134 THE DOVER ROAD 



after a while, they go forward againe, and coming to 

 the churcheyarde, digged up the body, and conveyed 

 it to the waterside, where it was first found. This done, 

 Our Lady shrancke againe into her shryne ; and the 

 clearke peaked home, to patche up his broken sleepe ; 

 but the corps now eftsoones floted up and down the 

 river, as it did before ; which thing being espyed by 

 them of Gilhngham, it was once n^ore taken up, and 

 buryed in their churcheyarde. But see wliat followed 

 upon it ; not only the roode of Gillingham (say they), 

 that a while before was busie in bestowing m3Tacles, 

 was now deprived of all that his former virtue ; but 

 also ye very earth and place where this carckase was 

 laid, did continually, for ever after, settle and sinke 

 downewarde." 



Barham has made good use of this story, you who 

 have read the legend of Grey Dolphin in the Ingoldshy 

 Legends Avill remember. He narrates, with a joyous 

 irreverence, how, in consequence of the miraculous 

 interposition of the Lady of Chatham (Saint Bridget, 

 forsooth ! " who, after leading but a so-so-life, had died 

 in the odour of sanctity ") masses were sung, tapers 

 kindled, bells tolled, and how everything thenceforward 

 was wonderment and devotion ; the monks of Saint 

 Romwold in solemn procession, the abbot at their 

 head, the sacristan at their tail, and the holy breeches 

 of Saint Thomas a Becket in the centre. " Father 

 Fothergill brewed a XXX puncheon of holy water," 

 continues Tom Ingoldsby, clerk in holy orders and 

 minor canon of the Cathedral of Saint Paul, indulging 

 at once his exuberant humour and his contemjot of the 

 Church of Rome, with its relics, miracles, bone-chests, 

 and sanctified aqua imra. Meanwhile, the grinning 

 sailor, " grinning more than ever," had drifted down 

 the river, off Gillingham, and lay on the shore in all the 

 majesty of mud, presently to be discovered by the 

 minions of Sir Robert de Shurland, who bade them 

 " turn out his pockets." But it was ill gleaning after 

 the double scrutiny of Father Fothergill and the parish 



