THE DOVER EXPRESS AND EAST KENT NEWS—FRIDAY, 4 APRIL, 1902.

XLVI.—WINGHAM.

Wingham is a large and important village situate in a parish of 2637 acres, on the left bank of the Lesser Stour, and midway on the main road from Canterbury to Sandwich.

SITUATION OF WINGHAM.

Wingham village lies on a piece of rising ground which, southward, leads up to the fine open country about Adisham, and northwards the parish includes the luxuriant angle of land above the junction of the Wingham stream and the Lesser Stour. The ancient track from Richborough to Canterbury ran a little north of the village, but being subject to floods, a slight detour to the south, now represented by Wingham-street, was made, and the old track resumed at Littlebourne hill. To compensate for being just a little off the ancient track, Wingham's importance is accentuated by the fact that six roads converge upon it—from Sandwich and Deal, from Canterbury, from Stourmouth and Preston, from Adisham and Dover, and from Staple and Eastry. It forms the centre of a constellation of important villages and country residences, being the most fruitful part of the garden of England. This important centre, in common with Ash and Eastry, has the disadvantage of being some distance from railways, but notwithstanding that drawback, the population has not fallen off as in some rural centres, affording proof of the vitality which will probably ere long attract the attention of promoters of the most adaptable forms of modern locomotion. The scenery around Wingham is very beautiful, more especially from the high ground on the road to Sandwich. From that point the view of Wingham and its surroundings is beautiful.

WINGHAM IN ROMAN TIMES.

That Wingham was a place of human habitation before the year of human redemption is not open to doubt, and the Romans, when they landed in a country covered with woods, forests, and marshes, would naturally follow the beaten tracks which the natives had made for themselves; and from the place of disembarkation they found a road which then, as now, leads along solid ground into the sheltered vale of Wingham. Of course, the Romans being experienced soldiers, did not leave themselves open to flank attack. Their scouts were thrown out on either side, to the coast on one side, and the Stour on the other; but doubtless Wingham was the halting-place of a considerable portion of the Roman forces; and having come, seen, and enjoyed the picturesque situation which must have been two-fold more lovely than now, they held it so long as they held Britain. The spot which the Romans selected as their residence was definitely discovered and excavated by the Kent Archaeological Society in the year 1881, when a Roman bath and villa were found in a portion of the field known as the vineyard, near to the bridge on the road to Canterbury. The walls were eighteen inches thick, composed of Roman tiles and lined with mosaic, and the floor, which was of cement composed of pounded tiles, was also inlaid with mosaic work. One room, which was on a little higher level than the bath, had a tessellated floor with a labyrinth pattern in the centre, surrounded with a black and white border. The excavation, which was conducted by the late Mr. George Dowker, of Stourmouth, only extended to the bath and some adjoining rooms, the villa itself, according to the indications, being further south. Mr. Dowker’s narrative of the excavation, contained in the 14th and 15th vols. of Archaeologia Cantiana, leaves no question but that these are the remains of an important Roman residence, built of durable materials at a time when the natives of this country never indulged in any habitations more substantial than wooden huts. The place where the Roman villa was found being called “The Vineyard,” and having borne that name at a very early date, as proved by Norman records, it may be assumed that this vineyard originated in the latter part of the Roman occupation, the vine having been introduced into England about the year A.D. 280. In the year 1710 a stone coffin containing ashes was found in a field of Wingham Court Farm, near the same spot, but nothing further was discovered at that time.

THE SAXONS AT WINGHAM.

