stone copings, window frames, &c. and consists of a nave, chancel, and aisles, with a plain square tower at the west end, in which are eight musical bells. This edifice was rebuilt between the years 1726 and 1740, at an expence of about 6500/. three thousand of which were granted under the act of queen Anne for building fifty new churches; the rest was defrayed by collections by brief, voluntary contribu tions, and legacies. The interior is fitted up in the Grecian style; and on the north, south and west sides, are galleries, supported on Ionic columns. In the west gallery is a good organ. In the chancel is a mural monument to the memory of DANIEL WISEMAN, Esq. who died clerk of the cheque at Deptford, in 1738-9, at the age of sixty-five: he bequeathed 1000l. toward the finishing of the church, and lies buried in the church-yard. Against the north wall is a memorial for captain RICHARD LEAKE, master gunner of England, and ELIZABETH, his wife; the parents of ad miral Sir John Leake: the former died in 1696, aged sixty seven; the latter in 1695, aged sixty-four. In the churchyard are several tombs in memory of lieutenants and captains of the royal artillery. RECTORS OF EMINENCE. THOMAS LINDSAY, progres sively bishop of Killaloe and Raphoe, and archbishop of Armagh. PHILIP STUBBS, afterwards chaplain of Greenwich Hospital, and archdeacon of St. Alban's. Sir PETER RIVERS GAY, bart. rector of Chelmsford, Essex, and pre bendary of Winchester. Woolwich contains also six meeting houses; one Presbyterian, two Anabaptist, and three for Methodists. The Almshouse was founded for five poor widows, by Sir Martin Bowes, who, by his will in 1562, gave to the wardens and commonalty of the mystery of Goldsmiths in London, certain lands and tenements, charged, among various other charities, with the annual payment of 77. 12s. 1d. to the five poor folk in his almshouses. They now receive 251. yearly, besides coals, and other articles. The Boys School was founded under the will of Mrs. Mary Wiseman, who, in 1758, left 1000l. Old South Sea Annuities, for the YOL. V. No. 107. educating, S educating, clothing and apprenticing of six poor orphan boys, sons of shipwrights, who have served their apprenticeship in the Dock-yard: the original endowment has been augmented to 17501. by vesting some part of the interest in the funds; and eight boys are now educated, &c. on this establishment. The. Girls School was built and endowed from a bequest made by Mrs. Ann Withers, in 1753, of 100l. in money, and 1100l. Old South Sea Annuities, for the purpose of teaching thirty poor girls to read, and to work with their needle. The parish of Woolwich have also a right to send three boys to the grammar school at Lewisham. SHOOTER'S HILL joins Woolwich Common, from the summit of which is a fine view of London, and Essex, Surrey, and even part of Sussex; the Thames also exhibiting here a magnificent appearance. There is a handsome inn and gardens, for the entertainment of those who visit this delightful spot. Here the London archers performed their exercises upon grand occasions; whence its name of Shooter's Hill, on which begins a chalky soil, much overgrown with coppice wood, which is eut for faggots and bavius, and used to be sent by water in vast quantities to London, till coal fires began to be made in the upper rooms of taverns. Before the road was widened on the east side of this hill, which was in 1739, many more robberies were committed on it than since. The spring on the top constantly overflows the well, and is not frozen in the sharpest winters. To this hill king Henry VIII. and his queen Catharine, came, in very great splendour, onè -May-day, from Greenwich, and were received by two hundred archers, clad all in green, with a captain, personating Robin Hood, who first shewed the king the skill of his archers in shooting; after which the ladies were conducted into the wood, and entertained with venison and wine in arbours and booths, adorned with fine pageants, &c. A scheme was lately in agitation to build a town here, and several houses were erected; but for want of encouragement the speculation did not succeed. This was a spot of long continued notoriety, from the numerous robberies formerly committed here; and which were of such remote beginning, that Philipott, in the reign of James the First, observes, "they continue still to robhere by prescription." The steepness, and narrowness, of the antient road, and the shelter which the contiguous woods and coppices afforded, rendered it almost impossiblo for a passenger to escape being way-laid by the robbers, who even committed depredations at noon-day. So early as the sixth of Richard the Second, measures were taken for improving the highway on this hill, when an order was issued by the crown, to "cut down the woods on each side of the road at Shetere's Held, leading from London to Rochester, which was become very dangerous to travellers, in compliance with the statute of Edward the First, for widening roads, where there were woods which afforded shelter for thieves." The steps then taken were, however, ineffectual; and it was not till the year 1739, that any very material improvement was made, when a road of greater width was laid out, under an act of parliament. *Stow, in his Annals, mentions a cruel murder committed on this spot in the year 1573. A person named George Browne, was enamoured of the wife of a wealthy merchant of London, Mr. George Sanders. The wife, with the assistance of a Mrs. Drewry, encouraged her paramour to murder the innocent merchant, and his servant, as they went on foot to St. Mary Cray; the servant, however, though left for dead, with ten or eleven wounds, revived; and creeping on his hands and feet to Woolwich, was relieved, and gave ample evidence of the murderer. These associates employed a fellow named Roger Clements, but who they denominated "trusty Roger." He conveyed the intelligence of the murder to Mrs. Drewry, and she to Mrs. Sanders; they contrived to send him money for his flight; but the vigilance of the officers of queen Elizabeth, discovered the delinquent at Rochester, and he was arraigned and convicted at the court of Queen's Bench, Westminster Hall, and executed in Smithfield. The women and trusty Roger were also condemned and executed in the same place. Browne was hanged in chains near the place where he had committed the murder; and not long afterwards his brother, Anthony Brown, for some gross felonies, was committed to Newgate, whence lie was removed and hanged at York. Shooter's Hill was the temporary residence of Mr. BLOOMFIELD, author of The Farmer's Boy, and other celebrated poems, during a severe illness. On this occasion he expresses himself in the following manner: To hide me from the public eye, To keep the throne of Reason clear, And coveting no wealth but thee, And hug my stolen Liberty. On the brow of the hill is an elegant tower, surrounded by a neat plantation, on a sloping lawn, intersected by gravelled walks: "This far seen monumental tow'r Records th' achievements of the brave; And Angria's subjugated pow'r, Who plunder'd on the eastern wave.”* It Conagee Angria was a notorious freebooter belonging to the Morattoe pirates, who had declared war by sea and land against the Grand Mogul, because he had employed an admiral to protect his Mahometan subjects against their depredations. By means of his prowess during this war, Conagee Angria had raised himself from a private man to be not only commander in chief of the Morattoe fleet, but was intrusted with the government of Severndroog, one of the strongest holds belonging to the Saha Rajah, or king of the Morattoes; and having seduced others of his fellow subjects, set up a government against his sovereign along the sea coast, to the extent of one hundred and twenty miles, and an inland country of from twenty to thirty miles towards the mountains. The suc cessors of this fortunate robber took the name of Angria, and so fortified themselves, that the rajah consented to let them have peaceable possession, upon acknowledging his sovereignty and paying a small tribute, In the course of fifty years this state, by means of piracies exercised Indiscriminately upon ships of all nations, had rendered itself so for midable to the European traders to India, that the British East India Company alone were compelled to keep up a maritime force at the an nual expence of 50,0001. as a check upon Angria, and a protection to their ships and colonies. Attempts |