The 'Belgic' Cemetery at Allington

THE 'BELGIC' CEMETERY AT ALLINGTON ISOBEL THOMPSON, M.A. In his report on the discoveries at Swarling, Bushe-Fox refers to a group of similar vessels and brooches in Maidstone Museum, from Allington to the north-west of Maidstone. 1 The Hermitage Farm burial group published by Bushe-Fox was a separate find made in 1923; the much larger collection of pottery and brooches referred to, providing parallels for several of the Swarling vessels, has remained unpublished, apart from brief references. 2 The collection in Maidstone Museum comprises 26 vessels, and 4 brooches; of these two pots and one brooch made up the Hermitage Farm burial group. All the other objects are apparently from 'Tassel's Quarry', 'discovered about 1860 in ragstone quarry between Maidstone and Allington'.3 This quarry is evidently that referred to as the site of a cist grave of unknown date in 1849: 'The site of this discovery is a large stone quarry in the parish of Allington, about a mile north-west of Maidstone, and occupied by Mr. Tassel, architect and builder'. 4 The 6 in. O.S. map TQ 75 NW, 1966 edition, has the spot marked 'Iron Age Cinerary urns found A.D. 1860' at TQ 74555735, in a quarry in the loop of the main railway line, and now in the north-west suburbs of Maidstone. The Hermitage Farm burial is marked about l mile to the south-west, at TQ 73I561. 5 The 1860 discoveries were presented to Maidstone Museum by the contemporary owner of the quarry, a Mr. W. H. Bensted, who 1 J.P. Bushe-Fox, Excavation of the late Celtic Unifield at Swarling, Kent, 1925, 19-20; Pl. XI, 7 & 8, Hermitage Farm; Pl. XV, 14 & 15, brooches. 2 A. J. Evans, 'On a late-Celtic Umfield at Aylesford, Kent ... .'. Arclzaeologia 52/2, 1890, 350; D. B. Kelly, 'Quarry Wood Camp, Loose: a Belgic Oppidum', Arch. Cant., lxxxvi (1971), 73-4. 3 MS. Gazetteer in Maidstone Museum. 4 Rev. Beale Poste, J. Brit, Arch. Ass., iv (1849), 65. 5 This is the reference given under 'Allington' in the O.S. Map of Southern Britain in the Iron Age, 1962, 55. 127 ISOBEL THOMPSON reported that 'a number of pits containing evidence of burning were found by the workmen'.6 It seems clear, however, that the 24 Tassel's Quarry pots are from two different discoveries; those amongst them of obvious Romano-British date possibly correspond with four vessels reported to have come from the foundations of a building in 1844, in what was then Tassel's Quarry. 7 Poste states that in 1844 the last remains of this building were removed; Mr. T. Charles, of Maidstone, only managed to rescue 'a few fragments of a hypocaust'.8 There is some confusion in the labelling on the vessels themselves. They were examined by the writer as part of research into the 'Belgic' pottery of Kent, Hertfordshire, and Essex, at the Institute of Archaeology, University of London. THE POTTERY Fig. I. 1. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.7. Hard grey-buff wheel-made pedestal um, rim slightly irregular, showing inexperience in using the fast wheel; hard grey smooth core, possibly grog-tempered. A late version of a pedestal um, to judge by the perfunctory base; the particular form of curved neck and step instead of cordon has parallels in Kent: e.g. Canterbury, Burgate Street, dated to the later first century A.D.9 The lack of thickening of the everted rim is another local characteristic, and seen on other Allington vessels. This pot does not have much connection with true pedestal urn types, but cf. Verulamium Group B no. 47, 10 which is of a similar size and has a stunted pedestal. However, Wheathampstead also produced a pot with a stunted pedestal, of a much earlier date. 11 2. 'Allington' with number now indecipherable. Hard, hand-made, heavy and solid buff fabric with flint gritty lumps, patchy black on a smooth outer surface, especially around the base. A pinch pot, possibly, from its thickness. It bears a basic resemblance to the simple 'Belgic' jar shape, as also represented here by nos. 5, 7, and 17. 3. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.11. Pale buff grog-tempered fabric, red surfaces, burnished but worn. Shows turning lines. A photograph of this vessel in Fox, Pattern and Purpose, 1958, pl. 26 (wrongly described as from Aylesford) shows up the worn surface texture typical of these 6 MS. Gazetteer, Maidstone Museum. 7 Ibid. 8 Poste, op. cit., 67. 9 A. Williams, 'Canterbury Excavations in 1945', Arch. Cant., Ix (1947), Fig. 6 nos. 3 & 4. 10 R.E.M. & T.V. Wheeler, Verulamium, a Belgic and two Roman cities, 1936, Fig. 16. II !bid., pl. XLIX, I. 128 THE 'BELGIC' CEMETERY AT ALLINGTON 6 7 8 10 Fig. I. Pottery from the Allington Cemetery. (Scale: ¼) 129 ISOBEL THOMPSON grog-tempered vessels. The form is the pedestalled cup, Camulodunum type 210: this is not really as rare as noted by Hawkes and Hull,12 although the pedestal is often broken. In Kent, it is quite usual to have a hollow pedestal; in Hertfordshire, and often in Essex also, the surviving pedestals are usually attached separately to the solid base, as in the Hertfordshire 'mortar' vessels. An example of this occurs at Cheriton; 1 3 examples of the hollow type in Kent also exist from Mill Hill, Deal, 14 and Springhead (unpublished). Examples from Aylesford (Grave Z, unpublished), and Stone15 may originally have had pedestals, or may rather belong to the unpedestalled form, Camulodunum type 211. 4. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.1. Grey grog-tempered fabric with pale buff surfaces, burnished on the foot and shoulder. One of the tall jar types, not a flask. The stepped effect and thin everted rim are local characteristics. Compare two Lullingstone jars. 16 The lattice decoration is unusual over such a large body area; the wideness of the mouth is also uncommon. 5. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.22. Dark grey grog-tempered fabric with orange surfaces, wheel-made, black patches. Smooth exterior surfaces. This rather fine globular jar shape is related to the very common type Camulodunum 221, which usually has one cordon on the shoulder below an everted rim, and is also a squat, not tall, shape; but there exists a sub-group of jar, like this example, which lacks the flaring rim. They occur all over the area of grog-tempered pottery but as might be expected those closest to this vessel are also from Kent: Swarling (Birchall 19), 17 and Rochester (unpublished vessel in British Museum); Aylesford (Birchall 60)18 provides a smaller example. 6. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.15. This is in a rough Iron Age blackbrown fabric, but is well made, by hand. Crayford fig. 5 no. 4 is a taller but very similar example19 but it is shell-tempered, a tempering found west of the Medway in the late Iron Age but seldom east of it. 12C. F. C. Hawkes and M. R. Hull, Camu/odunum, 1948, 258. 13 P. J. Tester and H. F. Bing, 'A first-century Um-field at Cheriton, near Folkestone', Arch. Cant., !xii (1949), 21 ff., Fig. 3 no. 31. 14 J. D. Ogilvie and G. C. Dunning, 'A Belgic Burial-group at Sholden, near Deal; and a Belgic Tazza from Mill Hill, upper Deal', Arch. Cant., lxxxii (1967), 221-226, Fig. 5. 15 M.A. Cotton and K. M. Richardson, 'A Belgic Cremation Site at Stone, Kent', Proc. Prehist. Soc., vii (1941), Fig. 3 no. 5. 16 G. W. Meates, E. Greenfield and E. Birchenough, 'The Lullingstone Roman villa', Arch. Cant., !xiii (1950), Fig. 5 nos. 7 and 8. 17A . Birchall, 'The Aylesford-Swarling culture: the Problem of the Belgae reconsidered', Proc. Prehist. Soc., xxxi (1965), 241-367. 18 Ibid. 19 J. B. Ward Perkins, 'An Early IronA ge Site at Crayford, Kent', Proc. Prehist. Soc., iv (1938), 151-168. 130 THE 'BELGIC' CEMETERY AT ALLINGTON 7. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.13. Charles Coll. (presumably Mr. T. Charles, of Maidstone). Wheel-made, dark-brown grog-tempered fabric with burnished smooth hard dark grey surface. Contains bones. Has the common local non-thickened straight rim; hard and regular, and possibly romanizing. With a thicker, rounder rim it would exactly match the very common Camulodunum type 221. 8. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.12. Pale pink grog-tempered fabric shows at rim; surface patchy dark grey and pink, roughly tooled all over. Contains bones. Again note the straight rim. Rough and irregular, and now distorted, but corresponds with the shallower, wider-mouthed examples of Camulodunum type 221, the ubiquitous plain jar with shoulder cordon. Compare Verulamium Group B no. 70; 20 Verulam Hills Field no. 4; 21 and Wheathampstead no. 10.22 9. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.16 (see also no. 10; both pots have this accession number clearly painted on, and this pot also has '4 AL 1. 12' in ink on the base, another duplication). Charles Coll. Black gritty fabric with buff surfaces. Tooling lines all over outside. Small cup, hand-made and of indeterminate shape, but could fall within the definition of Camulodunum type 264, 'cooking-pot with simple rim', rounded, plain, with offset neck. There are two somewhat similar simple vessels, unpublished, from Faversham, in the Royal Museum, Canterbury, but such a basic shape is liable to too much variation to produce exact parallels. 10. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.16. Hand-made but well executed, hard, brown gritty fabric with dark brown surfaces, patchy black, smooth and probably with some burnishing, but not apparently intended to be shiny. Somewhat similar to no. 9 but no really good parallels. It is a very small version of some of the rippled jars like one from Billericay, Birchall's no. 165, and at Camulodunum would be classified as type 229 (liable to much variation). Fig. 2. 11. Allington, 4 AL 1.23. Wheel-made, brown-grey grog-tempered fabric with buff interior surface and pale red outer surface, softish, smoothed but not burnished. Since breakage by firemen the fabric can be clearly seen. This is one of a group of interesting early attempts at producing locally made jugs: there are a few parallels in first century A.D. contexts for this method of attaching the jug handle to the body of 20 Wheeler, op. cit., Fig. 21. 21 I. E. Anthony, 'Excavations in Verulam Hills Field, St. Albans', Herts. Arch., i (1968), Fig. Ill. 22 Wheeler, op. cit., pl. XLIX. 23 K. M. Kenyon, Excavations at the Jewry Wall site, Leicester, 1948. 131 ISOBEL THOMPSON Fig. 2. Pottery from the Allington Cemetery. (Scale:¼) 132 THE 'BELGIC' CEMETERY AT ALLINGTON the pot: Jewry Wall Fig. 34 no. 3;23 Camulodunum type 132, native, no exact provenance, and Cartmlodunum type 249, from Sheepen, a fat bead-rim vessel of polished black ware, with one or more handles pushed through the body; Verulamium Group D no. 1,24 a twohandled flagon. Three examples of the late first century B.C. occurred in the Welwyn Garden City chieftain grave.25 All these early jugs show much individuality of form. The Allington example perhaps copies a metal prototype. The drawing shows where the wall of the pot was spread around the plug handle to attach it firmly; but it was evidently not firm enough. A more summary version of the same technique is known in the Verulamium region in the second century26 where a slit is made in the wall of the pot and the handle base pushed through; this is a local aberration on otherwise normal Roman ring-necked flagons, while the first century examples are oddities from a period before the Roman series became standard. 12. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.9. Wheel-made, black gritty fabric with pale buff-brown patchy surfaces, burnished. The fabric is not easy to distinguish. A unique miniature version27 of the bucket-like vessels with corrugated walls, Birchall's type II; this is still otherwise confined to Aylesford and Swarling, although a somewhat similarly corrugated bowl is now known from Woodham Walter, Essex (unpublished; also small). 13. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.19. Brown gritty fabric common at both Aylesford and Swarling, but not found north of the Thames; tooling marks all over the surface. A curious little flask shape; cf. the more sharply defined example from Aylesford (Birchall 65). These are apparently related to Camulodunum type 234, defined as 'a small flask with mildly flattened shoulder', usually in thin romanizing native ware. It was thought to be rare outside Sheepen, but there are parallels, mostly in rather late contexts, over Essex, Hertfordshire, and Kent. The Allington vessel has no exact parallel for its flattened profile. 14. Tassel's Quarry 4 AL 1.2. Kent gritty fabric, brownish-grey; interior conjectural as now badly distorted and much restored. Rim accurate. Apparently a butt-beaker copy, Camulodunum type 115; the beaded foot is rare. These copies can be extremely varied: this one is very close to the large wide-mouthed, often cordoned, jars like no. 25 below (q.v.). 15. Tassel's Quarry 4 AL 1.5. Charles Coll. Kent gritty fabric, grey- 24 Wheeler, op. cit., Fig. 23. ' 251. M. Stead, 'A La Tene III Burial at Welwyn Garden City', Archaeologia, ci (1967), Fi¥' 9, nos. 33-35. 6 A box of such jugs from Verulamium and Bromley Hall Farm in the Verulamium Museum store. 27 Already published in F. Jenkins, Men of Kent before the Romans, 1962, Fig. 2, no. 3. 133 ISOBEL THOMPSON buff, traces of burnishing and tooled lines on outside. This basically biconical shape with the small rim is closely parallelled by two vessels from nearby Aylesford, Birchall 60 and 84: these are also of a similar size, while other two-angled wide-mouthed jars, like Allington 5 above, are generally larger. Several taller jars from Stone have body lines, 28 as does an unpublished early Romano-British jar in the Royal Museum, Canterbury (RM 5191). 16. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.10. Hard hand-made Kent gritty fabric, black core, patchy brown-black worn burnished outside surface, grey smooth inside. Charles Coll. This is closely parallelled by Camulodunum lid type pl. LXXXV, 4, and has body striations like no. 15 above. These deep lids could easily be used as small bowls. 17. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.8. Dark brown probably grog-tempered fabric with patchy brown-buff-black surface. A plain version of Camulodunum type 221, the standard shallow wide-mouthed jar type. The rim here is the local unthickened version, only slightly everted. There is a plain rim, rather similar, from Gun Hill, in south-east Essex, no. 107 ;29 cf. also Wheathampstead no. 10, and other uncordoned Hertfordshire examples. 18. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.6. Contains bones. Roughish pale red fabric, not very hard, pale grits, and patchy red-buff-black surface, once burnished black over rim and shoulder. A curious elegant tulip shape reminiscent of the earlier Iron Age tradition of everted-rim footring bowls and similar vessels, such as Crayford (op. cit) Fig. 11, no. 8. 19. Allington, 4 AL B (sic). Hard pale cream fabric, light weight. Camulodunum type 161 Ab, imported, before A.D. 50. There are no less than three similar flagons from Tong30 with South Gaulish samian, and a 'Belgic' cup that could be post-conquest. Another was found at Murston in an early Romano-British cemetery, apparently associated with a pedestal urn, of pre-conquest shape but romanizing fabric.31 20. Unmarked, but always associated in Maidstone Museum with the Allington pots. Brown-grey grog-tempered fabric, burnished brown-grey surfaces, originally well-made but much distorted in restoration. This large native platter is closest in form to Camulodunum type 4, which begins early but carries on in degenerate form into the Claudian period.32 This copy seems quite close to the 28 Cotton and Richardson, op. cil., Fig. 2, nos. 5-8. 29 P. J. Drury and W. Rodwell, 'Excavations at Gun Hill, West Tilbury', Essex Arch. and Hist., v (1973), Fig. 17. 30 W. Whiting, 'On some Jutish Pottery found in Kent, and further Romano-British Pottery found in Kent', Arch. Cant., xxxix (1927), 43, nos. 686-8. 31 G. Payne, Col/ectanea Cantiana, 1893, 38; Fig. p. 35. The pedestal urn is in the British Museum store. 32 Hawkes and Hull, op. cil., 216. 134 THE 'BELGIC' CEMETERY AT ALLINGTON prototype, however, and would perhaps be more likely to date before the conquest. Fig. 3. 21. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.3. Roman, hard, wheel-made jar, pale grey fabric sandwiched betwe􀂗n pinkish-red, with red surfaces, gritty, no bu􀂘ish. Not two handles, but possibly one. Has the base of a jug. All parallels are second or even third century: Verulamium Excavations nos. 404, A.D. 105-30; 805 and 807, A.D. 150-60 Gugs); also a jar, no. 826, A.D. 150-60.3 3 The low centre of gravity is common at this date. 22. