has a very fine early Dec. E. window, cire. 1280, which was probably removed there when the chapel was built. The N. chapel is Perp. The N. aisle has been destroyed and barbarously rebuilt. Chancel early Perp.; monuments numerous. One of the 15th centy. (mural) for Darcy very good, and an elaborate Elizabethan monument in N. chapel for Thos. Cammocke, A.D. 1602. Near the ch. is the Town Hall, a building of the reign of Henry VII. St. Mary's Tower was partly rebuilt in the reign of Charles I. The lower part is Norm. with Roman tiles. The Grammar School stands on the site of St. Peter's Church, of which only the tower remains; attached to it is a school and a Theological Library, founded by Dr. Thomas Plume, Archdeacon of Rochester, and founder of the Plumian Professorship of Astronomy at Cambridge-born at Maldon in 1630. W. of the town is a Camp of 24 acres, attributed to Edward the Elder. (See ante.) At the Literary Institution in the Town Hall, is an incipient Museum and a Library. Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., resided here as a youth, and in this neighbourhood are still preserved a few early productions of his pencil. J. R. Herbert, R.A., was born, Jan. 23, 1810, at Maldon. The Church of Heybridge, the suburb of Maldon, is massive Norm., with later alterations,-and it has been suggested that it may represent an earlier church or chapel built here, as on so many battle-fields, to commemorate the great fight of 991. 1 m. W. of Maldon are the interesting remains of Beleigh Abbey, founded in 1180, for Premonstratensian Canons, by Rob. de Mantel. Two fine vaulted apartments, supported on marble columns, remain ; one, the refectory, now a kitchen, has for a chimney-piece a fragment of a rich tomb-canopy, perhaps that of Hen. Bourchier, Earl of Essex, who was buried here in 1483. Above the other vaulted chamber - (no doubt the chapter-house)-was the dormitory, with an open wood roof. The remains are E. Eng., and good. The doorway at the W. end of the chapter-house retains some wallpainting-flowing lines of deep red on a cream-coloured ground. Doorway and windows are excellent examples. At the Dissolution, the annual revenue of the abbey was 1961. 68. 5d.-Speed.) In the Ch. of Woodham Mortimer, 23 m. S.W. of Maldon, Dr. Peter Chamberlen was buried. His epitaph ends with the couplet, after a prose inscription "To tell his learning and his life to men Enough is said by here lyes Chamberlen." He was father of Dr. Hugh Chamberlen the inventor of a famous obstetric forceps." [N. of the Blackwater, about 5 m. N.E. of Maldon, is Tolleshunt-Magna, (the name is properly Mauger, from that of its holder at the time of the Domesday survey. This has been corrupted to Major-and at last has become Magna)-where is an embattled brick gate-house with four turrets, a fragment of the old manorhouse of the Beckenhams. The gatehouse is of the 15th centy. The manor belonged to the Abbey of Coggeshall until the Dissolution. In 1543 it passed to the Beckenhams.] [The corner of Essex which lies between the Blackwater and the Crouch, forming the hundred of Dengey (anciently Danesey the Danes' Island), contains one point of great interest to archeologists,Bradwell, the site of the Roman Othona. The Hundred is a level district once greatly haunted by fever and ague, but the drainage of the marshes has nearly freed it from those enemies-with a long stretch of sands, called the "Danesey Flats," lying off its eastern coast. The churches are numerous, but of small importance. (For Burnham, and the oyster fisheries of the Crouch river, see Rte. 5.) Othona, one of the defensive stations on the "littus Saxonicum" is only mentioned in the Notitia,' where it is said that the "General of the Cohort of Fortenses" was stationed at it. It is the "Ithanceastre" of Bede, where St. Cedd, the second bishop of the E. Saxons, founded (654) a church and monastery. (Bede, H. E., iii. 22. See Tilbury, Rte. 1.) The site of Othona was on the flats below Bradwell, at the N.E. corner of the Dengey Hundred. Foundations of the wall of the Castrum, 14 ft. thick, have been laid bare, enclosing an area of between 3 and 4 acres. At certain intervals are lower foundations of horse-shoe form, no doubt marking the sites of towers, such as remain in part at Richborough (Rutupia), and are seen on numerous coins of the Constantine family, which exhibit walls and gates of fortresses. A vast quantity of fragments of pottery, huge heaps of oyster-shells, Samian ware, spear-heads, &c., &c., have been found here, and numerous coins, chiefly of the 3rd and 4th centys. The ruins of a peculiar, barn-like building called St. Peter's chapel-" Capella de la Val," or " St. Peter ad murum," have long marked the extreme point of the shore. The chapel is Norm. The chancel arch is built of Roman tile; no doubt the material was quarried from the fortress. 