Revelstoke

REVELSTOKE, a parish, in the union of Plympton St. Mary, hundred of Plympton, Ermington and Plympton, and S. divisions of Devon, 7½ miles (S. by E.) from Earl's-Plympton; containing 612 inhabitants. The parish comprises 1497 acres, of which 33 are common or waste land; it is situated on the coast, and bounded on the north and west by the river Yealm. The living is annexed to the vicarage of Yealmpton: the great tithes have been commuted for £139, and those of the incumbent for £115. The church, which is supposed to have been built in the reign of Henry VIII., stands close to the rocks of Bigbury bay in the English Channel, within a few yards of the cliff. A building, formerly a dissenting meeting-house, has recently been consecrated as a chapel of ease.

Revesby (St. Lawrence)

REVESBY (St. Lawrence), a parish, in the union of Horncastle, W. division of the soke of Bolingbroke, parts of Lindsey, county of Lincoln, 2½ miles (N. by W.) from Bolingbroke; containing 693 inhabitants. An abbey of Cistercian monks, in honour of the Virgin Mary and St. Lawrence, was founded here in 1142, by William de Romara, Earl of Lincoln; at the Dissolution it had a revenue of £349. 4. 10. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £77; patron, J. B. Stanhope, Esq. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans.

Rewe (St. Mary)

REWE (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of St. Thomas, partly in the hundred of Hayridge, but chiefly in the hundred of Wonford, Wonford and S. divisions of Devon, 5 miles (N. N. E.) from Exeter; containing, with the tything of Up-Exe, 301 inhabitants. This parish is situated on the river Culm, and intersected by the road from Exeter to Tiverton. It comprises by measurement 1250 acres, of which two-thirds are arable, and one-third pasture; the scenery is very fine. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £22. 4. 2., and in the joint gift of the Earl of Ilchester and the family of Wyndham: the tithes have been commuted for £338, and the glebe comprises 50 acres. At Up-Exe are the ruins of an ancient chapel.

Reydon (St. Margaret)

REYDON (St. Margaret), a parish, in the union and hundred of Blything, E. division of Suffolk, 1¾ mile (N. W. by N.) from Southwold; containing 433 inhabitants. The parish comprises 2734a. 3r. 20p. On the south runs the river Blyth, upon which is a quay, where coal is imported, and corn, bark, &c., are shipped. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £13. 6. 8.; patron and impropriator, the Earl of Stradbroke: the great tithes have been commuted for £410; and the vicarial for £218, with a glebe of 43 acres. The church is chiefly in the later English style, with an embattled tower. In 1827, when digging in a field for loam, several Roman urns were found.

Reymerston (St. Peter)

REYMERSTON (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Mitford and Launditch, hundred of Mitford, W. division of Norfolk, 5 miles (S. S. E.) from East Dereham; containing 274 inhabitants. It comprises 1599a. 3r. 26p., of which 1136 acres are arable, 417 pasture, and 23 woodland. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king's books at £11. 13. 6., and in the gift of T. T. Gurdon, Esq.: the tithes have been commuted for £461, and the glebe comprises 18 acres; £8. 15. also are payable to the rector of Garveston. The church is in the early and decorated English styles, with a square tower: the interior is exceedingly neat; the capitals of some of the columns which separate the nave from the aisles, are highly enriched, and the font is handsomely sculptured. The produce of twelve acres of land is applied to beautifying the church. At the inclosure in 1796, fourteen acres were allotted to the poor; to whom, also, the Rev. P. Gurdon, the incumbent, has assigned half of the glebe, in about eighteen parts, as garden-ground.

Rhodes

RHODES, a hamlet, in the township and parish of Middleton, union of Oldham, hundred of Salford, S. division of Lancashire, 5 miles (N. by E.) from Manchester; containing about 2000 inhabitants. This place is situated on the river Irk, and on the old road from Middleton to Manchester, by Heaton and CheethamHill. Rhodes Green, commonly called Rhodes, was the abode of a younger branch of the Hopwood family, of Hopwood, in the latter part of the 17th century, and beginning of the 18th: the mansion is a low plain fabric, now divided into cottages. The hamlet is in a very agreeable spot, about a mile west-by-south of the town of Middleton; and in the vicinity are several handsome residences, of which the present Rhodes House, beautifully situated, and overlooking the vale, is the seat of B. Siltzer, Esq. Here are the print and bleach works of Messrs. Salis Schwabe and Company, established about half a century ago, and which have been conducted by the present proprietors for the last fourteen years; they have been very much enlarged, and now employ about 700 hands. The Wesleyans have a preaching-room and a Sunday school; and there is an infant school belonging to the print-works, open to other children also.

