Department | british history on the internet (2023)

CHAPTER XII.

DEPTFORD.

"Such a place has Deptford, the shipbuilding town." -Potato.

Deptford Name Derivation - Parish Department - The River Ravensbourne - The Royal Dockyard - The Ship of Sir Francis Drake, thegolden deer- References to Deptford in the journals of Evelyn and Pepys - Peter the Great as shipowner - Captain Cook's shipsresolutionIt is indiscovery- Samuel Pepy's biography - Closure of the shipyard - The foreign cattle market - Saye's Court - John Evelyn, the author of "Sylva" - Evelyn at home - Grinling Gibbons - Evelyn's move to Wotton - Saye's Court leased to Admiral Benbow - Peter the Ass Large As a tenant farmer - Visit of William Penn the Quaker - Demolition of Saye's Court - Establishment of a rest camp on its grounds - The Royal Victoria Victualling Yard - The Corporation of the Trinity House - The two hospitals attached to Trinity House - St. St. Nicholas Church - St Paul's Church - The Roman Catholic Church of the Assumption - St Luke's Church - The Grand Surrey Canal - Evelyn's account of catching a whale at Deptford - Origin of the sign of the black doll.

The town of Deptford, formerly called Depeord, which lies on the east side of Rotherhithe and extends as far south as Lewisham to the south and Greenwich to the east, was known as West Greenwich in very remote times. It derives its current name from the location of a "deep ford" across the small river Ravensbourne near its confluence with the Thames, where a bridge was built many years ago just before it widened into Deptford Creek.

It is described in the 1774 "Ambulator" as "a large and populous town, divided into Upper and Lower Deptford, and containing two churches". in the work cited above: "Deptford is most notable for its noble dock where formerly the royal marina was built and repaired until it was found more convenient to build larger ships at Woolwich and elsewhere where there is greater depth of water." In addition, the yard is more than doubled in size and a large number of workers are constantly employed. It has a dry dock of two acres for the hips and another of an acre and a half with the last of the wood and other supplies. , and large buildings such as warehouses and offices for the use of the site and housing for the use of officials who are required to be on the site to supervise the work. This is where the royal yachts of our Tudor and Stuartorei gnoses were generally kept.

By an Act of Parliament passed in 1730, Deptford was divided into two parishes, distinguished by the names of St Nicholas and St Paul. The Parish of St Nicholas, which includes the Old Town, lies mainly on the River Thames and the combined parishes today have a population of about 60,000.

According to the author of "Le Guide de Etranger à Londres", published in 1827, it is the lastredistributionTravelers on the Post Road over London. He confirms that it is divided into an upper town and a lower town, and its two churches, San Nicolás and San Pablo, and its Real Arsenal de la Marina, a creation of Enrique VIII, where cables, masts, anchors, etc., property yachts are built and waited. He also mentions the Red House north of Deptford, the "great naval storehouse" which burned down in 1639 and again in 1761. The city had 17,000 inhabitants at that time.

The change of name of this place from West Greenwich to what it is now, which has lasted for a few centuries, must, as we have indicated above, be due to the 'deep ford' by which the inhabitants had to cross the river. Rabenborn. here, just above the estuary into the Thames. However, the ford has long since given way to a bridge. This bridge is memorable in history for the utter defeat of Lord Audley and his Cornish rebels in 1497, according to Charles Mackay in his 'Thames and its Tributaries'. It was administered by this nobleman and a solicitor named Flammock and Joseph, a Bodmin smith, advanced from Taunton with a view to taking possession of London. Kent's men joined his banner and when they reached Blackheath they numbered about 16,000 men. Lord Daubeny, sent against them by King Henry VII, furiously attacked them at Deptford Bridge and, after a great slaughter, routed them. Lord Audley, Flammock and Joseph were captured and executed on Tower Hill shortly afterwards, the latter boasting at the time of his death that he had died for a just cause and would be a figure in history. Such are the vain and foolish hopes with which lowly rebels and impostors have often been encouraged since their days up to the Orton and Tichborne trials.

The small stream of Ravensbourne, here called Deptford Creek, rises at Keston Heath, near Hayes Common, in Kent, and runs for a total of about 12 miles, through Bromley and Lewisham and across the southern limits of Blackheath. It was formerly sometimes called Brome by Bromley. An old legend is said to explain his romantic name: “Julius Caesar is said to have set up camp on his invasion of Britain a few miles before he was born, with all his instructions to find provisions, but to no avail, Caesar cheerfully remarked that a Raven frequently landed near the camp, and ordered that his comings be carefully watched, as he suspected he was coming to drink. This order was obeyed, and The Raven Visited was found at a small, clear spring on Keston Heath. The legend is feared, however, more beautiful than true, for although the events occurred as explained, it is unlikely that the Roman legions they would have told the savage and savage tribes that they were so determined to submit to the iron rule of Imperial Rome; and if such a beautiful story were taught to the Britons they would probably not use English or Saxon to convey it to them. We may therefore safely dismiss it as a mere fable invented by a poetically minded individual to explain the name which he found already established by age-old custom. In some legends we can trace an element of truth; but in it we do not discover even "a shadow of a shadow" of anything but romance.

Small and insignificant as the creek appears today, the Ravensbourne is a river that has a name in history. We have previously recorded him witnessing the defeat and capture of Lord Audley's rebel forces; But that's not all. "Rather than a tumultuous mob," writes Charles Mackay, "encamped on its banks and roared in defiance of its rightful rulers. Blackheath, his nearest neighbor, was overrun by Wat Tyler and the angry thousands who followed him; and at Ravensbourne perhaps, many of these brave artisans stooped to drink from the already clear waters as, inflamed with vengeance and hopes of plunder and absolute power, they prepared to march on London which saw after a lull of eighty For years its still shores have been troubled by men assembled there for the same purposes, threatening to shed blood on the peaceable citizens of London, because, feeling the scourge of oppression, they knew of no wiser form of relief, and were unable between law and tyranny on the one hand, and liberty and licentiousness on the other." The same author reminds us that since Perkin Warbeck found his followers in almost the same place, the same scene must have played out here again during the reign of Henry VII. It is It is perhaps not inappropriate to note here the fact that at Hayes, not far from the Wells of B.C on Ravensbourne, was the favorite seat of the great Lord Chatham, whose famous son William Pitt, the "heavenly" minister to King George III. was born there on May 28, 1759.

At Ravensbourne, in its scenic curves through Deptford and Brockley, and so on to its origin, there have been corn and other mills for many centuries. John Evelyn refers to one of them in his "Dairy", where he writes on April 28, 1668: "To London, in the purchase of Ravensbourne Mills and land about thereabout (sic) an upper Deptford".

As the line quoted as motto at the beginning of this chapter shows, Pope Deptford, in his well-known Speeches on the Thames, calls it a "ship-building town," and in earlier years it was worthy of the name; for Trinity House here, and also the docks and the once vast shipyards, all date from the reign of Henry VIII, and were built here by that sovereign who certainly has the credit of having been the founder of the British Navy. . .

