Buckingham; the duchess of Mazarine; earl of Rochester; Henry, duke of Grafton; Mrs. Eleanor Gwyn; Diana (Kircke) countess of Oxford; Dr. Gregory Huscard, dean of Windsor; Henry prince of Wales; John Sheffield, duke of Buckingham; Thomas Butler, duke of Ormond; Charles, duke of Richmond; prince Rupert; Aubrey de Vere, last earl of Oxford of that family; James duke of Monmouth; Henry Jermyn, earl of St. Alban's; and William III.

This estate was, in great part, purchased by Andrew Drummond, Esq. in 1729.

The Church, rebuilt on the present more convenient spot, in 1633, is a brick structure; and the tower is covered by a remarkably large and beautiful stem of ivy. The interior contains many monuments to the memory of the families of Wolstonholme, Drummond, &c. Here was buried CHARLES HART, the Roscius of his age. He excelled in the characters of Othello, Brutus, and Alexander; and whenever he appeared in any of those characters, the theatre was crouded as at the representation of a new piece. Mr. Hart died in August, 1683. The situation of the old church is marked by a flat tomb-stone, which has been lately planted round with firs.

RICHARD BOYLE, brother to the first earl of Corke, and afterwards bishop of Corke and Ross, in Ireland, was rector of Great Stanmore from the year 1610 to 1618.

The inhabitants had been long accusomed to fetch all their water from a large reservoir on the top of the hill; but a well was dug in the village, in 1791, and water was found at the depth of one hundred and fifty feet. Upon this hill is Stanmore Common, which is so elevated, that the ground floor of one of the houses upon it is said to be on a level with the battlements of the tower of Harrow church.

BENTLEY PRIORY, the magnificent seat of the marquis of Abercorn, is situated on the summit of Stanmore Hill, but in the parish of Harrow. The site of it is supposed to be thata of an antient priory, which, at the Dissolution, was converted into a private house. The mansion, which com

mands

mands extensive views, was built from the designs of Mr. Soane, by Mr. James Duberly. Of him it was purchased, in 1788, by the marquis of Abercorn, who made large additions to it, and converted it into a noble residence. It is furnished with a valuable collection of pictures by old masters, and a few antique busts: that of Marcus Aurelius is much admired by the connoisseurs. The dining room is forty feet by thirty; the saloon and music room are each fifty feet by thirty. In the latter are several portraits of the Hamilton family. In the saloon is the celebrated picture of St. Jerome's Dream, by Parmegiano. The beautiful plantations contain two hundred acres, and may on this account be said to boast of their extent as well as their beauty.

HARROW ON THE HILL*, is ten miles from London, and is so called on account of its situation. In antient records it is called HERGES, probably from the Saxon word perghe, perige, or here, signifying an army, which probably was encamped at this place. It is called Harowes in the records of the archbishops of Canterbury.

The manor belonged to the church of Canterbury from the remote times of the Saxons; but being wrested from that church by Kenulf, king of Mercia, it was recovered by archbishop Wilfrid in the year 822; since which it remained in that see till Henry VIII. exchanged it with archbishop Cranmer for lands of equal value. It then passed to Sir Edward, (afterwards lord) North. It afterwards came into the possession of the family of Rushout, in which it still continues; and the manor house of Harrow is the seat of Sir John Rushout, bart. Another manor house, called Headstone, is the property of John Asgill Bucknall, Esq.; and a third, called Wembley, is the property of Richard Page, Esq. whose family have held it ever since the year 1544; almost the only instance in Mid

* An anecdote is related of Charles II. that when some of the chaplains were disputing concerning the visible church upon earth; he facetiously observed, that "the only visible church he could bring to his present recollection, was the church at Harrow on the Hill."

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