There is no record left of what name the Romans gave to Wingham, but there is no doubt they left it a place of some importance, for very early in the time of the Saxon Heptarchy it was a place of residence. Indeed, Mr. Dowker came to the conclusion from certain things which he found in his excavations, including millstones, a quantity of bones of the ox, the pig, and the deer, that after the departure of the Romans in 410, it was occupied by semi-barbarous people for agricultural purposes. It is quite evident that the lands of Wingham, in the early Saxon days, were valuable property, and soon after the landing of St. Augustine they were given to the Church at Canterbury. The Saxons were a remarkably superstitious race, according to whose notions the forests and marshes hereabouts were peopled with elves, ogres, and giants, which still live in fairy tales; and when Christianity was preached to them, their frame of mind predisposed them to accept this higher and truer form of supernatural religion. This disposition accounts for the liberality of the King of Kent in giving such large possessions to the Church. It is one thing to give and another to hold. During the troubles of the Heptarchy, the Church of Canterbury lost those possessions, but in the year A.D. 946, Edmund the King, in the honour of Christ, restored all the lands that had originally been given. Wingham, at that time, was not merely the village, nor yet the present parish, the district comprised under that name including Goodneston, Ash, Nonington, and Womenswould—one great parish of 40 sulins, that is about 9000 acres. Parishes, in the early days of Christianity, were formed simply by a Lord of the Manor building a church for the use of his estate. The Wingham estate was evidently a very large one, but who was the owner, or whether it ever had any private owner before it was given to the church, is not recorded. It has been suggested by Mr. Arthur Hussey, and confirmed very emphatically by the opinion of Mr. Alfred Moore, that the name of Wingham, or Winganham, as it was originally written, was derived from some early Saxon proprietor named "Wingan," who had at Wingham his “ham.” That is the only suggestion that we have seen as to the origin of the name of Wingham, except a rather fanciful one thrown out by the old writer Philipot, who thought the name was derived from the two streams, Wingham brook and the Lesser Stour, which form a junction on the north of the village and enclose it in their wings. The first suggestion is the most probable, but the weakness of it is the fact that no such poison as Wingan is mentioned in history. He may have existed, and he may have given his broad lands to the Church, but if he did his liberality was ignored, and the King received the credit of it. Even in those days of primitive Christianity it was not the fashion for great landowners to strip themselves bare in that fashion. Perhaps in that great Penticostal movement, at the coming of Augustine, when the King and the people flocked to the Stour and the Swale to be baptized en masse, Wingan was one of the stiff-necked generation who would not accept the teaching of the Italian missionary, and the King, with a liberality as cheap as it was large, allowed Wingan to be excommunicated for the good of his soul and his property confiscated for the benefit of the Church. However this gift of the Wingham lands was made, the Ecclesiastical authorities, after some ins and outs during the Heptarchy, had gained a firm possession of them at the time of the Conquest, and even that rapacious prelate, the Bishop of Bayeaux, who appropriated so many of the manors of the dispossessed Saxons of East Kent, was not able to take to himself but a small slice of this inheritance. He did get a slice in the Nonington section, which accounts for the Wingham lands having been reduced from 40 to 35 sulins.

WINGHAM IN NORMAN TIMES.

The condition of Wingham in early Norman times is exhibited by the following translation of the entry concerning the manor of Wingham which is recorded in Domesday Book: “In the lathe of Estrei, in Wingham Hundred, the Archbishop himself holds Wingham in demesne. It was taxed at 40 sulins in the time of Edward the Confessor, but now for 35 sulins. In demesne are eight carucates and four times twenty and five villeins, with twenty borderers having 57 carucates. There are eight servants and two mills of 34s. wood for the pannage of five hogs, and two small woods for fencing. In its whole value it was worth 77 pounds in King Edward's time, when he received the like, and now one hundred pounds. Of this manor William de Acrise holds one sulin in Fletes, and there he has in demesne one carucate and four villeins, and one knight with one carucate, and one fishery and a salt pit of thirty pence. The whole value is forty shillings. Of this manor, five of the Archbishop’s men hold five sulins and a half, and three yokes, and there they have in demesne eight carucates and twenty-two borderers, and eight servants. In the whole they are worth twenty-one pounds.” It will he seen that according to the above entry, the Wingham manor was, in the year 1085, in three sections. There was the large part which the Archbishop appropriated to himself with his 85 villeins and their 20 borderers, or boarders, and eight servants or bondsmen. The centre of this fair-sized community would be the manor house, standing on the site of Wingham Court, opposite the church, and the 85 villeins would be holding the 57 carucates of land in various sized allotments, the whole representing probably 3,000 acres, which would comprise part of Wingham, Goodneston. part of Ash, part of Nonington, and Womenswould. These villeins and borderers would be heads of families, with probably six in a family; so that the whole of the Archbishop’s personal estate at Wingham would have upon it a population of 630 persons without counting the Archbishop’s household. The second section mentioned was at Fleet, in Ash—a small section consisting of William de Acrise and his household, 4 villeins, and a knight. The knight probably had charge of Richborough and had soldiers under him. That outlying section would perhaps represent a hundred persons. Then there were five of the Archbishop’s men holding 5½ sulins and 3 yokes. They had 22 borderers and eight servants.

