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[Page 11]
of them in a row make a Street through which you Pass in a very narrow Passage & Meet Many little apartments in which the Artificers of the Yard inhabit Some of whose wives Keep shops so that you are in a town in Miniature. One thing I took particular notice of which was a little Cot Swing upon the top of one of their Rooms which servd a child instead of a Cradle & probably in a much better way as the rocking would be performd in that without the Jolting which nescessarily [necessarily] attends the common Cradle.
20 - Went this morn at 7 o'clock with Mr Allchurch Master Caulker of the Yard to walk round the Island & Collect Fossils & Sea weeds &c: we Kept along the Beach towards the High Land of Sheppey which Lies under the town of Minster in our way we found feather Corralline [also spelt Coralline] & herringbone Corralline in Vast Plenty with the Collecting of which & some few other Sorts amused ourselves till we came to the Cliffs which are Composd of a stiff Clay very hard when first Exposd to the weather but soon Softening & Crumbling away and by its fall Destroys the Lands above it Sometimes to a great Extent & at the Same time Discovers the Valuable Fossils it contains affording a Livelyhood to many Poor People who live by Collecting the Copperas Stones which are a decayd Pyrites which the Sea when it washes away the Clay Leaves upon the Shore these are collected in heaps & once a year fetchd by the Vitriol People who pay at the rate of one penny a Gallon for them by which small Price the People who collect them make often 15 pounds a year.