From the ensuing words, it would seem that the Harbour of the river Medway was the only station which the fleet had at the time that Lambard wrote his Perambulation. "As touching the harborow it selfe, I have heard some wishe, that for the better expedition in time of service, some part of this navie might ride in some other haven, the rather because it is many times very long before a ship can be gotten out of this river into the sea." He afterwards mentions the Roman custom of distributing their vessels into different harbours, that they might the more readily sail to those parts where" occasion required:" but," for all that," he concludes, in that humble spirit of reverential submission, and firm devotion of sentiment, which Elizabeth had contrived to inspire into all classes of her subjects; "but, for all that, whether the same order be necessarie for us, or no, it is not our partes to dispute, but their office to determine, whoe, for their great wisdome and good zeale, both can and will provide thinges convenient, as well for the safetie of the navie, as for the service of the realme. And therefore leaving all this matter to the consideration of those that are well occupied at the helme, let us apply our oares, that we may nowe leave the water, and come to the lande at Gillingham.”* The Manor of GRANGE, anciently called Grench, which lies about half a mile eastward from Gillingham Church, and includes about 120 acres, has been accounted a member of the ancient Cinque-port of Hastings, in Sussex, from the earliest times: though the jurisdiction of that place is said to have now become obsolete.† From the certificate of Stephen de Pencester, Constable of Dover Castle, and Warden of the Cinque Ports in the reign of Edward the Third, that this Manor was obliged to furnish one ship, and two able and well-armed men, towards the quota which the port of Hastings was bound to supply for the King's service for forty days. This Manor was held by the noble family of Hastings during several centuries, by the tenure of grand serjeantry; and Matthew de Hastings, who died in the fifth of Edward the First, was

Peramb. of Kent, p. 274, 278. Edit. 1576.

found

+ Hasted's Kent, Vol. IV.

P.

5.69. 8vo,

found to have possessed it by the service of finding one oar whenever the King should sail towards the port of Hastings. It was afterwards the property of the celebrated John Philipott, Esq. Lord Mayor of London in 1378, who, for the active part which he took in the death of Wat Tyler, in Smithfield, and other services, had an honorable augmentation granted to his coat of arms by Richard the Second. He built a small Chapel here, part of which is yet standing, though used as an out-house. On his death, he bequeathed it to his second son, John Philipott, Esq. who exchanged it for Twyford, in Middlesex, with Richard Bamme, Esq. son of Adam Bamme, Esq. the benevolent Lord Mayor of London in 1391, who imported large quantities of corn to supply the people during a great dearth.

RAINHAM Parish is chiefly the property of the Tuftons, Earls of Thanet, whose ancestors possessed lands here as early as the reign of Henry the Third; but the principal of whose estates in Rainham, have been obtained either by marriage or purchase since the time of Elizabeth. The Church, which is dedicated to St. Margaret, has been the principal burial-place of this family since the time of Charles the First; and no fewer than eight Earls and six Countesses of Thanet lie interred here, together with many of their children and relatives. The body of this fabric consists of a kind of double nave, separated by octagonal columns, and pointed arches; and two chancels, divided by a Screen of wood, having cinquefoil-headed arches, the spandrils of which are curiously ornamented with foliage of different kinds, human heads of singular character, various species of animals, as dragons, rabbits, parrots, and fish; a harp, a bugle-horn, &c. In the principal or south chancel, are three graduated stone Stalls, with pointed arches; and on a slab in the pavement, is a singular Brass of a male figure, in a short furred gown, with large sleeves, and a scrip, or purse, appendant to his girdle. Beneath is an inscription, recording the sepulture of William Bloor, Gent, who died in 1529, and whose family resided at BLOOR'S PLACE, in this Parish, for several generations:

* Part of this mansion, which had been rebuilt by Christopher Bloor, Esq. in the reign of Henry the Eighth, is still remaining, though con.

In the.

generations: the inscription is singular, from giving the title • Fidei Defensoris' to Henry the Eighth, on whom it had been conferred by Pope Leo the Tenth but a few years before. north chancel, which belongs to the Earls of Thanet, are the monuments of NICHOLAS TU FTON, the third Earl, and the Honorable GEORGE TUFTON, the sixth son of the second Earl. The former is a figure of the Earl in his parliamentary robes, standing on a pedestal; on the front of which are the arms of Tufton, impaling Burlington; this nobleman having married the Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Richard, Earl of Burlington and Corke: he died at the age of forty-nine, in November, 1679. The Honorable G. Tufton is also repesented by a figure in a Roman habit, seated on a suit of armour: on the pedestal are inscriptions in English and Latin, from which it appears that he received an incurable wound in the Bishoprie of Spires, in Germany, in October, 1666; but languished in great pain till the time of his death, in December, 1670, in his twenty-first year: he died in London, at Thanet House, then the town residence of the family.

