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their arms to the attendant priests, who always superintended the foolish ceremony, when one of them was exculpated, and the other found guilty. The latter was then taken forth to a pool called Bikepool, communicating with the Thames, and her arms and legs having been previously tied together, she was thrown in and drowned.

In later times, two men of

Deptford were accused of defamation in the Consistorial Court of Rochester, for representing that three women of Southfleet were guilty of witchcraft. The only proof they gave of the charge was, that they each "kept a monstruous tode." Considering the age when the crime was imputed [1585], an age, when the chaplain of Queen Elizabeth openly prayed that her Grace might be preserved from the malice of witches, when James VI. of Scotland presided at trials for the same offence, and condemned women without scruple to the flames, and when all over the continent of Europe thousands upon thousands of victims were annually sacrificed at the shrine of this prevalent delusion, it is wonderful that these women escaped. Hundreds of women were executed in England upon charges as frivolous as this. Two of these were acquitted, and their defamers fined. In the case of the third, as she was

somewhat suspected of witchcraft by her neighbours, and as she was moreover a notable scold, she was ordered to attend at the next courtday, with six good women for her compurgators, and likewise admonished to resort to the minister without fail every Sunday or holiday, to testify her faith in the eyes of all who doubted. This sentence, so mild and so sensible, stands alone in the annals of witchcraft at that period, and reflects lasting credit upon the humanity of the judges. Had Matthew Hopkins, witch-finder-general, been alive and thereabouts, the case would have been somewhat different.

A short distance beyond Northfleet, and between that village and Gravesend, a new town, entitled Rosherville, is in process of formation on the estate, and from the designs, of Mr. Jeremiah Rosher. There is also a zoological garden and pleasure-ground, for the resort of the numerous visitors from the metropolis, who flock to Gravesend and its neighbourhood during the summer season. The place, when completed, promises to become a great ornament to the bank of the river.

The spires, and numerous buildings of Gravesend, the most considerable town we have passed since leaving London, and the first port

[graphic][subsumed]

on the Thames, now rise before us, and give palpable evidence of a thriving and populous place. Its piers, projecting far into the stream, are crowded with steam-boats, each crowded with passengers to and from the great city, with whose population Gravesend is the favourite and most convenient watering-place. There is an absurd opinion afloat among the immense multitudes, who never inquire for themselves, or who have not the opportunity of doing so, that Gravesend, or, the End of the Grave, was so called in consequence of the great plague of 1666, having stopped short of

that town. The name of the place in Domesday Book is Gravesham, or the town of the Grave, Graff, Earl, or chief magistrate, which in the course of time has been altered to Gravesend.

Little mention of this town occurs in history until the reign of Richard II, when the French sailed up the river, burned and plundered the town, and carried off some of the principal inhabitants. To aid the town to repair its serious losses on this occasion, the abbot and brethren of St. Mary le Grace, on Tower Hill, London, to whom the manor belonged, obtained of the King a privilege for the watermen of Gravesend and Milton, that they solely should be permitted to convey passengers to and from London. The fare was fixed at four shillings for each boat, containing twenty-four persons, or twopence a-head.

In the same reign, as mentioned in our account of Dartford, one Sir Simon Burleigh excited a commotion in Gravesend, by seizing one of the principal inhabitants for his bondsman, and refusing to liberate him under the then exorbitant manumission of three hundred pounds. The men of Gravesend, joined by Wat Tyler from Maidstone, afterwards beseiged Rochester Castle, where the man was confined, and set him at liberty, along with

several other prisoners. The Sir Simon Burleigh, the cause of this disturbance, and one of the men, whose overbearing pride and insolence helped to drive the people of England to that famous rebellion, was beheaded about seven years afterwards. He was concerned in the treasons of the Duke of Ireland, and Nicholas Brember, Lord Mayor of London, and expectant Duke of New Troy, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. He was at the time Constable of Dover Castle and Chamberlain to the King, who, upon consideration of his high offices, dispensed with the ignominy of this punishment, and had him put to death by the more honourable mode, as it was considered, of decapitation, without the drawing and quartering. "He was," says Stowe, "an intolerable proud man, and a great oppressor of the poor."

From the time of Richard II, until the year 1819, passengers were conveyed between London and Gravesend in small sailing boats. The fare, originally twopence, was gradually raised to sixpence, and in the year 1779, there being covered, or tilt boats, the fare was raised to ninepence, and shortly afterwards to a shilling.

It may not be out of place to mention here, that at the same period the only water-con

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