Here mark the valley's winding way,
And lift to what old records fay.
"This winding vale of Holmesdale
"Was ever won, nor never shall.”
The prophesy ne'er yet has fail'd;
No human power has prevail'd
To rob this valley of its rights,
Supported by its val'rous wights,
When foreign conqueft claim'd our land
Then rofe our fturdy Holm'fdale band
With each a brother oak in hand;
An armed grove the Conqueror meet,
And for their ancient charter treat,
Refolv'd to die, ere they refign'd
Their liberties in gavel-kind,

Hence Freedom's fons inhabit here,
And hence the world their deeds revere.
In war and every virtuous way;
A Man of Kent ftill bears the day.
Thus may our queen of valleys reign,
While Darent glides into the main ;
Darent, whofe infant reed is feen,
Uprearing on yon bofom'd green,
Along his wid'ning banks may peace
And joyful plenty never cease!
Where'er his waters roll their tide,
May heav'n-born Liberty refide!

RODING, the name of eight parishes in the western part of Effex, diftinguished from each other by the appellations of Abbot's, Berners, Beauchamp, Eyethorp, High, Leaden, Margaret, and White. They take their common name from the river Roding, which flowing through them, from Canfield, falls into the Thames be low Barking. They are celebrated for excellent arable lands, and execrable roads. Roding Berners is fuppofed to be the birth-place of Juliana Berners, daughter of Sir James Berners, of that parifh, who was beheaded in the reign of Richard II. This lady, who was Priorefs of Sopewell Nunnery, was one of the earliest female writers in England. She was very beautiful, of great spirit, and loved mafculine exercifes, fuch as hawking, hunting, &c. With these sports she used often to recreate herself; and fo thoroughly was she skilled in then, that she wrote treatifes of hunting, hawking, and heraldry. "From an abbefs disposed to turn author," fays Mr. Warton, in his History

History of Poetry, "we might reasonably have expected a manual of meditations for the clofet, or felect rules for making falves, or diftilling ftrong waters. But the diverfions of the field were not thought inconfiftent with the character of a religious lady of this eminent rank, who refembled an abbot in refpect of exercising an extenfive manorial jurisdiction, and who hawked and hunted with other ladies of diftinction.*

ROEHAMPTON, a hamlet in the parish of Putney, fituated at the weftern extremity of Putney Heath. Here are many handsome villas; among which are Roehampton Grove, Mr. Fitzherbert's; Roehampton Houfe, Mr. Drake's; Mount Clare, Sir John Dick's; and the houses belonging to the Earl of Eefborough, Lady Robert Bertie, Robert Thistlethwaite, efq. Charles Hoare, efq. Mr. Thompson, and Mr. Bowman; befides a handsome villa, built by the Duke of Clarence, and lately fold by his Royal Highness, to a perfon, who purchased it upon fpeculation. Mount Clare was built, in the Italian style, by the late George Clive, efq. Sir William Chambers was the architect of the Earl of Befborough's. In this house are some valuable antiquities; particularly, the celebrated trunk of a Venus, from the collection of Baron Stofch; and there is a bust of Demofthenes, by Benvenuto Cellini; with fome good pictures, among which are, the Interment of a Cardinal, by John ab Eyck, the firft painter in oil colours; Sir Theodore Mayerne, Phyfician to James I. by Rubens; and Bp. Gardiner, by Holbein. In this hamlet is a neat chapel, over the altar of which is the Laft Supper, by Zucchero.

ROEHAMPTON GROVE, the villa of Thomas Fitzherbert, efq. at Roehampton, ftands on part of the ancient royal park of Putney. The fee fimple of this park originally granted by Charles I. paffed into the hands different proprietors, and among others, was

*Her book on Armory begins with the following curious piece of facred heraldry: Of the offspring of the Gentilman Jafeth, come Habraham, Moyfes, Aron, and the profettys; and alfo the Kyng of the right lyne of Mary, of whom that Gentilman Jhefus was borne, very God and Man: after his manhode Kynge of the land of Jude and of Jues, Gentilman by his modre Mary, Prince of Gate Amure, &c.

the

the refidence of Chriftian Countess of Devonshire,* whofe family alienated the eftate, which was at length purchased by Sir Joshua Vanneck, who built the prefent elegant villa, from a defign of Mr. Wyatt's, and expended vaft fums in improvements. Sir Joshua having fucceeded to his brother's eftate, fold Roehampton Grove to Mr. Fitzherbert, who fpares no expence to render this delightful fpot all that the poet's fancy can describe. In the library are fome good pictures. The principal part of the house commands a diftant view of Epfom Downs; but Roehampton Park is fo near, that it appears as if it made part of the grounds. The profpect to the north is equally pleafing, and charms the eye with chearfulness and variety.

ROEHAMPTON HOUSE, the feat of William Drake, efq. at Roehampton, has the ceiling of its faloon painted by Thornhill, reprefenting the Feafts of the Gods.

RUMFORD, a town in Effex, 11 M. F. L. in the road to Harwich, is governed by a bailiff and wardens, who, by patent, were once empowered to hold a weekly court for the trial of treasons, felonies, debts, &c. and to execute offenders. It has a market on Mondays and Tuesdays for hogs and calves, and on Wednesdays for corn. It has a chapel of eafe to Hornchurch.

