prodigious numbers of extraneous fossils. This vein is about six or eight feet thick; and the shells in it are so numerous, and lie so close, that, as Woodward jusly observes, the mass is almost wholly composed of them, there being only a very little marl interposed. These shells consist of a great variety of univalves and bivalves, as concha, ostreæ, buccinæ, &c. They are very brittle, and for the most part resemble those found at Tours, in France, and at Hordwell Cliff, in Hampshire: some of them are impregnated with mundic, Below the church is a chalk pit, in which echini and other extraneous fossils are found."

Adjoining to Charlton is the extraparochial hamlet, formerly the parish, of Kidbrook; this was part of the possessions of the priory of St. Mary Overie, in Southwark; at the dissolution of which, this parish came to the crown. It gave the title of baron to Sir William Hervey, one of the distinguished commanders of the English fleet in 1588; he was created in 1628, baron Hervey of Kidbrook. The manor is at present the property of lord Eliot, and the manor house is a farm. The antient church has been de molished upwards of two hundred years.

WOOLWICH,

The learned Camden calls this "the Mother Dock of England," and it is supposed to be the most antient naval arsenal in this kingdom. In the third year of the reign of Henry VIII. the great ship called "The Harry Grace de Dieu," was built here; and during the reign of queen Elizabeth, that monarch honoured Woolwich with her presence at the launching of the ship of war which went by her name.

Antiently Woolwich was but a small fishing town, liable, on account of its situation, to the inundations of the Thames, before an embankment took place. By the Saxons it was denominated Iulviz, signifying the habitation, or street on the creek.

* Woodward on Fossils, vol. i. p. 42, of the Catalogue.

+ Environs of London, IV. p. 324. Note.

VOL. V. No. 107.

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It appears by the confirmation by Edward the Confessor, of the gift of Elthruda of the manor of Lewisham to the abbey of Ghent, that Woolwich was considered as one of the appendages to that manor; but in the roll of military fees taken in the seventh year of Edward I. this town is not mentioned as part of that domain, but as forming part of the manor of Eltham, held by that king.

By referring to Domesday Book we obferve, that Among the possesions of Hamo, the sheriff, he held in the half of the lath of Sudtone in Greaviz hundred, sixtythree acres of arable land, which belonged to him in Wulviz, which William Accipitrarius (or the falconer) held of Edward the Confessor. There were on the estate eleven bordarii, who paid a rent of forty-one pence; and the whole was worth three pounds."

This was an estate denominated the manor of Southall, alias Woolwich, and not; the principal manor of Wook wich, which is coextensive with the parish, and is held of the crown by Sir John Gregory Shaw, bart, in right of his ancestors as lessees under the crown of the manors of Eltham and Woolwich; to the manor of Woolwich belong a court leet and court baron, separate from Eltham, at which the jury appoint the two constables and all tasters for the town and parish; and in the court baron the tenants are all free tenants.

The manor of Southall was held about the beginning of the reign of Edward I. by Gilbert de Marico, who assumed that name from his possessions in the marshes. He held it of Warren de Munchensi, baron of Swanscampe; it was afterwards held, in the same manner, by Sabina de Windlesore, till about the seventeenth of Edward II. when it was again held of the crown, which had then the possession of the barony of Munchensi. It came in succession to Sir John de Poultney, (ancestor of Pultney, the great earl of Bath, in the reign of George II.) four times lord mayor of London, who was much in favour with Edward III. in whose family it remained, till it came to William Chichele, sheriff in 1404, afterwards alderman of London, and youngest

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youngest brother of archbishop Chichele.

Through va

rious descents it came by sale to the family of Bowater; and, with the manor of Jeffrys, is in the present possession of that family, though subordinate to the royal manor of Eltham.

The DOCK YARD has, in many instances, the preference to most others in the kingdom; the largest ships may ride in safety near the town; the Thames being remarkably deep, and, at high water, nearly a mile broad, The yard has been progressively enlarged, from the time of its establishment; and includes a space of five furlongs in length, and one broad; in which are two dry docks, several slips, three mast-ponds, a smith's shop, with forges for making anchors, a model loft, storehouses of various descriptions, mast-houses, sheds for timber, dwellings for the different officers, and other buildings. The whole, as in Deptford, is under the immediate inspection of the Navy Board. The resident officers are a clerk of the checque, a storekeeper, a master shipwright, and his assistants, a clerk of the survey, a master attendant, a surgeon, &c. The number of artificers and labourers, is between three and four thousand. Several very fine first and second-rate ships have been built here, as well as many third-rates and frigates: to which will shortly be added the lord Nelson, of one hundred and ten guns; and the Venerable, of seventy-four. The ill-fated Royal George, which sunk at Spithead, with the brave admiral Kempenfelt, and up, wards of four hundred of her crew, besides two hundred women, was built hore in 1751; as was the Sovereign of the seas, in the reign of Charles the First. This ship, which was the largest that had then been built in England, was one thousand six hundred and thirty-seven tons burthen. The Dutch are said to have called her the "Golden Devil," from the havock which her cannon made among their seamen. She was curiously ornamented by carving, gilding, and emblematical devices, designed by Haywood, the dramatist, who described her, in a quarto tract, which accompanied an engraving on two plates by Payne,

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