CHALK, a parish in the hundred of SHAMWELL
lathe of AYLESFORD, county of KENT, If mile (E. S. E.)
from Gravesend, containing, with the parish of Denton,
424 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in
the archdeaconry and diocese of Rochester, rated in the
king's books at £6. 3. 8., endowed with £200 private
benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and in the patronage
of the Bishop of Rochester. The church, dedicated
to St. Mary, is very ancient, and has various figures
carved over the entrance, the origin and meaning of
which have "caused much controversy among antiquaries.
This parish is bounded on the north by the Thames,,-
and is intersected by the Thames and Medway canal;
it contains the villages of East and West Chalk, the'
former lying on- the margin of an extensive marsh.'
There is a considerable manufactory for gun-flints, which
are esteemed the best in Europe: a fair is held on Whit-
Monday. In 1598, William, Lord Cobham, by willy
vested £4. 6. 8. in the Warden and Commonalty of
Rochester bridge, for one poor family of this parish, to
inhabit Cobham College; and in 1710 a bequest, consisting
of a rent-charge of £2. 18., was made by James
Fry, and vested in the mayor and corporation of Gravesend,
for teaching ten boys of Milton and Chalk.