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[Page 5]
Jan.ry 21st 1767
Set out from London at Shooters hill saw people clearing away Ground for the New Town Going to be built there which by their accounts is to contain 500 houses observe in the hedges as we go along that the vegetation is as yet very little advanc'd saw the radical leaves of Centaurea Calcitrapa & Verbascum nigrum Just shooting out stop at Dartford to change horses between there & Chatham gather a violet in flowr [flower] by the road side ½ past three arrive in Chatham through Stroud & Rochester which are I believe the Dirtiest towns in England.
22.nd This morn it raind hard but cleard up about ten when we went to see the Dockyard said to be the first building yard in England saw several very fine ships upon the slips in different stages of forwardness but were particularly amus'd by the sight of what they call in ship building a skeleton which is a ship all whose outside timbers are Laid but nothing within to hinder you from seeing the Prodigious strength of every part of her as well as the immense size of the whole which you gain a much better Idea of by going within & having nothing to interrupt your view than possibly can be obtaind from without we Learnt the method of Estimating the force of a ship by counting the ports aft her gangway which when they are 6 shew the ship to be 60 or 64 when 7.70 or 7's here also we saw the