CANVEY ISLAND 107 



flower-beds, its flagstaff, and its handful of steady 

 men. Mine host has often reason to be glad of the 

 society of these useful allies when emiergencies arise. 

 For your Dutchman, stolid and phlegmatic in his _ 

 sober moments, genial and somewhat noisy later on, 

 has a tendency by ten o'clock or so to become wildly 

 unmanageable and to run amuck at everything and '' 



everybody when closing time begins. Fortunately for 

 himself the landlord is a strong and a plucky man, 

 and is moreover ably seconded by his better half. 

 There is an old flight-shooter, too, who can always be 

 relied on in a row. Like most of those about the 

 "Lobster Smack," he is honourably scarred. The 

 loss of two fingers is the form it takes with him. Ask 

 him how it happened, and he will say, " Well, sir, you 

 see it was just like this 'ere. We was a-heftin' out a 

 Dutchman one night, and I went for to hit his head, 

 and he dropped sudden, and blest if I didn't drive 

 right at that there beam." 



Canvey contains about three thousand acres of land ' • '- 



in all, and this was divided among eight different ^\f*^ 



parishes, and was titheable to them. Whether the 

 clergy of any of these parishes ever collected their 

 tithes in person on this island I cannot say ; but it 

 is certain that for centuries no other consideration 



