GRAVESEND, a market-town, municipal borough, and river-port of England, in the co. of Kent, is situated on the right bank of the Thames, 33 m. w.n.w. of Canter bury, and 24 m. e.s.e. of London by the North Kent Railway. It occupies a somewhat commanding position on the first rising ground after entering the river; and consists of the old town, with narrow, inconvenient, and not too cleanly streets, and of the new town, w. of the older portion, with handsome streets, squares, and terraces. Gravesend is not famous for its architecture. In the vicinity are extensive market-gardens, great part of the produce of which is sent to London. Many of the inhabitants are employed in fishing. Gravesend forms the limit of the port of London. Here pilots and custom house officers are taken on board of vessels going up the river. For centuries the pros perity of the town has depended on its connection with the metropolis. The salubrious
air and beautiful scenery at Gravesend render it a favorite watering-place with London ers. It carries on some ship-building and a considerable trade in supplying ships' stores. Pop. of municipal borough '71, 21,260; of parliamentary borough, 27,493.
Gravesend was originally a hytke, or landing-place, and is mentioned as such in Domesday. Around this landing-place a town grew up soon after the conquest. Here the fleets of the early voyagers, as that of Sebastian Cabot in 1553, and of Martin Frob isher in 1576, used to assemble; and here the lord mayor, aldermen, and city companies were wont to receive all strangers of eminence, and to conduct them up the river in state, forming processions, which, says the historian Fronde, were "spectacles scarcely rivaled in gorgeousness by the world-famous weddings of the Adriatic."