there was a church here at that early period. The survey adds that "there was meadow sufficient for two oxen, and pannage for 1,000 hogs," so that it would appear that the greater part of the land formed part of the forest of Middlesex. The whole parish is pleasingly diversified by hills and valleys, the former commanding extensive and varied prospects, and the latter falling in gentle slopes, agreeably sprinkled with ornamental timber. The land is mostly laid out in meadows and pastures, intersected by pleasant field-paths and The principal manor was alienated by Gervais shady lanes and hedgerows; and it is also well de Blois, Abbot of Westminster, in the reign of wooded, the trees yielding an abundance of timber. King Stephen, and it continued in lay hands till In the northern part of the parish the principal early in the fourteenth century. During a part of elevations are Highwood Hill, Mill Hill, and the this time it was held by the Le Rous family, who, rising ground occupied by Hendon village. In according to Lysons, probably had a residence the south the little river Brent wanders through here, for, in the 50th year of Henry III., Geoffrey le the meadows, its bulk being augmented by the Rous, Sheriff of the counties of Bedford and numerous head-streams which take their rise in Bucks, "petitioned for a remuneration for the this parish. The Silk stream also flows through burning of his houses and corn, and for the loss the valley westward of the village, and as stated in of horses, arms, clothes, and other goods, of which the preceding chapter, unites its waters with those he had been despoiled at his manor of Hendon, by of the Brent in the Kingsbury Reservoir. John de Egville and other turbulent chiefs of that period, to whom he might officially have made himself obnoxious." In 1312 the manor was restored to the Abbey of Westminster, having been exchanged by the then holder, Richard le Rous, for that of Hodford, also in this parish, and it was afterwards made part of the endowment of the newly-created bishopric of Westminster. The name of Hodford is still given to some of the lands belonging to the Dean and Chapter of West According to Camden and Norden, a Roman road, supposed to be the Watling Street, passed along this neighbourhood, but no traces of it now remain, though the present Edgware Road is presumed to occupy its track. Norden was a resident at Hendon, and must therefore have possessed an accurate knowledge of the existing state of this parish in the time of James I. In his "Speculum Britanniæ" he describes this presumed Roman road as "an auncient high waie, leading to Edgeworth through minster, at North End, bordering on Hampstead an olde lane, called Hendon-wante.' The dedica- | tion to Norden's "Surveyor's Dialogue" (1607) is dated from his "poore house at Hendon." A lane leading through Colin Deep from Hendon to the Edgware Road is called in old surveys "Ancient Street." The name of this parish is said to have been originally written Heandune, and is derived from two Saxon words which signify High-down, and which therefore apply very correctly to its elevated circumstances of situation. In "Domesday Book" the name of the place is written Handone, which Norden derives from Highendune, "which signifyeth Highwood, of the plenty of wood there growing on the hills." Taylor, in his "Words and Places," asserts that Hendon comes "from the Anglo-Saxon hean, poor." But to this Mr. James Thorne takes objection in his "Environs of London," where he says, "the soil is fertile rather than sterile, and it is to lean, high, rather than hean, poor, that we may look for the probable derivation." At the time of the Domesday survey-and indeed for some time previously--the manor of Hendon belonged to the Abbots of Westminster. "There was land for sixteen ploughs," and "a priest had one virgate," which would of course imply that Heath. On the dissolution of the see of Westminster in 1550, this manor was granted by the Crown to Sir William Herbert, with whose descendants, the Earls of Powis, it remained till the middle of the last century, when it was purchased by the celebrated David Garrick. A nephew of his, the Rev. George Garrick, was vicar of Hendon for some time. In 1790, after Garrick's death, the manor was sold to a Mr. John Bond, and it has since changed hands several times. This parish, observes Mr. Brewer, in his work already quoted, possesses a singular immunity, which was granted as early as the year 1066, and was confirmed by various subsequent charters. Divers lands in this parish had been granted by King Edward the Confessor to the church of St. Peter at Westminster, that monarch at the same time freeing the inhabitants from all tolls, both by land and water. Henry III. and Richard II., by charters, the former dated at Woodstock in the ninth year, and the latter at Westminster, in the seventeenth year, of their respective reigns, confirmed these immunities, which were further conceded and confirmed by the several charters of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and James I. Lastly, William and Mary, by letters patent dated at Westminster in the fifth year of their reign, granted and confirmed to Sir William Rawlinson, Serjeant-at-law, the charters of their predecessors, with all their privileges; and thereby "freed the inhabitants of Hendon from all tolls in all fairs and markets, and from all street tolls, and every