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GREAT MARLOW.

effectual exertions of Colonel Le Merchant, the Lieut. Governor, in framing and completing such a grand national institution.

The Royal Military College was established in the year 1799. The senior department, at High Wycombe, is for the further instruction of officers in military affairs. The junior department is at Great Marlow, where the sons of noblemen and gentlemen receive a regular military education, at one hundred pounds per annum. The expences of other cadets, who are the sons of officers, are in proportion to the rank and pay of their respective parents, being from fifty to ten pounds per annum. Orphans, and the children of subaltern officers, are educated and provided gratis.

This institution will be removed to Sandhurst, near Blackwater, Berks, where a new College is about to be erected.

Some traces of a corporation are discernible in the records concerning this town; but it does not appear that any charter was ever obtained. The first return for this borough occurred in the twenty-eighth year of Edward the First, and it continued to send members till the second year of Edward the Second, after which no returns were made till the twenty-first year of James the First, when, on a petition to the House of Commons, the privilege was restored.

The church is a large ancient structure, dedicated to All Saints. It consists of a body and two aisles, with a transept dividing it from the chancel. From the tower rises a wooden spire, which is painted white. About the middle it is encircled with a black line to mark the place from whence a workman, employed in some repair, fell, not many years since, into the church-yard, a very considerable height, without receiving the least injury.

The old bridge appears to be of very remote origin. The records state that, in the reigns of Edward the Third,

Richard the Second, and Henry the Fourth, the bailiffs were allowed, in consequence of a grant for that purpose, to take certain tolls of wares, merchandize, &c. &c. passing over and under the bridge, to be applied for the maintenance of it. In 1787, this structure became so ruinous, that an application was made to the county for rebuilding it, but it appearing not to be a county bridge, the Marquis of Buckingham proposed a subscription, when a considerable sum was raised, and, in the year 1798, the present bridge was erected. The view from it of the adjacent country is full of beauty.

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COOKHAM.

COOKHAM is a considerable village, about two miles up the river from Maidenhead Bridge, and with the ivymantled tower of its church, and scattered villas, forms a very pleasing object on the Berkshire bank of the Thames, opposite the wood-clad height of Cliefden,

The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and Love.

-Here the stream, which is of a considerable breadth, loses itself, as it were, among the islands which divide it. The view embraces no very distant object, but those which compose it are of great individual beauty, and from their contrasted shapes and character, collectively, compose a most delightful picture. The Thames branches off into three different channels, forming several islands, one of which contains fifty-six acres, and is a scene of various agriculture, but sufficiently embowered to give large masses of foliage; the others are covered with the alders and the osier, and enrich the bottom. To the right is Cookham church, and what is seen of the village; and, beyond it, Cookham House, with its lofty elms, rising behind it. On the left is a large level mead of common pasturage, enlivened by herds of cattle, and the uplands of Buckinghamshire rising beyond it; nor is the ferry boat, which is continually crossing from Cookham to it, to be forgotten as an enlivening object of the scene. Onwards, are the waving grounds of Hedsor, the seat of Lord Boston, which nature tumbled about when she was in one of her gayest humours, and produce a fine display of sylvan beauty. On the summit, from a grove of beeches, rises the mansion of the family, and crowns that feature of the prospect. It were to be wished that we could give a similar character of the abrupt and shaggy brow of Cliefden, as rich as foliage can make it; but the splendid structure which it bore has not

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