ferior to those of some others; but this should, perhaps, be attributed to the badness of their material (small flinty gravel, which becomes too speedily pulverized), rather than to want of attention to the necessary repairs. Remains of the ancient Roman roads, as well as of stations and encampments attributed to those conquerors, are yet visible in various places.

Surrey has no manufactures which can properly be considered as peculiar to it, though its contiguity to London has naturally led to the establishment of many important ones within its limits, more particularly in the neighbourhood of the Thames. The recent erection of Waterloo and Southwark bridges, works, the former especially, which confer honour on our age and nation, will doubtless prove an additional stimulant to its manufacturing and commercial industry; and continue to this county the distinction which it may already be presumed to enjoy, as in wealth, comparative population, and importance, second only to that which contains the metropolis of the empire.

EXCURSION I.

From Guildford, through Ripley, Cobham, Esher, Thames-Ditton, Kingston, Putney Heath, Wandsworth, Battersea Rise, Vauxhall, and Newington, to the Borough of Southwark.

GUILDFORD, in the hundred of Woking, and the county town of Surrey, is situated upon an eminence on the eastern bank of the Wey, though tradition states

VOL. I.

the original site of the town to have been on the opposite side of that river. The existence of such a tradition, countenanced, though not actually proved, by collateral evidence, argues a considerable, though perhaps not a very high degree of antiquity for its subject: and accordingly the foundation of Guildford has, with sufficient appearance of probability, been ascribed to Saxon times; an opinion strengthened by the circumstance, that no mention occurs of the place, in the more ancient British or Roman annals. The name also, compounded of the Saxon Gild (i. e. a company, or fraternity, united for the purposes of trade), and a ford, or passage of a river, upon the supposition that some such trading establishment might have been formed here under the Saxon government of the country, is, in itself, almost conclusive evidence in favour of this opinion; and Camden's observation that the name is sometimes written Gegildford by no means disproves the fact, since the original word was indifferently written by our Saxon ancestors Gild and Ge-gild. The place appears to have been royal demesne in the time of Alfred, who, A. D. 900, bequeathed it by will to Ethelwald, his nephew; and the rebellion or death of the latter having occasioned its reversion to the crown about five years afterwards, it probably continued such to the period of the general survey under the Conqueror, being so mentioned in that valuable record.

Soon after the accession of Henry II. an extensive tract northward of Guildford Down was inclosed by order of that monarch, and converted into a park: here, in a mansion-house, also, it is probable, erected by him, he frequently kept his court; and the place became in consequence, occasionally at least, the royal re

sidence during successive reigns; till the earl of Annandale obtained the king's manor and park in fee simple by a grant from Charles I. In the lapse of years these lands became the property of the Honourable Thomas Onslow, afterwards Lord Onslow; soon after which they were disparked, and are now in the occupation of four tenants, who hold them as so many separate farms, of the present Earl Onslow.

The most remarkable feature of the town of Guildford is its Castle, of which the Keep is the only part in any degree of preservation: but this is worthy the inspection of the curious. It stands southward of the High-street, and is roofless: the walls, ten feet in thickness, still possess considerable strength, though composed of an ordinary kind of stone, but cemented with very hard and durable mortar. The foundation is of chalk, intermixed with flints: the general form quadrangular; its exterior dimensions being forty-seven feet by forty-five and a half, the height seventy feet. Fragments of the outer wall are yet to be seen, and may be traced among the buildings on the south side of the High-street; while the cellars of the Angel inn, and those of a private dwelling opposite to it, in the same street, are sup. posed to have been part of the vaults belonging to the Castle.

"On the ground-floor there were no windows, nor even so much as loopholes; but, in the upper stories, there was one great window, near the middle, on each side, the form of which was circular at the top. As to the rest of the present windows, they are all modern breaches; and some of the old ones have plainly been altered and repaired, and have even had frames and pillars of brick-work inserted. The present entrance, also, is manifestly a breach made in these later ages.

And the original entrance may be still perceived to have been through a stone arch, in the midst of the west front, at a considerable height; and must have been approached by a staircase on the outside of the wall. This arch, in which is a great peculiarity (it being a pointed one, although of a date long before pointed arches were introduced into common use), still remains very perfect. And although it now passes for a window, yet that it was the ancient portal is manifest, both from the stone arch within, which exactly corresponds with it, and differs from the arches of all the windows; and, also from hence, that, whereas the windows on the other three sides are at the same height from the ground, this arch and portal is some feet lower, and its bottom level with the marks of the floor within.

"There was a circular staircase in one corner of the building; and there are also galleries in the thickness of the wall, as at Rochester," (for the more speedy communication of orders in case of a siege). "There is likewise one very odd piece of fortification, which is the mock appearance of a false entrance or sally-port (on the south side, and near the south-east angle) on the ground, seeming to be filled up with large square stones, of a different kind from the rest of the castle; and having, in order to increase the deception, machicolations* over it at a great height, as if to defend it from attacks †."

A copper-plate in the Antiquarian Repertory (Vol. I. p. 17), exhibits a representation of some rude figures cut in the chalk of the wall, in the second story, probably by

* A military device, resembling a grate, through which scalding water, or other offensive matter, might be discharged upon the assailants.-Blount's Law Dictionary.

King's Observations on ancient Castles; Archæologia, Vol. iv. p. 409.

persons confined here while the building was used as a prison. One of these appears intended for St. Christopher, with his staff, and an infant Christ on his left arm. Another seems designed for a bishop, with his mitre, reposing under an arch. A third represents a square pilaster, whose capital is decorated with Saxon ornaments. A fourth is the Crucifixion, with the Virgin fainting, the soldier piercing the side of our Saviour, St. John in the attitude of prayer, and two other figures, all equally inartificial and barbarous. The fifth figure is that of a king, wearing a crown of very ancient form, and holding an orb in his right hand. The room in which these are to be seen is about ten feet by four, and eight or nine feet high; it has a circular stone roof, and is at the south-west corner of the castle.

About 200 yards from the edifice, in the chalky cliff on which it stands, is a cavern, or rather suite of caverns i one of which is forty-five feet long, twenty wide, and nine high. Not far from the entrance, which is near Quarry-street, facing the west, on either hand are two lower passages filled up with fragments of fallen chalk, leading to other cavities. For what purpose these, with the remaining excavations, were made, it is not very easy to conceive; but there appears no foundation for the prevalent idea that they were intended as subterraneous passages to the castle.

At what period, or by whom this fortress was erected. has been by no means accurately ascertained; though Mr. King, in the sequel to his Observations on Ancient Castles, seems inclined to consider the keep at least as of Saxon origin; yet, as no mention occurs of it in Domesday Book, we are disposed to coincide with Mr. Manning in the idea that the date of its erection must