6 m. Billericay. Inn: Red Lion. This is a small market-town in the parish of Great Burstead, situated on an eminence, commanding fine views of the Thames and over the Kentish Hills. The Nore and Sheerness are visible in clear weather. (The etymology of "Billericay" is quite uncertain. According to Morant the place is called Beleuca (but query Belerca?) in a document of 1343, and Billerica in one of 1395-" Belleri Castra" has been suggested.) The Chapel, of red brick, has a Perp. tower, the rest | earthen stronghold he found to his is modern. In the woods near Bil- own use. The "Castle" (of Raylericay, the remains of the Jack leigh) apparently the Mound, was Straw rebels (see Fobbing, Rte. 1) bequeathed by will temp. Henry were cut to pieces, after the fall of VIII. The hill of the Mound is Wat Tyler. worth ascending for the extensive view. [2 m. N., at Blunt's Walls, were the remains of a Roman camp, where coins and pottery have been found. All traces of ditch, rampart, and mounds, have disappeared. Much Roman pottery has been found on the farm of Tiled Hall, and elsewhere in the neighbourhood, besides many coins. 14 m. Rayleigh. Inn: Golden Lion. Pop. 1404. An ancient but altogether reduced town, standing on high ground. Trinity Church, on an eminence, is Perp., with a lofty tower. The walls are of flint and stone chequered. Within is a rich but mutilated Gothic altar-tomb, 5 m. S. of Billericay are the Lang- late Perp. There are also brasses of don Hills, commanding a beautiful a civilian and wife, circ. 1420, and a view of the Thames and of the Med-remarkable alms chest, hollowed way (see Rte. 1).] from the trunk of a tree. ford. The country round Rayleigh is rich At 10 m. the river Crouch is and well cultivated; but the manor crossed at the little village of Wick-can no longer (happily perhaps) boast of "6 arpents of vineyard, returning, in good seasons (si bene procedit) 20 barrels—* modii '—of wine."-Domesday Survey. [There is a direct road hence to Southend, 74 m., leaving Rochford on the 1.] After leaving Rayleigh the road crosses a ridge, whence is a fine view over the estuary of the Crouch, with a glimpse of the Thames. 14 m. Before entering Rayleigh the road passes 1. what is called Rayleigh Mound, a green circular bill, with a deep fosse round it, and on the S. side, a second and lower mound, which has been squared. At the S.W. point a neck of raised ground connects the two mounds. There are no traces of masonry; and the work seems to be of the same character as the great entrenchments at Castle Rising, Castle Acre, The road to Rochford is circuitous, and elsewhere in Norfolk (see Nok- and the approach is through an FOLK, Rtes. 29 and 27, which Mr. avenue that once led to Rochford Harrod considers British (the circ. Hall, successively the seats of the mound), with a later, perhaps Roman, Rochfords (temp. Hen. II.); the addition. Rayleigh Mound was ex- Botelers, Earls of Ormond and Wiltamined about 50 years since, when shire; the Boleyns; and of Lord it was proved that about 20 ft. of Rich and his descendants, Earls the height consisted of made soil. of Warwick. Rochford passed to No masonry was found. A bank, Sir William Boleyn, of Blickling, now indistinct in places, ran round through his marriage with a cothe whole, including the two mounds heiress of the Botelers. His son, In the Domesday Sir Thomas Boleyn, father of Queen Survey, Suene, the great landowner Anne, was created Viscount Rochof Essex, is recorded as the Lord of ford, Earl of Wiltshire and Earl of Rayleigh, et in hoc manerio fecit Ormond. George, his son, who was Suen us suum castellum." Suene summoned to Parlt., 5 Jan. 1533, may not unlikely have adapted the as 'George Bullen de Rochford' in one area. was beheaded with the Queen, his "forfeited not long ago his land for sister, in 1538. Although Anne non-attendance; but was restored Boleyn (born 1507) may have spent to it, the Lord only taking a fine. some of her early years at Rochford, The Court is called lawless because it was not, as some assert, her birth- held at an unlawful or 'lawless' place. The existing edifice, sur-hour, or 'quia dicta sine lege.' The mounted by 4 or 5 gables, was most ancient tradition of the place engrafted upon an older structure, asserts that this servile attendance of which 3 flanking turrets remain, was imposed at first upon certain though much decayed; and behind tenants of divers manors hereabouts the house are portions of large for conspiring in this place at such apartments. Near it, and m. from an unseasonable time to raise a the town, is the Church, Perp., with commotion.”—Hist. of Essex. a tall brick tower. 