CAMPDEN, or CHIPPING CAMPDEN, formerly Cam pcdenc, a town of England, in Gloucestershire, is situated near the extremity of the county, in a fruitful valley, among cultivated hills and hanging woods. The town consists chiefly of one street, about a mile long. The principal public buildings are, the court house, which is situated about the middle of the street, and seems to have been built about the beginning of the fifteenth century ; the market house, which was erected by Sir Baptist Ilickes, Viscount Campden, in 1624; and the church, dedicated to St James, which is supposed to have been built in the reign of Richard I., and which stands on a gentle eminence above the town. It is a large Gothic edifice, and contains some of the finest marble monuments in England. The nave of the church is sixty feet high, with an aisle on each side. The tower at the west end is 120 feet high, and is finished with battlements and 12 pinnacles. The remains of a magnificent mansion, erect
ed by Sir Baptist Ilickes, arc still to be seen near the church. It was an immense building, adorned with frizes, tmtablatures, and a profusion of sculpture, and is said to have occupied, a long with the of a space of eight acres, and to have cost 290001. In the neighbourhood of the town there is a silk mill and manufactory.
The Coteswold games were held on Dover hill, about half a mile from the town of Campden. Number of houses in 1801, 255. Population 1213; of whom 694 were returned as employed in trade and manufactures. See Rudder's New History of Gloucestershire, fol. Ciren cester, 1779; and Rudge's General View qf the ilgricul tare of the County of Gloucester, Lond. 1807. (w)