and Baron Putney. Immediately after his decease, which happened in 1638, the manor was sold by his heirs to Henry Earl of Holland, and others, trustees for Queen Henrietta Maria. The mansion at Wimbledon is mentioned among the houses belonging to the Crown in the inventory of Charles the First's jewels and pictures. It is worthy of remark, that this unfortunate monarch was so little aware of the fate preparing for him by his enemies, that a few days before he was brought to trial, he ordered the seeds of some Spanish melons to be planted in his garden at Wimbledon.

When the crown lands were put up to sale, this manor, valued at three hundred and eighty-six pounds nineteen shillings and eightpence per annum, was bought by Adam Baynes, Esq., of Knowstrop, in the county of York, at eighteen years' purchase. It is probable that it was sold by him to General Lambert, who was lord of the manor in the year 1656. "Lambert," says Coke, the author of a book called The Detection, "after he had been discarded by Cromwell, betook himself to Wimbledon-house, where he turned florist, and had the finest tulips and gilliflowers that could be got for love or money yet, in these outward pleasures he nourished the ambition which he entertained before he was cashiered by Cromwell." General Lambert was not only a cultivator of flowers, but excelled in painting them. Some specimens of his skill in that art remained for many years at Wimbledon. After the return of Charles the Second, this manor was restored to the queen, of whom it was purchased in the year 1661, by the Earl of Bedford and others, as trustees for George Digby, Earl of Bristol, and his heirs. His lordship's widow sold it to Thomas Earl of Danby, the Lord Treasurer, who was afterwards created Duke of Leeds. The duke, by his will, bearing date January 21, 1711, left this estate in trust to Montagu Earl of Abingdon, and others; in the year 1717 the trustees sold it under a decree of chancery to Sir Theodore Janssen, Bart., who, becoming deeply involved in the unfortunate South Sea adventure, it was again put up to sale, and purchased by Sarah Duchess of Marlborough, for £15,000. Her grace gave it to her grandson, John Spencer, Esq., grandfather of the Right Honourable George John Earl Spencer, in whose descendants it still continues.

The manor-house, whose splendour was noted throughout England, was rebuilt by Sir Thomas Cecil, in 1558. Fuller calls Wimbledon House a "daring structure," implying thereby, the ambitious character of its architecture: it was quite a palace, emulating royal state. The architecture was

that of the time of James the First: the mansion consisted of a centre, with two pavilions, and wings; approached by a succession of terrace steps, from the declivity of the hill upon which it was erected.

In a survey of the gardens, taken in 1649, the orangery was said to have contained forty-two orange trees in boxes, valued at ten pounds each; one lemon tree, bearing great and very large lemons, valued at twenty pounds; one pomecitron tree, valued at ten pounds; three great and fair fig-trees, the branches whereof, by the spreading and dilating of themselves in a very large proportion, but yet in a most decent manner, covered a very great part of the walls of the south side of the manor house. In the several gardens, which consisted of mazes, wildernesses, knots, alleys, &c., are mentioned in the survey a great variety of fruit-trees and shrubs; particularly a fair bay-tree, "and one very fayre tree, called the Irish arbutis, very lovely to looke upon, and valued at thirty shillings." Above a thousand fruit-trees are mentioned, of which are every kind now cultivated, except the nectarine. Mention is also made of

a "musk milion (melon) ground, at the end of the kitchen-garden, trenched, manured, and very wel ordered for the growth of musk milions."

Wimbledon House is alluded to in a letter of Dean Swift, who describes it as much the finest place about London. This mansion was taken down in the early part of last century, by the Duchess of Marlborough, and rebuilt upon or near the site after a design by the Earl of Pembroke,

a distinguished architect.

WIMBLEDON HOUSE.

used for several years as

family.

an occasional retirement by Lord Spencer's

The present magnificent mansion, a little to the north-west of the site of the former, was erected in the commencement of the present century, from designs by Holland.

Nothing can compare, within a like distance of the metropolis, with the situation of Wimbledon House: it is difficult to say which front affords the most varied, extensive, and delightful views: from one front you behold a magnificently timbered park, delightfully and rather boldly undulated, with in the vale below, a fine lake, whose chief beauty is, that it is divested of that artificial character so disagreeably apparent in most of our ornamental waters around the metropolis: beyond, the finely wooded valley of the Thames extends, terminated in the dusky distance by the multitudinous towers and spires of mighty London. On the other side, the view embraces the level valley of Merton, Morden, and away to Cheam, Carshalton, Croydon; in the middle distance, the downs of Banstead, and beyond all, far as the eye can reach, the elevated heaths of Surrey, forming a blue line along the verge of the horizon.

