GRAVESEND. 405 



Medway runs a large stone bridge,* which is reckoned 

 to be one of the finest in England. In the town is 

 a Cathedral and Bishop's Palace. A short distance 

 below the town lies the famous Chatham, where the 

 English men-of-war are partly built, repaired, and kept. 

 In the evening we came back to Gravesend. 



The if July, 1748. 



Brann i fasta Kritbarget. A well in the solid 

 chalk. Between two of the chalk-pits at Northfleet there 

 ran a wall or projection of [T. II. p. 49] bare chalk, 

 which they had left untouched, from 8 to 9 fathoms wide. 

 On both sides of this wall of chalk were great chalk-pits 

 of 6 or 7 fathoms deep. The sides thereof were perpen- 

 dicular. Near one side of this wall they had dug a well, 

 en Brunn, down in the dense and solid chalk. This 

 well was round, 3 feet 6 inches diameter, and steined 

 with brick. I measured its depth, and found that from 

 the surface of the ground down to the upper surface of 

 the water in the well was 57 English feet. The water 

 which was taken from it was very clear, and tasted as 

 nice as the best Kall-vatten, spring- water, and was also 

 very refreshing, latt druckit. Those who live here- 

 abouts take from it all the water they require for cooking, 

 family drinking, brewing, boiling, washing clothes, and 

 for punch, tea, &c. Besides this, 8 horses and 4 cows 

 were watered daily with the same well-water, for although 

 the river Thames is close by, yet they do not give its 



* Rochester Bridge. For its history see Lambarde, Peramb . of JCent, 1576, 

 4to, pp. 303-314; Stow, Annates, 1615, fol., p. 335 ; J. Harris, Hist, of Kent, 

 1719, fol., pp. 259-262, &c. ; W. Wildash, Hist, of Rochester, 2nd Ed., 1817, 

 8vo., pp. 35-49, with a beautiful engraving of Rochester Bridge, Castle, &c, 

 from Strood Quay. From whence (p. 41) is gathered that " In what year 

 the present stone bridge was begun cannot accurately be determined ; it was, 

 however, compleated \tl the fifteenth year of Richard II,, 1392." [J. L.] 



