{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_44684/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_44684","id":"gutenberg_44684","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44684","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - British","Category: History - Medieval/Middle Ages","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Travel Writing","Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- England -- Canterbury","Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- England -- Winchester","England -- Description and travel","Roads -- England"],"text":"THE PILGRIMS' WAY\n\n                     FROM WINCHESTER TO CANTERBURY\n\n                            [Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n                           THE PILGRIMS' WAY\n                            FROM WINCHESTER\n                             TO CANTERBURY\n\n                          BY JULIA CARTWRIGHT\n\n                            [Illustration]\n\n                            ILLUSTRATED BY\n                          A. H. HALLAM MURRAY\n\n                               NEW YORK\n                       E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY\n                                 1911\n\n          \"From every shire's ende\n    Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,\n    The holy blissful martyr for to seeke,\n    That them hath holpen when that they were sicke.\"\n\n                         ALL RIGHTS RESERVED\n\n[Illustration: THE APPROACH TO WINCHESTER FROM THE SOUTH]\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThis account of the Way trodden by the pilgrims of the Middle Ages\nthrough the South of England to the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury\noriginally appeared in the _Art Journal_ for 1892, with illustrations by\nMr. A. Quinton. It was published in the following year as a separate\nvolume, and reprinted in 1895 and 1901. Now by the courtesy of Messrs.\nVirtue's representatives, and in response to a continued demand, it\nappears again in a new and revised form, with the additional attraction\nof illustrations from original drawings by Mr. Hallam Murray.\n\nDuring the twenty years which have elapsed since these pages were first\nwritten, a whole literature has grown up round the Pilgrims' Way. Not\nonly have scholarly papers on separate sections of the road appeared in\nthe Journals of Arch\u00e6ological Societies, but several valuable works on\nthe subject have been issued by writers of authority. Mr. H.\nSnowden-Ward has written a book on \"The Canterbury Pilgrimages,\" in\nMessrs. A. & C. Black's Pilgrimage Series, in which he deals at length\nwith the life and death, the cult and miracles of St. Thomas, and the\ndifferent routes taken by pilgrims to his shrine. Mr. Palmer has\ndescribed a considerable portion of the Way in his treatise on \"Three\nSurrey Churches,\" and only last autumn Mr. Elliston-Erwood published an\nexcellent little guide-book called \"The Pilgrims' Road,\" for the use of\ncyclists and pedestrians, in Messrs. Warne's Homeland Pocket-book\nSeries. But the most thorough and systematic attempt to reconstruct the\nroute taken by pilgrims from Winchester to Canterbury has been made by\nMr. Belloc in his admirable work, \"The Old Road.\" The author himself\nwalked along the ancient track, and succeeded in filling up many gaps\nwhere the road had been lost, and in recovering almost the whole of the\nWay, \"yard by yard from the capital of Hampshire to the capital of\nKent.\" This intimate knowledge of the road and its characteristics have\nled him to make several alterations in the line of the Way marked on the\nOrdnance Map, which had hitherto served as the basis of most\ndescriptions. But as Mr. Belloc himself recognises, it is clear that\npilgrims often left the original road to visit churches and shrines in\nthe neighbourhood. Thus, in several places, new tracks sprang up along\nthe downs to which local tradition has given the name of the Pilgrims'\nWay, and which it is not always easy to distinguish from the main road.\nLike Bunyan's pilgrims, when they came to the foot of the hill\nDifficulty, \"one turned to the left hand, and the other to the right,\nbut the narrow way lay right up the hill.\"\n\nIn this edition of my book some obvious errors have been corrected, and\ncertain doubtful points have been cleared up with the help of experience\ngained by other workers in the same field. But, as a rule, my object has\nbeen not so much to draw attention to the actual road as to describe the\nantiquities and objects of interest which arrest the traveller's notice\non his journey. From whatever side we approach it, the subject is a\nfascinating one. All of these different studies, varied in aims and\nscope as they may be, bear witness to the perennial interest which the\nPilgrims' Way inspires. The beauty of the country through which the old\nroad runs, its historic associations and famous memories, the ancient\nchurches and houses which lie on its course, will always attract those\nwho love and reverence the past, and will lead many to follow in the\nfootsteps of the medi\u00e6val pilgrims along the Way to Canterbury.\n\n                                             JULIA CARTWRIGHT.\n\nOCKHAM, _Nov. 1, 1911_.\n\n[Illustration: THE RIVER ITCHEN WHERE IT LEAVES THE TOWN.]\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nCHAPTER      PAGE\n\nI. THE PILGRIMS' WAY                                                   1\n\nII. WINCHESTER TO ALTON                                               20\n\nIII. ALTON TO COMPTON                                                 44\n\nIV. COMPTON TO SHALFORD                                               63\n\nV. SHALFORD TO ALBURY                                                 75\n\nVI. SHERE TO REIGATE                                                  87\n\nVII. REIGATE TO CHEVENING                                            103\n\nVIII. OTFORD TO WROTHAM                                              125\n\nIX. WROTHAM TO HOLLINGBOURNE                                         137\n\nX. HOLLINGBOURNE TO LENHAM                                           153\n\nXI. CHARING TO GODMERSHAM                                            167\n\nXII. CHILHAM TO HARBLEDOWN                                           182\n\nXIII. HARBLEDOWN TO CANTERBURY                                       193\n\nXIV. THE MARTYR'S SHRINE                                             203\n\nINDEX                                                                217\n\n\nNOTE ON THE BINDING\n\nThe \"Canterbury Bell\" and the Badges, represented on the cover of the\nbook, were worn by the Pilgrims on their return from the Shrine of St.\nThomas. The Badges were made of lead.\n\n[Illustration: NEAR WROTHAM WATER.]\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n     COLOURED PLATES\n\nTHE NORMAN TOWER AND SOUTH TRANSEPT, WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL  _Frontispiece_\n\nFACING PAGE\n\nWINCHESTER CATHEDRAL FROM THE NORTH                                   32\n\nCHAWTON HOUSE                                                         50\n\nTHE MOTE, IGHTHAM                                                    136\n\nAYLESFORD BRIDGE                                                     146\n\nCOTTAGE AT BOARLEY, NEAR BOXLEY                                      152\n\nCHARING                                                              170\n\nCANTERBURY CATHEDRAL FROM THE SOUTH-WEST                             192\n\n     HALF-TONES\n\n                                                             FACING PAGE\n\nWINCHESTER CATHEDRAL, SOUTH AISLE OF CHOIR                            25\n\nKING'S GATE, WINCHESTER, FROM THE CLOSE                               28\n\nLOSELEY                                                               67\n\nTHE HOSPITAL, GUILDFORD                                               72\n\nOLD YEWS AND OAK IN EASTWELL PARK                                    176\n\nTHE WEST GATE, CANTERBURY                                            194\n\nMERCERY LANE, CANTERBURY                                             199\n\nTHE MARTYRDOM, CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL                                  205\n\n     LINE BLOCKS\n\nON \"THE WAY\" BETWEEN KEMSING AND OTFORD                      _Title-page_\n\nTHE APPROACH TO WINCHESTER FROM THE SOUTH                              v\n\nTHE RIVER ITCHEN WHERE IT LEAVES THE TOWN                             ix\n\nNEAR WROTHAM WATER                                                    xi\n\nST. CROSS AND ST. KATHERINE'S HILL                                     1\n\nDOORWAY IN CANTERBURY CLOISTERS THROUGH WHICH BECKET\nPASSED ON HIS WAY TO VESPERS                                           8\n\nST. CROSS FROM THE MEADOWS                                            13\n\nTHE ENTRANCE TO ST. CROSS HOSPITAL                                    15\n\nBOX HILL                                                              18\n\nTHE CATHEDRAL FROM THE SOUTH                                          20\n\nROOF OF STRANGERS' HALL, WINCHESTER                                   21\n\nTHE WEST GATE, WINCHESTER                                             23\n\nON THE RIVER ITCHEN, WINCHESTER                                       27\n\nTHATCHED COTTAGE, MARTYR WORTHY                                       34\n\nCHILLAND FARM, NEAR ITCHEN ABBAS                                      36\n\nNEW ALRESFORD                                                         40\n\nTHE HOG'S BACK                                                        44\n\nJANE AUSTEN'S HOUSE, CHAWTON                                          47\n\nFARNHAM CASTLE                                                        53\n\nCROOKSBURY FROM NEWLANDS CORNER                                       55\n\nCOMPTON VILLAGE                                                       63\n\nCOMPTON CHURCH                                                        65\n\nST. KATHERINE'S, GUILDFORD                                            70\n\nST. MARTHA'S CHAPEL                                                   71\n\nTHE HOG'S BACK                                                        73\n\nST. MARTHA'S FROM THE HOG'S BACK                                      75\n\nST. MARTHA'S FROM CHILWORTH                                           81\n\nALBURY OLD CHURCH                                                     85\n\nTHE MILL, GOMSHALL                                                    87\n\nSHERE                                                                 89\n\nCROSSWAYS FARM, NEAR WOTTON                                           91\n\nWOTTON                                                                93\n\nBOX HILL AND DORKING CHURCH SPIRE                                     95\n\nTHE WHITE HORSE, DORKING                                              96\n\nBETWEEN DORKING AND BETCHWORTH LOOKING WEST                           97\n\nON \"THE WAY\" ABOVE BETCHWORTH                                        100\n\nWINDMILL ON REIGATE COMMON                                           103\n\nREIGATE COMMON                                                       105\n\nLOOKING EAST FROM GATTON PARK                                        108\n\nGATTON TOWN HALL                                                     110\n\nMERSTHAM CHURCH                                                      113\n\nTHE WHITE HART, GODSTONE                                             115\n\nOLD HOUSE IN OXTED                                                   116\n\nOXTED CHURCH                                                         117\n\nBRASTED                                                              120\n\nCHEVENING CHURCH                                                     123\n\nOTFORD CHURCH                                                        125\n\nTHE PORCH, KEMSING CHURCH                                            133\n\nWROTHAM CHURCH                                                       135\n\nWROTHAM, LOOKING SOUTH                                               137\n\nTHE BULL, WROTHAM                                                    139\n\nTROTTESCLIFFE                                                        140\n\nFORD PLACE, NEAR WROTHAM                                             141\n\nTHE FRIARY, AYLESFORD                                                144\n\nKITS COTY HOUSE                                                      147\n\nLOOKING WEST FROM ABOVE BOXLEY ABBEY                                 149\n\nHOLLINGBOURNE HOUSE                                                  155\n\nMARKET-PLACE, LENHAM                                                 163\n\nIN CHARING VILLAGE                                                   167\n\nTHE PALACE, WROTHAM                                                  181\n\nCHILHAM                                                              182\n\nON THE VILLAGE GREEN, CHARTHAM                                       187\n\nST. NICHOLAS', HARBLEDOWN                                            193\n\nSITE OF THE SHRINE OF ST. THOMAS, CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL               209\n\n[Illustration: ST. CROSS AND ST. KATHERINE'S HILL.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE PILGRIMS' WAY\n\n\nThree hundred and seventy years have passed since the shrine of St.\nThomas at Canterbury was swept away, and the martyr's ashes were\nscattered to the winds. The age of pilgrimages has gone by, the\nconditions of life have changed, and the influences which drew such vast\nmultitudes of men and women to worship at the murdered Archbishop's tomb\nhave long ago ceased to work on the popular mind. No longer does the\nmerry cavalcade of Chaucer's lay ride forth in the freshness of the\nspring morning, knight and merchant, scholar and lawyer, Prioress and\nWife of Bath, yeoman and priest and friars, a motley company from all\nparts of the realm, \"ready to wenden on their pilgrimage with full\ndevout courage\" to Canterbury. The days of pilgrimages are over, their\nfashion has passed away, but still some part of the route which the\ntravellers took can be traced, and the road they trod still bears the\nname of the Pilgrims' Way. Over the Surrey hills and through her stately\nparks the dark yews which lined the path may yet be seen. By many a\nquiet Kentish homestead the grassy track still winds its way along the\nlonely hill-side overlooking the blue Weald, and, if you ask its name,\nthe labourer who guides the plough, or the waggoner driving his team,\nwill tell you that it is the Pilgrims' Road to Canterbury. So the old\nname lives, and the memory of that famous pilgrimage which Chaucer sang\nhas not yet died out of the people's heart. And although strangers\njourney no longer from afar to the martyrs shrine, it is still a\npleasant thing to ride out on a spring or summer morning and follow the\nPilgrims' Way. For the scenes through which it leads are fair, and the\nmemories that it wakes belong to the noblest pages of England's story.\n\nIn those old days the pilgrims who came to Canterbury approached the\nholy city by one of the three following routes. There was first of all\nthe road taken by Chaucer's pilgrims from London, through Deptford,\nGreenwich, Rochester, and Sittingbourne; the way trodden by all who came\nfrom the North, the Midlands, and the Eastern Counties, and by those\nforeigners who, like Erasmus, had first visited London. But the greater\nnumber of the foreign pilgrims from France, Germany, and Italy landed at\nSandwich Haven or Dover, and approached Canterbury from the south; while\nothers, especially those who came from Normandy and Brittany, landed at\nSouthampton and travelled through the southern counties of Hampshire,\nSurrey, and Kent. Many of these doubtless stopped at Winchester,\nattracted by the fame of St. Swithun, the great healing Bishop; and\neither here or else at Guildford, they would be joined by the pilgrims\nfrom the West of England on their way to the Shrine of Canterbury. This\nwas the route taken by Henry II. when, landing at Southampton on his\nreturn from France, he made his first memorable pilgrimage to the tomb\nof the murdered Archbishop, in the month of July, 1174. And this route\nit is, which, trodden by thousands of pilgrims during the next three\ncenturies, may still be clearly defined through the greater part of its\ncourse, and which in Surrey and Kent bears the historic name of the\nPilgrims' Way. A very ancient path it is, older far than the days of\nPlantagenets and Normans, of shrines and pilgrimages. For antiquarian\nresearches have abundantly proved this road to be an old British track,\nwhich was in use even before the coming of the Romans. It may even have\nbeen, as some writers suppose, the road along which caravans of\nmerchants brought their ingots of tin from Cornwall to be shipped at\nwhat was then the great harbour of Britain, the Rutupine Port,\nafterwards Sandwich Haven, and then borne overland to Massilia and the\nMediterranean shores. Ingots of tin, buried it may be in haste by\nmerchants attacked on their journey by robbers, have, it is said, been\ndug up at various places along this route, and British earthworks have\nbeen found in its immediate neighbourhood.\n\nThe road was, there can be no doubt, used by the Romans; and all along\nits course remains of Roman villas, baths, and pavements have been\nbrought to light, together with large quantities of Roman coins,\ncinerary urns, and pottery of the most varied description. In medi\u00e6val\ndays this \"tin road,\" as Mr. Grant Allen calls it, still remained the\nprincipal thoroughfare from the West to the East of England. It followed\nthe long line of hills which runs through the north of Hampshire, and\nacross Surrey and Kent, that famous chalk ridge which has for us so many\ndifferent associations, with whose scenery William Cobbett, for\ninstance, has made us all familiar in the story of his rides to and from\nthe Wen. And it lay outside the great trackless and impassable forest of\nAnderida, which in those days still covered a great part of the\nsouth-east counties of England. Dean Stanley, in his eloquent account\nof the Canterbury pilgrimage, describes this road as a byway, and\nremarks that the pilgrims avoided the regular roads, \"probably for the\nsame reason as in the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, the highways\nwere unoccupied, and the traveller walked through byways.\" But the\nstatement is misleading, and there can be little doubt that in the\ntwelfth and thirteenth centuries this road was, if not the only means of\ncommunication between West and East, at least the principal thoroughfare\nacross this part of England, and was as such the route naturally chosen\nby pilgrims to Canterbury.\n\nCertain peculiarities, it is interesting to notice, mark its course from\nbeginning to end. It clings to the hills, and, wherever it is possible,\navoids the marshy ground of the valleys. It runs, not on the summit of\nthe downs, but about half-way down the hill-side, where there is shelter\nfrom the wind, as well as sunshine to be had under the crest of the\nridge. And its course is marked by rows of yew trees, often remarkable\nfor their size and antiquity. Some of these are at least seven or eight\nhundred years old, and must have reared their ancient boughs on the\nhill-side before the feet of pilgrims ever trod these paths. So striking\nis this feature of the road, and so fixed is the idea that some\nconnection exists between these yew trees and the Pilgrims' Way, that\nthey are often said to have been planted with the express object of\nguiding travellers along the road to Canterbury. This, however, we need\nhardly say, is a fallacy. Yews are by no means peculiar to the Pilgrims'\nWay, but are to be found along every road in chalk districts. They\nspring up in every old hedgerow on this soil, and are for the most part\nsown by the birds. But the presence of these venerable and picturesque\nforms does lend an undeniable charm to the ancient track. And in some\nplaces where the line of cultivation gradually spreading upwards has\nblotted out every other trace of the road, where the ploughshare has\nupturned the sod, and the hedgerows have disappeared, three or four of\nthese grand old trees may still be seen standing by themselves in the\nmidst of a ploughed field, the last relics of a bygone age.\n\n[Illustration: DOORWAY IN CANTERBURY CLOISTERS THROUGH WHICH BECKET\nPASSED ON HIS WAY TO VESPERS.]\n\nThe murder of Becket took place on the 29th of December, 1170. At five\no'clock on that winter evening, as the Archbishop was on his way to\nvespers, the King's men, Reginald Fitz Urse and three knights who had\naccompanied him from Saltwood Castle, rushed upon him with their swords\nand murdered him in the north transept of his own Cathedral. The tragic\ncircumstance of Becket's end made a profound impression on the people of\nEngland, and universal horror was excited by this act of sacrilege.\nWhatever his faults may have been, the murdered Archbishop had dared to\nstand up against the Crown for the rights of the Church, and had died\nrather than yield to the Kings demands. \"For the name of Jesus and the\ndefence of the Church I am ready to die,\" were his last words, as he\nfell under the assassins' blows. When he landed at Sandwich, on his\nreturn from France, the country folk crowded to meet him and hailed him\nas the father of orphans and deliverer of the oppressed, crying,\n\"Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.\" His journey to\nCanterbury was one long triumphal procession.[1] The poor looked to him\nas their champion and defender, who had laid down his life in the cause\nof freedom and righteousness. Henceforth Thomas became a national hero,\nand was everywhere honoured as the Martyr of the English.\n\nThe popular belief in his holiness was confirmed by the miracles that\nwere wrought in his name from the moment of his death. A violent storm\nbroke over the Cathedral when the fatal deed was done, and was followed\nby a red glow, which illuminated the choir where the dead man's body was\nlaid before the altar. The next day the monks buried the corpse in a\nmarble tomb behind Our Lady's altar in the under-croft. For nearly a\nyear no mass was said in the Cathedral, no music was heard, no bells\nwere rung; the altars were stripped of their ornaments, and the\ncrucifixes and images were covered over. Meanwhile, reports reached\nCanterbury of the wonderful cures performed by the martyred Archbishop.\nOn the third day after the murder, the wife of a Sussex knight, who\nsuffered from blindness, invoked the blessed martyr's help, and was\nrestored to sight. And on the very night of the burial the paralytic\nwife of a citizen of Canterbury was cured by a garment which her\nhusband had dipped in the murdered saint's blood.\n\nThese marvels were followed by a stream of devout pilgrims who came to\nseek healing at the martyr's tomb or to pay their vows for the mercies\nwhich they had received. A monk was stationed at the grave to receive\nofferings and report the miracles that were wrought to the Chapter. At\nfirst these wonders were kept secret, for fear of the King, and of\nBecket's enemies, the De Brocs, whose men guarded the roads to\nCanterbury. The doors of the crypt were kept bolted and barred, and only\nthe poor in the town and the neighbouring villages crept to the tomb.[2]\nBut on Easter Day, 1171, the crowds rushed in to see a dumb man who was\nsaid to have recovered his speech; and on the following Friday the crypt\nwas thrown open to the public. From that time, writes Benedict, the monk\nof Canterbury, \"the scene of the Pool of Bethesda was daily renewed in\nthe Cathedral, and numbers of sick and helpless persons were to be seen\nlying on the pavement of the great church.\"[3] \"These great miracles\nare wrought,\" wrote John of Salisbury, an intimate friend of Becket, who\nbecame Bishop of Chartres in 1176, and was an able statesman and\nscholar, \"in the place of his passion and in the place where he lay\nbefore the great altar before his burial, and in the tomb where he was\nlaid at last, the blind see, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the lame\nwalk, lepers are cleansed, and, a thing unheard of since the days of our\nfathers, the dead are raised to life.\"[4]\n\nFrom all parts of England the sick and suffering now crowded to\nCanterbury, telling the same marvellous tale, how Thomas had appeared to\nthem robed in white, with the thin red streak of blood across his face,\nbringing healing and peace. \"In towns and villages, in castles and\ncottages, throughout the kingdom,\" writes another contemporary\nchronicler, \"every one from the highest to the lowest wishes to visit\nand honour his tomb. Clerks and laymen, rich and poor, nobles and\ncommon people, fathers and mothers with their children, masters with\ntheir servants, all come hither, moved by the same spirit of devotion.\nThey travel by day and night in winter and summer, however cold the\nweather may be, and the inns and hostelries on the road to Canterbury\nare as crowded with people as great cities are on market days.\"[5]\n\n[Illustration: ST. CROSS FROM THE MEADOWS.]\n\nOn the 21st of February, 1173, Pope Alexander III. pronounced the decree\nof canonisation, and fixed the Feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury on the\nday of the Archbishop's martyrdom. In July, 1174, King Henry II., moved\nby the reports which reached him in Normandy of the popular enthusiasm\nfor Becket, and fearing the effects of the divine wrath, came himself to\ndo penance at the martyr's tomb. Three months after the King of the\nEnglish had given this public proof of his penitence and obtained\nrelease from the Church's censures, \"the glorious choir of Conrad\" was\ndestroyed by fire, on the night of September 5, 1174. The rebuilding of\nthe church, which was largely assisted by offerings at Becket's tomb,\nwas not finished until 1220, when the Saint's body was removed to its\nfinal resting-place in the new apse at the East end of the Chapel of the\nBlessed Trinity, where the Archbishop had said his first mass.\n\n[Illustration: THE ENTRANCE TO ST. CROSS HOSPITAL.]\n\nOn Tuesday, July 7, an immense concourse of people of all ranks and ages\nassembled at Canterbury. \"The city and villages round,\" writes an\neye-witness, \"were so filled with folk that many had to abide in tents\nor under the open sky.\"[6] Free hospitality was given to all, and the\nstreets of Canterbury literally flowed with wine. A stately procession,\nled by the young King Henry III. and the patriot Archbishop Stephen\nLangton, entered the crypt, and bore the Saint's remains with solemn\nceremonial to their new resting-place. Here a sumptuous shrine, adorned\nwith gold plates and precious gems, wrought \"by the greatest master of\nthe craft\" that could be found in England, received the martyr's relics,\nand the new apse became known as \"Becket's Crown.\"\n\nThe fame of St. Thomas now spread into all parts of the world during the\nnext two centuries, and the Canterbury pilgrimage was the most popular\nin Christendom. The 7th of July was solemnly set apart as the Feast of\nthe Translation of St. Thomas, and henceforth the splendour of this\nfestival threw the anniversary of the actual martyrdom into the shade.\nThe very fact that it took place in summer and not in winter naturally\nattracted greater numbers of pilgrims from a distance. And on the\njubilees or fiftieth anniversaries of the Translation, the concourse of\npeople assembled at Canterbury was enormous.\n\nBesides the crowds attracted by these two chief festivals, pilgrims came\nto Canterbury in smaller parties at all seasons of the year, but more\nespecially in the spring and summer months. Each year, as Chaucer sings,\nwhen the spring-time comes round,\n\n    \"When that Aprille with his showers sweete\n     The drought of Marche had pierced to the roote....\n     When Zephyrus eke with his sweete breathe\n     Inspired hath in every holt and heathe\n     The tender croppes ...