Ribbesford (St. Leonard)

RIBBESFORD (St. Leonard), a parish, in the union of Kidderminster, Lower division of the hundred of Doddingtree, Hundred-House and W. divisions of the county of Worcester; containing, with the borough of Bewdley, 3465 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the river Severn, and comprises 1575a. 2r. 30p., of which 560 acres are woodland, consisting chiefly of oak. The surface is undulated, and the soil runs through several varieties, from a light earth to a strong clay; coal exists, but it is not worked. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £27. 19. 2.; net income, £360; patron and incumbent, the Rev. Edward Winnington Ingram. The tithes have been commuted for £130, and the glebe consists of 66 acres. The church is an ancient and curious structure, in a retired situation, surrounded by wooded heights.— See Bewdley; and Forest, Far.

Ribbleton

RIBBLETON, a township, in the parish and union of Preston, hundred of Amounderness, N. division of Lancashire, 1½ mile (N. E.) from the town of Preston; containing 178 inhabitants. Avicia de Ribleton held the manor in the reign of Henry III.; and from her grandson, Robert, the Ethelestons or Elstons obtained lands here: Robert Elston, of this family, died in 1662. In the township is a waste of about 70 acres, on the borders of Fulwood, Brockholes, and Preston moors, remarkable as the spot on which commenced the battle, 17th Aug. 1648, between the parliamentarians under Cromwell, and the royal army under the Duke of Hamilton and General Langdale. The township comprises 712½ acres of land, mostly meadow and pasture; the surface is level, and the soil clay. Ribbleton Hall, a mansion in the Elizabethan style, with 110 acres of land, is the property of Thomas Birchall, Esq. The vicarial tithes have been commuted for £40.

Ribby

RIBBY, with Wrea, an ecclesiastical parish, in the parish of Kirkham, union of the Fylde, hundred of Amounderness, N. division of Lancashire; containing, with the township of Westby with Plumptons, 1085 inhabitants, of whom 442 are in Ribby with Wrea township, 2 miles (W. by N.) from Kirkham, on the road to Lytham. This place is mentioned in Domesday survey. Roger de Poictou gave the tithes of "Ribbi" to the priory of Lancaster, and the grant was confirmed by John, Earl of Morton; in the reign of Henry III. the manor belonged to Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, and subsequently to John of Gaunt. The parish comprises 3419 acres, whereof 1368 are in Ribby with Wrea; it is nearly equally divided between arable and pasture, and is of a flat surface, with views embracing the river Ribble and the Welsh mountains. A branch here diverges to Lytham from the Preston and Fleetwood railway. The manor-house of Wrea Green, erected about sixty years since, is the property of the Hornby family: Shepherd's Farm or Villa, in Wrea hamlet, with 170 acres, is the property of Thomas Birley, Esq. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar of Kirkham, endowed with about 70 acres of land. The church, situated in Ribby, was built about the year 1715, and rebuilt in 1847. The tithes of the township have been commuted for £149. 15. payable to the Dean and Chapter of Christ-Church, Oxford, and £34. 5. to the vicar of Kirkham. James Thistleton, in 1693, bequeathed £180 towards the foundation of a school, to which Nicholas Sharples, a native of the township, in 1716 left the residue of his estate, amounting to £850; the income is now about £60 per annum.

Ribchester (St. Wilfrid)

RIBCHESTER (St. Wilfrid), a parish, in the union of Preston, partly in the hundred of Amounderness, and partly in the Lower division of the hundred of Blackburn, N. division of Lancashire; containing, with the chapelry of Longridge, and the townships of Alston, Dilworth, Dutton, and Hothersall, 4111 inhabitants, of whom 1727 are in Ribchester township, 6 miles (N. N. W.) from Blackburn. Ribchester, in the Domesday survey called "Ribelcastre," though now only an obscure village, was unquestionably a Roman town or city; the name, the course of the Roman roads in this part, and the Roman antiquities found here, such as ruins of temples, statues, coins, altars, and inscriptions, all concur in establishing the fact. The first notice of Ribchester in modern times is found in Leland, who describes it as "a poore thing, that hath beene an auncient towne: great squarid stones, voultes, and antique coynes be founde ther; and ther is a place wher the people fable that the Jues had a temple." Subsequent discoveries have served to show that this "fable," like most popular traditions, is partly true and partly erroneous: a temple stood here, but it was a heathen, and not a Jewish, temple. Camden, who visited the place in the reign of Elizabeth, speaks of it as being then a mere village; and Dr. Stukeley, after a personal survey in 1725, states, that "the whole channel of the Ribble at present lies within the precinct of the ancient city;" and laments that the river "runs over innumerable antiquities."

