intercession of the Abbot of St. Mary Graces, at Tower Hill, who then held the Manor of Gravesend, in consideration of the state to which the town had been reduced by the French gallies in 1380; and that the applicants sought an exclusive right to the Ferry for their special benefit, upon the condition of conveying passengers at the rate of two pence for each, with his fardel or pack, or four shillings for the whole fare of the barge. The grant, it will be seen, does not advert to either of these points; but evidently had for its object, the protection of a pre-existing prescriptive right, at a time when it is probable enough that an increased resort of passengers, between Calais and London, had produced competition among the boatmen on the Thames. In a ballad called London Lackpenny, ascribed to John Lydgate, a monk of Bury, and supposed to have been written in the early part of the fifteenth century, there is an incidental notice of the resort to the Gravesend Barge,* at that time. The ballad relates, that the writer being in London without money, he found it expedient to depart, and went to Billingsgate, the ancient rendezvous of the Gravesend barge, to be conveyed into Kent; the scene between the pennyless traveller and the bargeman being thus described : "Then hyed I me to Belynges Gate, And one cryed 'Hoo, go we hence !' That he would spare me my expence. 'Thou stepst not here,' quoth he, under ij. pence. I lyst not yet bestow my almes dede, Thus lacking mony I could not spede. Then I conveyed me into Kent, For of the law would I meddle no more : Because no man to me took entent, I dyght me to do as I did before. Now Jesus, that in Bethlem was bore, Save London! and send trew Lawyers ther mede! For whoso wants mony, with them shall not spede."+ The relation that has been given of the destruction of the greater part of the town, by a foreign enemy in the year 1380, Stow says, "gat him into Gravesend barge, and home into Kent." Survey of London. Eastcheap. Thoms's edit. page 82. + London Lackpenny, Harl. MS. 367, f. 126, 127. demonstrates the danger to which, at that period, Gravesend was exposed; and the alarm which prevailed a few years later, and the measures deemed expedient upon such occasions, illustrate the propriety of being prepared, in the time of war at least, to counteract the facility of approach that the river affords to an enemy. 1401. In consequence of an alarm of invasion, writs* were issued by the Council, commanding the cities, ports and towns throughout England, to build new barges and balingers, and to equip and arm them, by the quindena of Easter in that year. Among the towns called upon to provide these vessels, Gravesend† and Tilbury were required to supply one balinger.‡ 1402. There was the like apprehension of an attack, in the following year also; for by the advice of the Privy Council a royal commission was on the 17th of July, 3 Henry IV., directed to Robert Gosholm, William Lee, Nicholas Denys, and John Archer, authorising them to take as many labourers and artificers as they should require, to erect certain works proposed by the men of East Tilbury, within one month from the date thereof. The commission refers to a preceding attack by a foreign enemy, probably to the event in the year 1380, and recites the following considerations for issuing it. "Whereas our beloved lieges, the men of the town of East Tilbury in the county of Essex, considering the great losses, damages, and destructions which have happened in times past to the same town, by the arrival of French and other enemies there; and dreading that greater may happen, in process of time, both there and in the neighbourhood, (especially as there is no other landing-place applicatio,' thereabouts for a great space), unless remedy be quickly provided, for avoiding such losses, damages and destructions; and that others dwelling on the coasts of the sea * Dated 11th January, 2 Henry IV. (1401). Rymer's Fœdera, vol. viii., page 172. "Ballivis et Communitatibus villarum de Graveshend et Tilbury, pro una Balingera."-Ibid. Every great ship must have in its company a barge and a balinger, and every barge must have in it 80 men, and a balinger 40 men. 20 Henry VI. A.D. 1441.-Bree's Cursory Sketch of Naval Establishments, page 116. may be encouraged cheerfully to do the like, do propose and intend (as we understand) to fortify the town aforesaid, along the coast of the sea, with a certain wall of earth with garrets, garrettis," and in such other methods as they can; we, considering the pious intention of the men aforesaid, and that many benefits and advantages may redound to the said town and ports by the execution of the said proposal; and that our enemies from day to day sailing before the said town,* when they shall have knowledge of the said fortification, may henceforth more fear, and avoid entering the waters of the Thames in warlike manner," &c.t This is the earliest notice extant, of a fortification at East Tilbury. Another case of alarm at the time may be noticed. A few miles from East Tilbury stands Hadleigh Castle, erected by Hubert de Burgh in the reign of Henry III,‡ upon an eminence near Leigh, overlooking Canvey Island, and the whole mouth of the Thames. This castle, being then in the possession of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, son of the reigning King (Henry IV.), was, in the year 1405, replenished with weapons and military stores ;§ and it was within view from it that the following circumstances occurred. 