Street, and was pulled down about the year 1793; it formed an octagonal tower of stone, embattled, and crowned with a cupola and dial. A new octagon stuçcoed building, in the lower part of the town, was intended for a third reservoir, but failing in its intention was used as a butter market. The water is of most excellent quality, conveyed by pipes laid under the Medway, from an inclosed spring called Rocky Hill, in the West Borough. The Corn Market is supported on pillars, and surmounted by a gilt wheatsheaf.

The extent of Maidstone is about a mile, from north to south, and about three quarter: from west to cast. It chiefly consists of four streets, intersecting each other, with several lesser ones. The High Street is spacious, and well built; on the west side is a small and neat theatre. Nearly half the inhabitants are supposed to be Presbyterians and Anabaptists, who have places of worship within the town. The population has been within a few years augmented in consequence of the erection ef extensive barracks for infantry and cavalry, in the road to Rochester, at a short distance beyond Week Street. The buildings are of wood, painted white, and forming a hollow square, with a riding school towards the river.

Maidstone has given birth to several eminent men; particularly to a family surnamed De Maidestan, of whom Sir Walter had license, from Edward the Second, to embattle his mansion. RALPH DE MAIDENSTAN, was bishop of Hereford from 1234 and 1239, and is noticed by Matthew Paris, as a man of excellent learning, and holiness of life. He resigned his bishopric, and became a Franciscan friar at Gloucester, where he was buried in 1245. WALTER DE MAYDENSTAN was consecrated bishop of Worcester in the seventh of Edward the Second, in 1303.

Three persons, probably natives of Maidstone, are however recorded as having obtained considerable notoriety during the Civil Wars. Andrew Broughton, recorder, and twice mayor of Maidstone; Thomas Trapham, M. B. who was surgeon both to Fairfax and Cromwell; and Thomas

Read, gent. who, on the trial of Charles the First, deposed, that he had seen that monarch at "the head of a guard of horse" between Lestwithiel and Fowy. Broughton was one of the two clerks (and also secretary) of the high court of justice, and in that situation he read both the charge preferred, and the sentence passed, against the unfortunate Charles. Being excepted from the bill of indemnity at the Restoration, he fled privately to the Continent, and took refuge in Switzerland, with Ludlow, Say, Deady, Lisle, and some others. He died at Vevay, in that country, of old age alone, as appears from his epitaph, given in Addison's Travels in Italy.

Trapham is infamous for having observed, when he was employed to prepare the body of the martyred king for interment, "I have sewed on the head of a goose." died at Abingdon, in 1683, execrated by all except bigotted republicans.

Let it be observed to the honour of Maidstone, that it gave birth to the eminent musical composer, Jenkins, in the reign of Charles II.; to Mr. Woollett, the late fine engraver; and to Mr. Jeffrey, jun. an able draftsman.

The MOTE is situated a mile from the town, has a fine park, and was formerly of great consequence. During the reign of Henry III. it was castellated by the family of Leiburne. It thence became possessed by the several families of Shofford, who assumed the name Le Mote; by those of De Ditton, De Burghursh, Wideville, earls of Rivers, who took the title of baron De la Motte. With the latter it remained till the infamous Richard III. after he had murdered Anthony, earl of Rivers at Pontefract, bestowed it on his equally infamous instrument of mischief, Sir Thomas Brakenbury. It was restored by Henry VII. to Thomas earl of Rivers, who left it to Grey, marquis of Dorset. It then passed to Sir Henry Wyat, of Allington Castle, who disgavelled it; his grandson Sir Thomas, forfeited the estate to the crown, and Mary I. bestowed it on cardinal Pole. Queen Elizabeth gave it in fee to persons of the name of Nicholas and Dixon, of whom, probably,

it was purchased by Sir William Rider, lord mayor of London, in 1600. By Susan, his daughter, it came into the possession of Sir Thomas Delmarii or Caesar; at whose decease Thomas Phillpott, Esq. her eldest son by her first husband, took possession, who joined with his mother to alienate the Mote to the Tuftons, one of whom bequeathed it to a lady named Wray; by her it was disposed of to the ancestor of the noble family of Romney. The seat erected by the present earl is upon a superb plan, the situation being elevated, and commanding an extensive view of the surrounding country. The apartments are spacious, and magnificently fitted up: they contain some good pictures, with family portraits, &c. The park is extensive, and includes some fine timber, particularly oak: many, of the trees are very large. A broad sheet of water, or canal, has been made in front of the house, over which is a handsome bridge.

