<Li> a nickname of contempt: Ben Jonson and Thomas Nashe wrote a satirical play in 1597, which was a mocking attack on the island of Great Britain, titled The Isle of Dogs, which offended some in the nobility . Jonson was imprisoned for a year; Nashe avoided arrest by fleeing the area . Samuel Pepys referred to the "unlucky Isle of Dogs ." </Li> <Li> the presence of Dutch engineers reclaiming the land from a disastrous flood . </Li> <Li> the presence of gibbets on the foreshore facing Greenwich . </Li> <Li> a yeoman farmer called Brache, this being an old word for a type of hunting dog . </Li>

Where did the isle of dogs get its name