Until those Danish routs, whom hunger starv'd at home,
Like wolves pursuing prey, about the world did roam;
And stemning the rude stream dividing us from France,
Into the spacious mouth of Rother fell by chance,
Which Lymen then was call'd, when with most irksome care,
The heavy Danish yoke the servile English bare :
And when at last she found there was no way to leave
Those whom she had at first been forced to receive;
And by her great resort, she was, through very need,
Constrained to provide her peopled towns to feed,
She learn'd the churlish axe and twybill to prepare,
To steel the coulter's edge, and sharp the furrowing share."—

"This large tract of the Weald," says Harris, "is by no mea generally speaking, unhealthy, except where the ground is marshy

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Without shewing for what auncient service, for what manner of custom, or for what special cause, the same rent grew due and payable, as £ the first stile or entrie is expressed.

"Whereupon I gather, that, although the propertie of the Weald was at the firste belonging to certaine known owners, as wel as the rest of the countrey, yet was it not then allotted into tenancies, nor mauored like unto the residue; but that even as men were contented to inhabite it, and by peecemeale to rid it of the wood, and breake it up with the ploughe; so this latter rent (differing from the former, both in quantitie and qualitie, as being greater than the other, and yielded rather as re compense for fearme, than as a quit-rent for any service) did long after, by litle and litle, take his beginning." Lambard's Peramb. p. 168,-10. Edit. 1576. This opinion of Lambard's respecting the quit-rents and services of the Weald, has been controverted by Somner, who says, "for albeit there were of old no mannors in the Weald, yet the lands lying there, when once cultivated and manured, being appendant to and depending on mannors elsewhere; the tenants in respect of and propor tion to their holdings and tenancies, might be and were lyable to the Lord of the Mannor whereof they held, for services and customs, as other tenants elsewhere; for, besides fealty, suit of court, and reliefs there, among other local customs and services heretofore obtaining there, do frequently occur, Gavel-swine, Scot-ale, Pannage, Gate peny, Sumer-hus-silver, Corredy, and Danger."

⚫ Roman Posts and Ports in Kent,' p. 111117.

and swampy: the ways, indeed, are very bad in it, in winter or wet weather, because the soil is generally upon a clay; but in the summer 'tis all a garden; and in a dry season, the ways are rather better for a coach than in other places, being without deep ruts: and from the tops of the adjacent hills, it is the finest prospect imaginable, to look down into the Weald in summer-time; for the whole being in a manner composed of inelosures, the cornfields and meadows of different colours, adorned with all manner of flowers, the green woods and hedge-rows, and the towns and villages here and there interspersed, do afford so very great and agreeable a variety of view, that I never saw any thing any where more delightful and charming. And this large and extensive prospect renders the seats of those gentlemen which are situated on the edge of the hills, exceedingly pleasant in all good and clear weather."* In the winter season, in wet weather, it is impossible to travel over the Weald in carriages, and scarcely on horseback; though in the principal roads, which are from fifty to sixty feet broad, there is generally a paved causeway, about three feet in width, raised for the accommodation of passengers.

The distinguished honor of introducing the noble Art of Printing into England, and of first practising it when introduced, is unquestionably due to WILLIAM CAXTON, a merchant and citizen of London, but a native of the Weald of Kent, as appears from the following passage from the preface to his translation of the Recule of the Hystoryes of Troye.' "In Fraunce was I never; and was born and lerned myne English in Kente in the Weeld, where English is spoken broad and rude." His early condition in life is little known; but his apprenticeship was passed with Robert Large, Esq. Lord Mayor of London in 1439; after whose death, in 1441, he became agent and factor to the Mercers' Company, whose concerns he superintended in the Low Countries for about twenty-three years. In 1464, he was employed, jointly with Richard Whitehill, Esq. by Edward the Fourth, to negociate a treaty

Hist. of Kent, p. 318. For other particulars of the Weald, see before, p. 412,-3.

treaty of commerce with Philip, Duke of Burgundy; and he afterwards held some office in the household of Margaret of York, the King's sister, who had married Charles, the Duke's son, and successor. The discovery of printing by metal types, seems to have exercised much of his attention about this time; and under the patronage of the Duchess of Burgundy, he printed his Recule of the Hystoryes of Troye in 1471, at Cologne, in which city he had perfected himself in the knowledge of the art. Soon afterwards he came to England, and established the printing business, according to general report, in a small apartment, or Chapel, within the Abbey of Westminster: this, however, is somewhat doubtful, as no mention of the place where his books were printed, occurs in his own publications till the year 1477; though full three years before, in March, 1474, appeared his translation of The Game and Playe of Chesse,' which is the first book known to have been ever printed in this country. He afterwards printed numerous other works on different subjects, mostly translations by himself, from the French, and judiciously selected, with a view to the promotion of a taste for literature and good morals.' He died in 1494; probably at about the age of eighty-four, or five, and was buried at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster. He was succeeded in the printing business by Wynkyn de Worde, a Dutchman, who is supposed to have come to England with Caxton, and who, after the decease of his master, greatly contributed to the advancement of the art, by his numerous improvements in the forms and varieties of the type.

In the Parish of Bethersden lies the Manor of OLD SURRENDEN, so called from being the more ancient seat of the Surrenden family, who were owners here as early as the time of King John, but alienated to Cardinal Archbishop Kemp, in the reign of Henry the Sixth. It afterwards passed through various families to Philip Choute, Esq. who was Standard-Bearer to Henry the Eighth at the siege of Boulogne, and, for his gallant conduct, had assigned to him a canton to his ancient coat, of the like bearing

Hence among printers, the composing-room is still called the

Chapel.'