a maritime county in the N.E. of England, bounded on the N. by the estuary of the Thames, on the E. and S. by the English Channel, on the S.W. by the county of Sussex, and on the W. by the county of Surrey. The name is supposed to be Celtic, signifying a corner or projection (as the same word in Cantyre evidently denotes); and this name aptly describes the position occupied by Kent on the map of England. The extreme length of the county is, from Deptford to the North Foreland, W. and E., 63 miles; and the extreme breadth, from the North Foreland to Dungeness, N. and S., 40 miles.

The geological character of the county exhibits five parallel belts, occupied by different formations, and running E. and W. The first belt consists of the soil extending from the estuary of the Thames to the foot of a range of hills called the North Downs, and is occupied by the London and plastic clays; but with this variation, that, while the plastic clay overlies the chalk for the most part, the London clay overlies the plastic clay in the Isles of Sheppey and Grane, and in a large district extending from the sea-shore at Reculver and Whitstable S. to Canterbury. The second belt consists of the North Downs, a range of chalk hills which enters the county from Surrey, near Westerham, and extends to the coast near Folkestone. The range varies in breadth from 3 to 6 miles; and its greatest elevation, Halighbourne Station, is 616 feet above the level of the sea. The third belt consists of a tract of chalk, marl, and greensand, cropping out of the North Downs, and varying in breadth from 2 to 7 miles. The marl and greensand lie in strips, the latter being the widest, and the southern slope of the belt forms what are called the "Ragstone Hills," overlooking the valleys of the Bealt, the Eden, and the Medway. The fourth belt consists of the Weald clay, and extends throughout the county from the borders of Surrey to Romney Marsh, with an average breadth of 5 miles; the clay is sometimes intermixed with thin beds of sand. The fifth belt consists of a range of hills occupying the remainder of the county and bordering on Sussex, amongst which the Medway and other rivers rise; it is occupied by iron sand. It will be seen, then, that the county presents two valleys, known as the Homedale and the Weald, and three ranges of hills, succeeding each other from the banks of the Thames to the border of Sussex. Singularly enough, however, most of the rivers, though they rise in the southernmost part of the county, instead of finding outlets into the English Channel to the E., traverse the county, cutting the ranges of hills, and fall into the Thames on the N. This imparts a broken and irregular appearance to the surface. Dr Lyell, in describing the Weald, has given a graphic picture of the central portion of the county. "I shall suppose," he writes, "the reader first to travel southwards from the London basin. On leaving the tertiary strata he will first ascend a gently inclined plane, composed of the upper flinty portion of the chalk, and then find himself on the summit of a declivity, consisting for the most part of different members of the chalk formation; below which the upper greensand, and sometimes also the gault, crop out. This steep declivity is called by geologists 'the escarpment of the chalk,' which overhangs a valley excavated chiefly out of the argillaceous or marly bed termed gault. The escarpment is continuous along the southern termination of the North Downs, and the reader may trace it from the sea at Folkestone westward to Guildford and the neighbourhood of Petersfield, and from thence to the termination of the South Downs at Beachy Head. In this precipice or steep slope the strata are cut off abruptly, and it is evident that they must originally have extended farther. . . . The geologist cannot fail to recognise in this view the exact likeness of a sea cliff; and if he turns and looks in an opposite direction, or eastward, towards Beachy Head, he will see the same line of heights prolonged. Even those who are not accustomed to speculate on the former changes which the surface has undergone, may fancy the broad and level plain to resemble the flat sands which were laid dry by the receding tide, and the different masses of chalk to be the headlands of a coast which separated the different bays from each other." The rivers of the county are—the Medway, the Stour, the Darent, the Cray, the Ravensbourne, and some minor streams. The Medway is a noble