MILESTONES 19 



and was a victim to the vengeance of my lords spiritual 

 in general, and of Archbishop Whitgift in particular. 



There are milestones on the Dover Road. Of course. 

 Mr. F's aunt, in Little Dorr it, kncAV something about 

 them, but not much. Her knoAvledge was general, not 

 particular. We read in Chapter XXIII : — 



" A diversion was occasioned here by Mr. F.'s aunt, 

 making the following inexorable and awful statement : 

 ' There's milestones on the Dover Road.' Clennam 

 was disconcerted by this. ' Let him deny it if he can,' 

 continued the venomous old lady. He could not deny 

 it. There are milestones on the Dover Road." 



We will not grow excited about this incontrovertible 

 fact. But not many people can say where the first 

 milestone from London on this highway is to be found. 

 Although, in fact, it is at the end of the first mile from 

 the south side of London Bridge, no one in these days 

 would suspect such a relic of surviving in London 

 streets. It stands where the Old Kent Road begins, on 

 the left-hand side as you go south, with an iron plate 

 on it, proclaiming this to be "1 mile from London 

 Bridge." The stone, greatly battered, stands pro- 

 minently, on an elevated kerb. Just because we 

 associate milestones with country roads and hedgerows, 

 we look upon this, standing in that crowded urban 

 region, as curious ; but when it was first set up, this 

 was on the very verge of the country. 



We have heard much of the Old Kent Road in recent 

 years. People who never so much as suspected the 

 existence of it, grew familiar with its name, in the 

 refrain of a comic song dealing with costermongers. 

 The music-halls in 1891 reverberated with the name. 



