100 THE DOVER ROAD 



except in the sense that he was generally covered with 

 nmd from head to foot, the reflection that the county 

 through which he waded deep in slush must be singularly 

 fertile could scarce have afforded him much consolation 

 for lost time and spoiled clothes. Here is a tale of an 

 unfortunate horseman bogged on these miscalled 

 " roads " which is quite eloquent of what old-time 

 wayfaring was like. He comes to a suspicious-looking 

 slough and hesitates. " Is there a good bottom here, 

 my man ? " he asks of a country joskin regarding him 

 with a wide smile. " Oo-ah ! yes, there's a good 

 bottom to un," replies the countryman, and the 

 traveller urges on his Avay until, within a yard or so, 

 his horse sinks to the girth in liquid mud. " I thought 

 you said there was a good bottom to this road," shouts 

 the traveller. " Yes," rejoins the rustic, " soo there 

 ees, but you a'n't coom to un yit, master." 



XX 



Stkood is one long street of miscellaneous houses, 

 with fields and meadows running up to the back- 

 yards ; with engine-shops, mills, wheelwrights, and 

 a variety of other noisy trades clanging and clattering 

 in the rear, and an old church on the hillside to the left, 

 appropriately dedicated to that patron of thieves and 

 sailor-men, Saint Nicholas. But whether or no 

 " Saint Nicholas' clerks " looked in here to pray the 

 saint to send them " rick franklins and great oneyers " 

 across that " high old robbing hill," I should not like 

 to say ; having though, the while, a shrewd suspicion 

 that their piety was somewhat to seek, and that the 

 shrine of the saint profited but little, if at all, from their 

 ill-gotten gains upon the road. 



Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the old 

 houses here and at Rochester, and, indeed, along a 

 great portion of the Dover Road, is the great use 



