modern state, are the old factories converted to the uses of domestic ease and handsome comfort. From the first introduction of the Flemings, who were induced by Edward III. to settle here and in a few other parts of England, down to the beginning of the present

Cranbrook is built on the outlying sandy ridge which extends from Tunbridge Wells to Rolvenden. Its church and grammar-school are the principal buildings; the former being a large and ancient structure, mainly Perpendicular in style, and intensely interesting for the evidences which it contains of fierce theological disputes, wherein Sir John Baker, Recorder of London, Attorney-General, and Chancellor of the Exchequer under Queen Mary, took a violent, virulent part, as the determined foe of the "professors," Anabaptists, and others holding schismatic opinions. Over the south porch is a curious chamber, with grimly grated windows, the popular name bestowed on which apartment is "Bloody Baker's Prison." How strongly the dissenting principles of religious settlers in Cranbrook have, at certain times, taken hold of the inhabitants-even those in authority -appears in the strange existence of a

dipping-place for adults within the building. This unusual appurtenance of a parish church was constructed by John Johnson, vicar during the early years of last century, and well known to book-hunters and theological students as the author of "The Unbloody Sacrifice." Cranbrook Grammarschool owes much of its present good fame to its late head-master, the Rev. J. L. Allan, who left behind him worthy and durable work to perpetuate his memory. Among the cld customs surviving in this parish, and some of its neighbouring villages, is the practice of strewing the path of a newly-wedded couple as they leave the church with emblems of the bridegroom's trade. If a shoemaker, for instance, he walks with his bride over leather parings; if a blacksmith, over scraps of iron; if a butcher, on sheepskins; if a carpenter, on wood shavings, and so forth.

The ruins of Sissinghurst, in a sylvan hollow, are well worth a visit. Properly called Saxenhurst, the house, a once stately dwelling, was built by the Sir John Baker already mentioned, in the time of Edward VI. Baker's family had settled here during the reign

of Henry VII., and the spot was the birthplace of Sir Richard Baker, author of "A Chronicle of the Kings of England," which was long popular among country gentlemen, and was aptly imagined by Addison to be the favourite book of his delightful creation, Sir Roger de Coverley.

This Sir Richard Baker was personally unfortunate, and spent his last years in the Fleet Prison, crushed by the debts of his wife's family, for which he had become bound. He was a college friend of Sir Henry Wotton, who, in a letter to him, describes Baker's style as being "full of sweet raptures and of researching conceits, nothing borrowed, nothing vulgar, and yet all flowing from you, I know not how, with a certain equal facility." Whatever praise may be due to poor Sir Richard for his manner, it is certain that his that his matter has but little worth. "A Chronicle" was shown by Thomas Blount, in his "Animadversions," to be full of errors; and though Baker had complacently declared his work to be "collected with so great care and diligence that, if all other of our chronicles were lost, this only would be sufficient to inform posterity of all passages memorable or worthy to be known," he nevertheless thought proper, when nine years had elapsed, to publish another edition, purged

TUNBRIDGE CASTLE.

of the errors which Blount had exposed. Thus amended, Baker's "Chronicle" has yet been pronounced, by later critics, unworthy of reliance.

People who know the Weald of Kent well, and who also know Herefordshire well, are quick to tell you-despite the dictum of Fuller, quoted on the first page of this chapter of the great likeness there is between them. Orchards and corn-fields, hedgerows and copses and pleasant lanes, are alike common to these counties; and it is only in its hop-cultivation that Kent is distinguished from certain parts of Herefordshire by any characteristic difference. Apples and cherries are the abundant fruit of both these smiling counties. Before taking leave of Cranbrook and Sissinghurst, let it be noted that two of our most thoroughly English painters, the Royal Academicians Webster and Horsley, have found for many years their subjects of rustic study in the neighbourhood. Long ago these artists became residents of Cranbrook, where they are as well known as was David Cox at Bettws-yCoed, or as, some years since, were the French painters Corot, Troyon, Decamps, and Nanteuil at Barbison, in the forest of Fontainebleau. Many of Webster's models were members of the congregation of Cranbrook Church, and its choir afforded him one of his most successful and celebrated subject-groups. This church has been famous, and that not very many years since,

