p. [77]. Ketbroke. Kidbrooke is marked in large letters on the east of Blackheath on the mordern Ordnance-map; and on the road from Blackheath to Eltham are the villages or hamlets of Upper Kidbrooke and Lower Kidbrooke.
"Kedbrooke lies adjoining to Charlton, on the south side of the London Road, a small distance from Blackheath. It was antiently written Cicebroc, and was once a parish of itself, though now (1778 A.D.) it is esteemed as an appendage to that of Charlton."—Hasted's History of Kent, vol. i. p. 40.
p. [100]. Sturbridge Fair. Stourbridge, or Sturbich, the name of a common field, extending between Chesterton and Cambridge, near the little brook Sture, for about half a mile square, is noted for its fair, which is kept annually on September 19th, and continues a fortnight. It is surpassed by few fairs in Great Britain, or even in Europe, for traffic, though of late it is much lessened. The booths are placed in rows like streets, by the name of which they are called, as Cheapside, &c., and are filled with all sorts of trades. The Duddery, an area of 80 or 100 yards square, resembles Blackwell Hall. Large commissions are negotiated here for all parts of England in cheese, woolen goods, wool, leather, hops, upholsterers' and ironmongers' ware, &c. &c. Sometimes 50 hackney coaches from London, ply morning and night, to and from Cambridge, as well as all the towns round, and the very barns and stables are turned into inns for the accommodation of the poorer people. After the wholesale business is over, the country gentry generally flock in, laying out their money in stage-plays, taverns, music-houses, toys, puppet-shows, &c., and the whole concludes with a day for the sale of horses. This fair is under the jurisdiction of the University of Cambridge.—Walker's Gazetteer, ed. 1801. See Index to Brand's Antiquities.
FOOTNOTES:
[182] Rot Esch. ejus an, pt. 6.
[183] This lady was one of the daughters and co-heirs of Sir Richard Walden, of this parish, Knt., and the Lady Margaret his wife, who both lie buried in this church [of Erith]. He was, as I take it, made Knight of the Bath in the 17th year of K. Henry VII., his estate being then certified to be 40l. per annum, being the son of Richard Walden, esq. Sir Richard and Elizabeth his wife both lie buried here. MSS. Dering.
[184] Dugd. Bar. vol. i. p. 332.
[185] Harman's dedication of his book to her was no doubt written in 1566, and his 2nd edition, in both states, published before the Countess's death.
[186] Of pilgrims, and of whoremongers, say Brand and Sir H. Ellis (referring to the Hist. des Troubadours, tom. i. p. 11,) in Brand's Antiquities, ed. 1841, i. 202. Chaucer makes him the patron of hospitality, saying of the Frankeleyn, in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, "Seynt Iulian he was in his contre." Mr Hazlitt, in his new edition of Brand, i. 303, notes that as early as the Ancren Riwle, ab. 1220 A.D., we have 'Surely they (the pilgrims) find St. Julian's inn, which wayfaring men diligently seek.'