KENT

KENT, a maritime county in England, and, reckoning its population, extent, and fertility, perhaps the first in the island. It is in a peninsular form, being bounded by the British Channel on the south, by the German Ocean on the east, by the river Thames, which divides it from Essex, on the north, and by the counties of Surrey and Sussex on the west. Its length is sixty-six, and its breadth thirty-six miles. The area is calculated to be 1300 square miles.

The divisions of Kent are into five laths, which are subdivided into 63 hundreds and 15 liberties, and contain two cities, 36 towns, and 414 parishes. By the census of 1811, the inhabitants were returned as 373,095; viz. 183,500 males, and 189,595 females. The baptisms of the preceding year, of 6538 males, and 6295 females; the deaths, 5653 males, and 4174 females; the marriages, 3405. The families were, 76,235, of whom 27,077 were employed in agriculture, 27,966 in trade and manufactures, and 21,192 in neither of those branches of industry.

The places containing more than 2000 inhabitants are,

The places whose population is betwixt 1000 and 2000 are, Eltham, Bexley, Crayford, Lenham, Lydd, Westerham, Sittingbourne, Wye, and Malling. The inhabitants of towns are 206,160. Kent returns eighteen members to the House of Commons, viz. two from the county, and two each from Canterbury, Dover, Maidstone, Hythe, Rochester, Queenborough, Sandwich, and Romney.

The appearance of Kent is generally acknowledged to be equal, if not superior, in beauty, to that of any other British county. Its surface is gently undulating; none of its hills, except on the coast, rise abruptly, nor reach a great elevation. In all the

vallies, there are streams of water; the woods and trees enrich the scenery, and the mixture of pasture and corn land, interspersed with orchards, fruit trees, and hop plantations, give to its beauties a character of softness and grace.

The Thames may be considered a Kentish river, as it washes its whole northern boundary, and empties itself into the sea on its shores. The river next in importance is the Medway, formed by the junction of four small streams, one only of which rises within the county. It becomes navigable for large barges at Tunbridge, continues its course by Maidstone to Chatham, where ships of the largest size can approach the shore; and there terminates its course, by joining the Thames at the Nore, beyond the arsenal of Sheerness. The Greater Stoure, the Lesser Stoure, the Rotlier, the Cray, the Darent, and the Ravensbourne, are small rivers, none of them navigable, but all of great benefit, by the fertility they communicate to the meadows on their banks, and by the power they afford to the many mills erected upon them.

Kent is almost exclusively an agricultural county, and though the soil is generally fertile, and though there are few extensive tracts of barren or uncultivated land, yet no part of the kingdom exhibits within so small a compass so great a variety of soils, of productions, and of modes of cultivation. It has been judiciously divided into eight districts for the purposes of agricultural description. The first of these, the Isle of Thanet, is in the north-west angle of the county. The soil is a light mould, on a chalky bottom, and has been highly enriched by the marine substances that have been administered as manure. The whole island contains 23,000 acres of arable and 3500 acres of rich marsh land. The most common rotation of crops is fallow, sometimes with sometimes without a crop of peas; this is followed by barley, clover, and wheat, and on some soils rather heavier, the course pursued is beans, wheat, and barley. The barley of this district is very much esteemed, and sought for as seed in other countries. Besides the common grains, seeds of various kinds are raised for sale to the London seedsmen, particularly canary, radish, spinach, mustard, and onion seed. The soil in the marshy parts of the island is a mixture of clay, sea-sand, and small shells, and yields most abundant pasture.

The upland farms of East Kent, which surround Canterbury and extend to Dover on one side, and Ashford and Rochester on the other, are an open and dry tract of corn land, intermixed with woods. The soils are very various, all resting on a subsoil of chalk. Some of them are very heavy loamy clays, with a great quantity of flint-stones on the surface; these are usually cultivated on a four course rotation of fallow, barley, beans, and wheat; when the soil is somewhat stiffer, a variation occurs of fallow, wheat, beans, and oats. In this district, the harvest usually commences from twelve to fourteen days later than in the Isle of Thanet. The woods in this district usually supply poles to the hop-planters in the vicinity; they are cut down after from ten to fourteen years growth. There are in this division some few hop-grounds, but they are confined to three or

Kent.
Rich Flat Lands. four parishes. In the vicinity of Sandwich, Faversham, and Deal, a portion of land, of a rich sandy loam, receives an almost uniform cultivation; it is nearly all under the plough, and a four course rotation is practised of wheat, beans, barley, and oats, after a fallow, or sometimes canary occupies the place of wheat; some portions of this land is alternately cropped with beans and wheat, or beans and canary. In the vicinity of Sandwich are many orchards, whose apples are partly sent to London, and a part furnishes return cargoes to the vessels that come laden with coals from Newcastle and Sunderland.

