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then Admiral of the fleet, aided by the great Sir Francis Drake, and Sir John Hawkins. Shortly after the Mutiny at the Nore, the Chest of Chatham was removed to Greenwich Hospital, in consequence of sundry abuses which had crept into the distribution of the charity. The principal abuses on which the commissioners recommended the removal of the Chest and the placing it under the direction of the Lords of the Admiralty, and the Governor and other officers of Greenwich Hospital, arose from the system of agency, by which the pensioners were but too often deprived of a considerable portion of their allowance. The estates of the Chest were also let considerably under their value, and in some instances proved a loss to, instead of an augmentation of, the funds. The commissioners therefore recommended that they should be sold and the produce invested in the funds. The stock belonging to the Chest amounts to about 300,000l. of which 10,000l. was contributed early in the present century by some charitable individual who concealed his name, and also bequeathed the same munificent sum to Greenwich Hospital.

Chatham gives the title of Earl to the house of Pitt, so illustrious among the most illustrious, for the two great men it produced in

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the last century. The place formerly gave the title of Baron to the Duke of Argyle, but the title became extinct on the death of John, second Duke, in the year 1743, whose Scottish dignities alone passed to his brother Archibald, the third Duke.

Rochester bridge and the ruins of the old castle now rise majestically over the Medway, and impress even the most careless passenger with the conviction that he has arrived at an ancient and time-honoured place. This is the famous bridge that divides the men of Kent from the Kentish men, a distinction apparently without a difference, but much insisted upon by the former. The natives born east of the bridge are the men of Kent; those west, the Kentish men; the former being considered the best and boldest, a character they have given themselves, although not universally acknowledged by others, since their pretended set-to with William the Conqueror, at Swanscombe, when they obtained the confirmation of their privileges from that grim successful warrior.

Rochester was the Durobrivae of the Romans, and one of their stipendiary cities. Many Roman remains have been discovered in various parts of it, strengthening the conjecture that the present city occupies the ac

tual site of the Roman one. Within the walls of the great tower or keep of the castle, and in the gardens, great quantities of coins have been at various times dug up, including some of the Emperors, Vespasian, Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Constantius, and Constantine the Great. The cathedral is partly built with remains of Roman bricks. In the neighbouring fields, and at a place called Bally Hill, other remains of antiquity have been explored; remnants of mosaic pavements, urns, jugs and pateræ of fine red earth.

Rochester was an important place during the Saxon dynasties in England; and from its wealth, and its position on the Medway, was continually exposed to the ravages of the Danes. It was more than once pillaged and destroyed by these greedy foes. In the year 676 Ethelred, King of Mercia, razed it to the ground. In 839, the Danes burned and pillaged it, and committed unheard-of cruelties. In 885, they made a second attempt upon it, but were repulsed by the inhabitants, under the command of Alfred the Great. In the tenth century it was twice burned down by the Danes, and the Medway became a common highway for that piratical people.

At the conquest, Rochester, along with many other possessions in various parts of England, was bestowed by the conqueror, on his halfbrother, Odo, Bishop of Baieux, upon whose disgrace, in 1083, it reverted to the Crown. Rochester was made a bishop's see so early as the year 597, by Ethelbert, first christian King of Kent, and a church dedicated to St. Andrew, was built for Justus, the Bishop, in 604. The present cathedral was commenced by Gundulphus promoted to this diocese in 1077, and carried on by his successors until the year 1130, when it was solemnly dedicated by Corboyle, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the presence of Henry I. and his Queen Matilda. It contains many ancient tombs and statues, which the antiquary will be pleased to visit. Most visitors, however, will rather remember with melancholy interest, that within its walls, Ridley the martyr often preached to his flock; and that Sprat, Atterbury, Zachary Pearce, and other eminent prelates, were bishops of this diocese.

Next to the cathedral, the most remarkable objects at Rochester are the bridge and the picturesque ruins of the castle. There seems to have been a wooden bridge at the conquest. It became at last so dangerous, and

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cost so much to keep it in repair, that the inhabitants petitioned Parliament, at the end of the fourteenth century, to aid them in building a bridge of stone. Sir Robert Knolles, a great warrior of that day, took the matter in hand, and by his exertions among his friends, a sufficient sum was subscribed to build a stonebridge, the finest then in England, with the single exception of that at London. Of this Knight, Stowe preserves these laudatory verses:

O Robert Knolles, most worthy of fame,
By thy prowess France was made tame,
Thy manhood made the Frenchmen yield,
By dint of sword in town and field.

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