Cobham, Kent

Description
Cobham, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands on Watling Street, 1 mile from Sole Street station on the L.C. & D.R., and 4 miles SSE of Gravesend; has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Gravesend; was the scene of Pickwick's ludicrous antiquarian discovery; possesses still the " clean and commodious ale-house " to which Mr Tup-man retired from the world; is much frequented by visitors from London; was once a market-town, and still has a fair on 2 Aug. The parish comprises 3056 acres; population, 968. The manor belonged from early times to the great family of De Cobham; passed by marriage, toward the end of the 14th century, to Sir John Oldcastle, who assumed the title of Lord Cobham in right of his wife; passed again by marriage soon afterwards to the Brookes, who also bore the title of Lords Cobham; went, by attainder, in the first year of James I. to the Crown; was granted to the Stewarts, Earls of Lennox; and descended, in the early part of the 18th century, to John Bligh, Esq., who was created Earl of Darn-ley. Cobham Hall, the Earl of Darnley's seat, consists of a centre and two wings; is partly a Tudor brick structure of 1582-94, and partly a renovation and addition by Inigo Jones; gave entertainment to Elizabeth and Charles I.; and contains a very rich collection of pictures, and a large antique bath of red Oriental granite. The yard contains a chariot, alleged to have been that in which Elizabeth travelled, but really not older than the time of William III. The park is 7 miles in circuit, has much diversity of hill and dale, contains a heronry and a large stock of deer, and includes an elevation, called William's Hill, commanding a fine view, and crowned by a mausoleum, built in 1783 at a cost of £9000, biit never used. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Rochester; net value, £282 with residence. Patron, the Earl of Damley. The church is partly Early English, partly Late Decorated, and contains a remarkable assemblage of brasses and other monuments. A chantry for seven priests was founded, contiguous to the churchyard, in 1387, by Sir John de Cobham, and some fragments of it still exist. An almshouse, called a college, was founded on the site of the chantry, in 1598, by the executors of Sir William Brooke, Lord Cobham; forms a quadrangle containing twenty lodging-rooms and a chapel, and has an endowed income.