The parochial church formerly occupied the scite of the present stabling of Mereworth House, but from this once re tired and appropriate situation it was removed by the desecrating influence of vanity, during the dominion of classic rage and tasteless extravagance. The situation now allotted it, strickly accords with the spirit of its removal, and the taste of its projectors; obtruded on the public way and without a solitary tree near, to veil its peerless beauties, it boldly and confidently challenges the applause and admiration of the passing traveller, while its gaudy spire serves as a land mark, to guide the curious to this region of TASTE and lordly magnifi. cence. To enter into its merits as a design, would be needless, suffice it to observe, that it is misplaced, utterly unsuited to its situation and ill calculated to further the sacred and important purposes for which it was professedly intended. The style of architecture adopted in this structure is the tuscan and not the corinthian, as Hasted states, from which it will be found to differ, as widely as the well dressed gentleman from the clown. At the west end is a semicircular vestibule or porch with columns of this order, and within the building are two rows of doric columns, dividing the area into a nave and side aisles: the spire is not unlike that of St. Martin's in the fields, London. This fabric was begun in 1744, and consecrated by the Bishop of Rochester in the year 1746. On the alteration of the feast day of the dedication of the church of Mereworth in the year 1439, the Bishop of Rochester, as an encouragement to the parishioners and others to observe the alteration, granted to those who did, forty days remission of their sins!!!

According to the example given by Vitruvius. Its principal charac teristic is simplicity; the shaft does not diminish from the base, but begins to contract curvilinearly about one third up, thus giving to it a gouty and unsightly appearance; the cornice projects two diameters, supported by mutules at the distance of one diameter apart.

NETTLESTED, was at the time of the survey of Domes

day, among the possessions of the Bishop of Baieux, on whose disgrace this manor, with those of Hylth and Pimpe, became confiscated. In the reign of Edward I. they were held of the CLARES, Earls of Gloucester, (chief lords of the fee) by Richard de Pimpe, and in that name they continued until the 18th of Henry VII. when Sir Thomas Scott, of Scotts-hall became possessed of them. They were afterwards purchased by Sir Philip Boteler, Baronet, together with Pimpe's Court in East Farleigh, and are now the property of Lord Barham. Some considerable repairs and alterations were made to the Place-house by Sir John Scott, probably about the year 1587, that date appearing on a part of the building, evidently of more recent erection than the rest. A part of this once splendid residence, is converted into an oast for drying hops, and the residence of a labourer, while what else remains of it, serves but as a melancholy memento of its former consequence.

The MANOR OF LOMEWOOD, was settled on the priory of Black canons, at Tunbridge, by one of the Earls of Gloucester, but falling to the crown by the dissolution of that establishment, it was granted to Cardinal Wolsey, towards the endowment of his college, with which it remained but a short time, for on the disgrace of that prelate, it was again seized by the crown, and shortly after given to Sir Edward Neville.

The parish of Nettlested, is bounded on the east by the Medway, and southward by the parish of Wateringbury, and though generally low, is not only rich in soil but in scenery. On the east of the village stands the CHURCH, a small building (dedicated to ST. MARY,) containing some memorials of the Scotts, and in the windows a considerable quantity of

Y

*

stained glass. This rectory is held with the chapel of Bar

mingjett, the latter having been annexed to it by Edmund Bishop of Rochester, (anno 1486.) From the church-yard, a good view is obtained of Sir John Shaw's house, seated under shelter of the hill, between the churches of Yalding and Nettlested, and of the country in the direction of Pembury.

The learned Sir Roger Twisden who lived in the reigns of King James and Charles I. in his discourse on the Weald, says, that in the time of the Lady Golding, who hired the tithes of this parish, Nettlested was held to be in the Weald, and she denied the tithes of wood accordingly; yet the rector of it affirmed then to Sir Roger, that all who had wood in the parish, paid tithe of it at that time to him, excepting himself.