Hop Ground Division. The district extending from Maidstone to Canterbury, and from thence to Sandwich, is the great garden tract for the growth of hops. The soils on which hops are produced are very various; the most productive are those which have a deep loam surface, with a subsoil of deep loamy brick earth, some of these have a considerable quantity of flint-stones mingled with the soil, and when it becomes compact almost covering it. Another soil, provincially called stone shalten, is very good for the growth of hops; it is mixed with many small portions of stone and sand, and rests upon the basis of the stone called Kentish-rag, which is burnt into excellent lime. The cultivation of hops is a very fluctuating pursuit, as the produce varies in different years from two to fifteen hundred weight per acre, and the prices have varied from three to fifteen pounds. The expence of cultivation is very great, from the quantity of manure that is required, from the great expence of the poles round which the plants twine, and the labour of keeping the ground clear and of picking the hops. Besides hops, the district is very productive of apples, cherries, and filberts, to the growth of which many fields, from one to ten acres in extent, are devoted; part of the apples are made into cider, the remainder, with the cherries and filberts, are principally conveyed to the different markets in London.

Isle of Shepey. The Isle of Shepey is separated from the rest of Kent by an arm of the sea called the Swale, which is navigable for ships of 200 tons burden. Its length is eleven, and its breadth eight miles. About four-fifths of the island is either marsh or dry pasture land; on the former many oxen are fattened, and the latter are appropriated to the breeding and feeding sheep. About 10,000 acres of this island is arable land, of great fertility, usually cultivated with beans and wheat in alternate years, with occasionally a fallow before the beans. This land is highly fertile, the wheat raised on it is considered the best that is brought to London, a bushel frequently weighing 64 lbs. This great productiveness may be in a great measure owing to the practice of applying to the natural heavy clayey soil a frequent dressing of the cockle shells which are washed on the beach by the sea. It is not unusual to apply thirty cartloads of these shells to an acre of land. The Uplands of West Kent are extensive and various in their soils. This part is more woody and inclosed than East Kent. The ridge of the chalk hills, about six or seven miles in breadth, is a stiff clay, with many surface flints, and requires six horses frequently to plough it. On these soils the most common rotation is a year's clean fallow, then wheat, clover, wheat, and oats. Many large flocks of South Down sheep are kept on this hilly range. The valleys and the sides of the hills are lighter soil and easier to work, but do not produce better corn; some of this, but not to a great extent, is cultivated to hops.

Kent. The district known as the Weald of Kent was, in Wealds of former times, an immense forest, desolate of inhabitants, and only occupied by wild swine and deer; and though it is now filled with towns and villages, and well peopled, the woods that remain are extensive; these exhibit some pleasing landscapes, where seats, farms, and villages, are mixed with cultivated fields, and woods of spreading oaks. The roads in this district are very bad, many of them impassable for carriages in the best seasons, and, in winter, horses can only travel by keeping on the narrow paved tracts that are formed by the sides of the highways. The soil is principally clay, with a substratum of marl, in some places very heavy, but in others sufficiently light to be ploughed with oxen. This district produces wheat, oats, barley, rye-grass, clover, and beans, but so various are the rotations, that it is scarcely possible to generalise them. The pastures are very rich and fertile, and fatten annually great numbers of cattle. In the western part of this district, and in the adjoining Weald of Sussex, there were formerly many iron-works; the ore is found, and the abundance of wood made the manufacturing of it profitable, but the substitution of coke for charcoal in making iron, has put a final stop to all the iron-works of Kent and Sussex.

