and converted into rooms, to which you enter by doors made in the fides of the principal arch. The foffit of the principal arch is enriched with coffers and roses, and both the fronts of the ftructure are ruftic. The north front is confined between rocks, overgrown with briars and other wild plants, and topped with thickets, amongst which are feen feveral columns and other fragments of buildings; and at a little diftance beyond the arch is feen an antique ftatue of a Mufe. The central ftructure of the ruins is bounded on each fide by a range of arches. There is a great quantity of cornices, and other fragments, fpread over the ground, feemingly fallen from the buildings; and in the thickets on each fide are feen feveral remains of piers, brick walls, &c."

Thefe gardens are opened every Monday from Midsummer to the latter end of Autumn. The exotic garden, fince Sir William Chambers wrote the preceding account, has been enriched with a great number of new and curious plants; with feveral, in particular brought from New South Wales, and the islands in the fouthern ocean. They were under the fuperintendence of that late ingenious Botaníft, William Aiton, Efq. celebrated throughout Europe, for his excellent work, entitled "Hortus Kewenfis," in three volumes large 8vo.

An ingenious poet thus celebrates this garden, in his "Botanic Garden, Part I," just published:

So fits enthron'd in vegetable pride

Imperial Kew, by Thames' glittering fide;
Obedient fails from realms unfurrow'd bring
For her the unnam'd progeny of spring;
Attendant nymphs her dulcet mandates hear,
And nurse in fostering arins the tender year,
Plant the young bulb, inhume the living feed,
Prop the weak ftem, the erring tendril lead;
Or fan in glafs-built fanes the ftranger flowers
With milder gales, and fteep with warmer fhowers.
Delighted Thames though tropic umbrage glides,
And flowers antarctic, bending o'er his tides;"
Drinks the new tints, the sweets unknown inhales,
And calls the fons of fcience to his vales.
In one bright point admiring Nature eyes
The fruits and foliage of difcordant skies,
Twines the gay floret with the fragrant bough,

And

And bends the wreath round George's royal brow.
Sometimes retiring, from the public weal
One tranquil hour the Royal Partners fteal;
Through glides exotic pafs with step sublime,
Or mark the growths of Britain's happier clime;
With beauty bloffom'd, and with virtue blaz'd,
Mark the fair fcions, that themselves have rais'd;
Sweet blooms the Rofe, the towering Oak expands,
The grace and guard of Britain's golden lands.

The old house, oppofite the palace, was held on leafe by Queen Caroline, of the heirs of Sir Richard Levett, and has been fince occupied by different branches of the Royal Family. The houfe was purchased in 1761 for. her Majefty.

KILBURN, a village, two M. F. L. in the road to Edgware, is famous for its fine fpring of mineral water, an analyfis of which is in the Philofophical Transactions, Part I. 1792.

KINGSBURY, to the North of St. Alban's, is the fite of a palace of the Saxon princes, who, by their fre quent vifits to the neighbouring abbey, became an in fupportable burthen to it. At length the Abbot Alfric prevailed on Ethelred II. to difpose of it.

KING's LANGLEY, near Abbot's Langley, in Herts, receives its name from a royal palace built here by Henry - III. the ruins of which are ftill to be feen. Richard II, with his Queen, kept a Christmas here, and was buried in its monaftery, though afterwards removed to Weftminfter by. Henry V. Here was alfo born and buried Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, son of Edward III. The palace, park, and manor, were given by James I, to Henry Prince of Wales, and, at his death, to his brother Charles, who, after he came to the throne, granted them to Sir Charles Morrison. The Earl of Effex is. now the Lord of the Manor.

KINGSTON UPON THAMES, a market town in Surry, 11 M. F. L. was either a royal refidence, or a royal demefne, fo early as the union of the Saxon heptarchy; for there is a record extant of a council held there in 838, at which Egbert the firft King of all England, and his fon Athelwolf, were prefent; and in this record

P.3.

162

KINGSTON UPON THAMES.

record it is ftyled Kyningeftun, famosa illa locus. Some of our Saxon Kings were alfo crowned here; and close to the north fide of the church is a large ftone, on which, according to tradition, they were placed during the ceremony. Adjoining to the fame fide, was formerly a chapel, dedicated to St. Mary, in which were the figures of fome of the Saxon Kings that were crowned here,* and alfo that of King John, who gave the inhabitants their first charter. In the infcriptions over thefe figures, fome of them were faid to have been crowned in the market-place, and others in the chapel; but no particu lar fpot is mentioned in the old chronicles that record thefe coronations. Thefe figures were destroyed by the fall of the chapel in 1730; at which time Abraham Hammerton, the fexton of the parish, digging a grave, was buried under the ruins, with another perfon, and his daughter, Efther Hammerton. The latter, notwithftanding the lay covered feven hours, furvived this miffortune feventeen years, and was her father's fucceffor. The memory of this event is preferved by a curious print of this fingular woman, engraved by M'Ardell. Kingfton fent members to parliament in the reign of the fecond and third Edwards; and caufed it to be a borough, in confequence of a petition from the corporation (recorded in the Town Clerk's Office) praying to be relieved from the burthen of fending members to parliament. Here is a wooden bridge over the Thames, and a free fchool, founded by Queen Elizabeth, the school-room of which is an ancient chapel, that belonged to the demolished hospital of St. Mary Magdalen, and is supposed to have been built in the 14th century. Here alfo is an almfhouse, built in 1668 by Alderman Cleave, for fix men, and as many women. The lent affizes are held here. In this place is Canbury-Houfe, the feat of the late Lord Dillon, near which is a fpacious barn, in which

