The canvas shows a view up the Medway as seen from Chatham towards Rochester and taken from a high vantage point. Painted by an unknown artist working in the Dutch style of the seventeenth century, the painting can probably be dated to around 1675. The stylised rolling Kent countryside on either side of the river is populated with a display of vessels, most of which are probably related to the Chatham dockyards. In the foreground a commissioner’s barge is crossing the waterway. The Frindsbury Peninsula can be seen in the middle ground on the right. On the left, the scene is framed by an oak tree, which provides the beholder with a landmark to enter the composition visually. Beyond it, across a lawn with a couple of staffage figures, lie the parish church and civil buildings of Chatham, the hill sloping down towards the river.