In Kent with Charles Dickens

Front matter

^i^HKKSS

3ltyara, Nem fork

FROM THE

Chapter I

Meeting of three friends in Symond's Inn— Dickens pilgrimage resolved upon — Down the river — Through the fields to Cobham — Halt at The Leather Bottle — Return to Gravesend — Farther down the river — The Ship and Lobster — Through the marshes — Chalk Church — One of Dickens's f avouiite walks ...... 1

CHAPTER IL

Gad's Hill — Traditions of the spot, Shakespearian and other — Gad's Hill Place — Cooling, and its Dickensian associations — Successors of Falstaff and Bardolph — Nixon's ride — Tramps and vagrants — View from Frindsbury Hill — Originally contemplated scene of Bleak House . 20

Chapter III

Rochester Bridge — ^Dickens's description of the city — Ruins of the castle — Cathedral sketches in Edwin Drood— Interior of the cathedral — Watts's monument — Tablet in memory of Dickens — Gandulph's Tower — Legend of a buried treasure and a phantom hand — Old gate-house of the Close — Minor Canon Comer — The Nuns* House— The. Poor Travellers' House . • • , 41

1 4 vi CONTENTS.

Chapter IV

Pickwickian description of Chatham — Shop where David Copperfield sold his jacket — Localities associated with Dickens's childhood — Chatham originals of Dickensian characters — Opening scene of the legend of Sir Robert Shurland and his horse — The knight's monument in Minster Church 60

CHAPTER Y.

A legend of Gundulph's Tower — The old house at the foot of Rochester Bridge — The miser's tenants in Five Bells Lane — The bowyer's son and the miser's daughter — The hostler. at The Golden Cross — Trespassers in the cathedral — The Phantom Hand — What the bells of St. Margaret's rang for 85

CHAPTER YI.

Dingley Dell — The Pickwickians' journey to Manor Farm — A halt at Rainham — Hop-gardens on the road to Canterbury — Going a-hopping — A hop-picker's experiences of Kent and Bermuda — The convict's story . 110

CHAPTER YII.

Canterbury pilgrims, mediaeval and modern — Inn dinners in Kent and in Dorsetshire — A Boughton Boniface on agricultural depression — The story of the Bossenden Wood tragedy, as related by an eye-witness — View from Boughton Hill — Bossenden Wood .... 134

COlSfTEN'TS. vii

CHAPTEE VIII.

Canterbury — Old houses in the city — Residences of Mr. Wickfield and Dr. Strong — Precincts of the cathedral —The Dark Entry— Nell Cook's ghost— The doom of the ghost-seers — A true ghost-story — A haunted house in Westminster 157

CHAPTER IX.

Kecollections of a former journey to Dover — Haunted by an idea — A Canterbury story of the last century — The meeting in the Precinct — Walter Gilson sees a ghost in the Dark Entry — A midnight crime — The wrong man hanged — The murderer's confession , . . 177

CHAPTER X.

Dickens notabilia at Dover — The novelist's comparative estimate of Dover and Canterbury audiences — Through the by-ways to Deal — Legend of Earl Godwin — Tenterden Steeple and the Goodwin Sands — Story of Ambrose Gwinett — ^An original theory concerning Isaac BickerstafE , . . 204

CHAPTER XL

Over the sand-hills — A memorial stone in an unexpected place — The story of Mary Bax — Sandwich — Richborough Castle — Recognition of an old house seen in a dream — The story of the haunted house — Mother Atwater — A strange chapter of physical history — Pegwell Bay 224 viii CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE XII.

Dickens on the sands — Circuses and circns-men — ^The novelist at Broadstairs — Thanet races — Over the cliff — The North Foreland— Canght by the tide— Natural tunnel in the cliff — Sunset on the sea . • • • 249

CHAPTEE XIII.

Margate jetty by night — EecoUections of old times — Bill Johnson, the smuggler — His escape from Horsemonger Lane Gaol — The germ of a story — The sea by night — Margate in the seventeenth century — A fray and a disappearance — Eeturn of the missing man — Charles II. at Bartholomew's Gate ...«•>. 268

CHAPTEE XIV.

