anterbury. But on Silvester's death it was realised that the chapel
interfered so much with the parish church that before the end of the
thirteenth century it was suppressed. It re-arose, and in Chaucer's
day would seem to have been in a flourishing condition; at any rate it
continued till the spoliation.

If indeed Chaucer and his pilgrims slept in Sittingbourne, as one may
well believe, it is probable that they slept either at this chapel at
Schamel or at the Lion Inn in the town. This Inn was certainly in
existence in his time, and there in 1415 King Henry V. was entertained
on his return from Agincourt by the Squire of Milton. There, too, in
all likelihood, Cardinal Wolsey rested in the autumn of 1514, and
there Henry VIII., who spoiled the face of England and changed her
heart, "paied the wife of the Lyon in Sittingbourne by way of rewarde
iiiis. viiid." for the accommodation given. This famous Inn stands in
the centre of the town, the road passing to the south of it. Unhappily
the church is less interesting, having been almost entirely rebuilt in
1762; but close by it were some old houses which apparently once
formed part of another old Inn called the White Hart. Certainly much
of the town must have been devoted to the entertainment of travellers.

From Sittingbourne I wandered out to Borden, lovely in itself and in
its situation upon the rising ground under the North Downs. It
possesses a very fine church with a low Norman tower and western door
of the same date. Within is a very nobly carved Norman arch under the
belfry.

If Schamel was, as it were, the western part of Sittingbourne with its
chapel and hermitage, Swanstree was the eastern part, and it, too, had
its chapel of St Cross and its hospital of St Leonard. There is,
however, this difference, that, whereas the priest and people of
Sittingbourne did all they could to suppress the chapel and hermitage
of Schamel, they on the contrary did all they could to encourage the
chapel and hospital of Swanstree. Why? Because pilgrims coming from
London or the north with full pockets towards Canterbury, would reach
Schamel _before_ passing through Sittingbourne, but Swanstree only
_after_ passing through the town!

Following the Pilgrim's Road out of Sittingbourne one soon comes to
Bapchild, where at the exit from the village on the north side of the
road of old stood an oratory, and a Leper's Hospital, of which nothing
seems really to be known save that it was f