ARISTOCRACY OF WINGHAM.

It is not made clear on what part of the manor these five Archbishop’s men were located, what was their status, or what services they rendered for their holdings; but it may surmised that they were the germ from which sprang the local aristocracy, the lay unproprietors of the tithes, to correct whose neglect and avarice the College of Secular Canons was organised 197 years later by Archbishop Peckham. These Archbishop’s men were probably the holders of the five sub-manors of Pedding, Chilton, Twitham, Ratling, and Bonnington. They were the lords of the manors who built the churches on their several manors, which came to be regarded as parishes, for there were churches and vicars at Ash. Nonington, Goodneston, and Womenswould before the establishment of the College of Six Secular Canons at Wingham.

WHY THE COLLEGE WAS FOUNDED.

It was probably owing to the church at Wingham taking nearly all the tithe revenue—these lords of the manors keeping a tight hold on the rest, leaving the outlying churches and their vicars to starve that led to the establishment of Wingham College. That seems to be the plain English of the deed in which Archbishop John Peckham set forth his reason for founding the College in the year 1282. After a nicely worded preamble he says, “We have turned our eyes to the church at Wingham as it were to a fruitful vineyard [probably a simile drawn from the local vineyard] filled with branches and fruits which cannot be easily cultivated by the labours of one husbandman, nay, further, by two, from the great extent of the parish as well as its numerous population, and its revenues are sufficient to furnish the payment of more labourers. And it seems very much opposed to the divine plan, together with the harm caused to the general welfare and the unspeakable loss of souls, that what is quite enough for more soldiers of Christ should be pressed into one purse, wherefore as a remedy.... we have divided the Church of Wingham into four parishes, as follows: The first and chief of all these we declare to be the Church of Wingham, together with the Hamlets, &c. The second the parish of Esse (Ash), having the, tithes, &c. The third the Church of Godwynston (Goodneston) with the hamlets, &c. The fourth the Church of Nonington, with the Chapel of Wymelingewelde, with the hamlets, &c. And because in this division we have regard only for the honour of God and the temporal and spiritual welfare of souls, we openly forbid anyone opposing this present division under threat of Divine curse.” This Divine curse had a great deal of the human element in it, and truly the good Bishop did well to be angry with the state of things that he found at Wingham at that time. One Theodosius de Camilla, a foreign ecclesiastic, one of the Pope’s chaplains, was the non-resident Vicar of Wingham, and also of Ash: he was also Dean of Wolverhampton, and Rector of Tarring, Sussex. Archbishop Peckham thundered against this abuse as soon as he came to the diocese, denouncing the practice of a priest holding a “damnable number of benefices.” He deprived Theodosius of the livings of Wingham and Ash, whereupon Theodosius appealed to the Pope, and John the Sacristan, of Westminster Abbey, took up his cause so zealously that he flung a roll of parchment into the face of Archbishop Peckham when that prelate was consecrating a Bishop in Canterbury Cathedral. In spite of all this zeal expended in his cause. Theodosius never recovered his livings, and it was while this controversy was pending that the Wingham College was founded, with honest intent of fairly dividing the revenues amongst the clergy of the four parishes, of which Wingham was to be the mother Church. The income of the whole ancient parish was given to the College, which was to consist of a Provost and six Canons; the Canons were required to keep eight Vicars, which would be two for Wingham, including the Brook Chantry Priest, two for Goodneston, two for Nonington, with the Chapel of Womenswould, and two for Ash, with the Chapel of Fleet. The six Canons were bound to reside in the College four months in every year, their houses being then situated on the sites of the ancient cottages, the Dog Inn and the Post Office, between the Court and the Lion Inn, and the house of the Provost being the present Vicarage.

THE WORK OF THE COLLEGE.

