Having returned by Tring over Wiggington Common, over a dreary country at seven miles distance, we arrive at a fine valley, in which is seated the market town of

CHESHAM.

The town consists of three streets, the chief of these goes almost in a direct line from north to south, in which is the market house: the market is kept on Wednesday," chiefly for corn. Chesham is considerably full of inhabitants. The principal manufactures are lace, especially black lace; shoes, of which it is computed that near one thousand pair are made per week; and wood ware. There are three fairs annually, viz. April 21, July 22, both for cattle; and September 23, for cattle and servants. Here is one church, and four meeting houses for Dissenters; also, a charity school.

The manor of Great Chesham was originally a parcel of the barony of Bolebec, whence it passed to the Veres, earls of Oxford; it was sold in 1550 by that family to that of Seymour; whence it passed to Sadys, of whom it was purchased by the family of Cavendish. The present possessor of the manors of Great Chesham, Chesham Higham, and Chesham Bury, is the right honourable lord George Cavendish, only brother of the duke of Devonshire, who has a seat called Latimers, in this parish.

The parish church of Chesham, is a large Gothic structure, and contains memorials for the family of Skottowe, particularly an elegant monument, by Bacon, for Nicholas Skottowe, Esq. who died in 1798. The south aisle contains. monuments to the memory of Sir John Cavendish, K. B. a younger son of the first earl of Devonshire, who died in 1618; and Mary, first wife of Sir Francis Whichcote, bart.

At Latimers, antiently called Isenhampsted, and formerly a distinct parish, was born Hester, daughter of Miles Sandy's, Esq. in 1569, of whom Fuller says, that she was the parent stock of a posterity of seven hundred persons, whom she lived to see descended from her to the fourth

generation.

generation. This lady married Sir Thomas Temple, of Stowe, and died in 1656, at the age of eighty-seven.

Isenhampsted Cheynes, is so called from being possessed by the family of Cheyne; it had originally been a royal residence, till it was given by Edward III. to Thomas Cheyne, his shield bearer. It passed from the Cheynes to the family of Sapcote; Sir John Broughton, of Tuddington, in Bedfordshire, married Anne, daughter and heiress of Sir Guy Sapcote; her second husband was John lord Russell, afterwards earl of Bedford. This nobleman upon coming into possession, rebuilt the greater part of the manor house, and made it his principal seat; queen Elizabeth was entertained here by his son Francis, earl of Bedford, in 1570. Since the family have removed to Woburn Abbey, Cheynes has been deserted, and the old mansion, still remaining, has been changed to a farm, and is the residence of the duke of Bedford's principal tenant on this estate.

The church contains many handsome monuments in memory of the noble house of Russel, earls and dukes of Bedford; and some antient memorials for the Cheynes. It is still the place of sepulture for the Russel family.

AGMONDESHAM, OR AMERSHAM,

is a borough town, twenty-six miles from London, and has a market on Tuesday; fairs Whitsun Monday for cattle, 19th of September for cattle, and a statute. The chief manufactures are lace, the sacking manufacture, and a manufactory of all kinds of white, cotton goods, by machinery. The town lies in a vale between woody hills, near the river Colne, and consists of a long street, in the road from Uxbridge to Buckingham, divided about the middle by a shorter cross street; in the intersection of which stands the church; its town hall, or market house, is the handsomest in the county.

The manor of Agmondesham, or, as it is called in Domesday Book, Elmodesham, was given by William I. to Geoffrey de Mandeville; whence it descended, with other

estates

estates, to the noble families of Fitz-Piers, Bohun, and Stafford, till the attainder of Edmund Stafford, duke of Buckingham, in the reign of Henry VIII. when that monarch granted it to Sir John Russel; William earl of Bedford, in 1665, sold it to Sir William Drake, whose fainily had been previously settled here by marriage with that of Totehill, of Shardiloes. William Drake, Esq. was created a baronet in 1641, but dying a bachelor in 1669, the title became extinct; but having bequeathed his estates in Amersham to his nephew, William Drake, Esq. afterwards Sir William Drake, knight, they still continue in his family, in the person of Thomas Drake Tyrwhit Drake, Esq.

