structed by Harledine, of Bridgenorth, in Shropshire, is erected to lift the water which drains into the works. There

is no doubt but that this water issues from the drainage of the surrounding country, and not from the river under which it passes; for it is ascertained, that the river is sustained by a mass of clay, impervious to water, about sixteen to twenty feet in thickness. Under this, and through which the tunnel passes, the stratum varies, being at the entrance a running sand, towards the middle a hard compact limestone with intermixture of iron-ore, generally in the form of branches of trees, yet so rich with iron, as to yield 80lb. on an assay. The present tunnel is intended for foot passengers only, to be of an elliptical form, eleveu feet diameter, to be secured by cast metal segments, so as to render it completely water tight. The passage under the river is about six hundred feet, which will be lighted with lamps at proper distances; the passages to it at the ends are about three hundred feet each. These are intended to remain open, though at the entrance of the archway the height of the walls will be upwards of forty feet. The draining way under the river is effected, the time which it took up was little more than six months. It is conjectured that the archway will be completed in a year from the present date, for foot passengers. Thus will a footway be established between the opposite sides of this important river, where a bridge would have ruined the navigation. Indeed it is worth considering whether this principle cannot be put in practice in other situations, where bridges now appear difficulties to the accommodation of the metropolis.

Near the extremity of Rotherhithe parish are the docks for the Greenland ships. "A profitable nuisance," says Pennant, "very properly removed to a distance from the capital." The great dock is supposed to have been the mouth of Canute's canal before mentioned.

We now enter the COUNTY OF KENT, and it is necessary that some account should be given of this extensive district, as far as consists with the present object of this work.

The

The county of Kent, forms the south-eastern angle of the British island, and is bounded on the north by the Gerinan ocean, and the river Thames; on the west by Surrey; on the south by Sussex; and on the east by the Downs and Straits of Dover. It is of an irregularly quadrilateral figure, the shortest side towards Surrey, and the longest stretching along the Thames and its mouth. The greatest breadth of the county is its eastern side; but it is considerably narrowed on its southern side, and its contents, according to the most accurate computation, are about one thousand four hundred square miles, or nine hundred thousand statute acres.

Two chains of hills run across Kent, from west to east ; the whole northern side of the county consists of chalk, intermixed with flints, with the exception of a line of marshes, or meadows, on the banks of the Thames, Medway, and other rivers. The THAMES is equally bountiful to this as to many other counties, to which it serves in part of its course as a boundary. This noble river furnishes all the northern side of the banks with a border of rich marshes; serving also for the conveyance of the products of the neighbourhood to the metropolis, and other places.

The principal river however properly belonging to Kent, is the MEDWAY, which rising from different heads on the borders of Surrey and Sussex, flows in a north-eastward direction to Maidstone, being first joined by the BEULT, a considerable stream from the Weald, and then runs straight north to Rochester, at which city it again takes an eastern course, till it empties itself into the mouth of the Thames, between the isles of Shepey and Grain. A channel from it, called the SWALE, completes the separation of the isle of Shepey from the main land. The Medway admits large men of war as far as Chatham, where its channel suddenly contracts. It is navigable, however, for large barges to Maidstone, and for smaller to Tunbridge.

The DARENT is a rivulet springing near Sevenoaks, and flows northward to Dartford, below which it mixes with the Thames in Long Reach, having been first joined by the CRAY.

Kent, like other maritime counties on the eastern side of England, is subject to cold ungenial blasts from the northeast, which frequently injure the vegetation in spring, and affects the health of the inhabitants. The low marshy grounds near the Thames, are also by their situation particularly unhealthy; and the garrison of Sheerness is supposed to suffer more from sickness than any other in the kingdom. The higher and more internal parts of the country enjoy a pure and wholesome air, and many spots are distinguished for pleasantness and salubrity. The products of agriculture are earliest on the northern side.

This county has long been celebrated for a very intelligent and spirited system of agriculture, and more of arable than pasturage; annually sending out a great quantity of grain for the supply of London, and other places. The manure principally used is sea-weed. On the banks of the Thames, about Deptford, Greenwich, and Gravesend, garden vegetables are much cultivated for the London markets, and the supply of shipping. The Gravesend aspa ragus is acknowledged superior to any other.