With this change the Church at Wingham became collegiate, and for the accommodation of the members of this College the fourteen stalls were erected which still remain in the high chancel. The occupiers of these stalls would be the six Canons and the eight Vicars. Whether Wingham College answered the purposes which were in the mind of good Archbishop Peckham, its founder, it is difficult to say. It existed 265 years, and during that time was a valuable centre of social and religious life, and being composed of the secular and parochial clergy, who were much more in harmony with the trend of feeling amongst the people than the monks, or itinerant clergy who formerly served the country churches. They were sent out from the monasteries dependent mostly on the alms of the people, while the tithes diverted to other sources. Archbishop Peckham gave all the tithes possibly available to the College to be spent in the spiritual elevation of the people of the four parishes, and his work was not in vain. There were very few abuses, which is demonstrated by the fact that there is very little recorded of the College except biographical notices of the Provosts and Canons, and a few irregularities which will occur in the best regulated institutions. About forty years before the College was dissolved there was an enquiry held in Wingham Church as to certain abuses. The chief abuse found was that the Canons instead of maintaining eight Vicars, had only four—one in each parish, but the reply was that the number of Vicars had been reduced in the year 1560 because the stipends were but £4 a year each, and by a reduction in number the amount was increased to £8. This was the reply of the Canons, but the Vicars were not content, their complaints being that a marc (13/4) a year was deducted from each stipend, that formerly the Provost and Canons used to promote their Vicars to benefices, which were now given to strangers, and that as a consequence the 'Vicars instead of being doctos (taught) there were then two who were indocto (untaught); and it appeared from the further enquiry that the credentials of two of the Vicars were so suspicious that the Archbishop ordered them to leave his jurisdiction. The Archbishop (Wareham) also ordered the Canons to show cause why they should not maintain as many Vicars as were provided for in the foundation of the College. Whether there was any change is not recorded, but the fact that the College was left to continue its mission in 1536 when all the religious houses in this district were dissolved by Act of Parliament, showed that Henry VIII. considered it worth preserving. But in the first year of Edward VI. A.D. 1547, when Archbishop Cranmer was left unrestrained, he extended the edict of suppression of Colleges, chantries, and hospitals, when Wingham College, the Dover Maison Dieu, and the Leper Hospital of St. Bartholomew, Dover, were amongst the institutions dissolved. Amongst the Canons who were in office at the suppression were Edmund Cranmer (Provost), son of the Archbishop, who received a pension of £20 a year (equal to £200 now), but six years later, in Queen Mary’s reign, he was deprived; John Bland, of Ratling Canonry, who was burnt at Canterbury in Queen Mary’s reign; John Thorpe, of Pedding Canonry, who quietly retired on a pension; Robert Collyns, who received an office at the Cathedral, and was one of the examiners of John Bland: Henry Holland, who held the Canonry of Womenswould, and retired on a pension; Matthew Goodriche, who became a minor Canon of Canterbury, but was deprived in Queen Mary’s reign because he was a married man; and John Stowe, of whom no special record is left. All the Canons had a retiring allowance of £6 13s. 4d., which now would be equal to £60 a year, but the royal bounty out of which these pensions were paid was soon relieved, for Edmund Cranmer, the Provost, was deprived in less than six years, John Bland was burnt as a martyr, and Goodriche was deprived owing to his being a married man. The whole of the revenues of the College were taken by the Crown, and in 1553 the Provost’s house, the Canons’ residences, and the tithes, then £600 a year, were sold to Sir Henry Palmer subject to his paying £20 a year to the Vicar of Wineham, who was left without a residence. So Wingham College, having served its purpose, passed away.

SHREDS OF WINGHAM'S PAST.

