estate, in Byfleet, Mr. Paine's house, called Brooklands, CHAP. I. in this parish, and other lands here, and in Byfleet and Walton. In 1800, two acts were passed for enclosing the open common fields, wastes, &c. in Walton-on-Thames and Weybridge, under which acts the duke obtained, by allotments and purchases, about one thousand acres of the wastes, so that the domain comprises about three thousand acres. The park of Oatlands contains three hundred, and that of Byfleet six hundred. Part of the park is in the parish of Walton, and part in Weybridge, the house being in the latter, but some of the offices in the former. The mansion was burnt down while the duke was in Flanders, in 1793. The fire broke out in the night, but by what accident was never discovered, and the duchess and servants escaped with some difficulty. A new house was erected, of which Holland was the architect; and in 1804, an act was passed for enabling his majesty to grant to the duke of York, for an adequate consideration, the inheritance of so much of this domain as was held of the crown. A few A few years since the whole of this extensive property was sold in one lot, to Hughes Ball, Esq. the present possessor.

Ham.

Ham is an old mansion, standing in a small park, at Manor of the conflux of the Wey and the Thames. It formerly belonged to the Howards, and was granted to Catherine, daughter of Sir Charles Sedley, mistress of King James II. who created her countess of Dorchester. She married David Collyear, earl of Portmore, and from their issue is descended William Charles, the present earl. This house has been long uninhabited, and is in a very ruinous state. It stands on flat ground, in a paddock bordered by the river Wey. Near it are many large cedars and firs, the former much broken by the weight of snow, which fell in the winter of 1808-9, and

BOOK IV. lodged on them.

Rectory.

Church.

One of the cedars is perhaps the

largest in England; at five feet from the ground it measures about thirteen feet in circumference, and runs up straight to a great height. One of the parlours is a handsome room, in which hang portraits of the countess of Dorchester, her husband, the earl of Portmore, the duchess of Dorset, the duchess of Leeds, and Nell Gwyn. In a room up stairs is a picture of two boys, children of the duchess of Dorset; the rest are all taken down. In the attic story is a room with a coved ceiling, used by James II. as a chapel; within it is his bed-room, from which there is a private passage; and a place is shown in which he concealed himself on the advance of the prince of Orange from London. There are some small cupboards, called barracks, as his guards, who must have been very few, are said to have slept there.

The benefice of Weybridge is a rectory in the deanery of Stoke, valued in the twentieth year of Edward I. at nine marks; in the king's books at £7. Os. 5d.

The church is dedicated to St. James, or, according to Ecton, to St. Nicholas. It is a small, but neat edifice, having a nave and south aisle, at the west end of which is the vault of the earl of Portmore's family, built up about four feet above the level of the pavement, enclosed with iron rails. There is no inscription. Within hang a helmet, a spur, and gauntlets, and several colours brought by the earl from Gibraltar. There is no chancel, but the communion table stands at the east end of the nave, separated by a rail. At the west end is a small steeple with three bells in it.

Over the south aisle is a gallery, part of which belongs to Oatlands, and part to the earl of Portmore's house. In the south aisle, scriptions. under the gallery, is an old stone, on which are three

Monu

mental in

brass skeletons: on a label from the first "D'ne miserere CHAP. I. mei;" from the second, "In D'no confido;" from the third, "Miserere mei Deus." At one corner at the top, "Christus;" at the other, "Vita."

is this couplet:

"Disce mori vivens, moriens ut vivere possis,

Sic neque mors tristis, nec vita gravis erit."

Underneath

COBHAM is a pleasant village. The population, ac- Cobham. cording to the return made to parliament in 1821, was two hundred and sixty-two houses, and one thousand three hundred and forty inhabitants.

