36 ROBERT POCOCK, 



Royal Society first stimulated me to begin a Natural 

 History of Kent, which work I have now the honour 

 to lay before the public, with hopes that it will deserve 

 their approbation. 



<l I remain, gentlemen, 



' ' Your most humble servant, 



" EGBERT POCOCK/' 



But alas ! he was never able to publish these his 

 labours, and they fell sterile, like so many other of 

 his efforts, for want of encouragement and pecuniary 

 support. 



It is satisfactory to be able at length to pass to 

 some of the author's Diaries, which have been to 

 a fragmentary extent saved ; for it is ever easier and 

 truer work, certainly pleasant er, to judge of a man and 

 to form an estimate of him from his own words, than 

 to depend upon the researches and speculations of 

 others, however disinterested and impartial. Indeed he 

 who writes a Journal often involuntarily portrays his 



own character. 



/ 



CHRONICLE or 1811. 



" September 1st, 1811, Sunday. Visited Essex, and 

 bought a loaf at Leigh, and then to Old or Holy 

 Haven in Canvey Island, Essex, where there is only 

 one public-house ; but did not enter it, or take any 

 refreshment, because I had heard from several that 

 the landlord's name was not Mr. ' Civility/ 



" September 2nd, Monday. Read the Gent/sMag. for 

 last month, the value of which has lately been increased 

 by the correspondence of Messrs. Lettsom, Foster, 

 Richardson, Hall, and others. 



" The Gent,'s Mag. I rank as one of the first British 

 periodicals. 



