70 THE DOVER ROAD 



It was, indeed, during this latter half of the seven- 

 teenth century that Gravesend experienced one of its 

 great periods of prosperity ; and so the loyalty was 

 well rewarded. Of this date are many of the fine old 

 red-brick mansions in the older part of the town, 

 together with the Admiralty House, official residence 

 of the Duke of York when Lord High Admiral. To 

 Grav^esend he came as James the Second, a prisoner. 



Embarking from Whitehall, on December 18, 1688, 

 he reached here as late as nine o'clock at night. The 

 next morning he was conducted hence to Rochester 

 in the charge of a hundred of the Prince of Orange's 

 Dutch Guards, and a melancholy journey it must 

 have been for him, if his memory took him back to 

 the time when, twenty-eight years before, he came up 

 the road with his brothers, Charles the Second and 

 the Duke of Gloucester, happily returning from exile. 



To Gravesend came Royal and distinguished 

 travellers on their way from Dover to London, and 

 hence they embarked for the City and Westminster, 

 escorted, if they were sufficiently Royal or distinguished 

 by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and the City Guilds, 

 and fitly conducted in a long procession of stately 

 barges by this most impressive entrance to the capital 

 of England. And even ordinary travellers preferred 

 this route. For two reasons : the river-road was much 

 more expeditious than the highway in those pre- 

 MacAdamite daj^s, and by taking it they escaped the 

 too-pressing attentions that awaited them on Shooter's 

 Hill and Blackheath at the hands of Captains Gibbet 

 and Pick-Purse. 



XVI 



Many of these distinguished travellers on this old 

 highway have left written accounts of their doings, 

 and very interesting readings they make. Foremost 

 among the " distinguished " company was Marshal de 

 Bassompierre. He came to England in 1626, on an 



