K E 
Sutton and Egerton, and thence fouth-eaftward to Hythe; 
on the ioutli it it.retches to the confines of Suflex, and 
includes the Ifle of Oxi>ey. This diftriCt was in ancient 
times an immenle wood or foreft; wholly deftitute of in¬ 
habitants, excepting fwine and deer. By degrees, how¬ 
ever, it became peopled, and is now every where inter- 
fperfed with towns and villages; though it (till contains 
fome exlenfive and flourifhing woodlands. Its prefent 
name is Saxon, and fignifies a woody country ; but the 
Britons call it Colt Andred, the great chafe or fore It. The 
■whole was a demefne of the Saxon kings; and there are 
Hill certain privileges annexed to the poffefiion of the 
lands, which induce the proprietors to contend for being 
within its limits. “ It is laid,” Mr. Hafted obferves, 
“ that, within the Weald, the proof of woodlands hav¬ 
ing ever paid tythe lies on the parfon, to enable him 
to take tythe of it, contrary to the ufual cuftom in other 
places, where the proof of exemption lies on the owner; 
nor are the lands in it fubjeCt to the ftatute of woods ; 
nor has the lord wade within the Weald ; the timber 
growing thereon belongs to the tenant. This latter cuf¬ 
tom of excluding the lord front the wafte, is called land- 
peerage." The Weald, when viewed from the adjoining 
hills, which command the whole extent, exhibits a molt 
delightful landfcape, interfperfed with fmall eminences, 
highly cultivated, and animated by farm-houfes, feats, and 
villages, promifcuoufly fcattered among towering oaks and 
other trees. 
The number of freeholds in the county is dated, by 
Mr. Halted, at about nine thoufand ; independent of the 
large edates of the churches of Canterbury and Rochef- 
ter, and of various corporate bodies. The copyhold and 
cudoinary tenants are v.ery few. The general didribu- 
tion of the freeholds, and their clofe intermixture with 
each Other, occafion a very frequent intercourfe between the 
gentry and the yeomen, and thus generate that equality of 
lentiment fo favourable to the interests of individual right. 
The increafing value of land in this county was lately exem¬ 
plified, by the circumdance of a farm, called North Down, 
having been let by auction at Canterbury a very few years 
ago, at an increafed annual rent of from fifty-three pounds 
to three hundred and thirteen pounds ! This eltate, which 
coniids of ninety-eight acres of land, is the property of 
Boy's Hofpital, near the city of Canterbury. 
The principal rivers that interfeft or bound this county 
are the Thames, the Medway, the Greater and Lelfer 
Stour, the Rather, the Darei.it, the Cray, and the Ravenf- 
borne. 
The number of cadles that have been erefted in Kent 
is very confiderable ; and many of them yet remain, in 
different degrees, almod perfect. Of tilde, the immenfe 
fort rets of Dover is the principal ; and this is now garri- 
foned with a drong force, as are alfo feveral others on the 
fea-coalt; but molt of the cadles in the interior of the 
county are difmantled and mouldering into ruins. 
KENT, a county of the American States in Maryland, 
on the.lhore of Chefapeak Bay; bounded ead by Newcaf- 
tle, and part of Kent county, Delaware; and welt by Che¬ 
fapeak Bay. It is about thirty-two miles long and thir¬ 
teen broad; and contains 12,836 inhabitants, including 
54.33 Haves. Chief town, Chefter. 
KENT, a county of Rhode Illand, lying font!) of Pro¬ 
vidence county, on the wed fide of Narraganlet Bay. It 
is twenty miles in length* and ten in breadth, and is di¬ 
vided into four townfhips. It contains 8785 inhabitants, 
-including 63 Haves. 
KENT, the middle of the three counties of Delaware. It 
is forty miles from north to fouth, and twenty-fix from ead 
to welt; and contains 18,920 inhabitants, including 2300 
Haves. The lands in Kent county are edeemed the richeff 
in the date. _ It is well watered by feveral l'mall dreams 
that empty into the Delaware. Chief town, Dover. 
KENT, an ifland in Queen-Anne’s county, Maryland, 
and the larged in Chelapeak Bay : twelve miles from 
north to fouth, and fix in breadth. 
Vol.XL No. 786, 
N T, 6*73. 