Near Maidstone, towards Boxley, are the famous paper mills, erected by Mr. James Whatman, in 1739; his son, James Whatman, Esq. brought them to their present perfection, and invented the wire-wove paper, which goes by his name. He disposed of the whole property in 1794, to

Messrs. Hollingsworth.

The ruins of ALLINGTON CASTLE, are situated on the opposite shore, which was originally built, says Kilburne, in the Saxon times, by the noble family of Columbarij, but was afterwards razed by the Danes. After various descents, it was alienated to Sir Henry Wyat, a descendant from a respectable Yorkshire family, who lost seventeen manors, and his liberty, for engaging in the plot against Richard III. in favour of the earl of Richmond. When success had crowned the attempts of the latter, he was released by Henry, knighed, made a banneret, a knight of the Bath, and a privy counsellor. Here his accomplished son and successor, Sir THOMAS WYAT, whom Leland calls incomparabilis; and Wood, the delight of the muses and of mankind, was born. This gentleman, equally a scholar, a soldier, and a statesman, was visited here by

Henry

Henry the Eighth, with whom he was a great favourite ; though he appears in some degree to have unwittingly raised his jealousy, through the admiration which his accomplishments excited in the breast of queen Anne Boleyn, He died in his thirty-eighth year, at Sherborne, in Dorsetshire, of a violent fever, while travelling towards Falmouth, to embark for Spain, to which court Henry had appointed him ambassador. His son, Sir Thomas Wyat, the younger, being deprived of his estates and life for treason against queen Mary, this castle and manor became vested in the crown, and were granted on lcase by Elizabeth, to John Astley, Esq. master of her jewels. His son, Sir John Astley, had the whole afterwards granted to him by the queen's letters patent, at the annual rent of 100l. 2s. 7d.; from his family it passed to the lords Romney, and is the property of the present earl.

The remains of the castle are extensive, and are now occupied in two tenements. The mote, and the antient entrance gateway erected by the Cobhams, still exist; the ruins are nearly excluded from the river by trees: one of the round towers is very large. The parish Church is mean. Here lie buried Sir Gyfford Thornhurst, bart. 1627; Sir George Choute, bart. 1721, æt. 22; Sir Edward Austen, bart. of Boxley, 1760, æt. fifty-five; and lady Austen, widow to the latter, 1772, æt. fifty-seven. Besides the castle, and the parsonage, a mere cottage, there is only one house in the parish; though Sir Stephen de Penchester, one of its former lords, is recorded to have procured a grant of a market weekly, and of a three days annual fair, for his manor of Allington.

Six miles from Maidstone, towards London, is MALLING, or Town MALLING, called also West Malling (to distinguish it from the village of East Malling, which is on the opposite side of the river); it is seated near a brook that runs into the Medway; it has a market on Saturday, and three fairs, August 12, October 2, and November 17. A Free School was founded here above one hundred years ago. This parish was antiently taxed to contribute to

wards

wards the repair of the third arch or pier of Rochester Bridge. Here was formerly a nunnery, founded in the time of William Rufus, by Gundulph, bishop of Ro chester; it was destroyed by fire, together with the whole. town, in the reign of Richard I.; but was soon rebuilt by the nuns, assisted by the contributions of pious persons. This is now called THE ABBEY HOUSE, and is most de-a Pentes lightfully situated, being washed by a fine rivulet, which 875 rising at the hamlet of St. Leonard, runs by the side of the abbey, and through the gardens. In the meadows above the gardens large square excavations are still visible; these were formerly the fish-ponds for the supply of the nunnery. Although the body of the house was pulled down and rebuilt by Sir John Honeywood, many of the original offices are still remaining, particularly an antient chapel, some time used as a dissenting meeting house, but now converted into a dwelling. But, the object most worthy of notice is, a handsome tower of the church, whose front is decorated with intersecting arches and zig-zag ornaments, similar to those on the west front of Rochester cathedral. At some distance west of the abbey, is a very antient stone building coeval with it, and called the Old Gaol, which has - narrow windows, and walls of a great thickness. Tradition says, this was the prison belonging to the abbey. At present it is used for drying and stowing hops.

Near Town Malling, towards Tunbridge, is MEREWORTH, written in Domesday Book, MAROURde. This being one of the districts composing the fine ride from Maidstone to Tunbridge, it has consequently been inhabited by the nobility and gentry, and abounds in marks of elegance. Its extensive plantations, its fine pasturage, the Medway gliding through, and its beautiful woods, unite to make this parish exquisitely pleasing.

This place antiently gave name to an eminent family who held the manor near two hundred years, when it descended to the Malmains, Bohuns, and Bambres, who built a large and strong house, resembling a castle, which was possessed by the earls of Arundel, and passed. to the lords Aber

gavenny,

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