WHITSTABLE  , a watering-

place in the St Augustine's parliamentary division of Kent, England, on the north coast at the east end of the Swale, 6 m . N.N.W. of Canterbury, on the South Eastern & Chatham railway . Pop. of urban district (1901), 7086 . They are particularly important in that they counteracted the popular and interestingly written books of Max Muller: for instance, Muller, like Renan and Wilhelm von Humboldt, regarded language as an innate faculty and Whitney considered it the product of experience and outward circumstance . See Whitney's article Philology in the present edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica . The branch railway connecting Whitstable with Canterbury was one of the earliest in England, opened in 183o . The church of All Saints (Decorated and Perpendicular) possesses some old brasses; it was restored in 1875 . Whitstable has been famous for its oyster beds from time immemorial . The fisheries were held by the Incorporated Company of Dredgers (incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1793), the affairs being administered by a foreman, deputy foreman and jury of twelve; but in 1896 an Act of Parliament transferred the management of the fishery to a company . The less extensive Seasalter and Ham oyster fishery adjoins . There is also a considerable coasting trade in coal in conjunction with the South-Eastern & Chatham railway company, who are the owners of the harbour, which accommodates vessels of about 400 tons alongside the quay . The urban district consists of parts of the old parishes of Whitstable and Seasalter .

In

modern times the manor was held by Wynne Ellis (1790-1875), who left a valuable collection of paintings to the nation . Tankerton, adjoining Whitstable to the N.E., is a newly established seaside resort .