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kin^-'s bed and chamber, tbree eels for his life in winter; and 

 in fnmmcr, Itravv, nifhcs, and two green gecfc, thrice every 

 vear, if he vilited Ayleibuvy fo many times. Ihe church 

 U a fpacious and ancient llruaure, built in the (hape ot a 

 crofs, with a low tower riling at the inttrfeaion of the nave 

 and tranfepts. It contains a few ancient monuments and 

 on the fouth fide is a room appropriated for a free-ichool. 

 The church-yard is large, and difpofed into feveral walks, 

 which are planted with double rows of trees. This town 

 was made a borough by charter, and empowered to lend 

 members to parliament on the 14th of Jannary, 1553-4- 

 The right of voting is vetted in all the houlholders who do 

 not receive alms, and thefc commonly amount to about 350. 

 Here are fix annual fairs, and a market held on Saturday: 

 wt >h<i latter, great numbers of calves and ducks are lold to 

 dealers from London. J^Iany people in this town and its 

 neiglibourhood derive fupport from their peculiar ikil m 

 breeding and rearing of ducks. To gratify fafhionable Uix- 

 ury tliey contrive to prevent the ducks laying till the 

 months of Oaober and November; when by heatmg and 

 lUraulating food, they are induced to drop their eg-s ; thcle 

 are collected and put under different hens, which are alio 

 impelled to lit at an unfeafonable time, and often mude to 

 continue in the neR for two or three broods. By this treat- 

 ment the poor bird is often exhaufted, and dies under her 

 compulfive duty. When the young ducks are hatched, 

 they are placed near the fire and nurfed with particular care, 

 fly thefe methods, many ducklings are fent to the metropo- 

 lij at Chriftraas, and have been known to fell at hftecn llul- 

 lings and a guinea per couple. The parith of Aylelbury, 

 including the hamlet of Walton, occupies a large f^pace of 

 ground, and comprehends 697 houfes and about 3082 inha- 

 bitants, the lower clafs of whom are ufually employed in 

 making of lace. 



The va/e of Jvkjhury is particularly celebrated among 

 agriculturifts, for its richnefs and fertility of foil. It extends 

 for many miles eaft and well, nearly from Tame in Oxford- 

 (hire to Leightoii-Buzzard in Bedfordfliire, and is moltly 

 appropriated to the grazing and fattening of cattle and (beep. 

 About five miles from Avlefoury, is Eythorpe, a feat of the 

 Eail of Chefterficld ; and at ten miles dlllance is Wotton- 

 under-Bernwood, an ancient feat of the Grenville family, and 

 now occupied by the earl of Temple. Britton rnd Bray- 

 ley's Beauties of England and Wales, vol. i. p. 343, &c. 



AYLESFORD, a confiderable village of England, in 

 the county of Kent, featcd on the northern bank of the 

 river Medwav, over which tlieie is a handfome flone bridge 

 of fix arches'. It is four miles from Maidftone, and thirty 

 from London. The ancient name of this place is found to 

 have been Saiilenaig-habail ; but in confequcnceof a bloody 

 battle which was fought here between the Britons and Sax- 

 ons in 455, the name was changed to Angles-ford, and 

 that afterwards contraAed to Aylesford. This battle is 

 rendered memorable in the annals of Englifli hillory, as 

 being the firll great conflift between the invading Saxons 

 under Hengift, and the haralTcd Britons under Gwrtheyrn. 

 Concerning the ifl'iie of this battle our hillorians are very 

 conlradiftory : fome have dtfcribed the Britons as con:- 

 pletely victorious ; but the learned Mr. Turner obfcrvcf, 

 that as Hengift and his fon Efca pon"clTed Kent after this 

 event, we may prcfume that the engagement was unfavour- 

 able to the natives. In this (harp battle, Horfa, brother 

 to Hengift, and Catigern, brother to Vortimer, are faid to 

 have fought hand to hand, and were both killed on the fpot. 

