disputed among antiquaries. Passing on to the Anglo-Saxon period, coins, arms, and other implements of that age appear to have been found in sufficient quantities to justify the inference that Beddington was not an unimportant place from the seventh to the tenth century, as Mr. Smee states that several skeletons were found along with the

CINERARY URN AND UMBONE OF SHIELD.-ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD.

above, and that they lay "with their heads towards the west." Since this was the case, the inference is obvious that they were Christians who were buried there. With them were found a Saxon silver penny bearing the name of Edelstan (Ethelstan), and also a bronze bracelet, both of which we are able to reproduce here by the kind permission of Mr. Smee.

The history of Beddington, from the middle ages down to the recent extinction of the Carews, who were long its owners, as recorded by Mr. Smee, is so full of interest that we have ventured to draw largely upon his pages for the brief summary of its annals which we here lay before our readers.

It appears that in Doomsday Book Beddington comprised tw manors, one of which was held by Robert de Watville from Richar de Tonbridge, and by his successors immediately from the King, b the service of rendering to the Sovereign every year a single woode crossbow. At this time there were in Beddington two mills and

parish church; but the manor, in the reign of Richard I., had passed into the hands of a family named De Es or De Eys. In A.D. 1205, on the extinction of this family, the manor reverted to the King. It would be tedious and useless to mention the names of the families to

WATER-MILL ON THE WANDLE AT CARSHALTON.

whom from time to time the manor was granted prior to the reign of Edward III., when it passed, by an arrangement, from the Willoughbies to the De Carrues, or, as they afterwards styled themselves, Carews. This knightly and noble family-if we may believe the

heralds and genealogists-were descended from one Otho, who came over with the Conqueror, and obtained a grant of Carew Castle, in Pembrokeshire, and they bore for their arms, " Or, three lions passant in pale sable." The Carews can boast that they produced some distinguished sons, among whom was Giraldus Cambrensis, the celebrated historian. Sir Nicholas Carew, the first actual owner of Beddington who bore that name, was a man of note in the reign of the third Edward, under whom he served as a Knight of the Shire and Keeper of the Privy Seal, and of whose will he became executor. The manor of Beddington remained vested in the hands of the Carews till the reign of Henry VIII., when its holder, another Sir Nicholas, the "Lieutenant of Calais, Master of the Horse, and a Knight of the Garter," having incurred the displeasure of that arbitrary monarch, was attainted and executed on Tower Hill, his broad lands being seized by the King, who took up his residence at Beddington, and

held a Council there.

BEDDINGTON PARK.

He even went a step further, and granted the manor to the proud D'Arcyes of Chiche, to whom Sir Francis Carew was glad to pay a round sum of money, in order " to make assurance doubly sure," upon obtaining restitution of Beddington from Queen Mary, in whose service he had risen to favour and influence. It was this Sir Francis who rebuilt the mansion of Beddington Park, the great hall of which now alone remains standing, according to Mr. Smee, who adds that the great door of its hall has a curious and ancient lock, very richly wrought, the key-hole of which is concealed by a shield bearing the arms of England in the Tudor times. Queen Elizabeth honoured Sir Francis with her presence at Beddington in August, 1599, when she spent three days at his mansion and held her Court; and again in the August of the following year.

The following quaint account, which Mr. Smee quotes from Sir Hugh Platt's "Garden of Eden," is strictly in keeping with the plan of his book, and it serves, moreover, to show what pains were taken to keep back cherries, the favourite fruit of Queen Elizabeth, for the table of that Queen :

Here I will conclude with a conceit of that delicate knight, Sir Francis Carew,

who, for the better accomplishment of his royal entertainment of our late Queen of happy memory at his house at Beddington, led Her Majesty to a cherry-tree, whose fruit he had of purpose kept back from ripening at the least one month after all other cherries had taken their farewell of England. This secret he performed by straining a tent or cover of canvas over the whole tree, and wetting the same

now and then with a scoop or horn, as the heat of the weather required; and so, by withholding the sun-beams from reflecting upon the berries, they both grew great, and were very long before they had gotten their cherry colour; and, when he was assured of Her Majesty's coming, he removed the tent, when a few sunny days brought them to their full maturity.

VIEW FROM THE SOUTH BANK ACROSS THE LAKE.

It is almost needless to add that this Sir Francis appears to have been not only a clever and cunning courtier, but also an excellent horticulturist, and to have forestalled at Beddington much of the work which Mr. Smee has carried out two centuries later in his garden at Wallington; and it is interesting to be reminded by our author that it was he to whom we owe the first introduction into this country and cultivation of orange-trees, which are supposed to have been brought to England at his suggestion by Sir Walter Raleigh, who was married to the niece of the Beddington squire. If this be really so, we ought all to feel very grateful to Sir Francis Carew, and none of us more so than the orange merchants of Covent-garden, large and small.

To show that Mr. Smee is not speaking at random when he praises the horticultural skill of Sir Francis Carew, let us here put on

record the following account of the orangery at Beddington, taken by him from the twelfth volume of his "Archæologia."

Beddington Gardens, at present (1796) in the hands of the Duke of Norfolk, but belonging to the family of Carew, has in it the best orangery in England. The orange and lemon-trees there grow in the ground, and have done so for nearly a hundred years, as the gardener, an aged man, said that he believed. There are a great number of them, the house wherein they are being above two hundred feet long; they are most of them thirteen feet high, and very full of fruit, the gardener not having taken off them so many flowers this year (1796) as usually do others. He said that he gathered off them at least ten thousand oranges this last year. The heir of the family being now but about five years of age, the trustees take care of the orangery, and this year they built a new house over them. There are some myrtles growing among them, but they look not well for want of trimming. The rest of the garden is all out of order, the orangery being the gardener's chief care, but it is capable of being made one of the best gardens in England, the soil being very agreeable, and a clear silver stream running through it.

Mr. Smee, we think, might fairly claim even greater credit for his work at Wallington, for there he had to contend with a soil which at first was anything but "very agreeable," so that his results, great and