Over the cliff — Through the marshes to Eeculver — Story of the Sisters of Davington — Euins of the church — View from Mount Pleasant — Legend of Domneva — Thunnor's Leap — Story of Anthony Gill and the smuggler — Eamble to Monkton and Minster — End of the pilgrimage ... .... 295

IN KENT WITH CHARLES DICKENS.

Chapter I

Meeting of tliree friends in Symond's Inn — Dickens pilgrimage resolved upon — ^Down the river — Tlirougli the fields to Cobham — Halt at The Leather Bottle — Eeturn to Gravesend — Farther down the river — The Ship and Lobster — Through the marshes — Chalk Church — One of Dickens's favourite walks.

Some years ago, on a bright morning in the beginning of September, three men, each eager for the enjoyment of the pure air and eyerefreshing greenery of the country and the invigorating breezes of the coast, were sitting in a dim and dingy room in Symond's Inn, the dimness and dinginess of which contrasted unfavourably even with such sunlight as could be found on the farther side of dingy Fetter Lane. One of the three was a clergyman, but did not

B look like one, and another, who was not a clergyman, had much more of the conventional clerical aspect, though it was the opinion of the curate, imparted to the author in a confidential whisper, that, in his endeavour to look like a clergyman he only succeeded in looking like a sherifi'^s officer in disguise. The third man was the present writer, who looks like — it is hard to say what, for he was once erroneously supposed to be a retired acrobat, and on another occasion was mistaken for a Wesleyan minister.

We were arranging the programme of a holiday trip to the seaside, and had no difficulty in determining that our destination should be the coast of Kent. The gentleman who cultivated a clerical aspect, but had been deterred from taking orders by consideration of the difficulty of bringing up six daughters upon the stipend of a curate, had a married sister living at Dover, and wished to make that ancient town his goal. For me the scenery of Kent had a peculiar charm, and the bracing air of the North Sea was as the

TEE AUTEOE'S IDEA OF A EOLIDAY. 3

elixir of life. But to run down by rail to the seaside, shot through long tunnels and deep cuttings almost as swiftly as one of Jules Verne's heroes was shot to the moon, and to sit upon the pier at Dover, or the sands at Eamsgate, or the cliff at Margate, every morning until the time came for my return to London, was not my way of compressing the utmost amount of enjoyment into the week or ten days to which my holiday extended.

I love to turn my back upon the close streets of towns, to avoid even the dusty highways, and to explore the narrow tracks among the golden-blossoming furze and broom or purple-flowering heath, of broad commons, — to ramble through green lanes, " fringed with the feathery fern," and fragrant with the scent of wild flowers, — to thread the half-hidden paths through woods, where furred or feathered fellow-creatures run or fly in freedom, and the brick-and-mortar world is quite shut out, — to wander by the banks of rivers, far from towns, with the sound of water rushing over a distant

weir to lure me on, — to follow the windings of

b2

4 IN KENT WITE CHARLES DICKENS.

a rocky coast, where a new view is discovered as each bold point is rounded, and the receding tide forms little pools, in which tiny crabs lurk, and narrow channels between seaweedfestooned rocks. It was my desire, therefore, to make a pedestrian tour through portions of the beautiful county of Kent ; and my admiration of the genius of one of the greatest novelists of any age led me to suggest a visit to the numerous localities associated with incidents in Dickens's inimitable and immortal works.

The idea was well received. The curate would have gone anywhere with congenial companions, and our friend only stipulated that we should not spend more than three days between London and Dover. Away we went, therefore, and were on the deck of a Gravesend steamer before the sun had reached the zenith, making the voyage performed by Pip and his companions in an open boat, and which terminated so disastrously for the man whose safety they were endeavouring to secure.

As on that occasion, " It was a bright day^

DOWN THE THAMES. 5

and the sunshine was very cheering." The Pool, more crowded with shipping than in Pip's day, and more turbid and offensive to the senses, was slowly threaded, and then our vessel made more rapid progress, and green hills began to be seen upon the right. " By imperceptible degrees," as Pip records, ''as the tide ran out, we lost more of the distant woods and hills, and dropped lower and lower between the muddy banks, but the tide was yet with us when we were off Gravesend." Landing at the town pier, we ascended

