|is now the first arsenal in the world. The houses of the various |officers are well built, and some of them even stately. The |dock-yard, including the ordnance wharf, is about a mile in |length, and some of the store rooms are near 700 feet long. |Although the stores of the navy are so immense in these magazines, |every thing is arranged in the greatest order. Here are upwards of |20 smiths’ forges constantly at work, and some of the anchors that |are made weigh near five tons. The new rope-house is 1140 feet in |length, in which cables are made 120 fathoms long, and 22 inches |round. In the yard are four docks for repairing, and six slips for |building, new ships. The ordnance wharf, which adjoins hereto, was |the original dock, where the guns belonging to each ship are now |arranged in tiers, with the names of the vessels they belonged to |marked above them. | |In 1558 the _Chest of Chatham_ was instituted by the seamen in the |service of Queen Elizabeth, each paying a portion of his pay for |the relief of the sufferers in the defeat of the Spanish Armada. |There is also here an hospital for the relief of aged mariners or |shipwrights. | |At the entrance of the town stands the victualling office, whence |his Majesty’s ships at Chatham and Sheerness are supplied with |provisions. Near it stands the chapel of ease to the parish |church, it is a circular building, the walls of which are three |feet thick, and appears of great antiquity, probably of Norman |origin by the architecture. This chapel is 74 feet long and 20 |wide, the west end and steeple having been added in 1743. | |Chatham is defended by the castles of Upnor and Gillingham; the |first is almost opposite the dock on the west side of the river. |Gillingham Castle is a very strong fortification, and has a |complete command of the river. | |The church stands on a hill adjoining the ordnance office; it |contains several elegant marble monuments, and the ordnance office |has granted a piece of ground, a little distance therefrom, as a |burial ground, where a ship is used as a church for the sailors. | |In 1667 the Dutch fleet proceeded up the Medway, took Sheerness, |and did considerable damage to Chatham. | |The population of Chatham has of late years considerably |increased; it contains 1715 houses, and 10,505 inhabitants, |exclusive of Gillingham, which contains 715 houses, and 4135 |inhabitants: and it has a market on Saturday. | 48|Chawton, Hants, 82, 95. This parish contains 64 houses, and 372 |inhabitants. | 84|Cherhill, Wilts, 184. A hamlet in the parish of Calne, containing |60 houses, and 304 inhabitants. | 183|Cheriton Cross, Devon, 148. | 61|CHICHESTER, Sussex, 36, 40, 41, 216. A city and county of itself;