Much of the history of ancient Wingham is bound up with the College, the story of which we have told, but there are a great many shreds of the past associated with the Archbishop’s manorial residence at Wingham, which occupied the same site as the goodly mansion which now stands opposite the Church. Looking down the long vista of the past, these bits of old Wingham pass like a panorama, commencing with A’Becket's triumphal return from exile in December, 1170, when the Priest of Wingham met the grand cavalcade at the entrance of the village, bearing the processional cross and shouting “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” That was A’Becket’s last sight of Wingham, for before the month closed he was murdered in his own cathedral. Wingham Manor House was a centre of great business and agitation when the dark-complexioned Archbishop Baldwin spent much time here. He was a very simple-minded man, born of poor parents at Exeter; he by the aid of the Bishop of that city was advanced, and became Archdeacon, which office he resigned to become one of the Cistercian Monks, whose rule was to eat neither flesh, fish, eggs, milk, nor cheese, and in his after career Archbishop Baldwin continued to be a vegetarian. Having been Bishop of Worcester, he was enthroned at Canterbury in 1185. The special reason why he spent much time at Wingham was because he was in disagreement with the monks at Christ Church, his ambition being to build a cathedral church at Hackington, half a mile from the city. He did begin to build a church there which was to have been a memorial to A’Becket. During the dispute on this subject, Baldwin kept away from Canterbury, and did the business here which was formerly transacted in the Chapter House. In 1186 a deputation of monks came to Wingham Court to interview the Archbishop about Eastry Church, and in the following years the appointments of William Prior of Dover, and Dunstan, Prior of St. Gregory, Canterbury, were made at Wingham. Eventually by the intervention of Richard I., the estrangement between the monks of Christ Church and this Archbishop was settled by Hackington pro-cathedral church being pulled down, and it is said that some of the stones thereof were used to build the little gem of a church at Barfreston. This settlement ended Archbishop Baldwin's connection with Wingham, for within a few months he volunteered to go with Richard I. on his crusade to the Holy Land; on the 24th February, 1190, at the altar at Canterbury Cathedral, he took the pilgrim’s staff, proceeded by way of Dover to Palestine, and died at Acre in November of the same year. Four years later Wingham saw passing through its streets Richard I. and his escort on the return of that monarch from the crusades which had been supplemented by a long imprisonment in an Austrian dungeon, and the Abbots, and Barons, and Knights of the Shire, having paid handsomely for his ransom, joyfully welcomed their Lion-hearted King. The next memorable occasion recorded was King John’s visit to Wingham on the 25th May, 1213, ten days after his ignoble surrender of the Kingdom to the Pope’s Legate near Dover. Those ten days had been a period of bitter humiliation of the King, and his coming to Wingham was dreaded more than welcomed, for he had harried the clergy from Archbishop Stephen Langton down to the humblest monk; but the severe discipline had broken his spirit. The object of King John’s visit was to arrange terms for making peace with Archbishop Stephen Langton, then in exile. He stayed moodily at the Manor House for three days, after which he went back to Dover. On the 30th of May he came again to Wingham, staying four days in the Archbishop’s house, which he had seized, and then he left for Chilham Castle to continue the negotiations, which were there left incomplete and the rightful owner of the manor in exile. Whether Stephen Langton ever came to his Wingham residence after his return from the Continent at the close of the year 1213 is not recorded. In more peaceful times, in the year 1238, Archbishop Rich kept the Christmas festival with great, hospitality at Wingham Court. Up to this time Wingham had been an important village, but it now being the centre of a thriving population aspired to become a market town. A petition to that effect went to the King in the year 1252, and a jury of the hundred were empanelled to enquire if such a market would injure Canterbury or Sandwich. The jury, which consisted of a Wenderton, Denne, Chilton, Helles, Molande, Peddinge, Rolling, and others interested in the district, and whose names still survive, found in favour of the market, which was granted. The market house, it is believed, was at the commanding corner at the head of the village now occupied by the Lion Inn; and the market was so successful that Canterbury brought a suit in the King's Court alleging that provisions were intercepted here on the way to the city. The Justices, however, decided that the Archbishop had the right to hold the Wingham market, and it was continued. In addition to this weekly market, Wingham had two fairs, still older institutions, on the 12th of May and the 12th of November, which until 1444 were held in the churchyard: but both market and fairs now only live in memories and traditions. Kirkwardby, the next Archbishop who came, intended dividing the revenues of the parish into several prebends, but he soon being made a cardinal, it was left, to Archbishop Peckham to take up the work, which he did by founding the College, as already described. This Archbishop was popular, and being a Franciscan, when travelling in his diocese he assumed the dress of his order and was known as “Friar John.” The records show that this prelate was often at Wingham. There was very little pomp about his movements, but his zeal for his poorer clergy and for the upkeep of the churches was unique. A notable event connected with Wingham was the visit of King Edward I. to the Archbishop Winchelsea at the manor house in September, 1295, when the writ of summons to the clergy to choose representatives for Parliament was dated from this village. Archbishop Winchelsea was a great man—too great to spend much time at Wingham. The only local business mentioned as having been done at any of his visits was his receiving the homage of John de Ratling, from Ratling Castle. There is a melancholy interest attached to the visit of Edward II. on the 21st August, 1325. The King was in a distracted state of mind owing to his having entrusted his wife Isabella to make a treaty with her brother, the King of France—a treaty most dishonorable to the King of England; and he found himself obliged to go over to France to ratify it. He was on that journey bent when he arrived at Wingham. Disliking the business he turned back and loitered three days at Sturry Court, and then started for Dover; but owing to illness, which it is supposed was feigned, he turned aside and went to Langdon Abbey. He never went to France, and within two years he abdicated. Five years after Edward II’s sad visit, there were great festivities at Wingham manor house, when Edward III., who had pushed his father off the throne, was feted and honoured by Archbishop Mepham, as though the Fifth Commandment had been repealed. Some 50 years later, Archbishop Sudbury was occasionally at Wingham, but he could not have been loved there, for 20,000 Kentish men, under Wat Tyler, rose in rebellion against the poll tax which, as Chancellor, he imposed, and there were men of Wingham standing around when the mob forcibly took this Archbishop from the Tower of London and beheaded him on Tower Hill. On that occasion the Sheriff of Kent was William de Septyans, of the Wingham Hundred, and the mob sacked his house, burnt his estate rolls, and liberated his prisoners from Canterbury Gaol. After that insurrection, which was a genuine rising of the people against the remains of feudalism, juries of the Wingham and Eastry Hundreds found that amongst those who had maliciously “made insurrection” were Lawrence Smythe and John Gunne at Chillenden, and Richard-atte-Denne at Wootton. There were several other royal progresses through Wingham between the time of Wat Tyler’s rebellion and the days of Henry VIII., but nothing noteworthy occurred. In the year 1538 Archbishop Cranmer surrendered Wingham manor to Henry VIII in exchange for other estates which the King promised but never gave. Cranmer was not troubled about a residence, for about that time he was occupying and improving his palace at Bekesbourne. The subsequent history of Wingham manor may be briefly stated. The Crown held it till the Reign of Charles I., and in the 5th year of that reign Wingham Court, with the demesne lands of the manor, were given in trust for the City of London; and near the latter end of that reign the manor was sold to Earl Cowper, whose successor is still one of the principal landownetrs.