\n     And small fowl\u00ebs maken melodie,\n     That sleepen all the night with open eye,\n     Then longen folk to go on pilgrimages,\n     And palmers for to seeken strange 'strand\u00ebs' ...\n     And specially, from every shire's ende\n     Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,\n     The holy blissful martyr for to seeke\n     That them hath holpen when that they were sicke.\"\n\n[Illustration: BOX HILL.]\n\nThe passage of these caravans of pilgrims could not fail to leave its\nmark on the places and the people along their path. The sight of these\nstrange faces, the news they brought, and the tales they told must have\nimpressed the dwellers in these quiet woodlands and lonely hills. And\ntraces of their presence remain to this day on the Surrey downs and in\nthe lanes of Kent. They may, or may not, have been responsible for the\nedible variety of large white snails, _Helix pomatia_, commonly called\nRoman snails, which are found in such abundance at Albury in Surrey, and\nat Charing in Kent, as well as at other places along the road, and\nwhich the Norman French pilgrims are traditionally said to have brought\nover with them. But the memory of their pilgrimage survives in the\nwayside chapels and shrines which sprung up along the track, in the\nchurches which were built for their benefit, or restored and decorated\nby their devotion, above all in the local names still in common use\nalong the countryside. Pilgrims' Lodge and Pilgrims' Ferry, Palmers'\nWood, Paternoster Lane--these, and similar terms, still speak of the\ncustom which had taken such fast hold of the popular mind during the\nthree hundred and fifty years after the death of Becket, and recall the\nlong processions of pilgrims which once wound over these lonely hills\nand through these green lanes on their way to the martyr's shrine.\n\n[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL FROM THE SOUTH.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nWINCHESTER TO ALTON\n\n\n[Illustration: ROOF OF STRANGERS' HALL, WINCHESTER.]\n\nFew traces of the Pilgrims' Way are now to be found in Hampshire. But\nearly writers speak of an old road which led to Canterbury from\nWinchester, and the travellers' course would in all probability take\nthem through this ancient city. Here the foreign pilgrims who landed at\nSouthampton, and those who came from the West of England, would find\nfriendly shelter in one or other of the religious houses, and enjoy a\nbrief resting-time before they faced the perils of the road. The old\ncapital of Wessex, the home of Alfred, and favourite residence of Saxon\nand Norman kings, had many attractions to offer to the devout pilgrim.\nHere was the splendid golden shrine of St. Swithun, the gentle Bishop\nwho had watched over the boyhood of Alfred. In A.D. 971, a hundred years\nafter the Saint's death, his bones had been solemnly removed from their\nresting-place on the north side of the Minster, where he had humbly\nbegged to be buried\" so that the sun might not shine upon him,\" and laid\nby Edgar and Dunstan behind the altar of the new Cathedral which Bishop\nEthelwold had raised on the site of the ancient church of Birinus. This\nwas done, says the chronicler Wulfstan, although the Saint himself\n\"protested weeping that his body ought not to be set in God's holy\nchurch amidst the splendid memorials of the ancient fathers,\" a legend\nwhich may have given rise to the popular tradition of the forty days'\nrain, and the supposed delay in the Saint's funeral. From that time\ncountless miracles were wrought at the shrine of St. Swithun, and\nmultitudes from all parts of England flocked to seek blessing and\nhealing at the great church which henceforth bore his name.\n\n[Illustration: THE WEST GATE, WINCHESTER.]\n\nUnder the rule of Norman and Angevin kings, the venerable city had\nattained the height of wealth and prosperity. In those days the\npopulation numbered some 20,000, and there are said to have been as many\nas 173 churches and chapels within its wall. In spite of the horrors\nof civil war, which twice desolated the streets, in the time of Stephen\nand Henry III., the frequent presence of the court and the energy of her\nprince-bishops had made Winchester a centre of religious and literary\nactivity. And, although after the death of Henry III., who throughout\nhis long life remained faithful to his native city, royal visits became\nfew and far between, and the old capital lost something of its\nbrilliancy, there was still much to attract strangers and strike the\nimagination of the wayfarer who entered her gates in the fifteenth\ncentury. Few medi\u00e6val cities could boast foundations of equal size and\nsplendour. There was the strong castle of Wolvesey, where the bishops\nreigned in state, and the royal palace by the West gate, built by King\nHenry III., with the fair Gothic hall which he had decorated so\nlavishly. There was the Hospital of St. Cross, founded by the\nwarrior-bishop, Henry de Blois, and the new College of St. Mary, which\nWilliam of Wykeham, the great master-builder, had reared in the meadows\nknown as the Greenery, or promenade of the monks of St. Swithun.\nAnother venerable hospital, that of St. John's, claimed to have been\nfounded by Birinus, and on Morne Hill, just outside the East gate, stood\na hospital for lepers, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. There,\nconspicuous among a crowd of religious houses by their wealth and\nantiquity, were the two great Benedictine communities of St. Swithun and\nHyde. And there, too, was the grand Norman church which the Conqueror's\nkinsman, Bishop Walkelin, had raised on the ruins of Ethelwold's\nMinster, with its low massive tower and noble transepts, and the long\nnave roofed in with solid trees of oak cut down in Hempage Wood. Three\ncenturies later, William of Wykeham transformed the nave after the\nlatest fashion of architecture, cut through the old Norman work, carried\nup the piers to a lofty height, and replaced the flat wooden roof by\nfine stone groining. But the Norman tower and transepts of Bishop\nWalkelin's church still remain to-day almost unchanged.\n\n[Illustration: WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL, SOUTH AISLE OF CHOIR.]\n\nSo great was the concourse of pilgrims to St. Swithun's shrine in the\nearly part of the fourteenth century, that Bishop Godfrey Lucy enlarged\nthe eastward portion of the church, and built, as it were, another\nchurch, with nave, aisles, and Lady Chapel of its own, under the same\nroof. The monks had no great love for the lower class of pilgrims who\nthronged their doors, and took good care to keep them out of the\nconventual precincts. They were only allowed to enter the Minster by a\ndoorway in the north transept, and, once they had visited the shrine and\nduly made their offerings, they were jealously excluded from the rest of\nthe church by those fine ironwork gates still preserved in the\nCathedral, and said to be the oldest specimen of the kind in England.\n\n[Illustration: ON THE RIVER ITCHEN, WINCHESTER.]\n\nTowards the close of the century, in the reign of Edward I., the fine\nold building still known as the Strangers' Hall was built by the monks\nof St. Swithun at their convent gate, for the reception of the poorer\npilgrims. Here they found food and shelter for the night. They slept,\nate their meals, and drank their ale, and made merry round one big\ncentral fire. The hall is now divided, and is partly used as the Dean's\nstable, partly enclosed in a Canon's house, but traces of rudely carved\nheads, a bearded king, and a nun's face are still visible on the\nmassive timbers of the vaulted roof, blackened with the smoke of bygone\nages. In the morning the same pilgrims would wend their way to the doors\nof the Prior's lodging, and standing under the three beautiful pointed\narches which form the entrance to the present Deanery, would there\nreceive alms in money and fragments of bread and meat to help them on\ntheir journey.\n\n[Illustration: KING'S GATE, WINCHESTER, FROM THE CLOSE.]\n\nThe route which they took on leaving Winchester is uncertain. It is not\ntill we approach Alton that we find the first traces of the Pilgrims'\nWay, but in all probability they followed the Roman road which still\nleads to Silchester and London along the valley of the river Itchen.\nImmediately outside the city gates they would find themselves before\nanother stately pile of conventual buildings, the great Abbey of Hyde.\nThis famous Benedictine house, founded by Alfred, and long known as the\nNew Minster, was first removed from its original site near the Cathedral\nin the twelfth century. Finding their house damp and unhealthy, and\nfeeling themselves cramped in the narrow space close to the rival\nmonastery of St. Swithun, the monks obtained a charter from Henry I.\ngiving them leave to settle outside the North gate. In the year 1110,\nthey moved to their new home, bearing with them the wonder-working\nshrine of St. Josse, the great silver cross given to the New Minster by\nCnut, and a yet more precious relic, the bones of Alfred the Great. Here\nin the green meadows on the banks of the Itchen they reared the walls of\ntheir new convent and the magnificent church which, after being in the\nnext reign burnt to the ground by fire-balls from Henry of Blois' Castle\nat Wolvesey, rose again from the flames fairer and richer than before.\nHere it stood till the Dissolution, when Thomas Wriothesley, Cromwell's\nCommissioner, stripped the shrine of its treasures, carried off the gold\nand jewels, and pulled down the abbey walls to use the stone in the\nbuilding of his own great house at Stratton. \"We intend,\" he wrote to\nhis master, after describing the riches of gold and silver plate, the\ncrosses studded with pearls, chalices, and emeralds on which he had lain\nsacrilegious hands, \"both at Hyde and St. Mary to sweep away all the\nrotten bones that be called relics; which we may not omit, lest it be\nthought we came more for the treasure than for the avoiding of the\nabomination of idolatry.\" Considerable fragments of the building still\nremained. In Milner's time the ruins covered the whole meadow, but\ntowards the end of the last century the city authorities fixed on the\nspot as the site of a new bridewell, and all that was left of the once\nfamous Abbey was then destroyed. The tombs of the dead were rifled. At\nevery stroke of the spade some ancient sepulchre was violated, stone\ncoffins containing chalices, croziers, rings, were broken open and bones\nscattered abroad. Then the ashes of the noblest of our kings were blown\nto the winds, and the resting-place of \u00c6lfred remains to this day\nunknown. A stone marked with the words, \u00c6lfred Rex, DCCCLXXXI., was\ncarried off by a passing stranger, and is now to be seen at Corby\nCastle, in Cumberland. To-day an old gateway near the church of St.\nBartholomew and some fragments of the monastery wall are the only\nremains of Alfred's new Minster.\n\nFrom this spot an ancient causeway, now commonly known as the Nuns'\nWalk, but which in the last century bore the more correct title of the\nMonks' Walk, leads alongside of a stream which supplied Hyde Abbey with\nwater, for a mile and a half up the valley to Headbourne[7] Worthy. The\npath is cool and shady, planted with a double row of tall elms, and as\nwe look back we have beautiful views of the venerable city and the great\nCathedral sleeping in the quiet hollow, dreaming of all its mighty past.\nAbove, scarred with the marks of a deep railway cutting, and built over\nwith new houses, is St. Giles' Hill, where during many centuries the\nfamous fair was held each September. Foreign pilgrims would gaze with\ninterest on the scene of that yearly event, which had attained a\nworld-wide fame, and attracted merchants from all parts of France,\nFlanders, and Italy. The green hill-side from which we look down on the\nstreets and towers of Winchester presented a lively spectacle during\nthat fortnight. The stalls were arranged in long rows and called after\nthe nationality of the vendors of the goods they sold. There was the\nStreet of Caen, of Limoges, of the Flemings, of the Genoese, the\nDrapery, the Goldsmiths' Stall, the Spicery, held by the monks of St.\nSwithun, who drove a brisk trade in furs and groceries on these\noccasions. All shops in the city and for seven leagues round were closed\nduring the fair, and local trade was entirely suspended. The mayor\nhanded over the keys of the city for the time being to the bishop, who\nhad large profits from the tolls and had stalls at the fair himself,\nwhile smaller portions went to the abbeys, and thirty marks a year were\npaid to St. Swithun's for the repair of the great church. The Red King\nfirst granted his kinsman, Bishop Walkelin, the tolls of this three\ndays' fair at St. Giles' feast, which privilege was afterwards extended\nto a period of sixteen days by Henry III. The great fair lasted until\nmodern times, but in due course was removed from St. Giles' Hill into\nthe city itself. \"As the city grew stronger and the fair weaker,\" writes\nDean Kitchin, \"it slid down St. Giles' Hill and entered the town, where\nits noisy ghost still holds revel once a year.\"\n\n[Illustration: WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL FROM THE NORTH]\n\nLeaving these historic memories behind us we follow the Monks' Walk\nuntil we reach Headbourne Worthy, the first of a group of villages\ngranted by Egbert, in 825, to St. Swithun's Priory, and bearing this\nquaint name, derived from the Saxon _woerth_--a homestead. The church\nhere dates from Saxon times, and claims to have been founded by St.\nWilfred. The rude west doorway and chancel arch are said to belong to\nEdward the Confessor's time. Over the west archway, which now leads into\na fifteenth-century chapel, is a fine sculptured bas-relief larger than\nlife, representing the Crucifixion and the Maries, which probably\noriginally adorned the exterior of the church. But the most interesting\nthing in the church is the brass to John Kent, a Winchester scholar, who\ndied in 1434. The boy wears his college gown and his hair is closely\ncut, while a scroll comes out of his lips bearing the words:\n\"Misericordiam Dni inetum cantabo.\" Next we reach Kingsworthy, so called\nbecause it was once Crown property, a pretty little village with low\nsquare ivy-grown church-tower and lych-gate, and a charming\nold-fashioned inn standing a little back from the road.\n\n[Illustration: THATCHED COTTAGE, MARTYR WORTHY.]\n\nThe third of the Worthys, Abbotsworthy, is now united to Kingsworthy.\nPassing through its little street of houses, a mile farther on we reach\nMartyrsworthy, a still smaller village with another old Norman church\nand low thatched cottages, picturesquely placed near the banks of the\nriver, which is here crossed by a wooden foot-bridge. But all this part\nof the Itchen valley has the same charm. Everywhere we find the same old\nfarmhouses with mullioned windows and sundials and yew trees, the same\nstraggling roofs brilliant with yellow lichen, and the same cottages and\ngardens gay with lilies and phloxes, the same green lanes shaded with\ntall elms and poplars, the same low chalk hills and wooded distances\nclosing in the valley, and below the bright river winding its way\nthrough the cool meadows. \"The Itchen--the beautiful Itchen valley,\"\nexclaims Cobbett, as he rides along this vale of meadows. \"There are few\nspots in England more fertile, or more pleasant, none, I believe, more\nhealthy. The fertility of this vale and of the surrounding country is\nbest proved by the fact that, besides the town of Alresford and that of\nSouthampton, there are seventeen villages, each having its parish\nchurch, upon its borders. When we consider these things, we are not\nsurprised that a spot situated about half-way down this vale should have\nbeen chosen for the building of a city, or that that city should have\nbeen for a great number of years the place of residence for the kings of\nEngland.\"\n\n[Illustration: CHILLAND FARM, NEAR ITCHEN ABBAS.]\n\nTowards Itchen Abbas--of the Abbot--the valley opens, and we see the\nnoble avenues and spreading beeches of Avington Park, long the property\nof the Dukes of Chandos, and often visited by Charles II. while Wren was\nbuilding his red-brick palace at Winchester. Here the Merry Monarch\nfeasted his friends in a banqueting-hall that is now a greenhouse, and a\nroom in the old house bore the name of Nell Gwynne's closet. In those\ndays it was the residence of the notorious Lady Shrewsbury, afterwards\nthe wife of George Brydges, a member of the Chandos family, the lady\nwhose first husband, Francis, Earl of Shrewsbury, was slain fighting in\na duel with George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, while the Countess\nherself, disguised as a page, held her lover's horse.\n\nThe river winds through the park, and between the over-arching boughs of\nthe forest trees we catch lovely glimpses of wood and water. In the\nopposite direction, but also close to Itchen Abbas, is another\nwell-known seat, Lord Ashburton's famous Grange, often visited by\nCarlyle. Here the dark tints of yew and fir mingle with the bright hues\nof lime and beech and silver birch on the banks of a clear lake, and\nlong grassy glades lead up to wild gorse-grown slopes of open down.\nStill following the river banks we reach Itchen Stoke, another\npicturesque village with timbered cottages and mossy roofs. A little\nmodern church, with high-pitched roof and lancet windows having a\ncuriously foreign air, stands among the tall pines on a steep bank above\nthe stream. But here our pleasant journey along the fair Itchen valley\ncomes to an end, and, leaving the river-side, we climb the hilly road\nwhich leads us into Alresford.\n\nNew Alresford, a clean, bright little town, with broad street, planted\nwith rows of trees, boasts an antiquity which belies its name, and has\nbeen a market-town and borough from time immemorial. Like its yet more\nvenerable neighbour, Old Alresford, it was given by a king of the West\nSaxons to the prior and monks of St. Swithun at Winchester, and formed\npart of the vast possessions of the monastery at the Conquest. Both\nplaces took their name from their situation on a ford of the Arle or\nAlre river, a considerable stream which joins the Itchen below Avington,\nand is called by Leland the Alresford river. In the eleventh century New\nAlresford had fallen into decay, and probably owes its present existence\nto Bishop Godfrey Lucy, who rebuilt the town, and obtained a charter\nfrom King John restoring the market, which had fallen into disuse. At\nthe same time he gave the town the name of New Market, but the older one\nsurvived, and the Bishop's new title was never generally adopted. The\nsame energetic prelate bestowed a great deal of care and considerable\nattention on the water supply of Winchester, and made the Itchen\nnavigable all the way from Southampton to Alresford.\n\nIn recognition of this important service, Bishop Lucy received from King\nJohn the right of levying toll on all leather, hides, and other goods\nwhich entered Winchester by the river Itchen through this canal, a right\nwhich descended to his successors in the see. South-west of the town is\nthe large pond or reservoir which he made to supply the waters of the\nItchen. This lake, which still covers about sixty acres, is a well-known\nhaunt of moor-hens and other waterfowl, and the flags and bulrushes\nwhich fringe its banks make it a favourable resort of artists. Old\nAlresford itself, with its gay flower-gardens, tall elms, pretty old\nthatched cottages grouped round the village green, may well supply them\nwith more than one subject for pen and pencil.\n\n[Illustration: NEW ALRESFORD.]\n\nNew Alresford was at one time a flourishing centre of the cloth trade,\nin which the Winchester merchants drove so brisk a trade at St. Giles'\nFair. The manufacture of woollen cloth was carried on till quite recent\ntimes, and Dean Kitchin tells us that there are old men still living who\nremember driving with their fathers to the fair at Winchester on St.\nGiles' day, to buy a roll of blue cloth to provide the family suits for\nthe year. But New Alresford shared the decline as it had shared the\nprosperity of its more important neighbour, and suffered even more\nseverely than Winchester in the Civil Wars, when the town was almost\nentirely burnt down by Lord Hopton's troops after their defeat in\nCheriton fight. The scene of that hard-fought battle, which gave\nWinchester into Waller's hands and ruined the King's cause in the West\nof England, lies a few miles to the south of Alresford. Half-way between\nthe two is Tichborne Park, the seat of a family which has owned this\nestate from the days of Harold, and which took its name from the stream\nflowing through the parish, and called the Ticceborne in Anglo-Saxon\nrecords. In modern times a well-known case has given the name of\nTichborne an unenviable notoriety, but members of this ancient house\nhave been illustrious at all periods of our history, and the legend of\nthe Tichborne Dole so long associated with the spot deserves to be\nremembered. In the reign of Henry I., Isabella, the wife of Sir Roger\nTichborne, a lady whose long life had been spent in deeds of mercy,\nprayed her husband as she lay dying to grant her as much land as would\nenable her to leave a dole of bread for all who asked alms at the gates\nof Tichborne on each succeeding Lady Day. Sir Roger was a knight of\nsterner stuff, and seizing a flaming brand from the hearth he told his\nwife jestingly that she might have as much land as she could herself\nwalk over before the burning torch went out. Upon which the sick lady\ncaused herself to be borne from her bed to a piece of ground within the\nmanor, and crawled on her knees and hands until she had encircled\ntwenty-three acres. The actual plot of ground still bears the name of\nLady Tichborne's Crawles, and there was an old prophecy which said that\nthe house of Tichborne would only last as long as the dying bequest of\nIsabella was carried out. During the next six centuries, nineteen\nhundred small loaves were regularly distributed to the poor at the gates\non Lady Day, and a miraculous virtue was supposed to belong to bread\nthus bestowed. The custom was only abandoned a hundred years ago, owing\nto the number of idlers and bad characters which it brought into the\nneighbourhood, and a sum of money equal in amount to the Dole is given\nto the poor of the parish in its stead.\n\nWhether any of our Canterbury pilgrims stopped in their course to avail\nthemselves of the Tichborne Dole we cannot say, but there was a\nmanor-house of the Bishops of Winchester at Bishop Sutton, near\nAlresford, where they would no doubt find food and shelter. Nothing now\nremains of the episcopal palace, and no trace of its precincts is\npreserved but the site of the bishop's kennels.\n\nAfter crossing the river at Alresford the pilgrims turned north-east,\nand according to an old tradition their road led them through the parish\nof Ropley, a neighbouring village where Roman remains have been\ndiscovered. A little further on the same track, close to Rotherfield\nPark, where the modern mansion of Pelham now stands, was an ancient\nhouse which bore the name of Pilgrims' Place, and is indicated as such\nin old maps.\n\n[Illustration: THE HOG'S BACK.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nALTON TO COMPTON\n\n\nA few miles to the right of the road is a place which no pilgrim of\nmodern times can leave unvisited--Selborne, White's Selborne, the home\nof the gentle naturalist whose memory haunts these rural scenes. Here he\nlived in the picturesque house overgrown with creepers, with the sunny\ngarden and dial at the back, and the great spreading oak where he loved\nto study the ways of the owls, and the juniper tree, which, to his joy,\nsurvived the Siberian winter of 1776. And here he died, and lies buried\nin the quiet churchyard in the shade of the old yew tree where he so\noften stood to watch his favourite birds. Not a stone but what speaks of\nhim, not a turn in the village street but has its tale to tell. The\nplay-stow, or village green, which Adam de Gurdon granted to the\nAugustinian Canons of Selborne in the thirteenth century, where the\nprior held his market of old, and where young and old met on summer\nevenings under the big oak, and \"sat in quiet debate\" or \"frolicked and\ndanced\" before him; the farmhouse which now marks the site of the\nancient Priory itself, founded by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of\nWinchester, in 1232--he has described them all. How the good Canons grew\nlazy and secular in their ways after a time, how William of Wykeham\nfound certain of them professed hunters and sportsmen, and tried in vain\nto reform them, and how the estates were finally handed over to the new\ncollege of St. Mary Magdalene at Oxford, by its founder, William of\nWaynflete--Gilbert White has already told us. The Hanger, with its\nwooded slopes, rising from the back of his garden, and that \"noble\nchalk promontory\" of Nore Hill, planted with the beeches which he\ncalled the most lovely of all forest trees, how familiar they seem to\nus! Still the swifts wheel to and fro round the low church-tower, and\nthe crickets chirp in the long grass, and the white owl is heard at\nnight, just as when he used to linger under the old walls and watch\ntheir manners with infinite care and love.\n\n[Illustration: JANE AUSTEN'S HOUSE, CHAWTON.]\n\nOne of the \"rocky hollow lanes\" which lead towards Alton will take us\nback into the road, and bring us to Chawton, a village about a mile from\nthat town. The fine Elizabethan manor-house at the foot of the green\nknoll, and the grey church peeping out of the trees close by, have been\nfor centuries the home and burial-place of the Knights. On the south\nside of the chancel a black and white marble monument records the memory\nof that gallant cavalier, Sir Richard Knight, who risked life and\nfortune in the Royal cause, and was invested with the Order of the Royal\nOak by Charles II. after the Restoration. But it is as the place where\nJane Austen, in George Eliot's opinion, \"the greatest artist that has\never written,\" composed her novels, that Chawton is memorable. The\ncottage where she lived is still standing a few hundred yards from the\n\"great house,\" which was the home of the brother and nieces to whom she\nwas so fondly attached. She and her sister, Cassandra, settled there in\n1809, and remained there until May, 1817, when they moved to the corner\nhouse of College Street, Winchester, where three months afterwards she\ndied. During the eight years spent in this quiet home, Jane Austen\nattained the height of her powers and wrote her most famous novels,\nthose works which she herself said cost her so little, and which in\nTennyson's words have given her a place in English literature \"next to\nShakespeare.\" \"Sense and Sensibility,\" her first novel, was published\ntwo years after the move to Chawton. \"Persuasion,\" the last and most\nfinished of the immortal series, was only written in 1816, a year before\nher death. Seldom, indeed, has so great a novelist led so retired an\nexistence. The life at Chawton, so smooth in its even flow, with the\ndaily round of small excitements and quiet pleasures, the visits to the\n\"great house,\" and walks with her nieces in the woods, the shopping\nexpeditions to Alton, the talk about new bonnets and gowns, and the\nlatest news as to the births, deaths, and marriages of the numerous\nrelatives in Kent and Hampshire, are faithfully reflected in those\npleasant letters of Jane Austen, which her great-nephew, Lord Brabourne,\ngave to the world. There is a good deal about her flowers, her chickens,\nher niece's love affairs, the fancy work on which she is engaged, the\nimprovements in the house and garden--\"You cannot imagine,\" she writes\non one occasion, \"it is not in human nature to imagine, what a nice walk\nwe have round the orchard!\"--but very little indeed about her books.\nAlmost the only allusion we find to one of her characters is in 1816,\nwhen she writes to Fanny Knight of Anne Elliot in \"Persuasion.