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VAULTED CHAMBER, KIRKSTALL ABBEY.

This monastery was founded by Henry de Lacy, on account of a vow made by him during a dangerous fit of illness; it was inhabited by monks of the Cistercian order, and, besides its founder, had many liberal benefactors and powerful protectors. Pope Adrian IV. an Englishman, in 1156, confirmed to the monks the church, and all their other possessions; as did also Henry II.: Henry III. took them under his immediate patronage; and Edward I. in the fourth year of his reign, likewise granted his protection to the abbots and monks, then greatly in debt, and committed the care of them to Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln and baron of Pontefract, who being heir to the founder, was considered likely to interest himself in their welfare.

This monastery was endowed at different periods with large donations of lands, tenements, rents, tithes, and other benefactions, to a very consider

able amount: at the dissolution its estates were estimated at the annual value of 3291. 128. 11d. according to Dugdale; but Speed makes it 5127. 138. 4d. The Abbey was surrendered by John Ripley, the last abbot, on the 22d of Nov. 1540; the site was granted to Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, and his heirs, in exchange for other lands, in the thirty-fourth of Henry VIII. Edward VI. granted the archbishop licence to alienate the said premises to Peter Hammond and others, for the use of Thomas, a younger son of the said archbishop, and his heirs.

Kirkstall is situated about three miles northwest from Leeds, within the liberty of that place, and in the wapentake of Skyrack. From Leeds to the Abbey the walk is well paved, and kept in excellent order, at the expense of the inhabitants of the town.

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PEVENSEY, though now a small village, was formerly of some note. Its Castle is of undoubted antiquity; and, from the great number of Roman Ibricks worked into its walls, is supposed to stand on the site of a still more ancient edifice.

At this place William the Conqueror made his debarkation; and about eight miles hence was fought the decisive battle of Hastings. The town and Castle of Pevensey was given by the Conqueror to Robert, earl of Morton in Normandy, his brother by the mother's side, who was created earl of Cornwall in the succeeding reign. He was succeeded in his possessions by William, earl of Morton and Cornwall, who, on being refused the earldom of Kent, entered into a rebellion; whereupon the king seized upon this town and Castle, and gave them to Gilbert de Aquila, with all the land thereunto belonging. In the life-time of his immediate successor, this town and Castle reverted to the crown; and after divers changes they, by gift from king Henry II. became the property of Richard de Aquila, whose posterity enjoyed them quietly till the reign of

Henry III. when Gilbert de Aquila, by disorderly conduct, made himself obnoxious to the king, who seized upon all his estates. This honour, in the nineteenth year of his reign, the king granted to Gilbert Marshal, earl of Pembroke, during pleasure. In the twenty-fifth year of his reign he gave the honour to Peter de Savoy, uncle to his queen, and afterwards granted him the inheritance thereof, with the Castle and its appurtenances.

Before the reign of James I. this Castle was a part of the possessions of the dutchy of Lancaster; for James, by his letters patent under the seal of that dutchy, dated 18th of June, granted to Edward, earl of Dorset, the Castle of Pevensey and portreve of Pevensey, to hold the same during his life.

For a considerable length of time this Castle had been held by the Pelham family, under a lease from the dutchy of Lancaster, till some years since his grace the late duke of Newcastle gave it up to the earl of Wilmington, on his being created baron Pevensey. It now belongs to the Northampton family.

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THIS Church, which is dedicated to St. Nicholas, is a spacious edifice, consisting of a nave, chancel, and aisles, well paved, with a remarkably large and massive tower at the west end. The aisles are divided from the nave by three high-pointed arches on each side, rising from octagonal columns. In the chancel is a piscina, and three stone seats; at the east end of the south aisle is a handsome mural monument, to the memory of sir Roger Meredith, bart. of Leeds' abbey, who died in December 1738, aet. sixty-four. Another elaborate monument records the interment of Jane, daughter of sir Thomas Palmer, and relict of sir William Meredith. The village called Leeds' Street, is situated on a small stream which flows into the Len river, so called from its rising in Lenham parish, and consists of a long row of straggling houses, extending towards Langley.

Not far from Leeds' Church is Leeds' castle, which forms a very distinguished figure of this part of the county of Kent. This fortress is environed

by a moat, which is supplied with water from the Len. The entrance is towards the west by a stone bridge, communicating with a strong gateway. The walls of the keep, which is of polygonal form, are of great thickness; the lower part is probably of the Norman times, the upper part has undergone many alterations. The park contains some fine timber, and much variety of ground. General Martin is now owner, and resides at the castle.

About three quarters of a mile south-west from the castle formerly stood Leeds' abbey, founded in the reign of Henry I. for regular canons of the order of St. Austen, by Robert Crevequer. The abbey church, which is said to have been a very magnificent building, and in which several of the Crevequers were interred with other persons of note, was destroyed soon after the dissolution, and the remains of the abbey itself, as appears from an inscribed stone in the south aisle of Leeds' Church, were wholly pulled down in 1790.

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