St. Margaret at Helles, now a hamlet of Darent, was formerly a distinct parish, the only remembrance of which is in the ruins of the tower belonging to an antient chapel, in the composition of which are discovered many layers of Roman bricks. This is engraved in the Custumale

Roffense.

Adjoining to Dartford Brent, is the parish of STONE. The church of which, dedicated to St. Mary, is a beautiful structure, consisting of a chancel, a nave, and side aisles. The roof is lofty, supported by a double row of fine slender columns, and pointed arches; and at the west end are two segments of an arch, which spring from the first columns to the south and north walls. The nave is divided from the chancel by a noble arch, enriched with Gothic work. The chancel is spacious, with pilasters and arches of brown marble, the spandrils of which are ornamented with Gothic work. The north door of the church is curiously adorned with a zigzag moulding, roses, &c. The windows are large and regular, as is the whole building, which for symmetry and proportion may be justly esteemed the finest piece of Gothic architecture in the diocese of Rochester. Weaver (the author of Ancient Funeral Monuments, published in 1631) mentions "the whole fabric of this church to have been in his time upholden in wond'rous good repair, and her inside neatly polished." The parishioners of Stone still deserve commendation, for the proper attention shewn by them to this. sacred edifice, as they have lately, at a great expence, ceiled the church, and repaired and ornamented it in different parts.

Within this fabric is a very curious brass, engraved in Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, and the Custumale Roffense, representing a priest in his vestments, standing in the centre of a cross fleury mounted on four steps; from the

Such were the idle tales of former times; their recital serves to excite the smile of posterity. Mr. Denne was the incumbent of Darent, and of Wilmington. He was also an eminent antiquary, and fellow of the society of Antiquaries of London, doua De

mouth

mouth of the figure issues a label, the inscription implies the gravestone to be for John Lumbarde, rector of Stone, who died March 12, 1408. There are also memorials for John Sorewell, rector, 1439; Robert Chapman, Esq. citizen and draper, owner of Stone Castle, 1574. In the ruined chapel is a fine altar tomb, richly ornamented, for Sir John Wiltshire, of Stone Place, and Margaret his wife; he died 1526. Here also was buried Thomas, sixth, son of Thomas lord Berkeley, 26 Henry VIII.

RECTORS OF EMINENCE. RICHARD TILLESLEY, B. D. archdeacon of Rochester, 1613. THOMAS SPRAT, archdeacon of Rochester, prebendary of Winchester, Rochester, and Westminster; son of bishop Sprat.

The manor of Stone belongs to the see of Rochester, whose bishops formerly resided for some months in the year in the manor house, situated near the church-yard. This manor was given by king Ethelred to that community in the year 995; it has been long deserted by its former lords, and inhabited for a considerable time by the farmer of the demesne lands; and the great chimney, which is in the centre of the present building, is thought to be the only remaining part of the antient mansion, which never seems to have been dignified with the denomination of a palace. About the middle of the thirteenth century, the demesne lands of Stone manor were surveyed and valued; the arable land at 3d. and the marsh land at 4d, per acre.

STONE CASTLE stands to the south of the road; it is supposed to have been one of the one hundred and fifteen castles reported to have been built with the consent of king. Stephen, and not demolished in compliance with the articles of agreement made between that monarch and duke Henry, aftewards Henry II. Phillipot informs us, that the arms of Northwood were insculped in the old stonework before it was dismantled. In the twentieth of king Edward III. when the honour of knighthood was conferred upon the Black Prince, John de Northwood paid a fine for this castle. Howberry in Crayford was the property of one of the Northwoods, in the reign of Henry III. and Roger

de

de Norwood, of Norwood Chasteners, in Milton near Sittingbourn, attended king Richard I. to the siege of Acon in Palestine. The square tower of Stone Castle is, probably, the only part of the fortress that is now remaining; and, as Phillipot describes it, though it now lies wrapped up in its own ruins, yet the shell, or skeleton of it, within which Sir Richard Wiltshire laid the foundation of the fabric now extant, represents to the eye some symptoms of its former strength and magnificence *.

SOUTHFLEET, about nineteen miles from London, was antiently denominated SUTH-FLETA, on account of its situation, and from standing on a sheet of water which flowed from the Thames, and is only prevented at this day

* This castle, with the lands appertaining to it, is now vested in feoffees, pursuant to the will of Dr. Thomas Plume, formerly archdeacon of Rochester, and the rent thereof appropriated to the augmentation of small livings within that diocese, and for the maintaining of a lecture at Dartford or Gravesend, every Wednesday or Saturday morning, from the 25th of March to Michaelmas alternately, or one year at Dartford, and the next at Gravesend. The money allowed by the will to the preachers is ten shillings for their sermons, and two shillings for the dinner of themselves and their friends, and the sexton is to have ten shillings a quarter during the time of the said lecture for tolling the bell. The archdeacon gave also ten shillings a quarter to be divided amongst the most indigent and godly poor that most frequently resort to this lecture: also twenty shillings each of the two quarters, wherein the lecture is preached, to the minister of the parish for his reading prayers before the said lecture in the morning, and for the use of his pulpit. The incumbents of the twenty following benefices are the trustees of this charity.-The rectors of Crayford, Fawkham, Gravesend, Luddesdown, Milton, Ridley, Stone and Swanscombe; the vicars of Cobham, Dartford, Eltham, Frendsbury, Greenwich, Halling, Higham, Horton Kirby, Northfleet, Plumstead, and Shorne; and the curate of Chatham. They meet twice a year at Stone Castle, viz. on the Tuesday next before Lady Day, and on the first Tuesday after Michaelmas, in order to transact the business of this benevolent and useful institution; and such of the trustees as are present at the former meeting, preach in their turns the lecture for the succeeding half year. By the will of the donor, the tenant is to be allowed out of his rent twenty shillings to provide them a dinner on each of those days.-Dr. Plume died on the 20th of November 1704, and lies buried in the churchyard of Longfield, a small parish four miles distant, under an altar tomb of black marble adjoining to the south wall of the church.