\" \"_You_\nmay perhaps like the heroine, as she is almost too good for me!\"\nAnything like fame or publicity was positively distasteful to her. She\nowns to feeling absolutely terrified when a lady in town asked to be\nintroduced to her, and then adds laughingly, \"If I am a wild beast I\ncannot help it, it is not my fault!\"\n\nCuriously enough, the Pilgrims' Way, in the later course of its path,\nbrings us to Godmersham, that other and finer home of the Knights on the\nKentish Downs, a place also associated with Jane Austen's life and\nletters, where she spent many pleasant hours in the midst of her family,\nenjoying the beauty of the spot and its cheerful surroundings. But\nChawton retains the supremacy as her own home, and as the scene of those\nliterary labours that were cut short, alas! too soon. \"What a pity,\" Sir\nWalter Scott exclaimed, after reading a book of hers, \"what a pity such\na gifted creature died so early!\"\n\n[Illustration: CHAWTON HOUSE]\n\nFrom Chawton it is a short mile to Alton, famous for its breweries and\nhop gardens, and its church door, riddled with the bullets of the\nRoundheads. Our way now leads us through the woods of Alice\nHolt--Aisholt--the Ash wood; like Woolmer, a royal forest from Saxon\ntimes. Alice Holt was renowned for the abundance of its fallow deer,\nwhich made it a favourite hunting ground with the Plantagenet kings, and\non one occasion Edward II., it is said, gave one of his scullions,\nMorris Ken, the sum of twenty shillings because he fell from his horse\nso often out hunting, \"which made the king laugh exceedingly.\"\nHere, too, after the battle of Evesham, Edward, Prince of Wales,\ndefeated Adam de Gurdon, one of Simon de Montfort's chief followers. He\nis said to have challenged the rebel baron to a single combat, in which\nGurdon was wounded and made prisoner, but the victor spared his life and\nafterwards obtained a royal pardon for his vanquished foe. A wild rugged\ntract of country, Alice Holt was a chosen haunt of robbers and outlaws,\nthe terror of the wealthy London merchants who journeyed to St. Giles'\nFair at Winchester, and in the fourteenth century the wardens of the\nfair kept five mounted serjeants-at-arms in the forest near Alton, for\ntheir protection at that season.\n\nSoon after leaving Alton the pilgrims would catch their first sight of\nthe river Wey, which rises close to the town. Along the banks of this\nstream, flowing as it does through some of the loveliest Surrey scenery,\ntheir road was now to lie, and not until they crossed St. Katherine's\nferry, at Guildford, were they finally to lose sight of its waters. The\nriver itself, more than one writer has suggested, may owe its name to\nthis circumstance, and have been originally called the Way river from\nthe ancient road which followed the early part of its course.\n\n[Illustration: FARNHAM CASTLE.]\n\nLeaving Froyle Park, Sir Hubert Miller's fine Jacobean house, on our\nleft, we pass Bentley Station, and, still following the river, join the\nPortsmouth road just before entering Farnham. This town, which takes its\nname from the commons overgrown with fern and heather still to be seen\nin the neighbourhood on the Surrey side, is now surrounded with hop\ngardens. It was among the earliest possessions of the Bishops of\nWinchester, and formed part of the land granted to St. Swithun, in 860,\nby Alfred's elder brother, Ethelbald, King of Wessex. The Castle-palace,\nwhich still looks proudly down on the streets of the little town, was\nfirst built by that magnificent prelate, Henry of Blois, but little of\nthe original building now remains except the offices, where some round\nNorman pillars may still be seen. Farnham Castle was partly destroyed by\nHenry III. during his wars with the barons, and suffered greatly at the\nhands of the rebels in the time of Charles I., but was afterwards\nrebuilt by Bishop Morley. Queen Elizabeth paid frequent visits here, and\non one occasion, while dining in the great hall with the Duke of\nNorfolk, who was suspected of planning a marriage with Mary Queen of\nScots, pleasantly advised the Duke to be careful on what pillow he laid\nhis head. The lawn, with its stately cedars and grass-grown moat,\ndeserves a visit, but the most interesting part of the building is the\nfine old keep with its massive buttresses and thirteenth-century arches,\ncommanding a wide view over the elm avenues of the park, and the commons\nwhich stretch eastward on the Surrey side. Prominent in the foreground\nare the picturesque heights of Crooksbury, crowned with those tall pines\nwhich Cobbett climbed when he was a boy, to take the nests of crows and\nmagpies.\n\nFarnham, it must be remembered, was the birthplace of this remarkable\nman, and it was at Ash, a small town at the foot of the Hog's Back, that\nhe died in 1835. All his life long he retained the fondest affection for\nthese scenes of his youth. In 1825 he brought his son Richard, then a\nboy of eleven, to see the little old house in the street where he had\nlived with his grandmother, and showed him the garden at Waverley where\nhe worked as a lad, the tree near the Abbey from which he fell into the\nriver in a perilous attempt to take a crow's nest, and the strawberry\nbeds where he gathered strawberries for Sir Robert Rich's table, taking\ncare to eat the finest! Among these hills and commons, where he followed\nthe hounds on foot at ten years old, and rode across country at\nseventy, we forget the political aspect of his life, his bitter\ninvectives against the Poor-laws and Paper-money, the National Debt and\nthe System, and think rather of his keen love of nature and delight in\nthe heaths, the sandy coppices, and forests of Surrey and Hampshire. And\nnow he sleeps in the church of Farnham, where he desired to be buried,\nin the heart of the wild scenery which he loved so well.\n\n[Illustration: CROOKSBURY FROM NEWLANDS CORNER.]\n\nJust under Crooksbury, that \"grand scene\" of Cobbett's \"exploits,\" lies\nMoor Park, the retreat of Sir William Temple in his old age, which\nseemed to him, to quote his own words, \"the sweetest place, I think,\nthat I have ever seen in my life, either before or since, at home or\nabroad.\" There we may still see the gardens which the statesman of the\nTriple Alliance laid out after the fashion of those which he remembered\nin Holland, where he enjoyed the companionship of his beloved sister,\nLady Giffard, and where his heart lies buried under the sundial. Here\nSwift lived as his secretary, and learnt from King William III. how to\ncut asparagus; here he wrote the \"Tale of a Tub,\" and made love to Mrs.\nHester Johnson, Lady Giffard's pretty black-eyed waiting-maid. The\nmemory of that immortal love-story has not yet perished, and the house\nwhere she lived is still known as Stella's Cottage. Here, too, just\nbeyond Moor Park, on the banks of the Wey, are the ruins of Waverley\nAbbey, the first Cistercian house ever founded in England, often\ndescribed as \"le petit C\u00eeteaux,\" and the mother of many other abbeys.\n\nThe more distinguished pilgrims who stopped at Farnham would taste the\nhospitality of the monks of Waverley, and Henry III. was on one\noccasion their guest. The Abbot of Waverley, too, was a great personage\nin these parts, and his influence extended over several parishes through\nwhich the pilgrims had to pass, although the privileges which he claimed\nwere often disputed by the Prior of Newark, the other ecclesiastical\nmagnate who reigned in this part of Surrey. Pilgrims of humbler rank\nwould find ample accommodation in the ancient hostelries of Farnham,\nwhich was at that time a place of considerable importance, and returned\ntwo members to Edward II.'s Parliament.\n\nTheir onward course now lay along the banks of the Wey until they\nreached the foot of the narrow, curiously shaped chalk ridge known as\nthe Hog's Back. Here, at a place called Whiteway End, the end of the\nwhite chalk road, two roads divide. Both lead to Guildford, the one\nkeeping on the crest of the ridge, the other along its southern slope.\n\nThe upper road has become an important thoroughfare in modern times, and\nis now the main road from Farnham to Guildford; the lower is a grassy\nlane, not always easy to follow, and little used in places, which leads\nthrough the parishes of Seale, Puttenham, and Compton, the bright little\nvillages which stud the sides of the Hog's Back. This green woodland\npath under the downs was the ancient British and Roman track along which\nthe Canterbury pilgrims journeyed, and which is still in some places\nspoken of by the inhabitants as the Way. Other names in local use bear\nthe same witness. Beggar's Corner and Robber's or Roamer's Moor are\nsupposed to owe their appellations to the pilgrims: while the ivy-grown\nmanor-house of Shoelands, bearing the date of 1616 on its porch, is said\nto take its name from the word \"to shool,\" which in some dialects has\nthe same meaning as \"to beg.\"\n\nAnother trace of the Pilgrimage is to be found in the local fairs which\nare still held in the towns and villages along the road, and which were\nfixed at those periods of the year when the pilgrims would be either\ngoing to Canterbury or returning from there. Thus we find that at\nGuildford the chief fair took place at Christmas, when the pilgrims\nwould be on their way to the winter festival of St. Thomas, and was\nonly altered to September in 1312, by which time the original day of the\nSaint's martyrdom had ceased to be as popular as the summer feast. Again\nthe great fair at Shalford was fixed for the Feast of the Assumption,\nthe 15th of August, so as to catch the stream of pilgrims which flowed\nback from Canterbury after the Feast of the Translation in July, and the\nseven days' fair there, that went by the name of Becket's fair. Fairs\nsoon came to be held not only at towns such as Farnham, Guildford, and\nShalford, but at the small villages along the Pilgrims' Road. There was\none in the churchyard at Puttenham, and another at Wanborough, a church\non the northern side of the hill, which belonged to Waverley Abbey,\nwhere the offerings made by the pilgrims formed part of the payments\nyearly received by the Abbot, while a third was held on St. Katharine's\nHill during five days in September.\n\nEven the churches along the road often owed their existence to the\nPilgrimage. The church of Seale was built early in the thirteenth\ncentury by the Abbots of Waverley, and that of Wanborough was rebuilt\nby the same Abbots, and was again allowed to fall into decay when the\ndays of pilgrimages were over. Both the sister chapels of St. Katharine\nand St. Martha, we shall see, owed their restoration to the pilgrims'\npassage, and many more along the Way were either raised in honour of St.\nThomas, or else adorned with frescoes and altar-pieces of the Martyrdom.\n\nAlong this pleasant Surrey hill-side the old Canterbury pilgrims\njourneyed, going from church to church, from shrine to shrine, and more\nespecially if their pilgrimage took place in summer, enjoying the sweet\ncountry air and leafy shades of this quiet woodland region. They\nlingered, we may well believe, at the village fairs, and stopped at\nevery town to see the sights and hear the news; for the pilgrim of\nmedi\u00e6val days was, as Dean Stanley reminds us, a traveller with the same\nadventures, stories, pleasures, pains, as the traveller of our own\ntimes, and men of every type and class set out on pilgrimages much as\ntourists to-day start on a foreign trip. Some, no doubt, undertook the\njourney from devotion, and more in a vague hope of reaping some profit,\nboth material and spiritual, from a visit to the shrine of the\nall-powerful Saint, while a thousand other motives--curiosity, love of\nchange and adventure, the pleasure of a journey--prompted the crowds who\nthronged the road at certain seasons of the year. Chaucer's company of\npilgrims we know was a motley crew, and included men and women whose\ncharacters were as varied as their rank and trade. With them came a\nthrong of jugglers and story-tellers and minstrels, who beguiled the way\nwith music and laughter as they rode or walked along, so that \"every\ntown they came through, what with the noise of their singing, and with\nthe sound of their piping, and with the jangling of their Canterbury\nbells, and with the barking of the dogs after them, they made more noise\nthan if the king came there with all his clarions.\" In their train, too,\na crowd of idle folk, of roving pedlars and begging friars and lazy\ntramps, who were glad of any excuse to beg a crust or coin.\n\nThe presence of these last was by no means always welcome at the inns\nand religious houses on the road, where doubtful characters often\ncraved admittance, knowing that if the hand of justice overtook them\nthey could always find refuge in one of those churches where the rights\nof sanctuary were so resolutely claimed and so jealously defended by the\nAbbot of Waverley or the Prior of Newark.\n\n[Illustration: COMPTON VILLAGE.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nCOMPTON TO SHALFORD\n\n\nFollowing the Pilgrims' Way along the southern slopes of the Hog's Back,\nwe cross Puttenham Heath, and reach the pretty little village of\nCompton. Here, nestling under the downs, a few hundred yards from the\ntrack, is a beautiful old twelfth-century church, which was there before\nthe days of St. Thomas. This ancient structure, dedicated to St.\nNicholas, still retains some good stained glass and boasts a unique\nfeature in the shape of a double-storied chancel. The east end of the\nchurch is crossed by a low semicircular arch enriched with Norman\nzigzag moulding, and surmounted by a rude screen, which is said to be\nthe oldest piece of wood-work in England. Both the upper and the lower\nsanctuaries have piscinas, and there is an Early English one in the\nsouth aisle. The massive bases of the chalk pillars, the altar-tomb\nnorth of the chancel--probably an Eastern sepulchre--and a hagioscope\nnow blocked up, all deserve attention, as well as the fine Jacobean\npulpit and chancel screen, which is now placed under the tower arch.\n\n[Illustration: COMPTON CHURCH.]\n\n[Illustration: LOSELEY.]\n\nA mile to the west of this singularly interesting church is Loseley, the\nhistoric mansion of the More and Molyneux family. This manor was Crown\nproperty in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and is described in\nDomesday Book as the property of the Norman Roger de Montgomery, Earl of\nShrewsbury, on whom it was bestowed by the Conqueror. After passing\nthrough many hands it was finally bought from the Earl of Gloucester,\nearly in the sixteenth century, by Sir Christopher More, whose son, Sir\nWilliam, built the present mansion. The grand old house with its\ngrey-stone gables and mullioned windows is a perfect specimen of\nElizabethan architecture. The broad grass terrace along the edge of the\nmoat, the yew hedges with their glossy hues of green and purple, the\nold-fashioned borders full of bright flowers, and the low pigeon-houses\nstanding at each angle, all remain as they were in the reign of James\nI., and agree well with Lord Bacon's idea of what a pleasance ought to\nbe. Within, the walls are wainscoted with oak panelling throughout, and\nthe ceilings and mantelpieces are richly decorated. The cross and\nmulberry tree of the Mores, with their mottoes, may still be seen in the\nstained-glass oriel of the great hall, and on the cornices of the\ndrawing-room. Here too is a fine mantelpiece, carved in white chalk,\nwhich is said to have been designed by Hans Holbein. Many are the royal\nvisitors who have left memorials of their presence at Loseley. Queen\nElizabeth had an especial affection for the place, and was here three\ntimes. The cushioned seats of two gilt chairs were worked by her needle,\nand there is a painted panel bearing the quaint device of a flower-pot\nwith the red and white roses of York and Lancaster, and the\nfleur-de-lis, with the words _Rosa Electa_ and _Felicior Phoenice_, a\npretty conceit which would not fail to find favour in the eyes of the\nVirgin Queen. The hall contains portraits of James I. and his wife Anne\nof Denmark, painted by Mytens in honour of a visit which they paid to\nLoseley in the first year of this monarch's reign; and the ceiling of\nhis Majesty's bedroom is elaborately patterned over with stucco reliefs\nof Tudor roses and lilies and thistles. A likeness of Anne Boleyn, and\nseveral fine portraits of members of the More family, also adorn the\nwalls, and there is a beautiful little picture of the boy-king, Edward\nVI., wearing an embroidered crimson doublet and jewelled cap and\nfeather, painted by some clever pupil of Holbein in 1547. This portrait\nwas sent in 1890 to the Tudor Exhibition, which also contained many\nhistorical documents relating to different personages of this royal\nline, preserved among the Loseley manuscripts. There are warrants signed\nby Edward VI., the Lord Protector, by Queen Elizabeth and the Lord of\nher Council, including Hatton the Lord Chancellor, Cecil, Lord Burghley,\nLord Effingham, and Lord Derby. There is one of 1540, signed by Henry\nVIII., commanding Christopher More, Sheriff of the County of Sussex, to\ndeliver certain goods forfeited to the crown to \"Katheryn Howarde, one\nof our quene's maidens,\" and another, signed by Elizabeth in the first\nyear of her reign, commanding William More to raise and equip one\nhundred able men, for the defence of England against foreign invasion.\nThere is also a curious sumptuary proclamation by Queen Elizabeth\nrespecting the dress and ornaments of women, and, what is still more\nrare and interesting, a warrant from Lady Jane Grey, dated July 19, I.\nJane, and signed \"Jane the Quene.\" Among the more private and personal\npapers is an amusing letter from Robert Horne, Bishop of Winchester,\ngiving Mr. More, of Loseley, advice as to stocking the new pond with the\nbest kind of carp, \"thes be of a little heade, broade side and not long;\nsoche as be great headed and longe, made after the fashion of an\nherring, are not good, neither will ever be.\" Another from Bishop Day\ninforms Sir William More, in 1596, that he intends to fish the little\npond at Frensham; while one to the same gentleman from Alexander Nowell,\nDean of St. Paul's, thanks him for his exertions to recover a stolen nag\non his behalf. The treasures of Loseley, in fact, are as inexhaustible\nas its beauty.\n\nA pleasant walk through the forest trees and grassy glades of the park\nleads us back to Compton village and the green lanes through which the\nPilgrims' Way now wanders. Skirting the grounds of Monk's Hatch, with\ntheir pine-groves and rose-gardens lying under the chalk hanger, the old\nroad passes close to Limnerslease, the Surrey home of George Frederic\nWatts. To-day thousands of pilgrims from all parts of the world seek out\nthis sylvan retreat where the great master spent his last years, and\nvisit the treasures of art which adorn its galleries, and the fair\nchapel and cloister that mark the painter's grave.\n\n[Illustration: ST. KATHERINE'S, GUILDFORD.]\n\n[Illustration: ST. MARTHA'S CHAPEL.]\n\nFrom Compton a path known as \"Sandy Lane\" leads over the hill past\nBraboeuf Manor, and the site of the old roadside shrine of Littleton\nCross, and comes out on the open down, close to the chapel of St.\nKatherine. This now ruined shrine, which stands on a steep bank near the\nroad, was rebuilt on the site of a still older one in 1317, by Richard\nde Wauncey, Rector of St. Nicholas, Guildford, and was much frequented\nby pilgrims to Canterbury. So valuable were the revenues derived by the\nparson from their offerings that the original grant made to Richard de\nWauncey was disputed, and for some years the Rector of St. Mary stepped\ninto his rights. But in 1329 the Rector of St. Nicholas succeeded in\nousting his rival, and the chapel was re-consecrated and attached to the\nparish of St. Nicholas. An old legend ascribes the building of this\nshrine and of the chapel on St. Martha's Hill to two giant sisters of\nprim\u00e6val days, who raised the walls with their own hands and flung\ntheir enormous hammer backwards and forwards from one hill to the\nother. Unlike its more fortunate sister-shrine, St. Katherine's chapel\nhas long been roofless and dismantled, but it still forms a very\npicturesque object in the landscape, and the pointed arches of its\nbroken windows frame in lovely views of the green meadows of the\nwinding Wey, with the castle and churches of Guildford at our feet, and\nthe hills and commons stretching far away, to the blue ridge of\nHindhead.\n\n[Illustration: THE HOSPITAL, GUILDFORD. p. 72]\n\nThe ancient city of Guildford owes its name and much of its historic\nrenown to its situation on the chief ford of the river Wey, which here\nmakes a break in the ridge of chalk downs running across Surrey.\nGuildford is mentioned in his will by King Alfred, who left it to his\nnephew Ethelwold, and became memorable as the spot where another Alfred,\nthe son of Knut and Emma, was treacherously seized and murdered by Earl\nGodwin, who, standing on the eastern slope of the Hog's Back above the\ncity, bade the young prince look back and see how large a kingdom would\nbe his. For seven centuries, from the days of the Saxon kings to those\nof the Stuarts, Guildford remained Crown property, and the Norman keep\nwhich still towers grandly above the city was long a royal palace. The\nstrength of the castle and importance of the position made it famous in\nthe wars of the barons, and the Waverley annalist records its surrender\nto Louis VIII. of France, when he marched against King John from\nSandwich Haven to Winchester. To-day the picturesqueness of the streets,\nthe gabled roofs and panelled houses, and even more the situation of the\ntown in the heart of this fair district, attract many artists, and make\nit a favourite centre for tourists.\n\n[Illustration: THE HOG'S BACK.]\n\nIn medi\u00e6val times Guildford was a convenient halting-place for pilgrims\non their way from the south and west of England to the shrine of St.\nThomas. Many of these, however, as the shrewd parson of St. Nicholas\nsaw, when he thought it worth his while to buy the freehold of the site\non which St. Katherine's chapel stood, would push on and cross the river\nby the ferry at the foot of the hill, which still bears the name of the\nPilgrims' Ferry. On landing they found themselves in the parish of\nShalford, in the meadows where the great fair was held each year in\nAugust. When the original charter was granted by King John, the fair\ntook place in the churchyard, but soon the concourse of people became so\ngreat that it spread into the fields along the river, and covered as\nmuch as one hundred and forty acres of ground. Shalford Fair seems, in\nfact, to have been the most important one in this part of Surrey, and no\ndoubt owed its existence to the passage of the Canterbury pilgrims.\n\n[Illustration: ST. MARTHA'S FROM THE HOG'S BACK.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nSHALFORD TO ALBURY\n\n\nThe line of the Pilgrims' Way may be clearly followed from the banks of\nthe Wey up the hill. It goes through Shalford Park, up Ciderhouse Lane,\nwhere the ancient Pesthouse or refuge for sick pilgrims and travellers,\nnow called Ciderhouse Cottage, is still standing, and leads through the\nChantrey Woods straight to St. Martha's Chapel.\n\nThe district through which it takes us is one of the wildest and\nloveliest parts of Surrey. \"Very few prettier rides in England,\" remarks\nCobbett, who repeatedly travelled along this track, and the beauty of\nthe views all along its course will more than repay the traveller who\nmakes his way on foot over the hills from Guildford to Dorking. One of\nthe most extensive is to be had from St. Martha's Hill, where the\nprospect ranges in one direction over South Leith Hill and the South\nDowns far away to the Weald of Sussex and the well-known clump of\nChanctonbury Ring; and on the other over the commons and moors to the\ncrests of Hindhead and the Hog's Back; while looking northward we have a\nwide view over the Surrey plains and the valley of the Thames, and\nWindsor Castle and the dome of St. Paul's may be distinguished on clear\ndays.\n\nThe ancient chapel on the summit, which gives its name to St. Martha's\nHill, was originally built in memory of certain Christians who suffered\nmartyrdom on the spot, and was formerly dedicated to all holy martyrs,\nwhile the hill itself was known as the Martyrs' Hill, of which, as\nGrose remarks,[8] \"the present name is supposed to be a corruption.\" In\nthe twelfth century it became peculiarly associated with the Canterbury\npilgrims, and a new chancel was built for their use, and consecrated to\nSt. Thomas \u00e0 Becket in the year 1186. In 1262 this chapel was attached\nto the Priory of Newark, an Augustinian convent near Ripley, dedicated\nto St. Thomas of Canterbury by Ruald de Calva in the reign of Richard\nCoeur de Lion. The Prior already owned most of the hill-side, and the\nnames of Farthing Copse and Halfpenny Lane, through which the pilgrims\npassed on their way to St. Martha's Chapel, remind us of the tolls which\nhe levied from all who travelled along the road. We have already seen\nhow in the earlier portions of the Way the Prior of Newark disputed the\nrights of the Abbot of Waverley. Here he reigned supreme. A priest from\nNewark Priory served St. Martha's Chapel, and is said to have lived at\nTyting's Farm, an old gabled house with the remains of a small oratory\nclose to the Pilgrims' Way. In latter days a colony of monks from\nNewark settled at Chilworth, where the present manor-house contains\nfragments of monastic building, and the fishponds of the friars may\nstill be seen near the terraced gardens. During the troubled times of\nthe Wars of the Roses the Chapel of St. Martha fell into ruins, and owed\nits restoration to Bishop William of Waynflete, who in 1463 granted\nforty days' indulgence to all pilgrims who should visit the shrine and\nthere repeat a Pater Noster, an Ave, and a Credo, or contribute to its\nrepair. After the dissolution of the monasteries both Newark Priory and\nSt. Martha's shrine fell into ruins, and the chapel was only restored of\nlate years. At Chilworth, south of St. Martha's Hill, lies the once fair\nvalley which has been defaced by the powder-mills, first established\nthere three centuries ago by an ancestor of John Evelyn, and now worked\nby steam. This is the place which Cobbett denounces in his \"Rural Rides\"\nwith a vigour and eloquence worthy of Mr. Ruskin himself:\n\n\"This valley, which seems to have been created by a bountiful Providence\nas one of the choicest retreats of man, which seems formed for a scene\nof innocence and happiness, has been by ungrateful man so perverted as\nto make it instrumental in effecting two of the most damnable of\npurposes, in carrying into execution two of the most damnable inventions\nthat ever sprang from the mind of man under the influence of the devil!\nnamely, the making of gunpowder and of bank-notes! Here, in this\ntranquil spot, where the nightingales are to be heard earlier and later\nin the year than in any other part of England; where the first budding\nof the buds is seen in spring; where no rigour of season can ever be\nfelt; where everything seems formed for precluding the very thought of\nwickedness; here has the devil fixed on as one of the seats of this\ngrand manufactory; and perverse and ungrateful man not only lends his\naid, but lends it cheerfully. To think that the springs which God has\ncommanded to flow from the sides of these happy hills for the comfort\nand delight of man--to think that these springs should be perverted into\nmeans of spreading misery over a whole nation!\"\n\nOne of these \"inventions of the devil\" has been removed. The paper-mills\nwhich made the bank-notes in Cobbett's time are silent now, but the\npowder-mills are in full activity, and Chilworth, with its coal-stores\nand railway-crossing, has a blackened and desolate look which not all\nthe natural beauties of its surroundings can dispel.\n\n[Illustration: ST. MARTHA'S FROM CHILWORTH.]