rald ring from off his finger, stripped and buried Kim. The ring having led to the discovery of the body, which was shockingly mutilated, it was conveyed to Portsmouth, and thence transferred to Westminster Abbey, where a monument was raised to his memory:

"Ah! human life, how transient and how vain!
How thy wide sorrow circumscribes thy joy :
A sunny island in a stormy main:

A speck of azure in a cloudy sky!"

There is a structure in the principal street of this city, remarkable for the following inscription: "Richard Watts, Esq. by his will, dated 22d of August, 1579, founded this charity for sick poor travellers, who, not being rogues or proctors, may receive gratis, for one night only, lodging, entertainment, and four pence each. In testimony of his munificence, in honour of his memory, and as an inducement to his example, Nathaniel Wood, Esq. the present Mayor, has caused this stone gratefully to be renewed and inscribed, A. D. 1771."

The putting of proctors or lawyers with rogues has been the subject of conversation. Some persons, favourable to the gentlemen of the law, deem it an insult, but others are of opinion that their exorbitant charges entitle them to a place in such company. It has also been conjectured that Mr. Watts had suffered by their chicanery, and had taken this mode of gratifying his resentment. Justice, however, requires it to be observed, that the term proctor is not exclusively applicable to lawyers-for it appears, from a passage in Strype's Annals, that in the time of Queen Elizabeth

there were a set of men called by the name of proctors, who, by begging briefs, collected money, and were a kind of vagrants. This rescues the profession from the imputation of roguery, though the common reader of the inscription will be inclined to cherish this degrading sentiment.

A long row of buildings, on a gentle eminence, called the Bank, connects Chatham with Rochester, Here from the house of a friend, Mr. Benjamin Chilley (by whom I was kindly entertained during my stay), opens a beautiful prospect of the river Medway, with its shipping. On the left rises the hoary spire of Rochester cathedral, and the Castle, with its battered fragments; whilst to the right Chatham appears a kind of amphitheatre, presenting to the eye his Majesty's dock-yard, with its immense store-houses, containing articles of every kind, both for the naval and military departments. Above them a fort lifts its head, and crowns the top of the hill, bidding defiance to the surrounding country. To this eminence I one evening took a walk, in company with my friend, and was delighted with the prospect which offered itself to the eye from every part of the horizon. Here I saw a regiment of the Guards just encampedall fine looking young men; their tents were neat: at the sound of the bugle-horn they appeared in their respective ranks. They were stationed on this spot, not merely for the purpose of repelling the enemy in cases of invasion, but that they might at a moment's notice embark for any part of the world.

TOWN OF CHATHAM.

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The Dock-yard here is both spacious and convenient; the Commissioners and the other officers have elegant habitations. Though an immense quantity of stores are deposited in magazines, yet they are so arranged, that on any emergency they may be obtained without confusion. In this yard, during the late war, upwards of 2000 men found employment.

The town of CHATHAM itself is narrow and dirty, though since the late terrible fire, about two years ago, some parts of it are improved.-The chest of Chatham was instituted in 1558, when the seamen in Queen Elizabeth's time agreed to allow a certain part of their pay towards those who had been wounded in destroying the Spanish Armada. Being the depót for recruits, it is said that some thousands of pounds were expended annually here, which must have proved a source of emolument to the trading part of the inhabitants. Their late removal to the Isle of Wight was occasioned by their desertion at this place, often secreting themselves on the river Medway, and often escaping to London, where they were soon lost in the immensity of its population. There are some good inns at Chatham; but the Mitre Inn is particularly distinguished for the neatness of its appearance, and the pleasantness of its accommodations. Chatham church, on the side of the hill near the barracks, was rebuilt with brick in 1788; it contains monuments raised to the memory of officers who died in the service of their country. In December, 1772, as the grave-digger was opening

370

CHATHAM HOSPITAL.

a grave near the communion table he found a hand entire (except the fore finger), the flesh, sinews, nails, and veins, like those of a living person, and grasping the handle of a dagger, which, it is thought, preserved it.—The village of Brompton rises behind the church. To the right hand, on an ascent, when passing through the town of Chatham, stands the General Baptist meeting, a neat place of worship, recently built; and in the ground close to it are deposited the remains of some respectable families, on one of whose tombs is the following inscription:

"In a vault under this tomb lies interred the body of Joseph Longley, Esq. He was born June, 1705, in Chatham.-He died there July 20, 1788, after a long and innocent life, in which he had assisted many, offended few, and by the blessing of Providence on his honest industry had raised the fortune of the family. His son, John Longley, Esq. of Satis, grateful for that fortune, but more for a liberal and excellent education, obeyed his injunctions by erecting this monument."

Here is an hospital for poor mariners and shipwrights, founded by Sir John Hawkins, 1592. He was a seafaring man in the early part of life, and the riches he amassed were thus appropriated to the purposes of charity. He was the first Englishman that engaged in the horrid traffic of human flesh, now happily abolished. It is also said of him, that, having procured the first potatoes for ship provisions from the inhabitants of Santa Fe, in New Spain, South America, he introduced that useful root into Ireland, whence it has been propagated through every other part of the globe.

From the summit of the hill above Brompton, SHEERNESS may be discerned at the distance of eighteen miles; it was built to defend the Medway, after the Dutch had, in the reign of Charles the Second, burnt our shipping in the Medway. It is a flourishing place, and has a deep well, whence water is drawn up after a curious manner. The Nore, immediately opposite the fort of Sheerness, generally exhibits a vast quantity of shipping. This was the scene of the unhappy mutiny in 1797, which agitated the nation, but which terminated in the execution of Richard Parker, and several of the insurgents. Since that period maritime affairs at this place have gone on with their accustomed regularity.*

On my return by water from Sheerness to Chatham, after sun-set, we were amused with luminous appearances in the wake of the vessel, which struck the eye with a vivid sensation of beauty! Upon inquiry I found the seafaring men well acquainted with the phenomenon; and flinging out a rope into the water, according to their direction, a similar light was produced. The sailors attempted not its solution; but chemists have exercised their ingenuity in its explication. They suppose it to arise from phosphoric matter, emitted either from small insects, or from the substance of animals in a state of putridity. Thus it is that the water exhibits a luminous appearance imme

* See the Execution of PARKER at full length in the Excursion to Windsor, &c.