 The former was interred on the eailern fide of the Medway, 

 at a place which ilill retains the name of Horfted ; and Cati- 

 gern was buried at a place nearer the fcene of battlt, where it 



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is ftated a large Cromlech was erefted to his memory. This 

 msnument is liill exilling at the place, and confills of three 

 large upright tlones, about eight feet high, with ajiother lying 

 on the top, mcafuring eleven feet by eight, and two feet in 

 tnicknefs. It is called Kitfcoty-houfe. (See Cromlech.) 

 At the diilance of about two fields are other ftones ereCt and 

 fome lying down in a circular arrangement. In the reign of 

 Henry t!»e Third, a monaflery of Carmelites was founded 

 at Aylesford, by lord Grey of Codiior. It was granted by 

 Henry the eighth to fir Thomas Wyat, and has at length 

 devolved to the earl of Aylesford. Here is an hofpital for 

 fix poor people, each of whom is allowed ten pounds a 

 year. Hallcd's Hiflory of Kent, 8vo. edition. Turner's 

 Hillory of the Anglo-Saxons. 



AYLETS, or Si-.A-SwALLOWS. In Heraldry, they are 

 oftec called C'rmjli Choughs, and are painted fable beaked, 

 and legged gules. 



AYLMER, or JElmer, John, in Biography, an Eng- 

 lifh divine and biil'.op, was dclcended from an ancient family 

 at Aylmer-hall, in the county of Norfolk, and born in the 

 year 1521. Being a younger fon, he was educated at Cam- 

 bridge under the patronage and at the charge of Henry 

 Grey, marquis of Dorfet, and afterwards duke of Suffolk ; 

 who, when his fludies were fjiiiflied, took him into his houfe, 

 as preceptor to his children, one of whom was lady Jane 

 Grey. Under his tuition, this lady became an excellent 

 prohcient in the Latin and Greek languages, fo that (he 

 could not only read them with eafe, but write them with 

 elegance. Aylmer, as a preacher, zealoufly inculcated the 

 principles of the refinmcrs ; and having, in confequence of 

 hii prcfermant to the archdeaconry of Stow, in the dio- 

 cefe of Lincoln, a feat in the convocation, held in the 

 firll year of queen Mary, he refolutely oppofed that return 

 to popery to which the clergy in general feemcd to be 

 inclined ; and he was one of fix perfons who offtfred to de- 

 bate all the controverted points of religion with the moft 

 learned champions of the Papills. His zeal for the reforma- 

 tion rendered him obnoxious to the government, fo that be 

 found it neceflary to withdraw from the country ; and as 

 he was of a diminutive fize, he made his efcape by being 

 concealed in a pipe of wine which had a falfe bottom, the 

 wine being drawn from the lower half, whilft Aylmer lay 

 hid in the upper. During the time of his exile, he refidcd 

 firft at Strafburgh, and afterwards at Zurich in Swiflerland, 

 purfuing his Ihidics, and improving himfelf by travelling, 

 in the courfe of which he vilited moft of the univerlities 

 in Italy and Germany. Towards the clofe of his exile, 

 he wrote an anfwer to John Knox's book againft the go- 

 vernment of women, intitled, " The firll Blall againft the 

 monilrous Regiment and Empire of Women." His piece 

 was intitled, " An Harborowe for faithful and trewe Sub- 

 jects againft the late blowne Blafte, &c." printed at Straf- 

 burgh, in 1559. This book was written with vivacity and 

 learning ; but it contained fome paflages which feemed to 

 indicate a tendency towards puritanifm, and particularly one 

 in which he exhorted the bifhops to content themfelves with 

 moderate incomes, and with a portion " priell-like, and not 

 prince-like." However, when this paffage was afterwards 

 objtdltd to him by his enemies, he vindicated himfelf by 

 faying, " When I was a child, I fpoke as a cliild, and 

 thought like a child, &c." After the acceflion of queen 

 Elizabeth, Aylmer returned home, and was one of the eight 

 divines appointed to difpute with as many popifh bi(hops at 

 Weflmiiiller, in the pretence of a great affembly. In 1562, 

 he obtained the archdeaconry of Lincoln , and in right of 

 this dignity, he fat in tlie famous fynod held this year for 

 examining and fettling the dodrine and difciphne of the 



reformed 



