THE DOVER EXPRESS AND EAST KENT NEWS—FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1901

XXXI,—LYMINGE.

Lyminge is an extensive parish and ancient village 3½ miles north-east from Hythe, near the southern end of the Elham Valley. Its area is 4,594 acres, of which 1,500 acres are woodland.

The Location.

Lyminge lies near the head of the Elham Valley, beautiful for situation. Approached from Shorncliffe, it is like a citadel fortified by a double rampart of lofty hills, through which there is a narrow pass where one troop might check a thousand. After passing through the hilly barrier, and entering on the open valley beyond, Lyminge spreads before the eye in its charming variety of beauty, situate on hill and dale. Passing through this village to where the old Manor stands in the glade, a sweeping expanse of park-like country spreads away miles in every direction, terminating to the north and west with the horizon, to the east with the Chalk Down ramparts, and to the south a rugged romantic valley leads out to the Folkestone plain and to the sea.

History of Lyminge.

Lyminge teems with historic associations. Nearly every nook has its story and every stone its tale. We are carried back to the days of the Roman occupation, for they had a settlement there—no ramparts for defence, or pharos for the guidance of navigators, as on the Dover heights, not a camp such as tradition says Caesar had on the sentinel-like hill near Folkestone—here the men from the banks of the Tiber formed a peaceful settlement, erected a basilica for local government and commerce, and being the disciples of Paul, who preached and suffered at Rome, they introduced among the idolatrous Saxons the Christian religion, and assisted the Saxons to build one of the earliest English Churches. Old charters and records bear witness to these Romo-Saxon efforts in the direction of Christian civilization, but the late Rector of Lyminge, who, in his 42 years’ pastorate, studied every mound and every stone, produced tangible proof of the Roman settlement. He unearthed the basis of the old Roman Basilica, and disclosed the foundations of that Saxon church of which Queen Ethelburga (afterwards called Eadburga) was the patroness. This visible and tangible evidence forms the groundwork of the history of Lyminge. When, therefore, we pass away from the physical features of the locality—the “everlasting hills," and the intermittent spring called “Ethelburga’s Well,” which no doubt has at intervals bubbled up and watered the vale ever since the hills were formed, the first solid ground of historical fact on which we can touch is the Roman Basilica, of which the foundations were unearthed on the south-west of the present church. The late Canon Jenkins describing the foundations which he had there discovered, says they were at the depth of about eight feet from the surface, many of the stones in the wall being a yard or even more in length, and some of them two or three feet square, bound together by strong concrete of lime and pebbles. The walls of this basilica, the Canon computed, were about 120 feet long from the apse to the western wall, the ordinary extension of such structures. The width does not seem to have been more than 30 feet, but a circular base of masonry on the south side of the foundation suggested there having existed there some open arcade such as it was usual to attach to such buildings. Here, therefore, we have two facts which bulk largely in the early history of Lyminge; the most ancient records mention the Basilica in Lyminge, and these foundations are evidence of the existence prior to Saxon times of a Roman edifice of the Basilica type, and putting these two facts together, they seem to be satisfactory proof that in the latter days of the Roman occupation, when fighting had ceased and the invaders were introducing the arts of peace and the regulations of civilised rule, a Basilica on the southern model, used as a court and a market, was established here. This establishment probably flourished about the close of the Fourth Century. When the Saxons occupied the ground which the Romans evacuated in the Fifth Century, they would find it convenient to use the buildings left behind. Two hundred years later we find at Lyminge a Saxon Palace occupied by Ethelbert, King of Kent, and his Christian wife Bertha. That palace doubtless was the Roman Basilica adapted for residential use, with the apse formed into a chapel for religious worship. Under the influence which the Christian Queen exerted in the peaceful vale at Lyminge, King Ethelbert sanctioned the mission of St. Augustine, and Christianity rapidly spread in the South of England from this centre. It need not here be recorded how their son Eadbald departed from the faith, lapsing into idol worship and other vices, nor need we follow the earlier life of Princess Ethelburga, her marriage with the King of Northumbria, and her bereavement through the death of the King in battle, but when the backsliding Eadbald was reclaimed, and his widowed sister Ethelburga came to him at Lyminge with a desire to give herself up to a religious life, he gave to her the Basilica and manor of Lyminge, and there she founded a nunnery, and taking the veil from Archbishop Honorius in the year 633, she became the first Abbess. It is assumed that she devoted the whole building and not merely the small apsidal chapel to religious service and worship, hence it is that Queen Ethelburga (afterwards canonised as St. Eadburg), is designated as the patron and founder of Lyminge Church. With the Nunnery was also founded a Monastery, the second dual foundation in England, the first Nunnery and Monastery combined having three years before been founded at Folkestone by King Eadbuld in the name of his daughter Eanswitha. Lyminge therefore has the distinction of being