What a picture is this of the wild luxuriance of nature devastating the trim and chiselled glories of art!  Next is Scotney Castle, the ancient part of which is said to have been a fortress in the reign of Richard II.; the moat still remains.  The author hints that the tour may be advantageously extended to Bodiam Castle; Winchelsea, near which is Camber, one of the fortresses built by Henry VIII. to guard the south coast; Battle Abbey, founded by William the Norman, and calling up in review the battle of Hastings, and the Bayeaux tapestry; the Roman fort of Pevensey; and Hurstmonceaux Castle built by Roger Fiennes, treasurer to King Henry VI.  Returning to the Wells, and in the more immediate vicinity, are Somer Hill, whose chase, manor, and appurtenances were conveyed by Queen Elizabeth to her favourite Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and subsequently to the widow of the magnanimous but ill-fated Earl of Essex; also, Great Bounds, of the age of Elizabeth, and conveyed to her relative Henry Cary, Lord Hunsden.  Come we then to Tunbridge Castle, built by De Tonbridge, a kinsman of the Conqueror, who came with the invaders to share the spoil of their victory:  “here, it is said, he congregated his retainers and vassals.  These were all called into active service soon after the death of William I.,” for De Tonbridge, (or Earl Clare, as he had been created,) espoused the cause of Robert Curtoise, in opposition to William Rufus, who had seized the crown.  The castle is described by Mr. Britton with interesting and not dry-as-dust minuteness, although only some dilapidated and almost undefinable fragments remain.  Tunbridge Priory and the Free Grammar School are next mentioned, the latter in connexion with Dr. Vicesimus Knox, who was master of the school for some years.

[6] See Mirror, vol. xiv. p. 66, and vol. xviii. p. 225.

Let us hope that the frequenters of the Wells will not, in their grave moments, forget the olden glory of Penshurst, about six miles N.W. of the gay resort,—­Penshurst, as Mr. Britton terms it, “the memorable, the once splendid, but now sadly dilapidated mansion of the Sydneys,” or as Charlotte Smith sung with touching simplicity, in 1788: 

                             Upon this spot,
  Ye towers sublime, deserted now and drear,
    Ye woods deep sighing to the hollow blast! 
  The musing wand’rer loves to linger near,
    While History points to all your glories past.

Yet, how can we enumerate the ancient fame of Penshurst in this brief memoir; from Sir John de Poulteney, who first embattled the mansion in the reign of Edward II:, to Sir John Shelley Sydney, the present proprietor of the estate; or how can we here describe the mansion, wherein that pains-taking investigator, Mr. Carter, in 1805, recognised the architectural characteristics of the reigns of Henry II., Richard III., Henry VIII., Elizabeth, James I. and George I. and III.  But we must observe, “it is presumed, that whilst