other toll whatever, in every fair and every market, and every bridge, and every way and water, and also by sea, for themselves and their wares, for ever." The manor-house stood near Church End, which is the name given to a cluster of houses built in the neighbourhood of the church, and on or near the site now occupied by Hendon Place. The original mansion was used, in the early part of the sixteenth century, as a country residence by the abbot of Westminster. It was here that Wolsey first rested, when travelling, in a state of disgrace, towards York. Stow, in his "Annals," says that the Cardinal "having sent to London for livery clothes for his servants that should ride with him, in the beginning of Passion week, before Easter, set forward and rode from Richmond to a place of the Abbot of Westminster at Hendon." Norden, writing in the time of Elizabeth, describes the manor-house as the property of Sir Edward Herbert, and the residence of Sir John Fortescue. The family of Nicoll appear to have resided here during the greater part of the seventeenth century. The house was purchased towards the middle of the last century by a Mr. Thomas Snow, who took down the ancient building, which is described as having contained "a spacious gallery," and erected the present house. Among the later occupants of the house have been the Earl of Northampton and Lord Chief Justice Tenterden. Hendon Place is a well-proportioned and handsome mansion, comprising a body and two wings, and the grounds are rendered attractive by various picturesque undulations. The river Brent, which skirts the eastern side of the grounds, has been artificially widened so as to form a moderate lake, which, with the bridge by which it is crossed, adds not a little to the beauty of the landscape. There are several fine trees on this estate, and among them one or two flourishing cedars. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1779 is a communication from Sir John Cullum, giving the dimensions of a large cedar which formerly stood on the north side of Hendon Place, but which was blown down by a high wind on the 1st of January in that year. The parish church of Hendon occupies an elevated position on the brow of a hill immediately to the north of the main street. It is a plain-looking edifice, the walls, with the exception of the tower, being covered with plaster. It comprises a nave with clerestory and aisles, a 279 chancel with side chapels, and a square stone tower, with embattled parapets, at the west end; this latter is evidently the most ancient part of the fabric. The greater portion of the church was probably erected late in the fifteenth century, but the windows are mostly modern: those of the clerestory and at the east end of the chancel are filled with painted glass. The font is Norman, square in form, and ornamented on each of the four sides with an arcade of round-headed interlaced arches. The arches of the nave spring from octagonal columns; the whole body and aisles of the church are encumbered with unsightly pews and deep galleries. In the north chapel of the chancel is the tomb of Sir William Rawlinson, one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal, who died in 1703: the effigy of the deceased, by Rysbach, is represented in a semi-recumbent attitude, attired in legal robes and insignia. Close by is an elaborate monument of veined marble to Edward Fowler, Bishop of Gloucester, who died in 1714. At the west end of the north aisle is the burial-place of Sir Francis Whichcote and his family, over which is an apartment fitted up and used as a vestry-room, by permission of Sir Francis. On the south side of the chancel is a mural tablet to several of the family of Colmore, of Warwickshire. This monument is the work of Flaxman, and bears upon it the emblems of Faith and Hope. There is also a handsome monument to the memory of several branches of the Herbert family, many of whom are buried in this church; Sir Coutts Trotter, Bart., who died in 1838, is also commemorated by an elaborate mural monument. A brass in this church bears date 1564; there is another, very ancient, without date, embedded in a stone slab in front of the vestry door. In the churchyard, among other tombs and monuments, are those of Sir Joseph Ayloffe, Bart., a distinguished antiquary, and Keeper of the State Papers, who died in 1781; Nathaniel Hone, R.A., who died in 1784; Abraham Raimbach, engraver, who died in 1843, and whose name will be remembered for his numerous works after Wilkie. James Parsons, M.D., "eminent as a physician, man of science, and antiquary," who died in 1770, is commemorated by a monument; and there are also the family vaults of the Earls of Mansfield, and many other local worthies, including Charles Johnson, a dramatist, dated 1748; Edward Longmore, the "Herefordshire Colossus," seven feet six inches high, who died in 1777; and Sarah Gundry, who died in 1807, and whose grave-stone is noticeable on account of politan Convalescent Institution, which affords a its epitaph, which runs as follows: "Reader! she wander'd all the desert through This flung its fragrance to the gale, and spread Of this eventful course, she sought the plant comfortable home for forty little girls. Races have taken place here yearly since 1864, but they have proved to be a great nuisance to the inhabitants. Brent Street is the name given to a hamlet of Finchley; one of the houses here was formerly the seat of the Whichcotes, and afterwards of Sir William Rawlinson, whose monument has been already noticed in the church. Although it has been modernised, some parts of the house appear to be of considerable antiquity. A new chapel-ofease, Christ Church, was built here in the year 1881, the "foundation stone" being laid by Lady Burdett-Coutts. The building is in the Early English style, and was erected from the designs of Mr. Salter. A spacious Congregational church, of Gothic design, has been erected in this locality; and at the lower end of the street a bridge over the river Brent leads to Golder's Green, another hamlet of Hendon, which is pleasantly situated on the road to Hampstead. 