CIRCUIT OF LONDON. WHE SURREY AND KENT. WHEN we consider the situation of the metropolis of Great Britain, its suburbs, and the surrounding towns and villages, the idea of an imperial crown encircled with jewels suggests itself; and we exclaim with COWPER: -Babylon of old Not more the glory of the earth than she, Nothing can be more beautiful; here is a plain and plea sant country, a rich fertile soil, cultivated and enclosed to the utmost perfection of husbandry; then bespangled with villages, the houses surrounded with gardens, walks, vistas, and avenues, representing all the beauties of building, and all the pleasures of planting: it is impossible to view these countries from any rising ground, and not be ravished with the delightful prospect. The banks of the Seine are not thus adorned from Paris to Roan; or from Paris to the Loire, above the city: the Danube can shew nothing like it above and below Vienna; or the Po above and below Turin; the whole country here shines with a lustre not to be described. Here they reflect beauty and magnificence upon the whole country, and give a kind of character to the island of Great Britain in general.-Tour through Great Britain. With With such ideas we commence our country Itinerary from the Surrey side of Westminster Bridge, and proceeding to Stangate, along the banks, we arrive at the Bishop's Walk, and THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY'S PALACE, LAMBETH. It appears that the manor of North Lambeth belonged at the time of the Conquest, to the church of Lambeth, and that it had previously been the property of countess Goda, sister to William I. who had bestowed it on the episcopal church of Rochester; but her brother having seized upon it, gave it to another brother, Odo, bishop of Baieux, and earl of Kent; it was however restored to the see and convent of Rochester, together with the patronage of the church of St. Mary, Lambeth. In the year 1197, the bishop and convent granted the manor, with advowson, &c. to Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, and his suc cessors, in exchange for the manor of Darent, in Kent, and other premises, and they have been annexed to the see of Canterbury till the present period. The bishop and chapter of Rochester, however, reserved to themselves "a mill in Southwark, and a marsh in Lambeth, which they had by a former exchange with archbishop Baldwyn, for the site of the chapel of St. Thomas the Martyr." Archbishop Baldwin, who had intended to build a college of secular canons at Hackington, near Canterbury, met with such opposition from the monks of that place, that he was obliged to relinquish his design by pope Urban, whom the meek fathers had engaged in their favour. He was permitted, however, to begin the foundation of a collegiate church at Lambeth; for the manor of which his successor archbishop Walter, exchanged the manor of Darent, with the bishop of Rochester. This manor house or palace appears to have been rebuilt by archbishop Boniface about the year 1262; the architecture of the chapel, however, seems to indicate a more early period, the windows resembling those of the Temple church in London. Under this chapel is a curious crypt; the arches of which are of stone. The roof of the chapel is of of wood, ornamented with the arms of archbishop Laud; the windows were the benefaction of cardinal archbishop Morton, and contained the scripture history of the Old and New Testament, the reparation of which constituted one of the criminal charges against archbishop Laud; they were destroyed by the profane hands of the rebels*. In the vestry of this chapel are the portraits of cardinal Pole, Dr. Williams, bishop of Chichester, 1696; Dr. Evans, bishop of Bangor, 1707; Dr. Gardiner, bishop of Lincoln, 1694; the learned Dr. Whichcote, provost of King's college; and Dr. Dupin, an eminent ecclesiastical writer. The Lollards Tower is a room only twelve feet long and nine broad. In the wainscot, which is of oak, are fastened eight iron rings; and there are many half sentences, with * This was not the only outrage committed in Lambeth Palace by the hypocritical fanatics of those times. After the manor had been jointly purchased of the reigning power by the miscreant regicides Scor and Hardy, the former converted this place into a dancing room, and to make it more convenient for this, levelled the tomb of the venerable archbishop Packer, tore his sacred remains out of the leaden coffin, in which they had rested seventy-three years, and threw the corpse into a dunghill in one of the outhouses; the coffin was sold to a plumber. On the restoration of government and humanity in 1660, the prelate's body was discovered in its degraded situation, and re-interred in the chapel. A marble slab marks the spot, on which is the following inscription: "Corpus Matthæi Archiepiscopi tandêm hic quiesit.” When archbishop Sancroft arrived at the primacy, he placed the old monument in the vestibule of the chapel, and caused the inscription, said to be his own composition, to be placed on it: "Matthæi Archiepiscopi cenotaphium, corpus enim, (ne nescias, lector,) in adyto hujus sacelli olim rite conditum, a sectariis perduellibus, anno MDCXLVIII, effracto sacrilegè hoc ipso tumulo, elogio sepulchrali impiè refixo, direptis nefariè exuviis plumbeis, spoliatum, violatum, eliminatum; etiam sub sterquilinio (proh scelus !) abstrusum: rege demum (plaudente cœlo et terrâ) redeunte, ex decreto Baronum Angliæ, sedulo quæsitum, et sacello postliminio redditum, in ejus quasi medio tandem quiescit. Et quiescat utinam, non nisi tubâ ultimâ solicitandum. Qui denuo desecravit, sacer esto." It was at the instance, and by the industry of Sir William Dugdale, that the archbishop's remains were discovered, and laid at rest.-Lysons. VOL. V. No. 102. B names names and letters, cut with a knife, as is supposed, by the Lollards, &c. confined here. It is here to be observed, that the archbishops, before the Reformation, had prisons for the punishment of ecclesiastical offenders. Queen Elizabeth frequently made this palace a prison; not only committing the two popish prelates Tunstall and Thirleby to the custody of the archbishop, but other persons of rank. The unfortunate earl of Essex was confined here, before he was sent to the Tower, and many others. It was usual for them to be kept in separate apartments, and to eat at the arch bishop's table. It may not be improper to acquaint the generality of our readers, that the Lollards, were those who held the opinions of Walter Lollard, a German who lived about the year 1315. They abounded in England during the reigns of Edward III. and Henry V. having for their apostle the famous John Wicliffe; they were esteemed heretics by the popish hierarchy, who asserted that their intention was to subvert the Christian faith, the law of God, the church, and the realm; hence they were considered as peculiarly obnoxious, and several anathemas and penal statutes were issued against them, and the archbishops published several decrees for their subversion; the high sheriffs were also bound by oath to suppress them; these statutes, &c. were repealed during the reign of Edward VI. and the Lollards are esteemed the worthy founders of the Protestant religion, and a species of illuminati, who exposed the errors and absurdities of Popish superstition, reducing the principles of religion, to their original simplicity. The archives of the see are kept in a room over the gateway, called the RECORD ROOM. This gateway, and the adjoining tower, of brick, were built by archbishop Morton, about the year 1490. The PRESENCE CHAMBER has three windows adorned with painted glass, representing St. Jerome and St. Gregory, with old English verses beneath them. The middle window has a painted sun-dial, with a view of the theatre at Oxford, and the arms of the see, and of archbishop Shel don, |