It is a matter of history that despite its proximity to the main road through Kent and its proximity to the metropolis, Deptford remained little more than a fishing village until Henry VIII. He first set up an inn and built the royal shipyard there, from which the city continued to grow in both size and population.

The Royal Dock, or "King's Yard" as it was called by locals in ancient times, was considered one of the most complete depots for naval supplies in Europe. It covered no less than thirty acres of land and contained all the conveniences for building, repairing and fitting out ships of the line - those veritable "old English wooden walls" we were familiar with before the introduction of armored ships. Wood and iron craftsmen had a wide range of workshops and camps here; and here hammer and ax were hardly ever idle, even in peacetime; but where, during the prevailing warfare, they were incessantly employed in the building of those floating bulwarks for which England is famous, or rather was famous, and which carry a hundred and twenty guns and a thousand men to defend their shores from the invader, or to her fame with her victories carry to the farthest seas of the ocean".

The yard was occupied by various buildings, such as two wet docks (one double and one single), three "stairs" for warships, a dock, two-masted tanks, a model attic, mast houses, a goldsmith's workshop, along with numerous forges for anchors, woodshed, etc. as well as houses for the officers who supervised the work. Deptford Dockyard is said to have used the finest machines in the world for spinning hemp and making rope and cable for naval service. The large storehouse on the north side of the square was built in 1513. It can be said that this was the start of work on Deptford, which gradually grew and expanded under successive sovereigns.

The old square-plan warehouse appears to have originally consisted of just a strip on the north side, where on the old facade of the building the date 1513 stands in code together with the initials H R and the letters A X stand for Anno Christi. The buildings on the east, west, and south sides of the quadrangle were constructed at different times; and in 1721 a double front to the north was added. Another warehouse, parallel to the previous one and of the same length, with sails and rigging, was completed at the end of the last century; and a long line of smaller warehouses were built under the direction of Sir Charles Middleton, later Lord Barham, about 1780.

In Charnock's History of Marine Architecture, “A note is given as to how many ships the King's Majesty (Henry VIII) had in port on September 18th, in the thirteenth year of his reign (1521); are; what condition they are in on the same day; also where they ride and are granted.' From this we can see the use then made of Deptford as a naval station: 'TheMary Rose, 600 tons, lying in the pond at Deptford by the warehouse there, etc. HeJohn the Baptist, miBarbar, each of 400 tons, driving together in a Deptford Parish Stream, etc. HeBig Nicholas, at 400 tons, is at the east end of Deptford Trond, &c. ... The Great barge, bearing 250 tons, stands on the lake at Deptford, etc. The Less barge, weighing 180 tons, is found in the same lake, etc. The barges of Twayne Row, each weighing 60 tons, rest said lake, etc. The Grande Galé weighing 800 tons is in the above lake, etc.”

Deptford Dockyard received many royal and distinguished visitors in its day; The elder of whom we have evidence was Edward VI, who tells us the following about the arrangements made for his reception: '19. June 1549. I went to Deptford and Lord Clinton invited me to supper, where I certainly saw before soup [men] stood in a boat with nothing and ran towards each other until one was thrown into the water. Soldiers in yellow and black. The fortress also included a gallery in yellow with men and ammunition to defend the castle, where 4 pinnacees came with other smartly dressed men intending to attack the castle, first driving out the yellow pines and then with floes, scuibs, fire sticks, at the moment manufactured arrows and bombs to raid the castle and win them from the castelin to the second pavilion which they then split and echoed between the pines and sank one of them from which all the men over twenty jumped and swam in the temps. Then the admiral de la Nauy came with three other s pines and was about to attack the castle, immediately blasting the top of it and taking the captain and sub-captain. Then the admiral went out to look for the yellow ship and finally he grabbed it, grabbed it and also stormed its roof and threw it down by force and thus returned home. .in the British Museum and is quoted by Cruden in his "History of Gravesend".

Not surprisingly, Deptford Dockyard is mentioned frequently in Evelyn and Pepys' journals; partly because of its proximity to Saye's Court and partly because of its official connection to the Navy.

Evelyn first settled at Deptford in 1651, as we find in the following entry in her 'Diary': 'I went to Deptford, where I made preparations for my settlement, many small in this or that place as there is to-day Appearance of a change for the better, everything is entirely in the hands of the rebels, and this particular apartment and adjoining property (owned by my father-in-law) suffer greatly for lack of a friend to save it from the rebel power of the usurpers; In order to safeguard our interests, I was advised to live there and work with the soldiers. I also had addresses and numbers to correspond with His Majesty and the Foreign Ministers: this is how I was persuaded to settle in England, having traveled the world for less than ten years I also considered evicting my wife from Paris send. A few days later, Evelyn writes: "I saw thatDiamondmiRubinlaunched at Deptford Docks, with forty-eight bronze guns each. Cromwell present.

It seems that experiments were conducted from time to time; In any case, here is the recording of one that Evelyn was an eyewitness to. On July 19, 1661, he writes: "We tried our diving-bell or motor on the jetty at Deptford, on which our curator remained under water for half an hour; it was of molten lead, let down by a strong cable."

A frequent visitor around this time was Samuel Pepys, in his official capacity as "one of the most important officers in the Navy" (Clerk of the Acts). On the dates of January 11-12, 1660, January 1, he notes in his "Diary" the report of a visit on the occasion of a denounced "rebellion of fanatics": - "This morning we received orders to post guards all patios of the king: and so Sir William Batten goes to Chatham, Colonel Slingsby, and I to Deptford and Woolwich... We decided to choose four captains to command the guards, and to choose where they should remain and other things that I saw the great authority of my place, all the captains of the fleet, coming cap in hand." The next day, the 13th, he writes: "After the sermon at Deptford again, but as soon as we went to bed we had one alarm clock, and then we got up and the controller goes down to the wharf and the seamen of all the ships present spoke to us and there we armed each with a hand spear with which they were as violent as they could be we that five or se ch men rode for the watch in the town, and did not stop before the watch that was there. : and according to some, they were shot. But since everything was quiet there, we let the sailors come back on board.

On January 15, 1660-1 he makes this entry: 'The King [Charles II] was at Deptford this afternoon to see the yacht which Commissioner Pett is building, which will be very fine; as do his brother's at Woolwich."

Pepys, in his 'Journal' of January 1662, mentions a certain design by Sir Nicholas Crisp to build a great 'Sasse' or sluice on 'the King's lands above Deptford, to be a wet dyke to receive 200 ships can sail." This design is also mentioned by Evelynand von Lysons.

Pepys writes on April 28, 1667: “To Deptford, and there I went through the shipyard, ... and heard of the cleaning of the wet dock, and heard (which I had before) how the dock became a ship when he did so of nearly 500 tons, a ship, said to be of Queen Elizabeth's time, and well carved, with a large number of stones in it, eighteen inches in diameter, which was shot at the time it was, and then I met Captain Perryman and Mr. Castle in Half-On the Treeway, they told me of stone projectiles thirty-six inches in diameter, which they fired with pieces of mortar.

