was doubtless the conventual church, then newly built; for it was not till long afterwards that the monks founded a parochial church here, and dedicated it to St. Mary Magdalen. The present structure was erected in 1680: it is of brick, and consists of a chancel, nave, two aisles, and a transept. At the west end is a low square tower with a turret. It contains no monuments worthy of particular notice.

In the parish register the following very singular entry occurs in the year 1604.

"The forme of a solemne vowe made betwixt a man and his wife, having bene longe absent, through which occasion the woman being maried to another man, tooke her again as followeth : "The Man's Speach:

"Elizabeth, my beloved wife, I am right sorie that I have so longe absented mysealfe from thee, whereby thou shouldest be occasioned to take another man to be thy husband, therefore I do now vowe and promise, in the sight of God and this companie, to take thee againe as mine owne; and will not only forgive thee but also dwell with thee, and do all other duties unto thee, as I promised at our marriage.

"

"The Woman's Speach :

Raphe, my beloved husband, I am right sorie that I have in thy absence taken another man to be my husband; but here, before God and this companie, I do renounce and forsake him, and do promise to keep mysealfe only unto thee duringe life, and to performe all duties which I first promised unto thee in our marriage."

Then follows a short prayer; and the entry concludes thus: "The first day of August, 1604, Raphe Goodchild, of the parish of Barkinge in Thames-street, and Elizabeth his wife, were agreed to live together, and thereupon gave their hands one to another, making either of them a solemne vow so to doe in the presence of us,

The following entry is also remarkable:

"James Herriott, Esq. and Elizabeth Josey, Gent. were married Jan. 4, 1624-5. N. B. This James Herriott was one of the forty children of his father, a Scotchman."

In this parish is a Free School, founded with the sum of 7001 bequeathed for that purpose by Mr. Josiah Bacon, who also endowed it with 1501. per annum, for the education of not more than sixty, or fewer than forty, boys. The master receives 801. per annum, the usher 501. and the remainder is appropriated to repairs. Here is also a Charity School, established by the joint contributions of various persons, and towards which, in 1755, Mr. Nathaniel Smith bequeathed 401. per annum. It affords education to fifty boys and thirty girls.

A well-known place of entertainment in this parish was called the Bermondsey Spa, from some water of a chalybeate nature discovered there about 1770. The late Mr. Thomas Keyse had a few years before opened his premises as a place for tea-drinking, and exhibited a collection of the productions of his own pencil, which, as the works of a self-taught artist, possessed considerable merit. About 1780 he procured a licence for musical entertainments, after the manner of Vauxhall, and for several years his gardens were open every evening in the summer season. Fire-works were occasionally exhibited; and a few times in the course of the year an excellent representation of the siege of Gibraltar, consisting of fire-works and transparencies, the whole contrived by the proprietor of the gardens, who possessed considerable mechanical abilities. The height of the rock was about fifty feet, the length 200, and the whole apparatus covered about four acres. Mr. Keyse died in 1800, when his pictures were sold by auction. The gardens were shut up about the year 1805, and the site has since been built upon.*

Eastward of Bermondsey, on the banks of the Thames, is ROTHERHITHE, commonly called Redriff. Lysons derives its name from the Saxon words rother, a sailor, and hyth, a haven, or wharf: but in the Magna Britannia it is said to signify Red Rose Haven, which interpretation seems to be supported by the vulgar appellation.

The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, was built chiefly by the voluntary subscriptions of the inhabitants in 1714 and 1715; but the tower was not finished till 1739. It is of brick, with stone quoins, and consists of a nave, chancel, and two aisles, supported by pillars of the Ionic order. The tower is surmounted by a stone spire raised upon Corinthian columns.

The only monument worthy of particular notice is that of the interesting Prince Lee Boo, who fell a victim to the small-pox at the house of Captain Wilson in Paradise-row. He was interred in the church-yard here, and on his tomb is this inscription:

"To the memory of PRINCE LEE BOO, a native of the Pelew, or Palas Islands, and son to Abba Thulle, Rupack, or king of the island Goo-roo-raa, who departed this life on the 27th of December, 1784, aged twenty years, this stone is inscribed by the Honourable East-India Company, as a testimony of the humane and kind treatment afforded by his father to the crew of their ship the Antelope, Captain Wilson, which was wrecked off that island in the night of the 9th of August, 1783.

