of two streets, the principal, or High Street, running nearly east and west, and the other, called Bell Street, from north to south. Reigate is a borough town, and has sent two burgesses to Parliament from the 23rd of Edward I. The electors are the freeholders of messuages, or burgage tenements within the precincts of the borough; the returning officer being the bailiff of the manor. Within the precinct of the borough, and on the north side of the town, behind the principal street, was situated the Castle; of whose ancient history we know but little, and of its original foundation still less. The slender accounts of it that have reached our times ascribe its origin to some of the first Earls of Warren and Surrey; but others affirm that the edifice built by them was only a re-erection of a more ancient work of the Saxons. It is certain, however, that, while in the possession of those powerful earls, this castle was of considerable note, and it seems to have been one at least of the capital seats of their barony in England. William, Earl of Warren, who possessed it in the reign of John, and who is the first of that family mentioned by Dugdale as its proprietor, was one of those lords who joined in the confederacy against the king, which led to the council at Runnymede, with great reluctance, and who in that council were much disposed to favour him.t This dubious policy of the Earl was followed by the loss, for a short period of time, of Reigate Castle, which surrendered to the Dauphin of France on the 8th of

*

*If the Saxon inhabitants of this part of the country were so active and successful in repelling the Danish plunderers as to give occasion to the proverbial distich mentioned by Camden,

The Vale of Holmesdale,

Never wonne, ne never shall,

it is not unlikely, considering the importance and advantages of the situation, that some one of their leaders should have a fortress here sufficient for the purposes of rendezvous and security.

By the advice of these lords, however, the Great Charter of our English liberties was at length signed by the temporising monarch.

June in the year following. It appears to have been in a decayed state in the time of James I., yet during the civil war must have been capable of being rendered defensible, since it was one of those referred, with others, to the committee at Derby House, for the purposes mentioned under Sterborough Castle. What was the immediate effect of their resolutions respecting it is unknown; but, in all probability, it was at that time demolished and the materials gradually dispersed, Portions of the outer walls were standing about 40 years ago, but no part of the building is now remaining.

The structure stood upon an eminence very considerably above the level of the town, surrounded by a ditch of great breadth and width on the south and west sides. On the summit of the hill, Mr. Richard Barnes, an attorney-at-law of Reigate, who occupied the site in 1777, erected a summer apartment in a taste corresponding with the style of the original erection; and a gateway, also in imitation of the antique, with the following inscription:

In the centre of the area described by the ancient edifice is an entrance, by a flight of steps covered with a small building of the pyramidical form, into a room or cave 123 feet long, 13 wide, and 11 high; in one part of which is a crypt of near 50 yards in length, with a stone seat at the end, formerly extending the whole length of the room on both sides. This cave probably served as a repository for the treasures and military

stores of the lords of the castle, as well as for the safe custody of their prisoners, and for private deliberation in times of public commotion. It is supposed to have had a secret communication with the town, but the arch is broken, and the cavity in consequence stopped up. A view of the castle, and a plan of its site, are to be seen in Watson's "Memoirs of the ancient Earls of Warren and Surrey," vol. I. pp. 28, 9.

The Priory, the seat of Mowbray, Esq. is a modern mansion on the site of a small convent founded by William, Earl of Warren, who died in 1240. Its annual revenues at the Dissolution were £78. 6s. 8d.

Reigate has a good market on Tuesdays, the charter for which was obtained by John, Earl of Warren, 6 Edward II. In 1673, Charles II. granted a charter for another market, to be held on the first Wednesday in every month; this for some time fell into disuse, but has of late years been revived.

At BUCKLAND is Buckland Court, the property of Thomas Beaumont, Esq. lord of the manor, who has lately repaired and much improved this residence. It stands near the church, which has nothing in it remarkable.

BETCHWORTH, or EAST BETCHWORTH, originally comprehended, there is little doubt, West Betchworth, though the latter is now a manor in the parish of Dorking. The mansion-house, the residence of the late Hon. William Henry Bouverie, was built in the reign of James I. by Sir Ralph Freeman, who purchased the estate from the trustees of the Earl of Abergavenny. Here are portraits of Sir Ralph, of his lady, before and after marriage, of Martin Freeman, Sir George Freeman, Sir Thomas More, and others; with casts from several of the finest ancient statues brought from Italy, by Mr. John Harvey. In the drawing-room chimneypiece is inserted a piece of sculpture from Herculaneum, representing boys riding on bulls and horses. In