by means of embankment. The distance from ROCHESTER, the Roman remains, and its situation on the Watling Street, have inclined antiquaries to imagine this to be the Vagniace of Antoninus's itinerary; the conjecture has received much confirmation from the discoveries communicated to the Society of Antiquaries, by the rev. Mr. Rashleigh, and published in the Archeologia.

The parish of Southflect was formerly of great respectability; many of the antient mansions have, however, been levelled, and others converted to farm-houses.

The bishops of Rochester were possessed of the manor of Southfleet before the Conquest. One of the prelates settled it on the priory of his cathedral, and it belonged to that religious house at the time of its dissolution. The liberty of the bishops of that see always claimed here, and, as not unusual in antient times, the court of Southfleet had a power of trying and executing felons *.

The

* This jurisdiction extended not only to acts of felony done within the vill, but also over criminals apprehended there, though the fact had been committed in another county. An instance of the exercise of this claim in the year 1200 is mentioned by T. Blunt, in his Antient Tenures and Customs of Manors. It was of two women who had stolen some clothes in Croindene (supposed to be Croydon in Surrey) and the men of that place having pursued them to Southfleet, they were there seized, imprisoned, and tried by the lord Henry de Cobham, and many other discreet men of the county; who adjudged them to undergo the fire ordeal, or examination of the hot iron. By this foolish and impious test of innocence, one of them was exculpated, and the other condemned, and afterwards drowned in a pond called Bikepool. The two chief species of trial by ordeal, were those of fire and water, the former, being in the opinion of some learned writers, confined to persons of high rank, and the latter only used for the common people. But if the case of the two female thieves at Southfleet be truly related, it is rather probable that this distinction was not strictly observed. Both these modes might be performed by deputy; but the principal was to answer for the success of the trial: the deputy only venturing some corporal pain, for hire, or perhaps for friendship. "This," observes the author of the Commentary on the Laws of England, (book iv. c. 27.) "is still expressed in that common forin of speech, of going through fire and water to serve another." Fire ordeal was performed either by taking up in the hand, unhurt, a piece of : VOL. V. No. 108.

Y

red

The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a spacións structure, abounding with curious monuments, brasses, &c. In the chancel, are six antient stalls and a piscina; but the greatest curiosity is the octangular font, of grey marble, highly enriched, standing on a neatly ornamented pedestal of similar shape. The subjects of the several compartments are,—an angel with expanded wings, sustaining the balances; the initials IHS on a shield within a quatrefoil, surrounded by a circle-a bishop (supposed to be St. Nicholas, to whom the church is dedicated) with his pastoral staff a chalice, with the consecrated wafer environed with a nimbus or glory, and impressed with the image of

red-hot iron, of one, two, or three pounds weight; or else by walking bare-foot, and blindfold, over nine red-hot plough-shares, laid lengthways, at unequal distances; and if the party escaped being hurt, he was adjudged innocent; bat. if it happened otherwise, he was then condemned as guilty, No doubt, there was generally a collusion in this and every mode of trial, of this nature; but the guilty, especially if rich, had a much greater chance of being cleared than the innocent, as the former would be much more apt to have recourse to artifice than the latter.-Water ordeal was performed, either by thrusting the bare arm into boiling water as high as the elbow, and if the person was not scalded he was pronounced innocent; or, the accused person was thrown with a rope about the waste into a river or pond of cold water; if he sunk, he was acquitted, but if he floated therein without any action of swimming, it was a sufficient proof of criminality, because they judiciously concluded, the pure water would not admit a guilty wretch into it. The traditional relics of the water-ordeal may be easily traced out in the ignorant barbarity formerly practised to discover witches, by casting them into a pool of water, and drowning them to prove their innocence.

In the consistorial acts of the diocese of Rochester under the year 1585, there is a curious entry of a presentment of defamation against two men of Deptford, for reporting three women of that parish to be witches, and the reason they gave for thinking them to be so, was, "that either of them kept a monstrous tode." The judge who presided does not appear to have been entirely satisfied that this was of itself a competent proof of the offence; but as one of the dames was not only somewhat suspected of witchcraft," but also accused of being a notable scold, which might probably be very true, though she denied the charge, she was ordered to appear on the next court day, with six good women for her compurgators, and likewise admonished to resort to the minister every Sunday or holiday, to testify her faith.