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.18. Hard sandy patchy brownish-pink Roman fabric with black patchy surface on the outside, surfaces tooled inside and out. 22. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.17. Hard dark brownish-grey Roman fabric, restored, tooling on outside, probably originally had vertical lines lightly burnished on exterior. Both second century. 24. Tassel's Quarry, 4 AL 1.21. Very hard grey Roman fabric, smooth pale grey core, interior conjectural. No parallels. 25. Hermitage Farm. 'Late Keltic, nr. St. Lawrence Chapel Allington, Jan. 19th ... presented by Mr. G .... 19 Feb. 1923'. Wheelmade but uneven shape, dark brown-grey fine gritty fabric, patchy brown-grey surfaces, burnished on exterior. Marked wheel-lines on base. Foot not symmetrical. Broken by firemen, June 1977. A tall cordoned ring-footed jar, with some resemblance to the flat-footed pedestal urns with cordons from Aylesford, Birchall 64 and 68. This pot's general category is that of the tall wide-mouthed versions of the 'flasks', Camulodunum types 231-2: cf. Billericay, Birchall 178; Minnis Bay, Well 30, A. 34 It is commoner, however, for this type to have cordons confined to the shoulder. 26. Hermitage Farm, St. Lawrence's Chapel. Brown-grey softish fabri􀂙, burnished underneath, possibly grog-tempered, to judge by appearance on outside, where pale inclusions are invisible. This is a Camulodunum form 28, a native copy of the Gallo-Belgic platter form Camulodunum 14; these copies can be varied but always have the high offset, and are of this general size. The date range at Camulodunum of form 28 was post-conquest. 33 S. S. Frere, Verulamium Excavations, i, 1972. 34 T. C. Champion, The earlier Iron Age in the Region of the lower Thames: insular and external Factors, D. Phil. thesis, Oxford, 1977. 135 ISOBEL THOMPSON ) 25 26 Fig. 3. Roman Pottery from Allington (nos. 21-24); Hermitage Farm Burial Group. (Scale: Pottery:¼; Brooch:½) 136 THE 'BELGIC' CEMETERY AT ALLINGTON THE BROOCHES 1. (Fig. 3.) Bronze brooch, with slightly flattened bow, 6-coil spring, 2 small side-wings and hook on top of bow to keep the external chord in place; broken catchplate; no pin. Found with the Hermitage Farm burial. A standard example of a 'Colchester' brooch, without early features; date could be anywhere in the last few decades of the preconquest period or shortly after.35 Nos. 2-4 (Fig. 4) are from the cemetery, but all associations have been lost. 2. Large bronze brooch with straight bow, fretted catchplate, hood over 6-coil spring with external chord. One of the 'straight-bow' brooches that are the beginning of the 'Colchester' type, and commonly found in Kent. 3. Bronze brooch with high curve to bow, pierced catchplate, 8-coil spring broken off on one side, side-wings and hook to keep external chord in place. A 'Colchester' brooch, but an early piece since it retains the pierced catchplate in its full form. 35 4. Small iron brooch with broken solid catchplate, straight bow, hood over 10-coil spring and external chord. These iron brooches are hard to date but this is not out of place amongst the other Allington brooches, of the later pre-conquest period, and possibly just overlapping the conquest. It is not easy to define the date range of the Allington vessels exactly, although they clearly represent three different potting traditions: the 'earlier' Iron Age (nos. 6 and 18) which yet survives alongside new fashions and techniques down to the conquest, particularly west of the 3 2 Fig. 4. Brooches from the Allington Cemetery. (Scale:½) 4 35 Bushe-Fox, op. cit., Pl. XV, 15, and p. 44 = no. 1; Pl. XV, 14, and p. 44 = no. 3. 137 ISOBEL THOMPSON Medway; the so-called 'Belgic' styles, which make up the majority of the finds, of elegant, curving, mostly wheel-made vessels with pedestals and cordons, made either in the grog-tempered brownish-grey fabric common to these styles in Hertfordshire, Essex, and north Kent, or in a fine gritty fabric of north Kent, commoner in the Aylesford and Swarling cemeteries than the grog-tempered fabric; and finally the new styles of the early post-conquest period represented by the fine imported flagon. The large platter no. 20, assuming it truly belongs to Allington, and the butt beaker copy, no. 14, as well as the early attempt by a native potter at a jug, no. 11, would in any case bring the dat􀁭 range of the cemetery to about the period of the Roman conquest. We may judge the later end of the range as c . A.D. 50; the earlier date bracket is perhaps the closing years of the first century B.C. but this is at best a vague estimate. The details of the vessels show many local characteristics, and only more general resemblance to the wider distribution of their types: this is entirely typical of this kind of pottery. The Hermitage Farm burial group is dated to the conquest period by the platter. The difficulty encountered in closely dating this pottery is not, of course, surprising, since we are attempting to date objects within a time span of only three or four generations with neither any directly relevant written evidence nor any knowledge of their period of use, if any, before deposition. The distinctively local features of many of the vessels add to our problems; and it is clear from a detailed study of much published and unpublished material from the whole area covered by grog-tempered 'Belgic' pottery that this emphasis on local characteristics is the rule, not the exception. Aylesford and Swarling are not representative of the cemetery wares of this area, since so much variation is possible: and Allington, after all, is only a few