\n\nOnce more upon the hills, we can follow the line of yews which are seen\nat intervals along the ridge from St. Martha's Chapel by Weston Wood and\nthe back of Albury Park, turning a few steps out of our path to visit\nNewland's Corner, the highest point of Albury Downs, and one of the most\nbeautiful spots in the whole of Surrey. The view is as extensive as that\nfrom St. Martha's Hill, and is even more varied and picturesque. Over\nbroken ridges of heathery down and gently swelling slopes, clad with\nbeech and oak woods, we look across to Ewhurst Mill, a conspicuous\nlandmark in all this country, and farther westward to the towers of\nCharterhouse and the distant heights of Hindhead and Blackdown; while\nimmediately in front, across the wooded valley, rises St. Martha's Hill,\ncrowned by its ancient chapel. Here we can watch the changes of sun\nand shower over the wide expanse of level country, and see the long\nrange of far hills veiled in the thin blue mists of morning, or turning\npurple under the gold of the evening sky. Some of the oldest and finest\nyew trees in all Surrey are close to Newland's Corner--the ancient yew\ngrove there is mentioned in Domesday--and their dark foliage offers a\nfine contrast to the bright tints of the neighbouring woods and to the\nsnowy masses of blossom which in early summer clothe the gnarled old\nhawthorn trees that are studded over the hill-side. We can follow the\ntrack over the springy turf of the open downs and up glades thick with\nbracken, till it becomes choked with bushes and brambles, and finally\nloses itself in the woods of Albury.\n\nHere, in the middle of the Duke of Northumberland's park, is the deep\nglen, surrounded by wooded heights, known as the Silent Pool. A dark\ntale, which Martin Tupper has made the subject of his \"Stephen Langton,\"\nbelongs to this lonely spot. King John, tradition says, loved a fair\nwoodman's daughter who lived here, and surprised her in the act of\nbathing in the pool. The frightened girl let loose the branch by which\nshe held, and was drowned in the water; and her brother, a goat-herd,\nwho at the sound of her scream had rushed in after her, shared the same\nfate. And still, the legend goes, at midnight you may see a black-haired\nmaiden clasping her arms round her brother in his cowhide tunic under\nthe clear rippling surface of the Silent Pool.\n\nA little farther on is the old church of Albury--Eldeburie, mentioned in\nDomesday, and supposed to be the most ancient in Surrey. The low tower,\nwith its narrow two-light windows, probably dates back to very early\nNorman times, but the rest of the church is considerably later. The\nsouth chapel was richly decorated by Mr. Drummond, who bought the place\nin 1819, and is now used as a mortuary chapel for his family. Albury\nformerly belonged to the Dukes of Norfolk. The gardens were originally\nlaid out by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, the accomplished collector\nof the Arundel marbles, and whose fine portrait by Vandyck was\nexhibited at Burlington House in the winter of 1891. His friend and\nneighbour, Mr. Evelyn, helped him with his advice and taste, and\ndesigned the grotto under the hill, which still remains. \"Such a\nPausilippe,\" remarks the author of \"The Sylva,\" \"is nowhere in England\nbesides.\" But the great ornament of Albury is the famous yew hedge,\nabout ten feet high and a quarter of a mile long, probably the finest of\nits kind in England. So thick are the upper branches of the yew trees\nthat, as William Cobbett writes, when he visited Albury in Mr.\nDrummond's time, they kept out both the rain and sun, and alike in\nsummer and winter afford \"a most delightful walk.\" The grand terrace\nunder the hill, \"thirty or forty feet wide, and a quarter of a mile\nlong, of the finest green-sward, and as level as a die,\" particularly\ndelighted him; and the careful way in which the fruit trees were\nprotected from the wind, and the springs along the hill-side collected\nto water the garden, gratified his practical mind. \"Take it altogether,\"\nhe goes on, \"this certainly is the prettiest garden that I ever beheld.\nThere was taste and sound judgment at every step in the laying out of\nthis place. Everywhere utility and convenience is combined with beauty.\nThe terrace is by far the finest thing of the sort that I ever saw, and\nthe whole thing altogether is a great compliment to the taste of the\ntimes in which it was formed.\" The honest old reformer's satisfaction in\nthese gardens was increased by the reflection that the owner was worthy\nof his estate, seeing that he was famed for his justice and kindness\ntowards the labouring classes--\"who, God knows, have very few friends\namongst the rich;\" and adds, that he for one has no sympathy with \"the\nfools\" who want a revolution for the purpose of getting hold of other\npeople's property. \"There are others who like pretty gardens as well as\nI, and if the question were to be decided according to the laws of the\nstrongest, or, as the French call it, _droit du plus fort_, my chance\nwould be but a very poor one.\"\n\n[Illustration: ALBURY OLD CHURCH.]\n\n[Illustration: THE MILL, GOMSHALL.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nSHERE TO REIGATE\n\n\nThe Pilgrims' Way ran through Albury Park, passing close to the old\nchurch and under the famous yew hedge, and crossed the clear trout\nstream of the Tillingbourne by a ford still known as \"Chantry Ford.\"\nHere a noble avenue of lime trees brings us to Shere church, a building\nas remarkable for the beauty of its situation as for its architectural\ninterest. The lovely Early English doorway, the heavy transitional\narches of the nave and the fourteenth-century chancel are still unhurt,\nand among the fragments of old glass we recognise the flax-breaker,\nwhich was the crest of the Brays, one of the oldest families in the\ncounty, who are, we rejoice to think, still represented here. Shere\nitself is one of the most charming villages in all this lovely\nneighbourhood. For many years now it has been a favourite resort of\nartistic and literary men, who find endless delight in the quiet beauty\nof the surrounding country. Subjects for pen and pencil abound in all\ndirections; quaint old timbered houses, picturesque water-mills and\nbarns, deep ferny lanes shaded by overhanging trees, and exquisite\nglimpses of heather-clad downs meet us at every turn. Fair as the scene\nis, travellers are seldom seen in these hilly regions; and so complete\nis the stillness, so pure the mountain air, that we might almost fancy\nourselves in the heart of the Highlands, instead of thirty miles from\ntown. Here it was, in the midst of the wild scenery of these Surrey\nHills, that a sudden end closed the life of a great prelate of our own\ndays, Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Winchester. A granite cross at\nEvershed's Rough, just below Lord Farrer's house at Abinger Hall, now\nmarks the spot where his horse stumbled and fell as he rode down the\nhill towards Holmbury on that summer afternoon.\n\n[Illustration: SHERE.]\n\n[Illustration: CROSSWAYS FARM, NEAR WOTTON.[9]]\n\nAbout a mile beyond Abinger we reach the home of John Evelyn, and see\nthe grey tower of the church where he is buried. This is Wotton--the\ntown of the woods, as he loved to call it--\"sweetly environed\" with\n\"venerable woods and delicious streams;\" Wotton where, after all his\nwanderings and all the turmoil of those troublous times, Evelyn found a\npeaceful haven wherein to end his days. There are the terraces, the\n\"fountains and groves,\" in which he took delight; there, too, are the\npine-woods which he planted, not only for ornament, and because they\n\"create a perpetual spring,\" but because he held the air to be improved\nby their \"odoriferous and balsamical emissions.\" Not only these trees,\nbut the oak and ash, and all the different species which he studied so\nclosely and has written about so well, were dear to him as his own\nchildren, and he speaks in pathetic language of the violent storm which\nblew down two thousand of his finest trees in a single night, and almost\nwithin sight of his dwelling, and left Wotton, \"now no more Woodtonn,\nstripped and naked, and almost ashamed to own its name. Methinks that I\nstill hear, and I am sure that I feel, the dismal groans of our\nforests, when that late dreadful hurricane, happening on the 26th of\nNovember, 1703, subverted so many thousands of goodly oaks, prostrating\nthe trees, laying them in ghastly postures, like whole regiments fallen\nin battle by the sword of the conqueror, and crushing all that grew\nbeneath them.\" Evelyn's descendants have bestowed the same care on the\nwoods and plantations, and in spite of the havoc wrought by wind and\ntempest, Wotton is still remarkable for the beauty of its forest-trees\nand masses of flowering rhododendrons.\n\n[Illustration: WOTTON.]\n\nThe red-brick house has been a good deal altered during the present\ncentury, but is still full of memorials of Evelyn. His portrait, and\nthat of his wife and father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne, are there, and\nthat of his \"angelic friend,\" Mistress Blagge, the wife of Godolphin,\nwhose beautiful memory he has enshrined in the pages of the little\nvolume that bears her name. The drawings which he made on his foreign\ntravels are there too; and better still, the books in which he took such\npride and pleasure, carefully bound, bearing on their backs a device and\nmotto which he chose, a spray of oak, palm, and olive entwined\ntogether, with the words, \"Omnia explorate; meliora retinete.\" But the\nmost precious relic of all is the Prayer Book used by Charles I. on the\nmorning of his execution. It was saved from destruction by a devoted\nloyalist, Isaac Herault, brother of a Walloon minister in London, and\nafterwards given by him to Evelyn's father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne.\nThe fly-leaf bears a Latin inscription with this note:--This is the\nBooke which Charles the First, _Martyr beatus_, did use upon the\nScaffold, XXX Jan., 1649, being the Day of his glorious martyrdom.\"\n\nThe exact course of the Pilgrims' Way here is uncertain. After leaving\nShere church it disappears, and we must climb a steep lane past Gomshall\nstation, to find the track again on Hackhurst Downs. The line of yews is\nto be seen at intervals all along these downs, and as we descend into\nthe valley of the Mole, opposite the heights of Box Hill, we pass four\nvenerable yew trees standing in a field by themselves. One of the group\nwas struck by lightning many years ago, but still stretches its gaunt,\nwithered arms against the sky, like some weather-beaten sign-post\nmarking the way to Canterbury.\n\n[Illustration: BOX HILL AND DORKING CHURCH SPIRE.]\n\nThe town of Dorking lies in the break here made in the chalk hills by\nthe passage of the river Mole; Milton's \"sullen Mole that windeth\nunderground,\" or, as Spenser sings in his \"Fa\u00ebrie Queen,\"--\n\n    \"Mole, that like a mousling mole doth make\n     His way still underground, till Thames he overtake.\"\n\n[Illustration: THE WHITE HORSE, DORKING.]\n\nThe Mole owes its fame to the fact that it is so seldom seen, and\nseveral of the swallows or gullies into which it disappears at intervals\nalong its chalky bed are at Burford, close to Dorking. The ponds which\nsupplied the perch for that _water-sousie_ which Dutch merchants came to\neat at Dorking, are still to be seen in the fields under Redhill, and\nnear them many an old timbered house and mill-wheel well worth\npainting.\n\n[Illustration: BETWEEN DORKING AND BETCHWORTH LOOKING WEST.]\n\nTo-day Dorking is a quiet, sleepy little place, but its situation on the\nStane Street, the great Roman road from Chichester to London, formerly\nmade it a centre of considerable importance, and the size and excellence\nof the old-fashioned inns still bear witness to its departed grandeur.\nWhether, as seems most probable, the old road ran under the wall of\nDenbies Park, and across the gap now made by the Dorking lime works, or\nwhether, as the Ordnance map indicates, it crossed the breezy heights\nof Ranmore Common, pilgrims to Canterbury certainly crossed the Mole at\nBurford Bridge about half a mile from the town. The remains of an\nancient shrine known as the Pilgrims' Chapel are still shown in\nWesthumble Lane. The path itself bears the name of Paternoster Lane, and\nthe fields on either side are called the Pray Meadows. From this point\nthe path runs along under Boxhill, the steep down that rises abruptly on\nthe eastern side of Dorking, and takes its name from the box-trees which\nhere spring up so plentifully in the smooth green turf above the chalk.\nBoxhill is, we all know, one of the chief attractions which Dorking\noffers to Londoners. The other is to be found in the fine parks of\nDeepdene and Betchworth, immediately adjoining the town. The famous\ngardens and art collections of Deepdene, and the noble lime avenue of\nBetchworth, which now forms part of the same estate, have often been\nvisited and described. The house at Deepdene is now closed to the\npublic, but the traveller can still stroll under the grand old trees on\nthe river bank, and enjoy a wealthy variety of forest scenery almost\nunrivalled in England. A picturesque bridge over the Mole leads back to\nthe downs on the opposite side of the valley, where the old track\npursues its way along the lower slope of the hills, often wending its\ncourse through ploughed fields and tangled thickets and disappearing\naltogether in places where chalk quarries and lime works have cut away\nthe face of the down. But on the whole the line of yews which mark the\nroad is more regular between Dorking and Reigate than in its earlier\ncourse, and at Buckland, a village two miles west of Reigate, a whole\nprocession of these trees descends into the valley.\n\n[Illustration: ON \"THE WAY\" ABOVE BETCHWORTH.]\n\nAll this part of the road is rich in Roman remains. Of these one of the\nmost interesting was the building discovered in 1875, at Colley Farm, in\nthe parish of Reigate, just south of the Way. Not only were several\ncinerary urns and fragments of Roman pottery dug up, but the walls of a\nRoman building were found under those of the present farmhouse. Some\ntwenty years ago a similar building was discovered at Abinger, also in\nthe immediate vicinity of the track, but unfortunately it was\ncompletely destroyed in the absence of the owner, Sir Thomas Farrer.\nAnother Roman house came to light in 1813, at Bletchingley, and one\nchamber, which appeared to be a hypocaust, was excavated at the time.\nLastly, considerable Roman remains have been discovered and carefully\nexcavated by Mr. Leveson-Gower in the park at Titsey. Of these the most\nimportant are a Roman villa, which was thoroughly excavated in 1864,\ntogether with a group of larger buildings, apparently the farm belonging\nto the ancient house. These are only a few of the principal links in the\nchain of Roman buildings which lie along the course of this ancient\ntrackway, and which all help to prove its importance as a thoroughfare\nat the time of the Roman occupation.\n\nAnother point of interest regarding this part of the Pilgrims' Way is\nits connection with John Bunyan. When his peculiar opinions and open-air\npreachings had brought him into trouble with the authorities, he came to\nhide in these Surrey hills, and earned his living for some time as a\ntravelling tinker. Two houses, one at Horn Hatch, on Shalford Common,\nthe other at Quarry Hill, in Guildford, are still pointed out as having\nbeen inhabited by him at this time; and a recent writer[10] has\nsuggested that in all probability the recollections of Pilgrimage days,\nthen fresh in the minds of the people, first gave him the idea of his\n\"Pilgrim's Progress.\" Certainly more than one incident in the history of\nthe road bears a close resemblance to the tale of Christian's\nadventures. Thus, for instance, the swampy marshes at Shalford may have\nbeen the Slough of Despond, the blue Surrey hills seen from the distance\nmay well have seemed to him the Delectable Mountains, and the name of\nDoubting Castle actually exists at a point of the road near Box Hill.\nLastly, the great fair at Shalford corresponds exactly with Bunyan's\ndescription of Vanity Fair, no newly erected business, but \"a thing of\nancient standing,\" where \"the ware of Rome and her merchandise is\ngreatly promoted ... only our English nation have taken a dislike\nthereat.\" In the days when Bunyan wrote, the annual fair had degenerated\ninto a lawless and noisy assembly, where little trade was done, and much\ndrinking and fighting and rude horseplay went on, as he may have found\nto his cost. The wares of Rome, in fact, were commodities no longer in\nfashion, and soon the fair itself came to an end and passed away, like\nso many other things that had been called into being by the Canterbury\nPilgrimage.\n\n[Illustration: WINDMILL ON REIGATE COMMON.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nREIGATE TO CHEVENING\n\n\nAlthough the town of Reigate lies in the valley, it certainly takes its\nname from the Pilgrims' Road to Canterbury. In Domesday it is called\nCherchfelle, and it is not till the latter part of the twelfth century\nthat the comparatively modern name of Rigegate, the Ridge Road, was\napplied, first of all to the upper part of the parish, and eventually to\nthe whole town. In those days a chapel dedicated to the memory of the\nblessed martyr, St. Thomas, stood at the east end of the long street,\non a site now occupied by a market-house, built early in the last\ncentury, and part of the ancient foundations of this pilgrimage shrine\nwere brought to light when the adjoining prison was enlarged some eighty\nor ninety years back. Another chapel, dedicated to St. Laurence the\nMartyr, stood farther down the street; and a third, the Chapel of Holy\nCross, belonged to the Augustine Canons of the Priory founded by William\nof Warrenne, Earl of Surrey, in the thirteenth century. In Saxon days\nReigate, or Holm Castle, as it was then termed, from its situation at\nthe head of the valley of Holmesdale, was an important stronghold, and\nthe vigour and persistence with which the incursions of the Danes were\nrepelled by the inhabitants of this district gave rise to the rhyme\nquoted by Camden--\n\n    \"The Vale of Holmesdale\n     Never wonne, ne never shall.\"\n\n[Illustration: REIGATE COMMON.]\n\nAt the Conquest the manor was granted to William of Warrenne, and from\nthat time the castle became the most powerful fortress of the mighty\nEarls of Surrey. In the days of John it shared the fate of Guildford\nCastle, and was one of the strongholds which opened its gates to Louis\nVIII., King of France, on his march from the Kentish Coast to\nWinchester. The Fitzalans succeeded the Warrennes in the possession of\nReigate, and in the reign of Edward VI., both the castle and the Priory\nwere granted to the Howards of Effingham. Queen Elizabeth's Lord High\nAdmiral, the victor of the Invincible Armada, lies buried in the vault\nunder the chancel of Reigate Church. In Stuart times the castle\ngradually fell into decay, until it was finally destroyed by order of\nParliament, during the Civil War, lest it should fall into the King's\nhands. Now only the mound of the ancient keep remains, and some spacious\nsubterranean chambers which may have served as cellars or dungeons in\nNorman times. The Priory has also been replaced by a modern house, and\nis the property of Lady Henry Somerset, the representative of the Earl\nSomers, to whom William III. granted Reigate in 1697.\n\nReigate is frequently mentioned in Cobbett's \"Rural Rides,\" and it was\nthe sight of the Priory that set him moralising over monasteries and\nasking himself if, instead of being, as we take it for granted, _bad\nthings_, they were not, after all, better than _poor-rates_, and if the\nmonks and nuns, who _fed the poor_, were not more to be commended than\nthe rich pensioners of the State, who _feed upon the poor_.\n\nClose to this ancient foundation is the hilly common known as Reigate\nPark, a favourite haunt with artists, who find endless subjects in the\nfern-grown dells and romantic hollows, the clumps of thorn-trees with\ntheir gnarled stems and spreading boughs, their wealth of wild flowers\nand berries. The views over Reigate itself and the Priory grounds on one\nside, and over the Sussex Weald on the other, are very charming; but a\nstill finer prospect awaits us on the North Downs on the opposite side\nof the valley, where the Pilgrims' Road goes on its course. The best way\nis to climb Reigate Hill as far as the suspension bridge, and follow a\npath cut in the chalk to the summit of the ridge. It leads through a\nbeechwood on to the open downs, where, if the day is clear, one of the\nfinest views in the whole of England--in the whole world, says\nCobbett--breaks upon us. The Weald of Surrey and of Sussex, from the\nborders of Hampshire to the ridge of East Grinstead, and Crowborough\nBeacon, near Tunbridge Wells, lies spread out at our feet. Eastward, the\neye ranges over the Weald of Kent and the heights above Sevenoaks;\nwestward the purple ridge of Leith Hill and the familiar crest of\nHindhead meet us; and far away to the south are the Brighton downs and\nChanctonbury Ring.\n\n[Illustration: LOOKING EAST FROM GATTON PARK.]\n\nThe line of yew trees appears again here, and after keeping along the\ntop of the ridge for about a mile, the Pilgrims' Way enters Gatton Park,\nand passing through the woods near Lord Oxenbridge's house, joins the\navenue that leads to Merstham. Gatton itself, which, like Reigate, takes\nits name from the Pilgrims' Road--Saxon, Gatetun, the town of the\nroad--was chiefly famous for the electoral privileges which it so long\nenjoyed. From the time of Henry VI. until the Reform Bill of 1832, this\nvery small borough returned two members to Parliament. In the reign of\nHenry VIII. Sir Roger Copley is described as the burgess and sole\ninhabitant of the borough and town of Gatton, and for many years the\nconstituency consisted of one person, the lord of the manor.\n\nAt the beginning of the present century there were only eight houses in\nthe whole parish, a fact which naturally roused the ire of William\nCobbett. \"Before you descend the hill to go into Reigate,\" he writes in\none of his Rural Rides, \"you pass Gatton, which is a very rascally spot\nof earth.\" And when rainy weather detained him a whole day at Reigate,\nhe moralises in this vein--\"_In_ one rotten borough, one the most rotten\ntoo, and with another still more rotten _up upon the hill_, in Reigate\nand close by Gatton, how can I help reflecting, how can my mind be\notherwise than filled with reflections on the marvellous deeds of the\ncollective wisdom of the nation?\" These privileges doubled the value of\nthe property, and when Lord Monson bought Gatton Park in 1830, he paid\na hundred thousand pounds for the place; but the days of close boroughs\nwere already numbered, and less than two years afterwards the Reform\nBill deprived Gatton of both its members. The little town hall of\nGatton, where the important ceremony of electing two representatives to\nserve in Parliament was performed, is still standing, an interesting\nrelic of bygone days, on a mound in the park, almost hidden by large\nchestnut trees.\n\n[Illustration: GATTON TOWN HALL.]\n\nGatton House is chiefly remarkable for the marble hall built by the same\nLord Monson in imitation of the Orsini Chapel at Rome, and adorned with\nrich marbles which he had brought from Italy. The collection of\npictures, formed by the same nobleman, contains several good Dutch and\nItalian pictures, including the \"Vierge au bas-relief,\" a graceful Holy\nFamily, which takes its name from a small carved tablet in the\nbackground. It was long held to be an early work by the great Leonardo\nda Vinci, and was purchased by Lord Monson of Mr. Woodburn for \u00a34,000,\nbut is now generally attributed to his pupil, Cesare da Sesto.\n\nLike so many of the churches we have already mentioned, like Seale and\nWanborough, and the chapels of St. Katherine and St. Martha, like the\nold church at Titsey and the present one at Chevening, Gatton was\noriginally a Pilgrims' church. Now it has little that is old to show,\nfor it was restored by Lord Monson in 1831, and adorned with a variety\nof treasures from all parts of the Continent. The stained glass comes\nfrom the monastery of Aerschot, near Louvain, the altar-rails from\nTongres, the finely carved choir-stalls and canopies from Ghent, and the\naltar and pulpit from Nuremberg. Like most of the medi\u00e6val wood-work and\nglass which has come to England from that \"Quaint old town of toil and\ntraffic, Quaint old town of art and song,\" these last are said to have\nbeen designed by the great master of the Franconian city, Albert D\u00fcrer.\n\n[Illustration: MERSTHAM CHURCH.]\n\nThe Pilgrims' Way, as has been already said, runs through Gatton Park,\nand brings us out close to Merstham, and through lanes shaded with fine\noaks and beeches we reach the pretty little village, with its old\ntimbered cottages and still older church buried in the woods. Local\nwriters of the last century frequently allude to the Pilgrims' Road as\npassing through this parish, although its exact course is not easy to\ntrace. It seems, however, certain that the track passed near Lord\nHylton's house, and south of the church, which stands close by. In\nmedi\u00e6val times, Merstham formed part of the vast estates held by the\nmonks of Christ Church, Canterbury, and was bestowed upon them by\nAthelstan, a son of Ethelred the Unready, in the tenth century. There\nwas a church here at the time of the Norman Conquest, but the only\nportion of the present building dating from that period is a fine old\nsquare Norman font which, like several others in the neighbourhood, is\nof Sussex marble. Of later date, there is much that is extremely\ninteresting. The tower and the west door are Early English, and the\nchancel arch is adorned with curious acanthus-leaf mouldings, while the\nporch and chancel are Late Perpendicular.\n\nAfter passing Merstham Church the track is lost in a medley of roads and\nrailway cuttings, but soon the line of yews appears again, climbing the\ncrest of the hill, and can be followed for some distance along White\nHill, or Quarry Hangers, as these downs are commonly called. The next\nobject of interest which it passes is the War Camp, or Cardinal's Cap,\nas it is sometimes termed, an old British earthwork on the face of the\nchalk escarpment. Then the path turns into a wood, and we leave it to\ndescend on Godstone. This is a fascinating spot for artists. The low\nirregular houses are grouped round a spacious green and goose-pond,\nshaded by fine horse-chestnuts, and there is a charming inn, the White\nHart or Clayton Arms, with gabled front and large bay-windows of the\ngood old-fashioned type. \"A beautiful village,\" wrote Cobbett, ninety\nyears ago, \"chiefly of one street, with a fine large green before it,\nand with a pond in the green;\" and he goes on to speak of the neatness\nof the gardens and of the double violets, \"as large as small pinks,\"\nwhich grew in the garden of this same inn, and of which the landlady was\ngood enough to give some roots. Happily for his peace of mind, he adds,\n\"The vile rotten borough of Bletchingley, which lies under the downs\nclose by, is out of sight.\"\n\n[Illustration: THE WHITE HART, GODSTONE.]\n\n[Illustration: OLD HOUSE IN OXTED.]\n\nFrom Godstone it is a pleasant walk over the open commons, along the top\nof the ridge, looking over the Weald of Sussex and across the valleys\nof Sevenoaks and Tunbridge to the Kentish hills. Once more we track the\nline of the Pilgrims' Way as it emerges from the woods above the\nGodstone quarries and, passing under Winder's Hill and by Marden Park,\nreaches a wood called Palmers Wood. The name is significant, more\nespecially since there is no record of any owner who bore that name.