THE RESIDENTS 93 



bright rooms with the great bay-windows looking out 

 into the green meadows behind, yet so slightly removed 

 from the bustle of the High Street. But there are 

 rumours of secrets in the cellerage which have never 

 been disclosed, or only disclosed to some trusted in- 

 dividuals. The terrace walk is said to be mined by 

 subterranean passages, which communicated with the 

 site now covered by the brewery buildings, but 

 formerly a cloister of Carmelite nuns. And apropos 

 to the sign of the u Cross and Crozier," there were 

 reasons for the ancient hostelry of Oakenhurst adver- 

 tising itself by so markedly ecclesiastical a title. For 

 half-way up the chalk hills behind, there runs the 

 famous pilgrims' road. Chaucer's merry and motley 

 band, and many another troop combining pleasure 

 with religion, must have drawn bridle to bait at 

 Oakenhurst. Many a sin-laden sufferer like Sweyn, 

 the first-born of Earl Godwin, when he had donned 

 the pilgrim's weeds under the ban of the Witan must 

 have plodded along that lonely road. Even now the 

 road is carried wide of human life, past solitary farm- 

 houses, or under bleak downs, between thick hedges 

 covered with hazel-nuts, leaving scarcely room for two 

 vehicles to pass. Dotted about against the white chalk 

 are black, bushy yew trees, in knots or singly. Some 

 of these might be old enough to have furnished bows 

 to the archers in the wars of France and the Roses. 

 They say, too, that each yew marks a pilgrim's 

 resting-place, as the cypress in the land of the Turk 

 shades the headstone of a true believer ; though it is 