miles from Aylesford itself. The study of the Allington cemetery is only a small part of a comprehensive review of this pottery, its forms and its fabrics, intended to show up local peculiarities and underlying generalities. Thus despite their loss of associations these pots can be regarded as interesting and informative. My thanks are due to Mr. D. B. Kelly, of Maidstone Museum for his excellent help in providing the facilities for this work. 138 THE PATTENDEN DIARIES 1797-1819 A. L. MACFIE For more than twenty years, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in a series of small, leather-bound notebooks, in a fine copper-plate hand, Thomas Pattenden, draper and stocking seller of I Townwall Street, Dover, noted those 'daily remarks and occurences' which he deemed to be of interest. He proved an acute observer, for today his notes, the greater part of which survives intact, provide a graphic record of life in Dover during a critical period in its history.1 The Pattendens were not long resident in Dover. Thomas's grandfather, Robert, whom he described as 'thoughtless and negligent' was for many years clerk to the parish of Acton. It was, therefore, most probably his father, also a Thomas, that moved to Dover. In any case Thomas himself was born on 21st May, 1748, in a house situated in the centre of the town near the old mill. Otherwise the Pattendens lived for the most part in or around London, in Fulham, where he often visited, in Mortlake and in Hitchin. Unlike his grandfather, Thomas proved both industrious and shrewd. As a result his business prosper􀁧. Moreover, once established at 1 Townwall Street, he let part of the house, while his wife took in children whose health required that they bathe or take the sea air. His savings, and in the later years of his life they were substantial, he in".ested in property and government bonds, so that iq due course he became one of the wealthiest and most respected citizens of Dover, an assessor of taxes, a churchwarden and the patron of numerous charities and good works. Not that his energies were entirely given over to the pursuit of wealth and station. Throughout his life he followed world affairs, read widely, sketched, painted and collected books, coins and fossils. He was particularly fond of reading and would copy out favourite passages in 1 The Pattenden diaries, and a summary of Volume II, which is missing, are in the possession of Dover District Council. 139 A. L. MACFIE extract-books which he later had bound. Moreover, towards the end of his life, when ill-health confined him to the house, he wrote a history or chronology of ancient times from the deluge of Noah to the end of the Middle Ages, which he also had bound in three volumes. In his diaries Pattenden frequently noted the passing of a merchant ship or fleet. On one occasion he counted twenty-seven ships, laid to, waiting to pick up pilots; and on another eighteen large Indiamen, together with two South Whalers. On 17th April, 1797, he noted: 'A large fleet of ships from Lisbon, Coast of Africa Sierra Leone and West Indies but last from Portsmouth with convoy passed this place to the Downs - they appeared with great beauty it being a fine afternoon. Some of the sails had the sun on, the others in shadows, the ships in different positions and distances and seen against a dark grey cloud (next the horizon) the upper broken edges of which were here and there tipped and enlightened by the sun'. When, on another occasion, the Jamaica fleet sailed down the Channel, he noted that it took six hours to pass the town. It is evident from his other writings that Pattenden looked on these great fleets as the visible embodiment of what he later referred to as England's 'exalted state of national and commercial credit and prosperity'. The origins of this prosperity, he concluded, lay in the value added by manufacture and trade: 'The immenseness of the enhanced value of many manufactures, from their first raw or unimproved material is well worth remarking as we find in an ingenious treatise published in London in 1723 entitled "The Payment of Old Debts without New Taxes". 'One hundred pounds', says the author, 'laid out in wool and that wool manufactured into goods for the Turkey market, and raw silk brought home in return, and manufactured here will increase that one hundred pounds to five thousand pounds which quantity of silk manufactures being sent to New Spain would return ten thousand pounds which vast improvement of the first hundred pounds becomes in a few years, dispersed among all orders and degrees from the prince to the peasant.' Pattenden paid equal attention to the state of trade and commerce at home. On 4th March, 1797, one of the earliest entries in the diary, he noted that the Privy Council had suspended the gold standard, by which the Bank of England was obliged to exchange bank notes for gold, owing to a shortage of cash. Later, on 18th April, 1797, he noted that the Funded Debt (the National Debt) stood at £372 millions. On 16th December, 1800 he noted that candles and soap had risen sharply 140 THE PATIENDEN DIARIES, 1797-1819 in price because of an expectation of war with Russia; and on 14th October, 1801 that the price of bread, which in March had reached 3s. 7½d. a gallon, had recently fallen back to ls. 10d. On 24th December, 1806 he remarked that during the previous fourteen years consols had fluctuated in price from as little as £47½ to £98¾. It will come as no surprjse to learn that in May 1797 Pattenden purchased a copy of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, in three