were also ordered to be impressed for this service, and to engage in it, at the king's wages.
Carriages were also compulsively taken to convey all necessary materials which these great works required.
In consequence of these determined measures of the king to quicken the progress of the building towards completion, it may be supposed that it proceeded to the royal satisfaction, as from the year 1370 to 1375, no recourse whatever seems to have been had to these violent measures; and, as the monarch died in 1377, it may be reasonably conjectured that the castle was completed at the former period.

There is an anecdote respecting William of Wyckham, which, as it is mentioned in all the accounts written of Windsor Castle, must not be omitted by us.
Previous to the completion of the work, the great architect caused the equivocal sentence,
"This made Wyckham",
to be cut in the inner wall of Winchester Tower.
This circumstance being reported to the king, as if the good man had assumed to himself the honour of building the castle; he would probably have fallen under his majesty's displeasure, had he not readily assured his royal master that he meant it only as an acknowledgment that this structure had made him great in the favour of his prince, and occasioned his being raised to his present high station.

In succeeding reigns, other considerable additions were made to the buildings within the castle.
Edward the Fourth enlarged and improved the beautiful Chapel of St. George.
— Henry the Seventh vaulted the roof of the choir of that structure, and added the stately fabric adjoining the king's apartments in the upper ward.
—Henry the Eighth rebuilt, the great gate at the entrance into the lower ward.
—Edward the Sixth began, and his successor, Queen Mary, perfected the bringing water into a fountain of curious workmanship, in the middle of the upper ward, to serve as a conduit for the necessary supply of the castle.
—Queen Eligabeth formed a terrace on the north side of the castle:
—and Charles the First, among other improvements, caused the gate to be built, which is at the east end of it, leading into the park:
but, such is the changeful state of man, in whatever station he may be placed, this palace, which that monarch had adorned, and where he lived in sovereign state during the convulsions which soon followed, became his prison.

This residence of so many kings cannot be supposed to have escaped the rage of republican fury; and it was plundered of many of its ornaments and decorations.
But Charles the Second, after the restoration, not only repaired its injuries and improved its buildings, but furnished it with consummate magnificence:
he embellished the apartments, enriched them with paintings, formed a magazine of arms; while, at the same time, he enlarged the terrace made by Queen Elizabeth, and carried it round the south and east sides of the upper court.
He also, in the year l676, faced it with a solid rampart of free-stone, and shaped the ground in well-adapted slopes towards the park.
The views from this terrace, which is 1870 feet in length, are not easily described:—
Camden gives the following account of the spot, which would answer the purposes of more modem description.
"It enjoyeth a most delightful prospect round about;
for right in front it overlooketh a vale, lying out far and wide, garnished with corn fields, flourishing with meadows, decked with groves on either side, and watered with the most mild and gentle river Thames.
Behind it arise hills every where, neither rough nor over high, attired, as it were, with woods, and even dedicated by nature to hunting and game."

The works of Verrio, on the walls and ceilings of some of the larger apartments, were begun and completed in the reigns of James the Second and William the Third.
Queen Anne made several additions to the castle, particularly the flight of steps on the east side of the terrace.
That princess meditated also considerable alterations in the park, from designs of Le Notre, which were interrupted by her death:
the regular outlines of them were very visible at the commencement of the present reign, but have been since levelled.
The principal improvements during the last century, and which have been continued into the present, and are still continuing, have been produced by George the Third:—
St. George's Chapel has been the more particular object of his splendid taste and pious munificence.
This sacred structure has ever been admired for the style of its architecture and the richness of its ornaments.
Nor has it been less revered, as being the sepulchre of Edward the Fourth, Henry the Sixth, Henry the Eighth, his Queen the Lady Jane Seymour, and Charles the First.
But it has been repaired, altered, and fitted up, under his present majesty's, direction, in such a manner as to render it one of the most elegant, sumptuous, and solemn places of public worship in the kingdom, and to justify its claim to the title of the "beauty of holiness".
The ditches also, which skirted the east and south sides of the castle, have been filled up and the ground levelled.
The apartments have been enriched with additional pictures, and the windows of the upper court have been enlarged, and shaped in a manner more suited to the general character of the structure which they enlighten.

The castle is about a mile in circumference, and divided into two spacious courts.
The centre is occupied by the Round Tower, which was formerly separated from the lower court by a strong wall and draw-bridge.
The lower court is divided into two parts by St. George's Chapel.
On the north or inner side, are the several houses and apartments of the Dean, Canons, and other officers.
On the south and west sides of the outer part, are the houses of the poor Knights of Windsor.
In this court are also several apartments belonging to the officers of the Crown and the Order of the Garter.
The upper court is a spacious and regular square, containing, on the north side, the royal apartments and St. George's Hall with the Royal Chapel.
They compose that part of the castle which is called the Star building, from the Star and Garter that appear on the front, next the terrace.
On the south and east sides, are the apartments of their Majesties, and the several branches of the Royal Family;
and on the west is the Round Tower.

In the centre of the court is a large equestrian statue of Charles the Second, of copper: it is placed on a marble pedestal, ornamented with nautical devices, beautifully sculptured in basso relievo, by Gibbons.
"The fruit, fish, and implements," observes Lord Orford," are all exquisite; while the man and the horse may serve for a sign to draw the passenger's eye to the pedestal."
Beneath the statue is a curious hydraulic engine, invented by Sir Samuel Morland, who was appointed magister mechanicorum to the above monarch in 1681.

The Round Tower is the residence of the Constable, or, as he is now generally denominated, the Governor, whose office is both civil and military.
He is invested with full powers to guard the Castle against every enemy, foreign and domestic; and also to investigate and determine all disputes that may arise within the precincts of Windsor Forest, which an old manuscript description of this manor represents as seventy-seven miles in circumference.
He has a Deputy or Lieutenant-Governor, who holds equal command in his absence.

The Tower is built on a lofty artificial mount, surrounded with a moat.
The ascent to the upper apartments is by a long flight of stone steps, guarded by a cannon planted at the top, and levelled at the entrance.
The curtain of the tower is the only battery now in the Castle, and is mounted with seventeen pieces of ordnance, which appear to retain their situation more as objects of ornament than utility.
Formerly the whole of the Castle was guarded with cannon on its several towers.

The entrance is through a square paved court, in which is a reservoir of water, contrived in the reign of Charles the Second, to receive the drains from the upper leads.
Here was also erected, in the year 1784, an engine for raising water upwards of three hundred and seventy feet, by the simple contrivance of a rope; the ends of which being spliced together, it is fixed to a wheel and gudgeon in the water, and to a windlass at the top of the well, when the latter being turned with an ordinary degree of velocity, the water adheres to the ascending part of the rope until it arrives at the top; it is then thrown off and collected by means of a semi-circular cap, which incloses the inner wheel of the windlass: and this cap having a spout on one side of it, the water is conducted into any vessel that may be placed to receive it.

The Guard Chamber contains a small magazine of arms, curiously disposed.
The pillars of the door, opening into the dining-room, are composed of pikes, on the top of which are two coats of mail, said to be those of John, King of France, and David, King of Scotland, who were prisoners here; they are both inlaid with gold; the former with fleurs de lis, and the latter with thistles.
The tapestry of the dining-room is disposed in six compartments, and represents the history of Hero and Leander.
The bedchamber is also hung with tapestry, which is wrought with gold and silver: the principal subject is the story of Auroclotus, king of Phrygia, and his three daughters weeping to death, by the side of the Helicon.
The other rooms do not merit particular notice.

The summit of the building presents a view of great extent, and replete with variety and beauty.
The windings of the Thames through a wide extent of country, the blended succession of towns and villages, open cultivated country and embowered mansion, with the scenery of the Forest, forms a circumjacent landscape, a panorama, at once beautiful and magnificent, which no pencil could delineate or language describe.
The names of the following counties, which are visible from the top of the Tower, are inscribed on a board, and are twelve in number:
Middlesex, Essex, Hertford, Bucks, Berks, Oxford, Wilts, Hants, Surry, Sussex, Kent, and Bedford.
On a clear day, the dome of St. Paul's may be distinguished.
The royal standard is displayed on the summit of the Tower when the King is at Windsor, and also on state holidays.
The flag is fourteen yards long, and eight broad.

The entrance to the royal apartments has been very much improved, by command of his Majesty, and under the direction of Mr. Wyatt.
Previous to the alteration, it consisted of an elegant modern stair-case, the ceiling and sides of which were painted by Sir James Thornhill, in the reigns of Queen Anne and George the First.
Behind this, was a back stair-case, which was not without its decorations.
These two stair-cases have now been removed, and in the space which they occupied has been erected another, in a style admirably suited to the character of the structure to which it serves as a very superb entrance.
It consists of two flights of steps, thirty-four in number, without a turning, and is surrounded by a gallery, twenty feet in length in the front, and forty-seven feet on each side.
The height is ninety nine feet; the external building having been raised about twenty feet, exclusive of the lantern, which is of an octagonal shape, forming, on the outside, an embattled tower.
The angles of the ceiling are embellished with various devices, judiciously assorted to the place.
The balustrade is composed of bronzed iron, with brass bases and capitals.
This stair-case was begun in the year 1800, and finished in 1804.

The Queen's Guard Room
is the first apartment into which the visitor conducted, in which the arms are arranged in a variety of tasteful devices.
The ceiling represents the Queen consort of Charles the Second, in the character of Britannia, with her attributes; and decorated with allegorical embellishments.
Over the chimney is the portrait of Prince George, of Denmark, on horseback, by Dahl, and views of shipping, by Vandervelde.

The Queen's Presence Chamber.
The same illustrious personage is made to dignify the ceiling, attended by Religion, the Cardinal Virtues, &c.
Three of the Cartoons of Raphael, lately removed to Hampton Court, occupied the wall of this room.
The portraits which remain are, two Princesses of Brunswick, painted in 1609.
The Duke Albert, of Saxony, by Rubens.
Charles the First, his Queen, and two Children.
James the First, and Charles the First, on horseback, by Vandyck.
In this room are two silver chandeliers, brought from Hanover.

The Queen's Audience Chamber.
The ceiling represents Britannia in the person of Queen Catherine again, with another selection of attributes, &c. and richly-gilded decorations.
The chandeliers and glasses are very magnificent.
The portraits are, those of Frederick-Henry, Prince of Orange; Prince Rupert, and William, Prince of Orange; all by Honthorst.
Ann, Duchess of York, by Sir P. Lely.
James the First's Queen, by Van Somer.
Queen of Charles the First, by Vandyck;
and a Landscape, by Zucarelli.

The Ball Room.
Charles the Second is represented on the ceiling in the act of giving peace to Europe; accompanied with a variety of ingenious allegory.
Four large glasses, in massive silver frames, with correspondent silver tables and chandeliers, distinguish this apartment.
The portraits consist of the Duke of Hamilton, by Hanneman.
The Earl of Pembroke, who was Lord Chamberlain to James the First, by Vansomer.
The Countess of Carlisle, Madame de St. Croix, and the Duchess of Richmond; by Vandyck.
The latter is a very beautiful picture, in which her Grace is represented in the character of St. Agnes.
Her present Majesty, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of York; by Ramsay.
The Princesses Mary, Sophia, and Amelia; by Copley.
St. John, after Corregio;
and a large Landscape, by Zucarelli.

The Queen's Drawing-Room.
—The subject of its ceiling is the Assembly of the Gods, and the following paintings embellish it.
—A large landscape, with the figures of Pharaoh's daughter, and Moses in the bulrushes; and six smaller ones, by Zucarelli; a Magdalen, by Sir P. Lely; Earl of Surry, by Holbein; De Bray, the painter, and his family, in the characters of Anthony and Cleopatra, by himself; Killigrew and Carew, by Vandyck; and, from the pencil of the same great artist, the interesting portrait of Lady Venetia Digby, the wife of Sir Kenelm Digby.

The Queen's State Bedchamber.
—This room has been lately enlarged to twice its former length, as is discoverable by the painted ceiling, the old part of which still remains, and is a representation of the story of Endymion and Diana.
The subject of the new part is Jupiter presenting the bow to the same goddess, and is painted by Rigaud.
The principal paintings are, a Madona and Child, after Vandyck; Titian and a Senator of Venice, by Titian; an Holy Family, by the same; Queen of James I. by Jansen; two views near Rome, by Bamboccio; Princess Mary, by Sir P. Lely; St. John, after Corregio; John, Duke of Marlborough, by Dahl.

The King's Closet.
—This room has been enlarged, with new decorations by Wyatt.
It is hung with scarlet cloth, enriched with a gold border.
The paintings are very numerous in this apartment, and some of them of the first class.
Among them are St. Sebastian, by Guido; the Angel appearing to the Shepherds, by N. Poussin; two small Holy Families, by Titian; an old woman watering flowers, by G. Douw; the celebrated picture of the Misers, by Quintin Matsys; Nymphs and Satyrs, by Albano; a landscape, by Breughel; a head, by Raphael; the Last Supper, a sketch, by Rubens; a head, by Parmegiano; Peter delivered from prison, by Steenwick; Martin Luther, and Edward VI. by Holbein; a woman reading, by Corregio; milking the goat, by Berghem; two heads, by Denner, &c. &c.

The King's Dressing-Room.
—The subject of the ceiling is Jupiter and Danae.
The hangings are the same as those in the last-mentioned room.
The principal paintings that furnish this apartment, are two heads, by Holbein; a Madona, by Carlo Dolci; ditto, by Guido; Holy Family, the school of Raphael; Madona and child, by Guercino; St. Catherine, by Guido; Jacob and his family, by F. Lauri; a Christ, a Magdalen, and Herodias' daughter, by Carlo Dolci; a portrait, said to be that of the Countess of Desmond, by Rembrandt; two landscapes, by Wouvcrmans; a head, by L. da Vinci; Silence, by Annibal Caracci; James, Duke of York, by Russel; Charles the First's Queen, Vandyck, &c.&c.<

The King's old State Bedchamber.
—The ceiling displays Charles II. in the robes of the Garter, seated on a throne, with the four quarters of the globe paying him obeisance.
The hangings are of crimson, with gilded mouldings.
The bed has been some time removed.
The paintings are, Charles II. when a boy, by Vandyck; the Duke of Savoy, by Moore; Charles the First's children, by Vandyck: the Emperor Charles V.
by Titian; the Duke of York, his Majesty's brother, by Dance; and George II. by Shackleton.

The King's Drawing-Room.
—This ceiling represents another flattering allegorical picture of Charles II. descriptive of his restoration.
This room has been lately fitted up with great elegance.
The pictures are, an Holy Family, and a battle piece, by Rubens; Venus adorned by the Graces, and Perseus and Andromeda, by Guido; the converted Chinese, the finest picture of the master, by Sir Godfrey Kneller; the vision of Augustus, by Pietro di Cortona; Christ before Pilate, by Schiavoni; the Wise Men's Offering, by Luca Giordano.

The King's State Bedchamber.
—The Banquet of the Gods is the subject of the ceiling; and in several parts of the coving, we will not say with the best taste, is represented a great variety of fish and fowl.
The carving of this room has been removed to Hampton Court: it was by Gibbon, wno was never exceeded in this branch of art.
Hangings of scarlet cloth supply its place.
The paintings which embellish it are, a fine piece of still life, by Kalf; Mary Queen of Scots, by Janette; Samson betrayed by the Philistines, by Vandyck; Anne, Duchess of York, and Mary, Duchess of York, by Sir P. Lely; a preceptor and his pupil, by Bassan; the apotheosis of the Princes Octavius and Alfred, by West; and a philosopher, by Spagnolet.

The King's Audience Chamber.
—The subject of the ceiling is an allegorical representation of the re-establishment of the Church, by the restoration of Charles II.
This apartment is fitted up and furnished with the greatest elegance: the throne and its appendages are constructed with much taste.
The canopy and ornamental parts were wrought under the direction of Mrs. Pawsey, from beautiful paintings by Miss Moser: and the drawings, which ornament the richly-gilded columns, were executed by Rebecca.
The paintings consist of seven large pictures, by West, which represent some of the brightest achievements of English bravery.

The Kings Presence Chamber.
—Another portrait of King Charles II. with allegorical figures, and one of the best which adorn the ceilings.
In this apartment were the other four Cartoons of Raphael, which are removed to Hampton Court.
The pictures which now decorate it are, a Prometheus, by young Palma; Duns Scotus, by Spagnolet; Charles II. and James II. by Sir P. Lely; Queen Mary, King William, Queen Anne, and George I. by Sir Godfrey Kneller; George II. and Queen Caroline, by Zeeman; their present Majesties, by Ramsay.

King's Guard Chamber.
—The ceiling is painted in water colours, and represents subjects suited to the character of the apartment, which is decorated with various kinds of arms, arranged in fanciful devices.
The armour of Edward the Black Prince is placed over the door which opens into St. George's Hall.
In this room the Knights of the Garter dine, in the absence of the Sovereign, on the occasion of an installation of that order.
The paintings are Charles II. King of Sweden, on horseback, by Wyck; and eight views of battles and sieges, by Rugendas.

Against the north end of this apartment a building has been lately erected, which is to be called Blenheim Tower, in which will be deposited the banner of France, annually delivered here on the second of August, by the Duke of Marlborough, by which he holds Blenheim, in Oxfordshire.
This banner, the memorial of John, Duke of Marlborough's victories over the French, was formerly placed in a closet, which is now no longer shewn.

St. George's Hall.
—This magnificent apartment is dedicated to the honour of the most noble order of the Garter.
In a large oval, in the centre of the ceiling, Charles the Second is represented in the habit of the order, attended by the personifications of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and other attributes.
Near the throne is a representation of St.
George's cross, encircled with the garter, within a star supported by winged boys, with the motto,
Honi soit qui mal y pense.
In the lower compartments of the ceiling is the collar of the garter, supported by boys, and encompassed with a variety of characters, emblematic of this most illustrious order of knighthood.
On the north wall of this noble room is painted the triumph of Edward the Black Prince, son of Edward III. founder of the order.
That sovereign is represented as sitting on a throne, receiving John, King of France, and David, King of Scotland.
The Prince, crowned with laurels, is seated in a triumphal car in the midst of the procession, preceded by captives, and attended by the emblems of Liberty and Victory, with the banners of France and Scotland.
The painter has closed the procession with the Countess of Salisbury, in the character or a female making garlands in honour of the ceremony.
At the east end of the Hall is the Sovereign's throne, the ascent to which is by five steps of fine marble; to which were added three more in painting, and they were so skilfully managed as to deceive the eye, and give them the appearance of absolute reality.
Above them was painted a large canopy and its drapery; on the latter of which was represented St. George encountering the dragon:
beneath it was represented William HI. in the habit of the order of the garter, painted by Sir G. Kneller.
On a part of the drapery was this inscription:
Veniendo restituit rem.
The canopy on the cove of the ceiling and upper part of the wall still remain; but the other parts of the picture have been supplied by modern and better objects.
A canopy is now placed there which was brought from Hanover; and above the throne is a gallery, with an organ.
At the lower end of the Hall is another music gallery, supported by four figures, beautifully carved in wood; and tradition represents them as a father and three sons, who were the captives of Edward the Black Prince.
The ceilings and mural pictures were painted by Verrio, who was permitted to enjoy the distinction of the following inscription, which is over the latter gallery:

Antonius Verrio, Neapolitanus,
Non ignobili stirpe natus.
Augustissimi Regis Caroli Secundi,
Sancti et Georgi,
Molem hanc felicissimâ Manu
Decoravit.

St. George's, or the Royal Chapel.
—This was fitted up with all the usual apparatus for choir service; but is now converting into a saloon; and another chapel is to be built in an adjoining court, formerly called Horn Court; and at present the private domestic service is performed in the Queen's Guard Chamber.
The ceiling represented the Resurrection.
The altar-piece contained a picture of the Last Supper; and over it was the organ.
The north wall consisted of one large painting, the subject of which was a display of the miraculous power of Christ, in several particular acts of it, as recorded in the New Testament.
This is one of the best designs of Verrio, but accompanied with his usual absurdities.
The King's closet occupied the west end, and was fitted up with suitable splendor.
The stalls and other parts of the Chapel were decorated with various scriptural devices, in the carving of Gibbons.

Here ends the range of apartments open to the view of the public.

The Royal and Collegiate Chapel of St. George.
—-This Chapel enjoys the site of one which Henry the First built and dedicated to Edward the Confessor.
The present sacred edifice was erected by Edward the Third in the year of our Lord one thousand three hundred and thirty-seven; which was shortly after the institution of the Garter, and the foundation of the college of that order.
Edward the Fourth, however, does not appear to have been contented with its original form, and accordingly very much enlarged and beautified it, adding at the same time suitable residences for the Dean and Canons.
It afterwards received great improvements from Henry the Seventh and Henry the Eighth.

This chapel offers a very beautiful example of gothic architecture.
The roof, which is of stone and elliptical, is an admirable piece of workmanship.
It is supported by appropriate pillars, whose ribs and groins sustain the whole ceiling, and add to the elegant effect of the whole.
The ceiling is lofty, and adorned with a great variety of devices, which are executed with great skill.
Among these are the arms of Edward the Confessor, Edward the Third, Edward the Black Prince, Henry the Sixth, Edward the Fourth, Henry the Seventh, and Henry the Eighth.
There are also the arms of England and France, the holy cross, the shield or cross of St. George, the rose, portcullis, lion rampant, unicorn, fleur-de-lis, and dragon, with the distinctive feathers of the Prince of Wales, and the coats of many noble families.
—In the nave or centre arch are curiously designed and emblazoned the arms of Henry the Eighth sovereign, and several knights companions, of the garter in the year fifteen hundred and twenty-eight; among which are the arms of Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Germany; Francis the First, King of France; Ferdinand, Infant of Spain and King of the Romans; who were at that time knights of this illustrious order.
Between the years 1776 and 1789 this Chapel was completely repaired and beautified with additional decoration at the expense of about forty thousand pounds; towards which his Majesty was pleased to contribute nearly one half of that sum.
The centre and side aisles were paved with Painswick stone; the columns, sides, and ceiling cleaned, and all the coats of arms and heraldic insignia which adorn it, painted and correctly emblazoned.
A ground plan of the whole was also taken, in order to ascertain the respective situation of the reliques beneath: but as many of these records of the dead were greatly defaced by lime, and the families to which others related being extinct, those alone which are most entire, or that belong to the most eminent persons, have been preserved.
These are placed with a pleasing regularity between the pillars that divide the centre from the side aisles, and in the centre of those on each side the choir.

The Choir was built by Edward the Third, but received a great variety of curious decorations and enrichments from the piety of Edward the Fourth and Henry the Seventh.
Here public worship is performed according to the cathedral ceremonial.
It is also the scene of the installation of the Knights of the Garter, and the repository of honour of this most noble order of knighthood.
It is divided from the body of the church by the organ gallery, beneath which, on each side of the entrance to tbe choir, were formerly seats and pews, as the pulpit was placed in the adjacent part of the centre aisle, and the sermon consequently preached there; but they have been removed, and the pulpit transferred to the choir.
The organ which had been erected soon after the restoration of Charles the Second, was placed in the parish church.
The present organ-loft is built of Coade's artificial stone, and happily unites with the general appearance of the whole.
The roof and columns which support it form a light and beautiful colonade, which is embellished with the several devices peculiar to the Sovereign and the order of the garter.
The new organ, erected by Mr. Green, was the particular donation of his Majesty, and is a superior instrument.
The case of it is of unrivalled beauty, and was designed by Mr. Emlyn.
It is in the general style of the Chapel, unites with the canopies of the stalls, and is covered with a reticulated carving, whose effect is very striking to the eye, and gives a most appropriate finish to that end of the Chapel.
On the right-hand of the west or principal entrance into the Choir is the Sovereign's stall, which is entirely new, and is also completed after a design of Mr. Emlyn.
In the centre are the arms of the Sovereign, encircled with laurel and crowned with the royal diadem; the whole surrounded with fleurs-de-lis, and the star of the order, with G. R. properly disposed.
The curtains and cushions are of blue velvet, fringed with gold.
The Sovereign's banner is of rich velvet; it is much larger than those of the knights companions, and his mantling is of gold brocade.
The Prince's stall is on the left-hand entrance, and is not distinguished from those of the other knights companions; the whole illustrious society being, according to the statutes of the institution, companions and colleagues of equal honour and power.
The stalls of the knights companions of the most noble order of the Garter are on each side of the choir, with the mantle, crest, helmet, and sword of each knight, placed over the stall on a canopy of ancient carving, curiously wrought above the canopy: the banners or arms of each knight, properly blazoned on silk; and on the backs of the stalls are the titles of the knights, with their arms engraved on plates of copper.
These ensigns of honour are removed according to the succession of the knights in the order; and at the installation of his successor, the banner, helmet, sword, &c. of the deceased knight are with great solemnity offered up at the altar; but the plate of his titles remains in his stall, as a perpetual memorial to his honour.

The carved work of the choir deserves particular attention.
The canopies over the stalls will well reward the most minute examination.
On the pedestals of these stalls is carved the history of our Saviour's life, from his nativity to his ascension.
On the front of the stalls at the west end of the choir is also sculptured the history of St.
George; and on a girth on the outside of the upper seat is cut in old Saxon characters the twentieth Psalm in Latin, supposed to be designed as a prayer or petition for the royal founder, Edward the Third, and the future sovereigns of the order of the Garter.
Every part, indeed, of the choir abounds with sculpture, in a great variety of imagery.
Some of the figures of the patriarchs, kings, &c. had been greatly defaced, and others in a great measure destroyed; but the face of the whole is restored with a minute attention to its former state, and many parts are added which represent certain distinguished occurrences of the present reign.
The altar was formerly decorated with costly hangings of crimson velvet and gold, which, together with other rich furniture appropriated to the use of the altar, and three thousand five hundred and eighty ounces of wrought plate of the most curious workmanship, were in the year one thousand six hundred and twelve seized under the guise of parliamentary authority by Captain Fogg, who appears to have been employed in plundering this royal foundation.
Charles the Second, however, after his restoration, contributed most liberally with the knights companions of the Garter to replace the loss with every fitting ornament and sacred vessels for celebrating the rites of the altar; which were most curiously wrought and gilt, and dedicated to the honour of God, and the service of the sovereign and knights companions of the most noble order of the Garter.
The same prince also ornamented the altar with twenty two pannels of tissue and purple damask: it was likewise decorated with two pieces of arras, or tapestry, one representing Christ and his disciples at supper, given by Doctor Bryan, Bishop of Winchester:
the subject of the other was Christ and the two disciples at Emmaus from an original of Titian, and presented by Lady Mordaunt.

But in the year one thousand seven hundred and seven, on removing the wainscot in Urswick Chapel, a painting was discovered of large dimensions representing the Last Supper.
It had probably been secreted at the time of the republican plunder, and being considered as a performance of great merit by Sir James Thornhill, Verrio, and other eminent masters, it was repaired and placed immdiately over the communion table, where it remained till the general repair of the chapel, when it was removed to grace the altar of the parish church.
Its place is supplied by a picture on the same subject by Mr. West.
This is perhaps one of his best pictures; though it is not to be conceived on what principle, either as to taste, judgment, and historical fact, the traitor Judas should be made such a predominant figure in the composition.
The wainscot ornaments, which were suggested by the King, are after a design of Mr. Thomas Sandby, and executed under the inspection of Mr. Emlyn.
They represent the arms of Edward the Third, Edward the Black Prince, and those of the original knights, which are displayed in circular compartments.
To these are added pelicans, wheat, grapes, sacramental vessels, and other symbolic forms, admirably executed and tastefully disposed, forming a very rare display of this kind of sculpture.
The whole of the repairs and alterations of the altar were made at the sole expense of his Majesty.
The painted windows form a very beautiful and striking decoration to this structure, as well as add to the solemnity of its character.
The first of these, as to the order of time when it was brought into its present state, is the large window at the west end of the body of the church.
It is composed of eighty copartments, each six feet high, by one foot five inches wide: the whole beautifully ornamented with fine stained glass, consisting of a variety of figures, as patriarchs, bishops, and other canonical, as well as regal characters; among which are St. Peter, St. Alexander, King Solomon, Edward the Confessor, Edward the Fourth, and Henry the Eighth.
The lesser decorations consist of the various insignia of the Garter and several episcopal armorial bearings.
This window was restored to the beautiful state in which it now appears in 1774, at the expense of the Dean and Chapter, and under the direction of Doctor Lockman, one of the Canons, who collected all the remains of the ancient painted glass that were dispersed through different parts of the building.
It is intended, however, to render the beauty of this chapel still more complete by repairing this window in the style and manner of those already formed by Messrs. Jarvis and Forest.
For this purpose Mr. West made a cartoon of the Crucifixion, which Mr. Forest engaged to paint on glass.
The window when completed will contain one thousand square feet.

The next of these windows in point of magnitude is that over the altar.
The subject is the Resurrection, executed by Mr. Jarvis, after a design of Mr. West.
It is divided into three copartments.
In the centre is our Saviour ascending from the sepulchre preceded by an angel, above whom in the clouds is an host of cherubim and seraphim, and among them is a portrait of the Prince Octavius.
In the front are Roman soldiers, whose countenances and attitudes are suited to the awful circumstances of the scene.
In the copartment to the right are represented Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James, approaching the sepulchre with spices &c.;
and in that to the left are Peter and John, who are represented as running in great haste to the sepulchre, according to the apostolic narrative of the extraordinary transaction.
Two windows, one on the north and the other on the south side of the altar, contain the arms of the Sovereign and knights companions of the order of the Garter, who subscribed towards painting the east window.
The east window in the south aisle is executed in half tint by Mr. Forest, after a design by Mr. West.
It represents the Angels appearing to the Shepherds to announce the nativity of our Saviour.
The style of painting in this window is different from the rest; but is very sensibly adapted to the light in which it is placed.
The west window in the south aisle is the work of the same artists, and represents the Nativity.
The Virgin Mary is seated with the infant Jesus sleeping in her lap; and Joseph, with the most devout attention, is holding a lamp to give light to her in the performance of her maternal office.
The accessory parts of the picture are true to the scriptural description.
The west window in the north aisle is indebted also to Mr. Forest and Mr. West for whatever merit it may possess.
The subject is the Wise Men's Offering.
The picture is not crouded with figures; and in the representation of an event which has been so often represented novelty cannot be expected.
It is but seldom that the whole of these windows can be seen to advantage at any one time in the day, except when the sun is obscured by light clouds.
When this is not the case, the most favourable light for viewing the east windows is from nine to eleven; and for those at the west end from three to six.

The different repositories of the illustrious dead in this chapel were originally founded as chauntries, and endowed with lands and other revenues for the maintenance of chaplains and priests, to sing masses there for the repose of their several founders and their kindred; the observance of which naturally ceased when the Reformation introduced a purer system of religious worship, that prohibited the ceremonials of popish superstition.
In the first of these hallowed receptacles, which is at the upper end of the choir, are deposited the remains of Henry the Eighth, and his Queen Jane Seymour, King Charles the First, and a daughter of Queen Anne.
At the east end of the north aisle are deposited the remains of Edward the Fourth, over which there is a beautiful monument composed of steel, representing a pair of gates between two towers of curious workmanship, in the Gothic style.
The trophies of honour over the prince's grave were richly ornamented with pearls, rubies, and gold, of which the chapel was plundered in the year 1642.
The steel front formerly faced the north aisle, but now looks towards the altar.
When this change took place in the year 179O, a neat stone monument was raised at the back part of it, composed chiefly of fragments collected from other parts of the chapel, and which has given additional beauty to this sepulchral structure.
In the front of it is a black marble slab, on which appears in old English characters, Edward IIII.
At the base are countersunk, in similar letters, King Edward IIII. and his Queen Elizabeth Widville.
On an adjoining stone is the following inscription:
George Duke of Bedford, and Mary, fifth daughter of Edward IIII.
—In the year 1789, as the workmen were employed in preparing the ground for a pavement, they perceived a small aperture in the side of this vault, which, curiosity soon rendered sufficiently large to admit an easy entrance to the interior part; which was found to contain a leaden coffin, seven feet long, with a perfect skeleton immersed in a glutinous liquid, with which the body is supposed to have been embalmed, as it was three hundred and seven years since its interment.
On the top of this coffin was another, supposed to be made of cedar, and to contain the remains of the Queen, which were greatly decayed.
At the south east corner of the church is a small chapel -which derives its name from that eminent statesman and warrior the Earl of Lincoln, whose remains are interred there.
He died in the year 1534, and the monument was erected to his memory by his lady, who also was buried beneath it.
It is of alabaster with pillars of porphyry.
On the top is his effigy lying prostrate on a mat of curious workmanship, dressed in armour, his feet resting on a greyhound.
By his side lies his lady in her robes of state, her head resting on an embroidered cushion, and her feet on a monkey.
Round the whole are their several sous and daughters in a kneeling posture.
In an arched tomb at the east end of the south aisle, lies Richard Beauchamp bishop of Salisbury, who was the first chancellor of the most noble order of the garter:
and formerly in an arch opposite to the tomb, a missal or breviary was always placed by his order, that such as passed by the tomb might say certain prayers for the repose of his soul, as recommended in an inscription which still remains.
Some antiquaries have expressed their doubts whether King Henry the Sixth was buried in this chapel: but the historical accounts are entirely in favour of that circumstance.
After his inhuman murder by Richard Duke of Gloucester, in the year 1472, his corpse was carried to Saint Paul's church and conveyed from thence by water to Chertsey in the county of Surry, where it was buried; but was afterwards removed by order of Richard the Third to this choir and re-interred.
This cannot admit of doubt, as Henry the Seventh at the time that he applied to the court of Rome to admit Henry the Sixth, from his extraordinary piety, into the calendar of saints, demanded a licence to remove his remains from Windsor to Westminster abbey, and most probably in his then newly-erected chapel.
But Henry the Seventh not choosing to comply with the exorbitant demands of the court of Rome, these designs were both laid aside.
Henry the Eighth also, by his will, ordered this monument to be sumptuously decorated as it at present appears.
At no great distance from the south door of the chapel is a small chauntry which bears the name of its founder, who was John Oxenbridge a canon of this church and a bountiful benefactor to it.
The screen is in the Gothic style.
Over the door is a lion rampant, surrounded with escalops, and accompanied with a rebus of the founder's name: an Ox the letter N and a bridge.
Within the chapel are paintings of certain circumstances in the life of John the Baptist.

Contiguous to that which has been just described is Aldworth chapel.
It derives its name from several persons of that family who have been buried in it, though it was built by Doctor Oliver King, bishop of Bath and Wells, and register of the order of the garter, whose remains are deposited here under an altar monument.

Bray chapel was built in the reign of Henry the Seventh, by Sir Reginald Bray, one of the knights companions of the order, who was a most liberal benefactor to this church.
He was highly instrumental in uniting the houses of York and Lancaster by the marriage of Henry the Seventh, with the Princess Elizabeth daughter of Edward the Fourth.
To his great abilities as a statesman, he added great knowledge and taste in architecture, as this Chapel of Saint George and that of Henry the Seventh at Westminster, in which they were both employed, most amply testify.

At the west end of the south aisle is a small chapel originally dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
It is called Beaufort Chapel, as many of that ancient and noble family are buried within it.
Two noble monuments distinguish it.
One of them is erected to the memory of Charles Somerset, Earl of Worcester and knight of the garter, who died April 15, 1526, and his lady, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of William Earl of Huntingdon.
The Earl is dressed in the habit of the order, with his head resting on an helmet, and on his right side is his lady, in her robes of state.
On the back sit two angels weeping; and at their head stands an angel displaying their arms within the garter.
This monument is inclosed in a screen of brass-work gilt; but has no inscription.
The other monument is raised to the memory of Henry Somerset Duke of Beaufort: a nobleman eminent for his great and excellent qualities.
He was chamberlain and privy councellor to Charles the First and Charles the Second, to whose fortunes he adhered with unshaken loyalty and unspotted honour.
He married the eldest daughter of Arthur Lord Capel who was most worthy of him; and by whom he had a numerous offspring.
He died aged seventy on the twenty-first of January I699.
The monument, which displays an uncommon portion of sepulchral magnificence, is of white marble.
Two columns of the corinthian order, having their shafts entwined with leaves and flowers, support the upper part; on either side of which is placed a flaming ornamented urn and in the centre the Duke's coat of arms.
In the middle below is the effigy of his grace, arrayed in his robes of state, in a reclining posture.
Over the figure are curtains, hanging down by the columns on each side; while on the back ground, are represented in relievo, two angels, holding a palm and crown and accompanied with cherubs.
Below the duke is a representation of Saint George killing the dragon: and on each side of the monument, between the columns stands a statue, the one representing Justice, and the other Fortitude.
On the base is a latin inscription.

At the north-west corner of the church is Urswick's or the Bread Chapel, so called from Doctor Christopher Urswick, Dean of Windsor, and who greatly assisted Sir Reginald Bray in finishing this fabric.
He was employed by Henry the Seventh on many embassies to foreign princes; and was in such great favour with his sovereign, that he was offered the first ecclesiastical honours, all which he refused; and in the year 1505, resigned this deanery and his other preferments except the vicarage of Hackney, where he passed the remainder of his life in retirement and the constant performance of his parochial duties.
There he died and was buried in the year 1521.

Near the middle of the north aisle is Rutland Chapel; and in the centre of it is a neat alabaster monument, erected to the memory of Sir George Manners Lord Roos, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and of the Lady Ann his wife, neice to Edward the Fourth.
Sir George lies dressed in armour, his head resting on an helmet, and his feet on an Unicorn couchant.
By his side lies his lady, in her robes of state, with her head resting on a cushion supported by Angels.
On each side of the tomb are their sous and daughters; and at one end are angels displaying their family arms.
Sir George died October the twenty third 1513; and Lady Anne, April the twenty-second 1326.

Ou the west side of the choir door in the north aisle is Hastings Chapel.
It was built by Elizabeth, the wife of William Lord Hastings, chamberlain to King Edward the Fourth, and master of the mint, who for his loyalty to that prince and his royal issue was ordered to be executed in the Tower of London.
The roof of this chapel is very neat, and was formerly very much enriched with ornaments.
On each side are several niches in which images appear to have been placed: and under them several angels bearing the arms of the family of Hastings.
This chapel is dedicated to Saint Stephen, whose history is painted in four pannels in the inside of it, and is in good preservation.

In September 1805, were interred in a vault near the sovereign's stall in the choir, the remains of William Henry Duke of Gloucester, brother to his present majesty.
It is not distinguished by any inscription.
The Princess Amelia, the youngest daughter of their majesties, whose long illness, sufferings and admirable qualities, interested the whole nation, was lately interred in this church.

To enumerate all the monuments and memorials of persons buried in this chapel, would not be interesting to the reader, nor admissible within the limits of this work.
We shall however except the tomb erected to the memory of Doctor Brideoak, Bishop of Chichester, for the sake of that display of superior virtue which adorned his life, and the perusal of which will afford delight to the good and virtuous of every age.
His effigy lies on the monument in his episcopal robes with a mitre on his head and a crosier by his side.
The inscription is as follows.
"Sacred to the memory of the reverend father in Christ Ralph Brideoak, who put off this mortal life, in a good old age, in God.
He was a man resolutely good and great, yet lowly minded: a valuable treasure of the attic and all sorts of eloquence.
During the exile of Charles the Second, he was stripped of his property, and at his return made canon of this chapel, Dean of Salisbury, and afterwards Bishop of Chichester.
Hospitable and a friend to virtue, he was to his diocese like a father to his family; who, eager for the safety of others, but regardless of his own, while visiting his flock, was seized with a raging fever, and died in the exercise of his episcopal function, on the ninth of October 1678, in the sixty-fourth year of his age."

The Queen's Closet is on the north side of the choir, formerly used only for the accommodation of ladies at an Installation.
In 1780, it was repaired and completely furnished for the accommodation of their Majesties and the royal family, who attend divine service there every Sunday morning during their residence at Windsor.
The wainscot and canopy are in the gothic style: the curtains of garter blue silk, and the chairs and stools are covered with the same.
In the second window are painted the arms of their majesties by Bristow; a sun-flower by West, and a rose by Jervis.
In the third window is Saint Catharine, and the crowning of Queen Esther.
In the east window is a representation of Nabal receiving David's messengers.
In the window on the south side of the closet, is the wise men's offering, and a portrait of King Charles the Second.
The upper part of the window next the choir is finely ornamented with mosaic glass; and the window represents in three pieces the history of the Prodigal Son, the arms of Henry the Eighth &c.

The Chapter Home is at the east end of the north aisle of the chapel.
Opposite the entrance is an whole length of Edward the Third in his robes of state: in his right hand he holds a sword bearing the crowns of France and Scotland.
Round the frame is written,
Edwardus tertius, invictissimus Angliæ Rex, hujus Capellæ, et nobilissimi ordinis Garterii Fundator.
On one side of the portrait is the sword of this renowned prince, which is six feet nine inches long.

Wolsey's Tomb House adjoins the east end of Saint George's Chapel.
It is a stone edifice, built by Henry the Seventh as a royal burial-place.
But changing his intention, he began the more noble structure at Westminster ; so that this fabric remained in a slate of neglect, until Cardinal Wolsey obtained a grant of it from Henry the Eight, where he began a tomb for himself of incomparable magnificence.
Lord Bacon mentions it as far exceeding that of Henry the Seventh in Westminster Abbey : but the cardinal's disgrace prevented this sumptuous proof of his inordinate vanity from being compleated.
That prelate was buried in the abbey at Leicester where he died: and in the year 1646, it was plundered of its rich ornaments by the rebels.
King James the Second converted it into a popish chapel.
The ceiling was by Verrio, and the walls beautifully adorned and painted:
but after the abdication of that prince, it remained in a state of absolute neglect and at length presented a most ruinous appearance till the summer of the year 1800, when his majesty ordered the windows and other external parts to be repaired; and it is now considered to be in a state of preparation for the solemn purpose of being a royal sepulchre.

The Royal College of Saint George, which has the order of the garter attached lo it, was first incorporated and endowed by letters patent of the twenty-second year of Edward the Third, about three quarters of a year before the institution of the order.
Several statutes were afterwards made for perpetuating and well governing this college by Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, and Queen Elizabeth; and the present establishment on this foundation is as follows.
A dean who presides over the college in civil as well as ecclesiastical matters.
Twelve canons who with the dean constitute the legislative body of the college.
They are presented to their respective canonries by the King.
Seven minor canons, thirteen clerks or singing men, one of whom is the organist, ten choristers, and other appropriate officers.
Poor Knights.
They were originally styled milites pauperes, and since poor or alms-knights; and were established by Edward the Third, in order to provide an honourable asylum for persons who had distinguished themselves in the wars, but afterwards became reduced in their fortunes.
The number is thirteen on the royal foundation, five on the foundation of Sir Peter le Maire, and seven on that of Samuel Travers, in all twenty-five, one of whom is appointed a governor over the rest.
The annual income of the knights is about fifty pounds exclusive of an house, which is a comfortable residence.

The Park, which extends round the north and east sides of the castle consists of a fine expansive lawn, sprinkled with fine trees.
It contains about five hundred acres, and is four miles in circumference.
It was enlarged and enclosed by a brick wall in the reign of King William the Third, and is admired for its shady walks and natural beauties.
Sheep, cattle, and an herd of red deer animate this charming domain, which gives an appropriate beauty to Windsor Castle.

[ This section was inserted before Windsor in 1818. ]

ETON BRIDGE. [Windsor Bridge]

Windsor Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Eton (Windsor) Bridge, 1811.

Windsor Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Eton (Windsor) Bridge, 1818. S.Owen

An ingenious observer, who travelled through part of France during the late peace, and had made the same tour forty years ago, was agreeably surprised at the improved elate of the country.
"There is not," said he, " a spot of ground, even on a road side, where the industrious hand of man is not visible.
The English have been industrious too, and have effected the most important improvements";
but what would a foreigner say, were he to find this tottering, ruinous, rotten old fabric, not only in the high road to the palace of the King of Great Britain, but in its very purlieus?
The navigation at this place being obstructed by the shallowness of the river, a lock was constructed about ten years ago:
the canal begins near the bridge, on the Berkshire side, as is seen in the view, and falls again into the main river at Eton wharf.
This view is taken from the ayte below the bridge.

OLD HOUSES, NEAR ETON BRIDGE.

[ This section was inserted before Windsor in 1818. ]

Old Houses near Windsor Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Old Houses near Windsor Bridge, 1811.

Old Houses near Windsor Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Old Houses near Windsor Bridge, 1818. Owen

The art of painting is veiled in such a mist of technical obscurity, that every writer on that subject has been compelled to make his own vocabulary before he could hope to be understood; and, in one instance, two books have been written to illustrate the meaning of one word.
Dr. Johnson, in the preface to his dictionary, says,
"of the terms of art I have received such as could be found either in books of science or technical dictionaries."
As the doctor has omitted the word picturesque, we may presume it is of modern origin in our language.
Mr. Mason, who has collected the faults of the great English lexicographer with as much acrimony as learning, has thrown very little light on the subject himself;
he defines it to be "what pleases the eye".
He says, though this word (of so extensive a meaning) has no place of its own in Johnson, he was not unacquainted with it; for he uses it in his fifth interpretation of prospect; and he might have said, in his eleventh interpretation of love.
The silence of Johnson, on this word, he attributes to the inadequacy of "his memorial faculty to the due performance of his undertaking":
but it is more probable he did not find the word in any preceding dictionary.
What is still more unaccountable, it is omitted by Pilkington, in his explanation of technical terms used in his dictionary of painters.
Mr. Gilpin, whose fondness for this word has not been overlooked by the author of the Pursuits of Literature, defines picturesque objects to be those
"which please, from some quality, capable of being illustrated in painting."
The objection to this is, that it makes no distinction between that and the beautiful, or the sublime, which are equally capable of being illustrated by that art.
While this gentleman confines the term picturesque exclusively to painting, Mr. Price acknowledges its influence
"in all our sensations, by whatever organs they are received; and that music (though it appears like a solecism) may be as truly picturesque, according to the general principles of picturesqueness, as it may be beautiful or sublime, according to those of beauty or sublimity."
He has pursued this enquiry through its various ramifications with great ability; and has clearly proved its distinctness from the sublime and beautiful.
Some of its fixed and positive characteristics may be elucidated through the medium of these Old Houses.
The picturesque is a quality, in some objects, which renders them fit and proper to be imitated in painting.
Its vital principle is to be found in that spontaneous and seemingly fantastical variety, which nature never fails to produce when left to herself; she is its fostering parent, and art its mortal foe.
Ruggedness, roughness, and abruptness, are to the picturesque, what softness, smoothness, and undulating lines are to beauty.
These are the more outward and visible signs: its softer graces are, variety, intricacy, and richness of colour, of light and shade, and form.
The sublime affects us with awe and terror; the beautiful with admiration and repose; the picturesque with an animated enlivening irritation, which awakens curiosity.

It is obvious to which of these classes the subject before us belongs.
We must first imagine them newly built; the tiles which cover them would then have been of a fiery, red colour, and the walls white as snow.
In that state, to a picturesque eye, they would have been wholly uninteresting; but nature, in process of time, makes every thing her own.
In resolving these materials into their first principles, she has spread a many coloured mantle over them ; the once white walls are now weather-stained; here are cool grey tints, there are warm purples; in one part a subdued murky green, in another a red sandy hue; here the white wash has peeled off and left the bare timbers; these are seen in their rough hewn forms; the red tiles are in some places covered with a bright green moss, in others with a deeper colour; some are misplaced, others broken; the mortar in the chimnies has given way, making rugged lines, the angular forms are broken by foliage, growing wildly about them; then we perceive a variety of light and shade, and reflection, and all this again reflected in the river.
From what has been said, it will appear that these Old Houses are, exclusively, picturesque.

ETON COLLEGE.

Eton College in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Eton College, 1811.

King Henry The Sixth evinced his judgment as well as piety, when he selected this delightful spot for the foundation of a college; the river affording a plenteous source of exercise and amusement, so essential to the health and morals of youth.
On the 12th of September, 1440, the unfortunate monarch purchased the perpetual advowson of the parish of Eton, of William Waplade, Nicholas Clopton, and John Faryndon, Esqrs.
The charter of foundation bears date October llth, 1440.
By a second charter, dated at Sheen, in the following year,
"are appointed one provost, ten priests or fellows, four clerks, six choristers, one master, and twenty scholars."
Edward the Fourth took away some of its endowments; but it lost nothing by the Dissolution, and now supports seventy scholars on the foundation.
There are generally about three hundred young gentlemen besides.
The Library "contains many valuable and scarce books"; and, like some others, owes its greatness to private benefactors, among whom must be mentioned Dr. Waddington, Bishop of Chester, and Richard Topham, Esq. Keeper of the Records in the Tower.
—There are two statues of the founder; that in the Chapel by Bacon, was put up in 1786, at the expence of the Rev. Mr. Betham.
The origin of the singular custom called the Montem, now celebrated every third year, cannot be ascertained: it was probably at first no more than a school holiday.
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was held annually; but at what period it became a triennial custom, is not known even in the college.
Its object is to collect what is called Salt Money, for the senior scholar on the foundation, and a refusal or inability to comply with the demands of the Salt-bearers, would be attended with the most imminent personal danger.
Their Majesties generally attend this ceremony, and, it is said, contribute two purses of £50 each.
In 1796, the sum received amounted to £500; but since that period it has been known to exceed £700.
The Chapel, which forms the principal object in this view [above], is a beautiful Gothic building: its strong abutments promise a very prolonged state of duration.

BEAUMONT LODGE.

Beaumont Lodge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Beaumont Lodge, 1811.

Beaumont Lodge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Beaumont Lodge, 1811, S.Owen.

This very handsome villa is situated on a gentle rise, above the Thames, at Old Windsor, in Berkshire.
It derives its name from the second title of the Roxburgh family, it having been the property of the noble duke of that title, about the year 1750.
It was afterwards the residence of His Royal Highness the late Duke of Cumberland.
The father of the present Lord Mulgrave was some time an inhabitant of it.
Warren Hastings, we believe, then succeeded.
Its last proprietor was Henry Griffiths, Esq. and its present possessor is Lord Viscount Ashbrooke.

The old structure, except a part of the west wing, was pulled down, and the present mansion built, under the direction of Mr. Emlyn, architect, of Windsor, whose order, invented by him, and called the British Order, happily embellishes the lofty portico of the grand front.
This consists of two columns and two pilasters, on square bases, thirty-six feet, eight inches high.
They are built with brick, stuccoed.
The capitals are of Coade's artificial stone; the shields and bases of Portland stone.
The enrichments are peculiar to Mr. Emlyn's designs for the finishing of the order, and consequently give a very light and elegant effect, from the upper gallery, which commands a fine view of the Thames, and the vale through which it flows.

The very handsome improvements of this place consist of upwards of one hundred acres of ground, rising, in an easy ascent, from the banks of the river, to an ornamented upland, comprehending a walk of nearly two miles: part of it is a fine winding terrace, to which is unfolded a prospect of great variety, beauty, and interest, the principal features consisting of the superb structure of Windsor Castle; a fine range of wood, stretching on to the forest; St. Leonard's Hill, the commanding villa of the Earl of Harcourt; and, in the extreme distance, the two principal edifices of the metropolis ( the dome of St. Paul's, and the towers of Westminster Abbey) may be discerned.

Pelling Place

Near the upper road, at Old Windsor, is Pelling Place, the seat of James Bonnell, Esq.
The house and grounds form together a most desirable and elegant residence, in which the acknowledged taste of Mr. Bonnell has had a very pleasing opportunity of displaying itself.
The gardens are ornamented with buildings, which display, in their different and appropriate situations, a dairy, a grotto, an aviary, a billiard-room, and an hermitage.

Near the upper road, at Old Windsor, is Pelling Place, which formerly belonged to Dr. Pelling, canon of Windsor, and of his family, purchased by the late James Beal Bonnell, Esq.: it was then merely a pretty cottage.
Since that time, by several additional purchases of land, and much expense in laying it out, it is now become a villa, universally admired.
The house has been considerably enlarged, and the whole of the premises, within and without, are indebted solely to the direction and taste of Mrs. Bonnell, (widow of the late Mr. B.)
The entrance of the house from the road, up the sweep[sic], is through an arched treillage, with aromatic plants climbing on each side.
You then enter a varanda[sic], ten feet wide, and thirty-two in length, with large looking-glass doors at each end, chintz sophas, and brackets which hold twenty vases of flowers.
A friend, on first sight of this, in the month of May, exclaimed,
“Here, indeed! Flora holds her court.”
The varanda opens, with five glass folding doors, into a hall, which leads to the drawing-room, dining-room, breakfast-room, and library: the upper apartments correspond.
From a door that opens on a large lawn, you wind round a gravel walk, which leads to a pavillion, embowered with sweets of every kind ; seats, books, &c. invite a prolonged stay:
you then ascend to the “ new lands”, where, crossing a pleasure bridge, the thatched dairy appears, rurally ornamented, and paved with Portland stone:
it is furnished with marble dressers, and Wedgewood’s cream-coloured ware, emblematical of its use:
it has ten Gothic windows, opening upon a fine hanging wood, which adds to its beauty, and renders it ever cool.
Pursuing the winding maze, you gain, through a Chinese gate, the summit of the hill, where a terrace walk rewards your labour, by the magnificent view of the royal palace, Windsor Castle, the most prominent object of the fine prospect.
Led on by nature’s beauties, you reach an octagonal building, consisting of two stories, built with flints and pebbles, round which ivy creeps in fantastic forms.
The tower is a grotto of curious shells: above a tearoom, and behind a saloon for billiards: near it is a gate, formed entirely of gardeners’ tools.
Gradually descending by sloping walks, where branches meet above, excluding the solar rays, to a retired dell, an Hermit’s retreat arrests the attention; its outside formed of roots; its inside of the finest moss.
This building consists of a porch, matted seats, and Gothic gate, an inward cell, with four recesses, containing books, &c.; a table on which a lamp, hour-glass, globe, mug, trencher, fruit, and prayer-book are placed.
Opposite, a concealed door of moss opens into a matted chamber, where a rush couch, suspended lamp, skull, beads, staff, glass of rosemary, curious ink-stand hewn out of roots, a portfolio and owl, form the chief treasures of the sage; who, attired in russet robe, and with his grey beard, appears seated in a rustic chair, near the bed, as if poring o’er his book and crucifix, and whose figure must forcibly recal[sic] to the imagination those recluses, who, from various causes, as we read, have retired thus from the world.
Adjoining is his oratory, erected in a similar style; likewise an arbour of boughs, a stand of books, cross, bell, sun-dial, and rough stile, add their appropriate circumstances to the scene.
The lines over the porch Mrs. Bonnell altered from some she by chance met with, and those over the oratory were written by a deceased friend.
A fanciful flower-garden, with aviaries of ring doves, singing birds, and a beautiful unique yellow parrot, with gold and silver fish-ponds, complete the Pelling domain.

Lines over the Porch of the Hermitage at Pelling Place.

Safe from the dancing sun-beam’s mid-day heat,
Here may the modern hermit fix his seat ;
Nor, though no busy cares his mind annoy,
Bury one generous wish, one active joy.
Still let him be of social thoughts profuse,
Serene, not sour, - retired, not recluse.
If his wrapt heart would range religion's scope,
The power that guides his eye will raise his hope;
While all around conspire to bid him love -
The world about him, and the heaven above.


On a Tablet Over the Oratory in Pelling Grounds.

Come gentle wanderer, sit and rest,
No more the winding maze pursue;
And thou, of solitude in quest,
Pause here ! and take the solemn view.

The mossy couch, the Gothic gate,
The hermit's sad and silent cell,
Warns thee of thy approaching fate;
O ! fear to die - not living well.

STONE AT STAINES

London Stone at Staines in Thames, Cooke, painted Arnald, 1818
London Stone at Staines painted Arnald, 1818

STAINES BRIDGE

Staines Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Staines Bridge, 1811.

Staines Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Staines Bridge, 1818, S.Owen.