*Mr. Lyfons gives the following lift of them, on the authority of our ancient hiftorians. Edward the elder, crowned, A. D. 900; his fon Atheistan, in 925; Edmund, in 940; Eldred, or Edred, in 946; Edwy, or Edwin, in 955: Edward the Martyr, in 975; and Ethelred, in 978. Edgar, who fucceded to the throne in 959, is faid to have been crowned either at Kingston or at Bath. Env. of Lond. Page 215.

twelve teams may unload at once. It has four entrances, four threshing floors, and is fupported by twelve pillars. This houfe is the property of Colonel Edington. In the hamlet of Surbiton, oppofite the twelve mile stone, and on the banks of the Thames, is the handsome villa of the late Mr. Barnard, now the property of Edward Fuhr, efq. and farther on, in the road to Ewel, is Surbiton Place, the feat of Thomas Faffett, efq. whofe gardens, (in which, and the house, he has made great improvements) extend to the Thames, on the road to Guildford. In 1769, an act of parliament was obtained, for feparating the parish church of Kingston, and its dependent chapels of Richmond, Moufley, Thames Ditton, Peter, fham, and Kew, and forming the whole parish into two vicarages and two perpetual curacies. See Comb Nevil.

KINGSWOOD LODGE, the elegant feat of William Smith, efq. delightfully fituated on Cooper's Hill, in the parish of Egham. Near the house, Mr. Smith has placed a feat, which the lovers of poetry will deem facred; it being on the very spot from which Sir John Denham took his beautiful view of the rich and various fcenery, which he has defcribed in his celebrated poem. From this houfe, which is 19 M. F. L. the hour and minute hand of St. Paul's clock, have, by the aid of a telescope, been diftinctly feen.

KIPPINGTON, near Sevenoaks, the feat of Sir Charles Farnaby Radcliffe, bart.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE, the first village from London, in the great western road, is fituated in the parishes of St. George, Hanover-fquare, and St. Margaret, Westminster, but has a chapel independent of thofe parishes. Here is St. George's Hofpital, for the fick and wounded.

KNIGHT's HILL, the feat of Lord Thurlow, in the parish of Lambeth, between Dulwich and Norwood, When his Lordship purchased this eftate of the Duke of St. Alban's, a few years ago, there was only a neat farmhouse upon it, which he new fronted; building, at the fame time, fome additional apartments. But he has fince taken the whole down, and erected the prefent manfion, in a plain and fimple ftyle, under the direction of Mr. Holland. The houfe, which is built of bricks.

brought

brought from Suffolk (called Suffolk Stocks) is the first that was finished throughout with the new invented cone flooring. From the upper ftories are delightful views over Kent, Surry, and the metropolis: and the Thames is difcernible in various parts, from Chelsea to Gravefend. His lordship has not yet thought proper to live in this house, but refides in a smaller one in the neighbourhood.

KNOLE, the venerable and magnificent feat of the Duke of Dorset, near Sevenoaks, was, for fome time, one of the palaces of the Abp. of Canterbury. Cranmer exchanged it with the crown for other lands; and Queen Elizabeth gave it to Thomas Lord Buckhurst, afterward Earl of Dorfet. The entrance is through a great tower portal, which leads into a large quadrangular court, with a grafs plat on each fide, in one of which is a gladiator, and, in the other, Venus orta Mari. From this court is an entrance, through a large tower in the centre, into another court, with a portico in front, fupported by eight lonic columns; over which is an open gallery, with a balustrade, for walking. In vifiting the apartments, in the order in which they are fhewn, we firft enter

The Hall. Among other curiofities in this room are, the horns of an elk, feven feet two inches from tip to tip, and weighing 56 pounds; the horn of a rhinoceros, the horns of an antelope, a Carribean canoe, Demofthenes, a fine Grecian relique, in marble; a marble ftatue of Egeria; and a grand mufic-gallery, with a fcreen of curious old carving. The antique windows are of stained glass.

The Brown Gallery: the pictures are, a Mifer, Quintin Matfys; George Villiers first Duke of Buckingham; Abp. Bancroft, Cromwell's Barber, afterward General Davis, Dobfon; a Silenus, Rubens; two landfcapes, ClaudeLorrain; Sir Henry Nevill, Holbein; his Lady, Daughter of the first Earl of Dorfet, ditto; Lord Hunfdon and his fon, ditto; Sir Kenelm Digby, a copy, by Gouge; a Nun; Edward fourth Earl of Dorfet; a Lady; Charles I and his Queen, Vandyck; Lionel first Earl of Middlefex, and his daughter Frances, wife of Richard, fifth Earl of Dorfet; Charles II. and General Monk; a Spa.