Page:VCH Surrey 1.djvu/511

 POLITICAL HISTORY destroy the individuality of Surrey. The Reform Bill of 1832 dis- franchised, of necessity, Haslemere, Blechingley and Gatton, and took one member from Reigate. It made the new borough of Lambeth, including Lambeth, Newington and most of Camberwell. The borough of Southwark was extended to include Rotherhithe and Bermondsey. The limits of Guildford and of Reigate were both extended. The county itself was divided into east and west Surrey, each returning two members. In the former were the hundreds of Kingston, Brixton, Wallington, Tandridge and Reigate. The place of election for it was Croydon. In the latter were Godley, Emleybridge, Woking, Effingham, Copthorne, Farnham, Godalming, Blackheath and Wotton. The place of election was Guildford. The Reform Bill of 1867 finally disfranchised Reigate, and ex- tended the borough of Lambeth over the whole of Camberwell. It also divided east Surrey into the east and mid divisions, an alteration made advisable by the growth of the London suburbs. So much of Brixton hundred as was not in the boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth, half Wallington hundred and Tandridge hundred formed the eastern divi- sion. Kingston, half Wallington hundred and Reigate hundred formed the mid division. Each returned two members. The Reform Bill of 1885 superseded all old boroughs and divisions. The county was re- solved into the electoral single member divisions of Chertsey, Guildford, Reigate, Epsom, Kingston and Wimbledon. The following boroughs were erected divided into single member districts : Southwark, divided into west Southwark, Rotherhithe and Bermondsey ; Lambeth, divided into north Lambeth, Kennington, Brixton and Norwood ; Clapham and Battersea, so divided ; Camberwell, divided into north Camberwell, Peckham and Dulwich ; Croydon ; Newington, divided into west Newington and Walworth ; Wandsworth ; part of Deptford, the rest of this borough being in Kent. Finally, by the Local Government Acts of 1888, the new county of London annexed Battersea, Bermondsey, Brixton, Camberwell, Clap- ham, Deptford, Dulwich, Kennington, Lambeth, Newington, Norwood, Peckham, Rotherhithe, Southwark, Walworth and Wandsworth. The site of the old meeting-place of the Surrey Sessions in Newington was absorbed by London. The county, deprived of its true centre and great town, found a home for its new county council at Kingston. The earliest and the latest history of Surrey meet together there ; for the county reverted to what had once been a capital, but perchance not more recently than the seventh century, when the king's town was perhaps a royal seat of those subreguli of whom Frithwald, the founder of Chertsey Abbey, is the sole remaining name.