Chatham is the first substantial stopping place in David Copperfield’s arduous flight from London toward Dover. Reached on foot after a long day on the road, it offers neither shelter nor ease: David sleeps outside near a sentry and wakes to the sounds of troops. The town becomes a place where his journey’s physical hardship meets the urgent need to turn his clothing into money.

Arrival after a day on the road

David reaches Chatham after covering twenty-three miles on the straight road, a distance made difficult by his unfamiliarity with that kind of exertion. At evening, footsore and tired, he crosses the bridge at nearby Rochester and eats bread he has bought for supper. Although he sees lodgings for travellers, he fears spending his few remaining pence and distrusts the looks of the tramps he has encountered. He chooses not to seek shelter, and continues into Chatham.

The town’s evening setting is rendered through a child’s disoriented impressions: chalk, drawbridges, and mastless ships on a muddy river seem to form a dreamlike landscape. David finds a grass-grown battery above a lane, where a sentry walks back and forth. He lies down beside a cannon and sleeps, comforted by the sentry’s footsteps even though the sentry does not know he is there. Chatham is thus a stopping place in the most precarious sense: its military presence gives David company, but no one recognizes or cares for the homeless child.

A military town and a search for money

In the morning, drums and marching troops seem to hem David in as he makes his way down toward a long, narrow street. Stiff and sore, he knows he cannot go far without conserving his strength for the rest of the journey. He therefore makes selling his jacket the day’s principal task, taking it off so that he can begin to do without it and carrying it under his arm as he inspects the shops.

Chatham’s second-hand clothing trade gives him possible buyers, but its display of officer’s coats and epaulettes makes him timid about approaching the regular dealers. He turns instead toward marine-store shops and other modest businesses. The choice shows how little room poverty leaves for an ordinary transaction: the jacket is both clothing he needs to relinquish and one of the few things he can exchange for the means to continue.

Narrative significance

Chatham marks a shift in the escape from sheer walking to the practical negotiations of survival. The previous day’s miles have brought David to the edge of exhaustion; the following morning, he must weigh warmth and protection against the need for money. The town’s drums, troops, shops, and exposed sleeping place make the journey concrete, while David’s effort to sell his jacket shows how his flight depends on repeatedly converting what little he has into passage onward.