Of all the historic highways of England, the story 

 of the old Road to Dover is the most difficult to tell. 

 Xo other road in all Christendom (or Pagandom either, 

 for that matter) has so long and continuous a history, 

 nor one so crowded in every age with incident and 

 associations. The writer, therefore, who has the 

 telling of that story to accomplish is weighted with a 

 heavy sense of responsibility, and though (like a village 

 boy marching fearfully through a midnight chiu'chyard) 

 he whistles to keep his courage warm, yet, for all his 

 outAvard show of indifference, he keeps an awed glance 

 upon the shadows that beset his path, and is prepared 

 to take to his heels at any moment. 



And see what portentous shadows crowd the long 

 reaches of the Dover Road, and demand attention ! 

 Cjcsar's presence haunts the weird plateau of Barham 

 Downs, and the alert imagination hears the tramp 

 of the legionaries aloniJ[ Watlino- Street on moonlit 