[ The old wooden bridge was referred to as being repaired in 1228.
A second three arch stone bridge was built in 1794/5 but the foundations slipped and the old bridge was put back into use.
This third iron bridge with wooden supports was built in 1807
The modern bridge was built in 1828/9.
Unsurprisingly there is confusion as to which bridge was which!
]

Staines, or as it is written in the old record, Stanes, is a small but populous place, on the banks of the Thames, in the county of Middlesex, and distant seventeen miles from London.
It is supposed, at least no better derivation has been suggested, to derive its name from the Saxon word Stana, or Stone, because within its parochial limits, the stone has immemorially stood, which marks the extent of the city of London's western jurisdiction on the river.
It stands on the bank of the river, at Coin ditch, at a small distance from the church.
On a moulding round of the upper part of the stone, which is much decayed, is inscribed,
"God preserve the city of London, A. D. 1280."
This stone was, during the mayoralty of Sir Watkin Lewes, in the year 1781, placed on a new pedestal, whose inscription informs the reader that it was erected exactly over the spot where the old one formerly stood.
From hence the jurisdiction of the city of London extends over the river Thames as low as Yendal or Yenleet to the last, including part of the rivers Medway and Lea, and it is the office of the Lord Mayor's Deputy, the Water Bailiff, to search for, and punish all persons who infringe the laws made for the preservation of the river, and its fish:
and in order to maintain the rights and privileges of the river, the Lord Mayor holds a Court of Conservancy eight times in the year, in the four counties of Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, and Essex.
There is nothing worthy of observation in this place except the tower of the church, which is said to have been designed by Inigo Jones, who for some time occupied an house near it.
The bridge, which is the principal object in the engraving, consists of iron arches, supported by wooden piles, or piers, painted of an iron colour.
It was intended to have consisted of a single arch of that material, but the present construction was preferred, and carried into execution by an Architect of the neighbourhood, who resides at Egham, on the Surrey side of the river, and was completed in the year 1807.
The old bridge was of wood, and in such a state of decay, that it became necessary for the public safety to remove it, it was to be supplied by one of stone, from a design of the late Thomas Sandby, Esq. Professor of Architecture to the Royal Academy; and was to consist of three eliptical arches, he centre occupying a span of sixty feet, and the two side ones, fifty-two each.
It was contracted for at the sum of eight thousand four hundred pounds, but from various causes, which it is not necessary for us to make a subject of disquisition, it was not carried into execution; and the present bridge was erected.
Through one of the arches, a very pleasing perspective view is caught of Windsor Castle.

... Penton Hook Lock, Chertsey Lock, Shepperton lock ...

OATLANDS

Oatlands in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Oatlands, 1811.

Oatlands in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Oatlands, 1818. S.Owen

This beautiful place is siluate at a small distance from the Thames, near Walton, in the county of Surrey; and is now in possession of the Duke of York.
The house, which has little but situation to recommend it, stands in a park whose limits have been considerably enlarged and enriched with plantations, since his Royal Highness has made it the place of his residence.
The terrace, with its fine swells and stately trees, is a most distinguished object from the river.
The water forms a noble sheet, and is so contrived as to appear at either end to unite with the Thames, which from its windings is concealed from the view.
Grottos and shell-rooms are but of little importance in the consideration of taste; but that which is to be seen at Oatlands is unrivalled; for the variety and beauty of its shells, fossils, and petrifactions.
It was constructed and finished by three persons, a father, and two sons, under the direction of the Countess of Lincoln, whose Lord, afterwards Duke of Newcastle, was then the possessor of the place.
It is said to have cost twelve thousand pounds.
There was formerly a noble palace in this park, a view of which is given in the back ground of a portrait of Anne of Denmark, Queen to James the First.
It was painted by Van Somers in 1617, and is in Kensington palace.

On St. George's Hill, in the neighbourhood of this place, are evident remains of a Roman encampment.

THE NEW [1788-1859] WALTON BRIDGE.

Walton Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Walton Bridge, 1811.

Walton Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Walton Bridge, 1818.

[ The old beautiful Bridge lasted 1750 - 1783
This "New" bridge lasted 1788 - 1859, when it collapsed
The third bridge lasted 1864 - 1985, being damaged in an air raid in 1940
A fourth bridge was built in 1953
A fifth bridge was built in 1999
The current "New" bridge was built in 2011/12
]

The present [1788-1859] Bridge is of brick, and consists of several arches; it was built after a design of Mr. Payne, and forms a very fine object from the terrace of Oatlands, the seat of the Duke of York.

The celebrated old [1750-1783] wooden bridge at Walton, was built by the late Samuel Decker, Esq. of that place, for which he obtained an act of parliament, in the year 1747, and in three years after that beautiful, curious, and elegant structure was compleated.
The plan of it was designed by a Mr. White, of Weybridge, whose name ought not to be forgotten, though his unparalleled work no longer remains.
The happy construction of this bridge was such, that, being composed of timbers, tangent to a circle of an hundred feet in diameter, either of them falling into decay, might with ease be unscrewed, and with equal facility, receive a new substitute, without disturbing the adjoining timbers.
Such, however, was its dangerous state, and so great would have been the expence of its repair, that, about twenty-five years since, it was judged expedient to take down the most beautiful wooden arch in the world; and the present bridge was constructed in its place.

... Sunbury Lock ...

GARRICK'S HOUSE, AT HAMPTON.

Garrick's House in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Garrick's House at Hampton, 1811.

Garrick's House in Thames, Cooke Dewint 1818
Garrick's House at Hampton, 1818, P Dewint.

The residence of Mr. Garrick will ever be considered as one of the classic objects on the banks of the Thames, and received all its decorations from him.
The house is elegant and commodious, was fitted up in the best taste of the time, and its elevation towards the water is from a design of Mr. Adams.
The home garden is laid out with great judgment, and communicates, by a subterraneous passage, with the beautiful bank that presents itself to the Thames, where the temple of Shakespeare appears to decorate the scene.
It was the peculiar merit and good fortune of Garrick to rescue the English stage from bombast, rant, and grimace.
His acting was founded on the immutable dictates of nature; who, in forming him for his profession, had lavished her graces with the most unsparing bounty.
His expressive features were the versatile mirror of every passion of the soul: he could not only suddenly, but progressively, change them from the highest dignity, with all the intermediate varieties of passion and character, down to the unmeaning gaze of idiotcy[sic]; while his eye appeared to possess a magical influence, which could awe with its terrors, alarm with its fury, fascinate with its gaiety, and almost torture with its tears!
Churchill says—

If strong expression, and strange powers which lie
Within the magic circle of the eye,
If feelings, which few hearts like his can know,
And which no face, so well as his, can show.

His voice was sweet, harmonious, and clear, and comprehended every modulation of sound.
His person altogether was well formed for the active bustle of the stage: in his first essay at Ipswich he performed Harlequin, and in his very last performance, which was in the character of Don Felix, in the Wonder, at the advanced age of sixty, he had all the gaiety of youth.
When these extraordinary powers were aided by his superior taste, it is not surprising that he should have at once burst forth the phenomenon of the dramatic world.
Indeed, in a very short time after his appearance at the theatre in Goodman's fields, his attraction was so powerful, that the whole west end of the town was emptied, as it were, every evening of his performance, and that unfrequented suburb was crowded with the coaches of the nobility and gentry; the other theatres being altogether neglected.
George II. was so deeply impressed with his Richard, that he did not believe he could be an honest man: and his brother Peter, having sent a letter to him by a grocer of Litchfield, who, coming to town late, and going to the theatre, where he saw Garrick perform Abel Drugger, was so disgusted that he would not visit him; and when questioned on the subject of his incivility by Mr. Peter Garrick, he said:—"I saw enough of him on the stage.
He may be rich, but by , though he is your brother, Mr. Garrick, he is one of the shabbiest, meannest, and most pitiful hounds I ever saw.

A gentleman in Goodman's field, while playing with his only child at an upper window, had the misfortune to let it fall from thence on a stone pavement, where it expired before his eyes.
The wretched parent having lost his senses, in consequence of this sad event, Garrick frequently visited him, and from this genuine source took his idea of the mad scene in Lear.
When, in action only, he gave a representation of this horrid affliction to a private party abroad, Mademoiselle Clairon, the celebrated French actress, was so enchanted with this exhibition of his extraordinary powers, that, as it were by an irresistible impulse, she clasped him in her arms.
There are some persons now living, who could bear testimony to his unparalleled powers in this dire picture of human misfortune, which he sometimes, but very rarely, exhibited, and then only to a select company of friends.
It is a disadvantage peculiar to the art of acting, that its professors cannot bring their talents into comparison with others of distant ages.

The actor only shrinks from time's award;
Feeble tradition is his memory's guard;
By whose faint breath his merits must abide,
Unvouched by proof, to substance unallied !

However, in the present instance, we have the testimony of Pope, who had seen Booth, Wilkes, Cibber, and Betterton, and gave Garrick the most unqualified preference:
and there are those now living, whose judgment is beyond all challenge, who are fully qualified to make the comparison between him and all who have succeeded him to the present hour, and who with one voice exclaim that they never did see his like, and are without the hopes of again enjoying such a supreme gratification.
That he made a complete reformation in the art, is proved by what Quin said after seeing his Richard,
"that if the young fellow was right, he and the rest of the players had been all wrong."
Mr. Lacy having obtained the sole patent of Drury-lane theatre, offered him a moiety, with a view of making the remainder more valuable to himself: Garrick accordingly purchased it for £8000, and thus laid the foundation of his fortune.
The situation of a manager is among those which is least to be envied: disappointed authors and actors are constantly loading him with abuse, as the great obstacle to the attainment of their wishes; but, besides these considerations, his splendid talents and fortune exposed him, more particularly, to the envy and malevolence of his contemporaries; and it is to these causes we must attribute the deluge of unmerited calumny, so freely lavished upon him by some writers.
He might be guided by prejudice, on some occasions, but his rejection of Douglas was a decision of his judgment; and subsequent experience has proved, that managers cannot always form an opinion as to what will, at all times, suit the public taste.
His enemies have, for the most part, levelled their short-sighted ridicule against his love of money; but, like the younger Pliny, the love of applause was his ruling passion.
His prudent attention to his fortune deserves the highest praise, and professional men would do well to imitate it: it not only gave importance to his talents, but extended its influence to the profession in general:
it enabled him also to support a magnificent establishment, and to live on equal terms with other men of distinguished character and reputation.
His festive board has been attended by a Chatham, a Camden, a Mansfield, and a Lyttleton; while Thurlow, Fox, Burke, Johnson, Warburton, Dunning, Reynolds, the Wartons, Mason, and many others of high consideration were often seen there.
Garrick was, in the true sense of the word, a liberal man; his many acts of generosity were performed with a princely munificence, and with the delicacy of real friendship:
but it was not of that kind, which, despising the dictates of reason and prudence, defeats its own purposes.
The greatest weakness of Garrick was the fear of ridicule: his contemporary, Foote, was well aware of this, and more than once, it is supposed, felt the weight of Garrick's purse.
Lampoons, and even libels, that if published must have doomed their authors to the pillory, are said to have been bought up by him.
It was his policy to anticipate what he could not prevent.
On the occasion of his marriage he was so tremblingly alive to this weakness, that he prevailed on a friend to write a short poem, anticipating the sarcastic sallies of the wits, in which some disappointed ladies, in a desperate fit of spleen and scandal, are made to discuss his merits; they find his talents on the decline, dispose of his best parts to various actors, and then the poet continues—

Two parts they readily allow,
Are yours; but not one more they vow,
And thus they close their spite,
You will be Sir John Brute, they say,
A very Sir John Brute all day,
And Fribble all the night.

He also wrote a humorous pamphlet previous to his acting Macbeth.
No lapse of years could blunt the edge of this morbid sensibility, for he could not embark for England, on his return from Italy, until he had made another offering at her shrine.
The Sick Monkey, a poem, was sent over, and printed before his arrival, for the same purpose.
At his death he bequeathed his property, amounting to about £100,000, to his kindred, out of whose circle he is said, most falsely and injuriously, "not to have known a friend".
However, this kindred having forgot what was due to so good a relation and benefactor, a friend, out of this circle, happened to remember it, and erected a monument to him, in Westminster Abbey, at his own expense.
The statue of Shakespeare, by Roubiliac, for which he built the temple, represented in this view, he bequeathed, at the death of his widow, to the British Museum, together with his collection of old plays.
His house, at Hampton, also contains that inestimable treasure, the four pictures of the election, by Hogarth.
He was buried, near the monument of Shakespeare, in Wesminster Abbey, Feb. 1, 1776, being the sixty-third year of his age.
His funeral was attended by a magnificent train of the first persons in the kingdom, in point of rank, dignity, and talents.
The great Earl of Chatham, stiled him, during his life, "nature's great proxy, glass of every age"; and, when he died, Dr. Johnson exclaimed, that "his death had eclipsed the gaiety of nations".

HAMPTON COURT.

Hampton Court in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Hampton Court, 1811. Owen


Hampton Court in Thames, Cooke & Cooke 1818
Hampton Court, 1818. P.Dewint.

This magnificent palace is situated on the north bank of the river Thames, in the county of Middlesex, about two miles from the town of Kingston, in the county of Surry, and near the village of Hampton, from which place it derives its name.
This superb structure was erected by Cardinal Wolsey, a man, who, though the son of a butcher at Ipswich, attained, by an extraordinary concatenation of prosperous circumstances, the highest dignities ecclesiastical and civil; and became at length, the minister of Henry the Eighth, and the arbiter of Europe.
The love of exterior splendor was a predominant feature in his character.
To supply his ostentatious vanity a vast revenue was indispensable, and he contrived to acquire it.
He was Prime Minister, Lord High Chancellor, Administrator of the bishoprick of Bath and Wells, Archbishop of York, and sole Legate a latere of the Pope.
He also received pensions from the Emperor of Germany and King of France, and the haughty Republic of Venice submitted to his control: at the same time his royal master, the King of England, poured the royal treasures into his coffers; and his canonical courts employed every species of rapine and extortion.
Among other examples of his splendor he built two palaces, the one at York Place, Westminster, and the other at Hampton, which is the subject of these pages.
The merciless system of monastic plunder which this voracious churchman had adopted, having been reported to the King, caused an impression in the royal breast, unfavourable to the views of the minister; but the Cardinal had accurately discerned the character of Henry, and knew how to appease his,indignation; he therefore complimented him with the gift of Hampton Court Palace, assuring his royal master that he had built it expressly for his pleasure and accommodation.
It was a present fit to be offered to a sovereign, and which he, who sat on the brightest throne in Europe, might receive without degrading his high character.
It was a brick building, but erected upon a plan of superior magnificence, and furnished with a splendour which was not to be seen on this side of the Alps.
To give a general idea of the lavish expence with which it was fitted up, it will be sufficient to observe, that it contained two hundred and eighty beds, which were adorned with silk and gold hangings:—Henry, however, greatly enlarged it.

Of the original splendor of this edifice there are few remains.
The principal of them is the spacious hall, formerly used as a banqueting room; its roof is in the best taste of Gothic design.
Some of our antiquarians have represented this hall to have been the scene of a grand banquet, which was given by Cardinal Wolsey to his sovereign, for the purpose of introducing Ann Boleyn to his notice; but it is more probable, we think, that this entertainment was given by the minister at his residence in York Place, now Whitehall.
Cavendish, who wrote the life of the Cardinal in the time of Queen Mary, gives the following description of it.
"Before the King and his noble company began to dance, they requested leave to accompany the ladies at Mumchance: leave being granted, then went the maskers and first saluted all the dames, and then returned to the most worthiest; and then opened the great cup of golde, filled with crownes and other pieces to cast at.
Thus perusing all the gentlewomen, of some they wonne, and to some they lost; and having viewed all the ladies, they returned to the Cardinal, with great reverence, pouring down all their gold, which was above two hundred crowns.
At all, quoth the Cardinal, and casting the die, he wonne it, whereat was great joy."

Cavendish also gives the following account of an entertainment given, by the King's command, at Hampton Court, in the year 1527, to the French Ambassador, then in England; and the Cardinal had the direction of the magnificent banquet, and presided at it.
"Then," says the historian, "was there made great preparations of all things for this proud assembly at Hampton Court.
The Cardinal called before him his principal officers, as Steward, Treasurer, Comptroller and Clerk of the Kitchen, to whom he declared his mind, touching the entertainment of the Frenchmen at Hampton Court: commanding them neither to spare for any cost, expence, or travail, to make such a triumphant banquet, as they might not only wonder at it here, but also make a glorious report of it in their country, to the great honour of the King and his realm.
To accomplish his commandment they sent out caterers, purveyors, and divers other persons, my Lord's friends, to make preparation; they also sent for all the expert cooks, and cunning persons, in the art of cookery, which were within London or elsewhere, that might be gotten to beautify this noble feast.
The purveyors provided, and my Lord's friends sent in such provision as one would wonder to have seen.
The cooks wrought both day and night, with subtleties, and many crafty devices, there lacked neither gold nor silver, nor other costly thing meet for their purpose.
The yeomen and grooms of the wardrobe were busied in hanging of the chambers, and furnishing the same with beds of silk, and other furniture of every degree.
Then my Lord Cardinal sent me, being his gentleman Usher, with two others of my fellows, thither, to foresee all things touching our rooms to be nobly garnished: accordingly our pains were not small or light; but daily travelling up and down from chamber to chamber.
Then wrought the carpenters, joiners, masons, and all other artificers necessary to be had to glorify this noble seat.
There was carriage and recarriage of plate, stuffs, and other rich implements; so that there was nothing lacking thai could be imagined or devised for the purpose.
There were also provided two hundred and eighty beds furnished with all manner to them belonging, too long to be particularly rehearsed; but all wise men do sufficiently know what belongeth to the furniture thereof, and that is sufficient at this time to be said.
The day at length came to the Frenchmen assigned, and they were all ready assembled before the hour of their appointment; wherefore the officers caused them to ride to Hanworth, a place and park of the King's, within three miles, there to hunt and spend the day until night; at which time they returned again to Hampton Court, and every of them was conveyed to their several chambers, having in them great fires, and wine to their comfort and relief, remaining there untill their supper was ready.
The chambers where they supped and banqueted were ordered in this sort:
First, the great chamber was hung with rich Arras, as all other were, and furnished with tall yeomen to serve.
There were set tables round about the chamber, banquet wise, covered; a cupboard was there garnished with white plate, having also in the same chamber, to give the more light, four great plates of silver, set with lights, and a large fire of wood and coals.
The next chamber, being the chamber of presence, was hanged with very rich arras, and a sumptuous cloth of estate furnished, with many goodly gentlemen to serve the tables, ordered in manner as the other chamber was, saving that the high table was removed beneath the cloth of estate, towards the middle of the chamber, and covered.
Then there was a cupboard, being as long as the chamber was in breadth, with six desks garnished with gilt plate; and the nethermost desk was garnished all with gold plate, having, with lights, one pair of candlesticks, silver and gilt, being curiously wrought, which cost three hundred marks; and standing upon the same, two lights of wax burning, as big as torches to set it forth.
This cupboard was barred round about it, that no man could come nigh it, for there was none of all this plate touched in the banquet, for there was sufficient without it.
The plates that did hang on the walls to give light, were of silver, and gilt, having in them great pearchers of wax, burning; a great fire blazing in the chimney, and all other things necessary for the furniture of so noble a feast.

Now were all things in readiness, and supper time at hand, when the principal officers caused the trumpeters to blow, to warn to supper; and the officers then proceeded, with great discretion, to conduct these noblemen from theif chambers, where they should sup, and caused them there to sit down; and that done, the service came up in such abundance, both costly and full of subtleties, and with such a pleasant noise of instruments of music, that the Frenchmen, as it seemed, were rapt into an heavenly paradise.
It must be understood, that my Lord Cardinal was not yet come thither, but they were merry and pleasant with their fair and devised subtleties.
Before the second course, my Lord came in, booted and spurred, all suddenly among them, at which there was great joy, with rising every man from his place, whom my Lord caused to sit still, and keep their rooms, and, being in his apparel as he rode, called for a chair, and sat down in the midst of the high Paradise, laughing, and being as merry as ever he was known to be.
Anon came up the second course, with so many dishes, subtleties, and devises, above an hundred in number, which were of so goodly proportion, and so costly, that it may be believed the Frenchmen never saw the like, and much did they wonder and marvel thereat, and express their great delight by their looks and gestures, as well as by their words.
There were castles with images in the same, and the Chnrch of St. Paul most truely and ingeniously counterfeited.
There were also beasts, birds, fowls, and personages, most likely made, and counterfeited; some fighting with swords, some with guns and cross-bows, some vaulting and leaping, some dancing with ladies, some on horses, in compleat harness, justing[sic] with long and sharp spears, with many more devices:
—among all the rest was a chess-board, made of spiced plate, with men there of the same; and for the good portion, and because the Frenchmen be very cunning and expert in that play, my Lord Cardinal gave the same to a gentleman of France, commanding that a goodly case should be made, for the preservation thereof, in all haste, that he might convey the same safe into his country.
Then took my Lord a bowl of gold, filled with Hippocras, and putting off his cap, said, I drink to the King, my Sovereign Lord, and next unto the King, your master, and therewith did drink a good draught; and when he had done, he desired the Grand Maître to pledge him cup and all, which which was well worth five hundred marks, and so caused all the tables to pledge him in the health of these two royal princes:
then went the cups so merrily about, that many of the Frenchmen were fain to be led to their beds.
Then rose up my Lord, and went into his privy chamber, to pull off his boots, and to shift him, and then went he to supper, and, making a short repast, returned into the chamber of presence to the Frenchmen, using them so lovingly and familiarly, that they could not commend him too much:
and whilst they were in communication and other pastimes, all their liveries were served to their chambers.
—Every chamber had a bason and ewer of silver, a great livery pot of silver, and some which were gilt; and some chambers had two livery pots with wine and beer; a bowl, a goblet, and a pot of silver to drink in, both for their wine and beer; a silver candlestick, both white and plain, having in it two sizes, and a staff torch of wax; a fine manchet, and a wheat loaf.
Thus was every chamber furnished through the house, and yet the cupboards in the two banqueting chambers were not touched.
Thus, when it was more than time convenient, they were conveyed to their lodgings, where they rested for that night.
In the morning, after they had heard mass, they dined in great pomp with the Lord Cardinal in the hall, and so departed for Windsor."

In the last reign, this hall was converted into a theatre, where Queen Caroline intended that two plays should be performed weekly, while the Court resided there; but Colley Cibber mentions that only seven plays were performed in it, one of which was for the entertainment of the Duke of Lorraine, afterwards Emperor of Germany.
Of the original state of this palace we know little but from the description of contemporary writers, as the parts which remain of it convey no idea of its primeval magnificence.
It was the object of great admiration in its day; it even inspired the muse of the learned Grotius, who describes it in the following lines.

Si quis opes nescit (sed quis tamen ille) Britannas,
Hamptin Curta, tuas consulet ille Lares.
Contulerit toto cum sparsa palatia mundo,
Dicet, ibi reges, hìc habitare Deos.

Hentzner, in his Itinerary, gives the following account of this palace, when he visited it, in the reign of Elizabeth.
"The chief area is paved with square stone.
In its centre is a fountain that throws up water, covered with a gilt crown, on the top of which is the figure of Justice, supported by columns of white and black marble.
The chapel of this palace is most splendid, in which the queen's closet is quite transparent, having its windows of chrystal.
We were led into two chambers, called the presence, or chambers of audience, which shone with tapestry of gold and silver, and silk of different colours:
under the canopy of state are these words, embroidered in pearl:
Vivat Henricus Octavus.
Here is besides a small chapel, hung with tapestry, where the Queen performs her private devotions.
In her Majesty's bed-chamber the bed was covered with very costly coverlids of silk.
At no great distance from this room, we were shewn a bed, the tester of which was worked by Anne Boleyn, and presented by that lovely, accomplished queen, to her husband, Henry the Eighth.
All the other rooms, being very numerous, are adorned with tapestry of gold, silver, and velvet, in some of which were woven history pieces; in others Turkish and American dresses, all extremely natural.
In the hall are these curiosities.
—A very clear looking-glass, ornamented with columns, and little images of alabaster; a portrait of Edward the Sixth, brother to Qneen Elizabeth; the true portrait of Lucretia; a picture of the battle of Pavia; the history of Christ's passion, carved in mother of pearl; the portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots; the picture of Ferdinand, Prince of Spain, and of Phillip, his son; that of Henry the Eighth, under which was placed the Bible, curiously written upon parchment; an artificial sphere, and several musical instruments.
In the tapestry are represented negroes, riding upon elephants; the bed in which Edward the Sixth is said to have been born, and where his mother, Jane Seymour, died in child-bed.
In one chamber were several excessively rich tapestries, which are hung up when the Queen gives audience to foreign ambassadors.
There were numbers of cushions, ornamented with gold and silver.
Here is also a certain cabinet, called Paradise, where, besides every thing glitters so with gold, silver, and jewels, as to dazzle one's eyes, there is a musical instrument, made all of glass, except the strings.
Afterwards we were led into the gardens, which were most pleasant."
After a very prolonged enumeration of the magnificence of this palace, the curious visitor concludes with an admiring declaration,
"that all its walls shine with gold and silver."

This scene of pomp and magnificence of former kings, became, at a subsequent period, the prison of that ill-fated monarch, Charles the First.
In the year 1690, the old palace was taken down, and the present beautiful structure erected, by William the Third, under the direction, and from the design of that great architect, Sir Christopher Wren.
The King had intended to erect a palace in a different situation, at the west end of the town of Hampton, on an elevation about half a mile distant from the river, which would have been preferable to that which it now occupies; but the length of time which its completion required occasioned that design to be relinquished.
The present palace was completed in about four years, and a very short time previous to the death of Queen Mary, to whose taste and superior skill in the arts, we have the authority of the great architect himself for stating, that this building owes much of its elegance.
The grand elevation towards the garden extends three hundred and thirty feet, and that towards the Thames three hundred and twenty eight.
The portico and colouade, of duplicated pillars of the Ionic order, at the grand entrance, and indeed the general design of both these facades, are in a superior style of magnificence, and form a fine example of the palace character.
On the pediment, in the east front of the building, is a bas-relief, representing the triumphs of Hercules over Envy.
The garden before it is laid out in the style of the period when the palace was erected, and was the work of London and Wife, the two most distinguished gardeners of their day.
At the entrance of the grand walk are two large vases, of exquisite workmanship, one of them the sculpture of Gibber, and the other by a foreign artist.
At the bottom of this walk, facing a canal which runs into the park, are two other vases, like the former, decorated with bas-reliefs, from the pagan mythology.
In the four parterres are as many large bronze statues: that of the fighting gladiator formerly stood in the parade of St.
James's Park, near the canal, and was removed hither in the reign of Queen Anne.
On the south side of the Palace is the privy garden, which was sunk ten feet, in order to open a view from the apartments to the Thames: i n this garden there is a fountain, and two great terrace walks.
On the north side of this superb structure is a tennis court, and beyond it is a gate, leading into the wilderness.
Farther on is the gate of the gardens, on the sides of which are large stone piers, with the lion and unicorn, couchant, of the same materials.
The park and gardens, with the ground on which (he palace stands, are about.
three miles in circumference.

The entrance into the palace is on the west side, through a long court-yard, on each side of which are stables, for the officers of his Majesty's household.
A portal, which was part of the old building, built by Wolsey, and still retains the decorations (several Roman Emperors' heads) which he placed there, forms the entrance to a spacious uniform quadrangle, leading to a second, over whose gateway is a beautiful astronomical clock, made by the celebrated Tompion, on which are represented the twelve signs of the Zodiac, with the rising and setting of the sun, the various phases of the moon, and other indications of time.
On the left side of this quadrangle is the great hall, which has been already mentioned, and on the opposite side is a stone colonade, of the Ionic order, leading to the great staircase, which is painted by Verrio.
—The walls and the ceiling afford a splendid representation of select parts of the heathen mythology.

From the staircase, a door opens into the Guard Chamber, which is sixty feet long, and forty feet wide, and curiously fitted with arms, arranged in various forms and devices.

The next apartment is the King's First Presence Chamber, which is hung with rich old tapestry.
Fronting the door are the canopy and chair of state, whose furniture and accompaniments are of crimson damask, richly embroidered with the usual symbols of royalty.
To the left of the entrance is a large picture, eighteen feet high, and fifteen feet wide, of William the Third, by Sir Godfrey Kneller.
The monarch is represented in armour, and mounted on a grey horse, trampling on trophies of war, with a flaming torch beside them; above, Mercury and Peace support an helmet, while a Cupid, bearing a scoll, is added to the groupe; in the lower part of the picture, Neptune and his marine attendants are seen, by the side of a rock, as if welcoming the heroic Sovereign on shore, while, in the distance, appears a fleet of ships, in full sail.
In the fore ground is the figure of Plenty, who offers a cornucopia and an olive branch to the Sovereign, while Flora presents a tribute of flowers.
Over the chimney is an whole length of the Marquis of Hamilton, Lord Steward of the Household to Charles the First, by Van Somer; and over the doors are two pieces of architecture, by Rosso.

The Second Presence Chamber is hung with a very rich tapestry, the lights being in gold, and the shades in silk.
The subjects which it displays are Hercules and the Hydra, and Midas with the ass's ears.
The canopy and Its furniture are of crimson damask.
Over the chimney is an whole length portrait of the King of Denmark, by Van Somer.
Tim picture, with many others of the larger size, is decorated about the frame with festoons of fruit and flowers, in fine carved work.
Over the three doors are ruins and landscapes, by Rosso.
In this room are also two marble tables, of great beauty, with two large pier glasses, and two pair of gilt stands.

The Fourth Room is very lofty, from the centre of which hangs a silver chandelier, of sixteen branches.
The canopy of state, which enriches this apartment, as well as the furniture, are of crimson damask, laced and fringed with gold.
The hangings are of tapestry, representing part of the history of Abraham.
Over the chimney is an whole length of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, the daughter of James the First, and over each of the doors is a Madonna, by Domenico Fetti.

In the Fifth Room is also a chair of state and stools.
The window curtains are tissue, with a silver ground, and the tapestry, which is richly interwoven with gold, represents another part of the history of Abraham.
Rich silver sconces are attached to it.
Over the chimney piece is a very fine whole length portrait of Charles the First, by Vandyck; and over the doors are two capital pictures: the one is David with the head of Goliath, by Domenico Fetti; and the other an Holy Family, by Corregio.

In The King's State Bed-Chamber is a crimson velvet bed, laced with gold, decorated with plumes of white feathers.
This spacious chamber is hung round with tapestry, representing the history of Joshua, enlivened by silver sconces, very richly chased.
The ceiling is by Verrio, and represents Endymion reposing in the lap of Morpheus, while Diana Appears to look with fondness on him as he sleeps.
On another part of the ceiling is a figure of Somnus, with his attributes.
In the border are four landscapes, and four boys, with baskets of flowers, in which the poppy predominates.
Over the doors are two flower pieces, by John Baptist; and over the chimney is an whole length of the Duchess of York, by Van Somer.

The King's Dressing Closet is hung with straw-coloured India damask, and the furniture is covered with the same.
The ceiling is painted by Verrio, and represents Mars asleep in the lap of Venus: while some Cupids are stealing away his armour, sword, and spear, others are binding his legs and arms with bands of roses.
The borders are decorated with jessamine, orange-trees in pots, and different kinds of birds.
Over the doors are flower pieces, by John Baptist; to whicli may be added the following pictures.
—Dead Game, by Van Oost; Lady Vaux, by ;Christ and St. John, by Leonardo da Vinci; Francis the First, of France, by Jannet; the Angel and St. Peter in Prison, by Stenwyck; King Charles the First on Horseback, by Vandyck;
the Great Mogul, with his Attendants, by ????;
Lot and his Daughters, by Poelemburg; a battle piece, by Wouwermans; Diana and Nymphs Bathing, by Polemburg; the inside of a church, with the Woman taken in Adultery, by Deneef, the figures, by Old Francks; Henry the Eighth, by Holbein; Erasmus, by the same; a woman singing, &c. by Gerhard Douw, &c. &c.
There is some old ornamental china over the chimney piece.

The King's Writing-Closet is of a triangular form, and has two windows.
The hangings and stools are of pea-green India damask.
A glass is placed in such a position as to shew all the rooms on that side of the building in one view.
A flower piece, by John Baptist, hangs above either door, and the space over the chimney-piece is covered by a picture of birds, by Bogdane.
The other paintings are the Shepherd's Offering, by Old Palma; Queen Henrietta Maria, after Vandyck, by Gibson; the Centaur, &c. after Giulio Romano, Judith and Holofernes, by Paul Veronese; Head of a Magdalen, by ? Ferrato; Administration of the Sacrament, by Leandro Bassan; Nymphs and Satyrs, by Polemburgh ; a Landscape with cattle, by Adrian Vandervelde; St. Peter and the Angel in Prison, by Steenwyck; a Landscape with a Hay-cart, by Wouvermans; the Visitation, by Carlo Maratti; Charles the First at Dinner, by &c.

Queen Mary's Closet is hung with needle work, supposed to be wrought by herself and her maids of honour.
There are also an easy and four other chairs, with a screen, supposed to have been enriched with the needle of that Queen.
The work is remarkable for its neatness, the figures are shadowed with great truth, and the outline of the designs is correctly made; it is decorated with the following pictures: the Virgin teaching Christ to Read, by Guercino; an Holy Family, by Dosso di Ferrara; Lord Darnley and his Brother, by de Heere; the King of Bohemia at Dinner, by ???; King George the First's Queen, by ????; Moses striking the Rock, by Marco Ricci; St. Jerome, by Mieris; George the First, by ???; Saint Francis, by Teniers; a Madonna and St. John, by Guercino; a Bunch of Grapes, by Verelst; a Woman, to the waist, by Sebastian del Piombo; the Ascension of the Virgin, by Denis Calvart; a Landscape, by G. Poussin, &c.

The Queen's Gallery is about seventy feet long, and twenty-five feet wide.
It is hung, but not in chronological order, with seven beautiful pieces of tapestry, representing the history of Alexander, after Le Brun.
Among the other furniture in this gallery are two very fine tables of Egyptian marble.

The Queen's State Bed-Chamber.
The ceiling is painted by Sir James Thornhill, and represents Aurora rising out of the ocean, in a chariot of gold, drawn by four white horses.
The bed is of crimson damask.
Over the chimney-piece is an whole length of James the First, by Van Somer; above one of the doors is the portrait of Anne his royal Consort, by the same artist; and over the other is the picture of Henry, Prince of Wales, by Vandyck; there is also a portrait of the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Queen of Bohemia.
In the cornice are four other portraits, one on each side, George the First, George the Second, Queen Caroline, and Frederick, Prince of Wales.
There are also a portrait of the Duchess of Brunswick, by Moreelze, and a landscape, by Zucarelli.

The Queen's Drawing-Room.
The ceiling is by Verrio, and in the middle of it Queen Anne is represented, in the character of Justice; she is dressed in a purple robe, lined with ermine; while Neptune and Britannia are holding a crown over her head.
The room is hung with green damask, on which are hung nine pictures, three on each side, and as many at the end of the room; they were originally in one very long picture, as may be plainly seen from their present divided state.
The whole composes the triumph of Julius Caesar, consisting of a procession of soldiers, priests, officers of state, &c. at the end of which the Roman Emperor appears in his triumphal chariot, with victory holding a crown of laurel over his head: it is in water colours, upon canvas, by Andea Mantegna.
Over the two doors are two pictures, by Sebastian Ricci; the one representing our Saviour with the Woman of Samaria, and the other the same divine person and the Woman with the issue of blood.

The Queen's State Audience Room is hung with rich tapestry, representing King Melchisedec, giving bread and wine to Abraham.
This apartment is enriched with a canopy of state, and the following pictures: The Countess of Lenox, and Margaret of Scots, by Arnold Mytens; the Duke and Duchess of Brunswick, by the same artist; with Bacchus and Ariadne, by Ciro Ferri.

The Public Dining-Room is of noble proportions, and is decorated with the following pictures: Four sea pieces, by Vandervelde; Bacchus and Ariadne, after Guido, by Romanelli; Christ in the House of Lazarus, by Sebastian Ricci; the Pool of Bethesda, by the same painter; Baccio Bandinelli, the sculptor, by Corregio; the Woman taken in Adultery, by Sebastian Ricci; Prince Rupert, by Mirevclt, &c.
In this room is deposited the model of a palace intended for Richmond Gardens, from a design of his present Majesty.

The Prince of Wales's Presence Chamber is hung with tapestry, wrought with the story of Tobit and Tobias.
Over two of the doors are the portraits of Guzman and Gundamor, two Spanish ambassadors, by Blenburg; over the third is the picture of a Queen of France, by Pourbus; and above the chimney-piece is the portrait of Louis the Thirteenth of France, with a walking stick in his hand, and a dog by his side, by Belcamp; facing the latter is Ahasuerus and Esther, by Tintoret.

The Prince of Wales's Drawing-Room is hung also with tapestry, on which is wrought the Miracle of Elymas the Sorcerer struck with blindness, after one of the Cartoons; over the chimney-piece is a Duke of Wirtemberg, by Mark Gerards; over the two doors are an whole length of the royal Consort of Philip the Second of Spain, and of Count Mansfield, by Mytens.

The Prince of Wales's Bed Chamber.
The bed and furniture is of green damask.
Its pictures are an whole length of the Duke of Luxemburgh, great grandfather of his present Majesty, by Mytens; the Prince of Parma; a Spanish Nobleman; and the Consort of Christian the Fourth, King of Denmark.

The Private Chapel is wainscoted to a considerable height, and is lighted by a central dome.
The only picture is the Last Supper, by Tintoret.
In the adjoining closet, are the portraits of George the Second, and Queen Caroline, by Kneller; Jonah sitting under the Gourd, by Hemskirk; an head, by Gentileschi, &c. &c.

In the Private Dining-Room are eight sea pieces, six of which are by Vandevelde, and represent the defeat of the Spanish Armada; over the chimney-piece is a portrait of the Earl of Nottingham, by Zucchero.
The adjoining closet has the murder of the Inuocento, and the Rape of the Sabines, by Brueghel.

The King's Private Dressing-Room is hung with tapestry, representing the sea-fight off Solbay; and contains the portraits of Sir John Lawson, after Sir Peter Lely; the Duke of Gloucester, by Kneller; and Lord Sandwich, by Dobson.
In the King's Private Bed-Chamber are a Friar and Nuns at a Banquet, by ????; with Susanna and the Elders, by Paul Veronese.
The bed is of crimson damask.
In the closet are two pictures, representing Jupiter and Europa, and two Madonnas.

The Council Chamber, which afterwards was called the Cartoon Gallery, from being the repository of the sublime works of the immortal Raffaelle, has now re-assumed its former denomination, in consequence of the Cartoons, which having sojourned for a time in the Queen's Palace and Windsor Castle, have at length been restored to this apartment.
The first of these pictures is the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, in which Christ appears in the boat, with an air of benign majesty, suited to the character of his nature and his mission.
The beauty of this composition principally consists in the contrasted character of the Saviour and his disciples.
The landscape which forms the back-ground is in a fine style of design, and admirably suited to our notions of the age and country, when and where the extraordinary transaction took place.
The large fowl placed on the shore, in the fore-ground, have a sea wildness about them; and as the food of that kind of bird is fish, they contribute to characterise the scene; besides they serve to break the parallel lines that would have been made by the boat, and lighten the fore-ground.
The painter has certainly designed a boat which, according to mechanical measurement, is too small to hold the figures he has placed in it; but superficial judges alone can impute this circumstance as an unconscious lapse of the painter, though it may be a technical defect in the picture.
Had he made the boat large enough lor the figures, the picture would have been all boat; and to have made his figures small enough lor a vessel of that size, they would have lost the character of the series, as well as their appropriate consideration: there would then have been too much boat, and too little figure.
The second is the Charge to Peter.
In this Cartoon the figure of our Saviour is admirably conceived and expressed.
It is no longer the earthly, the human Christ; it is Christ, "risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept".
He is wrapped in one large piece of white drapery; his left arm and breast are bare, and part of his legs are naked, as characteristic of his state subsequent to his resurrection.
The figures of the eleven Apostles all express the passion of admiration, but discover its emotion according to their respective characters.
This group, considered as a work of art, representing nature and relating story, was never excelled, perhaps never equalled, by the pencil of a painter.
The back-ground, and general scenery, is in perfect correspondence with the genius and predominating taste of Raffaelle.
The third represents Peter and John healing the Lame at ihe Beautiful Gate of the Temple.
The figures are finely conceived, and the miracle displayed in all the truth and beauty of character.
The boys produce a very beautiful effect: their being naked has been objected to by those who are over studious of reason and propriety; but let the effect be considered by those who are duly qualified, and all objection must vanish.
The nakedness of the boys may be liable to a charge of singularity; but let those who make it, clothe them in imagination, and the picture will be found to suffer; nay, it may be asked, with confidence, if it would not have suffered, had the pencil of Raffaelle himself cast a drapery over them.
To heighten the contrast of the whole the great artist has so arranged his figures, as to make the building a superb example of architectural beauty.

The fourth is the Death of Ananias.
In this composition no more figures are employed than are necessary to give due force and character to the Subject.
The Apostolic groupe is full of varied dignity, with Peter in the front of it.
The chief action of course relates to the criminal, to whom the alarmed and terrified attention of the more prominent figures are directed.
The fifth is Elymas the Sorcerer struck with Blindness.
The boast of this Cartoon is the figure of Elymas.
Blindness is completely personified in the representation of the Sorcerer; every part about him denotes the entire deprivation of sight, while terror and astonishment is finely expressed by the other figures in the natural variety of their respective characters and attitudes.
What grace and majesty are seen in the great Apostle of the Gentiles, in his action, his preaching, the rending of his garments, and the denunciation of his vengeance!
The Proconsul, Sergius Paulus, appears with a grace superior to his official character; ennobled, as it were, with the doctrine which he now believed, and the religion he embraced, he appears with the dignity of an Augustus or a Trajan.
The sixth is the Sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas by the People of Lycaonia.
The distribution of the figures cannot be too much admired.
The figure of the man, who is aiming his blow at the beast, is finely represented to denote his aptitude and fitness for the office in which he is employed; while the cripple, who is restored, and the man who contemplates the limb, which has been supernaturaily strengthened, are displayed with the most perfect adherence to truth and nature.
The seventh of these Cartoons is Paul Preaching at Athens.
The inspired orator is the chief figure, and possesses transcendent merit; the imagination cannot go beyond it.
He appears surrounded by the different sects of philosophers which then divided Athens; and with what wonderful art are their different tempers represented: one is pre-eminently distinguished as a believer, and by the holding forth of his hands, denotes his emotions; he occupies the second place in the picture: another is wrapped in deep suspence: a third marks apparent displeasure; while the rest are reasoning with each other, or absorbed in silent attention.
This picture is composed with consummate judgment, and remains to be considered as the boast and the wonder of the art which produced it.

The Dining-Room contains the portraits of nine celebrated beauties: —The Countess of Peterborough, the Countess of Ranelagh, Lady Middleton, Miss Pitt, the Duchess of St. Albans, the Countesses of Essex and Dorset, the Duchess of Grafton, and Queen Mary.

The Queen's Stair-case.
The ceiling is painted by Vick, which represents Charles the Second, and Catharine his Queen, with the Duke of Buckingham, representing science, in the habit of Mercury, while Envy appears to be struck down by naked boys.
The ornamental parts are designed by Kent.

The palace consists of three quadrangles; in the last of them is a very beautiful colonade, of the Ionic order, in coupled columns, designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

It is remarkable that the palace is supplied with water, for domestic uses, by a pipe conveyed under the Thames, about half a mile from Kingston bridge, from a place called Combe, which is about four miles distant from Kingston.

Lady Sullivan's Villa at Thames Ditton.

Lady Sullivan's Villa by S Owen 1811
Lady Sullivan's Villa at Thames Ditton. S.Owen 1811

Lady Sullivan's Villa by S Owen 1818
Lady Sullivan's Villa at Thames Ditton. S.Owen 1818

Here the Thames begins to assume somewhat of a rural character, for between the metropolis and Kingston-bridge its banks are so peopled, that it is impossible to disconnect one’s self from the busy hum of men.
Thomson makes the rural appearance of the river to commence at Kew, where, he says,
“The Thames first rural grows.”
But Brentford, surely, is not an object that answers to such a character; while the splendid scenery of Richmond Gardens, on one side of the stream, and the expanding, ornamented lawn, crowned with Sion-house, on the other, do not inspire that calmness and sobriety of sentiment which is associated with village retirement, and a remoteness from the noise, the hustle, and the parade of metropolitan life.
Even Richmond, with all its beauties, its elegance, its expansive range of prospect, and every other of its fascinating circumstances, conveys no notion of country seclusion.
Like some of those insulated spots which, though in the midst of one county, for reasons unexplained by our antiqnaries, belongs to another, it appears to be an accessory to the metropolis, though situated at a distance from it.
Its green is a square, the place itself is a street up to its hill-top, and even the park, with its woods and its groves, its lawns and its glades, is too much frequented by opulence and fashion to be considered or felt as a scene unconnected with them.
Twickenham has been the haunt of the Muses; but the Dryads are not to be found there.
They love not the gay parterre and the ornamented garden, but retire to the secret bower and the sequestered grove; they fly from a village of villas to the secluded retreat where the cottage rises in the scene, and the occupations of the peasant at once tranquillise and enliven the landscape.
Such a place is Thames Ditton, where the village character is decorated, but not destroyed, by the charming residence of Lady Sullivan.
It forms a picturesque object, at a pleasing distance from the water, and possesses all the interior elegance and accommodation which suit the rank and character of its possessor.
It once belonged to Lady Digby ; and was afterwards purchased by Sir Richard Sullivan, Baronet, whose relict is the present widowed tenant of it.
The representation of the engraving will give a far better idea of the place, as it now exists, than words can convey:
It will remain, therefore, for this page to bestow a few lines on its master, who, to the great loss of his family, his friends, and the world, exists no more.
To the most amiable manners, the kindest heart, and the most generous nature, he added the ardent love of knowledge, and the fair attainments of science, which be employed to instruct and improve others.
His works prove the sincerity of his wish to make learning subservient, as it ever ought to be, to the advancement of moral and religious excellence.

KINGSTON.

Kingston by S Owen 1818?
Kingston, Owen 1818?
Can only find this poor quality version and guess it was 1818

Kingston is a market town, situated upon the banks of the Thames, in the county of Surrey.
It is governed by a corporation, which consists of an high steward, two bailiffs, a recorder, town-clerk, &c.
They act under the authority of several ancient charters, which were confirmed by Charles II.
This place derives its name from having been the scene of the coronation of several of the Saxon kings.
lts more ancient denomination was Mereford, from its ford over the river.
There is a record extant of a council held at Kyningenstun, the present Kingston, as early as the year 838, at which Egbert, the first king of all England, and his son Athelwolf, were present.
It was incorporated by King John; and in the reigns of Edward I. and Edward Ill. sent members to parliament, but, on the petition of the inhabitants, who declared themselves unable to pay their representatives the necessary expences of their attendance, that privilege was discontinued.
In a later period it derives some degree of consequence from having been the residence of that able statesman and renowned soldier, Richard Neville, the king-making Earl of Warwick, who built a palace near it, where he principally resided during the more active part of his distinguished life.
During the civil war between Charles I. and his parliament, this place was the scene of two memorable events.
The first armed force in that unhappy contest appears to have been assembled here, according to a report made to the House of Commons, in January 1642:
and here also was the last struggle in support of the royal cause; which originated in an ill-conceived plan of the Earl of Holland,
“to release the king, and bring him to parliament, to settle the peace of the kingdom, and to preserve the laws.”
The scheme failed, and, in the contest to support it, the author of it was taken prisoner, and Lord Francis Villiers, the brother of the duke of Buckingham, lost his life.

‘The church is a spacious structure, consisting of a nave, two aisles, and three chancels.
The tower is square, and of a moderate height, and is placed between the nave and middle chancel.
On the south side of the church stood a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary; in which, it is said, some of the Saxon kings were crowned.
In it were the effigies of all the sovereigns who were crowned at this place, as well as of King John, from whom the town received its first charter.
Lysons states them to be, Edward the elder, crowned in the year 900; his son Athelstan, in 925; Edmund, in 940; Eldred, in 946; Edwy, in 955; Edward the Martyr, in 975; and Ethelred, in 978.
It is doubtful whether Edgar, who suceeeded to the throne in 959, was crowned at Kingston or Bath.
The inscriptions over these figures stated that some of them were crowned in the market-place, and the rest in the chapel.
These figures were destroyed by the falling of the chapel, in 1730, when Abraham Hammerton, the sexton of the parish, who was digging a grave, was buried in the ruins, with another person and his daughter.
The latter was taken from the ruins after having laid seven hours beneath them, and survived the accident seventeen years.
There is a print of this woman by M‘Ardell.

Kingston Bridge

Kingston-bridge is one of the most ancient over the river Thames, it being mentioned in a record in the eighth year of Henry III.
During the intestine eommotions which have, at different periods, prevailed in this country, it was frequently destroyed, to cut off the communication between Surrey and Middlesex.
The present bridge is of wood, is one hundred and sixty-eight yards in length, and is endowed with lands to keep it in repair.

Here is also a free grammar school, founded and endowed by Queen Elizabeth, whose school-room is an ancient chapel, which belonged to the dilapidated hospital of St. Mary Magdalen.
The town-hall stands in the market-place, and, from the circumstance of the arms of Queen Elizabeth being placed on its wall, is supposed to have been erected in the reign of that illustrious princess.
The Lent Assizes for the county of Surrey are usually held in it.
Comb-Neville is a manor to the east of Kingston, and belongs to it.
Its name is supposed to be derived from William Neville, who held it in the time of Edward II.
It is now the property of Earl Spencer.
On the warren are some reservoirs of water, formed by Cardinal Wolsey for the supply of Hampton-court, to which it is conveyed by pipes laid under the Thames.

STRAWBERRY HILL

Strawberry Hill S Owen 1811
Strawberry Hill, the seat of the Hon. Mrs Damer, 1811

Strawberry Hill S Owen 1818
Strawberry Hill, the seat of the Hon. Mrs Damer, 1818

This singular, curious, and picturesque mansion, which is situated at Twickenham, is the property of the Honourable Mrs. Damer, to whom it was bequeathed by the late Earl of Orford, better known as Mr. Horace Walpole, who was the creator of it.
The house, with its scenery, presents a very pleasing object to the river, and may be considered as a cabinet of curious prettiness.
In the construction of this edifice, or, it may be rather said, in the decoration of it, Mr. Walpole made a very choice selection of the best specimens of what is called Gothic architecture; particularly from the choir of the cathedral church at Rouen, in Normandy; the tomb of Archbishop Wareham, at Canterbury ; and St George’s chapel, at Windsor.
The interior decoration, as well as the furniture, is happily appropriated to its external form, and the whole has the genuine appearance of former times without the decay.
The embowed roof, the storied windows, and the dim religious light are contrived with a minute attention to the character of the place; and, from this uniformity and co-operation of design, it derives the beauty which it possesses.
Its contents are various, but suited to the apartments which contain them.
There are several portraits by Rubens, Van Dyck, Jansens, Lilly, and other masters, in the gallery.
The cabinet of miniatures, among which are many fine specimens by the Olivers, Cooper, Pettitot, Sic. is of great value.
There are some beautiful examples of the lesser kinds of sculpture, in silver, ivory, and ebony, with a great variety of inferior curiosities; among which is the china vase,whose well-known catastrophe produced the beautiful ode on the death of a cat, by Mr. Gray.
A catalogue of the whole has been published from a manuscript left by Mr. Walpole, for that purpose.
The library, which is of considerable extent, contains every thing connected with the graphic art, and its collection of portraits is of acknowledged pre-eminence.
Here Mr. Walpole had also established a press, where his own works were printed, and, sometimes, an occasional Jeu d’esprit of a friend.
The Strawberry Hill editions, which are now become scarce, are very much advanced in their value among the more curious collectors of printed works.
This place may be considered as a picture of the master’s mind who formed it, in which there was nothing great; at the same time that it was plentifuliy stored with elegant knowledge, and gifted with the power of communicating it in a manner of superior polish and amusement.
He was the son of a prime minister whose power was of long duration; his rank was among the higher orders of nobility, and his provision was large.
He was, therefore, early enured to flattery, with all the indulgences of his situation, and he continued naturally enough to expect the enjoyment of them to the close of a very prolonged life.
His father distinguished himself as a lover of the arts, by the Houghton collection; and which, to the eternal disgrace of this country, is no longer the boast of it.
Mr. Walpole may, therefore, be supposed to have inherited a portion of that taste which he cultivated, though in a less elevated course.
Nor shall we pretend to determine whether it proceeded from the structure of his mind, the consequent habits of his life, or his physical constitution, which was naturally weak, that his pursuits, though not without taste and elegance, had little of masculine energy or mental capaciousness.
If the catalogue of the Houghton pictures were compared with that of the Strawberry Hill curiosities, the minds of the two noble collectors would be distinctly determined.
Mr. Walpole’s literary works fill several quarto volumes; but the original parts of them would not confer any distinguished celebrity on an author, who had not something besides his knowledge and his talents to distinguish him.
His poetry has no flights; and, except in an occasional passage in his tragedy of the Mysterious Mother, does not rise beyond common thought and expression, regular measure, and chaste mediocrity.
His Castle of Otranto was gleaned from that kind of reading of which he may be supposed to have been fond, and with which he was familiar; but what better character can be given of it, than that it was calculated to be popular among the frequenters of circulating libraries; and that it is become a stock book in those repositories of literary entertainment.
His papers in the World, and other similar productions, are the works of a man of a cultivated mind and general knowledge, but without any claim to superiority of thought or beauty of style.
The most distinguished publication of Strawberry Hill, is, The Lives of the Painters, Engravers, &c. formed from the papers of Vertue, which he has judiciously enlarged from his own collections; and it will do more towards extending his name than all the other productions of the Strawberry Hill press.
As for his posthumous works, they prove little more than the folly of trusting literary remains to the care of those who are to derive advantage from them.
Burke called him an agreeable trifler; but by that appellation he did not mean to annex the degrading idea which the terms may seem to convey; but merely on a comparative view of their respective pursuits.
The great orator, statesman, and philosopher, whose comprehensive mind was engaged in considering the progress of the world in every age and condition of it; who was accustomed to weigh the fates of nations, to examine the policy of states, and to study civilized man in all his more enlarged and important transactions, might consider the master of Strawberry Hill as a trifler; but, if the latter was not greatly, he was innocently employed in his tasteful researches, and usefully occupied in his literary pursuits; and though Mr.
Horace Walpole may not rank in the first class of learning; it would not be possible to compose an history of arts and science, during the period in which he lived, with justice and with truth, without assigning him a respectable place in it.

LADY HOWE'S VILLA, TWICKENHAM. [ Pope's Villa ]


Lady Howe's Villa, Twickenham, 1811


Lady Howe's Villa, Twickenham, 1818?
[not convinced - this may be another version of the 1811 print?]

This villa rises on the site of Mr. Pope's house, of which nought remains but the arch that formed his grotto:
but it is no longer the grot that Pope formed, as a passage to the garden which he had planted.
The profane hand of its purchaser has destroyed every other vestige of the mansion of our immortal poet.
The willow which he planted, and was so ornamental to the bank on which it flourished, has some years since, as it were prophetically, yielded to the storm which laid it low; and Twickenham has for ever lost the classic scene which was its boast and honour.
Remembrance oft will haunt the shore, and figure the spot as it once was, when the Muses made it their favourite abode.
It will, indeed, still live in its pictured representations; and what soul of sensibility will pass the place without regret on seeing the altered spot; without lamenting that the place where Pope lived, composed his never-dying works, and breathed his last, should possess no mark to distinguish it from a place that had been inhabited by ordinary men.
—The poet, the orator, and the statesman, whatever space they have filled in the world, must submit to the common fate, —and Nature makes no distinction in that last home which she has provided for all her children.
We sigh when they quit the earth which they enlightened: but we submit, with a venerating tear, to the inevitable allotment; and console ourselves with contemplating their expanding fame, which enrolls them among those who never die.
—Still, however, we cling to the memorials of them; we haunt the scenes which they loved, and we visit the tombs that contain their ashes; and we complain when time and chance, when unreflecting caprice, sordid interest, or tasteless insensibility, deprive us of them.
We repeat, alas! that the arch which formed the grotto is all that remains of the mansion of the Poet:
—How it was decorated by his fancy, may be learned from his own description of it, in a letter to his friend Edward Blount, Esq. dated June 2, 1725.

