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THE KENTISH COAST
THE KENTISH COAST
WORKS BY CHARLES G. HARPER The Portsmouth Road , and its Tributaries: To-Day and in Days of Old. The Dover Road : Annals of an Ancient Turnpike. The Bath Road : History, Fashion, and Frivolity on an Old Highway. The Exeter Road : The Story of the West of England Highway. The Great North Road : The Old Mail Road to Scotland. Two Vols. The Norwich Road : An East Anglian Highway. The Holyhead Road : The Mail-Coach Road to Dublin. Two Vols. The Cambridge, Ely, and King’s Lynn Road : The Great Fenlan
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CHAPTER I DEPTFORD AND PETER THE GREAT
CHAPTER I DEPTFORD AND PETER THE GREAT
The seaboard of Kent, and indeed the south coast of England in general, is no little-known margin of our shores. It is not in the least unspotted from the world, or solitary. It lies too near London for that, and began to be exploited more than a hundred and fifty years ago, when seaside holidays were first invented. The coast of Kent, socially speaking, touches both extremes. It is at once fashionable and exclusive, and is the holiday haunt of the Cockney: a statement that is not the paradox it
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CHAPTER II GREENWICH—THE ROYAL NAVAL HOSPITAL—THE “FUBBS YACHT”—THE GREENWICH WHITEBAIT DINNERS—WOOLWICH—THE “PRINCESS ALICE” DISASTER—LESNES ABBEY—ERITH—DARTFORD
CHAPTER II GREENWICH—THE ROYAL NAVAL HOSPITAL—THE “FUBBS YACHT”—THE GREENWICH WHITEBAIT DINNERS—WOOLWICH—THE “PRINCESS ALICE” DISASTER—LESNES ABBEY—ERITH—DARTFORD
To fully appreciate the majestic appearance of Greenwich, you must view it from the river. Indeed, none of these waterside places from Deptford all the way to Gravesend, show to advantage on shore. Their historic associations and original scenic beauties are too overwhelmed with recent squalid developments. But from the busy Thames, Greenwich has a grandeur that is not easily to be expressed. This is due, of course, chiefly to the architectural interest of Greenwich Hospital, whose stately water
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CHAPTER III STONE—GREENHITHE—NORTHFLEET—HUGGENS’S COLLEGE—ROSHERVILLE—GRAVESEND—SHORNEMEAD—CLIFFE—COOLING—THE HUNDRED OF HOO—THE ISLE OF GRAIN—HOO ST. WERBURGH—UPNOR CASTLE—STROOD
CHAPTER III STONE—GREENHITHE—NORTHFLEET—HUGGENS’S COLLEGE—ROSHERVILLE—GRAVESEND—SHORNEMEAD—CLIFFE—COOLING—THE HUNDRED OF HOO—THE ISLE OF GRAIN—HOO ST. WERBURGH—UPNOR CASTLE—STROOD
Rising steeply out of Dartford, we come by the Dover Road, the ancient Watling Street, up to the lofty plateau of Dartford Brent; here taking the left-hand fork where the road branches. To the right goes the Watling Street, the Roman road, our left-hand route conducting gradually past Stone to the waterside at Greenhithe. Industrial England is prominent on the way, greatly to the disadvantage of the older England of romance. The thoughtful man asks himself, on passing the huge City of London Lun
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CHAPTER IV ROCHESTER AND CHATHAM—BROMPTON—GILLINGHAM—GRANGE—OTTERHAM QUAY—LOWER HALSTOW—IWADE
CHAPTER IV ROCHESTER AND CHATHAM—BROMPTON—GILLINGHAM—GRANGE—OTTERHAM QUAY—LOWER HALSTOW—IWADE
Very little change overtakes Rochester High Street, that narrow, rather gloomy, and distinctly dirty-looking thoroughfare. The Corn Exchange clock still projects its “moon face” over the pavement, as Dickens described it, “out of a grave, red building, as if Time carried on business there and hung out his sign”; and the ancient grime still clings to the brickwork houses, and the occasional old weatherboarded tenements still lack the new coats of paint cruelly denied them. One might expend much d
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CHAPTER V SHEPPEY
CHAPTER V SHEPPEY
It was in the Swale that Augustine baptized King Ethelbert on Whit Sunday, June 2nd, A.D. 596, and thus made him a child of God. On Christmas Day the following year he similarly baptized 10,000 of the King’s subjects, but exactly where these chilly ceremonies took place is not recorded. In any case, if the Swale were as muddy then as it is now, the converts must have come out extremely dirty. The one and only way into Sheppey without ferrying into it is across the Kingsferry Bridge, which here s
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CHAPTER VI THE CAPTURE OF JAMES THE SECOND—FAVERSHAM
CHAPTER VI THE CAPTURE OF JAMES THE SECOND—FAVERSHAM