The parish church, lately pulled down, was an exceedingly disagreeablelooking, square, brick-built edifice in the chancel, which was left untouched in erecting this ungainly structure, and which is conjectured to have been erected in the fourteenth century, are some remains of painted glass, apparently coeval with the building. On the south side of this chancel is a small chapel or aisle-the mausoleum of the family of Cecil, Lords Wimbledon. It contains an altar tomb of black marble, over which hangs a viscount's coronet, suspended by a chain from the ceiling, in memory of Sir Edward Cecil, grandson of the great Lord Treasurer Burleigh, "who followed the warres in the Netherlands five-and-thirty years, and passed the degrees of captain of foot and horse, colonel of foot, and colonel of the English horse at the battle of Nieuport in Flanders; who was admiral and lord-marshall, lieutenant-general, and general against the King of Spain, and the emperor, in the service of King James and Charles the First; and at his return, was made councillor of state and war, lord-lieutenant of the county of Surrey, and captain and governor of Portsmouth after so many travels, returned to this patient and humble mother earth, from whence he came, with assured hope in his Saviour Christ, to rise againe to glory everlasting."

DD

Such is a portion of the history of this Lord Wimbledon, engraven on his monument. He was the author of some short tracts on military affairs, and a vindication of his conduct in an unfortunate expedition to Cadiz, of which he was commander-in-chief. He is noticed in Walpole's Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors.

In the survey taken by order of the Parliament in the seventeenth century, the parsonage-house is described as containing a considerable number of rooms, and having two coaches, stabling for fourteen horses, and a hawk's mew. One other building is mentioned as adjoining to it containing two rooms above stairs, and two below stairs, wherein "the minister of Wimbledon, and the French gardener of Wimbledon orange garden, doe live.”

In the churchyard is a tomb to the memory of the notorious miser, or Vulture Hopkins, as Pope styled him; it is picturesquely situated, and the giant ivy embraces the monumental stone with the grasp of a miser on his money-bags.

The parish register contains entries relating to the Osbornes, Herberts, Beauforts, Spencers, and other highly aristocratic families.

Wimbledon village has nothing remarkable about it; it is neat and respectable. During the progress of rebuilding the church, divine service is performed in a neighbouring barn—a lowly temple, to which an extemporaneous belfry has been affixed for the present.

WIMBLEDON COMMON-an elevated, breezy, and extensive waste, has long been noted for the delightful villas hanging upon its outskirts.

Its healthy situation, dry, gravelly subsoil, open unobstructed views, together with its pleasant proximity to London, whence it is easily accessible by railroad, or by the river, as far as Putney, have concurred to render property exceedingly valuable in this neighbourhood; the number of persons of rank, fortune, and distinction, who have occupied, from time to time, villas here, would make a catalogue of no ordinary longitude.

Calonne the celebrated financier, whose monetary plans affecting the interests of the nobility, gentry, and clergy, whose united opposition driving him from power had no inconsiderable effect in bringing about the French revolution, resided on the east side of the Common, in a park adjoining that of Earl Spencer, which he had purchased from Benjamin Bond Hopkins, Esq. Calonne was a man of distinguished ability, and although deprived of office, and exiled for having proposed sacrifices which would have saved the aristo

cratic classes of his countrymen, ever remained faithful to his sovereign. He died at Paris in the sixty-eighth year of his age. The estate was sold by M. Calonne to Earl Gower Sutherland, and was for some time in the occupation of the exiled Prince de Condé. The Marquis of Bath, Sir William Draper, and Lord Grenville resided here.

Here also resided William Benson, Auditor of the Imprests, and successor to Sir Christopher Wren in the office of Surveyor General of Works; the venerable architect of St. Paul's, then at an advanced period of life, was removed to make way for Benson, who having been a seditious pamphleteer in the time of Queen Anne, turned courtier in the subsequent reign; he was a characterless, unprincipled fellow, a reputation which he endeavoured to varnish by an affected consideration for literary men, exhibited by bestowing his patronage and money upon blockheads. He is said to have paid the debts of Elisha Smith, author of a forgotten work styled the "Cure of Deism;" he is reported to have given a man, calling himself a poet, one Dobson, a hundred pounds-Warton makes it a thousand-for imitating Paradise Lost; and as a mark of his respect for Milton, he was permitted to erect a monument to that mighty genius in Westminster Abbey, upon which he has inscribed less of the poet than of himself. Pope, for this presumption, lashed him in the Dunciad :—

"On poets' tombs see Benson's titles writ!"

and in another place, alluding to his preference of Arthur Johnson's translation of the Psalms, to those of Buchanan, gives him another hard knock : "On two unequal crutches propped he came,

Milton's on this, on that one Johnson's name."

Warburton records an anecdote of Benson, which gives a good idea of the probity of this would-be Mæcenas.

He gave in a report to the Lords, in his official capacity of SurveyorGeneral of Works, that their House and the Painted Chamber were in immediate danger of falling. Whereupon the Lords met in a committee to appoint some other place to sit in, while the house should be taken down. But it being proposed to cause some other builders first to inspect it, they found it in a very good condition. The Lords upon this were going upon an address to the king against Benson, for such a misrepresentation; but the Earl of Sunderland, then secretary, gave them an assurance that His Majesty would remove him, which was done accordingly. In favour of this