In Lower DANE FIELD, in the Parish of Hartlip, which adjoins to that of Rainham on the south, the remains of an ancient building, about sixty feet long, was laid open between fifty and sixty years ago, which, though principally composed of large flints, had on the upper part of the walls, two rows of large Roman tiles, placed close together. In one of the apartments, several bushels of wheat were found, some of which appeared as if it had been parched by fire. Many foundations of other buildings have been occasionally discovered in different parts of the adjacent grounds.* NEWINGTON,

verted into a Farm House. The interior displays several low pointedarched doorways, with scraps of sculptured devices: one of the rooms is wainscotted with oaken pannels, exhibiting good carvings of parchment-scrolls, &c. The estates of the Bloors became vested in the Earls of Thanet, by the marriage of Olympia, daughter and co-heiress of the rebuilder of this seat, with John Tufton, Esq. of Hothfield, who was created a Baronet, by James the First, in the year 1611.

Hasted's Kent, Vol. II. p. 540, Fo.

NEWINGTON, written Newetone in the Domesday Book, has from its name, and the many Roman vestigia that have been found, or remain in its neighbourhood, been supposed to occupy the site of a more ancient town, or else to have been built in its immediate vicinity; and Somner, Battely, Stillingfleet, and one or two other antiquaries, presuming on the incorrectness of the Itinerary, in this instance, with respect to distance, have placed here the DUROLEVUM of Antoninus; but, judging from all the circumstances that have yet been advanced as to the identity of that station, the probability is, that it was really at Judde Hill, in the Parish of Orspringe. That the Romans actually occupied the country in the vicinity of Newington, is, however, sufficiently proved, as well from the names of contiguous places, as from the antiquities that have been discovered. The Watling Street unquestionably crossed the Parish, either over, or closely adjacent to, the spot now occupied by the village: about three quarters of a mile further eastward, is Key-Col Hill, from Caii Collis: about a mile beyond that is Key-Street, from Caii Stratum; and scarcely half a mile to the south, from Key-Col Hill, is Standard Hill, which, from its name, must be allowed to have an undoubted connection with some military position. Add to this, that the second field on the north of the high road from Key-Col Hill, which is also called Chesnut Hill,+ has been long celebrated under the appellation of Crock-field, through the great abundance of Roman vessels that have been dug up there; that in the field adjoining to this, on the south-west, is a large artificial mount, with remains of a broad and deep foss; and that among the woods and coppices in the adjacent grounds, to the north and north-east, many traces of entrenchments may yet be discovered, though thickly Overgrown.

It

* The name of Key Street was also given to the high road in the neighbourhood of Faversham, at least as early as the time of Edward the First, as appears from an ancient perambulation of that date, quoted by Jacob, in his Hist. of Faversham, p. 26.

+ Hasted's Kent, Vol. II. p. 561, Note, h.

It appears, from the learned Casaubon's notes to his translation of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus's Meditations, that many hundreds of Roman Urns, pots, and other vessels of different kinds, and of all sizes and fashions, were dug up in Crock-field about the beginning of the reign of Charles the First. Not only, he remarks, was the discovery of such great numbers of vessels, in so small a compass of ground, remarkable, but also the manner of their ly ing in the ground; "for those who had been present at the digging of them up, observed, that where one great urn had been found, several lesser vessels had been likewise; some of them within the great one, and others round about it; each covered either with a proper cover of the like earth as the pots themselves were, or else more coarsely, but very closely stopped up with other earth. In all these urns, of every size, nothing has hitherto been found, but bones and ashes; and sometimes, indeed, only clear water." Round the upper part of one of the large urns, of a globular form, was an inscription, partly defaced, but of which the words SEVERIANUS PATER could still be traced. Another vessel, that was dug up here, and afterwards came into the possession of Dr. Battely, was sufficiently capacious to contain six quarts: it had four handles near the mouth, from which circumstance, and from the inside being glazed, the Doctor imagined that it had been intended to contain wine. Some of these urns had only one handle, others two, but the greater part was without. "The great numbers of urns," says Hasted," and the fragments of them found at this place, from time to time, have been dispersed among the curious throughout the country; many of whom have, through curiosity, and a fondness for antiquarian knowledge, dug here for that purpose. The last Earl of Winchelsea searched here several times for them with success, and had a numerous collection of them." From the very great quantity of these vessels that have been dug up in this field, many persons have supposed that the Romans had a Pottery here; yet surely, that is sufficiently disproved by Casaubon's assertion, that "of the many hundreds of the lesser sort, scarce any have been found of one and the same making." This writer hinself concludes, that it was "a common Burial-place for the Romans."

In