volumes, printed for T. Cadell of the Strand in 1784. In the course of the French Wars, and more particularly when invasion threatened, Pattenden noted a number of incidents and events. In December 1797, he noted that on the occasion of Lord Malmesbury's trip to Lille to treat for peace, Peter Fector, his old master, had ordered the construction of two boats, so confident was he that peace would be concluded. In May 1798, when the Governmeht raised a force of volunteers, he informed the officer-in-command that he would do anything he was fit for, but feared that in view of his poor health he would be unable to expose himself to the cold and damp as others did. In October 1803, when volunteers were again raised, he noted that Dover had raised eight companies. They generally furnished their own arms, did duty for three weeks at a time and received pay. On one occasion they paraded, in their scarlet regimentals, on the Rope Walk, whence they marched, with William Pitt at their head, to the Maison Dieu Fields. In August 1805, when it was rumoured that a French flotilla stationed in Boulogne had set sail, sixty ball cartridges were issued to each man and precautions taken to prevent a surprise attack. From the cliff top the enemy encampments ranged on each side of Boulogne were clearly visible. With a spy glass, indeed, even the horses ploughing could be seen. In 1804, Pattenden was able to contribute more directly to the defence of the realm. Mr. Stow, the Collector, asked him to make a copy of a drawing of the landscape at Boulogne, so that he could send it to the Secretary of State. Later, no doubt in connection with Sir Sidney Smith's planned attack, he was asked to copy a map of the coast and batteries of the town, including the entrance to the harbour. During the French and Napoleonic Wars, the defences at Dover were substantially reconstructed. Much of the work, as Pattenden noted, was undertaken in 1795-7, when new sally ports, a subterranean bomb-proof barracks and a new entranc􀂙 to the castle across the ditch through Monks Battery were constructed. Later, the Grand Shaft, a remarkable structure with triple spiral staircases designed to give rapid access to the defences on the heights from the harbour below, was completed, as were other extensive defence works in the area. In the course of the wars Pattenden witnessed many of the troop movements associated with expeditions to the continent. On 14th May, 141 A. L. MACFIE 1798 he noted that a fleet with troops was sailing that day from Margate, supposedly for some part of the Netherlands, later identified as Ostend. In August 1799 he witnessed the departure of another expedition, also destined for the Netherlands, which succeeded in taking the Helder, a fort at the mouth of the Texel, but was later defeated and forced to withdraw. The returning troops were disembarked at Yarmouth. They then marched to Dover, where they were billeted in the castle. Pattenden saw something, too, of the war at sea. On 16th January, 1798, he went down to the pier to see the Policrate, a French privateer of sixteen guns and seventy-two men, taken the previous week off Beachy Head by the Racoon, a British sloop. He observed that the top mast had been shot away and several holes shot in the sails. Later, he noted that the Racoon had captured another French privateer, a lugger of fourteen guns, taken after a sharp engagement in which nine of the French crew were killed and several wounded. On 4th August, 1801, he observed that the fire and smoke of Nelson's fleet attacking Boulogne could be clearly seen from the cliff-top, and on 16th August that he had seen Nelson's flag ship, the Mediye, returning to the Downs after an unsuccessful attempt to board and take the gunboats defending Boulogne harbour - 'a great many men killed and wounded'. In August 1803, further attacks were launched on the French fleet in Boulogne. During one of these, Pattenden noted, 'floating machines' were directed into the harbour in an attempt to set fire to the French vessels. Among the officers leading the attacks on the French fleet in Boulogne was Sir Sidney Smith, the hero of Acre. Whilst stationed in Dover, he spent some time experimenting with the design of a boat for the landing of artillery. Pattenden noted that he experimented with two models, one made up of two boats bound together and another of two half boats joined by cross pieces. The model made up of two half boats, he observed, appeared to go to windward better than that made up of two boats. On 13th February, 1809 Pattenden described an incident in which the war was brought even closer to home: 'This afternoon the seafaring people at the pier saw a schooner coming up from the westwards which was chased by a French lugger privateer who was firing into her with small arms and had grappled and endeavoured to board but the schooner came straight on for Dover Harbour intending as it afterwards appeared to run on the shore opposite the mouth of the harbour and was actually close in with the mole rocks but the sailors on the heads waved her off and launched two boats one of which soon got on board-about this 142 THE PATTENDEN DIARIES, 1797-1819 tainmde athlseo g usonms eo f mthoer eP igeru nFso rfrt owme ret hree poetahteedr lyb afitrteedri east. t hFein pdriinvga teheirs ifontre hnitsi oonw wn acso adsist cbouvte hreed h tahde kFirlleendc shommaen o pfu tth ae bsochuot oannedr 'sst ocroedw a wwiathy hshise misu frsqoumet sB breedfop roer ta.n' y assistance could be given her-they tell me theF rteonwchn sgaailoolr. s Ocanp t8utrhe dJ iann tuhaersye, b1a8t0tl8e,s