t two miles begins to
descend into the very ancient town of Dartford, where it is said
Chaucer's pilgrims slept, their first night on the road.

CHAPTER II

THE PILGRIMS' ROAD

FROM DARTFORD TO ROCHESTER

The entry into Dartford completes the first and, it must be confessed,
the dullest portion of the Pilgrims' Road to Canterbury. Here at
Dartford the pilgrims slept, here to-day we say farewell to all that
suburban district which now stretches for so many miles in every
direction round the capital, spoiling the country as such and making
of it a kind of unreality very hard to tolerate. The traveller must
then realise that it is only at Dartford his pleasure will begin.

Dartford, as one sees at first sight, is an old, a delightful, English
town, full of happiness and old-world memories. Its situation is
characteristic, for it lies in the deep and narrow valley of the
Darent between two abrupt hills, that to the west of chalk, that to
the east of sand, up both of which it climbs without too much
insistence. Between these two hills runs a rapid stream from the Downs
to the southward, that below the town opens out suddenly into a small
estuary or creek. Where the Watling Street forded the Darent there
grew up the town of Dartford, on the verge of the marshes within reach
of the tide, but also within reach of an inexhaustible river of fresh
water. The ford was presently replaced by a ferry, and later still, in
the latter years of Henry VI., by a great bridge, as we see, but the
town had already taken its name from its origin, and to this day is
known as Dartford, the ford of the Darent.

The situation of Dartford is thus very picturesque, and as we might
suppose its main street is the old Roman highway that the pilgrims
used. This descends the West Hill steeply after passing the Priory, or
as it is now called the Place House, the first religious house which
Dartford could boast that the pilgrims would see. In Chaucer's day
this was a new foundation, Edward III., in 1355, having established
here a convent of Augustinian nuns dedicated in honour of Our Lady and
St Margaret. The house became extremely popular with the great
Kentish families, for it was not only very richly endowed, but always
governed by a prioress of noble birth, Princess Bridget, youngest
daughter of Edward IV., at one time holding the office, as later did
Lady Jane Scrope and Lady Margaret Beaumont: all are buried within. In
the miserable ti