I have put my last hand to my works in my gardens, in happily finishing the subterraneous way and grotto:
I there found a spring of the clearest water, which falls in a perpetual rill, that echoes through the cavern day and night.
From the river Thames, you see through my arch up a walk of the wilderness, to an open temple, wholly composed of shells, in the most rustic manner; and from that distance under the temple, you look down through a sloping arcade of trees, and see the sails on the river passing suddenly and vanishing, as through a perspective glass.
When you shut the door of this grotto, it becomes, on the instant, front a luminous room, a camera obscura; on the walls of which, all objects of the river, hills, woods and boats, are forming a moving picture in their visible radiations:
and when you have a mind to light it up, it affords you a very different scene:
it is finished with shells interspersed with pieces of looking-glass, in angular forms; and in the ceiling is a star of the same material; at which, when a lamp (of an orbicular figure, of thin alabastar) is hung in the middle, a thousand pointed rays glitter, and are reflected over the place.
There are connected to this grotto by a narrower passage two porches, one towards the river, of smooth stones, full of light, and open; the other toward the garden, shadowed with trees, rough with shells, flints, and iron ore.
The bottom is paved with simple pebble, as is also the adjoining walk up the wilderness to the temple, in the natural taste, agreeing not ill with the little dripping murmur, and the aquatic idea of the whole place.
It wants nothing to complete it but a good statue, with an inscription like that beautiful antique one which you know I am so fond of—

Hujus Nympha loci, sacri custodia fontis,
Dormio, dum blandæ sentio murmur aquæ.
Parce meum, quisquis tangis cava marmora somnum
Rumpere; si bibas, sive lavare, tace !

Nymph of the grot, these sacred streams I keep,
And to the murmurs of these waters sleep.
Ah, spare my slumbers; gently tread the cave, And drink in silence, or in silence lave!

You'll think I have been very poetical in this description, but it is pretty near the truth.
I wish you were here to bear testimony how little it owes to art, either the place itself, or the image I give of it
".

Having thus repeated Mr. Pope's local account of the grotto, as a garden circumstance of great enjoyment, we shall add those lines that describe the society which sometimes graced it:—

Know, all the distant din the world can keep,
Rolls o'er my grotto, and but soothes my sleep.
There my retreat the best companions grace
, Chiefs out of war, and statesmen out of place.
There St. John mingles with the friendly bowl,
The feast of reason and the flow of soul:
And He whose lightning pierced the Iberian lines,
Now forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines;
Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain,
Almost as quickly as he conquered Spain.

It might have been hoped, nay, might it not have been expected, that Pope's house and gardens would have been purchased and held sacred by some kindred character, and that the vaticination which follows would have been fulfilled!

Grateful posterity, from age to age,
With pious hand the ruin shall repair:
Some good old man, to each enquiring sage,
Pointing the place, shall cry—The Bard lived there.

The weeping willow which the Poet planted with his own hand, and was the finest specimen of that tree any where to be seen, was protected and propped in its old age with a pious care by the late Lord Mendip, the last possessor of the place.
At last it gave way, and an eminent jeweller having procured the wood, worked it up into ornaments of various kinds, which rank, and wealth, and beauty were proud to wear.
A very few years previous to its fall, the following verses were written, and foretold its fate.
A branch of it, however, has been planted on the spot, and, it is hoped, will be permitted to grow and flourish there.

STANZAS TO POPE'S WEEPING WILLOW, AT TWICKENHAM.

Weep, verdant willow, ever weep,
And spread thy pendent branches round:—
Oh may no gaudy floweret creep
Along the consecrated ground!
Thou art the Muses' favourite tree—
They loved the bard who planted thee.

The wintery blast assails in vain;
The forkéd lightning passes by
To stretch the oak upon the plain,
Whose towering branches braved the sky:—
The Muses guard their favourite tree:
They loved the bard who planted thee.

And oft, 'tis said, at evening hour,
To Fancy's eye bright forms appear,
To glide beneath the leafy bower,
While music steals on Fancy's ear:—
The Muses haunt their favourite tree;
They loved the bard who planted thee,

But all the Muses' tender care
Cannot prolong the final date:
Rude time will strip thy branches bare,
And thou must feel the stroke of fate:—
E'en thou, the Muse's favourite tree,
Must fall, like him who planted thee.

But still the Muse will hover near,
And, planted there by hands unseen,
Another willow will appear,
Of pensive form upon the green;
To grace the spot, when thou no more
Shalt over-arch the hallowed shore.

As we are prevented from enlarging on this classic spot, by the total change which has taken place in its circumstances and character, we shall enlarge a little on the life of that eminent person who formed and inhabited it; as well as the materials he collected for a temple to his own fame, which will remain till the generations of the world have passed away.
Alexander Pope was born in London, May 22, 1688; and soon after, his father retired to Binfield, in Windsor Forest.
At several schools, and under different masters, he received a desultory education, till he was twelve years old ; when he was called to Binfield by his father, and, as it appears, was sufficiently qualified thenceforward to educate himself.
He tells of himself in his poems, that "he lisped in numbers", and he used to say, that he could not remember the time when he began to make verses.
It is elegantly observed by Johnson, as it had been said of Pindar, that when he lay in his cradle, "the bees swarmed about his mouth".
His early taste for poetry is evident from the strong and vivid impression which the versification of Dryden made upon his young mind.
He could not have been twelve years old, when he persuaded some of his friends to take him to the coffee-house which Dryden frequented, that he might be gratified with a sight of him.
It was previous to this period that he wrote his Ode on Solitude.
At fourteen he made a version of the first book of the Thebais of Statius, as well as of Ovid's Epistle of Sappho to Phaon, and put the January and May, and the Prologue of the Wife of Bath, into modern English.
At sixteen he wrote his Pastorals, which were followed by his Windsor Forest, or at least a considerable part of it, and his Messiah: poems which manifest a degree of reading, a power of language, a knowledge of versification and an elegance of taste, that were more than prophetic of his future fame.
But he soon exceeded these more juvenile effusions, admirable as they are; for, in 1709, at the age of twenty-one years, he wrote "the Essay On Criticism", a work that displays such extent of comprehension, such nicety of distinction, such acquaintance with mankind, and such knowledge both of ancient and modern learning, as are not often attained by the maturest age and longest experience.
It is supposed that his verses on an Unfortunate Lady soon followed; and not long after he produced "the Rape of the Lock", an exquisite example of ludicrous poetry, and the most airy, ingenious, and delightful of his poems: if he had written nothing else, it would alone have stamped him a poet.
"The Temple of Fame" was written when he was only twenty-two years of age: an early time of lite for so much learning and so much observation us that work exhibits.

Of "the Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard", a poem which excels every composition of its kind, the date is uncertain; but it is generally supposed to have been written about this period.
—The first volume of "the Iliad" was published in 1715, the last in 1720.
It is the noblest version of poetry which the world has ever seen, and its publication must be considered as one of the great events in the annals of learning.
In 1733 he published "the Dunciad", one of his greatest and most elaborate performances, and is the best existing specimen of personal satire, heightened by the ridicule of pompous diction.
— "The Essay on Man", the first part of which was published in 1733, was the most laboured of all Pope's works, and for this reason; it was, probably, that in which he had the greatest apprehension of success.
Metaphysics were not congenial to the original structure of his mind, nor easily associated to the train of his pursuits; nor is it altogether adapted to poetry.
Nevertheless it may be surely said, that its system is consistent with the character of social man, that its morality is pure, enforced with great intellectual energy, and cloathed in all the graces of poetry,—and it concludes with a prayer that has not been exceeded by any composition of an uninspired mind.
"The Epistles" followed, on which he is known to have declared that he bestowed great labour, particularly on that addressed to Lord Bathurst, respecting "the Use of Riches".
They, however, may be considered as the disjecta membra poetæ, and to have been part of an incomplete work, of which the Essay on Man would have been the commencement.
These poems are worked with great care, and abound in faithful and highwrought pictures of those passions which agitate, and, as they are indulged, controuled or modified, —disgrace, dignify and adorn life:
They are frequently illustrated by living characters; who, though they might interest more particularly at the period when they were known by the reader, are pourtrayed with that adherence to dignity and to truth, that they will interest forever.
The imitations of different poems of Horace, scarcely fall short of the poems themselves.
— He has transfused with great success the spirit of the originals into their copies, and has most happily applied the sentiments and characters of the Latin poet to those of his own day and nation.
Pope may be said, with truth, to be the poet of nature, of common sense, and of human life.
His poems at once instruct, improve, and charm the mind.
He may not astonish, as some few poets have done,—but where is there one who so perpetually delights.
He died in the evening of the 30th of May, 1744, and was buried at Twickenham, near his father and mother.
—A monument has been erected to him there by his learned commentator, the Bishop of Gloucester.

TWICKENHAM.

Twickenham in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Twickenham 1811

In this view, is seen embosomed among lofty trees on the banks of the river.
The old tower of the church is interesting from its picturesque appearance, but much more so when we recognise in it the venerable sepulchre of departed valour and genius.
The ashes of Sir Chaloner Ogle, the Berkeleys, Pope, Mrs. Clive, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and many other distinguished persons, are deposited within its walls.
Catharine of Arragon, after she was divorced from Henry the Eighth, retired to a house at Twickenham, nearly opposite the north side of the church.
Lord Clarendon, the Earl of Essex, and Bacon of Verulam, there sought a short respite from the turbulence of politics, and the fickleness of court favour.
The period of building the old church is unknown—the body of it, which probably retained some vestiges of antiquity, either fell or was pulled down in 1714.
It was rebuilt in 1731, by the inhabitants, and forms an heterogeneous mass y the body of the church being of the Tuscan order, whilst the ancient embattled tower exhibits the rude English art of the eleventh century.
It contains eight bells, and is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
The living, which is a vicarage, has been in the gift of the Dean and Canons of Windsor, ever since the reign of Edward the Sixth.
Its reputed value is about £400 a-year.

The monument of Sir Chaloner Ogle was erected by the family.
This officer joined, to an undaunted courage, the most consummate address.
In the early part of the eighteenth century, one Roberts, a desperate pirate of considerable talents, annoyed the British trade in the American seas a long time, and had become very formidable even to the colonies.
His force consisted of three ships, one of 40 guns, one of 32, and the third of 24.
Captain Ogle cruizing off Cape Lopez in the Swallow, received intelligence that Roberts was lying, with his three ships, in an adjoining bay; upon which he disguised his ship and stood in.
The pirates took him for a merchantman, and one of them slipped her cable and gave chace.
Captain Ogle decoyed him off the land till he had reached such a distance as to prevent his associates hearing the report of the guns; he then shortened sail, tacked, and brought him to action, which lasted an hour and a half, when the commander being killed, she struck.
Captain Ogle then steered in for the bay, with the pirate's colours hoisted over the king's.
This stratagem succeeded, for the pirates seeing the black flag uppermost, concluded the king's ship had been taken, and stood out to sea to meet and congratulate their consort on his victory.
Their joy was of short duration, for they no sooner came alongside the Swallow, than Captain Ogle threw off the deception, and began to engage them most desperately.
The action lasted two hours, when Captain Roberts being killed, with a great number of his men, both ships struck.
One hundred and sixty prisoners were tried, fifty-two of them were hung in chains along the coast; and thus ended the last gang of English pirates.
— For this gallant action Captain Ogle received the title.
He died admiral of the fleet, on the 10th of April, 1750, after fifty years service.

Sir Godfrey Kneller was once church-warden of this parish.
How the worthy baronet kept his accounts in that office, is not mentioned; but from the following specimen of his writing it may be presumed, some of the items must have astonished the village parishioners.

Letter of Sir Godfrey Kneller to Mr. Pope.
DEAR FRIEND,
I hope your genus does and will know myn is with the most acceptable and most accomplished company to-morrow; for my body is in no condition to stirr out of my bed as jet[sic], and has had no rest these two nights but what it snatches and gets in the day-times by fits; and I believe my left lag[sic] will be out of order a good wyle.
—Pray give my hearty goodwill to the compa.[sic] for the deeds, and my most humble servis being ever yours -

The great comic actress, Mrs. Clive, fixed her residence at Twickenham, in 1769, when she quitted the stage.
Davies says—"The comic abilities of this actress have not been excelled; nor, indeed, scarcely equalled by any performer, male or female, these fifty years.
She was so formed by nature to represent a variety of lively, laughing, droll, humourous, affected, and absurd characters, that she had little more to do than to perfect herself in the words of a part, and to leave the rest to nature.
She was also famous for scolds and viragos.
" Garrick felt the force of these accomplishments, when " he wished,/or her own sake, she would remain some years longer on the stage.
To this civil suggestion she answered by a look of contempt, and a decisive negative.
He asked how much she was worth;— she replied briskly, as much as himself.
Upon his smiling at her supposed ignorance or misinformation, she explained herself, by telling him, that she knew when she had enough, though he never would.
He then entreated her to renew her engagement for three or four years:—She preremptorily refused.
Upon repeating his regret, at her leaving the stage, she frankly told him, that she hated hypocrisy; for she was sure that he would light up candles for joy of her leaving him, but that it would be attended with some expense.* Davies's Life of Garrick.
Davies thinks "there was an unnecessary smartness in the lady's language, approaching to rudeness," on this occasion.
She died, December 6th, 1735, and was buried at this place.
Miss Jane Pope, who had enjoyed her friendship and instruction, erected a monument to her memory in the church.

Bishop Warburton erected the monument to Pope.
On a pyramid is a medallion of the poet, in white marble.
On a tablet is written

Poeta Loquitur
for one who would not be buried in Westminster Abbey.

Heroes and kings your distance keep,
In peace let one poor poet sleep;
Who never flattered folks like you :—
Let Horace blush, and Virgil too.

On opening the Berkeley vault in 1796, "the body of Sir William Berkeley, who died in 1796, was found lying on the ground without a coffin, cased in lead exactly fitted to the shape of the body, shewing the form of the features, hands, feet, and even nails; and appears to be beat firmly to it, and looks like a figure in armour. * Ironside's Twickenham*

In this church also repose the remains of Mrs. Pritchard, whose transcendant talents, as an actress, could be equalled only by her private virtues.
To give some idea of her extraordinary merit, it may be said, and said with truth, that she appeared with equal effect and admiration both in the tragic and comic drama.
What can be said more of her, than, that in a comparative scale of excellence, it could not be determined whether her judgment, her powers, and her command of natural display, were more evident in her Lady Macbeth or her Beatrice.
She quitted the stage in 1768, with a farewell epilogue, after her performance of the former of those characters, and died about four months afterwards at Bath.
A tablet has since been erected to the memory of this distinguished actress and excellent woman, near the monument of Shakespeare, in Westminster Abbey, with a well written and faithful epitaph, by Mr. Whitehead, the poet laureat of that period.

RICHMOND HILL FROM TWICKENHAM.

Richmond Hill in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Richmond Hill from Twickenham 1811

Richmond Hill is the boast of the vicinity of the Metropolis.
The richness, splendor, variety, extent and beauty of the scene which surrounds it, is only to be conceived by being seen: no power of the pen or the pencil can give an adequate description of it.
To the right, the eye passes over a rich, embowered, and inhabited space of great expanse, to the hills of Highgate and Hampstead.
Then pursuing the horizon to the left, it appears beautifully broken by Harrow, and the high parts of Stanmore and Pinner, from whence it runs on into Buckinghamshire, and connects with the Berkshire hills between Maidenhead and Reading, when the circle returns to Windsor Castle and its Forest.
The elevated ground about Bagshot next conducts the eye to the heights near Farnham, in Surrey, and the abrupt, romantic range of hill, known by the name of the Hog's-back, which extends from the lastmentioned town to Guildford, in the same county.
Here the circumambient prospect ends.
The intermediate country is as rich as wood and cultivation can make it;— while it is enlivened by the parish spires, and the casual glimpses of the villages and country seats which are scattered over it.
Immediately beneath the hill, the Thames rolls its serpentine volume of silver waters through meadows of the richest verdure, and groves of every tree, while its banks are adorned with the contrasted beauty of the villa and the cottage, in a long succession of various edifices, which mark the taste and the opulence of those who possess them.
Thomson has celebrated this charming and luxuriant spot, where he passed his latter years, and closed his life.
We give the pleasing description from his admirable poem of the Seasons.

Say shall we wind
Along the streams or walk the smiling mead,
Or court the forest glades, or wander wild
Among the waving harvests, or ascend,
While radiant summer opens all its pride,
Thy hill delightful Shene.
Here let us sweep
The boundless landscape: Now the raptured eye,
Exulting swift to huge Augusta send,
Now to the sister hills that skirt the plain,
To lofty Harrow now, and now to where
Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow.
In lovely contrast to this glorious view,
Calmly magnificent, then will we turn
To where the silver Thames first rural grows.
There let the feasted eye unwearied stray:
Luxurious there, rove, through the pendent woods,
That nodding hang o'er Harrington's retreat;
And sloping thence to Ham's embowering walks;—
Here let us trace the matchless vale of Thames,
Fair winding up to where the Muses haunt
In Twit'nam bowers, and for their Pope implore
The healing God ; to royal Hampton's pile;
To Claremont's terrassed height, and Esher's groves.
Where in the sweetest solitude, embraced
By the soft windings of the silent Mole,
From courts and senates Pelham finds repose.
Enchanting vale! beyond whate'er the Muse
Has of Achaia or Hesperia sung!
O vale of bliss! O, softly swelling hills!
On which the power of cultivation lies,
And joys to see the wonders of his toil.
Heavens, what a goodly prospect spreads around,
Of hills and dales, and woods, and lawns, and spires,
And glittering towns, and gilded streams, till all
The stretching landscape into smoke decays.

In a work of this kind whose object is to represent embellished nature by the power of the pencil, the circumstance that Sir Joshua Reynolds occupied a villa on the summit of Richmond Hill, and on the particular part of it which the engraving represents, demands particular notice; and more than justifies the brief account which will follow of that great master of the British school of painting.

This distinguished artist was the son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, who was the master of the grammar school at Plympton, in Devonshire:
he was born July 16 1723.
He was educated in the usual mode of school discipline by his father; but he, at a very early age discovered very strong inclination for the art in which he afterwards became so eminent, by copying the prints which he found in his father's books.
At eight years of age he afforded an example of determined perseverance, for at that early period he made himself master of the Jesuit's perspective, and executed, according to rule, a drawing of the grammar school at Plymton, wherein his father taught.
But it was the perusal of Richardson's treatise on painting, which the most powerfully inflamed his mind with the love of his art.
After some practice in different parts of the country, where there are yet to be seen many of his juvenile efforts, in which, however, the most partial eye would find it difficult to discover any promise of that superlative excellence which he afterwards attained, he was placed, when about seventeen years of age, with Hudson, the most eminent artist of that day, with whom he remained about three years.
In consequence of some disagreement with his master, he retired into Devonshire.
There he lived, without making any great effort, though as it appears from a few pictures he painted in that interval, not without considerable improvement till the year 1749, when he was carried by Captain, afterwards Lord Keppel, to Italy, where he passed three years.
On his return from Italy, he hired an house in Rupert street, Long Acre; and a whole length portrait of Admiral Keppel, which he painted soon after, was so superior to any picture that had been produced by contemporary artists, as to place him at once at the head of his profession.
Indeed he introduced a new, and very superior style in portrait painting.
He united to a dignified characteristic resemblance of the head, and an endless variety of spirited and graceful attitudes, picturesque back-grounds, with novel and striking efforts of light and shade, and a Voluptuous richness and harmony of colour.
Beautiful and seducing as his style undoubtedly was, it cannot be recommended in so unreserved a manner as his industry both in study and practice.
Colouring was evidently his first excellence, to which all others were more or less sacrificed; and though in splendor and brilliancy he was exceeded by Rubens, and Paul Veronese, in force and depth by Titian and Rembrandt, and in freshness and truth by Velasquez and Vandyck, yet, perhaps, he possessed a more exquisite combination of all these qualities, and that peculiarly his own, than is to be found in the works of either of those celebrated masters.
It has been judiciously observed, that in his history he does not appear to possess much fertility of invention; as, whenever he has introduced a striking figure it may commonly be traced to some of his predecessors:
the merit of skilful adaptation, therefore, is all that can be allowed him:
but in portrait, the variety of his attitudes and back grounds is unequalled by any painter ancient or modern.
He himself candidly confesses that drawing was the branch of the art in which he was most defective; and from a desire, perhaps, to conceal this defect, with an over-solicitude to produce a superabundant richness of effect, he was too frequently tempted to fritter his lights, and cut up his composition, particularly, if it happened to be large, into too many parts.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, however, cannot be too much praised and imitated by all who are ambitious to attain similar eminence.
His industry was incessant, nor was it ever wearied into despondency by miscarriage, or elated into neglect by access.
He was always aiming at advancement in his art; nor did he relax in this principle, till the defect in his sight obliged him to resign his pencil.
In the year 1782, he was afflicted with a paralytic stroke from which, however, he soon recovered, and suffered no subsequent inconvenience from it.
In 1784, on the death of Ramsay, he was appointed principal painter in ordinary to his Majesty, which office he enjoyed to his death.
In July 1789, while he was painting the portrait of Lady Beauchamp, he found his sight so much affected that it was with difficulty he proceeded in his work, and in a few months he was totally deprived of the sight of his left eye; and fearing that his remaining eye might suffer, he determined to paint no more.
He afterwards was threatened with symptoms of total blindness, but that calamity did not overtake him.
He now suffered from a very serious disorder in his liver, of which he died February 23, 1792.
On Saturday, March 3d, his remains were interred in the crypt of the cathedral of St. Paul's, near the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren, with every honour that could be shewn to worth and genius:—a great number of persons of distinction, with the whole of the Royal Academy, attended the funeral ceremony; and the pall was supported by three Dukes, two Marquisses, and five other Noblemen.
The body had previously laid in state in the apartments of the Royal Academy in Somerset House.

MARBLE-HILL COTTAGE, NEAR RICHMOND.

Marble Hill Cottage in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Marble Hill Cottage near Richmond, Owen, 1811

Marble Hill Cottage in Thames, Cooke Dewint 1818
Marble Hill Cottage near Richmond, Dewint, 1818

This charming place is one of those fashionable habitations, called cottages: where, however, opulence may dwell, and luxurious hospitality preside: where those who are admitted into them will scarcely want any thing that palaces afford.
A real cottage there once was on this spot, which was then distinguished by its being the habitation of Mrs. Catharine Clive, who, for a long series of years, was the comic charm of the English stage: who, in her style of acting had no rival in her own day; and no equal has arisen since that day has passed.
Here she lived, till the friendship of Mr. Horace Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford, gave her a superior retreat, in the immediate vicinity of his own beautiful villa of Strawberry-hill, where she died; and in which, as well as in his patronising regard, the Miss Berrys succeeded her.
This situation may be said to be almost surrounded with the finest circumstances of polished landscape.
To the right is Marble-hill, which, in more senses than one, may be considered as a classic spot.
To the left are the rich, luxuriant, and beautifully-tufted meadows of Mr. Cambridge.
The Thames, with its delightful variety of floating objects, flows before it, stretching one way to Richmond-bridge, which terminates that line of view; and the other, till it is lost in the bend it makes to the more distant parts of Twickenham.
In the home distance, and there is no other, is the brow of Richmond-hill; a bold and mingled scene of trees and buildings, continuing till it unites with the hanging woods of Petersham, whose rich mass of foliage blends with the groves, to use Dr. Armstrong's expression of "umbrageous Ham".
In the bottom is the level verdure of Ham Meads; and the more immediate decoration of the opposite bank, is the elegant and embowered villa of the Duke of Buccleugh.
It is an Arcadian scene, not indeed inhabited by shepherds, but by high rank, and great opulence; by refined taste and courtly beauty.
Marble-hill cottage is in the parish of Twickenham, and the residence of Sir John Lubbock, Baronet.


END OF VOLUME I. and START OF VOLUME II. of the 1811 version by Cooke and Owen.

THE THAMES, FROM RICHMOND HILL.

Thames From Richmond Hill in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Thames From Richmond Hill, 1811

The beautiful and highly polished scenery of this part of the river, is represented in such various views in this work, that little remains to be said on the subject.
The annexed plate, however, embraces that part of the stream which rolls its silver volume between the verdant meads of Twickenham, and the embowered banks of Ham, till it is lost amid the gardens and villas of the former classic village.
This particular portion of the river is that which is seen with such an enchanting effect from the point of Richmond Hill, on which was seated the villa of Sir Joshua Reynolds; and though he rarely indulged his pencil in landscape, but as accessory to his portraits, he painted a very beautiful picture of this view from his house, in which he exercised his power of colour with the happiest effect, and appears to have had in his mind at the time of this amusement of his genius, the style and character of Francesco Mola.

Richmond from Isleworth by Reinagle, 1818 not found.

THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUGH'S VILLA, RICHMOND.

Duke of Buccleugh'sVilla, Richmond in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Duke of Buccleugh'sVilla, Richmond, 1811

Our ancestors were content to employ artists to paint landscapes,—but we create them:
and it is now become an actual profession, not only to improve but to compose scenery in our domains, parks, and gardens; so as to produce living pictures of rural nature, and to heighten them with the embellishments of art.
The landscape gardener is now a flourishing and increasing profession, and may be said to rival the painter, by the study of whose works he has perhaps gained those principles on which he builds his fame.
When Browne formed the water at Blenheim, and cloathed it with those accompaniments which at once enliven, enrich, and aggrandize that distinguished scene, he produced an original which any painter might be proud to copy.
Art is now employed, not only to improve but to re-create nature; to remove all her disguises, and to give her that dress which, in her best humour, she is frequently disposed to give herself.
But the great art, in all these improvements, has been communicated to us, not by a painter, but by a poet, which is to consult the genius of the place, whatever it may be; whether it stretches out into a forest, surrounding a stately castle, expands in a lawn before a country mansion, or consists of the lengthened, undulating bank of a river, bearing a villa on its slopes, such as that of the Duke of Buccleugh on the Richmond side of the Thames, and beneath the hill, whose proud point of view is so well known.
It descended to him from his father-in-law, the late Duke of Montague, who made it, so long back as when he was Earl of Cardigan, the pretty place which we now see it.
The variety of the surface, the brilliant verdure, the pendent willow, and trees of the most pleasing several pleasing parts, while a commanding view is reserved over the beautiful meadows of Mr.
Cambridge on the other side of the stream.
Such is the disposition of which this place was susceptible; and such it received from the taste of its late noble possessor.

SANDYCOMBE LODGE, TWICKENHAM. Villa of J. M. W. Turner, Esq. R. A.

The Banks of the Thames have been chosen by genius at different periods, as affording situations suited to its indulgence and its pleasures.
Among those persons distinguished by their superior talents and attainments, who are historically connected with this beautiful river, and who have given what it possesses of classical character, the following names demand the record which this page can afford.
That able statesman, powerful orator, and superior writer, the Lord Viscount Bolingbroke;
the Earl of Peterborough, a great soldier, possessed of pre-eminent and intellectual endowments, and the patron and friend of Pope and Swift;
Pope, a name that requires no addition,
and the admirable and amiable Thomson;
Garrick, the actor, whose perfections cannot be conceived but by those who remember his astonishing powers;
Mrs. Pritchard, an universal actress, who has never been equalled,
and Mrs. Clive, the delight of the stage in her day, and who was in herself the transcendant representative of comic nature;
the elder Colman, the dramatic writer
Owen Cambridge, an ornament to literature in his time
and Horace Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford, a various author, and elegant antiquary;
Sir Joshua Reynolds,
and Hudson, who was his master.
These only live in the records of history, or in the works which survive them ; and the striking catalogue must be closed with the living artist, Mr. Turner, the representation of whose Villa at Twickenham has occasioned these brief memoranda of those distinguished persons who resided near this spot.
Mr. Turner’s powerful pencil has produced pictures, the excellence of which will secure to him that which never dies.

RICHMOND, ANCIENTLY CALLED SHEEN.

Richmond Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Richmond Bridge, 1811

It is a remarkable circumstance that this delightful spot should not have been mentioned in the Doomsday survey.
Mr. Lysons supposes it was then included in the manor of Kingston, which belonged to the crown:
the first mention he found of it was in the reign of King John, when it was the property of Michael Belet, who held it by the service of being the king's butler, having been granted to his ancestors, with that office annexed, by Henry I.
After passing through a few families it reverted to the crown in the reign of Edward I.
It has generally been granted to some branches of the royal family, and is at present held by her majesty.
Lands in this manor, as well as that of Ham and Petersham, descend to the youngest son, or in it to go to ruin.
Henry VII. restored it to its former magnificence: it was burnt by accident in his reign, rebuilt by him, and then received its present name of Richmond.
Henry VIII. on accepting the magnificent palace of Hampton-court from Cardinal Wolsey, permitted him to reside in that of Richmond, where he kept a large establishment.
Queen Elizabeth spent much of her time at this place, and there closed her glorious political life.
Charles I. is supposed to have formed a large collection of pictures *
* Thomas Creser, Esq. of Turnham-green, has in his possession a portrait of Henry VIII, by Holbein, which was once a pannel in this palace *
here, and the place was well calculated for it.
From the survey taken by order of parliament, in 1649, it appears the great hall "was 100 feet in length, and 40 in breadth," and that "adjoining the privy garden there was an open gallery 200 feet long, over which was a close gallery of the same length".
The palace, of which there are now several prints engraved, was indeed of "a rude disordered order", "a thing of shreds and patches"; turrets, towers, and steeples, of all shapes and sizes: it appears, however, of considerable magnitude, when compared with the figures near it, in the plate engraved by Vandergutcht, how in the Bodleian Library, and supposed to have been from a drawing by Hollar.
This print, which Mr. Lysons obtained for his Environs of London, may be esteemed the best view now extant: it is an exact representation of the place; and there is a three masted pleasure vessel lying before it, with the royal standard flying at the main top-mast.

The palace reverted to the crown at the restoration: and although it had been sold by the parliament, it does not appear to have been completely stripped of its contents, for several boats, laden with rich and curious effigies, formerly belonging to Charles I. but since alienated, arc said to have been brought from Richmond to Whitehall.*
* Lysons, from Exact Accompt *
What the ravages of time left of this palace, were probably pulled down by those who obtained leases of the crown soon after the revolution.
The present Duke of Queensberry's house is on the site of the old palace, as is that of the late Sir Charles Asgill.
Some of the offices still exist, and the floods have washed down a wall which formed apart of them.
About a quarter of a mile from this place formerly stood the hamlet of West Sheen, where Henry V. founded a convent of Carthusian friars, in which Perkin Warbeck sought an asylum, and solicited the prior to beg his life of the king.
This convent, after various changes, became the residence of Sir William Temple, where he was frequently visited by King William, at the time Dean Swift was his amanuensis.
It was also the birth-place of the beautiful and accomplished Stella, who was the daughter of Sir William's steward.

Not the smallest vestige of this place now remains, or of West Sheen, being enclosed within his Majesty's grounds.

Richmond New Park was enclosed, after much opposition from some of the owners of the lands, who refused a full compensation offered them, by Charles I.:
it is "eight miles in circumference, contains 2253 acres," and is a most delightful retreat for the inhabitants, who sued for, and obtained a right of foot-way through it in the year 1758.

The poet Thomson, whose memory must ever be associated with Richmond, was buried at the west end of the north aisle of the church.
The Earl of Buchan, by fixing a brass tablet, has rescued the spot which contained his ashes from the uncertainly of tradition.
His house also has met with a better fate than that of Pope; George Ross, Esq. who succeeded him in it, enlarged and improved it, at the expence of £9000; and the Honourable Mrs. Boscawen has preserved his favourite seat in the garden, and placed in it the table on which he wrote.

There are several alms-houses and other charitable foundations at Richmond.
Those founded by Bishop Duppa, tutor of Charles II. for ten poor women, are the most considerable: they are situated at the top of the hill.
The Bishop endowed them with a farm at Shepperton, for which he gave £1540; a few other benefactions had, in the year 1796, augmented the annual income to £129. 7s.

A theatre at Richmond was first opened by Penkethman, in 1719 and afterwards by Theophilus Gibber, in 1756, who, to evade the act against unlicensed players, advertised it as a snuff shop.
The theatre is now sanctioned by royal authority, and generally attended by good actors.
It is a matter of pleasing astonishment, that in this village, so near the metropolis, there is a press established, iu which two works of importance are now printing.
There is also an extensive circulating library.

The bridge, which forms the principal object in this view, was begun in 1774, and finished in three years, at an expence of £26,000, which was raised upon tontine, at four per cent.
The first tontine consisted of 200 shares, of £100 each: in this about seventy-seven of the subscribers are dead; the second consisted of fifty shares, of £100 each, In which seventeen of the subscribers are dead: those living are mostly from forty to fifty years of age.
The tolls have not increased since the year 1796, when they amounted to about £1300 per annum, but there must be a sufficient sum raised for repairs, before they can be taken off.
It is 300 feet long, and has five arches of stone, exclusive of the causeway: the central arch is 25 feet high, and 60 wide.
Mr. Payne was the architect: it is by no means the best of his works: the ascent, which is in a straight line, is more sudden than local circumstances required, and, what is worse, forms an apex on the middle of the bridge.
The floods in March 1774 rose more than ten feet above the common level of the water: those of this year were not so high by four inches.

Mr. KEENE'S VILLA, RICHMOND.

Keene's Villa, Richmond in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Mr Keene's Villa, Richmond

[1818 version not found]

One of the most pleasing edificial objects on the banks of the Thames is, The Villa of Whitshed Keene, Esq. at Richmond.
It has been more generally known as the property of the late Sir Charles Asgill, Baronet, Alderman of London, and father of the present Sir Charles Asgill, a general officer of distinction in the British army, by whom it was erected, and who, for many years, made it the place of his country residence, till the situation was medically considered as unfavourable to the latter and infirm part of his life.
Possessed of great opulence, he lived in a style of figure, taste, and fashion, which was rarely adopted by the citizens of his day; and, instead of the plain, useful, brick buildings, which they generally preferred in the villages, more immediately bordering upon the outlets from the city part of the metropolis, Sir Charles Asgill made choice of what may be called a classic spot at Richmond, where he placed this elegant edifice.
It is situated at a small distance from the river on a raised ascent; the lawn behind it, which is, in a great measure, open to the view, rises gradually to its termination, while the verdant surface is broken with beautiful trees and well imagined plantations; so that the whole offers to the eye a very highly decorated piece of garden scenery.
The elevation of the house is of the Tuscan order, after a design of Palladio, remarkable for its chaste and simple elegance.
The building is constructed of Bath stone, and though its general dimensions may be comparatively considered as upon a small scale, its apartments are very handsome as well as commodious, and were the frequent scene of bounteous hospitality and fashionable association.
The walls of the eating room were painted by the Chevalier Casali, an Italian artist of sufficient merit to be employed in decorating the great hall of Wanstead House, and the Mansion House of the Lord Mayor was produced by his chisel;
the monument to the memory of Captain Cornwall, in Westminster Abbey, was also of his workmanship; and he did not engage in his last profession till he despaired of fame and fortune from his first.
He set out in his new career by adopting a novel, singular, and, for many of his first years, an almost unvarying style of building; of which the two cumbrous houses in Lincoln's Inn Fields, that so remarkably tower above the rest of the Square, are no very flattering specimens.
At the same time it must be acknowledged, that, as he had opportunity, he gave a space, height, and suite, to his apartments, which had not been employed by his architectural predecessors or contemporaries.
A general adherence, however, to his estimates, an unremitting diligence, an extraordinary dispatch, and the accommodating himself to every branch of supply connected with his undertakings, introduced him into very extensive employment; and he contrived to die the richest architect of his age and country.
Had he built a few houses of equal merit with that which has been the subject of these pages, he might have decorated his wealth with no inconsiderable portion of professional reputation.

THE OBSERVATORY, RICHMOND GARDENS.

Observatory Richmond Gardens in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
The Observatory Richmond Gardens, 1811

Since the new art of landscape gardening has been introduced, there is no example of a more bold and happy deviation from former rules than in the present state of Richmond gardens.
Instead of the formality of the ancient style, which was incapable of beauty, and could only, when its objects were extensive, have an air of magnificence, nature has been called to resume her sylvan reign, to sport in all her irregular varieties, and to submit only to that decoration of art which displays her native graces to the best advantage.
Kent first deviated from the trim, mechanical regularity of Le Notre and his predecessors.
He rooted up the quincunx, broke the long lines of regular plantations, and gave to the strait canal the meandering form of a natural river.
But though he did much, he left much to be done; and Browne succeeded to advance the reformation, and loosen the remaining restraints on nature in ornamental gardening.
He seized at once, as it were, on the capacity of the place which he was called to improve, and never hesitated to employ it in producing those appearances which his eye and his mind suggested.

The terrace, in Richmond gardens, was a flat regular strait walk, of great length, and proportionate breadth; supported and fronted by a range of brick-work, like the ramparts of a fortified town.
This line of level verdure had not a tree or a shrub on its surface; its boundary was marked by a row of elms on one side, and a dwarf wall on the other; while between the latter and the Thames was a public road: yet this terrace was a boast of the country: it has been described with enthusiasm by our new and superior cloathing to the whole of the magnificent pleasure-ground of which it forms a part.
He annihilated the road, dilapidated the wall, let the terrace fall in natural undulating slopes towards the river, and planted it with the varying elegance which now embellishes it.

These gardens were formed out of a domain called the Old Park, to distinguish it from the more extensive one made by Charles the First; and which was called the New Park.
In the former was a lodge; the lease of which was granted, by the Crown, in the year 1707, to James, Duke of Ormond; who rebuilt the house and resided in it, till his impeachment, in the year 1715, when he retired to France.
A painting of this lodge, which has been pulled down, is in the possession of Lord Viscount Fitzwilliam, of Ireland, and forms a part of the collection of pictures at his house on Richmond Green.

Near the site of the lodge stands the Observatory, which was built by Sir William Chambers, after a design of his present Majesty.
It is a very elegant structure of Portland stone, and admirably contrived for the scientific purposes to which it is destined.
It is seated on an eminence, presents a very pleasing object to the voyager on the Thames, and enlivens the luxuriant scene around it.
It is furnished with a complete astronomical apparatus; which was arranged by Dr. Demaimbray, under the direction of the King, who is perfectly acquainted with the distinct uses, and practical application, of every branch of it.
Among a very fine set of instruments are particularly to be noticed a mural arch, of one hundred and forty degrees; an eight feet radius; a zenith sector of twelve feet; a transit instrument of eight feet; and a ten feet reflector, by Herschel.
On the top of the building is a moveable dome, which contains an equatorial instrument.
The Observatory contains also, a collection of subjects in natural history, which are well preserved; an excellent apparatus for philosophical experiments; some models; and a collection of ores, from his Majesty's mines in the forest of Hartz, in Germany.
The Rev. Stephen Demaimbray, M.A. and Stephen Rigaud, Esq. are the present astronomers.

Mrs. KEPPEL'S HOUSE.

Mrs Keppels House in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Mrs Keppels House, 1811

This pleasant mansion is situated on the banks of the Thames, and close on the river, in the parish of Isleworth, in the county of Middlesex.
It was some years since known is the residence of Mr. Lacy, the son of the gentleman, who was the joint patentee with Mr. Garrick, of Drury Lane Theatre.
It was then the scene of the continual hospitality of its master, whose generous disposition and unbounded liberality betrayed him into a negligence of his own interests, which has since obliged him to have recourse to that friendship from others, which, while he suffered it to be in his power, he was himself ever ready to bestow.
The house is of that date which never fails to aid the picturesque effect of the surrounding scenery; and in passing either way on the river, it must be considered as a pleasing and attractive ornament of the bank on which it stands.
— The Thames, having passed the wide spreading and extensive lawn of Sion House, nnd the contrasted scene of Richmond Gardens, with their unrivalled display of sylvan splendour, acquires a kind of tranquillity in its view, not less delightful, when it reflects the habitation of Mrs. Keppel; which, though adjoining the populous village of Isleworlh, has the compleat appearance, not merely of elegant, but, which is far better, of comfortable seclusion.
— It commands little but the river that flows before it, which, however, in itself, and the ever-varying objects on its stream, may be considered as sufficient to gratify a possessor of the spot.
The prospect some years since was more extensive, and involved a part of the improvements made by his majesty, in the grounds adjoining to the royal gardens; but that is now in a great measure excluded by the woody boundary, since grown into an height, and thickened into a shade, which renders it impervious to the gazer on the opposite most delightfully refreshing to the inmates of the place, which the Plate correctly displays, and this description will be found, we trust, in some degree, to illustrate.

SION HOUSE.

Sion House in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Sion House, 1811. [ This picture was damaged ]

Sion House in Thames, Cooke Reinagle 1818
Sion House, 1811, Reinagle

This magnificent house is one of the seats of the Duke of Northumberland, and is situated on the banks of the Thames, between Isleworth and Brentford, in the parish of the former village.
It received its name from a monastery founded by Henry the Fifth, in 1414, for sixty nuns, under the government of an abbess; and for thirteen priests, four deacons, and eight lay brethren, under the government of a confessor; each sex to live in separate cloisters, and follow the rule of St. Augustin.
This was one of the first monasteries suppressed by Henry the Eighth, on account of the members of that society having been favourable to the king's enemies, (we suppose spiritual ones,) and particularly the Maid of Kent, who had so far induced Sir Thomas More to attend to her vagaries, that he submitted to two private conferences with her at this place.
—On its being suppressed, the revenues of the house amounted to £1944. 11s. 11d., a proof of its great splendour; and, on account of its fine situation, it was appropriated to the king's particular use.
In the next reign this monastery was given by the king to his uncle, the Protector Somerset; who, about the year 1547, began to erect the present structure, but only lived to finish the shell of it.
—The house is built on the spot where the church belonging to the monastery formerly stood, and is a large venerable edifice.
It is built round a spacious quadrangular court, and possesses four equal fronts.
—The roof is flat, covered with lead, and surrounded with battlements.
At each corner is a flat square turret, in the same style as the rest of the building.
The East front, which faces the Thames, is supported by an handsome cloistral arcade.
— The gardens formed two square areas, inclosed with high walls and in the best fashion of that of January 1552, Sion House was confiscated to the crown, and was soon after given to the Duke of Northumberland, when it became the residence of his son Lord Guilford, and his daughter the incomparable but unfortunate Lady Jane Grey.
—The Duke having fallen a victim to his ambition, and suffered on the scaffold on the twenty-second of August 1553, Sion House once more reverted to the crown, when Queen Mary restored it to the nuns, who retained it in their possession, till they were expelled by Queen Elizabeth in the first year of her reign.
Some years after the second dissolution of this monastery, it was granted, by a long lease, to Henry, Earl of Northumberland; who, on account of his eminent services to the government, was permitted to enjoy it, on paying a small annual rent, which, when offered, was generally remitted.
— King James the First afterwards granted it to him and his heirs for ever, when he greatly embellished and improved it.
His son Algernon succeeded to the estate in 1631; and employed Inigo Jones to make alterations for its more splendid appearance.
To Sion House the Dukes of York and Gloucester, with the Princess Elizabeth, were sent by an order of Parliament, in 1646; where, according to Lord Clarendon, they were treated by the Earl and Countess of Northumberland in a manner suitable to their birth.
—The king frequently visited them there, in 1647, and represented it as a great alleviation of his misfortunes to find his children treated with so much respect and kindness.
The Duke of Gloucester and the Princess Elizabeth continued at Sion till the year 1649, when the Earl of Northumberland resigned them to the care of his sister, the Countess of Leicester.
On the thirtieth of May 1682, Charles Duke of Somerset married the Lady Elizabeth Percy, the only daughter and heiress of Jocelyn Earl of Northumberland; in consequence of which marriage Sion House, in common with the great estates of the Percies, became his property.
—The Duke and Duchess lent this house to the Princess of Denmark, who resided there during the misunderstanding which arose between her Royal Highness and Queen Mary.
—On the death of Charles Duke of Somerset, December 4, 1748, Algernon Earl of Hertford, his only surviving son, succeeded to the title and estate, and soon after gave Sion to his daughter Elizabeth, who afterwards married Sir Hugh Smithson, Bart.
He, after assuming the name of Percy, was first created Earl and afterwards Duke of Northumberland.
—The present duke is the issue of that marriage.

This noble mansion was altered and fitted up by the late duke, under the direction of the Messrs. Adams.
The great hall, which is paved with black and white marble, is sixty feet in length, thirty-one in breadth, and thirty-four in height.
—It contains several antique statues, and a fine bronze cast of the dying gladiator.
Adjoining to the hall is a most magnificent vestibule, decorated in a very uncommon style ; the floor being of Scagliola marble, and the walls in fine relief, with gilt trophies, 8cc.
It is furnished with twelve large columns and sixteen pilasters of the Ionic order, and of verd antique, purchased at an immense expence; being a greater quantity of that valuable species of marble, than is to be found in any other collection at Rome.
The great gallery, which also serves for the library and museum, is one hundred and thirty-three feet and an half by fourteen.
The book-cases are formed in recesses in the wall, and receive the books so as to make them appear part of the general finishing of the room.
Below the ceiling, which is richly adorned with paintings and ornaments, runs a series of large medallion paintings, called the pedigree pictures, exhibiting the portraits of all the earls of Northumberland, and other principal persons of the houses of Percy and Seymour.
At the end of this room is a pair of folding doors that open into the garden, which uniformity required should represent a book-case, to answer the other end of the library.
—Here, by an happy thought, are exhibited the titles of the lost Greek and Roman authors, so as to form a pleasing deception, and to give, at the same time, a curious catalogue of the Authores deperditi.

The ground round the house, which was planted and arranged under the direction of Brown, forms an agreeable park on one side, towards the Hounslow road; from whence there is an elegant and rather enriched entrance, with a central arch, connected by a range of columns with lodges on either side.
But though there is somewhat of a fanciful prettiness about it, the style of the architecture is by no means suited to that of the ancient mansion to which it belongs: it is after a design of Adams.
—On the other side, the ground, which stretches from Brentford to Isleworth, falls down to the Thames in a fine gradual descent, with a very rich range of plantation on the brow.
—Here is a delightful view of a long reach of the River, the Palace of Kew, and a fine stretch of scenery in the Royal Gardens of Richmond, which form the opposite bank.
The kitchen gardens, which are very extensive, are at a proper distance, and planted out from the house.
The greenhouse is very elegantly constructed; the back and end walls of which are the only remains of the ancient monastery.
— in the flower-garden is a stately Doric column, crowned with the statue of Flora.
From the roof of the house, which is flat, the prospect is of considerable extent, comprehending a portion of the counties of Middlesex, Surrey, &c.; together with a command of the river, in a variety of beautiful and interesting points of view.

BRANDENBURG HOUSE NEAR CHISWICK.

Brandenburg House in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Brandenburg House, 1811

[Brandenburg House, near Chiswick] Received its present name from the late Margrave of Anspach, who preferred the society of an highly accomplished and beautiful English woman, to the frigid pomp of a German court.
That elegant votary of taste, George Doddington Lord Melcombe, here presided at the "Feast of reason and the flow of soul".
He gave it the name of La Trappe, and built the Gallery for his collection of works of art.
In the Hall, under a bust of Comas, are the following verses from his Lordship's pen :—

While rosy wreaths the goblet deck,
Thus Comus spoke, or seemed to speak:—
This place for social hours designed,
May care and business never find.
Come every muse without restraint;
Let Genius prompt, and Fancy paint,
Let Wit and Mirth, with friendly strife,
Chase the dull gloom that saddens life:
True wit, that firm to Virtue's cause,
Respects religion and the laws;
True mirth, that cheerfulness supplies
To modest ears and decent eyes;
Let these indulge the liveliest sallies;—
Both scorn the cankered help of malice:
True to their country and their friend,
Both scorn to flatter, or offend.

The house was buit by Sir Nicholas Crispe, about the beginning of the reign of Charles the First.
He is said to have been the first inventor of the present method of making bricks.
He was in France during the troubles in England, when Fairfax took up his quarters there.
He was invited to dinner by the cook, who, in the furious spirit of reformation, laid aside the dripping-pan and ladle, to assume the tide of Lady Crispe: for this mark of her politeness, however, she was committed to prison.
Sir Nicholas sold it to Prince Rupert, who gave it to his mistress, the celebrated Margaret Hughes*.
* Lyson's Environs of London.*
Among the improvements made by the Margrave, is the Theatre—which is seen in the view close to the margin of the river.
The building is intended to appear like a ruin; but, as in most attempts of the kind, the hand of art is too visible.
The theatrical representations being directed by the exquisite taste of the Margravine, who performed in several productions of her own pen, together with the splendid hospitalities of the Margrave, made Brandenburg House, at that time, the centre of fashionable attraction.
Since the death of the Margrave, the Margravine, his widow, has made it the place of her residence.

FULHAM.

Fulham in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Fulham [and Putney Bridge 1729 - 1880 ].

Fulham is a large village, pleasantly situated on the banks of the Thames, four miles from London.
It was anciently written Fullenham, or Fullonam, which, says Norden, "as Master Camden taketh it, signifieth Volucrum domus, the habitude of Birdes, or the place of Fowles; and Ham, or Hame, as much as home in our tongue; so that Fullenham, or Fulgar-house, is as much as to saie, as the home, house, or habitacle of fowle.
It may be also taken for Volucrum amnis, or the river of fowle; for Ham, also, in many places signifieth amnis, a river.
But it is most probable it should be of Land-fowle which usually haunt groves and clusters of trees, whereof in this place, it seemeth hath been plenty.
" Somner, in his Saxon Dictionary, offers a very different etymology.

"Fullanham, or Fulham," says he, "quasi Foulham, from the dirtiness of the place.
"—The same derivation is given in Manning's edition of Lye's Dictionary: —" Fullenham, cænosa habitatio.
" The Saxon word ful is translated foul; frehl, a fowl; full and fullan, are full, as full mona, the full moon.
" The first definition, we believe, has been generally adopted by those who have given a serious attention to the subject.

There seems to be but little historical circumstance connected with this place.
It appears that the Danish army, in 879, removed from Chippenham, and Cirencester, to encamp at Fulham.
They were there joined, it seems, by another army, which had been defeated and driven out of Flanders, by King Charles the Second, King of France.
In 1647, the head-quarters of Fairfax being at Putney, many of the officers were quartered on the inhabitants of Fulham.
The Manor of Fulham belonged to the See of London, long before the Conquest.
It was given to Bishop Erkenwald, and his successors, about the year 691, byTyrhtilus, a Bishop, with the consent of Sigurd, King of the East Saxons, and Conrad, King of the Mercians.
Nor did the See of london lose possession of it till the period of the interregnum when it was sold to Colonel Edmund Harvey, with the lands thereunto belonging, for the sum of seven thousand, six hundred and seventeen pounds, eight shillings and ten-pence.
The late Bishop Porteus was in, possession of the original conveyance.

The manor-house, or palace, of Fulham has from a very early period, been the principal summer residence of the Bishops of London.
It is a brick edifice, and of no very ancient date.
The Library is a spacious apartment, forty eight feet in length, and contains the portraits of several Bishops of London, chiefly copies, and collected by Porteus, the late Bishop.
The great dining-room is thirty-six feet by twenty-four, and eighteen feet in height.
The wainscotting and stained glass in the Chapel were brought back from London House, Aldersgate Street, where it had been placed for security, by Bishop Juxon, the excellent prelate whose duty it was to attend his royal master, Charles the First, to the scaffold, and where he discharged it with that courage and piety which the awful circumstances of the moment demanded of him.
In the year 1715, Bishop Robinson petitioned to have a part of the building pulled down, as it was old and ruinous, and besides too large for the revenues of the Bishopric to maintain.
Commissioners were accordingly appointed, among whom were Sir Christopher Wren and Sir John Vanbrugh.
In consequence of their report a part of the edifice was taken down, but that which was left contains upwards of fifty rooms.

The gardens are curious. They first became remarkable in the time of Bishop Grindall, one of the earliest encouragers of Botany; and the first who imported the Tamarisk tree into this country, about the year 1560.
Bishop Compton, who was himself au excellent botanist, rendered these gardens still more celebrated, by tbe introduction of many new plants and forest trees, particularly from North America.
Of these the following were alone remaining on a survey of the garden in 1793, and they have a claim to be venerated by the botanist, as the parent stocks of their respective races in this kingdom.
The girths, which were accurately taken at three feet from the ground, are here given, with their computed height.

Girth
Feet. Is.
Computed
Height.
Acer NegundoAsh-leaved Maple, planted in 16886' 4"45'
Cupressus sempervivensUpright Cypress2' 3"30'
Juniperus VirginianaVirginian Red Cedar2' 5"20'
Juglans NigraBlack Walnut Tree11' 2"70'
Pinus PinasterCluster Pine10' 0"70'
Quercus AlbaWhite Oak7' 11"70'
Quercus suberCork Tree10' 10"45'
Acer RubrumScarlet-flowered Maple4' 3"40'
Quercus IlexEver-green Oak8' 0"50'
Gleditsia Triacanthusthe Thorned Arcacia,on the Lawn8' 3"
Another, near the Porter's Lodge8' 11"

Near the Porter's Lodge there is also a row of Lime trees, of a great age; one of which measures thirteen feet three inches in the girth.
It is most probable that they were planted by Bishop Compton, about the time of the Revolution, when the fashion of planting avenues of Limes was introduced into this country from Holland, in compliment, as it is said, to the prince of Orange, whose palace in Holland was decorated with those trees.
The Cedar of Libanus is supposed to have bee n first planted, at Fulham, in the year 1683.

Some years ago there was an old wooden chair in the shrubbery, which was said to be the very Judgment Seat from which Bishop Bonner pronounced his anathemas on heretics.
— Whether it was so employed by that inquisitor, has no other proof but the tradition of the place.
It was sufficient, however, to inspire the muse of Hannah More, who was a frequent visitor at the Palace during the prelacy of the last Bishop.
The Lady's Jeu d'esprit was entitled Bonner's Ghost, and was permitted to proceed from the complimentary press of Strawberry Hill.

The palace, the gardens, and a large grass field, called the Warren, containing, altogether, about thirty-seven acres, are surrounded by a moat, over which there are two bridges.
That part of the grounds which ranges with the river, received some small improvements from Bishop Porteus.
Many excellent prelates have been the inhabitants of this place, and we cannot mention this circumstance without selecting from among them, that able divine, celebrated preacher, and admirable writer, Doctor Sherlock; and his near successor, that distinguished scholar, profound theologian, and renowned biblical commentator, Doctor Lowth.

The church of Fulham has nothing in its exterior form, or internal circumstances, to give a claim to particular consideration.
It is dedicated to All Saints, and consists of a nave, a chancel, and two aisles.
It is supposed to have been built in the fourteenth century.

BATTERSEA.

Battersea in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Battersea [ and Battersea Bridge], 1811

Battersea in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Battersea [ and Battersea Bridge], 1818

The bridge, which stretches across the river from Fulham to Putney, and to which the name of either place is equally applied, was built in the early part of the last century [ 1729 ].

This village, which is about three miles from London, on the Surry bank of the Thames, has a claim to that character which is conferred by remote antiquity.
The manor belonged to Earl Harold previous to the conquest; and an exchange was made of it by William the Conqueror with the monks of Westminster for Windsor.
After the dissolution of the monasteries, it was retained in the possession of the crown, and afterwards became the property of the St. John family, who closed the enjoyment of it during a period of one hundred and fifty years, by selling it to the trustees of the present Earl Spencer, during his minority.

This place is remarkable for having given birth to one of the most splendid characters which this country can boast, Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke.
He was born in the old family mansion in 1672, and died there November 15, 1751.
His remains were interred with those of his ancestors, in a vault in the parish church, in which a monument was erected to his memory, and that of his second wife, the relict of the Marquis de Vilette, a nobleman of France, and niece of the celebrated Madame de Maintenon.
The following inscription records their characteristic .