Again the following May: “By the waterway to Deptford, it is Monday in Trinidad when the champion is elected. And so I went down with them; Mr. Evelyn, with whom I went after supper and discussed the state of our affairs". When, in June 1667, the alarm was given that the Dutch fleet was already off the Nore and in the Medway, Samuel Pepys reports another official visit : "So we all went to Deptford, boarded ships, and sent men to work; but, sir, let's see how things go backwards in this haste."

In the same year, as John Evelyn tells us, a great fire that broke out at Deptford Dockyard "started such a blaze and caused such an uproar in London that all believed the Dutch fleet had sailed up the river and burned the ship." Tower."

Many of the 'Wooden Walls of Old England' were built here, particularly during the reigns of the later Stuarts. For example, Evelyn tells us that she was close to the king here in March 1668 when this "fine ship was launched,CarlosPepys was also here on this occasion, dated March 3, 1668, he writes:- "By the waterway to Deptford; where the King, Queen and Courtare see the new ship being built by Mr. Shish, was startedCarlos. God grant you better luck than the first!"

Evelyn tells us that many of the yardsemployeeHe rose to independence and even wealth. Among other things he mentions here the funeral of the above-mentioned old Mr. Shish, master shipbuilder, whose death he regards as a public loss for his outstanding achievements in shipbuilding, although he is completely uneducated. "I had the cloak," he writes, "with three gentlemen who did him that honor, and it was worthy of them... It was the habit of this good man to rise at night and pray before his own coffin, which he had with him for many years".

At the end of the 17th century Peter the Great visited the shipyard to study naval architecture and during his stay stayed at Evelyn's house, Saye's Court, where we shall see him again shortly. It is recorded in the shipyard that he did the work of an ordinary shipbuilder and also paid close attention to the principles of ship design. He spent most of his nights in a tavern, smoking and drinking with his servants and one or two chosen companions.

It should be noted that in the "Life of Captain Cook" we are told that the two ships thatresolutionIt is indiscovery, in which she made her final voyage across the Pacific, stayed here while the shipowners outfitted her for her distant voyage. HeQueen Charlotte(120 guns) was launched from this shipyard in July 1810.

Samuel Pepys, the author of the "Journal," from which we have extracted so much interesting information in the course of this work, and whose portrait we present to our readers on page 145, was of a family originally resident at Diss, in Norfolk, and who settled in Cottingham, Cambridgeshire in the early 16th century. His father, John Pepys, was once a tailor; he had a large family. Samuel Pepys was born in 1632 and educated at St. Paul's School,(usa 1)London and then at Cambridge University. At about the age of twenty-three he took a wife in the person of Elizabeth St. Michael, then a beautiful girl of fifteen. At this time Pepys' relative, Sir Edward Montagu, later 1st Earl of Sandwich, proved to be his friend and avoided the dire consequences which such early marriage might have entailed for him. Sir Edward took young Pepys with him on his expedition to the Sound in 1658 and gave him a post in the treasury on his return. Through Lord Sandwich's interest, Pepys was appointed Recording Secretary, and this was the beginning of his association with a great national establishment, which subsequently benefited greatly from his industry and insight. 'From his extant documents', writes Lord Braybrooke, 'we conclude that he never lost sight of the common good; that he spared no effort to control the greed of the contractors who then supplied the naval supplies; who studied order and economics. in the shipyards he campaigned for the promotion of old naval officers and resisted to the utmost against the disreputable system of selling jobs, which was being practiced with the greatest shamelessness at the time. In the Dutch War, the supply of the navy fell largely on Pepys alone. He later became Secretary of the Admiralty, a position he held until the Revolution. With the promotion of Guilherme and Maria, he retired into private life. He sat in Parliament for Castle Rising and thereafter represented the Borough of Harwich, eventually acquiring wealth and standing as Secretary to the Treasurer of Commissioners for Affairs of Tangier and Inspector-General of the Ministry of Food, and, he himself affirms, 'proved himself very useful and energetic Official". For complicity in the papal conspiracy, he suffered a brief imprisonment in the Tower 1679-1680. In 1684 he was elected President of the Royal Society, and held that honorable position for two consecutive years. Pepys had an extensive knowledge of naval affairs; and in 1690 he published " Memoirs relative to the state of the Royal Navy in England for ten years, laid down December 1688". He died in London in 1703.

At the beginning of the current century, the shipyard was closed for a few years. However, it was reopened with renewed vigor in 1844, a period during which several first class ships were built and launched until its final closure in 1869, including theCannibals, aEsmeralda, amusaraña, aTerrible, aVulkan,aLeopard, aherrisch, and many others. But when iron began to replace wood and a heavier class of ships were needed for war purposes, the shallowness of the river against landslides and other inconveniences of the place forced the shipyard to confine itself entirely to building gunboats and eventually decided to leave the shipyard and the transfer of employees to other companies. The last ship launched here was the screw corvetteDruid, which took place on March 13, 1869 in the presence of Princess Luisa and Prince Arthur. At the end of the same month, the patio was permanently closed.

Soon afterwards it became necessary under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 1869 to provide a place for the sale and slaughter of foreign animals brought into the port of London and the City of London Corporation, which undertook the duty, bought most of the old yard for around £95,000 for the new market site. The work required to convert the site into a cattle market came to about £140,000; and in December 1871 it was inaugurated with the title Mercado Estrangeiro de Gado. This market covers an area of ​​about twenty-three hectares and is equipped with covered pens, each pens having their watering trough and feeder sufficient to accommodate 4,000 cattle and 12,000 sheep; In addition, there is enough free space to offer several thousand more spaces. The shipbuilding ramps of the former shipyard, with their massive roofs, were adapted as halls and connected by chains of solid, well-ventilated buildings. The old workshops were converted into ox slaughterhouses and sheepfolds and equipped with mobile pulleys, cranes and various mechanical devices to save labor and facilitate animal slaughter. The market has about 360 meters of riverfront; and three jetties with an attached low tide platform provide ample opportunities to land animals in all tide conditions.

In 1872, by order of city officials, a plaque with the following inscription was placed on the foreign cattle market: - "Peter, Tsar of All Russia, then Peter the Great, worked here as a carpenter in 1698." The Tsar's sojourn here is also commemorated by giving his name to a street in Deptford, a very miserable and unfortunate street indeed, utterly unworthy of so famous a name.

The shipyard, though so important, was small in comparison with the others, as we know from the following statement, which appeared in a Kentish newspaper in 1839: 'The English shipyards cover nearly 500 acres. Deptford covers 30 acres; Woolwich, 36; Chatham, 90; sheerness, 50; Portsmouth, 100; Plymouth, 96; and Pembroke, 60".