one of the first centres where women in East Kent were regularly trained in the Christian faith. The Benedictine Monastery which St. Ethelburga founded by the help of King Eadbald, was enriched by Royal grants, and gifts from other sources. In connection with these religious establishments the further credit redounds on Lyminge of being once again a centre for the defusion of the Christian faith. King Ethelbert and Bertha had brought over St. Augustine to mission the south, and now by the influence of Ethelburga and her daughter Eanfled, Paulinus and Romanus were sent forth from Lyminge on a mission to the North of England, which resulted in the conversion of the inhabitants of those parts to Christianity. Ethelburga remained at the nunnery at Lyminge from the taking of the veil in the year 633 until her death in the year 647, when she was buried in an arched tomb by the north wall of her old Saxon church, and just outside the south wall of the present church. Her burial was in accordance with the custom adopted by the early Roman Christians. The corpse, uncoffined, was laid on the earth, and stones were built round it to fit the form of the body, and then over all was laid a large slab as a supercovering and memorial stone. About 400 years after that burial Archbishop Lanfranc opened the tomb, carried the relics of Ethelburga to Canterbury, and the question is asked what became of the stone that covered the tomb? One slab was dug up in the excavations in the churchyard, and there is now in the Church a coffin-shaped stone, in which is leaded a floriated cross. This has no inscription. It stands now on end against the north pier of the chancel arch, but formerly it was in the floor of the chancel. Was this the stone that covered Ethelburga? The subsequent history of the Nunnery may be briefly told. The second Abbess was Matilda, the daughter of Eadbald, for whose sake, in fact, the Nunnery was founded. She lived a devout life, and is known in church history as St. Mildretha. When she died is not recorded, but she was buried at Lyminge. The only other Abbess of the Nunnery, whose name is left on record, is St. Selethrytha. Who she was is not known, but she was the Abbess when the establishment was attacked by the Danes in 804, and when the slaughter was so dreadful that only one of the Monks escaped. The Nuns at that time fled to Canterbury, where they permanently settled. Both Nunnery and Monastery were devastated by fire, of which traces, especially in quantities of molten lead and charred stones were found in the excavations. The Monastery, however, was continued at Lyminge until the year 904, when Archbishop Dunstan amalgamated it with the Monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury. At the beginning, in Eadbald's day, the whole of the fair lands of Lyminge seems to have been devoted to the support of those two religious establishments, but soon after Christ Church, Canterbury, set up a claim to part, and eventually, on Archbishop Dunstan finding the Monastery weakened and dilapidated by the incursions of the Danes, transferred the Monks to Christ Church and annexed the whole of the lands and property to that establishment, 985 A.D. Not only the Monastery and Nunnery were destroyed by the Danes, but also to a great extent Queen Ethelburga's Church, which Archbishop Dunstan, finding in ruins, he re-built on its present site. Leaving that, however, and following the fortunes of the Manor, it appears that for the rest of the Saxon period the Archbishops of Canterbury were content to collect the revenues, but at the Conquest Archbishop Lanfrane turned his special attention to Lyminge. The Church he restored when he conveyed the relics of St. Ethelburga and her niece St. Mildred to Canterbury, and that Church is mentioned in Domesday Book. There is also mentioned in the Survey of the Christ Church Manors, compiled at the time Robertus de Hardres, the first on record of the distinguished Kentish family of that name, was the tenant of the Manor, but Lanfranc was not content to leave so fine a domain in the hands of a tenant. He found at Lyminge an Episcopal Palace known as the Camera de Lyming, or the Ulla de Lyming, to which was attached the civil jurisdiction formerly exercised at the Basilica. The Camera de Lyming, as a grand Episcopal Palace, it is believed stood on the site occupied by the ancient Manor House, known as Sibton Park, flourished as a great establishment from the year 1070, when Lanfranc commenced it, until the days of Archbishop Whincelsy, 1294, when the episcopal residence was transferred to Saltwood. When the Archbishops forsook Lyminge their ancient residence was destroyed—why, it is not known, but it is a fact that fragments of elaborately wrought masonry and carved stone ornaments have been found at Great Woodlands, at North Lyminge, Ottinge, and Longage, worked into newer buildings, but all appear to have come from this one source, the demolished Archbishops’ residence, which seems to have been used for many years afterwards as a quarry. This palace so destroyed is more than once mentioned in history, and it was here that Archbishop Peckham received the homage of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, on the 9th June, 1279. The  mention of June reminds us of how lovely the park surrounding the present Manor House looks in that leafy month, and of how grand must have been the scene on that June day, 622 years ago, when the great Earl of Gloucester and his retinue arrived to do homage to the great Archbishop. To follow the history of this manor further would fill too much space, but it may be mentioned that when Henry VIII. took possession at the Reformation he found the episcopal park and chase in the custody of Sir Thomas Hardres, one of the family mentioned as being there at the time of the Conquest.

