Printing Press.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHARLES DICKENS AND STROOD.

"So altered was the battle-ground, where thousands
upon thousands had been killed in the great
fight."--_The Battle of Life._

"Keep me always at it, I'll keep you always at it,
you keep somebody else always at it. There you
are, with the Whole Duty of Man in a commercial
country."--_Little Dorrit._

THE town of Strood,--the Roman _Strata_,--which stands on the left bank
of the river Medway, has, like the city of Rochester, its interesting
historical associations. Its Church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, stands
high on the north side of the London road leading to Gad's Hill, and has
a brass of T. Glover and his three wives. At one time there was a
hospital for travellers, founded by Bishop Glanville (_temp._ Richard
I.), near the Church. The most interesting remains are, however, those
of the Temple Farm, distant about half a mile south, formerly (_temp._
Henry II.) the mansion of the Knights Templars of the Teutonic order, to
whom it, together with the lands thereto belonging, was given by that
monarch. The gift was confirmed by King John and by Henry III. (1227);
but the unfortunate brethren of the order did not retain possession more
than a century, for in the reign of Edward II. they were dispossessed of
their lands and goods, under pretence of their leading a vicious course
of life, but in reality to satisfy the avarice of their dispossessors.
The present building dates from about James I., has one fine room
overlooking the river, and underneath is a spacious vault called by
Grose the "Preceptory," excavated out of the chalk, and having fine
groined stone arches and aisles--the walls are of very great thickness.
Near Frindsbury Church--in which are three most interesting
wall-paintings of St. William the Baker of Perth, St. Lawrence, and
another figure, all three discovered on the jambs of the Norman windows
only a few years ago--stands the Quarry House, a handsome old red-brick
mansion, "described as more Jacobean than Elizabethan," built in the
form of a capital E, each storey slightly receding behind the front
level of that beneath it, the top tapering into pretty gables, the
effect being enhanced by heavy buttresses.

There is a dreadful legend of the ancient people of Strood common to
several other parts of the kingdom, _e.g._ Auster in Dorsetshire, which
the quaint and