to it is a small chantry chapel, which was erected by Bishop West, in the reign of Henry VIII.; and is familiar to architectural students as an example of the perpendicular style of Gothic architecture.

The vaulted roof and some other parts are exceedingly rich. Bishop West was a native of Putney. His career was remarkable : his father was a baker. Having been sent to Eton College, Nicholas West was elected thence to King's College, where he proved, says Fuller, "a Rakehell in-grain," and was expelled after he had set fire to the master's apartments. His expulsion, however, sobered him; he turned hard student; and having first procured a humble employment, he gradually rose by his talents and acquirements to the highest offices both in Church and State. Henry VIII. employed him both at home and abroad; and he was one of the persons selected by Queen Catherine for her advocates. He died Bishop of Ely. His benevolence is said to have been very great; and he did not forget to make atonement to his College by liberal benefactions; the master's lodgings in particular "he rebuilt firm and fair from the ground." But there was a contemporary of West, also a native of Putney, whose rise was much more remarkable, and whose name is far more widely renowned. That bold bad man, Thomas Cromwell, the rapacious and unscrupulous minister of a still more unscrupulous and rapacious monarch, was the son of a blacksmith at Putney. It is not a little singular that the two men who have risen to higher stations than any other Englishmen under a monarchy, Thomas Cromwell and his old master Wolsey, should both have been of the meanest and most obscure birth.

But there is no comparison between the two in point of intellect or grandeur of character. Cromwell had all or nearly all of the meaner vices of his master, but none of the more splendid; and none of his virtues. Had it not been for the share which he had in bringing about the Reformation, his memory (despite of his unjust death) would have borne the infamy it deserved. As it is,

he has found and still finds apologists and even admirers, though his connexion with that great event was for selfish purposes, and he has done more than any other to sully its glory.

The manor, which included his birth-place, was one of those he procured for himself in his prosperity. The most illustrious of the recent natives of Putney was Gibbon, our great historian; who was born in a house which is still standing just above the railway station. His first school was a house near the bridge. Putney has had many eminent literary inhabitants, and still has some. It has also had several otherwise famous inhabitants. William Pitt died in Bowling-Green House on the Heath.

CHAPTER XXVI.

CHELSEA REACH.

WANDSWORTH Owes its name to its position on the little river Wandle, by its confluence with the Thames; it was formerly called Wandlesworth, of which the present name is an obvious corruption. The Wandle rises near Croydon, runs next by Carshalton, and thence by Mitcham, Merton, and other villages to the Thames at Wandsworth. Altogether its length is not above a dozen miles. Although not navigable, it is very serviceable; from Carshalton to Wandsworth it supplies numerous flour, snuff, dyeing, chemical, and many other mills and works. In its earlier course it is in parts extremely pretty, and a great favourite with London fly-fishers; but lower, where the banks are level, and smoky factories are the chief objects which diversify them, and the water is impregnated with unfragrant refuse of many varieties, so that what was "the blue, transparent Vandalis" is now but dirty brown and scarcely semi-diaphanous-no one will probably care to wander alongside it an inch farther than he is compelled.

And Wandsworth itself, as will be supposed, is not a very agreeable or very picturesque place. So much of it as lies by the Thames, and the low district that extends from the river-side to the main street, are in truth unattractive enough. They have

of course an appearance of activity, such as befits a manufacturing district, however small-but then they have the unwholesome, and squalid character which generally accompanies it :-as, therefore, we are not considering manufactories or manufacturers, we need not tarry here. The upper part of Wandsworth, Wandsworth Common and the vicinity, are pleasant and healthy enough. The parish has a population of about five thousand souls.

The parent church is a poor looking brick building; and it has but few monuments of interest. One, however, is to the memory of Henry Smith, alderman of London, and the great benefactor of various parishes in Surrey. Before we leave the church, it is only proper to mention that in 1540 Griffith Clarke, the vicar of Wandsworth, with his curate or chaplain, his servant, and one Friar Ware, were hanged and quartered by command of Henry VIII. for refusing to take the oaths of ecclesiastical supremacy, &c.

The mock election of a Mayor of Garrett on occasion of a general election, and which gave rise to Foote's popular comedy, may recur to the reader in connexion with Wandsworth. But the election has ceased for many years, and Garrett, where it took place, is on the side of Wandsworth farthest from the river-we may therefore be spared further { mention of it. Full particulars of it may be found in that well-filled repository of out-of-the-way information, Hone's Every-Day Book.'

Almost the only thing in Battersea which will engage attention is the church, wherein is the monument of one of the most able, eloquent, and unprincipled of English politicians, the celebrated St. John, Lord Bolingbroke. He was born

in Battersea, where his ancestors had been established for several generations; the manor having been granted in reversion to Oliver St. John, Viscount Grandison, in 1617. Bolingbroke lived in the family mansion, both before and after his exile, and in it he died. The house was pulled down towards the end of the last century. The monument in Battersea church is by Roubiliac ; on it are portraits in relievi of Bolingbroke and his wife.

Another monument in the church may be noticed it is to a whiskered knight of redoubtable prowess, hight Sir Edward Wynter, who died in 1685.

"Born to be great in fortune as in mind,”

as the inscription has it, he travelled to India and elsewhere, and gained not only considerable wealth, but much honour

"Witness his actions of immortal fame !-
Alone, unarm'd, a tiger he opprest,

And crush'd to death the monster of a beast.
Twice twenty mounted Moors he overthrew,
Singly on foot, some wounded, some he slew,
Disperst the rest-What more could Samson do?"

What more, indeed! Wordsworth talks of forty men fighting (or feeding) like one: here was a much more marvellous occurrence one man fighting like forty.

Battersea Fields, the low tract which extends from the bridge to Nine Elms, like much of the marsh-land along the Thames below Brentford, is extensively cultivated as market-gardens. Of late, however, it is being a good deal built upon, and