Round about Lyminge.

The foregoing historical reminiscences will lend interest to a walk round the village, which, with its innovation of the railway and its large addition of modern villas and bungalows, is as fair and attractive to-day as it was when Ethelburga received it as an inheritance, and when the Archbishops annexed it to their wide domains. Shall we start from the railway station? From there two roads branch off, the one towards the church conspicuously situated on the hill to the left, and the other, bounded by modern villas and places of business interspersed with more ancient residences, leads up the hill to the right towards the manor. This aspect of Lyminge conveys the idea of its being a thriving place. The baker’s, the butcher's, the grocer and provision merchant’s, the draper’s, and the restaurant are all flourishing, not only installed in well-stocked stores, but in premises on which recent capital has been expended, so that the commerce of s Lyminge is on a solid basis, and shows every promise of early and rapid development. This state of things has inspired the faith of the architects and the builders. Not only round about the railway station and the road leading therefrom are the buildings new, but the village street across from Linden Hall to the church is now lined in close order by new villas and bungalows, and the few remaining sites seem to be settled upon for further extensions. Builders are busy. Messrs. Hayward and Paramour, of Dover and Folkestone, are busy there. Messrs. Worsfold and Hayward, of Dover, are putting up some new villas, and the building materials at various points indicate that the day of progress has dawned for Lyminge, and that great as are the attractions of Folkestone and Hythe, well-to-do trades folk from those places are turning their eyes towards Lyminge as a pleasant semi-rural place for villas, which the railway makes easy of access. But even with evidences of modern progress around us, it is the older order of things that excites the most interest. Opposite the corner that turns up the village is a substantial and stately residence, and it may be two centuries or more old, called Linden Hall. Well built of bricks in the days when brick buildings were a novelty, no doubt the builder of Linden Hall, had he wished, might have had stones of all sorts and sizes from the ancient ruined Camera de Lyminge, like those built into many of the olden buildings hereabouts, but he seems to have set his heart on bricks, good bricks, and on windows, plenty of them, although in the days when that luxury of light was indulged in, the window tax must have been something considerable. There are eight windows in a row on the second floor, and eight windows, in addition to two doors, on the ground floor, and these conspicuous in white paint have a striking appearance. Prospect House, too, has a similar appearance o well matured respectability. The finger-post at the parting of the ways by the green points one way to Elham, Barham, Canterbury; another to Mockbeggar and Stone Street; another to Ashford and Westenhanger; and another to Folkestone and Hythe. Following the carriage drive towards Stone Street we soon found ourselves in a vast park, more sparsely wooded than in the olden time, affording a wider scope for extended vision over an undulating landscape. The trees that are left are many of them grand in their upward proportions, and their roots twined in wondrous masses are equally remarkable. Here in this pleasant glade the youth of Lyminge finds vent for their energies in football and cricket, over the same ground where Henry VIII. and his court followers, guided by Sir Thomas Hardres, the Paik Ranger, sported in the Sixteenth Century. Passing the open glade we come to the old Manor House, which has been modernized, not out of keeping with the earlier building, with an embattled boundary wall and other additions. This mansion would appear from a date stone in the front wall to have been built in the year 1602. Returning to the other side of the village there is a cluster of old Lyminge houses, north-west of the Church, some very quaint. Here is the old building that three-quarters of a century ago served as a Wesleyan Chapel; near by is the post office and the schools. Turning down beside the Coach and Horses Inn on the side of the road is a rustic looking wooden structure, roofed, with openwork sides forming a covered platform; this is the famous St. Eadburga’s well, which is the source of the Nailbourne, for which this valley is famous, and which forms, when it flows, a tributary of the Lesser Stour. This well has seldom been known to fail, but during the last dry summer it has been practically dry. It has now filled again, and the hitherto dry bed of the Nailbourne stream has in it just a trickle of water. For the use of the village there has been erected in the well-house a machine pump, which by turning a handle brings up the water by means of a series of cups on an endless chain. This well-house is a modern addition to the ancient well, having been erected in 1898.

