66 THE DOVER ROAD 



praise of the famous brown cress from the waters of 

 Springhead. 



Be that as it may, Bradbery made a fortune by 

 cultivating his cress on the extended area. He seized 

 an opportunity where another man would not have seen 

 one. 



Watercress is now cultivated largely, and in numerous 

 districts. It is known, botanically, as nasturtium 

 officinale. 



Electric tramcars now rush and rattle through 

 Northfleet and Rosherville, and no one contemplates 

 journeying to these scenes with the object of spending 

 a " happy da}^" The great group of semi-ecclesiastical 

 looking buildings on the left is " Huggens' College." 

 Almshouses continue to be built, for the fountain of 

 benevolence is not yet dried up. It was in 1847 that 

 this foundation came into existence, pursuant to the 

 will of John Huggens (born 1776), who was a barge- 

 owner and corn-merchant of Sittingbourne. Lookinor 

 upon a world rather astonishingly full of almshouses for 

 people of humble birth, he conceived the somewhat 

 original idea of founding what, with extreme delicacy, 

 he termed a " College " for gentlemen reduced to poor 

 circumstances. The establishment, strictly secluded 

 behind enclosing walls, in well-wooded grounds, houses 

 fifty collegians. Huggens himself, in stony effigy, is 

 seen over the gateway, seated in a frockcoat and an 

 uncomfortable attitude, and displaying a scroll or the 

 charter of his " College." The bountiful gentleman is 

 sadly weatherworn, for the factory fumes of this 

 industrial district have wrought havoc with the 

 Portland stone from which he is sculptured. Huggens 

 was wise among the generation of benefactors : he 

 founded his charity in his own lifetime, and personally 

 supervised it. He died in 1865, and his body lies in 

 Northfleet churchyard. 



We will now proceed to Gravesend, noting that in 

 1787 the slip road between the " Leather Bottle " at 

 Northfleet and the beginnings of Chalk, two miles in 



