native of this place. He had an extraordinary reputation for learning, and had studied physic at Bologna, Paris, and Oxford. He died in 1257; but his fame long survived him in his works, which are however now completely forgotten. BAGSHOT was anciently a lordship belonging to the crown, and had a mansion and a park to which James I. and Charles I. were accustomed to resort, to enjoy the pleasures of the chace. Bagshot Park is now the property of his Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester: the house is not remarkable; but the park itself is three miles in circumference. Bagshot Heath is a waste of very great extent, which feeds large numbers of sheep and cows, besides providing fuel to the neighbouring inhabitants. The mutton here raised is much prized; for, though small, the flavour is remarkably fine. EGHAM, situated at the angle of the county, near the Thames, is a large and thriving village, deriving great advantages, from its being placed on the great thoroughfare from London to the western and southern parts of the kingdom: from this latter circumstance it derives its unusual number of Inns, many of which are highly respectable. In 1811, this village contained 519 houses, and 2,823 inhabitants. It consists of a single street, which, however, is nearly a mile in length. On the north side of this street, a range of Almshouses present an appearance of neatness and comfort not frequently seen in buildings of that description. They were founded in 1706, by Mr. Henry Strode, merchant of London, for six men and six women, who VOL. I. must each be 60 years of age, and have been parishioners of Egham 20 years without receiving parochial relief. The education of 20 poor boys, natives of Egham, is also provided for; together with a house for the master, occupying the centre of the building, who has also an annual salary of £40 with an allowance for an assistant. Another alms-house for five poor women, was founded here by Sir John Denham, a Baron of the Exchequer, the father of the poet of that name, and who, with his two wives, lies interred in the Church. This last-named edifice commands no respect by its external appearance; but it may probably boast of rather considerable antiquity. The monument of Sir John Denham, just mentioned, is at the east end of the chancel: and there is also a monument to John de Rutherwick, abbot of Chertsey Runnymead (more properly Runningmead, being said to have derived its present name from the Races annually held upon it on the 4th, 5th, and 6th of September) lies to the north of Egham, not far from the Thames. This mead will indeed "ever be celebrated in the history of this country, as the spot where the assembled barons, in 1215, compelled King John, who had in vain resorted to the most criminal prevarications, to grant what is emphatically called MAGNA CHARTA, the great charter of the liberties of Britons. Here his consent was extorted; but the treaty is said to have been actually signed on an island in the Thames, still called Charter Island, and included in the parish of Wraysbury, Buckinghamshire. In memory of this foundation of the glorious fabric of British freedom, a plan, patronized by some of the most distinguished political characters, was a few years since proposed for the erection of a pillar in this celebrated mead; but for some reason or other (truly it were hard to find a reason) it has been relinquished by the projectors. Approaching Cooper's Hill, (to the west of Egham) there may be few so little poetical as not to feel a momentary inspiration of the Muse, and, with Pope, be ready to exclaim: Bear me, oh bear me, to sequestered scenes, I hear soft music die along the grove; Led by the sound I rove from shade to shade, By godlike poets venerable made: Here his first lays majestic DENHAM sung, Here the last numbers flowed from Cowley's tongue. The proprietor of Kingswood Lodge, situated on the hill, has placed a seat on the identical spot whence Sir John Denham, the bard by Pope thus justly commended, surveyed the various beauties of that enchanting scenery, on which his verses have conferred immortality. "Cooper's Hill," said Dr. Johnson, "is the work that confers upon Denham the rank and dignity of an original author. He seems to have been, at least among us, the inventor of a species of composition that may be termed local poetry, of which the fundamental subject is some particular landscape, to be poetically described, with the addition of such embellishments as may be supplied by historical retrospection, or incidental meditation. To trace a new species of poetry has in itself a very high claim to praise; and its praise is yet more, when it is apparently copied by Garth and Pope. Yet Cooper's Hill, if maliciously inspected, will not be found without its faults. The digressions are too long, the morality too frequent, and the sentiments sometimes such as will not bear a rigorous enquiry."-An ingenious, but perhaps yet more fastidious critic has observed, that "Cooper's Hill, the professed subject of this piece, is not mentioned by name: it serves like the stand of a telescope, merely as a convenience for viewing other objects." There may be a great deal of justice in all these various observations; but still, Cooper's Hill is a poem that will ever please every genuine lover of poetry, and will render the "stand of the telescope" venerated by all such in an equal degree. CHERTSEY is the principal, and indeed only market town of the hundred which derives from it its name. Chertsey is known to have existed as early as the Saxon times; and from the appellation given it by Bede, Ceroti Insula, it would appear to have been then surrounded by the Thames, on whose bank it is now situated. It is 22 miles south-west from the metropolis; and, in 1811, contained 421 houses, and 3,629 inhabitants. The market-day is Wednesday: it is usually wellsupplied and attended. There are four annual fairs, chiefly for horses and cattle: they are held on the first Monday in Lent, on May 4th, August 6th, and September 25th. Of Chertsey Abbey, once so extensive, and long 66 holding such large possessions, some small remains of walls are now alone visible. An edifice was erected on its site by Sir Nicholas Carew, master of the buckhounds to Charles II., which, the Magna Britannia* says, was built out of the ruins of the great abbey, of which nothing then remained standing but some of the outer walls." This, which was a handsome building, was pulled down about 10 years back: but a barn is yet standing, which formed a part of its offices, and was evidently constructed with the stones taken from the ancient monastery. The monastery itself was founded in 666, by Frithwold, Governor of Surrey under Wulphar, king of the Saxon kingdom of Mercia. Being destroyed by the Danes in one of their piratical incursions, the abbey was rebuilt, in the tenth century, by King Edgar, who conferred upon it many privileges. The abbot is said, by some writers, to have had a seat in Parliament, as one of the 29 abbots and priors who held of the king per Baroniam; but others assert that, though he was esteemed a baron, he did not sit in Parliament. Sal mon says "he was a kind of little prince hereabouts, whose lands, and parcels of land, were as endless to enumerate, as it would be the possessors who have held them since the Dissolution." The unhappy Henry VI. was at first buried in the church attached to this abbey: but his remains were afterwards removed from hence by Henry VII. to Windsor. Richard I., by charter, granted the entire hundred of Chertsey, (thence called Godley, i. e. God's-ley, from being church land) with its jurisdisdiction and privilege, to the abbot and convent of this foundation, with ex |