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against the Cassivelani, must have crossed the Thames; others insist that the passage was effected near Petersham, to the opposite shore at Twickenham.

This parish boasts a number of magnificent parks and seats: Lord Tankerville's, hard by the bridge, Ashley Park, Burwood Park, and many others; among which must not be forgotten a memorable show-place, Pains Hill, near to Cobham, on the banks of the Mole.

PAINS HILL is on the verge of a heath which rises above a fertile plain watered by the river Mole. Large valleys descending in different directions break the brow into separate eminences, and the gardens are extended along the edge in a semicircular form, between the winding river, which describes their outward boundary, and the park which fills up the cavity of the crescent. There may be scenes, says an author who describes it, where nature has done more for herself, but in no place that I ever saw has so much been done for nature as at Pains Hill. The beauty and unexpected variety of the scene, the happy situation, elegant structure and judicious form of the buildings, the flourishing state, uncommon diversity, and con

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trasted groupage of the trees, will not fail to awaken the most pleasing sensations. The demesne contains two hundred and thirteen acres, but the happy situation and peculiarly skilful manner in which the grounds are disposed, would lead the visitor to imagine there was inclosed an area of much greater extent.

Walton Bridge is a handsome structure of brick, consisting of four principal arches, and several lesser ones; it is situated ten miles above the flow of the tide, and the current runs only at the rate of three miles an hour. In our illustration, the woods of Oatlands are represented in the distance.

The Church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Mary, is built of flints and rough-hewn stones. It consists of a nave, with two aisles, and a chancel; the nave is divided from the aisles by pointed arches resting on pillars, of which those in the north side are round, with capitals adorned with volutes,

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the south side hexagons. At the west end is a square tower built with the same materials as the church, buttresses diminishing in stages, a small turret at each corner.

The North aisle has a magnificent marble monument executed by Roubiliac, to the memory of Lord Shannon, a distinguished military officer, and one of the Lords Justices of Ireland.

In the chancel are monumental brasses, on one of which, being suspended

by nail so that both sides may be examined, is the representation of a man sitting on the back of a stag, with his sword in the stag's throat; on the other side is a like device with some trifling variations, commemorative of one John Selwyn, under-keeper of the park at Oatlands, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This man, it would appear by popular tradition, was famous for his strength, agility, and skill in horsemanship, specimens of all which he exhibited before the queen, at a grand stag-hunt in that Park, where, attending, as was his duty of office, he in the heat of the chase suddenly leaped from his horse upon the back of the stag, both running at that time with their utmost speed, and not only kept his seat gracefully in spite of every exertion of the affrighted beast, but drawing his sword, with it guided him towards the queen, and coming near her plunged it in his throat, so that the animal fell dead at her feet. This was thought sufficiently wonderful to be chronicled in his monument, and he is accordingly there portrayed in the act of stabbing the stag.

A large black marble, at the entrance of the chancel, commemorates Lilly the famous astrologer; being placed here, as the inscription informs us, out of love for the seer, by Elias Ashmole, founder of the museum bearing his

name.

WEYBRIDGE, SO called from the river Wey, on whose banks, not far from its confluence with the Thames, this village is situated, is next in order. This extensive parish is bounded to the north by the river Thames, to Byfleet on the south, Walton on the east, and the Wey on the west.

In the village is a house called Holstein House, from having been the occasional residence of a Prince of Holstein; the neighbourhood is rich in magnificent seats, of which the principal are Ham House and Oatlands.

The magnificent seat, Oatlands, now the property of the Lord Francis Egerton, was long a royal property and residence. King Henry the Eighth, in extending the honour of Hampton Court, became possessed of this estate, by one of his forced and summary exchanges with the then possessor.

Queen Elizabeth used to visit here, and is said to have shot with a crossbow in the paddock. King Charles the First granted the manor to his Queen, Henrietta Maria, for her life at this place his youngest son, called Henry of Oatlands, was born.