Near the docks was the seat of John Evelyn, called Say's or Saye's Court, where, as already mentioned, Peter the Great, Tsar of Moscow, resided for some time while he perfected his knowledge and skills in the practical part of ship architecture shipyard . The manor was originally the manor of West Greenwich, given by the conqueror to Gilbert de Magnimot, who made it the head of his barony and is said to have built a castle on the site, of which they have long since swept all traces. . After passing through the hands of numerous owners, the mansion was recaptured by the Crown during the restoration. The manor house and surrounding grounds, called Saye's Court because it had long been in the hands of the de Says or Sayes family, came into the possession of John Evelyn, the famous author of Sylva, in 1651. It seems that Evelyn's action before the court of Saye was not based on a very secure basis, for she tells us that in 1660-1661 she received repeated visits from His Majesty's Surveyor "to consider the reasons I had brought before the court of Saye have contested ." ". ". In 1663 Charles II granted a new lease with a reserved annual rent of 22s.

The estate appears to have been leased from the Crown to the Browne family, one of whom, Sir Richard Browne, bought most of the manor house in 1613. "A 'representative of this old house,'" writes Mr James Thorne in his Environs of London, "Sir Richard Browne, a supporter of the Earl of Leicester, was Privy Councilor and Clerk of Pano Verde under Elizabeth and James I, and died 1604 at Saye's Court. It must have been he, and not Evelyn, as Sir Walter Scott wrote, by a natural slip of the pen, who "delightedly took an interest in the Earl of Sussex". welcomed him and his numerous retinue to their hospitable mansion, the 'old house called Saye's Court, near Deptford;' and its hospital service to those mentioned in chapters xiii.-xv. of 'Kenilworth', among other things, the unfortunate visit which Queen Elizabeth paid to her sick maid at Saye's court, 'has caused confusion in her, and left doubt and apprehension far behind.'” Here, as we have said, “Master Tresillian " visited the Earl of Sussex. The last Sir Richard Browne, who died in 1683, was Secretary to the Council of Charles I from 1641 and his ambassador to the French court. Evelyn therefore records his death in her "Diary", previously dated February 1683 :-

"This morning I received news of the death of my father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne, Knt. and Bart., who died at 10am today at my home in Saye's Court, having worked under Gowt and Dropsie for almost six months., in his 78th year of age.His grandfather, Sir Richard Browne, was a great instrument under the great Earl of Leicester (a favorite of Queen Elis.) in his reign of Holland.He was Master of the House to King James and Cofferer;i believe he was the first to regulate compositions throughout England for the king's domestic provisions, advances, etc. .

John Evelyn, whom Southey calls "the perfect model of an English gentleman" and "whose 'Sylva'", as Scott writes, "is still the British planters' handbook", married in 1647 the only daughter and heiress of the aforementioned Sir Richard. Brown. ; and Sir Richard, who resided in Paris, ceded the court of Saye to his son-in-law. It seems fairly certain that Evelyn was stationed here soon after her marriage, for in 1648 we find an entry in her "diary" stating that she "took a course in chemistry at the court of Saye".

Property had been confiscated by parliamentary commissioners; but by the end of 1652 Evelyn was able to buy those she had bought from the trustees of the confiscated estates. . Of January 17, 1653 he writes: 'I began to build the oval garden at Saye's Court, which overlooked a rough orchard, and the rest of a whole field of 100 acres, without any hedge save the sacred hedge which edged connected the mountain path. This was the beginning of all the gardens, paths, woods, hedges and plantings that followed there.

The old babbler tells us all the secrets of his family life: how he put himself and all his family aside at Saye's court "in preparation for the B. Sacramento which Mr. Owen administered"; how he entertained kings and some of the highest nobles; how he planted the garden "which is the new moon and the west winds"; and how he kept bees in his garden in a "transparent apiary," etc. &c.

Evelyn lived mainly at Saye's Court for the next forty years of her life and carried out there, as far as place permitted, the garden ideas presented in her "Sylva", to the "great admiration" of her contemporaries. Occasionally kings "dropped by" to pay him a visit or to see how his work was going, events which we find duly recorded in his "Journal". For example, Henrietta Maria, widow of Charles I - the 'Queen Mother' as she was known - disembarked at Deptford on her return to England on 28 July 1662 and was accompanied by John Evelyn, who received the Earl of St .Alban and the rest of his entourage at Saye's court.

On April 30 of the following year, "His Majesty came to honor my poor people with his presence, inspected the gardens and even all the rooms of the house, and had the pleasure of taking a little refreshment."

He had many other visitors, of course, including Lord Clarendon and the Duke of York. he came before him to visit me. They were all our old acquaintances in exile and actually this great person was always my friend. His son, Lord Cornbury, was also here.

But it wasn't just royal and political celebrities who visited Evelyn here; there was also a reception for writers and scientists. His "diary" from 1673 bears witness to this. June. Mr. Dryden, the famous poet and now laureate, came to see me. It was my wedding anniversary," he adds, "and on the first day I entered my new little cell and cabinet that I had built downstairs, to the south courtyard, at the east end of the room".

During all this time, we can be sure, his garden has not been neglected. "I have," he writes in his "Diary," "planted all the garden edges and long walks with holly." In 1663, on March 4th, this entry appears: "This spring I planted elms in the home and west fields of Saye's Court, the same year they were planted in Greenwich Park."

Two years later, our genius friend Pepys is strolling through the grounds of Saye's Court, he tells usare'Diary', dated May 5th, 1665: 'After supper at Mr. Evelyn's; while he was gone we walked through his garden, and it has a fine and noble soil. And among other rarities a beehive, z Beehive in jar , it's really nice to watch the bees making their honey and their combs". This was the transparent apiary mentioned above. Not only was Evelyn so adept at gardening, she seems to have been a poet and developed a taste for the fine arts, if we can draw any conclusion from the following entry in Pepys' "Journal":- "5. 1665 .I traveled to Deptford, and there visited Mr. Evelyn, who, among other things, showed me the most excellent paintings in small water-colours, engravings, etchings, and, above all, the whole painting The secret of the mezzo-red, and the way it is very beautiful , and the good things that are being done to her.She has also read me much of her speech, she is many years old, and now she is there, in the garden-house.that will be a nobler and more pleasant piece." He read to me part of one or two of his own pieces, very good, but not as he imagines, I think plants stay dry but keep their color and look very good, better than a bunch of herbs In short, he is a excellent worthy man, one to admit I know a little for a little pretentiousness; but it can be good to be a man far above others. He read me, though with great pleasure, some little poems of his, not transcendent, but a very pretty epigram or two; among other things of a lady looking into a trellis and being pecked by an eagle that was there.” It is amusing to see one of the two rival chroniclers of the reign of Charles II portrayed by the other, and that must be our excuse, to quote the sketch above.