stream; its trunk and branches cover 30 square miles of the surface of the county, and its length is nearly 60, of which 40 are navigable. The river well deserves the name of "Vaga," by which the Britons described its wanderings; the Saxons added the syllable med, the sign of middle, because the river runs through the centre of the county, and thus it gets its present name of Medway. The river has four heads—one rising in Surrey, in the parish of Bletchingley; two in Sussex, at Waterdown Forest; and one in Kent, at Goldswold in Great Chart. The highest branch, which enters the county from Surrey, flows by Eaton Bridge and Hever Castle, and being constantly swelled by the brooks which drain the higher part of the weald of Sussex, it becomes navigable on reaching Penhurst. Here it separates into two branches for a mile, and is joined by the Eden, one of its main branches, which rises above Godstone in Surrey, and receives the drainage of the valley that separates the green-sand hills from the central iron-pan high lands in the Weald. From Penhurst the stream rolls on to Tunbridge, separating into five channels above that town, and reuniting into one just below it. From thence proceeding to Teyford Bridge, it receives the waters of two of its sources,—one rising in Sussex, the other in Kent,—and rolls on to Yalding in the Weald, where it is joined by the Teyse and the Beal; and from thence to Maidstone, where, by means of a lock, erected in the reign of George II., at Allington below that town, the river has been rendered navigable as high as Penhurst. From Allington, where the river meets the tide, it flows on with many a maze fold, and amidst magnificent scenery, to Rochester, becoming there a noble tidal river. A fine stone bridge of six arches crosses it at this city. The Medway next reaches Chatham, where a fleet of war ships "repose on their own shadows" in its land-locked waters, awaiting the time of action. The stream now widens its surface, and its rapidity frets the land into several islands, of which the island of Sheppey is the largest; and while one part of its waters escape into the open sea through the Swale channel, the main stream enters the Thames at Sheerness, the seat of a second naval arsenal. The Stour, a name supposed to be derived from "Es Dwr," the water, has two branches, known as the Greater and Lesser Stour. The Greater Stour has two sources, which flow from opposite directions; one from Lenham in the N.W., the other from near Hythe in the S.E., and after each has flowed ten miles, they unite at Ashford, and proceed to Canterbury, where the stream becomes navigable. Farther on at Sturte, the river separates into two branches, one of which falls into the estuary of the Thames near Reculver, and the other into the English Channel at Pegwell Bay. Thanet being situated between the arms of the Greater Stour, is therefore an island, and in former times was insulated from the rest of Kent. A thousand years ago the arms of the Stour formed a channel 13 or 4 miles wide, which was called the Wantsumme, and shipping used it as late as the reign of Henry VIII., to avoid the delay and danger of doubling the North Foreland. The channel has, however, gradually filled up with silt; and the mischief was completed by erecting flood-gates to irrigate the adjoining land with its waters. The Lesser Stour rises at Liminge near Hythe, flows along the edge of Barham Downs, and, after running parallel with the Greater Stour, falls into that arm of it which joins the sea at Pegwell Bay. The Darent rises at Westerham on the border of Sussex, flows by Shoreham, Farningham, and South Darent, and from thence to Dartford, where it becomes navigable for small craft, and falls into the Thames at Long Reach. The River Cray rises at Oppington, flows by several villages which take their names from it, and falls into the Darent at Dartford Creek. The Ravensbourne rises on Keston Downs, flows between Hayes and Bromley, by Lewisham to Lee, where it is joined by the Leeburne, becomes navigable at Deptford Creek, and there falls into the Thames. The Rother rises in Sussex, to which county it properly belongs, though it is one of the streams which insulate Oxney Isle, forming the continuation of Romney Marsh; it is navigable in all that part of its course which touches Kent. Finally the great Thames may be considered one of the rivers of Kent, as it forms the northern boundary of the county, and empties itself into the sea on its coast.

