The great hall, from which all the principal apartments diverge, is lighted by a dome and cupola, between the walls of which the flues are carried up. The rooms are in general small, but are fitted up in a very costly manner, and contain many pictures, some of them of great merit.

Behind the house, the ground rises into small hills, forming a sort of amphitheatre, being embellished with plantations and prospect rooms. In front is a broad sheet of water, which has been expanded from a small rill that rises at a short distance westward, and flows into the Medway near Bow Bridge. The parsonage house, which, like the church, was re-built by the earl, is a handsome edifice, and forms a pleasing object from the castle. Through the Hurst-woods, which, extending to the north-east, cover an area of several miles, his lordship also had an avenue cut at great expense, and three miles in length, to communicate with the London road near Wrotham. In these woods, which abound with oak, and are partly within the weald, were wild swine as lately as the reign of Elizabeth; and among the quarry hills here the marten cat is still occasionally seen.

The church is dedicated to St. Lawrence, and was consecrated in August 1746. It is built on the plan of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, designed by Inigo Jones; but is more splendid, and has an elegant spire. There are no pews in this church, but seats, as on the continent. The pillars are painted in imitation of marble. The east window contains some very fine painted glass, brought from the old castle, and exhibiting the arms and alliances of the earls of Westmoreland. In a chapel at the west end were re-interred the remains of the Fanes, removed, with their costly monuments, from the old church.

The lineage of the Le Despencers is as anceint and honourable as that of any family in the whole range of

the English nobility. It is one of the old baronies created by writ of summons, and which, being heritable through the female as well as the male line, pass at different periods into different families.

Robert Le Despencer was Steward to William the Conqueror, and one of his Barons, as is fully manifest from authentic records; also, that his posterity were denominated from the said office of Despencer (i. e. steward,) is testified by Camden, in his discourse on surnames, who mentions the Spencers to be descended from the Despencers, the De (when surnames were fully introduced) being omitted for brevity, as by innumerable instances in other families might be proved.

In the year 1414, Isabel Le Despencer was the surviving heiress, to whom the title had descended in an unbroken line from the first baron. She married Sir Richard Beauchamp, Lord Abergavenny and Earl of Worcester, by whom she was mother of Elizabeth Beauchamp, wife of Edward Neville, Lord Abergavenny.

In the year 1589, Mary Neville was the sole surviving heiress. This lady married Sir Thomas Fane, by whom she was mother of Francis Fane, Lord Le Despencer, who was created Earl of Westmoreland.

The seventh earl dying without issue, the title fell into abeyance, between the heirs of his lordship's sisters, Mary, wife of Sir Francis Dashwood, Bart., and Catherine, lady of William Paul, Esq.; but the crown terminated the abeyance, in 1763, in favour of Sir Francis Dashwood, who died without issue, when the barony again fell into abeyance, again to be terminated in favour of Thomas, grandson of Catherine Paul, who had married William Stapleton, Esq., afterwards created a baronet.

From this Sir Thomas Stapleton, the present Baroness Le Despencer is descended.

THE DARK WATER KING.-A STORY OF THE NIGER.

BY H. W. WOOLRYCH, ESQ.

SOME time in the nineteenth century, there reigned on the banks of the Niger, as you go northwards from the Eboe country to Timbuctoo, two neighbouring kings, or chieftains. They were neither Moors nor Arabs, nor yet had they all things in common with the woollyhaired Negro, but might rather be classed as the heads of an independent race living chiefly by extortion, and not averse to plunder, from whatever quarter it could be obtained. At one moment they were river wolves, seizing upon every canoe which floated on those broad blue waters where they held their sovereignty; at another they were wont to march inland with an armed banditti to prey indiscriminately upon all within their progress; and, in default of these robberies, they scrupled not, upon occasion, to invade each other's territory. It was after one of these sorties, when the monarch of the Dark Water had succeeded in carrying off cattle and slaves in abundance from the dominion of his unwary brother, that a palaver was held between the two nations for the purpose of arranging the quarrel, and, if possible, of averting open hostilities. Intrigue and diplomacy, as much in vogue here as among civilised countries, went on as usual, and more than one staggering reason was assigned, on the part of the Dark Water King, for the mandate which

had produced this formidable aggression of the ghrazzie*. But money formed a chief article in this conference, the dissolution of which without the results of peace was not so much owing to the ambition or demands of the warring monarchs, as to a refusal, on the part of the invader, to make the recompense of half a million of cowries for the damage done in his excursion. Both parties accordingly repaired to arms. The troops of Maharry, the king of the Dark Water, were posted in a valley with a rising ground in front, whilst in the rear was a chain of lofty hills skirting the majestic Niger. King Felatah, in person, commanded the adverse host. Impatient, and indignant at the transgression which had been committed against him, he bade his men advance across the sandy plain which lay between them and the enemy, and surmount the elevated spot behind which the hostile lances towered. His men obeyed, and clad in their close iron jackets, defied the foe who had so lately plundered them. Maharry, with the tact of a European, permitted the attack, but no sooner had the boldest of his opponents gained the hill, than couching his lance, he gave the order for an instant movement. Arrows sharp and poisoned soon flew on all sides with a precision equalled only by the fatal lance, and King Felatah found speedily how dangerous an experiment he had tried. Before his men could rally at the foot of the descent, they were assailed by unerring weapons at all points. They could not regain the brow from whence they had come; their foes pressed them in the front, their friends from behind, and their only resource was in a valour and discipline to which African armies are in a great measure strangers. It was in vain that the king attempted to infuse life into

*Plundering excursions.

the disordered band. His coat of divers colours, his decorated tobe *, the panther skin he bestrode, his uplifted arm and threatening spear, were seen throughout the field; but the day was gone for him, and won by the sovereign of the Dark Water. A general route took place, and happy was he who could count twenty miles. between the scene of action and the place of his refuge; for the pursuit was hot and bloody, and victory was but the signal for sterner butcheries. Many were the fugitives who fell slaughtered in the valley, the life of the quivering victims being merely spared whilst their captors were wrangling for the turban and the trouser they had despoiled. But of all the fruits of this conquest, that of the defeated Sultan's tent was the most to be coveted, and the king of the Dark Water failed not to assert his royal right to this chief of prizes. The camp was quickly plundered, and the party were now hastening forward to search for further prey, when they beheld, seated upon a horse richly caparisoned, a woman closely wrapped in the head-dress of the country. Hard by her noble white steed lay an expiring eunuch, whose duty it had been to guard his mistress in the expedition, and who had, probably, met his death by the stroke of a chance arrow. his right hand he still held the bridle of the horse he had been wont to lead; in his left a wooden trumpet, or frumfrum, still lingered, which at once proclaimed that the stranger belonged to the harem of Sultan Felatah. Indeed, she had accompanied her husband on his military excursion, and according to the privilege of favourites, had been attended by one of the chief eunuchs of the seraglio. Such a prize was not to be slaughtered, and Fatima was quickly conducted to the king of the Dark

*Turban or head-dress.

In