Rochester sends to parliament two members, who al'e elected by about 1050 voters.
The town of Chatham, for a description of which we have referred to this article, forms in reality a part of Rochester. It is an irregular and ill-built town, stand ing immediately to the east of Rochester, and its celebrity from its dock-yard and arsenal, which co ver an area about a mile long to the north of the town.. The dock-yard, which is enclosed by a high wall, has a spacious gateway with embattled towers. The com missioner and officers have large and handsome houses. The houses for stores and masts are very extensive. One of the store-houses is 660 feet long, and contains prodigious quantities of sails, rigging, hemp, flax, pitch, and all other naval stores, for the equipment and build ing of ships. The principal mast-house is 240 feet long, and 120 wide; and the timbers which form the masts are kept continually afloat in two spacious basins. The rope-house is 240 feet long. The sail-loft is about 210 feet long. There are four wet docks fit for first rates, besides six slips or launches. The smith's shop tains about twenty forges. The number of artificers and labourers was about 3000 or 4000 in 1808. The ord nance wharf, or old dock, occupies a narrow slip of land below the chalk cliff. Great quantities of naval ord nance, cannon balls, gun carriages, &c. are deposited here, with quantities of pistols, cutlasses, pikes, ecc.
Since 1758, extensive fortifications, called the Lines, have been erected from the banks of the Medway, above the ordnance wharf, round an oblong plot of ground about a mile broad and half a mile wide, and extending beyond the extremity of the dock-yard, where they again join the river. This area includes, besides the naval estab
lishments, the upper and lower barracks, the church of Chatham, and the hamlet of Brompton, containing near ly 500 houses. The Lines are strengthened by ramparts, palisadoes, and a deep broad ditch, and are also defended by a strong redoubt on the summit of the hill to the south east.
The church of Chatham, rebuilt in 1788, is a neat building of brick. The west wall formed part of the ancient Norman church. There are at Chatham two hospitals, one founded in 1078 for poor leprous persons; and another in 1592, for decayed mariners and ship wrights.
The victualling house stands near the entrance of the town, near Rochester, and consists of various extensive ranges of building, suited to the various purposes of victualling the shipping of Chatham, Sheerness, and the Nore.
The following was the population, Ecc. of the town of Chatham and the city of Rochester in the year 1821: Inhabited houses 4135 Families - - ----- 5336 Do. employed in agriculture - - • - 385 Do. do. trade, &c. - - - 2701 Males 11,245 Females 12,818 Total population in 1821 • - - - 24,063 See the Beauties of England and Wales, p. 611, 666, and Hasted's of Kent.