The coast line of the county may be described as commencing at Gravesend, where the River Thames widens into an estuary. From thence to the channel of the Swale, it is broken into the islands of Graine, Sheppey, Elmley, and Hart, which are marshes insulated by the arms and creeks of the Thames and Medway. Graine is so low, that it is necessary to defend the soil by strong embankments, but the sea face of Sheppey is formed by chalk cliffs from 80 to 90 feet high. Cliffs of sand and clay succeed from the east bank of the Swale to the western limit of the Isle of Thanet, and here the chalk cliffs recommence, and extend to the North Foreland, the eastern extremity of the county, and from thence S. to Pegwell Bay, where one arm of the Stour forms the limit of the Isle of Thanet in that direction. The coast line sinks from Pegwell Bay to Walmer near Deal; and here commence the tall white cliffs of chalk from which England has obtained its name of Albion. These extend round the South Foreland to Sandgate, and from thence the coast-line falls to the level of Romney Marsh, a great part of which is below the level of the sea, and is protected from overflow by a massive embankment called Dymchurch Wall. The coast from the Isle of Sheppey to the North Foreland is skirted by sands and flats, which prevent ships of any size from approaching it. On the eastern coast, at from 3 to 7 miles from the shore, lie the Goodwin Sands, which, while they are a dangerous obstacle to the navigation of the Straits of Dover, serve as a breakwater to the roadstead of the Downs, which is indeed created by them. This anchorage is about 8 miles long and 6 wide; it is sheltered from the E., W., N.W., and partially from the N., and is a celebrated rendezvous for ships outward and homeward bound. The sea is gradually eating away the coast line of Kent, with the exception of that part formed by Romney Marsh, which has been recovered from the sea. Fifty acres of land on the cliffs of the island of Sheppey have disappeared within twenty years, and it is calculated that the whole of the island will be lost in a century. Nearly 100 yards of land have been lost at Reculver since 1780, part of the churchyard has been swallowed up, and the church, now abandoned, would also have been washed away, if a breakwater had not been constructed to deprive the waves of their force. Bedlam Farm, in the Isle of Thanet, is gradually diminishing in extent, and the far-famed Shakespeare's cliff at Dover is losing its height, the slope being towards the land. The cliffs are, in short, disappearing at the rate of from 2 to 3 feet every year. The Goodwin Sands, according to tradition, were a part of Kent, which was overwhelmed by the sea in 1097, when it belonged to the estate of Goodwin, Earl of Kent, a famous chieftain of his time. This is supported by the fact, that a bed of blue clay underlies the sand at a depth of 15 feet; but, on the other hand, many geologists and antiquarians incline to the opinion that, instead of land having been converted into sea, these sands were laid bare by a terrible inundation in the reign of William Rufus, when the drowning of Flanders and the low countries on the opposite side of the Channel, lowered the level of the sea in the narrow strait separating England from the Continent. It is a familiar expression, "Tenterden steeple is the cause of Goodwin Sands;" and, though it is generally used to ridicule false reasoning, nevertheless, according to tradition, it is the truth. Time out of mind, we are told, money was collected throughout the county to maintain the banks of the land against the sea; but no damage having been done for many years, the Bishop of Rochester, in whose hands the money had been placed, spent it in building Tenterden steeple. A storm arose afterwards and swallowed up the land; and thus, though the old man who said, "The Goodwin Sands were firm land before Tenterden steeple had been built," was laughed at in his own time, and has furnished reasoners with a sarcasm for eight centuries, he was right after all. Geologists generally agree in the opinion that England was originally a part of the continent of Europe, the British Isles being fragments broken off by an irruption of the sea, similar to that which, in the thirteenth century, separated Friesland from Holland. De la Roche, however, contends that the separation was not caused by a violent movement, but by the gradual action of the sea. Certain it is, that the opposite cliffs of Kent and France are of chalk, having a remarkable resemblance in their contour, and that a chain of rock extends, at a depth of 14 feet below the low water line, from Folkestone to Boulogne.

There is not a single good harbour, at least one that ships can enter at all times of the tide, along the whole coast of Kent. The harbours usually consist of piers projecting from the land, and are dry at low water. The Strait of Dover, however, is the great artery of our foreign commerce, and Kent is the water-gate of England; to provide, then, for the safety of navigation and the great stream of passengers constantly pouring between England and the Continent, artificial harbours have been formed at Folkestone and Dover.

