Chatham, Kent

“ As late as 1863, there were many families of believers still existing near Chatham, in Kent; and even in this country can here and there be found admirers of the creed of Joanna Southcott, who are firmly convinced that she will re-appear some fine morning, with Sanderson on one side of her and Sharp on the other. ”

“ It grows more plentifully in Kent than any other county of this land, as namely, in many places on this side Dartford, along to Southfleet, Chatham, and Rochester, and upon Chatham down, hard by the Beacon, and half a mile from Rochester, in a field near a house called Selesys. ”

“ NE. of Poitiers; gave title to the Scottish regent, the Earl of Arran; manufactures cutlery and small-arms for the Government.
Chatham (59) , a town in Kent, on the estuary of the Medway, a fortified naval arsenal; is connected with Rochester.
Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of, a great British statesman and orator, born in Cornwall; determined opponent of Sir Robert Walpole; succeeded in driving him from power, and at length installing himself in his place; had an eye to the greatness and glory of England, summoned the English nation to look to its laurels ”

“ William Pitt, the second son of the first Earl of Chatham, was born at Hayes in Kent, May 28, 1759. He suffered much and frequently from ill health until he had nearly reached the age of manhood; and his delicacy of constitution prevented his reading for honours at Pembroke College, Cambridge, of which he became a resident member at the age of fourteen. He therefore took the honorary degree of M.A., to which his birth entitled him, in 1776. His private tutor and biographer, the late Bishop of Winchester, has borne testimony to Mr. ”

“ There little Charles passed some of the happiest years of his childhood, and received the most durable of his early impressions.
Chatham, on the river Medway, derives its name from the Saxon word Ceteham or Cættham, meaning “village of cottages.” It is anything but a “village” now, having since that remote age developed into a river port and a populous fortified town. Remains of Roman villas have been found in the neighbourhood, thus testifying to its antiquity. Chatham is one of the principal royal shipbuilding establishments in the kingdom. ”

“ Hence, in point of fact, this journey of his on foot down to Chatham, for the purpose of enlisting, if possible, in a cavalry regiment, his object being to get shot, though he himself thinks in his devil-may-care indifference, that “he might as well ride to death as be at the trouble of walking.” ”

“ Undoubtedly, as Forster remarks, “he felt crushed and chilled by the change from the life at Chatham, breezy and full of colour, to the little back garret in Bayham Street,” and, looking upon the dingy brick tenement to-day, it is not difficult to realize this fact; for, although the house itself could not have been less attractive than his previous home on “the Brook” at Chatham, the surroundings did not offer advantages in the shape of country walks and riverside scenery such as the immediate neighbourhood of Chatham afforded. ”

“ Here he indulged in his favourite pursuit of landscape-gardening, sometimes even 'planting by torchlight, as his peremptory and impatient temper could brook no delay' (Walpole Memoirs of the Reign of George III, iii. 30) . From 1759 to 1761 Chatham lived in the house (now numbered 10) in St. James's Square which was occupied by Mr. Gladstone in the parliamentary session of 1890. On resigning office in October 1761 Chatham gave up his town house in St. James's Square, and resolved to live entirely at Hayes. Sir William Pynsent, an eccentric Somersetshire baronet, who died on 12 Jan. ”

“ The poor traveller who avails himself of the testamentary fourpence may easily resume his journey as far as Chatham without breaking his treasure. Is not this the place where little Davy Copperfield slept under a cannon on his journey from London to Dover to join his aunt, Miss Trotwood? The two towns are really but one, which forms an interminable crooked thoroughfare, lighted up in the dusk, as I measured it up and down, with the red coats of the vespertinal soldier quartered at the various barracks of Chatham. ”

“ Subsequent improvements included dredging operations in the Medway to improve the approach, and the provision of extra dry-dock accommodation under the Naval Works Acts.
The parliamentary borough returns one member. The town was incorporated in 1890, and is governed by a mayor, six aldermen and eighteen councillors. Area, 4355 acres. The borough includes the suburb (an ecclesiastical parish) of Luton, in which are the waterworks of Chatham and the adjoining towns. ”

