Bridge, Kent

Description
Bridge, a village and a parish in Kent. The village stands on Watling Street and on the Little Stour river, with a station on the S.E.R., 66 miles from London, 3 miles SE of Canterbury, under which it has a post, money order, and telegraph office. The parish comprises 1170 acres; population of the civil parish, 850; of the ecclesiastical with Patrixbourne, 1114. The manor belonged to an ancient abbey on the ground now occupied by the church, and passed to the Dutch family of the Braeams. Bridge-Hill House was the seat and death-place of Baron de Montesquieu, grandson of the famous president. The living is a vicarage annexed to the vicarage of Patrixbourne in the diocese of Canterbury. The church, which was rebuilt in 1859, contains some well-preserved remains of Norman architecture, a remarkable monumental effigy supposed to be of a steward of the ancient abbey, and some singular carvings representing the creation and fall of man. There is a spacious room called the "Reading Room," which is the property of the Marquis Conyngham, and is lent by him to the vicar and churchwardens for parochial purposes. The artist Jansen resided much in Bridge, and painted here his portrait of the lady popularly called the "Star in the East."