remains of this building, and has fubjoined to the print an account of the prefent ftate of it communicated to him by John Thorpe, efq; of Bexley. As this may be of ufe to the traveller, should he be at liberty to furvey this once famous edifice, a long extract from the letter is here inferted.

"Of Dartford nunnery there remains only a fine gateway, and fome contiguous building now ufed as a farm houfe; "the gateway is now a ftable for the farmers horfes, and "over it is a large room, ferving, I fuppofe, for a hayloft. "The feite of the abbey was where the farmer's garden and "ftack yard now are, it must have been a vaft pile of building, and, doubtless, very noble, fuitable to fuch great "perfonages as were members of it, as appears by a great "number of foundations of cross walls, drains, &c. which

have been discovered. There were, and are to this day, 66 two broad roads, or avenues, leading to the gate; one "eastward, and flanked by the old ftone wall on the right"hand, from the street called Water-fide, which leads "down to the Creek where boats and barges come up from "the Thames. This was certainly one of the principal ave"nues from the town to the abbey. The other is to the weft, "leading into the farm-yard fronting the arch of the weft-fide "of the great tower, or gateway. This way leads from the "farm up to the fide of the hill into the great road to Lon"don and the large hilly field, on the right-hand, adjoin"ing the road leading as above, is to this day called the "king's field. This abbey, and its environs, took up a great "extent of land; for, on the north-east fide, fronting this "view, were the large gardens and orchards, encompaffed "with the antient stone wall ftill entire, and more than half 86 a mile round, enclosing a piece of ground of twelve acres, "which is now, and has been for a number of years, rented by gardeners, to fupply the London markets; and famous "for producing the best artichokes in England. On the left

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“hand

"hand of the road, leading from Water-ftreet to the eaft"front of the abbey, are fine meadows, extending from the "back part of the high-ftreet, up to the building or abbey "farm; and, oppofite the long garden wall, on the right "fide of the faid road, and, without doubt, much more lands "now converted into gardens and tenements, formerly lay "open, and belonged to it."

A confiderable corn-market is held weekly at Dartford, but here, as in almost every other town in the kingdom, the method of felling, is by fample. Within thirty years the grain used to be regularly pitched, but not a waggon load of it is now to be seen in the street on a Saturday, which is the market-day. There is also a fair yearly on the second of Auguft for horses and black cattle.

The church of Dartford is a spacious edifice; and the time of its being built is not known. In 1333, Hamo de Hethe, bishop of Rochefter, fixed a large window in the chancel, the fize of which has been reduced many years, but the original dimenfions of it are yet vifible. As a collection was made in the parish for new bells in 1450, and there being for fome years after feveral legacies for the fame purpofe, it is not unlikely that the fteeple may have been built about the middle of that century. In the chancel is a flat grave-ftone to the memory of John Hornley vicar of this parish, who died in 1477. He was the firft prefident of Magdalencollege in Oxford, continued ten years in that honourable ftation, and feems to have refigned it on his becoming vicar of Dartford, and rector of a parish in the city of London. The infcription on the tomb-ftone, which confifts of twelve, not inelegant verses, reprefents him to have been a clergyman. of exemplary manners, and diftinguifhed and refpected for his abilities and learning by the university, of which he was a member. Some epitaphs contain only random praife, and

