WINDMILL HILL.

excursions, first exhausting the novelties nearest at hand, foremost among which stands Windmill Hill-only a few years ago a green eminence, guiltless of brick and mortar, but the town has unhappily invaded its foot, month by month, encroaching further and further up its sides; and unless with good taste, and better judgment, the townsmen quickly interfere, this favourite spot will soon lose all its olden charms. The view from the hill-top is very fine; and for those who like the transcript better than the reality, there is a mimic counterpart inside each of those two cameras. The old mill, which gave its name to the spot, is preserved for the amusement of holiday-gazers, who, climbing its wooden stairs, enjoy the far-spread view from an upper gallery. The stretch of prospect from the hill is very wide. On the one side the town, the river-its ships and steamers, betoken stir, activity, and business-the hurry, bustle, and anxieties of trade and city life. Turn round, and the eye roams delightedly far over the fields of Kent, the mind the while drinking in sensations of repose of rural peace, leisure, and tranquillity.

"How calm and quiet a delight

Is it, alone,

To read, and meditate, and write,

By none offended, and offending none !

To walk, read, sit, or sleep at one's own ease,

And, pleasing a man's self, none other to displease!"

Each lover of the country and of country scenes, may yonder follow his favourite diversion-the geologist find traces of longgone life in the chalk of Northfleet; and the botanist, in each field and hedge-row, discover an ample store of much-prized specimens.*

Descending from the hill towards the river, but bearing to the right, we have opportunity of marking the number of new villas and streets which the last few years have planted in the neighbourhood; and yonder, see another church for the use of the inhabitants of Milton, and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Not far off, in the grounds of the New Inn, is a curious memento of a worthy alderman of Gravesend, who was a great adept in the game of bowls, an amusement, which, like many other innocent out-door

*The botanist will find near Gravesend the rare plant Elymus geniculatus (Pendulous lime grass); near Greenhithe, the Lithospermum purpureo cœruleum (Purple Gromwell); about Northfleet, the Chenopodium olidum, called by the country people "Stinking Goosefoot."

A BOWLER'S EPITAPH-TILBURY FORT.

sports, has, unfortunately for public health, of late years much declined in popular favour:

"Full forty long years was the alderman seen,
The delight of each bowler, and king of this green;
As long be remembered his art and his name,
Whose hand was unerring, unrivalled whose fame;
His bias was good, and he always was found
To go the right way, and to take enough ground;
The Jack to the uttermost verge he would send,
The Alderman loved a full length at each end.
Now mourn every eye that has seen him display,
The arts of the green, and the wiles of his play;
For the great bowler Death, at one critical cast,
Has ended his length, and close-rubbed him at last."
F. W., posuit.-MDCCLXXVI.

Let us now stroll down to the pier-head, and search out among the many wherries, or rather skiffs, for the pleasantestlooking fellow to sail or row us over to Tilbury Fort, the block-house, or gate, of which stands opposite to us, looking more like some large red-brick barn on a large Somersetshire farm, than our preconceived notions of a fort. We have, it seems, chosen one of the right days; Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays being those fixed on, according to the last arrangements, for the admission of visiters. If we prefer it, we may take the ferry-boat, ready every quarter of an hour, by which the fare across to Tilbury is only three-pence. We are now about the centre of the river, here one mile in breadth; the sun shines brightly, our boat dances merrily along on the wind, the rippling waters dashing gently on our prows as we cut aslant the flowing tide. The young gentleman in spectacles, who is showing the waterman that he can steer with a pipe in his mouth, complacently assures us that "there is no danger;" so let us e'en take a retrospect—not to the times of the Romans, in whose journey up this river it is described as some old travellers used to write of the Hudson (though we may, nevertheless, pause to thank these Romans

embankment)-nor to the Conqueror's time, who gave Gravesend and all above, up as far as Woolwich, to his brother Odo, the Bishop of Baieux,- but to Richard the Second, whose grant, as recorded in Hasted's "Kent," tells us almost the entire ancient and modern history of the town:

"King Richard the Second, July 7th, Anno 1377, directed his writs to the sheriffs of Kent and Essex, commanding them to erect certain beacons on each side the river Thames, opposite to each other, which were to be kept prepared, and to be fired on the first approach of the enemies' vessels, so that notice might be given thereby of any sudden attempt; in consequence of which, one beacon was erected here at Gravesend, and the opposite one at Farneden, in Essex: notwithstanding which precaution, this town was soon afterwards plundered and burnt by the French, who sailed up the Thames hither in their galleys, and carried away most of the inhabitants prisoners.

"To enable the town to recover this loss, King Richard the Second granted to the abbot and convent of St. Mary Graces, that the inhabitants of Gravesend and Milton should have the sole privilege of carrying passengers by water, from hence to London, on condition that they should provide boats for that purpose, and carry all passengers, either at twopence per head, with their bundle, or let the hire of the whole boat at four

TILT BOATS AND STEAMERS CONTRASTED.

shillings." These low fares were even quadrupling the former rates of passage; for a century earlier, so far back as the year 1293, we find that the watermen who had long possessed the sole right of ferry between Gravesend and London, were ordered to take, in future, "but one halfpenny of a person passing," as they used formerly, and not to exact "fares hurtful to, and against the will of the people:" this was, however, at a time when a sheep sold for one shilling, and a fat ox could be purchased for three halfcrowns. "This charter," (Richard the Second's) continues Hasted, "was confirmed several times afterwards by succeeding kings, and, under proper regulations by the legislature, they still enjoy this advantageous privilege. The fare now taken is ninepence each passenger, and the hire of the whole boat ten shillings and sixpence ;" to which the historian, who is a veritable Dr. Dryasdust, adds, in a chuckling note, "These boats are usually called The Tilt Boats, and are large and commodious for the purpose, being much improved within these few years. The signal for their departure is the ringing of a bell, which continues a quarter of an hour: they go to London every flood, and return from Billingsgate, on the like signal, with every ebb."

Hasted wrote in 1778; and the antiquarian would stare to see that Gem or Mercury, which is just now bearing down with nearly a thousand passengers. The tilt-boats gave way to the packets, and the packets to the steam-boats; whether the last must give place to the projected railroad, or to the aerial machine, is yet in the womb of time.

The immense number of people frequenting Gravesend during the low fares, may be judged from the following

RETURN OF PASSENGERS LANDED AND EMBARKED AT THE TERRACE AND TOWN PIERS, GRAVESEND, IN THE MONTH OF JUNE, 1844: