HORNSEY, a parish in the Finsbury division of the hundred of OSSULSTONE, county of MIDDLESEX, 5 miles (N. byW.) from London, comprising the greater part of the village of Highgate, and the hamlets of Crouch-End, Muswell Hill, and Stroud Green, and containing 4122 inhabitants. The manor of Hornsey, anciently called Haringay, has from a remote period belonged to the see of London, and the bishops had formerly a park, in which was a lodge, or fort, memorable as the place where, in 1386, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, and other noblemen, assembled to form a league against the favourites of Richard II.; and here Edward V. and Henry VII., on their succeeding to the crown, respectively, were met by deputations from the citizens of London. The village is agreeably situated in a vale, through which passes the New River, and is encircled by hills commanding varied and beautiful views of London and the adjoining country: it contains many elegant mansions and detached villas, with gardens and pleasure grounds, rendering it one of the most agreeable places of residence, or occasional resort, in the vicinity of the metropolis. Lands held under the lord of the manor descend, according to the custom of gavelkind, in common to all the sons or daughters of a customary tenant. The parish is within the jurisdiction of the court of requests held in Kingsgate-street, Holborn, for the recovery of debts under 40s. The living is a rectory, within the. jurisdiction of the Commissary of London, concurrently with the Consistorial Episcopal Court, rated in the king's books at £22, and in the patronage of the Bishop of London. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is a plain structure, with an embattled western tower, and is said to have been built about the year 1500, from the ruins of the fortress in the bishop's park. A new church is about to be erected, in pursuance of an act of parliament, at Highgate, which will be separated from Hornsey, and converted into a district parish. At Crouch-End there is a place of worship for Baptists. Here is a National school .for about fifty boys, who also receive clothing; and another for fifty girls. Several benefactions have been made for apprenticing poor boys, and for other charitable purposes. At Muswell Hill, to the north of Hornsey, was anciently a chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of Muswell, much resorted to by pilgrims before the Reformation, on account of a mineral spring called Mousewell, or Muswell, famed for the supposed miraculous cure of a king of Scotland, and still in repute for its medicinal properties; the chapel was an appendage to the priory of Clerkenwell; and the manor of Muswell, though locally in the parish of Hornsey, is subordinate to that of Clerkenwell.