WROTHAM TO HOLLINGBOURNE
The Pilgrims' Way continues its course over Wrotham Hill and along the
side of the chalk downs. This part of the track is a good bridle road,
with low grass banks or else hedges on either side, and commands fine
views over the rich Kentish plains, the broad valley of the Medway, and
the hills on the opposite shore. The river itself glitters in the sun,
but as we draw nearer the beauty of the prospect is sorely marred by the
ugly chimneys and dense smoke of the Snodland limestone works.
At one point on the downs, close to the Vigo Inn, a few hundred yards
above our road, there is a very extensive view over the valley of the
Thames, ranging from Shooters' Hill to Gravesend, and far away out to
sea. In the daytime the masts of the shipping in the river are clearly
seen. At night the Nore lights twinkle like stars in the distance. The
height of these downs is close on 700 feet, that of Knockholt is 783
feet. On the other side of the Medway the chalk range is considerably
lower, and the highest points are above Detling, 657 feet,
Hollingbourne, 606 feet, and Charing, 640 feet.
[Illustration: THE BULL, WROTHAM.]
The Way now runs past Pilgrims' house, formerly the Kentish Drovers'
Inn, above the old church and village of Trottescliffe (Trosley) and the
megalithic stones known as Coldrum circle, one of the best preserved
cromlechs along the road. Further on a short lane leads south to Birling
Place, the ancient home of the Nevills, who have owned the estate since
the middle of the fifteenth century, while in a group of old farm
buildings at Paddlesworth (formerly Paulsford) we find the remains of a
Norman Pilgrims' Chapel, with a fine Early English arch. The track now
crosses a large field and enters Snodland, an old town containing many
Roman remains, and an interesting church, but sadly disfigured by cement
works and paper factories.
[Illustration: TROTTESCLIFFE.]
Here the pilgrims left the hills to descend into the valley below. Twice
before, at Shalford and Dorking, they had crossed the rivers which make
their way through the chalk range; now they had reached the third great
break in the downs, and the broad stream of the Medway lay at their
feet. They might, if they pleased, go on to Rochester, three miles
higher up, and join the road taken by the London pilgrims along the
Watling Street to Canterbury--the route of Chaucer's pilgrimage. But
most of them, it appears, preferred to follow the hills to which they
had clung so long.
[Illustration: FORD PLACE, NEAR WROTHAM.]
The exact point where they crossed the river has been often disputed.
According to the old maps it was by the ford at Cuxton, where the river
was shallow enough to allow of their passage. From Bunker's Farm,
immediately above Birling, a road diverges northwards to Cuxton and
Rochester, and was certainly used by many of the pilgrims. At Upper
Halling, on this track, we may still see the lancet windows of a
pilgrims' shrine formerly dedicated to St. Laurence, which have been
built into some cottages known as Chapel houses. The Bishops of
Rochester, who held this manor from Egbert's days, had "a right fair
house" at Lower Halling, on the banks of the Medway, with a vineyard
which produced grapes for King Henry III.'s table. This pleasant
manor-house on the river was the favourite summer residence of Bishop
Hamo de Hethe, who built a new hall and chapel in the reign of Edward
I., and placed his own statue on a gateway which was still standing in
the eighteenth century. Another interesting house, Whorne Place, lies a
little higher up, on the banks of the Medway, where the grass-grown
track leading from Bunker's Farm joins the main road to Cuxton and
Rochester. This fine brick mansion formerly belonged to the Levesons,
and the quarterings of Sir John Leveson and his two wives are to be seen
above the central porch.
[Illustration: THE FRIARY, AYLESFORD.]
In the thirteenth century a great number of pilgrims seem to have
stopped at Maidstone, where, in 1261, Archbishop Boniface built a
hospital for their reception on the banks of the Medway. The funds which
supported this hospital, the Newark--New-work, Novi operis, as it was
called--were diverted by Archbishop Courtenay, a hundred and forty years
later, to the maintenance of his new college of All Saints, on the
opposite side of the river, but a remnant of the older foundation is
still preserved in the beautiful Early English Chancel of St. Peter's
Church, which was originally attached to Boniface's hospital, and is
still known as the Pilgrims' Chapel. By the time that Archbishop
Courtenay founded his college, the stream of pilgrims had greatly
diminished, and the hostel which had been intended for their
resting-place was rapidly sinking into a common almshouse. Maidstone,
too, no doubt, lay considerably out of the pilgrims' course, and the
great majority naturally preferred to cross the Medway by the ferry at
Snodland. Others again might choose Aylesford, which lay a mile or two
below. At this ancient town, the Eglesford of the Saxon Chronicle, there
was a stone bridge across the river, and a Carmelite Priory founded in
1240 by Richard de Grey, on his return from the Crusades, where the
pilgrims would be sure to find shelter. But even if they did not cross
the Medway at this place, where the old church stands so picturesquely
on its high bank overhanging river and red roofs, the pilgrims certainly
passed through the parish of Aylesford. For on the opposite banks of the
ferry at Snodland the familiar line of yew trees appears again,
ascending the hill by Burham church, and runs through the upper part of
Aylesford parish, close to the famous dolmen of Kits Coty House. This
most interesting sepulchral monument, Kêd-coit--Celtic for the Tomb in
the Wood--consists of three upright blocks of sandstone about eight feet
high and eight feet broad, with a covering stone of eleven feet which
forms the roof, and is one of a group of similar remains which lie
scattered over the hill-side and are locally known as the Countless
Stones. We have here, in fact, a great cemetery of the Druids which once
extended for many miles on both sides of the river. Deep pits dug out in
the chalk, filled with flints and covered with slabs of stone, have
been discovered on Aylesford Common, and a whole avenue of stones
formerly connected this burial place with the cromlechs at Addington,
six miles off. Here, if the old legend be true, was fought the great
battle which decided the fate of Britain, and gave England into the
hands of the English. For at this place, the old chroniclers say, about
the year 455, the Saxon invaders stopped on their march to the Castle of
Rochester, and turning southwards met the Britons in that deadly fray,
when both Kentigern and Horsa were left dead on the field of battle.