•

the narrow High Street, leaving behind us " ancient and fish-like smells," and skirting the eastern brow of Windmill Hill, descended the shady declivity of Sandy Lane to the southern foot of that eminence. Opposite the lower end of the lane is the commencement of a pleasant footpath, which we followed across green pastures to Singlewell Lane ; and then, turning to the left, and passing some old cottages and a pleasantly situated little hostelry, known as The Halfway House, found another footpath on the right, leading througli hop-gardens and arable fields to the village of Cobham, where Mr. Tupman retired to conceal his woe from the world, and Mr. Pickwick made that famous antiquarian discovery which rivals that of the inscription pronounced Eoman by Scott's antiquary, Jonathan Oldbuck, and so contrariwise interpreted by the roving mendicant, Edie Ochiltree.

We passed the picturesque old church, pausing only to step into the little burial-ground, and peer through the windows at the monuments of the Cobhams, and went through the village, passing the clean and comfortable little ale-house, called The Leather Bottle, which the great novelist has made famous as the retreat of Tupman when crossed in love. Presently the extensive park spread out on our left, surrounded by wooded hills, which form a background of dark verdure to the noble hall. Deer grazed on the green slopes, or rested in the shade of the magnificent oaks and elms, of which, besides some fine clumps, there are avenues across the park

COBEAM PAEK 7

in every direction. We sat down for awhile on the greensward, just within the gates, and under the shade of a far-spreading elm, and drew upon our memory- cells for the /description of the walk of the Pickwickians across the park to recall to the world their love-lorn brother.

"A delightful walk it was; for it was a pleasant afternoon in June, and their way lay through a deep and shady wood, cooled by the light wind which gently rustled the thick foliage, and enlivened by the songs of the birds that perched upon the boughs. The ivy and moss crept in thick clusters over the old trees, and the soft green turf overspread the ground like a silken mat. They emerged upon an open park, with an ancient hall, displaying the quaint and picturesque architecture of Elizabeth's time. Long vistas of stately oaks and elms appeared on every side : large herds of deer were cropping the fresh grass ; and occasionally a startled hare scoured along the ground, with the speed of the shadows thrown by the light clouds which

8 IN KENT WITH CEARLE8 DICKENS.

swept across the sunny landscape like the passing breath of summer.

" ' If this/ said Mr. Pickwick, looking about him, ' if this were the place to which all who are troubled with our friend's complaint came, I fancy their old attachment to this world would very soon return.'

" ' I think so too,' said Mr. Winkle.

" ' And really,' added Mr. Pickwick, after a half-hour s walking had brought them to the village, ' really, for a misanthrope's choice, this is one of the prettiest and most desirable places of residence I ever met with.'

*'In this opinion also both Mr. Winkle and Mr. Snodgrass expressed their concurrence ; and having been directed to The Leather Bottle, a clean and commodious village ale-house, the three travellers entered, and at once inquired for a gentleman of the name of Tupman."

To that place of refreshment, where we had ordered dinner in passing, I and my companions returned, and, passing through a door at the end of the passage, entered the room

TEE LEATHEH BOTTLE, 9

in which Tup man was found at dinner by his brother Pickwickians, "a long, low-roofed room, furnished with a large number of highbacked leather-cushioned chairs of fantastic shapes, and embellished with a great variety of old portraits and roughly coloured prints of some antiquity."

Under the roof of this old-fashioned house Dickens passed a night in the autumn of 1841, and the beautiful park of Cobham was at all times one of his favourite resorts. On the particular occasion just mentioned, he was returning from the annual sojourn which, at that period of his life, he was accustomed to make at Broadstairs, when, meeting his friend, Mr. John Forster, at Rochester, they passed a pleasant day at Cobham, sleeping at The Leather Bottle, and on the following night at Gravesend, after another day's rambling in this delightful neighbourhood.

It seems probable, though the fact is not mentioned by the novelist's biographer, that they would not be two days in the neighbourhood without visiting Swanscomb Wood, where,

10 IN KENT WITH CEABLES I)IGKEN8.

according to tradition, the men of Kent made such a resolute stand against the troops of William the Conqueror, on their march to London after the decisive battle of Hastings, that the victorious Norman granted them the confirmation of their ancient rights and customs. This, according to the tradition, was the origin of the distinction, the memory of which has been preserved to the present day, between " men of Kent " and " Kentish men ; " but there is another explanation, namely, that the former term was applied to the original inhabitants, and the other to later settlers in the county. All that seems certain is, that the residents west of the Medway have always called themselves men of Kent, and their neighbours beyond the right bank of that river Kentish men.

