ile on
pilgrimage to Canterbury. For not only is Eynsford a beautiful place
in itself, beautifully situated, but it was the quarrel which William
de Eynesford had with St Thomas Becket, when the great archbishop was
in residence at Otford Castle, that led to the murder in Canterbury
Cathedral and the great pilgrimage which has brought even us at this
late day on our way.

Becket's quarrel with the king and the civil power was, as we know,
concerning the liberty of the Church, and more particularly here a
dispute as to the presentation to the church of St Martin in Eynsford,
which still retains many features of that time. After the martyrdom,
William de Eynesford, though he does not appear to have been directly
concerned in the murder, was excommunicated, and Eynsford Castle was
left without inhabitants, for no one would enter it. It fell into
decay, and was never after used or restored or rebuilt, only Henry
VIII. venturing to use it as a stable; but his work has been cleared
away, and what we see is a ruin of the time of St Thomas, and indeed
in some sort his work. The ruin bears a strong resemblance to the
mighty castle of Rochester, and though it is of course very small in
comparison with that capital fortress, it must have been a place of
some strength when Henry II. was king.

St Martin's Church, whose spire rises so charmingly out of the
orchards white with spring, has a fine western doorway and tower of
Norman work, and a chancel and south transept lighted by Early English
lancets. That tower certainly heard the rumour of St Thomas's murder,
and frightened men no doubt crowded into that western door to hear
William de Eynesford denounced from the altar.

Now when I had seen all this and reminded myself thus of that great
tale which is England, I set out on my way back to Dartford, passing
by the footpath through the park to the south-east towards
Lullingstone Castle, which, however, is not older in the main than the
end of the eighteenth century.

And then from Lullingstone through the shining afternoon I made my way
by the western bank of the Darent to Sutton-at-Hone, where there are
remains of a Priory of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem; the place
is still called St John's. The church dedicated to St John Baptist is
a not uninteresting Decorated building, the last resting place of that
Sir Thomas Smyth of Sutton Place, who was not the least of Elizabethan
navigators, director of the East India Company,