KENT, a townfhip of Lichfield county, Connecticut,-- 
bordering on the date of New York, and eight or ten 
miles wed of Lichfield. 
KENT (William), an artiff of original genius, was a' 
native of Yorkfliire, and was put apprentice to a country 
coach-painter; but, feeling that he poflefled a capacity 
for a higher department, he quitted his mailer without 
leave, and repaired to the metropolis. His ftudies there 
gave indications of genius, which induced tome gentle¬ 
men of his county to raife a fubfeription for fending him 
to Rome, at which feat of the arts he arrived in 1710. 
He remained in Italy feveral years, and returned in 1719 
with lord Burlington, who gave him an apartment in his 
houfe, and recommended him to employment as a hiffory 
and portrait painter. In both thele branches, however, 
his merit was very inconfiderable, and he never would 
have attained celebrity had not the verfatility of his ta¬ 
lents led him. to difplay his genius in other walks of art. 
A talte for ornamental decorations in the infide architec¬ 
ture and furniture of houfes brought him into reputation ; 
and fo much did he become the oracle of falhion in that 
branch, that he was confulted about every thing to which 
ornament could be applied. Two great ladies prevailed 
upon him to give them defigns for birth-dav gowns'; and 
he drefled one of them in a petticoat adorned with columns 
of the five orders, and the other in a copper-coloured la- 
tin with gold ornaments, relembling a bronze figure. In 
the higher department of an architect he was jufily ad¬ 
mired, and the manfions of feveral of the Englifli nobility 
atteff the beauty of his defigns. Holkham, the feat of 
the earl of Leicefter, in Norfolk, was his favourite per¬ 
formance. 
But it is as the creator of a new fpecies of imitative art 
that Kent chiefiy claims a place among men of genius. 
This is the modern art of landfcape-gardening, a native 
of England, and productive of l’cenes of beauty and gran¬ 
deur no where elie to be equalled. Kent found the Eng¬ 
lifli garden only fo far advanced as to take into the view 
the park or lawn by means of a funk fence. “He leaped 
the fence (fays Mr. Walpole), and law that all nature .was 
a garden.” To form the whole extent of pleafure-grounds 
into a varied and natural landfcape, diverfified by light 
and fliade upon picturefque principles, was his leading 
idea. He broke all the old uniformity of ftraight lines 
and correfponding parts, and threw wood, water, and 
ground, into filch lhapes as beautiful nature prefents. 
The ideas of extent were not yet enlarged enough to aim 
at grandeur; but almolt every thing was done toward the 
attainment of a graceful and pleafing diverfity. The talte 
of a poet, Pope, is fuppofed to have aided that of the ar- 
ti.fi:; and, when time lliall have defaced the works of the 
latter, his fame will live in the poet’s allufion to the l'cenes 
of Eflier, “ Where Kent and nature vied for Pelham’s love.” 
The patronage of the queen, and feveral perlons of rank, 
procured for him the places of malter-carpenter, architect, 
keeper of the pictures, and principal painter, to the crown. 
He died at Buriington-houle, in 17+8, in the fixty-fourth 
year of his age, and was buried in lord Burlington’s vault 
at Chifwick. Walpole's Anecd. oj Painting. 
KENT (Nathaniel), a very diltinguilhed modern agri- 
culturiff, was born about the year 1737; and died at Ful¬ 
ham, in Nov. 1810, at the age of 73 years. The only ac¬ 
count we have of his life was delivered by himfelf upon 
the following occafion. A ’he gentlemen of Norfolk, in ac¬ 
knowledgment for the benefits derived by that county 
from the exertion of his talents, prefented him in 1868 
with ^n embofl’ed lilver goblet, ornamented with the em¬ 
blems of agriculture, the cover lurmounted with the figure 
of Jultice, holding the ancient’ fteel-yard. The meeting 
held for this purpofe, on the nth of March, at the Angel 
Inn, Norwich, was attended by T. W. Coke, prefident of 
the Norfolk Agricultural Society, and many gentlemen of 
fortune in the county, and a molt refpeclable body of 
yeomen. After dining together, a gentleman rofe, and, 
addreliing luihfglf to Mr. Kent, ltatcd, that he was de- 
2 I puted 
