the river Darent*, on which it is situated, and the antient ford across the stream, but now over it, into the eastern parts of the county.

The Darent is not the only stream which passes through Dartford. A small brook, which rises at Hawley, some... what more than a mile to the south of the town, crosses it near the Bull Inn, the present post-house. It is commonly called the Crampit, but the Crawford is its proper name. Beyond the church runs the Darent, and the commodious bridge built over it repaired at the expence of the county. When a bridge was first erected is not mentioned. It ap

*It is not agreed, whether the Darent takes its rise at Squerries, near Westram, in Kent, or at Titsey, in Surrey, because a spring in both these parishes is contributory to it. Afterwards the river runs to Brasted, to Sundridge, and to Otford; but between Brasted and Otford it receives five small streams. From Otford, the course of the river is to Shoreham, to Lullingstone, to Eynsford, to Horton Kirby, to Sutton at Hone, to Darent, and to Dartford. According to Leland, the term Darent signifies, in the British language, a clear water; and Spenser, in his famous poem, in which he mentions the rivers attending on the Thames, celebrates the transparent property of this river.

And the still Darent, in whose waters clean,

Ten thousand fishes play, and deck his pleasant stream.

The thousands of fishes with which the Darent is stored, is one branch of the poet's encomium. Had the Cray been his theme, he probably would have particularly distinguished, not the quantity, but the quality, of these watery animals; and in that river, as well as in the Thames, might we have read of

Swift trouts, diversify'd with crimson stains.

Nor can it be denied, that the trout of the Cray are far superior to those of the Darent, with respect to colour, and consequently to flavour; an excellency which ought not to have been unnoticed in the description of that beautiful vale.

A little below Dartford bridge, the Darent becomes navigable for barges; and, at about the distance of two miles, receives the Cray into its channel; but when it has passed the town it is no more a clear stream, and ceases to be styled a river; and, within two miles after its union with the Cray, disembogues itself into the Thames, under the degrading ap pellation of Dartford Creek. This mark of debasement was not cast upon it when Spenser wrote his poem, Lambard his Perambulation, and Camdén his Britannnia; but is now fixed by usage.

pears,

pears, however, by an inquisition taken in the fourth of Edward III. after the death of Edmund earl of Woodstock, that there was no bridge here at that time; the passage over this river being valued among the rents of the manor at 13s. 4d. And it is no less evident, that there was a bridge in the year 1455, because an hermit is then recorded to have lived at the foot of it. This kind of beggars, as is well known, generally chose their stations near some frequented road, or passage of a river, from a politic motive. Thomas Blonde, the name of the hermit, who had his cell upon this spot, seems to have found it turn to his advantage; at least, he did not die necessitous, since an executor and administrator appeared in the Bishops Court to deliver an account of his effects.

The manor was an antient demesne of the Saxon kings of England. At the time of the general Survey it belonged to the crown, and was then stated to have "a church worth sixty shillings, and three chapels; two carrucates, in demesne, and one hundred and forty-two villains, with two bordars, having three carrucates, two hithes or lavens, a mill," &c. all held by a reve. The crown, during the reign of king John, granted the whole to Hugh, earl of St. Paul, a Norman lord, who, on expressing a desire to crusade to the Holy Land, obtained a licence from the same monarch to mortgage his lands in this place, for three years. Henry the Third granted the manor provisionally to John Burgh, and afterwards to William de Fortibus, earl of Albemarle, who died seized of it in the forty-fourth of that reign it was then restored by king Henry to Guy de Chastilian, earl of St. Paul, on whose death it reverted to the crown. Edward the Second granted it to his half brother, Edmund of Woodstock, with its appurtenances, including Chislehurst, and other subordinate manors. sons, earls of Kent in succession, dying without issue, their sister Joan, married to Sir Thomas Holland, and afterwards to Edward the Black Prince, became sole heir. Her grandson, Edmund Holland, earl of Kent, dying also without issue, this manor was allotted to Jean, duchess of

His

York,

York, one of his sisters: on her death, in 1434, it became the property of her sister Margaret, and her descendants by her first husband John earl of Somerset. It was granted, with its appendages, on the attainder of Henry, duke of Somerset, in 1464, to the great earl of Warwick; after whose defeat and death, near Barnet, his daughter Isabel, married to George, duke of Clarence, obtained it of Edward IV.; but on her husband's attainder, in 1477, the king granted it to Thomas lord Stanley for life. It was afterwards re-conveyed, with all the other possessions of the earl of Warwick, to his countess, by Henry the Seventh, for the purpose of obtaining a legal surrender of the whole; and she accordingly surrendered to the king one hundred and fourteen manors, including Dartford, which remained in the crown till the year 1610, when James the First granted it, with Chislehurst, in fee, to George and Thomas Whitmore, who, in the following year, conveyed them to Sir Thomas Walsingham, the lessee. In 1613, Dartford was sold by Sir Thomas for 500l. to Sir Thomas D'Arcy, whose descendants sold the estate in 1699 to Thomas Gouge, Esq. It afterwards came by will to a sister's nephew, named Mynors, who, as heir at law, took the name of Gouge. His widow married Charles Gould Morgan, Esq. and his brother John, on whose death, in 1792, it came by will to Sir Charles Gould, who took upon him the name of Morgan, and was created a baronet in that year. Agreeably to the will, however, Sir Charles only held it as a trustee for his nephew, named Vaughan, though it still remains in the family.