The climate of Kent is, on the whole, mild, pleasant, and healthy. Lambarde, a writer of the sixteenth century, quaintly tells us, indeed, "The air is bad in winter, worse in summer, and at no time good; fit only for those vast herds of cattle which feed all over it." Though this may have been true in the days of the writer, it is untrue in our own. Now that cattle are no longer free denizens of the soil, that the ground is cultivated, that marshes have been drained, and that the laws of health are known, the climate is mild and genial. The N.E. winds, too, sweeping over the Continent, absorb the superabundant moisture of the low grounds. Cranbrook, it has been demonstrated, is one of the healthiest places in the kingdom; and medical experience, and longevity amongst the inhabitants, testify almost as highly of the whole county. The coast is dotted with towns, the population of which is made up of persons seeking, and, as we may suppose, finding health there. The mineral waters of Tunbridge, on the western side of the county, have long been celebrated for their health-giving properties; and, though the influence of fashion has created many rivals, it is still the resort of a large number of invalids and pleasure-seekers.

The soil of the county, to speak generally, consists of clay, chalk, and gravel, which, when mixed, produce an exceedingly fine loam. Clay predominates; indeed, the county belongs geologically to the great clay basin of which London is the centre. No part of the kingdom, however, exhibits within such a limited compass so great a variety of soils, and, in consequence, so many modes of cultivation and production.

For the purpose of agricultural description, Kent may be divided into eight districts. The first of these is the Isle of Thanet, in the N.W. angle of the county, containing 23,000 acres of arable land, and 3500 of pasture. The soil is a light mould, on a chalky bottom, highly enriched by seaweed and other manure obtained from the shores, and there is scarcely an acre of waste in the district. The produce consists of wheat and beans, which are grown without fallow or intermission, and of canary, mustard, spinach, and other seeds; and in order to preserve the latter from birds, trees and hedgerows are not suffered to exist. The second district comprises the sheep downs and upland farms which surround Canterbury, extending to Dover on one side, and Ashford and Rochester on the other. The soils here are very dissimilar; some being heavy loamy clay, with flint stones on the surface, others being stiffer, while the whole rest on a subsoil of chalk. All kinds of grain are grown, and the harvest is usually a fortnight later than in the Isle of Thanet. The third district comprises a rich sandy loam, in the neighbourhood of Sandwich, Faversham, and Deal, producing, in addition to the ordinary crops, a large quantity of apples. The fourth district extends from Maidstone to Sandwich, including Canterbury, and may be called the garden of Kent. In this district hops, apples, and cherries are the chief produce. The soils on which the hops are grown differ materially; one, locally called stone-shalten, is mixed with many small portions of sand and stone, and rests upon the Kentish ragstone, which is burned into excellent lime; others, and these are the most productive, have a deep loam surface, with a subsoil of deep loamy brick earth, and are mixed with a large number of flint stones. The fifth district is the Isle of Sheppey, 11 miles long and 8 broad, and separated from the rest of the county by the Swale, a navigable arm of the sea. Four-fifths of this district are either marsh or dry pasture land; the arable land, of which there are about 10,000 acres, is highly productive, especially of wheat. The soil is a heavy clay, enriched with the cockle-shells found on the beach, and as many as thirty cart-loads have been applied to the acre. The sixth district is formed by the uplands of West Kent, a ridge of chalk hills, locally called the "Hog's Back;" about 6 or 7 miles broad; the soils are various, but chiefly a stiff clay, with many surface flints. A large number of flocks of sheep are grazed in this district, and much timber is grown. The seventh district is the Weald, the ancient forest of the county. The soil is principally clay, with a substratum of marl, varying in stiffness. It produces wheat, oats, barley, rye-grass, clover, and beans, and a large number of cattle are fed. The eighth division is the rich, level, and extensive expanse of Romney Marsh, on the southern coast. The whole is alluvial land, consisting of a fine rich soft loam, with portions of sea sand and broken shells intermixed. The subsoil consists of alternate layers of sand and clay, mixed with shells, amongst which are sometimes found large oak trees, in various positions, and as black and hard as ebony. The breeding and fattening of sheep form the principal pursuit in this level, and the number bred is greater perhaps than in any other district of similar extent in the kingdom. The farmer has usually two kinds of land, one for breeding, the other for fattening cattle. The Romney Marsh sheep have become celebrated for the excellence of their mutton, the length of their wool, and its fineness of fibre.

