to Sir Edward Carey, under the annual payment of a red rose: she also constituted him High-Steward of this Honour and Manor, by Letters Patent; and by other Letters Patent conveyed to him, and to the Lady Paget, his wife, and their heirs, the Mansion-House, (which Sir Edward appears to have built out of the ruins of the Castle,) with the Lodge and Park, to hold in free soccage, by an annual rent of 81. 6s. 8d. In the following century, the interest of the Careys, in this estate, was sold to John Sayer, Esq. but about the commencement of the last, it was purchased by the family of Roper; and John Roper, Esq. the proprietor of Berkhamsted Place, is the present lessee of the Castle estate under the Prince of Wales. BERKHAMSTED CASTLE was situated on the east side of the town; and though the buildings are now reduced to a few massive fragments of wall, the remains are still sufficient to evince the an cient strength and importance of this fortress. The ramparts are very bold, and the ditches still wide and deep, particularly on the north and east sides, though partly filled up by the lapse of centuries. The works are of a circular form, approaching to the figure of an ellipsis, and include about eleven acres. They appear to have consisted of three parts; a keep, an inner court, or ballium, and an outer ballium; the boundary of the latter of which included the two former, and was a high and strong rampart of earth, surrounded by a ditch. The inner ballium, which was also environed by a deep fosse, included the buildings, of which only the foundations of one small apartment, and a few shapeless masses of wall, now remain: the general thickness of the walls seems to have been from eighteen to twenty feet. The keep was a circular tower, occupying the summit of a high and steep artificial mount, and this also was moated round: the diameter of the area inclosed by the outer wall, could not exceed twenty yards: in the centre is a hollow space, probably the site of a well, or dungeon. Large trees are growing on the sides of the mount, as well as on many parts of the outward rampart and declivities of the ditches: other parts are covered with underwood, in many places so thick as to be impassable. The inner court is now an orchard; the the outer court is cultivated as a farm; and a small cottage, with a few out-buildings, now occupies a portion of the ground once inhabited by Princes and Sovereigns. Strongly as this Castle was fortified, it could not be tenable after the invention of cannon; its site, though elevated, being commanded by yet higher eminences on the north and north-east sides. Near the rampart, on the west side, flows the little river Bulbourne. The CHURCH at Berkhamsted is dedicated to St. Peter, and built in the form of a cross, with a tower rising from the intersection towards the west end, and having a projecting stair-case at the south-east angle, terminated by a turret at the summit. The tower is supported on strong pointed arches, and was originally open; but is now closed from the Church by the belfry floor. On the outside of the tower, next the street, is a sculpture of an angel supporting a shield, impaled with the arms of England and France quarterly, and gules, a saltire, Or; with this imperfect inscription, ohn Phylyp and Alys his wyffe: the same arms are painted on glass in the window of a small Chapel within the Church. The nave is divided from the aisles by five columns and two half columns on each side, sustaining plain pointed arches, over each of which is a pointed arched window; three of the columns on each side are circular; the others are clustered in a quartrefoil form. The western window is large and ramified; all the others are also in the pointed style, but vary in size and description, Various small Chapels and Chantries were founded here in the Catholic times, and are still partially divided from the body of the Church. The Sepulchral memorials in this edifice are numerous, and some of them are interesting and curious. Between two columns of the nave, and wholly surrounded by pews, is an ancient tomb of rich workmanship, having on the top, full-length effigies of a Knight, and his Lady, both recumbent; and at the sides, various canopied niches, with small ornamental pointed arches in relief, interspersed with shields of arms. The Knight is represented in armour, with his hands raised in the attitude of prayer across his breast; his head rests on a helmet, having a human head, with a long long beard, at the upper end; his feet are supported on a lion: he has on a hood and gorget of mail; and on the sash which crosses his body and shoulder is a rose: opposite to this, on his breast-plate, is a dove. The figure of the Lady is greatly mutilated; her hands and head are broken off; the former are lost; the latter rests on a cushion, and is covered with net-work: she is arrayed in a close dress, and has a rose on each shoulder. Some of the shields of arms that surround this tomb, are completely defaced; others display a rose on a bend; in the honor point, a dove,* On another shield, at the east end, is St. George's cross, having in the dexter chief, a saltire engrailed; and in the sinister chief, a cross doubly crossed. Not any inscription is remaining on this tomb, to designate the persons to whose memory it was erected; but the same arms are displayed on shields of brass, inlaid on a slab in the middle of the