the county town of Kent, and a municipal and parliamentary borough, stands on a gentle slope on the right bank of the Medway, 34 miles E.S.E. from London. It was anciently called Caer Megaid, or Medwig (the City of the Medway); and afterwards, by the Saxons, Medwegestan and Medlestone, whence it acquired its present name. It was formerly in the possession of the archbishops of Canterbury; and their Gothic palace, dating from 1348, is still standing, though considerably altered from its ancient form. In the civil war Maidstone was taken by the parliamentary forces under Fairfax in 1648. A college was founded here by Archbishop Courtenay in the time of Richard II., but was suppressed about the time of the Reformation. Maidstone has always returned two members to Parliament since the time of Edward VI., from whom, and from various succeeding monarchs down to George II., it received charters. The town consists of four main streets, meeting in the market-place, together with several smaller ones. The sloping character of the ground on which it is built keeps the town clean and dry, and it is well supplied with water from the Medway. Of the public buildings, the chief is the parish church, built in the fourteenth century, and reckoned one of the largest edifices of the kind in England. It has recently been restored in a very splendid style. There are, besides, various other places of worship for different denominations. It has also a county hall, an extensive gaol, erected lately at the cost of L200,000, and covering 13 acres, a town-hall, a corn exchange, a theatre, ball-rooms, and other buildings. There is a school called All Saints College, founded in 1846, occupying a portion of the buildings of the college which formerly existed here; also a free grammar school, a Blue-coat and a Brown-coat school for clothing and educating poor children, national schools, &c. The only manufacture for which Maidstone is remarkable is that of paper, of which there are a number of mills in the neighbourhood. The surrounding country is extremely beautiful, by reason of its orchards and hop gardens; and the circumstance which has contributed most to the prosperity of the town is the fertility of the neighbourhood. The river is here crossed by an old bridge of seven arches, and is navigable for vessels of sixty tons up to the town. Maidstone is connected with London by a branch of the South-Eastern Railway, by which route the distance is 56 miles. Market-days, Thursday and Saturday. The borough is governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors. Pop. (1851) 20,801.