singular their heridaments and possessions, as well temporall as ecclesiasticall, wheresoever they lay, or were, within the realm of England.” The walls of the ancient college may be clearly traced, and a small portion still endures, comparatively uninjured. It is a Gateway, surmounted by the arms of the Cobhams, luxuriantly overgrown with ivy, forming a fine example of picturesque antiquity. The present structure was erected pursuant to the will of Sir William Broke, Lord Cobham, who devised “all those edifices, ruined buildings, soil and ground, with the appurtenances which sometime belonged to the late suppressed college,” for the use of the “new” college. By an act of the 39th of Elizabeth the wardens of Rochester Bridge, for the time being, were made a body corporate, and declared to be perpetual presidents of the new college, the government of which they retain to this day.
The dependent village of Cobham is one of the neatest and most pleasant of the many fair villages of Kent.
Although in the course of our work we shall picture many nobler and more perfect examples of the domestic architecture of “Old” England than is supplied by Cobham Hall, we shall be enabled to call attention to few that afford so rich a recompense at so small a cost:—taking into account its genuine remains of antiquity, the magnificent works of art that decorate its walls, its easy access from the Metropolis, and the primitive character and surpassing beauty of the locality in which it is situated.
G. F. Sargent, Delᵗ. on Stone by W. L. Walton. M. & N. Hanhart, Lithogʳˢ.
HEVER CASTLE, KENT.