nave, over two good Brass figures of a male and female, holding each other's hand, under elegant canopies, now partly mutilated, Round the verge of the slab was the following inscrip tion, of which only the latter part from the word obijt now remains. bic jacent Richardus Torynton et Margareta uxor ejus, qui ΠΟ "This Torynton," says Weever," as I have by relation, was the founder of this Church; a man in speciall favour with Edmond Plantagenet, Duke of Cornwall." The Torringtons appear to have intermarried with the Incents of this town, as the same arms appear on the memorials of the latter family. Among the ancient tombs of which the inscriptions are now lost, is one that was raised to commemorate SIR JOHN CORNWALLIS, * These arms, though now greatly obscured by white-wash, appear also on the corbels which sustain the supporters of the frame-work of the roof of the nave, and in other places. Fun. Mon. p. 586. Edit. 1631. WALLIS, Knt. who was a Member of the Council to Prince Edward, afterwards Edward the Sixth, and was buried here on the first of May, 1543. A still more ancient tomb is partly included beneath a recess in the wall of the north transept, but to whose memory it was erected is unknown. Various brasses, and vestiges of brasses, remain in the different chancels, and small inclosures, about the Church, the inscriptions of which have been given by Weever, Chauncy, and Salmon; though not always with accuracy: several others have been lost within the last forty or fifty years. In Sayer's Chancel, or burial-place, which connects with the south aisle, is an altar-tomb of alabaster and black marble, in memory of JOHN SAYER, Esq. who was chief cook to Charles the Second when in exile, and founder of the Alms-house for poor widows in this town: he died at the age of sixty-three, in 1682. Against the east wall of the south transept, is a very neat monument in memory of JOHN DORRIEN, Esq. who died in December, 1784, aged seventy; and another in commemoration of ANN, his relict, who died in February, 1802, at the age of seventy-three. The latter was executed by J. Bacon, Jun. and displays a personification of Faith, with a burning lamp. Among the other monuments deserving notice, are those to the memory of THOMAS BALDWIN, Esq. a proprietor of the water-works near Hyde Park, who died at the age of seventy-four, in June, 1641; MRS. ELIZABETH CRADOCK, who died in October, 1704; and JOSEPH and JAMES MURRAY, Sons of Mrs. Murray, nurse to Charles the First, and, according to Salmon, builder of the west window of this Church. In St. Catharine's Chapel are several memorials to the family of Waterhouse; and in that of St. John Baptist, to the family of Incent; of whom Robert Incent, Gent. was servant to Cicely, Duchess of York, and died of the sweating sickness, in the first of Henry the Seventh; and Dr. John Incent was Dean of St. Paul's in the reign of Henry the Eighth. Several Piscinas remain in different parts of the Church. At the bottom of the Church-yard, is a large and strong building of brick, erected as a Free School in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and endowed with the lands of the guild or brotherhood of of St. John Baptist, an ancient foundation in this town. In the establishment of this school, Dean Incent had a very principal concern; and it was chiefly by his prudence in procuring a licence from the King to make a nominal purchase of the possessions of the brotherhood, that those possessions were not confiscated in the general wreck of religious houses. In the next reign, the School was made a Royal foundation, and incorporated by the style of "the Master, Chaplain, and Usher, of the Free School and Chantry of Dean Incent, of Berkhamsted." The Master is appointed by the Crown, and has apartments at one end of the Free School; the School-room occupies the centre; and the other end is inhabited by the Chaplain and Usher. In this town is also a Charity School, supported by voluntary contributions, &c. Numerous donations for charitable purposes have been made to this parish; the principal of which was a bequest of 10001. made by John Saver, Esq. in July 1681, for the building and endowment of an Alms-House: this was erected after his decease by his relict, who placed in it six poor widows, and increased the original endowment by the gift of 3001. Each widow has a small allowance weekly, and a cloth gown worth 20s. once in two years. In the parliament held at Westminster in the fourteenth of Edward the Third, were two representatives from this Borough; this was the only return ever made, excepting to the Great Council held in the same place in the eleventh of the same King. Berkhamsted has been equally unfortunate with respect to its Charter of Incorporation, which was granted by James the First, in his sixteenth year, but scarcely survived the perilous reign of his son. An attempt was made to revive the charter about a year or two after the Restoration, but it did not succeed. The grant of arins to the Corporation was issued by the learned Camden, as Clarencieur King at Arms. The Honour of Berkhamsted included upwards of fifty-five lordships and manors, in the three counties of Herts, Buckingham, and Northampton. Berkhamsted consists of one principal street, about half a mile in length, extending along the sides of the high road; and another smaller one, branching out from the Church towards the site of the |