Here lies
HENRY ST. JOHN
In the reign of Queen Anne,
Secretary of War and Secretary of State,
And Viscout Bolingbroke:
In the days of King George the Second,
Something more and better.
His attachment to Queen Anne Exposed him to a long and severe persecution: He bore it with firmness of mind, The enemy to no national party, The friend to no faction: Distinguished, under the cloud of a proscription, Which had not been entirely taken off, By zeal to maintain the liberty, And to restore the ancient prosperity Of Great Britain.

In the same vault Are interred the remains of
Mary-Clara Des Champs De Maresilly,
Marchioness Vilette and Viscountess Bolingbroke:
Born of a noble family, Bred in the court of Louis XIV. She reflected a lustre on the former, By the superior accomplishments of her Mind: She was an ornament to the latter, By the amiable dignity and grace of her Behaviour. She lived The honour of her own sex, The delight and admiration of ours; She died An object of imitation to both; With all the firmness that reason, With all the resignation that religion Can inspire.

Lord Bolingbroke possessed a splendour of talent, of which there are few examples: of his eloquence, Lord Chesterfield, a living witness, and a judge beyond all challenge, declares himself unable to give an adequate idea: of his superiority as a statesman and a writer, his works inform the present, as they will every future age.
Of the social charm, in which he maintained a characteristic pre-eminence, we find repeated and affectionate testimonies in the letters of Pope and the Dean of St. Patrick.
According to contemporary authors, nature seemed not less kind to him in his external embellishments than in adorning his mind.
With the graces of a handsome person, and a face in which dignity was blended with sweetness, he had a manner of address, that was irresistibly engaging.
His vivacity was always awake, passed in a career of extreme dissipation: and as the object of his whole life was pre-eminence, it appears at this period to have been his determination to be the first of profligates.
It seems, however, that at the age of twenty-eight he began to be satiated with a life of sensual pleasure; as he then took refuge from it by marrying a lady who brought him a large fortune, and a considerable portion also of mental endowments.
But, as it has been generally believed, he did not, on this occasion, discard all his former habits: such at least was the subject of her complaint; and, after some time, they parted by mutual consent.
The history of this great man's public life must involve that of the public transactions in which he was concerned.
His eloquence, his talents, and the influence which he derived from them, soon introduced him into the service of his country.
The latter end of Queen Anne's reign was the period in which he shone with the greatest lustre.
That critical juncture required the exertion of all his eminent qualities, and it is universally acknowledged, that he managed the contending factions which then divided the nation, an expensive continental war, an intriguing court, and a fickle queen, with unexpected success and transcendent ability.
On the accession of George the First, he shared in the ruin of his party; and as he considered it unsafe for him to remain in England, he took refuge in France; when a bill of attainder was preferred against him.
His engaging in the service of the Pretender has been attributed by some to resentment and disgust, by others to his ambitious spirit; it may perhaps be more justly ascribed to the blended influence of those emotions.
But in this little Utica he suffered such continual mortification, that, in less than twelve months, he retired from it.
To this interval we are indebted for his Reflections on Exile, which has been styled, by no ordinary judge, to be one of the most masterly, most elegant, and most affecting moral compositions in the English language.
It was owing, perhaps, more to the intrigues of the court, than to the zeal of friends, or any other cause, that Lord Bolingbroke was recalled to his country, and restored to his rights of inheritance; but still he was excluded from every other.
—He, therefore, for some time devoted himself to the amusements of rural life, the charms of philosophy, and social friendship.
While, however, his friends thought him perfectly reconciled to his fate, he petitioned the House of Commons to be reinstated in his former capacities, in order that he might emerge again into the career of public duty; but the cabals of the cabinet defeated his wishes.
This instigated him to take part with Mr. Poulteney, in his opposition to Walpole; and, during this great political controversy, Lord Bolingbroke, in his various publications, elucidated all the excellence of the British constitution with equal strength, elegance, and perspicuity.
The latter part of his life he passed in dignity and splendour, his superior faculties in continual exertion, and his ambition controuled by his disappointments.
He had long wished to breath his last at Battersea, and fortune, who had long thwarted his views of life, at length gratified him in that which respected his death; and there he died on the verge of four score years.
It was aptly, wittily, and prophetically said of him, by Pope, that when he wrote of any thing in this world, he was more than mortal, and that if ever he trifled, it must be when he turned divine.
Thus it has proved, that his metaphysical works have been lasting as the language in which they are composed.

Bolingbroke House, which was an ancient, plain, and roomy mansion, was pulled down about the year 1773, and the site is now occupied by a malt distillery, and an horizontal windmill, which is a very conspicuous object on the bank of the river.
The form of this mill is that of a truncated cone, an hundred and forty-three feet in height, fifty-two in diameter at the base, and forty-five feet at the top.
The external and internal parts of the machine are nearly similar.
The out-frame, or case, is composed of ninety-six planks, placed perpendicularly on moveable pivots, so that the apertures may be encreased or diminished according to the force of the wind.
The inner part, which nearly fills the diameter of the outer one, is, in like manner, formed of ninety-six perpendicular moveable planks, fixed to an upright shaft.
When these are properly adjusted, which can be done by pulling a rope, the wind rushing through the openings of the outer frame, acts upon the flat surfaces of the inner planks or sails, and turns the shaft round with the degree of velocity required by the person who regulates it.
This shaft acts upon the other parts of the machinery in the same way as the water-wheel of a common mill.
This curious building was first erected for the purpose of grinding linseed, but is now applied to the uses of the adjoining distillery.

The church was rebuilt in the year 1777, and is a neat structure of brick, with the addition of stone coins and ornaments.
It has a square tower at the west end, with a clumsy spire, in which the architect seems to have borrowed the form of an extinguisher.
It is without either aisles or chancel, and the communion-table stands in a recess.
Above it is an ancient window of painted glass which belonged to the old church, and was carefully preserved to decorate the new one.
It contains the portraits of Henry the Seventh; his grandmother, Margaret Beauchamp; and Queen Elizabeth.
Over the portraits are the royal arms in a central compartment; and, on each side, the arms and qnarterings of the St. Johns.
The portraits are likewise surrounded with the arms of the families united to them by marriage.

Against the south wall is a monument to the memory of Sir Edward Wynter, a captain in the East India service, in the reign of Charles the Second, whose exploits, as recorded on his tomb, are of such an extraordinary nature, as required a far more credulous age to allow of its admission into a place of Christian worship.
His bust, which is of a large size, and ornamented with whiskers, is at the top, and his adventures are represented, in basso-relievo, beneath the inscription which records them.
One of these is the total defeat of forty Moorish horsemen by the sole prowess of his single arm; and the other, the overthrow of a tyger, by the following stratagem.
Being pursued by that fierce animal in the woods, he took his station by the side of a pond; and when the tyger flew at him, he caught the beast in his arms, fell back into the water with him, got upon him, and held him down till he was completely drowned.
The truth of these deeds, however, which rival the renowned feats of Baron Munchausen, are vouched for in the epitaph.

The bridge, which stretches across the river from Chelsea to this place, and bears its name, is a wooden structure, and unworthy of its vicinity to the metropolis.
It is also most injudiciously placed, as it does not stand in a right angle with the stream, so that its piers are continually receiving injury from the vessels and barges striking against them.

By the custom of the manor of Battersea, lands descend to the younger sons; but, in default of sons, they are divided equally among the daughters.

THE BREAKING-UP OF THE LITTLE BELT AT BATTERSEA, IN THE YEAR 1811.

Breaking Up of the Little Belt in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
The Breaking Up of the Little Belt, 1818

The various objects which enliven the Banks of the Thames at Battersea, combine to form a pleasing view for the delineation of the pencil.
But the artist has in this representation of the spot, very judiciously availed himself of a circumstance, which heightens the interest, as well as picturesque effect of the scene, by introducing the Breaking-up of the Little Belt, an inferior vessel of war, which being connected with the British Naval History, renders the following account a part of our subject ; as it is given in one of the Annual Registers for the year 1811.
A circumstance occurred this year, which threatened to occasion a rupture between this country and the United States of America.
The President, one of the largest class of American Frigates, and the Little Belt, a British vessel of war of inferior force, met and engaged.
The American captain insisted that the first shot was fired from the Little Belt, whose captain and crew as strenuously maintained, that the first shot was discharged by the President.
The American captain, however, was regularly brought to trial by a Court Martial, to prove the truth of his declaration; while the instructions of the British officer, in which he was expressly ordered to abstain from any hostile or even uncivil conduct towards the Americans, were published by government, in order to prove the improbability of his being the aggressor.
At the same time there is an evident singularity in the business, that while our government published the instructions of the British captain, they did not bring him to a Court Martial; while the ministry of the United States, brought their Captain to a Court Martial, without thinking it necessary to publish his instructions.

The accident, however, did not produce any serious altercation between the two Countries.

CHELSEA HOSPITAL.

Chelsea Hospital in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Chelsea Hospital, 1811

Chelsea Hospital in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Chelsea Hospital, 1818 [up the creek without a paddle!]

The Royal Hospital of Chelsea is situated on the banks of the Thames, at the distance of a mile and an half from Buckingham Gate.
It was begun in the reign of Charles the Second, and compleated in that of William and Mary.
Its site is that of the edifice known by the name of "King James's College"; of which, as a very curious and connected subject, some account will be naturally expected.
This collegiate establishment was originally projected by Doctor Matthew Sutcliffe, a very zealous and learned divine, and Dean of Exeter, in the seventh year of the reign of James the First, and under the immediate patronage of that monarch.
It was designed for the sole study of polemical divinity, under the government of a provost and fellows, who were to employ their whole time and talents in the advancement of the reformed religion, and the defence of it against the attacks of the church of Rome.
At this period, the press teemed with publications on topics of controversial divinity; and the public attention was proportionably engrossed by theological disquisitions.
The court set the example, as the monarch himself was attached to that branch of study; and to be considered as a powerful controversalist in religious polemics, was no small gratification to his pride.
This college, therefore, found a zealous patron in the king, who supported it by various grants and benefactions.

His majesty laid the first stone of the new edifice on the eighth day of May, 1609, granted a sufficient quantity of timber for its construction from his royal Forest of Windsor, and was pleased to command, as recited in the original charter of incorporation, dated the ninth of May in the same year, that it should bear the name of "King James's College at Chelsea".
By this instrument it was also directed that the provost and fellows were to be nineteen in number, two of which were to be laymen and the rest in holy orders.
The persons who were immediately to these dignities were already distinguished by their piety and learning.
This college, therefore, began with the happiest omens of success, and the fairest prospect of future prosperity.
The site of the proposed edifice was a piece of ground, called "Thame Shot", containing about six acres, at that time in the possession of the Earl of Nottingham, who granted a lease of his term to Doctor Sutcliffe.
The college, according to the original plan, was to have consisted of two quadrangles of different dimensions, with a piazza along the four sides of the smaller court; but not an eighth part of it was completed.
The whole, if it had been erected, would have involved an expence of thirty thousand pounds.
Doctor Sutcliffe, who seems to have regarded this institution with a parental fondness, not only devoted himself to promote its success during his life, but bequeathed his very large property, for the purposes of its support and advancement, at his death.
The king also continued his protection; nevertheless, its funds failed, and it finally sunk into a state of decay.

There are two prints of this edifice as it was originally designed.
The one prefixed to a small pamphlet, entitled, "The Glory of Chelsea new revived", printed in 1662; and the other in Grose's Military Antiquities.
The form and exterior of the building appears, from these representations of it, to be in the uncouth style and bad taste which prevailed in the reign of the first James, so that the admirers of classical architecture have no cause to regret that not a vestige of it remains.
A curious description of that part of the college which was actually erected, as it stood in the year 1652, has been found among the papers of the Augmentation Office.
It is there mentioned as a brick building, one hundred and thirty feet in length, from east to west, and thirty-three in breadth; consisting of a kitchen, two butteries, two larders, an hall, and two large parlours below stairs.
On the second story, four fair chambers, two drawing rooms, and four closets: the same on the third story; and, on the fourth, a very large gallery, having at each end a little room, with turrets, covered with slates.
The whole of the premises is there described as occupying twenty-eight acres.
This property, after having been applied to various purposes, reverted to the crown, when it was employed as a prison, and made a receptacle for Dutch seamen.

In the year 1669, Charles the Second gave the ground and buildings to the Royal Society, which had been incorporated seven years before; but they were afterwards purchased by Sir Stephen Fox for the king's use, with a view to the erection of Chelsea College.
Nor can it be considered but as a very curious circumstance, that the spot which was set apart for an institution to encourage and support the war of words, and the contests of the pen, should subsequently become the situation of an asylum for those who had lived amidst the din of arms, and were to repose there from the conflicts of the sword.
This magnificent structure may be truly said, both from its figure and its object, to dignify the Thames which flows before it.
Its situation commands the river, with a pleasing view of the distant hills of Kent and Surry; and, if we may trust the opinion of that eminent physician Sir Hans Sloane, who resided in its vicinity, it may be considered as a spot of uncommon salubrity.
Charles the Second, attended by a long train of the principal nobility and gentry, laid the first stone of this superb fabric, on the twelth day of March, 1682.
The architect was Sir Christopher Wren.

There is a tradition which cannot be passed by unnoticed, that this hospital is indebted for its establishment to Nell Gwynn, the most amiable of the beauties of Charles the Second, by her benevolent instigation of that monarch to form this noble and necessary charity.
The anonymous, author of her life, on what authority we know not, relates, this circumstance with all the confidence of truth.
It is indeed remarkable that there is a public-house in the vicinity of the hospital, whose sign displays her portrait, and attributes to her the honour of the foundation.
Mr. Lysons has, also, cited a paragraph in a newspaper of the day, which gives its little aid in support of this opinion.
At all events, however, it may be reasonably believed, that this fascinating favourite, who has been represented as possessing the most amiable qualities of the heart, might have employed her winning influence towards the advancement of a design so replete with good, and so honourable to her royal protector.

Collins, in his peerage, ascribes this splendid work to Sir Stephen Fox, and it is, indeed, well known that he was one of its most liberal benefactors.
With a princely spirit of generosity, he contributed upwards of thirteen thousand pounds towards defraying the expences of its erection.
He was a lord of the treasury, and was named in the joint commission with the Earl of Ranelagh, paymaster-general, and Sir Christopher Wren, surveyor-general of the works, to superintend the building of Chelsea Hospital.
Archbishop Sancroft contributed also one thousand pounds.
An equal sum was likewise given by Mr. Tobias Rustat, under-keeper of the royal palace of Hampton Court, and yeoman of the robes to King Charles the Second.
He also presented two bronze statues, the one of his royal master, and the other of his successor, James the Second.
The former of which is placed in this hospital, and the other in Whitehall; and while we display these acts of patriotic beneficence, we feel no common pleasure in contemplating the virtues of a life, the whole of which was past in doing good.
Mr. Feck, in his Desiderata curiosa, has given a catalogue of the many public benefactions and charitable acts of this excellent man.

This edifice, which was begun in the year 1682, was not completed till 1690; and the whole expence of it is computed at £150,000.
The character of the building, which is of brick, is a noble simplicity.
The sparingness of ornaments, which, indeed, it does not seem to want, was probably an economical consideration.
It is contrived, however, in a very superior manner to fulfil the design of its establishment.
The different wards are light and airy; the chapel and the hall are well disposed, and the house appointed for the governor is a suitable residence.
The colonnade and portico towards the river display an handsome appearance and pleasing proportions, and afford a covered communication between the two wings; nor is the north front of an inferior appearance in the general arrangement and disposition of its parts.
The structure is of brick-work, which is far superior to what is practised in the present day, and is enlivened by coins, cornices,and columns of Portland stone.
The hospital consists of three courts, the principal of which is open to the south: in the centre of it is the bronze statue, which has been just mentioned, of the royal founder.
Mr. Horace Walpole very properly hesitates in attributing it to Grinling of the latter being the work of that eminent sculptor.
The eastern and western wings of this court are each three hundred and sixty-five feet in length, and forty feet wide, and are chiefly occupied by the wards of the pensioners.
At the extremity of the eastern wing is the house of the governor, which is a large and commodious residence.
It contains a noble state apartment, in which are the portraits of Charles the First, his Queen and two sous, Charles, Prince of Wales, and James, Duke of York; of Charles the Second; William the Third ; and their present Majesties.
The south side is distinguished by an handsome portico of the Doric order, and a colonnade continued along the whole of it; on the frieze of which is the following inscription :— In Subsidium et Levamen, Emeritorum, Senio Belloque Fractorum, Condidit, Carolus Secundus, Auxit Jacobus, Secundus, Perfecere Gulielmus et Maria, Rex et Regina, MDCXC. [1690]

This part of the building is divided into a chapel and an hall, with a central vestibule, terminated by a copula of considerable altitude.
The chapel is one hundred and ten feet in length, and thirty in breadth.
It is paved with black and white marble, and wainscotted with Dutch oak.
The altar-piece presents an admired work of Sebastian Ricci.
The subject is the resurrection of Christ.
The hall is on the opposite side of the vestibule, and of the same dimensions as the chapel.
At the upper end is a large portrait of Charles the Second on horseback, in which various allegorical figures are introduced.
It was designed by Verrio, and finished by Henry Cook.
On the frame is the following inscription:—
Carolo Secundo, Regi Opitmo, Hujus Hospitii Fundatori, Domlnoque Suo Clementissimo, Ricardus Jones, Comes De Ranelagh, Hanc Tabulam posuit.

The eastern and western courts are principally occupied by the officers of the establishment.
The north front is of great extent, and from the judicious adjustment of its parts, produces a very impressive effect.
Before it is an enclosure of about fourteen acres, planted with avenues of limes and horse-chesnuts[sic].
The ground to the south of the building contains the gardens, which extend to the river, and finish with an elevated terrace.

The establishment of the Royal Hospital consists of a governor, lieutenant-governor, major, two chaplains, physician, surgeon, and apothecary, with a treasurer, comptroller, clerk of the works, steward, organist, and various subordinate officers.
The ordinary number of pensioners is four hundred and seventy-two; which, with the officers and household servants, make the whole to amount to upwards of five hundred persons.
The funds for the maintenance of this national institution are provided from the poundage of the army, besides one day's pay annually from each officer and private: the remainder of the expences are defrayed by an annual vote of parliament.
The number of out-pensioners has greatly increased within these few years; and at this time amounts to twenty thousand seven hundred, and upwards, as will appear from the following authentic statement.
Twenty thousand out-pensioners, at five-pence a-day.
Four hundred lettermen, at twelve-pence.
Thirty-one pensioners, who have all been Serjeants in the foot-guards, at nine-pence.
Forty-three blind serjeants, at eighteen pence.
Forty blind corporals, at fourteen pence.
Six hundred and seventy privates, who are blind, at twelve pence.
- All these lost their sight in Egypt.
Two hundred serjeants, discharged from different garrisons; their several companies have been disbanded.
Fifty-two pensioners, discharged from the veteran battalions, at twelve-pence a-day; and one hundred and twenty-six pensioners, discharged from the same battalions, at nine-pence a-day; in consideration of long and meritorious services.
Seventy-two serjeants, who have served in the West Indies and at Gibraltar, at seven-pence a-day, in addition to their usual pension.
Seventy annuitants, having served in the first and second foot-guards, as a compensation for their being disbanded in the year 1788.
The commissioners of this hospital direct also the allowance of four-pence a-day, in addition to the common pension, to several other pensioners, in consideration of the loss of sight or mutilation of limbs.
The out-pensioners have been paid half-yearly in advance since the year 1754, in consequence of a regulation suggested and framed by the late Lord Chatham, (then William Pitt, and paymaster-general,) which will remain a lasting example of his enlightened humanity.
The disabled veterans, on being granted the pensions of Chelsea Hospital, did not receive their first year's pension till the expiration of that period, and were, many of them, in consequence of this delay, oppressed by a set of miscreants, who advanced them money at such exorbitant rates, that they and their families were frequently reduced to the greatest distress; and thus the benevolent intention of government respecting them, was, in a great measure, defeated.
That upright statesman, therefore, brought a bill into parliament, which provided that half-a-year's pension should be paid in advance; and it contained also a clause, which enacted, that all contracts should be void, by which any pension might be mortgaged.
Thus this humane regulation, by possessing the sanction of the law, effectually secured to the aged soldier, the comforts which the nation had provided for him, when his arm should become nerveless, and he could only pray for the prosperity of the country whose battles he had fought, and whose glory he had sustained.
The internal affairs of the hospital are under the snperintendance of commissioners, nominated by the crown, and consist of the governor, lieutenant-governor, and some of the principal officers of state; who hold a board, as occasion may require, for transacting the business of the establishment.
The hospital being considered as a military station, the pensioners accordingly mount guard, and perform other garrison duties.
Two Serjeants, four corporals, and fifty two privates, selected from the most able of the pensioners, are appointed, by the king's sign manual, to act as a patrole, or watch, upon the road from the Queen's Palace to Chelsea; for which each man is paid seven shillings and sixpence per month.
This regulation was established in consequence of a petition presented by the inhabitants of Chelsea, so far back as the year 1715; the highways being at that time infested by robbers of every denomination.
Such is the Royal Hospital of Chelsea: a foundation, which is at once a proud monument of national munificence, of public virtue, and of British glory.

The canoe, which is seen in the print, has been naturalized to this part of the river by a gentleman, who passes, and has for many years passed, much of his time in such aquatic excursions as this exotic vessel will allow him.

THAMES CRAFT FROM MILL-BANK.

[ The title seems to imply an image here, but there is no entry in any index I can find. However there is this print by Owen engraved by Allen and published by W.B.Cooke in 1817. It seems to be the print intended? ]

Thames Craft from Millbank, Allen & Owen 1817
Thames Craft from Mill-Bank, 1817

[ Not actually in either version! ]

The Thames, among its numerous beauties, claims particular attention from the diversity of character which it displays in the different parts of its course.
It begins with a narrow, rural, retired stream, whose water has no more force than to turn a rural mill.
It then acquires sufficient strength and depth to allow the navigation of the larger kind of boats:
the west country barge, of considerable tonnage, next succeeds;
and the variety of vessels continues to increase in proportion as the stream approaches the capital.
That part of the river which the pencil has here pourtrayed, possesses no picturesque beauty on its banks, which are low and flat, nor does it offer any pleasing Landscape, from the commercial edifices and manufacturing buildings which are seated on them.
Its variety of scenery arises only from the vessels sailing on it, or moored at its side.
The plate, therefore, may be considered as intending to offer a characterestic design, and to have fulfilled its object.

RANDALL'S MILL, NINE ELMS. BATTERSEA.

Randall's Mill, Nine Elms in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Randall's Mill, Nine Elms, 1811

Randall's Mill, Nine Elms in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Randall's Mill, Nine Elms, 1818

Of the great variety of objects which art and nature individually offer, or in their infinite combinations, present to the pencil of the painter, it becomes him to select such as are best suited to his particular design, whatever it may be; to the bent of his genius, whatever may be its tendency; or the local circumstances which predominate over his labours.
When he has a choice, which is not always the case, his taste and judgment are manifested by his selection, either as to the object itself, or its accessory relations.
In an enlarged and general view of things, it might not be expected, that a painter would make a Windmill the leading feature of a picture.
The Dutch painters, indeed, are necessarily obliged to introduce them into their landscapes, because the scenery of the country, where they study nature, such as it is, abounds in them; and where they may be introduced with effect to enliven the insipidity of those views, where no natural varieties interpose.
Rembrandt, in one of his finest pictures, has made a windmill the principal object; but that was done to produce a particular effect of light, which is nature itself, and a most admirable example of the painter's skill.
Nevertheless, we cannot contend that a windmill is altogether a pleasing form.
A watermill is frequently a very delightful object, and admits of a great variety of representation.
As it is treated by Ruysdaal, and other masters in his style of painting, it forms a most pleasing and interesting scene.
At the same time we shall observe that there are situations in which a windmill is not to be neglected; nay, in which it may even be preferred, as in this work, in some part of which, as it professes to describe the scenery of a river, such a characteristic machine cannot be omitted.

The Thames possesses many most beautiful situations : its banks are rendered picturesque by ancient buildings, or are enriched with modern structures.
But the river has also a commercial character, and the Windmill, with the craft about it, marks that distinction.
That which is connected with this page is a very fine Mill of its kind, and is not without its effect on the eye of those who pass by water between London and Chelsea.
It serves to enliven the flatness of that part of the Surry shore; and, in several points, very agreeably breaks the range of high grounds in the distance.
It is situated near the Nine Elms, in the vicinity of Vauxhall, belongs to Mr. Randall, and is employed in the starch manufactory.

Randall's Mill (Landscape), Nine Elms in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Landscape Version - Randall's Mill, Nine Elms, 1811

The picturesque beauties of this mill have frequently attracted the attention of artists.
The various craft, waggons, horses, &c. generally about it, present a busy interesting scene.
An upright view of it, on a larger scale, is given as a frontispiece to the first [1811] volume.
The buildings erected near it have so considerably diminished the force of the wind, that it is now very seldom worked.
Messrs. Randall have erected a steam-engine within their manufactory at Lambeth, which answers their purpose much better.

LAMBETH PALACE.

Lambeth Palace in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Lambeth Palace, 1811

Lambeth Palace in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Lambeth Palace, 1818 [?]

This palace was originally built in the year 1189, by Baldwin, metropolitan in the time of Richard I. on a spot of ground purchased of the Bishops of Rochester, as a residence for himself and successors, in the vicinity of the court, where the attendance of those prelates, in particular, who were elevated to the primacy, was officially required.
It appears to have been, in a great measure, if not wholly, rebuilt by Boniface, in the year 1262, when, by his compliance with ihe measures of the court, and his own imperious temper, he had rendered himself obnoxious to the people, and particularly to the citizens of London, of whom he was in such dread, that he shut himself up in his palace, as a place of security from that resentment with which he was menaced.
—From that time it became the constant residence of the metropolitan prelates.

As an architectural object Lambeth palace displays a very irregular appearance.
The various alterations and improvements which, at different periods, have been made in it, by its successive possessors, have been designed rather for domestic convenience and accommodation, than with a solicitude to preserve an uniformity of appearance.
Nevertheless, the mass of building produces a grand effect, and, when viewed from Westminster bridge, the opposite banks of the river, or from the river itself, gives a venerable dignity to the scene.

Some account of the apartments which it contains will be best given by describing them according to their local disposition.
The Library was founded by Archbishop Bancroft, who died in the year 1610, and left all his books to his successors for ever.
Archbishop Abbot, who succeeded him, bequeathed all the books in his great study, marked C.C., in the same unlimited manner.
On the suppression of episcopacy, this valuable library was preserved by the address of the celebrated Mr. Selden.
It appears that Archbishop Bancroft had left his books to his successors, on condition that the immediate successor should enter into a recognizance, that they should not be embezzled, but delivered entire from one to the other for ever.
On failure of this article they were to go to a college, then about to be erected at Chelsea, for the advancement of polemical Divinity, in case it should be built within six years after his decease.
—The college was never finished; nor is there any evidence that the successors of Bancroft gave the security required by the last will and testament of that prelate.
—The books were actually at Lambeth, in 1646, two years after the execution of Archbishop Laud, when, alarmed for their safety in times so hostile to learning, Mr. Selden suggested to the University of Cambridge their right to the books, which were accordingly delivered into their possession.
On the restoration, Archbishop Juxon demanded the restoration of the library; and it was accordingly restored to his successor Archbishop Sheldon.
—The latter prelate made a considerable addition to it, and Archbishop Tenison followed his example.
—That amiable, pious, and learned Archbishop Secker, not only expended a considerable sum on making catalogues to the old registers of the see, but left to the library all such books from his own private collection, as were not in the former, and which proved a most valuable literary legacy.
Archbishop Cornwallis enriched it with many valuable volumes; and the late Archbishop Moore, fitted up, at a considerable expence, a suitable repository for the rich collection of manuscripts.
— This library consists of upwards of twenty-five thousand volumes, and occupies the four galleries above the cloisters.

It contains also the following paintings, &c.:
An original portrait of the founder, Archbishop Bancroft, with the date 1604.
Archbishop Warham, a copy from the portrait painted by Holbein in the long gallery; Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII.
Doctor Peter du Molin, a learned divine, and domestic chaplain to Archbishop Juxon; and Doctor Wilkins, a former librarian.
The library is also embellished with an original impression of the large scale Plan of London, by Ralph Aggas, a valuable set of the prints of all the Archbishops of Canterbury, from 1504, collected by Archbishop Cornwallis; and a series of the most eminent reformers and fathers of the protestant church, &c.
The windows in that part of the library appropriated to the purposes of study, contain a few specimens of stained glass deserving notice, which are said to have been collected from different parts of the house to adorn this apartment.
Near the chimney hangs the shell of a land tortoise, which, according to the inscription pasted on it, was introduced into the garden of Lambeth, by Archbishop Laud in 1633, where it remained till 1753, when it was killed by the negligence of the gardener.

The Guard Chamber, so called, from having formerly contained the arms appropriated to the defence of the palace; but they have long since been removed: some of them, however, remained solately[sic] as in the prelacy of Archbishop Potter.
It is fifty-six feet long, and twenty-seven feet and a half wide, and possesses a fine timber roof in the style of, but less ornamented than, that of the hall.
There is also a fine whole length portrait of Henry Prince of Wales over the chimney.

The Presence Chamber is an ancient room, thirty feet by nineteen; Archbishop Parker describes it in his will, "In cubiculo illo, quod Ministri regit vocant presentia".
This apartment was formerly hung with tapestry, which, being decayed, was removed by Archbishop Herring, who fitted it up with wainscot.
The windows display some curious specimens of stained glass.

The Great Dining-Room is thirty-eight feet three inches in length, and nineteen feet six inches in breadth, and contains a series of portraits of all the primates, from the violent and imprudent Laud, to the amiable and meek-spirited Cornwallis.
The former is finely painted by Vandyke; Juxon, from an original picture, at Longleat, the seat of the Marquis of Bath, in Wiltshire; Sheldon, Bancroft, Tillotson, and that of Tenison, by Simon Dubois; Wake, Potter, and that of Herring, by Hogarth; Hutton, by Hudson; Secker, by Reynolds; and Cornwallis, by Dance.
These portraits mark the revolutions in the clerical dress.
Archbishop Tillotson was the first prelate who wore a wig, which resembled the natural hair, and was never powdered.

The Old Drawing-Room is nineteen feet ten inches, by eighteen feet ten inches:—it was formerly called the Velvet Room, from the fabric which composed its hangings and furniture.
The new drawing and dressing rooms were added to the palace, by Archbishop Cornwallis, in 1769.

The Gallery is ninety feet in length, and sixteen in breadth, the building of which is ascribed toCardinalPole.
It is entitled to particular attention, from the valuable collection of pictures of primates and other dignitaries, with which it is decorated: among them is an admirable portrait of the founder, which Doctor Ducarel supposes to be genuine, though it has been considered by others as a copy of that in the Barberini palace.
Among the portraits are those of the Archbishops Arundel and Chichely, with that of Warham, by Holbein, which is a very fine picture, and is well known from Vertue's large print.
That of Archbishop Parker is supposed to have been painted by Richard Lyne, in 1572.
He was an artist of considerable merit, and retained by the archbishop on his establishment, under whose patronage he practised engraving as well as painting.
There is a second portrait of the same prelate, said to be by Holbein, which was presented to Archbishop Potter, by James West, Esq. President of the Royal Society.
There is also a small head, said to be of Martin Luther, but its originality is involved in doubt.
— Cranmer, Whitgift,Grindal, Sheldon, and an imaginary head of Saint Dunstan, possess little attraction.
The portrait of Archbishop Abbot, 1610, is very finely painted; and that of Laud, by Vandyke, is an admirable picture.
The other portraits in this gallery are eminent bishops, the scene of whose distinguished lives is less remote from the period in which we contemplate them.
They consist of full lengths; the size of life, of the following persons.
Bishop Burnet, of Salisbury, author of the History of his own times.
The excellent and renowned Bishop Hough, who filled the sees of Oxford and Worcester.
The humble, holy, and patient Lloyd, to use Burnet's characteristic expressions, who was successively Bishop of Litchfield and Worcester, and Patrick, Bishop of Ely.
— Thomas, Bishop of Winchester, and Terrick, Bishop of London, are two good portraits by Dance.
—That of the celebrated Hoadley, of Winchester, was painted by his lady, Mrs. Sarah Hoadley, and possesses no common merit.
—To these may be added the portraits of Moore, Fleetwood, Gooch, and Mawson, all successive Bishops of Ely :— A fine picture of Pearce, Bishop of Bangor, and afterwards of Rochester; and a large full length of Charles I. a copy from Vandyke.
A portrait of Catharine Parr has also found a place in this gallery, and not, as Pennant observes, without a just claim; it being reasonable to suppose, but for the death of her tyrant, that she would have been devoted to the stake, for the favour which she bore to the reformed religion.
This curious picture, a three-quarter length, is painted on board, in a rich dress of scarlet and gold.
—It bears not a single trace of the print among the illustrious heads engraved by Houbraken, but, from several circumstances, there is a much greater probability of its being a genuine portrait.
The windows of this apartment are enriched with beautiful stained glass, containing the arms of many of the primates; particularly the bow window, in which are the arms of all the protestant archbishops from Cranmer to Cornwallis.

The Vestry contains several pictures.
Among others is a small piece without frame, representing an emaciated figure in bed, with a cap nearly drawn over his eyes, and apparently dead: it is said to represent Archbishop Juxon after his death.
An ancient painting on board, supposed to pourtray the bold reformer, Martin Luther, and his wife, but totally unlike the common portraits of the former, both in dress and feature.
Nothing can be finer than the heads and hands in this picture.
The lady appears in a pregnant state.
—There is also a portrait of Cardinal Pole, and it is considered as a genuine resemblance of that celebrated churchman.

The Chapel is seventy-two feet in length, twenty-five in breadth, and thirty feet in height; and is divided into an inner and outer chapel, by an handsome carved screen.
It has a flat pannelled ceiling, painted in compartments, and the pavement is composed of black and white marble.
The fittings up, which are of wainscot, consist of an handsome range of stalls, with seats beneath them.
The screen, as well as the archbishop's seat, with many of the other parts, are beautifully carved.
The altar piece, a strange incongruity of which we see so many examples, is of the Corinthian Order.
The Post Room is so called from a large post or pillar in the centre of it which supports the roof.
It is a part of the building called the Tower, and forms a kind of vestibule to the chapel.
To what purpose of domestic use it was originally applied, cannot now be ascertained.
The antiquary, however, may think it worthy of his attention for the broad and massy character of its walls and the gloomy air of antiquity which it possesses.
—Its flat pannelled ceiling is ornamented at the intersections, with a variety of grotesque forms, angels bearing shields, arms, &c.

The Lollards' Tower is a large pile of stone building, supposed to have derived its name from a small prison at the top of it, anciently used for confining the religious sects called the Lollards.
It is an historical fact, however, that the Archbishop of Canterbury had prisons here before this tower was built, which was in the prelacy of Archbishop Chichely; as there is an authentic account of a married chaplain brought before Archbishop Arundel, in the year 1402, out of his prisons, within the manor of Lambeth; though it is not now discoverable where those places of confinement stood.
The Lollards were very much persecuted in the times of Arundel and Chichely; and several of the proceedings against them are extant in the registers of this see.
The Lollards' Prison is a small room, twelve feet long, nine feet wide, and eight feet high; the ascent to which is by a spiral stone stair-case, whose steps are much decayed.
The entrance to it is through a narrow stone door-way, barely sufficient for one person to pass, which has an inner and outer door of strong oak, thickly studded with iron, and with corresponding fastenings.
—It still retains the large iron rings to which the former persecuted inhabitants of it were attached.
There are eight of them firmly fixed to the wainscot which lines the walls, and are about breast high.
Every part of this wretched chamber, not excepting the ceiling, is entirely cased with oak, near an inch and an half in thickness.
It has two very small windows, narrowing outwards; one of which is to the west, and the other to the north.
A small chimney is on the north side, and upon the wainscot are various scratches, half sentences, initials, and in one or two places a crucifix, &c. supposed to be cut by the prisoners confined here.
—"These rings", says Pennant, with his philanthropic spirit, "to which the devoted victims were chained before they were brought to the stake, ought to make Protestants bless the hour which freed them from so bloody a period: while the Catholics also may glory, that time has softened their zeal into charity for all sects; and made them blush at these memorials of the misguided spirit of our ancestors."
The exterior of the Lollards' tower, when viewed from the Thames, has a venerable appearance, and is the only part of the palace which is now built entirely of stone.
It consists of a large tower, and a smaller square projection on the south side, somewhat receding from it: the whole building is five stories in height.
The larger tower has in front a number of fine windows, which enlighten the several apartments contained in it: the smaller one, the upper part of which contains the prison, is plainer and of a more massy appearance.
—The lower stories[sic] are now used as cellars; and the whole is shaded by the venerable trees which decorate the spot called the Bishop's Walk, on the bank of the river.

The Cloisters stand on the south side of the chapel, the north side being bounded by the great hall, and their eastern and western sides by the guard-chamber and Lollard's tower.
Their area is but of small dimensions, and are apparently not much older than the library which they support.
Their sides are plain, and the ceiling flat, composed of lath and plaster.
They serve as avenues to the various parts of the palace.

The Crypt or Under-Chapel is generally thought to be the oldest part of the palace.
It consists of a series of strong stone arches, supported in the centre by a short massy column; and is thirty-six feet long by twenty-four feet wide: the height from the ground to the roof is about ten feet.
These vaults are now converted into cellars; but they are considered as having been formerly used as a place of worship.

The Great Hall stands on the site of the old one, which was destroyed by Scott, one of the regicides, in the year 1648.
It was rebuilt by Archbishop Juxon, with all possible resemblance to the structure whose loss it has supplied.
The architecture of this magnificent fabric is of the mixed kind, as well as the a fine red brick, and are supported by buttresses, edged and coped with stone, which terminate in large globes or balls.
The roof on the outside is slated, and in the centre rises a lofty elegant lantern, at the top of which are the arms of the see of Canterbury, impaled by those of Juxon, aud surmounted by the archiepiscopal mitre.
It is ninety-three feet in length, thirty-eight in breadth, and upwards of fifty feet in height.
The depth of the great window at the northwest end is seven feet four inches; and it reaches in height from the floor to the edge of the roof.
The whole of the inside is profusely ornamented; the roof, in particular, is constructed with great labour, and, considering the age in which it was built, may be regarded as a curious and fine piece of workmanship.
It is entirely composed of oak; and on some parts of it are carved the arms of Juxon; on others, those of Juxon impaled with the see of Canterbury, or the arms of Canterbury only; and in a few places a mitre between four negro's heads.
At the upper end, above the archbishop's seat, in the large north window, the same arms are again seen in stained glass: they are likewise carved over the hall door with the date MDCLXIII.; and at the lower end is a screen of the Ionic order, on the top of which is the Founder's crest, a negro's head crowned.
The whole is wainscoted to a considerable height, and the floor consists of an handsome pavement.
Two of the great oak tables have upon them the date 1664, which denotes their having been made at the charge of Archbishop Sheldon: the lowest on the east side is a shovel-board-table, an old English game, which is now almost forgotten, but was as usual an appendage of the ancient seats of our nobility and gentry, as the billiard-table is of the country houses of modem times.
These great halls formed a part of the seats of our ancestors, that there might be room to display the noble hospitality which prevailed among them, and was generally exercised by the possessors of this stately palace.

Strype gives an account of the splendid establishment and magnificent hospitality of Archbishop Cranmer, when he enjoyed the primacy.
His houshold consisted of the following officers :—Steward, treasurer, comptroller, granators, clerk of the kitchen, caterer, clerk of the spicery, yeoman of livery, bakers, pantlers, yeomen of the horse, yeomen ushers, butlers of wine and ale, larderers, ushers of the hall, porter, ushers of the chamber, daily waiters in the great chamber, gentlemen ushers, yeoman of the chamber, carver, sewer, cup-bearer, grooms of the chamber, marshal, groom ushers, almoner, cooks, chandler, butchers, master of the horse, yeomen of the wardrobe and harbingers.
The archbishop's state fully corresponded to this numerous retinue.
There were generally three tables spread in the hall, and served at the same time.
—The archbishop's table, at which ordinarily sat none but the peers of the realm, privy-counsellors and gentlemen of the greatest quality; the almoner's table, at which sat the chaplains and all the guests of the clergy, beneath diocesan bishops and abbots; the steward's table, at which sat all the gentlemen: besides this hospitality proper relief was administered to the poor at the gate.
Cardinal Pole had a patent from Philip and Mary, to retain one hundred servants, from whence an adequate notion may be formed of his splendid hospitality.
Archbishop Parser had a similar grant from Queen Elizabeth for forty retainers; but the horse, secretaries, gentleman usher, that waited not at the archbishop's table, with other gentlemen waiters: and if all could not sit there, they were placed at the gentleman's table.
Next to that table, over against the steward's table on the other side of the hall, had the almoner his table, with the chaplains and the students; and either of these tables had like allowance of diet, manchet, and wine.
The gentlemen's long table, at first sitting, was for some gentlemen of houshold and manors, and for the archbishop's waiters when he had dined.
On the other side against them sat the yeomen waiters and yeomen officers, that attended not, and meaner sort of strangers.
At the table, next the hall door, sat the cooks and attendant yeomen officers: over against them sat the grooms before mentioned of the stable and other extra places.
Then at the nether end of the hall, by the pantry, was a table whereat was daily entertained eight or ten of the poor of the town by turns."

Strype gives this further account of the same excellent prelate's hospitality.
"In the daily eating this was the custom.
The steward, with the servants that were gentlemen of the better rank, sat down at the tables in the hall on the right hand; and the almoner, with the clergy and the other servants, sat on the other side, where there was plenty of all sorts of pro\isions for eating and drinking.
The daily fragments thereof did suffice to fill the bellies of a great number of poor hungry people that waited at the gate; and so constant and unfailing was this, provision at my lord's table, that whosoever came in, either at dinner or supper, being not above the degree of a knight, might here be entertained worthy of his quality, either at the steward's or at the almoner's table.
And moreover, it was the archbishop's command to his servants, that all strangers should be received and treated with all manner of civility and respect; and that places should be assigned them according to their dignity and quality, which redounded much to the praise and commendation of the archbishop.
The discourse and conversation at meals were void of all brawls and loud talking; and, for the most part, consisted in framing men's manners to religion, or to some other honest and beseeming subject.
There was a monitor of the hall; and if it happened that any spoke too loud, or concerning things less decent, it was presently hushed by one that cried silence.
The archbishop loved hospitality, and no man shewed it so much or with better order, though he himself was very abstemious.

The Gate-House is, perhaps, the most magnificent building of its kind now remaining; not for the elegance of its workmanship, but for its size and height.
It consists of two large square towers, with a spacious gateway and postern in the centre; the whole being embattled and built of red brick with stone dressings.
The arch of the gateway is pointed, and the roof beautifully groined.

Above is a noble room, called the Record Room, in which the archives of the see of Canterbury are deposited.
The towers are ascended by spiral stone stair-cases, which lead to the apartments on the different stories.
The roof of this'building is flat and leaded, from whence there is a prospect of great extent and beauty, —This structure was rebuilt by Cardinal Morton, in the year 1490, in the manner we at present see it.
—There is also a small room adjoining the porter's lodge, which, from the rings fastened to the wall, the inscriptions on it, the double doors and stone walls, is supposed to have been used as a secondary prison to the Lollards' tower.

At this gate, the dole, immemorially given to the poor by the Archbishops of Canterbury, is constantly distributed.
This now consists of fifteen quartern loaves, nine stone of beef, and five shillings worth of half-pence: these are divided into three equal portions, and distributed, every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, among thirty poor parishioners of Lambeth.
The beef is made into broth, thickened with oatmeal, is divided into ten equal shares, and distributed, with half of one of the loaves, a pitcher of the broth and twopence, to as many poor persons, who are thus weekly relieved by rotation.
It is, however, but justice to observe, that the charity of the palace is not confined to this benevolent distribution; as a considerable number of poor housekeepers of the parish are also relieved by annual donations from the archbishop.

Among other examples of Lambeth hospitality, it becomes us to mention, that, on the annual aquatic procession of the Lord Major of London to Westminster, the barge of the Company of Stationers proceeds to Lambeth Palace; where, from time immemorial, they have received a present of sixteen bottles of wine, with plenty of bread, cheese, and ale to the watermen.
The Company in return presents the Archbishop with a copy of the several almanacks, which they have the peculiar privilege of printing.

Adjoining the gateway on the right hand is a large modern house, called the New Buildings, which was begun by Archbishop Tillotson, about the year 1692, but finished by Archbishop Bancroft.
A room which juts out over the hall door, is said to have been the study of that Archbishop, and derives an interesting consequence from having probably been the scene of those pious labours, which may be considered as holding an high rank among the classics of English theology.
On the ancient brick wall immediately opposite this building, and which bounds the court yards on the Thames side, are several devices in glazed bricks.
Among them may be discerned three or four crosses of different forms very prettily worked, which seem to determine the erection of this wall to have been prior to the reformation.

The Park and Gardens contain eighteen acres, and are indebted for their present improved state to Archbishop Moore.
They have long been remarkable for two uncommonly large fig-trees, traditionally reported to have been planted by Cardinal Pole, and which grow against that part of the palace, supposed to have been erected by him.
They are of the white Marseilles sort, and continue to bear delicious fruit.
They cover a surface of more than fifty feet in height and forty in breadth.
The circumference of the stem of the southernmost of these trees is twenty-eight inches, bottom is also twentyeight inches.
—The small garden near the Thames was walled and embanked by Archbishop Cornwallis.

In the riots of 1790, this palace narrowly escaped destruction.
A party of the mob, consisting of about five hundred, came thither, exclaiming "No Popery", and threatened to return in the evening, the gates being shut.
In the mean time, a party of about an hundred of the guards arrived, which did not, however, prevent the mob from continuing their menaces for several days.
In this alarming situation, the Archbishop Cornwallis and his family were, at length, persuaded to retire from the palace, which they did on the 7th of June, not leaving a single soldier within the walls.
About seven in the evening, a party of the North Hampshire Militia arrived; and from that period till the 11th of August, from two to three hundred soldiers were quartered in the palace: the officers were lodged in the best apartments, and entertained with great hospitality by the two chaplains, at the expence of the archbishop.
The soldiers attended chapel regularly morning and evening; and with their wives and children had their meals in the hail.
They were accommodated for sleeping in the stables, coach-houses, &c. and during their stay in Lambeth Palace, from the 7th of June to the 11th of August, not the least complaint could be made of irregular behaviour in any one individual of the party.

If the sketch we have given of this ancient and stately archiepiscopal palace, should awaken a desire in any of our readers, to be minutely informed of the many curious and historical circumstances connected with it, we recommend them to a very full and satisfactory account of it, accompanied with a series of twenty curious engravings, by Messrs. Brayley and Herbert, to the ingenious and correct labours of which gentlemen, we acknowledge ourselves to have been greatly indebted.

Lambeth Church, though not immediately connected with the archiepiscopal residence, being merely parochial, forms, from its situation, a prominent feature, in any picturesque description of the palace.
It cannot therefore be, with propriety, omitted in an illustrative account of the latter.
This church, which is dedicated to Saint Mary, was originally collegiate, and owes its foundation to the following curious circumstances; which mark the religious spirit, character, and dissentions of those times.
On the death of Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the year 1184, a contest arose between the suffragan bishops of that province, and the monks of Canterbury, concerning the right of electing their archbishop; and very earnest applications were made by both parties to the court of Rome, in support of their respective pretensions; when the pope issued his mandate that they should unite in the election.
— The monks, however, proved refractory, and, refusing to attend, the Suffragans chose Baldwin, Bishop of Worcester, for their metropolitan.
The monks, nevertheless, strenuously exerted themselves to invalidate the election: but the king, who greatly favoured Baldwin, persuaded him, on the promises of the monks, to renounce his election; and the Suffragans to acknowledge the irregularity of the proceeding.
The monks, having obtained their object, consented, as they had promised to the re-election of Baldwin.
—The king, however, was determined to repress the insolence of the cloistered brethren, and to wrest from them the power of electing their archbishop.
—This design he effected in the following manner:—He commanded Baldwin, the archbishop, to build a college at Hackington, near Canterbury; which was done with a view to deprive the monks of the right of election, and to vest the same in the canons of the intended college: and, in order to prevail on the pope to give his assent, they proposed to dedicate it to Thomas Becket, the most celebrated saint of that time, and who was held in such veneration by the pope, that it was not in the least doubted, but he would readily transfer the right of election from the monks of Canterbury to the canons of Hackington.
—The part of this edifice, which was allotted to the archbishop to erect, was the church.
It is not, however, to be supposed that the monks were idle on the occasion, and they applied to Rome for redress.
—In the mean time the work was carried on with such expedition, that the church being almost finished, it was consecrated, and divers secular priests installed in it: but the monks having succeeded in their application to Rome, the pope issued a mandate to dissolve the new corporation, and raze the edifice; which arbitrary injunction, such was the extent of the papal power at that time, neither the king nor the archbishop dare oppose.
Pope Urban dying soon after, was succeeded by Gregory the Eighth, a protector of Baldwin, who was thereby encouraged to renew his design, but in another place.
For this purpose he obtained, of the bishop and convent of Rochester, a certain spot of ground at Lambeth, where he began to erect a church and mansions for the canons, about the year 1188, which he did not live to finish, but was completed by his successor Hubert Walter.
—This also suffered an entire demolition from the intrigues of the monks, and the collegiate institution was dissolved.
—This happened in the year 1199.
A subsequent compromise, however, took place between the monks of Canterbury and the archbishop, by which it was agreed, that he might build a church in any part of Lambeth, except on the foundation of that which had been destroyed by the pope's command; and that he might endow it, &c. from the revenues of some of the churches, belonging to the see of Canterbury; but it was stipulated that he should not perform any of his archiepiscopal functions in it.
The foundation of the new church was accordingly laid by the side of his palace.
—This church stood till the year 1374, about which time it was rebuilt.

The tower, which is of stone, still remains; the other part appears to have been built at different times, and has little remarkable in it but the figure of a pedlar and his dog in one of the windows.
The traditional account is, that the parish is indebted to this man for a small piece of ground, now called Pedlar's Acre, on condition that a picture of him should be placed and preserved in its present situation.
—Whether this be true or not, no means now exist to ascertain; such a spot, however, certainly belongs to the parish, and it appears to have been let in the year 1504, at two shillings and eight pence per annum; and is now estimated at two hundred and fifty pounds a year; it contains about an acre and nine poles, and is situate on the Surrey side of Westminster bridge.
The church consists of a nave, two aisles, and a chancel; the nave being separated from the aisles by octagonal pillars and pointed arches.
—It is a very valuable rectory, and in the gift of the Archbishop are Bancroft, Tenison, Hut ton, and Moore; and in a passage, leading from the palace to it, are the remains of Seeker.
Here likewise were intered Cuthbert Tunstal, once Bishop of Durham, and Thirlby, who had also been Bishop of Ely.
—They were deprived of their sees, from their attachment to the old religion; but such was their learning, benevolence and polished characters, that they were highly esteemed by protestants, and found an asylum beneath the roof of that truly excellent protestant prelate, Archbishop Parker, where they successively closed their days in peace and tranquillity.
The body of Bishop Thirlby was found in digging the grave of Archbishop Cornwallis: every part was entire, and his long and venerable beard was of a beautiful whiteness; a slouched hat was under his left arm, and his dress that of a pilgrim, which he esteemed himself to be upon earth.

Nor can we pass by the melancholy example of fallen greatness, in the person of Mary d'Este, the unhappy Queen of James II. who, flying with her infant prince from the ruin impending over their House, took shelter beneath the ancient walls of this church, during a wearisome hour of rain, after crossing the Thames from Whitehall.
Here she waited, with aggravated misery, till a common coach, procured from the next inn, arrived, and conveyed her to Gravesend, from whence a vessel conveyed her to France.

In the church-yard is a tomb to which every passing naturalist should pay the tribute of grateful veneration.
It is that of old John Tradescant, who, with his son, lived in this parish: the elder was the first person who formed a cabinet of curiosities in this kingdom.
He is said to have been gardener to Charles the First; and afterwards, according to Parkinson, to the late Duke of Buckingham.
— Both father and son were great travellers; the father is supposed to have visited Russia, most parts of Europe, and many of the eastern countries, from which he introduced numerous plants and flowers, unknown before in our gardens.
His was an age of florists; and the chief ornaments of the parterres were derived from him.
Parkinson, in his Paradisus Terrestris, continually acknowledges the obligation.
Many plants were called after his name; which the Linnean system has rendered almost obsolete: but the great author of it has made ample reparation, by giving to a genus of plants the name of Tradescantia.
—The Museum Tradescantianum, a small book, adorned by the hand of Hollar, with the heads of the father and the son, is a proof of their industry.
—It is a catalogue of their vast collection, not only from the three kingdoms of nature, but of artificial rarities from different parts of the world.
—In the garden, belonging to his house at South Lambeth, was a most extensive arrangement of trees, plants, and flowers, which was much visited.
—After his death, his whole collection came into the possession of Elias Ashmole, by a deed of gift from Mr. Tradescant, junior.
They were afterwards transferred to Oxford, and formed the Ashmolean Museum in that University.
The monument was erected in 1662, by Hester, the relict of the younger Tradescant.
It is in the form of an altar, and decorated with various emblematical devices, denoting the circumstances of the extraordinary man's life, whose venerated ashes repose beneath it.
Time had greatly impaired this monument; and in 1773, it was honourably restored, at the expence of the parish, and the curious inscription which follows:

Know, stranger, ere thou pass, beneath this stone,
Lye John Tradescant, grandsire, father, son.
The last died in his spring; the other two
Lived till they travelled Art and Nature through:
As by their choice collections may appear
Of what is rare, in land, in sea, in air:
Whilst they, (as Homer's Iliad in a nut)
A world of wonders in one closet shut.
These famous Antiquarians, who had been
Both gardeners to the Rose and Lilly Queen,
Transplanted, now themselves sleep here; and when
Angels shall with their trumpets waken men,
And fire shall purge the world, these hence shall rise,
And change this garden for a paradise.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

Westminster Abbey in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Westminster Abbey, 1811

This conspicuous ornament of the metropolis is now freed from the rubbish which had surrounded it during so many ytears.
The public money has been voted for these improvements with a degree of liberality that may fairly claim the gratitude of posterity; and the commissioners for carrying the acts into execution, have evinced themselves superior to any partial consideration by publicly inviting every artist to offer his plan, while parliament have very judiciously enabled them to recompense, to a certain extent, those whose designs may not be adopted.
—However, the judgment on these improvements as a whole, must be suspended until they are finished; at present the new Guildhall, coming into immediate comparison with that immense pile, the Abbey, sinks into a mere shed.
—But while these things are proceeding with so much alacritv, who can account for the wretched state of the exterior of Westminster Hall and King Henry the Seventh's Chapel?
which are rapidly mouldering into dust; indeed the tops of the buttresses of the latter have lost every vestige of their original form;
the statues, it is said, have been taken from the niches lest they should fall on the heads of the members attending parliament; and the judges must have been in the same danger, until some charitable being nailed a piece of an old iron hoop across a shapeless mass of stone in one of the niches in the front of Westminster Hall.
A beginning has been made to restore this building, but as if the nation had suddenly become bankrupt, it has not risen more than three feet from the ground; the stones are reduced to a mere sand, which may be taken off with the fingers, whilst the timbers which support the roof are quite perfect; as is the case in the fore court of the Speaker's house:

the Abbey received a complete repair, and the addition of the two towers at the west end, by order of parliament, under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren.

