152 THE DOVER ROAD 



business ; so thriving, indeed, as to excite the jealousy 

 of the Sittingbourne people, who conceived themselves 

 injured by the intercepting of pilgrims before they 

 could reach and fertilize the town with streams of gold. 

 Rich pilgrims were a source of wealth to many towns 

 and villages on the Dover Road, and hermits, bishops, 

 priors, and abbots contended for them like 'busmen for 

 passengers before the introduction of the bell-punch 

 and the ticket system. 



We first hear of Schamel Hermitage in the time 

 of a priest named Samuel, whose duties consisted in 

 saying mass daily, in wearing a hair-shirt, refraining 

 from soap and water, and in attending upon those 

 pilgrims and travellers who did not mind the apostolic 

 dirt in which he wallowed ; and by whose alms he 

 supported himself and the chapel. Samuel died and 

 was gathered to his fathers, and the building presently 

 fell into decay, to be rebuilt by an Augustinian monk, 

 during whose lifetime the annals of the Hermitage are 

 too placid for recounting in this place. His successor 

 was one Walter de Hermestone, who was appointed by 

 the Queen about 1271. Imagine his disgust, though, 

 when he came here and foimd the place a wreck, the 

 work of the Vicar and the townsfolk of Sittingbourne. 

 This estimable clergyman, whose name was Simon de 

 Shordich, and who seems to have brought the manners 

 and customs ( f his native place with him, had carried 

 off the Hermitage bell and altar as prizes to his own 

 church, and the men of Sittingbourne had left both 

 the Hermitage and the Chapel in the likeness of a 

 Babylonic ruin. History does not record what 

 became of Walter de Hermestone, but it seems likely 

 that he departed for some more peaceful spot. 

 Meanwhile, Simon de Shordich died, perhaps from 

 the effects of the eremitical curses which the dis- 

 appointed incumbent of the ruinated place doubtless 

 showered on him ; and he was followed, both in his 

 Vicarage and his evil courses, by a certain Boniface, 

 who carted awav the ruins and sold them. 



