brated ship-builders, the Petts, who may be considered as having modelled the English navy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Leper's Hospital, founded in 1108, and under the patronage of the dean, is now an almshouse with four inmates, two of whom are officiating chaplains. At Chatham is the Medway Union Workhouse, which comprises seven parishes. The Literary Institution possesses a good library. A new convict prison has recently been completed to contain 1000 inmates.

The arsenal and barracks extend more than two miles along the Medway. The former contains storehouses and a large park of artillery. The Marine Hospital has accommodation for 340 patients. The Artillery Barrack is a great station for artillery. It was erected in 1804, and forms three sides of a square, and has accommodation for a large number of invalids. The Artillery Hospital is attached to the barrack.

The Infantry Barracks are very large. There are also Engineering Barracks. The annexed engraving. represents the Spur Battery.b

The dockyard at Chatham was founded in Queen Elizabeth's time on a small scale. This establishment was where the Ordnance Wharf or Old Dock now stands. In 1667, the Dutch admiral, Vany Ghent, burnt several ships here; and from that time it was strongly fortified and extended, and is now one of the four grand naval stations of the empire, ranking with Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Woolwich. Sheerness is connected with it. The dockyard is nearly a mile in length extending down the river.

SPUR BATTERY.

The entrance to it will be easily recognised by the coat of arms sculptured above the principal gateway, of which a view is here presented.

The admission is twice a-day, at ten a.m. and two p.m. by giving an address at the gateway, where a book is kept for the insertion of

names. The dockyard contains five wet docks, magazines, storehouses, a chapel, and residences for the naval authorities. The large masthouse is 240 feet in length by 120 feet wide. The rope-house is 1,128 feet long. In this dockyard a duplicate set of Brunel's beautiful block machinery is kept. There are six building slips. The principal storehouse is 660 feet in length. There are two basins or ponds for floating masts. The sail loft is 210 feet in length. In the smithery are forty forges. The sawing-room contains eight saw-frames and two circular benches. A building is devoted to grinding paint. The lead works are on a large scale. A large establishment is kept up here. The workmen are enrolled in a dockyard battalion.*

Brompton is a hamlet in the borough of Chatham. The village is pleasantly situated on the chalk hill above the royal dock of Chatham towards the south-east, and it is principally inhabited by the artificers and others employed in the dockyard. The church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was erected in 1848 at the expense of the Rev. William and Miss Conway, who are the patrons of the living. It is a neat edifice with a handsome spire.

Gillingham is an adjoining parish to Chatham on the north-east. At this place a conflict took place between King Edmund Ironside and King Canute the Great. It was a considerable manufacturing place in the time of Queen Elizabeth. William of Gillingham, a monkish historian of the time of Richard the Second, was a native of this parish. William Adams, the discoverer of Japan, who lived in the sixteenth century, was likewise born here. The church is an ancient and spacious structure, portions of which are of Norman architecture. Over the western entrance is the niche which once contained the statue of Our Lady of Gillingham, the object of numerous pilgrimages previous to the Reformation. The font is Norman and circular, and of large size. There are two piscina. In the chancel were formerly many brasses,

*Important improvements are intended to be effected at the dockyard. No. 2 dock inwards is to be extended, in order to render it capable of receiving line-ofbattle ships. The extension of No. 3 dock is proceeding, and the works are in a forward state. The roof of the resting-house is also to be extended at an expense of upwards of two thousand pounds, and works are to be commenced for a better water supply for the dockyard. It is intended to extend and improve the dockyard by means of convict labour at an estimated cost of £142,000.

with figures, arms, and inscriptions to the Beaufitz family and others. A brass of 1438 and many other old tombs may be seen. The archiepiscopal palace, of which a fragment only remains, converted into a barn, stood on the south side of the churchyard. Gillingham Fort or Castle, as it is sometimes called, stands on the edge of the marshes skirting the Medway, and was erected in the reign of Charles the First for the defence of the dockyard and navy. New Brompton is in the parish of Gillingham.

Resuming our route on the railroad from Strood, at the distance of three miles we reach CUXTON STATION.. The village is on the banks of the navigable Medway, in the lathe of Aylesford. The population in 1851 was 374. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is ancient.

Four miles farther on the line, we arrive at SNODLAND STATION, situated seven and a half miles north-west of Maidstone, amid an undulated country, on the banks of the Medway. The population in 1851 was 625. A paper mill is established in this village. The church, dedicated to All Saints, is a spacious structure, of ancient date, with twelve stained glass windows, the eastern of which contains full length portraits of the martyrs Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and Anne Askew.

Two miles beyond Snodland is AYLESFORD STATION. The town, containing in 1851 a population of 1,487, is pleasantly situated on the

banks of the Medway, and consists of one street. A handsome stone bridge spans the river. From the banks the grounds rise with a gentle ascent toward Preston Hall, which they

AYLESFORD BRIDGE.

quite surround. This is a handsome structure, recently rebuilt. Near the site of the old hall there is a large ancient barn, with T.C. and 1102 inscribed upon it in clear Arabic

figures. The use of these, at so early a period, has given rise to much. discussion. The church, dedicated to St. Peter, is a striking. Saxon

building, with a square tower at the west end, on an eminence.

There are handsome tombs to the Colepepers, Dukes, and Rycauts, also to Sir John Banks, who died in 1699. The ground upon which this church is situated rises so abruptly, that the churchyard is higher than

ings are still visible. There are, in the parish, the ruins of the ancient free chapel of Longsole, now used as a barn, and called from its solitary situation, the

"Hermitage." In 1852 this edifice was restored by public subscription. At Aylesford there are several springs, which change stones and wood to a carmine colour. Sir Charles Sedley, the poet, was a native of the

KITT'S COTY HOUSE.

place, and it was by his family the Hospital of the Holy Trinity was founded in 1605. Sir Paul Rycaut, the oriental traveller, was also born at Aylesford.