The practice of agriculture in Kent is peculiar to the county. While the farmers of England generally devote their attention to two or three main crops, those of Kent remain faithful to the special productions for which the county has become famous. Kent grows half the hops produced throughout the entire country,—the "wicked weed," as it was called when introduced in the time of Henry VI.,—and they are superior to all others except those grown at Farnham. In Kent hops are generally cultivated with the spade, and planted on mounds; the cost of manure, poles, and labour is very large, the crop is uncertain, and its produce varies greatly. Owing to the demand for hop-poles more attention is paid to the growth of underwood than to that of timber, and the extensive woods for which the county was once celebrated have greatly diminished, and are rapidly disappearing. The best poles Kent are those of chestnut, willow, ash, and maple, and they are generally cut from wood of from ten to fourteen years' growth. Another peculiar production of the county is seeds, especially canary and radish seeds, which form a main crop in the Isle of Thanet. Filberts are another peculiar production; the trees grow well in a rocky and gravelly soil, and are planted 12 feet apart. Only one stem is allowed to grow, and this a few inches above the ground; the branches on it are not suffered to rise higher than 5 feet, and are trained into the shape of a punchbowl; for thus the trees yield the most abundantly. Kent is, in truth, the great fruit and kitchen garden of London. Pease, asparagus, cabbage, and other vegetables are cultivated by the acre in the neighbourhood of the metropolis; kidney beans are raised to the same extent at Sandwich; there are orchards of plums and cherries, as well as of apples and pears, scattered throughout the county, but they are especially numerous in the district between Maidstone and Canterbury. There, the common plan is to plant hops, apples, cherries, and filberts in alternate rows, or two rows of filberts between a row of apples and a row of cherries. It is scarcely surprising if, under these peculiar circumstances, the agriculture of Kent is not so forward as in other counties. The rich grass cultivation which is at once the pride and peculiarity of England, is but little adopted; nor has draining been generally employed, though it would greatly improve the refractory clay soil of the county.

The plough still in use is mounted on two wheels, 3 feet high; it has a beam 10 feet long, and a share 20 inches, and requires four horses in the lightest soil, and six in the stiffest. With a lighter plough two horses would be sufficient for the work. The other implements are in keeping with this unwieldy instrument, and thrashing is very generally performed with the flail. There is nothing remarkable in the stock of Kent, with the exception of the valuable breed of sheep already mentioned, which combines superior wool with the highest quality of mutton. The great national types of stock will be sought in vain in this country.

The other natural productions of the county are—salt, which is obtained at Sandwich and in the Isles of Grain and Thanet; iron pyrites, found in the Isle of Sheppey, and largely manufactured into copperas for exportation; and fish caught on the coast for the London market, and amongst them a large quantity of oysters, which are reared in artificial beds at Milton.

There are two canals in Kent. The Royal Military Canal, 23 miles long, connects the sea at Hythe with the River Rother, in Oxney Isle, and was constructed to facilitate the defence of the country during the threatened invasion of Napoleon I., but it is now converted to the peaceful purposes of commerce. The second canal is a short cut from the Stour at Sandwich, to the sea, its object being to avoid the circuitous course of the lower part of that river. There was, until of late years, a third canal, 9 miles long, extending from Gravesend to Frindsbury, opposite Chatham, by which vessels avoided a tedious circuit of 47 miles round the Isle of Grain, but this has been converted into a railroad. The county is intersected by the South Eastern Railway, which forms the great high road, réd Folkestone and Dover, between London and the Continent; the branches of this line reach nearly every town within the county.