There is another manor, called TEMPLE MANOR, from its having belonged to that military fraternity the Knight's Templars, which is held in the same manner as that of Dartford.

In this town, in 1235, the marriage of Isabel, sister of king Henry III. to the emperor Frederick, was solemnized by proxy, the archbishop of Cologn having been sent over to, demand this princess for his sovereign. And at Dartford, king Edward III. on his return from France, in 1381, proclaimed

4

The

proclaimed the holding of a tournament. It is evident, therefore, that our kings had a mansion, at Dartford. The manor house was afterwards converted by the king into a nunnery, consisting of a prioress, and fourteen sisters of the order of St. Augustin. He also amply endowed this foundation; and by various gifts its possessions were so considerable as to be valued when dissolved, at upwards of 400l. per year. Several ladies of high rank were superiors of this convent, particularly Bridget the fourth daughter of king Edward IV. who died prioress, and was interred in the chapel. Henry VIII. at a considerable expence, made this house a fit mansion for himself and his successors; and queen Elizabeth is said to have resided in her palace at Dartford two days, when she returned from her progress through great part of Sussex and Kent in 1573. manor with all its appurtenances was granted by king James I. to Robert earl of Salisbury, at which time the house was ruinous; it has for many years been the habita tion of the tenant of the demesne lands. Grose, in his An tiquities of England and Wales, has exhibited a view of the remains of this building, and has subjoined to the print the following account of its state at that time, by John Thorpe, Esq. of Bexley. "The scite of the abbey was where the farmer's garden and stack-yard now are: it must have been a vast building, and, doubtless, very noble, suitable to such great personages as were members of it, as appears by a great number of foundations of crosswalls, drains, &c. which have been discovered. There were, and are to this day, two broad roads, or avenues, leading to the gate; one eastward, and flanked by the old stone wall on the right hand, from the waterside, which leads down to the Creek, where boats and barges come up from the Thames. This was certainly one of the principal avenues from the town to the abbey. The other is to the west, leading into the farm-yard fronting the arch of the west side of the great tower, or gateway. This way leads from the farm up to the side of the hill into the great road to London: and the large hilly field, on the right hand,

adjoining

adjoining the road leading as above, is, to this day, called the King's Field. This abbey, and its environs, took up a great extent of laud; for, on the north-east side, fronting this view, were the large gardens and orchards, encompassed with the antient stone wall still entire, and more than half a mile round, enclosing a piece of ground of twelve acres, which is now, and has been for a number of years, rented by gardeners, to supply the London markets; and. famous for producing the best artichokes in England. On the left hand of the road, leading from Water Street to the east front of the abbey, are fine meadows, extending from the back part of the High Street up to the building or abbey farm; and, opposite the long garden wall, on the right side of the said road, and, without doubt, much more lands now converted into gardens and tenements, formerly lay open and belonged to it."

In the principal street, which is wide and contains many handsome houses and shops, is situated the PARISH CHURCH *.

This

* There are two burial-grounds, one adjacent to, and the other on a bill, higher than the top of the church, a little way on the road leading to Dover. In no printed account of Kent has any hint been suggested respecting the time when this inclosure was allotted for the interment of the dead. Perhaps a research into the history of a chantry, in the parish of Dartford, may tend to a discovery of this hitherto obscure point. From several antient MSS. it appears, that there was formerly in, or near, Dartford, a little chapel or chantry dedicated to St. Edmund, a Saxon king and martyr. John de Bykenore, of this parish, is imagined to have been the founder of it; a chaplain was, at least, licensed to it, upon his nomination, as early as the year 1326; and his widow, Joan, and Robert Bykenore, were successively patrons of it till 1371, when the prioress and the sisters of the nunnery then at Dartford, as before noticed, are mentioned as being possessed of that right. Five marks a year was the original allowance to the chaplain, but there are grounds for suspecting that care had not been taken at first to secure the legal payment of this pension. A deed of endowment, under the common seal of the nunnery, seems not to have been delivered to the bishop of the diocese till 1403, in which, however, a field, called the Tanner's Field, was declared to be charged with this annual stipend. Under this instrument the chaplain became also entitled to a house, with sonie fresh and salt marsh appertaining