Proceeding eastward along the chalk-downs and over the border into Kent,
we reach the Wealden formation, the "wooded land" of that county--so
named by the Saxons--which stretches between the North and South Downs,
the chalk-formations bordering this primeval forest, but now almost
entirely transformed into a rich agricultural country. The Weald is a
region of great fertility and high cultivation, still bearing numerous
copses of well-grown timber, the oak being the chief, and furnishing in
times past the material for many of its substantial oaken houses. The
little streams that meander among the undulating hills of this
attractive region are nearly all gathered together to form the Medway,
which flows past Maidstone to join the Thames. It was the portions of
the Weald around Goudhurst that were memorable for the exploits of
Radford and his band, the originals of G. P. R. James's _Smugglers_.
Goudhurst church-tower, finely located on one of the highest hills of
the Wealden region, gives a grand view on all sides, especially to the
southward over Mr. Beresford Hope's seat at Bedgebury Park. In this old
church of St. Mary are buried the Bedgeburys and the Colepeppers. Their
ancient house, surrounded by a moat, has been swept away, and the
present mansion was built in the seventeenth century out of the proceeds
of a sunken Spanish treasure-ship, Sir James Hayes, who built the house,
having gone into a speculation with Lord Falkland and others to recover
the treasure. This origin of Bedgebury House is recorded on its
foundation-stone: it has been greatly enlarged by successive owners, and
is surrounded by ornamental gardens and grounds, with a park of wood,
lake, and heather covering two thousand acres. In the neighboring church
of Kilndown, Field-marshal Beresford, the former owner of Bedgebury,
reposes in a canopied sepulchre. Just to the eastward is Cranbrook, the
chief market-town of the Weald, the ancient sanctuary of the Anabaptists
and the historical centre of the Flemish cloth-trade, which used to be
carried on by the "old gray-coats of Kent." Their descendants still live
in the old-time factories, which have been converted into handsome
modern houses. Edward III. first induced the Flemings to settle in Kent
and some other parts of England, and from his reign until the last
century the broadcloth manufacture concentrated at Cranbrook. When Queen
Elizabeth once visited the town she was entertained at a manor about a
mile from Cranbrook, and walked thence into the town upon a carpet, laid
down the whole way, made of the same cloth that her loyal men of Kent
wore on their backs. In Cranbrook Church were held the fierce
theological disputes of Queen Mary's reign which resulted in the
imprisonment of the Anabaptists and other dissenters by Chancellor
Baker. Over the south porch is the chamber with grated windows known as
"Bloody Baker's Prison." Among the old customs surviving at Cranbrook is
that which strews the path of the newly-wedded couple as they leave the
church with emblems of the bridegroom's trade. The blacksmith walks upon
scraps of iron, the shoemaker on leather parings, the carpenter on
shavings, and the butcher on sheepskins. In an adjacent glen almost
surrounded by woods are the ruins of Sissinghurst, where Chancellor
Baker lived and built the stately mansion of Saxenhurst, from which the
present name of its ruins is derived. The artists Horsley and Webster
lived at Sissinghurst and Cranbrook for many years, and found there
frequent subjects of rustic study. The Sissinghurst ruins are
fragmentary, excepting the grand entrance, which is well preserved.
Baker's Cross survives to mark the spot where the Anabaptists had a
skirmish with their great enemy; and the legend is that he was killed
there, though history asserts that this theological warrior died in his
bed peaceably some time afterwards in London.
[Illustration: RUINS OF SISSINGHURST.]
Near Lamberhurst, on the Surrey border and on the margin of the Teise,
is the Marquis of Camden's seat at Bayham Abbey. Its ruins include a
church, a gateway, and some of the smaller buildings. It was once highly
attractive, though small, and its ruined beauty is now enhanced by the
care with which the ivy is trained over the walls and the greensward
floor is smoothed. Ralph de Dene founded this abbey about the year 1200,
and after the dissolution Queen Elizabeth granted it to Viscount
Montague. It was bought in the last century by Chief-Justice Pratt,
whose son, the chancellor, became Marquis of Camden. The modern mansion
is a fine one, and from it a five-mile walk through the woods leads to
Tunbridge on the Medway. Chief among the older remains of this
pleasantly-located and popular town is Tunbridge Castle, its keep having
stood upon a lofty mound above the river. This "Norman Mound," as it is
called, is now capped with ruined walls, and an arched passage leads
from it to the upper story of the elaborate gate-house, still in
excellent preservation. Richard Fitzgilbert built the keep, and ruled
the "League of Tunbridge," but his castle, after a long siege by Henry
III., was taken away from his successor, who assumed the name of Gilbert
de Clare. From the De Clares the stronghold passed to the Audleys and
Staffords, and it is now held by Lord Stafford. The gate-house is a fine
structure, square in form, with round towers at each corner. The ruins
are richly adorned with mouldings and other decorations, and within is a
handsome state-apartment. Tunbridge is a quiet town, standing where five
of the tributaries of the Medway come together, over which it has as
many stone bridges. One of these streams, the Tun, gives the town its
name. In St. Stephen's Church, a badly mutilated building with a fine
spire, many of the De Clares are buried, and the quaint half-timbered
building of the "Chequers Inn" helps maintain the picturesque appearance
of the Tunbridge High Street. The spa of Tunbridge Wells, with its
chalybeate springs and baths, is a few miles southward, but the days of
its greatest glory have passed away, though fashion to a moderate extent
still haunts its pump-room and parade. This famous watering-place
stands in a contracted valley enclosed by the three hills known as Mount
Ephraim, Mount Zion, and Mount Pleasant.