Kent has very little foreign commerce, though it is seated on a great river, and abuts on the sea. This arises from the badness of its harbours, and the proximity of London, which is naturally the reservoir of the business of the counties forming its outskirts.

Formerly there were extensive iron-works in the Weald of Kent, where iron ore is found; but since coal has been substituted for the dearer charcoal in the manufacture of iron, these works have been extinguished. Cloth and silk were formerly manufactured largely, but these branches of industry have been destroyed by the competition of Yorkshire. Calico-printing and bleaching are carried on to a limited extent; bagging is made for hops; ware is made at Tonbridge, and gunpowder at Faversham and Dartford. Paper-making is general throughout the county. But the chief manufacture, so to speak, is that of ships, and the matériel of war. At Deptford, Woolwich, Sheerness, and Chatham, the government maintains large ship-building yards, in which, during the war of 1834-6, upwards of 5000 artisans were employed; and at Woolwich, there is an extensive arsenal, the largest in the world, for manufacturing and storing arms and equipments. It may be added, that the Nore, at the mouth of the Medway, is a naval station, and that a fleet of men-of-war is generally at anchor there.

The population of Kent amounted, in 1821, to 42,224; 1831, 479,558; 1841, 549,353; 1851, 615,766. Of these last, 471 were landed proprietors; 4659 farmers; 209 graziers; 40,943 out-door agricultural labourers, and 4994 in-door; 3651 post-office, inland revenue, customs, and other government officers; 6961 soldiers; 1254 marines; 415 military and 496 naval officers; 1081 seamen R.N.; 283 Greenwich pensioners; 4537 merchant seamen; 1225 fishermen; 1571 boat and barge men; 3997 male, and 25,457 female domestic servants.

The following was the population of the principal towns in 1851:

| Town | Population | |---------------|------------| | Canterbury | 18,298 | | Chatham | 28,424 | | Dartford | 5,763 | | Deal | 7,067 | | Dover | 22,244 | | Folkestone | 6,728 | | Gravesend | 16,633 | | Greenwich | 105,784 | | Maidstone | 20,740 | | Margate | 9,107 | | Ramsgate | 11,838 | | Rochester | 14,938 | | Sheerness | 8,549 | | Tunbridge Wells| 10,587 | | Woolwich | 32,967 |

The number of houses was, in 1841, 101,332, and in 1851, 114,475. The area of the county was 1,041,479 statute acres, and the amount of real property assessed to the income-tax in 1851 was L3,521,173.

For civil purposes the county is divided into 5 "laths," and these are sub-divided into 63 hundreds and 415 parishes, with 2 cities, Canterbury and Rochester, and 26 market-towns. The term "lath" is derived from the Saxon word *glæðhaim*, to assemble; in the times of the Saxon heptarchy, when Kent formed a separate kingdom of itself, the principal men of the hundreds within each of the "laths," used to assemble to regulate the affairs of the entire district. For legal and political purposes, the county is divided into East and West Kent; each division returns two members to the House of Commons, and the election for the former takes place at Canterbury, for the latter at Maidstone. The cities of Canterbury and Rochester also return two members each; the borough of Maidstone two; the cinque ports of Dover, and Sandwich with Deal and Walmer attached to it, two each; Hythe, with Sandgate and Folkestone attached, one; Greenwich, with Woolwich and Deptford attached, two; and Chatham one. The total number is eighteen.

