The Old Road (25 page)

[1]
The sacredness of wells is commingled all through Christendom with that of altars. As, for instance, the wells in the cathedrals of Chartres, of Nimes, of Sangres, and in St. Nicholas of Bari. In Notre Dame at Poissy, in St. Eutropius at Santes (a Roman well), in the Augustinian chapel at Avignon (now a barracks). In Notre Dame at Etampes there are three wells. There is a well in St. Martin of Tours, in the Abbey of Jobbes, in the Church of Gamache. Our Lady of the Smithies at Orleans (now pulled down) had a well into which Ebroin threw St. Leger, the Bishop; and close by at Patay there is one in St. Sigismund's into which Chlodomir threw some one or other. Old Vendée is full of such sacred wells. The parish church of Praebecq has one, of Perique, of Challans (filled up in fourteenth century). At Cheffoi you can see one in full use, right before the high altar and adorned with a sculpture of the woman at the well—and this is but a short and random list.

[2]
See upon this abandoned portion Mr. Shore's article in the third volume of the
Archæological Review
.

[3]
The points where the pilgrims obviously left the Old Road are Compton (
p. 160
) and Burford Bridge (
p. 181
). They probably left it after Merstham (
p. 205
) and perhaps after Chilham (
p. 271
), while they certainly confused the record of the passages of the Wey (
p. 165
), and perhaps of the Medway (
p. 242
). As for their supposed excursion into the plain near Oxted (
p. 213
), I can find no proof of it. The places where other tracks coming in impair the Old Road are on either side of the Mole (
p. 181
), the Darent (
p. 222
), and the Medway (
p. 237
), where, along such river valleys, such tributaries would naturally lead.

[4]
See
note
on p. 158.

[5]
In the case of three—those of Gatton, Arthur's Seat, and Godmersham—an excellent reason can at once be discovered. The Road goes just north of the crest, in order to avoid the long circuit of a jutting-out spur with its re-entrant curve. For that re-entrant curve, it must be remembered, would be worse going, and wetter, than even the short excursion to the north of the crest. In the fourth case, however, where the Road goes to the north for a few hundred yards behind Weston Wood, I can offer no explanation of the cause. It is sufficiently remarkable that in all this great distance there should be but that one true exception to the rule, and a characteristic so universal permits me, I think, to take it for certain in one doubtful place (Chilham) that the Road has followed the sunny side of the slope.

[6]
There is another, less clear, beyond Titsey, another beyond Chevening, and there are traces of another above Lenham.

[7]
The 6-inch Ordnance Map would add Albury (see
p. 174
).

[8]
The prosperity of the Jews in the early Middle Ages was remarkable. They have been said to have accumulated 46 per cent. of the total personalty of England in little more than the first century of their operations. This is an error, due to overlooking the fact that for the Saladin Tithe the Jew was taxed one fourth and not one-tenth of his goods. The true figure should be about 25½ per cent. But even that is astonishing for perhaps one per cent. of the population. It supposes an average Jewish fortune twenty-five times larger than the average English one.

[9]
This is a strong argument, because Headbourne Worthy, the point in dispute, was precisely the most important of these villages. It is given in Domesday (Ordie) as the holding of Mortemer, while King's Worthy was but a hamlet, and Martyrs' Worthy is not mentioned.

[10]
Mr. Haverfield in the
Victoria History of Hampshire
(vol. i. 287) gives the Roman Road as going straight from the North Gate to the King's Worthy church. See also his general map and his description on p. 321. This is surely preferable to the conjecture of the 6-inch Ordnance (Hampshire,
XLI.
) that it followed the line of Hyde Street and proceeded to Headbourne Worthy.

[11]
One would naturally expect Alfred's bones to have been scattered with the rest in the Reformation; they seem to have been spared. It was most probably Alfred's leaden coffin that was dug up unopened in the building of the now vanished prison, and sold in 1788. It fetched two pounds.

[12]
Leaving upon our left the first of the archæological discoveries which mark the whole of the Road:—the Roman villa unearthed or explored by Mr. Collier in 1878.

