PAPER 159 



Sittingbourne. Outside the town, on Milton Creek, 

 leading muddily to the Swale, there you will find paper 

 in its crude wood-pulp stage, as imported from the 

 mills in Norway and Sweden, Closely viewed, it is not 

 attractive. Slabs of wood-pulp, stacked forty or fifty 

 feet high, with a narrow-gauge railway running between 

 cliff-like accumulations of this merchandise, present a 

 scene made squaHd by the torn and bedraggled 

 fragments of paper packing that the winds sport with. 

 But, seen from the Swale, or indeed from a distance 

 on land, these towering stocks of the raw material for 

 newspapers have a peculiarly romantic appearance ; 

 looking indeed like a reminiscence of the temples of 

 the East, 



The village of Milton itself, properly " Milton 

 Regis," is full of queer old corners. The church stands 

 aloof, dignified, on a remote country road. In its 

 churchyard is a stone mentioning a w^oman w^ho had 

 six husbands : — 



" Here lyeth interred the Body of Abraham 

 Washiton (sic), late husband of Alise Washinton now 

 liveing in Milton, wiiome had in all six Husbands : 

 John Ailes, John Ricard, Thomas Gill, John Jeefrre, 

 Alexander Flet. Anno 1601." 



It wdll be observed that this lady who collected 

 husbands is described as " now liveing." Possibly the 

 sixth was not the last ; but by that time the men of 

 Milton must have grown rather timid. 



In any case, the history of Mrs. Washinton was 

 evidently considered remarkable, to be detailed on this 

 stone, either by herself or by the admiring or astonished 

 neighbourhood. 



Sittingbourne parish church, and some remaining 

 walls of the more ancient inns, are all that need 

 detain the stranger. The massive square tower of 

 the church, which is a prominent feature of the High 

 Street, is the oldest part ; the body of the building 

 dates only from the Perpendicular period. To this 

 time belongs a singular monumental effigy of a lady, 