[Illustration: TUNBRIDGE CASTLE.]
[Illustration: PENSHURST PLACE.]
[Illustration: PENSHURST CHURCH.]
To the westward of Tunbridge, and in the Medway Valley, is Penshurst,
celebrated as the home of Sir Philip Sidney--a grand, gray old house,
built at many periods, begun in the fourteenth century and not completed
until a few years ago. It is a pretty English picture within a setting
of wooded hills and silver rivers, the pattern from which Sidney drew
his description of "Laconia" in _Arcadia_. The buildings, particularly
their window-heads, are ornamented with the tracery peculiar to Kent.
The great hall, the earliest of these buildings, has a characteristic
open-timber roof, while its minstrel-gallery, fronted by a wainscot
screen, is ornamented with the badge of the Dudleys, the "bear and
ragged staff." Within these halls are the family portraits of a noble
lineage. Of Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Sidney and heiress of Sir John
Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Ben Jonson wrote this epitaph:
"Underneath this sable hearse
Lies, the subject of all verse,
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother.
Death! ere thou hast slain another
Learned and fair and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee."
Sir Philip Sidney was her brother, born at Penshurst in 1554. The estate
came through various owners, until, in the reign of Henry II., it was
granted to Sir William Sidney, who commanded a wing of the victorious
English at Flodden. Sir Philip, we are told, would have been King of
Poland had not Queen Elizabeth interposed, "lest she should lose the
jewel of her times." Algernon Sidney, beheaded on Tower Hill, was his
descendant. Penshurst is now held by Baron de l'Isle, to whom it has
descended through marriage. On the estate stands the quaint old
Penshurst Church with its ivy-covered porch. The Eden River falls into
the Medway near Penshurst, and alongside its waters is the well-known
castellated residence which still survives from the Tudor days, Hever
Castle, where, it is said, Anne Boleyn was born. Sir Geoffrey Boleyn,
her great-grandfather, who was Lord Mayor of London in the reign of
Henry VI., began Hever Castle, which was completed by his grandson,
Anne's father. It was at Hever that King Henry wooed her. The house is a
quadrangle, with high pitched roofs and gables and surrounded by a
double moat, and is now a farm-house. Here they show the visitor Anne
Boleyn's rooms, and also the chamber where her successor, Anne of
Cleves, is said to have died, though this is doubted. King Henry,
however, seized the estate of Hever from his earlier wife's family, and
granted it to his subsequently discarded consort after he separated from
her. Northward of Tunbridge, and near Sevenoaks, is Knole, the home of
the family of Hon. L. S. Sackville-West, the present British minister at
Washington. It is one of the most interesting baronial mansions in
England, enclosed by a park five miles in circumference.
[Illustration: HEVER CASTLE.]
[Illustration: GATEWAY OF LEEDS CASTLE.]
Proceeding eastward towards the outskirts of the Weald, we come to Leeds
Castle, once the great central fortress of Kent. Standing in a
commanding position, it held the road leading to Canterbury and the
coast, and it dates probably from the Norman Conquest. Its moat
surrounds three islands, from which, as if from the water, rise its
walls and towers. This castle is now the residence of Mr. Wykeham Martin
and contains many valuable antiquities. Also near the eastern border of
the Weald is Tenterden, famous for its church-steeple, which Bishop
Latimer has invested with a good story. The bishop in a sermon said that
Sir Thomas More was once sent into Kent to learn the cause of the
Goodwin Sands and the obstructions to Sandwich Haven. He summoned
various persons of experience, and among others there "came in before
him an olde man with a white head, and one that was thought to be little
lesse than an hundereth yeares olde. When Maister More saw this aged man
he thought it expedient to hear him say his minde in this matter, for
being so olde a man, it was likely he knew most of any man in that
presence and company. So Maister More called this olde aged man unto
him, and sayd, 'Father, tell me if ye can what is the cause of this
great arising of the sande and shelfs here about this haven, the which
stop it up that no shippes can arrive here. Ye are the oldest man that I
can espie in all this companye, so that, if any man can tell any cause
of it, ye of likelihode can say most in it, or at leastwise more than
any man here assembled.'--'Yea, forsooth, good master,' quod this olde
man, 'for I am wellnigh an hundreth years olde, and no man here in this
companye anything neare unto mine age.'--'Well, then,' quod Maister
More, 'how say you in this matter? What think ye to be the cause of
these shelfs and flattes that stop up Sandwich Haven?'--'Forsooth, syr,'
quoth he, 'I am an olde man; I think that Tenterton Steeple is the cause
of Goodwin Sandes. For I am an olde man, syr,' quod he, 'and I may
remember the building of Tenterton Steeple, and I may remember when
there was no steeple at all there. And before that Tenterton Steeple was
a-building there was no manner of speaking of any flattes or sandes that
stopped the haven; and, therefore, I thinke that Tenterton Steeple is
the cause of the destroying and decaying of Sandwich Haven.' And even so
to my purpose," says Latimer in conclusion, "is preaching of God's worde
the cause of rebellion, as Tenterton Steeple is a cause that Sandwich
Haven is decayed." Now this "olde aged man" had some excuse for his
theory in the Kentish tradition, which says that the abbot of St.
Augustine, who built the steeple, used for it the stones collected to
strengthen the sea-wall of Goodwin Sands, then part of the main land.
The next storm submerged the district, of which the Goodwins are the
remains, and thus the steeple caused the quicksands, according to the
Kentish theory.