\nHere its course is very clearly defined, and when, in the autumn of\n1890, pipes for carrying water out of the hill were laid down, a section\nof the old paved road was cut across. A little farther on, at\nLimpsfield Lodge Farm, just on the edge of Titsey park, it formed the\nfarm road till 1875. At this point the path was ten feet wide, and the\noriginal hedges remained. Before entering the park of Titsey, the way\nruns through part of Oxted parish, where a spring still bears the name\nof St. Thomas's Well, and then reaches Titsey Place.\n\n[Illustration: OXTED CHURCH.]\n\nFew places in this part of Surrey are more attractive than this old home\nof the Greshams. The purity of the air, praised by Aubrey long ago for\nits sweet, delicate, and wholesome virtues, the health-giving breezes of\nthe surrounding downs and commons, the natural loveliness of the place,\nand the taste with which the park and gardens have been laid out, all\nhelp to make Titsey a most delightful spot. Its beautiful woods stretch\nalong the grassy slopes of Botley Hill, and the clump of trees on the\nheights known as Cold-harbour Green is 881 feet above the sea, and marks\nthe loftiest point in the whole range of the North Downs. Wherever the\neye rests, one ridge of wooded hill after the other seems to rise and\nmelt away into the soft blue haze. Nor is there any lack of other\nattractions to invite the attention of scholar and antiquary. The place\nis full of historic associations. A whole wealth of antiquities, coins,\nurns, and pottery, have been dug up in the park, and some remains of\nRoman buildings were discovered there a few years ago, close to the\nPilgrims' Way. After the conquest Titsey was given to the great Earls of\nClare, who owned the property at the time of the Domesday Survey. In the\nfourteenth century it belonged to the Uvedale family, and two hundred\nyears later was sold to Sir John Gresham, an uncle of Sir Thomas\nGresham, the illustrious merchant of Queen Elizabeth's court, and the\nfounder of the Royal Exchange. A fine portrait of Sir Thomas himself, by\nAntonio More, now hangs in the library of Titsey Place. Unfortunately\nthe Greshams suffered for their loyalty to Charles I., and after the\ndeath of the second Sir Marmaduke Gresham in 1742, a large part of the\nproperty was sold. His son, Sir John, succeeded in partly retrieving the\nfortunes of the family, and rebuilt and enlarged the old manor-house,\nwhich had been allowed to fall into a ruinous state. But the Tudor\narches of the east wing still remain, as well as much of the fine oak\npanelling which adorned its walls; and the crest of the Greshams, a\ngrasshopper, may still be seen in the hall chimney-piece. The present\nowner, Mr. Leveson-Gower, is a lineal descendant of the last baronet,\nand inherited Titsey from his great-grandmother Katherine, the heiress\nof the Greshams. The fourteenth-century church was unluckily pulled down\na hundred years ago, because Sir John Gresham thought it stood too near\nhis own house, but an old yew in the garden and some tombstones of early\nNorman date still mark its site. The course of the Pilgrims' Way through\nthe Park is clearly marked by a double row of fine ash trees, and the\nflint stones with which the road itself is paved may still be seen under\nthe turf. Further along the road is a very old farmhouse, which was\nformerly a hostelry, and still bears the name of the Pilgrims' Lodge.\nFrom Titsey the Way runs along the side of the hills, under Tatsfield\nChurch, which stands on the summit of the ridge, and about a mile above\nthe pretty little towns of Westerham and Brasted. Here the boundary of\nthe counties is crossed, and the traveller enters Kent. Soon we reach\nthe gates of Chevening Park, where, as at Titsey, the Pilgrims' Way\nformerly passed very near the house, until it was closed by Act of\nParliament in 1780.\n\n[Illustration: BRASTED.]\n\nThe manor of Chevening, originally the property of the See of\nCanterbury, was held in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by the\nfamily of Chevening, from whence it passed to the Lennards, who became\nBarons Dacre and Earls of Sussex. In the last century it was bought by\nGeneral Stanhope, the distinguished soldier and statesman, who, after\nreducing the island of Minorca, served King George I. successively as\nSecretary of State and First Lord of the Treasury. Inigo Jones built the\nhouse for Richard Lennard, Lord Dacre, early in the seventeenth century,\nbut since then it has undergone such extensive alterations that little\nof the original structure remains, and the chief interest lies in a\nvaluable collection of historical portraits, including those of the\nChesterfields, Stanhopes, and the great Lord Chatham. The last-named\nstatesman, whose daughter Hester married Charles, Lord Stanhope, in\n1774, was a frequent visitor at Chevening, and is said to have planned\nthe beautiful drive which leads through the woods north of the house to\nthe top of the downs. The little village of Chevening lies on the other\nside of the park, just outside Lord Stanhope's gates and close to the\nold church of St. Botolph, which was one of the shrines frequented by\nthe pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. There are some good Early\nEnglish arches in the nave and chancel, and a western tower of\nPerpendicular date. The south chapel contains many imposing sepulchral\nmonuments to the different lords of the manor. Amongst them are those of\nJohn Lennard, who was sheriff of the county and held several offices\nunder the crown in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, and of his\nson Sampson, who with his wife Margaret, Lady Dacre in her own right,\nreposes under a sumptuous canopy of alabaster surrounded by kneeling\neffigies of their children. There is also a fine black marble monument\nto the memory of James, Earl of Stanhope, the prime minister of George\nI., who was buried here with great pomp in 1721. He was actually in\noffice at the time of his death, and was taken ill in the House of\nLords, and breathed his last the next day. But the most beautiful tomb\nhere is Chantrey's effigy of Lady Frederica Stanhope sleeping with her\nbabe in her arms, and an expression of deep content and peace upon her\nquiet face.\n\n[Illustration: CHEVENING CHURCH.]\n\n    \"Storms may rush in, and crimes and woes\n      Deform the quiet bower;\n     They may not mar the deep repose\n      Of that immortal flower.\"\n\n[Illustration: OTFORD CHURCH.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nOTFORD TO WROTHAM\n\n\nWe have followed the Pilgrims' Way over Hampshire Downs and Surrey hills\nand commons, through the woods which Evelyn planted, and along the ridge\nwhere Cobbett rode. We have seen the track become overgrown with tangled\nshrubs and underwood, and disappear altogether in places. We have lost\nthe road at one point in the fields, to find it again half a mile\nfurther; we have noted the regular lines of yews climbing up the\nhill-side, and the lonely survivors which are left standing bare and\ndesolate in the middle of the corn-fields. The part of the ancient road\non which we are now entering differs in several important respects from\nits earlier course. From the time the Pilgrims' Way enters Kent its\ntrack is clearly marked. Already we have followed its line through\nTitsey and along the downs as far as Chevening, where the path, now\nclosed, may be traced through Lord Stanhope's Park. A group of\nmagnificent old yew trees arrests our attention just beyond Chevening,\nbefore the road from Sevenoaks to Bromley is crossed. Then the Way\ndescends into the valley of the Darent, an excellent trout-stream which\nflows north through this chalk district to join the Thames near\nDartford, and after crossing the ford over that river, regains the hills\nat Otford. From this place it runs along under the hill in one unbroken\nline all the way to Eastwell Park, between Ashford and Canterbury. It is\na good bridle-way, somewhat grass-grown in places, in others enclosed by\nhedges, and still used by farmers for their carts. Before toll-bars\nwere abolished there was a good deal of traffic along this part of the\nPilgrims' Road, which, running as it does parallel with the turnpike\nroad along the valley to Ashford, was much used as a means of evading\nthe payment of toll. This cause is now removed, and excepting for an\noccasional hunting-man who makes use of the soft track along the\nhill-side, or a camp of gipsies sitting round their fire, waggoners and\nploughmen are the only wayfarers to be met with along the Pilgrims'\nRoad. But the old name still clings to the track, and as long as the\nsquires of Kent have any respect for the traditions of the past, any\nparticle of historic sense remaining, they will not allow the Pilgrims'\nWay to be wiped out.\n\nIn actual beauty of scenery this portion of the Way may not equal the\nformer part. We miss the wild loveliness of Surrey commons, the rare\npicturesqueness of the rolling downs round Guildford and Dorking, but\nthis Kentish land has a charm of its own, which grows upon you the\nlonger you know it. These steep slopes and wooded hollows, these grand\nold church towers and quaint village streets, these homesteads with\ntheir vast barns of massive timber and tall chimney-stacks overshadowed\nwith oaks and beeches, cannot fail to delight the eyes of all who find\npleasure in rural scenes. And all along our way we have that noble\nprospect over the wide plains of the dim blue Weald, which is seldom\nabsent from our eyes, as we follow this narrow track up and down the\nrugged hill-side. In historic interest and precious memorials of the\npast, this part of the Pilgrims' Way, we need hardly say, is\nsurpassingly rich. Endless are the great names and stirring events which\nthese scenes recall: battlefields where memorable fights were fought in\ndays long ago, churches and lands that were granted to the Archbishops\nor Abbots of Canterbury before the Conquest, manor-houses which our\nkings and queens have honoured with their presence in the days of yore.\nAll these things, and many more of equal interest and renown, will the\ntraveller find as he follows the Pilgrims' Way along the chalk hills\nwhich form the backbone of Kent.\n\nThe first resting-place which the pilgrims would find on this part of\ntheir route would be the Archbishop's manor-house at Otford. There were\nno less than fifteen of these episcopal residences in different parts of\nKent, Surrey, and Sussex, and of these, three lay along the Kentish\nportion of the Pilgrims' Way. The palace at Otford possessed an especial\nsanctity in the eyes of wayfarers journeying to the shrine of St.\nThomas, as having been a favourite residence of the martyred Archbishop\nhimself. The manor was originally granted to the See of Canterbury in\n791, by Offa, king of Mercia, who defeated Aldric, king of Kent, at\nOtford in 773, and conquered almost the whole province.\n\nMore than two hundred years later, Otford was the scene of another\nbattle, in which Edmund Ironside defeated the Danes under Knut, and to\nthis day bones are dug up in the meadow which bears the name of\nDanefield. From the tenth century the Archbishops had a house here, and\nOtford is described in the Domesday Survey as _Terra Archiepi\nCantuariensis_. So it remained until Cranmer surrendered the palace,\nwith many other of his possessions, to Henry VIII. The medi\u00e6val\nArchbishops seem to have had an especial affection for Otford, and\nspent much of their time at this pleasant country seat. Archbishop\nWinchelsea entertained Edward I. in 1300, and was living here at the\ntime of his death thirteen years later, when his remains were borne by\nthe King's command to Canterbury, and buried there with great state.\nSimon Islip enclosed the park, and Archbishop Deane repaired the walls;\nbut the whole was rebuilt on a grander scale by Warham, who spent\nupwards of thirty thousand pounds upon the house, and received Henry\nVIII. here several times in the first years of his reign.\n\nAfter Otford had become Crown property, the Archbishop's manor-house\npassed into the hands of the Sydneys and Smyths, who dismantled the\ncastle, as it was then commonly called, and allowed the walls to fall\ninto ruin. Two massive octagonal towers of three stories, with double\nsquare-headed windows, and a fragment of a cloister, now used as farm\nstables, are the only portions remaining. These evidently formed part of\nthe outer court, and are good specimens of fifteenth-century brickwork.\nThe tower was considerably higher a hundred years ago, and Hasted\ndescribes the ruins as covering nearly an acre of ground. The stones of\nthe structure were largely used in the neighbouring buildings, and the\nBull Inn contains a good deal of fine oak wainscoting, and several\nhandsome carved mantelpieces, which originally belonged to the castle.\nTwo heads in profile, carved in oak over one of the fireplaces, are said\nto represent Henry VIII. and Katherine of Aragon. A bath, or chamber,\npaved and lined with stone, about thirty feet long, and ten or twelve\nfeet deep, not far from the ruins, still bears the name of Becket's\nWell. Tradition ascribes the birth of the spring which supplies it to\nSt. Thomas, who, finding no water at Otford, struck the hill-side with\nhis staff, and at once brought forth a clear stream, which since then\nhas never been known to fail. Another legend tells how the Saint one\nday, being \"busie at his prayers in the garden at Otford, was much\ndisturbed by the sweete note and melodie of a nightingale that sang in a\nbush beside him, and in the might of his holinesse commanded all birds\nof this kind to be henceforth silent,\" after which the nightingale was\nnever heard at Otford. But with the decay of the palace and the\ndeparture of the Archbishops, the spell was broken; and the Protestant\nLambarde, when he was at Otford, takes pleasure in recording how many\nnightingales he heard singing thereabouts.\n\n[Illustration: THE PORCH, KEMSING CHURCH.]\n\nFrom Otford the Pilgrims' Way runs along the edge of the hills about\nhalf a mile above the villages of Kemsing and Wrotham, and passes close\nto St. Clere, a mansion built by Inigo Jones, where Mrs. Boscawen, the\nwitty correspondent of Mrs. Delany and the friend of Johnson and\nBoswell, was born. Kemsing still retains its old church and well, both\nconsecrated to the memory of the Saxon Princess, St. Edith, whose image\nin the churchyard was, during centuries, the object of the peasants'\ndevout veneration. \"Some seelie bodie,\" writes Lambarde, who visited\nthese shrines in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and delights in pouring\ncontempt on the old traditions of these country shrines, \"brought a\npeche or two, or a bushelle of corne, to the churche after praiers made,\noffered it to the image of the saint. Of this offering the priest used\nto toll the greatest portion, and then to take one handful or little\nmore of the residue (for you must consider he woulde bee sure to gaine\nby the bargaine), the which, after aspersion of holy water and the\nmumbling of a fewe words of conjuration, he first dedicated to the image\nof Saint Edith, and then delivered it backe to the partie that brought\nit; who departed with full persuasion that if he mingled that hallowed\nhandfull with his seede corne, it would preserve from harme and prosper\nin growthe the whole heape that he should sowe, were it never so great a\nstacke.\"\n\n[Illustration: WROTHAM CHURCH.]\n\nWrotham was the site of another of the Archbishops' manor-houses, and\nrivalled Otford in antiquity, having been granted to the See of\nCanterbury by Athelstan in 964. Wrotham was never as favourite a\nresidence with the Archbishops as Otford, but they stopped here\nfrequently on their progresses through Kent, until, in the fourteenth\ncentury, Simon Islip pulled down the house to supply materials for the\nbuilding of his new palace at Maidstone. A terrace and some scanty\nremains of the offices are the only fragments now to be seen at Wrotham,\nbut the charming situation of the village in the midst of luxuriant\nwoods, and the beauty of the view over the Weald from Wrotham Hill,\nattract many visitors. The church has several features of architectural\ninterest, including a handsome rood-screen of the fourteenth century,\nand a watching-chamber over the chancel, as well as a curious archway\nunder the tower, which was probably used as a passage for processions\nfrom the Palace. It contains many tombs and brasses, chiefly of the\nPeckham family, who held the manor of Yaldham in this parish for upwards\nof five hundred years. Below the church is Wrotham Place, a fine old\nTudor house with a corridor and rooms of the fifteenth century, and a\ncharming garden front bearing the date 1560. Fairlawn, the ancestral\nhome of the Vanes, also lies in a corner of Wrotham parish, and a\nterrace, bordered with close-clipped yew hedges, and surrounded by sunny\nlawns, where peacocks spread their tails over the grass, is still\npointed out as a favourite walk of that stout old regicide, Sir Harry\nVane. Ightham, with its famous Mote, so perfect a picture of an old\nEnglish house, is close by, within a walk of Wrotham station, but lies,\nunluckily, on the opposite side from the line of hills along which our\npath takes us.\n\n[Illustration: THE MOTE, IGHTHAM]\n\n[Illustration: WROTHAM, LOOKING SOUTH.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nWROTHAM TO HOLLINGBOURNE\n\n\nThe Pilgrims' Way continues its course over Wrotham Hill and along the\nside of the chalk downs. This part of the track is a good bridle road,\nwith low grass banks or else hedges on either side, and commands fine\nviews over the rich Kentish plains, the broad valley of the Medway, and\nthe hills on the opposite shore. The river itself glitters in the sun,\nbut as we draw nearer the beauty of the prospect is sorely marred by the\nugly chimneys and dense smoke of the Snodland limestone works.\n\nAt one point on the downs, close to the Vigo Inn, a few hundred yards\nabove our road, there is a very extensive view over the valley of the\nThames, ranging from Shooters' Hill to Gravesend, and far away out to\nsea. In the daytime the masts of the shipping in the river are clearly\nseen. At night the Nore lights twinkle like stars in the distance. The\nheight of these downs is close on 700 feet, that of Knockholt is 783\nfeet. On the other side of the Medway the chalk range is considerably\nlower, and the highest points are above Detling, 657 feet,\nHollingbourne, 606 feet, and Charing, 640 feet.\n\n[Illustration: THE BULL, WROTHAM.]\n\nThe Way now runs past Pilgrims' house, formerly the Kentish Drovers'\nInn, above the old church and village of Trottescliffe (Trosley) and the\nmegalithic stones known as Coldrum circle, one of the best preserved\ncromlechs along the road. Further on a short lane leads south to Birling\nPlace, the ancient home of the Nevills, who have owned the estate since\nthe middle of the fifteenth century, while in a group of old farm\nbuildings at Paddlesworth (formerly Paulsford) we find the remains of a\nNorman Pilgrims' Chapel, with a fine Early English arch. The track now\ncrosses a large field and enters Snodland, an old town containing many\nRoman remains, and an interesting church, but sadly disfigured by cement\nworks and paper factories.\n\n[Illustration: TROTTESCLIFFE.]\n\nHere the pilgrims left the hills to descend into the valley below. Twice\nbefore, at Shalford and Dorking, they had crossed the rivers which make\ntheir way through the chalk range; now they had reached the third great\nbreak in the downs, and the broad stream of the Medway lay at their\nfeet. They might, if they pleased, go on to Rochester, three miles\nhigher up, and join the road taken by the London pilgrims along the\nWatling Street to Canterbury--the route of Chaucer's pilgrimage. But\nmost of them, it appears, preferred to follow the hills to which they\nhad clung so long.\n\n[Illustration: FORD PLACE, NEAR WROTHAM.]\n\nThe exact point where they crossed the river has been often disputed.\nAccording to the old maps it was by the ford at Cuxton, where the river\nwas shallow enough to allow of their passage. From Bunker's Farm,\nimmediately above Birling, a road diverges northwards to Cuxton and\nRochester, and was certainly used by many of the pilgrims. At Upper\nHalling, on this track, we may still see the lancet windows of a\npilgrims' shrine formerly dedicated to St. Laurence, which have been\nbuilt into some cottages known as Chapel houses. The Bishops of\nRochester, who held this manor from Egbert's days, had \"a right fair\nhouse\" at Lower Halling, on the banks of the Medway, with a vineyard\nwhich produced grapes for King Henry III.'s table. This pleasant\nmanor-house on the river was the favourite summer residence of Bishop\nHamo de Hethe, who built a new hall and chapel in the reign of Edward\nI., and placed his own statue on a gateway which was still standing in\nthe eighteenth century. Another interesting house, Whorne Place, lies a\nlittle higher up, on the banks of the Medway, where the grass-grown\ntrack leading from Bunker's Farm joins the main road to Cuxton and\nRochester. This fine brick mansion formerly belonged to the Levesons,\nand the quarterings of Sir John Leveson and his two wives are to be seen\nabove the central porch.\n\n[Illustration: THE FRIARY, AYLESFORD.]\n\nIn the thirteenth century a great number of pilgrims seem to have\nstopped at Maidstone, where, in 1261, Archbishop Boniface built a\nhospital for their reception on the banks of the Medway. The funds which\nsupported this hospital, the Newark--New-work, Novi operis, as it was\ncalled--were diverted by Archbishop Courtenay, a hundred and forty years\nlater, to the maintenance of his new college of All Saints, on the\nopposite side of the river, but a remnant of the older foundation is\nstill preserved in the beautiful Early English Chancel of St. Peter's\nChurch, which was originally attached to Boniface's hospital, and is\nstill known as the Pilgrims' Chapel. By the time that Archbishop\nCourtenay founded his college, the stream of pilgrims had greatly\ndiminished, and the hostel which had been intended for their\nresting-place was rapidly sinking into a common almshouse. Maidstone,\ntoo, no doubt, lay considerably out of the pilgrims' course, and the\ngreat majority naturally preferred to cross the Medway by the ferry at\nSnodland. Others again might choose Aylesford, which lay a mile or two\nbelow. At this ancient town, the Eglesford of the Saxon Chronicle, there\nwas a stone bridge across the river, and a Carmelite Priory founded in\n1240 by Richard de Grey, on his return from the Crusades, where the\npilgrims would be sure to find shelter. But even if they did not cross\nthe Medway at this place, where the old church stands so picturesquely\non its high bank overhanging river and red roofs, the pilgrims certainly\npassed through the parish of Aylesford. For on the opposite banks of the\nferry at Snodland the familiar line of yew trees appears again,\nascending the hill by Burham church, and runs through the upper part of\nAylesford parish, close to the famous dolmen of Kits Coty House. This\nmost interesting sepulchral monument, K\u00ead-coit--Celtic for the Tomb in\nthe Wood--consists of three upright blocks of sandstone about eight feet\nhigh and eight feet broad, with a covering stone of eleven feet which\nforms the roof, and is one of a group of similar remains which lie\nscattered over the hill-side and are locally known as the Countless\nStones. We have here, in fact, a great cemetery of the Druids which once\nextended for many miles on both sides of the river. Deep pits dug out in\nthe chalk, filled with flints and covered with slabs of stone, have\nbeen discovered on Aylesford Common, and a whole avenue of stones\nformerly connected this burial place with the cromlechs at Addington,\nsix miles off. Here, if the old legend be true, was fought the great\nbattle which decided the fate of Britain, and gave England into the\nhands of the English. For at this place, the old chroniclers say, about\nthe year 455, the Saxon invaders stopped on their march to the Castle of\nRochester, and turning southwards met the Britons in that deadly fray,\nwhen both Kentigern and Horsa were left dead on the field of battle.\nAncient military entrenchments are still visible on the hill-side near\nKits Coty House, and a boulder on the top was long pointed out as the\nstone on which Hengist was proclaimed the first king of Kent.\n\nAbout a mile from this memorable spot, in the plains at the foot of the\ndowns, was a shrine which no pilgrim of medi\u00e6val days would leave\nunvisited, the Cistercian Abbey of Boxley, then generally known as the\nAbbatia S. Crucis de Gracias, the Abbey of the Holy Rood of Grace.\n\n[Illustration: AYLESFORD BRIDGE]\n\n[Illustration: KITS COTY HOUSE.]\n\nNot only was Boxley, next to Waverley Abbey, the oldest Cistercian house\nfounded on this side of the Channel, the _filia propria_ of the great\nhouse of Clairvaux, but the convent church rejoiced in the possession of\ntwo of the most celebrated wonder-working relics in all England. There\nwas the image of St. Rumbold, that infant child of a Saxon prince who\nproclaimed himself a Christian the moment of his birth, and after three\ndays spent in edifying his pagan hearers, departed this life. This\nimage could only be lifted by the pure and good, and having a hidden\nspring, which could be worked by the hands or feet of the monks, was\nchiefly influenced by the amount of the coin that was paid into their\nhands. And there was that still greater marvel, the miraculous Rood, or\nwinking image, a wooden crucifix which rolled its eyes and moved its\nlips in response to the devotees who crowded from all parts of England\nto see the wondrous sight. The clever mechanism of this image, said to\nhave been invented by an English prisoner during his captivity in\nFrance, was exposed by Henry VIII.'s commissioners in 1538, who\ndiscovered \"certayn ingyns of old wyer with olde roten stykkes in the\nback of the same,\" and showed them to the people of Maidstone on\nmarket-day, after which the Rood of Grace was taken to London and\nsolemnly broken in pieces at Paul's Cross. The Abbey of Boxley owned\nvast lands, and the Abbots were frequently summoned to Parliament, and\nlived in great state. Among the royal guests whom they entertained was\nKing Edward II., whose visit was made memorable by the letter which he\naddressed from Boxley Abbey to the Aldermen of the City of London,\ngranting them the right of electing a Lord Mayor. At one time their\nextravagance brought them to the verge of ruin, as we learn from a\nletter which Archbishop Warham addressed to Cardinal Wolsey; but at the\ndissolution the Commissioners could find no cause of complaint against\nthe monks, excepting the profusion of flowers in the convent garden,\nwhich made them comment on the waste of turning \"the rents of the\nmonastery into gillyflowers and roses.\" The foundations of the church\nwhere the Cistercians showed off their \"sotelties\" may still be traced\nin the gardens of the house built by Sir Thomas Wyatt on the site of the\nabbey. Here some precious fragments of the ruins are still preserved.\nThe chapel of St. Andrew, which stood near the great gateway, has been\nturned into cottages, and the noble \"guesten-house,\" where strangers\nwere lodged, is now a barn. The old wall remains to show the once vast\nextent of the Abbey precincts. Now these grey stones are mantled with\nthick bushes of ivy, and a fine clump of elm trees overshadows the\nred-tiled roof of the ancient guest-house in the meadows, but we look in\nvain for poor Abbot John's gillyflowers and roses.\n\n[Illustration: LOOKING WEST FROM ABOVE BOXLEY ABBEY.]\n\nBetween Boxley Abbey and Maidstone stretches the wide common of Penenden\nHeath, famous from time immemorial as the place where all great county\nmeetings were held. Here the Saxons held their \"gemotes,\" and here in\n1076, was that memorable assembly before which Lanfranc pleaded the\ncause of the Church of Canterbury against Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, Earl\nof Kent, the Conqueror's half-brother, who had defrauded Christ Church\nof her rights, and laid violent hands on many of her manors and lands.