Beautiful Britain | Page 2

beautiful hills of Surrey and Kent, they use the iron road which
rushes them all unprepared into the city of the saint-martyr. But who
will maintain that all those who formed the motley throng of the
medieval pilgrimages came with their minds properly attuned, and who
is prepared to say that because the majority of modern pilgrims
consummate their aim by using the convenience of the railway they are
less devout than Chaucer's merchant, serjeant-at-law, doctor of physic,
and the rest who rode on horseback--the most convenient, rapid, and
comfortable method of travel then available?
There is, however, a material disadvantage suffered by those who use
the railway, in that they miss the first view of the Cathedral city set in
the midst of soft-swelling eocene hills, which comes as the first stage
of the gradual unfolding of the tragic story. The lukewarm pilgrim
should therefore remember that he will add vastly to the richness of his
impressions if he deserts his train at Selling or Chartham and walks the
rest of the way over Harbledown, where he will see the little city of the
Middle Ages encircled with its ancient wall and crowned by the towers
of its cathedral very much as did the cosmopolitan groups of
travel-soiled men and women who for century after century feasted
their eyes from the selfsame spot.
[Illustration: CHRIST CHURCH GATEWAY, CANTERBURY. This
beautiful entrance to the Cathedral precincts was built between 1507
and 1517. The richly sculptured stone has weathered exceedingly.]

CHAPTER II

THE STORY OF CANTERBURY
It would be a mistake to imagine that it solely was due to that bloody
deed perpetrated on a certain December afternoon back in Norman
times that Canterbury occupies a place of such pre-eminence in English
history, for the city was ancient before the days of Thomas of
Canterbury; and in this short chapter it is the writer's endeavour to
indicate the position of that tragic occurrence in the chronology of the
former Kentish capital.
The earliest people who have left evidence of their existence near
Canterbury belong to the Palæolithic Age; but as it is not known
whether this remote prehistoric population occupied the actual site, or
even whether the valley may not have then been a salt-water creek, it is
wiser in this brief sketch to pass over these primitive people and the
lake-dwellers who, after a considerable interval, were possibly their
successors, and come to the surer ground of history. This brings us to
the early Roman invasions of Britain and Julius Cæsar's description of
the people of Kent, whose civilization he found on a higher level than
in the other parts he penetrated. He described them as being little
different in their manner of living from the Gauls, whose houses were
built of planks and willow-branches, roofed with thatch, and were large
and circular in form, but he adds:
All the Britons dye themselves with woad, which gives them a bluish
colour, and so makes them very dreadful in battle. They have long hair,
and shave all the body except the head and upper lip.
These people, owning allegiance to various chiefs and living in camps
or villages defended by earthen ramparts, were attacked by the Roman
expeditions which invaded Britain in the opening years of the Christian
Era, and there is evidence for believing that there was a British
settlement of considerable importance on the site of Canterbury. Of this
there remains a lofty artificial mound, now known as the Dane
John--another form of the familiar donjon. The Romans called it
Durovernum, a name perhaps derived from the British Derwhern, and
although their historians are curiously silent in regard to the place there
cannot be any doubt that the town rose to great importance in the later

years of the four centuries of the Roman occupation of Britain. A
glance at a map of the Roman roads in Kent shows Durovernum as a
centre for five great ways leading from the coast towns of Portus
Lemanis (Lymne), Portus Dubris (Dover), Portus Ritupis (Richborough,
near Sandwich), Regulbium (Reculver), and also the Isle of Thanet, and
from this important centre the Watling Street ran straight to Londinium.
These roads all converge upon the spot where the River Stour became a
tidal estuary and where it was fordable, and all who arrived or departed
from the ports nearest to Gaul would therefore of necessity pass that
way. Another indication of the size of the town is found in the five
Roman burial-places discovered close to Canterbury, and if anything
else were needed it is only necessary to look at the walls of St.
Augustine's Abbey and many other buildings of the Middle Ages to see
the large quantities of Roman material then available. Wherever any
excavation has taken place in the heart of the