"Stop, reader, stop, let Nature claim a tear,
"A Prince of mine, Lee Boo, lies buried here."

A Free School was founded in this parish in 1613, by Peter Hills and Robert Bell, Esqs, and endowed with a small annual income, for the education of eight sons of seamen. These children are now clothed as well as educated. With this institution the Charity School, established in 1743, has been consolidated; and the permanent income arising from numerous benefactions, and aided by the subscriptions of the inhabitants, now suffice to clothe and educate forty boys, exclusively of the eight on the

• Magna Britannia, V. 343.

old

old foundation, and twenty-five girls. In the Amicable Society School, supported by voluntary contributions, forty-five boys are educated, but not clothed; and in a third, called The United Society School, thirty-one boys receive instruction. This last is also supported by voluntary contributions; and the schoolhouse is built on a piece of ground given for the purpose by the Duke of Bedford in 1792. There are Sunday Schools also for forty boys and forty girls; and a School of Industry for twenty girls, taken, according to seniority, from the latter.*

In this parish began the trench which Canute is said to have cut for the purpose of besieging the city of London by water; and the channel through which the river was turned in 1173, preparatory to the rebuilding of London-bridge, is supposed by Stow to have taken the same course. Lambarde informs us, that Rotherhithe was the residence of King Henry IV. whilst he was cured of his leprosy : and Manning mentions two charters signed there by that monarch.†

On the 1st of June, 1765, a dreadful fire broke out in a mastyard near the church, and in a few hours consumed 206 houses. No lives were lost; but the damage was estimated at 100,0001.

In 1696, an act of Parliament passed for making a wet dock here: it was finished in 1700, and called the Great Dock. In 1725 the South Sea Company took a lease of it, intending to revive the Greenland fishery, upon which it received the name of the Greenland Dock. It afterwards became successively the property of Messrs. Wells and Mr. Ritchie, of whom it was purchased in 1807 by a company of merchants, the concern being divided into 1300 shares. Under the denomination of the Commercial Docks it has been much enlarged. A new dock of fifteen acres was opened here January 22, 1812; so that the Commercial Docks now comprise an area of about forty acres of water, with wharfage and bonding-yards sufficient to receive 200

sail

• Lysons' Environs, Vol. I. p. 360.
↑ History of Surrey, Vol. I. p. 229.

sail of ships. It is chiefly used for the bonding of timber and Baltic produce, and is still appropriated to the reception of the Greenland trade. Adjoining to the commercial dock another is now making, to be called the East Country Dock, and designed for the accommodation of the East Country and American trade. This concern is divided into shares of 1001. each. Besides these, there are nine dry docks at Rotherhithe; and the water-side is occupied by wharfs and other premises connected with the shipping; but all these have sustained considerable injury by the establishment of the docks on the opposite side of the river.

The Surrey Canal, which commences near Wilkinson's ganwharf in this parish, has already been noticed. In 1805, an act of Parliament was obtained for making a tunnel under the Thames, The proprietors were incorporated by the name of the Thames Archway Company; they were empowered to raise 200,0001, in shares of 1001. and " to make certain arched-ways from the parish of Rotherhithe to some part or parts of the parishes of Stepney, Limehouse, Shadwell, and Wapping." The line fixed upon for this proposed subterraneous communication was from about a mile below Rotherhithe church, to the opposite bank at the Narrowwall, Limehouse; and, from the consideration of various plans, it was resolved that at first a small tunnel only, eight feet wide, should be formed for foot passengers. Notwithstanding the difficulties and interruptions experienced in the course of this work, it was carried to low-water mark on the opposite side of the river; but a difference of opinion as to the farther plan of operations arising among the directors, the work was suspended, and has not been resumed.

Admiral JOHN BENBOW, and Sir JOHN LEAKE, two celebrated naval commanders in the beginning of the eighteenth century, were both natives of this parish. The former was born in Wintershull-street, now called Hanover-street.

LAMBETH may be considered as the western extremity of that portion of the metropolis situated on the south bank of the Thames. The parish is extensive, being sixteen miles in circumference,