CANVEY ISLAND 



Canvey Island is only thirty miles from London, 

 yet the two places are but little acquaint. Most 

 Canvey Islanders have never been to London, and 

 most Londoners have never heard of Canvey — unless, 

 indeed, in connection with the problem of the 

 disposal of London sewage. Yet its history may 

 interest the curious, and the island itself will well 

 repay a visit, for it is a quaint, old-world sort of place, 

 and oddly un-English in many ways. It lies down 

 the Thames, between Gravesend,and Shoebury on the 

 Essex shore. It is about five by three miles in extent, 

 is as flat, and for the most part as treeless, as the 

 Haarlem Lake, and like it has Dutch traditions, and 

 is beloved of the Dutchman of to-day. Not that 

 Canvey ever belonged to the Dutch ; their connection 

 with it came about in this way. 



The Romans who embanked the Medway and the 

 Thames doubtless did the same for Canvey, for they 



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