[13]
The balance of evidence is certainly against it. In favour of the antiquity of New Alresford we have the phrase
restored
applied to Bishop Lucy's market, and the three churches attached to Alresford in Domesday, and supposed to show that more than one village was attached to the manor. Against, we have the immediate presence of the artificial head of water established by the Bishop; the name, and the fact that the medieval road from Alton went not to New but to Old Alresford. Again, while there is no special mention of New Alresford in Domesday, there is mention of Sutton, close by, and a Bishop's palace stood there for some centuries.

[14]
Their passage is an excellent example of the Reversion of the Pilgrimage to an ancient road. The regular road in the thirteenth century was presumably that by Chawton Wood and Bighton, mentioned by Duthie, who finds it in a charter of Henry
III.
's. (This charter, it is only fair to add, was never discovered by his executors.)

[15]
Thus West Street and Broad Street near Lenham, Dun Street at the edge of Eastwell, the old name for Albury (Weston Street), etc.

[16]
The point where the line leaves the modern road is east of Bury Lane, just past a farm called Dean Farm. The ridge is first noticeable in the field marked 134 in the 1/2500 inch Ordnance Map for Hampshire [
XLII.
7, Old Series, 1870, Ropley Parish].

[17]
These fields are marked 191, 192, and 194 on 1/2500 inch Ordnance Map, Hampshire, Old Series, 1870,
XLII.
8.

[18]
The boundary between the fields marked 201, and 202-3 in map cited above. The track is again lost for a short distance in crossing the field marked 205.

[19]
The last few yards of the alignment follow the boundary between plots marked 219 and 216 in map already quoted.

[20]
Moreover, from this same point the medieval road to Old Alresford mentioned above left Alton.

[21]
Though the valley is full of clay the road avoids it with remarkable success. Of the eight miles between Alton and Farnham the first three have chosen a narrow strip of good gravel, the next one and a half miles are on green-sand. At the entry to Bentley village the clay is unavoidable, but after a mile of it the road takes advantage of a patch of gravel as far as the Bull Inn. It has then to cross a quarter-mile belt of gault, but beyond this it uses a long, irregular, and narrow patch of gravel, and at the end of this, just east of the county boundary, it finds the narrow belt of sand which it keeps to all the way to Farnham. The whole is an example of how a primitive track will avoid bad soil.

[22]
This field is marked 37 in the 1/2500-inch Ordnance Map for Surrey, l. xxxi.

[23]
The field is unnumbered in the 25-inch Ordnance, but the diagonal can be given as going to the NW. corner of the two-acre plot and cottage, marked 121 in the 1/2500 map for Surrey (
XXXII.
1), and forming a detached part of the parish of Shere.

[24]
The spot where the Old Road is recovered again beyond the plough may be identified on the 1/2500 map for Surrey (
XXXII.
4.) It is the north-west corner of the field marked 147, just at the Chalk Pit.

[25]
The course of this portion may be traced on the 1/2500 Ordnance (Surrey,
XXV.
15) as follows:—Under the old quarry just east of the lime pits, right across the seventy-five acre field marked 42 (which forms the spur), over the railway line and the London Road bridge, and crossing the Mole a few yards north of Pixham Mill. Then right across plot marked 75 to the westernmost isolated tree in plot 74. At this point the Old Road is traceable again.

[26]
It is possible that it goes
over
the spur of Brockham Hill. The track is not at all clear for these few yards.

[27]
Here our track is quite different from that given in the 1/2500 Ordnance map for Surrey (
XXVI.
10), where it is carried along the base of the hill past Buckland Lime Pits. The Ordnance map practically confesses its error, for in the succeeding sheet (
XXVI.
11) the Pilgrim's Way reappears suddenly in its right place, at the top of the crest. It is easy for any one who has walked the road to see how this part of it was neglected. It is overgrown with a thick growth, and most of it, though quite plain, is not seen till you are right upon it.

