232 ROBERT POCOCK. 



author of the ' History of Gravesend and Milton in 

 Kent ;' ' Memorials of the Tufton Family, Earls of 

 Thanet/ ' Margate Water Companion/ &c. Subscrip- 

 tions received at the Banking House of Messrs. Master- 

 man and Co., Gracechurch, London. 



" PEOSPECTUS. 



" Our topography commenced in the reign of Queen 

 Elizabeth, and was at that time considered a new, prin- 

 cipal, and leading feature in fashionable literature ; it 

 has embraced attention and employed the pens of 

 several eminent writers from the days of the respected 

 Lambarde, the famous Camden, the useful Thorpe, the 

 decorative Gough, Grose, &c., down to the laborious 

 Hasted, with his own contemporaries, Denne, Cousens, 

 Parsons, Noble, &c. 



<f The numerous events which have happened in the 

 county of Kent have caused many topographical pub- 

 lications, and although most of the considerable towns 

 in that opulent and pre-eminent county have been 

 written on and particularly described, yet the much- 

 frequented and thriving town of Dartford has had no 

 Historian to commemorate its various occurrences. 

 The noble persons who have resided, passed through, 

 and assembled there at different periods as warriors, 

 soldiers, Eoyal bowmen, cricketers, &c., make the sub- 

 ject well worthy of inquiry. The monastery or nun- 

 nery with its religious community, the once royal 

 palace, its antique church, its ministers, one of its 

 singular cemeteries, its numerous charities, its exten- 

 sive manufactories, commerce, traffic, famous mills, 

 manors, descent of manorial property, pedigrees of 

 principal families, illustrious passengers, anecdotes, 



