Dorking is situated at the southern extremity of the vale of Mickleham, upon one of the high roads to Worthing and Portsmouth ; and is distant, S.S.W., twenty-three miles from Westminster-bridge, and twenty-four miles from the standard on Cornhill. The town, which consists of a main thoroughfare of considerable width with two smaller streets branching from it, has a neat and cleanly appearance, and contains several elegant shops, with some private dwellings of a superior character. The streets are paved and lighted by gas, and the inhabitants have an ample supply of excellent water, as well from springs which abound in the vicinity, as from water-works on a small stream branching from the river Mole, and to which latter establishment are now attached subscription baths. Dorking is one of the polling places for the western division of Surrey. A fair, granted by Edward the first, is kept annually on the eve and day of the feast of Ascension; and a market for corn and poultry is held weekly on Thursday, and is plentifully supplied and well attended. The poultry of this district, which is of a peculiar breed, said to have been originally introduced by the Romans, is remarkably fine and in great request by the London dealers. The lime made in the neighbourhood is held in much esteem, and constitutes a considerable branch of the local trade. The Reigate bank has a branch office in this town; a savings' bank, established a few years since, under the encouragement and support of the neighbouring gentry, is in a very prosperous state; and a provident institution, founded about 1818, has been attended with an equally favourable result. The posting inns are the Red Lion and the White Horse, beside which are several comfortable market taverns. Four local coaches ply daily between Dorking and London, and several from Worthing, Guildford, and other places, pass through the town. Letters are conveyed by a mail-cart to Kingston, where they join the Portsmouth mail. The office closes at nine p.m. and the delivery is at eight a.m. The market-house, which adjoined the Red Lion inn, was taken down some years since, and has not been rebuilt. Near to the same site formerly stood a large mansion of red brick, erected in the Dutch style; and which, after remaining for a very considerable period under the fostering care of the court of chancery, with the usual concomitant advantages to the edifice of such possession, was at length sold and converted into a range of commodious dwellings. Beyond these, on the same side of the street, is a pile of buildings originally occupied as an extensive and much-frequented inn, bearing the sign of the King's Head, and celebrated for river-fish dinners, in which water-souchy formed a prominent dish. Fortune, however, subsequently transferred her favours to the Red Lion, where a convivial society, called the Gentlemen's Dorking Club, was formed, and behind which an elegant ball-room was erected in 1820. Dorking possesses an excellent circulating library, a book club, and a magazine society, in the establishment of which latter class of intellectual entertainment this place claims priority among southern provincial towns. A mechanics' institute, founded here within a few years past, has now risen to the dignity of a literary and scientific association; and from a local printing establishment, a new history of the county by Messrs. Timbs and Britton is shortly to be issued. The town contains places of worship for the society of Friends and the class of dissenters denominated Independents. Dorking is one of the six parishes in the county of Surrey, for the relief of whose poor was bequeathed by Henry Smith in \627; in addition to which fund a considerable sum is annually expended in relieving the wants of the indigent inhabitants ; and schools for the free education of their children are liberally supported. The old church, dedicated to Saint Martin, was a cruciform structure of flint and stone, in the perpendicular style of English architecture, with a low square tower, from the centre of which rose a flag-staff and vane. This edifice having been found insufficient for the increasing population of the parish, the present structure of Suffolk brick with stone dressings, represented in our illustration as it appeared during the progress of its erection, was opened in the month of July, 1837. In order to avoid the expense of obtaining an act of parliament, which would have been requisite had an entirely new church been erected, the old chancel was left standing, and now forms a baptistery attached to the eastern end of the new edifice, which consists of a nave and aisles, a south porch, north and south transepts, and a chancel, with a square embattled tower, having a pinnacle rising from each angle, and surmounted by an octagonal spire terminating in a nave. The tower contains a fine chime of bells, taken from the original steeple. The pulpit is beautifully enriched with carving; and the new font is emblazoned with the arms of the diocese and of several of the neighbouring gentry who contributed largely to the building. The old font has been placed in the baptistery previously alluded to, the eastern window of which displays some exquisite tracery. The family tomb of the duke of Norfolk is beneath the north transept, adjoining to which, exteriorly, is a small mausoleum, now in a state of great dilapidation, belonging to the Talbots, formerly proprietors of Chart-park, which estate is now annexed to Deepdene, the seat of Henry Thomas Hope, esquire, M.P. The interior of the church contains a monumental tablet to Abraham Tucker, the author of the Light of Nature Pursued, and who resided at Betchworth-castle ; another to the memory of the celebrated scholar Jeremiah Markland, who resided at Milton-court; and a third, raised by public subscription among the inhabitants, commemorating the public and private virtues of George William, earl of Rothes, who died suddenly while hunting in Betchworth-park in 1817. His lordship's favourite residence was at Shrub-hill in the vicinity of the town: his remains were interred in the church of Wotton, where an elegant tablet was raised to his memory by the countess. The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of Surrey and diocese of Winchester; the duke of Norfolk being the patron, and William Coleman, esquire, the impropriator. An old mansion at the extremity of West-street, designated Sondes-place from having formerly been the residence of the ancient family of that name, is at present appropriated as the vicarage-house. Mason wrote his Treatise on Self-knowledge, and several other works, while pastor of a dissenting congregation in this town ; and the house in which he resided is still standing. The parish of Dorking is situated in the second division of Wotton, now called Dorking, hundred, western district of the county of Surrey, and extends over an area of 10,150 English statute acres. According to the last census, it contained 848 inhabited houses, which were tenanted by 933 families, constituting a population of 4711 ; and under the provisions of the act for amending the poor laws of England and Wales it has been made the head of an union comprising the several parishes of Dorking, Abinger, Capel, Effingham, Mickleham, Ockley, Ewhurst, and Wotton. The union-house is now in the course of erection at Dorking. Previous to, and for a considerable period after the conquest, the manor of Dorking appears to have been vested in the crown. It then passed into the possession of the earls of Warren, from whom it came to the family of the Fitzalans, earls of Arundel, and thence in part, by marriage in 1415, to Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, whose descendant, the present duke, is lord of the entire manor. The custom of Borough English, by which the youngest son or youngest brother inherits, prevails in the manor. The name of the place is written in old records Dorchinges, an appellation supposed to be derived from compounding the ancient British word dur or dor with the Saxon name wicingas, together signifying dwellers among the waters, in allusion to the town being situated amid sand-hills abounding with springs. Gibson, in his additions to Camden, says " Darking is memorable for a very large camp near Holmsbury-hill, and not far from the road between Darking and Arundel. It is double-trenched and deep, containing by estimation about ten acres at the least." Traces are still visible both of this fortification and another known under the denomination of Hanstiebury, which latter is at the extremity of the parish in the direction of the Roman causeway called the Stane-street. This road is supposed to have led from Arundel to London, passing in its route through Dorking church-yard. From the parish register, which commences in 1538, we learn that between the years 1625 and 1669 the county assizes were held here several times, and that the place of execution for criminals on these occasions was in Sandy-lane at the southern end of the town. The quarterly sessions also appear to have been formerly held occasionally in the town-hall. The beauty of the scenery around Dorking, particularly that of the vale of Mickleham, and that between Dorking and Reigate, has procured for the district the appropriate appellation of the garden of Surrey, and has called forth the warm eulogiums of various writers. The entire parish abounds in elegant seats, the bare enumeration of which would so far exceed our limits, that we are reluctantly compelled to confine our pen to the foregoing sketch of the town; referring our readers to a very neat description of the neighbouring attractions entitled, A Picturesque Promenade round Dorking,—a small work that will afford them ample food for a more minute investigation.