gavenny; from them it came to the le Despensers, whose heir, lady Mary Fane, was created baroness le Despenser by James I. and her son created earl of Westmorland by the same monarch. The grand and magnificent house, denominated MEREWORTH CASTLE, was erected by the last earl of Westmoreland, where the old castle stood; and is built in an elegant style of architecture, after a design of Colin Campbell, in imitation of an admired edifice of the famous Palladio, in Italy. The site is pleasant, upon a small hill of very easy ascent, watered on one side by a stream running into the Medway, and on the other encompassed with the most agreeable risings, which have the appearance of a grand rural theatre, cultivated and improved to the utmost perfection, so as at once to display correct taste and becoming magnificence. The structure is an exact square of eighty-eight feet: in the middle of the roof is a cupola, consisting of two shells, the one forming the stucco cieling of the hall, and the other carpentry covered with lead. Between these shells is a strong brick arch which brings twenty-four funnels to the lanthorn, a contrivance which prevents the appearance of any chimney on the outside of the house. There are porticos in all the four fronts, under the floor of which, and that of the hall, are convenient rooms for the use of the family. The grand saloon is round, and forms the centre: it receives its light from a sky-light; the state rooms divided off from it, open into each other round the house, and are superbly furnished. The kitchen and stables form two noble wings, and add to the grandeur of the building. The house, gardens, temples, grottos; the the water, woods, lawns, &c. united in this beautiful domain, demand admiration. Within the house are many valuable pictures; among them the following: A Dutch lady in a chair, by REMBRANDT. Two pieces of battles, by BOURGIGNON. Two landscapes, by CLAUD 1 CLAUD LORRAIN. A landscape, Romulus and Remus, both by CLAUDE. Roman antiquities, by PANINI, Christ restoring the blind man, to sight, by TINTORETTI. The cielings of most of the apartments are finely decorated with emblematical figures, in five compartments, by FRANCIS SCLATER. In the dining room are portraits of Elizabeth, daughter, and Richard, youngest son of Robert, lord Spencer. Francis Finch, second son of Francis, earl of Westmorland, and Mary, daughter and heiress of Sir Anthony Mildmay, wife of Sir Francis Fane; in one piece. Mary, daughter and heiress of Henry Neville, lord Abergavenny, created baroness Le Despencer, by king James I. and wife of Sir Thomas Fane, knt. Mary, daughter, of Horace, lord Vere, of Tilbury; wife of Mildmay, second earl of Westmorland. Robert Spencer, created baron Spencer, by king James I. whose daughter Elizabeth, was married to Sir George Fane. William, son of Robert, lord Spencer, who married Penelope, daughter of Henry, earl of Southampton. In the drawing room the principal pictures are, St. Francis, by GUIDO. A landscape, by CLAUDE LORRAIN. A holy family, by PERUGINO. Noah, after the flood, by BASSANO. Venus and Cupid, by RuBENS. Duke of Buckingham. Sir Thomas More. Lord Abergavenny, 1524. Sir Walter Raleigh. In the best bed room, the walls hung with fine tapestry, and the cicl ing ornamented with emblematical figures, by SCLATER. The walls of the adjoining room are richly hung with tapestry, representing the four quarters of the world. The cieling, by SCLATER. The chimney-piece is curiously ornamented with marble pillars, &c.; and the floor of the room elegantly inlaid. The village is of little eminence. It had once a weekly market, and an annual fair, obtained by Roger de Mereworth, in the twenty-eighth of Edward I. but these have long been disused. The old church was situated near the castle, and is said to have been built by the antient earls of Clare, who at its foundation appropriated it to the knights of St. John of VOL. V. No. 112. Jerusalem. I i Jerusalem. John, earl of Westmorland, obtained a lis cence of the bishop of Rochester to pull it down, and build a new church; the foundation was laid in the year 1744; and it was consecrated by the bishop of Rochester, on the 26th of August 1746. This structure is a piece of beautiful architecture, which will bear the attentive inspection of the traveller; it contains several antique monuments that formerly inhabited Meréworth Castle, and were carefully transferred from the old church to a place particularly appropriated to this purpose in the modern one. Smart, in his "Hop Garden," writing, of Mereworth, says: Nor shalt thou, Mereworth, remain unsung, Where noble Westmoreland, his country's friend, Arise; and all is Roman like his heart, WEST PECKHAM, is remarkable only by its antient te nure of its lord "bearing one of the king's goshawks beyond sea, from the feast of St. Michael to that of the Purification;" also