BAGSHOT, a village in the parish of WINDLESHAM, was anciently the lordship of the kings of England, who had here a mansion, with a park adjoining, to which James I. and Charles I. who were much addicted to the chace, often resorted to enjoy that diversion. It was disparked, however, during the civil commotions in the reign of the latter.

Bagshot Park, westward of the village, was, some years since, the seat of the Earl of Albemarle; since that of the Prince of Wales; and afterwards of Earl Harcourt. It now belongs to his Highness the Duke of Gloucester. The house, in which there is nothing striking, stands in the centre of a park, upwards of three miles in circumference.

The adjoining heath, which takes it name from the village, and is of very great extent, furnishes fuel for the neighbouring inhabitants, and feeds an immense number of sheep and cows. The sheep are in general small, but remarkable for the sweetness and fine flavour of their mutton.

WOKING, situated on the Wey, about five miles below Guildford, though it gives name to the hundred, and had formerly a weekly market, is but a small and inconsiderable place. At the time of the Domesday survey, the lordship, which is extensive, belonged to the royal demesne. The mansion was the occasional residence of Edward IV. Henry VII. and Henry VIII. At length James I. by his letters patent, included this manor in his grant to Sir Edward Zouch, as mentioned under the hundred of Woking, with which it has descended to Earl Onslow, the present proprietor.

The ancient mansion stood on a branch of the river Wey, about a mile below the town. Great part of the foundations are still to be seen, being chiefly of a very fine brick; but no part of the superstructure is left, except the walls of one single apartment, which is said, and not improbably, to have been a guard-room while the building was occupied by the crown, and occasionally used as a royal residence. The rest is supposed to have been taken down by some of the Zouch family, and the materials em

ployed

ployed in building the farm-house contiguous to its ancient site, and which is still known by the name of the Park House.

In the manor of Brookwood is a tenement called the Hermitage, which Aubrey* speaks of as formerly belonging to the Convent of Grey Friars, Guildford; and adds, that part of the original house, built of stone and timber, remained in his time. It was included in the grant of James I. to Sir Edward Zouch. The last heir of that family bequeathed it to Mrs. Catharine Wood; but it is now become, by purchase, the property and residence of Joseph White, Esq. solicitor to the Treasury.

Hoe, or rather Hough Bridge Place, is situated on a rivulet, which, passing the town on the north, runs into the Wey a little below. The mansion, originally erected on this spot, and taken down by John Walter, Esq. consisted of two large courts, and is supposed to have been the work of Sir Edward Zouch, the principal mansion having then probably gone to decay. At this place Sir Edward is said to have frequently entertained James I. on his excursions hither from the palace of Oatlands; and a tradition prevails in the neighbourhood, that the turret still remaining on the hill, a little to the northward of the house, was erected for the sole purpose of pointing out the way across the heaths, by means of a light placed in the top of it, to messengers, and others, who had occasion to repair hither to the king by night.† Contiguous to this house stood the present mansion, which was built by James Zouch, the last heir male of this family, at whose decease, in 1708, it descended to Sophia, his niece and heir at law, and was sold, in 1730, to John Walter, at that time lord of the manor. After passing through several hands, it was purohased,

Antiq. of Surrey, III. 228.

+ Manning and Bray's Surrey, I. 129.

Sir Anthony Weldon, in his Court and Character of King James I. is very severe upon Sir Edward. "The king," says he, "after supper, would come forth to see pastimes and fooleries; in which Sir Edward Zouch, Sir George Goring, and Sir John Finit, were the chief and master fools. Zouch's part was to sing bawdy songs and tell bawdy tales." &c. p. 84, 85.

ehased, in 1789, of the Hon. Captain (now Admiral,) Cor wallis, by Henry Grant, Esq. the present owner.

On a rising ground, on the west side of the river, about three miles below Guildford to the north-east, and a mile from the London road, stands the mansion of Sutton Place, so called to distinguish it from Sutton House, formerly situated at a little distance from it, but now wholly demolished. It was built by Sir Richard Weston about the year 1530. The structure is of brick, finished with a double-sculptured plat-band of a yellowish brick running round the top; with coins and window-cases of the same; and, according to the style and fashion of the time in which it was erected, it is a handsome edifice. The form was quadrangular, encompassing an area eighty feet square; the principal entrance being by a capital gate-way, having a lofty hexagonal turret at each angle, with coins of the yellow brick above-mentioned, alternately charged with R. W. and a Tun, being a quaint device for the name of the builder. This side of the quadrangle was taken down in 1784. The south-west side of this edifice is wholly occupied by a hall 50 feet long, 25 wide, and 31 high. The south-east front has a gallery in the first story, 141 feet in length, 20 in width, and 14 in height. Queen Elizabeth, in her way to Chichester in 1591, was entertained in this apartment, which, from the extraordinary quantity of fuel used on the occasion, or the neglect of the servants to see it properly extinguished, took fire soon after her departure, when that side of the building was reduced to ashes. In this condition it remained till 1721, when the outer wall, which had tumbled down, was rebuilt, and the whole repaired by the late John. Weston, Esq. Under the gallery, on the ground-floor, are four large and well-proportioned apartments, but which have never been fitted up for use. The present owner has made great improvements both in the house and grounds.*

