Having been much interested with Daniel Defoe's description of a Gravesend Tiltboat in the year 1724, as recorded by Alpha in Vol. ii., p. 209., I think some of your readers may be pleased to learn that it is quite possible that "it may be a plain relation of matter of fact," as De Foe was engaged in the business of brick and tile making near Tilbury[[1]], and must consequently have had frequent occasion to make the trip from Gravesend to London. That De Foe was so engaged at Tilbury we learn from the following Proclamation for his apprehension, taken from the London Gazette, dated St. James's, January 10, 1702-3:—
Whereas Daniel de Foe, alias Fooe, is charged with writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled The Shortest Way with the Dissenters. He is a middled siz'd spare man, about forty years old, of a brown complexion, and dark brown-coloured hair, but wears a wig; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth; was born in London, and, for many years an hose-factor in Freeman's Yard, Cornhill, and is now owner of the brick and pantile works near Tilbury Fort, in Essex. Whoever shall discover the said Daniel de Foe to one of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state, or any one of Her Majesty's justices of the peace, so as he may be apprehended, shall have a reward of fifty pounds, which Her Majesty has ordered immediately to be paid on such discovery."
He soon gave himself up; and having been tried, he stood in the pillory with great fortitude: for soon after he published his poem, entitled A Hymn to the Pillory, in which are the following singular lines:—
"Men that are men, in thee can feel no pain,
And all thy insignificants disdain;
Contempt, that false new word for shame,
Is, without crime, an empty name;
A shadow to amuse mankind,
But never frights the wise or well fix'd mind—
Virtue despises human scorn,