SHOOTER'S HILL.

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the telegraphs which communicate between London and Deal: we looked through the respective glasses, both eastward and westward, but the haziness of the day almost prevented the sight of the other telegraphs which these glasses were intended to recognise. It, however, in every respect, appears to have been a well chosen situation.

With respect to the road over the hill, attempts have been made to render it more easy. It continued, however, to be narrow till 1739, when the road was widened, and the declivity of the hill diminished. A few years since, it seems, a plan was formed for the erection of a town on the top of this hill; a few houses were erected, but the scheme was abandoned, nor will it be revived.

Shooter's-Hill is so called, either because here thieves from the adjoining woods have shot at travellers, and plundered them; or, more probably, because the archers frequented this spot to exercise themselves in their favourite diversion. It is, indeed, a fact, that King Henry the Eighth and his queen, Catharine, came hither from Greenwich on May-day, and were received by two hundred archers, clad in green, one of them personating Robin Hood as their captain, and all of them shewing his Majesty feats of activity.

The Bow was a principal instrument of war among the nations of antiquity; its use may be traced to the earliest times, and followed in the history of almost every country. In England it was carried to a degree of perfection that is even yet unrivalled. The battles of Cressy, Poictiers,

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and Agincourt, were gained by the English in consequence of the skilful use of the bow. It is remarkable, that the founder of Harrow School has, in a manner, insisted on parents furnishing their children with bow-strings, shafts, and breasters, to exercise shooting; and till within these few years a silver arrow used to be shot for by the gentlemen of Harrow School. The principal societies of the kind now existing, are the Royal Company of Archers in Scotland, the Archers' division of the Artillery Company, the Toxophilites, and the Kentish Bowmen. I recollect having seen an engraving, from a masterly design, by my respected friend, the late J. Slater, Esq. of Hounslow, which must afford gratification to all the lovers of an art by which Britain was once distinguished.

I shall here conclude with an anecdote of the late truly lamented PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF WALES, who died at Claremont, Nov. 6, 1817. Bishop Porteus in his journal thus writes of her when only between five and six years old:-"Yesterday (the 6th of August, 1801,) I passed a very pleasant day at Shrewsbury House, near Shooter's Hill, the residence of the Princess Charlotte of Wales. The day was fine, and the prospect extensive and beautiful, taking in a large reach of the Thames, which was covered with vessels of various sizes and descriptions. We saw a good deal of the young Princess; she is a most captivating and engaging child, and considering the high station she may hereafter fill, a most interesting and important one. She repeated to me several of her

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hymns with great correctness and piety; and on being told that when she went to South End in Essex, as she afterwards did for the benefit of seabathing, she would then be in my diocese, she fell down on her knees, and begged my blessing. I gave it her with all my heart, and with my earnest secret prayers to God that she might adorn her illustrious station with every Christian grace, and that if ever she became the Queen of this truly great and glorious country she might be the means of diffusing virtue, piety, and happiness, through every part of her dominions!"*

I remain, dear Sir,

Yours, &c.

* See a Tribute of Respect to the beloved memory of the PRINCESS CHARLOTTE, delivered at Worship-street the day of her interment, by James Evans. Second Edition.

ERITH; DARTFORD; ITS MILL; SWAINSCOMBE; GRAVESEND; TILBURY FORT; TUNNEL; ORM; GADSHILL; FALSTAFF; ROCHESTER; BRIDGE; CATHEDRAL AND CASTLE TOWN-HALL; SIR CLOUDESLEY SHOVEL; SINGULAR INSTITUTION; CHATHAM; DOCK-YARD ; THE TOWN; THE CHURCH; THE HOSPITAL; BROMPTON; SHEERNESS; MUTINY, 1798; sSOUTH END; LUMINOUS APPEARANCE IN THE SALT WATER; CHAIRING OF SIR SIDNEY SMITH AT THE GENERAL ELECTION.

DEAR FRIEND,

WE now descended on the other side of the hill, and soon passed by the little town of Erith, where the East India ships unburthen themselves of part of their cargo, that they may proceed up to London with safety. Pushing on through Crayford, we quickly reached the town of Dartford, situated on a river whence it derives its name, and remarkable for the transparency of its waters:

Lo! the still Darent, in whose waters clear

--

Ten thousand fishes play and deck his pleasant stream.

SPENCER.

DARTFORD boasts of nothing remarkable to recommend it to the notice of the traveller; it has a market for corn and other articles, and the church possesses some degree of antiquity. Upon the river are no less than five mills, one for sawing, the other for grinding corn, one for making paper, and another for manufacturing gun-powder. A paper-mill standing not far from the town, south

wards, is supposed to have been the first of the kind in the kingdom. It was erected by John Spilman, a person of German extraction, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who granted him a licence for the sole gathering of all rags, &c. during ten years, necessary for the making of writingpaper. That this, however, was the first mill in England has been questioned, since it is said that paper used in a book printed so far back as the year 1494 was made by John Tate, jun. of Hertford. Be this as it may, the commodity is of unquestionable utility-being one of the grand means by which the blessings of knowledge are diffused among mankind. In one of the cemeteries belonging to the town is an epitaph on a child of three years old :

When the archangels' trumpets blow,

And souls to bodies join,

What crowds will wish their stay below

Had been as short as mine!

How fine a contrast do these lines form to the trash by which places of interment are generally disgraced!

Seven miles further bring us to Gravesend; and on the way thither no place deserves particular mention, except Swainscombe, where William the Conqueror met the men of Kent covered with boughs, and appearing to him like a moving wood! Alarmed at the sight, it is said, he granted then the privileges which they demanded, amongst which was that of the Gavelkind, by which the

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