Linton

"LINTON, a parish in the hundred of Maidstone, lathe of Aylesford, county Kent, 5 miles N. of Staplehurst, its post town, and 4 S. of Maidstone. The village, which is small, is situated on the range of hills that bound the Weald on the N., and near the turnpike road leading from Maidstone to Cranbrooke. The steep and dangerous hill which anciently formed the approach to the village has been much reduced and otherwise improved. A great portion of the land is in hop grounds, gardens, and orchards, which are very productive. The surface is undulating. The soil is clay, with ragstone subsoil. Maidstone union poorhouse is situated in the parish. Coxheath, about half a mile from the village, was until recently an unenclosed plain, where George III. reviewed his troops in 1778, but is now enclosed and cultivated. The impropriate tithes, belonging to Earl Cornwallis, have been commuted for a rent-charge of £220, and the vicarial for £325. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Canterbury, value £257, in the patronage of the heirs of Earl Cornwallis. The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, was thoroughly restored and enlarged in 1860. It has a tower containing six bells, and crowned by a spire, which was damaged by lightning in November, 1838, but has been repaired. Adjoining the church are the North and South chapels, with a screen of carved oak separating the chancel from the South chapel. The North chapel contains a monument to Viscount Brome, with an effigy in white marble by Bayley, and other monuments to the Mayne, Mann, and Cornwallis families, including that of Sir Horace Mann, which bears an epitaph by his friend and correspondent Horace Walpole. The register dates from 1570. The parochial charities produce about £13 per annum, which goes to a school, and Slayne's almshouses for eight poor persons resident within the parish. There are National schools for both sexes. Linton Park, late the seat of Earl Cornwallis, is a white stuccoed mansion situated in a park, affording a view of the Weald of Kent. The Duke of Leeds is lord of the manor."

[Transcribed from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland 1868 by Colin Hinson ©2010]