The old manor house of SHARDELOES, the seat of Mr. Drake, appears to have been the occasional residence of queen Elizabeth. The present house is seated on the brow of a hill, overlooking a broad sheet of water, planned by Mr. Richmond; the view of the town of Amersham, and the surrounding eminences surmounted by woody tracts, is beautiful. The house was erected by the father of the The present possessor, from designs of Messrs. Adam. portico is supported by four Corinthian columns; the hall is thirty feet square. The dining parlour, on the right, is thirty-six feet by twenty-four; on the left, a handsome drawing room of the same dimensions, contains, among other valuable pictures, the following:

A fine portrait of QUEEN ELIZABETH; in the distance the Spanish Armada. A small landscape and figures, F. VANLINS, 174i. Lord chancellor Hatton, C. JANSEN. Four sea pieces, VERNET, 1747. Sea engagement, CARRocks and TER. Landscapes and ruins, VAN BLOMEN.

water fall, VAN DIEST. Birds,. fish, &c. BARLOW; among which is the portrait of a jack caught in the lake before the house, weighing thirty-four pounds.

AMERSHAM CHURCH is a spacious brick building, covered with stucco. It was handsomely pewed; when the church was repaired in 1778, at the expence of the late Mr. Drake, who placed in the chancel a window of painted glass, representing whole length figures of the twelve

Apostles,

Apostles, Faith, Hope, and Charity; and in the upper compartment the Lamb and the Dove. The galleries were added by the present lord of the manor in 1800.

Among the monuments are several to the Drake family in the MONUMENT ROOM, erected, and paved with marble to receive them. That erected by Scheemakers, for Montague Gerard Drake, Esq. in 1728, is very magnificent. The chancel contains a large monument to the memory of Mrs. Elizabeth Bent, who bequeathed 700l. to purchase lands, the income of which she directed to be given to the clergyman for preaching sermons and administering the sacrament to the poor. She also appropriated the interest of 100l. to the use of godly widows, who should constantly attend divine service, and receive the communion.

The rectory of Amersham, possessed by the brother of Mr. Drake, is esteemed one of the best in England, and has a manor annexed to it, with a court-leet and court-baron; formerly it belonged to the prior and convent of Brecon, in South Wales, to whom it was given in 1347, by Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford.

The town appears to have been peculiarly the object of popish persecution in the reigns of Henry V. Henry VII. and Mary I. The execution of William Tillsworth, in the reign of Henry VII. was attended with peculiar barbarity; he was ordered to be burnt for speaking against pilgrimages and worshipping images, and for reading the Scriptures in English; but to add to his sufferings his innocent daughter was compelled to set fire to the faggots that were to destroy her beloved parent!

Here are a grammar school, a writing school, and a Sunday school; besides almshouses for six poor widows. The town has sent members to parliament from the time of Edward I. JOHN GREGORY, author of several learned treatises, peculiarly that respecting the election of the boybishop at Salisbury, was born at Amersham, in 1607.

The hamlet of COLESHILL, though belonging to this parish, forms an insulated portion of Hertfordshire, and is remarkable for having been the birth place of WALLER, the

poct;

poet; it was purchased of his family by Mrs. Bent, for the purposes expressed in her will, as before mentioned.

Near Amersham is GREAT MISSENDEN, formerly a bene dictine monastery; at the Dissolution it was leased to Richard Greneway, and afterwards to Richard Hampden, Esq. clerk of the kitchen. After having been pɔssessed in 1553 by John, duke of Northumberland, and in 1573, by the earl of Leicester, it was purchased by the famous Sir William Fleetwood, the active recorder of London, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, an antiquary and historian, who made Missenden his residence. It continued in his family till the commencement of the last century, after which it was put into chancery, and purchased under a decree of that court by James Oldham Oldham, Esq. an eminent ironmonger in Holborn, the present possessor.

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PETERLEY HOUSE, belonging to lord Dormer, is now an academy in Great Missenden parish.

CHALFONT ST. GILESS, twenty-three miles from the metropolis, was the residence of Milton, during the plague in London, in 1665. The house in all probability, from its appearance, remains nearly in its original state. It was taken for him by Mr. Elwood, the Quaker, who had been recommended to the blind bard as one that would read Latin to him for the benefit of his conversation. Here Elwood first saw a complete copy of Paradise Lost, and having perused it, said, "Thou hast said a great deal on Paradise Lost, but what hast thou to say to Paradise Found?" This question suggested to Milton the idea of his Paradise Regained. Near this place Sir Henry Thomas Gutt has a seat called Newland Park; and the late admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, bart. a seat called the Vache, now the property of James Grant, Esq.

At the Vache was born Dr. JAMES FLEETWOOD, a persecuted divine during the Civil Wars; he afterwards died bishop of Worcester, in 1683.

The church contains memorials for the Fleetwood and Clayton families, and a monument for the admiral Palliser. VOL. V. No. 121.

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