20 ROBERT POCOCK. 



" From lives of many a good example may be drawn." 



Grave? end : 

 Printed by R. Pocock, 



and sold by Messrs. Robinson, Paternoster Row, London, 



and all other Booksellers. 



1800. 



This work is replete with interesting detail, to which, 

 however, its main scope and object are never allowed to 

 become subordinate ; but what should have particularly 

 induced this selection of the topic of the Thanet family 

 is hard to say, as more prominent Kentish subjects 

 could have been suggested. It may have arisen from 

 the local connexion of Tilbury Fort with Gravesend, 

 for he remarks that " Col. Tufton, on whom the earl- 

 dom of Thanet descended on the decease of Thomas, 

 Nov. 19, 1694, was in the reign of James II. chosen 

 governor of Tilbury Fort, and probably the first who 

 received that honour after the old Blockhouse Plat- 

 form, built by Henry VIIL, with other like fortresses 

 on the coast (out of the vast plunder of the religious 

 houses, by way of amusing the people after their loss), 

 had been enclosed with works, and reduced to the 

 regular fortification we now find it." 



The following is extracted from our author's " Intro- 

 duction 1 " to the Tufton family, Earls of Thanet : 



" Before the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was thought 

 a rarity in the course of a century if one historian 

 appeared to record and transmit to posterity the 

 glorious actions of our forefathers, or to set forth the 

 topographical beauties of this respectable and delightful 

 island. Under the patronage of Her Majesty several 

 literary luminaries arose during her golden age. Mr. 

 Lambarde, the father of local historians, honoured Kent 