NEWENDEN. On the rising ground north of the Rother, which divides this county from Sussex, at the distance of about three miles southward of Rolvenden, stands the little village of NEWENDEN, consisting of a few scattered cottages near the church, and on the left of the road to LOSENHAM HOUSE, the seat of Samuel Bishop, Esq. and formerly of a younger branch of the Auchers; by an heiress of which family it was carried in marriage to the Colepepers of Bedgebury. On this MANOR a PRIORY for Carmelite friars, † was founded by Sir Thomas Fitz-Aucher, in the 26th of Henry III. (anno 1241) be

The nave is lighted on each side by three elegant obtuse pointed windows, and between these externally, are canopied buttresses reaching to the eaves of the building.

+ 'William Strawfield, S. T. P. a native of Kent, who became prior of this house, and was buried here in 1390, wrote a history of this monastery, and is said to have been particularly versed in the history of his Order.'

Stev. Dug. Mon. vol. II. p. 167.

According to Kilburne a castle stood near the scite of the priory, which was destroyed by the Danes in 892. In his time no traces of it were to be discovered, but the memory of it had been preserved, by a place bere still called the castle toll.

ing the year after the first settlement of that order in England. The PRIORY, which stood but a little removed from the manor house of Losenham, was suppressed in the 27th of Henry VIII. and with all its possessions surrendered to the crown. LOSENHAM, is situated about half a mile north-eastward of the church, and is considerably elevated, standing on the ridge of high land which runs through the parish from east to west, shelving on the south towards the Rother, which bounds the parish on this side, and on the north declining into the valley between this place and Rolvenden. The appearance of the surrounding country, so far from being 'forlorn and dreary' as Hasted ́asserts, wears a cheerful and animating aspect; the lawn-like surface of the fore-ground, gently flowing into the marshes below, bespotted with sheep and occasionally enlivened by the passing barges on the river, affords an animating spectacle; while the back-ground of the view is closed by the rising woodlands in the opposite parishes, studded with cottages and seats, and enriched with the picturesque spires of Beckley and Northiam churches. The views northward are no less pleasing; indeed to what ever quarter the eye is directed, there is something to please and to gratify it. The house (built in 1666) has undergone considerable alterations within these few years, insomuch that at this time it carries with it no external marks of antiquity; part of the moat which formerly surrounded it, is still remaining on the south side.*

The manor of Newenden, (with other lands) was granted by Offa, King of Mercia, to the abbey of Christ-Church, Canterbury (by the name of Andred) for the feed of their hogs, ad pascua porcorum. In the time of Edward the Confessor, it Y 2

"Many foundations have been dug up southward of the house, and a few years ago a stone coffin was dug up, composed of four flat stones,' perforated with several holes to let the moisture through." Hasted.

was accounted part of the demesnes of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to which see it was attached until the reign of Henry VIII. when by Archbishop Cranmer, this Manor, with other premises, was exchanged with that monarch, and remained with the crown, to the death of Charles I. soon after which, the manor was sold to Hugh Peters, who held it till the restora tion, when it again reverted to the crown. It was afterwards granted to the Earl of Aylesford, whose descendant Heneage Finch, Earl of Aylesford, conveyed it, together with the fishery belonging to it, (which extends on the river Rother from New-barn, at the eastern extremity of this parish, to Odiarne-oak, about a mile beyond Bodiam westward) by sale in 1760, to Mr. Samuel Bishop, of Losenham.

About a quarter of a mile eastward of the village and near the river, is a strong chalybeate Spring: which says Hasted, "with oaken leaves put into it, turned blackish; and with powder of galls, it sparkled and turned like Champaigne wine."

Two spots are still pointed out in this parish, which are said to mark the scite of the Roman STATION and Ciry called by Pancirollus Anderida and Anderidos, by the Britons Cuer Andred, and afterwards by the Saxons Andred or Andred-ceaster. The one called Castle Toll, lies about a mile and a quarter east north-east from the village of Newenden, on a point of land between Haydon sewer and the river Rother; it is a raised plot comprising about eighteen or twenty acres, on the east side of which are the remains of a deep ditch and bank which seem to have gone quite round it. And near it on the north-east, is a piece of land, raised much higher than the former, round which appears to have been a double ditch, enclosing an area of about five or six acres.

"When Dr. Plot visited this place in the year 1693, he saith in some MSS papers of his, which I have the favor to peruse, that they were