WIMBLEDON  , a municipal

borough and western residential suburb of London, in the Wimbledon parliamentary division of Surrey, England, adjoining the metropolitan borough of Wandsworth, 8 m . S.W. of Charing Cross . Pop . (1891), 25,777; (1901) 41,652 . Wimbledon Common, to the north-west of the district, forms a continuation of Putney Heath and a pleasant recreation ground . It was the meeting-place of the Rifle Association from its foundation in 186o till 1888 . The parish church of St Mary is supposed to date from Saxon times; but, after it had undergone various restorations and reconstructions, it was rebuilt in 1833 in the Perpendicular style . There are various other churches and chapels, all modern . A free library was established in 1887 . Benevolent institutions are numerous . The corporation consists of a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors . Area, 3221 acres .

Wimbledon (Wibbandune) is supposed to have been the

scene of a battle in 568 between Ceawlin, king of Wessex, and IEthelberht, king of Kent, in which'Ethelberht was defeated, and an earthwork which existed on the Common may have marked the site . At Coombe's Hill and elsewhere British relics have been found . At Domesday Wimbledon formed part of the manor of Mortlake, held by the archbishops of Canterbury . Afterwards the name was sometimes used interchangeably with Mortlake, and in 1327 it is described as a grange or farm belonging to Mortlake . On the impeachment of Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1398, it was confiscated . In the reign of Henry VIII . Cromwell, earl of Essex, held the manor of Wimbledon, with Bristow Park as an appendage . On the confiscation of Cromwell's estates in 1J40 it again fell to the crown, and by Henry VIII. it was settled on Catherine Parr for life . By Queen Mary it was granted to Cardinal Pole . In 1574 Elizabeth bestowed the manor-house, while retaining the manor, on Sir Christopher Hatton, who sold it the same year to Sir Thomas Cecil . In 1588 Elizabeth transferred the manor to his son Sir Edward Cecil, in exchange for an estate in Lincolnshire . At the time of the Civil War the manor was sold to Adam Baynes, a Yorkshireman, who shortly after-wards sold it to General Lambert; and at the Restoration it was granted to the queen dowager, Henrietta Maria, who sold it in 1661 to George Digby, earl of Bristol .

On his

death in 1676 it was sold by his widow to the lord-treasurer Danby . Some years after Danby's death it was purchased by Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, who bequeathed it to her grandson, John Spencer . It was sold by the fifth Earl Spencer in 1877 . Wimbledon House, built by Sir Thomas Cecil in 1588, was replaced by another building in 1735 by the duchess of Marl-borough; this was destroyed by fire in 1785, and a new house, called Wimbledon Park House, was erected about 1801 . Wimbledon was incorporated in 1905 .