WALTHAM (BISHOP'S), a market-town and parish
in that part of the hundred of BISHOP'S-WALTHAM
which is in the Portsdown division of the county of
SOUTHAMPTON, 10 miles (E. N. E.) from Southampton,
and 65 (S. W. by W.) from London, containing 2126
inhabitants. The market is on Friday: fairs are held
on the second Friday in May, for horses and toys;
July 30th, for cheese and pedlary; and the first Friday
after Old Michaelmas-day, for horses, stockings, and
toys. A bailiff is appointed at the court of the manor
held by the Bishop of Winchester. The living is a
rectory, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Incumbent,
rated in the king's books at £26. 12. 8., and in the
patronage of the Bishop of Winchester. The church is
dedicated to St. Peter. The river Hamble has its source
about half a mile from the village, and passes through
the piece of water termed Waltham Pond, which formerly
deserved the appellation, given it by historians,
of "a large and beautiful lake," but is now contracted
by the encroachments of alluvial soil and rushes. On
its banks are the remains of the once magnificent palace
of the Bishops of Winchester, built, in 1135, by Bishop
Henry de Blois, brother of King Stephen, and greatly
embellished by Wykeham . it continued to be the principal
episcopal residence till the parliamentary war,
when it was destroyed by the army under Waller: the
extensive park in which it stood was afterwards converted
into farms by Bishop Morley, who also founded
a-free school here, and endowed it with aft annuity
of £10, which sum has been augmented, by subsequent
benefactions, to £38, for which thirty-six boys are instructed.