JACK CADE’S REBELLION.

Wingham people seem to have taken a special part in the rebellion of 1450. Shakespeare, in “King Henry VI.,” has the following dialogue between George Bevis and John Holland:

“John: I see them, I see them ! There’s Best’s son, the tanner of Wingham.

George: He shall have the skins of our enemies to make dog’s leather of.”

There was truth underlying this jesting. The name of Best is not given amongst those who suffered or those who were pardoned for taking part in the insurrection, but it is well known that a large number of Wingham people of both high and low degree accepted the leadership of Cade in his vain effort for economic reform. There was John Oxenden, who owned a pretty large slice of Wingham; there was John Hope, supposed to be of one of the leading families; James Chaterynden and Richard Perry, supposed to have been the owners of Chatterdone and Perry farms; and William Donnington is supposed to be Will. Bonnington, the name of another large farm in the Wingham Hundred. These names seem to indicate that fully three-fourths of the acreage of Wingham was in Jack Cade’s following. An old inhabitant of Wingham, also, offers cogent reasons for concluding that although Jack Cade may have been of Irish birth, and during the wars was in the service of the King of France, he must have afterwards settled in Kent, or the Kentish men would not have trusted him. In the Duke of York’s soliloquy in "Henry VI." he is represented as saying:

“ And for a minister of my intent

I have seduced a headstrong Kentishman,

John Cade of Ashford.”

Further on, where John Cade speaks, he

says:

“ My wife descended of the Lacies.”

Dick the butcher, who is supposed to know Cade intimately, says, in an aside:

“ She was indeed a pedlar’s daughter and 6old many laces.”

To which Smith the weaver adds:

‘ But now of late not able to travel with her furred pack, she washes bucks here at home.”