The parish is from five to six miles in length, from Alston to Dutton, and from three to four in breadth, from the summit of Longridge Fell to the Ribble. The fell gives the parish at its northern extremity a barren and sterile appearance; but cultivation has been carried to the summit of this elevated region. In the valley, on the banks of the river, the meadows and pastures are for the most part fertile, and the scenery in many situations is beautifully picturesque: the lands are well wooded, except on the hills, and even there planting has not been wholly neglected. Of 2093 acres in Ribchester township, 1893 are arable and pasture, and 100 waste. There is a very good slate-quarry. The living is a discharged vicarage, with the perpetual curacy of Stidd annexed; net income, £128; patron and appropriator, the Bishop of Chester. The church is a rude irregular pile, consisting of a nave, aisles, chancel, porch, and tower. The last is partly castellated, but being too broad for the height, is deficient in symmetry; each aisle has a projecting wing, and the porch is almost detached from the other part of the building. The Dutton choir on the south is supposed to be of the age of King John, or Henry III. The great tithes of Ribchester township have been commuted for £145, and the small for £30: the bishop has 173 acres of glebe, and the vicar three-quarters of an acre. At Longridge is a separate incumbency. There are a place of worship for Independents, and two chapels for Roman Catholics: one of the latter at Dutton, was built about a century ago; the priest has a house, and 20 acres of land. John Dewhurst, in 1771, founded a free school, the income of which is £20: attached to the Roman Catholic chapel is another school. Of several charities, one, originally consisting of £150 left by James Standford in 1695, and subsequently augmented to £452. 10., laid out in the purchase of land in 1740, now produces £50 per annum. An almshouse for five aged females, who each receive 12s. 6d. per month, and who have six tons of coal per annum, is supported by George Walmsley, Esq., of Richmond, Surrey, as heir to property here.

Ribston, Great, with Walshford

RIBSTON, GREAT, with Walshford, a township, in the parish of Hunsingore, Upper division of the wapentake of Claro, W. riding of York, 3½ miles (N.) from Wetherby; containing 170 inhabitants. This place was the site of a preceptory of Knights Templars founded by Robert, Lord Roos, and subsequently grated to the Hospitallers: at the Dissolution the revenues were returned at £265. 9. 6. The site and demesnes became the property of the Goodricke family, who converted the monastery into a family residence, and of whom one was created a baronet in 1641. Within the last few years, the Hall and the estate annexed, comprehending almost the whole parish of Hunsingore, have passed to Joseph Dent, Esq. The township comprises by computation 1780 acres, and includes the villages of Great Ribston and Walshford, both beautifully situated on the north bank of the river Nidd. The celebrated apple called from this place the Ribston-pippin, was first grown here; the original tree was raised from a pippin brought from France, and died in 1840. Ribston Hall, the seat of Mr. Dent, is a noble mansion: in the family chapel are several memorials of the Goodricke family, and in the cemetery attached is the sepulchral monument of the Roman standard-bearer of the ninth legion, which was found at York in 1638. The chapel has lately been repaired and beautified by Mr. Dent, and is an interesting object.

Ribston, Little

RIBSTON, LITTLE, a township, in the parish of Spofforth, Upper division of the wapentake of Claro, W. riding of York, 3½ miles (N. by W.) from Wetherby; containing 246 inhabitants. The township consists of about 600 acres, and is mostly the property of the Earl of Harewood, and Joseph Dent, Esq.

Ribton

RIBTON, a township, in the parish of Bridekirk, union of Cockermouth, Allerdale ward below Derwent, W. division of Cumberland, 4½ miles (W.) from Cockermouth; containing 25 inhabitants. The vicarial tithes have been commuted for £4. 6. Here are the remains of a chapel dedicated to St. Lawrence.

Riby (St. Edmund)

RIBY (St. Edmund), a parish, in the union of Caistor, E. division of the wapentake of Yarborough, parts of Lindsey, county of Lincoln, 7 miles (W. by S.) from Grimsby; containing 184 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £4. 18. 4.; patron and impropriator, W. E. Tomline, Esq.: the tithes have been commuted for £130.

