ROBERT POCOCK. 29 



The following extract will show the easy and 

 pleasant style of the author. Opening his work with 

 G-ravesend Reach, he proceeds : " In this reach lies 

 the town of Gravesend, noted for fish, asparagus, 

 watermen, and a well-frequented and cheap ferry (to 

 that metropolis which has no equal), by means of the 

 boats which depart each flood upon the ringing of a 

 bell. Opposite to this town on the Essex shore lies 

 Tilbury Fort, a regular fortification, having a great 

 many guns and a very few old soldiers within it, who 

 have for their comfort continual agues to vex them, 

 unwholesome air to breathe, and very bad water to 

 quench their thirst. Leaving them to their piteous 

 situation, we pass the west end of Gravesend, where 

 the road or tunnel under the Thames is intended to 

 be made, and if completed will be the greatest wonder 

 on (or under) the earth, " &c. 



The author might well speak of the cheapness of 

 the ferry to London, since it appears from his " Sea 

 Captain's Assistant," hereafter to be mentioned, that 

 the fare then was but one shilling for the whole twenty- 

 four miles or thereabouts. No doubt this river route 

 was both pleasant and popular, and as in very disturbed 

 social periods the road to London over Shooter's Hill 

 was often infested by footpads and highwaymen, 

 it is not difficult to imagine the busy scene nor- 

 mally displayed at the Gravesend Bridge (the local 

 name for the pier or embarking-place), which has been 

 amusingly written of by many, and amongst them by 

 Mr. Straycock, a pilot, who often visited the town, 

 and who writing of " Gravesend at low water '" 

 says, 