The “ Lacies ” above referred to was the old name of the family of Lasletts. of whom there were and still are many in Wingham and the neighbourhood; and it is suggested that John Cade, when he settled in East Kent, married one of them, and thus increased his hold on the people. “As to Wingham tannery in John Cade’s time,” the old Wingham inhabitant to whom we have alluded continues, “ it should be noted that in that period and later the ordinary dress of the working men, who of course comprised the greater part of the people, was leather (sheepskin), or the more expensive buckskin breeches, and a leather sheepskin or buckskin jacket. The buckskin is probably referred to in the aside ‘She washes bucks here at home.’ The leather article was worn here in some instances up to the early part of the present centurv, and there used to be. in Wingham. a standing joke about an aged couple on this subject. The husband came home terribly drenched, slipped off his leather small clothes, and went to bed, and his wife, who had been baking, put the nether garment into the oven to dry. with the result that the leather shrunk and the man next day was breechless. Thus arose the common saving when anything was too small. "It’s like old Jerry’s breeches !’’ On the premises of the Wingham tannery the skins were not only dressed into leather, but the leather was made up into clothing: and, so far as sheepskins have formed anv articles of wrear, that line of trade has remained unbroken up to the present day, over a period probably, of 500 vears. The original house of the tanner still remains, and is the building referred to in Mr. Arthur Hussey’s book as the picturesque old shop next the bridge in the village street. It was in this shop that the manufacture and sale of leather clothing was carried on after the tannerv was pulled down in the year 1780. when the land was sold to a Mr. Chandler, who built there a house and shop for the grocery and draDeTy trades that were then develooing. the adjoining tannerv house being held and the leather trade carried on bv the Bushell family. Ul-timatelv the Chandlers bought the Bnshell’s house and incorporated the leather trade with their own which still continues in the possession of Mr. J. C.Dougbtv.” Probablv. if old local records were searched, it might be found that in 1450 Best, mentioned by Shakesneare. was the owner of this now departed Wingham tannery.

A STROLL THROUGH WINGHAM.