The Church and its story.

The Church at Lyminge is remarkable for many things, and first of all must be mentioned its antiquity, signs of which it bears very conspicuously, and almost equally so are accentuated the marks left by successive restorers. The Church, as it stands, consists of a chancel, nave, north aisle, south porch, grand square tower with round stair turret and spire. But, to begin at the beginning, we have to look outside the Church on the south, and near the south wall will be seen an excavation which has laid bare an apse of evident Roman work, composed of hard rubble cement formed after Roman fashion, with here and there bonding layers of Roman tiles. In saying what this was, it will not be prudent to be very positive. Apse of a church or apse of a Roman Basilica, which? That is the point which has been discussed, and if we follow the conclusions of the late Vicar, the Rev. Canon Jenkins, who from researches on the spot and in volumes of the library of Lambeth Palace, of which he was the Curator, was singularly well qualified to arrive at the truth, we shall assume that the uncovered apse—whatever it was originally— was the east end of the ancient church which Queen Ethelburga founded. This was the church that existed during the fourteen years that that Queen was the Abbess of the Nunnery of Lyminge, that is, from 633 to 647. In the south wall of the present church, close by the exposed foundations of the apse, is a marble slab inscribed thus: “The burial place of St. Ethelburga, Queen, foundress of this Church, and first Abbess of Lyminge.” The church which this Queen founded, seems to have served for Lyminge for a period of 333 years, not very effectively, it may be presumed, during the latter part of the period, for after the attack by the Danes in 804 it is recorded that the place remained destitute until it fell into the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury.” The Archbishop Dunstan took possession of the place in 965, and he then built the present Church with the materials from the Roman and Saxon building adjoining, The new Church of the Tenth Century was the breadth of the Church further north than the original one, the south wall of the present Church being built on the north wall of the old one, and the Church as it stands today is believed to be identically the same building as was erected by Dunstan in 965 with the exception of the north aisle, the tower, and the modern windows. It needs only a glance at the Church fabric, its strong made masonry, interspersed with Roman tiles and stones which could scarcely have been intended for their present position, to convince anyone that this Church was built out of the ruins of an older one. Archbishop Lanfranc restored this Church soon after the Conquest, and re-dedicated it to St. Mary and St. Eadburga. It is impossible to specially trace any of the work done at that period. The interior of the Church has many features of interest. Like those of the exterior, the faces of the walls are rough, and the deep windows displaying the Roman tiles suggest ideas of strength and antiquity. Entering from the south porch, a wooden structure through an old pointed arch doorway, there are three steps down to the Church floor, therefore from the interior the building looks more lofty than from without, the fine old Chancel arch, built by Archbishop Peckham in 1279, having a very effective appearance, and the three light stained glass eastern windows adding colour which effectively contrasts with the old and grey surroundings. The points of interest in the chancel are numerous. There is on the north side the door of an ancient sacristy. Nearly opposite it is a small old doorway in the south wall, and a round headed window over it, both, no doubt, original. The east window with its coloured glass, was placed there after the visitation of Archbishop Warharn in the year 1511. The