“ An inhabitant of Chatham need never wish to visit London, because the triple towns of Chatham, Strood and Rochester—to leave out all count of Gillingham and New Brompton, which are to Chatham even as Hammersmith is to our own great metropolis—contain samples of nearly all that is to be seen in the Capital of the Empire, and much else besides. ”

“ Interspersed with these sheets were others in which Sloper, the urban John Bull, had his fling with gin bottle and obese umbrella, or the kindly, empty faces of the Royal Family appeared and reappeared, visiting this, opening that, getting married, getting offspring, lying in state, doing everything but anything, a wonderful, good-meaning, impenetrable race apart. . . .
I have never revisited Chatham; the impression it has left on my mind is one of squalid compression, unlit by any gleam of a maturer charity. All its effects arranged themselves as antithetical to the Bladesover effects. ”

“ This device becoming known, Chatham wrote to say that in the opinion of himself, Lord Rockingham and Lord Temple, "no new matters should be opened or agitated at or after the convivium" [247] which was fixed for Thursday, the 22nd March,—the eve of the day on which both Houses were to present an address to the king touching the remonstrance. The entertainment was one of the most magnificent ever given by a private individual. The members were escorted to the city by the livery of London on horseback through the crowded streets. ”

“ In London the preparations for a banquet and a general illumination of the city in his honour were immediately countermanded when it became known that he had deserted the House of Commons. 'The joke here is,' wrote Lord Chesterfield to his son, 'that he has had a fall upstairs, and has done himself so much hurt that he will never be able to stand upon his legs again' (Letters and Works of the Earl of Chesterfield, 1845-1853, iv. 427) . Chatham's many difficulties in managing his heterogeneous ministry were greatly increased by the despotic manner in which he treated his colleagues. ”

“ The life of Chatham is extremely difficult to write, and, strictly speaking, never can be written at all. It is difficult because of the artificial atmosphere in which he thought it well to envelop himself, and because the rare glimpses which are obtainable of the real man reveal a nature so complex, so violent, and so repressed. What is this strange career?
Born of a turbulent stock, he is crippled by gout at Eton and Oxford, then launched into a cavalry regiment, and then into Parliament. For eight years he is groom-in-waiting to a prince. ”

“ Up to the year 1774 he lived on his father’s estates at Hayes and Burton Pynsent, amidst some of the choicest scenery in the south of England. The land overflowed with prosperity, which was rightly ascribed in large measure to the genius of Chatham. Until the shadow of the American War of Independence fell on the youth, in his seventeenth year, he was the favourite son of a father44 whom all men revered ”

“ The lofty and spirit-stirring eloquence which had made him supreme in the House of Commons often fell dead on the House of Lords. Chatham was only the ruin of Pitt, but an awful and majestic ruin, not to be contemplated by any man of sense and feeling without emotions resembling those which are excited by the remains of the Parthenon and of the Colosseum. In one respect the old statesman was eminently happy. Whatever might be the vicissitudes of his public life, he never failed to find peace and love by his own hearth. ”

“ Mersham is the Mersc home in Romney Marsh. Westerham, of old Ostreham (compare Westenhanger alias Ostringhanger) is the little white “home in the west” of Kent. Ickham—Ioccham in a charter of 785, in Andrededa—otherwise Yeckham, is probably the settlement on the yoke of arable land, from the Saxon measure Yeok. Chartham (Certeham in Domesday) is the home in the forest, chart and hart being varying forms of the Teutonic word for forest, the former more common in England, the latter in Germany. Perhamsted, says McClure, is the homestead where pears were cultivated. ”

“ A great many here, both in town and country, have perished by the frost, and been lost in the snow.
You have heard, no doubt, of the changes at Court, by which you have got a new provincial, Lord Weymouth; who has certainly good parts, and, as I am informed, speaks very well in the House of Lords; but I believe he has no application. Lord Chatham is at his house at Hayes; but sees no mortal. Some say that he has a fit of the gout, which would probably do him good; but many think that his worst complaint is in his head, which I am afraid is too true. ”

