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There are many monuments in the church and churchyard, the most particular is to the memory of Mrs. Anne Dash, a great benefactress to the parish; but whose history is very singular. "She was. daughter of George Newton, Esq. of Daffield, in the county of Derby; and having been twice married, first to Henry Sisson, afterwards to John Tolson, was in her second widowhood reduced to narrow circumstances, and obliged to set up a boarding school, as the means of procuring a livelihood; but blindness having rendered her unfit for that employment, she became an object of charity. In the mean time Dr. Caleb Cotesworth, a physician, who had married a relation of Mrs. Tolson, died, in 1741, having amassed in the course of his practice, 150,000. the greater part of which, being upwards of 120,000l. he left to his wife, who surviving him only a few hours, died intestate, and her large fortune was divided between Mrs. Tolson, and two others, as the nearest of kin. With a due sense of this deliverance, and unexpected change from a state of want to riches and affluence, she appropriated, by a deed of gift, the sum of 5000l. to be expended after her deccase, in building and endowing an almshouse at Isleworth, for six poor men, and six women. This lady died in 1750, aged eighty-nine, having married, subsequently to the deed of gift, a third husband, Mr. Joseph Dash, merchant. The monument was erected pursuant to her own desire, by Gilbert Joddrell, Esq. at the expence of 500l. It is ornamented with a bust in white marble of Mrs. Tolson, and medallions of Dr. and Mrs. Cotesworth."*

There are copper mills, the property of the duke of Northumberland, at Baber-bridge; they are rented by the Mines-Royal. Company. A china manufactory, calico grounds, and two large four mills, are in a state of prosperity at Isleworth.

The parish also abounds in charitable establishments; besides schools for thirty-two boys, and twenty girls; and

VOL. VI. No. 143.

* Lysons.
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Sir Thomas Ingram's almshouses for six females, who have been housekeepers; Mrs. Tolson's, abovementioned; and Mrs. Bell's, for six women.

Returning to the great road, the first object of attention is SION HOUSE.

This mansion, one of the seats of the duke of Northumberland, stands upon the Thames, between Brentford and Isleworth, and opposite to the king's gardens at Rich mond. It is called Sion from a monastery of the same name, founded by Henry V. in 1414, for sixty nuns (including the abbess) and twenty-five men, and was dedicated to St. Saviour and St. Bridget; from the latter of whom the nuns, &c. were called Bridgetines, and were of the order of Augustines. Sion was one of the first monasteries suppressed by Henry VIII. when its revenues, according to Speed, amounted to 1944/. 11s. 11d. more than equal to 10,000l. per annum, according to the present value of money; and, on account of its fine situation, it was not sold or given immediately to any court favourite, but appropriated to the king's own use. In the next reign the monastery was given by Edward VI. to his uncle Somerset, the protector, who about 1547 began to build Sion House, and finished the shell of it nearly as it now remains. The house is built on the very spot where the church belonging to the monastery formerly stood, and is a very large, venerable, and majestic, structure, built of white stone, in the form of a hollow square; so that it has four external and as many internal fronts, the latter of which surround a square court in the middle. The roof is flat, covered with lead, and surrounded with indented battlements, like the walls of a fortified city. Upon every one of the four outward angles of the roof, is a square turret, flat-roofed, and embattled like the other parts of the building. The house is three stories high; and the east front, which faces the Thames, is supported by arches, forming a fine piazza. The gardens consist of two square areas, enclosed with high walls before the east and west fronts, and were laid out and finished in a very grand

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manner; but, being made at a time when extensive vioivs were judged to be inconsistent with that stately privacy affected by the great, they were so situated as to deprive the house of every beautiful prospect which the naigh bourhood afforded; none of them at least could be seen from the lower apartments. To remedy, in some measure, that inconvenience, the Protector built a very high tri angular terrace in the angle between the walls of the twó gardens; and this it was that his enemies afterwards did not scruple to call a fortification, and to insinuate that it was one proof, among many others which they alledged, of his having formed a design very dangerous to the liberties of king and people. After his attainder and execution, in 1552, Sion was confiscated to the crown; whereupon the house was given to the duke of Northumberland, which then became the residence of his son the lord Guildford, and of his daughter-in-law the unfortunate lady Jane Grey! The duke being beheaded in 1553, Sion House once more reverted to the crown. Three years after, queen Mary restored it to the Bridgetines; and it remained in their possession till the society was expelled by queen Elizabeth. Some years after the second dissolution, Sion was granted by a lease of a long term to Henry ninth earl of Northumberland, who, in consideration of his eminent services to the government, was permitted to enjoy it by paying a very small rent, as an acknowledgment. James I. considered his lordship no longer as a tenant, but gave Sion to him and his heirs for ever. Many improvements were made in his time; but it appears, from one of his lordship's letters to the king, in 1613, that he had laid out 90007. in the house and gardens; which sum was probably expended in finishing them according to the protector's plan. His son, Algernon, afterwards appointed lord high admiral of England, succeeded to the estate in November, 1632. He employed Inigo Jones to new face the inner court, to make many alterations in the apartments, and to finish the great hall in the manner in which it at present appears... It must not be omitted in the history of this

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