gentlemen, as a sufficiency for every necessary, except linen. The new buildings for the academy have been recently erected by Mr. Wyatt, in a castellated form, at the expence of 150,000l. is furnished with a hall, and suitable apartments; it extends to the length of two hundred yards, and the principal front is towards the north.

There is one particular in the design of this edifice," observes Mr. Brayley, in his description of this place*, "which demands the severest reprehension. The inner extremities of the teaching rooms nearly unite in the middle of the building, but are prevented from actually doing so, by a staircase ascending from below, and opening into a small apartment, so disposed, that any person stationed in it, can overlook every part of the teaching rooms, as well the stations of the professors, as the desks of the scholars! This illiberal attempt to introduce a system of espionage into a national establishment, forcibly reminds a spectator, of general Bentham's plans for a penitentiary house, wherein the keeper's room was to be in the centre, and the other apartments so disposed in radii, that he could look into every one, whilst himself remained concealed: to the honour of the magistracy, this design is said to have been rejected, because, inconsistent with the principles of British jurisprudence, and uncongenial to the feelings of Englishmen." How striking the contrast! The professors are all men of liberal education and talent; and ought to be fully confided in, with respect to their sedulous application to the duties of their respective stations. If their conduct should really evince that they are undeserving of such confidence, let them be discharged; but let them not be irritated, and debased, by being rendered subject to answer accusations of which they know not the author."

The situation of this structure is on WoOLWICH COMMON, which commands an extensive and grand view down the river Thames: here is also seated THE BARRACKS. The Old Barracks belonging to Woolwich were built in 1706.

* Beauties of England, Vol. VII. p. 535.

Those

Those we are now describing were constructed from the year 1783 to 1794; and consist of a principal front, which extends nearly four hundred, by a depth of two hundred and ninety yards, in which are six ranges of brick buildings, united by an ornamental centre of stone, with Doric columns, the royal arms, and military trophies; four lower buildings fill up the divisions between each range: these have also stone fronts, with Doric colonnades, and a balJustrade above. These contain a library, and book room, for the officers, a mess room, a guard room, and a chapel ; but the interior of the latter is unfinished, and is intended to contain one thousand persons. The new RIDING SCHOOL is erected of brick, from grand designs by Wyatt, on the model of an antient temple: length about fifty yards, breadth, twenty-one. The whole depth of the buildings, from the front of the barracks, runs nearly parallel with that of the new Military Academy.

The following will give an idea of the mode of quartering in these barracks:

FRONT RANGE, right wing. Quarters for the garrison, quarter-master, fourteen captains, and twenty-four lieutenants. Left wing. Quarters for brigade major, fourteen captains, and twenty-four lieutenants. HORSE BARRACKS; quarters for thirty-two lieutenants.

ACCOMMODATIONS FOR THE SOLDIERS. FRONT RANGE; right and left wings, when complete, will contain one thousand one hundred and fifty-two men; when over complete, one thousand three hundred and forty-four. HORSE BARRACKS; east and west squares, when complete, will contain eight hundred and seven men; when over complete, nine hundred and two. LoFT BARRACKS; east and west squares will contain, when complete, four hundred and forty-eight men; when over complete, four hundred and fify-six. GUN DRIVER BARRACKS; rear rank, six hundred men, &c. In 1807, the total amounted to four thousand two hundred and forty-eight men.

The PARISH CHURCH of Woolwich, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, is a spacious brick building, with

stone

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 6500l. 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 contributions, 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 admiral Sir John Leake: the former died in 1696, aged sixtyseven; the latter in 1695, aged sixty-four. In the churchyard are several tombs in memory of lieutenants and cap. tains of the royal artillery.

RECTORS OF EMINENCE. THOMAS LINDSAY, progressively 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 prebendary 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 7. 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 1000/. Old South Sea Annuities, for the VOL. V. No. 197. 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 1750l. 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 11007. 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 bavins, 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, one 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 rob here by prescription." The steepness, and narrowness, of the antient road, and the shelter which the contiguous woods and coppices afforded, rendered it almost impossible 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 Flizabeth, 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 he was removed and hanged at York.