The original foundation of the Abbey Church has excited much speculation among antiquaries, and that to very little purpose.
The first writer on this subject was Sulgardus, a monk, in the reign of William the Conqueror; his work consists chiefly of the charters granted before his time: the next was Sporley, a monk, about 1402, and after him John Fleet, prior, in the reign of Henry the Sixth.
It would be idle and useless to go through all the fabulous accounts of this place, of which, however, St. Peter is invariably the hero.

This part of Westminster was called Thorney Island, by the Saxons, from the briars and underwood growing there: before the church was built—

A lonely island near Augusta lay,
Where Thames in silver currents winds his way;
Around the isle he branched his circling tide,
The margin kissed, and washed the rushy side.

Dart, who with equal skill and industry has collected every document that could be found, comes to this conclusion,—
"That Sebert, King of the East Saxons, being by Austin's preaching converted to Christianity, built this church, where he either pulled down, or found the ruins of a pagan temple; which church he devoted to the honour of St. Peter, and gave orders to Mellitus, then Bishop of London, to consecrate it accordingly*
* Westmonasterium, Book I. *
But an interpolation in Sporley's History says,
"That the church being thus built, Bishop Mellitus intending to consecrate it, was thus prevented:
St. Peter himself one night called upon a certain fisherman, whose name was Edricus, and desired him to carry him over to Thorney, the waters being that night raised with prodigious rains, which he accordingly did ; where the apostle consecrated the church, the fisherman meanwhile hearing heavenly music, and seeing a great light of tapers.
The apostle upon his return discovered himself to him, and bid him let Mellitus know what he had seen, and to refrain from a second consecration.
To confirm which he bid him throw his nets into the river in such a place, and he should have a large number of fish; which he did, and had such a draught, that his nets were ready to break with a vast quantity of salmon.
The apostle told him, that he nor any other succeeding in his trade, should want for that kind of fish, upon this condition, that they made an offering of the tenth fish to this church of Westminster.

This custom of offering salmon was long continued; for I find in an ancient manuscript, in the Cotton Library, an account received by tradition of several monks of that church, living about the tenth century, who had seen salmon offered upon the altar, and likewise a dispute made by the parson of Rotherhith, upon the Thames-side, with the abbot and monks of this church upon that affair.
Mellitus having heard of the miracle, repaired to the church, where he found the chrism, the drops of the wax tapers, and all the marks of a real consecration, whereupon he desisted, and in remembrance of the miracle, changed the name from Thorney to Westminster."
This story is supposed to have been an invention of Bishop Dunstan, with a design to interest King Edgar in favour of the church, and it succeeded to his utmost wishes.
The king, among others, believed it, and mentions it in one of his charters, and it was afterwards recited by Edward the Confessor: we find even Sir Thomas More among the number.

Sebert and his queen dying about the year 616, were both buried in leaden chests in the church they had founded: they were afterwards removed into that of Edward the Confessor, and again into the present building, where they now remain on the south side of the altar.*
*Wcstmonasterium, Book I. *
The endowments made by Sebert were confirmed by Edward the Confessor, and by William the Conqueror; among these were the manors of Staines and Teddington, in Middlesex.
The sons of Sebert relapsing into paganism, drove Mellitus from his see, for refusing them the sacrament bread at St. Paul's church.
Westminster accordingly became neglected until the reign of Offa, King of Mercia, who repaired it, granted some lands, and there first deposited the coronation robes and regalia.
Ethelred was also a benefactor; he gave two houses as a compensation for the murder of his brother, "upon this condition, that they shall say 300 masses for me, and play such musick, after the manner of David, for me with a devout mind.
He likewise gave as a relique, "the rust of our Saviour's knife."
Alfred the Great is mentioned by Dunstan as a benefactor.
The church having suffered much by the Danes, Dunstan, then bishop of London, persuaded King Edgar to repair it, and having obtained a charter from the King, he turned the priests, who were Benedictines, out of it, and put in monks over whom he assumed the authority of appointing an abbot.
It seems to have been a favourite object with Dunstan, for he not only obtained several grants of land', as well as privileges of the king, and a bull from the pope, but was extremely liberal to it himself, giving an hundred and twenty mancuses of gold, and afterwards exempting it from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, pronounced a curse on all his successors in that see who should dare to infringe its rights.
The ravages of the Danes, in the reign of Edmund Ironside, had again been severely felt by this church; Canute, to appease his conscience, repaired it.

But the period of its glory was now at hand:
Edward the Confessor, in his exile, made a vow to God, that if he would restore him to his throne, he would make a pilgrimage to Rome, and visit the body of holy St. Peter.
This event taking place on the death of Hardicanute, he summoned the nobility and clergy, told them of his vow, and desired them to form a plan of the administration of government in his absence: the assembly dreading another invasion of the Danes, when they heard of the king's journey, persuaded him to send an embassy to the pope to obtain a dispensation from his vow, which was granted, on condition that all the expense of his intended voyage should be given to the poor, and that he should repair some monastery to the honour of St. Peter, or build a new one.
It happened very fortunately that just at this time a monk named Wulsine, a man of great sanctity and simplicity of manners, and who was afterwards sainted, being asleep, St. Peter appeared to him, and after acknowledging the miracle of the consecration, bid him let the king know it was his command, that he should make choice of Westminster on this occasion, that he should
"make it a house of monks, adorn it with stately towers, and endow it with large revenues."
This event is cited in one of Edward's charters, and certainly decided him in fixing on Westminster Abbey, which he immediately set about with the utmost zeal and alacrity:
he set apart a tenth of his revenue for the purpose, and pulling down the old church of Sebert, erected in its place a very magnificent one for that age, built in the form of a cross:
St. Margaret's church standing in the way, was pulled down, and rebuilt on its present site.
The piety of this prince in fulfilling his vow with the most ardent liberality, can only be equalled by his credulity; not content with granting charters, privileges, estates, and obtaining bulls to confirm them, he gave some clothes of the Virgin Mary's, and also of Peter, Paul, Bartholomew, and Barnabas! as reliques suiting the sanctity of the place.
The church was exempted from all jurisdiction but that of the king, even the pope gave up his episcopal authority.
The king having thus obtained the summit of his wishes in the completion of the church, made out his last charter, which closed with imprecations on those who should infringe its rights; he then summoned the nobility, &c. to attend the dedication of it, which took place on the feast of the Holy Innocents.
Soon after this the king sickened, and died on the 10th of January, 1066.
He was buried in the church on the 16th.

When William the Conqueror had gained the kingdom, he marched directly to Westminster Abbey to return thanks for his victory, where he made an offering on the shrine of Edward the Confessor.
Gervase, an abbot, the natural son of King Stephen, alienated a great part of the lands, when the monks complained to Pope Innocent II. who sent over a bull to preserve what remained.

Henry II. by charter, granted the abbot power to try all causes for murder where he held lands; and in another, by Henry III. "the abbot and convent were empowered to demand copies of the fines levied by the king's judges on their tenants":
it was also made an inviolable sanctuary, even for murderers.

In 1200, Henry III.
began to build a chapel, called the New Work at Westminster; and about twenty-five years afterwards, finding the walls and steeple much, decayed, he pulled the whole down, and began the present building, which was not finished till about 1285, fourteen years after that prince's death.
He gave several ornaments to the church, and granted the abbot the privilege of making a park in the forest of Windsor.

Edward I. confirmed the former grants, but very wisely put an end to the donations to churches by the statute of mortmain.
This prince also brought" the fatal stone from Scotland, with the chair whereon their kings were crowned, and offered it at the shrine of St.
Edward," where they now remain.
He gave twelve manors, lordships, and hamlets to the abbot and his successors for ever, for keeping yearly obits for his Queen Eleanor.

Abont the year 1502, Henry VII. began the chapel which bears his name, intending it as a burial place for himself and his posterity.
He was a considerable benefactor, and among other things gave "£5000 for masses and alms, whereof 1000 masses were to be said for him, at 6d. per mass."

The limits of this work will not admit of a detail of the numerous grants made to this favourite abbey; lands, lord Westminster Abbey.
ships, manors, houses, jewels, money, and plate, were given by kings, abbots, and even citizens, for the pious offices of the monks, the greatest part of which were swept away by King Henry VIII. "at one word of his unhallowed mouth"; whose name, as Dart says, "sounds hateful to the ears of all good men; whose unbounded lust no religion could moderate, and whose insatiable brutal rage no reason ever could influence.

When Henry III. had completed the interior of the church, he summoned the nobility, &c. to attend the removal of the body of Edward the Confessor, to the superb new shrine which had been erected for its reception.
The body being in a chest, was carried by the king, and his brother, the King of the Romans upon their shoulders, as many of the principal nobility as could get near, touching it with their hands as it passed to the shrine, which was of gold, adorned with precious stones.
On this occasion divine service was performed for the first time in the church.
The reliques of this saint were in the highest estimation; one Benedict, a priest, and another man, who had come from Ireland to receive the benefit of them (being possessed of devils), "upon seeing this chest removed, the devils were instantly cast out".

Superstition, which had guarded these reliques and the rich ornaments about them, being exploded by the reformation, it is probable the latter were pilfered by degrees; however, these depredations did not extend to the interior of the tomb until the reign of James II. when one Keep, employed in the abbey, discovered the lid of the coffin broken, as he supposed, from a beam having fallen on it.
On examination, the head was found solid and firm, with a fillet of gold round it, and the jaws full of teeth.
A crucifix, richly adorned and enamelled, and a gold chain, were taken out, presented to the king, and accepted by him.
He ordered a new coffin for the body, two inches thick, and cramped with iron.

This tomb, among others, suffered much during the usurpation, soldiers were quartered in the church, and committed the most shocking excesses; whatever was portable of any value on themonuments was taken away; "they pulled down the organ, and pawned the pipes at several ale-houses".
Another disgraceful scene took place here on the Restoration, when the graves were opened, and the greatest indignities offered to the putrid remains of the republicans.
The print engraved by Cole, in Dart's Westmonasterinm, has for a time rescued this once-celebrated shrine from that oblivion which has already been the fate of its pretended virtues.
Of the body not a vestige remains; the chest given by King James is without a lid, the sides of it are mutilated, and the whole presents a monument indeed! but it is one sufficiently humiliating to sublunary grandeur.

On the south side of this shrine was deposited the body of Editha, daughter of Earl Godwin, and queen of Edward the Confessor, whose unhappy fate may be better conceived than described.
But our feelings are deeply interested when we find, by the accounts of Ingulfus, the abbot, who knew her personally, that " she was a woman of beauty, learning, and excellent conduct of life, of religious, humility, mild, sincere, and obliging."
The abbot mentions a familiar anecdote of her, which, from the remote period, and the interest taken in whatever concerns an innocent and an injured woman, is a pleasing relief to the mind, after drudging through volumes filled with accounts of the dreadful havoc and slaughter made by the daemons of ambition.
When he was a schoolboy he frequently met the queen, on these occasions, he says, "she would often stop me, and examine me in the classicks, and pose me with wondrous readiness in my grammar and logick, and then generally ordered a little maid who waited on her to give me three or four pieces of money.
"The motives of Edward for not consummating his marriage with her, although they slept together eighteen years, are variously represented by historians, some urging his dislike, on account of the forced match, others his extreme sanctity; but it is most probable the circumstance arose from the physical debilities of his constitution.
Many of the ancient monuments are of brass, some have been gilt and enriched in various ways, and must when in a perfect state, have had a very fine effect.

That of Sir Francis Norris, Knt. and his lady, about the time of Elizabeth, is more magnificent than the queen's:
the knight and his lady are lying under a canopy, supported by eight columns; six figures in armour, large as life, said to be his sons, are kneeling round it.

Among those of later times Roubiliac's will always be respectable, although some of them may want that grandeur of style so essential to sculpture: few men have made such a complete conquest over the materials, his draperies flow with all the graceful ease of nature.
His invention gives an interest to these works, which their intrinsic merit will always cherish, when perhaps the lapse of time or the occurrence of more splendid deeds may have eclipsed the glory of their heroes.

But to prove an equal or superior claim to eminence in that art, among the present sculptors, we need only go to the monument of Mr. Howard, or the figure of Resignation, in this year's [1811?] exhibition of the Royal Academy; which last, however, posterity will never believe to have been executed by the sculptor of that stiff collossal figure of Captain Montague, dressed in the costume of the hour, and placed in such an excellent situation in Westminster Abbey.
A failure in these public works is the more to be deplored, as to them we must look for the standard of national taste in that art.
The entrance to this building should certainly be made by those who would receive, in one impression, the fulness of its magnificence, at the west door; from which the great aisle is seen, extending 360 feet.
The reflections which arise from a view of its interior, are described, with much pathos, by Addison. He says, "'tis the finest school of morality, and the most beautiful flatterer of imagination in nature.
I have spent many an hour of pleasing melancholy in its venerable walks; and have been more delighted with the solemn conversation of the dead, than the sprightly sallies of the living.
The monuments of real fame I have viewed with real respect; but the piles that wanted a character to excuse them I have considered as the monuments of folly.
I have wandered with pleasure into the most gloomy recesses of this last resort of grandeur, to contemplate human life, and trace mankind through all the wilderness of their frailties and misfortunes, from their cradles to their grave.
I have reflected on the shortness of our duration here; and that I was but one of the millions who had been employed in the same manner, in ruminating on the trophies of mortality before me; that I must moulder to dust in the same manner, and quit the scene to a new generation, without leaving the shadow of my existence behind me *.
That this huge fabric, this sacred repository of fame and grandeur, would only be the stage of the same performances, would receive new accessions of noble dust, would be adorned with other sepulchres of cost and magnificence, would be crowded with successive admirers, and at last, by the unavoidable decays of time, bury the whole collection of antiquities in general obscurity, and be the monument of its own ruin.

* A monument by Westmacott, has very lately been erected to the memory of Addison, in Poet's corner, which reflects the highest honour on the parties concerned. *

WATERLOO BRIDGE.

Waterloo  Bridge Opening in Thames, Cooke & Reinagle 1818
Waterloo Bridge Opening, Reinagle, 1818
Waterloo  Bridge E.Blore in Thames, Cooke 1818
Waterloo Bridge, E Blore, 1818
Waterloo  Bridge Works E.Blore in Thames, Cooke 1818
Waterloo Bridge Works. E.Blore
Waterloo  Bridge Arch Elevation, Rennie in Thames, Cooke 1818
Waterloo Bridge Arch Elevation, John Rennie F.R.S. Engineer
Waterloo  Bridge Arch Centring, Rennie in Thames, Cooke 1818
Waterloo Bridge Arch Centring. John Rennie. F.R.S. engineer, 1818

The increase of London on the south side of the Thames, and the alacrity with which public spirit promotes every design that promises to give new facilities to trade, and augmented means of individual accommodation, have encouraged the projection of various plans for passing the river, in addition to the bridges which have so long been the pride of the Metropolis.
Of these projected plans, the bridge which the annexed plates represent, decidedly claims a pre-eminent distinction; not only from the magnitude of the work, and the skill displayed in its erection, but from the judicious situation in which it is placed.
It is nearly equi-distant from Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges, and in the immediate vicinity of Somerset Buildings in the Strand, which may be considered, more or less, as the centrical situation of London in all its combinations.
By the Act of Parliament first obtained for its erection it was named the Strand Bridge; but the proprietors being naturally influenced to do all possible honour to the structure, by making it a kind of monument to perpetuate the military glory of their country, have since changed its denomination to that of Waterloo Bridge; and, on obtaining a subsequent Act of Parliament to advance their design, it was allowed to assume this distinguished name.
Most admirably, indeed, is it framed to perpetuate through many an age the renown of that well-fought field whose title it bears, by its masterly construction, the durability of its materials, and the excellence of its workmanship:
for what mind can anticipate the period [ 1936! ]when this stupendous chain of arches will yield to the ravages of time, whose power it seems to hold in stern defiance?
The Savoy Palace, situated on the northern bank of the river Thames, was chosen for the spot from which a bridge should be erected to pass over to the county of Surrey; the bridges of Westminster and Blackfriars being at a great distance from each other, in consequence of the curved course of the river, the passage from Covent-Garden, and other centrical parts of the town adjacent to Surrey, was thereby rendered most inconveniently circuitous.
The most durable and expensive materials have been employed under Mr Rennie, an engineer of the first eminence, who has completed this noble work in the comparatively short space of six years; a splendid monument of his skill, and the public spirit of the age in which we live.

DIMENSIONS OF THE BRIDGEFeetInches
The length of the Stone Bridge within the Abutments 1240'0"
Length of the road supported by brick arches on the Surrey side of the river 766'0"
Length of the road supported by brick arches on the London side 310'0"
Total length from the Strand to the level of the road in Lambeth 3070'0"
Width of the bridge within the balustrades 42'4"
Width of the foot-way on each side 7'0"
Width of the road for horses and carriages 28'4"
Span of each arch 120'0"
Thickness of each pier 20'0"
Clear water-way under the nine arches, which are equal 1080'0"
Number of brick arches on the Surrey side 40
Number of the same on the London side 16

The whole of the outside courses of the bridge are of Cornish Granite, except the balustrades, which are of Aberdeen Granite; and the stones were cut to their form before they were brought to the spot.
There are 820 piles driven into the bed of the river under each pier; the length of each pile being from nineteen to twenty-two feet, and the diameter about thirteen inches: there is one pile to every yard square.
The scientific manner in which the centres were constructed was such, that, as all the arches are of the same size, the centres were removed from those which were finished, and placed between the piers where the arches were not yet thrown; an operation of great skill and the most successful execution.
When the centres were removed, so perfect was the construction of the masonry, that in the middle they only sunk about one inch.
Those of the Pont de Nouilly, in France, six miles from Paris, which are nearly similar, sunk about eighteen inches in the middle after the centres were taken away.
The situation of this bridge is of commanding beauty: it affords a noble view of the Thames in its beautiful meander, displays the rising crescent of buildings on the north side, with the stately range of Somerset Terrace, while on the south the Surrey Hills rise in a fine boundary of rural prospect.

The first stone was laid on Friday, the l lth of October, 1811, by Henry Swann, Esq. M.P. with the usual ceremonies, and a plate was placed over it, with the following inscription.
"This foundation of the Strand Bridge was laid on the llth day of October, A. D. 1811, by the directors for executing the same, Henry Swann, Esq. M. P. chairman, in the 51st year of the reign of King George the Third, and during the Regency of his R. H. George Prince of Wales; the money for building which was raised by subscription, under the authority of an Act of Parliament.
Engineer, John Rennie, F.R.S."

Wednesday, the 18th of June, 1817, being appointed for the ceremony of opening this bridge, on the preceding evening a large cannon, taken at the battle of Waterloo, was placed on some flag stones on the bridge, and several pieces of artillery were ranged along the west side to fire a grand salute of 202 guns, being the number taken from the enemy on that glorious day.
They commenced firing precisely at three o’clock, announcing the embarkation of the Prince Regent, the Duke of Wellington, the Duke of York, and the great Officers of State, in the Royal Barges at Fife House, the mansion of Lord Liverpool, Whitehall.
The barges belonging to the Admiralty, Ordnance, Navy-board, and the Lord Mayor, with the boats belonging to the Eridanus and Euphrates frigates, manned by their respective crews, and those of the Thames Police, with all their decorations and bands of music, combined to form this splendid aquatic procession.
It moved slowly on, the cannon firing, the river covered with boats, and not only the shores, but the houses to their very tops, crowded with people; and, having passed the centre arch of the bridge, the Royal Party landed on the Surrey side.
They then ascended the bridge stairs, where they were received by the Committee, and, having paid the toll, they walked over the bridge on the eastern side, and descending the stairs on the Middlesex side, returned in the same state to Whitehall.
The bridge was opened to the public at seven o’clock, and admitted the crowd that was waiting with eagerness to pass over it.
A fair of three days continuance was held on the Surrey shore, and added its festivities to this distinguished celebration.

LONDON, WITH BLACKFRIARS' BRIDGE. [1760 - 1860]

Blackfriars Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
London, with Blackfriars Bridge, 1811

Blackfriars Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
London, taken from Blackfriars' Bridge, 1818

This view is intended, with the [Blackfriars'] bridge which is its principal feature, to give a distinct appearance of that part of the metropolis which is called the City, and comprehends what was originally contained within those walls whereof scarce a vestige remains.

The origin of London is so involved in fable as to defy the most sagacious and toilsome enquiry to establish it.
Camden supposes its name to be derived from the British words Llhwn a wood, and Dinas a town, or the town in a wood.
Other fanciful derivations have been supported by ingenious antiquaries, with which we shall not trouble our readers.
It was, however, at the christian era a place of considerable extent and population.
In the year twenty-six, according to Tacitus, Londinum, as he calls it, was famous for its traffic; but soon after, Suetonius abandoned the city to the fury of Boadicea, because it was too large to be defended by his little army of ten thousand Romans; a sufficient proof of its being at that time a very considerable place.
That princess is related to have destroyed this city, and put the inhabitants to the sword.
But whatever injury it sustained, it appears soon to have recovered from it, as Herodian, in the Life of the Emperor Severus, calls it a great and wealthy city.
The time when it was surrounded by a wall is not to be ascertained by any very authentic evidence.
Maitland conjectures its erection to have taken place about the year 368.
It was composed alternately of layers of flat Roman brick and rag stones, and was strengthened by lofty towers.

The history of the heptarchy, when London was the capital of the kingdom of the East Saxons, is so defective that little or no mention is made of it between the years 6l6 and 764.
It appears, afterwards to have been reduced and plundered by the Danes.
It was recovered, however, by Alfred, who repaired the wall and embellished it with additional buildings.
At this time it had no bridges, and the citizens employed ferries in passing over the Thames:

but between 993 and 1015 a wooden bridge was erected.
This great work was performed in the reign of Ethelred.
Soon after England resigned her sceptre into the hands of Canute, when a grant was made to him of eighty-three thousand pounds, an immense sum at that time, and equal to at least nine millions of our present money, of which London raised a seventh part; a convincing proof of the opulence which then distinguished it.

We shall pass over the following reigns, and come at once to the year 1076, when William the Conqueror granted the Londoners their first charter:
but afterwards, having cause, as his jealousy suggested, to suspect their fidelity, he caused the present square Tower to be erected in order to controul[sic] and keep them in awe.
William, however, being better pleased with the citizens, or having some political end to answer, granted them another charter.

But London afterwards obtained one of a much more comprehensive and beneficial nature from Henry the First; which granted them so many privileges, and gave such security for their ancient liberties, that the several bodies professing the arts and mystery of trade and manufacture now formed themselves into established companies; which is the origin of the livery of London.
The king, however, reserved to himself the power of appointing the Portreve, or chief officer of the city.
In the year 1139, the citizens purchased of King Stephen, for an hundred marks of silver, the right of choosing their own sheriffs; and in the beginning of the next century, in 1207, the title of their chief magistrate was changed into that of Mayor:
Henry Fitz-Alwyn was the first who enjoyed it.

About the year 1285, in the reign of Edward the First, the city was divided into twenty-four wards, under the government of as many aldermen; and each ward chose certain of its inhabitants to be a common council, who, with the aldermen, were to conduct the public affairs of the city.

In 1327, Edward the Third granted the citizens two especial charters, not only confirming their ancient liberties under former kings, but adding many valuable privileges.
The same prince, in the year 1354, granted the city the privilege of having gold or silver maces carried before the chief magistrate; a privilege at that time peculiar to London.
It is supposed at this time the title of Lord was first added to that of Mayor.

In the year 1348 the city was visited by a pestilence, which raged with such fury that the church-yards were not found sufficiently capacious to receive the dead.
But great and deplorable as this calamity was, the city so far recovered its wealth and dignity, that in the year 1363, the Kings of Scotland, France, and Cyprus, who came into England on a visit to Edward the Third, were entertained in a most sumptuous manner, with his majesty, the Prince of Wales, and the principal nobility, by Henry Picard, late mayor of London.

In the fifth year of the reign of Richard the Second the city suffered much from the rebellion of Wat Tyler, which was terminated by the spirited and loyal conduct of Sir William Walworth, the lord mayor of London, and the presence of mind displayed by the young sovereign.
Some historians ascribe to the courageous conduct of the chief magistrate, on this occasion, the addition of the dagger to the city arms.

In several succeeding reigns the wealth of the city was displayed in the vast sums levied by some of the sovereigns, and the magnificence with which the citizens shewed their respect to others, in their shews, cavalcades, and pageantries.
King Edward the Fourth, in the second year of his reign, granted the citizens of London among other privileges, that the lord mayor, recorder, and aldermen past the chair, should be appointed perpetual justices of the peace in the city, and constituted justices of oyer and terminer, for the trial of malefactors within their own jurisdiction.
At this time and afterwards the city-watch consisted of men completely armed, forming a body of troops of a peculiar kind, which were raised and maintained by the city.
The march of the city-watch, on certain festivals, was so magnificent, that Henry the Eighth having seen it in disguise, was so pleased with the shew, that the succeeding year he went with his queen and the principal nobility to Mercers' Hall, in Cheapside; where this royal and noble company were gratified with the sight of the procession.
But the great and renewed expense of this ceremonial occasioned it soon after to be laid aside.
King Edward the Sixth, in the year 1551, granted the city a charter, by which he not only confirmed all its former privileges, but granted the lord mayor, aldermen, and citizens several lands in Southwark, with the manor thereof and its appurtenances; the assize of bread, wine, beer, and ale; and the offices of coroner, escheator, and clerk of the market; which are for ever vested in the lord mayor and his successors.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth the far greatest part of the metropolis was contained within its walls.
The buildings of London were on the west bounded by the monastery of St. Catherine; East Smithfield was open to Tower Hill, and Rosemary Lane had not a dwelling in it.
The Minories were built only on the east side, which fronted the city wall: cattle grazed in Goodman's Fields; and Whitechapel extended but a small distance beyond the Bars, and had no houses to the north.
Spital Fields, which would now of themselves compose a very large town, were then in a state of cultivation, and were separated from each other as fields usually are, by hedges and by trees.
Houndsditch consisted only of a row of houses fronting the city wall, and the little yards and gardens behind them also opened into those fields.
Bishopsgate, Norton Falgate, and the street called Shoreditch, were then built as far as the church, but there were only a few houses and gardens on each side, and no streets or lanes branching collaterally from them.
Moorfields lay open to Hoxton, then a country village; and Finsbury fields, in which were several windmills, extended to the east side of Whitecross Street.
Chiswell Street was not then in existence; and St. John Street extended by the side of the priory of St. John of Jerusalem to the monastery of Clerkenwell and Cow Cross, which opened at once into the fields.
But on leaving the city walls the buildings were much less extensive; for though the village of Holbourn was now joined to London, ihe backs of the houses, particularly on the north side, opened into gardens and fields.
In part of Gray's Inn Lane were the only houses that extended beyond the main street.
Great part of High Holbourn was without a building; and St. Giles's was a village contiguous to no part of London.
The Strand was indeed a spacious and noble street, with, gardens on each side; and to the north, fields behind those gardens, excepting a few houses on the spot which is now the west end of Drury Lane.
On the south side of the street the gardens generally extended to the Thames, with an intermixture of stately houses of persons of high rank and distinction.
Covent Garden, so called from its belonging to a convent, extended to St. Martin's Lane; and the field behind it reached to St. Giles's.
That lane had very few edifices in it beside the church: for Covent Garden wall was on one side, and a wall which inclosed the Mews on the other; and all the upper part was a lane between two hedges, which extended a little to the west of the village of St. Giles's.
Hedge Lane was also, as its name denotes, a lane between two hedges: the fine broad street called the Haymarket, had an hedge on one side and a few bushes on the other.
Neither Pall-mall, St. James's Street, Piccadilly, or any of the streets or fine squares in that part of the town were formed; while Westminster was a small town on the south side of St. James's Park.
Lambeth was then a small village, at a considerable distance from Southwark; and there were no buildings on the south bank of the Thames till a range of houses was erected opposite to White Friars, and extended along the river, with gardens, groves, or fields behind them, to that part which is nearly opposite to the Steel-yard.
There several streets began in the borough of Southwark, which extended a considerable distance from the bridge to the south, and to the east till nearly opposite the Tower.
Such was the state of the metropolis in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and, inconsiderable as it may appear, when compared with its present extended dimensions, nevertheless, a proclamation was issued by the command of that princess, which prohibited all persons from building on new foundations:
and this order was twice repeated in the following reign.

It may not be generally considered as an event of sufficient consequence to introduce into this narrative, where, from our very confined limits, so many interesting transactions must be omitted, that in the year 1582, expense in dress had so greatly increased in the city among people of all ranks, but particularly among the apprentices, that a sumptuary order was published by the lord mayor and common council, to correct the extravagance of the latter: in which, a very plain and coarse dress was substituted to be worn by that class of young men, under very severe penalties.
—The curiosity of the circumstance, when compared with the manners of the present period, will, we trust, justify its insertion.

In the year 1608, King James the first granted the city a charter, by which he not only confirmed all the ancient rights, liberties and immunities of the citizens, but added to the boundaries and jurisdiction of the city, the precincts of Duke's place, Saint Bartholomew's, the great and less, Black and White Friar's, and Cold Harbour.
This monarch also, at subsequent periods, granted the city other charters favourable to them.

A circumstance from which London has derived unspeakable benefits took place in the year 1613; —when the water of the New River, brought from Ware, in Hertfordshire, according to a plan and under the superintendence of Sir Hugh Middleton, to whom a statue ought to have been erected, was let into the lower reservoir at Islington with great ceremony.

The next year Smithfield was first paved; and two years after, the sides of the streets in the city being paved with pebble stones, which had hitherto rendered walking very troublesome, the inhabitants of the principal streets first began to pave their doors with broad pieces of freestone, to the great accommodation of the inhabitants as well as passengers.
During the unhappy reign of Charles the First, the city, as may be supposed, partook in a full proportion of its miseries; and so much did the citizens consider themselves endangered by the hostilities between the monarch and the parliament, that the city walls were repaired and strengthened in such a manner as was considered necessary to secure its safety.

Under the Protectorate the city thought it right to temporize, for it never seems to have entered heartily into the views of Oliver Cromwell:
at least, on the death of that usurper, they zealously joined with General Monk in bringing about the Restoration.
In the year 1663, King Charles the Second granted the city a confirmation of their former charters, privileges, liberties, rights and customs, and the next year the city advanced large sums of money to enable his majesty to carry on the war against the Dutch; for which the citizens received the thanks of both houses of parliament.

London had at different times been afflicted with the plague, but in the beginning of May, 1665, it broke out in this city in a manner which had not before been known in this country, and of which there are few, if any, examples in any other.
In the first week wherein this distemper was discovered, only nine persons were carried off, but it continued encreasing, till the weekly return of the dead amounted to six thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight persons.
Such a scene is not to be described, for it baffles description.
The number of people swept off by the ravages of this destructive evil, are, we believe, correctly stated at sixty eight thousand five hundred and nine-six, a lamentable proportion of the population of the city.

This calamity had scarcely ceased, and the inhabitants had but just returned to their former dwellings and occupations, when on Sunday, the second of September in the following year, 1666, a dreadful fire broke out at one in the morning, in the house of a baker in Pudding Lane, near London Bridge.
This house being a wooden building, and pitched on the outside, together with the trade of its owner, and containing in the way of his business, a considerable quantity of brush-wood and faggots, was fatally calculated to promote a considerable conflagration.
The lane also was narrow, and by the jutting over of the several stories the buildings on each side almost touched one another at the top; in which manner most of the houses in London were at that time constructed.
It raged till the Thursday following, when it was extinguished, after having destroyed four hundred streets and lanes, thirteen thousand two hundred houses, the cathedral church of Saint Paul, eighty-six parish churches, six chapels, the Royal Exchange, Blackwell Hall and the Custom-house, several hospitals and libraries, fifty-two of the companies' halls, and a great number of other edifices.
The loss sustained by this conflagration, including the merchandize and furniture consumed, was calculated lo amount to ten millions seven hundred and thirty thousand five hundred pounds.
It is, however, stated on the best authority, that in this terrible devastation only six persons lost their lives.
The miseries which followed to the citizens may be conceived, but we shall not attempt the painful, and indeed impossible, task to describe them.
It has been much disputed, whether this catastrophe was occasioned by design or accident; and it now seems to be settled in the general opinion, that it was altogether accidental.
The general belief at the time was directed against the Papists, and that opinion is adopted by the inscription on the pedestal of the beautiful column erected by Sir Christopher Wren, to perpetuate the event.
—The present liberal and enlightened age rejects the accusation.
—Mr. Pope attacks the opinion in one of his poems, where he says, the Monument

Like a tall bully, lifts it's head and lies.

But, among the examples of evil being productive of good, this is one of the most prominent of any period; for passing over, with a becoming reflection, the misery of that dreadful event, it certainly must be considered as a blessing of the first magnitude to the posterity of the sufferers: as, instead of uncommodious, dark, narrow, irregular, confined streets, through which, from the construction of the houses, the circulation of the air was obstructed, and in which noxious particles were lodged and harboured, (an undoubted cause of the frequent return of the plague) the modern fashion of domiciliary architecture, enlarged streets, and the universal introduction of water by the New River, give health and unparalleled accommodation to the inhabitants.
The reduction of this great city almost to ashes, called for the attention, as it awakened the sympathy, of the whole nation.
The king was, indeed, so desirous of its being rebuilt upon a plan of uniform magnificence, that the rebuilding any part of it was for some time prohibited.
Parliament also ordered the judges to hear and determine all disputes between landlords, tenants and lessees, concerning the rebuilding and repairing of houses, &c.
without any pecuniary reward ; and this and to be hung up in their Guildhall, where they remain to this day, the symbols of civic gratitude.
London might now have been rebuilt in such a mauner as to have exceeded in beauty, as well as magnificence, every other city in the world.
Sir Christopher Wren formed a plan for that purpose worthy of his genius, and which is particularly described in the Parentalic, published by his son: but which the obstinacy, illiberal spirit, and ignorance, of the citizens prevented from being carried into execution.
It was however ordered, by an act of parliament, that many of the streets should be widened, and other great improvements introduced.
All the new houses were directed to be built with brick or stone, and party walls of separation.

The close of the reign of Charles the Second, and the commencement of that of his successor, James the Second, are remarkable for the uneasiness which prevailed in the city, in consequence of its differences with the court; which in a great measure continued till the Revolution was brought about, and secured the citizens of London, us well as all the subjects of the empire, in the full enjoyment of their rights, privileges, and liberty.

During the reign of Queen Anne, the cathedral church of St. Paul, was completed, which was built after the design, though with great obstructions and alterations, of that truly great architect, Sir Christopher Wren.
—A structure which, while it gives dignity to the metropolis where it stands, will, while it lasts, or any memorial of it remains, be a glorious monument of the skill, the taste, the judgment, and the genius, of him who could conceive and erect it.

Westminster Bridge

The two principal improvements of London, during the reigns of the Brunswick family, have been the two superb bridges of Westminster and Blackfriars.
The former is considered to be one of the finest bridges in the world.
The first stone was laid on the 29th of January, 1738, by the then Earl of Pembroke, a great judge, with an uncommon practical knowledge of architecture.
The last stone of it was laid on the 20th of November, 1750.
It was built by Mr. Laberly, a Swiss architect, and consists of thirteen semicircular arches, besides a very small one at each end.
The ascent to it is very easy as there is a semi-octangular recess on every pier.
The two middle and two extreme ones on each each side are covered, as places of shelter to the passengers.
These are the dimensions of this noble structure [Westminster Bridge].

The whole length of the bridge is1223'
Width of the centre arch
The rest decrease regularly four feet in width on each side.
76'
The width of the two small arches at the abutments, is each about20'
Width of the raised foot-ways on each side7'
Height of the balustrade within6' - 9'

This bridge was built with uncommon attention to its foundation, materials, and the water.
The soffit of every arch is turned and built quite through the same as the fronts; in short, the whole is so contrived, that each arch may be said to stand singly, without affecting or being affected by any of the others.
Between every two arches there is also a drain to prevent the water and filth from accumulating.
Eleven years and nine months were employed in erecting this magnificent structure, and the expense of it amounted to three hundred and eighty-nine thousand five hundred pounds: part of which was raised by lotteries, and the rest, granted by parliament.

Blackfriar's Bridge

Blackfriar's Bridge, which forms a principal object in the engraving that accompanies this article, was erected after a design of Mr. Mylne; and the first pile was driven in the midst of the river on the seventh of June, 1760.
The first stone was laid with great ceremony by the lord mayor, who attended with the aldermen, sheriffs, and city officers, in great state, on the thirty-first of October in the same year.
Beneath the stone the several British current coins were placed, and a plate with the following inscription :—

On the last day of October, in the year 1760,
And in the beginning of the most auspicious reign of George the Third,
Sir Thomas Chitty, Knight, Lord Mayor, Laid the first Stone of this Bridge,
Undertaken by the Common Council of London, In the height of an extensive war, For the public accommodation And ornament of the City;
Robert Mylne being the architect:
And that there may remain to posterity A monument of this city's affection to the man, Who, by the strength of his genius, The steadiness of his mind, And a kind of happy contagion of his probity and Spirit, Under the Divine favour And fortunate auspices of George the Second, Recovered, augmented, and secured The British Empire, In Asia, Africa, and America, And restored the ancient reputation And influence of the country Amongst the nations of Europe,
The Citizens of London have unanimously voted this Bridge to be inscribed with the name of
WILLIAM PITT

This bridge, [Blackfriar's] which was completed in the year 1769, is a very convenient and noble structure: it is of stone, and consists of nine arches, which being elliptical, the apertures for navigation are expansive.
Its dimensions are as follows:

Length of the bridge, from wharf to wharf995'
Width of the central arch100'
Width of the arches on each side
reckoning from the central ones
towards the shores
98'
93'
83'
70'
Width of the carriage-way28'
Width of the raised foot-ways on each side7'
Height of the balustrade 4' 10"

Over each pier of the bridge is a recess or balcony, supported below by two Ionic pillars and pilasters, which stand on a semicircular projection of the pier above high-water, and have niches between them.
It spreads open at the extremities, by which means an agreeable as well as useful access is formed to it.
During the time employed in erecting this bridge, a temporary one of wood was laid over the river for the accommodation of passengers, as well as for the sake of the toll, by which a considerable sum was raised while the work was carrying on, and a large accumulation of debt prevented.
In short, this and subsequent tolls enabled the commissioners to pay the whole expense of building this bridge in less than twenty years after it was finished, although less than half what they were allowed to take by act of parliament.

London is a city and county of itself, and the see of a bishop.
Its figure is very irregular; but including the City of Westminster and Borough of Southwark it is nearly oblong; and if the line of the streets is followed, about seven miles and an half in length; and is in some places three miles broad.
The number of its inhabitants, of which there are varying opinions, seems to be generally settled at about a million of souls.
It is governed by a lord mayor, twenty-four aldermen, two sheriffs, recorder, and common council, and sends four members to parliament.
Though forty miles from the sea, it is a sea-port of great extent, and is supposed to enjoy two-thirds of the whole trade of England.
It possesses one cathedral, with Westminster Abbey, one hundred and forty-six parishes, numerous chapels of worship of the established church, with various meetings of sectaries of every kind, several popish chapels and Jewish synagogues, with fifteen hospitals, including those of the Foundling and St. Luke.
Besides the charity schools, which, in London and ten miles round it amount to one hundred and thirty-one, there are several public schools.
Three public Bridges, a superb Royal Exchange, a Mansion House for the lord mayor, and a Guild-hall; a Custom House, and a national Bank, must be added to our brief and confined account of the edificial splendor of the metropolis of the British empire.

[ This table is at the end of the 1818 version. ]

SOMERSET HOUSE.

Somerset House in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Somerset House, 1811

Somerset House in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Somerset House, 1818

This magnificent structure is a principal ornament of the metropolis of the British empire.
It occupies a large space of ground on the south side of the Strand, and the northern bank of the Thames, which was the site of an ancient palace, whose name it still retains.
The old palace was begun in 1549, by the Duke of Somerset, uncle to Edward the Sixth, and protector of England.
The late Lord Orford, in his Anecdotes of Painting, states it to have been built after a design of John of Padua, who was employed, in the preceding reign, under the title of Devisor of his Majesty's Buildings; which office he continued to enjoy at the period when the Protector projected this splendid residence.
To gratify his pride in this particular object, he sacrificed every consideration of justice and religion, and trusted only to the power which he possessed to carry his design into immediate execution.
He, accordingly, in order to procure a suitable situation for its erection, caused the palaces of the bishops of Chester and Worcester, with Strand Inn of Chancery, belonging to the Temple, and the church of St. Mary-le-Strancl, to be delapidated, without affording the least compensation to the owners.
Nor did his violating spirit terminate in these tyrannic robberies; he proceeded still farther in his career of sacrilegious plunder, by ordering the church of St. John of Jerusalem, with its tower, to be blown up, for the purpose of furnishing materials.
The cloisters of the north side of St. Paul's cathedral underwent the same fate for the same object; the sacred repositories of the dead were also violated, for the charnel-house of that church, and the monuments of the dead yielded to his rapacity, while the bones were treated with the most brutal impiety, and scattered over Finsbury fields.
It does not appear, however, that the Protector enjoyed the gratification of residing in this palace, not withstanding the rapidity with which the building of it was conducted; for within three years after its commencement he closed the scene of his rapacity on the scaffold.
On the death of Somerset this palace devolved to the crown; and was afterwards the occasional residence of Queen Elizabeth, though, most probably, as a visitor, and consequently at the expence, (an habitual consideration with her,) of her relation, Lord Hunsdon, whom she had permitted to reside there.
Anne of Denmark, the queen of James the First, also kept her court here, which she rendered a continual scene of elegant festivity.
During her residence it acquired the name of Denmark House, but afterwards regained the title of its founder, which it preserved, and continues to be attached to the present structure.
This palace was very much improved and beautified by the Queen Dowager, Henrietta Maria, in 1662, when she flattered herself with the hope of closing her days in England.
Catherine, queen of Charles the Second, being compelled, by the gallantries of that monarch, to quit Whitehall, which was the scene of them, this palace was assigned for her residence, till the death of that monarch, when she retired to her native country.
On account of her religion it was much frequented by the zealous catholics; and from the frantic rage of the nation, at that time, against the professors of her faith, it was made the pretended scene of the murder of Sir Edmonbury Godfrey, in the year 1678, for which three innocent persons suffered, but of which there was no proof that Somerset House was the place where the tragedy was acted.
It was endeavoured to be fixed there from its being the residence of the Queen, in order to involve her in the cruel and unjast suspicion of being concerned in it.
It were, indeed, to be wished that the zealots of that reign could be exculpated from the charge of being actuated by the persecuting spirit which distinguished those of Henry and of Mary.
Queen Catharine was the last royal personage who inhabited this palace.

Since her day its apartments have been occupied by officers of the court, or other persons who had sufficient interest to obtain an appointment to them.
It continued, however, to retain the character of a royal residence, was regularly attended by a military guard, and had an established chaplain, housekeeper, and subordinate officers.
By an act, passed in the second year of his majesty's reign, it was settled on the queen for her life, but afterwards was exchanged for Buckingham House, to accomodate the official views of government.
The architecture of old Somerset House consisted of that mixture of the Grecian and the Gothic, which a very false taste had introduced into England in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and which was employed in all the considerable structures of the period.
It was, however, the first building in this country which had any pretension to the character of the Roman architecture, so that we are enabled to refer the introduction of this style in England to the middle of the sixteenth century.
It is worthy of remark, that the spot thus distinguished by the nativity and infant efforts of the art in this country, should be the same on which are exhibited all its manly and dignified proportions, when arrived at its present state of vigour and maturity.
The front, towards the Strand, was adorned with columns, and their appropriate ornaments, but it was not only blackened but corroded by smoke, and much of its decoration had mouldered away.
In the centre an handsome gateway formed an entrance into a spacious quadrangle, on the southern side of which was an elegant moving machinery, and the Surrey hills.
The garden, which was of some extent, was decorated according to the style of that period when the improvements were made.
It contained an intermixture of gravel waits and verdure, was shaded with trees, refreshed by fountains, anil adorned with statues.
It was separated from the river by a parapet wall, which was divided by an handsome water-gate and landing-place, by Inigo Jones, that communicated with the principal walk leading up to the palace.
These gardens were open to the public, and formed a very agreeable promenade for the inhabitants of that part of the metropolis.
A chapel had also been built by the same great architect.
It was intended for the use of the Infanta of Spain, the intended bride of Charles the First, when Prince of Wales; but, on the failure of that romantic match, it was allowed to be employed in the worship of the Roman Catholic religion.
In Somerset Yard, on the west side of the palace, were couch-houses, stables, and a guard-room for the use of the soldiers on duty, the gateway to which fronted Catherine Street.
These coach-houses were afterwards used as barracks for soldiers.

The great utility that would arise from erecting the public offices, necessarily connected with each other, on the same spot, had long been perceived by Government; and the centrical[sic] situation of this palace, and the space it occupied, suggested the propriety of applying it to such a beneficial public purpose.
An act of parliament was therefore obtained for embanking the river Thames before Somerset House; and for building on the ground thereof various public offices which were specified, together with such others as his majesty might be pleased thereafter to direct.
This magnificent edifice, which is erected after a design of Sir William Chambers, occupies a space of five hundred feet in depth, and nearly eight hundred in breadth; and is distributed into a large quadrangular court, three hundred and forty feet long, and two hundred and ten wide, with a street on each side, extending parallel with the court, four hundred feet in length, and sixty in breadth, to a spacious terrace, fifty feet in width on the banks of the Thames, and raised fifty feet above the bed of the river.
It occupies the whole length of the building.
The streets on the sides, however, are not yet completed.
The Strand front of the building is composed of a rustic basement, supporting Corinthian columns, crowned in the centre with an attic, and at the extremities with a balustrade.
The basement consists of nine large arches, the three central ones being open, and forming a Doric arcade.
The three at each end are filled with windows of the Doric order, adorned with pilasters, entablatures, and pediments.
The key-stones of the arches are finely sculptured in alto-relievo, with nine colossal masks, representing Ocean, and the eight chief rivers of Great Britain.
That of the Ocean is in the centre, while the Thames, Humber, Mersey, and Dee are on the right; and the Medway, Tweed, Tyne, and Severn are on the left.
They are decorated with their appropriate emblems.
The Corinthian order, which springs from the basement, consists of ten columns on those of the principal floor have a balustrade before them, and are ornamented with Ionic pilasters, entablatures, and pediments.
The three central windows have likewise large tablets, covering part of the architrave and frieze, on which are represented, in basso relievo, medallions of the King, Queen, and Prince of Wales, supported by lions, and adorned respectively with garlands of laurel, of myrtle, and of oak.

The attic, which extends over three intercolumniations[sic], and distinguishes the centre of the front, is divided into three parts by four colossal statues, placed over the columns of the order; the centre division being reserved for an inscription, and the two lateral ones having oval windows, adorned with festoons of oak and laurel.
The four statues represent venerable men in senatorial habits, each wearing the cap of liberty.
In one hand they have a fasces, composed of reeds firmly bound together, emblematic of strength derived from unanimity; while the other sustains respectively the scales, the mirror, the sword, and the bridle; symbols of Justice, Truth, Valour, and Moderation.
The whole terminates with a group, consisting of the arms of the British empire, supported on one side by the Genius of England, and on the other by Fame, sounding her trumpet.
The length of this front is one hundred and thirty-five feet.
The three open arches already mentioned, form the only entrance.
They open to a spacious vestibule, uniting the street with the back front, and serving as the general access to the whole edifice; but more particularly to the Royal Academy, and to the Royal and Antiquarian Societies: the entrances are all under cover.
This vestibule is decorated with columns of the Doric order, whose entablatures support the vaults, which are ornamented with antique decorations; among which the cyphers of their Majesties and the Prince of Wales are intermixed.
Over the central doors in this vestibule are two busts in Portland stone, by Mr. Wilton:
that on the side of the academy represents Michael Angelo Buonarotti, the first of artists; and that on the side of the learned societies, Sir Isaac Newton, the first of philosophers.
The back front of this part of the building, which faces the quadrangle, is considerably wider than that towards the strand, being near two hundred feet in extent, and is composed of a corps de logis, with two projecting wings.
The style of decoration is, however, nearly the same, the principal varieties being in the forms of the doors and windows, and in the employment of pilasters instead of columns; except in the front of the wings, which have four columns supporting an ornament composed of two sphinxes, with an antique altar between them, agreeably introduced to screen the chimnies[sic] from view.
The masks on the key-stones of the arches are intended to represent Lares, or the tutelar deities of the place.
The attic is ornamented with statues of the four quarters of the globe.
America appears armed, and the others are laden with tributary fruits and treasure.
Like the strand front, the termination of the attic, on this side, is formed by the British arms, surrounded with sedges and sea-weeds, and supported by marine gods, armed with tridents, and holding a festoon of nets filled with fish and other marine productions.
The other three sides of the quadrangle are formed by massy buildings of rustic work, corresponding with the interior of the principal front.

The center of the south side is ornamented with a loggio of four columns of the composite order, whose entablature is surmounted by a balustrade, decorated with vases.
There are two pilasters on either side, with windows in the recess; above it, on a line with the main building, appears an attic supporting a triangular pediment, whose tympanum is enriched with a basso relievo, representing the naval symbols of Great Britain, supported by a sea nymph borne on sea-horses, guided by tritons sounding their conchs, a subject peculiarly suited to a part of the building, which contains a principal office of the navy department.
The corners of the pediment are decorated with naval trophies, and a dome crowns the whole.
The east and west fronts are nearly similar, but less heavily ornamented.
In the center of each of them is a small clock turret.
Throughout the quadrangle is a subterraneous story, in which are many of the offices subordinate to the principal ones in the basement and upper stories.
In the court, and opposite to the entrance of it, is a statue in bronze, of his present Majesty.
It is by Bacon, and by no means a reputable work of that sculptor.
At his feet is a recumbent figure of the Thames of the same materials, with a cornucopia pouring forth wealth and plenty.
The position of this statue is such as to excite the wonder, if not the ridicule of the spectator, as it is placed behind a deep area, and on the very brink of it.
The front towards the Thames is designed to be the most splendid part of this vast structure, and possesses more variety than is to be seen in any other of its elevations.
It has a projecting center with a loggio and lateral pilasters, and it crowned with a dome.
The buildings to the right and left of it are in the style of the northern part of the quadrangle; while the projecting extremities which are enriched with pilasters are varied by central loggios supporting triangular pediments.
This superstructure is seated on an immense sub-basement, with a spacious terrace, which commands a proud view of the river, with Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges, and the various objects which rise on its shores.
— The terrace, which is designed to extend from east to west eleven hundred feet, is supported by a lofty arcade, relieved by projections, which are heightened by rusticated columns of the Doric order.
The arches are twenty-two in number, besides a central one, or water-gate; and the key-stone is enriched with a colossal mask of Father Thames.
The eighth arch, from either side of the center, is more lofty than the others, and serves as a landing-place to the warehouses under the terrace.
Above these landing-places, upon the balustrade which runs along the terrace, are figures of lions couchant, larger than life, and admirably executed.

The principal offices held in Somerset House, are those of the Privy Seal and Signet, the Navy, Navy Pay, Victualling, and Sick and Wounded Seamen; the Stamp, Tax, and Lottery; the Hackney Coach and Hawkers and Pedlars; the Surveyor General of Crown Lands; the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster; the Auditors of Imprests; the Pipe, the Comptroller of the Pipe, and the Treasurer's Remembrancer.
—When the streets on the two sides are finished, there will be dwelling-houses for the Treasurer, Paymaster, and six Commissioners of the Navy; three Commissioners of the Victualling Office, and their Secretary; a Commissioner of Stamps, and one of Sick and Wounded; several of whom already reside there.
Commodious apartments are also provided for the domestic inmates of each office.

The Strand front is appropriated by royal munificence to the use of the Royal and Antiquarian Societies, and the Royal Academy.
Having given, as we trust, a complete and accurate description of this superb public edifice, it may be expected that some general observations on its architectural merits and defects, for it is not without both, will accompany it.
The elevation of Somerset House towards the Strand is chaste and elegant; though the basement exceeds the proportions required by the superstructure, an error which we know not how to reconcile to the contrary principle on which Sir William' Chambers lays so much stress in his excellent work on the science which he professed and adorned.
The arches are also too small, and lessen the pretensions of the front to a magnificent whole.
The Doric arcade is very handsome, and possesses a classical air; though without meaning to detract from its great and general merit, we think it too much enriched for that order; but on entering the quadrangle, the view is irresistibly impressive.
— Its general design and proportion claim, as we presume they command, the highest admiration.
It is the part of the edifice of which the architect had the greatest reason to be proud, and which will give stability to his professional reputation, while the building itself shall endure.
At the same time we are disposed to express our surprize that the dome which surmounts the Navy Office, with the pediment beneath it, and the central turrets on the eastern and western sides, should have proceeded from the same judgment which designed the whole of this magnificent court.

The front that presents itself to the Thames, is broken into too many parts:
It must be acknowledged that, separately, they are very elegant, but they do not combine so as to produce one grand and simple object.
—This defect becomes more evident when viewed from the water or the Surrey shore, with the huge surbasement which supports the structure.
Nor can we regard the vast arches which appear beneath the colonades, without lamenting the disproportion of the parts.
They may have their utility, but that it was not produced by a more pleasing arrangement, betrays a barrenness of invention.
Among all the variations which Palladio admitted into his work, there is not an example which will justify the complexity of design so evident in the Thames elevation of Somerset House.
If it should be said that, when the various purposes for which it was erected, and to which it must necessarily be adapted, are taken into consideration, a more perfect exterior is scarcely to be expected; we cannot be insensible to the force of the observation.
—But we contend, on the other hand, that it is the faculty of genius to surmount difficulties; and that, in this particular instance, Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren would have surmounted them.
—At the same time we most readily acknowledge, that there are many parts of this edifice which determine, beyond all challenge, the classical taste and professional superiority of Sir William Chambers.
Throughout this magnificent building, there is ample proof of the architect's great acquirements in his art.
The columns are elegantly designed, as well as correctly proportioned and arranged: each has its mouldings, entablatures, &c. in that due regularity and symmetry which antiquity has established.
In the general design, parts correspond with parts, and in many, beauty is combined with their application.
—The ornaments are considered with a judicious appropriation.
The Navy Office, the Victualling Office, and the Office of the Duchy of Cornwall, are all decorated with symbols most happily suited to their respective characters.
In short, we consider that Somerset House is a distinguished proof of the superior rank which Sir William Chambers held in his profession, and that it is among the proudest ornaments of our Imperial Metropolis.

FAIR ON THE THAMES, 1814.

Frost Fair 1814 in Thames, Cooke & Clennell 1818
Fair on the Thames, 1814, Luke Clennell

The extreme cold which prevailed in the beginning of the year 1814, produced an extraordinary effect upon the Thames, which though not without an example in the earlier part of the preceding century, had not occurred within the memory of very few, if any persons now living.
Such was the violence and continuation of the Frost, that the river was completely frozen, and the ice had acquired such a degree of consistence and solidity as to induce, more perhaps from curiosity than any other motive, the whole population of London to pass over it, or to visit the various amusements and booths of entertainment which had become stationary upon it.
In short, what might be called a Frost Fair was established on the ice, and the festive scenes which the summer displays at certain periods in the villages round London, at Greenwich, Peckham, Camberwell, &c. was represented in the midst of winter on the congelated waters of the Thames.
The feast, the dance, the cries of all the common-saleable commodities which enliven, and sometimes almost disturb the streets of London, were transferred to the icy surface, to gratify the wants and promote the recreation of the crowds which were daily attracted to this extraordinary scene.
Among the other peculiarities which distinguished and gave variety to this singular event, Printing Presses were erected, and not only the names of thousands were printed off in different forms, and with appropriate inscriptions, but the muse was inspired in this frigid region, and copies of verses were published as memoranda of the place where they received their impression.

THE LONDON BRIDGE.

London Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
London Bridge, 1811

London Bridge in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
London Bridge, 1818

The darkness and obscurity of the Saxon annals, so justly complained of by Hume, has rendered it impossible to ascertain the period of building the first bridge at London.
From the traditionary account Stow received of Linsted, the last prior of St. Mary Overys, it appears that a maiden, named Mary, who held the ferry at Dowgate, built a religious house on the present site of that church for females, and endowed it with the ferry.
It was afterwards converted into a college of priests by a noble lady, named Swithen.
This college built the first bridge of timber, but at what period is not mentioned; Stow says, "of old time, long before the conquest".
It has been urged against this account, that there could have been no bridge at London in the year 994, because Anlaff the Dane, then sailed up the river as far as Staines without obstruction, it being presumed the Londoners would have fortified the bridge; but this proves nothing against Stow's account; for, in the wretched state of the country at that period there was no naval force to oppose the enemy, who might have surprised the country by sailing up the Thames, with a fair wind and tide, in a few hours.
Vertue, who has been quoted by a modern author *Malcomb*, gives us the exact year (1002), when it was built (as he says) by Ethelred, but without any authority.
The frequent inroads of the Danes deprived that weak unready prince of the means of doing any thing for the benefit of his country.
That it was built by the priests is more than probable, the art of bridge-building being, in the middle ages, a regular part of the clerical function.
Thus we find, Bernard, Abbot of Burton, building the stone bridge over the Trent, in the twelfth century, which is the longest iu England.
About the same time, a regular order of Hospitallers was founded, by a St. Benezet, under the denomination of Pontifices, or bridge-builders, at Avignon, where the saint, and his colleagues, built the bridge at that place, across the Rhone.

It is certain there was a bridge, in the year 1016, when Canute having besieged London, the citizens contrived to fortify it so effectually, that he was obliged to cut a semicircular canal through Southwark, to bring his ships above the bridge, and thus prevent the city receiving supplies.
In the reign of William Rufus, this wooden bridge was washed away by a great land flood *Stow* ; that prince made it a pretext for his rapacity in levying large sums of money throughout the kingdom, to rebuild it.

In 1135, London Bridge was totally consumed by a great fire, which destroyed one half of the city.
In the year 1166, it was in so ruinous a state as to require rebuilding: and here we have another proof in favour of the priests.
It was rebuilt under the inspection of Peter, a clergyman, in those days in great reputation for his skill in architecture, and chaplain or curate of St. Mary Colechurch, in London.
About this time some lands were appropriated to its maintenance; fbut their prodnce was very inadequate to the expences of its frequent repairs.
Whenever they fell short, it is probable the religious establishments were called upon, as well as corporate bodies; for we find a charter granted by Henry the First to Ralph, Bishop of Chichester, exempting the manor of Alcestone, among "all other customs of earthly servitude", from the work of London Bridge.
Various accidents continually befalling the wooden bridge, the present one of stone was begun under the patronage of Henry the Second, in (1176); and the above-mentioned Peter, curate of St. Mary Colechurch, was the architect.
He died before the work was finished; and King John, by the advice of Hubert, recommended Isenbert *Records in the Tower*, a priest, and an architect of ability, who had built a bridge at Rochelle, and was master of the schools of Xainctes; but it does not appear he was employed by the citizens, who had the custody of the work.
After thirty-three years labour, this ill contrived structure was completed.
Besides the houses on each side, there was a chapel *See Vertue's print, published 1748* ; it was a beautiful Gothic structure, sixty-five feet long, twenty feet six inches wide, and fourteen high.
It was built over the ninth pier from the north end—was paved with black and white marble— and had an entrance from the river.
In the middle of it there was a monument, supposed to be that of Peter the architect, or the mason, who is said to have built the chapel and endowed it.
At the dissolution of the monasteries, the chapel was converted into a dwelling.
In making some alteration in 1737, the site of the monument was discovered: this may be worth observation whenever the bridge is taken down.

Among the various distressing accidents related by Stow, and others, was a fire which began in Southwark about four years after the bridge was finished.
The Londoners had rushed in crowds to assist at the fire, which, having caught St. Mary Overy's church, a strong south wind communicated the flames to the north side of the bridge.
While they were endeavouring to force a passage through the flames into the city, the conflagration had extended across the south end of the bridge, "so that being inclosed between two great fires above 3000 people perished in the flames, or were drowned by overloading the vessels which ventured to their assistance.*
*Maitland from Stow *

King John having seized the revenues of the bridge, they remained vested in the king for relief, who granted the bridge-keeper a brief to collect charitable donations throughout the realm, with particular injunctions to the clergy to promote its success.
This scheme failed, and, in the following year, letters patent passed, authorising the corporation to take a toll for three years.
In 1632, the Thames being frozen, forty houses were burnt in about eight hours.
The disorders of the state prevented these being rebuilt for several years, when the fire of London completed the destruction of the remainder, except a few old ones on the south end.
The corporation, instead of availing themselves of this opportunity of getting rid of the nuisance, did every thing in their power to encourage the purblind policy of loading the bridge with houses again; they "let it at ten shillings a foot for sixty one years, and, that it might be uniform, purchased some old leases*
*Maitland*
to complete the measure of this absurdity, it became, when finished—"the admiration of all who beheld it.

When the Cerulean god these things survayed,
He shook his trident and astonished said—
Let the whole earth now all the wonders count,
This bridge, of wonders, is—the paramount.

Twenty feet was the space left, on this bridge of wonders, for carriages and foot passengers—the latter generally sought their safety by following the carriages, to prevent being crushed to death against the houses:
"these overhung and leaned in a most terrific manner—in most places they hid the arches, and nothing appeared but the rude piers."
Pennant says, "I well remember the street on London bridge, narrow, darksome, and dangerous to passengers, from the number of carriages; frequent arches of timber crossed the street, from the tops of the houses, to keep them together, and from falling into the river.
Nothing but use could preserve the rest of the inmates, who soon grew deaf to the noise of the falling waters, the clamours of watermen, or the frequent shrieks of drowning wretches.
It had a tower and drawbridge; the top of which, in the sad and turbulent days of this kingdom, used to be the shambles of human flesh, and covered with heads or quarters of unfortunate partizans, even so late as 1598.
Hentzner, the German traveller, counted on it above thirty heads.
But this was not the only part of the bridge allotted to these dreadful exhibitions: a print of London, supposed, by the best judges, to be unique, was lately purchased at Dodd's auction-room, for fourteen guineas: it is on four sheets, and more than six feet long.
It takes in Whitehall and the Tower:—the line of sight in this view runs exactly through the west end of St. Mary Overy's church, to the opposite shore, and is taken from some very high building in Southwark, near the banks of the river:—
Winchester House, St. Mary Overy's Church, the Globe Theatre, and the Bear Garden, on Bankside, form part of the foreground.
The names of the several objects are written near them.
There is a three-masted vessel lying off Bankside, called "the galley Fuske".
The houses on both sides the bridge form one mass, with a narrow archway through them, except at the openings of the drawbridge, &c.
On the bridge-gate there are eighteen heads on poles, and some figures are peeping through chinks in the wall at the Globe Theatre, but no one near the bridge-gate appears to be affected at the inhuman spectacle before them—they are selling apples, at stalls, in the middle of the road, with the utmost unconcern.
In the distance, is seen, Hampstead Hill, &c.
The few craft and shipping in the river form a strong contrast with the numbers we now see.
The drawing seems very correct, except the arches of the bridge, which are round instead of being pointed.

The building leases being expired, "The city, ever mindful of the safety of their fellow subjects, and prompted by the many misfortunes occasioned by the numerous carriages, which are continually passing and repassing this great thoroughfare, where it had been forgot to make provision for a footway *,
* Maitland*
projected another plan for loading this ill-fated bridge with houses once more, and a colonnade for foot passengers.
Another fire happening in 1728, destroyed the old city gate, which was only eleven feel wide in the opening: when rebuilt it was widened to eighteen feet, and a postern opened for foot passengers.
It remained in this improved state about twenty-five years longer, when the eyes of the people were at length opened, and the committee appointed by the corporation to consider of the best means of building a bridge at Blackfriars, were instructed to inquire into the state of London bridge.
They met March 21, 1754, and directed Mr. Dance to make a survey thereof.
The substance of his report was, "that the bridge was built on piles, driven close together nearly in a mass, that they were perfect except about an inch of the outside; they were cut off above the common state of low-water mark, and planks laid on them, and others on these transversely; then began the stone piers.
The external stone-work was of Kentish ashler, very sound.
The external parts of the piers were composed of rubble, cemented so firmly that it resisted crows and pickaxes.
The piers were solid, ten feet above the sterlings, where the cellars of the houses began; that the foundations were good, and, with the usual repairs, likely to stand for ages."
Upon this it was resolved, "that the committee are humbly of opinion, that the houses on London bridge are a public nuisance, long felt and complained of;" and "that they should be taken down."
Estimates were then called for, and produced, but the committee being alarmed at their amount, were disposed to suffer a part of them to remain.
However, this was given up, and a determination made to take down the whole, to make a suitable approach at each end; and, for the better convenience of navigation, to throw two arches into one.
Application being made to parliament, an act was passed, 1756, to empower the corporation to purchase, and remove, the buildings on, and contiguous to, the bridge; and to improve the avenues leading thereto; to widen or enlarge one or more arches, &c.
It also directed that there should be a ballustrade on each side; a passage of thirty one feet open for carriages, and seven feet on each side for foot passengers, and to be watched and lighted out of the bridge-house estate.
The tythes, poor rates, and land tax, of the houses pulled down, were to be charged upon the bridge-house lands.

Many difficulties attended the execution of this act; and tolls were to be taken of vessels passing under the bridge; the trouble of collecting which, together with the obstruction of carriages, &c. produced several applications to parliament, who granted £30,000 to the city, for the purchase of the lease and reversion in fee of the bridge tolls, according to an estimate of their value previously given in evidence before a committee: but, in the mean time, they had suddenly increased lo more than double their former produce, and the lessee demanded upwards of £20,000 for his interest, which had been valued at less than £6000.
The corporation therefore proposed to parliament, a continuation of the tolls for three years longer than was intended by the act, when the interest of the sums in hand left £26,863 for the purchase of the reversion in fee, and they were finally taken off in 1782.
The rents of the houses pulled down on the bridge amounted, in the whole, to £828. 6s. which, with the taxes entailed on the bridgehouse estates, made their loss upwards of £1000 per annum.
To keep open the communication between Southwark and London during the repairs, the committee ordered a temporary wooden bridge to be erected on the sterlings of the west sides of the stone bridge; which was completed in the month of October, 1657, and was found safe for carriages.
On the 11th of April, 1758, about eleven o'clock at night, this bridge was observed to be in flames "from one end to the other".
It was supposed to have been done wilfully; and £200 reward was offered on conviction of the parties.
To remedy this evil, five hundred men were employed to make a passage over the remains of the old bridge, so that another temporary bridge was erected within a month after the destruction of the former; which, it appears, had been also attempted to be set on fire, when a nocturnal guard of watchmen was appointed.
When these works were completed, the church of St. Mary Magnus projected so far over the foot-way, that a passage was to be made under the steeple.
This was thought a dangerous experiment; but the prophetic genius of Sir Christopher Wren made it perfectly easy: for on practising an opening, the arches were found already prepared.

On taking down the pier to make the centre arch, the piles were found in a quadruple row, in the form of the pier, and on a much lower level, compared with the present low-water mark, than had been conceived.
Mr. Mylne directed the contractor how to remove the pier.
"He borrowed some powerful screws, used for raising the heavy wheels of the water-works; and, fastening those to the heads of the soundest and most secure of the piles, he detached first some, of no great extent, of the outer row, which formed the line of defence, and the shape of the sterling; and then a few more of the inner and original rows above mentioned.
The stone-work, worth saving, being removed, the rubbish and loose materials being thrown into the river, and all cross-tyes, by timber or iron, being cast loose, the whole pier soon became a scene of ruin, and dissolved away in the midst of that impetuous agent, the fall, under the bridge.
—The outer piles beiug carried away, the heart, or middle of the work, was borne off so soon and suddenly, as hardly left any time to consider and measure its substance and texture.
All that could float was dispersed up and down the river; and some were preserved (as long as could be) of the original piles, which the best accounts state to have been there five hundred and eighty-six years*.
*Mylne's Report to Select Committee *
"The removal of this one pier caused a rise of four inches in the tide, and reduced the force of the water in the proportion 2000 to 1277 *.
*Smeaton*
Thus was expended £90,000 in a partial remedy of this insufferable nuisance which narrowly escaped falling about the ears of the workmen employed on the improvement.
Mr. Mylne had previously declared that the removal of the pier would be attended with the utmost danger to the great arch; and so it proved: for soon after the pier was removed, the increased volume of water carried away so much of the bed of the river, which, under the late pier, was "higher in level than any parts above as well as below the bridge", that the foundations of the piers supporting the great arch were in the most imminent danger.
No pile-engine could act to strengthen the sterlings, they being so near the haunches of the great arch.
Upon this Mr. Smeaton was applied to.
He recommended the throwing in a quantity of large stones; and the city gates being at hand, "were re-purchused and cast into the gulph[sic].
— These being soon carried away by the force of the current, nine beams of timber were laid parallel to each other across the bed of the centre arch in the year 1793; and their intermediate spaces filled up with stones.
Seven of these had undergone a similar fate in less than five years; and every attempt to preserve the bridge has materially increased the danger of passing through it, which has "become impracticable during three hours out of seven in every ebb-tide for vessels under three or four tons burthen, and extremely hazardous even for those of forty or fifty tons."
By soundings taken immediately below the bridge, "it appears, that although the depth under the centre arch is ten feet at low-water; yet, nearly opposite to it, and at the distance of a few yards below it, a bank has been thrown up, on which, the depth at low-water does not exceed eighteen inches.
The chief cause of this is the unnecessary enlargement of the sterlings, which has reduced the water-way to only two fifths of the breadth of the river, and caused a fall of five feet at ebb-tide.

London Bridge is nine hundred and twenty feet long, forty-seven feet wide, and forty-three feet high.
Its ascent on the north side is one inch and a quarter to a yard, and on the south side one inch and seven eighths.
A committee of the House of Commons, whose report has been founded on the opinions of the most eminent architects, have declared,
"That the structure of London Bridge is so defective in its original design, that no art or expence, which has been, or can be bestowed on it, can secure it from the risk of a sudden and total destruction, under certain circumstances of the river.
That the rebuilding of it on improved principles would be a measure of substantial economy in itself, as well as subservient to other purposes of still greater importance."
That, notwithstanding the sum of £82,000 was granted by parliament, between the years 1758 and 1765, for the alterations and improvements; nevertheless, the annual average expence of repairs for ten years (ending 1799), has exceeded £4,200 per annum.
—The Bridge-house estates at that period amounted to £10,000 per annum.
How much longer they are to be wasted on this pile of deformity, which has so long disgraced the British metropolis; which has caused a watery grave to so many thousands of most useful citizens, is best known to those who have the power to remove it.

This view is taken from Topping's Wharf, Tooley-street.
[I think this means the 1811 view of the Custom House taken from below bridge on the south bank.]

BILLINGSGATE.

Billingsgate in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Billingsgate, 1818

If we adopt the conjectures of Antiquaries who rest their account on the authority of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Billingsgate derives its name from Belins’ Gate, or the gate or haven of Belinus, King of Britain, fellow adventurer with Brennus, King of the Gauls at the sacking of Rome, three hundred and sixty years before the Christian era.
Here is something like the sanction of etymology; but there does not appear any record of a gate at this place, though that King’s son, Lud, has perpetuated his name by a structure of that kind, as is well known to every citizen of London.
Indeed, according to Skinner, the word Gate signifies nothing more than a place where there was a concourse of people;
“a common quay or wharf, where there is a free going and coming out of the same.”
This was a small port for the reception of shipping, and, for a considerable time, the most important place for the landing of every article of commerce.
It was not, however, till the reign of William the Third, that it became celebrated as a Fish-Market, when in the year 1699, an Act passed in Parliament to make it a free-port for the sale of Fish.
This act also settled the tolls and duties to be taken, appoints a fine of twenty pounds to be levied on any Fishmonger convicted of engrossing, and permits the sale of Mackarel on Sundays.
The practice of engrossing and regrating still encreasing, it was thought necessary, by an order of the Lord Mayor, in 1707, to supply a remedy for this abuse.
The order states, that, in consequence of various prevailing abuses which greatly enhanced the price to the consumer; it was ordered, that no fishmonger, or other person should sell, or expose to sale, any fish at Billiugsgate-market; only fishermen, their wives, apprentices or servants were to be permitted to sell in the market by retail, that the citizens might have the fish at the first hand, according to the true meaning of the law.
It was ordered also that the hours for the fish-market should be, from Lady-day to Michaelmas, at four o’clock in the morning, and from Michaelmas to Ladyday, at six o’clock, and that none presume to buy or sell any fish before those hours, except herrings, sprats, mackerel, and shell-fish, on pain of being proceeded against, as forestallers of the market.
The whole is under the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen.
A clerk of the market attends to receive the tolls, &c. and has authority to order, that all fish brought into the port shall be sold in the market, and such fish as he shall deem putrid and unwholesome should be destroyed.
The business of the market is now conducted by salesmen, to whom the cargoes of the boats are consigned by the owners; though considerable quantities of fish are brought from the coast by land carriage.
About fourteen or fifteen years since, commenced the practice of bringing fresh salmon from Newcastle and Berwick, inclosed in boxes of ice, by which contrivance, the inhabitants of London are supplied with that fish, which was formerly of the most expensive kind, at a reasonable price and in the greatest perfection.
About l4,500 boats of cod and other sea-fish, exclusive of mackarel, are annually brought to this market.
The eloquence of this place is proverbial in the more striking display of insolence and vulgarity.
Addison humourously denominates the fishwomen of this market, “ the Ladies of the British flshery.”

THE CUSTOM HOUSE.

Custom House in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
The Custom House, 1811

Custom House in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
The Custom House, [before it was burnt in 1814] 1818 version

Wherever commerce subsists, customs are established.
Commerce is the exportation and importation of merchandize, with a view to the advantage of the state; and customs form a predominating power over the exports and imports for the same end.
The farming of the customs, which is the practice of some states, is injurious to commerce, not only by its general injustice and vexations, but, which is almost a certain consequence, by the excess of the imports.
A very general glance of such an arrangement will discover the difficulties which arise from, and impede it.
In England, where the customs are managed by the king's officers, business is negociated with a curious dexterity, and a very short period of time accomplishes the most extensive concerns.
In short, one of the most important words in the political vocabulary of an Englishman is Revenue; and it would be a waste of words to prove that the Custom House is one of the most abundant sources of it.
In ancient times, the business of the Custom House was transacted in a more irregular manner at Billingsgate; but in the year 1559, an act being passed, that goods should be no where landed, but in such places as were appointed by the commissioners of the revenue, this was the spot fixed upon for the entries in the port of London, and here a Custom House was ordered to be erected.
It was, however, destroyed by the fire of London, in 1666, and was rebuilt with additions, two years after, by Charles the Second, in a much more handsome and commodious manner, at the expence of ten thousand pounds:

but that also being destroyed by another conflagration, in 1718, the present structure supplied its place.
This edifice is built with brick and stone, and is of great strength.
Beneath it, and on each side, are large warehouses, for the reception of goods on the public account; and that side of the Thames, for a great extent, is filled with wharfs, quays, and cranes, for the convenience of landing them, &c.
The building is one hundred and eighty nine feet in length; the centre is twenty-seven feet deep, and the wings considerably more.
The centre retires from the river, while the wings project towards it.
The whole presents altogether an handsome elevation, having a central pediment, and is relieved by a range of Ionic pilasters.
Under the wings is a colonnade of the Tuscan order.

It would have been more consistent with our great naval and commercial character, if it had possessed the costly and magnificent appearance which is suited to the majesty and wealth of the British nation.
Its situation also on the banks of the Thames, claims an higher degree of grandeur and decoration.

The Custom House consists of two floors, in the uppermost of which is a magnificent room, fifteen feet in height, that runs almost the whole length of the building.
It is called the Long Room; and here sit the numerous officers and clerks.
The commissioners attend in an adjoining apartment.
The interior of this room is well disposed, and sufficiently enlightened; and the entrances are also well contrived, to answer all the purposes of convenience for the transaction of such extensive business.
This spot may be considered as the busy concourse of all nations who pay their tribute to the commercial empire of Great Britain.
In front of it ships of three hundred and fifty tons burthen can lie and discharge their cargoes.

At the early period of 979, in the reign of Ethelred, there were customs according to the following rates:—
A small vessel paid at Bilynggesgate, one penny halfpenny as a toll;
a greater, bearing sails, one penny;
a keel or hulk (Ceol vel Hulkus), four-pence;
a ship laden with wood, one piece for toll;
and a boat with fish, one half penny;
or a larger, one penny.

We had even now a trade with France for its wines, as Brompton mentions that ships came from Rouen, which were moored here and landed them, and freed them from toll;—an expression that denotes the having paid their duties: but no account is given of their amount.
In the year 1268, the half year's customs for foreign merchandize in the city of London, did not exceed the diminutive sum of £75. 6s. 10d.
In 1331, they had advanced to eight thousand pounds per annum.
In 1354, the duties on imports seems to have diminished, as they were no more than £580. 6s. 8d.;
and on our exports, which were confined to wool and felt, £81,624 1s. 7d.
Mr. Anderson, in his History of Commerce, mentions rather emphatically, but we shall not examine the justice of his implied eulogium, how great the temperance and sobriety of those days were, when the small quantities of wine and other foreign luxuries used in this kingdom, are considered.

In the year 1590, the latter end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, our customs produced a revenue of £50,000.
They had at first been farmed at £14,000 a year; afterwards raised to £42,000, and finally, to the sum already mentioned; and, as it appears, always to the same person, Sir Thomas Smith.
In the year 1613, from the pacific character of that reign, the imports produced £61,322. 16s. 7d.;
the whole of the revenue from the customs in the port of London, amounting in that year to £109,572. 18s. 4d.
Our exports from the outports, raised £25,471. 9s. 9d.;
the imports £13,030. 9s. 9d.
The sum total was £148,075. 7s. 8d.
In the year 1641, just before the æra of troubles which succeeded, the customs brought in five hundred thousand pounds per annum; the prosperous consequence of many years of peace.
The civil broils which followed produced, in the year 1666, a decrease of £110,000.
From the year 1671 to 1688, the average amount was £555,752.
In the year 1709, notwithstanding the wars of that period, the customs were raised to £2,319,320.
We shall now make a stride to the year 1739, when they are seen to amount to £3,711,126.
That the customs have been continually advancing will be evident, without entering into a detail too copious for those pages, that it appears, from the papers laid before the House of Commons, the probable balance of trade in our favour, on the average of four years, ending with 1805, was fourteen millions, eight hundred thousand pounds.
We are likewise enabled, on the same authority, to state, that, in the year 1784, the shipping in the merchant's service, belonging to Great Britain and her colonies, not including Ireland, was one million, three hundred and one thousand tons, navigated by one hundred and one thousand, eight hundred and seventy seamen.
In the year 1805, it had increased to two millions, two hundred and twenty-six thousand, six hundred tons, navigated by one hundred and fifty-two thousand, six hundred and forty-two seamen.
The real value of the exports of British manufactures, which, in 1784, amounted to eighteen millions, six hundred and three thousand pounds, were found to have increased, in 1805, to forty-one million and sixty-eight thousand pounds.
The government of the Custom House is entrusted to the care of nine commissioners, who are entrusted with the whole management of all his Majesty's customs, in all the ports of England.
They, and several of the principal officers under them, hold their places by patent from the King.
The other officers are appointed by warrant from the Lords of the Treasury.

TOWER OF LONDON.

Tower of London in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Tower of London, 1811

Tower of London in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Tower of London, 1818

The Tower of London has been employed, from the Norman Conquest to the present time, as a royal fortress; and every part of its history, for a period of more than seven hundred years, is in a greater or less degree connected with the law and government of the country.
It was originally raised to serve the purposes of despotism, and, in succeeding ages, has been alternately applied to public security and private oppression.
William the Conqueror, when he had obtained possession of the city of London, erected a fortress on part of the present site of the Tower, with a view to controul and intimidate the citizens of his new capital.
The same policy induced him to erect castles in the several provinces of his conquests.
About twelve years after, in 1078, he caused a larger building to be constructed on the site of the first fortress, which is now known by the name of the White Tower.
It was built under the direction of that great military architect, Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, after whose design the castle of that city was also raised.
It has been sometimes been called Caesar's Tower, from an absurd tradition that it was built by Julius Caesar.
It has been called by Fitzstephen, with much more propriety, Arx Palatina, from the high dignity with which the governor was invested.

By the ravages of a tempest, in the year 1092, this structure received such material injury, as to render reparations necessary, which were begun by William Rufus, and completed by Henry I.
New walls were then raised round it, and bastions were constructed on the shore of the Thames, with the Traitors, or the Bloody Gate, through which the state prisoners were conveyed to their confinement.
According to Baker's Chronicle, in the reign of Richard I. the Chancellor, William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, surrounded the Tower with a wall of stone, and formed the ditch.
Mathew Paris states that Henry III. added the gate and bulwark, with other buildings, to the west entrance.
He also extended the fortress by a mud wall on the west part of Tower-hill, towards the city, to the great dissatisfaction of the citizens, who claimed a right to that spot.
The same monarch also repaired and whitened the large square tower; and it was probably on this occasion that it first assumed the name of the White Tower.
In his reign the royal menagerie was established.

In the ninth year of Edward II. the Mayor and Commonalty of London were fined for throwing down the earthen wall of the Tower.
Edward IV. built a brick wall, and considerably strengthened the fortress, encroaching still further on the territory of the city.
Richard III. ordered the surveyor of the royal works to take and seize as many masons, bricklayers, &c. as were necessary for the expedition of the king's works in the Tower.
The subsequent alterations, by Henry VIII., Edward VI., Elizabeth, and their successors, do not merit particular notice; except the rebuilding of the wharf with brick and stone, and the forming sluices for admitting and retaining the water of the Thames in the ditch.
The new armory was also begun in the reign of James II. and was finished by William III. when he and his consort Mary dined there in public, and were attended by all the artificers in clean working dresses.
The Tower was occasionally used as a royal palace, from its foundation to the time of Elizabeth.
During the long period of the civil wars, and in the reigns of the more feeble princes, it was a place of safety for the person of the monarch.
In the treaty of Runnymede, the barons insisted on the resignation of this fortress into their hands.
On some occasions the Aula regia was established here, and the court of the Tower was as hostile to the citizens, from its arbitrary proceedings, as the army of its garrison.

It cannot be expected that we should enter into a minute detail of the history of those unfortunate persons, to whom this fortress has been the last place of their abode on earth; as it would be no less than to detail the virtues and the vices which have embellished or stained our annals during the reigns of thirty-two princes.
We must confine ourselves to a very general mention of them.
The first person who is known to have suffered here bv the axe was Sir Simon de Burley, Knight of the Garter, and tutor to Richard II.
In 1383, this accomplished gentleman fell a victim to a potent faction which had usurped the regal authority.
The Queen, so renowned for her virtues, solicited his life of the Duke of Gloucester, the King's uncle, on her knees, but humiliated herself in vain.
Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, fell a sacrifice, within these precincts, to his popular virtues, in 1397.
He was charged with obsolete attempts against the crown, which had long since received the royal pardon.
Nevertheless he was condemned to die, and suffered on the scaffold with that magnanimity which had distinguished his life.
In 1483, the accomplished Lord Hastings, was suddenly beheaded on the green before the chapel, by the impetuous order of the savage and ambitious Protector, the Duke of Gloucester; for his avowed fidelity to the children of his late royal master, Edward IV.

Anna Bullein[sic] here fell a victim to the brutal lusts of the tyrant, who, to gratify them, had raised her to the throne, and to satisfy them for a new object, condemned her to the scaffold.
When this beautiful and accomplished woman arrived in the Tower she wrote that letter which is so well known and has been so universally admired, to her remorseless husband.
After insisting, in the strongest terms, on her innocence, she expresses herself in the following pathetic manner.
"You have raised me from privacy to be a lady; from a lady you made me a countess; from a countess you raised me to be a queen ; and from a queen I shall shortly become a saint."
But she addressed an heart that was a stranger to justice as well as mercy.
On the morning of her execution, she sent for Kingston, the keeper of the Tower, to whom she said,
"Mr. Kingston, I hear that I am not to die till noon, and I am sorry for it, for I thought to be dead before this time, and free from a life of sorrow."
The keeper, attempting to comfort her by the assurance that she would suffer no corporal pain, she replied,
"I have heard that the executioner is very expert", and clasping her neck with her hands, she smiled and added, "I have a very small neck."
Kingston, who gives this account, continues to observe, that he had seen many men and women executed, but no one whose fortitude was equal to her's.
She was soon after led to the block, and received the fatal stroke with the utmost firmness and resignation, on the 19th of May, 1536.

Many crowned heads had been put to death in England, but this was the first royal execution accompanied with the forms of a regular proceeding.
The next which followed in the career of murder was that excellent prelate, Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, a victim to his opinion of the Pope's supremacy.
The Pope, indeed, had rewarded his orthodoxy with a cardinal's hat, but it did not arrive till the Bishop's head was on a pole on London bridge.
He suffered June 22, 1535,
and in about three weeks he was followed by his friend Sir Thomas More, a man who was a mirror of virtue, and whose name has descended to us, and will continue to descend to our posterity, while wisdom, and learning, and piety are venerated by mankind.
On the 6th of the following July he was executed for the same offence, and in the same place; and died with that mild dignity which had accompanied him throughout his honourable life.

Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, who, though the son of a blacksmith, had become a royal favourite, and had been the principal agent in the suppression of religious houses, was attainted of high treason by act of parliament, without being heard in his defence, and was beheaded on Tower-hill, July 28, 1540.
Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, the grand-daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV, and the last of the Plantagenets, was attainted of high treason, on the most frivolous pretences, and, after two years confinement, was sentenced to die.
Having ascended the last sad scene of her mortal career, this venerable, high spirited woman refused to lay her head on the block.
"So should traitors do," she said, " but I am none; and if you must have my head, you may get it as you can."
She accordingly turned herself in every direction to avoid the blow, with her long grey hairs floating in the wind, and thus she was massacred, May 27, 1541.
Henry, not yet satisfied with blood, next dismissed to the scaffold his fifth wife, Catharine Howard, niece of the Duke of Norfolk.
She was charged with incontinence previous to her marriage, which was too easily proved, and this served as a pretext to her capricious and brutal consort to command the divorce of death.
She suffered February 13, 1542.
The turbulent Thomas Seymour, Baron Sudley, and Lord High Admiral, was beheaded March 20, 1549, by a warrant from his own brother, the Protector, Somerset.

On January 24, 1552, the Protector himself mounted the same scaffold;
and in the following year his ambitious rival, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, lost his head.
Lady Jane Gray, and her husband, Lord Guilford Dudley, the son of the Duke of Northumberland, to whose ambition they both were sacrificed, must be added to the bloody list of cruel and unmerited executions.
She was the most accomplished woman of her age.
She was mistress of the Greek and Latin tongues; spoke familiarly the French and Italian languages, and was versed in Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic.
She was also skilled in music, and the toilettes worked with her own hand, and which are reverentially preserved at Zurich, prove the excellence of her needlework.
Her letters to Bullinger, the learned Swiss theologian, which are preserved in the library of that city, are exquisitely written.
Her attainments are almost incredible; for she was only seventeen years of age, when, having occupied the same apartments in the tower as Anna Bullein, she suffered on the same spot, with an invincible fortitude, Jan. 2, 1553.
As she was proceeding to her end, she met the headless bleeding body of her beloved husband, who had been just beheaded.
She consoled herself on the occasion by a line in Greek, to the following purport:
"That if his lifeless body should give testimony against her before men, his blessed spirit would be an eternal witness of her innocence in the presence of God."
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was also reluctantly yielded to the block by his fond mistress, February 25, 1661, in the thirty-sixth year of his age.
Here also, July 15, 1685, the restless, the handsome, and ungrateful son of Charles II, the Duke of Monmouth, paid the forfeit for his ambition.
The last executions on this fatal hill, were those of the intrepid Lord Balmerino, avowing the justice of his cause to the last;
and the repentant Earl of Kilmarnock, who suffered together, August 16, 1746.
Charles Ratcliffe, of the Derwentwater family, was beheaded on the 8th of December in the same year;
and Simon, Lord Lovat, closed his infamous life on the scaffold, April ), 1747.
But the Tower has not only been the scene of public executions, but of private murders.

Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame;
By many a foul and midnight murder fed.

Here fell the meek usurper, Henry VI. by the arm of the wicked Gloucester.
Here also died, by the hands of hired ruffians, the irresolute Clarence;
and within these walls, those innocent princes, Edward V. and his brother, the Duke of York, were victims to the ambition of their ruthless uncle.
The empoisoning Sir Thomas Overbury, compleats the sum of those acknowledged murders, which are the reproaches of this ancient fortress.

The Tower of London is situated on the north bank of the Thames, at the eastern extremity of the city: it contains within the walls twelve acres and five roods.
The exterior circuit of the ditch, which entirely surrounds it, is three thousand one hundred and thirty-six feet.
The ditch on the side of Tower-hill is broad and deep: on the side next the river it is narrower; but the whole forms a place of no real strength.
A spacious and handsome wharf *
*The tender for the reception of impressed seamen is seen in this view lying off this wharf.*
extends along the banks of the river, on which is a platform containing sixty-one pieces of ordnance, nine-pounders.
These are fired on all state holidays, and, in time of war, announce from their brazen throats any signal successes of the British arms.
Under this wharf is the water gate, through the wall, which is called the Traytor's gate.
Over the water gate is a regular castellated building, which contains an infirmary, with a mill and water-works, for the use of the fortress.
The principal entrance is by three gates to the west.
The first of them opens to a court, on the right side of which is the lion's tower:
the second gate opens to a stone bridge over the ditch, at the inner end of which is the third gate, with a portcullis, which has a guard.
Within this, on the right hand, is a drawbridge, communicating with the wharf.
Within the walls, and parallel with the wharf, is a platform, seventy yards in length, called the Ladies Line.
It is planted with trees, and commands a view of the river.
A walk also continues, which comprehends almost the whole circumference of the Tower.
On the walls are three batteries mounted with cannon.
The fortress contains various buildings, the principal of which are the church, the White Tower, the ordnance, the jewel and the record offices; the mint, the grand storehouse, the horse, and the new or small armories, houses belonging to the officers of the Tower, barracks, &c. &c.
The church is a plain gothic building, and remarkable for being the burial place of the following royal and noble personages, who were executed either within the Tower or on the adjoining hill.
John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester; George Bullein, Lord Rochford; Anna Bullein; Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex; Catharine Howard; Thomas Seymour, Baron Sudley; Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset; John Dndley, Duke of Northumberland; Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; James Scot, Duke of Monmouth; the Earl of Kilmarnock, Lord Balmerino, Mr. Ratcliffe, and Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat.
It contains also several monuments, but we shall pass them by to mention the small stone which marks the grave of Talbot Edwards, keeper of his majesty's regalia, who died September 30, 1674.
This venerable man enjoyed that office when the ruffian Blood made the notorious attempt on the crown and other ornaments of his majesty.
Blood had contrived, under the guise of a clergyman, to insinuate himself into the confidence of Edwards; and took an opportunity, with the assistance of his associates, to seize the old man, while he was preparing to shew them the jewels, and, having first gagged him, struck his head with a mallet, and stabbed him in different parts of his body.
Edwards thought it prudent to counterfeit death; when Blood put the crown under his clerical robe, and the others got possession of the globe and the sceptre.
As soon as they were gone, Edwards contrived to force the gag, and gave the alarm.
The robbers were instantly pursued, and three of them were taken.
Blood struggled hard for his prize, saying, when it was wrested from him, that it was a gallant attempt, though unsuccessful, for it was for a crown.

The White Tower is a large square, irregular building, situated nearly in the centre of the fortress, with a watchtower at each corner; but neither the sides of this structure nor the small towers are uniform.
It consists of three lofty stories[sic], which are employed as depositaries for various kinds of arms, military implements, pioneers' tools, and models of warlike engines, &c.
It contains also an ancient chapel, dedicated to St. John, in which our kings and queens occasionally performed their devotions since the time of William the Conqueror.
It now belongs to the record office, and is filled with papers.
On the top of this tower is a very large cistern, supplied by an engine with water from the Thames.
The Ordnance Office is a building containing every necessary accommodation for the important business transacted in it.
The Jewel Office is a dark and strong stone room, and is the repository of the imperial crown and the rest of the royal regalia.
The Record Office is decorated with a sculptured stone door-case, and is very handsomely wainscoated within.
The rolls, from King John to the beginning of the reign of Richard III. are deposited in fifty-six wainscoat presses.
The Mint comprehends a very considerable portion of the Tower, and contains houses for all the officers employed in the coinage.
It is, however, about to be removed to a spacious building in the neighbourhood.
The Grand Store-house is a plain structure of brick and stone, three hundred and forty-five feet in length, and sixty in breadth.
The upper part contains the small armory; and the lower part is a depot for the royal train of artillery.
In the Spanish Armory are seen the trophies of the victory obtained over the Spanish Armada by Queen Elizabeth, with various other curious articles.
The Horse Armory is a brick building which contains, among other curiosities, effigies of the kings of England, in armour, and on horseback, inclusively from William the Conqueror to his late Majesty, George II.
The lions and other wild beasts are, kept in a yard on the right, at the west entrance of the fortress.

The care of the Tower is committed to an officer, who is denominated the Constable.
It is a post of high honour, as at coronations and other state ceremonies, he has the custody of the crown and other regalia.
It is also a duty of his office to swear in the Lord Mayor, whenever it so happens that a Chief Magistrate is elected in the interval of the law terms, and, of course, the Court of Exchequer is not sitting.
The post of Constable is always conferred on some person in the ranks of nobility.
Under him is a Lieutenant, a Deputy-lieutenant, commonly called Governor, a Tower-major, a gentleman porter, a yeoman, a gentleman gaoler, four quarter gunners, and forty warders, whose uniform is the same with the King's yeoman of the guards, with other inferior officers.
There is usually a battalion of the guards quartered in the barracks.

On the northernmost part of Great Tower-hill, the New Trinity House has been lately erected.
It is a very handsome edifice, fronted with stone; enriched with columns and pilastres of the Ionic order and its appropriate decorations: to these are added various suitable ornaments and devices; the whole forming an elegant and attractive elevation.
The court room contains portraits of the King and Queen, James II. Lord Sandwich, Lord Howe, and Mr. Pitt; and in the secretary's office is a beautiful model of the Royal William.
The Society of the Trinity-house was founded in the year 1515, by Sir Thomas Spert, Knight, commander of the great ship Henry Grace de Dieu, and Comptroller of the Navy to Henry VIII. for the regulation of seamen, and the convenience of ships and mariners on our coast, and was incorporated by that prince, who confirmed to it not only the ancient rights and privileges of the Company of Mariners of England, but its several possessions at Deptford; which, together with the grants of Queen Elizabeth, and King Charles II. were also confirmed by letters patent, in the first year of James I. 1685, by the name of the master, wardens, and assistants of the guild or fraternity of the most glorious and undivided Trinity, and of Saint Clement, in the parish of Deptford Strand, in the county of Kent.
This corporation is governed by a master, four wardens, eight assistants, and eighteen elder brethren.
The inferior members of the fraternity, named younger brethren, are of an unlimited number, for every master or mate, expert in navigation, may be admitted as such; and from them the vacancies among the elder brethren are usually supplied; except such as are occupied by great officers of state.

... Tower Bridge [ 1894! ] ...

THE WEST-INDIA DOCKS.

West India Docks in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
The West India Docks, 1811

Such is the state of British commerce, that in the midst of a war, the most dire and oppressive to Europe that has yet been known in the annals of it, the Thames has not been found sufficient to contain the ships that the winds waft and the tides bear into its crouded bosom.
The West-India Docks have arisen from this commercial circumstance, and presented an accommodation to the shipping of that branch of our colonial trade to which they are particularly applied; which is equally astonishing to our eye as to our reflection.
These Docks consist of two parts.
That to the north, which is appointed to receive loaded vessels inwards, is two thousand six hundred feet in length, and five hundred and ten feet in breadth.
It covers a surface of thirty acres, and is sufficiently capacious to hold between two and three hundred West-India merchant ships.
The southern part which is appropriated to the loading of vessels outward, is of the same length as the former, but only one hundred feet broad, covering a space of twenty-four acres.
The openngs into these Docks are at Limehouse and Blackwall, with a surrounding range of warehouses for storing the West India produce, each of them being capable of containing eighty thousand hogsheads of sugar.
All ships bound from, or destined to the West-India colonies, must load and unload here under a penalty of one hundred pounds.
The expense of entering is settled at a certain rate.
Nor is the trade itself more benefitted by this stupendous establishment, than the Custom-house is relieved by it, who have their regular offices and collector on the spot.
The loading and unloading the vessels is accomplished with a degree of ease that is really wonderful; such is the power of the machinery which is employed for those purposes.
The Company is under the direction of a chairman, deputy chairman, and nineteen directors.
The original capital of five hundred thousand pounds has been encreased to one million two hundred thousand pounds, and gives ten per cent to the first proprietors.
The first stone of this splendid commercial undertaking was laid July 12, 1800, as will appear from the following inscription contained in it:—

Of this range of Buildings,
Constructed together with the adjacent Docks,
At the expense of public spirited individuals, Under the sanction of a provident Legislature, And with the liberal co-operation of the corporate body of the City of London, For the distinct purposes Of complete Security and ample Accommodation (Hitherto not afforded) To the Shipping and Produce of the West Indies at this wealthy Port,
The First Stone was laid On Saturday, the Twelfth day of July, A.D. 1800,
By the concurring hands of
The Right Honourable Lord Loughborough,
Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain,
The Right Honourable William Pitt,
First Lord Commissioner of his Majesty's Treasury,
and Chancellor of his Majesty's Exchequer,
George Hibbert, Esquire, Chairman,
and Robert Milligan, Esquire, the Deputy Chairman,
of The West-India Dock Company:
The two former conspicuous in the band of Those illustrious Statesmen Who in either House of Parliament have been zealous to promote,
The two latter distinguished among those chosen to direct An Undertaking
Which, under the favour of God, shall contribute Stability, Encrease, And Ornament to British Commerce.

FLOATING DOCK AT ROTHERHITHE.

Rotherhithe floating Dock in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Rotherhithe floating Dock, 1818

Rotherhithe is situated on the southern Bank of the Thames beyond Bermondsey, at the distance of about a mile and a half from London Bridge, and derives its name from the Saxon words Rother, a Sailor, and Hythe, a port or haven.
It is generally termed Redriff, which pronunciation appears to have prevailed as early as the thirteenth century.
There are eleven dock-yards in this parish.
It has also a floating-dock, a principal feature of the view given in the engraving which accompanies this page.
Ship-building is the principal concern of this suburb; indeed the whole extent of the shore is inhabited by those artificers, manufacturers, and tradesmen, who furnish materials and provisions for shipping.
The trench, said to be cut by Canute to assist his siege of the city of London by water, began in this parish.
It is also said by Stow that the channel through which the river was turned in the year 1178, for the purpose of rebuilding London Bridge, had the same course.
The old church was of very ancient date: the remaining records carry it as far back as four hundred years.
The present church, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is a modern structure.
It is built with brick ornamented with stone, and the tower supports a lantern elegantly constructed with Corinthian columns, from whence arises a well-proportioned airy spire, altogether forming a very pleasing architectural object.

DEPTFORD.

Deptford in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Deptford, 1811

Deptford in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Deptford, 1818

Deptford Is a large populous town, on the banks of the Thames, about four miles from London; and, from the uninterrupted continuity of intermediate buildings, in the borough of Southwark, Rotherhithe, &c. may be considered, in some measure, as a suburb of it.
It was formerly a small fishing village, but grew into importance on the establishment of a Royal Dock within its precincts, in the beginning of the reign of Henry the Eighth.
Its population has since progressively increased; and though it suffered very severely from the plague, in the years 1665 and 1666, it is now supposed to contain near twenty thousand inhabitants.
The present and increasing prosperity of this place proceeds from the royal and other docks which it contains, and the business connected with the trade and navigation of the river which flows before it:
but, notwithstanding its extent and population, it does not possess the privilege of a market.
The name of this place was anciently written Depeford, signifying the deep ford over the river Ravensbourne, at the place which is now crossed by a bridge.
That river rises on Keston Downs, near the ancient Roman camp, and flowing between the parishes of Hayes and Bromley, proceeds by Lewisham to Deptford, where it becomes navigable for lighters and small craft, and falls into the Thames.
It was also called Deptford Strond, and West Greenwich; an appellation that was afterwards solely appropriated to what is now called the Lower Town, and is included in the parish of Deptford St. Nicholas—while the Upper Town is in that of Deptford St. Paul, which was constituted a distinct parish in the year 1730.
The Manor of Deptford was granted by William the Conqueror to Gilbert de Magnimot, who made it the principal seat of his barony, and erected a castle, which consequence of Wakelin de Magnimoi dying without issue, in the year 1191, the manor devolved to his sister and coheiress, Alice, wife of Geoffrey de Say, who granted it to the Knights Templars; but his son Geoffrey recovered it by giving them the manor of Sadlescombe, in Sussex, in, exchange.
One of his descendants, Geoffrey de Say, in the eighth year of Edward the Third, obtained a grant of free warren, for this and other lordships in his possession; and was succeeded, on his death, in the year 1359, by William de Say, whose daughter, Elizabeth, succeeded as heiress in 1382.
She was twice married, but dying without issue, in the year 1402, Sir William Clinton and others, representatives of William de Say, were found to be her heirs; and they sold this manor to Sir John Philip and Alice his wife.
It was afterwards possessed by Edmund Mortimer, Eurl of March.
After his death William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, succeeded to it, by whose grandson, John Earl of Lincoln, it was forfeited to the crown, in consequence of the part he took in favour of the House of York, and in whose service he was slain.
Henry the Seventh accordingly granted this manor to Oliver St. John, whose family possessed it during three generations.
It afterwards reverted to the crown, and was sold by order of Parliament in the year 1650, to different creditors of the state; the particulars of which sale are among the records of the Augmentation Office.
On the restoration it was resumed by, and is still vested in, the crown.

The Manor House of Deptford, with its contiguous estate, having obtained the name of Sayes Court, from the family of the Sayes, who had long been the possessors of it, was granted, about the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth, to Sir Richard Browne; and the site of it, with sixty acres of land, was confirmed to his grandson by parliament, when the Manor of Deptford was sold in the year 1650.
It immediately after became the residence of John Evelyn, Esq; the well known author of the Sylva, who had married the heiress of that possessor.
To Mr. Evelyn Charles the Second granted a new lease of Sayes Court, in the year 1663, with, all its appurtenances in Deptford, for the term of ninety nine years, at a reserved annual rent of twenty-two shillings and sixpence.
Here he delighted to pass his time; and what rational uncorrnpted mind will not allow it to be a most delightful, as it was a most innocent as well as useful employment, in studying every branch of the practical part of gardening, the culture of trees, and the propagation of timber.
The admirable work which he wrote on that subject is now to be found in every library, and will ever continue to rank his name among the scientific writers of his age and country.
His gardens at this place were visited by his most eminent contemporaries, and were considered as deserving the highest admiration.
In the life of Lord Keeper Guildford, they are described as most bocaresque[sic]; being, as it were, an exemplar to his book of Forest Trees.
A severe frost, in, the winter of 1682, destroyed a large portion of their beauty; and we wish that we were not historically obliged to relate a more irrecoverable destruction by Peter the Great, to whom Mr. Evelyn had generously lent his house and grounds, while that sovereign was acquiring a knowledge of naval architecture in the adjoining dock-yard, in the year 1698.
Though the pursuits of the royal Muscovite were not congenial to those of the author of Sylva, it was something worse than mere ingratitude, to pay so little attention to the taste and favourite spot of a gentleman, who had resigned such an house, and all its interesting circumstances, for his accommodation.
In a later edition of the Sylva, published in the year 1704, Mr. Evelyn speaks, with a proud boast, of "an impregnable hedge", as he calls it, "of holly, four hundred feet in length, nine feet high, and five in diameter; which", continues he, "I can still shew in my now ruined garden at Sayes Court, (thanks to the Czar of Muscovy,) at any time of the year, glittering with its armed and varnished leaves; the taller standards, at orderly distances, blushing with their natural coral.
It mocks the rudest assaults of the weather, beasts or hedge-breakers:— Et ilium memo impune lacessit."
Such a testimony on the state of the hedge at this period, completely overturns the traditionary story, which has been confidently related, and generally believed, that the Czar Peter found great recreation in being wheeled through this hedge in a barrow.
If, however, Peter the Great had such a disposition to hedge-breaking, he must have found one of a very different contexture from that, of which we have given a description in the very words of the planter of it.
Mr. Evelyn died in the year 1706; when the house and gardens became entirely neglected, and there is now no trace of them, but some small part of the garden walls.
The present Workhouse was erected on the site of the former in the year 1629:
but the estate, which includes the site of the Victualling House and of Dudman's Dockyard, is still vested in the Evelyns; it having been granted by George the First, in the year 1726, to the Earl of Godolphin and others, in trust for Sir John Evelyn, Bart.; whose surviving grandson, Sir Frederic Evelyn, Bart. of Wooton, in the county of Surry, is the present owner.
It is recorded in the register of the parish of St. Nicholas, that a very destructive fire took place at Deptford, in the year 1652; and nineteen years afterwards, the Lower Town was inundated by a great flood, which rose to the height of ten feet in the streets near the river; so that the inhabitants were obliged to take refuge in the Upper Town, by the assistance of boats.
The adjoining marshes were also overflowed at the same time, when a great number of sheep, oxen, cows, &c. were destroyed.
It is mentioned by Hollinshed, in his Chronicle, that in the year 1538?, Sir Thomas Wyat lay a day and night, with his army, at Deptford.

The Royal Dock, or, as it is generally denominated, the King's Yard, and to which Deptford principally owes its local importance and acquired prosperity, was established by Henry the Eighth, at the commencement of his reign; but since that period it has received great additions and improvements.
Its very interesting concerns are under the immediate controul and inspection of the Navy Board.
The resident officers are, a clerk of the checque, a storekeeper, a master shipwright, and his assistants; a clerk of the survey, a master attendant, a surgeon, and various inferior officers.
The number of artificers and labourers employed in the Dock-yard amount to upwards of fifteen hundred.
In time of peace they, of course, suffer considerable reduction.
The Yard contains about thirty-one acres, which are occupied by every kind of building necessary for its establishment.
It has two wet docks, a double and a single one; three slips for men of war, a bason, two mast-ponds, a model loft, mast-houses, a large smith's shop, with about twenty forges for anchors, sheds, &c.
The Old Store House is a quadrangular pile, and appears originally to have consisted of nothing more than the northern range of it; where, on what was formerly the front of the building, is the date 1513, together with the initials H. R. in a cypher, and the letters A. X. for Anno Christi.
The buildings on the east, west, and south sides of the quadrangle have been erected at different times; and a double front, towards the north, was added in 1721.
Another Storehouse, parallel to that already described, and of the same length, with the addition of sail and rigging lofts, was completed within these few years.
There is also an extended range of smaller storehouses, which was built, under the direction of Sir Charles Middleton, about the year 1770.
The other buildings consist of various workshops, and houses for the officers.
The vessel seen in the View, lying at anchor opposite to the Yard, is the Sheer Hulk, a curious machine for hoisting masts.
On the fourth of April, 1531, Queen Elizabeth visited the renowned Admiral Drake, whom Lloyd, in his State Worthies, expressib=vely describes as,
"among the first of those who put a sea-girdle about the world,"
at Deptford; and, having dined with him on board his ship, conferred on him the honour of knighthood, and gave him, the world in a ship for his arms.
His vessel was afterwards laid up in this yard by the Queen's order, on account of the extraordinary navigation in which it had been employed; and, after having remained here for many years, was at length broken up; when part of the timbers was formed into an elbow chair, which was presented as a flattering curiosity to the University of Oxford.

On the north side of the King's Yard, and close to the river, is the Victualling Office, which is sometimes called the Red House, from its being placed on the site of a largo range of storehouses, built with red bricks, which was destroyed by fire in the year 1639, with all the stores which they contained.
It was afterwards rebuilt, and included in the grant of Sayes Court to Sir John Evelyn, in 17267 and was then described as being eight hundred and seventy feet in length, and thirty-five feet in breadth, containing one hundred warehouses.
They were for some time rented by the East India, Company; but being repurchased of the Evelyn family by the Crown, a new Victualling House was erected on the spot in 1745, to replace the old Victualling Office on Tower Hill, the lease of which was then nearly terminated.
The new building also suffered the same misfortune as that which had preceded it; and was consumed by fire, in 1749 with a large quantity of stores and provisions.
The vast pile which forms the present Victualling Office has been since erected, at different periods, and comprehends every kind of building required for the important object of victualling the navy.
It not only contains storehouses of every necessary kind, as well as dwelling houses for different officers employed in the establishment, but a windmill for grinding corn, spacious granaries, bakehouses for making biscuit, a very extensive cooperate and brewhouse, with large houses for slaughtering cattle, and others for curing the different provisions with which ships are victualled.
There are also two large private docks, for ship-building, at Deptford, where ships, for the service of the East India company, are built; and whence men of war, of seventy four guns, have been launched.
One of them, which belongs to Sir Frederick Evelyn, is described in the grant to his predecessor, as having a great depth of water, and being the best private dock on the river.
It appears, from documents in the Land Revenue Office, as stated by Mr. Lysons, that, "During Cromwell's usurpation, a scheme was proposed, by Sir Nicholas Crispe, for making a mole at Deptford, for the harbour of two hundred sail of ships and upwards, to ride in seventeen or eighteen feet water, without cable or anchor.
The demesne lands of the manor, being about two hundred acres, now lying in the parish of St. Paul, were purchased for that purpose, at the price of six thousand pounds; and a considerable sum of money was expended in erecting storehouses, and setting up a sluice.
After the Restoration, Sir Nicholas Crispe, joining with the Duke of Ormond, the Earl of Bath, and others, who were embarked with him in the undertaking, petitioned Charles the Second to grant them the land, so purchased, in fee farm; and it was stated in the petition, that Sir Nicholas had formed this project principally with a view of ingratiating himself with the ruling powers, that he might the better watch a favourable opportunity of bringing about his Majesty's restoration."

Deptford contains two parish churches, the more ancient of which is, with a natural appropriation, dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of sea-faring men:
the other is dedicated to St. Paul.
The former was rebuilt in the year 1697, except the old tower, composed of flint and stone, which was suffered to remain.
It consists of a chancel, a nave, and two aisles.
It contains several monuments and sepulchral inscriptions, which perpetuate the memory of several persons who had rendered themselves known and respected in their day.
Against the north wall of the chancel, and within the recess of the altar, is the monument of Captain Edward Fenton, who accompanied Sir Martin Frobisher in his second and third voyages; and had himself the command of an expedition for the discovery of a north-west passage, during which he defeated a Spanish squadron, and sunk the Vice-Admiral's ship.
He also displayed his valour in the engagement with the Spanish Armada, when he was captain to the renowned admiral who led the Pritish navy to victory on that glorious occasion.
This distinguished officer died in the year 1603.
Near the former is a tablet inscribed to the Honourable Henry Roger Boyle, eldest son of Richard, Earl of Corke, who died, while he was at school, in Deptford, in the year 1615.
A neat mural monument is erected to the memory of George Shelvocke, Esq. a former secretary of the general post-office, and Fellow of the Royal Society; who, at a very early period of his life, attended his father in a voyage round the world.
He died on the twelfth of March, 1700, and lies buried with his father.
The tomb of the latter, Captain George Shelvocke, is near the east end of the chancel, on the outside.
He was bred to the sea service under the brave Admiral Benbow.
In the year 1719, and the three succeeding years, he circumnavigated the world, and, in the language of the sepulchral inscription,
"most wonderfully, and to the great loss of the Spaniards; though, in the midst of it, he had the misfortune to suffer shipwreck upon the island of Juan Fernandez."
He published a Narrative of his Voyage, in the year 1726, in one volume octavo; and a later edition was given to the world, by his son, who was one of the compilers of the Universal History.
This circumnavigator died in November, 1742, in the sixty seventh year of his age.
Against the east wall, to the north of the altar recess, is the monument of Peter Pett, Esq. a master shipwright in the royal dock yard, whose family were eminently distinguished for the genius they displayed in the science of shipbuilding.
This gentleman is recorded by his inscription to have been the inventor of that useful ship of war denominated a frigate.
He died, in July, 1652, at the age of sixty.

