\_October, 1859.] 289 



THE VILLE OF DUNKIRK AND ITS FLORA. 



By the Rev. W. M. Hind. 



My short summer holiday was spent at the ville of Dunkirk. 

 Do not suppose, good reader, that I have been across the Channel, 

 or that this paper has aught to do with Continental botany. 

 Halfway between Faversham and Canterbury, on an eminence 

 commanding the whole country for many miles round, stands the 

 modest church of Dunkirk. It is a modern structure, wholly 

 devoid of architectural beauty ; yet it has a history of which many 

 older and more beautiful churches cannot boast. It is, in fact, a 

 monument. It teUs more simply and more touchingly the same 

 sad tale which is recorded on a mural tablet in Canterbury ca- 

 thedral. The story is soon told. William Tom, or, as he called 

 himself, Sir William Courtenay, a man of commanding person 

 and great natural powers, but insane, imagined that he was the 

 Saviour of the world. Having impressed the same vain belief on 

 the minds of a band of ignorant peasantry, he appeared in arms 

 to assert his claims. The first step in the tragedy that followed 

 was the assassination, by Tom^s own hand, of a policeman sent 

 to reconnoitre. A party of military was then called out to act 

 against him, when an aifray took place in Bosenden Wood, on 

 the 31st of May, 1838, which resulted in the death of Lieutenant 

 Bennett, in command of the soldiers, who was shot down by 

 Tom, and of the poor maniac himself and several of his deluded 

 followers. In all, thirteen persons lost their lives in the affray. 

 Public attention was called by this lamentable event to the neg- 

 lected state of the district and the gross ignorance of its inha- 

 bitants ; and a remedy was provided by the erection of a church, 

 parsonage, and schools : with what effect, let a large and attentive 

 congregation every Sunday, and the quiet civil manners of the 

 rustics tell. 



The Ville of Dunkirk includes parochially a district of about five 

 thousand acres, two-thirds of which are underwood. As the plan- 

 tations are cut periodically, there is scarcely any large timber. 

 The soil of the district is for the most part plastic clay, sandy 

 loam, or gravel. In one spot an ironstone appears close to the 

 surface, which is used for metalling the roads, and would not 

 likely be of any value for the furnace. Chalk is abundant in 

 some of the neighbouring parishes; but my investigations did 



N. S. VOL. III. 2 P 



