The Old Road (22 page)
The way was clear and straight like the flight of a bolt; it spanned a steep valley, passed a windmill on the height beyond, fell into the Watling Street (which here took on its alignment), and within a mile turned sharp to the south, crossed the bridge, and through the Westgate led us into Canterbury.
We had thoroughly worked out the whole of this difficult way. There stood in the Watling Street, that road of a dreadful antiquity, in front of a villa, an omnibus. Upon this we climbed, and feeling that a great work was accomplished, we sang a song. So singing, we rolled under the Westgate, and thus the journey ended.
There was another thing to be duly done before I could think my task was over. The city whose name and spell had drawn to itself all the road, and the shrine which was its core remained to be worshipped. The cathedral and the mastery of its central tower stood like a demand; but I was afraid, and the fear was just. I thought I should be like the men who lifted the last veil in the ritual of the hidden goddess, and
having lifted it found there was nothing beyond, and that all the scheme was a cheat; or like what those must feel at the approach of death who say there is nothing in death but an end and no transition. I knew what had fallen upon the original soul of the place. I feared to find, and I found, nothing but stones.
I stood considering the city and the vast building and especially the immensity of the tower.
Even from a long way off it had made a pivot for all we saw; here closer by it appalled the senses. Save perhaps once at Beauvais, I had never known such a magic of great height and darkness.
SUCH A MAGIC OF GREAT HEIGHT AND DARKNESS
It was as though a shaft of influence had risen enormous above the shrine: the last of all the emanations which the sacred city cast outwards just as its sanctity died. That tower was yet new when the commissioners came riding in, guarded by terror all around them, to destroy, perhaps to burn, the poor materials of worship in the great choir below: it was the last thing in England which the true Gothic spirit made. It signifies the history of the three centuries during
which Canterbury drew towards it all Europe. But it stands quite silent and emptied of every meaning, tragic and blind against the changing life of the sky and those activities of light that never fail or die as do all things intimate and our own, even religions. I received its silence for an hour, but without comfort and without response. It seemed only an awful and fitting terminal to that long way I had come. It sounded the note of all my road—the droning voice of extreme, incalculable age.
As I had so fixed the date of this journey, the hour and the day were the day and hour of the murder. The weather was the weather of the same day seven hundred and twenty-nine years before: a clear cold air, a clean sky, and a little wind. I went into the church and stood at the edge of the north transept, where the archbishop fell, and where a few Norman stones lend a material basis for the resurrection of the past. It was almost dark.... I had hoped in such an exact coincidence to see the gigantic figure, huge in its winter swaddling, watching the door from the cloister,
watching it unbarred at his command. I had thought to discover the hard large face in profile, still caught by the last light from the round southern windows and gazing fixedly; the choir beyond at their alternate nasal chaunt; the clamour; the battering of oak; the jangle of arms, and of scabbards trailing, as the troops broke in; the footfalls of the monks that fled, the sharp insults, the blows and Gilbert groaning, wounded, and à Becket dead. I listened for Mauclerc's mad boast of violence, scattering the brains on the pavement and swearing that the dead could never rise; then for the rush and flight from the profanation of a temple, and for distant voices crying outside in the streets of the city, under the sunset, 'The King's Men! The King's!'
But there was no such vision. It seems that to an emptiness so utter not even ghosts can return.
In the inn, in the main room of it, I found my companions. A gramophone fitted with a monstrous trumpet roared out American songs, and to this sound the servants of the
inn were holding a ball. Chief among them a woman of a dark and vigorous kind danced with an amazing vivacity, to the applause of her peers. With all this happiness we mingled.
- À Becket, St. Thomas
. See '
St. Thomas
.' - Addington
, megalithic remains at,
253
(note 2). - Adie, Mrs.
, her valuable book, The Pilgrim's Way, referred to,
136
,
214
. - Albury
, 'Weston Street' old name of,
136
(note 2). - —— Church
, old (SS. Peter and Paul), passed, according to Ordnance map, to south by Old Road,
110
(note). - —— Park
, preservation of Old Road in,
82
; discussion of Old Road in,
174
,
175
. - —— Wood.
See '
Weston
.' - Alfred
, desecration of grave of,
125
. - Alresfords
, the, not on the Old Road,
127
; medieval road to, from Alton,
129
,
130
(note 1). - Alton
, battle of, mentioned,
126
; approach to medieval road to Alresford from,
129
,
130
(note 1); approach to, described,
144
-
146
. - Anchor
, Inn at Ropley,
137
,
138
(map). - Anglo-Saxon Period
, character of,
83
-
85
. See also
Dark Ages
. - Antiquity
, fascination of,
10
. - Arthur's Seat
(near Redhill), exceptional passage of Old Road to north of crest at,
106
(note); described on journey,
209
. - Avebury
, and Stonehenge, mark convergence of prehistoric roads,
16
. - Aylesford
, a crossing of the Medway, its claims discussed,
245
-
248
; and map,
236
;
253
(note 2).
