South-sea scheme, it was again put up to sale, and CHAP. II. purchased for £15,000, by the duchess of Marlborough.

Her grace gave it to her grandson, John Spencer, Esq. whose descendant, Earl Spencer, is the present proprietor.

don house.

Wimbledon house, rebuilt by Sir Thomas Cecil in Wimble1588, is described as a magnificent structure," which being placed on the side slip of a rising ground, renders it to stand of that height, that betwixt the basis of the brick-wall of the lower court and the hall-door there are five severall ascents, consisting of threescore and ten stepps, which are distinguished in a very graceful manner.' Fuller says, that by some the house was thought to equal Nonsuch, if not to exceed it: and Swift, in one of his letters, calls it much the finest place about London.* It was taken down by the duchess of Marlborough, who erected a new edifice upon or near the site, after a design by the earl of Pembroke. This house was accidently burnt down in 1785. Some of the offices only being preserved from the flames, were fitted up, and used for several years, as an occasional residence of the noble proprietor. A new mansion has since been erected a little to the north-west of the former building, from the design of the late Mr. Holland. The situation of this structure, which was completed in 1801, is particularly advantageous, having towards the north a beautiful home prospect of the park, and an extensive

A very accurate and minute survey of this house and premises was taken by order of parliament in 1649, the original of which is deposited in the Augmentation Office. It is printed in the Archælogia, vol. x. There are two rare prints of Wimbledon house by Winstanley, one of which, dated 1678, and exhibiting a view of the principal front with the five ascents, has been copied for Lysons' Environs, vol. i.

BOOK III. view over the county of Surrey to the south. The park, which contains twelve hundred acres, exhibits a pleasing variety of surface, and was planted and laid out with great taste by Brown. To the north of the house it is adorned with a sheet of water that covers fifty acres. Wimbledon house is now the residence of the duke of Somerset.

Charity school.

Wimble

On the east side of Wimbledon common is a seat, formerly the property of M. De Calonne, comptrollergeneral of the finances of France, before the revolution in 1789. The plantations, which contain upwards of seventy acres, join Lord Spencer's; and M. De Calonne, when he purchased this place of the late Benjamin Bond Hopkins, Esq. laid the foundation of a ball-room and two tea-rooms; but he sold the estate, in September, 1792, for £15,000, to Earl Gower Sutherland. Prior to the restoration of the Bourbons, it was in the occupation of the prince De Condé.

A charity-school for boys and girls was built in the year 1773, upon a piece of ground given by Lord Spencer. In this village is a chapel belonging to the Wesleyan Methodists.

Wimbledon lodge, an elegant modern structure, was don lodge. erected by the late Gerard De Visme, Esq. during the minority of whose daughter it was occupied by Earl Bathurst. Among other villas which skirt the common is that of the late John Horne Tooke, where that wellknown political character closed his turbulent career, March 18, 1812. In his garden he had prepared a vault for the reception of his remains; but his friends thought fit to dispense with his injunctions on this head, and conveyed them for interment to Ealing, in Middlesex.

Near the church is the elegant villa of Sir William Beaumaris Rush, which has very fine pleasure-grounds,

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LONDON

PURI 19HED BY IT HINTON 4 WARWICK SQUARE JULY 1830

ENGRAVED BY R. WINKLES.

commanding some extensive views. On the west side CHAP II, are two good houses, the one formerly in the occupation of the Right Hon. Viscount Melville, and the other the pretty villa of Abraham Aguelar, Esq. In the lane leading to Kingston is Prospect place, the seat of James Meyrick, Esq. adjoining to which is the handsome villa of Samuel Castell, Esq. Both these have beautiful pleasure-grounds, commanding delightful views of Epsom downs, and all the country adjacent.

At the south west angle of Wimbledon common is a Encampcircular encampment with a double ditch, including an ment. area of about seven acres. The inner trench is deep, and still very perfect; and the diameter is about two hundred and twenty paces. This camp is conjectured by Camden to mark the site of the battle said to have been fought in the year 568, at a place called Wibandune, between Ceaulin, king of the West Saxons, and the forces of Ethelbert, king of Kent, in which the latter were defeated with the loss of two of their generals, Oslac and Cneben. Bensbury, the appellation given in his time to this encampment, he considered as a corruption of Cnebensbury after the name of the latter.

The village of BARNES is pleasantly situated on the Barnes. banks of the Thames, at the distance of six miles from Hyde park corner.

The Church of Barnes is dedicated to St. Mary, and is Church. one of the archbishop of Canterbury's peculiars. It is a rectory, rated in the Liber regis, at £9. 3s. 4d.; patrons, the dean and chapter of St. Paul's. The church is situated about half a mile from the river; and is one of the most ancient structures in the neighbourhood of the metropolis. About the time of Richard I. an hospital was founded within the liberties of St. Paul's