were one of the principal mainstays of the place may readily be believed, since it is on record that of 340 freemen more than 120 held Government appointments. An old saying that Queenborough farmed the Ordnance Department is well remembered by many in Sheppey.

At electioneering times there was no end of refreshments. In 1790, when the election went on for nine days, the following tavern bills were presented to the agents for Commodore Parker, R.N., and Messrs. Hopkins and Crawford, the candidates, for only one of the several "open houses" (kept open day and night) in the borough, after the first seven days had expired:

Mounting the sea-wall, we proceed along it towards the Dockyard, passing on our way the hamlet of "Westminster." The meadows near us abound with samphire, which reminds us of Shakespeare's famous cliff, where it was sought at so much peril, though it may be obtained here in bushels, and is used as a pickle. In the winter flocks of wild-fowl haunt the "saltings," and the inhabitants of old seemed to have lived on them.

The pier (at which we have now arrived, and to which we have already alluded) was built, we are told, in 1835. It appears that less than fifty years ago the only landingplace for passengers was the Dockyard, which, as we have said, was not then enclosed. In 1801 an Act of Parliament was obtained for building a pier, but this was only a causeway or jetty. Alongside this the London hoys and the old Chatham sailing-boat could lie, getting off again at hightide. (Our forefathers, not being in so great a hurry as we, took things leisurely.) In 1809 another Act was obtained; yet it is said that no very striking improvement was made on the old jetty. When the tide receded, it was usually covered with mud and weeds, affording but a precarious footing to the unwary passenger. Yet another Act was obtained in 1829, and six years afterwards the first pile of the present pier was driven. Then they went to work with a will, and in three months the pier was completed. But it is hardly suited to the wants of our day, and the sewer of the town runs beneath it.

And so we find ourselves once more in Blue Town, and presently at our house in Mile Town, after an invigorating

* It would seem that after two days these gentlemen retired from the

contest.

walk upon the cliffs. We see that in Sheppey we stand on a bed of the London clay, the deposit of the Thames from remote ages-ages so remote that the climate has changed from a tropical, and even it may be an arctic, to a temperate one-the remains of whose inhabitants, fauna and flora are to be found within its bosom, and on whose surface in later, but yet far distant, years were erected those temples and sacred retreats to which the steps of pilgrims were bent, and which the ruthless and cruel invader visited; and mansions where nobles gathered their vassals around them, and which are now the subjects of history, legend, and romance. It is by no means, then, an uninteresting island: IT IS THE GUARDIAN OF THE THAMES AND MEDWAY.

Sheerness Dockyard is associated with the memory of Falconer, the Sailor Poet, author of "The Shipwreck" and other works, who married the daughter of a surgeon of this establishment, a Miss Hicks, and won her, as it would seem (for she was hard to win), by his verse. He had some time before published his famous poem, of which it has been said, "None but a great poet could have written 'The Shipwreck.""

It is remarkable that Falconer had twice the misfortune to be himself wrecked, and that amid the waste of waters he at last found an unknown grave. The Aurora, on which he sailed from England on the 30th of September, 1769, after touching at the Cape of Good Hope on the 27th of December, was never more seen.

I was delighted to find among my fellow-clerks Mr. Stephen C. Dibdin,* a grandson of the celebrated Charles Dibdin (whose sea-songs have been the inspiration and the solace of our sailors all the world over), and of course a nephew of Thomas Dibdin (the well-known dramatic poet and song-writer), and a relative of Dr. Dibdin, our most famous bibliographer. And I was glad to see that the Government had recognised the family claims of this gentleman by giving him a Dockyard appointment.

* Mr. Dibdin was afterwards removed to the Admiralty Office, Whitehall, and in the course of time became a first-class clerk there. He was eventually, atter long service, superannuated.

CHAPTER V.

SHEERNESS EXPERIENCES.-ARCTIC EXPLORATION.

Τ

66

HE towns of Sheerness were not very attractive (as the reader will already have perceived). Yet they had vastly improved within the memory of living inhabitants. We were told that some could recollect when Sheerness was a swamp by day and a dark, dreary hole by night; when after rain the boys went about in tubs and washing trays; and when the floods in front of the old post-office were as frequent as the full moon. Now, there was no Slough of Despond between the towns for pilgrims to go through, and the place was paved, and at night lit by gas! But though there was still a plentiful supply of salt water, the supply of fresh water was limited. All the towns were supplied from a well in Blue Town, and the water was hawked about in pails and barrels, conveyed by carts, with which the High Street was frequently thronged. Of old most of the water was brought from Chatham! Indeed, the want of water was originally a bar to the very formation of a settlement at Sheerness.†

The utter absence at this time of all provision for the physical and intellectual recreation of the sailor and the soldier was greatly to be lamented. The sailor and the soldier appeared to have been looked upon almost as a wild

* In 1814 it was said by a traveller: "There is not to be found in this island one single spring of fresh water."

In 1784 a well was sunk by the Board of Ordnance in the marsh near Blue Town; and at last the inhabitants clubbed together and sunk one in Blue Town itself, the one above mentioned. A well was also sunk in the dockyard, and yielded such excellent water that it used to be sent to the royal palaces, and is still sent up to Chatham for the use of the ships, by a tank-vessel kept for the purpose.

animal or automaton, which required to be sheltered, fed, and clothed, but had no higher qualities to be provided for. Hence, a multiplicity of public-houses and houses of ill fame; hence, the sight of drunken sailors and soldiers, so familiar to everyone; hence, the frequent sight of these men carried helpless through the streets to barracks from midnight brawls.

During the summer months much excellent bathing might be had off the Sheerness beach, although there were no "machines" for bathers, and the beach itself was somewhat rugged. Much enjoyment, too, might be found in boating and fishing, and no little in pebble-hunting, in shell-hunting, in collecting seaweeds, and in forming an aquarium; while on the cliffs the fresh breezes might be fully enjoyed, together with the unrivalled sea-view we have already described.

But, alas! while the invigorating breezes and delightful prospects they afforded made the cliffs the resort of the pedestrian and the health-seeker, the flats beneath were the haunts of fever and ague. And so we found it. My only child sickened and died, and my wife was seized with and became a chronic sufferer from ague. As winter drew on, the gales from the north-east, with which the people of Sheerness are so familiar, were frequently felt very severely. I myself had an attack of ague, which, however, I arrested by an enormous dose of quinine, so that I was seldom troubled with it after, though I must own that I usually took the precaution of swallowing a dose or two in bad weather.

It was in this year, 1846, that the planet Neptune was almost simultaneously discovered by Adams and Leverrier. Little did I at that time imagine that I should one day number among my personal friends the great English

astronomer.

On the 10th November Captain David Price succeeded Captain Arthur as Superintendent of the Yard.

The winter passed on very gloomily. Sheerness then possessed few social advantages. There did not appear to be a single good middle-class school in the place. I found that a Mechanics' Institution was established in 1835,