Riccall (St. Mary)

RICCALL (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Selby, wapentake of Ouse and Derwent, E. riding of York, 3½ miles (N.) from Escrick; containing 718 inhabitants. This place is distinguished as the site of a formidable encampment of Danish invaders, who, under Harold Harfager, King of Norway, arrived here in 300 ships, in 1066, on the invitation of Tosti, Earl of Northumberland, and brother of Harold II., King of England, and fortified themselves on some rising ground on Riccall common, since called Daneshill, where they were joined by the forces of the earl. The invaders leaving their vessels and their camp in the care of Olave, son of Harfager, proceeded towards York, and having defeated the Saxon Earls Edwin and Morcar in battle at the village of Fulford, made themselves masters of that city, which they plundered, committing dreadful devastation, and taking numerous hostages from the vanquished. But Harold, King of England, advancing against them with his army; encountered the Danes at StamfordBridge, when they were routed with great slaughter, and both Harfager and Tosti were killed. A treaty was soon afterwards concluded, in which those who had survived the conflict were permitted, on delivering up the spoils they had taken, to return in twenty of their ships to their native shore, for which they embarked at this place.

The parish comprises 3060a. 19p., of which 1269 acres are arable, 736 meadow and pasture, 38 in orchards and gardens, 16 in homesteads and roads, and 1000 common and waste. The soil is rich sand and warp, and with the exception of the common, the lands are in good cultivation; the surface is generally flat, occasionally rising into mounds of considerable elevation. There are two manors, one of them belonging to the Bishop of Ripon. Wheel Hall, for some time the residence of the family of Masterman, and until lately the property of the see of Durham, has been converted into a farmhouse; the original foundations, and the moat by which it was encompassed on three sides, may still be traced. Riccall Hall, the seat of Mrs. Richardson, is a neat mansion of red brick, with the family arms sculptured over the entrance; it is fitted up with considerable taste, and contains a valuable collection of paintings. The village is pleasantly situated on the river Ouse, and is spacious and well built. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £6, and in the patronage of the Archbishop of York. The great tithes have been commuted for £508. 10., and the vicarial for £140; the glebe comprises about an acre and a half attached to the glebe-house, including the churchyard, and there are 22 acres in the township of Hemingbrough. The church is an ancient edifice in the early Norman style, with portions of the early and later English, and a low massive tower; the chancel contains a piscina, and some monuments to the Wormley and Richardson families.

Richard's-Castle (St. Bartholomew)

RICHARD'S-CASTLE (St. Bartholomew), a parish, in the union of Ludlow, partly in the hundred of Wolphy, county of Hereford, and partly in the hundred of Munslow, S. division of Salop, 4 miles (S. S. W.) from Ludlow, on the road to Leominster; containing 656 inhabitants, of whom 343 are in Salop. The parish comprises 4829 acres, of which 2000 are arable, 1500 pasture, 898 woodland, and 183 common or waste: good limestone is quarried. The river Teme separates the lower part from Woolferton; and the Leominster canal passes on the south-east. The higher part of Haye Park runs up to the High Vinealls, which commands most extensive prospects, including the Wrekin to the north, the Black mountains and the Sugar-Loaf on the south-west, the Gloucestershire hills, the Malvern hills, Abberley hills, Clee hills, and the beautiful and rich champagne of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. A charter for a market and a fair was granted by King John, but both have been long disused. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £15. 1. 3., and in the gift of the Bishop of Worcester: the tithes have been commuted for £650, and there are 109½ acres of glebe. The church, situated in the county of Hereford, is a fine old structure with some beautiful remains of stained glass, and had formerly a spire, which was burned down several years since. A school is supported by the gentry of the parish. Some remains exist of the keep and walls of a castle built by Richard Scrope, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, but they are so embosomed in wood as to be scarcely perceptible: on the declivity of its mount, 2000 royalists under Sir Thomas Dundesford were defeated in the civil war, by an inferior force headed by Col. Birch. A spring in the parish, called Boney well, is remarkable for casting up small fish or frog bones in spring and autumn.

Richborough, county of Kent.—See Ash.

RICHBOROUGH, county of Kent.—See Ash.