\nNot only were the Kentish nobles and bishops summoned to try the cause,\nbut barons and distinguished ecclesiastics, and many men \"of great and\ngood account,\" from all parts of England and Normandy, were present that\nday. Godfrey, Bishop of Coutances, represented the King, and Agelric,\nthe aged Bishop of Chester, \"an ancient man well versed in the laws and\ncustoms of the realm,\" was brought there in a chariot by the King's\nexpress command. Three days the trial lasted, during which Lanfranc\npleaded his cause so well against the rapacious Norman that the see of\nCanterbury recovered its former possessions, and saw its liberties\nfirmly established.\n\nThe village and church of Boxley (Bose-leu in Domesday), so called from\nthe box trees that grow freely along the downs, as at Box Hill, are\nabout a mile and a half beyond the Abbey, and lie on the sloping ground\nat the foot of the hills, close to the Pilgrims' Way. Old houses and\ntimbered barns, with lofty gables and irregular roofs, are grouped\nround the church, which is itself as picturesque an object as any, with\nits massive towers and curious old red-tiled Galilee porch. Next we\nreach Detling, a small village, prettily situated on the slope of the\nhills, with a church containing a rare specimen of medi\u00e6val wood-work in\nthe shape of a carved oak reading-desk, enriched with pierced tracery of\nthe Decorated period. We pass Thurnham, with the foundations of its\nSaxon castle high up on the downs, and then enter Hollingbourne. As\nBoxley reminds us of the box trees on the hill-side, and Thurnham of the\nthorn trees in the wood, so Hollingbourne owes its name to the hollies\non the burn or stream which runs through the parish. William Cobbett,\nwhose memory has followed us all the way from the Itchen valley,\ndescribes how he rode over Hollingbourne Hill on his return from Dover\nto the Wen, and from the summit of that down, one of the highest in this\nneighbourhood, looked down over the fair Kentish land, which in its\nrichness and beauty seemed to him another Garden of Eden.\n\n[Illustration: COTTAGE AT BOARLEY, NEAR BOXLEY]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nHOLLINGBOURNE TO LENHAM\n\n\nThe village of Hollingbourne lies at the foot of the hill, and an old\ninn at the corner of the Pilgrims' Road, now called the King's Head, was\nformerly known by the name of the Pilgrims' Rest. The history of\nHollingbourne is full of interest. The manor was granted to the church\nat Canterbury, \"for the support of the monks,\" by young Athelstan, the\nson of \u00c6thelred II., in the year 980, and was retained by the monastery\nwhen Lanfranc divided the lands belonging to Christ Church between the\npriory and the see. It is described in Domesday as _Terra Monachorum\nArchiepi_, the land of the monk and the Archbishop; in later records as\n_Manorium Monachorum et de cibo eorum_, a manor of the monks and for\ntheir food. The Priors of Christ Church held their courts here, and the\nconvent records tell us that Prior William Sellyng greatly improved the\nPriory rooms at Hollingbourne. Their residence probably occupied the\nsite of the present manor-house. This handsome red-brick building, rich\nin gables and mullions, in oak panelling and secret hiding-places, was\nbuilt in Queen Elizabeth's reign by the great Kentish family of the\nCulpepers, who at that time owned most of the parish. More than one\nfragment of the earlier house, encased in the Elizabethan building, has\nbeen brought to light, and a pointed stone archway of the thirteenth\ncentury, and an old fireplace with herring-bone brickwork, have lately\nbeen discovered. Many are the interesting traditions which belong to\nthis delightful old manor-house. The yews in the garden are said to have\nbeen planted by Queen Elizabeth on one of her royal progresses through\nKent, when she stayed at Leeds Castle, and was the guest of Sir Henry\nWotton at Boughton Malherbe. According to another very old local\ntradition, Katherine Howard, whose mother was a Culpeper, spent some\nyears here as a girl, and the ghost of that unhappy queen is said to\nhaunt one of the upper chambers of the house. Another room, called the\nNeedle-Room, was occupied during the Commonwealth by the daughters of\nthat faithful loyalist, John Lord Culpeper, Frances, Judith, and\nPhilippa, who employed the weary years of their father's exile in\nembroidering a gorgeous altar-cloth and hangings, which they presented\nto the parish church on the happy day when the king came back to enjoy\nhis own again. The tapestries, worked by the same deft fingers, which\nonce adorned the chambers of the manor-house, are gone, and the hangings\nof the reading-desk in the church have been cut up into a frontal, but\nthe altar-cloth remains absolutely intact, and is one of the finest\npieces of embroidery of the kind in England. Both design and colouring\nare of the highest beauty. On a ground of violet velvet, bordered with a\nfrieze of cherub heads, we see the twelve mystic fruits of the Tree of\nLife--the grape, orange, cherry, apple, plum, pear, mulberry, acorn,\npeach, medlar, quince, and pomegranate. The richest hues of rose and\ngreen are delicately blended together, and their effect is heightened\nby the gold thread in which the shading is worked. The lapse of two\ncenturies and a half has not dimmed the brightness of their colours,\nwhich are as fresh as if the work had been finished yesterday. A needle\nwhich had been left in a corner of the altar-cloth all those long years\nago was still to be seen sticking in the velvet early in the last\ncentury, but has now disappeared.\n\n[Illustration: HOLLINGBOURNE HOUSE.]\n\nThis goodly manor-house was only one of several seats belonging to the\nCulpepers in this neighbourhood. They had a mansion at Greenway Court,\nwhich was burnt down in the last century, and another of imposing\ndimensions where Grove Court now stands. In the seventeenth century the\nLords Culpeper also owned Leeds Castle, that noble moated house, a mile\nto the south, which was once a royal park, and is still one of the\nfinest places in Kent. But the second Lord Culpeper died without a male\nheir in 1688, and this famous house passed by marriage into the Fairfax\nfamily. The Hollingbourne branch of the Culpepers died out in the course\nof the last century, and at the present time no member of this\nillustrious family is known to exist in England, although persons\nbearing this ancient name are still to be found in America. The church\nat Hollingbourne contains a whole series of Culpeper monuments. The most\nremarkable is the white marble altar-tomb, which bears the recumbent\neffigy of Elizabeth Lady Culpeper, who died in 1638, and is described in\nthe inscription on her monument as _Optima Foemina, Optima Conjux, et\nOptima Mater_. This lady was the heiress of the Cheney family, whose\narms, the ox's hide and horns, appear on the shield at the foot of the\ntomb, and are repeated in the stained glass of the chapel window.\nTradition says that Sir John Cheney had his helmet struck off, when he\nfought by the victor's side on Bosworth Field, and fixed a bull's horns\non his head in its place. Afterwards Henry VII. gave him this crest,\nwhen he made him a Baron and a Knight of the Garter, in reward for his\nvalour on that hard-fought field. A monument on the north wall of the\nchancel records the memory of John Lord Culpeper, who was successively\nChancellor of the Exchequer, Master of the Rolls, and Privy Councillor\nto Charles I. and Charles II. \"For equal fidelity to the king and\nkingdome,\" says the epitaph on his tomb, \"he was most exemplary.\" He\nfollowed the last-named king into exile and remained there until the\nRestoration, when \"with him he returned tryumphant into England on the\n29th of May, 1660,\" only to die six weeks afterwards, \"to the\nirreparable losse of his family.\" Another descendant of the Culpepers is\nburied under the altar in this church, Dame Grace Gethin, a great\ngrand-daughter of Sir Thomas Culpeper, and wife of Sir Richard Gethin,\nof Gethinge Grott, in Ireland, whose learning and virtues were so\nrenowned that monuments were erected in her honour both at Bath and in\nWestminster Abbey. This youthful prodigy, who died at the age of\ntwenty-one, is here represented kneeling between two angels, and holding\nin her hand the commonplace book which she filled with extracts from her\nfavourite authors, and which was afterwards published under the title of\n\"Reliqui\u00e6 Gethinian\u00e6.\" Her piety was as great as her personal charms,\nand the inscription on her monument records how, \"being adorned with all\nthe Graces and Perfections of mind and body, crowned them all with\nexemplary Patience and Humility, and having the day before her death\nmost devoutly received the Holy Communion, which she said she would not\nhave omitted for Ten Thousand Worlds, she was vouchsafed in a miraculous\nmanner an immediate prospect of her future Blisse, for the space of two\nhours, to the astonishment of all about her, and being, like St. Paul,\nin an unexpressible Transport of joy, thereby fully evincing her\nforesight of the Heavenly Glory, in unconceivable Raptures triumphing\nover Death, and continuing sensible to the last, she resigned her pious\nsoul to God, and victoriously entered into rest, Oct. 11th, anno \u00e6tatis\n21, D'ni: 1697. Her dear and affectionate Mother, whom God in mercy\nsupported by seeing her glorious end, erected this monument, she being\nher last surviving issue.\"\n\nSoon after leaving Hollingbourne, the Pilgrims' Way enters the grounds\nof Stede Hill, and passes through the beech-woods that spread down the\ngrassy slopes to the village and church of Harrietsham--Heriard's Home\nin Domesday--in the valley below. An altar-tomb, to the memory of Sir\nWilliam Stede, who died in 1574, and several other monuments to members\nof the same family, may be seen in the south chapel of the church, a\nfine building of Early English and Perpendicular work, with a good\nrood-screen, standing in an open space at the foot of the Stede Hill\ngrounds. The rectory of Harrietsham was formerly attached to the\nneighbouring Priory of Leeds, but was granted by Henry VI. to Archbishop\nChichele's newly founded College of All Souls, Oxford, which still\nretains the patronage of this living. The manor was one of many in this\nneighbourhood given to Odo of Bayeux after the battle of Hastings, and\nafterwards formed part of the vast estates owned by Juliana de Leyborne,\ncalled the Infanta of Kent, who was married three times, but died\nwithout children, leaving her lands to become crown property.\n\nA mile farther the Pilgrims' Way enters the town of Lenham. This parish\ncontains both the sources of the river Len--the _Aqua lena_ of the\nRomans--which flows through Harrietsham and by Leeds Castle into the\nMedway, and that of the Stour, which runs in the opposite direction\ntowards Canterbury. Lenham has held a charter, and enjoyed the\nprivileges of a town from medi\u00e6val times. The bright little\nmarket-square, full of old houses with massive oak beams, and quaint\ncorners jutting out in all directions, hardly agrees with Hasted's\ndescription of Lenham as a dull, unfrequented place, where nothing\nthrives in the barren soil, and the inhabitants, when asked by\ntravellers if this is Lenham, invariably reply, \"Ah, sir, poor Lenham!\"\nThe picturesqueness of its buildings is undeniable, and its traditions\nare of the highest antiquity. The manor of Lenham was granted to the\nAbbey of St. Augustine at Canterbury by Cenulf, king of Mercia, more\nthan a thousand years ago, and in the twelfth century the church was\nappropriated to the Refectory of St. Augustine; that is to say, the\nrectorial tithes were made to supply the monks' dinners. Some fragments\nof the original Norman church still exist, but the greater part of the\npresent structure, the arcade of bays, the fine traceried windows of the\naisle, and most of the chancel, belong to the Decorated period, and were\nrebuilt after the great fire in 1297, when not only the church, but\nthe Abbot's barns and farm buildings were burnt to the ground by an\nincendiary. So great was the sensation produced by this act of wanton\nmischief, that Archbishop Winchelsea himself came to Lenham to see the\nravages wrought by the fire, and fulminated a severe excommunication\nagainst the perpetrators of the wicked deed. The sixteen oak stalls for\nthe monks, and an arched stone sedilia, of the fourteenth century, which\nserved the Abbot for his throne when he visited his Lenham estates, are\nstill to be seen in the chancel. Here, too, is a sepulchral effigy let\ninto the north wall in a curious sideways position, representing a\npriest in his robes, supposed to be that of Thomas de Apulderfelde, who\nlived at Lenham in the reign of Edward II., and died in 1327. Both the\nwestern tower and the north chancel, dedicated to St. Edmund, and\ncontaining tombs of successive lords of East Lenham manor, are\nPerpendicular in style, and belong to the fourteenth or early part of\nthe fifteenth century. Fragments of the fourteenth-century paintings,\nwith which the walls of the whole church were once adorned, may still\nbe distinguished in places. Among them are the figures of a bishop,\nprobably St. Augustine, and of St. Michael weighing souls, with devils\ntrying to turn the balance in their favour, on one side, and on the\nother the crowned Virgin throwing her rosary into the scale which holds\nthe souls of the just. The church was dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin,\nand her image formerly occupied the niche in the timbered porch which,\nwith the old lych-gate, are such fine specimens of fifteenth-century\nwood-work. The beautiful Jacobean pulpit was given by Anthony Honywood\nin 1622, and is charmingly carved with festoons of grapes and\nvine-leaves. The Honywoods also built the almshouses, with carved\nbargeboards and door-posts, in the street at Lenham, and an inscription\nin the chancel floor records the memory of that long-lived Dame, Mary\nHonywood, who before her death in 1620 saw no less than three hundred\nand sixty-seven of her descendants!\n\n[Illustration: MARKET-PLACE, LENHAM.]\n\nClose to the church are the great tithe barns, built after the fire in\nthe fourteenth century by the Abbots of St. Augustine. The largest\nmeasures 157 feet long by 40 feet wide, and, saving the low stone walls,\nis built entirely of oak from the forests of the Weald. The enormous\ntimbers are as sound and strong to-day as they were six hundred years\nago, and for solidity of material and beauty of construction, this\nKentish barn deserves to rank among the grandest architectural works of\nthe age. The monks are gone, and the proud Abbey itself has long been\nlaid in ruins, but these buildings give us some idea of the wealth and\nresources of the great community who were the lords of Lenham during so\nmany centuries. They could afford to lend a kindly ear to the prayer of\nthe poor vicar when he humbly showed the poverty with which he had to\ncontend, and the load of the burden that he had to bear. The Abbot, we\nare glad to learn, granted his request, and agreed to give him a roof\nover his head and to allow his two cows to feed with the monks' own\nherds in the pastures at Lenham, during the months between the feast of\nSt. Philip and St. James and Michaelmas.\n\n[Illustration: IN CHARING VILLAGE.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nCHARING TO GODMERSHAM\n\n\nFrom Lenham the Pilgrims' Road threads its lonely way along the\nhill-side, past one or two decayed farmhouses still bearing the name of\nthe great families who once owned these manors--the Selves and the\nCobhams; and the view over the level country grows wider, and extends\nfarther to the south and east, until we reach Charing Hill, one of the\nhighest points along this range of downs. The windmill, a few hundred\nyards above the track, commands a far-spreading view over the valley,\nstretching from the foot of the ridge to the Quarry Hills, where the\ntowers of Egerton Church stand out on its steep mound above the hazy\nplains of the Weald. We look down upon Calehill, the home of the Darells\nfor the last five centuries, and across the woods and park of Surrenden\nDering, which has been held by the Dering family ever since the days of\nEarl Godwin, to the churches and villages of the Weald. Beyond a\nforeground of swelling hill and dale we see the flat expanse of Romney\nMarsh and Dungeness; and then for the first time we catch a glimpse of a\npale blue line of sea--that sea across which Roman and Saxon and Norman\nall sailed in turn to land upon the Kentish shore. On clear days you can\nsee the Sussex downs in the far horizon beyond the Weald, and near\nHastings, the hill of Fairlight rising sharply from the sea. Down in the\nvalley below, the tall tower of Charing Church lifts its head out of a\nconfused mass of red roofs and green trees, with the ivy-grown ruins of\nthe old palace at its feet.\n\nMany are the venerable traditions attached to the churches and villages\nwhich we have seen along our road through this pleasant land of Kent,\nbut here is one older and more illustrious than them all. Here we have a\nrecord which goes back far beyond the days of Lanfranc and of Athelstan,\nand even that king of Mercia who gave Lenham to the Abbey of St.\nAugustine. For Charing, if not actually given, as the old legend says,\nby Vortigern to the ancient British Church, was at all events among the\nfirst lands bestowed on Augustine and his companions by Ethelbert, king\nof Kent. Saxon historians tell us how that this most ancient possession\nof the church of Canterbury was seized by Offa, king of Mercia, in 757,\nbut restored again by his successor, Cenulph, in the year 788.\n\n[Illustration: CHARING]\n\nLong before the Conqueror's time, the Archbishops had a house here. In\nDomesday Book, Charing is styled \"proprium manorium archiepiscopi,\"\nbeing reserved by those prelates for their private use, and from those\ndays until the manor was surrendered by Cranmer to Henry VIII. it\nremained a favourite residence of the Archbishops. In the thirteenth\ncentury the Franciscan Archbishop John Peckham dates many letters from\nhis house at Charing, and Stratford, as Dean Hook tells us, was often\nthere, and found consolation in this quiet retreat for the troubles of\nthose stormy days. Chichele, Kemp, and Bourchier were also frequently\nhere. Stratford first obtained the grant of a three days' fair to be\nheld at Charing twice a year, on the festivals of St. George and St.\nLuke. Leland tells us that Cardinal Morton made great buildings at\nCharing, and the red and black brickwork still to be seen under the ivy\nof the farmhouse walls may be ascribed to him, but the great gateway\nwith the chamber and hooded fireplace above, belongs to an earlier\nperiod, and was probably the work of Stratford in the fourteenth\ncentury. Some of the older stonework is to be found in the stables and\ncottages now occupying the site of the offices on the west of the court.\nThe chapel, with its pointed arches and large windows, which in Hasted's\ntime stood behind the modern dwelling-house, was taken down eighty\nyears ago, but the great dining-hall, with its massive walls and fine\ndecorated window, still remains standing. This hall, where archbishops\nsat in state, and kingly guests were feasted; where Henry VII. was\nroyally entertained by Archbishop Warham, on the 24th of March, 1507,\nand where Henry VIII. stayed with all his train on his way to the Field\nof Cloth of Gold, is now used as a barn. But in its decay, it must be\nowned, the old palace is singularly picturesque. The wallflowers grow in\ngolden clusters high up the roofless gables and along the arches of the\ncentral gateway; masses of apple-blossom hang over the grey stone walls,\nand ring-necked doves bask in the sunshine on the richly coloured tiles\nof the old banqueting-hall.\n\nClose by is the church of Charing, famous in the eyes of medi\u00e6val\npilgrims for the possession of one hallowed relic, the block on which\nSt. John the Baptist was beheaded, brought back, an old tradition says,\nby Richard Coeur de Lion from the Holy Land, and given by him to\nArchbishop Baldwin, when the King paid his devotions at the shrine of\nSt. Thomas. This precious relic went the way of all relics in the\nsixteenth century, and is not mentioned in the long list of costly\nvestments and frontals recorded in an inventory of Church property taken\nat Charing in 1552. But Charing Church is still, in the words of the old\nchronicler, \"a goodly pile.\" It is cruciform in shape, and contains some\ntraces of Early English work, but it is mostly of later date. The\nwindows are interesting on account of their great variety. There are\nthree narrow lancets, several of Transitional and Perpendicular style,\nand one large and very remarkable square-headed Decorated window. The\nchapel of Our Lady, on the south side of the chancel, was built, towards\nthe close of the fifteenth century, by Amy Brent, whose family owned the\ncharming old manor-house of Wickens in this parish. The porch and fine\ntower, which forms so marked a feature in the landscape, was also\nchiefly built by the Brents, whose crest, a wyvern, is carved on the\ndoorway, together with a rose encircled with sun-rays, the badge of\nEdward IV., in whose reign the work was completed. Through this handsome\ndoorway the Archbishop, attended by his cross-bearers and chaplains,\nwould enter from the palace-gate hard by, and many must have been the\nstately processions which passed under the western arch and wound up the\nlong nave in the days of Morton and of Warham. A hundred years later\nCharing Church narrowly escaped entire destruction. On the 4th of\nAugust, 1590, a farmer, one Mr. Dios, discharged a birding-piece at a\npigeon roosting, as the pigeons do to this day, in the church tower, and\n\"the day being extreme hot and the shingle very dry,\" a fire broke out\nin the night, and by morning nothing was left but the bare walls of the\nchurch, even the bells being melted by the heat of the fire. Happily the\nparishioners applied themselves with patriotic zeal to the restoration,\nand within two years the fine timber roof of the nave was completed. The\ndate 1592, E.R. 34, is inscribed on the rafter above the chancel arch,\nwhile that of the chancel roof Ann. Dom. 1622, Anno Regni Jacobi xviii.,\nappears on the beam immediately over the altar.\n\nThe Pilgrims' Way winds on through Charing past the noble church tower\nand the ancient palace wall, with its thick clusters of ivy and trailing\nwreaths of travellers' joy, through the lovely woods of Pett Place, the\nhome of Honywoods and Sayers for some hundreds of years. The track\ncrosses the long avenue of stately limes which leads up to its gates,\nand through the meeting boughs we see the red gables and tall chimneys\nof the old Tudor house. In the fourteenth century the owners of Pett had\na chapel of their own, served by a priest whose name appears in the\nLambeth Register and other records as holding the living of\nPette-juxta-Charing; and Geoffery de Newcourt, who owned this manor,\ntogether with the adjoining one of Newcourt, paid the king an aid on his\nlands of Pett, when the Black Prince was knighted. A pleasant part of\nthe track this is dear to botanists for the wealth of ferns, flowers,\nand rare orchises which grow along the shady path; pleasant alike in\nMay, when cowslips and violets grow thick in the grass and the\nnightingales are in full song, and in June, when the ripe red fruit of\nthe wild strawberries peep out from under the moss and the hawthorns\nare in bloom, but perhaps best of all in autumn, when the beeches are\ncrimson and the maples in the hedges are one fire of gold.\n\nFor the next three miles, the way lies through the lower part of the\ngreat woods of Long Beech, which stretch all over these hills, and which\nfrom very early times belonged to the see of Canterbury. It brings us\nout at Westwell, close to another extremely interesting church, dating\nfrom the middle of the thirteenth century, and almost entirely of one\nperiod. The graceful steeple, nave, chancel, and aisles, are all Early\nEnglish, but the most striking feature is the high open colonnade which\nforms the rood-screen. The effect of the chancel, with its side arcade,\nits groined roof, and beautiful lancet window filled with\nrichly-coloured old glass, seen through these three lofty arches, is\nvery imposing. There is another curious fragment of stained glass,\nbearing the arms of Queen Anne of Bohemia and of Edward the Confessor\nand his wife, in the north aisle, and the chancel contains six stone\nwalls and a stone seat with a pointed arch, which were formerly used by\nthe monks and prior of Christ Church, Canterbury. For the manor of\nWestwell, like so many others in this neighbourhood, belonged to the see\nof Canterbury before the Conquest, and at the division of property\neffected by Lanfranc was retained by the Priory. Its revenues were\nallotted to the supply of the monks' refectory, _ad cibum eorum_, just\nas the tithes of Lenham were used to provide meals for St. Augustine's\nAbbey.\n\n[Illustration: OLD YEWS AND OAK IN EASTWELL PARK.]\n\nHalf a mile above Westwell Church the Pilgrims' Way reaches the gates of\nEastwell. Here the track disappears for a time, but old maps show the\nline which it took across the southern slopes of the park, which extends\nfor many miles, and is famous for the wild beauty of its scenery. The\nhills we have followed so long run through the upper part of the park,\nand magnificent are the views of the sea and Sussex downs which meet us\nin these forest glades, where stately avenues of beech and oak and\nchestnut throw long shadows over the grass, and antlered deer start up\nfrom the bracken at our feet. But the lower slopes are pleasant too,\nwith the venerable yews and thorns and hornbeams dotted over the\nhill-side, and the heights above clad with a wealth of mingled foliage\nwhich is reflected in the bright waters of the still, clear lake. The\nold ivy-grown church stands close to the water's edge, and contains some\nfine tombs of the Earls of Winchelsea, and of their ancestors, the\nFinches. But the traveller will look with more interest on the\nsepulchral arch which is said to cover the ashes of the last of the\nPlantagenets. The burial registers indeed record that Richard\nPlantagenet, the illegitimate son of Richard III., died at Eastwell on\nthe 22nd of December, 1550, and a well, which goes by the name of\nPlantagenet's Well, marks the site of the cottage where he lived in\nconfinement after the defeat of his father on Bosworth Field. Eastwell\nHouse, for some years the residence of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, was\noriginally built by Sir Thomas Moyle, Speaker of the House of Commons in\nthe reign of Henry VIII., but has been completely altered and modernised\nsince it passed into the Winchelsea family. Leaving it on our left, we\ncome out of the Park at Boughton Lees, a group of houses on a\nthree-cornered green, and follow in the steps of the old track to\nBoughton Aluph church, a large cruciform building with a spacious north\naisle and massive central tower, standing in a very lonely situation.\n\nBoughton, called Bocton or Boltune in former times, belonged to Earl\nGodwin and his son Harold, before the Conquest, after which it was given\nto Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, and formed part of Juliana de Leybourne's\nvast inheritance. It took the name of Aluph from a Norman knight,\nAluphus de Bocton, who held the manor in the reign of King John, and\nbecame thus distinguished from the other parishes of Boughton in the\nneighbourhood. From the church a grassy lane, shaded by trees, ascends\nthe hill to Challock on the borders of Eastwell Park, and is probably\nthe old track of the Pilgrims' Way which passed between these woods and\nthe park of Godmersham. This was formerly the property of Jane Austen's\nbrother, who took the name of Knight on succeeding to the estate, but it\nhas now passed into the hands of another family. Until the Dissolution\nthe manor and church of Godmersham belonged to Christ Church, and here,\nin medi\u00e6val days, the priors of the convent had a fine manor-house,\nwhere they frequently resided during the summer months. The hall was\npulled down in 1810, and nothing of the old house is now left except a\ngable and doorway, adorned with a figure of a Prior wearing his mitre\nand holding his crozier in his hand, probably intended for Henry de\nEstria, the Prior who rebuilt the manor-house in 1290. The church of\nGodmersham is remarkable for its early tower and curious semicircular\napse with small Norman lights, which are evidently remains of an older\nbuilding, and in the churchyard are some very ancient yews, one of which\nis said to have been planted before the Conquest.