19 m. Rochford (Pop. 1589) is an unimportant town. Rochford is the head of the Hundred, which is named from the town. ""Tis," says Morant, "one of those which have been stigmatized with the denomination of the Hundreds,' Dengey being the other." These Hundreds are bounded by the low land of the Essex coast, from Hadleigh on the Thames, round by the mouth of the Crouch (which divides them) to some distance above Maldon on the Blackwater. The coast and marshes were, and still are, haunts of ague and fever, while the inland country was anciently thick forest, and scarcely less unwholesome. Hence the "stigma." The forest has been cleared; and the hundred of Rochford is now famous for its grain crops. On a spot on the Stambridge road near the town of Rochford (a post marks the site) the "Lawless" or "Whispering" Court (the Court of the manor) is held by a peculiar tenure, from midnight to cockcrow on the Wednesday following Michaelmas-day, "without any kind of light but such as the heavens will afford." The business is transacted in whispers, and the minutes are recorded with a coal. "He that owes suit and service thereto, and appears not, forfeits to the Lord double his rent for every hour he is absent." "A tenant of this manor," says Morant (1768), (The [Either from Rochford or from Rayleigh, may be visited the probable scene of the memorable fight of Assandun (1016)-the 6th and last battle fought in that year between Cnut and Eadmund Ironside. Mr. Freeman ( Norm. Conquest,' i. 429— 433) has shown that Ashington on the Crouch river answers all the requirements of the narratives in Florence or the 'Saxon Chronicle;' and after his vivid description of the fight it will be difficult for any future historian to place the field of "Assandun" elsewhere. field of battle is commanded from Hockley (in Hockley parish are 12 mounds which are possibly connected with the battle), 24 m. from Rayleigh, or from Ashington itself, about the same distance from Rochford.) A low range of hills here overlooks the S. bank of the Crouch, in which (or in the Thames) the Danish ships must have been lying. Cnut and his army had left the ships, and had been on a plundering expedition into Mercia. They were returning to the river along the hills which border it, and were followed by Eadmund. On the hills of Ashington, "a site marked by entrenchments, which are possibly witnesses of that day's fight, possibly of yet earlier warfare, Eadmund drew up his forces in three ranks, and at first seemed disposed to await the attack of the enemy." But Cnut "led his troops off the hills into the level ground, that is, the intermediate height between the hills and the swampy plain." Eadmund's host charged down on them, and the battle thus began with a furious assault on the Danes, who would apparently have given way entirely, had not Eadric the Ealdorman "betrayed his lord and king, and all the people of English kin." He fled with the forces led by him. The field was long contested, but Cnut remained victor, and the slaughter of the English nobility was fearful. Yet Cnut did not follow up his victory by any vigorous blow, and it was only succeeded by the Conference of Olney, at which it was agreed that England should be divided between Cnut and Eadmund. [The oysters bred in the Crouch river and in its creeks, are reckoned among the best of English "natives." The bottom of the river, for a distance of 18 m., is converted into a breeding ground, and is carefully watched against poachers. The Oyster Company, which farms the principal beds, is fixed at Burnham, on the N. bank of the river; from which there is a ferry to Wallasea Island, opposite. From the Belvidere at Burnham, a kind of observatory, 45 ft. high, erected by the Oyster Company, extensive views are commanded along the banks of the river, and the creeks and islands lying S. Beyond lies Foulness Island, protected from the sea by embankments, which remind the visitor of Holland. The island was Four years after the battle a in existence in the time of the "minster of stone and lime" was Romans, pottery of that people built at "Assandun" by Cuut and having been found there. In the Jarl Thorkill-who had been pre-A. S. Chron.' it is named Eadulfsent during the fight. ('Sax. Chron.' ness. It is now chiefly the property ad ann. 1020.) This minster is of Mr. G. Finch, M.P. It is very doubtless represented by the existing perilous for any stranger to attempt ch. at Ashington. The Church of the passage to or from this island Ashington is small, and Dec. in without a guide. Many lives have character, with some later additions. been lost in crossing the sands. Fogs Mr. J. H. Parker considers there are are liable to come on, and the most remains of A. S. work in the tower. experienced may lose their way. Hockley Ch. stands within an en- There used to be frequently a trenchment, its masonry is mainly scarcity of water on the island, but E. E. The priest placed at Assandun artesian wells have supplied this by Cnut was the famous Stigand- want, and have contributed greatly afterwards Abp. of Canterbury-who to the healthiness of the inhabitants, is mentioned on this occasion for who used to suffer constantly from the first time. ague.] Canewdon, on a hill across the level, which was probably the field of battle, very possibly retains the name of the great Dane. The Ch. is Perp. The name of Battle Bridge, where the road from Rayleigh to Chelmsford crosses the Crouch, possibly records this fight.] Eastwood Ch., en route (at least by the fields, and not far out by the road) between Rochford and Prittlewell to Southend, deserves a visit. 22 m. is Prittlewell (see Rte. 1). 23 m. Southend (Rte. 1). |