d his short odd way of expressing himself, still
survive in the recollections of a few old people." Dr. Lamert's son
James, by a former wife, was a great crony of young Charles Dickens,
taking him to the Rochester theatre, and getting up private theatricals
in which they both acted.

Surely there is a faint description of those times in the second chapter
of _David Copperfield_:--

[Illustration: St. Mary's Church, Chatham.]

"Here is our pew in the church. What a high-backed
pew! With a window near it, out of which our house
can be seen, and _is_ seen many times during the
morning's service by Peggotty, who likes to make
herself as sure as she can that it's not being
robbed, or is not in flames. But though Peggotty's
eye wanders, she is much offended if mine does,
and frowns to me, as I stand upon the seat, that I
am to look at the clergyman. But I can't always
look at him--I know him without that white thing
on, and I am afraid of his wondering why I stare
so, and perhaps stopping the service to
enquire--and what am I to do? It's a dreadful
thing to gape, but I must do something. I look at
my mother, but _she_ pretends not to see me. I
look at a boy in the aisle, and _he_ makes faces
at me. I look at the sunlight coming in at the
open door through the porch, and there I see a
stray sheep--I don't mean a sinner, but
mutton--half making up his mind to come into the
church. I feel that if I looked at him any longer,
I might be tempted to say something out loud; and
what would become of me then!"

The church, now undergoing reconstruction, is not a very presentable
structure, and has little of interest to recommend it, except a brass to
a famous navigator named Stephen Borough, the discoverer of the northern
passage to Russia (1584), and a monument to Sir John Cox, who was killed
in an action with the Dutch (1672). The name of Weller occurs on a
gravestone near the church door.

We cross the High Street, proceed along Railway Street, formerly Rome
Lane, pass the Chatham Railway Station (near which is a statue of
Lieutenant Waghorn, R.N., "pioneer and founder of the Overland Route,"
born at Chatham, 1800, and died 1850),[21] and find ourselves at
Ordnance Terrace, a conspicuous row of two