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It is pleasing with the memory of all this in one's heart and upon it there is a famous song to come upon Swanscombe church, in which much would seem to be of Saxon times, as parts of the walls of both nave and chancel, and the lower part of the tower, where one may see signs of Roman brick.
Swanscombe, 23. Switzerland, 91, 92. Swords, Ireland, 78. Tawney, Stapleford, 22, 47, 48. Teddington, 18. Thames, Upper, 29. Theydon Bois, 46. Tipper ale, 3. Tombs, age of, 51. Totteridge, 46. Tramps in Kent, 35. Tramps, typical, 35, 43. Turks' graveyards, 62. Twickenham, 29, 71. Usaille, Bishop, 104. Very old gravestones, 97. Victory over Death, 1, 20, 21. Villages and cities, 28.
The present house, once the residence of Alderman Harmer, the radical and reformer of our criminal courts, was built of the stone of old London Bridge. Here upon the high road one is really in the marshes by Thames side; but a little way off the highway to the south on higher ground stands Swanscombe and it is worth while to see it for it is a very famous place.
I determined to follow the Gravesend road so far as Northfleet, chiefly for the sake of Stone, and there by a road running south-east to come into the Roman highway again, two miles or so east of Swanscombe Park, whence I should have a practically straight road into Rochester. I say I chose this route chiefly for the sake of seeing Stone.
For there on the hill-top the road forks; to the left runs the greater way of the two, into Gravesend; straight on lies a lane which after a couple of miles suddenly turns southward to Betsham, where the direct way is continued by a footpath across Swanscombe Park. Which of these ways was I to follow?
But Stigande, the archbishop, perceiving the danger assembled the countrymen together and laid before them the intolerable pride of the Normans that invaded them and their own miserable condition if they should yield unto them. By which means they so enraged the common people that they ran forthwith to weapon and meeting at Swanscombe elected the archbishop and the abbot for their captains.
I left Swanscombe in the early afternoon, and passing through Northfleet with its great church of St Botolph I followed the road with many happy glimpses of the Thames, avoiding Gravesend and making southward for the Watling Street, which I found at last, and an old Inn at the cross roads upon it.
But the lane which is the straight way and its continuation in the footpath across Swanscombe Park is undoubtedly the line of the Roman road and in all probability the route of Chaucer. Face to face with these considerations, being English, I decided upon a compromise.
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