62 A KENTISH PARISH 



through the day, and silent solitude in the night-time ; 

 fashionable quarters frequented by the wealthiest 

 aristocracy in the world, that are as gay in the season 

 as they are depressing out of it ; modern suburbs, with 

 their flimsy villas ; rookeries where the morals and 

 misery of the wretched inmates sadden the souls of 

 hard-working curates ; river-side districts where dock- 

 labourers, watermen, and water-thieves are lounging 

 loosely by dozens about the doors of the public-houses ; 

 cathedral towns, where luxurious orthodoxy reposes in 

 cloistered shades among the lawns and gardens of the 

 close ; county towns, where the purity of the peaceful 

 streets is only soiled by the invasion of agriculturists on 

 the market-day ; watering-places, where the flower of 

 the incumbent's flock is here to-day and gone to- 

 morrow. In short, the sketches of types might be 

 multiplied indefinitely were we to set memory and 

 imagination to work instead of dashing off these random 

 suggestions ; and there is scarcely a parish where the 

 story would not be worth the sketching, however un- 

 assuming the pretensions of the artist. 



But we flatter ourselves that this particular parish 

 in Kent is decidedly more characteristic than the 

 average, not merely because it is not swamped in any 

 speciality, but because it numbers amongst its residents 

 people of many sorts. It can boast neither of mines 

 nor manufactures, and it is miles away from the sea, 

 though within scent of the briny breezes. It is 

 thoroughly rural, though within reach of the town, 

 and not only of a town, but of the city of London. 



