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dissolution, was valued at 258l. 11s. 11d.; so that it must have been of considerable revenue. It belongs at present

to the earl of Onslow.

WOKING

stands on the river Wey, near Ripley and Send Heath, Here is a market on twenty-eight miles from London. Tuesdays; a fair on September 12, and a neat market house; another staple fair is held on Whit Tuesday. This place is half way between Guildford and Weybridge, and gives name to a hundred. In the churchyard, it has been remarked, that so long as there are any remains of a corpse, besides bones, a kind of plant grows from it, about the thickness of a bulrush, with a top like the head of asparagus, which comes near the surface of the earth, but never above it; and, when the corpse is quite consumed, the plant dies away. The same observation has been made in other churchyards, where the soil is a light red sand, as it is in this. Coffins rot in this churchyard in six years, whilst in the church they remain eighteen.

The town is out of the way of any commerce, and is therefore very obscure. It was the last retreat of Margaret, countess of Richmond, mother to Henry VII. where the king her son repaired an old royal house, on purpose for her residence, and where she ended her days in honour and peace; the former part of her life having been much exposed to storms and dangers. It is remarkable, that the several residences of this lady are more particularly pointed out in history than perhaps those of any other. The market house was built in 1665, by James Zouch, Esq.

SUTTON PLACE, in this parish, is a noble mansion house, built of brick, with a stately gatehouse and high tower, having at each angle, a turret, The window mouldings within the house, and the quoins of the walls, are all of baked white clay, which is as perfect as when it was first set up in the reign of Henry VIII.

We

We pass over an obscure part of Surrey, and cross the Basingstoke canal, in which there is nothing attractive of particular notice till we arrive at

BAGSHOT,

a very pleasant little town, twelve miles from Guildford, twelve from Farnham, ten from Windsor, and nine from Egham, situate on the great Western road, twenty-nine miles from London; it is remarkable for the neatness of its inns, and the good accommodations they afford to travellers. The church was destroyed by lightning in 1676, and rebuilt by the parishioners. This place was formerly called Holy Hall, and was the lordship of the British monarchs, who had a capital palace here, with a park which was laid open after the Civil Wars. King James and king Charles often came to it, on account of its convenient situation for hunting. The heath that surrounds this town, is a prodigious tract of barren country, appearing to be capable of great improvement, if any judgment can be formed from several inclosures on its borders, and even in the centre; which previously to cultivation yielded nothing but heath and worts, but now producing good grass and corn, and plantations of trees. The striking contrast betwixt the dark barren heath, and those green cultivated spots, affords pleasing sensations to the traveller; several gentlemen have been induced to build romantic villas and pleasant hunting seats, which are dispersed over every part of this prodigious waste.

Adjoining to the town, is a capital seat and park, formerly occupied by the right honourable lord Keppel. The inclosure is large and capacious; the wood walks and other plantations are at least two miles in circumference; and the park is upwards of three miles round.

Formerly the whole tract of country round Bagshot, for near twenty miles, very much resembled an arid desert. The sheep bred upon it are small, but remarkably fine flavoured; and when well fatted, and in proper order, pro

duce

duce the sweetest mutton in the world; this induces many who pass through the town, to carry home some of the Bagshot mutton in their carriages. The town is without a

market.

EGHAM, the next object worthy of notice, is a large village seated on the Thames, eighteen miles from London. Here is a neat almshouse, founded in 1706, by Mr. Henry Strode, merchant of London, for six men and six women, who must be sixty years of age, and have been parishioners of Egham twenty years, without having received any parochial relief. They have each annually a chaldron of coals, clothing, and five pounds in money. The centre of this building is a good house for a schoolmaster, who has 40%. a-year and a chaldron of coals, (beside an allowance for an assistant,) for the education of twenty poor boys of Egham. Sir John Denham, father of the poet of the same name, and baron of the exchequer in the reigns of James and Charles I. resided in the parsonage house of this parish, and founded an almshouse here, for six men and six women. The school is under the patronage of the Coopers Company, of London.