66 Golder's Green consists of a few decent cottages and villa residences fringing the roadside, the larger part of the green" proper being now enclosed. The "White Swan" tavern, with its tea-gardens, is a favourite resort of London holiday-makers in the summer-time, the various walks by rural lanes and field-paths in the immediate The churchyard is kept in very good condition, and from the entrance-gate to the south door of the church runs an avenue of clipped lime-trees, which has a very pretty effect, and there are also several yew-trees of moderate size; whilst the view from the north side of the old churchyard embraces a large extent of country, including Stanmore, Edgware, Harrow, and the distant hills neighbourhood adding much to the charm of the of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, together with the hamlets of Highwood and Mill Hill, to which latter place a pleasant footpath leads across the intervening valley. Hendon is a vicarage, but was anciently a rectory also, the latter being a sinecure. The rectors presented the vicars until late in the fifteenth century, when the church was appropriated to the abbot and convent of Westminster, with whom the right of presentation remained until the dissolution of monastic houses. Later on, the advowson was granted, with the manor, to the Herbert family, and it descended in conjunction with the manorial property until the year 1794, when it passed into separate hands. At a short distance from the church, at the entrance to the main street, are almshouses for six poor men and four women, erected in 1729. They were founded in 1681 by Robert Daniel, who bequeathed the sum of £2,000 for the purpose of building "an almshouse within twelve miles of London." The almshouses, which are of red brick, were repaired in 1853. At Burrows, a hamlet lying on the road between the village and the railway-station, is the Metro locality. Of Golder's Hill, at North End, which was once the residence of Jeremiah Dyson, clerk to the House of Commons, and the friend of Mark Akenside the author of the "Pleasures of Imagination," an account will be found in OLD AND NEW LONDON, in the chapter on Hampstead.* Akenside was a frequent guest at his friend's house here, and often made it his home. In one of his poems, "An Ode on Recovery from a Fit of Sickness in the Country," written in 1758, Akenside thus apostrophises this lovely spot : 66 Thy verdant scenes, O Golder's Hill, Now call thy sprightly breezes round, And bid the springs of life with gentler movement play." Page Street is the name of a small hamlet which lies in the valley between Hendon Church and Mill Hill. The most conspicuous object here is Copt Hall, the residence of the Nicoll family. The * See Vol. V., p. 448. house was built early in the seventeenth century by Randall Nicoll, Esq., and is a fair example of the domestic architecture of that age. Mill Hill surmounts a fine swell of ground, which rises by an easy progress to a considerable height, and the views afforded at different stages of the ascent are both extensive and varied, including, it is said, on clear days, the distant towers of Windsor Castle. Mill Hill has numbered among its inhabitants one or two individuals whose names have become famous. Peter Collinson, the naturalist, had a house here, and formed a curious botanical garden. Linnæus commemorated a visit to this garden by planting several trees. The premises were afterwards purchased by means of a subscription among the Independents for the purpose of a foundation grammar-school, and is now known as Mill Hill College. The school was till lately the only public school for Protestant Nonconformists. It is stated in the Mirror (August 8th, 1835) that the original school-house here could boast of having been once the "dwelling of Linnæus, and the occasional residence of architects." The Nonconformists' Grammar School was established on the basis of a sectional, if not sectarian, limitation only, because all the old foundations were exclusive and sectarian in the opposite direction. Even as a Nonconformist's school, Mill Hill has had a history. It had not only educated many men well known to Evangelical Nonconformity, but some men of larger reputation had been among its alumni. The late Justice Talfourd, Mr. Challis (the astronomer), and Dr. Jacobson (the present Bishop of Chester) were all educated at Mill Hill in the old days. "As the more national foundations became less sectarian," observes a writer in the Daily News, so the Dissenting schools have become less Dissenting. The old Nonconformists always declared that Dissent was forced upon them as an unwelcome necessity, and in the matter of education their descendants are giving