Just a glance at Wingham as it is to-day ¦will he interesting. Approaching by the Sandwich road, the elevated ground affords a good birdseye view of the whole place, the church at the south-west extremity and the trees amongst which the tall soire rises giving a picturesque touch to the landscape. Before reaching the village street, the condition of the land shows that it is on the north-eastern side used for that petit culture which makes all this part of the County famous. At the entrance of the village the roads from Sandwich and Preston form a function, on the west side of which, opposite the finger post, stand a pair of Quaint old cottages with little dormer windows peeping out of the roof, on which the initials and f’srures T.B. 1667 afford evidence of domestic Wingham at the time of the Merrie Monarch. Across the street the old farm buildings are interesting, and the modernized front remarkable. The Wineham 8upolv Stores, like new wine in an old bottle, but more adaptable to the circumstances, exhibits how a rare show of modern enterprise can irradiate premises which existed long before retail commerce accommodated the population. The boys’ school stands on the west side, with its ample facilities and its soacious plavcround in the rear, contrasting favourablv with the time when the youngsters of Wingham were taueht in the sepulchral surroundings of the Brook chantry and recreated amongst its tombs. The bridge over which the street crosses invites a look at the stream, down to which, on the eastern side, is a flight of steps, which recalls the nrimitive wav in which Wingham obtained its water supply, for wells in this village are few and far between. Some intelligent Avork-men who are repairing the structure, volunteered the information that this Wingham stream is always much less in volume now than in years past. Perhaos that is owing to its head water southward being intercepted and because Wingham folks, instead of being content to he noisoned. as Dr. Robinson, the Medical Officer of Health, asserted they were, by the water of this stream, contaminated by the soakage from farms and drainage from other sources, were aroused by the reports of that official, to get a water supply from a nurer source. The initiative lav with the Eastry Board of Guardians, who. with the characteristic inertia of such bodies, hung un the question until they were compelled by the Local Government Board and outside opinion to provide the present works, which are arranged on an almost automatic nrinciple. A strong soring of pure water furnishes ouantitv enough to turn an undershot water wheel of 12 feet diameter two feet wide. That w'heel works a three-throw Pump, which fills, on the neighbouring high ground, a reservoir w'hich supplies the houses in the village area, the water being pure, constant, and plentiful at a cost of not more than ten per cent, above Dover charges, and that charge includes interest and instalment of the principal outlav of £1300. and the working expenses. It is from this place that the Margate Corporation are seeking powers to take their water supply,
and there would have been danger of their taking it all and leaving none for Wingham if .the Eastry Rural District Council had not wisely stipulated that their abstinence from opposition should be conditional on Wing-ham being properly supplied before Margate takes the surplus. Water and gas are natu> rally associated, in these days, in the accommodation of communities, and in the matter of gas Wingham has gone ahead. It i»ad its sapply of petroleum gas on the Mansfield system, but unfortunately the gas company w as not well floated, and some time ago the gas house was burnt down, and the concern was a commercial failure, but the gasometer is now in successful private use by a local buxlder, and others, w’e believe, have their own private gas machines. Having tarried so ’ong on the bridge it will be necessary to look round again before advancing. To the ncrth, on Preston Hill, there is a pareel of land known as The Quakers,” which was the Quakers’ burial ground. Near here, too, was the old Unitarian Chapel, the fabric of which still exists, and has within its w’alls the grave of the minister who officiated there in the Eighteenth Century, but it has been closed as far as the Unitarians are concerned for nearly a hundred years. In the year 1812 the father and grandfather of Mr. G. E. Toomer, J.P., hired this chapel, and worked on Congregational lines with such success that it had to be enlarged, and ultimately a new chapel on another site was built. After a look at the picturesque shop, modernised with plate glass windows, next the bridge, which was once the locale of Best the tanner, we turn towards the head of the village, looking up the unusually broad street lined on either side by ancient lime and chestnut trees. At every step there is some old reminiscences which might be unearthed. A couple of centuries ago probably the smartest block of houses m the street was that nicely panelled front, in the centre of which is Mr. Palmer’s chemist and druggist establishment. The glory of these buildings is not departed, for they are admired more than ever, but in older times instead of-being used for business purposes they must have been the residence of one of the principal Magnates of the place. Although the tannery is gone, Wingham Street has it* industries. On the west side are the works of the Wingham Agricultural Company, which, loc ated in a thriving centre, employs a large number of hands. On the other side, Mr. Lovell, the builder, also employs much labour. On the west side, a little off the street, stands the Congregational Chapel which the Toomers built in 1835 after the old meeting house before referred to was abandoned. It stands on an acre and a half of ornamental ground, with the Preachers Manse, a very pretty house, on the north side, now occupied by the Rev. W. J. Meek, and on a. mound in front of the chapel is a monument to several members of the Toomer lamily, who were the main workers and financial supporters of the cause for nearly a hundred years. Passing up the village, the old time Inn signs hanging out attract attention, the Red Lion, the Dog, the Anchor, and the Eight Bells, and per contra it may be mentioned that a Wingham Temperance Society has existed off and on since the days of Father Matthew. At first it ¦ did not catch on, but it was reorganised more than thirty years ago by the Vicar, the Congregational Pastor, and the village School Master. There have been later revivals, and there are now three Temperance Societies in Wingham. Talking of the Red Lion, which stands at the head of the village, it will be remembered that in addition to the interest attached to its having been the Market Hall in days long past, it was until some eighteen years ago the place where was held mpnthly the Petty Sessions for the Wingham Division, but now there is a Sessions House in the field alongside the Staple road. Adjoining the Red Lion is the Fire Engine Station, an establishment which is very important to the district. This dates from 1876. Next there is the Post Oflice, which is believed to be a part of the ancient College, as was also the Dog Inn, which has on its front a d- 1661, and restored 1850. The first date refers to the time of its establishment as a public house some years after the Canons vacated it. The next buildings, a pair of quaint black and white cottages, were also a part of the Canons’ residences. These were restored, we believed, by Mr. Gardner, some years ago. as nearly as possible in the original style. In the rear of these cottages are the the girls’ and infants' schools, with enclosed playground. On the opposite side of the road the residence of the present Vicar, the Rev. J. Mackinson Fox, B.A., was the house of the Provost, and which for many years after the dissolution of the College was the residence of the Palmers, who were great people here in the Tudor times. Turning again to the south side, we are in front of the old Manor House called Wingham Court, which must be the successor of the original, for it is now a substantial structure, looking peculiar with its tiled roof covered with green moss and waving ferns. A little beyond. on the other side, is the pretty residence of the village Doctor, overlooking the water, «ind adjoining the west of the churchyard. Round the bend towards Littlebourne is the Volunteer Drill Shed. This was formerly a Wesleyan Chapel, and looks like one now. The Wesleyans commenced an attempt to evangelize Wingham early in the century, and converted an old 6asfc house :n an alley near the chemist’s shop into a chapel, and later built this chapel near the church with accommodation for 200 people, but the cause died out in 1885, i*mce when the volunteers have occupied the premises. In the field a little further on are the row of hoppers' huts provided for the accommodation of the autumn visitors who come to gather the hop harvest, while away across the hop field to the west is the church of Ickam which reminds us that we have reached the limits of our perambulation of the village and must now turn aside to examine within and with* out the ancient and interesting church.

[To do justice to the historical and archreo-lopicRl features of the church and other pomfs of local interest, we must defer the remainder of this Wingham articlo till next week.]