wtherreee g epnriesroanlleyr sim spor icsoonnefidn eind eAsncadpreewd sa, nwdh too obke ina gs minafollr bmoeadt obfe atchhee dfa cint ttohoek b aay g, ableleloyn agnindg wtoen Mt irn. fapur rosuuitt ionf tthhee mC.hT anhneye l.w ere eventually recaptured, despite a thick fog, JanOucacrays,i o1n8a1l1ly, ,P aotltde nadnend sianwf irtmw o pbrrisigosn,e furs ll woefr esu crhel eparsiesodn. eOrsn, b1ei8ntgh senPta ottveenrd teon Fnroatnecde mfoor srte loefa steh.e major battles of the period in his dthiae rNieisl e: ,t h1e7 9d9e,f eoaft wohf itchhe hDeu rtecahd f alene ta occffo Sucnht eivne tnhien g, 1797; the battle of Gazette; of Cairo, 1801; Austerlitz, 13-14th October, 1805, 'a grtehaet cbaaptttuler'e; NTrealsfaonlg awr,a 2s1 sstl aOinc't-obtehre, 1805, in which 'unfortunately our brave Lord Victory anchored off Dover on 13th Decemwbitehr ; ththee cbaopdtyu roe fo fN Beulseonno sa Aboyarersd, F18r0ie6d;l aJnenda, ,1 1880076, ,' afo mugohstt 'bcloonotdinyu obuasttlyle 'f;o trh seo mvicet odraiyess .o.f .1g 8r1e4a,t 'lgorsesa';t thTanhkessgei vviincgto';r iaens dw, efirne aglleyn, eWraalltye rcleoloe,b r1a8t1e5d, itnh eD 'loavtee,r dweictihs ivfees btiavtittilee's., sinucplpuedri,n ugs uoanl lyo cacta tshieo nth eaa tpraer.aT dhee, tao wcna nwnaosn iallduem ainnadt ead abnadll coarn dglreasn lidt (􀂩_ icne lethber awtei ntdheo wBsa totlfe t hofe thhoeu Nseisl.e Pwaatste antdteennd nedo tebdy tthhae t Ftrheen cbha llG heenledr atlos iHn uImreblaenrtd a.n d Sarazin, who had been taken prisoner by General Laker theT hBerrieti swha sc laiuttslee dino utbhte inw Parast.te Fndoellno'ws imngin dth teh aBt aptrtolev iodfe ntchee faNvioleu, rhede rtheceo redffeedc tt hthe avti ctahre's nraemtioanrk hs,a idn ag rseeartm coanu soef 2fo9rt ht hNaonvkesmgibvienrg, 1fo79r8 ,t htoe trreucsetn ti nv itchtoer Ly oarndd, tohtaht eLrworidse N heel swono uinld p anrottic hualavre h baedg duins phlaisy edde sap sattrcohnegs ibnyd esaedyi,n gh 􀂪t hnaot tte.hde 'oAnl maingohtthy ehr ado cbclaessisoend, Hbiese Mn aajseksteyd' s iAf rtmhes '.EI nt ghlaisdh, tvhicatto rwieass w'aenr ei mfrpormo pGero da,n dw higonmo rwanert ek tihned Forfe nwciht avgicationrsite sr efrliogimon? ',B uast they were taught by scripture that God had permitted wicked men to 143 A. L. MACFIE prevail merely in order to promote some wise end which men could not foresee. Anyway, the French were a nation professing Christianity that had fallen away into atheism and blasphemy. Such impiety and immorality besan in the neglect of public worship: those who did not fear God would not fear the King. The peace and security of Government was indeed founded on the Christian faith. It was true, however, that when a nation became sinful God would chastise it by general afflictions, first by withdrawing the fruits of the earth and then, if that did not reclaim them, by the sword of a fierce enemy. No nation in history ever reformed themselves without the hand of providence afflicting them first. The French were as warlike and irreligious as the Assyrians of old, who were the instruments of God's wrath to other nations. The impact of the French wars, though hardly comparable with the two World Wars, was clearly considerable. Nevertheless, in other respects life went on much as usual. Pattenden for his part pursued his business affairs with his customary diligence. He ordered stockings from Stocks of canterbury, worsted materials from Decaufours and other goods from Perkin's. York linens he occasionally ordered from Cook's, and Irish linens from Cappers and Crowder, of Gracechurch Street, London. Occasionally, while in Canterbury he would buy books or have his papers bound at Simmon's bookshop. Pattenden normally travelled to Canterbury by chaise. Occasionally, he walked part of the way, to the Half Way House or to Bridge. On 13th May, 1797, he set out to walk back: 'This morning about 8 I left Mrs. B. (Mrs. Brickenden, with whom he stayed) and going out of St. George's Gate and seeing the sky partly fair and clouds dispersing I began to walk towards Dover-in the road between the Gate and the turnpike the dragoons were riding to exercise. They rode six horses in depth and filled the whole width of the road and being about 400 in number though they made a grand appearance I was not quite pleased to be so near so many horses as they rode on the footpath on both sides I had no safe place but to get into the hopground which I did till they passed back again towards Canterbury. I walked through Bridge at 9 exactly and observing it not likely to rain I walked over the Down, got to the Half Way House at 11 and sat there an hour ... I got to Lydden soon after one and stopped at Mr. Barnett's to tea. Afterwards walked towards Dover-when I came to top of the Hill at Crabble the wind was coming easterly and the land of France showed itself with great beauty ... got home soon after six and thank God met Mrs P. again in health and safety.' When Pattenden travelled to London, he generally went via 144 THE PATTENDEN DIARIES, 1797-1819 Canterbury and then either by coach via Rochester or by water from Whitstable. The journey was sometimes arduous. On 13th July, 1799, when he visited relatives at Fulham and Hitchin, he arrived at Whitstable at 4 p.m. to find that---rain, hail and a westerly wind had made passage up the Thames ip1possible, so that he was obliged to return to Canterbury the following day and take a chaise from the Rose. On the chaise he met a lady and gentleman who had been down to Margate in a passage vessel to fetch their son from school. On the coach to Hitchin, he was obliged to sit