WAT TYLER 57 



in England, tells us how he passed through Dartford. 

 He was by no means a distinguished person, but what 

 he has to say of his travels is interesting, as contributing 

 to show how others see us. He came into England by 

 way of the Thames, May 31, 1782, and landed (he says) 

 just below Dartford — probably at Greenhithe — to which 

 place he walked in company with some others, and there 

 breakfasted. He was fresh from the dreary, sandy 

 ^lark of Brandenburg, and this fair county of Kent 

 delighted him hugely. At Dartford he saw, for the 

 first time, an P^nglish soldier. That rol^ust Tommj^ 

 struck him with admiration, both for the sake of 

 his red coat and his martial bearing. " Here, too, 

 I first saw " (says he) (" what I deemed a true English 

 sight) two boys boxing in the street." The party 

 separated at Dartford, and, taking two post-chaises 

 at the " Bull," drove to London, the Pastor " stunned," 

 as it were, by a constant rapid succession of interesting 

 objects, arriving at Greenwich nearly in a state of 

 stupefaction. 



Dartford will ever live in history as being the 

 starting-point of Wat the Tyler's rebellion of 1381. 

 Tradition places the scene of Wat's murderous attack 

 on the tax-gatherer opposite the " Bull," where once 

 was Dartford Green. The Green has long since gone, 

 but the story never stales of how the Tyler dashed out 

 the tax-gatherer's brains with his hammer. It is, for 

 one thing, a tale that appeals strongly to an over-taxed 

 community, sinking under burdens imposed chiefly 

 for the support of imperial and local bureaucracy ; 

 and I fear that if some modern tax-collector met a 

 similar fate, many worthy people, not ordinarily 

 bloodthirsty, would say, " Serve him right ! " 



The particular impost which caused the trouble 

 five hundred years ago was the odious Poll-tax, a 

 hateful burden that had already caused wide discontent 

 throughout England, and needed only a more than 

 usually unpleasant incident to cause ill feelings to break 

 out in ill deeds. That incident was not lacking. 