On the opposite wall is a mural monument, with a long inscription, to perpetuate the memory of Sir Richard Browne, Knight, of Sayes Court.
The marble records him to have been Governor of the United Netherlands; and was afterwards, by Queen Elizabeth, made Clerk of the board of Green Cloth, in which honourable office he continued, in the succeeding reign, till his death, which happened in May, 1604, at the age of sixty five years.
The same monument sanctifies the memory of Christopher Browne, Esq. the only son of Sir Richard, who died in March, 1615, at the age of seventy; and of Sir Richard Browne, Knight and Bart.
the only son of Sir the Second, and died at the age of seventyeight, in February, 1682-3.
Among the other monuments and inscriptions of this church there is a slab, in the pavement of the north aisle, which points out the burying place of Mr. John Benbow, eldest son of the gallant Admiral; who died in November, 1708, at the age of twenty-seven years.
This gentleman wrote a considerable work under the title of "A Complete Account of the South part of the Island of Madagascar", on which he was shipwrecked, while a mate on board the Degrave East Indiaman, in 1702; and obliged, as his biographer relates, "to live with, and after the manner of the Indians".
The particulars of his life form an interesting article in the Biographia Britannica.
Whether the account of Madagascar was ever printed we cannot ascertain; but be that as it may, it certainly was never published.
It appears also, from the register of this parish, that it gave birth to a man remarkable in his day, and whose name is connected with the naval power of his country.
It records the baptism of Phineas Pett, ship-builder to their Majesties James the First and Charles the First.
The twelfth volume of the Archaeologia contains some very interesting extracts from a manuscript narrative of his life.
Among other proofs of his high professional character he built a ship of war, named The Sovereign of the Seas, the largest which had then been seen in England.
It is described as having been pierced for one hundred and sixty guns.
He was born in 1570, and was buried at Chatham on the sixteenth of August, 1647.

St. Paul's church is one of the new churches erected in pursuance of an act of parliament, passed in the ninth and tenth years of Queen Anne, for the purpose of erecting fifty new parochial edifices in London and its vicinity; but was not opened for public worship till the year 1730.
It is an handsome stone structure, consisting of a chancel, nave, and two aisles, supported by columns of the Corinthian order.
It has a spire of pleasing proportions, at the west end.
The pews are all of Dutch oak: and the interior presents a very neat appearance.
Against the wall, and near the altar, is a very elegant mural monument, by Nollekens, erected to the memory of James Sayer, Esq. Vice-Admiral of the White; who died on the twenty-ninth of October, 1776, aged fiftysix years.
He was an able and gallant officer, to whom his country was greatly indebted for his distinguished conduct in the capture of the islands of Tobago, of Senegal, and Goree, in the seven years war.
He also commanded the British naval force off the French coast, at Belle Isle, at the time when the succeeding peace with France was concluded, in 1763.
There are also two superb monuments to the memory of Matthew Finch, Gent. and Mary his daughter.
The former died in 1745; and the latter in 1754.
There is a tomb in the church-yard to the memory of Mrs. Margaret Hawtree, a celebrated midwife, which attracts notice; and has been frequently mentioned in the collections of monumental inscriptions, from the equivocal turn of the thought and expression:—
"She was an indulgent mother, and the best of wives;
She brought into this world more than three thousand lives.


Mr. Lysons states, that this parish contains about nineteen hundred acres of land; of which about nine hundred are marsh and pasture, five hundred arable, and five hundred occupied by market-gardeners, who are famed for their asparagus and onions.

The Corporation or Society of The Trinity House, was originally established in this town.
It was commonly called Trinity House of Deptford Strond, and was erected in the reign of Henry the Eighth.
It first contained twenty-one houses; but being pulled down and rebuilt in 1788, the number was increased to twenty-five.
It is situated near the church.
The other[?], which is called Trinity Hospital, is in Church Street, and was built about the end of the seventeenth century.
It contains fifty-six apartments; and is a very handsome edifice, in a quadrangular form, with large gardens behind it.
On the centre of the quadrangle is a statue of Captain Maples, who subscribed one thousand, three hundred pounds towards erecting the building.
Both these hospitals are appointed to receive decayed pilots and masters of ships, or their widows.
The allowance to the single men and widows, is about eighteen pounds; and to the married men, about twenty-eight pounds per annum.
The ancient hall, in which the elder brethren of the Trinity House used to assemble for the transaction of their official concerns, was pulled down about the year 1787, on the erection of a very elegant structure for that purpose on Tower Hill; a very particular account of which is given in another part of this work.
It may not be unworthy of attention to mention, that, among the public charities in this place, the principal donation appears to have been the sum of two hundred pounds, bequeathed to Mr. John Addey, a master builder in the King's Yard, in the year l606, to purchase lands for charitable purposes.
With this sum the gravel-pit field was bought, whose annual rents amount at this time to upwards of two hundred and eighty pounds.

Deptford can boast among its inhabitants several persons of distinguished name and character.
The Gun Tavern is supposed to have been the residence of the Earl of Nottingham, lord admiral to Queen Elizabeth; as the arms of that nobleman, encircled by the garter, are carved in wood over the chimney-piece of a large room in that house.
Sir Thomas Smith, who was sent ambassador to the court of Russia, by James the First, had a magnificent house at Deptford, which Mr. Lysons states to have been destroyed by fire, on the twentieth of January, 1613.
Nor have the Muses disdained it—Cowley, the poet, made it the place of his residence for several years.
Here that excellent scholar and amiable man pursued his botanical studies at the time that he wrote his six books, the particular subjects of which were herbs, flowers,, and trees.
Of ancient historical circumstance, this place is not pregnant.
Hall, indeed, mentions in his Chronicle, that previous to the battle of Blackheath, in the reign of Henry the Seventh, was a skirmish between Lord Dawbeney's army and " certayne archers of the rebelles, whose arrowes, as is reported," says the Chronicler, "were in length a full yarde."
The inhabitants of Deptford are chiefly employed in the Dock-yards, or in occupations connected with the various branches of maritime pursuit.
The number in both parishes, as returned under the act of 1800, was 17,548: of these, 8,537 were males, and 9,011 were females.
The number of houses then was 3,139.
But this place has shared with the other vicinities of the metropolis, in the general agmentation[sic] of buildings.
Adjoining to Deptford, but in the parish of Rotherhithe, are the Greenland Docks, where the vessels employed in that trade are secured during the winter season, and these docks is supposed, by antiquarians, to have been the mouth of the famous canal cut by King Canute, in order to avoid the impediment of London Bridge, and to lay siege, to the capital, by bringing his fleet to the west side.

GREENWICH.

Greenwich in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Greenwich, 1811

Greenwich in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Greenwich, 1818

Greenwich is a market town, situated on the shore of the Thames, in the county of Kent, at the distance of five miles from the metropolis.
It was called by the Saxons Grenewic, or Grenevic, the green village, or the village on the green.
There are authentic traces of its having been a royal residence as early as the year 1300, in the reign of Edward I.
In 1433, Henry VI. granted the manor of Greenwich to his uncle Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, with the liberty of fortifying and embattling his manor-house, and enclosing a park of two hundred acres.
The Duke soon after rebuilt the palace, and, from its delightful position, named it Placentia.
Henry VII. afterwards enlarged and beautified it, and frequently made it the place of his residence.
Here Henry VIII. was born, and, from a natural partiality to the place of his birth, he expended large sums of money in its improvement, and made it, according to Lambard, "a pleasant, perfect, and princely palace".
During the reign of that luxurious monarch, it was a principal scene of those splendid festivities which distinguished his court.
Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were both born at Greenwich, and here that excellent young King, Edward VI. closed his short reign, which promised so much good to his country, and to mankind.
Queen Elizabeth frequently held her court at Greenwich, and it was the occasional residence of her immediate successors, James and Charles.
The palace, which had undergone no alteration since its first erection, was at length pulled down by order of Charles II. with the design of rebuilding it in a style of princely magnificence.
One wing alone was completed in his reign;

and in that which followed, it was appropriated to the noble purposes of the most splendid hospital in the world.
When the Crown resigned this palace to the national use to which it has since been devoted, a reservation was made of the Park.
This charming spot was enclosed with a brick wall by James I. and was laid out by Le Notre, the Repton of his day, in the reign of Charles II.
It contains one hundred and eighty-eight acres, and is chiefly planted with elms and Spanish chesnut-trees[sic].
The view from the observatory possesses variety, beauty, and grandeur.
The projection of the hill where it is placed is so bold, that the eye, glancing over the slope, which is lost in its abruptness, falls at once upon the different masses of wood below it:
These, with the intervening glades, enlivened by deer, form the foreground of the landscape.
The noble structure of the hospital appears beyond it, the two fine bends of the river producing the enriched serpentine that forms the Isle of Dogs, succeed, and the magnificence of the metropolis closes the prospect.

The Ranger's Lodge was begun by Anne of Denmark, Queen of James I. who called it the House of Delight; but it was finished by Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I. by Inigo Jones.
Her name appears on the front, with the date of 1635.
This building has lately been incorporated with the hospital, and is applied to the purposes of the school for the education of naval children, and which is now conducted upon a new and enlarged system.
Its front is extended by colonnades and additional buildings.
The Observatory was founded by Charles II. on the site of an old tower, built by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.
It is called Flamstead-house, in compliment to the learned gentleman who originally suggested the establishment, and was the first royal astronomer.
It is furnished with a most superb apparatus for astronomical observations, and is the point from which the longitude is calculated by all British navigators.
It is subject to the inspection of the Royal Society.

The Parish Church is a very handsome stone structure, dedicated to St. Alphage, Archbishop of Canterbury, who, according to traditionary history, was slain by the Danes, in the year 1012, on the spot where the church now stands.
It was erected by the commissioners for erecting fifty new churches, under an act of Parliament in the reign of Queen Anne, after a design of Mr. James, a native of the place, who was also the architect of the parish church of St. George's, Hanover-square, and the beautiful dilapidated seat of the late Sir Gregory Page, on Blackheath.

Greenwich Hospital, an establishment whose grandeur is so peculiarly adapted to a nation renowned for its naval glory, was founded by King William and Queen Mary, as an asylum for seamen of the royal navy, whom age or wounds have disabled from continuing in the service of their country, as well as for the maintenance of the widows, and education of the children of those who have been slain in battle.
It was on the proposition of that great architect, Sir Christopher Wren, that the unfinished palace of Charles II. was appropriated to this great national object; and in the year 1694, trustees were appointed to carry the design into execution.
In the following year, King William, Queen Mary being dead, granted a charter of foundation, with, statutes for the management of it.
The first stone of the new building was laid on the 3d of June, 1696, under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren, who, with a genuine patriotic spirit, contributed his superior skill and constant attention to the progress of it, without any other reward than the satisfaction he enjoyed from advancing a work that promised so much advantage and honour to his country.

It consists of four distinct piles of building, distinguished by the names of King Queen Mary's buildings is the grand square, two hundred and seventy-three feet in breadth.
In the centre is a statue of King George II. by Rysbrack, formed out of a single block of white marble, which weighed eleven tons, and was taken from the French by Admiral Sir George Rooke.
On the pedestal is a Latin inscription, by Mr. Stanyan, author of an history of Greece.
It was presented to the hospital by Sir John Jennings, at that time governor of it.

King Charles's building stands on the west side of the great square.
The eastern side of it, in which that monarch resided, is of Portland stone, and was erected in 1664, by Webb, from a design of his father-in-law, Inigo Jones.
In the centre of the east front is a portico, supported by four Corinthian columns, and at each end is a pavillion, formed by four columns of the same order, surmounted by an attic, with a ballustrade, &c.
It contains fourteen wards, in which are three hundred and one beds.

Queen Anne's building, on the opposite side, corresponds with that of King Charles.
It contains several of the officers' apartments, and twenty-four wards, in which are four hundred and thirty-seven beds.
In the north front of both these buildings, the pediment is supported by two ranges of coupled Corinthian columns; and the same order is continued in pilasters along the building.
In the centre of each part, between these ranges of Corinthian columns, is a door of the Doric order, with a tablet and pediment.
Within the height of these lofty columns are two series of windows, enlightening two floors: over these the entablature supports a regular attic course; and the whole is crowned with a ballustrade.

To the south of these are the other piles of building, with a colonnade adjoining to each.
These colonnades are one hundred and fifteen feet asunder, and are composed of three hundred duplicated columns, and pilasters of Portland stone, twenty feet high, with an entablature supporting a ballustrade.
They are, each of them, three hundred and forty seven feet long, having a return pavilion at the end, seventy feet in length.

Of the two south buildings, that on the east side is Queen Mary's, which contains the chapel; the interior whereof and the roof having been destroyed by fire, on the 2d of January, 1779, it has been restored, after designs of Stuart, the celebrated publisher of the Antiquities of Athens, and is now unrivalled as an example of architectural elegance in this or any other part of the world.
The vestibule of the chapel is octangular, in which are four niches, containing statues of Faith, Hope, Charity, and Meekness, in artificial stone.
From this vestibule there is an ascent, by a flight of fourteen steps, to the chapel, which is one hundred and eleven feet long, and fifty-two broad.
Over the portal is the following inscription :—
"Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed, and delivered from the hand of the enemy. Psalm 107."
The portal consists of an architrave, frieze and cornice of statuary marble, the jambs of which are twelve feet high, in one piece, and enriched with sculpture.
The frieze consists of the figures of two angels, with festoons, supporting the sacred writings, on the leaves of which is inscribed the following portion of scripture:--
"The law was given by Moses; but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
The large folding doors are of mahogany, highly enriched; the whole forming a most admirable composition.
Within this entrance is a pqrtico of six fluted marble columns, fifteen feet high, of the Ionic order.
They support the organ gallery, and are crowned with an enriched entablature and ballustrade.
In the front of the gallery is a basso relievo, representing angels striking the harp , and on the lateral pedestals, trophies of musical instruments.
On each side of the organ, are four grand columns; their shafts of Scagliola, and their capitals and vases of statuary marble.
At the opposite end of the chapel are four others of the same kind, which support the ceiling and roof.
These columns are of the Corinthian order, and, with their pedestals, are twenty-eight feet high.
On the sides of the chapel are two galleries, in which are pews for the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, the Officers, and their families; and the whole, both above and below, is decorated and enriched with a profusion of ornaments, in the genuine taste of classic architecture.

The communion table is a semi-oval slab of statuary marble, near eight feet in length.
The ascent to it is by three steps of black marble, on which is fixed an ornamental railing, representing festoons of ears of corn and vine foliage.
The table is supported by six cherubims, standing on a white marble step, of the same dimensions.
Above is a painting, by West, representing the preservation of St. Paul on the island of Melita. [Malta]
This picture is twenty-five feet high, and fourteen wide.
On either side of the arch which terminates the top of this picture, are angels in statuary marble, as large as life:
the one bearing the cross, and the other the Eucharist.
This fine combination of the works of art is terminated above, in the segment between the great cornice and ceiling, by a painting, in chiaroscuro, by Rebecca, representing a subject, from the Life of Jesus Christ.
The pulpit is circular, and is an inversion of the Lanthern of Demosthenes, a piece of Greek architecture, whose form Mr. Stuart has introduced in various ways and applications, in the different works which he has superintended.
It is supported by six fluted columns of lime-tree, with a rich entablature; in the six inter-columniations are alto-relievos, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, in artificial stone.
The reader’s desk is square, with columns at the four corners, and in the inter-columniations are alto-relievos of four of the Prophets.
Over the lower windows are a series of paintings, in chiar-oscuro, representing some of the leading features of Our Saviour’s Life, by Rebecca and others.
Many of these, particularly those by the artist just mentioned, imitate relief, with such an happy success, that the eye is deceived till the finger touches them.
* Queen Mary’s building contains thirteen wards, and one thousand and ninety-two beds.*

King William’s building is opposite to Queen Mary’s, and contains the great hall, which is one hundred and six feet long, fifty-six wide, and fifty high.
It was painted by Sir James Thornhill.
The ceiling exhibits a very large and deep oval frame, in the centre of which King William and Queen Mary are represented, as seated on a throne, under a rich canopy, and surrounded by personifications of the Cardinal Virtues, the Seasons, the Four Elements, the Signs of the Zodiac, and various other emblematical and symbolical devices.
At each end of the oval, the ceiling is raised in perspective, and exhibits a gallery with an elliptic arch, supported by groups of stone-coloured figures:
these galleries display various appropriate embellishments, with the English Rivers, and the Arts and Sciences relating to Navigation.
In one of them are introduced the Portraits of Flamstead, the Astronomer Royal, and his pupil, Mr. Thomas Weston, accompanied by Copernicus and Tycho Brahe.
The sides of the hall are adorned with fluted pilasters, trophies, &c.; and, in recesses on the north side, which correspond with a double row of windows on the south, are allegorical figures of the Virtues, in chiar-oscuro.
In the upper hall, to which there is an ascent by a flight of steps, the ceiling represents Queen Anne, with her consort, Prince George of Denmark, accompanied by various figures, &c.
The side walls display the landing of the Prince of Orange, at Harwich, and of George the First, at Greenwich.
The upper end is decorated by a large painting of George the First and his family, with various emblematical figures, among which Sir James Thornhill has introduced his own portrait.
In the upper part of the great hall is now placed the Funeral Car, on which the remains of the immortal Nelson were borne to the cathedral of St. Paul’s.
It is in vain the eye traverses this spacious hall, in search of any one characteristic of genuine art.
The vacant countenance of one of Boucher’s Shepherdesses, serves alike for a Pallas, a Minerva, the sooty Genius of Africa, or the Goddess of Love.
The head of the uppermost figure in the picture, in the upper hall, is all that can lay claim to mediocrity.
Sir James Thornhill may be pardoned the graphic egotism of placing his own portrait looking out of the picture, as he had the authority of Rafael himself.

To the honour, however, of British taste, the age of ceiling painting is passed away; and if these heathen Gods, sham windows, and painted key-holes were consigned to oblivion, sky-lights might be introduced in the vault of this magnificent apartment, and the walls adorned with those naval victories to which so many of the veterans who inhabit this splendid asylum, have contributed.
The number of wards in this building is eleven, containing five hundred and fifty-one beds.
King William's building, and that of Queen Mary, are each surmounted by a dome, the tambour of which is formed by a circle of duplicated columns of the Corinthian order, with four projecting groups of columns at the quoins.
The attic above is a circle without breaks, covered with the dome, and terminated by a turret.

King Charles's building contains the apartments of the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and the Council-Room.
In the latter are the following portraits:—George II. by Shackleton; King William and Queen Mary, by Sir Godfrey Kneller; Edward, first Earl of Sandwich, by Sir Peter Lely; Lord Viscount Torrington, by Davison; Robert Osbolston, Esq. by Dugard; Admiral Sir John Jennings, by Richardson; Captain Clements, by Greenhill; John, late Earl of Sandwich, by Gainsborough; and the head of John Worley, an old man, who was the first pensioner admitted into this hospital.
This splendid establishment was at first confined to seamen in the King's service, but a duty of six-pence per month having been charged in 1712, upon every mariner, whether in the King's or the Merchant's service, for the support of it, its benefits were extended to merchant-seamen, wounded in defending or taking any ship, or in fighting against a pirate.
The other revenues of the hospital arise from the profits of Greenwich-market, given by the Earl of Romney, in 1700; the profits of the North and South Foreland light-houses; six thousand pounds out of the duty on coals: the forfeited estates of the Earl of Derwentwater, and other property which has been bequeathed to it.

The principal officers are a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, four Captains, eight Lieutenants, a Treasurer, Secretary, Auditor, two Chaplains, a Physician, Surgeon, &c
The number of pensioners is two thousand three hundred and fifty: they are provided with clothes, diet, and lodging, and have an allowance called tobacco-motley, which, to the boatswains is two shillings and Sixpence; to the boatswain’s mates, one shilling and six-pence; and to the seamen, one shilling per week.
There are also one hundred and fifty nurses, who are widows of seamen.
In 1768 a very spacious building was erected for an infirmary, for the sick pensioners, with every necessary accommodation.
The school-house was erected in 1783, with dormitories, &c.
The school-room is one hundred feet long, and twenty five feet broad, and capable of containing two hundred boys.
They are carefully educated, and, after a certain period, are bound apprentices to the sea service.
The expenses of this school are paid from the money received by showing the chapel, &c. and some other incidental funds, which have proved more than adequate to this most useful and beneficent purpose.
Such is Greenwich Hospital, which may be considered as forming a part of the naval glory ofthe British empire.

THE THAMES, FROM GREENWICH PARK.

Greenwich Park in Thames, Cooke & Dewint 1818
The Thames from Greenwich Park, 1818

The glory of Greenwich is the magnificent structure which, while it rivals the palaces of Kings, gives repose and comfort to the aged and wounded seamen, whose courage has done its part in protecting the commercial prosperity and advancing the naval glory of the British Empire.
But the beauty of the place is derived from that commanding situation, which the subject that is the concomitant decoration of this page will be seen to display, with a combination of truth, spirit, and taste.
The selection of the parts which compose this proud landscape, and the perspective wherein they are so judiciously arranged, give the most perfect and characteristic resemblance of the extensive and beautiful prospect, which the particular spot in the Park, so happily chosen by Mr. Dewint, preeminently commands.
There is no place in the vicinity of the Metropolis which has been more frequently represented by the pencil of the Artist than the scenery of Greenwich.
There is even the picture of a view in Greenwich Park, in his Majesty’s collection, painted in the reign of Charles I. as that Monarch, his Queen, and the Courtiers of his train, are the figures, drawn from life, which animate the scene.
It was then, indeed, little more than a rural representation, as many of the objects, particularly the Hospital, which enrich the present view, were not then in existence:
but, without any apprehension of being justly accused of unmerited partiality, we do not hesitate to offer the view that the engraving represents, as one of the most successful efforts of the pencil which the striking beauty and splendour of the scene has been hitherto known to inspire.
The sylvan landscape which forms the foreground, is arrayed in the full beauty of figure and foliage, while it is enlivened by such accompaniments of social life as give a most pleasing and appropriate animation to it.
The Hospital is introduced in such a manner as to display its magnificence without intruding its formality.
The grand flow of water and its shipping, the edificial objects on the banks, the metropolis dimly seen in the distance, and the crowded interval, which is so despoiled of its perplexity, as with inexpressible art, to render it intelligible to the eye, are so powerfully combined, that those who never saw the prospect may, from this representation, entertain a clear idea of it, while others, who have seen it again and again, will find their recollection not only renewed but improved.
The difficulty of combining objects at once so numerous and various, and to preserve distinctness, where art and nature are so intimately blended, is so obvious, that no common merit may, surely, be assigned to the talents which have been able to surmount it.
This general praise is all which the pen can give by its imperfect description: the eye of the experienced judge in works of art must do the rest.
A description of the Town, with the historical circumstances connected with it, and an account of the Hospital, with its national utility and architectural embellishments, do not come within the scope of this page, exclusively devoted to the landscape character, to which the Artist has confined his representation.

MAST HOUSE, IN THE DOCK, AT BLACKWALL, FORMERLY PERRY'S.

Mast House, in the Dock at Blackwall in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Mast House, in the Dock at Blackwall, 1811

Mast House, in the Dock at Blackwall in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Mast House, in the Dock at Blackwall, 1818

This place, which is an hamlet at the eastern extremity of Stepney parish, appears to have possessed dock-yards at a very distant period.
When Strype wrote his Circuit Walk, they belonged to Sir Henry Johnson, of Treston Hall, in Suffolk, and one of the representatives in parliament for the borough of Aldborough.
He died in 1683, and "left various charities, particularly an almshouse for the poor ship carpenters, at Blackwall".
In 1789, Mr, Perry enlarged the premises, and made a new dock, called Brunswick dock, which is capable of receiving twenty-eight East Indiamen, and from fifty to sixty vessels of smaller burthen.
It contains, with the embankment and adjoining yard, nineteen superficial acres.
A part of the premises have lately come into the possession of the East India Dock Company, in which the Mast House is erected.
It is one hundred and twenty feet in height; from which construction the greatest advantages have been derived; many lives having been lost in the dangerous operation of raising these massive timbers, by the old method of doing it at the docks, besides the injury done to the ships.
The first experiment was made on the Lord Macartney East Indiaman on the 25th of October, 1791.
Her whole suit of masts and bowsprit, was raised and fixed in three hours and forty minutes, an operation which used to occupy two days, by half the number of men usually employed.
During the late war, the cavalry which were sent to the continent, embarked at Mr. Perry's dock.
Such were the accommodations for this service, that an embarkation, which usually occupied three days, has been compleated at this place in as many hours.
Strype mentions an horse belonging to Sir Henry Johnson, which had worked thirty-four years in this yard, and had acquired no common sagacity in the course of his long service; for when the bell rung for the workmen to leave off, or go to dinner, the animal refused to take another step.
Blackwall is supposed, by some etymologists, to derive its name from its mural embankment being covered with black shrubs, similar to those which grow on Blackheath.
Others consider it to have been a corruption of Bleak-wall, from its exposed situation.

SHOOTER'S HILL. FROM WOOLWICH REACH.

Shooters Hill from Woolwich Reach in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Shooters Hill from Woolwich Reach, 1811

Shooter's Hill, whose summit affords such a magnificent perspective, is situate on the south side of Woolwich common, and is mentioned as a scene of splendid festivities by antiquarian writers.
It has also been represented as the frequent haunt of robbers; and Philipott, who wrote in the early part of the reign of James the First, complains, in his Villare Cantium, that they appear to have a prescriptive right to rob there.
At so early a period as the reign of Richard the Second, measures were taken for improving the highway on this hill; for in the sixth year of that king a royal order was issued, to "cut down the woods on each side of the road at Shetere's Held, in the road from London to Rochester, which was become very dangerous to travellers, in compliance with the statute of Edward the First, for widening roads, where there were woods which afforded shelter for thieves."
These regulations do not, however, appear to have been attended with the desired effect; and it was not till the year 1739, that any very material improvement was made; when a road of greater breadth was laid out, under an act of parliament.
But its present comparative security is, probably, more owing to the increased population of the place itself and the surrounding neighbourhood.
Among other festivities which were displayed on this beautiful spot in former times, we have the record of one, which we doubt not is correctly described, in a very particular and minute account, published in the latter part of the seventeenth century, by one, who probably derived his information from preceding authorities.
It is related, that on May-day, 1511, Henry VIII. and his Queen Catherine, proceeded in great state from Greenwich, a favourite residence of that monarch, to Shooter's Hill, adorned with fine pageants, and all the efforts of romantic gallantry, which were then usually practised in that luxurious court.

In this reign there was a Beacon erected here, as appears from several entries, in the churchwardens' accounts of Eltham, of sums paid, "for watchinge the Beacon on Shutter's Hill".
The prospects from this elevated spot are very fine, and possess a contrasted variety which is seldom seen.
To the north the view comprehends a bold meander of the Thames, of great length with the navigation which its flowing or ebbing tides conduct to the metropolis, or bear to the sea; while the eye, glancing over the beautiful, falling scenery below, looks on to the distant uplands of Essex, Hertfordshire, and Middlesex, and reposes on the magnificence of the metropolis.
To the south the prospect is altogether rural, with an intermixture of that elegance which is seen in the surrounding domains of those, whose opulence enables them to improve and beautify, and whose taste qualifies them to do it with the best effect.

At a small distance from the road over Shooter's Hill, on the south side, is an high triangular tower, of brick, rising, to all appearance from a wood; by which circumstance the effect is heightened, and the object, in a picturesque view at least, is rendered more important.
It is a kind of landmark, and seen at a great distance.
It was built, as appears from an inscription over the entrance, to commemorate the achievements of the late gallant officer, Sir William James, Bart, during his command of the East India Company's marine forces in the Indian seas; and, in a particular manner, to record the conquest of the castle of Severndroog, on the coast of Malabar, which fell to his superior valour and able conduct, on the 2d day of April, 1755.
It consists of three floors: in the lower of them are various Indian weapons, armour, &c. brought as trophies from Severndroog castle; the upper stories are finished with appropriate elegance:
the ceiling of the first displays a series of views in six compartments, of the relative situation of the fleet and fortress on the day of the assault, when Severndroog was stormed and taken.
The summit is embattled, and has turrets at the angles.
The prospect from this building embraces a very rich, extensive, and various range, comprehending a large portion of Kent, Essex, and Surrey, with the Thames and its navigation, the metropolis and its distant splendour.
This tower was erected by Lady James, as a widowed testimony of affection to Sir William James, who united all the virtues necessary to the perfection of domestic happiness, with the heroic bravery which distinguished his public life.
It is situate in grounds of Parkplace Farm, near Eltham, which descended to their grandson, the present Lord Rancliff, who is the actual possessor of it.

Charlton House

Charlton House is an object which cannot be passed by unnoticed, when Shooter's Hill is to be historically described:
it is the residence of Lady Wilson, and is a good specimen of the style of building, which prevailed about the time of James the First; though some considerable alterations were made in it by Sir William Ducie, about the year 1659.
It forms an oblong square, with projections at the end of each front, which are crowned by turrets, and the whole wall of the building finishes with an open balustrade.
The centre also projects, and the entrance is decorated with Corinthian columns, whose bases are fancifully enriched with sculptures, representing lion's heads.
In the window above are thearms of the Ducie family, blended with those of its collateral branches.
The saloon is replete with decoration, and the ceiling retains its original state, as it was finished by Sir Adam Newton, and exhibits the royal arms, with ostrich feathers, &&c.
The chimney-piece is of the same age; on one side of which is the statue of Vulcan in alabaster; and on the other his ill-mated consort, the Queen of Beauty.
In a room adjoining to the saloon is a chimney piece of black marble, so exquisitely polished, that Lord Downe is said to have seen in it a robbery committed on Blackheath:
the traditional spirit proceeds a little further, and adds, that he accordingly sent out his servants, who apprehended the thieves.
Mr. Lyssons states this tradition, in the way in which we have related it.
But Doctor Plot, who mentions it, goes a little further, and lays the scene of the robbery on Shooter's Hill.
The gallery, on the north side of the house, was also fitted up by Sir Adam Newton, and is seventy feet six inches in length, by sixteen feet six inches in breadth.
It contain the portraits of Henry Prince of Wales, and of Doctor Thomas Wilson, secretary of state to Queen Elizabeth:
there is also a large collection of natural history made by Lady Wilson; and among the fossils are a great variety of those found in the parish itself.
The park and pleasure grounds comprize about seventy acres, and include some very pleasing scenery.
An aged row of cypress trees gives a peculiar solemnity to the court-yard of the mansion.

Charlton

Charlton was created a market-town, by a grant of Henry the Third, it being then the property of the monks of Bermondsey, and it seems to have retained that privilege till the beginning of the seventeenth century, when it resumed the village character which it now possesses.
Its various proprietors are clearly traced from the reign of Edward the Confessor, to the present time.
After many successive grants it became vested in the crown, in the reign of James the First, in 1664; when it was given by that monarch in fee to John Earl of Mar, who, about two years afterwards, sold it to Sir James Erskine for two thousand pounds; and he, in the following year, disposed of it to Sir Adam Newton for four thousand five hundred pounds; the last gentleman erected the manor house, which has just been described.
His son, Sir Henry, who assumed the name of Puckering, alienated it in 1659, to Sir William Ducie, afterwards Knight of the Bath, and Lord Viscount Downe, who died there in 1679.
It has passed through several families by purchase and descent to Dame Jane Wilson, widow of the late General Sir Thomas Wilson, Bart. who died in 1798, and who is now the full possessor of it.

Charlton Church

The church is dedicated to Saint Luke, and was rebuilt by the executors of Sir Adam Newton, who bequeathed a sum of money for that purpose, between the years 1630 and 1640.
It consists of a nave, chancel, and north aisle, with a square embattled tower.
In the windows of the chancel and north aisle are the arms, in stained glass, of the Newtons, the Puckerings, the Blounts, &c.
Among the monuments is a very handsome one to the memory of General Richards, surveyor-general of the ordnance to George the First.
There is a plain monumental memorial, in black and white marble, by Nicholas Stone, in commemoration of Sir Adam Newton, Bart. and Catherine his wife, the youngest daughter of Sir John Puckering.
The former was tutor to the illustrious Henry Prince of Wales; and, after his death, passed the chief part of his time in retirement at Charlton, where he translated the four first books of Father Paul's History of the Council of Trent; and also the discourse of King James against Conrade Vorstius.
He died in the year 1629.
Among the monuments in the church yard is that of James Craggs, Esq. one of the post-masters-general to George the First, and father of the Right Honourable Secretary of State, whose superior virtues and unblemished character has been immortalized by Pope, in the epitaph, which delights every virtuous reader of it in Westminster Abbey.

At a small distance from the church, on the east side, is an elegant villa built, about sixteen years ago, by the Earl of Cholmondeley, in a situation of much picturesque beauty.
It stands at the west end of Hanging Wood, near a chalk pit, in which extraneous fossils are frequently found.
Through the wood is a pleasant walk to Woolwich, and at the farther end is a very large and steep sand-pit, which, in its upper strata, and fossil riches, has excited the attention, and not unfrequently rewarded the toil of the naturalist.

Having thus given an account of Shooter's Hill, and the accessory parts which our present subject connects with it; we now proceed to illustrate the engraving that combines them, and presents the beautiful picture which they compose.
The bold expanse of Woolwich Reach, animated by its ever varying and floating scenery, forms the fore part of the selected view.
Shooter's Hill, rising with a fine and cultivated acclivity, gives a near but elevated distance.
The intermediate space is filled up by a lavish variety of objects.
Woolwich presents itself in part on the left.
The Hanging Wood is next in succession: a glimmer of splendid villas gives the succeeding feature: and in a short space Severndroog Castle presents itself in its more distant recess.
The tower of Charlton church, and the manor house with its turrets, then diversifies the scene; and the grand machinery of Russell's flour mill closes the delightful range.
Let the representation of it, to which the reader may return his eye, display the rest.

THE NELSON,

The Nelson in Thames, Cooke & Francia 1818
The Nelson, L.Francia, 1818

Of 120 Guns, on the Stocks, building at Woolwich, in the Year 1814, under the direction of Edward Sison, Esq. Master shipwright.

PRINCIPAL DIMENSIONS.FeetInches
Range on the gun-deck from the rabbet of the stem to the rabbet of the stern-post205'0¾"
Length from the fife-rail to the fore-part of the figure of the head244'0'
Length of the keel for tonnage170'0"
Breadth, extreme 53'8"
Breadth, moulded52'11"
Breadth, to the outside of the main walls54'5"
Depth in hold24'0"
Burthen in tons26174/94
Perpendicular height from the underside of the false keel to upper side of the figure55'4"
Perpendicular height from the underside of the false keel to upper side of the taffrail 65'2"
Perpendicular height from the underside of the false keel to the gun-Wale49'8"
Length of the foremast118'0"
Diameter of foremast3'4"
Length of the main mast127'2"
Diameter of main mast3'5"
Length of the mizzen mast85'11¼"
Diameter of the mizzen mast2'1"
Length of the bowsprit75'1"
Diameter of bowsprit3'1"
Length of the main yard109'3"
Diameter of main yard2'2"
Length of the main top-mast75'0"
Diameter of main top-mast1'10"
Load draught of water - Afore24'4"
Load draught of water - Abaft25'3"
Light draught when launched - Afore14'11"
Light draught when launched - Abaft18'5"
Establishment of men875
NUMBER AND WEIGHT OF GUNSlb.gunsNo.No. car.lbs.
Gun deck32lbs#32
Middle deck34lbs#24
Upper deck34lbs#18
Quarter deck6lbs#12#1023lbs
Forecastle2lbs#12#232lbs
Roundhouse
 
#6
 
18lbs
 
Estimated weight when launched2462 tons
Estimated weight when fitted for sea4517 tons
Expence of building, including masts and yards only,£ 100,968
Time the workmen were employed in building3 years

The view of this magnificent ship of war suggests some account of the life of the great Naval Commander whose name it bears.
He was the son of Edmund and Catherine Nelson, and was born September 29, 1758, at the Parsonage House of Burnham Thorpe, a village in the county of Norfolk, of which his father was rector.
His maternal great grandmother was an elder sister of Sir Robert Walpole, and our Hero was named Horatio, after his godfather, the first Lord Walpole.
He was one of eight children, who, out of eleven, survived their mother, whose name was Suckling.
When he was twelve years of age, his uncle, Captain Suckling, took him on board the Raisonable, of 74 guns.
He afterwards went to the West Indies in a merchant ship, where he studiously learned the principles of navigation, and, after some intermediate practical employment,
became Cockswain under Captain Lutwidge, who was second in command in the expedition to the North Pole, undertaken by Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave.
His next voyage was to the East Indies, in the Sea Horse, of 20 guns, when, from his professional activity, he was rated as a Midshipman.
Ill health compelled his return to England; and, on his recovery, he was appointed Lieutenant in the Worcester, of 64 guns, commanded by Captain Mark Robinson, ordered for Gibraltar.
He was soon after Second Lieutenant of the Lowestoft Frigate, Captain William Locker, in which he afforded a striking proof of his native courage, in taking possession of a captured privateer.
His next promotion was to be First Lieutenant in the Bristol Flag ship; and in December 1778, was appointed to the command of the Badger brig, when, by a rare presence of mind, he preserved the crew of the Glasgow, of 20 guns, which was on fire in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
In 1779 he was made Post into the Hinchinbroke, of 28 guns; and nothing ,could exceed his spirit, resolution, and judicious conduct, in the expedition against the Fort of St. Juan, in the Spanish Main.
He was now appointed to the Janus, of 44 guns; but illness obliged him to resign his command.
On his recovery he was named to the Albemarle, of 28 guns, and was stationed, during the whole winter, in the North Seas, at the period of the armed neutrality.

His next voyage was in the same ship to Canada, from whence he convoyed a fleet of transports to New York, where Admiral Digby commanded the British Fleet at Sandy Hook, and who highly appreciated the professional character of Captain Nelson.
On the preliminaries of peace being signed, he returned to England, and was paid off.
His next appointment was by Lord Howe to the Boreas, of 28 guns, ordered to the Leeward Islands, which station was then commanded by Sir Richard Hughes; and, being senior Captain, was second in command.
His conduct here in supporting the provisions of the Navigation Act, in direct opposition to the opinion of the Admiral, marked the energy, resolution, and independence of his mind, in what he felt to be the career of his duty.
March 11, 1787, he married the widow of Doctor Nisbet, a physician, and niece of Mr. Herbert, President of the Island of Nevis.
At the eve of the Revolutionary War, in 1793, he was appointed to the Agamemnon, of 64 guns, and ordered to the Mediterranean, under Lord Hood.
His conduct with his small squadron off Corsica, and at the siege of Bastia, was replete with enterprize, conduct, and success.
At the siege of Calvi, where he lost an eye, his exertions were equally indefatigable.
Under Admiral Hotham, who succeeded Lord Howe, his activity was pre-eminent wherever the opportunity offered, and he was promoted to be Colonel of Marines.
He was now employed to co-operate with the Austrian and Sardinian armies, under General de Vins, against the French, in which service he did all he was permitted to do.
Sir John Jervis now arrived in the Mediterranean, and Nelson renewed his co-operations with the Austrian army ; captured six vessels laden with stores for the siege of Mantua; blockaded Leghorn; took possession of the Islands of Elba and Capraja ; and protected, with incomparable spirit, the evacuation of Corsica by the English, with all their property and Government stores.
He now hoisted his broad pendant on board the Minerva frigate, and in proceeding to Elba took a Spanish frigate.
At length he quitted the Mediterranean and joined Sir John Jervis, off Cape St. Vincent; and it is well known in what way he so greatly contributed to the signal victory which followed.
He had now been advanced to the rank of Rear Admiral of the Blue, and shifted his flag to the Theseus.

After he had brought the troops from Elba, he commanded the inner squadron at the blockade of Cadiz, during which service, in a night attack on the Spanish gun-boats, he was in the most perilous situation he ever knew.
In his expedition against Teneriffe, where, though from ungovernable circumstances, he was not ultimately successful, he acted like himself.
Here it was that he lost his right arm.
On his return to England, the praises of his country every where awaited him; he was invested with the order of the Bath, and received a pension of £1000 a year.
The Memorial which, as a matter of form, he was called upon to present on the occasion, exhibited an extraordinary catalogue of services already performed during the war.
It stated, that he had been in four actions with the fleets of the enemy, and in three actions with boats employed in cutting out of harbour, in destroying vessels, and taking three towns : he had served on shore with the army four months, and commanded the batteries at the siege of Bastia and Calvi.
He had assisted at the capture of seven sail of the line, six frigates, four corvettes, and eleven privateers; taken and destroyed nearly fifty sail of merchant vessels, and actually been engaged against the enemy upwards of an hundred and twenty times, in which service he had lost his right eye and right arm, and been severely wounded and bruised in his body.
Early in the year 1798 he hoisted his flag in the Vanguard, and was ordered to rejoin Lord St. Vincent.
The transcendant victory of Ahoukir followed, for which he was created Baron Nelson of the Nile, with a pension of £2000 for his life, and the lives of his two immediate successors.
He now returned to Naples, where he formed that strange connection with Lady Hamilton, which disgraced and embittered the remainder of his life:
but glory still attended his career: be preserved his high naval character; and the Mediterranean witnessed his various, powerful and most useful efforts.
For the eminent services he performed for the King of Naples he received the dukedom of Bronte, with a domain, valued at £3000 per annum.
During this command, with the assistance of that brave, active, and admirable oflicer, Sir Thomas Troubridge, Rome and Malta were taken, as well as the only French ship which had escaped from the fleet at Aboukir.

In his letters he complains with some degree of bitterness, that he was not duly seconded at home.
When, however, he arrived in England, the extraordinary marks of honour, which he had received from different foreign Sovereigns for the victory of Aboukir, were followed by every token of popular regard which a grateful country could pay him.
He was now advanced to be Vice Admiral of the Blue, and sent to the Baltic as second in command under Sir Hyde Parker.
The public were universally dissatisfied at such an arrangement, and blamed Lord St. Vincent with no common severity, who was then at the head of the Admiralty.
The battle of Copenhagen followed, and, to the obtaining that important victory, Nelson’s prowess and superior conduct, to say no more, in a great measure contributed.
On the recall of Sir Hyde Parker, Lord Nelson commanded the Baltic fleet, and obtained the restoration of the British shipping and property, which had been madly seized by the Emperor Paul, who was now dead, and brought matters to an amicable understanding between the two powers.
The state of his health compelled him to request a successor in the command, and, on the arrival of Admiral Sir Charles Pole, he returned to England.
Buonaparte, now First Consul of France, had made preparations for the invasion of this country, and Lord Nelson was employed to frustrate his design by an attack upon Boulogne, from whence it was supposed the attempt would be made.
An officer of his rank and fame was ill employed on a mere attack on gun-boats and hostile craft, but full of danger.
This enterprize, which, however, did not want a Nelson, he executed with his wonted spirit and bravery, and did all that man could do in what he used to call the boat business.
The short-lived peace of Amiens succeeded, and at the re-breaking out of the war, he took the command of the Mediterranean fleet.
His object was to watch the Toulon fleet, and such was his perseverance, that, from May 1803 to August 1805, he left his ship but thrice, and then not more than for an hour each time on the King’s service.
He then chased the combined fleets of France and Spain to the West Indies, where they escaped him, but he prevented them from doing any mischief there; for which service he received the thanks of the West India merchants of London.
He now returned to England; but, in a short time resumed his command in the Mediterranean.
The immortal victory of Trafalgar followed, where he fell in the arms of glory.
Thus concluded the transcendant career of this great and extraordinary Naval Commander.

LAUNCH OF THE NELSON.

Launch of the Nelson in Thames, Cooke & Cooke 1818
Launch of the Nelson, 1818 L.Clennell

The Nelson, the largest Line of Battle Ship ever built in England, and a just memorial of national gratitude for the preeminent services performed by the Hero of the Nile, of Copenhagen, andTrafalgar, was launched at Woolwich, July 4th, 1814:
and we trust, will prove as victorious on the Ocean, whenever it may be employed, as the great naval Commander, by whose name it is not only distinguished but ennobled.
Indeed it seems as if the subject had inspired the admirable pencil of the Artist who made the Drawing of this interesting scene, which it displays with so much spirit and truth.
Mr. Clennell, superior as his drawings always are, appears on this occasion, to have excelled himself.

WOOLWICH.

Woolwich in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Woolwich, 1811

Woolwich is a market town in the county of Kent, on the hanks of the Thames, and at the distance of about nine miles from London.
The parish is of small extent, comprehending not more than seven hundred acres; and of these, the larger proportion consists of marsh lands on the Essex side of the river, which are said to have belonged to the ancient abbey of St. Mary of Graces, near the Tower.
The cause of this territorial disunion of the parish cannot now be satisfactorily ascertained, nor have the conjectural efforts of topographical enquirers been attended by any settled opinion on the subject.
That the river might be diverted from its ancient channel by some of those elementary causes which have, in other places, produced similar effects, is no improbable supposition.
In the seventeenth year of Edward the Second, a commission of sewers was issued for repairing a very great breach, made by the overflowing of the Thames into the marshes between Woolwich and Greenwich; but if this conjectural separation of the land was occasioned by an inundation, there is sufficient reason to conclude that it was of an earlier date.
Harris, in his History of Kent, relates, that he had seen an old manuscript which stated that Woolwich included in its parish five hundred acres on the Essex side of the water, with a few houses, and a chapel of ease.
Hasted, a later historian, of the same county, represents it as a probable circumstance, that Haimo, vice-comes or sheriff of Kent, in the time of William the Conqueror, being possessed of Woolwich, as well as lands on the other side of the river, procured them either by composition or grant from the king, to be annexed to his jurisdiction, as part of his county, and then incorporated them with it.
At high water, the Thames is about three quarters of a mile in breadth at this place, and the water brackish.
As the channel lies about East and West for three miles the tide is strong; and the river being free from shoals and sands, and seven or eight fathoms deep, the largest ships may at all times ride in safety.

At different periods the name of this town has been written Hulwiz, Wolwiche, Wollewic, Wlewic, &c. so that its etymology cannot be easily determined, though Hasted is of opinion that the first of these denominations signifies the dwelling on the creek.
The manor of Woolwich, with all the other parts of the parish, is subordinate to the royal manor of Eltham:
this seems, however, to have been a doubtful point till it was settled by the court of exchequer in the year 1702, when the claims of Eltham were contested by Richard Bowater, Esq. who had recently purchased the manor of Woolwich, and whose descendants have been the successive possessors of it.

Woolwich was originally a small fishing village, which was probably owing to its low situation, and the overflowings of the river previous to its embankment.
All its posterior consequence is derived from the establishment of a royal dock, in the reign of Henry the Eight.
Since that period it has obtained, according to Camden, the title of "the mother dock of our royal navy".
The precise time when this dock-yard was first established is involved in great uncertainty.
It is conjectured by Gibson, Bishop of London, who published an enlarged edition of Camden's Britannia, to be the oldest dock in the kingdom; and he seems to have founded his opinion on the tradition that the Harry Grace de Dieu, the largest ship which had then been built in England was constructed in this dock.
It is, however, suggested by other writers, that this ship might have been built, as others were before that time, by contractors at a private dock.
Mr. Lysons, to whose topographical labours all enquirers into the history of places within a certain distance of the metropolis, are so much indebted, seems to be of the latter opinion.
Queen Elizabeth also honoured this place with her presence at the launching a fine ship, called by her own name, Elizabeth.

It cannot be considered as deviating from our subject to give some account of the Harry Grace de Dieu, which was sixteen hundred and thirty-seven tons burthen.
Hayward, the dramatic writer, who published a description of her in a quarto pamphlet, in the year 1637, about the time she was launched, in order to illustrate an engraving of her form and appearance, states her length to be an hundred and twenty-eight feet, and her breadth forty-eight.
She had three flush decks, a forecastle, half-deck, quarter-deck, and round-house, and carried an hundred and seventy-six pieces of ordnance.
She had five lanthorns, one of which was capable of containing eleven persons standing upright, and eleven anchors, the largest of which weighed four thousand four hundred pounds.
A very beautiful engraving of this huge vessel is given on a large scale in the late ingenious Mr. Charnock's laborious work on Marine Architecture, and in which all the curious ornaments and emblematical devices which were designed, by Hayward, for her decoration, are correctly delineated.

Since the first establishment of the royal dock, Woolwich, has gradually risen to its present importance; but during the last century its advancement was greatly accelerated by the augmentation of the royal artillery, and its being appointed a royal arsenal.
The increase of its population, during the period just mentioned, has been in the proportion of six to one.
The dock yard, in consequence of its progressive improvements, is, at this time, five furlongs in length, and one in breadth.
It includes two dry docks, several slips, three mast ponds, a smith's shop with anchor forges, a model loft, store-houses of various descriptions, mast-houses, sheds for timber, dwellings for the different officers, and various other necessary buildings.
It is subject to the immediate inspection of the navy-board; and the resident officers are, a clerk of the cheque, a store-keeper, a master shipwright and his assistants, a clerk of the survey, a master attendant, and a surgeon, besides those engaged in inferior occupations.
The number of artificers and labourers now employed here is between three and four thousand; but, in time of peace, they do not, in general, exceed fifteen hundred.
Many very fine first, second, and third rate ships, as well as frigates, have been built, and are now building, in this dock.

The church is a spacious brick structure, with decorations of free stone, and is situated on an eminence overlooking the dock yard.
It is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, and consists of a chancel, nave, and ailes; with a plain square tower at the west end.
It is one of the fifty churches built under the act of Queen Anne, and completed in the year 1740, at the expence of six thousand five hundred pounds.
The interior is tilted up in the Grecian style of architecture, with galleries on the north, south, and west sides, supported by columns of the Ionic order.
The sepulchral memorials, which are but few, are not of a character to create an interest by a description of them.

The charitable establishments of this place, which, in every form, character, and tendency, are interesting objects, consist of an alms-house and two schools.
The first is devoted to five poor widows, and was founded previous to the year 1662, by Sir Martin Bowes, with the annual payment of £7. 12s. 1d. to use bis own language, to "the five poor folk" in his almshouses; which annual donation is now raised to twenty-five pounds, with coals and other necessary articles.
The girl's school was built and endowed according to the last will and testament of Mrs. Ann Withers, for the instruction of thirty poor girls, in reading and needle-work.
The other was founded, with an appropriate view to the character of the place, under the testamentary bequest of Mrs. Mary Wiseman, for the educating, cloathing, and apprenticing of six poor orphan boys, the sons of shipwrights who had served their apprenticeship in this dock yard.
By a subsequent augmentation of the funds, eight boys are now receiving the advantages of this charity.

The rope walk is in a very extensive building, of a quarter of a mile in length, and situated between the dock yard and the royal arsenal; where cables are made of all dimensions.
Several hundred workmen find employment in this important manufactory.

We shall make no apology for interrupting, for a short space, the description of the civil and military branches of the ordnance department, to introduce a brief narrative of the very curious, extraordinary, and interesting circumstances which led to the present complete and magnificent establishment of it at this place.
It is well known that the original foundery for brass cannon, belonging to government, was in that part of Moorfields which is now the scite of Finsbury Square, and that its name was attached to the place, long after it was removed to Woolwich, in consequence of a part of the premises being occupied for many years as a place of public worship, by the Rev. John Wesley, the celebrated leader of a religious sect so well known by the name of Methodists, and which continued to bear its original appellation.
At the time that this foundery existed, it then was, as it now is, an object of scientific curiosity to be present at the operation of casting ordnance: and not only persons engaged in philosophic pursuits, but those of the higher ranks of life, frequently attended the process of running the fluid metal into the moulds; for which purpose convenient seats or galleries were erected to command a distinct view of the furnace.
About the year 1716, it was determined to recast the unserviceable caunon which had been, taken from the French in the successive and glorious campaigns of the Duke of Marlborough, and were then placed in the Artillery Ground of the city, which was contiguous to the foundery.
This circumstance had excited the public attention; and Andrew Schalch, a native of Switzerland, who had visited the principal founderies on the continent, &c. and happened, in the course of a scientific tour, to be in London, was naturally attracted to attend the process, and had been permitted to examine all the preparations for it.
Colonel Armstrong, the surveyor-general of the ordnance, was officially present, when Schalch, being alarmed at some latent dampness which he had observed in the moulds, addressed the colonel in the French language, and, after explaining his reasons for apprehending that an explosion would accompany the casting of the metal, warned him to retire.
Colonel Armstrong, who at once comprehended the importance of Schalch's remarks, and finding, on further conversation, that he was perfectly acquainted with all the principles of the art, instantly retired from the foundery, with his own friends, and as many of the company as could be persuaded that there was a probability of danger; and they had scarcely arrived at a secure distance, when the furnaces being opened, the metal rushed into the moulds, the humidity of which, as had been anticipnted, instantly occasioned a dreadful explosion: the water, being converted into steam, by its expansive force, caused the liquid ore to dart forth in every direction; so that part of the roof of the building was blown off, and the galleries fell.
Most of the workmen were burned in a dreadful manner, several lives were lost, and many limbs fractured.
In a short time afterwards, Schalch was informed that an advertisement had appeared in the newspapers, by which he was evidently designated, inviting him to call on Colonel Armstrong, at the Tower, and further stating that the interview would probably conduce to his advantage.
He accordingly obeyed the summons, and the result was, the offer of a commission to make choice of any spot within twelve miles of the metropolis, for the erection of a foundery, of which he should have the entire arrangement and superintendance.
Such a proposal was too advantageous for Schalch to hesitate a moment in accepting, and he at length fixed on the warren at Woolwich, as altogether suited to his undertaking.
Here the new foundery was accordingly erected, and the first specimens of ordnance cast under his direction were so generally approved, that he was immediately appointed master founder, which office he continued to hold for the long period of sixty years, when he retired to Charlton.
He closed his honourable, useful, and prolonged life in 1776, at the age of ninety, and his remains were interred in the church-yard of Woolwich.
As an appropriate memorial of him, some of the largest mortars which are now remaining in the arsenal, and were cast under his inspection, are inscribed with his name.
So unremitted was his attention, and so successfully was his scientific knowledge exerted, that not a single accident happened amidst all the hazardous processes in which he was engaged during the long period of his superintendence.

It may here be observed, that the warren, as it was originally called, which Schalch had chosen as the scene of his operations, derived its name from its having actually been a warren of rabbits; but that accidental denomination has given way to one more suited to, as well as descriptive of, its real character.
This depot received the title of the Royal Arsenal, by command of his present majesty, in a visit with which, in the year 1805, he honoured Woolwich.
In time of peace this arsenal is the great depot of naval ordnance; and, even at the present moment, when the number of ships in commission are beyond all former example, the quantity of every kind of military stores is immense.
Some of the mortars weigh upward of four tons and a quarter; while the shells and cannon-shot are scarcely to be numbered.

The repository, which is of considerable extent, contains the military machines for land and sea service, with various models of fortifications, &c.
The arsenal, which occupies a space of nearly sixty acres, contains several buildings, among which are the foundery, aud the late military academy.
In the former are three furnaces, and a machine for boring cannon.
The largest of them will melt about seventeen tons of metal at one time.
The time employed in boring a piece of artillery necessarily depends on the size of it.
A twelve-pounder requires about five days.

