The chutch, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a spacious structure, abounding with curious monuments, brasses, &c. In the chancel, are six antient stalls and a piscina; but the greatest curiosity is the octangular font, of grey marble, highly enriched, standing on a neatly ornamented pedestal of similar shape. The subjects of the several compartments are, an angel with expanded wings, sustaining the balances; the initials IHS on a shield within a quatrefoil, surrounded by a circle a bishop (supposed to be St. Nicholas, to whom the church is dedicated) with his pastoral staff-a chalice, with the consecrated wafer environed with a nimbus or glory, and impressed with the image of red-hot iron, of one, two, or three pounds weight; or else by walking bare-foot, and blindfold, over nine red-hot plough-shares, laid lengthways, at unequal distances; and if the party escaped being hurt, he was adjudged innocent; but. if it happened otherwise, he was then condemned as guilty. No doubt, there was generally a collusion in this and every mode of trial, of this nature; but the guilty, especially if rich, had a much greater chance of being cleared than the innocent, as the former would be much more apt to have recourse to artifice than the latter.-Water ordeal was performed, either by thrusting the bare arm into boiling water as high as the elbow, and if the person was not scalded he was pronounced innocent; or, the accused person was thrown with a rope about the waste into a river or pond of cold water; if he sunk, he was acquitted, but if he floated therein without any action of swimming, it was a sufficient proof of criminality, because they judiciously concluded, the pure water would not admit a guilty wretch into it. The traditional relics of the water-ordeal may be easily traced out in the ignorant barbarity formerly practised to discover witches, by casting them into a pool of water, and drowning them to prove their innocence.

In the consistorial acts of the diocese of Rochester under the year 1585, there is a curious entry of a presentment of defamation against two men of Deptford, for reporting three women of that parish to be witches, and the reason they gave for thinking them to be so, was, "that either of them kept a monstrous tode." The judge who presided does not appear to have been entirely satisfied that this was of itself a competent proof of the offence; but as one of the dames was not only " somewhat suspected of witchcraft," but also accused of being a notable scold, which might probably be very true, though she denied the charge, she was ordered to appear on the next court day, with six good women for her compurgators, and likewise admonished to resort to the minister every Sunday or holiday, to testify her faith.

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 improve. ments 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 "dis, mantled 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 ma neuvre 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 there. fore 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 default 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 nanor, 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 Kent, 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 im mense; 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 shipping 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 quan tities 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 IxGRESS, 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 Bes borough, 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 Northflect is situated by the Thames, between the twentieth and twenty-first mile stones from Lon don; 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 quantities 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 chiefly the property of the chalk cutters, and other labourers. But what is very remark, able, 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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