The manor of Sutton was granted in 1521, by Henry VIIL to Sir Richard Weston, Knt. who, by subsequent letters patent, dated

• Manning and Bray's Surrey, I. 136.

dated in the 22d year of the same reign, had licence to impark 600 acres of land and pasture, 50 acres of wood, and 400 acres of furze, in the parishes of Merrow and Clandon. In his family* it continued till the decease, in 1782, of Mrs. Melior Mary Weston, who devised this estate to John Webbe, Esq. of Sarnsfield Court, in the county of Hereford, on condition that he should assume the surname and arms of Weston.

In the church of Woking is interred Sir Edward Zouch, Knt. Marshal of the Household to James I. and Charles I.; and against the north wall of the chancel is a neat sarcophagus, in a white marble niche, to the memory of Edward Emily, M. A. prebendary of Salisbury, vicar of Gillingham and Lavington, and Master of St. Nicholas' Hospital at Harnham. The inscription informs us, that "this monument was erected to the memory of the deceased by Shute Barrington, LL. D. successively Bishop of Salisbury and Durham, to whom, from a partial opinion, he bequeathed the whole of his fortune, and who trusts that he has not abused the confidence reposed in him."

Aubrey, on the information of the sexton, relates, that as long as there are any remains of a corpse, besides bones, in the church

yard

Of this family was Sir Richard Weston, to whom this county is indebted for the introduction of clover, and probably sainfoin and turnips, as well as of locks for canals. It is probable that he went into the Netherlands during the civil war; but he appears to have returned before the termination of the contest. Aubrey says, that he introduced clover into England about 1645. His "Directions for the Improvement of Barren and Heathy Land," were published about 1650. In this work, addressed to his sons, the nature, uses, and mode of cultivating turnips, are very amply explained. Aubrey, III. 229. dates his decease in 4553, “in his climacterical year, 63."

"The fortune thus given to the Bishop was supposed to be considerable. This inscription, with one in the Hospital of St. Nicholas above-mentioned, might countenance the report that there was implied trust, and that it was to be given to that charity; but his Lordship says that no such intention was ever expressed by Mr. Emily to him. He has, however, given 60001. in the three per cent, stocks to the poor there." Manning and Bray's Surrey, Vol. I. p. 140, note 9.

yard of Woking, a kind of plant, about the thickness of a ballrush, with a top like the head of asparagus, grows from it, and shoots up nearly to the surface of the earth, above which it never appears; and that when the corpse is quite consumed the plant dies away. He adds, that the same observation has been made at Send, and in other church-yards, where the soil is a light red sand, as at Woking.

THE HUNDRED OF CHERTSEY, or GODLEY,

forms the north-west angle of the county. It is bounded on the east by the Thames and the hundred of Emley-bridge; on the south by Woking; on the west by the same hundred and part of Berkshire; and on the north by that county and the Thames, which divides it from Middlesex.

This hundred received the name of Godley, that is, God's leg, or land, from being for the most part church land, and belonging to the Abbey of Chertsey. It still preserves this name in the county-books, though popularly called after its principal town. It is in the deanery of Stoke, and comprehends the parishes of Bisley, Byfleet, Chobham, Chertsey, Egham, Frimley, Horshill, Pirford, and Thorpe.

Richard I. by his charter, granted this hundred, with its jurisdictions and privileges, to the abbot and convent of Chertsey, with exemptions from the authority of the sheriff, or any other officer of the crown. In 7 and 8 Edward I. however, Almeric de Cancellis, then sheriff, refused to allow the abbot to exercise his jurisdiction in the return of the writs; and, on complaint being made, the king confirmed the privileges given in the former grant. In 9 Edward II. the abbot of Chertsey is said to have possessed two parts of this jurisdiction, and the abbot of Westminster the remaining third. Agreeably to the ancient grant, the sheriff of the county has no authority within this hundred, but directs his writs to the bailiff of it, who is appointed for life by letters patent from the Exchequer.

CHERTSEY,