command the prospect and view of both the parks of CHAP. I. Nonsuch, and most of the country round about, and are the chief ornaments of Nonsuch house."* The "statues, pictures, and antic formes," mentioned in this survey, are said, in a manuscript note, by Le Neve, who saw this edifice before its demolition, to have been of "plaster-work, made of rye dough, in imagery very costly." The materials of the house were valued by the parliamentary commissioners, at £7,020.

After the decease of the earl of Arundel, his son-inlaw, Lord Lumley, conveyed this estate to the crown, in 1591. Nonsuch afterwards became a favourite residence of Queen Elizabeth: and it was here that the earl of Essex first experienced her displeasure. It was settled upon Anne, queen of James I.; and in the following reign, on Queen Henrietta Maria. In 1670-1, Charles II. granted Nonsuch, with both the parks, to George Viscount Grandison, and Henry Brouncker, Esq. in trust for the viscount's niece, Barbara, whom the king created duchess of Cleveland, and baroness of Nonsuch. This lady pulled down both the palace and

This survey is printed at length, in the Archæologia, vol. v. + The Duchess was the wife of Roger Palmer, created earl of Castlemaine. She was very beautiful, and equally rapacious, prodigal, and revengeful. She had for a considerable time a great and dangerous influence over the king. She was an inveterate enemy of the earl of Clarendon, who thought it degrading to his character to show even common civilities, much more to pay his court, to the mistress of any monarch. The king could not be an absolute stranger to her intrigues, which, according to the memoirs of the times, were very open, and often with such men as Hall, a rope dancer, and Goodman, a player. The former was famous for the symmetry and elegance of his person, as well as for his strength. Mr. Wycherley was one of her paramours. When the king left her, he conferred on her the above mentioned titles. She afterwards gave her hand to Robert Fielding, better'known by the name of Beau Fielding, a man as handsome and as profligate

BOOK IV. Worcester house, and turned the parks into farms. At her death, in 1709, the duchess left them both to her grandson, the duke of Grafton, whose successor sold them, in 1731.

Mickleham.

Church.

MICKLEHAM is a pleasant village in the valley between Leatherhead and Dorking, through which runs the river Mole. It joins Headley on the east; Fetcham and Great Bookham on the west; Leatherhead on the north; and Dorking on the south. In 1821, it contained ninety-two houses, and five hundred and five inhabitants.

This parish comprises the following manors: Norbury, Mickleham, Fridley, Ashurst, Westhumble, Polesden Lacy, and Boxland.

The church is a rectory, in the deanery of Ewell; valued at 28 marks, in the twentieth year of Edward I. now in the king's books at £13. This edifice claims very high antiquity. The form of the circular-headed windows in the chancel, the arch dividing the chancel from the nave, and the western doorway, indicate the Anglo-Norman period. It consists of a nave, a chancel, a small chapel on the north side, and a south aisle, separated from the nave by round pillars, supporting semi-circular arches. The church is built with stone. At the west end is a square low tower, double buttressed at the corners. This church having been found too small for the accommodation of the parishioners, a plan was adopted, in the year 1822, of increasing that

as herself. He had married a woman supposed to possess a large fortune; but discovering that in fact she had none, he forsook her, and accepted the duchess, whom he treated with insolence and brutality. She found out his former marriage, prosecuted him for bigamy, and he was found guilty, but pardoned by Queen Anne. Granger.

accommodation by repewing it, and erecting a gallery. CHAP. I. In the course of the work the ancient walls and roof were discovered to be in a state of decay, so that it was necessary to rebuild the whole of the nave and part of the tower. The plans were furnished by P. F. Robinson, Esq. under whose admirable design this church has been most tastefully restored.

park.

In the parish of Mickleham is Norbury park, the Norbury residence of William Lock, Esq. whose father, in 1774, purchased this estate of Anthony Chapman, Esq. The mansion, then standing in a low situation near the Mole, which washes the boundary of the park, being decayed and ruinous, Mr. Lock pulled down the greatest part of it, reserving the north end for his farm, and on a hill, commanding delicious and extensive prospects, erected one of the most beautiful seats in the county. The architecture, though striking, is not quite regular; but the edifice is well fitted to reign over the domain in which it is placed. The sides of the principal rooms are painted by Barrett, with views of the romantic mountains and lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland, which are so managed as to have the appearance of being a continuation of the surrounding scenery. The park, which is extensive and agreeably diversified, is embellished with plantations disposed with the utmost taste. No place of equal extent in Surrey is supposed to possess so many valuable walnut trees as Norbury park, which, about a century and a half ago, was said to contain no fewer than forty thousand. It is remarked as a proof of the uncertainty of their produce, that in some years £600 worth of walnuts have been gathered from the trees in this park, whereas in others they have yielded scarcely a single bushel.

Mickleham contains several other elegant mansions, Seats.

BOOK IV. among which are those of Lady Talbot, Sir Lucas Pepys, and S. Boddington, Esq. It likewise comprehends the greatest part of Box hill, which here rises abruptly from the Mole that washes its foot. From the highest point of this celebrated hill the eye expatiates, on a clear day, over the intervening country quite to the South Downs of Sussex, near the sea, and ranges in a northern direction beyond the metropolis, over great part of Middlesex. On the top, Mr. Peters, of Betchworth castle, the present owner, has a farmyard and it is a remarkable circumstance, that from a spring here water is obtained at only fifteen feet from the surface of the ground, though at Denbighs, on the opposite hill, it is drawn from the depth of four hundred feet.

Headley.

Church.

Fetcham.

HEADLEY is a small village on the Downs near Epsom, joining Banstead on the east; Mickleham on the west; Epsom on the north; and Walton-on-the-hill on the south. In 1821, the number of houses amounted to forty-five, and the inhabitants to one hundred and eighty-four.

The church is a rectory, in the deanery of Ewell. In the valor of Edward I. it was taxed at £5. In the king's books at £8. 7s. 6d. It is built with flint, having a tower of the same at the west end, embattled and buttressed. It consists of a nave only, separated from the chancel by a pointed arch. The font is a plain octagon on a round pillar.

FETCHAM is a small village near Leatherhead; it is bounded by the river Mole on the east and north; by Great Bookham on the west; and by Mickleham on the south. At the time of the survey here were three

manors; one belonging to the king; another to Odo, CHAP. F. bishop of Bayeux; and the third to one of the king's thanes, whose name was Oswald. According to the population returns of 1821, this parish contained sixtytwo houses, and three hundred and seventy-seven inhabitants.

The church is built of flints, intermixed with pebbles Church. and chalk, and here and there are some of the ancient bricks of the form of the Roman tile. The tower, which is low and embattled, is built of flint only, with quoins of brick-work. The edifice, though much altered by the various reparations it has undergone, retains visible marks of its original form, which was that of a cross. The north end of a transept is still remaining, which doubtless had its corresponding termination on the south, the place of which is now occupied by the tower, a structure of comparatively modern date. The nave is separated by two pointed arches, from an aisle on the north side; and, from the remains of three others in the south wall, we may conclude that it formerly communicated with another aisle on that side.

ton.

CHESSINGTON is a small village and chapelry belong- Chessinging to Maldon, Kingston hundred, which parish it joins on the east. It contains thirty houses, and one hundred and fifty inhabitants.

This manor was given by Robert de Chissendon to Manor. to the abbey of Boxley, in Kent. In the seventh year of Edward I. the masters and scholars of Merton claimed a park here, appertaining to their manor of Maldon, which was allowed. In the fourth year of Mary I. the manor was held by William Rigge and Peter Gering; it is now in the possession of — Gosse, Esq.

The church, which is a small building, consists of a Church.