CHATHAM 129 



longer bulk so largely as they used, they still make a 

 brave show. An inhabitant of Chatham need never 

 wish to visit London, because the triple towns of 

 Chatham, Strood and Rochester — to leave out all 

 count of Gillingham and New Brompton, which are to 

 Chatham even as Hammersmith is to our own great 

 metropolis — contain samples of nearly all that is to 

 be seen in the Capital of the Empire, and much else 

 besides. There is a Dockyard at Chatham two miles 

 in length, from which there issues every day at the 

 dinner-hour an army of artificers of every kind and 

 degree — many thousands of them ; and in this 

 Dockyard are ironclads, making, repairing, and refitting 

 together with vast military and naval stores, and all 

 kinds of relics, foremost among which there is a shed, 

 full of old and historic figure-heads ; all that is left 

 of the wooden walls that were such efficient bulwarks 

 of England's power. Agamemnons, Arethiisas, Beller- 

 ophons are here, and many more. And all around 

 are forts and " lines," barracks and military hospitals ; 

 and drilling, manoeuvring, marchings and counter- 

 marchings, and all kinds of military exercises are 

 continually going forward. The names of streets, 

 courts, and alleys, would furnish a very Walhalla of 

 naval heroes, and from all quarters come the sounds of 

 riveting, the blasts of bugles, and the shouting of the 

 captains ; and when midday comes the noontide gun 

 resounds from the heights of Fort Pitt, and all the 

 ragged urchins who live on the pavements fall down as 

 if they were shot, much to the terror of old ladies, 

 strangers in these parts, who pass by. 



There is still a fine old-time nautical flavour hanging 

 about Chatham. It does not lie on the surface, but 

 requires much patient searching amid mean and 

 disreputable streets, and it is only after passing 

 through slums that would affright a resident of 

 Drury Lane that one finds curiously respectable little 

 terraces, giving upon the waterside, mth masts and 

 yards, rigging, derricks, and other strange seafaring 