other two perpendicular windows on the south side are, of course, of much later date than the wall in which they are inserted. Under the window nearest the east is a brass stating that it was restored as a memorial to William Cockraine, Esq., in the year 1856. Under the other modern windows, but apparently having no reference to it, is a brass engraved thus:- “S. Dunstani Cant. Archiep. M.S. Quieceles Liming prope funditus, Diratum A.D. DCCCCLXV.” (St. Dunstan cant. Archbish. M.S. Almost utterly Quieceles Liming, Diráte AD 965.) On the north wall there is another brass with this inscription:- “D. Thomas Duffin, Presb., Hujus Eccles, A.D., MCCCCLXXX, Vicar et Campanilis ejusd. fundatori in choro, A.D., MDVIII Juxta Altare Sepulto.” (Thomas Duffin, Presh. Of this, Eccles, A.D., 1480, Vicar and bell ejtisd. Founders dance, A.D., 1508 buried near the altar) There are two Saxon windows high up on the north side and one perpendicular one. In the nave, the large windows left and right of the entrance were inserted in place of two Saxon ones like that now over the door. The north aisle arcade of three arches is the work of Cardinal Bourchier, dating from 1483. Partly hidden by the pulpit is a recess covered with a ridge arch constituted of Roman tiles. This, no doubt, originally was a piscina and points to the fact of an altar having occupied that spot. The present tower was built under the direction of Cardinal Morton in the year 1490, and Archbishop Warham’s Arms are carved on either side of the western door under the tower. There is a tradition that there was an older tower on the north side, and that it fell and broke the old font. A buttress, said to be that of the old tower, is to be seen in the north aisle. The roof of the aisle is a lean-to of ancient wood work and the wood work of the nave also is ancient, both having been recently repaired, and the roof of the chancel thoroughly restored. This pulpit formerly stood out in the nave further than now. It is of ancient carved oak and had a reading desk attached. The desk, which has some characteristic carving, has been removed and placed for use against the north pier of the chancel arch. The bottom of the tower is open to the Church displaying a handsome fifteenth century window. The arch to the bottom of the tower corresponds in height with that of the chancel but is more ornate. The lectern, a new one presented by the Rev. R. D. Eves, M.A., the present rector, is handsomely carved and constructed of wood from the roof of the Church. The wood was part that had to be removed for insertion of sounder timber. There has been a much needed repair done during the last two years. A great many of the seats are new, but the old wood has been re-used wherever possible. The remarkable flying buttress at the south-east angle of the Church was placed there by Archbishop Peckham in the year 1277, but except as an ornament or a fad it was scarcely necessary for that corner of the Church rests on a solid block of Roman concrete. The little steeple at the top of the tower was built by a bequest left by Henry Brockman, of Lymne. There are the remains of a very rude sun dial on a stone in the external face of the south wall of the chancel. Although much has been done in the way of restoration and refurnishing the Church during the time of the present Rector there are still some wants which the Rector would like to have supplied, including an oak credence table, a memorial window for Queen Ethelburga, two silver candlesticks, a silver paten and chalice, and an oak screen for the belfry. In connection with these items it might be interesting to give a list of the Church goods found at Lyminge Church when the inventory made on the 6th December in the 6th year of the reign of Edward VI., attested by George Clarke, vicar; Stephen Hogben and Stephen Sawder, churchwardens; and Thomas March and Thomas Beane, parishioners; as follows:—

