9i 



THE DOVER ROAD 



fashion, by a large roadside inn, the " Falstaff," 

 standing nearl}^ opposite Gad's Hill Place, the 

 successor, built in the time of Queen Anne, of a lonely 

 beerhouse, the resort of characters more than question- 

 able ; more than kin to highwaymen, and much less 

 than kind to unprotected wayfarers. 



1/ 



THE " FALSTAFF," GAD'S HILL. 



From here the road goes steepl}^ all the way to 

 Strood, over Coach and Horses' Hill, and through a 

 deep cutting made by the Highway Board about 1830, 

 in order to ease the heavy pull up from Rochester ; 

 a cutting known at that time as '' Davies' Straits," 

 from the name of the chairman of the Board, the 

 Rev. George Davies. The view here, over house-tops 

 toward the Medway, framed in on either side by this 

 hollow road, is particularly fine, and I think I cannot 

 come through Strood into Rochester without quoting a 

 certain lieutenant who, with a captain and an 

 " ancient " (by which last we understand " ensign " 

 to be meant), travelled in these parts in 1635. " I am 