Evelyn was also apparently an "autograph" collector, or at least appears to have owned some treasures as such; for a few days later we find Pepys again visiting him, in whose entry it is stated that “he showed me, among other things, a scarcely centenary liege [subject] of the Treasurer of the Navy, his great-grandfather, which I was very pleased to find; and he gave it to me, which I think is a great rarity, expecting to find me older than that. He also showed me several letters from the former Lord of Leicester from the time of Queen Elizabeth, in the handwriting of Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Mary, Queen of Scots, and other very venerable names.

Evelyn stayed at Saye's Court during the plague, writing in 1665: 'They died of the plague in our parish this year 406', and later he tells us that his wife and family lived with him from Wotton, the old seat family in the near Dorking, in Surrey as it drew to a close. In the MSS, preserved at Wotton and quoted in the appendix to her 'Memoirs', Evelyn left a fairly full account of what she did at Saye's Court: 'The next grove I planted was about 1656; the other beyond about 1660, the lowest grove, 1662, the holly hedge, even with the hill hedge below, 1670. I have planted every hedge and tree not only in the garden, forest, etc., but in every field and house since 1653, except for the large, old, and hollow elms in the stable yard, and then the sewers, for it was first a grazing area to the house's own garden, which was small, from which I also repaired the derelict house and all the kitchen, chapel, buttry, my built studio (upstairs and downstairs), basement and all outbuildings and walls, nor, orangery, and I did the gardens etc.

It was near Saye's Court in 1671 that Evelyn met the famous sculptor Grinling Gibbons, with whom she later befriended. On January 18 of this year he writes: "On that day I met His Majesty for the first time with that matchless young man Gibbons, whom I recently met in an obscure place by sheer chance, while walking near a poor lonely thatched house went for a walk." Straw in a field, in our parish, near Saye's farm. I found it closed, but looking out the window I saw him carving this large Tintoret caricature or crucifix, of which I brought a copy from Venice. I asked him if I could come in, he politely opened the door for me and I saw him at work which, out of curiosity for handling, design and keen accuracy, I had never seen in all my travels, and I asked him why he was working in this way. A dark place told me that he could devote this to his profession without interruption. I asked him if he wasn't ready to be known by an important man, as he believed that this could become his advantage, he replied that he was still a beginner, but he has no regrets It was a lie, to have sold this piece; the price said £100. The frame itself was worth it, there was nothing in nature so delicate and delicate as the flowers and garlands that surrounded it, and yet the work was very strong; In the work there were more than 100 male figures. I found him just as musical and very polite, sober and discreet in his speech."

The lease of the pasture adjoining Saye's farm was, Evelyn tells us, extended by the king in January 1672, although 'it should have passed to us by his solemn promise of a paid farm'. The king's promise to that effect, made from his own hand, is among Evelyn's treasures, still kept at Wotton.

In the summer of 1693, after so many years, Evelyn moved to Wotton from her old home at Saye's Court. On May 4 of this year he writes: “That day I went to Saye's farm with my wife and four servants and took out a lot of furniture of all kinds, books, pictures, tapestries, bedding, etc., to furnish the apartment. which my brother assigned to me, and now, after more than forty years, I shall spend the remainder of my days with him at Wotton, where I was born, and leave my house at Deptford fully furnished, and three servants in charge of me are .genderDraper, for the summer and the time you see fit to take advantage of it.

Two or three years later, having succeeded Wotton on his brother's death, he left Saye's Court for some years to the brave Admiral Benbow, "on condition that he should have the garden"; Journal, "April 1698", The Tsar of Moscow came to England intending to build ships, rented my house at Saye's Court and made it his court and palace, newly furnished for him by the King. "

John Evelyn was one of the finest people in public and private life. His career was one of utility and benevolence. Horace Walpole gives great proof of his personal worth when, after having made some illustrations with his own hands during his trip to Italy, he counts him among the English artists whose lives provide material for his "Anecdotes of Painting".

The following account of the life of Peter the Great(use 2)at Saye's court, we gather from a memoir in the 'Family Library': 'The residence of the month convinced Peter of what was to be seen in London, and the monarch expressed a strong desire to be near some it was agreed by the King's shipyards that a suitable residence should be found near one of the riverside facilities; and the house of the illustrious lord was immediately taken over as the residence of the tsar and his entourage; and a gate was broken through the wall perimeter of the yard to enable direct communication between it and the residence, this place was then called Saye's Court, it was the delight of Evelyn, and the admiration and admiration of all men of good taste of the time described , in the 'Life of Lord Warden Guildford', so 'much wooded', as it were a copy of his (Evelyn) 'Book of the Forest Tree' Admiral Benbow had caused great displeasure to the landlord as tenant, but the latter made notes in his 'Diari oder ': 'I have the humiliation of seeing every day how much of my work and expenses are hampered for lack of a better educated tenant.' It seems, however, that the princely occupant was no 'more polite tenant' than the rough sailor, for Mr Evelyn's servant writes to him thus: 'There is a house full of people, and very disagreeable. Tsar beside his He dines at ten and six o'clock at night, very rarely at home all day, often in the king's court or on the water, dressed in different clothes, the king is expected here today"; the best hall is clean enough for him to enjoy himself.The king pays all he has.But that was not all: Mr. Evelyn had a favorite holly hedge, which, it is said, the Tsar used to practice through, every morning with his pushing a wheelbarrow in his own royal hands. Mr. Evelyn probably alludes to this in the following passage from his 'Sylva,' where he asks, 'Is there a more glorious and refreshing object of this kind under heaven?, than an impregnable hedge, say four hundred feet long, nine feet high, and five feet in diameter, which I can still display at any time of the year in my crumbling garden at Saye's Court (thanks to the Tsar of Moscow), resplendent with its bushy, variegated leaves; the supreme en standards, at regular intervals, blushing with your natural coral? Weather,won, Öhedge breaker and chased him with impunity!'"

"While he was at Saye's court," writes Dr. Mackay in his 'Thames and its Tributaries', 'The Tsar received a visit from the great William Penn, who came to see him from Stoke Pogis, accompanied by several other members of the Quaker body. He and Penn conversed in Dutch, and the Zar kept his manners and conversation so favorable to this peaceful sect that during his stay in Deptford he frequently attended Quaker meetings and, if we may trust his biographers, 'acted with great decency and condescension, changing places, sitting down and rising as well as he could it was possible to accommodate the others, even though he didn't understand a word they said.