Richmond (St. Mary Magdalene)

RICHMOND (St. Mary Magdalene), a parish, and the head of a union, in the First division of the hundred of Kingston, E. division of Surrey, 8 miles (W. S. W.) from London; containing 7760 inhabitants. This place, although not mentioned in Domesday book, is noticed in a record of nearly the same date, under the name of Syenes; and it was afterwards called Shene or Sheen. The manor became the property of the crown in the latter part of the reign of Edward I., who resided here, as also did his successors Edward II. and Edward III.; and the latter monarch either built a palace, or made very considerable additions to one already in existence, in which he ended his days. Since this period the manor has belonged either to the crown or to some branch of the royal family, and has very frequently been the residence of the sovereign. Queen Anne, wife of Richard II., dying here, it so affected the king, that he abandoned the palace, and allowed it to become ruinous; but it was restored to its former splendour by Henry V. In 1492 it was the scene of a grand tournament held by Henry VII.; and having been destroyed by fire in 1498, it was rebuilt by that monarch in 1501, when he changed the name of the place to Richmond, after his title of Earl of Richmond before he was king. Philip I., of Spain, having been driven on the English coast by a storm, was entertained here in 1506, with great magnificence; and in 1509 Henry VII. expired in the palace.

Henry VIII. also held a tournament at Richmond, where his first wife, Catherine of Arragon, bore a son, who was named after him, but died when twelve months old. The same monarch negotiated an exchange with Cardinal Wolsey of this place for Hampton Court, which the latter had recently built; but on the fall of the cardinal, Richmond again came to the crown; and the Emperor Charles V., of Germany, was lodged in the palace, on his visit to England, in 1523. The Princess Elizabeth was confined at Richmond by her sister Mary, and it became her favourite residence after her accession to the throne; she died here in 1603, in which year, and in 1625, the courts of justice were removed hither, on account of the plague. In 1605, Henry, Prince of Wales, resided here; and Richmond was the occasional residence of Charles I., who here formed a large collection of pictures; and of his queen, on whom it was settled. In 1649 the palace was surveyed by order of parliament, and in the following year was sold. Shortly after the Restoration it was delivered to the queenmother, but in a very dilapidated state; it was soon afterwards pulled down, and private houses erected on the site, the owners of which hold on lease from the crown.

A park appears to have been formed in the reign of Edward I.; and in the time of Henry VIII. there were two parks, distinguished as the Great and the Little, the second having been probably laid out in the reign of Henry V., or Henry VII. These were afterwards united, and called the Old or Little Park by way of distinction from one inclosed by Charles I. The Old Park, commencing near Kew-bridge, stretches along the bank of the Thames to Richmond, and comprises the beautiful and extensive royal gardens of Kew, and a dairy and grazing farm, which was cultivated under the immediate direction of George III., who directed the old lodge of Richmond to be demolished, with a view to the erection of a palace, for which the foundation was prepared, but which was never built. The park was given to the lord mayor and citizens of London, during the protectorate, but after the Restoration reverted to the crown. The Observatory in the park, built in 1769 by Sir William Chambers, is furnished with excellent astronomical instruments, apparatus for philosophical experiments, and some models, and until lately contained a collection of ores from the mines in the forest of Hartz, in Germany, which have been removed to the British Museum; on its summit is a moveable dome, having an equatorial instrument. The New or Great Park, inclosed by Charles I., is situated southward of Richmond, extending from Richmond Hill to the road between London and Kingston; it is eight miles in circumference, encompassed with a brick wall, and comprises about 2253 acres. The inclosure of this park formed one of the articles of the king's impeachment. In the reign of George II., the Princess Amelia, who was ranger, attempted to exclude the public; but Mr. John Lewis, an inhabitant, recovered the right of way by proceedings at law.

The village of Richmond, from its picturesque situation, and the beauty of the surrounding country, possesses attractions of a very rare character. The view from the summit of the hill, though not extensive, includes every thing required to constitute a fine landscape, embracing a fertile and richly-wooded plain, through which the Thames flows in a winding course, with its banks ornamented by numerous mansions and villas, and the prospect being bounded by hills. Its proximity to the metropolis, and the facility of conveyance both by land and water, cause the place to be much resorted to. It in all respects resembles a town, and has a genteel appearance, containing some very good houses, with several inns of a superior description; also a neat theatre, which is opened three or four nights in the week during the summer season; and a literary and scientific institution, established in 1836. The repair of the highways, and the paving and watching of the town, are, by act of parliament, under the control of thirty-five select vestrymen. The Thames, which is here nearly 300 feet wide, is crossed by a handsome bridge of five arches, the central one being 25 feet high from low-water mark, and 60 feet wide; the first stone was laid on the 23rd of August, 1774, and the structure was completed in Dec. 1777, at an expense of about £26,000. A railway to the metropolis was opened in July 1846; it is six miles long, and joins the South-Western railway about two miles from Nine-Elms, Vauxhall, thus making a total of eight miles from Richmond to Nine-Elms. An act was passed in 1847 for extending this railway to Windsor.