for its old painted glass. Sir John Lubbock's Bill for the preservation of ancient monuments and remains not having been passed in time to prevent the spoliation of this Christian temple, all the historic glass has gone into private keeping, and its place has been refilled by modern stuff hardly well suited to its "memorial " purpose. The family of Roberts, settled at Glassenbury since the reign of Richard II., and in parts adjacent from the time of Henry I., is signalised by knightly relics in the chancel, such as the helmet, surcoat, gloves, and spurs of a remote ancestor. The moated house in which the present representative resides has been modernised and restored by Mr. Salvin. Of Sissinghurst little remains to be said. It is, as we have already remarked, a picturesque ruin; but towards the end of last century it was still habitable, though it had long been deserted, and was made a place of confinement for French

prisoners. Dismantled and gradually flung down, it is chiefly traceable now in the great entrance and a few fragments which are left standing. The Viscountess Holmesdale owns the property, which she inherited from her father, the last Earl Cornwallis. A spot called Baker's Cross is pointed out as the scene of a skirmish between the Anabaptists and their inveterate enemy, Sir John Baker; and there is a legend that he was then and there killed. The fight may have occurred-probably did-but among the killed was certainly no Sir John Baker. This soldier of the Church militant died peaceably in his bed, in London.

Lamberhurst, which strides across the boundary of the two shires, and stands, so to speak, with one foot in Kent and the other in Sussex, is a village of note, mounted on high ground, whence it looks westward over one of the fairest stretches of the Weald. About two miles from Lamberhurst Common, on the margin of the Teise, is Bayham Abbey, belonging to the Marquis Camden. The ruins of this abbey-or priory, as with stricter accuracy it should be called-comprise the church, a gateway on the north-west, and some of the dependent buildings. Beautiful in many of its details, the ruined sanctuary tells of a time when it

must have commanded admiration as a whole. It is extremely narrow for what we may judge to have been its height, the width being not more than about 24 feet, and this with a length of 257 feet from end to end of the nave. The walls are tolerably perfect-nave, choir, and transepts being all in some measure preserved-while three large window-arches remain of the clerestory. Despite the fact, taken in conjunction with the remarkable narrowness of the church, that its apsidal eastern end is an unusually short limb of the cross traced by the ground-plan, a sense of harmony prevails, and practically contradicts any argument that the architect's design lacks due proportion. Much of this agreeable effect, or at all events some little thereof, may be ascribed to the praiseworthy care with which the ruins and their ground are kept. As at Melrose, a reverential heed is bestowed on plants and greensward; the ivy, which is allowed to cover some of the plainer or more ruinous parts of the crumbling masonry, is kept within bounds; and the grassy floor is smooth to the foot and refreshing to the eye. To any person who views a ruin, not with the vague acceptance merely of a general notion that it is "picturesque," but with a tender and solemn retrospect, and a wondering thought of what it was, the sight is at the best a sad one; and the sadness passes into revulsion and anger when the stone wreck is neglected or defiled. Α ruin is a grave-it covers what was living and dear; and its mute memory should be graced by the offices of gentle hands, as we strew a corse with flowers.

