CHARLTON, a pleasant well-built village in Kent, on the edge of Blackheath; famous for a very disorderly fair held in its neighbourhood, on St. Luke’s day, when the mob who wear horns on their heads, take all kinds of liberties, and the lewd and vulgar among the women give a loose to all manner of indecency. This is called Horn Fair, and there are sold at it, Rams horns, horn toys and wares of all sorts. Of this fair a vulgar tradition gives the following origin: King John having a palace at Eltham, in this neighbourhood, and being hunting near Charlton, then a mean hamlet, was separated from his attendants, when entering a cottage he admired the beauty of the mistress, whom he found alone, and debauched her; her husband, however, suddenly returning, caught them in the fact, and threatening to kill them both, the King was forced to discover himself, and to purchase his safety with gold, besides which he gave him all the land, from thence as far as the place now called Cuckold’s Point, and also bestowing on him the whole hamlet, established a fair, as a condition of his holding his new demesne, in which horns were both to be sold and worn. A sermon is preached on the fair day in the church, which is one of the handsomest in the county, and was repaired by Sir Edward Newton, Bart. to whom King James I. granted this manor. This gentleman built his house at the entrance of the village: it is a long Gothic structure, with four turrets on the top; it has a spacious court yard in the front, with two large Gothic piers to the gates, and on the outside of the wall is a long row of some of the oldest cypress trees in England. Behind the house are large gardens, and beyond these a small park which joins to Woolwich common. This house now belongs to the Earl of Egmont. On the edge of the hill, and at a small distance from the church, are two fine houses, one of which was in the possession of the late Governor Hunter, and the other was erected by the late Lord Romney. The gardens being on the side of the hill, slope down towards the river, and render the prospect very delightful in summer, from the extensive view they afford of the country, and of the great number of ships that are generally sailing by every tide: but being fully exposed to the north wind, the fruit trees are generally blighted; and in winter time the air is said to be made unwholesome by the water which frequently overflows the neighbouring plains.