\n\nUnder the shadow of these venerable trees there sleeps a remarkable\nwoman, Mary Sybilla Holland, whose father was at one time Vicar of\nGodmersham, and afterwards moved to Harbledown, a larger parish near\nCanterbury, a few miles further along the Pilgrims' Way. Both Mrs.\nHolland and her distinguished brother, the lamented Sir Alfred Lyall,\nretained a lifelong affection for this corner of East Kent. When Lyall\nwas far away in India, ruling over millions of British subjects, in the\nnorth-west provinces, his verses tell us how passionately he yearned for\nhis old Kentish home.\n\n    \"Ah! that hamlet in Saxon Kent,\n       Shall I find it when I come home?\n     With toil and travelling well-nigh spent,\n     Tired with life in jungle and tent,\n       Eastward never again to roam.\n     Pleasantest corner the world can show\n       In a vale which slopes to the English sea--\n     Where strawberries wild in the woodland grow,\n     And the cherry-tree branches are bending low,\n       No such fruit in the South countree.\"\n\nSir Alfred died on the 10th of April, 1911, at Lord Tennyson's house at\nFarringford, in the Isle of Wight, and was buried in the churchyard of\nSt. Michael's, Harbledown. Now brother and sister are both sleeping\nunder the grassy sod of the Kentish land which they loved so well,\n\"where the nightingales sing heart-piercing notes in the silence of the\nearly summer night.\"\n\n    \"Shelter for me and for you, my friend,\n       There let us settle when both are old,\n     And whenever I come to my journey's end,\n     There you shall see me laid, and blend\n       Just one tear with the falling mould.\"\n\n[Illustration: THE PLACE, WROTHAM.]\n\n[Illustration: CHILHAM.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nCHILHAM TO HARBLEDOWN\n\n\nThe Pilgrims' Way skirted the wooded slopes of Godmersham Park for about\na mile, and then entered Chilham Park. The park is now closed, but the\nold track lay right across the park, and in front of Chilham Castle. The\nposition of this fortress, overlooking the valley of the Stour, has made\nit memorable in English history. Chilham has been in turn a Roman camp,\na Saxon castle, and a Norman keep, and has played an eventful part in\nsome of the fiercest struggles of those days. According to a generally\nreceived tradition recorded by Camden, Chilham was the scene of the\nbattle on the river in C\u00e6sar's second expedition; and the British barrow\nnear the Stour, popularly known as Julaber's Grave, was believed to be\nthe tomb of the Roman tribune, Julius Laberius, although, as a matter of\nfact, it contains no sepulchral remains. In the second century Chilham\nis said to have been the home of that traditional personage, the\nChristian King Lucius, and in Saxon days of the chief Cilla. The castle\nwas strongly fortified to resist the invasion of the Danes, by whom it\nwas repeatedly attacked. After the Norman Conquest it belonged to\nFulbert de Dover, whose last descendant, Isabel, Countess of Atholl,\ndied here in 1292, and is buried in the under-croft at Canterbury. Then\nit passed into the hands of the great Lord Badlesmere, of Leeds, who on\none occasion gave Queen Isabel, the wife of Edward II., a splendid\nreception here, and afterwards astonished the peaceful citizens and\nmonks of Canterbury by appearing at their gates, followed by nineteen\narmed knights, each with a drawn sword in his hand, to pay his\ndevotions at the shrine of St. Thomas. As late as the sixteenth century\nLeland describes Chilham Castle as beautiful for pleasure, commodious\nfor use, and strong for defence; but soon after he wrote these words,\nthe greater part of the old house was pulled down by its owner, Sir\nThomas Cheney, Warden of the Cinque Ports under Edward VI., to complete\nhis new mansion in the Isle of Sheppey. The Norman keep, an octagonal\nfortress three stories high, is the only part of the medi\u00e6val structure\nthat now remains, and can still be seen in the gardens of the new house\nbuilt in 1616 by Sir Dudley Digges, Master of the Rolls in the reign of\nJames I. This fine Jacobean manor-house stands well on the rising ground\nabove the river, and both the garden terrace and the top of the old keep\nafford beautiful views of the vale of Ashford and the downs beyond the\nWye. Still more picturesque is the market-place of Chilham itself. On\none side we have the red brick walls and white stone doorway of the\ncastle, seen at the end of its short avenue of tall lime trees on the\nother the quaint red roofs and timbered houses of the charming old\nsquare, with the grey church tower surrounded by the brilliant green of\nsycamores and beeches. On a bright spring morning, when the leaves are\nyoung and the meadows along the river-side are golden with buttercups,\nthere can be no prettier picture than this of the old market square of\nCilla's home.\n\nFrom the heights of Chilham the Pilgrims' Way descends into the valley\nof the Stour, and after following the course of the river for a short\ntime, climbs the opposite hill and strikes into Bigberry Wood. Here we\ncome suddenly upon the most ancient earthwork along the whole line of\nthe road, an entrenchment which Professor Boyd Dawkins, who explored it\nthoroughly some years ago, has ascribed to the prehistoric Iron Age. For\nmost of us, perhaps, Bigberry Camp has a still greater interest as the\nfort which the Britons held against the assault of the Roman invaders,\nand which was stormed and carried by C\u00e6sar's legions. The memory of that\ndesperate fight, which sealed the fate of Britain and her conquest by\nthe great Proconsul, still lingers in the popular mind, and the shepherd\nwho follows his flock and the waggoner who drives his team along the\nroad, still talk of the famous battle that was fought here two thousand\nyears ago.\n\nAfter this the path crosses the valley and runs through the hop-gardens\nto join Watling Street--the road by which Chaucer's pilgrims came to\nCanterbury--at Harbledown. This is the little village on the edge of the\nforest of Blean, which has been immortalised by Chaucer's lines--\n\n    \"Wist ye not where standeth a little toun\n     Which that ycleped is Bob-up-and-down,\n     Under the Blee in Canterbury way.\"\n\n[Illustration: ON THE VILLAGE GREEN, CHARTHAM]\n\nAnd Bob-up-and-down is to this day a true and characteristic description\nof the rolling ground by which we approach Harbledown. Here the\nPilgrims' Road, along which we have journeyed over hill and dale, fails\nto rise again. We climb the last hill, and on the summit of the rising\nground we find ourselves close to the lazar-house founded at Harbledown\nby Lanfranc in 1084. The wooden houses built by the Norman Archbishop\nfor the reception of ten brothers and seven sisters have been replaced\nby a row of modern almshouses; but the chapel still preserves its old\nNorman doorway, and the round arches and pillars of an arcade to the\nnorth of the nave, which formed part of the hospital church dedicated by\nLanfranc to St. Nicholas. The devout pilgrim to St. Thomas's shrine\nnever failed to visit this ancient leper-house. Not only did the\nantiquity of the charitable foundation and its nearness to the road\nattract him, but in the common hall of the hospital a precious relic was\npreserved in the shape of a crystal which had once adorned the leather\nof St. Thomas's shoe. Many were the royal personages and distinguished\nstrangers who paused before these old walls and dropped their alms into\nthe poor leper's outstretched hand. Here, we read in contemporary\nrecords, Henry II. came on his first memorable pilgrimage to the tomb of\nthe martyred Archbishop, and Richard Coeur de Lion after his release\nfrom his long captivity. Edward I. stopped at Harbledown with his brave\nQueen, Eleanor of Castille, on their return from the Holy Land, and the\nBlack Prince, accompanied by his royal captive, King John of France, and\nthat monarch's young son Philip, also visited the leper-house. And when\nthe French king visited Canterbury for the second time, on his return to\nhis own kingdom, he did not forget to stop at Lanfranc's old lazar-house\nand leave ten gold crowns \"pour les nonnains de Harbledoun.\" But it is a\nlater and more sceptical traveller, Erasmus, who has left us the most\nvivid description of Harbledown and of the feelings which the sight of\nthe relic aroused in the heart of his companion, Dean Colet. \"Not far\nfrom Canterbury, at the left-hand side of the road,\" he writes, in the\nrecord of his pilgrimage, \"there is a small almshouse for old people,\none of whom ran out, seeming to hear the steps of the horses. He first\nsprinkled us with holy water, and then offered us the upper leather of a\nshoe bound in a brass rim, with a crystal set in its centre like a\njewel. Gration (Dean Colet) rode on my left hand, nearer to the beggar\nman, and was duly sprinkled, bearing it with a tolerable amount of\nequanimity. But when the shoe was handed up, he asked the old man what\nhe wanted. 'It is the shoe of St. Thomas,' was the answer. Upon this he\nfired up, and turning to me, exclaimed indignantly, 'What! do these\ncattle mean we should kiss the shoes of every good man?'\" Erasmus, sorry\nfor the old man's feelings, dropped a small coin into his hand, which\nmade him quite happy, and the two pilgrims rode on to London, discussing\nthe question of the worship of relics as they went. To this day a maple\nbowl, bound with a brass rim, containing a piece of crystal, is\npreserved in the hospital at Harbledown, the self-same relic, it may be,\nwhich was shown to Erasmus and Colet, and which Lambarde, writing half\na century later, describes as \"faire set in copper and chrystall\"; while\nan old wooden box, with a slit in the lid for money, and a chain\nattached to it, is said to be the one into which Erasmus dropped his\ncoin.\n\nBehind the ivy-mantled tower of Lanfranc's chapel is a clear spring\nwhich was supposed to possess healing virtues, and is still believed by\nthe country folks to be of great benefit to the eyes. This spring still\ngoes by the name of the Black Prince's Well, from an old tradition that\nthe warrior of Crecy and Poitiers drank of its waters when he visited\nthe hospital at Harbledown in 1357. Many, we know, are the memorials of\nthis popular hero at Canterbury. Only three days after he landed at\nSandwich he came, accompanied by his royal captive, to return thanks at\nSt. Thomas's shrine for his victories, and six years afterwards he\nfounded and decorated the beautiful chantry in the Cathedral crypt,\nwhich still bears his name, on the occasion of his marriage with his\ncousin Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent. The old legend of the Black\nPrince's Well goes on to tell how, when he lay dying of the wasting\ndisease which carried him off in the flower of his life, he thought of\nthe wonder-working spring near Canterbury, and sent to Harbledown for a\ndraught of its pure waters. But even that could not save him, and on the\n29th of September, 1376, a stately funeral procession wound its way down\nthe hill-side at Harbledown, bearing the Black Prince to the grave which\nhe had chosen for himself in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Undercroft at\nCanterbury.\n\nAt Harbledown the pilgrims caught their first sight of the Cathedral;\nhere they fell on their knees when they saw the golden angel on the top\nof the central tower, and knew that the goal of their pilgrimage was\nalmost reached. Here Chaucer's goodly company made their last halt, and\nfor the moment the noise of singing and piping and jingling of bells\ngave place to a graver and more solemn mood as the motley crowd of\npilgrims pressed around, to hear this time not a Canterbury tale, but a\nsermon. Deep was the impression which that first sight of Canterbury\nmade upon Erasmus. The cold, critical scholar becomes eloquent as he\ndescribes the great church of St. Thomas rearing itself up into the sky\nwith a majesty that strikes awe into every heart, and the clanging of\nbells which, thrilling through the air, salute the pilgrims from afar.\nTo-day the great cross is gone from the Westgate, the shining archangel\nno longer blesses the kneeling pilgrim from the topmost steeple, but the\nsame glorious vision of the great Cathedral rising with all its towers\ninto the sky meets the eyes of the traveller who looks down on\nCanterbury from the hill of Harbledown.\n\n[Illustration: CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL FROM THE SOUTH-WEST]\n\n[Illustration: ST. NICHOLAS', HARBLEDOWN.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nHARBLEDOWN TO CANTERBURY\n\n\nFrom Harbledown it is all downhill to Canterbury, and a short mile\nbrings us to the massive round tower of Simon of Sudbury's noble\nWestgate, the only one remaining of the seven fortified gateways which\nonce guarded the ancient city. Many are the pilgrims who have entered\nCanterbury by this gate: kings and queens of all ages, foreign emperors\nand princes, armed knights and humble scholars, good Queen Philippa and\nEdward Plantagenet, Henry of Agincourt, Margaret of Anjou, Chaucer and\nErasmus. Many, too, are the long processions which have wound down this\nhill-side: newly created archbishops followed by a brilliant train of\nbishops and courtiers on their way to be enthroned in the chair of St.\nAugustine; solemn funerals, attended with all the pomp and circumstance,\nthe funeral plumes and sable trappings, with which men honour the mighty\ndead. Through the Westgate went forth that gay company of monks and\nfriars, of merchants and citizens crowned with garlands of flowers, and\nmaking joyous minstrelsy, as they rode out to welcome Archbishop\nWinchelsea, who, once a poor student in the school at Canterbury, now\ncame to be enthroned in state in the presence of King Edward I. and all\nhis court. And this way, too, they bore him with much state and pomp,\neighteen years later, from the manor-house at Otford, where he died, to\nsleep in his own Cathedral after all the labours and struggles, the\nstorms and changes of his troublous reign.\n\n[Illustration: THE WEST GATE, CANTERBURY.]\n\nSince these medi\u00e6val days Canterbury has seen many changes. The\nsplendours of which Camden and Leland wrote have passed away, the\ncountless number of its churches has been reduced, and their\nmagnificence no longer strikes the eye of the stranger. The lofty walls\nand their twenty-one watch-towers, which encircled the city in a\ncomplete ring when Chaucer's knight, after paying his devotion at the\nshrine of St. Thomas, went out to see their strength, and \"pointed to\nhis son both the perill and the doubt,\" are all gone, and the\nConqueror's mighty castle is turned into a coal-pit. But the old city is\nstill full of quaint corners and picturesque buildings, timbered houses\nwith carved corbels and oriel windows, hostelries with overhanging eaves\nand fantastic sign-boards of wrought-iron work, hospitals whose charters\ndate from Norman times, and whose records give us many a curious peep\ninto the byways of medi\u00e6val life.\n\nAs we draw near the Martyr's shrine, memories of St. Thomas crowd upon\nus. The hill outside the Westgate, now occupied by the Clergy Orphan\nSchool, is still called St. Thomas's Hill, and was formerly the site of\na chapel founded by Becket himself. A little way up the High Street we\nreach a bridge over the Stour, which winds its way through the heart of\nthe city, and a low pointed doorway on our right leads into St. Thomas's\nHospital. This ancient Spittle of East Bridge was founded, as a\nfourteenth-century charter records, by the \"glorious St. Thomas the\nMartyr, to receive poor wayfaring men.\" Archbishop Hubert Walter\nincreased its endowments in the twelfth century, and Stratford repaired\nthe walls in the fourteenth, and drew up statutes for its government.\nFrom that time it was especially devoted to the use of poor pilgrims,\nfor whom twelve beds were provided, and whose wants were supplied at the\nrate of fourpence a day. During those days, when the enthusiasm for St.\nThomas was at its height, alms and legacies were lavished upon\nEastbridge Hospital, and Edward III. bequeathed money to support a\nchaplain, whose duty it was to say daily masses for the founders of the\nhospital. After the days of pilgrimages were over, this hospital was\napplied to various uses until Archbishop Whitgift recovered the\nproperty and drew up fresh statutes for its management. Ten poor\nbrothers and sisters still enjoy the fruit of St. Thomas's benevolence,\nand dwell in the old house built on arches across the bed of the river.\nThe low level of the floor, which has sunk far below that of the street,\nand the vaulted roof and time-worn pillars, bear witness to its great\nantiquity. There can be little doubt that the round arches of the Norman\ncrypt belong to St. Thomas's original foundation, while the pointed\nwindows of the chapel and Early English arches of the refectory form\npart of Archbishop Stratford's improvements. In this hall some portions\nof frescoes, representing on the one hand the Last Supper, on the other\nthe Martyrdom of the Saint, the penance of Henry II. at his tomb, with\nthe central figure of Christ in Glory, have been lately recovered from\nunder the coat of whitewash which had concealed them for more than two\ncenturies.\n\nTwice a year, we know, at the summer festival of the Translation of St.\nThomas, on the 7th of July, and at the winter festival of the Martyrdom,\non the 29th of December, Canterbury was crowded with pilgrims, and a\nnotice was placed in the High Street ordering the due provision of beds\nand entertainment for strangers. The concourse was still greater on the\njubilees of the Translation, when indulgences were showered freely on\nall who visited the shrine, and the festival lasted for a whole\nfortnight. At the jubilee of the year 1420, just after the victory of\nAgincourt, no less than a hundred thousand pilgrims are said to have\nbeen present. On such occasions every available corner was occupied; the\ninns, which were exceedingly numerous, the hospitals, and, above all,\nthe religious houses, were thronged with strangers. The most favourite,\nthe most renowned, of all the hostelries was the Chequers of the Hope,\nthe inn where Chaucer's twenty-nine pilgrims took up their quarters.\n\n    \"At Chekers of the Hope that every man doth know.\"\n\nThis ancient inn, which Prior Chillenden rebuilt about 1400, stood at\nthe corner of High Street and Mercery Lane, the old Merceria, which was\nformerly lined with rows of booths and stalls for the sale of pilgrimage\ntokens, such as are to be found in the neighbourhood of all famous\nshrines. Both ampullas, small leaden bottles containing a drop of the\nmartyr's blood, which flowed perennially from a well in the precincts,\nand Caput Thom\u00e6, or brooches bearing the saint's mitred head, were\neagerly sought after by all Canterbury pilgrims. So too were the small\nmetal bells which are said to have given their name to the favourite\nKentish flower, the Canterbury bell. And we read that the French king,\nJohn, stopped at the Mercery stalls to buy a knife for the Count of\nAuxerre. The position of the inn close to the great gate of Christ\nChurch naturally attracted many visitors, and the spacious cellars with\nvaulted roofs, which once belonged to the inn, may still be seen,\nalthough the inner courtyard and the great chamber upstairs occupied by\nthe pilgrims, and known as the Dormitory of Hundred Beds, were burnt\ndown forty years ago. But the old street front, with its broad eaves\noverhanging the narrow lane leading up to the great gateway at the other\nend, still remains, and renders Mercery Lane the most picturesque and\ninteresting corner of the Cathedral city.\n\nThe religious houses were open to all comers, and while royal visitors\nwere lodged in St. Augustine's Abbey, the convents of the Mendicant\norders were largely frequented by the poorer classes. There was also the\nhouse of the Whitefriars or Augustinians in the eastern part of the\ntown, close to St. George's Gate, and the hospital of St. John in the\npopulous Northgate, \"that faire and large house of stone,\" built and\nendowed by Lanfranc in the eleventh century, besides that of Eastbridge,\nwhich has been already mentioned, and many other smaller foundations.\n\nBut it was in the great Priory of Christ Church that by far the largest\nnumber of pilgrims found hospitable welcome. A considerable part of the\nconvent buildings was set aside for their reception. The Prior himself\nentertained distinguished strangers, and lodged them in the splendid\nsuite of rooms overlooking the convent garden, known as the Omers or\nHomers--Les Ormeaux--from a neighbouring grove of elms. This range of\nbuildings, including the banqueting-hall, generally known as \"Meister\nOmers,\" was broken up into prebendal houses after the Dissolution, and\nsupplied three separate residences for members of the new Chapter, which\ngives us some idea of the size of these lodgings. For ordinary strangers\nthere was the Guest Hall, near the kitchen, on the west side of the\nPrior's Court, which was under the especial charge of a cellarer\nappointed to provide for the needs of the guests. Prior Chillenden, whom\nLeland describes as \"the greatest builder of a Prior that ever was in\nChrist Church,\" repaired and enlarged this Strangers' Hall early in the\nfifteenth century, and added a new chamber for hospitality, which bore\nthe name of Chillenden's Guest Chamber, and now forms part of the Bishop\nof Dover's house. Finally, without the convent precincts, close to the\ncourt gateway, where the beautiful Norman stairway leads up to the Great\nHall, or Aula Nova, was the Almonry. Here the statutes of Archbishop\nWinchelsea--he who had known what it was to hunger and thirst in his\nboyhood, and who remained all through his greatness the friend of the\npoor--provided that poor pilgrims and beggars should be fed daily with\nthe fragments of bread and meat, \"which were many and great,\" left on\nthe monks' tables, and brought here by the wooden pentise or covered\npassage leading from the kitchen. This Almonry became richly endowed by\nwealthy pilgrims in course of years, and early in the fourteenth century\nPrior Henry of Estria built a chapel close by, which was dedicated to\nSt. Thomas the Martyr, and much frequented by pilgrims. The Almony was\nturned into a mint-yard at the Dissolution, and the chapel and priests'\nlodgings attached to it, now belong to the King's School. Another\nprivilege freely conceded by the prior and monks of this great community\nto pilgrims of all ranks and nationality who might die at Canterbury,\nwas that of burial within the precincts of Christ Church, close to the\nblessed martyr's shrine, and under the shadow of the Cathedral walls.\n\n[Illustration: MERCERY LANE, CANTERBURY.]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nTHE MARTYR'S SHRINE\n\n\nErasmus has described the imposing effect of the great Cathedral church\non the stranger who entered its doors for the first time, and saw the\nnave \"in all its spacious majesty.\" The vision which broke upon the eyes\nof those pilgrims who, like himself and Dean Colet, visited Canterbury\nin the early years of the sixteenth century, may well have filled all\nhearts with wonder. For then the work was well-nigh perfected. The long\nroll of master-builders, from Prior Wibert and De Estria to Chillenden\nand Sellyng, had faithfully accomplished their task. Prior Goldstone,\nthe last but one who reigned before the Dissolution, had just completed\nthe central tower, the great labour of his predecessor Prior Sellyng's\nlife, and was in the act of building the noble Perpendicular gateway\nwhich forms a fitting entrance to the precincts.\n\nAnd now the great church stood complete. Without, \"a very goodly,\nstrong, and beautiful structure\": the traceries and mouldings of the\nwindows, the stone canopies and sculptured images of the portal, all\nperfect; the glorious towers in their might; Bell Harry Steeple, as we\nsee it to-day, matchless in its strength and beauty; and beside it,\nrivalling its grace and majesty, the ancient Norman tower, which bore\nthe name of Ethelbert, crowned with the Arundel spire. Within, a\nrichness and splendour to which our eyes are wholly unaccustomed:\nchapels and chantries lining the great nave, fresh from Prior\nChillenden's work; altars glittering with lighted tapers and gold and\nsilver ornaments; roof and walls bright with painting and gilding, or\ndecked with silken tapestry hangings; carved images covered with pearls\nand gems; stained windows throwing their hues of ruby and sapphire\nacross the floor, and lighting up the clouds of incense as they rose\nheavenward. All this, and much more, met the pilgrims' wondering eyes.\nNo wonder they stood \"half amazed,\" as the Supplementary Tale to\nChaucer's Pilgrimage describes \"the gardener and the miller and the\nother lewd sets,\" gazing up at the painted windows, and forgetting to\nmove on with the crowd.\n\n[Illustration: THE MARTYRDOM, CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL.]\n\nThen the show began. First of all the pilgrims were led up a vaulted\npassage and \"many steps\" to the Transept of the Martyrdom, where the\nwooden altar, at the foot of which the saint fell, remained to show the\nactual place of the murder, and its guardian priest--the _Custos\nMartyrum_--displayed the rusty sword of Richard le Breton. Next,\ndescending the flight of steps on the right, they were led into the dark\ncrypt, where more priests received them, and presented the saint's\nskull, encased in silver, to be kissed, and other relics, including the\nfamous girdle and hair-shirt. This _Caput Thom\u00e6_ was one of the chief\nstations at which offerings were made, and the altar on which it lay,\nmentioned in the Black Prince's will as \"the altar where the head is,\"\nmarked the site of the original grave where the saint was buried by the\nfrightened monks on the day after the murder. The tomb stood in the\neastern chapel of Ernulf's crypt, under the beautiful Pointed arches\nafterwards raised by that great architect, William the Englishman, whom\nGervase describes as \"small in body, but in workmanship skilled and\nhonest.\" Soon it acquired a miraculous virtue, and the fame of the cures\nand wonders wrought there rang throughout the world. It was the scene of\nHenry II.'s penance, and during the next fifty years it remained the\ncentral object of interest to the crowds of pilgrims who came from all\nparts of Christendom. Coeur de Lion, accompanied by William, King of\nScotland, knelt here on his way to the Crusades, to implore the martyr's\nblessing on his arms. Many were the Crusaders from all parts of France\nand England who came thither on the same errand. King John and his wife\nIsabella, who were crowned at Canterbury Cathedral by Archbishop Hubert\nWalter, at Easter, 1201, offered their coronation canopies at this tomb\nand vast sums of money were yearly offered here until 1220, when the\nbody of St. Thomas was translated, in the presence of the young King\nHenry III., to the new Shrine in Trinity Chapel, immediately above the\ntomb in the crypt. In that year the offerings at the tomb, at the Altar\nof the Sword's Point, and at the new Shrine, reached the enormous amount\nof \u00a31,071, a sum equal to more than \u00a320,000 of money at the present\ntime. After this, the offerings at the original tomb in the crypt\ndiminished in number and value, but the altar and relics of the _Caput\nThom\u00e6_ remained an object of deep reverence until the Reformation.