Ancient military entrenchments are still visible on the hill-side near
Kits Coty House, and a boulder on the top was long pointed out as the
stone on which Hengist was proclaimed the first king of Kent.
About a mile from this memorable spot, in the plains at the foot of the
downs, was a shrine which no pilgrim of mediæval days would leave
unvisited, the Cistercian Abbey of Boxley, then generally known as the
Abbatia S. Crucis de Gracias, the Abbey of the Holy Rood of Grace.
[Illustration: AYLESFORD BRIDGE]
[Illustration: KITS COTY HOUSE.]
Not only was Boxley, next to Waverley Abbey, the oldest Cistercian house
founded on this side of the Channel, the _filia propria_ of the great
house of Clairvaux, but the convent church rejoiced in the possession of
two of the most celebrated wonder-working relics in all England. There
was the image of St. Rumbold, that infant child of a Saxon prince who
proclaimed himself a Christian the moment of his birth, and after three
days spent in edifying his pagan hearers, departed this life. This
image could only be lifted by the pure and good, and having a hidden
spring, which could be worked by the hands or feet of the monks, was
chiefly influenced by the amount of the coin that was paid into their
hands. And there was that still greater marvel, the miraculous Rood, or
winking image, a wooden crucifix which rolled its eyes and moved its
lips in response to the devotees who crowded from all parts of England
to see the wondrous sight. The clever mechanism of this image, said to
have been invented by an English prisoner during his captivity in
France, was exposed by Henry VIII.'s commissioners in 1538, who
discovered "certayn ingyns of old wyer with olde roten stykkes in the
back of the same," and showed them to the people of Maidstone on
market-day, after which the Rood of Grace was taken to London and
solemnly broken in pieces at Paul's Cross. The Abbey of Boxley owned
vast lands, and the Abbots were frequently summoned to Parliament, and
lived in great state. Among the royal guests whom they entertained was
King Edward II., whose visit was made memorable by the letter which he
addressed from Boxley Abbey to the Aldermen of the City of London,
granting them the right of electing a Lord Mayor. At one time their
extravagance brought them to the verge of ruin, as we learn from a
letter which Archbishop Warham addressed to Cardinal Wolsey; but at the
dissolution the Commissioners could find no cause of complaint against
the monks, excepting the profusion of flowers in the convent garden,
which made them comment on the waste of turning "the rents of the
monastery into gillyflowers and roses." The foundations of the church
where the Cistercians showed off their "sotelties" may still be traced
in the gardens of the house built by Sir Thomas Wyatt on the site of the
abbey. Here some precious fragments of the ruins are still preserved.
The chapel of St. Andrew, which stood near the great gateway, has been
turned into cottages, and the noble "guesten-house," where strangers
were lodged, is now a barn. The old wall remains to show the once vast
extent of the Abbey precincts. Now these grey stones are mantled with
thick bushes of ivy, and a fine clump of elm trees overshadows the
red-tiled roof of the ancient guest-house in the meadows, but we look in
vain for poor Abbot John's gillyflowers and roses.
[Illustration: LOOKING WEST FROM ABOVE BOXLEY ABBEY.]
Between Boxley Abbey and Maidstone stretches the wide common of Penenden
Heath, famous from time immemorial as the place where all great county
meetings were held. Here the Saxons held their "gemotes," and here in
1076, was that memorable assembly before which Lanfranc pleaded the
cause of the Church of Canterbury against Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, Earl
of Kent, the Conqueror's half-brother, who had defrauded Christ Church
of her rights, and laid violent hands on many of her manors and lands.
Not only were the Kentish nobles and bishops summoned to try the cause,
but barons and distinguished ecclesiastics, and many men "of great and
good account," from all parts of England and Normandy, were present that
day. Godfrey, Bishop of Coutances, represented the King, and Agelric,
the aged Bishop of Chester, "an ancient man well versed in the laws and
customs of the realm," was brought there in a chariot by the King's
express command. Three days the trial lasted, during which Lanfranc
pleaded his cause so well against the rapacious Norman that the see of
Canterbury recovered its former possessions, and saw its liberties
firmly established.
The village and church of Boxley (Bose-leu in Domesday), so called from
the box trees that grow freely along the downs, as at Box Hill, are
about a mile and a half beyond the Abbey, and lie on the sloping ground
at the foot of the hills, close to the Pilgrims' Way. Old houses and
timbered barns, with lofty gables and irregular roofs, are grouped
round the church, which is itself as picturesque an object as any, with
its massive towers and curious old red-tiled Galilee porch. Next we
reach Detling, a small village, prettily situated on the slope of the
hills, with a church containing a rare specimen of mediæval wood-work in
the shape of a carved oak reading-desk, enriched with pierced tracery of
the Decorated period. We pass Thurnham, with the foundations of its
Saxon castle high up on the downs, and then enter Hollingbourne. As
Boxley reminds us of the box trees on the hill-side, and Thurnham of the
thorn trees in the wood, so Hollingbourne owes its name to the hollies
on the burn or stream which runs through the parish. William Cobbett,
whose memory has followed us all the way from the Itchen valley,
describes how he rode over Hollingbourne Hill on his return from Dover
to the Wen, and from the summit of that down, one of the highest in this
neighbourhood, looked down over the fair Kentish land, which in its
richness and beauty seemed to him another Garden of Eden.
[Illustration: COTTAGE AT BOARLEY, NEAR BOXLEY]