for being the residence of some of the Knights Templars, as well as of the Southwells, ministers of Henry VIII. and his three successors, whose vices obscured their eminent abilities. HADLOW is a parish, rich in hop plantations and pastures. At Harlake Bridge is a flowing bolt, by which the meadows can be inundated in dry seasons. TUNBRIDGE, or THE TOWN OF BRIDGES, is thirty-five miles from London, and is seated on four streams formed by the Medway, over each of which there is a stone bridge. The ruins of the castle testify it to have been very large; it was erected in 1090, by Richard de Tunbridge, earl of Clare, natural son to Richard I. duke of Normandy, who exchanged lands in that country for the like quantity here. This castle was taken by king Stephen, king John, and by king Henry The site is beautifully Henry III. who garrisoned it. planted. The gateway remains, with holes for porte cullises, &c. and opens into a small hall, communicating by arches with the apartments in three stories, the uppermost having the largest windows. The keep, from the remains of the foundations, appears to have been prodigiously strong. Tunbridge, in the reign of Edward I. sent burgesses to parliament. It is now governed by three constables for the town, Southborough, and Helden. The present church is a modern structure. Sir Andrew Judde, lord mayor of London, and a native of this place, erected a free-school, on which an estate was settled in the reign of queen Eliza beth by parliament. The Skinners Company are the pa trans. The stone causeway leading into the town from London, was the gift of Mr. John Wilford, a citizen of London, in 1528. The houses are mostly ill built, and the streets badly paved. Its market is on Friday; fairs, on Ash Wednesday, July 5, and October 29. The river Medway has been made navigable up to the town, since the year 1740; and is of great service for conveying timber and cannon from the founderies in that neighbourhood to Chatham, and other places. In the year 1775, the antient stone bridge over the river Medway, in Tunbridge town, being in a decayed and dan gerous state, was pulled down, and a temporary one of wood erected near it; soon after a stone bridge was built on the old foundation by Mr. Pinder, after a design of Mr. Mylne. The cost was estimated at 11007. and defrayed by the county of Kent. Five miles from the town is the hamlet belonging to Speldhurst, called TUNBRIDGE WELLS, a place of much resort by the nobility and gentry, in June, July, and August. These wells are situated at the bottom of three hills, called Mount Sion, the residence of Richard Cumberland, Esq. the celebrated dramatist, &c. Mount Ephraim, and Mount Pleasant, on which are good houses, and fine fruit-gardens, fed from a spring in the parish Ii 2 parish of Speldhurst. Here is also, a good market of butchers, poulterers, &c. shops for toys, milliners, wooden ware, &c. coffee rooms, for card playing, and other species. of similar entertainment. A hall for, dancing; and, behind the wells, a large chapel* of ease to the parish church, profanely dedicated to king Charles L. in which is divine service twice a day, during the season for drinking the waters, and where seventy poor children are taught, and wholly maintained by the contributions of the company at the wells, which are also the chief support of the chaplain +. The springs were first discovered in 1606, by Dudley, lord North, who retired to the neighbourhood in a consumption, and returning home hopeless, in passing through a wood observed these springs, and carried some of the water to a London physician, who, after analysing them, recommended them to his lordship's drinking, who soon found in them a perfect cure. The first buildings were erected here in 1636. The water is impregnated with shelly particles and marine salts, and its weight is seven ounces and a quarter, four grains, lighter than the German Spa, and ten grains lighter than common water. It is a great deobstruent and bracer; and is of great efficacy in cold chronical distempers, weak nerves, and bad digestions. The air is excellent, all provisions reasonable, and here is plenty of the best sorts of wild-fowl, particularly the delicious bird called the wheat-ear, from the South Downs; also good fish from Rye, and other sea-ports in the neighbourhoods and mackarel, when in season, from Hastings, within three hours after they are taken. On Waterdown Forest, near these wells, were formerly horse races, *This chapel, says Hasted, "stands remarkably in three parishes; the pulpit in Speldhurst, the altar in Tunbridge, and the vestry in Frant. The stream also, which parted the counties of Kent and Sussex, formerly ran underneath it, but is now turned to a greater distance." + Here was a priory, built in 1094, but suppressed by cardinal Wolsey, and its hall is now converted into a barn. A |