outside, though he managed to get a seat inside at Stevenage. It rained all the way and the journey was 'exceedingly hard'. Whilst in London he took the opportunity of visiting Lambeth Palace, Putney Bridge, Smithfield and the new canal at Paddington. On the return journey he tried once again to take a passage vessel on the river, from Chester's Quay, but found the wind once again in a contrary direction, so that he was obliged to take a coach to Rochester, where he ·stayed at the Duke's Head, and then another to Canterbury from the Cross Keys, Gracechurch Street. On the journey he met many Dover pilots returning home. In May 1805, when Pattenden again visited London, he visited the British Museum in Great Russell Street. The harsher aspects of life received only occasional mention in Pattenden's diaries. The fate of William Hussey, a debtor, confined in Dover Castle, clearly caused him some concern. When Mrs. Smith, a friend, sent the poor man a one pound note, he personally delivered it. Another debtor, John Clement, cabinet maker, was discharged after being confined for four years in the castle. A third, Neame Kennard, escaped, was recaptured and served another four years, when Pattenden requested that he be released, offering to pay his discharge fees of £8 himself. In January 1799, Pattenden noted that Simon Ward, a fisherman, and some of his companions had seized a soldier named Turnbull who had stolen two thousand guineas from the mint in the Tower. He had offered Ward thirty guineas to carry him over to France and had more than a thousand guineas on him at the time of his arrest. In June 1800, a man named Saville was exposed on the pillory in the market place and much pelted by the crowd for his insolence to them. In December 1809, Ambrose Back was found guilty of writing an abusive libel against Mr. Huntingdon and sentenced to six months imprisonment. In March 1807, Pattenden witnessed a riot in Dover. What he described as a great concourse of people assembled in the market place and demanded the release of four smugglers, taken after firing on the revenue's cutter. The magistrates read the Riot Act and a squadron of light horse 'rode up very fast' and cleared the mob, which afterwards dispersed 'happily'. When the men were finally convicted, they were 145 A. L. MACFIE sent, under a guard of light dragoons, to Canterbury to be forwarded thence to N ewgate. Only once was Pattenden personally affected by crime. In January 1800, he was obliged to sack his servant, Nelly Williams, for stealing a pair of stockings. Pattenden noted besides two cases of serious crime reported in the press: Governor Wall, hanged at Newgate for cruelty twenty years previously, while stationed on the coast of Africa, when he had ordered one Benjamin Annstrong to receive eight hundred lashes, from which he later died; and the trial and execution of 'that wicked wretch' Patch for the murder of a friend. In the course of his diary, Pattenden noted many other odd incidents and events. In October 1802, enterprising Doverians towed a whale, stranded on the Goodwin Sands, to Dover, where it was landed on the beach near Archcliff Fort and exhibited to the populace at a charge of 6d. a head. Later it was cut up into pieces and its flesh boiled for oil, producing, it was reported, a thousand gallons. The giant skull was pulled by horses to the top of the cliff where it remained an object of unusual interest for some time. In May 1811, a pig, buried in a cave by a prodigious cliff fall, which demolished a house, killing the occupants, was dug out, emaciated but still able to walk, more than six months later. Finally, in 1817, Pattenden noted that a corsair from Tunis, marauding in the Channel, one of a pair, had been seized and brought into the Downs-'a very uncommon occurence'. Pattenden, though evidently not a sporting man himself, seems to have followed sporting events in the neighbourhood with keen interest. He attended the races at Priory Fields, Barham Downs and Buckland Valley, and watched 'matches of cricket' played in Northfall Meadow. Cricket seems particularly to have taken his fancy. In August 1798, he noted that the Sussex men had beaten the men of Dover and Deal by an innings and thirty runs, while in August 1807 he walked over to see the Gentlemen of Dover play the Gentlemen of the Surrey Militia, though alas the match was not played out. Pattenden retired from his drapery business in March 1804. Two years later on 8th February, 1806 his wife died, aged fifty-eight. In·his diary he recorded their last hours together. They sat together in the parlour until nine o'clock although she was already very ill. In the morning, she was taken worse: 'She called me to her bedside and said "Give me your hand. I am dying. Send for Mr. Hannam" (the doctor) ... at twelve ... she was failing fast ... at five he could scarce feel any pulsation remaining. At six I felt the parting pang and saw her breath for the last time, when she expired without a struggle. and fell asleep "till the last trumpet shall awake the dead".' Mrs. Pattenden was buried, with her husband's father and mother, in the churchyard of St. 146 THE PATTENDEN DIARIES, 1797-1819 Mary's Church. Pattenden survived his wife for a further thirteen years, dying c. 1819, aged seventy-one. He appears to have spent the closing years of his life in contented retirement, looked after by a housekeeper, Mrs. Harboard, and her daughter, continuing to the end to take a keen interest in life, to write, paint and sketch, and to record interesting incidents and events in the last of his notebooks. 147