The living is a vicarage, consolidated with that of Kingston, by act of parliament, in 1760. The church is a neat brick edifice, with a low square embattled tower; amongst other interesting monuments is a brass tablet, erected by the Earl of Buchan in 1792, to the memory of Thomson, Author of the Seasons, who died at Richmond in 1748. A district church dedicated to St. John was built in 1831, on a site given by William Selwyn, Esq., at an expense of about £7000, of which £3500 were granted by the commissioners under the act of the 58th of George III., and the remainder was raised by subscription; it is a handsome edifice in the later English style, containing 1250 sittings, of which 600 are free. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar, with a net income of £150. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, and Lady Huntingdon's Connexion; also a Roman Catholic chapel. The Wesleyan Theological Institution, erected here in 1842, at an expense of £11,000, is a spacious structure in the later English style, consisting of a central range and two projecting wings, and is 248 feet in length. In the middle of the principal range is a square tower, with octagonal turrets at the angles, rising above the battlements of the tower, and terminating in minarets crowned by figured finials; and the fronts of the wings have angular turrets of similar character with minarets, above the gable. The chief entrance is in the central tower, under a lofty and embattled oriel window; the main building contains about 70 apartments, and there are several additional rooms in the wings.

A school was founded in 1713, by the contributions of several noblemen and gentlemen, and was endowed in 1719, by Lady Dorothy Capel, with part of the rental of an estate, from which it now receives £37. 10.; it has also £3700 new South Sea annuities, and £100 four per cents., the produce of benefactions and donations. Queen Elizabeth's almshouses, supposed to have been founded in the year 1606 by Sir George Wright, were originally situated under Richmond Hill; the present building was erected by subscription, in 1767, at a place called the Vineyard, on a piece of ground given by William Turner, Esq.: the income is about £132 per annum, and affords maintenance to eight women. On the hill is an almshouse founded and endowed by Bishop Duppa in 1661, the income of which, with some small additional benefactions, is £206, and in which are ten widows. Almshouses were founded in 1695, by Humphrey Michell, for ten old men, and the charity was augmented by John Michell and William Smithet, Esqrs.; the tenements were rebuilt in 1810, at an expense of £3014, defrayed out of savings from the revenue, which is at present about £420 per annum. The income of the almshouses founded in 1757 by Rebecca Houblon is £280, and nine women are supported in them. William Hickey, in 1727, bequeathed certain estates which, with the interest of savings, now produce a rental of more than £750 for the pensioners of the charity; and from the excess of income beyond the expenditure, the trustees, by permission of the lord chancellor, in 1834, erected handsome almshouses for the pensioners, in the later English style, at Marsh-gate, at an expense of about £5800. There is another valuable charity, for repairing the church, the income of which is about £600; of this sum £300 are appropriated to the support of deserving poor, at the discretion of the trustees, who lately obtained from the court of chancery permission to build ten almshouses, for ten men and women. The parish receives £170 per annum from Henry Smith's charity: in 1785, Mrs. Mary New bequeathed £1000 three per cent. reduced annuities for five widows; and there are other bequests to the poor. The union of Richmond comprises five parishes, with a population of 13,558: the union workhouse, formerly the parochial poor-house, was built in 1786, by George III., and, with about thirty acres of land, presented by that monarch to the parish.

A convent of Carthusians, called the House of Jesus of Bethlehem, was erected and richly endowed by Henry V., in 1414, at the hamlet of West Sheen, about a quarter of a mile from the palace; and in 1416, a hermitage for a recluse was founded in this convent. In the reign of Henry VII., Perkin Warbeck sought an asylum within its walls, when defeated by that monarch; and the body of James IV., King of Scotland, was brought hither, after his defeat and death at FloddenField. At the time of its dissolution, its revenue was estimated at £777. 12. 1. It was revived by Queen Mary, but finally suppressed at her death, a few months afterwards. An ancient gateway, the last remains of the priory, was taken down in 1769; and the hamlet of West Sheen was at the same time demolished, the site now forming a part of the royal inclosure. A convent of Carmelites had been established here before the convent of Carthusians, by Edward II.; but it was removed to Oxford, at the expiration of two years from its foundation. Henry VII. is said to have instituted a convent of Observant friars near the palace in 1499, the suppression of which, in 1534, is recorded by Holinshed. A mineral well, discovered at Richmond about 1680, appears to have attracted a great deal of company, and was in considerable repute for about half a century, but it afterwards rapidly declined. In the grounds of the Earl of Erroll is a mount called Henry the Eighth's, on which that monarch is said to have stood waiting the signal to inform him of the death of Anna Boleyn. Dean Colet, founder of St. Paul's school, died at West Sheen in 1519. Mrs. Mary Yates, a celebrated actress in the time of Garrick, and Edmund Kean, the eminent tragedian, died and were buried at Richmond: Dr. John Moore, author of Zeluco, was also buried here.