The London brewery is almost wholly supplied with its hops from Kent, of which the principal plantations are in the vicinity of Canterbury, and of Maidstone. The stony lands about Maidstone, which form the hop grounds, likewise yield great quantities of apples, cherries, and filberts, which are commonly cultivated together. The fruit chiefly goes to the London market: cyder is also sometimes made from the apples.

Many of the Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and South-down. sheep are kept as a favourite breed on the Sussex border, in West Kent.

The marsh land of the Medway, Thames, Swale, &c. containing about eleven thousand five hundred acres, is all devoted to the fattening of cattle and sheep, or the breeding of the latter. The waste commons of Kent are computed not to exceed twenty thousand acres.

There is no county in England where property is more divided than in Kent, a natural consequence of the tenure

of

of gavel-kind, which is prevalent throughout the county, and one of the properties of which is the equal division of lands among all the sons of a family. Hence the yeomanry of Kent, have long been famous for their numbers and comparative opulence, and it is said that they are still on the increase. The Kentish freeholders are supposed to be about nine thousand, an extraordinary number considering the large possessions of the two episcopal dioceses of Canterbury and Rochester, and of other corporate bodies within the county. There are also from twenty to thirty seats of noblemen in Kent, as well as many mansions of the inferior gentry, to which are attached large estates.

The abundance of cover in this country renders game very plentiful. Its pheasants, in particular, are noted for their size and flavour. Fish abounds in its rivers, and other waters. The lobsters taken off the isle of Thanet are reckoned the finest in England. Oysters form a considerable article of exportation, there being a particular corporation at Rochester for the management of those which are fed in the creeks of the Medway. Milton, near Feversham, has a species of oysters of peculiar excellence.

Kent is primarily divided into large districts, called Laths, of which there are five. Each. of these is subdivided into bailiwicks, hundreds, and liberties, of which subdivisions the whole county contains fourteen bailiwicks, sixty-three hundreds, and thirteen franchises, or liberties. Kent, moreover, is divided into two moieties, East and West Kent; the first of which is reckoned to contain the laths of Sutton at Hone, Aylesford, and the southern division of that of Scray. This makes nearly an equal partition of the county, and the courts of session for the districts in each are held four times in the year; those for the eastern at Canterbury, for the western at Maidstone.

The ecclesiastical division is, first, into the two dioceses. of Canterbury and Rochester. Each of these is subdivided into deaneries and parishes, of which Rochester contains four deaneries and one hundred and thirty-two parishes. Besides the cities of Canterbury and Rochester, there are

reckoned

reckoned thirty market towns in this county, though in some of these the market is discontinued. The county town is Maidstone, where the assizes are always held, and the knights of the shire elected. Kent sends eighteen members to Parliament. The chief trade of Kent consists in the export of its agricultural productions; but much employment is afforded by means of its connection with the river Thames, and the navy. The dock yards and arsenals at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, and Sheerness, keep a great number of men at work in all the branches of ship building, and the preparation of naval and military stores. Near London some branches of manufacture are carried on connected with the trade of the metropolis. At Maidstone linen thread is made; there are also large paper mills, and other works on the river and in this town. British spirits, denominated British Geneva, are also distilled in great quantities. Tunbridge has an elegant manufacture of turnery ware. The principal character of this county is agricultural; and it has long supported a considerable population, which the improved culture of its land, and the increasing business of its naval towns, have certainly not suffered to diminish.

GAVELKIND is an antient tenure peculiar, among the English counties, to that of Kent; our description would be very incomplete without giving some account of this tenure; and therefore we present our readers with the following summary.

This custom, which antiently obtained throughout England, is still in force in a great part of Kent, Urchenfield, in Herefordshire, and elsewhere, though with some difference: but by the statute 34 and 35 Henry VIII. c. 26, all gavelkind lands in Wales are made descendible to the heir, according to the course of common law; whereby it appears, that this tenure was also in that principality; and was probably of British original.

In an antient book of records in Christchurch, Canterbury, of the time of Henry VIII. our Saxon ancestors are said to have held their lands either by writing, or without;