molt

most other compofitions of this kind are justly deemed pane gyrics of the dead; but there is reafon to believe that there is no excess in the eulogies beftowed upon Mr. Hornley, from bishop Waynfleet having committed to him the government of his newly founded academical fociety. On the north fide of the communion-table is a fair monument of alabafter and black marble, for Sir John Spilman, inclosed with iron rails, on which is his effigy in armour, and that of his lady kneeling at a desk, with each a book open; and on different tablets there are infcriptions in German, Latin and English. If the papermill mentioned in a former page was not built under the direction of the knight to whofe memory this monument is raised, he was probably nearly related to the person who first brought this manufacture into England.-There are two buryinggrounds belonging to this parish, one contiguous to the church, and therefore properly called the church-yard, the other is on the top of the hill, to the north of the road leading towards Rochefter, and fituated by that means above the tower of the church. In no printed account of Kent has any hint been fuggested refpccting the time when this inclofure was allotted for the interment of the dead. Perhaps a research into the hiftory of a chantry in the parish of Dartford may tend to a difcoof this hitherto obfcure point. From feveral antient MSS. it appears, that there was formerly in, or near Dartford, a little chapel or chantry dedicated to St. Edmund, a Saxon king and martyr. John de Bykenore of this parish is imagined to have been the founder of it; a chaplain was, at least, licensed to it, upon his nomination, as early as the year 1326, and his widow Joan, and Robert Bykenore were fucceffively patrons of it till 1371, when the priorefs and the fifters of the nunnery at Dartford are mentioned as being poffeffed of that right. Five marks a year was the original allowance to the chaplain, but there are grounds før suspecting that care had not been taken at firit to fecure the legal payment of this pen

very

fion.

fion. A deed of endowment, under the common feal of the nunnery feems not to have been delivered to the bishop of the diocefe till 1463, in which, however, a field called Tanner's field was declared to be charged with this annual ftipend. Under this instrument the chaplain became alfo entitled to a houfe with fome fresh and falt marfh, appertaining to the fame, to two acres and a half of land at Fulwick, and to one acre more of land oppofite to the chapel of St. Edmund-By the will of Thomas Yngledew, a chaplain, who died in 1462, he was to be buried before the altar of the chapel of St. Edmund the king and martyr; and Thomas Worship, who had probably been an officiating priest in the fame chantry, defired his body to be interred at the door of the chapel lately founded in the cemetery of St. Edmund in Dartford, above the charnel, on the weft fide, at the very entrance of the said door.―This chantry was prefented as ruinous in 1496; and in 1516, fix barishioners were fummoned to answer to a charge of neglecting the repairs of it. Most probably no money was ever appropriated for this pur-, pose, nor was it easy to prevail upon the inhabitants to fubject themselves to the burden of fupporting this building. The chantry was, however, diffolved in the reign of king Edward VI. and having been founded for fuperftitious uses, the revenues of it were granted to the crown by act of parliament. That the burial ground under our review was the cemitery of the chapel of St. Edmund is no unlikely conclufion, and the foundation of an edifice which may still be traced, adds fome weight to this conjecture.

STAGE II,

Dartford Brent.-Detail of the course of the Roman road from Dartford Brent to Strood Hill.-Stone; Church and Caftle.Swanscombe; Ingrefs; The custom of Gavelkind.-Northfleet.Southfleet-Gravefend.-Milton.-Higham.-Cliffe.Cowling-Caftle.-Shorne-Cobbam.-Chalk.Gad's Hill-Strood.

A

ROCHESTER.

Ta little distance from the fummit of Dartford-hill is the open plain, upon which, as before-mentioned, king Edward III, is imagined to have held a tournament; and the duke of York, in the reign of Henry VI. certainly affembled here a numerous army. It is by many called Dartford Brim, and by others the Brink, but Brent, which signifies burnt, is the ancient name; and Rapin, in his detail of the latter transaction, styles it, from Hall's Chronicle, the Burntheath; whence it acquired that appellation is not known. In digging the gravel-pit at the north-eaft corner of this ground a few years fince, the labourers difcovered the skeletons of feveral bodies, eight in one part, and four in another. When the affizes were held at Dartford, the Brent is fuppofed to have been the place of execution, and therefore these were imagined to have been the bones of criminals who had fuffered death under the fentence of the law; but, if the encampment of the duke of York confifted of 10,000 men, and they remained here a few weeks, might not these be the remains of fome of his followers.-No hoftile bands have, however, fixed their ftandards on the Brent for many years, and it has long fince ceased to be a field for the performing of those

exercifes