[28]
The 1/2500 Ordnance map for Surrey (
XXVI.
11) gives the road as going outside the Park. This is an error. It destroys the alignment altogether. The true course of it is: Enters Gatton Park south of the upper lodge, passes through the trees to the left of the carriage drive, forms part of this drive towards bottom of hill near middle lodge. Then enters wood north of Gatton Tower, and appears as terrace along side of hill. Then appears again in avenue leading to east lodge, and so out of the Park.

[29]
It is denied that the
Portus Adurni
was Shoreham: but then, everything is denied.

[30]
On the 1/2500 Ordnance map for Surrey (
XXVII.
5) this track may be followed thus: Along the top of Ockley Wood, across the large fields marked 192 and 189 (rising slightly), and reaching summit towards NE. corner of the next field (168).

[31]
This field is marked 2 in the 1/2500 Ordnance map for Surrey (
XXVII.
8).

[32]
The conjecture of the 6-inch Ordnance map for Surrey, that the road plunged down on to the plain before Gravelly Hill, and stayed there till it reappeared again in the Eye Wood, may be dismissed for the following reasons:—(1) There is no trace of it nor of any footpath or trench the whole way; (2) the Old Road never goes into the plain (save to cross a valley) at any other point; (3) the arbitrary straight line in the Ordnance map perversely clings to a very narrow belt of stiff gault! (4) there is no drainage slope on this line; (5) there is no view of the track before one such as is maintained as far as possible throughout the Old Road.

The conjecture appears to be based upon nothing more than the name, 'Palmer's Wood,' at the turning point of this supposed track.

[33]
We owed our knowledge of this, as so much else, to Mrs. Adie's book, of which I wish to make continual acknowledgment.

[34]
The track here is well marked on the 1/2500 Ordnance map of Kent (
XXVIII.
12,
XXVIII.
16), first as a footpath (on field 73), then right across the small plantation to the east, past a clump of trees a little east of that (where it is marked by a distinct embankment), and so to the lane which has no local name, but bounds to the north the field numbered 19.

[35]
Not quite half a mile of it. Snodland itself stands on gravel, which just touches the river at the site of the church and ferry.

[36]
The full trace of this crossing may be followed in the 1/2500 Ordnance map for Kent (
XXX.
3) as follows:—From Wrotham to (
a
) The
Kentish Drover
. The significance of this sign is the use of the Old Road by drovers in order to avoid turnpike charges, (
b
) on north of the
Trottescliffe megalithic monument
, under the old quarry there, on past Bunkers to the cross-roads. Then (
c
) leave present path and go a little east of south under
another old pit
, and so diagonally across field marked 79 (on map
XXX.
4), thus reaching Paddlesworth Farm, when from the (
d
)
ruined chapel
the track is marked by the division between fields 72 and 73 till Mark Farm is reached, whence the track is a plain road ultimately becoming the High Street of Snodland. After crossing the river it is a road all the way, passing at last between the two megalithic monuments of the hundred stones and Kit's Coty House.

[37]
Thus in the immediate neighbourhood alone were the Roman remains of Snodland, of Burham, of Hoborough. The group of a dozen or more round Maidstone, the bronze celts found at Wrotham. Oldbury Camp, the group of Roman foundations and coins at Plaxtol, the British and Roman coins found at Boxley. The megalithic monuments of Addington, of Coldrum, Kit's Coty House, and the hundred stones. The group already mentioned at Aylesford, the camp at Fosbery, the Roman pottery at Thurnham—and this is a very incomplete list.

[38]
The lane is continuous after Boxley, though not everywhere equally important. North of Hollingbourne it is but a path. It soon becomes a lane again, is enclosed in the private grounds of Stede Hill (Kent, 1/2500 Ordnance map,
XLIII.
12), and is but a track for three-quarters of a mile from Lenham quarries. It is lost after Cobham Farm, and reappears as a long hedge and division between fields, and after the pits at Hart Hill becomes a lane again.

[39]
It has enemies, like all good things. Its neighbours to the south have sung for centuries:—