It is two miles from this side of Harty Ferry to Faversham, through Oare and Davington. Hard by the landing-place the sinuous and muddy Faversham Creek joins the Swale, and ugly sheds stand here and there on the ill-favoured banks, exhibiting minatory notices for the observance of would-be trespassers. I don’t think any ordinarily sane person fully informed of what those sheds contain would in the least desire to trespass, for they are, in fact, stored with dynamite, the making of which, togethe
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CHAPTER VII MILTON-NEXT-SITTINGBOURNE—SITTINGBOURNE OLD INNS—MURSTON—LUDDENHAM
CHAPTER VII MILTON-NEXT-SITTINGBOURNE—SITTINGBOURNE OLD INNS—MURSTON—LUDDENHAM
A curious and but-little-visited part of the Kentish littoral is that which stretches, some eight miles or so, between Iwade, Milton, Sittingbourne, Tonge, and Faversham. It is that part of the country, going down to the low-lying shores of the Swale, which was in olden times spoken of as being possessed of “wealth without health.” The land was, and is still, wonderfully fertile, but in remote days was full of malaria. To-day, as the traveller by the leisurely South-Eastern Railway passes from S
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CHAPTER VIII GOODNESTONE—GRAVENEY—SEASALTER—WHITSTABLE AND THE OYSTER FISHERY
CHAPTER VIII GOODNESTONE—GRAVENEY—SEASALTER—WHITSTABLE AND THE OYSTER FISHERY
The road from Faversham to Whitstable winds level for long distances, passing at first through a charming district of cherry-orchards, interspersed with emerald pastures, with sheep feeding under the trees, and evidences of much poultry-keeping, in the many coops filled with anxious hens clucking nervously after their young broods. Here, too, you see hop-gardens; looking more than a little bare in spring, but with plenty of work going on, chiefly in trimming and tarring the ends of the new ash-p
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CHAPTER IX HERNE BAY—RECULVER—WANTSUM—SARRE
CHAPTER IX HERNE BAY—RECULVER—WANTSUM—SARRE
Herne Bay is a place of entirely modern creation, and does not stand upon a bay. The coastline, in fact, runs remarkably straight between Whitstable and Margate, and anything in the nature of a bay is not to be seen. But, as old writers speak of a point here, it seems likely that a bay of some sort existed and has disappeared in the great wastage of the land that has certainly taken place all along this coast and around Sheppey. The “Street Stones” at Whitstable, pointing to a Roman road into a
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CHAPTER X THANET’S CORNFIELDS—MONKTON—MINSTER-IN-THANET—BIRCHINGTON—QUEX PARK—WESTGATE—DANDELION.
CHAPTER X THANET’S CORNFIELDS—MONKTON—MINSTER-IN-THANET—BIRCHINGTON—QUEX PARK—WESTGATE—DANDELION.
The enormous size of the cornfields of Thanet is immediately apparent, and is one of the most striking features of the Isle. The soil, too, is remarkably fertile; owing, according to the old monkish chronicles, to the Divine favour shown to the locality through the virtues of St. Augustine and his Christian mission. Nothing was too tough for the imaginations of those mediæval monks to assimilate. Three miles across these vast, hedgeless fields, whose waving, golden corn in August meets the blue
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CHAPTER XI MARGATE
CHAPTER XI MARGATE
Margate the Merry, to which we enter by electric tramway, is the oldest and most popular of English seaside resorts: and also, in some opinions, the most vulgar. However that may be, and dismissing the claims of Rollicking Ramsgate and Southend (to say nothing of Blackpool and Yarmouth) to pre-eminence in vulgarity, Merry Margate is certainly a very crowded and unselect place in August and on occasions of popular holiday. There is then no doubting the reality of Margate, I assure you, nor, for t
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CHAPTER XII KINGSGATE—THE NORTH FORELAND—BROADSTAIRS—ST. PETER’S
CHAPTER XII KINGSGATE—THE NORTH FORELAND—BROADSTAIRS—ST. PETER’S
The plebeian jollity of the older part of Margate, by the Harbour and the Jetty, the Fort and the Paragon, gives place westward to modern and more select Cliftonville. The walk past Cliftonville the select, along the grassy cliffs, leads round by Foreness Point and discloses a succession of chalky nooks, “gaps,” and “gates,” where little ravines run down to the sea: every one of them pretty well peopled in the summer season. If you want a cloistered holiday, you will not be well advised to repai