Swanscomb Wood, which I visited on another occasion, is of considerable extent, stretching northward to the village of that name, and eastward to the lane leading from Southfleet to Greenhithe. It consists chiefly of oaks, and just within its northern borders

ONE OF DIGKENS'8 FAVOURITU WALKS. 11

is a cave called Clapper Napper's Hole, associated with which are many legends and traditions. A green lane, intersecting some small hop-gardens, leads from this part of the wood to the village, which is entered near the picturesque little church, said to be one of the oldest in Kent. This character applies, however, only to the lower part of the tower and portions of the walls, in which Eoman bricks are mingled with masonry of Saxon origin.

Four years later than the occasion to which reference has been made, Dickens drove to Cobham from Eoche§ter, accompanied by his wife and her sister, and his friends Maclise, Jerrold, and Forster. They visited the church, where there is an ancient wooden screen, an old round font, and several memorial brasses of the Cobhams ; and afterwards strolled through the park. During his residence at Gad's Hill, this was one of Dickens's favourite walks, his fond recollection of which is evidenced in a passage of one of his letters from Lausanne, written in 1846 : " The green woods and green shades about here are more like Cobham, in

12 IlSf KENT WITH CHARLES DICKENS.

Kent, than anything we dream of at the foot of Alpine passes." He would have come this way even more frequently than he did could he have been allowed to take his dogs into the park. One of those faithful and intelligent companions of his rambles, Don, the Newfoundland dog, whose rescue of one of his pups from the Medway is recorded by Mr. Forster, is now in the possession of the Earl of Darnley ; but his mate, Linda, lies under one of the magnificent cedars in the shrubbery at Gad's Hill Place.

Having refreshed and rested themselves at The Leather Bottle, the three pilgrims again entered the park, which they crossed towards the close of the afternoon, when the giant oaks and elms were throwino^ lone: shadows athwart the velvety greensward, and gleams of golden light played among the foliage, and shimmered upon the grass beneath the spreading branches. Time did not permit the discovery of all the sylvan beauties of the park, among which are an avenue of four rows of limes, more than half a mile long, and a magnificent chestnut,

SHOBNE WOOD. V3.

with a girth of thirty-two feet, known as The Four Sisters, from the four arms into which the enormous trunk divides before spreading out its branches. This fine tree stands about a mile from the Hall, near the path leading to Knight's Place Farm.

Emerging from the park at the lane leading to Chalk, we passed through more beautiful woodland scenery, the leafy shades of Shorne Wood, where the wood-pigeons cooed among the topmost branches of the trees, and many small birds were twittering their last morsels of sono^ until to-morrow's sun should ae^ain prompt them to melody. On the right, beyond the wood, is the village of Shorne, the quiet picturesque churchyard of which was often the resting-place of the great novelist, at the close of a walk from Gad's Hill which the heat of the day, or some other restraining circumstance, prevented him from extending.

We reached the high-road at the little village of Chalk, where Dickens passed his honeymoon, paying for the holiday with the money which he received for the first and

14 IN KENT WITH CRABLES DICKENS.

second numbers of The Pickwick Papers. Eeturning to Gravesend through Milton, which has grown to be part of the town, we refreshed at the house at which we had arranged to pass the night, and then started -again for a walk along the seaweed-strewn margin of the river, in the direction of " those long reaches below Gravesend, between Kent ^nd Essex, where the river is broad and solitary, where the waterside inhabitants are few, and where lone public-houses are scattered here and there," in search of the scene of Magwitch's fatal encounter with the Thames police.

Threading the lane in which the Custom-house stands, we passed the fort which at that point commands the river and the flat expanse of Gravesend Marsh, crossed the canal which connects, or used to connect, the Thames with the Medway, and continued our walk along the side of the river, which, as Pip observed, '^ turned and turned, while everything else seemed stranded and still." Pip's description of the scene came forcibly to my mind as we followed the winding shore by the fast-fading

GRAVE SEND MABSB:. 15

twilight, with the blue-gray river and the level marshes before us, stretching away to the Medway and the sea.