Near the foundery are workshops, where the ordnance, when they have been proved, are finished for service.
The brass ordnance alone are cast here, and it may not be generally known, that though they have universally that denomination, they are formed exclusively of tin and copper.
This department is under the direction of an inspector, a master founder, and an assistant founder.
The laboratory is an adjacent building, in which the fireworks, and cartridges, for the use of the army as well as the navy, are made up; and bombs, carcasses, and granadoes are charged.
It is under the direction of a comptroller, a chief fire master, two assistant fire masters, an inspector, and other subordinate officers.
As the cadets have been lately removed to an edifice recently erected for them, on Woolwich Common, the old military academy is unoccupied.
The remaining buildings in the arsenal are storehouses of various descriptions, workshops, one of which contains a planeing machine worked by a steam engine, and other offices appropriated to different uses.
The principal officers in the arsenal are, a clerk of the cheque, a clerk of survey, a store-keeper, &c.
The number of its artificers, labourers, and boys, amounts to about three thousand, besides the convicts belonging to one of the hulks, which is stationed on the river, opposite the arsenal; the other hulk lies before the dock yard.
The convicts, to the amount of about nine hundred, are generally employed in driving piles and other laborious occupations.

The Royal Military Academy, though a building had been erected for it in the year 1719 was not absolutely settled till 1741, when his majesty George the Second was pleased, by warrants, in the course of that year, to direct the founding an academy, as it was therein expressed, "for instructing persons belonging to the military part of the ordnance, in the several branches of the mathematics, fortification, &c.
proper to qualify them for the service of the artillery, and the office of engineers".
Great improvements have, however, been since made in this establishment, to which the superior abilities of its mathematical professors have eminently contributed.
The learned Doctor Derham was the first of them, though his appointment was prior to the final arrangement of the institution.
To him the celebrated Simpson, (of whom we shall give some account,) succeeded, in 1743.
The present professor is Doctor Hutton, whose high reputation and venerable character can receive no addition from any praise this page can offer him.
As the number of cadets encreased, and which now amount to about three hundred, there has been a proportionate augmentation of instructors.
The academy is under the direction of the master-general and board of master, fencing master, &c.
The master-general of the ordnance is perpetual captain of the cadet's company.
The cadets, when they have completed their studies, receive commissions in the artillery or engineers' service.
They must be at least four feet nine inches high at the time of their admission; and be qualified to pass an examination in the Latin grammar, and in arithmetic as far as vulgar fractions inclusively.
It is not essentially requisite, but an acquaintance with the French language is considered as a recommendatory circumstance.
Their age must not be under fourteen nor exceed sixteen.
As soon as they are entered on the establishment they receive pay, which amounts to £45. 12s. 6d. annually, and is considered as sufficient to supply every necessary, except linen.

Before we proceed to give a particular description of the edifice erected for the new Military Academy, we shall dedicate a small space to a man, who was a distinguished ornament of the former one.
Professor Simpson has, by his works, rendered his name illustrious in the wide field of mathematical science, and will ever hold a very high rank in that most useful and distinguished branch of learning.
Nor while he is remembered as a great philosophical character in the world, will he be forgotten in the traditionary annals of the royal military academy of Woolwich as a pre-eminent instructor of youth; whose knowledge could only be equalled by his superior and attractive manner of communicating it.
With great truth has it been said of him, that in his mode of teaching he had a peculiar and happy address; a certain dignity and perspicuity, tempered with such a degree of mildness, as equally engaged the attention, esteem, and friendship of his scholars.
There are not many such examples of eminence attained by the union of genius and industry as appears in the life of this celebrated man.
He was originally a journeyman weaver, whose extraordinary mental powers and ardent desire of knowledge soon predominated over the difficulties, the discouragements, and seclusion of his humble and laborious occupation.
He worked at his loom through the day, and taught what he had acquired of science in the evening.
His earliest notions of things were in favour of judicial astrology, which he had caught, in the first irregular ardor of his spirit of inquiry, of a pedlar, who frequented Market Bosworlh, where his father lived:
but, as may be supposed, he was not long the dupe of such a fallacious system of juggling.
A mind, like his, would soon become enamoured of truth; and find the way to it, by deduction and experiment.
The track he pursued was such as quickly advanced him to distinction, and conducted him to Woolwich, the scene of his glory and of his fame.
It is a medical aphorism, "that perpetual thinking never thinks long".
This opinion seems to have been verified in Professor Simpson, who, after several intervals of enfeebled reason, fell a victim to the severe prosecution of his studies and consequent neglect of exercise, in the fifty-first year of his age.
He died May 14, l76l, at Bosworth, in Leicestershire, whether he had retired by the advice of his physicians.
In a building called Prince Rupert's Tower, near the entrance of the Laboratory, his relict died at the very advanced age of an hundred and two years.

The new Military Academy is situated about a mile from Woolwich, on the upper part of the Common.
It is built in the castellated form, and consists in front, of a centre and two wings, united by corridores, with a range of building behind, containing the hall, servants' offices, &c.
The centre forms a quadrangle, with octagonal towers in the angles, and contains four teaching-rooms, the master's desks being placed in towers on an elevated floor.
In the wings are the apartments for the cadets and chief officers; the latter being in the middle of the wings, which possess a certain degree of elevation:
here are also octangular turrets at the angles.
The whole structure is embattled, and built with brick, whitened over.
Its length is somewhat more than six hundred feet.
This academy was first opened on the twelfth of August, 1806, when the number of cadets was one hundred and twenty-eight.
The expence of this edifice is estimated at one hundred and fifty thousand pounds.
Wyatt was the architect.

From the great augmentation which has taken place in the regiment of artillery, proportionate additions have been, necessarily made in the artillery barracks, which is now become a structure of very large dimensions.
It consists of six ranges of brick buildings, united by a centre of stone, with Doric columns, surmounted with the royal arms and military trophies.
There are also four buildings of inferior height, connecting each range, whose fronts are of stone, with Doric colonnades and ballustrades.
The new riding-school, built after a design of an ancient temple, is one hundred and fifty-feet in length, to which its breadth and height bear a suitable proportion.
On the eastern side of the barracks are the military hospitals, with their comprehensive accommodations.
Various buildings have also been erected on different parts of the common for the use of the artillery, with a guard-house, and a veterinary hospital.
On the west side of the barracks there is a piece of water, where experiments with gun-boats, &c. are occasionally made.
The whole military and civil establishment at Woolwich, is under the immediate superintendance and controul of the master-general and board of ordnance.
Such is the stupendous and magnificent apparatus for forging the thunders of Great Britain; and such the school of science which is to instruct Britons how to wield them to the dismay of its enemies, in every part of the globe.

ERITH WITH BELVEDERE.

Erith in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Erith and Belvedere, 1811

Erith in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Erith and Belvedere, 1818

Erith is a small village on the banks of the Thames, below Woolwich, in Kent, and at the distance of about fourteen miles from London.
Its name is supposed by Lambard, to be derived from the Saxon words Orre-hythe, or the old Haven, of which, indeed, there can be little doubt, as other places in similar situations on the banks of this river have the same termination, and which bears the same meaning.
In certain ancient records it appears to have been written Illiesnes, and in Domesday book Loisnes; and afterwards, by an easy transition, Lesnes; but it was, probably, no more than a manor in Erith parish, and might, for some time, at least, have assumed the leading name from the well known abbey of regular canons, sometimes called Westwood, which stood on the demesne ot the manor of Lesnes.

Its situation was about a mile and three quarters to the west of Erith church, in the road leading to Plumstead and Erith.
This religious house was founded by Richard de Lucy, one of the grand justiciaries of this kingdom, in the reign of King Henry the Second.
He was a gentleman of distinguished eminence, as a statesman and a lawyer, in which respective characters he displayed an active fidelity to his Sovereign, and a strict regard to the interests of the nation.
The Genius of Popery, which was the religion of his country, and indeed of Europe, so far worked upon his imagination and his mind, as to induce him to establish this monastic institution, and to settle on it very considerable endowments.
It was begun by him but a very few years previous to his death; and, on its completion, he retired from the world, and became the Abbot of his own foundation.
The King, who was very anxious to retain the counsel, and preserve the assistance of such an able and experienced servant, employed his utmost endeavoure to dissuade him from such a sacrifice of his most useful life* and such an evident perversion of his superior understanding; but the superstitious influence prevailed; he assumed the he cowl, and retired to the cell.
As another instance of the bigotted spirit by which Richard de Lucy was enslaved: He appointed Thomas-à-Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in conjunction with the Virgin Mary, the patron and protector of his new foundation, though that proud and unforgiving prelate had formerly laid him under a sentence of excommunication, for having supported the cause of his Sovereign against the encroachments of that ambitious churchman, and being a promoter of the constitutions of Clarendon, which were framed with the express design to resist and controul them.
Richard de Lucy, his only son, Godfrey, Bishop of Winchester, and other persons of the family, were interred in the church of this Abbey.
Weever, in his ancient funeral monuments, gives the following curious description of their relics:—
"In the year 1630, some of the tombs and coffins of the Lucies were discovered by workmen, who were employed to dig out stones from the rubbish of this dilapidated fabric.
Among these there was one monument, which, from its being placed in the choir, and near the altar, was conjectured to be that of the founder.
Curiosity, therefore, could not resist the sacrilegious invasion of this receptacle of the sacred dead; and, in consequence of the research, a stone coffin was found, in which, wrapped in a sheet of lead, appeared an ashy, dried carcase, whole and undisjointed, with some remains of hair on the head."
Weever represents himself as having been one of a large concourse of people, who resorted to the spot to contemplate these venerable remains.
Sir John Epsley, at that time Lord of the Manor, ordered the monument to be carefully reinclosed, and, with an honourable piety, planted a bay tree over it.
When Doctor Stukeley, in the year 1753, made his pilgrimage, as he terms it, to this abbey, the tree continued to flourish; and he declares it to be the finest of the kind that he had ever beheld; but the two principal stems have since perished; and, from the weak state of the root, the hope cannot be encouraged, that it will long continue as a sepulchral memorial of the distinguished persons, whose last abode it has so long overshadowed.

It was the opinion of Doctor Stukeley, that the farmbouse, standing on the premises, was the original mansion of the founder, in which he and the abbots, his successors, as they were generally styled, were used to reside.
It is very apparent, however, that all the religious buildings were situated on the south side of the house.
While it was the habitation of the tenant who occupied the land, the area of the church and cloisters was used as a garden; but the cattle now range over the spot as well as the site of the offices; and the ruinous north wall of the church, of which the Doctor made a sketch, an engraving whereof may be seen in the first volume of the Archaeologia, is in a very dilapidated state.
But the boundaries of the whole may still be distinctly traced.
This abbey was suppressed previous to the general dissolution of the monasteries, by the authority of a papal bull, which Cardinal Wolsey had obtained, in order to appropriate its revenues to the endowment of the new college, which he had founded at Oxford.
William Tischerste, the last abbot, signed the instrument of resignation, April 1, 1525; and, in the October following, was instituted to the rectory of Horsemonden, in the diocese of Rochester.
This property, with the appurtenances, was, about the middle of the last century, settled by a Mr. Hawes, on the hospital of St. Bartholomew, London; and that charitable corporation is now in possession of the estate.

It appears that the manor of Erith was, at the time of the Domesday survey, in the possession of Odo, Bishop of Bayeux; but, after his disgrace, it reverted to the Crown.
In the reign of Henry the Second, Richard de Lucy, who has been already mentioned, and was then Justiciary of England, was the owner of it.
His son and grandson regularly inherited it; and, after their death, it devolved to his second daughter Roisie, who was married to Fulbert de Dover.
Roisie, her granddaughter, married Richard, son of Robert de Chilham; and, in the twelfth year of Henry the Third, she recovered the possession of this manor from Robert Fitzwalter, as Hasted states it, on trial by battle.
On her second marriage with Richard Fitzroy, the natural son of King John, the manor of Erith was assigned to her as a maintenance.
She afterwards took a third husband, Richard de Dover, having paid a fine to the King for permission to marry whom she pleased.
By this marriage she had a son and a daughter, the former of whom dying without issue, John, Earl of Athol, son of the latter, became his heir, and, on the decease of his widow, in the thirty-second year of Edward the First, obtained possession of the manor.
Two years after, the King seized his estates, he having been executed for assisting at the coronation of Robert de Bruce, of Scotland.
Erith was afterwards granted to Bartholomew de Badlesmere, who obtained license to hold a weekly market, and two annual fairs there, as well as to have liberty of free warren.
He was executed for high treason, but his estates were restored by Edward the Third, to Giles de Badlesmere, his son; on whose death, in the twelfth year of that reign, they descended to his four sisters and co-heiresses, to one of whom, Elizabeth, wife of William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton, this manor was assigned on a partition; and, on her death, it descended to Roger, afterwards Earl of March, her only surviving son, by Edmund de Mortimer, her first husband, whose descendants attained the crown, in the person of Edward the Fourth.
Henry VIII. granted Erith to Elizabeth Countess of Shrewsbury, whose daughter Anne, by her first marriage, the wife of Peter Compton, Esquire, and by her second, the wife of William Earl of Pembroke, died seized of this manor, in the thirty first year of Queen Elizabeth.
Henry Baron Compton, her only son by her first husband, succeeded, and settled Erith on Sir Thomas Compton, his second son, who married Mary, Countess of Buckingham, relict of Sir George Villiers; but he dying without issue, devised it to Sir William Compton, a valiant and distinguished officer in the service of Charles I.
That gentleman disposed of it to Nicholas Vanacker, a merchant of London, from whose family it passed by the female line to Sir William Hedges, whose son, dying without issue in 1734, bequeathed it to John Wheatley, Esquire, whose descendants have since possessed it.

The church is an ancient structure; consisting of a nave, a chancel, a south chapel, and a south aisle, with a low tower and spire at the west end.
The ivy which grows on its walls gives it a picturesque effect.
The nave and aisle are separated from the chancel and chapel by a screen of wood, decorated with carving.
In the chapel is an alabaster tomb, in a state of mutilation, to the memory of Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, who is represented in her robes and coronet, lying on a mat, with a lion at her feet, and her head on a cushion.
On the sides of the tomb are various shields of arms, with numerous quarterings, displaying the intermarriages and alliances of the family:
the inscription is obliterated, but has been preserved by Weever, who was the rector of this parish in the reign of James I.
The Countess died in the tenth year of Elizabeth; and her only' daughter, Anne, Countess of Pembroke, 'was also buried here, in the thirty-first year of the same reign.
On a slab near the above, are small whole-length figures in brass, of a knight in armour, and his lady: the former appears in his tabard, displaying a bend cotized, between six martlets: the inscription, which is gone, recorded the memory of Sir Richard Walden, Knight, and Margery his wife, the parents of the Countess of Shrewsbury:
the former died in 1506, the latter in 1528.
On another slab are brass figures of a knight and his lady, with the arms of Walden: the former is standing on a greyhound, with his sword hanging before him: the head of the lady is gone, as are the figures of their sons and daughters.
Next to this, on a smaller stone, are figures also in brass, of a male and female of the same family: and on another flat stone i s a large full-length brass figure of a female, in a triangular head-dress.
There is another ancient grave-stone, of the date of 1511, with an inscription that marks the burying-place of John Aylmer and his two wives.
There is also an interesting inscription, that perpetuates the sepulture of Rogerius Sender, who was a servant in the abbey, quondam serviens abbatis conventus de Lesens.
This sepulchral record states that he died on new year's day, 1421.
Among the more modern monuments are several of the Vanackers and Wheatleys, the proprietors of this manor.
In this church a treaty was discussed, in the seventeenth year of King John, between several commissioners appointed by his Majesty, and Richard, Earl of Clare, and others, on behalf of the discontented barons, respecting a peace between the King and them; and for which purpose the latter had a safe conduct, dated the 9th of November, in that year.
Erith is mentioned by Lambard to have been anciently a corporate town; but from what king it acquired this privilege, and when it ceased to enjoy it, cannot be traced.

On the Thames, opposite the town, the last India ships, in their passage up the river, frequently come to an anchor, and lay some time there, in order to be lightened of part of their cargoes, that they may proceed with greater safety.
Such a circumstance naturally occasions a very considerable resort to this place.
Large quantities of corn and wood are annually shipped here, and it supplies the country for some miles round with coals.
The large plantations of fruit-trees are also a lucrative article to the inhabitants of Erith; more particularly as the cherries are observed to ripen very early in the season.
The marsh lands belonging to this parish contain about fifteen hundred acres, which are commonly ploughed for corn, and produce abundant crops.
On the high grounds above Erith are two heaths of considerable extent.
That to the east is called Northumberland, and that to the west Lesnes heath.
On the north side of the former, Mr. Wheatley, of Erith, who served the office of High Sheriff for the county of Kent in 1769, has erected an handsome seat, which comprehends various delightful views both up and down the river, and into the county of Essex.
Its situation is very much exposed to the north and east winds, but ornamental plantations were made, at once to break their force, and to decorate the place.

On Lesnes heath is Belvidere, the beautiful seat of Lord Eardley.
The first mansion was built here by George Hayley, Esquire, who, after the residence of some years, sold it to Frederick Calvert, Lord Baltimore, of Ireland.
This nobleman died here on the 24th of April, 1751, and soon after the estate was purchased by Sampson Gideon, Esquire, whose son, the present owner, was created a baronet in 1759, and advanced to the Irish peerage in June, 1790.
The house *
* Seen in the view, on the right hand. On another eminence to the left, is a look-out tower, in his lordship's grounds.*
is situated about a mile from the river Thames, and nearly the same distance between Erith and Lesnes abbey.
It is a spacious brick mansion, which was rebuilt about thirty years since by the present noble possessor, but retains an elegant drawing-room of the former edifice.
The grounds are of a moderate extent, but disposed and planted with great taste and the happiest effect.
Its elevated situation commands the fine serpentine form of the Thames, animated with its splendid navigation, while the metropolis in the distance, compleats the beautiful and magnificent scene.
The collection of pictures in Belvidere House is not large, but it holds an high rank in the estimation of the connoisseur.
It consists of the following masters [!]:—
View of Venice, Canaletti; The Doge marrying the sea, Canaletti; Time bringing Truth to light, a sketch, Rubens; The alchymist, Teniers; Portrait of Sir John Gage, Holbein. Landscape, G. Poussin; Battle of the Amazons, Rottenhammer; The unjust steward, Quintin Matsys; Noah's ark, Velvel Brughel; St. Catherine, Leonardo da Vinci; Van Trump, Francis Hals; Vulcan, or the Element of fire, Bassan; Horses, Wouwermans; Two insides of churches, De Neef; Dutch woman and her three children, Sir Ant. More; Rembrandt painting an old woman, Himself; A courtezan and her gallant, Georgione; The golden age, Velvel Brughel; Snyders with his wife and child, Rubens; Boors at cards, Teniers; The element of earth, J. Bassan; Marriage at Cana, P. Veronese; Two landscapes, G. Poussin; The genealogy of Christ, Albert Durer; Beggar-boys at cards, Salvator Rosa; Herod consulting the wise men, Rembrandt; Marriage of St. Catharine, Old Pama; The conception, Murillo; The flight into Egypt, Murillo; Vulcan, Venus, Cupid, &c. Tintoret; Mars and Venus, P.Veronese; Christ among the doctors, L Giodano; Duke of Buckingham's mistress, her three children, and a son of Rubens, Rubens; Landscape, Claude; Leopold's gallery, Teniers; Teniers's gallery, Teniers.

PURFLEET.

Purfleet in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Purfleet, 1811

Purfleet in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Purfleet, 1818

This place is a village on the north side of the river Thames, in the county of Essex, and nineteen miles to the east of the Metropolis.
It has a considerable magazine for powder, belonging to government.
The combustible material is deposited in several buildings, detached from each other, so that if any accident should happen to one of them, which, however, is very improbable, it would not communicate any disastrous consequences to the others.
They are all bomb proof, as well as provided with conductors, to avert the effects of lightning, and are constructed in the most skilful manner, to guard against the possibility of explosion.
Purfleet is also remarkable for its lime works, which are the property of Mr. Whitbread, who is so well known for his private virtues, and distinguished conduct in Parliament, in which he represents the town of Bedford.
This lime-kiln establishment is a very large concern, and carried on in a manner that might be naturally expected from the character of the proprietor of it.
The excavation in the chalk-cliff is of great magnitude, and has been worked many years; but Mr. Whitbread has given a new appearance to the place, and additional spirit to the undertaking, by laying down an iron rail-way to encrease the accommodation, and extend the means of conveying the materials dug from the cliff to the water side, and the kilns.
They consist of loam, flints, and chalk.
The business of cartage previous to this improvement employed no less than twenty-five horses, and three or four at most are now sufficient for that purpose; which has caused a diminution of expence that may be readily calculated.
The cliffs are covered with a deep surface of loam, which is sold to the shipping for craft with a readiness and an expedition, which a few years past, would not have been thought possible, by persons engaged in works of this nature.
The cliffs at Purfleet rise boldly from the water, and form a very striking object to the voyager of that part of the river.
The extreme flatness of the shore, on either side of them, and, indeed, of the whole length of that side of the river from Londou to the sea, gives them a considerable degree of importance, as landscape objects.
The view, as presented in the annexed engraving, renders any further attempt to describe them wholly unnecessary; while the river in its agitated and billowy state, with the navigated objects which enliven it, form, we presume, no unpleasiug picture.

INGRESS.

Ingress in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Ingress, 1811

Ingress in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Ingress, 1818

This beautiful place, formerly called Ince-grice is situated about three miles beyond Dartford, in the county of Kent, on the road to Dover; and is now in the possession of William Havlock, Esquire.
It is an elegant mansion, occupying an agreeable elevation from the Thames, which flows before it, presenting a vast variety of maritime objects; as not only the whole commercial flota of the Metropolis passes in due succession, within its view, but that part of its naval shipping connected with the yards of Deptford and of Woolwich.
The prospect also extends across the river into Essex; but, from the extreme flatness, and unpicturesque appearance of its cultivation, is as much as possible, and with great judgment, obscured by, and broken with, plantations.
This estate formerly belonged to the Nuns of Dartford, and consequently became vested in the crown at the dissolution, in the general wreck of monastic property at that period.
It was afterwards granted out by Queen Elizabeth, in the fifth year of her reign; and having passed through various families, by purchase and otherwise, in a long succession of years, became, so lately as in the year 1737, the property of John Carmichael, Earl of Hyndford, afterwards Envoy extraordinary of his Majesty, George the Second, to the courts of Russia and Prussia.
In the year 1748, that nobleman conveyed it to William, Viscount Duncannon, who, on the death of his father, in 1758, became Earl of Besborough, and married Caroline, eldest daughter of William, Duke of Devonshire.
That nobleman, who was distinguished for his taste, made great improvements in the mansion and surrounding grounds; but after the death of Lady Besborough, who was very fond of the place, he sold the estate to John Calcraft, Esquire, an army agent, who made several adjoining purchases, and greatly added to the extent of the domain and its plantations.
In an elegant summer house, built in an excavation of the chalk cliffs, he also arranged a valuable collection of Roman altars, brought from Italy, with statues and other pieces of ancient sculpture, which were placed in, and formed most pleasing decorations, to many parts of the garden.
He died in 1772, when Member of Parliament for Rochester, and by his son the place was sold, in the year 1788, to John Disney Roebuck, Esquire, father of the late owner, of whom it was purchased by the present possessor.

NORTHFLEET.

Northfleet in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Northfleet, 1811

Northfleet in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Northfleet, 1818

The county of Kent, from its contiguity to the shores of ancient Gaul, has been the theatre of many important actions in the early periods of English history.
The opinion of many writers, that the station of the Romans, called Vagniacæ, was at Northfleet, or in its immediate vicinity, has received additional strength from the very interesting antiquities lately discovered at Southfleet, and described in the fourteenth volume of the Archælogia.
The valley, called Ebbsfleet, by Philpot, was once covered with water, and being locked in on each side with hills, made a secure road for shipping, which induced the Danes to make it a winter station for their navy.
This valley has been gained from the river by an embankment, "thrown up and maintained at the charge of the county, to stop its farther progress, which, however, it cannot do at certain extraordinary high tides. *Hasted's Kent*.
The chalk works, and the contiguity of the village to the Watling-street of the Romans, have probably made it a settlement of the earliest antiquity in this county.
The church exhibits many ancient and curious monuments: but a subject more interesting to the present, and future generarations, is the docks of Thomas Pitcher, Esq. which afford the most striking example of individual enterprise on the banks of the Thames.
In the year 1782, this place presented a barren waste of chalky cliffs, from seventy to eighty feet perpendicular; but after a great expense and trouble, part of it was formed into a dock in 1788, and a ship of 1200 tons built for the East India Company's service therein.
Since that period the premises have been made capable of building four of the largest ships in the Royal Navy at one time.
They extend 1000 feet in front of the river, with a flow of water twenty feet deep, the foundation of the slip and docks being of solid chalk.
There is also a double dry dock, capable of holding two first rates at the same time; a single dock that will hold the largest ship in the East India Company's service, and a wet dock containing three acres and a half.
The whole of these important works comprise an extent of nearly twenty acres.
The ridge of chalk left standing between the two great excavations, and seen in the view, appears to have been left for the convenience of a nearer communication with the river side.

NORTHFLEET LIME KILNS.

Northfleet Lime Kilns in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Northfleet Lime Kilns, 1811

Northfleet Lime Kilns in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Northfleet Lime Kilns, 1818

In whatever point of view the county of Kent is considered, it will be found to possess no common portion of provincial eminence.
The historian, the antiquary, the naturalist, the agriculturist, and the lover of landscape beauty, will find it a source of gratification in their various pursuits, to instruct, improve, and embellish the human mind.
Northfleet is an interesting feature on the banks of the Thames:
of its docks some account has been already given; and we proceed to the manufactory of lime, which its chalky cliffs so amply supplies, and whose appearance it represented in the engraving that accompanies this page.
It may not be considered as a misemployment of the reader's attention to direct it to the process by which the lime is produced, and the particular occupation of those employed in it.
Lime is a soft, friable substance, obtained by the calcination of stones, shells, chalk, &c. and is not only used by architects, builders, plasterers, sugar-refiners, tanners, &c. but is an excellent manure for land, where it is sandy or a mixed gravel: it is also an officinal article of the apothecary's shop.
Lime is produced at Northfleet entirely from chalk, which is not so strong as that obtained from stone.
The cliff furnishes the chalk from which it is dug, and is carefully separated from the flints, which are found amongst it, before it is carted to the kiln; where it is thrown with very thin alternate layers of coal.
The fire is kept continually burning; and when the chalk is sufficiently calcined, which requires about twelve hours, it is taken out at the bottom, while fresh supplies are discharged into the upper part.
The proportion of coals is about one-eighth of the material on which is it employed.
In this operation the coal is entirely consumed, as neither cinder or dust remains.
One burner and one shoveler are sufficient for each kiln, besides women, who bring the chalk in baskets to feed its mouth.
The internal part of the kiln is circular, and is an inverted cone, being eighteen feet in diameter at the top, and eleven at the bottom.
There are seventeen of these laboratories at Northfleet continually burning.
John Calcraft, Esq. is the lord of the manor, and owner of these productive cliffs, which are rented by Mr. Howard, of Northfleet.
Fossils of various kinds are frequently found in the solid stratum of chalk, among which human jaw-bones have been occasionally discovered.
The excavation is now directed towards Gravesend, as the high road above it prevents its being carried further into the interior part of the parish.

GRAVESEND.

Gravesend in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Gravesend, 1811

Gravesend in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Gravesend, 1818

This town is situate on the southern banks of the Thames, in the county of Kent, and twenty two miles and an half east of London.
It is the first port on the river, and, in a commercial point of view, it is worthy of particular consideration.
Its name, like that of so many other places, offers a subject for the sagacity of the antiquaries, in the article of derivatives.
In the Domesday Book, it is written Gravesham, and in the Textus Roffensis, it is denominated Gravesande.
Lambard, however, derives its name from the word Gerefa, which signifies a ruler or portreeve, and may be thought to signify the termination of the district subject to his jurisdiction.
The Saxon word Graf, implying a coppice or small wood, which with the addition of the word aude, would form the name Graf's-aude, or the Wood's-end, has been another root of the present denomination.

Gravesend, however, from whatever combination of words it may proceed, consists of several narrow streets, built on a declivity, which inclines towards the Thames.
Part of it is situated in the parish of Milton, which adjoins it on the east side.
At the time of the Domesday survey, the manor belonged to Odo, bishop of Bayeux in Normandy, who having been disgraced, was deprived of it.
It was then granted to the family of the Cremilles, who had other large possessions in the county of Kent, and continued to retain it till the reign of Edward the Second; about which time it was escheated to the crown.
It then appears to have passed under a succession of grants and inheritances, till it was alienated by Sir Thomas Gawdye to William Lord Cobham, on the attainder of whose son and heir, Henry, in the first year of James the First, it reverted to the crown ;
and, iu the tenth year of that reign, was granted to Lodowic Stuart, afterwards Duke of Richmond, whose collateral descendant, the Earl of Darnley of Cobham hall, in the county of Kent, is the actual possessor.

Halsted, in his history of Kent, mentions that the Lord of the Manor of Gravesend, has a right to hold a court for the regulation of the boats and water-carriage, between Gravesend and the Metropolis, which court, in the old records, is called Curia cursus aquæ;
and in the thirty third year of Elizabeth it is stated, in an old roll, in the possession of the Earl of Darnley, to have been held by William Lambarde, steward to William Lord Cobham.
It does not appear, however, that this court has been held for a great number of years;
at the same time, in the various acts of parliament, which have been passed for regulating the navigation of the river Thames, there has always been a clause in them, containing a general reservation of the rights of the heirs of the Duke of Richmond and Lenox, which was always inserted with an especial view to the power and privileges of the water-court at Gravesend.
The parishes of Gravesend and Milton were incorporated by letters patent of Queen Elizabeth, dated at East Greenwich, in her tenth year; but the principal charter was granted by Charles the First, in the year 1632.
Before that time the chief officer had been called the Portreeve; but by this charter it was ordered that he should be called Mayor; and in that officer, twelve jurats, twenty-four common-councilmen, a seneschal, or high steward, and other inferior officers, the government of the town is now vested.
The liberty of holding two additional markets weekly, and a four days annual fair, was also granted at the same time,

together with a full confirmation of the exclusive privilege, enjoyed by the inhabitants, of conveying passengers and goods by water to the Metropolis.
The sole right to the Ferry between Gravesend and London, seems to have been prescriptive, even as earlv as the year 1293; when it appears, according to Halsted, from an ancient record in the possession of the church of Rochester, that the watermen were ordered to take, in future, but one halfpenny, of a person passing, as they had formerly done.
The first impression of this regulation will be that it must have been extremely oppressive; but when it is considered, that, even at a later period, a quarter of wheat could be bought for four shillings, a bull for seven shillings and sixpence, a fat sheep for one shilling, and an ewe for fourpence, the apparent injustice will be immediately done away.
Towards the latfer end of the next century, it was granted to the Abbot &c. of St. Mary Graces, then owners of the manor,
"That the inhabitants of Gravesend and Milton, should have the sole privilege of conveying passengers from thence to London, or carry all passengers in boats, provided for the purpose, either at twopence per head, with their farthell or trusse, or let the hire of the whole boat at four shillings."
These prices continued till the year 1737, when the fare of a single person was raised to sixpence.
A further rise took place about the year 1750, when the fare of a single person became ninepence.
At the same time the open tilt boats were discarded for vessels of a larger size, and built with decks, but still retaining the former name.
Since the year 1790, the boats have encreased in size, and the fare has been advanced to one shilling.
Five of these vessels are licensed by the Mayor, and regularly sail to and from London with every tide; and the passage is sometimes made in four hours.
Besides this, which is called the Long Ferry, there is a second ferry to Tilbury in Essex, which lies immediately opposite to Gravesend.

To remove the inconveniences attending this ferry, to which, as there lies no other passage, all carriages, horses, cattle, troops going backwards and forwards to and from Essex must have recourse, a plan was proposed, in the vear 1798, to form a circular passage or tunnel, under the bed of the Thames, between Gravesend and Tilbury, adopted to all the purposes of land communication.
This scheme was for sometime warmly patronised by the gentlemen of both counties.
A large sum of money was subscribed for carrying the scheme into execution, and the work was commenced on the Gravesend side.
The Water, however, soon began to impede the progress of the workmen, and the undertaking was at length abandoned as altogether impracticable.

In the reign of Richard the Second, the advancing prosperity of Gravesend was greatly obstructed, by a bold enterprize of the French, who sailed up the Thames in gallies, and not only burned and plundered many of the houses, but carried away a considerable number of the inhabitants as prisoners.
It was in consequence of the loss sustained by the town on this occasion, that the king granted to it an exclusive right to the water-passage to London.

In August 1727, another ruinous catastrophe befel this town, when it suffered from a very destructive conflagration, which consumed the church, one hundred and twenty houses, and was at length stopped by blowing up some considerable buildings with gunpowder.

Henry the Eighth caused a strong battery or platform to be erected at Gravesend, to repel any predatory attack from the French; at the same time a block-house was formed at Tilbury, upon the same defensive plan, which is now improved into a very strong and important fortress; while the original one at Gravesend was so little attended to, that its precise situation cannot now be correctly ascertained.
A small embrazure, mounting a few guns, seems, however, to have been kept up for the defence of Gravesend, till about the year 1778, when a new battery of sixteen guns, was raised on the east side of the town, near the New Tavern, which had been formed from the buildings of an ancient chauntry, belonging to the parish of Milton, and was employed as a kind of barracks for the attendant officers of artillery.
Since that time, another battery of sixteen guns has been erected on a spot nearer the town.

Among the ceremonials of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and at a time when the splendor of the corporation of London was often displayed on the Thames, it was a special regulation of that politic Princess, that the Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, and the Livery companies, should receive all eminent strangers and ambassadors at Gravesend, in their formalities, and attend them to London in state, in their barges.
If the ceremony was ordered by land, as some peculiar convenience might sometimes render necessary, the metropolitan corporation met the high and noble personages in their gowns and on horseback.

The church is dedicated to Saint George, and was built on the site of that which was burned down, between the years 1732 and 1735, under an act of the fourth of George the Second.
It is a plain, brick building, with stone quoins, cornices, &c. and has the following inscription on a fascia that embraces the tower.
Hanc Ædem incendio lugubri deletam, Georgius Secundus Rex munificentissimus, senatus consulto instaurandam decrevit.
The interior consists of a spacious nave and chancel, with a large gallery on the north side, and an organ loft at the west end.
As no interments have been suffered to take place in it, no monuments appear in it: an admirable regulation, which it would be well if universally adopted.
The improvements in Gravesend, since the year 1764, have been very considerable.

At that time a new Townhall was erected by the coporation.
It is supported in front by six columns, and at the back by three arches.
In the open space beneath, is a market for poultry, &c.

In the year 1767, a new wharf, crane, and causeway were compleated; and certain small tolls for cranage and wharfage are appropriated to their repair.
In the year 1773, an act was passed for paving, cleansing, and lighting the principal streets, so that it now may be said to possess all the public accommodation of which it is susceptible.
The increase of trade and population in this place, has been very rapid since the middle of the last century.
The latter amounts to at least four thousand souls; and the number of houses are supposed to be correctly stated at upwards of seven hundred.
The employment of the greater part of the inhabitants is naturally connected with maritime objects.

A small manufactory for cables and ropes is established here; and about thirty years since it possessed a yard for shipping; but that had been long disused, when it was taken by a Quaker, of the name of Clevely; and several men of war and frigates, besides smaller vessels, have been since built in it.
Among the former, were L'Achille of eighty guns, the Colossus of seventy-four, and the Director of sixty-four.
This yard is at the north western extremity of the parish.

The jurisdiction of the city of London extends to about one mile below the town, to the extremity of the parish of Milton; and beyond that, coals pay no duty to the city.
All outward-bound ships are obliged to anchor in the reach before Gravesend, till they have been visited by the searchers, belonging to the office of the customs, which has been established here.
Most of the East and West India trade, and indeed of all outward-bound ships, are supplied here with live and dead stock, as well as with vegetables; upwards of eighty acres of ground, within the parish and that of Milton, being cultivated for that purpose.
The asparagus also, which is produced here, is remarkable for its size and flavour, and is considered as one of the vegetable delicacies of the London markets.
A bathing-house was erected in the year 1796, by a subscription among the principal inhabitants, for the purpose of salt-water bathing.
This circumstance has proved an attraction to strangers, who add to the great number of visitors, whom the shipping business collects in this town.
The parish includes about four hundred and twenty acres, which vary in value, from twenty-five shillings to three pounds per acre.

Having given the history of Gravesend, to as great an extent as our limits would allow, we shall conclude the article with a brief account of its honours.
Gravesend gave a title to an ancient family, of whom Sir Stephen de Gravesende, occurs in the list of knights who accompanied Edward the First to Scotland, in his twenty eighth vear.
Richard de Gravesend, another of this family, was elevated to the See of London, in the year 1280; as was his nephew, Stephen de Gravesend, in the year 1318.
His heir, Sir Thomas de Gravesend, was a knight in the reign of Edward the Third.
The celebrated French mathematician Gravesand, has been supposed by some heraldic antiquaries to have been descended from this family.

Danish Greenlandman Breaking up at Gravesend.

Danish Greenlandman Breaking up at Gravesend  in Thames, Cooke & Cooke 1818
Danish Greenlandman Breaking up at Gravesend, 1818

Gravesend is a place of considerable consequence on the Thames, being the first port on the river, and consequently connected in a particular manner with the universal navigation of it.
The port of London terminating just below this place, there is an office of customs established here; and all outwardbound ships are obliged to anchor in the road before the town, until they have beeen visited by the proper officers: but homeward-bound ships pass without notice, unless to receive the tide-waiters on board.
Here is also a ferry which conveys, and sometimes on a tossing wave, not only horses and cattle, but even carriages, to the Essex shore.
Gravesend, as an object, has no picturesque character, when separated from the scenery of the water.
The country indeed rises prettily behind it, and is enlivened by a windmill, which is so situated as to serve for a landmark; and consequently commands very extensive views, both up and down the river.
The engraving presents only a distant glance of the place; the principal object being the Breaking-up of a Danish Greenlandman, a vessel of remarkable figure and construction, suited to its particular purposes and navigation.
It forms a strong and striking feature of the design, finely relieved by the appropriate, but softened circumstances of the interior of the picture, which at once unites the characters of boldness and amænity[sic].

TILBURY FORT.

Tilbury Fort in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Tilbury Fort, 1811

Tilbury Fort in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Tilbury Fort, 1818

This view is taken from the river;—the chapel appears on the left hand—the causeway under the principal gate is for the king's troops only—the suttling-house adjoins— the next causeway is for ordinary purposes—the block-house, now a powder-magazine, is seen behind the vessels—the gunpowder wharf is extended into the river for the purpose of receiving it into the fort at all times of the tide; at its extremity is seen the crane, and beyond that the flag-staff battery.
The river, at this place, is about three quarters of a mile wide, and in the view is seen under the influence of a fresh breeze, with vessels working down the river, the small Gravesend boats are making up for passengers, whom they are privileged to bring on shore.

Tilbury Fort is situated in Essex, opposite to the strong works constructed at Gravesend, and may properly be considered as the chief key to the city of London.
The fortifications are regular: they were planned and executed by Sir Martin Beckman, chief engineer to King Charles the Second.
The situation being low and marshy, it was necessary to drive two ranges of piles, one above the other, reaching below the bed of the river Thames; the lower range being pointed with iron, enter the solid chalk rock which extends to the opposite hills in Kent.
The works are perfect, and consist of ravelines, tenailles, counterscarp, and covered way, surrounded by a double moat, the innermost of which is one hundred and eighty feet broad.
Drawbridges are erected across these moats, which give the situation a lively and pleasant effect, towards the great road to Chelmsford.
The esplanade is extensive, and the bastions are considered to be the largest in England.
The works on the land side are strong and regular, and the bastions are faced with bricks.
But the chief security of the fort consists in its being so constructed as to lay the extended level country under water; and thus render it impossible for an enemy to approach in that direction.
To give additional strength to this part of the fortification, two redoubts of brick have been erected.
On the side fronting the river is raised a strong curtain.
The principal entrance is through a large and highly adorned gateway, in the front of which is inscribed, in marble:—
Carolus II. Rex. A. Reg. 34.
By the original plan, a water bastion was designed to project into the river, in order to defend the two curtains.
At this place there is a ditch strongly pallisaded.
Nearly adjoining stands a strong tower, built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, called the Block House, but is now converted into a powder magazine.
In the place of the counterscarp, designed to fill up the vacant space on both sides of the platform, are mounted one hundred and six cannons, carrying balls from 32 to 42lbs. presenting an appearance awful and terrible.
On the bastions and curtains surrounding, are mounted, at regular distances, guns carrying balls of 9lbs. each.

The situation of the fort is truly singular on this account, being built on the confines of two parishes, viz. Chadwell and West Tilbury, through the middle of which formerly ran the great road leading to the passage at Gravesend.
On the west-side, situated in Chadwell parish, are erected the barracks for the soldiers, guard-house, suttling-house, and chapel.
In the West Tilbury confines, are built the houses for the principal officers of the garrison.
They consist of seven distinct habitations, divided into various apartments, and suited to the rank of the officers.
The exterior of the houses, viewed from the gate, present a pleasant aspect, being all built in a neat and regular manner.
But the interior parts are not commodiously adapted to form separate apartments, insomuch, that when a great number of officers reside, no small inconvenience arises from the distribution of the rooms, which generally run one into another.
The greatest inconvenience, however, is often felt from a scarcity of good water.
Here is no spring or well of fresh water, and the garrison depends, for supply, on rain, which is collected, from the roofs of the houses, into reservoirs, and pumped from the same when occasion requires; but in dry summers, when the garrison is full of soldiers, it is conveyed by water carriage from Gravesend.
Here is to be seen a gun, cast in the time of the Commonwealth, under its protector, Oliver Cromwell, taken from an old redoubt near Gravesend, and said to be erected by Henry the Eighth, when he fortified the coast against the incursions of his continental enemies.
The barracks foe the soldiers are capable of receiving three hundred men.
A desirable and necessary improvement is intended, and about to be carried into execution, viz. a large building to be erected behind the soldiers' barracks.
The upper part is designed for an hospital, and the lower for a common kitchen and wash-house; the present state of the garrison requires these accommodations.
The barracks are chiefly occupied by recruits, who daily arrive from London, and the northern parts of the kingdom, particularly from Scotland.
After being examined and approved by the general of the district, they are sent on board a transport, hired for the purpose of conveying them to the grand depot in the Isle of Wight; and from thence they are distributed into their respective regiments in the East and West Indies.
To preserve order and regularity in the garrison, a detachment of soldiers, from Chatham, under the command of a lieutenant, amounting to fifty rank and file, mount guard, and are changed every month.
For the purpose of keeping the batteries in good order, are stationed six invalid artillery-men, under the command of a master gunner.

But the principal use of the fort, at this time, consists in its being a grand powder magazine.
The buildings are bombproof, and contain many thousand barrels filled with ball cartridges; from them the fleet and army are conveniently supplied.
The present governor is General Sir Thomas Musgrave, Bart.
His salary is £300 per annum; besides the profits arising from the rents of the suttling and ferry houses, which greatly exceed that sum; and, from present circumstances, might admit of being easily raised to twice that amount.
The salaries of the other officers are inadequate to their support; that of the chaplain does not exceed £35 per annum.
Near the principal gate, and above the guard-house, there is fitted up a small but neat chapel, wherein is performed divine service on Sundays and other solemn occasions.

In the northern part of the parish, at West Tilbury heath, the four Roman proconsular ways crossed each other.
In the year 630 the village gave name to the see of a bishop, called St. Ceadda, or St. Chadd, who converted the East Saxons to the Christian faith.
On the glebe of the rector of the parish was discovered, in the year 1727, a spring of chalybeate water.
It is situated in a field below the church, covered by a small building, and yields considerable increase to the income of the living.
In the manor-house, adjoining the church, the property of ? Hunt Micklefield, Esq. is a well of the same quality, yielding equal advantage to the possessor.

Near this place Queen Elizabeth assembled her forces when the kingdom was threatened by the Spanish Armada, arrogantly, as it was falsely, called.
Whatever were the foibles of Elizabeth, as a woman, the British throne was never filled by a more consummate politician:
her talents in the cabinet were only equalled by her personal courage.
Her reign was an era of glory, which, for splendour and permanence, is unrivalled in the annals of England.
Her great qualities acquired not only the implicit confidence, but the real affection of all ranks of her people.
"The counsel, upon mature deliberation, gave order for the executing and disposing of land service, and chiefly what strength, and in what place, it were best to plant an armie of defence, and in the end it was concluded, the rendevous should be at Tylbury.
The ground having been surveyed before, forthwith were trenches cutte; their next thwart neighbour, Gravesend, was then likewise fortified; and westerne barges thither brought, to make a bridge like to that at Antwerp, to stop the entrance of the daring foe, and give free passage to horse and foote between Kent and Essex, as occasion served.
"
The Queen then made a progress to Tilbury, where she thus addressed the army :—
* Nichol's Progresses of Queen Elizabeth *
"My loving people, we have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people.
Let tyrants fear;
I have always so behaved myself, that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects.
And therefore, I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all;
to lay down, for my God, and for my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust.
I know I have but the body of a week and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realms; to which, rather than any dishonour should grow by me, I, myself, will take up arms—I, myself, will be your general—judge—and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.
"
Upon this an universal acclamation rent the air; and, although this little army consisted of no more than fifteen thousand foot and three thousand horse,
"in the campe their most felicite was hope of fight with the enemy, where ofttimes divers rumours ran of their foes approch, and that present battell would be given them, then they were as joyfull at such newes as if lustie giants were to run a race."
In the long train of glorious events which have succeeded the reign of Elizabeth, it would be difficult to point out one which has dignified the name of Britons in a more eminent manner, or has, perhaps, had an equal tendency to impress foreign countries with a reverence for the English name, than the memorable defence made by Elizabeth at the period of the Spanish invasion.

Tilbury Fort Gateway.

Tilbury Fort Gateway in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Tilbury Fort Gateway, 1811

Tilbury Fort Gateway in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Tilbury Fort Gateway, 1818


HADLEIGH CASTLE, ESSEX.

Hadleigh Castle in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Hadleigh Castle, Essex, 1811

Hadleigh Castle in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Hadleigh Castle, Essex, 1818

The site of this castle, now, as it has long been, a ruin, is on the brow of a steep hill, commanding the estuary of the Thames, at a small distance to the west of the town of Leigh, in the county of Essex.
It was erected by Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, in the reign of Henry III. but its domain appears to have been comprehended in the honour of Raleigh, and to have belonged to Suene, being one of the fifty-five lordships in his possession at the time of the Domesday survey.
Henry de Essex, Suene's grandson, having been dispossessed of his estates by Henry III. in consequence of his dastardly conduct in the Welsh wars, Hadleigh was granted by that monarch to Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, who built the castle:
but that nobleman afterwards falling into disgrace, the king again seized it, and committed the custody of the castle to Richard de Thang.
From this period the lands were held of the crown by different families, and among others they came into possession of Thomas de Woodstock, who is said to have been smothered at Calais, in 1397, by the connivance of that weak and unfortunate monarch, Richard II.
At length this castle and its domain was finally granted, by Edward VI. to Richard Lord Riche, from whom it has passed to the family of the Barnards.

This castle, though now, as we have already observed, in a very dilapidated state, and overrun with bushes and brushwood, bears in its decay the marks of ancient magnificence and grandeur.
The area enclosed by the walls is nearly of an oval habitations, for places of defence, or the tranquil offices of religious life.
The entrance at the north-west angle, is between the remains of two towers, and a deep ditch appears to have extended along the north side.
The principal remains of this once stately building are two towers, at the south-east and north-east angles.
Their exterior form is circular, but each of them contains five octangular apartments.
In the south-east tower, above what appears to have been a fire-place, are some thin bricks, disposed in the herringbone manner.
The inside of each tower has been cased with squares of chalk, a great part of which still remains.
These towers are of uncommon strength and power of resistance, their walls being nine feet thick at the bottom, and about five in their upper parts.

Hadleigh church possesses no circumstance either architectural or sepulchral, which merits particular notice.
It consists of a nave and semicircular chancel, separated from each other by a large heavy arch.
The windows are small, and lancet-shaped: and on the south wall are the remains of niches, long since deprived of the sacred images which Popish superstition had placed in them.

Canvey Island

Canvey Island, which forms a part of the view, may be considered as worthy of attention, from its having been wrested from the watery element.
Its length is about five miles, and its breadth two; containing about two thousand six hundred acres of marsh land, appropriated chiefly to the pasture of sheep and cattle.
It is formed by the channel which runs from Leigh up to South Bemfleet, and continues to Old Haven, where it again meets the Thames.
The strand is remarkable for being covered with empty cockle shells for a considerable distance, and which have been observed there as long as can be traced by the memory of man.
On this island is a chapel, and about fifty houses.
Across the creek called Hadleigh Ray is a causeway leading into it, from the main land.

LEIGH.

Leigh in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Leigh, 1811

Leigh in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
Leigh, 1818

Leigh, or, as it is sometimes written, Lea, is a small village on the Essex shore of the Thames, and one of the first objects that strikes the eye of the mariner on the entrance of his vessel into that river.
It is principally inhabited by fishermen: at the same time it has a sufficient degree of trade to require the establishment of a custom-house.
The parish church stands on an eminence, which rises to a considerable height from the water, with the Parsonage-house beside it, and forms a picturesque object.
It is an ancient structure, but contains nothing worthy of particular notice.
The tower is mantled with ivy, from which, in the language of the poet, "The owl may to the moon complain."
The village is in the bottom by the side of the water; and, aided by the masts of the vessels that its trade collects thither, becomes a pretty feature of the landscape.
The View, as represented in the Plate, looks up the river, comprehending, with the objects already mentioned, Canvey Island, and Hadleigh Castle, in the distance.
It is taken from the top of the Cliffs near South End.
About two miles below Leigh is the eastern termination of the jurisdiction of the City of London on the Essex shore of the river.
A stone appears on the bank, called the Crow Stone.
It is inscribed with the names of several of the mayors of London, who have officially visited the spot.
Sir Charles Flower, Bart. who enjoyed the metropolitan chair during the year 1809, appears to have been the last who viewed this point of his municipal power.

THE CROW STONE.

The Crowstone in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
The Crowstone, 1818


SOUTH END.

Southend in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
South End, 1811

Southend in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1818
South End, 1818

This place has, within a few years, risen into notice, and from being, in a great measure, unknown, even by name to the inhabitants of the metropolis, has lately risen to a comparative consequence in that class of provincial towns or villages, whose situation allures the idle and the gay, the opulent and the unhealthy, to seek for variety, pleasure, or salt water, during the summer season.
It is situated in the parish of Prittlewell, on the north eastern extremity of the shore of the Thames in the county of Essex.
It is opposite to the Isle of Grain, which forms the south eastern or Kentish shore, forming one side of the mouth of the Medway.
The Isle of Sheppy forms the other, and with the fortress and naval scenery of Sheerness, presents itself to the view of South End, across the broad confluence of those rivers.
At the end of what is called the Nore Land is a floating light, placed in a hulk, for the safety of the navigation:
around it the guard-ships are stationary, while the scene is ever varying from the numerous vessels, which British commerce is unceasingly receiving into its bosom; or dismissing, laden with its treasures, to every part of the world.
South End may certainly boast a very delightful situation, from its being placed in the highly cultivated shore of the finest river in Europe, where it assumes a grandeur suited to the ocean which it approaches.
But while it possesses what may be denominated a large extent of marine prospect, it is not without its portion of sylvan beauty.
At the same time its contiguity to London is a favourable circumstance, as the distance is only forty miles, and the road which leads to the metropolis is through a very pleasing country:
from this ready communication, either by land or by water, it has an advantage over every other place of summer amusement of the same description.
The improvements which have raised this place from a state of obscurity, have been on a most liberal scale, and such as its favourable situation appeared to demand.
The lofty and finely wooded bank that rises from the old town, is crowned by a very handsome row of houses, called the Terrace, and which the engraving particularly represents.
They are constructed after a very handsome and uniform design, and command the charming scene, which has been already, though imperfectly, described.
One of the wings contains a commodious hotel and handsome assembly-room; and in its immediate vicinity are a circulating library and convenient theatre.
The slope beneath the terrace is cloathed with foliage, and the wood is intersected by meandering walks, which lead to the edge of high-water mark.
The old town stretches along the lower part of the shore to the eastward, and has rapidly increased in its buildings and accommodations.
It has two good inns, a public library, several convenient bathing machines, with hot and cold baths, into which the salt water flows; and every convenience for land and water excursions, particularly the latter, for which the place is so well adapted.
The adjacent parish church of Prittlewell, is an handsome structure, with a lofty conspicuous gothic tower, decorated with pinnacles.
Thus, while South End derives its chief beauty from the mighty river on whose shore it stands, it makes the return of a very pleasing object to the vessels that pass and repass before it.

SHEERNESS.

Sheerness in Thames, Cooke & Owen 1811
Sheerness, 1811

This place is situated on the extreme northern point of the Isle of Shepey.
It is a maritime and market town of some consequence, and the principal one in the island.
It is by nature a morass, and so it continued till the reign of Charles the Second, when it was found necessary to fortify it for the security of the Medway, the entrance of which it effectually commands.
That river being the principal station of the royal fleet, Hasted states, that the King himself, having been made sensible of the importance of the spot, determined to erect a strong fort here, for which purpose he made two journies to the place in the beginning of the year 1667; and having attended to the commencement of the work, left it to be completed under the care of the engineer in chief, Sir Martin Beckman, and one of the commissioners of the ordnance.
From some intervening obstructions, however, the new works were not in a sufficient state of resistance, when the Dutch fleet made its memorable attempt upon the shipping in the Medway, in the month of June following.
No more than twelve guns were then mounted, which were soon silenced, and the works destroyed by the enemy's ships.
A number of men were then landed, who took possession of the fort, and the hostile fleet proceeded up the river.
The Dutch, after destroying the shipping as high up the Medway as Upnor Castle, abandoned the enterprize; and, re-embarking the troops which they had landed at Sheerness, proceeded along the coasts of Essex and Suffolk, which they continued for some time to fill with alarm.
This mischievous and mortifying event sufficiently proved the necessity of a very strong fortification on the spot.
A regular fort was therefore immediately built, and mounted with a line of large and heavy cannon: several small forts were also erected on both sides of the Medway, for its complete defence.
Since that time, Sheerness has received so great an accession of strengh, that an enemy's ship could not pass it without a certainty of its being sunk, or at least totally disabled.
The garrison is commanded by a governor, a lieutenant-governor, a fort-major, and other inferior officers.
The ordnance branch is under the direction of a storekeeper, a clerk of the checque, and a clerk of the survey.
The King's Yard, or Dock, is contiguous to the Fort; but it was not formed till the latter had acquired a great degree of its present strength and security.
This yard was principally intended for the repair of ships which had received only partial injuries; and for building frigates and smaller vessels, from forty guns, downwards.
The principal officers consist of a resident commissioner, and his two clerks; a master shipwright, and two assistants; a master attendant, a clerk of the cheque, a clerk of the survey, a store-keeper, and others of inferior rank, as in the Dockyard at Chatham.
The Chapel is a modern edifice, erected at the expence of Government for the use of the garrison; but all marriages, burials, and other ecclesiastical rites are performed at the church of Minster, to which Sheerness is a chapelry.
The civil jurisdiction, however, has been entirely separated from that parish.
The number of inhabitants within the fortress and dock-yard, as returned under the last act, and independent of the soldiery, was one thousand, four hundred and twenty-two.
If the honses without the fortress, and in the old ships of war stationed on the shore as break-waters, were included, five hundred more might be added.
The hulls of those ships are occupied by numerous families, and present a very singular appearance; the chimnies being raised of brick from the lower-gun decks.

The inhabitants of Sheerness had experienced a very great inconvenience from the scarcity of fresh water, which was chiefly brought in vessels from Chatham.
The Board of Ordnance, however, at length determined, that a trial should be made of sinking a well within the fort.
This important undertaking was commenced in April, 1781; and after various obstructions, a fine wholesome spring of fresh water was found at the vast depth of three hundred and twenty-eight feet.
In a few days it was within eight feet of the top, and has ever since produced a never-failing supply of that element, which is so essential to the health of man, and the comforts of life.
The View represents the Town and Fortress of Sheerness, as it presents itself to the Medway, the mouth of which river forms a distinguished feature of the picture.