Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 12599-h.htm or 12599-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/9/12599/12599-h/12599-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/5/9/12599/12599-h.zip) THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. VOL. 17, NO. 482.] SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 1831. [PRICE 2d. * * * * * [Illustration: BRAY CHURCH.] BRAY CHURCH. Who has not heard of the _Vicar of Bray_, and his turning, turning, and turning again? Here is his church, and a goodly tower withal, which we, in our turn, have endeavoured to turn to the illustration of our pages. There is no sinister motive in the selection; but if we have hit the white, or rather the black, of such variableness, "let the galled jade wince," and pay _the Mirror_ the stale compliment of _veluti in speculum_. Bray is a small village about one mile from Maidenhead, and its name would have remained "unsaid, unsung," had it not been for its never-enough-to-be-ridiculed Vicar. Camden supposes Bray to have been occupied by the _Bibroci_, who submitted to Caesar, and obtained his protection, and with it a secure possession of one of the most beautiful spots in this county; so that submissiveness seems to have been the very air of the place in all times. Philippa, the queen of Edward III., had rents assigned to her from this and the adjoining manor of Cookham. It is now considered as part of the royal domain, being attached to the liberties of Windsor Castle, and retaining some peculiar privileges, among which is an exemption from tolls in the adjacent market-towns. In default of male heirs, lands are not divided here among females of the same degree of kindred, but descend solely to the eldest. The church is "a _spacious_ structure," says the _Windsor Guide_, and "composed of various materials, and exhibiting a mixture of almost every style of architecture," says the "_Beauties of England and Wales;_" but we leave the reader to his own conclusion from our Engraving, sketched in the summer of last year. We take for granted the church does not change in appearance every year, if its Vicar once did in creed.