Tradition aside, we have little evidence that the Tsar actually worked with his hands as a shipbuilder during his stay here; he appears to have concentrated on obtaining information on matters relating to naval architecture from the Commissioner and Surveyor of the Navy, Sir Anthony Deane, who, along with the Marquess of Carmarthen, was his closest English acquaintance. Here, however, his taste for sailing and boating was as intense as in Holland, where he had studied for some time before coming to England; and these gentlemen were with him on the Thames almost daily, sometimes in a sailing yacht and sometimes in rowboats, an exercise in which both the Tsar and the Marquess would have excelled. The Board of Marine Infantry received instructions from the Admiralty to charter two ships to be under the Tsar's command whenever he saw fit to navigate the Thames to improve navigation. In addition to these, the king gave him a gift from theroyal transport, with orders to make whatever arrangements Her Majesty wanted, and also to alter her masts, rigging, sails, etc., in any way she sees fit to improve her seaworthiness. a small deck boat owned by the shipyard, which takes only Menzikoff and three or four others of his entourage to work with them on the ship, as he is the helmsman; Through this practice, he said he could teach them how to command ships when they got home. After completing the day's work (as said above(use 3)), used to go to an inn on Great Tower Street, near Tower Hill, to smoke their pipe and drink their ale and brandy. 1808 when a person named Waxel liked the old sign and offered to paint a new one for the then occupant of the house. A copy of the original was thus made, which remained until the house was rebuilt, when the panel was not replaced, only the name remained; it is now called "Tsar's Head".

The Czar, pacing up and down the river, was greatly impressed by the magnificent building of the Greenwich Hospital, which, until he visited and saw the old pensioners, he took for a royal palace; but one day, when King William asked him if he liked his hospital for rotting seafarers, the Tsar replied: "If I were Her Majesty's adviser, I would advise you to move your court to Greenwich and St. James's to a hospital close." . . Little did he know that St. James's was also a hospital.(USA 4)in its origin.

During his stay at Deptford, the Tsar frequently invited Flamsteed of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, to dine with him for his opinion and advice, particularly on his plan to build a fleet. Chambers' "Book of Days" states that the king promised Peter that there would be no obstacle to getting involved and bringing several English artisans and scientists with him to Russia. When he returned to Holland, therefore, with him were captains, pilots, surgeons, artillerymen, mastmen, shipwrights, sailboats, compasses, carvers, anchors, and boilermakers; with almost 500 people. On leaving, he presented the king with a ruby ​​worth £10,000, which he took into his waistcoat pocket and placed in William's hand, wrapped in a piece of brown paper.

Evelyn appears to have suffered a significant loss from Peter's lease; for he writes in his 'Journal' of June 5, 1698: 'I went to Deptford to see how the Tsar had left my house miserably, after having made it his court for three months. I got Sir Christopher Wren, the king's surveyor, and Loudon, her gardener, to appraise the repairs, for which they awarded £150 in their report to the Lords of the Treasury. It seems, however, that although Evelyn had such poor tenants at Admirals and Royalty, she sublet her house at Deptford to Lord Carmarthen, Peter's companion.

Regrettably! To the glory of the luminous holly, the clipped hedges and the long avenues of Saye's Court.

After Evelyn's death, Saye's Court fell into neglect, and at the end of the last century Lysons writes: "There is not the slightest trace now of Sayes Court House or Gardens; part of the garden walls, with only a few brick pillars, [it] remains. The house was built in 1728 or demolished in 1729, and the workhouse erected in its place." trimmed hedges, which dear old Evelyn was so fond of. Rows of modest houses were built in other places; that still remains The private entrance by which Peter the Great came at Saye's Court Dockyard, was in the nearby wall but is now bricked up.

Mr. Sergeant Burke visited Deptford while preparing his Celebrated Naval and Military Trials for the press. "But," he writes, "if you now look at Saye's farm! It gradually sank, getting worse, it was once a workhouse, and even for that it became too dilapidated and cramped, now it is attached to the wharf, as a sort of police station and place to bribe men The great hall, used for the latter purpose was undoubtedly the scene of many happy evenings spent by the admiral and his successor, the tsar. What remains of Evelyn's garden is now a wasteland of weeds and grass surrounded by a filthy wall, enclosing some of the dirtiest apartment buildings imaginable. The number of cottages we passed since the abode of old greatness bore the name of Czar Street, a last lasting reminder of the imperial stay. The famous tsar was such a great man that I could not set foot anywhere. r without leaving a trace. A memorial to him is not necessary; but it would have been nice to have found at Deptford a memorial carved in bronze or stone to our brave Benbow. In the end, however, it doesn't matter as long as the British public, always in search of greatness in the British Navy, does not let their personal bravery, achievements and glory be forgotten.

The institution mentioned still exists, although it has not been used as such for a long time. It is a large two-story brick house of oblong shape with a tiled roof. The rooms are not very frequented, about a dozen in number; Some of them are ten meters long, and those on the ground floor are paved with bricks. Nothing in the building indicates that it was ever inhabited by wealthy people; but notwithstanding this fact there is a general and fondly cherished impression in and around Deptford that it is Saye's Court and the identical house in which the Czar lived. Mr. Thorne, in his Environs of London, considers that the house "appears more like an adaptation of part of the old house than a building of 1729". It may have been one of the offices or outbuildings of the original mansion.

In 1869, at the closing of the shipyard, Mr.W. J. Evelyn of Wotton, the current representative of the family of the author of 'Sylva' and owner of a considerable part of the parish of Deptford, decided to buy back from the Government as much as possible of the Saye's Court site in order to restore it to its original condition condition and to open it up to the residents as a place of relaxation. The conversion is now (1877) almost complete. It is about fourteen acres of open country; but four of them remain associated with the above-mentioned old house, which served as the residence of one of the hacienda workers. Therefore, the public garden and playground are about ten hectares. It was carefully laid out on a lawn surrounded by flowers and shrubs, partly wooded, and criss-crossed by wide, flat sidewalks. All the shrubs, flowers and trees, as well as the grass forming the lawn and surrounding the pavements, are said to have been brought from Wotton. In the center of the field is a covered stage for a band; and on one corner a large building has been erected that will serve as a museum and library. Too bad that the name of the author of "Sylva" is not identified with this playground, which could have been called Evelyn Park.

We are told that formerly the king's house was supplied with grain and cattle from various counties; and oxen were sent to London, pastures in various suburbs were allotted for their maintenance. These included estates near Tottenham Court and others in Deptford which were under the administration of the Lord Steward and the Green Cloth Council. A certain Sir Richard Browne was in charge of those at Deptford; and this fact may account for the already mentioned entry in Evelyn's "Journal" where she records the visit of the comptroller of that committee "to survey the grounds at Saye's Court for which he intended, and to make his report".