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In the time of Queen Elizabeth the palace consisted of three courts; the first square and spacious, the other two narrow and irregular; the architec

ture was of precisely the same character as Hampton Court; during the period of the Commonwealth this building was almost wholly destroyed.

At the Restoration, the Queen-mother was again put in possession of Oatlands; at her death it was leased out for different terms to persons enjoying the favour of the Crown; among these were the Duke of St. Albans and Sir Edward Herbert, Justice of the King's Bench in the reign of James the Second, whose measures he supported; being excepted from the pardon granted by King William, he followed his master into Ireland and France, where he died.

His son, a naval officer of distinction, whose opposite principles led him into the service of King William, recovered the fee simple of this estate, but dying without issue, devised by will all his property to the Earl of Lincoln.

The house was built, and gardens laid out, by George Holles, Duke of Newcastle, about the year 1725.

His nephew, Duke Henry, resided at Oatlands in the house built on the terrace, enlarged the park, and made great plantations. His Royal Highness the late Duke of York purchased the estate of Oatlands from the Duke of Newcastle, and having bought several adjoining estates, including a thousand acres of waste lands, commenced the consolidation of the present magnificent demesne.

The house was consumed by fire during the absence of the Duke with his army in Flanders; a new mansion, every way unworthy the princely demesne, was soon after completed from the designs of Holland. At the foot of the terrace is a piece of water of considerable extent, supplied by springs.

The river Thames is not seen, and Walton Bridge, which terminates the view that way, seems to span this river; near some springs which rise on the side of the hill, between the house and kitchen garden, and which have been formed into a small lake, is a magnificent grotto, said to have cost the sum of four thousand pounds. It consists of several apartments, and a winding passage, in which is a small bath, supplied by a spring dripping through the rocks; the sides and roof are incrusted with shells, ores, and petrifactions. On the side of the park towards Walton, is an arch or gateway, with this incription :-"Henricus Comes de Lincoln, hunc Arcum opus Ignatii Jones, vetustate corruptum, restituit."

The park and surrounding grounds are nearly six miles in circumference, containing about three thousand acres.

BYFLEET adjoins Weybridge to the north, and was long a royal demesne. Edward the Second is supposed to have resided here at intervals; from this place he dated his order for the arrest of the Knights Templars. King James the First settled the manor upon his son, Prince Henry, and after his decease upon the Queen; "who began," says Aubrey, a "noble house of brick," which was afterwards completed by Sir James Fullerton, one of the King's favourites.

Byfleet has been the residence of two men differently distinguished in the world of letters,-Stephen Duck, the poetical thresher, and the Reverend Joseph Spence, an excellent scholar, and most amiable man.

Stephen Duck was originally an agricultural labourer, but having attracted some notice by his pursuit of the Muses under difficulties, was patronised by Queen Caroline, who bestowed upon him a small place, that of keeper of a temple erected in Richmond Gardens.

An edition of his Poems in quarto was published in 1736, with a preparatory memoir by Mr. Spence, without any pretensions to poetical merit; the distinguished patronage of the Queen procured for Duck greater attention than he merited, or had any right to expect.

Having taken orders, he was instituted to the rectory of Byfleet, a promotion that would seem to have turned his brain, as he soon after destroyed himself in a fit of melancholy insanity.

Spence first distinguished himself in literature by an Essay on Pope's Odyssey, which is characterised by Warton as a work of the truest taste. He was patronised by the then Duke of Newcastle, who gave him the use of a pleasant house and grounds here. Spence was Fellow of New College, Oxford, and Professor of Poetry there; he held also the appointment of Regius Professor of History at Oxford. His principal contribution to literature was his "Polymetis, or an inquiry concerning the agreement between the works of the Roman poets, and the remains of the ancient artists; being an attempt to illustrate them mutually from each other;" a happy idea, carried out very happily by the learned and ingenious author. In this work occurs a pleasing moral poem, called "The Choice of Hercules," which is generally read and admired.

Mr. Spence was drowned in a canal in his garden, here, into which he was supposed to have fallen in a fit of apoplexy.

Ham House, in this parish, often confounded with the mansion of the

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