172 THE DOVER ROAD 



led him thus to compound with Heaven for some 

 undiscovered crime that made his Ufe a misery. 



But the traveller who keeps strictly to his Dover 

 Road only passes through Faversham suburbs. Preston 

 is the oldest of them, and lies directly on the road. 

 To the left rises Faversham's fantastic spire, con- 

 spicuous above the flats ; immediately in front goes the 

 railway in a cutting underneath the road ; and straight 

 ahead, in the far distance, rises up a long thin white 

 line amid hillsides clothed heavily with forests. It is 

 long before the stranger discovers what is that singular 

 white streak upon the dark trees, but it reveals itself, 

 as he goes, as the famous Boughton Hill, and the wood- 

 lands as the extensive remains of Blean Forest. 



It was at " Boughton-under-the-Blee " that Chaucer's 

 Canon and Yeoman overtook the pilgrims. The Canon's 

 hat hung down his back by a lace, for he had ridden 

 as though he were mad. Under his hood he had 

 placed a burdock-leaf to cool his head, but yet his 

 forehead dropped like a still that was full of plantain 

 and wallflower. The Canon's Yeoman tells the pilgrims 

 how pleased his master would be of their company as 

 far as Canterbury ; and the Host makes him welcome, 

 asking if his master can please the party with a merry 

 story. " A story ? " asks the Yeoman ; " that is 

 nothing to what the Canon can do. He is an Alchemist, 

 and so clever that — 



" all this ground on which we be riding, 

 Till that we come to Canterbury town, 

 He could all cleane turnen up so down. 

 And pave it all of silver and of gold.** 



" Ah ! " says Harry Bailly, the Host, " that's all very 

 well, you know, but how is it that this wonderful 

 master of yours wears such a threadbare coat ? " To 

 this query, the Yeoman is bound to answer that his 

 master is too clever by half, or not clever enough, and 

 that he has, for all his alchemy, only wasted his 

 substance and that of many more. The Canon hears 

 something of this, and bidding his servant hold his 