The Cynni were the first settlers in Kent, and were followed by the Belgae. The county afterwards became famous in history. Caesar, when he invaded Britain, landed on its coast, it is thought on the flat shore between Walmer and Sandwich. The North Foreland is the Acanthum of the historian Ptolemy. Hengist and Horsa, the Saxon allies of the ancient Britons, landed in Pegwell Bay in 445, and received a grant of the Isle of Thanet, which was then really an island, separated from the mainland by wide channels. St Augustine, "the apostle of the English," landed in the Isle of Thanet in the year 596. Ethelbert, King of Kent, was the first Christian king of England, and his subjects the first Christian people. The first Christian church in the island was also built at Canterbury, and it formed the nucleus of Canterbury cathedral. In the struggles of the Saxons between themselves, and against the Northmen, Kent provided a perpetual battlefield; and, so great was the courage of the Kentish men, that they obtained the right of forming the van of the Anglo-Saxon forces. About the end of the seventh century, Kent became subject to Mercia; and, in 823, it passed under the supremacy of the West Saxons, and became the appanage of the heir-apparent of the King of Wessex. Just before the battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror burnt Romney, and massacred the inhabitants, for having defeated a detachment of the Norman forces which had landed there. After the battle he burnt Dover, and hanged the governor of the castle; but during his march to London he found it expedient to confirm the privileges of the Kentish people. King John submitted to the pope's legate, Pandulph, at Dover, in the year 1213. The Dauphin of France made a descent in the Isle of Thanet in 1216, when he invaded England to assist the barons against John. Wat Tyler's insurrection broke out in Kent in 1381, and Jack Cade's in 1450. At the commencement of the disastrous War of the Roses, in 1451, the Duke of York fortified himself at Dartford; and, in 1554, Sir Thomas Wyatt raised the standard of rebellion against Queen Mary. In 1648 a desperate battle was fought at Maidstone between the troops of Charles I. and the Parliament, the latter being victorious; and, in 1667, during the reign of Charles II., a division of the Dutch fleet under De Ruyter, violating a treaty of peace, sailed up the Medway, broke the chain stretched across the river, burnt several ships at Chatham, and carried off the "Royal Charles." It may be added, that three of the most remarkable English sovereigns, Henry VIII., and his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, were born in Kent, in the palace at Greenwich, now the hospital.

Kent, it has already been stated, formed a separate kingdom in Saxon days. It still retains many peculiar customs. The most remarkable amongst these is the tenure of gavelkind, by which the land of a father dying without a will does not descend absolutely to the eldest son, as the case is in the rest of England; but is shared by all the sons, and, in default of sons, it is shared by the daughters. According to Tacitus, this custom was derived from the ancient Germans; but there are many conjectures respecting its origin. Its effect has been to subdivide the ownership of the soil, and raise up the race of yeomen, for which the county has always been celebrated. A distich, still quoted in honour of the Kentish yeomanry, runs,

"A knight of Cales, a gentleman of Wales, and a laird of the north [canonree].

A yeoman of Kent, with his yearly rent, will buy them all three."

The tenure of villainage never existed in Kent; and in the olden time a man had only to show that his father was born in Kent to be exempt from the bondage imposed upon the bulk of the people. The inhabitants were, therefore, emphatically called "men of Kent," it being held that a bondsman was no man, and the distinction is still cherished by the fine-spirited natives of the county. The number of yeomen tilling their own land is still considerable in Kent, principally in the hilly districts, but they are rapidly disappearing before the new constitution of property and farming.