RUNNY MEAD, near Egham, in Surry, is celebrated as the spot where King John, in 1215, was compelled by his Barons to fign Magna Charta, and Charta

*She was a woman of great celebrity, and of a very fingular character. She was much extolled for her devotions; and yet the retained Hobbes, the freethinker, in her houfe, as tutor to her fon. She kept up the dignity of her rank, and was celebrated for her hofpitality: yet fo judicious was her economy, that her jointure of 5000l. a year the nearly doubled; and the extricated her fon's eftate from a vast debt and thirty lawfuits; fo that King Charles once jestingly said to her, Madam, you have all my Judges at your difpofal." She was the patronefs of the wits of that age, who frequenly affembled at her houfe, and there Waller often read his verfes. She was active in the reftoration of Charles II. who had such a sense of her fervices, that he frequently vifited her at Roehampton, in company with the Queen Dowager, and the royal family, with whom he enjoyed a great in$imacy till her death in 1675.

de

de Forefta. It is true, that here his confent was extorted; but the charta was figned, it is faid, in an ifland, between Runny Mead and Ankerwyke Houfe. This ifland, which is ftill called Charta Ifland, is in the parish of Wraysbury, in Bucks.

The land awhile,

Affrighted, droop'd beneath defpotic rage,
Inftead of Edward's equal gentle laws,
The furious victor's partial will prevail'd.
All proftrate lay; and, in the fecret fhade,
Deep-ftung, but fearful, Indignation gnash'd
His teeth. Of freedom, property, defpoil'd,
And of their bulwark, arms; with catles crufh'd,
With ruffians quarter'd o'er the bridled land :
The fhivering wretches at the curfew found,
Dejected fhrunk into their fordid beds,

And, through the mournful gloom of ancient times
Mus'd fad, or dreamt of better. Ev'n to feed
A tyrant's idle fport the peafant starv'd:
To the wild herd, the pafture of the tame,
The chearful hamlet, fpiry town, was given,
And the brown foreft roughen'd wide around,
But this fo dead, so vile fubmiffion, long
Endur'd not.

Unus'd to bend, impatient of control,
Tyrants themselves the common tyrant check'd.
The church, by kings intractable and fierce,
Deny'd her portion of the plunder'd state,
Or tempted, by the timorous and weak,
To gain new ground, first taught their rapine law.
The barons next a nobler league began,
Both thofe of English and of Norman race,
In one fraternal nation blended now,
The nation of the free! Prefs'd by a band
Of patriots, ardent as the fummer's noon
That looks delighted on, the tyrant see !
Mark! how with feign'd alacrity he bears
His strong reluctance down, his dark revenge,
And gives the Charter, by which life indeed
Becomes of price, a glory to be man*.

On

THOMSON,

In King John's time, and that of his fon Henry the third, the rigours of the feudal tenures and the foreft laws were fo warmly kept up, that they occafioned many infurrections of the barons or principal fudatories: which at laft had this effect, that first king John, and after

wards

On Runny Mead are annual horfe-races, which are generally attended by their majestics and the royal family. RUSSEL FARM, near Watford, in Herts, a handfome house, in a beautiful fituation, is the feat of the Countess Dowager of Effex.

wards his fon confented to the two famous charters of English liberties, magna carta and carta de forefta. Of these the latter was well calculated to redress many grievances, and encroachments of the crown, in the execution of foreft law and the former confirmed many liberties of the church, and redreffed many grievances incident to feudal tenures, of no small moment at the time; though now, unless considered attentively, and with this retrospect, they seem but of trifling concern. But, befides thefe feudal provifions, care was also taken therein to protect the subject against other oppreffions, then frequently arifing from unreasonable amereements, from illegal diftreffes or other process for debts or fervices due to the crown, and from the tyrannical abufe of the prerogative of purveyance and pre-emption. It fixed the forfeiture of lands for felony in the fame manner as it ftill remains; prohibited for the future the grants of exclufive fisheries, and the erection of new bridges fo as to opprefs the neighbourhood. With respect to private rights it established the teftamentary power of the fubject over part of his perfonal estate, the reft being diftributed among his wife and childien; it laid down the law of dower, as it hath continued ever fince; and prohibited the appeals of women, unlefs for the death of their hufbands. In matters of public police and national concern; it injoined an uniformity of weights and measures; gave new encouragements to commerce, by the protection of merchant ftrangers; and forbad the alienation of lands in mortmain. With regard to the administration of juftice: befides prohibiting all denials or delays of it, it fixed the court of commonpleas at Westminster, that the fuitors might no longer be harraffed with following the king's perfon in all his progreffes; and at the fame time brought the trial of iffues home to the very doors of the freeholders, by directing affizes to be taken in the proper counties, and eftablishing annual circuits: it alfo corrected fome abuses then incident to the trials by wager of law and of battle; directed the regular awarding of inquefts for life or member; prohibiting the king's inferior minifters from holding pleas of the crown, or trying any criminal charge, whereby many forfeitures might otherwife have unjustly accrued to the exchequer; and regulated the time and place of holding the inferior tribunals of justice, the county court, fheriff's tourn, and court-leet. It confirmed and established the liberties of the city of London, and all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports of the kingdom. And, laftly, (which alone would have merited the title it bears, of the great charter) it protected every individual of the nation in the free enjoyment of his life, his liberty, and his property, unlefs declared to be forfeited by the judgment of his peers or the law of the land. Blackstone's Comment. Vol. IV. Book 4. Ch. 33.

X

RYE.