Egham is divided into four tythings, and, being a thoroughfare from London to the west, has some very good inns. In the west part of this parish is Camomile Hill, remarkable for camomile growing upon it without cultiva. tion. The fair, which continues three days, begins May 29.

COOPER'S HILL, the subject of a poem by Denham, is situated in the parish of Egham, on the right of the road from London. An ingenious but perhaps fastidious critic has observed, that Cooper's Hill, the professed subject of the piece, is not mentioned by name, nor is any account given of its situation, produce, or history; but that it serves, like the stand of a telescope, merely as a convenience for viewing other objects. It would however be unjust not to quote here the fentiments of a celebrated critic, (Dr. Johnson), who was perhaps too rigid, to be fascinated by mere popular opinion: "Cooper's Hill

1

Is the work that confers upon Denham the rank and dignity of an original author. He seems to have been, at least among us, the author of a species of composition that may be termed local poetry, of which the fundamental subject is some particular landscape, to be poetically described, with the addition of such embellishments as may be supplied by historical retrospection, or incidental meditation. To trace a new species of poetry has in itself a very high claim to praise, and its praise is yet more when it is apparently copied by Garth and Pope. Yet Cooper's Hill, if it be maliciously inspected, will not be found without its faults. The digressions are too long, the morality too frequent, and the sentiments sometimes such as will not bear a rigorous enquiry." Praise thus extorted from a critic not unreluctant to censure will contribute to secure the fame of Denham, which the charming eulogy of the bard of Windsor Forest alone would have rendered immortal:

Bear me, oh! bear me, to sequester'd scenes,
To bowery mazes, and surrounding greens;
To Thames's banks which fragrant breezes fill,
Or where the muses sport on Cooper's Hill.
(On Cooper's Hill eternal wreaths shall grow,
While lasts the mountain, or while Thames shall flow.)
I seem through consecrated walks to rove,

I hear soft music die along the grove:

Led by the sound, I rove from shade to shade,

By godlike poets venerable made:

Here his first lays majestic Denham sung;

There the last numbers flow'd from Cowley's tongue.

Nor should we here omit the homage of Somerville, the excellent poet of the Chace:

Tread with respectful awe

Windsor's green glades; where Denham, tuneful bard,

Charm'd once the list'ning dryads with his song

Sublimely sweet.

VOL. V. No. 116.

Z z

KINGSWOOD

KINGSWOOD LODGE, the elegant seat of William Smith, Esq. is delightfully situated on Cooper's Hill. Near the house, Mr. Smith has placed a seat, which the lovers of poetry will deem sacred; it being on the very spot where Sir John Denham took his beautiful view of the rich and various scenery, which he has so happily described in his celebrated poem. From this house, which is nineteen miles from London, the hour and minute hands of St. Paul's clock have, by the aid of a telescope, been distinctly seen.

ENGLEFIELD GREEN, in this parish, but in the county of Berks, is delightfully situated on the summit of Cooper's Hill, in the road leading through Windsor Great Park to Reading.

But the glory of Egham, and its neighbourhood, is RUNNY MEAD, where king John, in the year 1215, after using the most criminal prevarication, was compelled by his barons to sign Magna Charta, the great charter of the liberties of Britain, and the basis of its laws and privileges. It is true, that here his consent was extorted; but the charter was signed, it is said, in an island between Runny Mead and Ankerwyke House, before mentioned. This island, which is still called Charter Island, is in the parish of Wraysbury.

The land a while,

Affrighted, droop'd beneath despotic rage.
Instead of Edward's equal gentle laws,
The furious victor's partial will prevail'd,
All prostrate lay; and, in the secret shade,
Deep-stung, but fearful, Indignation gnash'd
His teeth. Of freedom, property, despoil'd,
And of their bulwark, arms; with castles crush'd,
With ruffians quarter'd o'er the bridled land;
The shivering wretches, at the curfew sound,
Dejected shrunk into their sordid beds,

And, through the mournful gloom of ancient times
Mus'd sad, or dreamt of better. Ev'n to feed
A tyrant's idle sport the peasant starv'd:

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