BRICKS AND TILES 157 



bourne poison them with the appalHng smells that 

 arise from the numberless brick-kilns round about. 



For the making of bricks and tiles is the chief 

 industry of Sittingbourne nowadays, and a very large 

 and flourishing industry it is ; so much so, indeed, 

 that there will be presently nothing of Sittingbourne 

 left at all ; because, like maggots that live in cheeses 

 — and on them — the Sittingbourne brickmakers find 

 their sustenance in the ground on w^hich they live, and 

 have carted away nearly all the surrounding country. 

 When they have worked down to the chalk and the 

 bed-rock, I don't know what they will do. Already 

 all the hills have vanished and have been distributed 

 over England in the shape of bricks, and when folks 

 return who ha^'e known Sittingbourne in their youth, 

 they don't recognize the place, and go away wondering 

 whether curses will fall upon it because its people have 

 thus removed the old landmarks. 



Changed, indeed, it is, not only from those days 

 when the great ones of the earth sojourned here, 

 but also from those comparativ^ely recent times when 

 the traveller's only choice was the road. Then three 

 parts of the population were engaged in hotel-keeping, 

 licensed-victualling, or coach-building ; innkeepers, 

 job-masters, hostlers, post-boys, chamber-maids, and 

 boots, were their styles and titles, and if you are 

 curious enough to turn the pages of Sittingbourne 

 registers you will find such entries as these to be the 

 chiefest of their contents : " John Slater, innholder, 

 of the White Hart, was buryed, 22nd Feby, 170§ " ; 

 or " Joseph, ostler at the Crowne, buryed Oct. 23, 1708." 



When the railway came, ruin, smft and terrible, 

 fell upon this busy community. Grass grew in the 

 stable-yards ; the old high-hung yellow chariots and 

 the light post-chaises rotted to pieces that were used 

 to be hired by travellers who did not care so much 

 about the price as the pace they went ; the price 

 of horses fell ; the vast interiors of the hotels with 

 their numberless bedrooms, and one-time cosy coffee- 



