great exaggeration. It has been stated that, soon after the fire, the Mayor, and Corporation, sent circular letters to several Corporations, Ministers of parishes and others, imploring their assistance in this dreadful scene of distress; and that the money collected by the public briefs for the assistance of the sufferers, amounted to £4,767. 4s. 24d., but their loss was so great, that it only paid them £28. 10s. per centum.*

Upon this calculation, the sum total of the loss of those who received pecuniary aid, was £16,727; and supposing that no property that had been insured, though destroyed, was included in this amount; and supposing also that no portion of the sum collected was bestowed upon those who could bear their own losses; the aggregate value of the property destroyed must have been great.

One account represents, that the fire was at length stopped by blowing up some houses with gunpowder, (to make a space beyond which the flames would not reach ;) while the other makes it a matter of reproach that this expedient was not resorted to; a discrepance that cannot now be reconciled.

Those who are not acquainted with the situation of the marks by which the extent of the fire has here been described, may better appreciate the extent of the scene of desolation presented after the fire, by taking the following bounds. On the south, the Town Hall, as far west as the church; the end of East Street on the east, and the river on the north.

Gravesend, as it appeared when seen from the river, before the great fire, is represented in the accompanying engraving from a drawing taken in the year 1662; which is the more valuable, because no other representation of the town at that period is extant. This view, even if no improvement had been made at the water-side in the interval, affords a striking proof of the disastrous consequences of the conflagration. The church seen in the engraving, is the edifice which had originally been the Chapel of St. George, and afterwards became the parish church. The lofty building near the public landing place, represents the ancient Christopher Inn.

* Pocock's History of Gravesend, page 240, who quotes Hasted's History of Kent, page 451, but no information of the kind is given in the latter work. By Mr., afterwards Sir Jonas Moore. See pp. 40 and 152. supra.

The inhabitants were ill provided for this sad visitation: for they had but one fire engine, and that was unserviceable, not having been used during three years preceding the time of the fire; and the melancholy result was, that the conflagration was stopped only by the explosion of some houses on the east and west sides of the burning habitations; while, on the north side, it reached the river before it could be controlled.

In the month of May, 1731, another fire occurred in Cross Street, (now Pipe Street,) which destroyed about seven houses; and upon this occasion a house was blown up with gunpowder, to prevent the extension of the fire. The property destroyed was estimated at four thousand pounds. A similar calamity occurred in the year 1748. It began at half-past seven o'clock in the evening, in the stables of the Horn Inn, adjoining to which was a warehouse containing a great quantity of pitch, tar, and rosin, with all sorts of ironmongery; there were also five half-barrels of gunpowder, which exploded; and this, by destroying both the stables and the warehouse, occasioned a space that prevented the communication of the fire to other buildings. Many persons were hurt by the explosion, but happily no life was lost. The damage was computed at one thousand pounds.*

On the 3rd of April, 1779,† a fire broke out at the house of a tailor and woollen-draper, on the west side of High Street, where the house, No. 70, now stands; which entirely consumed it, and materially damaged two others adjoining. The Sussex regiment of militia, being quartered in the town, rendered effective assistance; and Captain Teale, of the Custom House, and Harris, a boat-builder, by their exertions, contributed in a great degree to the suppression of the fire. Harris, at the risk of his life, broke through the roof of the adjoining house, to render his

assistance to the occupants.

The Roebuck public-house, in Queen Street, was burned down in the year 1801; and Mr. Slaney, a pilot of Deptford, lodging there, perished in the flames. The loss of property destroyed upon

* London Magazine, 1748, p. 522. Pocock's History of Gravesend, p. 240. + The General Advertiser, and other London Newspapers of the time.

these occasions, and the danger of the loss of lives in such cases, render the necessary precautions to meet such emergencies, a subject of vast importance. By the co-operation of the inhabitants and the several insurance offices, upon which the losses by fire eventually fall, might be attained the organization of an efficient establishment for the purpose. The funds necessary, for the purchase and maintenance of fire-engines, are raised at present with great difficulty, but the means of working them are very inadequate. Until a permanent force be provided, ready at least to direct, if not employ, the means of suppressing fires, the lives and property of the inhabitants must be exposed to the most disastrous casualties.

1730. On Wednesday, the 29th of May, Rachel Lander was stopped on the highway near Milton Church, and robbed of halfa-guinea. The robber fled, and Rachel Lander proceeded to Gravesend, where she saw him about half an hour afterwards in the street; and he was apprehended by William Silver, the constable, who took him to his own house, the Swan. The prisoner, Thomas Goodman, was taken before the magistrates, and eventually committed to Maidstone gaol, to take his trial for the robbery, upon the positive testimony of the woman robbed.

It is alleged that, while the prisoner was detained in custody, by Silver the constable, they concocted a plan to accuse a third party, who was to be prosecuted upon an impeachment by Goodman; and the charge was to be supported by the testimony to be procured by Silver. This is the account of one John Sherwin, the intended victim, who published the particulars of the whole affair.*

Goodman and Sherwin, with his wife, were, according to this account, tried at the assizes before Mr. Justice Probyn, when Goodman was convicted and received sentence of death, but was reprieved; and Sherwin and his wife were acquitted.

The relation published is ex parte, and by an implicated party;

The Gotham Swan; or, the Rook's Flight from Gravesend, being the remarkable case of John Sherwin and his wife, written by himself, &c. 8vo. London, 1736, pp. 54.