Bayham was a house of the Premonstratensian canons, who removed hither from Otteham, in Sussex, about the year 1200, and who grew in favour with the peasantry among whom they founded their Kentish house. Ralph de Dene, who founded and endowed the order in Sussex, largely helped them in Kent, as likewise did Robert de Thurnham and Ela de Sackville. So popular were the canons of Bayham, that when the Dissolution came about, and they were expelled by the commissioners, these in turn were driven forth by "a company with painted faces and vizors," who put the canons back again—not, however, to remain much longer in possession. Cardinal Wolsey obtained a grant of Bayham, and kept his clutch upon it till, on his disgrace, "the inventory of all he had to the last penny" was the king's. Anthony Browne, Viscount Montague, received the lands of Bayham as a grant from Elizabeth. In 1714 it was purchased by Chief Justice Pratt, and hence came in time to afford the subordinate title of viscount in the marquisate of Camden, through Pratt's famous son, the Chancellor. In the stern seclusion of the Premonstratensians may be read a principal cause of that formation which has already been remarked as a peculiarity of the church. Unlike other religious orders, which seek by shows and processions to attract the people, these canons pursued their strict exercises in the face of no congregation. Therefore it may have been that their church was built without aisles-a mere long, narrow chamber, not bare or plain, but carved with clustering foliage, which, even in its melancholy days of mouldering obliteration, awakens the wonder and commands the praise of an age whose industry is that of the mechanic rather than of the artificer. Such was and such is, though crumbling into dust, Bayham Abbey.

The Marquis Camden's house is now a modern edifice, designed in the Tudor style by Mr. Brandon. Near it is an extensive sheet of water, which was formed by the first marquis, and which is skirted by the foot-path leading through the woods from Tunbridge Wells to the ruins a favourite walk with all who are not frightened by the little words "five miles."

The distance by carriage-road is six, and that, too, is a pleasant promenade enlivened by splendid views.

Belonging to the Weald country, or at least commonly spoken of in connection therewith, are some notable places which are not, strictly speaking, in it; and of these Tunbridge is one. As just said, it is within a walk or a little drive of Bayham, and the ruins are visited as a matter of course by sojourners in the pleasantly situated town, which is beautiful in its antiquities and in the ever-young variety of its natural surroundings. Chief of the olden remains in Tunbridge is the castle, which was besieged by Henry III., and taken from Gilbert de Clare, who had joined with the barons. The keep, which stood on a lofty mound a hundred feet above the Medway, is supposed to have been built by Richard Fitzgilbert, who acquired the estate in exchange with Archbishop Lanfranc, and established a jurisdiction over the "leuca," or league of Tunbridge -a space which ordinarily extends three miles, but which in the significance of "Domesday Book" covered one mile only. The Norman Mound, as the eminence is called, on which stood this ancient keep, is capped with ruined walls, whence a broad arched way leads to the upper storey of a noble gate-house, still in fair preservation.

The Fitzgilberts, having assumed the name of De Clare, handed down this baronial stronghold from generation to generation. With the other estates of that great family it descended to the Audleys and Staffords, who, though they lost it for a time, hold it now, in the person of their present representative, Lord Stafford. It was forfeited by the Duke of Buckingham to Richard III.; and at subsequent periods was granted to Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, to Cardinal Pole, and to Carey, Lord Hunsdon. The gate-house already mentioned is a magnificent example of masonry, square in form, with round towers at the four corners. Few castles, built for strength and resistance to assault, are so richly adorned as this with mouldings and other decorations, the period being the latter part of the thirteenth century. The state-room, too, has large and handsome windows, such as are not commonly found in feudal buildings. A modern house, now used as a military academy, has been built in contiguity to the castle; and, indeed, the ruins stand in what are now the private grounds of this school. Leave to view the relics of Early Decorated architecture is readily given, the visitor having only to apply at a neighbouring library for a card of admission.

Tunbridge is a market town of quiet importance, in the centre of a richly cultivated district. The town has five stone bridges, over as many arms of the Medway, one of these branches being called the Tun. One of the first objects to catch the eye-indeed, the very first, as the visitor approaches Tunbridge from the railway station-is a modern, not an ancient, landmark, being the well-proportioned spire of St. Stephen's Church. The old building has been terribly mutilated, within and without; and though many De Clares and other notable persons have been buried here since the church was granted by Roger de Clare to the Knights Hospitallers in the time of Henry II., few memorials are traceable in the disfigured remains. The grammar-school, of the town, founded in the year of the death in the outward signs of its rich endowments. was rebuilt in 1865 by Mr. Burnell, in Gothic

which good Sir Andrew Judd, a native of Edward VI., is a comely edifice, brave On the front of the school-house, which style, are the arms of Sir Andrew Judd,