M E R 
furilig by the Chdhire coaft, it falls into the Irilh Sea by 
two or three different channels, which are much incom¬ 
moded by fands; but the paflage is rendered fecure by 
means of various land-marks, buoys, and light-houfes,and 
the excellent fyftem of pilotage eftablifhed at Liverpool. 
MER'SEY, an ifland in the German Sea, on the coaft 
of Eflex, at the mouth of the river Coin, where there was 
formerly a blockhoule. This ifland is about five miles 
long, and three broad, well timbered, with two or three 
villages. The road from the main land to the ifland is 
acrofs a channel called Pyfleet Creek, noted for its oyiters. 
Lat. 51.4.8. N. Ion. o. 55. E. 
MER'SHAM, a village in Kent, two miles and a half 
fouth-eaft from Alhford; has a fair on Friday in Eafter- 
week. 
MER'SHAM-HA'CHE, or Hut'ton, a village fouth- 
weft of the former. 
MER'SIG, a town of France, in the department of the 
Sarre, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrift of Sarre- 
bruck. The place contains 1832, and the canton 64.21, 
inhabitants, in twenty communes. 
MER'SION, f. [merjio, Lat.] The aft of finking, or 
thrufting over head. Ainfworth. 
MER'STHAM, a village in Surry, near Reygate, and 
to the eaft of Gatton, noted for its ftone-quarries, which 
were anciently held in fuch high repute, that the crown 
deemed it expedient to keep them in its own pofl’eflion. 
A great part of Windfor-caftle, and the magnificent cha¬ 
pel of Henry VII. at Weftminfter, were conftrufted with 
itone from thefe quarries. The quality which renders it 
peculiarly valuable, is its effeftual reliftance againft fire, 
whence it is denominated fire-ftone. It is very foft when 
firft raifed from the quarry, but becomes indurated by ex- 
ofure to the atmofphere. A rail-road has been formed 
ere to facilitate the conveyance of ftone and lime from 
the quarries to the metropolis.—Merftham Place is a fpa- 
cious manfion belonging to Hylton JollifFe, efq. 
MER'STON, a decayed village and parifli in Kent, near 
Gravefend and Shorne. As formerly, when a lord of a 
manor was willing to ereft a church within the limits of 
his jurifdiftion, for the convenience of his family and 
tenants, fuch a manorial diftrift, with the confent of the 
bifliop, was rendered parochial, it is eafy to account for 
there having been many more pariflies than there are at 
prefent; becaule, feveral of the manors being fmall, and 
from various circumflances having in a courfe of years 
fewer inhabitants, thefe were averfe to the heavy charge 
of keeping up the buildings, and the confequence was, 
that they became ruinous. Within four miles of this 
part of the road, there were, at no confiderable diftance 
from it, three pariflies of this kind; Denton and Lille- 
church already noticed,- (vol. xii. p.707.) and Merlton, 
of which we are now to fpeak. The church flood in the 
north-eaft corner of a wood, very near the road, now 
called Chapel Wood ; and for more than three centuries 
this parochial diftrift has been entirely deftitute of inha¬ 
bitants ; for which reafon, and becaule there was no man- 
fion-houle for the reftor, bifliop Lowe, in the year 14.55, 
dilcharged him from refidence, till there lliould be a con¬ 
flux of people to the place. But, as the church was then 
Handing, the bilhop enjoined the incumbent to take care 
that mafs lliould be laid, and other divine offices per¬ 
formed, in it, yearly on the feftival of St. Giles, the faint 
to whom the church was dedicated ; and his lordlhip fur¬ 
ther ordered the church to be kept in more decent repair. 
■It is, however, highly probable, that very little regard 
was ever fliown to this injunction; and, according to 
Phillipot, the ruins of this facred edifice did in his time 
prefent themfelves to the fmalleft glance of the curious 
eye. In the bilhop’s regiftry at Rochefter is a furvey of 
this parifli, which leems to have been taken towards the 
end of the 17th century; and the following extraft from 
it may, perhaps, afford fome amufement to the antiqua¬ 
rian reader. “ The place where the church once flood is 
now a wood, and contain^ by computation between four 
M E R 1611 
• 
and five acres. It lies nearly in a direft line between the 
churches of Shorne andHigham,aboil t one mile diftant from 
the former, and a mile and a half from the latter. Within 
this wood is a deep ditch, or entrenchment, which feems 
to have been anciently a fortification, or defigned for the 
defence of the place. It'encompafles a fquare part of the 
wood, containing about three acres. The four fides of 
this entrenchment lie nearly fouth, weft, north, and eaft. 