1406. "In this summer," (says Hall), "the pestilential plague so infested the city of London and the country round about, that the King durst not repair thither, nor yet to the confines of the same; wherefore he, departing from the castle of Leeds, determined to take ship at Queenborough in the isle of Sheppey, and to sail over to Leigh in Essex, and so to Plashey, there to pass his time till the plague were ceased; and, because certain pirates of France were lurking at the Thames mouth, waiting for their prey, Thomas Lord Camois, with certain ships of war, was appointed to waft over the King. When the King was on the sea, in the midst of his journey, whether the wind turned, or that the Lord Camois kept not a direct course, or that his ship was * Foreigners in trading vessels, conveying information to the enemy. + Rymer's Fœdera, vol. viii. page 271. The King's license to erect this castle was granted in the year 1230-1. § See the Patent Roll, 15 Henry III. m. 4. but a slug, the Frenchmen, which by all similitude had knowledge of the King's passage, entered amongst the King's navy, and took four vessels next to the King's ship, and in one of them Sir Thomas Rampston, Knight, the King's Vice-chamberlain, with all his chamber-stuff and apparel, and followed the King so near, that if his ship had not been swift, he had landed sooner in France than in Essex but by God's provision and fortunate chance, he escaped the danger and arrived at his appointed post."* Lord Camois was put upon his trial, but was acquitted of all blame in the affair. 1434-5. The Gravesend bargemen experienced at this season one of those wintry visitations that occasionally obstruct the traffic upon the river, paralysing the arm of industry, suspending the comforts of domestic life, and rendering penury itself more intensely wretched. The communication with London by water was so obstructed by this frost, which continued from the 25th of December to the 10th of February following, that according to Stow," the merchandize, which came to the Thames mouth, was carried to London by land." 1460. Persons requiring to have intercourse with London, by means of conveyance in the Gravesend Barge, were exposed, like others at the time, to experience the dangers of war, incidental to the contest between the royal houses of York and Lancaster. Lord Scales held the Tower of London for the King, which was assailed by the Earl of March, eldest son of the Duke of York, when, "they that were within the Tower, cast wild fire into the City, and shot many small guns, whereby they brent and slew men, women, and children, in the streets; also they of the city laid great guns on the further" (opposite) "side of the Thames against the Tower, and brake the walles in divers places."+ Lord Scales, "suspecting the sequele of the delivery of the same, took a wherry privily, intending to have fled to the Quene; but he was espied by divers watermen belonging to the Earl of Warwycke, which wayted for hys forthcomyng on the Thames, and sodainly taken, and shortly slayne with many darts and * Hall's Chronicle, sub anno 1406. Stow's Annals, sub anno 1460. Hall's Chronicle, page 244. daggers." There are many living, who daily or frequently travel in the same track, and can testify that the miseries of occasional detention and short commons (which certain fastidious gentle folks cannot endure without lachrymose bewailings,) are, after all, nothing, compared with the dangers encountered in a trip between London and Gravesend, when men fell out about the Roses." "two 1461. The grant of the Long Ferry, or right of conveying the public for hire between London and Gravesend, made by King Henry IV. in the second year of his reign, having been confirmed by his son Henry V. and by Henry VI. his grandson, upon their several accessions, was again renewed by King Edward IV. in the first year of his reign. It is not necessary to insert a copy of this patent, inasmuch as it differs little from the original grant, that has been already given: but there are two points in it, which claim some notice. The reader, aware of the disputes concerning the rival claims of the Houses of York and Lancaster to the Crown, will learn with interest, the studied repudiation of the claim of Henry IV. by whom the original grant was conferred; it represents him as late in fact, and not of right, King of England, evincing the like jealousy of the pretensions of his son and grandson. The King confers anew the grant of the Ferry upon the men of Gravesend, setting forth as a reason for the grant, "the good and gratuitous service which our dear lieges the inhabitants of Gravesend had done for us ;" referring, no doubt, to some declaration or demonstration which they had made in his favour, under the critical circumstances which attended his accession to the throne. 1467. In the spring tide of this year, the inhabitants of Gravesend and their neighbours were, by the appearance of Garter King of Arms among them, with the King's barges, apprized of the approach of a gorgeous retinue, attendant upon the Count de la Roche, commonly called the Bastard of Burgundy; who had accepted a challenge from Anthony Wydeville, Lord Scales, brother of the Queen of England, to perform a feat of arms with him at London. This event had been preceded by the circumstances of solemn pomp, usual upon such occasions. In the month of October, 1466, safe conduct had been granted to ambassadors from the court |