a village of the county of Middlesex, in the hundred of Spelthorne. It stands on the banks of the Thames, eighteen miles from London. The course of the river having been changed, a small part of the parish is now in the county of Surrey. There is a bridge here over the river, near to which are a number of piles, called Cowey Stakes, said to have been driven into the stream by the Britons, to prevent the army of Caesar from fording the river. It is commonly asserted that the learned Erasmus passed much of his time, when in England, at the parsonage-house, with the incumbent, who was his intimate friend. There are many fine and pleasantly situated houses looking on the river in this place. The population amounted in 1821 to 782, and in 1831 to 847.