“ This night we took our leaves at Richmond and came to Greenwich, and lodged that night with Mr. Reynolds.
At the time of our being at Richmond, it was concluded by Mr. Alexander and some others of the Prince's servants (not without his Highness' knowledge) to come to Chatham with their wives to be merry, and it was agreed also that we would fetch them to Chatham by water in our pinnaces, to go round about by water ”

“ The Duke of Richmond made his motion, to which Chatham listened with profound attention. Soon after, he rose from his seat slowly and with difficulty, leaning on his crutches, and supported by his two young kinsmen.
You will allow me to give you just the opening and the closing sentences. Taking one hand from his crutch, he raised it, and, casting his eyes towards heaven, he said: 'I thank God that I have been enabled to come here this day to perform my duty, and to speak on a subject which has so deeply impressed my mind. I am old and infirm—have one foot, more than one foot, in the grave. ”

“ Handsome is that handsome does. What they did for shade here, in warm weather, we did not know, though we read that “fogs are more frequent in Chatham than in any other part of the country; and they serve in summer, instead of trees, to shelter the houses against the heat of the sun. To those who delight in extensive vision,”—is it to be inferred that the inhabitants of Chatham do not?—“they are unpleasant, but they are not found to be unhealthful.” ”

“ The Gun Wharf contains a large park of artillery, and there are barracks for three thousand men extending along the river. There is also an extensive convict-prison with two thousand inmates, who work upon the dock extension and at making bricks for its construction. Chatham has several military and naval hospitals. Opposite the dockyard is Upnor Castle, used as a powder-magazine and torpedo-school. This castle, the original defensive work of Chatham, was bombarded by Van Tromp when he came up the Medway in Charles II.'s reign—an audacity for which he was afterwards punished. ”

“ There are numerous brickyards, lime-kilns and flour-mills in the district neighbouring to Chatham; and the town carries on a large retail trade, in great measure owing to the presence of the garrison. The fortifications are among the most elaborate in the kingdom. ”

“ From Newmarket, White's, and the opposition, he gave you to the world with an air of popularity, which young men usually set out with and seldom preserve:—grave and plausible enough to be thought fit for business; too young for treachery; and, in short, a patriot of no unpromising expectations. Lord Chatham was the earliest object of your political wonder and attachment ”

“ After some civil show of reluctance, the resignation was accepted. Indeed Chatham was, by this time, almost as much forgotten as if he had already been lying in Westminster Abbey.
At length the clouds which had gathered over his mind broke and passed away. His gout returned, and freed him from a more cruel malady. His nerves were newly braced. His spirits became buoyant. He woke as from a sickly dream. It was a strange recovery. Men had been in the habit of talking of him as of one dead, and, when he first showed himself at the King's levee, started [Pg 678] as if they had seen a ghost. ”

“ During the debate on the bill of indemnity on 10 Dec. 1766, Richmond called Chatham ‘an insolent minister,’ and when called to order replied that he ‘was sensible truth was not to be spoken at all times and in all places’ (ib. ii. 410; see also Grenville Papers, iii. 396–7) . Both lords were required to promise that the matter should go no further (Journals of the House of Lords, xxxi. 448) . After this quarrel Chatham ‘during the whole of the remainder of his administration appeared no more in the House of Lords’ (Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George III, ii. 411) . ”

“ It mattered but little that cities were taken, when the great body of the people resided in the country, and were willing to make sacrifices, and were commanded by such generals as Washington, Gates, Greene, Putnam, and Lee. The English ministry ought to have seen the nature of the contest; but a strange infatuation blinded the nation. There were some, however, whom no national pride could blind. Lord Chatham was one of these men. "No man," said this veteran statesman, "thinks more highly of the virtues and valor of British troops than I do. ”