GRAVESEND 67 



length, was made. It Avould, in the language of to-day, 

 applied to incandescent gas-mantle burners and to 

 avoiding roads alike, be called a " by-pass." 



Gravesend was at one time a place remarkable alike 

 for its tilt-boats and its waterside taverns. The one 

 involved the other, for the boats brought travellers 

 here from London, and here, in the days of bad roads 

 and worse conveyances, they judged it prudent to stay 

 overnight, commencing their journey to Rochester the 

 following morning. To the town of Gravesend 

 belonged the monopoly of conveying passengers to and 

 from London by water, and it was not until steamboats 

 began to ply up and down the reaches of the Thames 

 that this privilege became obsolete. Thus it will be 

 seen that, besides being a place of call for ships, either 

 outward bound or proceeding home, Gravesend was in 

 receipt of much local traffic. The railway has, 

 naturally, taken away a large proportion of this, but 

 has brought it back, tenfold, in the shape of holiday 

 trippers, and the continued growth of the town is 

 sufficient evidence of its prosperity. One first hears of 

 Gravesend in the pages of Domesday Book, where it is 

 called " Gravesham " ; but the difficulty of distinctly 

 pronouncing the name led, centuries ago, to the 

 corrupted termination of " end " being adopted, first 

 in speech, and, by insensible degrees, in writing. It has 

 an interesting history, commencing from the time when 

 the compilers of Domesday Book found only a " hyhte," 

 or landing-place, here, and progressing through the 

 centuries with records of growth, and burnings by 

 the French ; with tales of Cabot's sailing hence in 

 1553, followed by Frobisher in 1576, to the incorpora- 

 tion of the town in 1568, and the flight of James the 

 Second, a hundred and twenty years later. 



Gravesend was not, in the sixteenth century, a model 

 town. Its inhabitants paved, lighted, and cleansed 

 their streets, accordingly as individual preferences, 

 industry, or laziness dictated. Spouts, pipes, and 

 projecting eaves poured dirty water on pedestrians who 