Richmond (St. Mary)

RICHMOND (St. Mary), a borough, market-town, and parish, having separate jurisdiction, and the head of a union, locally in the wapentake of Gilling-West, N. riding of York, 44 miles (N. W.) from York, and 234 (N. N. W.) from London; containing 3992 inhabitants. The town and castle seem to have been founded in the reign of William the Conqueror, by his nephew Alan Rufus, upon whom he bestowed the whole district, with the title of Earl, and who gave the place the name of "Rich Mount," indicating, it is presumed, the value he attached to it. The district had previously belonged to the Saxon Earl Edwin, and the charter, for dispossessing him of his Yorkshire estates, and conferring them on Alan, was granted at the siege of York, in 1069. The castle appears to have been impregnable, from its situation and immense strength, but was suffered to fall into decay at an early period, as when Leland wrote his Itinerary, in the reign of Henry VIII., it was in a state of ruin. It has recently been repaired and restored, under the superintendence of Captain Hampton, who has been guided in this important and very difficult undertaking, by a drawing made about the reign of Henry III., and not long since discovered among the Harleian manuscripts. The town, in Leland's time, still retained its walls; but the three gates called French, Finkel, and Bar gates, had been destroyed. The discovery of a great number of Roman silver coins near the castle, in 1720, led to the conjecture that the town is of Roman origin, but there is no further confirmation of the opinion.

Arms.

Richmond is situated on the declivity of a hill, at whose foot the river Swale winds in a semicircular course; and the valley to which the stream gives name, and the other parts of the neighbourhood, are celebrated for their romantic scenery. It is a neat town, chiefly built of stone, and the society consists in a great degree of persons of independent property; the beauty of the surrounding district, and the moderate rate at which the necessary articles of consumption can be procured, attracting many of this class. The principal streets contain several excellent houses, and the place is lighted with gas. A handsome stone bridge of three arches, crossing the Swale, was erected in 1789, at the joint expense of the corporation and the North riding. In the market-place, where are some very good shops, is a column, under which a reservoir was constructed for supplying the town with water; but being found inadequate to the purpose, a new reservoir, capable of containing 120,000 gallons, has been constructed by the town-council at the head of the Gallowgate, into which water is conveyed by iron-pipes from a spring at High Coalsgarth, about two miles distant: the expense of bringing the water to the town was about £2000.

From the period of its foundation, during several successive reigns, Richmond appears to have been a place of very considerable trade; but the grant of charters for markets to some neighbouring towns, and other causes, interrupted its prosperity, and until recently the want of means of communication (the Swale, from its rocky bed, not being navigable) was much felt. The Richmond branch of the York and Darlington railway, 9¾ miles long, was opened in September, 1846; it quits the main line a few miles south of Darlington, and, on approaching Richmond, crosses the river Swale, and terminates on the south side of the river and town. The station is connected with the centre of the town by a new road, which crosses the Swale by a handsome Gothic bridge of four arches of 52 feet span. The business is principally in corn and lead, the latter being brought from the mines about fourteen miles westward; there are also quarries of good stone. A large trade in knitted-yarn stockings, and woollen caps for sailors, was formerly carried on; they were manufactured here, and exported to Holland and the Netherlands, but it has nearly ceased. The market is on Saturday, and great quantities of corn are sold at it to the corn factors and millers of the adjacent grazing and mining districts. There are fairs, on the Saturday before Palm-Sunday, granted by Queen Elizabeth, and on the Saturday before the feast of St. Thomas à Becket, and on the feast of the Holy Rood, bestowed by Edward I.; the first and last are for cattle, woollen goods, and various kinds of merchandise, and are numerously attended.

