A court baron is still held for it.

MOATLANDS, or as it was sometimes called Le Moat, was a part of the possessions of the Pimpe family; but which in the 19th year of Henry VII. was divided between the two sons of Walter More, Esq. of Benenden; the line of separation cros sing the moat and the foundations of the old mansion. That part of Moatlands to which the manorial rights are annexed, is now in the possession of the Rev. John Cramer Roberts, of Glassenbury, and the other is vested in the proprietor of Broad-Oak, John Hooker, Esq.

Beside the above, are the manors of Stocks-hill and Studmore, and that of Catlets alias Salmon.

The CHURCH, Consisting of a nave, side aisles and transept, is dedicated to All Saints, and contains several notices of the families of Roberts and Courthope: there is also a neat and appropriate mural monument on the north side of the nave to one of the Harpers of Broad Oak; and an inscription for Elizabeth, wife of George Fane, Esq. of Tudely, date 1566. This was formerly but a chapel to the church of Yalding, with which it was given, 'in pure and perpetual alms,' to the Priory of Tunbridge, by Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford, together with the manor of Barnes, still appendant. The present patron is George Courthope, Esq. in whose family it has continued several generations.

virtues; that these should have proved insufficient to disarm the superstitious wrath of his sovereign, cannot be matter of surprise, when it is remembered 'that ignorance is sooner cured than superstition' and that Mary, though ignotant to a degree, was much more remarkable for her bigotry. "He was an open, generous, and honest man; a lover of truth and an enemy to falshood and superstition: he was gentle and moderate in his temper; and though heartily zealous in the cause of the reformation, yet a friend to the persons of those who most strenuously opposed it; he was a great patron of learning and the universities, a very learned man himself and author of several works." It is no small addition to his fame to add, that he was the intimate and confidential friend of ERASMUS.

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CAPEL appears to be a corruption of the word Chapel, for

so no doubt it was originally called, from its being but a Chapelry to the neighbouring parish of Tudely; though as to its civil jurisdiction, it is considered a distinct parish of itself.

It is obscurely situated in a woody tract and but of small extent: its surface for the most part low and flat, abounding with ponds, and watered besides on the east and west by two small streams, which fall into the Medway opposite to Hadlow, and at the distance of about three quarters of a mile from each other. The church or rather chapel stands on a gentle rise nearly in the center of the parish, and about a mile south of the river: the surface soil of this small eminence is light and friable, on a substratum of sand stone, and the rest, or low grounds, a deep miry clay, the hedge-rows broad, and filled with spreading oaks. On the south, it is bounded by the parish of Pembury and the south-frith woods, and on the north by the river Medway which divides it from Hadlow.

Hasted observes, it is a place "but little known or frequented," and further that owing to the number of large spreading oaks, it is exceedingly gloomy. These remarks are not wide of the truth, tho' it must be confessed that some little improvement has taken place in its general character within these few years; and if the gloominess of its appearance is to be ascribed wholly to the number of trees within its boundary, it may fairly be presumed, judging from the increasing demand for oak timber, that it is not likely, long to labour under this disadvantage; but the fact is, that Capel, and indeed the Weald generally, is rather more objectionable on account of the smallness of its enclosures, which commonly are too confined, either on the score of beauty or profit.

"The manor and borough of Hadlow, in Tunbridge, claim

over that part of this parish which is within the lowy, here called the borough of Hadlow Capel."

"TATLINGBURY is a manor in this parish, which appears by the book of Knight's fees, taken in the reign of King Edward I. to have been part of the possessions of the prior and convent of Tunbridge; with which it was surrendered up in King Henry the eighth's reign and was given by the King in his 17th year, towards the endowment of Cardinal Wolsey's College, at Oxford, (Christ-church) but that great prelate being cast in a præmunire, four years afterwards; all the possessions of the college, which for want of time had not been firmly settled on it, became forfeited to the crown, from whence this manor was afterwards granted to the elder branch of the family of Fane, settled at BADSELL in the adjoining parish of Tudeley, who became Earls of Westmoreland, the last of whom, John Earl of Westmoreland, died in 1762, since which it has with Mereworth and the rest of his estates in this county, at length come by the limitations of his will, to the Right Hon. Thomas Lord le Despencer, the present owner."

