GRAVESEND. 41 7 



In the Comedy House in London, the rope-dancers, 

 Lindansare,* and those who walked on the rope and 

 lines, used to rub their shoes thickly underneath with 

 chalk, so that they should not slip. The rope also was 

 chalked to a certain extent. 



The |4 July, 1748. 



Notes on the Chalk and Chalk hills at Northfleet, and 

 other places in Kent. 

 Northfleet is a village which lies a short English 

 mile West of Gravesend, on the same side of the 

 river. Here, and all the way to Gravesend, all the 

 hilly banks of the river Thames, and the land around, 

 consist of bare chalk, only that a thin soil lies upon it. 

 Here, near the banks of the Thames, one great chalk pit 

 succeeds another, both of considerable extent, and of 

 great depth. These chalk pits are for the most part 

 quadrangular, and their sides are perpendicular. The 

 depth of these pits from the upper surface down to the 

 bottom is 8, 12, 15, or more, fathoms. They do not 

 belong to one and the same person, but there are several 

 who have shares therein, who are gentlemen living in 

 London, but who have, nevertheless, people here who live 

 near the chalk pits [T. II. p. 63], to see that the work 

 goes on well and properly. 



That the chalk has been quarried for many centuries 

 back, can be concluded, besides what one has from old 

 historians, also, partly from the number of the pits, and 

 their very great size and depth, partly from the con- 

 siderable number of old pits, which are now to a great 

 extent refilled with rubbish and overgrown with all kinds 



* In the Prologue written by Dr. Johnson, and spoken by Garrick at the 

 opening of the Theatre Royal, Urury Lane, 1747, line 46, ' Here Hunt may 

 box, or Mahomet may dance' refers to a celebrated rope-dancer. [J. L.] 



2E 