Northwest of Deptford was the 'Red House', 'so called because it is a collection of red brick warehouses and warehouses'. This place was burned down in July 1639 and then filled with hemp, flax, pitch, tar and other goods. Formerly known as "Casa Vermelha", the supply station that stood on the site of the aforementioned warehouses is now a huge pile, built at different times, made up of many rows of buildings suitable for the various facilities necessary. in the important supply of the army. The venue's full official title is now 'Royal Victoria Victualling Yard'. The old "Red House" which was rebuilt was included in the 1726 allotment of Saye's Court to Sir John Evelyn, later described as 870 feet long, 35 feet wide and containing 100 storerooms. in the present court it was bought from time to time by the Evelyn family, the last addition being in 1869 when part of the gardens formerly belonging to the old Saye's Court were bought by Mr WJ Evelyn. The premises were temporarily leased by the East India Company; But when they were bought back by the Crown from the Evelyns, a new supply house was built on the site in 1745 to replace the old supply office on Tower Hill. In 1749, this new building, containing a large number of shops and stores, also burned down accidentally. However, it was later rebuilt and today includes a large complex of warehouses, workshops and sheds with a quay on the river and all the necessary machinery and equipment to load and unload boats and carry out the necessary work in the shipyard. This location is the depot from which the other two supply yards, Devonport and Gosport, are supplied and is considerably the largest of the three. From there the Navy is supplied with provisions, clothing, bedding, medicines and medical comforts, etc. Historically, and until recently, cattle were sacrificed here; but that was abandoned. However, in the right season, large quantities of beef and pork are received, salted and packed in barrels; Meats cooked and canned in the Hogarth preservation system; wheat grist; made biscuits; and the casks in which they are all kept are made in a great steam cooperage. The permanently stocked stock of medicines is sufficient for 5,000 men for six months; but the demand is so great and regular that supplies come and go almost daily. The shipyard's general management reports to a resident shopkeeper and a total of around 500 people work at the facility.

On the west side of the Royal Victualling Yardis is a freight yard for the Brighton and South-CoastRailway. It stands on the site of the former Dudman's Dock and includes a dock and quay for unloading goods from ships sailing up the Thames, as well as extensive chain stores etc. It is connected to the aforementioned railway by a branch line from NewCross running along the Deptford Lower Road runs.

"Beside its wharf and supply yard," writes Dr. Mackay in his "Thames and its Tributaries", "Deptford is known for two hospitals owned by the Trinity House Corporation or London Pilots. A great procession comes (1840) from London to these hospitals every year on Trinity Monday, accompanied by music and banners, and greeted with cannon fire. Of course, Trinity Monday was a 'red card day' in Deptford until the Trinity House Corporation ceased visiting, which was in 1852 when the Duke of Wellington died of many years in office. of the master. We have in a previous volume(use 5)Knowledge of the foundation of the aforementioned corporation and the obligations associated with the company; We may note here, however, that Lambarde, in his Perambulations of Kent (1570), writes of Deptford - or, as he writes, Depeforde: "This town, which was a boundary between Kent and Surrey, was worthless Until then guessed King Henry VIII (for the better preservation of the royal fleet) to build a warehouse and create there some officers whom he called "Maister and Wardeins of the Holy Trinity for the building, maintenance and conduct of the Royal Navy". This shows that Henry VIII founded Trinity House at the same time he founded the Admiralty and the Office of the Navy. Charles Knight, however, says in his "London" that "Some expressions in the earliest extant statutes of corporation, and the general analogy of the history of English corporations, lead us to believe that Henry merely gave a new statute and relied on it in fulfilment important duties to a long-established guild or the incorporation of seafarers, with far more confidence being given to the wealthier masters of merchant service than now. They were at sea what their feudal chiefs were on land—laborers and promotion to the rank of master of their trade, as were the guilds of scholars and mechanics , boiled permanently all along the Trinitatis coast of England, from a little north of Yarmouth in the east to the borders of Es in the west Elizabeth, ever ready to avail herself of the free service of her citizens, entrusted to this society the responsibility of the English shipping stamps . When the lighthouses were introduced, the judges declared that they were understood under the terms of Elizabeth's charter, although the right to hire private lighthouses was reserved for the Crown. When the Navigation Acts were introduced by Cromwell and reinstated by the government at the Restoration, Trinity House presented itself as a ready-to-use mechanism for enforcing regulations regarding the number of foreigners admitted as seafarers on board a British ship . James II when he ascended. on the throne, aware of the use to be made of Trinity House, he gave it a new charter and constitution, which it still retains, and made his invaluable Pepys first lord of the rebuilt corporation.

The founding of the Trinity House Corporation here is evidence that Deptford was once a meeting place for shipping and a resort for seafarers. The old Deptford Hall, in which meetings of this society were formerly held, was demolished early in the present century, and the building on Tower Hill which we have already mentioned in the above volume erected was erected. Evelyn writes in her "Diary" of 1662: "I dined with the Trinity Company at their house after that company had settled at Deptford." Evelyn's wife, as noted in her "Journal," gave Trinity House Corporation the site for her college or nursing home.

Although Trinity House Corporation ceased holding its meetings after the construction of its new hall, until recently its association with Deptford was marked by its two hospitals for decomposing seafarers and pilots and their widows. In the Ambulator (1774) we read thus: 'There are two hospitals in this town, one of which was incorporated by King Henry VIII in the form of a seafarers' school, and is commonly called 'Trinity House' .' ".of Deptford-Trond". This contains twenty-one houses and is located near the church. The other, called Trinity Hospital, has thirty-eight houses facing the street. This is a very pretty building and has large, well tended gardens. The latter is the finer structure of the two, but the other takes precedence on account of its age, and as the Trinity brethren maintain their body in this house they are bound to attend certain Opportunities to meet for business. or ship captains or their widows, men are entitled to twenty and women to sixteen shillings a month.

Both buildings have been "decommissioned" in recent years with regard to their use as nursing homes. One of them, a triangular block of about twenty houses on the lawn behind the Church of San Nicolás, a short distance east of the Mercado Estrangeiro de Gado, is currently rented on a weekly basis; The other, known as "Trinity House, Deptford", was a large and notable square pile of red brick overlooking Church Street and overlooking St Paul's churchyard. Paul's Church. It was rebuilt in 1664–5 and demolished except for the hall in early 1877 to make way for a new street and a row of private houses on Church Street. In the great hall at the back of the building, which remains standing, the Master and the Elder Brothers of Trinity House met up to the above time on Trinity Monday and, having done their formal business, walked about in pomp... to the parish church. de San Nicolás, where a special service and sermon took place. At the end of the ceremony in Deptford, the company returned to London on its state barges, the ships and Thames quays were merrily draped with pennants in honor of the occasion, and the day's events concluded with a grand banquet at Trinity House. Both the meeting and banquet will now be held at the new Trinity House on Tower Hill, with the sermon being delivered at Pepys' favorite St. Louis church. Olave, Hart Street, near Custom House and Corn Exchange.