The county is strewed with antiquities, and with historical sites. There are also several Saxon and Danish earthworks and encampments. Near Aylesford there is a remarkable cromlech, formed of four large stones, called Kit's Coty House. It is commonly supposed to be the monument of Caetern, son of Vortimer, the British commander, killed in a battle fought there in 454 against Hengist and Horsa, the latter of whom was also slain; but whether the cromlech is a British or a Saxon work, antiquarians cannot determine. There are remains of Roman stations at Reculver, Dover, Lynne near Hythe, Richborough, and other places. Richborough Castle, situated near Sandwich (which was the ancient point of communication with the Continent), is one of the noblest of the Roman remains in England. The Roman road, Watling Street, passes through the county from Dover to the metropolis; and there are many other monuments of the Roman occupation. The ecclesiastical remains are very interesting. The church of St Martin, at Canterbury, is supposed to be the oldest Christian edifice in England. The abbeys of St Augustine's (Canterbury), Faversham, Malling, Aylesford, St Radigund's near Dover, Boxley near Maidstone, West Langdon, Bilsington, Aylesford, Monk's-Horton, and one belonging to the Benedictines, near Dover, still linger in ruins, parts of some of them having been turned to useful purposes. The churches of the county are remarkably good, and amongst them are two fine cathedrals, those of Canterbury and Rochester. The church of Barfreston, between Canterbury and Dover, is a highly interesting edifice of Anglo-Saxon or early Norman architecture. Of the secular buildings, the chief are Hever Castle, on the River Eden, near the border of Sussex, the seat of the Boleyns, where Henry VIII. courted Queen Anne; Allington Castle, near Maidstone, the seat of the Wyatts; Chilham Castle, near Canterbury; and the hall and gateway of the royal palace at Eltham. Besides these, are the castellated mansions of Leeds Castle, near Maidstone, formerly the residence of Richard II. and Henry IV.; Knowle, near Sevenoaks, the seat of the Dukes of Dorset; and Penhurst Castle, the seat of the Sydneys. On the coast are the castles of Sandown, Sandgate, Deal, and Walmer, which are fortifications rather than residences; the latter will ever be famous as the residence and death-place of the great Duke of Wellington, being attached to his office of Governor of the Cinque Ports, four of which (Dover, Hythe, Romney, and Sandwich) are situated in Kent. Nor must we forget the national asylum for disabled and aged seamen, Greenwich Hospital, the fittest and noblest institution of our maritime nation, and fully justifying, in the character of its architecture, one part of the French criticism, that "in England the palaces are built like hospitals, and the hospitals like palaces." Adjacent to it is the Royal Observatory.

WILLIAM, the father of modern landscape-gardening, was born in Yorkshire in 1685. His parents, persons in humble life, apprenticed him to a coach-painter; but he soon became conscious that he had talent for a much higher walk of art, and set off to London to seek his fortunes there as a portrait and historical painter. He had the good luck to fall in with kindly patrons, who supplied him with the means of completing his studies in Italy. After a six years' residence in that country he became acquainted in 1716 with the Earl of Burlington, with whom he returned to England, and under whose roof he continued to reside till his death in 1748. The studies of both lay in the same direction, and the patron, from his wealth and position, was able to procure many commissions for his protégé. Abandoning altogether pictorial art, in which he was never likely to attain any distinction, Kent henceforth found his true sphere in architecture and landscape-gardening. Of the latter of these arts, as now practised in England, he may justly be regarded as the father. The Temple of Venus at Stowe, and the splendid palace of the Earl of Leicester at Holkham in Norfolk, are attributed to him, and, if really his, do great credit to his architectural taste and talent. In the ages previous to his, artists had been held to succeed in proportion as they banished every touch of nature from their designs; and every garden with the least pretensions to fashion was filled with giants, animals, monsters, coats of Kentucky, arms, and mottoes in yew, box, and holly. Absurdity could go no further, and luckily at this moment Kent appeared painter enough, in the words of Walpole, "to taste the charms of landscape, bold and opinionative enough to dare and to dictate, and born with a genius to strike out a great system from the twilight of imperfect essays." Nature was everywhere restored, and the old absurdities were discarded for ever. Gardens and lawns were from this time laid out according to the laws of perspective, and light and shade.

A similar reformation was effected in the management of water; canals, circular basins, and cascades tumbling down marble steps, were supplanted by streams which seemed to wind away at pleasure, and were lost and restored to view again at proper intervals. Not seldom his imitations of nature were carried too far, as when, in Kensington Gardens, he planted dead trees to give a greater air of truth to the scene. But he was easily laughed out of this extreme, whose folly he was himself one of the first to detect. As a sculptor, Kent never attained any eminence. The well-known statue of Shakspeare in Westminster Abbey is from his chisel, and does very little credit either to his taste or judgment.