- Barfleur
, last southern port of 'Second Crossing,'
49
,
50
. - Barrow
, near Chilham,
269
. - Bentley
, passage of Old Road by,
149
. - Betchworth Lime Pits
, passed on journey and described,
188
-
193
. - Bigberry Camp
, fort of Canterbury, stormed by Caesar,
43
; compared with St. Catherine's Hill at Winchester,
70
; Professor Boyd-Dawkins's examination of,
271
(note), visited on journey and described,
273
-
275
. - Bishopstoke
, church of, on site of Druidical stone circle,
109
. - Bishop Sutton
, church of, passage of Old Road as near as possible to south of,
110
; mentioned in Domesday,
130
; passed on our journey,
134
. - Bittern
(
Clausentum
), example of Roman use of Second Crossing,
55
. - Bletchingly
, example of Old Road on crest of hill,
107
. - Boughton Aluph
, hills beyond, example of Old Road on crest of hill,
107
. - —— —— Church
, example of church passed to south,
110
; passed on journey,
265
; discussion of road to eastward of,
265
,
266
. - Boulogne
, principal historic, but probably not earliest, southern port of Straits of Dover,
35
. - Box Hill
, its appearance from Denbies at evening described,
178
; track of Road recovered on,
181
. - Boxley
, Roman and British coins found at,
253
(note 2). - —— Abbey
, site of referred to,
240
; Roman and British coins found at,
253
. - Boyd-Dawkins
, Professor, his examination of Bigberry Camp,
271
(and note). - Brackham Warren
, passage of Old Road by,
186
. - Brading
, example of Roman use of Second Crossing,
55
. - Brisland Lane
, coincident with Old Road,
140
. - Britain, Roman.
See '
Roman Britain
.' (Conservation of antiquities in,
81
-
82
.) - British Coins
, discovered at Gatton,
203
; at Aylesford,
245
; at Boxley,
253
(note 2). - Brixbury Wood
, passage of Old Road along,
162
. - Broad Street
, near Lenham, place-name significant of passage of Old Road,
136
(note 2). - Bull Inn
, near Bentley, approach of Old Road to River Wey at,
152
. - Burford Bridge
, error caused by passage of Pilgrimage at,
95
(note); not crossed by Old Road,
182
-
184
. - Burham
, church of, passage of Old Road to south of,
110
; passed on journey,
253
. - Bury Hill Camp
, on original track of Old Road,
27
. - Butts
, the, at Alton, entry both of medieval and prehistoric roads,
145
.
- Caesar
, first eye-witness of conditions of southern Britain,
24
; fort at Canterbury stormed by him,
43
,
275
. - Calais
, probably first southern port of the Straits of Dover,
34
-
35
. - Calvados
, reef of,
50
. - Camp
, of Canterbury (Bigberry Wood), stormed by Caesar,
43
; of Winchester (St. Catherine's hill),
70
; of Holmbury, Farley Heath, and Anstie Bury, alluded to,
170
-
171
;
of Oldbury, of Fosbery,
253
(note 2); Bigberry described,
273
-
275
. - Camps
, of Winchester and Canterbury compared,
70
. - Canterbury
, why the goal of Old Road in its final form, causes of development of,
31
-
42
; created by necessity of central depôt for Kentish ports,
41
; importance of its position on the Stour,
42
; resistance to Caesar,
43
; origin of its religious character,
44
; compared with Winchester,
66
-
71
; entered by Westgate,
277
. - —— Cathedral
, visited,
278
-
280
. - Cassiterides
, their identification with Scilly Isles doubtful,
20
. - Chalk
, has preserved Old Road,
75
-
76
; third cause of preservation of Old Road fully discussed,
97
,
98
; excursion upon,
189
-
192
. - Chantries Wood
,
163
. - Charing
, block of St. John at,
94
; example of church passed to north,
111
,
257
; described,
260
,
261
; rhyme on,
261
(note). - Chawton Wood
, medieval road from Alton to Alresford passed through,
136
(note 1). - —— Village
, passed,
146
. - Chevening Park
, passage of Old Road across,
217
. - —— church
, example of Old Road passing to north,
111
. - Chequers Inn
, Ropley, passage of Old Road through garden of,
138
. - Chilham
, church, mentioned,
94
; probable diversion of Old Road at, by Pilgrimage,
95
(note); probability of Old Road passing south of hill at,
106
(note); church probably passed from south,
110
; Park crossed,
269
; discussion as to track of Road east of,
267
-
273
(and map). - Chilterns
, the, their position in scheme of prehistoric roads,
16
; connection with Icknield Way,
23
. - Christianity
, effect of a main road on its development,
7
. - Churches, Wells in.
See '
Wells
.' Often built on pre-Christian sites,
109
; passed to south by Old Road, list of,
108
-
110
; of
King's Worthy
,
Itchen Stoke
,
Bishop Sutton
,
Seale
,
Puttenham
,
St. Catherine's
,
St. Martha's
,
Albury
,
Shere
,
Merstham
,
Titsey
,
Chevening
,
Bishopstoke
,
Snodland
,
Burham
,
Lenham
,
Charing
,
Eastwell
,
Chilham
, etc. See under name of place. - Clausentum.
See
Bittern
. - Clay
, Old Road often lost on,
75
; how avoided by Old Road in Upper Valley of Wey,
152
(and note); above Quarry Hangers, argument against identity of Pilgrim's Road with Prehistoric,
205
. - Cobham Farm
, Old Road lost at,
258
. - Coldrum
(or
Trottescliffe
), megalithic monument,
252
-
253
(and note), and
236
(map). - Colekitchen Combe
, passage of Old Road across,
177
. - Colley Farm
, Roman remains at,
197
. - —— Hill
, example of Old Road on crest of hill,
107
; described with map,
196
. - Compton
, probable diversion of Old Road through, by Pilgrimage,
95
(note); also
159
,
160
. - Cotentin
, promontory of the, its value as a breakwater to the 'Second Crossing,' 46,
50
; height of shore hills upon,
48
. - Cotswolds
, the, their position in scheme of prehistoric road,
16
,
23
. - Cowes
, as a harbour of Second Crossing,
55
. - '
Crossing, Second
.' See '
Second Crossing
.' - Cultivation
avoided by Old Road, exceptions to this,
148
-
149
. - Cuxton
, a possible crossing of the Medway, map,
236
; its claims discussed,
244
.