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The CHURCH, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a rectory in the deanery of Southwark. There was a church here at the Conquest, as appears by Domesday Book. The church of Totinges was given to the monastery of St. Mary Overree, and so recorded in Dugdale's Monasticon. It is a small structure, having on the north side a low circular tower, with a small spire. Among the monuments are some to the memory of lady Bateman, 1709. Sir John Hepdon, envoy to Russia, 1670. Samuel Plumbe, Esq. alderman and mayor of London, died in 1784. Dr. Lisle, bishop of Norwich, in 1748, was instituted to this rectory in 1720.

The lords North and Grey had formerly a seat in this parish.

The road to the south leads to MITCHAM. This parish is situated about nine miles from London, and is supposed to contain between two and three thousand acres; the chief produce of which is peppermint, lavender, physical herbs, and corn. A beautiful stream called the Wandle, remarkable for the pureness and transparency of its water, passes through it; upon which are mills for grinding corn, tobacco, logwood, &c.: and on the banks are some very convenient and pleasant grounds, for the purpose of bleaching and printing callico, which are supplied with water by the same river. Upon one of these premises is a simple and obvious invention, an engine in case of fire, the pumps worked by the same wheel used in the business.

On the entrance into Mitcham from Sutton is a villa, called Mitcham Grove, in the possession of Henry Hoare, Esq. It was formerly the residence of lord Lough borough. The river Wandle, which is an excellent trout stream, forms a canal through the gardens.

The CHURCH is an antient building; but the inside is handsome and commodious: it consists of a centre and two side aisles, with a gallery at the west end, and a chancel at the east. The date of its erection is not easily ascertained; but it appears by a memorandum on a pane of glass taken from one of the windows in the archbishop's palace, at

Croydon,

Croydon, in the hand-writing of archbishop Laud, that the churches of Mitcham, Cheme, and of several other parishes, were injured by lightning on the 14th of January, 1638-9. On the front of the porch is the date 1647: this was probably a repair in consequence of the above mentioned accident. A similar one happened a few years since, when the lightning entered the church by making a fissure in the south wall of the chancel, but dispersed without doing further damage. There are a few handsome monuments, of which the following are the principal:

Nere this lyeth ye Body of Theopilvs Brereton Esq; descended from Sr Randall Brereton of Malpas in Cheshire who had

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Issue by his Wife Mary Daughter of Thomas Rowland deceased cliven Children vidzt five Sonnes and Six Davghters & ye said Theophilvs departed this life ye fifth day of December Anno Domi: 1638 Aged 64 Yeares

Near this place are deposited the Remains of
Sir Ambrose Crowley, Knight

Citizen, and Alderman of London,

Whose numerous Family, and great Estate were the present rewards of an indefatigable Industry, and application to Business, and unblemished Probity; and a sincere belief, and practice of true Christianity, and particularly a boundless liberality towards the poor, many hundreds of whom he continually employed.

Near him lies the Body of Dame Mary his Wife, the Daughter of Charles Owen, Esqr. a younger Son of the Family of Condor; She buried Seven Children Infants, and saw one Son John Crowley, Esqr. and five Daughters married, John was mar ried to Theodocia Gascoign of Enfield, Mary to James Hal. let, Esqr. of Essex. Lettice to Sir John Hind Cotton of Cambridgeshire, Baronet. and Elizabeth to the Right Honble. Lord St John of Bletsoe.

Sir Ambrose died October the 7th 1713, aged 54 Years.

His Lady in the 63d Year of her Age, 1721 The font is ornamented with Gothic tracery, and resembles that at Mortlake, which was erected about the reign of Henry VI.

An

An annual fair is held in this parish, which commences on the 12th of August, and continues three days.

This village is remarkable for its romantic situation; and for having been the residence of Sir Walter Raleigh; Sir Julius Cæsar, who was visited here by queen Elizabeth; Dr. Donne; and Moses Mendez, Esq. a late eminent li terary character.

Nearly adjoining to Mitcham and Tooting, is MERTON *, vulgarly called MARTIN, a village seven miles from London, in the road to Epsom. It is seated on the river Wandle, and was before the Conquest the property of Harold II. Henry I. gave it to Gilbert Norman, sheriff of Surrey, who founded, near the present church, a convent of wood, which he afterwards removed to the present site. In 1227, Hubert de Burgh, minister of Henry III. being disgraced, took shelter in the church of this abbey; whence the king ordered him to be dragged, but recalled his orders, and, in the sequel, restored him to favour. At a parliament held in this abbey, in 1236, the "Provisions of Merton," were enacted. In this assembly, upon a motion of the bishops for establishing a constitution of the canon law, by which marriage could legitimate issue previously born, the barons gave that celebrated answer, "Nolumus leges Angliæ mutari." "We are unwilling that the laws of England should be changed." Merton is also memorable for the constitutions which the clergy of Eng

* "Two early historical facts have been appropriated to this place, viz. The murder of Kenulph, king of the West Saxons, which happened A. D. 784; and a battle between the Saxons and Danes, A. D. 871'; but Lambarde doubts whether either of these events took place at Merton, in Surrey. Upon looking into the old Chronicles, nothing can be found to fix them to this place. In the war between the Danes and Saxons in 871, a battle is said to have happened at Merton, in which the latter were discomfited. The last battle had been at Bazing, in Hampshire. The antient historians all agree that Kenulph was murdered at Merton, but none of them mention the county. That monarch was interred at Winchester: Kincard, the murderer, who was slain soon afterwards, was buried at Axminster."-Lysons's Environs, 1. 338.

land

land made in 1258; which were not only calculated to pro mote their own grandeur, at the expence of the crown, but were so inimical to the authority of the pope, that, at the king's request, the sovereign pontiff himself thought proper to abrogate them; although some of the principal articles which they enacted were in favour of points, for which the great champion of the papal authority, the canonized Becket, had suffered assassination. Here, in 1216, was concluded the peace between Henry III. and prince Lewis, of France. During the civil wars between Charles the First and the parliament, this abbey appears to have been used as a garrison. In 1680 it was advertised to be let, and was described as containing several large rooms, and a fine chapel. This chapel was entire in 1733; but at present, there is no other vestige of the abbey, except the east window of the chapel, which appears from the style of its architecture to have been built in the fifteenth century. The walls of flint, surrounding the premises, include about sixty-five acres, and are nearly entire. At the Dissolution this abbey was valued at 9571. On the site a manufactory for printing callicoes was established in 1724: Another callico manufactory was established within the walls in 1572; at the north-west corner of the premises, is a copper mill; and, upon a moderate computation, a thousand persons are now employed in the different manufactories within the walls. The parish CHURCH was built of flints, early in the twelfth century, by the founder of the abbey. From the style of architecture the present church seems the original structure. The inside contains several memorials to Sir Thomas Robinson, bart. who was buried here in 1777, and his family; also a large picture of Christ bearing his cross, supposed to be by Luca Jordano. The church has been lately neatly plastered on the outside, and otherwise beautified. The bridge over the river, built in 1633, is remarkable for its arch, which is turned with tiles, instead of brick or stone; and is the boundary of the three parishes of Mitcham, Wimbledon, and Merton. MERTON PLACE, the seat of the late lord Nelson, where he meant

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