Within it are many riflings and inequalities, which pro¬ 
bably were the foundations of buildings. In the eaftera 
part of it, about fifteen paces from the ditch, feems to 
have been the fcite of the church: fome marks or veftiges 
of the walls are ftill remaining. It appears to have been 
about fifteen paces long and feven broad. At the weft: 
end of this is a heap of ftones, which, by the mortar mixed 
with them, feems to have been the walls of the church 
or fteeple. About this fuppofed fcite of the church runs 
a ridge, or fomewhat rifling ground, which perhaps was 
the wall of the church-yard. About ten rods fouth of the 
weft end of the fcite of the chancel is a very deep draw- 
well. There is now no way to this place but over ploughed, 
or pafture lands. I am told that the parifli of Merfton 
contains about one hundred and fifty acres of land, and 
that it butts or bounds on three Aides to the parifli of 
Shorne, and on the other fide to Higham. I find that 
Merfton has been aflefled, and paid to the church and 
poor of Shorne for near a hundred years paft, which is as 
ancient as there are parifli-books remaining.” Thomas 
Danye, of Shorne, bequeathed by his will, dated July 17, 
14.93, ten acres of land, lying together in the parifli of 
Merfton, to truftees, for the diftribution of herrings, white 
and red, for ever, in Lent. 
The place near which Merfton church flood is the much- 
noted Gad’s Hill, fuppofed by many to be the fpot on 
which Henry prince of Wales, foil of king Henry IV. and 
his diflolute aflociates, robbed the Sandwich carriers, and 
the auditors who were carrying money to his father’s ex¬ 
chequer. Phillipot has hinted a furmife that this felo¬ 
nious frolic might have been played on Shooter’s Hill, 
but tradition countenances the former opinion ; and 
Shakefpeare, befides diftinguifliing one of the thieves by 
the name of Gad’s Hill, having repeatedly fixed thefcene 
of this tranfaftion on this part of the road, makes it not 
unlikely that he thought himfelf warranted in fo doing, 
by a paflage he had difcovered in fome Engliih chronicle, 
play, or ballad. The late fir Francis Head built on the 
top of the hill, towards Rochefter, a neat cottage, which 
he denominated Gad’s Hill Cafa; and, on its being li- 
cenfed for a public-houle, he direfted that the fign lliould 
have, on one fide, a portrait of Henry V. and on the other, 
a reprefentation of Faiftaff and his aflociates, as defcrihed 
by the poet, aft ii. fcene 4.. After the death of fir Francis, 
this fign was removed, and in its place a plough was put 
up, with the motto “ God fpeed the Plough.” This- 
change does not feem to have been propitious to mine 
lioll of the Faiftaff; for the new fign foon difappeared; 
and, one of the rooms being converted into a feed-fhop, 
the motto would be far more pertinent than it was before. 
It rnuft, however, be a fatisfaftion to fee that the fubjeft, 
which has for centuries rendered this fpot fo memorable, 
is revived on both fides of the fign, in the front of ano¬ 
ther publie-houfe lately erefted. Wilkes'sBriti/k Directory, 
vol. iii. 
MER'STORFF, a town of Auftria, on the river 
Schwocha : four miles eaft of Baden. 
MER'STORFF, a town of France, in the department 
of the Forefts : fixteen miles liorth-north-eaft of Luxem¬ 
burg. 
MERTENRO'DA, a town of Germany, in the county 
of Henneberg: three miles north of llmenau. 
MERTEIN'SIA, in botany, a fpecies of fea-weed, fo 
named by the celebrated Thunberg, in honour of pro- 
feffor F. C. Mertens, of Bremen, (a man highly diftin- 
guiflied by his knowledge of this tribe of vegetables,) 
and erefted into a genus; a treatife illuftrating which 
was 
