cipal front commands a view of Epsom Downs in the distance: but Richmond Park approaches so near, that it seems to belong to the grounds, and gives an air of sylvan wildness to the whole. The prospect to the north charms the eye with variety. At the termination of the lawn, is the piece of water before mentioned. Beyond this, the Thames at high water winds through a well wooded valley, whence a rich display of cultivated country, adorned with villages and seats, rises to Harrow and the adjacent elevated parts of Middlesex. ROEHAMPTON HOUSE, the seat of William Drake, Esq. at Roehampton, was built in the year 1710. The cieling of the saloon, was painted by Thornhill, and represents the Feast of the Gods.

Before we quit the parish of Putney, it will be very proper to notice one of its public charities peculiarly accommodated to its situation; a school for the education and maintenance of twenty watermens' sons, founded by Mr. Thomas Martyn, who died November 18, 1684. The surplus of the estates left for this purpose is appointed for douations to watermen who have lost a limb in the service of their country.

WIMBLEDON, is seven miles south-west of London. The manor, which includes that of Mortlake, belonged for. merly to the see of Canterbury, and was exchanged by archbishop Cranmer, for other lands, with Henry VIII. We find it afterwards successively, by grant, settlement, purchase, or inheritance, the property or residence of Thomas Cromwell earl of Essex, queen Catharine Parr, Sir Christopher Hatton, Sir Thomas Cecil, afterward earl of Exeter; of his father, the great lord Burleigh, when Sir William Cecil; Edward Cecil, viscount Wimbledon; queen Henrietta Maria; general Lambert; queen Henrietta Maria, after the Restoration; George Digby earl of Bristol; the duke of Leeds; Sir Theodore Janssen, bart, and Sarah duchess of Marlborough. The duchess pulled down the old mansion house (a magnificent edifice, built in 1588, by Sir Thomas Cecil), and rebuilt it on the old site, after a design by the earl of Pembroke. Her grace let it to her grandson

grandson John Spencer, Esq. whose sen the late earl Spencer, formed at Wimbledon one of the finest parks in England. It contains one thousand two hundred acres, and is adorned with fine plantations, beautiful declivities, and a sheet of water, containing fifty acres. The eminences present many varied and delightful points of view. This house was burnt down in 1785; but some of the offices, that were at a distance from the house, serve for the occasional residence of his lordship*.

On the east side of Wimbledon Common, is a seat, purchased of Benjamin Bond Hopkins, Esq. by M. de Calonne, comptroller general of the finances of France, before the Revolution in 1789. The plantations, which con

On digging a well here in 1796, at the depth of five hundred and sixty-three feet, by Mr. Hossack, he discovered the following degrees of strata: The first seventy feet, of orchery red clay, alternating with sand; seventy to eighty, blue slaty clay, impregnated with pyrites; from eighty to one hundred, light sandy clay; from one hundred to one hundred and forty, blue slaty clay; from one hundred and forty to one hundred and ninety-two, light coloured shivery clay impregnated with pyrites; from one hudred and ninety-two to three hundred and ninety-six, hard blue clay, with various bands of pyritous stone; from three hundred and ninety-six to four hundred and twenty-five, light earth, with large and smaller masses of pyrites; from four hundred and twenty-five to four hundred and forty-three, hard and slaty clay; from four hundred and forty-three to four hundred and forty-four, hard rock; from four hundred and forty-four to four hundred and sixty-six, slaty clay; from four hundred and sixty-six to four hundred and sixty-seven one-half, hard rock; from four hundred and sixty-seven one-half to five hundred and thirty-six, blue slaty clay intermixed with sand and pyrites; from five hundred and thirty-six to five hundred and forty-two, hard blue clay, cockleshells, coal, and pyrites; from five hundred and forty-two to five hundred and forty-four, hard blue clay and pebbles; from five hundred and fifty-four to five hundred and fifty-eight, strata of shelly limestone; from five hundred and fifty-eight to five hundred and sixty, red clay. A hole was then bored with an auger two feet deep, when the water, mixed with sand, rose so rapidly, that in the space of an hour it was at the height of three hundred feet, whence it ascended to one hundred and fourteen feet of the surface, and became stationary. By the influx of sand from the bottom, the depth dimininished one hundred and sixty feet, and the water became clear, white, and soft.-Hunter's London.

tain

tain upward of seventy acres, join lord Spencer's. M. de Calonne sold the estate, in September, 1792, for 15,000l. to earl Gower Sutherland.

Wimbledon Common is surrounded with seats of the nobility and gentry; particularly WIMBLEDON LODGE, built by Gerard de Visme, Esq. This is an elegant modern structure; the architecture of which is in the most chaste and beautiful stile; ornamented with emblems, &c.. The grounds are also laid out with superior taste. On the west side are two good houses, in the occupation of the right honourable lord Melville, and the pretty villa of Abraham D'Aguelar, Esq. There are several other good houses on the Common; particularly those of John Horne Tooke, Esq. and Michael Bray, Esq.

The church, except the chancel, was rebuilt in 1788, in the Grecian style. The contributions of the inhabitants, on this occasion, were so liberal, that the whole was completed, without the necessity of recurring to parliament, or to a brief. Mr. Levi, then of Prospect Place, was one of the most considerable subscribers. Within the church are memorials of Sir Richard Wynne of Gwedir, Caernarvonshire; lord Wimbledon and his family; Sir Theodore Janssen. At one corner of the churchyard is a se, pulchre of brick and stone, for the family of Benjamin Bond Hopkins, Esq. The entrance, which is on the outside of the churchyard, is by a flight of steps into a sunk area, fenced in by iron rails. In the churchyard is the tomb of John Hopkins, Esq. celebrated by Pope as Vulture Hopkins: he died in 1732.

At the south-west angle of Wimbledon Common, is a circular encampment with a single ditch, including a surface of seven acres; the trench very deep and perfect. Camden is of opinion, that this was the site of the battle, in 568, between Ceaulin, king of the West Saxons, and Ethelbert, king of Kent, in which the latter was defeated. On the same common, near the village, is a well, the water of which is never known to freeze. There are cop

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