Malcolm, James Peller: First Impressions Or Sketches from Art and Nature, Animate and Inanimate (London, 1807)

8 gad's hill.
between them, which shew the Thames and the
EsTex ssiore, with the intervening ships and
vcssels. We then approach Rochester ; but fir st
dcscend Gad's Hill, as immortal in fiction as
Shakspeare in the annals of Britain. Who is
there that paiTes this theatre of depredation with-
out recollecting the exploits of Henry Prince of
Wales, his companions, and bonejl Tick FaiitafF,
and mentally viewing the weary Knight labouring
up the bill, and exclaiming against the Prince ;
or the subsequent double robbery, alluded to in
the following humorous letter^-extracted from a
manuscript in the British Museum, written "from
one of them that robbed the Danirti embaslador
on Gad's Hill, 1656, sent to him the day after ?
" Sir, The same necessity that ensorced the
Tartars to break the walls of China compelled us
to wait on you at Gad's Hill. I hope you will net
think the names os Thies and Gentleman incom-
patible, nor that it is ignoble to rob a Viceroy
there where the best of our Kings deigned to rob
a Carrier. And now I speak of things noble, I
think it is so to keep my word : only 1 must beg-
r J J o
your pardon in two things; first, that I sent you
the enclosed no sooner ; next, that 1 subseribe not
my name, otherwise than, Sir,
Your very humble servant,
Tamerlan
Rocheste*