a large well-built town of Sussex in England, seated on an eminence on the banks of the river Ouse, 50 miles from London. It is famous for a bloody battle near it, wherein King Henry III. was defeated and taken prisoner by the barons; and is so ancient, that we read the Saxon king Athelstan appointed two mint-houses here, and that in the reign of Edward the Confessor it had 127 burgesses. It is a borough by prescription, by the style of constables and inhabitants. The constables are chosen yearly. It has handsome streets and two suburbs, with six parish churches. It carries on a good trade; and the river Ouse runs through it, which brings goods in boats and barges from a port 8 miles off. On this river are several iron-works, where cannon are cast for merchant-ships, besides other useful works. A charity-school was opened here in 1711, where 20 boys are taught, clothed, and maintained, at the expense of a private gentleman, by whom they were also furnished with books; and 8 boys more are taught here at the expense of other gentlemen. Here are horse-races almost every summer for the king's plate of L. 100. The roads here are deep and dirty; but then it is the richest soil in this part of England. The market here is on Saturday; and the fairs May 6, Whit-fun-Tuesday, and October 2. The timber of this part of the county is prodigiously large. The trees are sometimes drawn to Maidstone and other places on the Medway, on a sort of carriage called a tug, drawn by 22 oxen a little way, and then left there for other tugs to carry it on; so that a tree is sometimes two or three years drawing to Chatham; because, after the rain is once set in, it flirs no more that year, and sometimes a whole summer is not dry enough to make the roads passable. It is cheap living here; and the town not being under the direction of a corporation, but governed by gentlemen, it is reckoned an excellent retreat for half-pay officers, who cannot so well confine themselves to the rules of a corporation. It sends two members to parliament.