Charles Dupin, the celebrated French author of several works on the dock-yards, roads, bridges, and harbours of Great Britain, visited Chatham in 1817, he objected to this saw-mill being erected on an eminence; but he seems to have overlooked the consequent advantage of the timber being thence conveyed by a gentle slope, with very little labour, to the different docks and slips, without interfering with any of the other works.[14] The commissioner has a handsome residence within the walls of the yard, and there are also many excellent houses, which are occupied by the officers and principal artificers. A neat chapel, of brick, for the convenience of the officers and workmen, was erected within the yard in 1811. At one period during the late war, the number of men employed was 3000. The Ordnance Wharf is situated to the south-westward of the dock-yard on the site of the old yard established by Queen Elizabeth, and it is still frequently called the Old Dock. The guns are placed in rows, and have painted on them the name of the ship to which they belong, and their weight of metal; the carriages are also placed separately, but under sheds. Large piles of shot are seen in various parts of the wharf; and there is also within its boundary an armoury, where various kinds of weapons--chiefly muskets, pistols, pikes, and cutlasses--are arranged in admirable order. A fund--commonly called the Chest of Chatham--for the relief of disabled seamen, was established there by Queen Elizabeth on the recommendation of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins, in 1588--the seamen of the royal navy, after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, having agreed to give up a portion of their pay for the relief of their wounded and disabled brethren. The Royal Marine Hospital of Chatham is one of the finest establishments of the kind in Great Britain, and from the elegance of its plan, the extent of its buildings, and its commanding position, forms a truly noble feature in the landscape. [14] _Quarterly Review_--Dupin, _On the Marine Establishments of France and England_.--No. XLIII. p. 41. [Illustration: GRAVESEND.] GRAVESEND, FROM THE THAMES.