THE DOVER ROAD 231 



Immediately beyond Dcptford we come to Blackheath, 

 seven miles from London Bridge, famous in these days 

 for football matches, and for villas built for credulous 

 people simple enough to believe in fine air as a remedy 

 for that mysterious disease which, to quote the terrific 

 advertisement, is "stealing upon us all." But the villas, 

 I regret to say, in which these deluded persons seek for 

 that health which passeth understanding, and can only 

 be procured at the vendors of patent medicines, are by 

 no means equal to the aristocratic residences for which 

 Blackheath was once famous. The manners of their 

 inhabitants are however much improved. At least I 

 hope so. For Montague House, now pulled down, did 

 not, I apprehend, shine conspicuously in this desirable 

 respect. The reverse indeed was the case ; Montague 

 House having been, in the days I speak of, the residence 

 of the unfortunate Queen Caroline, and the scene of the 

 delicate investigation — which reminds me that I am on 

 delicate ground. From the same house that delightful 

 combination of the devil and the three graces, my Lord 

 Chesterfield, wrote some of those amazing letters to his 

 son. At Blackheath also lived, at intervals, the con- 

 queror of Quebec, and from his villa here his remains 

 were carried to Greenwich for burial. 



Besides a queen devoted to junketings, a letter-writing 

 father, bent on directing his son to the deuce, and a 

 great warrior, rebellion has in the good old days (when 

 people who wanted a purse simply took one on the 

 nearest common, without starting a subscription in the 

 newspapers) — rebellion has raised its head on this 

 celebrated spot ; and it raised its head in the person 

 of Wat Tyler, who was here in 1381 at the head of one 

 hundred thousand other heads (which was wise of him 

 seeing that he had previously cracked a poll-tax collector's 

 head at Dartford, after drinking too much ale, I suppose, 

 at the celebrated Bull Inn). Another rebel was here, at 

 Blackheath, in 1497. Lord Audley to wit, who went 

 through the somewhat aimless exercise of brin^ine 



