E. H. CONTENTS CHAPTER I TO CANTERBURY THE PILGRIMS' ROAD TO DARTFORD CHAPTER II THE PILGRIMS' ROAD TO ROCHESTER CHAPTER III THE PILGRIMS' ROADROCHESTER CHAPTER IV THE PILGRIMS' ROAD TO FAVERSHAM CHAPTER V THE PILGRIMS' ROAD TO CANTERBURY CHAPTER

CHAPTER IV THE PILGRIMS' ROAD ROCHESTER TO FAVERSHAM

At Ospringe I left the great road to visit Davington and to sleep at Faversham.

Davington is less than a mile out of the town of Faversham, and therefore it was not quite dark when I made my way into that famous place.

Faversham must always have been an important place from its position with regard to the great road.

Faversham has half Rochester's fortune, for it stands where the road touches an arm or creek of the Swale, that important navigable waterway, an arm of the sea which separates Sheppey from the mainland.

The Swale there served the road and made of Faversham a port, but the road did not cross it and therefore the Swale, unlike the Medway, was never an obstacle or a defence.

Thus Faversham never became a great fortress like Rochester; it was a port, and as it happened a Royal Villa, where so long ago as 930 Athelstan held his witan.

In 1147 Stephen and his wife, Matilda, founded an abbey of Benedictine monks here at Faversham in honour of Our Lord, and known as St Saviours, upon land she had obtained from William of Ypres, Stephen's favourite captain, in exchange for her manor of Littlechurch in this county.

At the end of April 1152 she fell sick at Hedingham Castle in Essex, and dying there three days later, was buried in the abbey church at Faversham.

They presently sold to a certain Thomas Arden, sometime Mayor of Faversham.

Arden of Faversham, according to the dramatist, was a noble character, modest, forgiving, and affectionate.

All concerned in the affair were brought to justice, but the abbey of Faversham was no longer coveted as a place of abode.

Many pilgrims turned aside from the road to visit Faversham which was not a station on the pilgrimage, for the sake of these shrines and altars and especially to pray in the chapel of St Thomas.

They were tried by that most inhuman judge Rictius Varno, the Governor, whom, however, they contrived to escape by fleeing to England and to Faversham, where, as some say they lived, but as others assert they were shipwrecked.

CHAPTER V THE PILGRIMS' ROAD FAVERSHAM TO CANTERBURY From Faversham at least to the environs of Canterbury, the Pilgrim's Road seems to be unmistakable, for the Watling Street runs all the way straight as a ruled line.

CHAPTER V THE PILGRIMS' ROAD FAVERSHAM TO CANTERBURY From Faversham at least to the environs of Canterbury, the Pilgrim's Road seems to be unmistakable, for the Watling Street runs all the way straight as a ruled line.

In spite of the weathercocks and their watchfulness, however, the memories of the great pilgrimage between Faversham and Harbledown are dishearteningly few.

One might surely expect to find something at Preston for instance, where, coming out of Faversham, one rejoins the Watling Street, but there is nothing at all to remind one of the great past of the Way.

That the pilgrims who had ridden not quite five miles had come from Ospringe might seem certain, and since they were overtaken by the Canon it is possible that he was coming from Faversham.

Peter and Paul is of some interest and of considerable beauty it is true, but so far as we may know there was no shrine there of sufficient importance to draw the pilgrims from the road, as at Faversham, nor one might think would they be easily diverted from the goal of their journey almost within reach.

All this wild woodland and forest country which lies on a great piece of high ground stretching north-east and south-west across the Way parallel with the valley of the Great Stour, between Faversham and Canterbury, hiding the one from the other, was known as the Blean.

At any rate, in the very year she became abbess, the year of her mother's death,[Footnote: See supra under Faversham.]

The young knight; or, How Michael Faversham fought valiantly with the Knights of St. John against the Turkish hordes and won his spurs as a Knight of Malta, by I. M. B. of K.

Sheffield and its IndividualityThe Country, Above Ground and Under GroundWakefield and LeedsWharf ValeFarnley HallHarrogate; Ripley Castle; Ripon; Conservatism of Country TownsFountain Abbey; Studley ParkRievaulx AbbeyLord Faversham's Shorthorn Stock.