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CHAPTER XIII RAMSGATE
CHAPTER XIII RAMSGATE
The old seaport and holiday-resort of Ramsgate may be reached quickly along the desolate Dumpton Park Drive already spoken of; but the pedestrian’s better way from Broadstairs is past that eyesore the Grand Hotel, to the grassy cliffs’ edge. These are interrupted by some of those “gates” and “gaps” characteristic of this part of the coast. Crossing the bridge at Dumpton Gap, and past some fortifications, Ramsgate itself is reached by way of Wellington Crescent, whose name, like that of the thoro
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CHAPTER XIV PEGWELL BAY—EBBSFLEET—THE LANDINGS OF HENGIST AND OF ST. AUGUSTINE—RICHBOROUGH
CHAPTER XIV PEGWELL BAY—EBBSFLEET—THE LANDINGS OF HENGIST AND OF ST. AUGUSTINE—RICHBOROUGH
But to have done with Ramsgate. We may perhaps explore to the very end of the West Cliff, where rows of great ugly houses look out seaward from that height, and where the bastioned cliffs crumble and are cobbled horribly with brick and plaster. But one gets no joy of those grim grey buttresses that front the waves. Passing, instead, up the main street, to the surviving Norman church of St. Lawrence, we note there the brasses to Nicholas Manston, wearing the Collar of SS.; and his daughter and wi
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CHAPTER XV SANDWICH
CHAPTER XV SANDWICH
Approaching Sandwich, whose towers and roof-tops rise picturesquely ahead from the level marshes, mingled with the masts and spars of a few vessels lying at the town quays, a belt of spindly trees is passed, stretching away to the left. They are trees of a considerable height and size, but they wear an ill-nourished appearance, as they cannot fail to do when we consider how poor the soil on which they grow. It is, in fact, nothing but sand and pebbles. One solitary residence, Stonar House, stand
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CHAPTER XVI WORTH—UPPER DEAL—DEAL—THE GOODWIN SANDS
CHAPTER XVI WORTH—UPPER DEAL—DEAL—THE GOODWIN SANDS
The old road from Sandwich to Deal ran across the sandy wastes through which the railway goes, but the sand-dunes that line the shore all the way between the towns, and stretch far inland, form a profound discouragement to those who would seek to trace the seashore. Maps rightly mark this space of coast “Blown Sand.” Blown it is, into hollows and heights, sometimes overgrown with a scanty herbage and thus anchored securely against being moved on again by the winds; but often mere loose sand-heap
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CHAPTER XVII THE DOWNS AND THE DEAL BOATMEN
CHAPTER XVII THE DOWNS AND THE DEAL BOATMEN
It has been shown that the Goodwins have from the earliest times greatly exercised the imaginations of all kinds of people, and that the bones of countless dead have found sepulture there, but it would scarce be supposed that any one would choose to be buried on the Goodwins. Yet there are at least two instances known of such a strange choice; one of them prominently recorded in the well-known—perhaps better known by repute than actually read—Evelyn’s “Diary.” John Evelyn, in the pages of that n
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CHAPTER XVIII WALMER CASTLE—KINGSDOWN—ST. MARGARET’S BAY
CHAPTER XVIII WALMER CASTLE—KINGSDOWN—ST. MARGARET’S BAY
The low, beachy shore of Deal continues westward through Lower Walmer, the chief part of Walmer lying inland where the road begins to take its rise towards the high rolling downs which fill the miles on to Dover. The beach road runs on for two miles and a half, past Walmer Castle to Kingsdown, where it abruptly ends. The historic part of Walmer Castle, which is now under the direct control of His Majesty’s Office of Works, may be inspected for the modest fee of threepence, at times when the Lord
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CHAPTER XIX DOVER—THE CASTLE AND ROMAN PHAROS—“QUEEN ELIZABETH’S POCKET-PISTOL”—THE WESTERN HEIGHTS
CHAPTER XIX DOVER—THE CASTLE AND ROMAN PHAROS—“QUEEN ELIZABETH’S POCKET-PISTOL”—THE WESTERN HEIGHTS
The great and growing town of Dover looks forward to a greater fame than even the historic past has conferred upon it. The measure of Dover’s greatness is not the usual measurement, that of population, for the town numbers only some 44,000. Rather does it lie in its defensible and strategic situation. Dover has ever, from Roman times, been a place of arms, and was, an old chronicler tells us, the “lock and key of the whole kingdom.” That being so, it has always behoved us to make it one of the m
