GRAVESEND. 345 



the river rises and becomes very high, in some places 

 often 12 feet and more perpendicularly higher than it 

 was six hours before. The land which lies on both sides 

 of the river is for the most part flat, flakt, level, slatt, 

 and low, laglandt, so that if there were no obstacle, 

 hinder, when the river is high, the water would go over 

 all the land round about, for an English mile on both 

 sides, and sometimes more. They * had, therefore, when 



* ' They.' ' De hade derfdre.' Kalm, in using the word ' De,' has no 

 suspicion of the difficulty in proving who 'De' were. Camden, Dugdale, 

 and others of the Old Antiquaries, regarded the embankments of the Thames 

 as Roman work. There is one positive statement, to which Lambarde drew 

 attention (Peramb. of Kent, written 1570, Pubd. 1576). It is in the Folio 

 Vellum MS. Angustin[i\ Ecclesicz Cantuar. Annates, Corpus Christi Coll., 

 Cambridge, 301, I. Fol. 96, bottom line. ' A" Mcclxxix. ,' after other entries, 

 ' Eodem anno inclusus erat primo mariscus de Plumstede per Abbatem de 

 Lessnes mari,' the last word being at the top of Fol. 97. Again, on Fol. 103, 

 line 6, 'Anno Mcclxxxxiij,' occurs the entry, 'Eodem anno inclusus est 

 mariscus de Plumstede.' The entries are in abbreviated Latin, and the 

 Annales end at the year 1316. I copied the extracts by the kindness 

 of the Rev. S. S. Lewis, [Alas! I must now add 'the late' 1891], 

 Fellow and Librarian, C.C.C. Cant., on May 20th, 1886. The words, 

 'primo' and 'mari,' under the year 1279, are positive. The marshes 

 referred to extend from Plumsted to Earith. The Manor of Plumsted was 

 given by William the Conqueror to S. Augustin's Monastery, Canterbury 

 (see ' Carta Willelmi Conqs. de Manerio de Plumstede,' in Thos. of Elmham, 

 Hist. Monast. S. Augustini Cantuar , Chron. and Memor., 1858, p. 350). The 

 Lands of Lessness Abbey were given, on its foundation, by S. Augustin's 

 Monast. to the Abbot of L. out of the Manor of Plumstede. Wm. Thorn, 

 who had been a monk of S. Augustin's, and who wrote his ' Chronica ' of 

 Canterbury some fifty or sixty years after the events recorded, and whose 

 Chronica was printed by Roger Twysden (Hist. Ang. Scriptores X., Lond. 

 MDCLIL, p. 1930, b.), tells us, Cap. XXVIL, that " In the year 1281 a 

 final agreement was made " between the Abbots of S. Aug. and Lesnes con- 

 cerning an advowson claimed by both. " At length these contentions were 

 settled as follows : The Abbot of S. Aug. ceded, and gave up all right to the 

 advowson " . . " and for this recognition the Abbott of Lesnes conceded 

 for himself and his successors that they at their own expense after the year 

 next to come ' intrabunt mariscum de Plumstede et Lesnes will inclose from 

 the sea the marsh of Plumstede and Lesnes,' that is to say, the whole tract 

 which lies towards the east, ' inter gutteram de Borstal!, et novam Wallam, ' 



