TO BEXLEY 45 



irresponsible frivolity of the guards and coachmen of 

 the Dover ]\Iail. Why, the thing reeks of coaching 

 wit, and how Hasted, a Fellow of the Society of 

 Antiquaries, could have included in his monumental 

 work (which took him forty years to write) so obvious 

 a witticism, is beyond my comprehension. Shall I be 

 considered pedantic if I point out that the place-name, 

 with its termination wg, carries with it evidence of 

 being as old as Saxon times, and denotes that here was 

 the settlement of an ancient tribe, or patriarchial 

 family, the Wellings ? I will dare the deed and record 

 the fact, remarking, meanwhile, that if other county 

 historians were as little learned as Hasted, and equally 

 speculative, they would seem more human, and their 

 deadly tomes become much more entertaining. 



But, after this, it Avould not beseem me to do else 

 than record the fact that the new suburban district 

 springing up beside the road, half a mile past Welling, 

 is called " Crook Log." Why " Crook Log," and whence 

 came that singular name, are things " rop in mistry," 

 and I will run no risks of becoming fogged in rash 

 endeavours to elucidate the origin of this place-name. 



Half a mile onward, and then begins Bexley Heath. 

 " Once upon a time," that is to say, before an Act of 

 Parliament was obtained in 1817 for enclosing what was 

 then a wide, wild tract of desolate heath-land, Bexley 

 Heath was entirely innocent of buildings. 



The old village of Bexley lies a mile and a half to 

 the right of the road, and is as rural, peaceful, and 

 pleasant as Bexley Heath is mean and wretched. 

 Between here and the village lies Hall Place, a Tudor 

 mansion of great size and stately architecture, largely 

 distinguished for its chequer-board patterning of flint 

 and stone. The property was once that of the family 

 called " At-hall," from their residence here, in an earlier 

 mansion. The Tudor flint-and-stone building we now 

 see was built by Sir Justinian Champneis, a Lord 

 Mayor of London, towards the middle of the sixteenth 

 century. In less than a hundred years the Champneis 



