WYE, (Kent) 3 m. 1-half N. E. from Ashford, 49 cm. 57 mm. from London, has a bridge over the Stour, and a harbour for barges. It was first a royal manor, which Will. the Conqueror gave to Battel-Abbey. K. Edw. II. just before his coronation, kept Christmas at its manor-house. Here was a collegiate Ch. built by cardinal Kemp, Abp. of Canterbury; the estate of which was granted by Q. Eliz. to her cousin, Henry Cary, Ld. Hundon; whose grandson, the E. of Dover, conveyed it to the ancestor of its present Ld. the E. of Winchelsea, one of whose titles is Ld. of the royal manor of Wye. Lady Joanna Thornhill left 2500 l. for erecting and endowing a ch. sc. here. The Mt. is Th. Fair March 12. Its Ch. has been rebuilt since 1706, the old one having been miserably battered by the fall of the upper part of it, which defaced all the monuments in the N. chancel, bel. to the Kemps and Thornhills.