" For now the last of the fleet of ships was round the last low point we had headed, and the last green barge, straw-laden, with a brown sail, had followed; and some ballastlighters, shaped like a child's first rude imitation of a boat, lay low in mud; and a little squat shoal lighthouse on open piles stood crippled in the mud on stilts and crutches ; and slimy stakes stuck out of the mud, and slimy stones stuck out of the mud, and red land-marks and tide-marks stuck out of the mud, and an old landing-stage and an old roofless building slipped into the mud, and all about us was stagnation and mud."

We seemed to be traversing a region which had, long years before, been wrecked and submerged by an inundation, so slimy was every remnant of man's work, so ruinous and decayed every black structure, so melancholy the ripple of the tide upon strips of shingle, and the rustle of the half-dry seaweed that clung to mouldering piles and slimy masses of chalk. Not a human being was in sight ; not a sound of human life was heard, save our own voices and our own footfalls upon the uneven path.

Presently a dark shapeless mass on the right, which we had sighted some time before^ resolved itself into a black and ruinous mill. Many years must have passed since grist was taken to that tumble-down old building, which looked like a part of those seeming vestiges of a flood- wrecked w^orld which we had passed before. The sails were broken, there were large openings in the boarded sides, the interior showed only decaying and cobwebbed joists.

Just beyond this wreck stood a public-house, with the sign of The Ship and Lobster swinging before it, and a light, the only one visible all around us, shining from one of the lower windows. This we decided must be the house at which Pip and the escaped convict passed the night preceding the frustration by the Thames police of the latter's attempt to get away from the country in a passing

GBAVESENB MABSE. 17

steamer bound for Hamburg. "When I awoke/' says Pip, "the wind had risen, and the sign of the house (The Ship) was creaking and hanging about, with noises that startled me.

The curate and I lighted our pipes at this house, and, having ascertained that there was a footpath across the marshes, if we could only find it in the obscurity that was now gathering over land and water, and, having found it, keep the track, and not walk into the canal, we began to retrace our steps. A sharp look-out enabled us to find the track through the marshy pastures and the little wooden bridge over the canal, and by the time we reached the by-road from Chalk to Higham, the moon had risen, and the planet's silvery light reconciled my companions to my j)roposition that we should turn up the narrow sandy lane leading to Chalk Church, instead of going direct towards the village.

This was one of Dickens's favourite walks

from Gad's Hill, commencing at the lane

leading to Higham, turning ofi" to the left

c

18 IN KENT WITE GEABLE8 BIGKENS.

at that village, and following the by-road to Chalk which we had just crossed, and returning by the highway. A short walk brought us to the ivy-mantled church, which stands about a mile from the village, as I have observed that a large proportion of the village churches in Kent do. It is of great antiquity, and moss-grown gravestones several centuries old may be found in the churchyard. Over the entrance are several grotesque figures carved in stone, one of which represents an old monk sitting cross-legged, holding a drinking vessel which may be supposed to contain some fluid more exhilarating than water. Dickens was much interested in this old fellow, and is said never to have passed the church mthout greeting the quaint figure with a friendly nod and a jocular remark.

There was light enough to enable us to discern this figure, and to note the ancient and moss-grown gravestones, half sunken in the earth, and in some instances almost concealed by the luxuriant herbage. There are some fields between the churchyard and the

CSALK LAKE. 19

high-road, and, having skirted these by the sandy lane, we turned to the right, and with pleasant talk of Dickens and his works beguiling the way, passed through Chalk^and Milton into Gravesend.

CHAPTER 11.

Gad's Hill — Traditions of the spot, Shakespearian and other — Gad's Hill Place — Cooling, and its Dickensian associations — Successors of Falstaff and Bardolph — Nixon's ride — Tramps and vagrants — Yiew from Frindsbury Hill — Originally contemplated scene of Bleah House.

Our eyes opened next morning upon another bright day, and as, though the distance from Gravesend to Rochester, the pre-determined goal of our second day's pilgrimage, is only seven miles, there was much to be seen in that ancient city, we lost no more time before resuming our journey than was necessary to the satisfactory disposal of an excellent breakfast.