proof of the statement. As a sign of the times, we note this change with unmixed satisfaction. It is one of the good results of rendering our middle-class education as far as possible unsectarian. A like policy applied to the highest education in the universities and to the lowest education in the primary schools will have a similar result." The present building was erected by Sir William Tite in 1825. It is simple and bold, rather than grand, and forms a long Italian villa on a terrace. Its chief front looks away from the road, and commands a fine view of Harrow. It has a noble 281 portico supported by six Italian pillars, and surmounted by a pediment. The dining-hall is near the centre; the chapel at the north end is a poor, mean structure. The cost of the building was above £25,000. The opening of the universities to Dissenters has helped to fill the school, as, happily, it is now worth the while of Nonconformists, with a view to the advantages held out by the older universities, to be at the expense of a classical education for their sons. Mill Hill was once the residence of John Wilkes, the politician, and of the late Alderman Sir Charles Flower. In the "Beauties of England " we read :-"There still remains (1816) on Mill Hill, though in an almost ruinous state, one of the ancient domestic structures of the neighbourhood. This building is in the best taste of the reign of Charles I. The walls of one of the apartments are curiously painted with the story of the Prodigal Son, and over the chimney are the initials of the Nicoll family. The house is now divided, and tenanted by the poor." This building, however, appears to be long since clean swept away; at all events, nothing is now known of its existence at Mill Hill. Hendon seems to have long been in high favour with Roman Catholics. The " Dames de Nazareth," founded in France by the Duchesse de la Rochefoucauld for the higher education of young ladies, have an establishment here, which is under the special patronage of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster; and here they receive, in addition to their French pupils, a limited number of English young ladies. St. Joseph's College of the Sacred Heart, for Foreign Missions, founded by Bishop Vaughan of Salford, is at Mill Hill. The first stone of this institution was laid by Archbishop (Cardinal) Manning in 1869, and a portion was completed and opened in 1871. The grounds of the college are about forty acres in extent, and the buildings, which are somewhat heavy and in the monastic style, were erected from the designs of Mr. G. Goldie. The architecture of the college is "Lombardo-Venetian," and it is built in the form of a quadrangle surrounded by cloisters, one side of which is occupied by the chapel, which has a lofty campanile tower, surmounted by a gilded statue of St. Joseph, which is seen for miles around. Students of every nationality are admitted, and bind themselves by solemn vows to leave Europe for life upon missionary labours. Two other Roman Catholic institutions are located at Mill Hill: namely, the Franciscan con vent of St. Mary and the St. Margaret's Industrial Mr. Scharf gives the following interesting particuSchool. lars concerning this old house, which stands on a slope near the public road : The church for the ecclesiastical district of Mill Hill was built in 1832, by William Wilberforce. "The mansion is an ordinary square building It is dedicated to St. Paul, and is in the Early of red brick, with irregular corners, that has been English style. It is a poor structure. Six alms- much added to at various times. The entrance houses near the church were erected in 1696, at door leads directly into the hall, which has a low the charge of Thomas Nicoll, of this parish, for flat ceiling, the floor being on a level with the the use of the poor. carriage-drive in front. The rooms are irregular, Among the seats and mansions in this neigh | but they enclose a central apartment, which appears bourhood is Littleberries, a good old substantial residence of brick, which tradition says was built by Charles II. It is often said also that Nell Gwyn lived here; but the assertion rests only on tradition. The house probably does date back to the days of Charles II., and in one room are medallion portraits, which tradition has assumed to be of that king and some of his mistresses, but which, in the opinion of Mr. George Scharf, the Secretary of the National Portrait Gallery, are representations of sovereigns of much more recent date. It has also been stated that the house was at one time tenanted by Louise de Quérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth; but this is very doubtful. to have belonged to a former and much more important residence. This central apartment is not large, but lofty; it is floored with wood, and has only one actual door, opening into the staircase hall. It contains an amount of rich wood-carving and mural decoration; it is known as the Gilt Room. Broken pediments, Greek frets, guilloches, egg-and-tongue mouldings, shell patterns, festoons, female masks, and lions' heads are to be seen everywhere. The tone of this elaborate ornamentation is of the period of Queen Anne or the two first Georges." The panels of the "Gilt Room" are painted with copies, full size, of pictures by Rubens, Van Dyck, In Notes and Queries for January 21st, 1882, and other artists, and of such subjects as "Venus |