Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/81

Rh seven daughters of James Walsyngham and wife Elinor, 15. . (the parents and four sons lost.) (Reg. Roff.)

73. .—(Val. Eccl.), " Ecclia de Chilham cum capella de Molaisshe;" Molash, which latter remains annexed.—The spot, where the castle stands, is said to have been the residence of King Lucius, A.D. 182, and since then of the Saxon kings of Kent. (Kilburne.) Respecting the above sovereign we are informed, that A.D.. 189 he wrote to Eleutherius, bishop of Rome, expressing his desire to become a Christian, which accordingly he did, and that his people continued in the orthodox faith up to the reign of Diocletian. (Gibs. Chron. Sax., 8.) Bede places the intercourse between Lucius and Eleutherius somewhat earlier.—This reported conversion of the British king and his people may appear to many a mere fable; but Dr. Lappenberg, as the result of his examination of our oldest historical records still in existence, considers the circumstance not improbable, notwithstanding some confusion in the surviving documents alluding to that period of time. In particular, Dr. L. (in his Hist. of Engl. under the An. Sax. Kings, I, 49), as I understand Mr. Thorpe's translation, deems it an argument in favour of this tradition, that its fabulous nature was not objected to the remnant of the ancient British Christian church by the Anglo-Saxons converted by Augustin and his coadjutors, during their vehement disputations respecting the proper time for the celebration of Easter, about A.D. 608. So far were the Anglo-Saxon Christians from questioning this alleged fact, it is by writers of that very party alone that the recollection of it has been preserved in a complete form.

74. .—The north door of this church has a circular arch with zigzag mouldings; the south door also has a similar arch, but plain. (Hasted.) The walls are late Norm. with Perp. windows inserted.

75. .—The church of this place is styled one "of twelve shillings: Ibi æccla de xii solidis." (D. B.) It is also stated, that "there are three arpents of vineyard: Ibi sunt iii arpenni vineæ." (D. B.)—Partly in this parish, partly in Hoath stood Ford House, the most ancient seat belonging to the see of Canterbury, having been bestowed by Ethelbert, king of Kent. It was demolished about 1658. (Nichols's Biblioth. Top. Brit., I.) According to (Val. Eccl.) there was formerly a park at Chislet, we may suppose attached to Ford House.

76. .—Here were formerly (if not now are) two