The town, which is a borough by prescription, as well as by various royal grants and charters, was fully incorporated by Queen Elizabeth, in the 19th year of her reign; and by a charter conferred by Charles II. in the 21st of his reign, the government was vested in a mayor, recorder, twelve aldermen, a town-clerk, two chamberlains, and subordinate officers. The present corporation, however, consists of a mayor, four aldermen, and 12 councillors, under the act 5th and 6th of William IV., cap. 76; four justices of the peace have been appointed, and the mayor is a magistrate during his year of office, and for one year after. The limits of the municipal borough are co-extensive with those of the parish. The town first sent members to parliament in the 27th of Elizabeth: the right of election is vested in the £10 householders of the parishes of Richmond and Easby, and the mayor is returning officer. A court of record is held every alternate Tuesday before the recorder, at which actions under £100 may be tried, but causes at issue are generally taken to the quarter-sessions for the borough. A meeting of magistrates occurs every Monday, and a court leet at Easter and Michaelmas. The town-hall is a handsome building, erected by the corporation. The gaol for debtors arrested by warrant from the sheriff of the county, directed to the chief bailiff, belonged to the ancient earls of Richmond, and is now the property of the Earl of Zetland, and rented by the Duke of Leeds as high steward and chief bailiff of the liberty and franchise of Richmond and Richmondshire, in which capacity his grace has peculiar jurisdiction, with power of appointing courts and holding pleas of civil action under 40s. There is also a borough gaol. The powers of the county debt-court of Richmond, established in 1847, extend over the registration-districts of Richmond and Reeth.

Corporation Seal.

The parish comprises by admeasurement 2341 acres, of which 425 are arable, 1618 meadow and pasture, and 298 woodland. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £15. 5. 7½., and in the patronage of the Crown: the tithes have been commuted for £470, and there is an acre and a half of glebe. The church is thought to have been erected about the time of Henry III., but the variety of additions and alterations it has undergone has left little trace of its original architecture; it contains a few handsome monuments and armorial bearings, a beautiful font, and an excellent organ. The chapel of the Holy Trinity, in the centre of the town, belonged to the abbey of St. Mary at York, but was suffered to become ruinous, and no service was performed in it from the year 1712 until 1740, at which period it was repaired by the corporation. The living is a perpetual curacy, with a net income of about £108: the patronage, formerly in the corporation, has been purchased by L. Cooke, Esq., of Richmond. There are places of worship for Baptists and Wesleyans, and a Roman Catholic chapel: in a window of the last is a fine painting of the Crucifixion. The free grammar school, which is in considerable repute, was founded and endowed by the burgesses in the reign of Elizabeth, who granted letters-patent authorising its institution; the produce of the endowment is £300 per annum. A rent-charge of £8 was bequeathed by Dr. Bathurst, in 1659, towards the maintenance of scholars going from the school to the university of Cambridge; and in 1730, Dr. William Allen left his estate at Bures St. Mary, in Suffolk, for founding two scholarships at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, with preference to his next of kin, and afterwards to scholars of Richmond school. The Rev. Matthew Hutchinson's fund, bequeathed in 1704, and now producing about £68 per annum, is appropriated chiefly to the education of boys, and the relief of widows. The poor-law union of Richmond comprises 46 parishes or places, and contains a population of 20,233.

The ruins in and near Richmond possess extreme interest. Of these, the principal is the castle, the site of which comprises nearly six acres; the remains show the great strength of the building when entire, and the square tower, or keep, supposed to have been built at a rather more recent period than the other parts, and which was repaired in 1761 by the Duke of Richmond, is in good preservation. To the north of the town was a house of Grey friars, of which the tower is remaining; it is a beautiful structure in the richest English style, ornamented with buttresses and pinnacles, and was erected but shortly before the Dissolution, at which time the society consisted of a master and fourteen brethren. The establishment itself was founded so early as 1258, by Ralph Fitz-Randal, Lord of Middleham. St. Nicholas, hospital, for sick and infirm people, and pilgrims, a short distance from the town, is of uncertain origin, but is mentioned in the 18th of Henry II.; the present building is supposed to have been erected soon after the dissolution of religious houses, and contains little of the original edifice. Nearly opposite the castle, on the other side of the river Swale, are the ruins of the priory of St. Martin, founded in 1100, which was granted to the abbey of St. Mary, York, and richly endowed by Whyomar, lord of Aske, chief steward to the Earl of Richmond: some fine Norman arches yet remain. Richmond gives the title of Duke to the family of Lennox.