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Rh framework a heavy covering of felt is thrown, which is either weighted down with stones or, when necessary, stitched together.

In Western countries tents are used chiefly in military encampments, by travellers and explorers, and for temporary ceremonial occasions and public gatherings. The material of which they are composed is commonly a light linen canvas or navy duck; but for tents of small size stout cotton canvas is employed, being light, strong, elastic, and sufficiently waterproof. These tents vary in size from a low-pitched covering, under which a couple of men can with difficulty creep, up to spacious marquees, in which horticultural and agricultural shows are held, and which can accommodate thousands of persons.

TENTERDEN, CHARLES ABBOTT, (1762–1832), lord chief justice of England, was born at Canterbury on the 7th of October 1762, his father having been a hairdresser and wigmaker of the town. He was educated at Canterbury King's School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, of which he afterwards became. fellow and tutor. On the advice of Mr Justice Buller (1746–1800), to whose son he had been tutor, he determined on the legal profession, and entered at the Middle Temple in 1787. For several years he practised as a special pleader under the bar, and was finally called at the Inner Temple in 1796. He joined the Oxford circuit and soon made rapid headway. In 1801 he was appointed recorder of Oxford. In 1802 appeared his Law relative to Merchant Ships and Seamen, a concise and excellent treatise, which has maintained its position as an authoritative work. Its publication brought to him so much commercial and other work that in 1808 he was in a position to refuse a seat on the bench; this, however, he accepted in 1816, being made a judge of the court of common pleas. On the resignation of Lord Ellenborough in 1818 he was promoted to the chief justiceship of the king's bench. In his capacity as chief justice he presided over several important state trials, notably that of Arthur Thistlewood and the Cato Street conspirators (1820). He was raised to the peerage in 1827 as Baron Tenterden of Hendon. Never a great lawyer and with no pretence to eloquence, Tenterden made his way by sound common sense and steady hard work. He was an uncompromising Tory, and had no sympathy with the reform of the criminal law carried out by Romilly; while he strongly opposed the Catholic Relief Bill and the Reform Bill. He died on the 4th of November 1832, and was buried, by his own desire, in the Foundling Hospital, London, of which he was a governor.

Tenterden was succeeded in his title by his son, John Henry Abbott (1796–1870), then by his grandson, Charles Stuart Aubrey Abbott (1834–1882), permanent under-secretary for foreign affairs, who was made a K.C.B. in 1878. In 1882 the latter's son, Charles Stuart Henry Abbott (b. 1865) became the 4th Baron.

TENTERDEN, a market town and municipal borough in the Ashford parliamentary division of Kent, England, 62 m. S.E. by E. of London by the South-Eastern and Chatham railway. Pop. (1901) 3243. It lies on an elevation above the Newnill Channel, a tributary of the Rother, whose flat valley, called the Rother Levels, was an estuary within historic times; and even as late as the 18th century the sea was within 2 m. of Tenterden, which is a member of the affiliated Cinque Port of Rye. The church of St Mildred is Early English and later, and its tall, massive Perpendicular tower is well known for the legend connecting it with Goodwin Sands. The story is that the Abbot of St Augustine, Canterbury, diverted the funds by which the sea-wall protecting Earl Godwin's island was kept up, for the purpose of building Tenterden steeple, the consequence being that in 1099 an inundation took place and “ Tenterden steeple was the cause of the Goodwin Sands.” Attached to the church is a penitentiary used in the reign of Queen Mary for the confinement of persons awaiting trial on a charge of heresy. The church of High Halden, in the neighbourhood, is remarkable for its octagonal wooden tower constructed of huge timbers, with a belfry of wooden tiles (shingles), of the time of Henry VI. Tenterden has a considerable trade in agricultural produce and stock. It is governed by a mayor, four aldermen and twelve councillors. Area, 8946 acres.

Tenterden (Tenterdenne, Tentyrden) figures frequently in contemporary records from 1300 onwards. In 1449 Henry VI. incorporated it by the name of a “ Bailiff and Commonalty," and united it to Rye. In return for these and other privileges it was to contribute towards the services due from the latter as one of the Cinque Ports. The troubles of 1449 apparently hindered the issue of the charter, since in 1463 Edward IV. brought it into operation. In 1600 it was incorporated under the title of the “ Mayor, Jurats and Commons ” of the town and hundred of Tenterden, in the county of Kent, the members of the corporation ranking henceforward as barons of the Cinque Ports. A weekly corn market on Friday and a yearly fair on the first Monday in May were granted, both of which are held at the present day. In 1790 a contemporary writer mentions the market as being little frequented, whilst the fair was large and resorted to by all the neighbourhood. This charter was exemplified by that of the year 1700. The size and importance of Tenterden can be estimated from a receipt of 1635 for £90