\n\nFrom the dark vaults of the subterranean church the pilgrims were led up\nthe steps to the north aisle of the choir. Here the great mass of\nrelics, including St. George's arm and no less than four hundred skulls,\njaws, teeth, hands, and other bones, were displayed in gold, silver, or\nivory caskets, and pilgrims were allowed a glimpse of the magnificent\nvessels and ornaments stored up under the high altar. \"All the gold of\nMidas and Croesus,\" exclaims Erasmus, \"would have been nothing by the\nside of these treasures!\" and he confesses that he sighed to think he\nkept no such relics at home, and had to beg the saint's pardon for this\nvery unholy emotion. The golden candlesticks and silken vestments of\nthe sacristy in St. Andrew's tower, and the saint's pallium, which no\nordinary pilgrims might see, were also shown to Erasmus and Colet, who\nbrought with them a letter of introduction from Archbishop Warham.\n\nAfter duly inspecting these precious objects, they mounted the long\nflight of steps behind the high altar leading into Trinity Chapel; a\ncontinual ascent, \"church, as it were, piled upon church,\" which seems\nto have greatly heightened the impression produced upon the awe-struck\npilgrims. Now at last they stood within the holiest of holies. There,\nbefore their eyes, was the goal of all their journeyings, the object of\ntheir deepest devotion, the Shrine which held the body of the blessed\nmartyr.\n\n[Illustration: SITE OF THE SHRINE OF ST. THOMAS, CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL.]\n\nThe Shrine itself, covered by a painted canopy of wood, rested on stone\narches in the centre of the floor, exactly under the gilded crescent\nwhich is still to be seen in the Cathedral roof. On the right was the\nrichly carved and canopied monument of Henry IV. and his Queen, Joan of\nNavarre, with its elaborate effigies of the royal pair wearing their\ncrowns and robes of state; on the left the tomb of Edward the Black\nPrince. He had willed to sleep before the altar of Our Lady of the\nUnder-croft, in the chapel adorned by his own gifts, but the people who\nhad loved him so well would not allow their hero to remain buried out of\nsight in the dark crypt. So they brought him to rest by the great\nsaint's Shrine, where all men could see his effigy of gilded bronze as\nhe lay there, clad in armour, his sword by his side, his hands clasped\nin prayer, and read the pathetic lines which tell of his departed\nglories, and bid the passing stranger pray for his soul:\n\n    \"Pur Dieu, priez au Celestien Roy,\n     Que mercy ait de l'\u00e2me de moy.\"\n\nHis was the first tomb that was ever raised in the sacred precincts\ndevoted to the martyr's Shrine, and to this day it remains there, unhurt\nby the hand of time or the more cruel violence of man.\n\nUp the worn stone steps which still bear the marks left by thousands of\nfeet and knees, the pilgrims climbed, murmuring words of prayer or\nchanting the popular Latin hymns to St. Thomas:\n\n    \"Tu, per Thom\u00e6 sanguinem,\n     Quem pro te impendit,\n     Fac nos, Christe, scandere\n     Quo Thomas ascendit.\"\n\nHere the Prior himself received them, and showed them first the corona\nor crown of Becket's head, preserved in a golden likeness of St.\nThomas's face, ornamented with pearls and precious gems, which had been\npresented by Henry V. Then, at a given sign, the wooden canopy was drawn\nup by ropes, and the Shrine itself, embossed with gold and glittering\nwith countless jewels that flashed and sparkled with light, was revealed\nto the eyes of the pilgrims. They all fell upon their knees and\nworshipped, while the Prior with his white wand pointed out the\nbalass-rubies and diamonds, the sapphires and emeralds, which adorned\nthe Shrine, and told the names of the royal persons by whom these gifts\nhad been presented. There were rings and brooches and chains without\nend, golden and silver statues offered by kings and queens, the crown of\nScotland brought back by Edward I. after his victory over John Baliol,\nand the _regale_ of France, that superb ruby presented at the tomb in\nthe crypt by Louis VII., which shone like fire, and was as costly as a\nking's ransom. Full of awe and wonder the spectators gazed with admiring\neyes on these treasures, which for beauty and splendour were beyond all\nthey had ever dreamt, until the canopy slowly descended, and the Shrine\nwas once more hidden from their sight.\n\nThen they went their way, some to visit the convent buildings, the noble\nchapter-house with its gabled roof and stained windows, and the glazed\nwalk of the cloisters, glowing with bright colours and decorated with\nheraldic devices of benefactors to Christ Church painted on the bosses\nof the vaulting. Others made themselves fresh and gay, and went out to\nsee the city, the Knight and his son to look at the walls, the Prioress\nand the Wife of Bath to walk in the herbary of the inn.\n\nBut for Erasmus and his rather inconvenient companion there was still a\nsight in store, only reserved for very exalted personages, or such as\nhad friends at court. Prior Goldstone, a gentle and well-bred man, not\naltogether ignorant, as Erasmus found, of the Scotian theology, himself\ntook them back into the crypt, and lanterns were brought to illumine the\ndark vaults. By their light the Prior led the way into the church of Our\nLady of the Undercroft, which was divided from the rest of the crypt by\nstrong iron railings. Here the two friends saw what Erasmus might well\ncall \"a display of more than royal splendour.\" For here, surrounded by\nexquisitely carved stonework screens and a beautiful reredos with\ndelicate traceries and mouldings, richly coloured and gilt, was the\naltar of Our Lady, adorned with precious ornaments and twinkling with\nhundreds of silver lamps. There in the central niche, under a crocketed\nand pinnacled canopy, stood the famous silver image of the Blessed\nVirgin herself. And there was the jewelled tabernacle and frontal, with\nits picture of the Assumption worked in gold, and the chalice and cruets\nin the form of angels, and the great silver candelabra with which the\nBlack Prince had enriched his favourite shrine. There too were the\ncostly gifts and jewels presented by his son, Richard II., the gold\nbrooches offered yearly by Edward I., the white silk vestments, diapered\nwith a vine pattern of blue, bequeathed by the Black Prince, and\ncountless other rare and precious things, which filled Erasmus with envy\nand wonder. But then, as ill luck would have it, the Prior conducted his\nguests into the sacristy, where on bended knees he opened a black\nleathern chest, out of which he produced a parcel of ragged\nhandkerchiefs with which St. Thomas used to wipe his face. This was too\nmuch for Dean Colet's patience, already sorely tried as it had been by\nwhat he had seen and heard. When the gentle Prior offered him one of the\nfilthy rags as a present, he shrank back in evident disgust, and turned\nup his nose with an expression of contempt which filled Erasmus with\nshame and terror. Fortunately the Prior was a man of sense and courtesy,\nso he appeared to take no notice, and after giving his guests a cup of\nwine, politely bade them farewell.\n\nBefore this Colet had alarmed his more timid friend by the bold way in\nwhich he had dared to question the priest who guarded the gilded head.\nHe had even gone so far as to remark aloud that the saint who was so\ncharitable in his lifetime, would surely be better pleased if some\ntrifling part of these riches were spent in relieving the poor and\ndestitute. Upon which the monk had glared at him with Gorgon eyes, and,\nErasmus felt sure, would have turned them out of the church forthwith,\nhad it not been for Archbishop Warham's letter.\n\nBut in these words of the honest Dean we see a foreboding of the new and\ncritical spirit that was fast undermining the old beliefs. Already the\ndays of pilgrimages were numbered, and the glories of St. Thomas were on\nthe wane. A few more years and the monks who guarded his treasures were\nrudely disturbed. The glorious Shrine was stripped of its priceless\ngems. The wrought gold and precious jewels were borne away in two\nenormous chests, such as six or seven men could barely lift. The\nwonderful ruby which flashed fire in the darkness was set in a ring and\nworn by King Harry himself on his thumb. Finally, to complete the\nsacrilege, the relics of the Saint were publicly burnt and his ashes\nscattered to the winds. Only the broken pavement and the marks of the\npilgrims' knees in the stone floor were left to show future generations\nthis spot, hallowed by the prayers and the worship of past ages.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\nAbbotsworthy, 34\n\nAbbott, E., \"St. Thomas of Canterbury,\" 11 _note_\n\nAbinger, 90;\n  discovery of Roman remains at, 99\n\nAddington, cromlechs at, 146\n\n\u00c6thelred II., 153\n\nAgincourt, battle of, 198\n\nAlbury, 18, 82;\n  yew hedge, 84;\n  church, 83;\n  Downs, 80;\n  view from, 80;\n  Park, 80, 87\n\nAlexander III., Pope, 14\n\nAlfred, King, 21, 72;\n  founds the Abbey of Hyde, 28\n\nAlice Holt forest, 50\n\nAllen, Mr. Grant, 5\n\nAlresford, 35, 38;\n  New, cloth trade at, 39;\n  result of the Civil Wars, 40;\n  Old, 38\n\nAlton, 28, 50\n\nAnderida, forest of, 5\n\nApulderfelde, Thomas de, effigy of, 164\n\nAragon, Katherine of, portrait of, 131\n\nArle, ford of the, 38\n\nArundel, Thomas Howard, Earl of, 83;\n  collector of the Arundel marbles, 83;\n  portrait of, 83\n\nAsh, 54\n\nAshburton, Lord, his famous Grange, 37\n\nAshford, 127;\n  vale of, 184\n\nAthelstan, 112, 134, 153, 169\n\nAtholl, Isabel, Countess of, 183\n\nAusten, Cassandra, 48\n\nAusten, Jane, 46;\n  her cottage at Chawton, 48;\n  novels, 48;\n  mode of life, 48;\n  letters, 49\n\nAvington Park, 36\n\nAylesford, 144;\n  Common, 146\n\n\nBadlesmere, Lord, of Leeds, 183\n\nBaldwin, Archbishop, 172\n\nBaliol, John, 212\n\nBecket, St. Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, his murder, 7-9;\n  championship for the rights of the Church, 9;\n  journey to Canterbury, 9;\n  miracles and cures wrought by, 10-12, 206;\n  canonisation, 14;\n  removal of his body, 15, 206;\n  shrine, 16, 208-212;\n  fame, 16;\n  his house at Otford, 129;\n  legends, 131;\n  relics, 205, 207\n\nBeggars' Corner, 58\n\nBelloc, Hilaire, \"The Old Road,\" vii\n\nBentley Station, 52\n\nBetchworth Park, 98\n\nBigberry Camp, 185;\n  wood, 185\n\nBirinus, church of, 22\n\nBirling, 142;\n  Place, 138\n\nBishop Sutton, 43\n\nBlack Prince, at Harbledown, 188;\n  memorials of, 190;\n  death, 191;\n  tomb, 210\n\nBlack Prince's Well, 190\n\nBlackdown, 80\n\nBlagge, Mistress, portrait of, 92\n\nBlean, forest of, 186\n\nBletchingley, discovery of Roman remains at, 100\n\nBlois, Henry of, 24, 52\n\nBocton, Aluphus de, 178\n\nBohemia, Queen Anne of, the arms of, 175\n\nBoleyn, Anne, portrait of, 67\n\nBoniface, Archbishop, 143\n\nBoscawen, Mrs., her birthplace, 132\n\nBotley Hill, 118\n\nBotolph, St., church of, 122;\n  monuments, 122\n\nBoughton Aluph church, 178\n\nBoughton, Bocton or Boltune, 178\n\nBoughton Lees, 178\n\nBoughton Malherbe, 154\n\nBoulogne, Eustace, Count of, 178\n\nBox Hill, 94, 98\n\nBoxley, the Cistercian Abbey of, 146;\n  relics, 147\n\nBoxley, 151;\n  church, 152\n\nBraboeuf Manor, 69\n\nBrabourne, Lord, 49\n\nBrent, Amy, 172\n\nBrighton Downs, 107\n\nBrowne, Sir Richard, portrait of, 92\n\nBrydges, George, 36\n\nBuckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, 37\n\nBuckland, 99\n\nBunker's Farm, 142\n\nBunyan, John, 101\n\nBurford, 96\n\nBurham church, 145\n\n\nCalehill, 168\n\nCalva, Ruald de, 77\n\nCamden, W., 104, 195\n\nCanterbury, routes taken by pilgrims, 3-6, 20, 28;\n  number of, 16-18, 193, 198;\n  characteristics, 195;\n  the Chequers of the Hope Inn, 198;\n  religious houses, 200;\n  Priory of Christ Church, 200;\n  the Omers or Homers, 200;\n  Guest Hall, 201;\n  the Almonry, 201\n\nCanterbury Cathedral, the murder of Becket in, 9;\n  \"the choir of Conrad\" destroyed by fire, 14;\n  rebuilt, 14;\n  number of pilgrims, 16-18, 193, 198;\n  master-builders, 203;\n  completion, 204;\n  Transept of the Martyrdom, 205;\n  relics, 205, 207;\n  miracles and cures, 206;\n  number of crusaders, 206;\n  amount of offerings, 207;\n  the Shrine, 208-212;\n  the Church of Our Lady of the Undercroft, 213\n\nChallock, 178\n\nChanctonbury Ring, 76, 107\n\nChantrey, Sir F. L., his effigy of Lady Frederica Stanhope, 124\n\nChantry Woods, 75\n\nChantry Ford, 87\n\nCharing, 18;\n  height of, 138;\n  chapel, 170;\n  church, 168, 171-173;\n  traditions, 169;\n  relic in, 171;\n  destroyed by fire, 173;\n  rebuilt, 173;\n  fair at, 170;\n  Hill, 168;\n  manor, the residence of Archbishops, 170\n\nCharles I., King, 53;\n  Prayer Book used by, 94\n\nCharles II., King, 36\n\nCharterhouse 80\n\nChatham, Lord, his visits to Chevening, 122\n\nChaucer, G., lines from, 17, 186;\n  his pilgrims, 61, 191\n\nChawton, 46\n\nCheney, Sir John, 158\n\nCheney, Sir Thomas, 184\n\nChequers of the Hope Inn, 198\n\nCheriton battle, 41\n\nChevening church, 122;\n  monuments in, 122;\n  manor, 121;\n  Park, 121;\n  village, 122\n\nChilham Castle, 182-184;\n  manor-house, 184;\n  Park, 182\n\nChillenden Prior, 198, 201\n\nChilworth, 78;\n  powder-mills, 78-80\n\nCiderhouse Cottage, 75;\n  Lane, 75\n\nClere, St., mansion, 132\n\nCobbett, Richard, 54\n\nCobbett, William, his \"Rural Rides,\" 5, 35, 76, 78, 106, 109, 152;\n  his birthplace, 54;\n  at Albury, 84;\n  Godstone, 114\n\nCold-harbour Green, 118\n\nColet, Dean, at Harbledown, 188-190;\n  his visit to Canterbury Cathedral, 208;\n  in the Church of Our Lady of the Undercroft, 213-215;\n  treatment of the relics, 214\n\nColley Farm, 99;\n  discovery of Roman remains at, 99\n\nCompton, 58, 63, 69;\n  church, 63\n\nCopley, Sir Roger, 109\n\nCorby Castle, 30\n\nCourtenay, Archbishop, 143\n\nCrooksbury, heights of, 54\n\nSt. Cross, Hospital of, 24\n\nCrowborough Beacon, 107\n\nCulpeper, Elizabeth, Lady, monument to, 158\n\nCulpeper, John, Lord, the tapestries\nand altar-cloth worked by his daughters, 156;\n  monument to, 158\n\nCulpeper, Sir Thomas, 159\n\nCuxton ford, 141\n\n\nDacre, Lord, 121. _See_ Lennard\n\nDanefield, 129\n\nDarent valley, 126\n\nDartford, 126\n\nDawkins, Prof. Boyd, 185\n\nDay, Bishop, letter from, 68\n\nDeane, Archbishop, 130\n\nDeepdene Park, 98\n\nDenbies Park, 97\n\nDenmark, Anne of, 66;\n  portrait of, 66\n\nDeptford, 3\n\nDetling, 152;\n  height of, 138\n\nDigges, Sir Dudley, 184\n\nDios, Mr., 173\n\nDorking, 95, 97\n\nDover, 3\n\nDover, Fulbert de, 183\n\nDrummond, Mr., 83\n\nDungeness, 168\n\nD\u00fcrer, Albert, 112\n\n\nEast Grinstead, 107\n\nEastbridge Hospital, 196\n\nEastwell, 176;\n  church, 177;\n  House, 177;\n  Park, 126\n\nEdinburgh, H.R.H. the Duke of, his residence Eastwell House, 177\n\nEdward I., King, 26, 130, 142, 212;\n  at Harbledown, 188\n\nEdward II., King, 50;\n  his visit to Boxley Abbey, 148\n\nEdward III., King, 196\n\nEdward IV., King, 173\n\nEdward VI., King, 105;\n  portrait of, 67\n\nEdward, the Black Prince, at Harbledown, 188;\n  memorials of, 190;\n  death, 191;\n  tomb, 210\n\nEffingham, Lady Howard of, 105\n\nEgbert, King, 33\n\nEgerton Church, 168\n\nEleanor of Castille, Queen, 188\n\nElizabeth, Queen, 53;\n  her visits to Loseley, 66;\n  to Leeds Castle, 154\n\nElliston-Erwood, Mr., \"The Pilgrims' Road,\" vi\n\nErasmus, at Harbledown, 188-190;\n  his impressions of Canterbury Cathedral, 192, 203;\n  on the relics, 207;\n  in the Church of Our Lady of the Undercroft, 213-215\n\nEstria, Prior Henry of, 179, 202\n\nEthelbald, King of Wessex, 52\n\nEthelred the Unready, 113\n\nEthelwold, Bishop, 22\n\nEvelyn, John, 78, 84;\n  his home at Wotton, 90;\n  portrait, 92\n\nEvershed's Rough, 90\n\nEwhurst Mill, 80\n\n\nFairlawn House, 136\n\nFairlight hill, 168\n\nFarnham, 52;\n  Castle, 52\n\nFarrer, Sir Thomas, 100\n\nFarringford, 180\n\nFarthing copse, 77\n\nFitz Urse, Reginald, 9\n\nFroyle Park, 52\n\n\nGatton church, 111;\n  House, 111;\n  park, 108, 112;\n  town hall, 110\n\nGeorge I., King, 121\n\nGethin, Dame Grace, inscription on her monument, 159\n\nGethin, Sir Richard, 159\n\nGiffard, Lady, 56\n\nSt. Giles' Hill, fair at, 31\n\nGodmersham, 50;\n  church, 179;\n  manor, 179;\n  park, 178, 182\n\nGodstone, 114;\n The White Hart or Clayton Arms, 114\n\nGodwin, Earl, 168, 178\n\nGoldstone, Prior, 203, 213\n\nGomshall station, 94\n\nGravesend, 138\n\nGreenway Court, 157\n\nGreenwich, 3\n\nGresham, Sir John, 119\n\nGresham, Sir Marmaduke, 119\n\nGresham, Sir Thomas, 119;\n  founder of the Royal Exchange, 119;\n  portrait, 119\n\nGrey, Richard de, founds a Carmelite Priory, 145\n\nGrose, F., \"Antiquities of England and Wales,\" 77 _note_\n\nGrove Court, 157\n\nGuildford, 3, 51, 57, 72;\n  fair at, 58\n\nGurdon, Adam de, 45, 51\n\n\nHackhurst Downs, 94\n\nHalfpenny Lane, 77\n\nHalling, Lower, 142;\n  Upper, 142\n\nHampshire, 20\n\nHarbledown, 179, 186;\n  leper-house, 186;\n  relic in, 187;\n  royal visitors, 198;\n  first sight of Canterbury Cathedral from, 191\n\nHarrietsham, 160;\n  church, monuments in, 161\n\nHastings, 168;\n  Battle of, 161\n\nHeadbourne Worthy, 31;\n  derivation of the name, 33;\n  church, 33\n\n_Helix pomatia_, 18\n\nHengist, proclaimed the first king of Kent, 146\n\nHenry I., King, 29, 41\n\nHenry II., King, his penance at Becket's tomb, 4, 14, 206;\n  visit to the leper-house at Harbledown, 188\n\nHenry III., King, 16, 24, 52, 57, 206\n\nHenry IV., King, monument of, 208\n\nHenry V., King, 211\n\nHenry VI., King, 109, 161\n\nHenry VII., King, 158;\n  his visit to Charing, 171\n\nHenry VIII., King, 109, 129, 130;\n  portrait of, 131;\n  visit to Charing, 171\n\nHerault, Isaac, 94\n\nHethe, Bishop Hamo de, 142\n\nHindhead, 72, 76, 80, 107\n\nHog's Back, 54, 57, 63, 76\n\nHolbein, Hans, 66\n\nHolland, Mary Sybilla, 179\n\nHollingbourne, 152, 153;\n  height of, 138;\n  history, 153;\n  church, monuments in the, 158;\n  manor-house, 154;\n  traditions, 154\n\nHolm Castle, 104. _See_ Reigate\n\nHolmbury, 90\n\nHolmesdale, valley of, 104\n\nHonywood, Anthony, 165\n\nHonywood, Dame Mary, 165\n\nHorn Hatch, 101\n\nHorne, Robert, Bishop of Winchester, letter from, 68\n\nHutton, W. H., \"Thomas Becket,\" 9 _note_\n\nHyde, Abbey of, 28;\n  history, 29;\n  ruins, 30;\n  desecration of tombs, 30\n\n\nIghtham House, 136\n\nIsabel, Queen, her reception at Chilham, 183\n\nIslip, Simon, 130, 134\n\nItchen Abbas, 35, 37\n\nItchen river, 28, 29, 39;\n  valley, 35\n\nItchen Stoke, 37\n\n\nJames I., King, 65;\n  his visit to Loseley, 66;\n  portrait, 66\n\nJames, Capt. E. Renouard, \"Notes on the Pilgrims'\n   Way in West Surrey,\" 101 _note_\n\nJohn, King, 38, 73, 178;\n  legend of, 82;\n  coronation, 206\n\nJohn, King of France, 188\n\nJohnson, Mrs. Hester, 56\n\nJones, Sir Inigo, 121, 132\n\nJosse, St., shrine of, 29\n\nJulaber's grave, 183\n\n\nKatherine's, St., Chapel, 69, 71;\n  Hill, fair at, 59\n\nKemsing, 132;\n  church and well, 132\n\nKen, Morris, 50\n\nKent, Aldric, king of, 129\n\nKent, John, brass to, 33\n\nKent, Pilgrims' Way through, 126\n\nKingsworthy, 33\n\nKitchin, Dean, on the fair at St. Giles' Hill, 32, 40\n\nKits Coty House, 145\n\nKnight, Sir Richard, his monument in Chawton Church, 46\n\nKnockholt down, height of, 138\n\n\nLaberius, Julius, 183\n\nLambarde, W., 190;\n  at Otford, 132\n\nLanfranc, Archbishop, 153, 169, 176;\n  founds a lazar-house at Harbledown, 186\n\nLangton, Stephen, Archbishop, 16\n\nLeeds Castle, 154, 157\n\nLeith Hill, 107\n\nLeland, J., 170, 184, 195, 201\n\nLen river, 161\n\nLenham, 161;\n  church, 162-165;\n  tithe barns, 165\n\nLennard, John, his monument, 122\n\nLennard, Richard, Lord Dacre, 121\n\nLeveson, Sir John, quarterings of, 143\n\nLeveson-Gower, Mr., 100, 119\n\nLeyborne, Juliana de, 161, 178\n\nLimnerslease, 69\n\nLimpsfield Lodge Farm, 117\n\nLittleton Cross, shrine of, 69\n\nLong Beech Woods, 175\n\nLoseley manor, 64;\n  royal visitors, 66;\n  portraits, 67;\n  royal warrants, 67;\n  letters, 68\n\nLouis VII., King of France, 212\n\nLouis VIII., King of France, 72, 105\n\nLucy, Bishop Godfrey, 25;\n  rebuilds the town of Alresford, 38\n\nLyall, Sir Alfred, 180;\n  his verses, 180;\n  death, 180\n\n\nMaidstone, 143\n\nMarden Park, 116\n\nMartha's, St., Hill, 80;\n  chapel, 70, 76;\n  view from, 76\n\nMartyr's Hill, 76\n\nMartyrsworthy, 34\n\nMassilia, 4\n\nMedway river, 140, 142;\n  valley, 137, 138\n\nMercia, Cenulph, King of, 169\n\nMercia, Offa, King of, 129, 169\n\nMeredith, G., \"Diana of the Crossways,\" 91 _note_\n\nMerstham, 108, 112;\n  church, 113\n\nMiller, Sir Hubert, 52\n\nMilton, John, his line on the River Mole, 95\n\nMole river, 95, 99;\n  valley, 94\n\nMonks' Hatch, 69\n\nMonks' Walk, Winchester, 31, 33\n\nMonson, Lord, 109, 111\n\nMoor Park, 55\n\nMore, Antonio, 119\n\nMore, Sir Christopher, 64\n\nMore, Sir William, 64\n\nMorley, Bishop, 53\n\nMorne Hill, 25\n\nMorton, Cardinal, his buildings at Charing, 170\n\nMoyle, Sir Thomas, Speaker of the House of Commons, 177\n\nMytens, D., his portraits, 66\n\n\nNewark Hospital, 143;\n  Priory, 77\n\nNewcourt, Geoffery de, 174\n\nNewcourt manor, 174\n\nNewlands Corner, 80, 82\n\nNore, the, 138\n\nNore Hill, 46\n\nNorfolk, Duke of, 53\n\nNorth Downs, 107, 118\n\nNowell, Alexander, Dean of St. Paul's, letter from, 68\n\nNuns' Walk, Winchester, 31\n\n\nOdo of Bayeux, 161\n\nOtford, 126;\n  manor-house, 129;\n  battles at, 129;\n  the Bull Inn, 131;\n  legends, 131\n\nOxted, 117\n\n\nPaddlesworth or Paulsford, 138\n\nPalmer, Mr., his treatise on \"Three Surrey Churches,\" vi\n\nPalmers Wood, 19, 116\n\nPaternoster Lane, 19, 98\n\nSt. Paul's Cathedral, 76\n\nPeckham, John, the Franciscan Archbishop, 170\n\nPenenden Heath, 150;\n  memorable assembly held at, 150\n\nPett Place, 174\n\nPette-juxta-Charing, 174\n\nPilgrims to Canterbury, routes taken by, 3-6, 20, 28;\n  number of, 12, 16-18, 193, 198;\n  traces of, 18, 58;\n  characteristics, 60\n\nPilgrims' Chapel, 98\n\nPilgrims' Ferry, 19, 74\n\nPilgrims' House, 138\n\nPilgrims' Lodge, 19, 120\n\nPilgrims' Place, 43\n\nPlantagenet, Richard, his death at Eastwell, 177\n\nPlantagenet's Well, 177\n\nPray Meadows, 98\n\nPuttenham, 58;\n  fair at, 59;\n  Heath, 63\n\n\nQuarry Hangers, 114\n\nQuarry Hills, 101, 168\n\n\nRanmore Common, 98\n\nRedhill, 96\n\nReigate, 99, 103;\n  chapels, 104;\n  hill, 107;\n  park, 106\n\nRichard Coeur de Lion, his return from the Holy Land, 171;\n  at Harbledown, 188;\n  Canterbury, 206\n\nRichard III., King, 177\n\nRipley, 77\n\nRobbers' or Roamers Moor, 58\n\nRobertson, T. C., \"Materials for the History of Archbishop Becket,\" 12 _note_\n\nRochester, 3, 141\n\nRomney Marsh, 168\n\nRood, the miraculous, or winking image, 148\n\nRopley, 43\n\nRotherfield Park, 43\n\nRumbold, St., the image of, 147\n\nRupibus, Peter de, 45\n\nRutupine, Port, 4\n\n\nSalisbury, John of, Bishop of Chartres, 12\n\nSaltwood Castle, 9\n\nSandwich Haven, 3, 4, 73\n\nSandy Lane, 69\n\nScott, Sir Walter, on the death of Jane Austen, 50\n\nSeale, 58;\n  church, 59\n\nSelborne, 44\n\nSellyng, Prior William, 154, 203\n\nSesto, Cesare da, 111\n\nSevenoaks, 107\n\nShalford, 74;\n  fair at, 59, 74;\n  park, 75\n\nShere, 88;\n  church, 87\n\nShoelands, manor-house of, 58\n\nShooters' Hill, 138\n\nShrewsbury, Francis, Earl of, 37\n\nShrewsbury, Lady, 36\n\nShrewsbury, Roger de Montgomery, Earl of, 64\n\nSilchester, 28\n\nSilent Pool, 82;\n  legend of, 82\n\nSittingbourne, 3\n\nSnails, or _Helix pomatia_, 18\n\nSnodland, limestone works, 137, 140\n\nSnowden-Ward, Mr. H., \"The Canterbury Pilgrimages,\" vi\n\nSomers, Earl, 106\n\nSomerset, Lady Henry, 106\n\nSouth Downs, 76\n\nSouth Leith Hill, 76\n\nSouthampton, 3, 20, 35\n\nSpenser, Edmund, his lines on the Mole, 95\n\nStane Street, 97\n\nStanhope, Charles, Earl, 122\n\nStanhope, General, 121\n\nStanhope, Lady Frederica, effigy of, 124\n\nStanhope, Lady Hester, 122\n\nStanhope, James, Earl, monument to, 124\n\nStanley, Dean, 5;\n  extract from his account of the Canterbury pilgrimage, 6;\n  on the characteristics of pilgrims, 60\n\nStede, Sir William, monument to, 161\n\nStede Hill, 160\n\nStour river, 162, 196;\n  valley, 182, 185\n\nStrangers' Hall, Winchester, 26\n\nStratford, Archbishop, 196, 197;\n  at Charing, 170\n\nSudbury, Simon of, 193\n\nSurrenden Dering, 168\n\nSussex Downs, 168\n\nSwift, J., 56\n\nSwithun, St., Bishop of Winchester, 3;\n  his shrine, 21;\n  removal of his bones, 22;\n  miracles wrought, 22;\n  number of pilgrims to his shrine, 25\n\n\nTatsfield church, 120\n\nTemple, Sir William, 56\n\nThames river, 126;\n  valley, 76, 138\n\nThomas', St., Hill, 195;\n  Hospital, 196;\n  Well, 117\n\nThurnham, 152\n\nTichborne, Isabella, 41\n\nTichborne, Sir Roger, 41\n\nTichborne Park, 41;\n  legend of the Dole, 41-43\n\nTillingbourne stream, 87\n\nTitsey Park, 117;\n  discovery of Roman remains at, 100;\n  Place, 117\n\nTrottescliffe (Trosley), 138\n\nTunbridge Wells, 107\n\nTupper, Martin, 82\n\nTyting's Farm, 77\n\n\nVandyck, A., portrait by, 83\n\nVane, Sir Harry, 136\n\nVigo Inn, 138\n\nVinci, Leonardo da, iii\n\n\nWalkelin, Bishop, his church, 25\n\nWalter, Archbishop Hubert, 196, 206\n\nWanborough, 59;\n  church, 60\n\nWar Camp or Cardinal's Cap, 114\n\nWarham, Archbishop, 149, 171, 208\n\nWarrenne, William of, 104\n\nWatling Street, 141, 186\n\nWatts, George Frederic, 69\n\nWauncey, Richard de, 69\n\nWaverley Abbey, 56, 59\n\nWaynflete, Bishop William of, 45, 78\n\nWen, the, 5\n\nWessex, 21\n\nWesterham, 121\n\nWesthumble Lane, 98\n\nWeston Wood, 80\n\nWestwell, 175;\n  church, 175;\n  manor, 176\n\nWey, river, 51, 57, 72, 75\n\nWhite, Gilbert, his house at Selborne, 44\n\nWhite Hill Downs, 114\n\nWhiteway End, 57\n\nWhitgift, Archbishop, 196\n\nWhorne Place, 142\n\nWibert, Prior, 203\n\nWickens, manor-house, 172\n\nWilberforce, Samuel, Bishop of Winchester, place of his death, 90\n\nWilliam III., King, 56, 106\n\nWilliam, King of Scotland, at Canterbury, 206\n\nWinchelsea, Archbishop, 130, 164;\n  his enthronement, 194;\n  death, 194;\n  statutes, 201\n\nWinchester, 3, 20;\n  the shrine of St. Swithun, 21;\n  number of churches and chapels, 22;\n  buildings, 24;\n  number of pilgrims, 25;\n  Nuns' Walk, 31;\n  St. Giles' Hill, fair at, 31\n\nWinders' Hill, 116\n\nWindsor Castle, 76\n\nWolsey, Cardinal, 149\n\nWolvesey, castle of, 24, 29\n\nWotton, 90\n\nWotton, Sir Henry, 154\n\nWren, Christopher, 36\n\nWriothesley, Thomas, his treatment of the Abbey of Hyde, 29\n\nWrotham, 132;\n  church, 135;\n  hill, 135;\n  manor-house, 134;\n  palace, 136\n\nWulfstan, on the removal of St. Swithun's bones, 22\n\nWykeham, William of, 24, 25, 45\n\nWye, the, 184\n\n\nYaldham, manor of, 136\n\nYew trees, 6, 82, 84, 94, 99, 108, 126\n\n                              PRINTED BY\n                    HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.,\n                         LONDON AND AYLESBURY,\n                               ENGLAND.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n [1] W. H. Hutton, \"Thomas Becket,\" p. 249.\n\n [2] E. Abbott, \"St. Thomas of Canterbury,\" i. 223.\n\n [3] T. C. Robertson, \"Materials for the History of Archbishop Becket,\"\n ii. 47, iv. 145.\n\n [4] _Op. cit._ p. 322.\n\n [5] \"Anonymus Lambethiensis. Materials,\" ii. 140.\n\n [6] \"Thomas Saga,\" ii. 202.\n\n [7] Hyde Bourne.\n\n [8] Grose, \"Antiquities of England and Wales,\" v. 110.\n\n [9] Meredith's novel, \"Diana of the Crossways,\" takes its name from\n this farm.\n\n [10] Captain E. Renouard James, whose \"Notes on the Pilgrims' Way in\n West Surrey\" will be found to supply much valuable local information.\n (London, Edward Stanford, 1871.)\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTypographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:\n\nten gold growns=> ten gold crowns {pg 188}\n\nAlresford, 35, 38; New, cloth frade at, 39;=> Alresford, 35, 38; New,\ncloth trade at, 39; {pg 217}","title":"The Pilgrims' Way from Winchester to Canterbury","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":36858}