The last agricultural division is a rich level extensive tract of land, on the southern coast, containing Romney Marsh. about forty-five thousand acres of the richest pasture in the united kingdoms. This level is protected from the violence of the sea, and from inundations, by a dike of earth of very great thickness, called Dimchurch-wall. The whole is alluvial land, consisting of a fine soft rich loam, with portions of sea-sand and broken shells intermixed. The subsoil consists of alternate layers of sand and clay mixed with shells, among which are sometimes found large oak trees in various positions, the wood of which is as black and as hard as ebony. On this plain there are two towns, Romney and Lydd, but scarcely any villages, and few other houses but those of the shepherds and herdsmen who attend upon the numerous cattle that graze on the marshes. As there are no other fences but dikes, or posts and rails, from the surrounding heights it has the appearance of one large verdant field covered with sheep and oxen. The breeding and fattening of sheep is the principal purpose to which this level is appropriated, and the number bred is greater than on any other tract of the same extent in the kingdom. The sheep take their denomination from the district; they are larger than the South Downs, but not of a size equal to the Lincolnshire sheep. Their flesh is highly esteemed in the London markets, and their wool is both fine and of a long fibre; the average weight of the fleeces is about five pounds.

The landed property of Kent is much divided; Landed Property there are some noblemen that have large, but none petty.

Kent. such vast estates as to give a preponderating political influence. The number of freeholders exceeds ten thousand, enjoying estates from the smallest value that can give a vote, and gradually rising to £7000 or £8000 per annum. The copyhold tenures are very few, and the peculiar tenure of Kent, known as gavel-kind, is very much diminished by various legal operations.

Private Manufactures. The private manufactures bear no proportion to the extent, wealth, or population of this county. The cloth trade, which was first introduced at Cranbrook, has entirely forsaken the county. A few descendants of French Protestant refugees carry on the manufacture of the richest brocaded and other silks. The best writing paper is made in the vicinity of Maidstone, and some near Westerham. There are some silk mills at Sevenoaks. At Crayford are extensive calico printing and bleaching works. At Dartford are mills for manufacturing iron. Such are the few private manufactures, none of which are extensive; but those of government, in this county, give employment to vast numbers of workmen. The greater part of the implements of land and sea warfare are prepared in Kent. The establishment at Woolwich, for the artillery, is certainly the most extensive and best regulated collection of various workshops and storehouses in the world. Mortars and brass cannon are cast, bored, and mounted, the different kinds of shot and shells prepared, and all the various combustibles used in war completed. The whole establishment under the Board of Ordnance, including the Academy for the instruction of the cadets, the Artillery Barracks, and the Arsenal, exhibit the wealth of the country, and the power of the government, in directing that wealth to the purposes of war.

Military Arsenal. There are four naval arsenals in Kent, viz. Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, and Sheerness. In the three last of these, first-rate ships of war are built, and at Deptford the largest two-deckers. In this latter place is the principal store-house for provisions for the navy,—the slaughter-house, where, in time of war, hundreds of bullocks and pigs are killed; also possessing proper places for curing their flesh for future consumption. When the whole coast of the opposite continent was in the hands of a hostile nation, it was deemed advisable by the government to create a more considerable arsenal, where a fleet might at all times be ready, or, if necessary, be repaired, so as to oppose the force, without waiting for any change of wind, that was collecting in the Scheldt. A plan was then formed for constructing at Purfleet a naval arsenal upon a most magnificent scale. It has been begun by excavating the chalk rocks; and though the altered condition of Europe may make such an establishment less necessary, it is still in progress, though not proceeding rapidly.

Naval Arsenals. One of the proudest ornaments of the nation, Greenwich Hospital, for the relief of disabled or aged seamen, is in this county; and, in the park contiguous to it, the Royal Observatory, to which the eyes of all the navigators of Europe are directed, as the place from which issues the nautical Ephemeris, that all nations depend on when traversing distant seas.

Though Kent is bounded on three sides by the ocean and the River Thames, it has scarcely any foreign commerce. The harbours are none of them good; those of Dover and Ramsgate are formed by artificial piers, and the former is dry at low-water when the sluices are open. The only trade from Dover is to Calais, Dunkirk, and Ostend, for such light goods as can bear the expence of land-carriage. There is a herring fishery conducted from Folkstone; besides which, the principal foreign trade consists in smuggling those various articles, whose high duties offer a temptation to encounter such perilous adventures.