The town of Deptford contains, as mentioned above, two parish churches dedicated respectively to St Nicholas and St Paul, as well as churches from four newly formed precincts and various chapels of all denominations. The old church of St. Nicholas, patron saint of seafarers, stands on the site of a much older building and, with the exception of the tower, dates from the late 17th century. John Evelyn reports in his 1699 Journal of the building of a "fairly new church" here. The old church was apparently demolished in 1697 as it was unsuitable for the needs of the growing population. Whatever beauty the new church may have possessed in Evelyn's eyes, it does not appear to have been very solidly built, having undergone a "complete restoration" before twenty years had elapsed. The body of the church is a simple red brick building consisting of a nave, side aisles and chancel. At the western end is a tower of stone and flint, somewhat patched; Dating from the Perpendicular period or early 15th century, this tower is the only relic of the old church. The interior contains a number of memorials to some former Deptford dignitaries, including one to Captain Edward Fenton, who accompanied Sir Martin Frobisher on his second and third voyages and himself led an expedition to discover a Northwest Passage. ; another by Captain George Shelvocke, who was drafted into sea service under Admiral Benbow, and who “made a voyage round the globe of the world in the years of our Lord 1719, '20, '21 and '22, which he made wonderfully and to the great loss of the Spaniards completed, although he had the misfortune of being shipwrecked on Juan Fernández Island off the coast of the Kingdom of Chile". He died in 1742. Another memorial commemorates the death in 1652 of Peter Pett, a "master shipbuilder in King's Yard ', whose family had long been known for their superior talent in shipbuilding, and who was himself the inventor of this once useful ship Ship. of war, the frigate. The church register also records the burial here of Christopher Marlowe, or Marlow, the playwright. He became Born 1563-4 The son of a Canterbury shoemaker, who had been educated at the King's School in that town, graduated in due time from Cambridge.the most celebrated of Shakespeare's immediate predecessors. Heywood considers him the "best poet"; and that may have been true, for no great dramatist preceded him, while his fiery imagination and his passionate strokes imparted a special impulse to those who came after him. He was the author of six tragedies and joined Nash and Day in producing two more. The plots of his plays became more regular than those of earlier playwrights, and he would no doubt have become even more famous had he not been isolated in a bizarre brawl. The entry in the parish register reads simply: "June 1, 1593. Christopher Marlow, murdered by Francis Archer."

In this church rest the two sons of John Evelyn, whose first deaths he recorded in the most moving words in his "Diary" of 1658. Sir Richard Browne, Evelyn's father-in-law, proprietor of Saye's Court, died there in 1683 and was buried voluntarily outside this church under the south-east window, not inside, as church burials were harmful. He was obviously ahead of his age.

Buried before moving to St.'s Church in December 1672 aged 106; Catherine Perry, buried December 1676, "by his own account aged 110"; Sarah Mayo, buried August 1705, aged 102; and Elizabeth Wiborn, buried December 1714 aged 101.

The Roman Catholic Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is located near London and Greenwich railway station, which crosses the High Street here. The chapel, ceded the previous year, was converted into a school at the consecration of the church. Adjacent to the church is a vicarage built in 1855. This is perhaps due to the large number of Irish formerly employed at the shipyard and surrounding docks. Nearby are St Vincent's Industrial School (Roman Catholic) and the Deptford Industrial Home and Shelter for Destitute Children.

On Evelyn Street, as the street is called, which joins the High Street with the Deptford Lower Road, stands St. ... Evelyn, of Wotton.

Near St Luke's Church, the Grand Surrey Canal passes under the road on its way to Camberwell and Peckham at the end of Evelyn Street.Intentionallyof channels we can say that in theMonthly RecordIn 1803 it was announced with increasing earnestness that "another canal of great national importance is to be built from Deptford through Guildford, Godalming and Winchester to Portsmouth and Southampton". With our later experience of half a century or more, it will raise a smile: "A canal is preferable to a railroad in this case because the cost of transportation through a canal is much lower than that of a railroad. It has been found, for example, that 60 tons of corn does not." for less than £125 10s could be transported from Portsmouth to London, but that the same quantity of grain could be transported by canal the same distance at a cost of not more than £49 5s. We must add that this channel was never made.

Among Deptford's most famous residents, along with Tsar Peter and John Evelyn, is Dr. Mackay the poet Cowley and the Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral of England, who played such an important role in defeating the invincible army. "The house in which he lived," writes Dr. Mackay, "later became a tavern and was called 'Gun,' and its heraldic porticoes, carved over the fireplace in the main chamber, have long been shown to curious visitors."

John Evelyn's name is so closely linked to Deptford's past history that we may close this chapter with an amusing bit of information about the place or two from his "Journal". Dated June 3, 1658, he writes: "A large whale was caught between my country, on the edge of the Thames, and Greenwich, bringing endless competition to see it by water, by carriage, and on foot from London, and first appeared below Greenwich at low tide, for at high tide she would have sunk all ships; but now, being in shallow water surrounded by ships, she was hit on the head with a harp after a long skirmish, blood and water poured through two tunnels, and after that a terrible crane ran ashore and died, its length was fifty-eight feet, his height sixteen, his skin black as coachhide, his eyes very small, his tail large and only two little fins, a pointed snout, and a mouth so wide that several men could stand in it; in the teeth, but it only sucked the phlegm through a lattice from that bone which we call whalebone; the throat was still so narrow that man or fish could not be admitted there. The ends of the whale bones hang from the upper jaw; and it was hairy at the tips and inside at the base; all this amazing; but nothing is more marvelous than when an animal of so great a size is merely fed slime through these grates. Such, and a larger one of the beak type, were killed there forty years ago, in June 1658; that year Cromwell died.” It would be difficult to say whether Evelyn took the appearance of a whale in the Thames as an omen.

On another occasion, Evelyn tells us solemnly how she had dinner with the Archbishop of Canterbury in Lambeth and stayed latestillI returned to Deptford at night. What would he have said now, in those days of streetcars and trains?

Deptford has the honor of being the birthplace of the rag and bottle trade or "navy shop" in this great metropolis; and unsurprisingly, the city's side streets are lined with thrift stores, some of which are frighteningly ransacked warehouses. One of these shops, with the sign of a giant black doll, is vividly described by M. Alphonse Esquiros in the second series of his book "Inglês em Casa". Enters the traditional origin of the black doll as a character, first adopted by a woman who, on a trip abroad, brought back a black baby as speculation, but saw that such an object was worthless in England, and wrapped it in a bundle of rags and sold it to one of the founders of the trade. The black boy was raised at the expense of the community - the story goes - he grew up and married, opened a shop in the same branch, made a fortune and it is said that he was the progenitor of all merchants from that day on today. To explain this fact, she is said to have opened fifty shops with her children, in each of which a black doll was hung as a sign. Some of these dolls have three heads, and when it is Lord Esquiros, this is a symbol of trade spanning the three kingdoms. However, it is fair to add that he notes here: "I am afraid that the explanation given by the owners of these stores will not satisfy the antiquarians, who have taken a much more likely view, namely that these warehouses are the successors of the old ones." Stores, in which there were Indian and Chinese curiosities and which had a "joss" - a kind of Chinese idol - as a symbol".

In the rag and bottle shops the rags are supplied to the wholesaler who sells them to the owners of the paper mills which are near Dartford. However, it is not uncommon for many of the rags to cross the seas and make their way to England from Germany and even India and Australia. Charles Dickens mentions Lambeth department store in his "Sketches by Boz" and also those near King's Bench prison. Is it possible that he was unaware of his connection to Deptford or the romantic history mentioned above?