UPCHURCH WARE 141 



the Dickens family removed when Mr. John Dickens' 

 fortunes were low, is still to be seen, but " the Brook " 

 has changed for the worse, and the visitor to Chatham 

 who takes up the local papers will discover that it is 

 pre-eminently the place where the Order of the Black 

 Eye is conferred, on Saturday nights in especial, but 

 more or less impartially throughout the week. 



It is not before Rainham is reached that the road 

 becomes once more the open highway. Moor Street 

 is passed, and here the Rainham orchards and the 

 cherry orchards of Gillingham begin to stretch away 

 to the levels of the Upchurch marshes. " Wealth 

 without health " begins to be the characteristic of 

 the country, for the marsh mists hang over the levels 

 from early evening, through the night, to almost 

 midday ; and agues, asthma, and bronchial complaints 

 are the common lot. Many miles' length of submerged 

 Roman pottery-works lie down in those Swale and 

 Cooling marshes, and many have been, and are still, 

 the " finds " of broken black " Upchurch ware " in the 

 mud and ooze. Perfect specimens are discovered at 

 rarer intervals. The proper method of searching for 

 these vestiges of the Roman occupation is to equip 

 one's self ^\ith a stout pair of sea-boots, and a 

 " sou'wester," and to wade at low tide in the creeks, 

 probing the slimy mud with iron rods. If the explorer 

 is fortunate in his " pitch " he will discover pottery, 

 broken or whole, by feeling his iron rod strike some- 

 thing harder than the surrounding half-liquid cla}^ 

 The joy of such exquisite moments is unfortunately 

 sometimes marred by the " find " being but a lump of 

 half-baked clay ; Roman, indeed, but not worthy of 

 preservation. Still, when fragments of patterned ware 

 are found, the discovery repays in interest for the time 

 spent in mudlarking. 



Rainham Church heralds the village, raising up its 

 white and four-square battlemented walls from beside 

 the road. A large building, vnth a few late brasses ; 

 a vault full of Tuftons, Earls of Thanet, of whom the 