The chapel (dedicated to ST. THOMAS A BECKET) is a small homely building, possessing little to attract attention. The body of it was wholly rebuilt of brick not many years since, but the chancel remains nearly in its original state and possesses evident claims to antiquity; at the west end is a tower, having a small spire on it. The church-yard contains one of the largest Yew trees in the county.

The rectory of Capel, with the chapel belonging to it, was antiently part of the possessions of the Knights hospitallers, by whom it was annexed to the jurisdiction of their preceptory of West Peckham.

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"In the 22d of King Henry VII. the prior and brethren of that hospital, let to ferm to Sir Thomas Starkey, chaplain,

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their chapel, commonly called Capel, together with all tythes, lands and appurtenances (woods and underwoods only excepted) to hold for his life, he being beneficed in it, paying the yearly rent of forty shillings to the prior, and duly serving either by himself, or by some able curate in his stead, the cure of the chapel, and the parishioners of it; and further, that he should repair and maintain the mansion of it, and the barn and little stable belonging to it in a covering of straw, with other covenants therein mentioned."

"On the dissolution of the order of Knights hospitallers, in the 32d year of King Henry VIII. by an act specially passed for the purpose, their lands and revenues were given to the King, who that year demised this rectory and chapel of Capel, belonging to the preceptory or commandry of Peckham, otherwise called the Chantry Magistrale, together with the mansion, and all the messuages, tythes, lands, &c. belonging to it, to Sir John Baker, at the yearly rent of four pounds; after which, the fee of this rectory, with the advowson of the chapel, seems to have been granted to Sir Ralph Fane, and he in the 37th year of the same reign, alienated it to Thomas Stone, of Hadlow, Yeoman.".

It some time afterwards, came into the possession of the owners of Tatlingbury, with which manor, it has descended to the Right Hon. Thomas Lord le Despencer.

CHART MAGNA which lies principally on the southern range of the hills, usually called the Quarry hills, is partly within the WEALD; the line, of demarcation, passing the church in a direction nearly, east and west. In the time of the Saxons it was called Selebertes, or Sybertes Chert, and in Domesday Certh. It is north-eastward of Bethersden, and on the turnpike road from that place to Ashford.

"The country in the immediate vicinity of Chart, is much more open and cheerful than in the neighbourhood of Bethers. den, or in most of those parts which lie below the hill more to

the westward; from the elevated position of the village, the views from it on either side are comparatively extensive, and though the forescape is not rich in wood, or embellished with any striking objects of art, the scenery is not void of interest or picturesque beauty. According to tradition this place was once of much greater extent and consequence; and from its decay the now flourishing town of Ashford, is said, to owe its origin; though were it not for the tradition, which for the honor of CHART has been thus carefully preserved, we should naturally be led to form a very contrary conclusion. While Ashford has become rich and populous, flourishing in trade and rendered gay and lively by the resort of military, the consequence of its barracks; the other, once equally, or more important, we now see reduced to an inconsiderable village, without a single vestige of antiquity and scarce any proof of its former consequences but what rests on the vague and uncertain basis of oral tradition.

Unlike the neighbouring parishes in the Weald, GREAT CHART, possesses but little timber or underwood: the soil on the hill is a clayey loam on a substratum of rag stone and in this district (southward) it is more stiff and tenacious; the parish is watered on the north by a branch of the Stour, and on the south by a small rivulet which rising near Goldwell, shapes its course westward, forming a tributary stream to the river Beult, and ultimately to the Medway.t

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* "The inhabitants have a tradition here, that Great Chart was once a far more considerable place than at present, having had a great street of houses on the east side, in the road which goes up by Singleton to the top of the hill, where there have been many houses in the memory of man. The ruins of the market-house were to be seen in the field where the fair is now kept, over against the church, which probably was but a kind of chapel, when this town was burnt down by the Danes, and then ASHFORD began to rise and grow out of the ruins of it." Hasted vol. 7. p. 497.

+ This parish is watered by the separate heads of the river MEDWAY and