Dartford.
[Footnote 4: _Parliamentary History_, 1765.--On Wednesday, Dec. 6, 1654, an
attempt was made to disfranchise Queenborough: the then member, Mr.
Garland, suddenly and jocularly moved the Speaker that we give not any
legacies before the Speaker was dead. This pleasant conceit so took with
the House, as, for that time, Queenborough was reprieved, but was voted for
the future to be dismembered, and to be added to the county.--Ap. Burton i.
cxi. _Archaeological Mine_, i. 12. Queenborough was one of the victims
included in Schedule A of the act of parliament known as "The Reform
Bill."]
[Footnote 5: In our own day Cove has been called Queenstown in honour of
Queen Victoria.]
[Footnote 6: _Leeze-holders_, a right of turning on the coming or Leeze
(_Celtic_, Leswes) twenty-four sheep, which of late years, by a bye-law,
has been arranged to substitute either two horses or three bullocks. A
Leeze is supposed to contain about seven acres of land of herbage. The
common consists of about 240 acres, including roads.]
[Footnote 7: See Hogarth's Visit, &c. to Queenborough. A hearty laugh will
repay the trouble. The mayor was then a thatcher: the room remains as it
did in Hogarth's day; and as Queenborough was then, so it is now, one long
street without any trade.]
[Footnote 8: Of Mr. Greet's mayoralty many humorous tales are told: he was
at times popular, but towards the close of his reign most decidedly the
reverse. At his funeral the dredgers, &c. threw halfpence into his grave to
pay his passage to the lower regions. He, one day, _ex officio_, sentenced
a pilferer to a flogging at the cart's tail, and as executioners did not
volunteer, he took off his coat, and himself applied the cat to the bare
back of the culprit from one end of the street to the other. Mr. Greet was
one of the best friends Queenborough ever had. After his death it plunged
deeply into debt, had its paraphernalia and books seized and sold by the
sheriff, and now all its property is in the hands of trustees to pay its
debts, whilst its poor-rates are, a witness, a late mayor said, nine
shillings in the pound. The debt was originally 12,700l.; but as no
interest has been paid thereon, it is now 17,000l. The trustees have
received about 4,000_l_., but this sum has been melted in subsequent
litigation; for Queenborough men are mightily fond of supporting the law
courts.]
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