Passing through Chalk once more, and turning to look at the little ivy- clad church when we had got a mile farther, we ascended

GAD'S SILL. 21

a gentle rise, with occasional glimpses of the Thames on our left, and a charming panorama of woodland scenery on our right. Gad's Hill,'" now as intimately associated with the name of Dickens as with that of Shakespeare, was reached in about an hour, and those associations were held to justify a halt. The sign of The Sir John Falstaff, swinging before a wayside hostelry, was as suggestive of Shakespeare as was the comfortable-looking

* "Near tlie twenty-seventh stone from London is Gad's Hill, supposed to have been the scene of the robbery mentioned by Shakespeare in the play of Hem^y IV. ; there being also reason to think that it was Sir John Falstaff of comic memory who, under the name of Oldcastle, inhabited Cooling Castle, of which the ruins are in the neighbourhood. At a small distance to the left appears on an eminence The Hermitage, the seat of Sir Francis Head, and close to the road, on a small ascent, a neat building lately erected by Mr. Day." — History of Rochester, 1772. On the Hermitage estate there are now two houses, called The Great Hermitage and The Little Hermitage, the former of which was the residence of Perry, of the Morning Glironicle, in the palmy days of that journal. The "neat building lately erected by Mr. Day" was at one time supposed to be Gad's Hill Place, but that supposition has since been found erroneous.

22 IN KENT WITH CHARLES DIGKENS.

red-brick house, called Gad's Hill Place, of Dickens.

Gad's Hill Place, whicli has been made familiar to the reading world by the woodcuts in Mr. Forster's biography of the novelist, is a plain, old-fashioned, red-brick house of two stories, with a wooden porch and a bell-turret on the roof. It was built in 1780 by a well-known character in this neighbourhood, an illiterate fellow named Stevens, who had been a hostler, and having had the good fortune to marry his employer's widow, became a brewer, made a fortune, and was elected mayor — or, as he wrote it, '^mare" — of Eochester. At his death it was bought by a gentleman named Lynn, and leased to a sporting clergyman of the Eegency days named Townshend, who was succeeded in its occupancy by another clergyman, the Rev. Joseph Hindle, then and still rector of Higham, in which parish the house is situated.

Dickens bought the house towards the close of 1856, and obtained possession in the following March, becoming, as he wrote to

GAD'S EILL PLAOE, 23

Mr. Forster, "the Kentisli freeholder on his native heath," a description which, while it evinced the exuberance of feeling which he experienced on becoming the owner of a house on which he had long had a longing eye, was not quite accurate, as, though he had been brought up at Chatham, he was a native of Portsmouth. His first act of proprietorship was to hang upon the wall of the landing the following framed inscription, illuminated by Owen Jones :

THIS HOUSE,

GAD'S HILL PLACE,

Stands on tlie summit of Shakespeare's Gad's Hill, ever memorable for its association with Sir John Falstaff in his noble fancy.

" Butf my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o'clock, early at Gad's Hill / There are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London vnth fat purses : I have vizards for you all ; you have horses for yourselves"

Dickens made considerable additions and improvements, both to the house and grounds. There was a shrubbery, of which two noble

24 m KENT WITH CEABLE8 DIGKEN8.

cedars were conspicuous ornaments, but the high-road divided it from the grounds surrounding the house, and it was desolate and neglected. Dickens had a tunnel made to connect it with the front lawn, and erected in its leafy seclusion the Swiss chdlet presented to him by Mr. Fechter. '' I have put five mirrors in the chdlet, where I write," he wrote to an American friend ; " and they reflect and refract, in all kinds of ways, the leaves that are quivering at the windows, and fields of waving corn, and the sail-dotted river. My room is up among the branches of the trees, and the birds and the butterflies fly in and out, and the green branches shoot in at the open windows, and lights and shadows of clouds come and go with the rest of the company. The scent of flowers, and indeed of everything which is growing for miles and miles, is most delicious."'"'

"When the old bridge at Rochester was demolished, the contractors presented the novelist

* Forster's Life of Charles Diclcens.

DICKENS'S RAMBLES. 25

with one of the balusters, which he set up on the back lawn, and on the top of which he placed a sun-dial. Many interesting memorials were dispersed at his death, but the house remains, and, after nine years' occupation by his son, has lately passed into the possession of Captain Austin Budden, of the 12th Kent Artillery Volunteers.