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CHAPTER XX THE CHANNEL PASSAGE—THE NATIONAL HARBOUR AND ITS STRATEGIC PURPOSE—SWIMMING AND FLYING THE CHANNEL
CHAPTER XX THE CHANNEL PASSAGE—THE NATIONAL HARBOUR AND ITS STRATEGIC PURPOSE—SWIMMING AND FLYING THE CHANNEL
Dover has ever been a favourite port with travellers. The advantage of lying near to the opposite coast determined its fortunes from the earliest times, for sea-sickness has naturally always rendered the shortest passage the most popular. Little need, then, it might be thought for proclamations and Acts of Parliament insisting upon this being the port of arrival and departure. Yet we find enactments in the reign of Edward the Third not only regulating “the fares of the passage of Dover” (1330),
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CHAPTER XXI SHAKESPEARE’S CLIFF—SAMPHIRE—THE CHANNEL TUNNEL—COAL IN KENT—THE WARREN
CHAPTER XXI SHAKESPEARE’S CLIFF—SAMPHIRE—THE CHANNEL TUNNEL—COAL IN KENT—THE WARREN
“Dost thou know Dover?” asks Gloucester, in the pitiful tragedy of King Lear . Aye; and knowing Dover, we cannot but be well acquainted with that— It is Shakespeare’s Cliff. “Here’s the place,” says Edgar. SHAKESPEARE’S CLIFF. After W. Daniell, R.A. The height of Shakespeare’s Cliff is said to be 365 feet; but it looks more, owing to the grand outline it presents to the sea. It was once much taller, but for centuries the waves have been nibbling at it. In 1847 some 48,000 tons of chalk fell, and
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CHAPTER XXII FOLKESTONE—THE OLD TOWN AND THE NEW—DICKENS AND “PAVILIONSTONE”—SANDGATE
CHAPTER XXII FOLKESTONE—THE OLD TOWN AND THE NEW—DICKENS AND “PAVILIONSTONE”—SANDGATE
We come into Folkestone by way of the mean streets that immediately fringe the Old Town, that survival of the fisher-village which existed many centuries before ever the modern pleasure-resort was thought of. No one has with any certainty penetrated the mystery of Folkestone’s name. As the Lapis Populi of the Romans, the “Folcanstane” of the Saxons, and the “Fulchestane” of Domesday Book, it remains a puzzle. No one knows who these “folk” were, nor what was their “stone.” The situation of the to
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CHAPTER XXIII SHORNCLIFFE CAMP—THE ROYAL MILITARY CANAL—HYTHE—ROMNEY MARSH—THE MARTELLO TOWERS—THE “HOLY MAID OF KENT”
CHAPTER XXIII SHORNCLIFFE CAMP—THE ROYAL MILITARY CANAL—HYTHE—ROMNEY MARSH—THE MARTELLO TOWERS—THE “HOLY MAID OF KENT”
From Sandgate the seashore goes level for many miles, through Seabrook and Hythe, and across Romney Marsh to Dungeness. Not until Sussex is reached and Winchelsea passed do the cliffs again rise, confronting the sea. Hard by Sandgate Castle stands the centenary monument on the modest parade to Sir John Moore, the hero of Coruña, unveiled November 19th, 1909. The spot is appropriate because, at the back of Sandgate, up away out of sight, is Shorncliffe Camp, closely associated with that distingui
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CHAPTER XXIV NEW ROMNEY—SMUGGLING DAYS—BROOKLAND—FAIRFIELD—SMALLHYTHE
CHAPTER XXIV NEW ROMNEY—SMUGGLING DAYS—BROOKLAND—FAIRFIELD—SMALLHYTHE
The town of New Romney, new nine hundred years ago, is located afar off, not by its houses, which are few indeed, but by the trees that encircle it, and give a very direct denial to its urban claims. Founded to replace Old Romney, deserted by the sea, as a seaport, the sea began again to retreat so long ago as Queen Elizabeth’s time, and is now a mile and a half to two miles distant, at the melancholy and hopeless-looking cluster of houses known as Littlestone-on-Sea, where there are golf-links
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CHAPTER XXV LYDD—DUNGENESS—CAMBER-ON-SEA
CHAPTER XXV LYDD—DUNGENESS—CAMBER-ON-SEA
Three miles from New Romney, across the levels, is the remote little town of Lydd, in the midst of Dunge Marsh. Its remoteness rendered Lydd a suitable place for artillery-camps and the surrounding wastes a favourable location for practice with high explosives. It was here, indeed, that “Lyddite” was invented. The town nestles within a group of trees—whether planted for shelter, or just by chance, it would be difficult to say. Its chief glories are the fine old church, well known as the “Cathedr
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