A

By the Domesday survey it appears, that the abbey Manor. of Chertsey then held the manor of Cobham; and no former owner being mentioned, it is to be presumed, that they were lords of it long before. The whole contained thirty hides, or three thousand acres. farm, called Norwood, containing about three hundred acres, though still parochially belonging to Cobham, was sold in 1679, as the demesne lands of the manor of Esher, by Philip Doughty, Esq. lord of that manor; and is now the property of Mount, Esq.

In Cobham are two manors; the one called the manor of Cobham, otherwise Coveham, belonging to Thomas Page, Esq. The other, the manor of Ham, belonging to the dean and chapter of Windsor, but lying within, and held of the manor of Cobham, to which it pays a yearly quit-rent.

son.

The rectory and advowson of the church was, with Advowthe manor, part of the possessions of the abbey of Chertsey, from a very early date. In Paynne's Papal Usurpations, mention is made of a charter of the twentieth year of Edward I. confirming a charter of John, bishop of Winchester, which recites a bull of Pope

BOOK IV. Clement III. for appropriating this church.

Church.

On the dissolution, King Henry VIII. in his twenty-ninth year, granted the rectory of this church to his new founded abbey of Bisham, in Berks. Soon after this it again came into the possession of the crown, where it remained till the 16th of January, in the third year of Edward VI. when it was granted to William Fountain and Richard Mayn. It soon after came into the hands of William Hammond, who conveyed it to Elizabeth, wife of George Bigley, for life, from whom it descended to Mrs. Weston, widow of William Weston, and Mr. and Mrs. Skrine, who, in 1720, conveyed that part of the rectory which is on Downside, with some exceptions, to Mr. John Hall, by whose relict and heirs it was conveyed, in 1735, to Mr. John Wilson. It is now in the possession of Weston, Esq.

The church, which is dedicated to St. Andrew, is a plain neat building of chalk-stone, the roof covered with slate and tile. At the west end is a square tower, over which is a handsome spire, covered with oak shingles, in which are five bells and a clock. The nave is fiftynine feet and a half in length; the chancel at the end of the nave is fifty-three feet long. There is a north aisle, not extending to the west end of the nave, which is forty-six feet long, and thirty-two feet three inches broad, at the end of which is a chancel, separated from the other by two pointed arches, resting on round pillars; the breadth of the whole thirty-two feet three inches. Both of the chancels are separated from the nave and north aisle by pointed arches. At the west end of the nave is a small gallery. The font is an octagon basin on a small octagon pillar. In the south porch is a door, under a round arch, with chevron mouldings. There is no painted glass.

Cobham park, on the south side of the village, was formerly called Downe place, from a family of that name who had a mansion here. In the first half of the last century it became the property of John Bridges, Esq. who erected a new house, which he sold, about 1750, to Sir John, afterwards Earl Ligonier. On the death of his nephew this place was purchased of his coheirs by the earl of Carhampton, who, in 1807, bought Pain's hill, and sold Cobham park to H. Combe, Esq. who resides here.

Mr. Skrine, the tourist, had a house near the church, which he sold to Mr. Freeland, to whose descendant it now belongs.

The road from London to Portsmouth, through Cobham, is crossed by the river Mole, at the foot of Pain's hill, dividing the parishes of Cobham and Walton-onThames. The common passage was by fording the river, except in times of floods, when a wooden bridge, shut up against carriages at other times, was opened. This bridge was built in the time of Henry I. or Stephen. In the twenty-third year of Henry III. an inquisition was taken as to the repair of this bridge, when it was found that Matilda, queen of Henry I. made the first bridge at this place, for the repose of the soul of one of her maidens, who was drowned in crossing the ford; assigning for support of one half of the same, a piece of land in Cobham, held by the abbot of Chertsey; and Humphrey de Bohun, then lord of the manor of Walton, gave for support of the other half, a piece of land called Spitilcrofte. It was kept in repair of late years by the lords of the manors of Cobham and Walton. The traffic on the road to Portsmouth being greatly increased, the want of a bridge, which should be open at all times, was found to be such, that the magistrates of the county

CHAP. I.

Cobham

park.