Item a cuppe of tyn to mynyater with

Item a blew velvet vestment

Item a cope of blew velvet

Item a whyte damaske vestment

Item of whyte damaske cope

Item a red satyn vestment

Item a grene vestment with ij tynacles

Item a branched vestment with ij tynacles

Item a whyte vestment of dornyx

Item an old cope v corpores casses

Item iiij aulter clothes, v towells

Item a vayle cloth, j red front of chamblet

Item a herse cloth, a coope of sylke

Item a canope for the pyx

Item ij greit latyn candlestyckes, vj lytle candlestycks of laten, a coper pyx, a coper senser, a latyn senser, a crismatory of copper, a holy water stoppe of latyn, a crosse cloth of sylke, a surples, aud ij rochets

Item a coverlet, ij chestes

Item v belles in the steple

Item a crosse of copper

Item to lamps of latten

Item ij handbelles, and ij sacryng belles

Item a bason of latyn with the ewer

Item ij crewetes of pewter

Item a pyllow with the cote.

Apropos of Church goods, it may not be out of place to mention the following recent gifts Service books by Miss Mihill, of Bennington candlesticks by Mrs. McArthur, of Folkestone, carved oak altar fittings by Mrs. Eves, carpel for chancel by Miss St. George, a carved oak lectern by the Rector, worked kneelers by Mrs. Rigden, and alms dish by Mr. and Mrs. Coleman. The present state of the church reflects very great credit on the Rector, the Churchwardens, and his church workers, for very recently it was far otherwise. The walls were dilapidated through old age and the weather, the lead covering patched and inefficient for keeping out the rain, the parapet was unsafe, roof almost mortarless, floor uneven, many of the seats falling to pieces, and the belfry and porch out of repair. Nearly everything in this list of defects is now righted, and when the wants before specified are supplied, the ancient Church founded by Queen Ethelburga will be practically complete.

The Bells of Lyminge.

There are six bells in the tower which were recast in the sixteenth century out of the older ones first introduced in 1480, so that the bell metal, if not the bells, may be said to date from the time when church bells were first used. Bell ringing at Lyminge has its devotees. There is a record in the tower "A true and complete peal of 720 changes of bob minor” was rung in 30 minutes on the 13th December, 1884, being the first peal of minor ever rung on these bells by a local band of ringers. The ringers were:— A. Beer (treble), R. Andrews, T. Beer, J. Andrews, and W. Fordred (jun.), conducted by A. Tanton. Another mural record states that on May 26th, 1888, the Kent Count; Association of Bellringers rang a peal of 5,040 changes on these bells of bob minor, each called differently. It was performed in three hours and fourteen minutes, conducted by A. Tanton. That was the first peal of that kind ever rung in this Church.

The Church Memorials.

There are numerous memorials in Lyminge Church. The brasses we have given, in the chancel there are memorial slabs for three sons of the late Vicar, all of whom died abroad:- Leoline, who died in Sidney in 1883; George, an Ensign of the 18th Royal Regiment, who was drowned in New Zealand in 1865, the latter being erected by his brother officers; the third memorial is for Walter Herbert, who died in New South Wales in 1890. There is also a memorial slab to the late Rector, the Rev. Robert C. Jenkins, M.A., who was 42 years rector of this parish, and Hon. Canon of Canterbury, who died March 26th, 1896, aged 81 years. Also a memorial to his wife, who died in 1893. There is also in the chancel a memorial to the Rev. Ralph Price, who was Rector 35 years, and died 1811. Other principal ancient Rectors are recorded on a tablet in the church, and the dates, are as follows Will de Lyming, 1260; Petrus de Alby, 1270; Adam de Murimuth, 1315; Cardinal Gavcelin ne Ossa, 1316; Will de Cusancia, 1350; The Lord Audemar de Rupy, 1375; Will Preene, 1400; Phil Morgan, 1407; Richd. Parkhurst, 1522; Henry Uawlins, 1540; Miles Barne, 1640. Another tablet gives the names of the Abbots of Lyminge as follows:- Romanus (?), 647; Brihtwald, 689; Cuthberht, 730; Almund, 798; and Dumwallon, 800. This last Abbot was slain in the massacre by the Danes in 804, when only one of the whole fraternity escaped, he being a secular priest.

The Schools.

The earliest educational effort in Lyminge originated in a legacy left by Timothy Beddingfield, of Dymchurch, in the year 1669, now of the value of £160 a year, and devoted to the education of poor boys in Lyminge, Smeeth, and Dymchurch, and for apprenticing them to various trades. The charity is now administered by a Board consisting of the rectors and representatives of the various parishes. William Kingsford in 1817 made a bequest for a similar purpose. A National School on the north side of the Church was built in 1849, and enlarged in 1885. There is accommodation for 152 children, and the average attendance is 100.

Wesleyan Chapel.

The Wesleyans have had a place of worship in Lyminge for several generations. The meeting was first in a cottage, then in 1835 was built the small meeting house on the north of the church. They worshipped there till 1850, when they removed to a larger chapel near the present railway station. A new chapel was built in 1893-4 on a new site not far from the original one. The new chapel is a handsome structure of red brick, with fine stone Gothic windows. There is attached schools and class rooms, and near by is the house occupied by the Superintendent Minister, the Rev. A. Bayliss. This handsome edifice was built chiefly at the cost of Mr. Rigden, of Eachend Hill.

Households and Population.

The households in Lyminge parish in the year 1841 numbered 108, and the population was 718. Fifty years later, in 1891, it was 835. In the list of householders corrected to October last, there were 126 resident registered electors.