Christ-the Saviour bursting from the sepulchre-St. John, clothed in a camel's skin, baptising Christ; out of the baptist's mouth issues in a label Ecce Agnus Dei-the the lamb of God bearing the cross and banner, the eighth compartment is against the wall. In the tower are six good bells. The parsonage house is said to have been erected previously to the year 1422; but modern improvements have obliterated its truly "ecclesiastical appearance," as Mr. Thorpe has distinguished it.

We return to the great road through SWANSCOMBE, written SWINESCAMP, in Domesday Book, and so named from Sweyn, the Danish king, who "erected a castle here to preserve a winter station for his ships," of which the "dismantled ruins," says Philipott, remained in his time.

This place was, for some centuries, celebrated by the men of Kent, as being the scene upon which their ancestors were supposed to have exhibited a representation of a moving wood, which astonished and alarmed William, duke of Normandy; and where, "upon throwing down their leafy screens, and shewing like those they were," with their bows and their arrows, their spears and their swords, they demanded and obtained a confirmation of all their customary laws and privileges, before they would acknowledge that prince to be their sovereign. As Thomas Spot, a religious of St. Augustin's Abbey, in Canterbury, is the only writer who has mentioned this extraordinary military manœuvre of his countrymen, it has been treated as fabulous! And when it is considered that this monk was not born till almost two centuries after the arrival of William the Norman, and that several of the circumstances related by him are inconsistent with the account given of the successful invasion of that monarch by contemporary historians of credit, the authenticity of some of these occurrences may be questioned. Perhaps the story ought to be classed with many other surprising unrecorded events that have a contexture of truth and falshood, the work of many ages, and therefore not to be easily unravelled. There is, at least, hardly any room for doubting of the Kentish men's having maintained some of their immunities with a high hand. For, it

is undeniable, that they have enjoyed them inviolate from the Conquest, though that hostile revolution wrought a great change of laws and usages with regard to the rights of persons and property in almost every other part of the kingdom*.

The manor originally belonged to William de Valence and his heirs, and became the property of the Mortimers, earls of March, whose descendants ascending the throne in the person of Edward the Fourth, the whole was vested in the crown. Queen Elizabeth granted it to Anthony Weldon, Esq. afterwards clerk of the Green Cloth, whose grandson, Sir Anthony Weldon, obtained from James I. a grant of Rochester Castle, with all its services. Swanscombe was sold about the year 1731, and re-sold some years afterwards, when they became vested in the family of Child, the bankers. The manor is held of Rochester Castle, the owner having been considered as one of the principal captains of that fortress. The church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, contains many memorials of the Weldon family, one of whom, Sir Ralph Weldon, was chief clerk of the kitchen to queen Elizabeth, afterwards clerk comptroller to king James, and died clerk of the green cloth, in November, 1602, aged sixty four.

His

*See the account of Gavelkind in the preceding part of this volume. One of these customs was that of castle guard, but now rents are paid in lieu of it. "These are paid on St. Andrew's Day, Old Style, and the custom has been held that if the rent is not then paid, it is liable to be doubled on the return of every tide in the Medway, during the time it remains unpaid. This custom was very near being brought to a legal discussion some years ago; for Sir Thomas Dyke, owner of Farnborough Court manor, and Thomas Best, Esq. of Eccles manor, having made de fault in the payment of their castle-guard rents, Mr. Child, owner of Swanscombe manor, and the castle, required the penalty of their being doubled; which dispute was carried so far, that ejectments were served on the estates, and a special jury was struck to try the matter. But by the interposition of friends, the dispute was compromised, and a small composition was accepted in lieu of the penalty, though it was entered in the court-rolls of Swanscombe manor, with the consent of all parties, in such a manner, that the custom of this payment might not be lessened in future by it. Hasted's Kert, Vol. II. p. 413, 8vo.

effigies,

effigies, and that of his lady, Elizabeth, daughter of Levin Buffkin, Esq. lie upon the tomb; and at their feet, a son and a daughter: three other sons and five daughters are represented kneeling, in front of the tomb.

There are no monuments of particular notice in this church; but in the nave are reliques of a rare custom in this country, namely, funebrial garlands, which are borne before the corpse of a virgin, and placed upon the coffin during the service in the church, and afterwards hung up as a memorial; captain Budworth, in his Tour to the Lakes, p. 100, mentions this as "an old Roman Catholic custom, free from its superstition."

In this neighbourhood are several strata of marine shells, particularly on the road leading from Green Street Green, at a place called SHELL BANK. "They resemble," says Mr. Brayley," the Tellina Rugosa of Pennant, and are of a pure white, lying closely together."

GREENHITHE is a hamlet in Swanscombe parish, on the banks of the Thames, and has a ferry into Essex, for horses and cattle; this formerly belonged to the nuns of Dartford, but has become an appurtenance to Swanscombe manor. The first range of chalk hills, which, with little intermission, continues to form the boundary of the marshes all the way to Cliff and Cowling, commence westward of this place. The chalk pits here and at Northfleet, are immense; the cliffs whence chalk has been dug, presenting, in many places, a tremendous perpendicular height of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet. The chalk forms a very considerable branch of commerce; and along the shore, are several wharfs, for the conveniency of ship. ping it off, both in its natural state, and when burnt into lime, for which purpose here are several large kilns. The flints also are collected for sale, and exportation to China. The potteries in Staffordshire annually consume vast quantities in the composition of the Staffordshire ware. In some parts, the chalk works are many feet below the level of the Thames; and being interspersed with houses, lime- kilns, &c. present a very singular aspect.

The

The beautiful villa of INCE-GRICE, vulgarly called INGRESS, belonged to the prioress and nuns of Dartford; but at the dissolution became the property of the crown, and was granted out by queen Elizabeth, and through various possessors by purchase, became the property, in 1737, of the earl of Hyndford, who conveyed it to the earl of Besborough, in 1758. The latter nobleman disposed of it to John Calcraft, Esq. whose son, in 1788, sold it to John Disney Robuck, Esq. father of Henry Robuck, Esq. the. present possessor. The plantations are luxuriant, the views fine, and the situation enchanting, more especially when it is known that the improvements of the grounds were from chalk pits.

The village of Northfleet is situated by the Thames, between the twentieth and twenty-first mile stones from, London; but, though recorded in Domesday Book, does not appear to have been more considerable than it, is at prefent. The church is large, and contains fragments of monuments as antient as the fourteenth century. On the north wall is a beautiful alabaster monument to the memory of Edward Browne, M. D. who resided at Ingress; he was physician to Charles II. and eminent for his skill in natural history, as appears from his travels in 1685. The steeple, in which are six good bells, was erected in 1717, and commands an extended and beautifully diversified prospect. This parish has been long distinguished on account of the vast quanti ties of lime burnt here, which supplies the builders in London; the excavations at this place exhibit a scene perfectly romantic, and dreadful to strangers. Numerous fossils are dug up and discovered, principally of the echinus species, such as nipples, pencils, &c. as also the glosse-petra, or shark's tooth, most curiously polished and sharp as thorns; these are often collected by naturalists, at an inconsiderable expence, as they are chielly the property of the chalk cutters, and other labourers. But what is very remarkable, within the flint stones, (whereof there are frequent strata, and which are here wrought up into flints for guns, &c.) complete cockle-shells filled with chalk are found,

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