214 THE DOVER ROAD 



dating from the time when Henry the Eighth's 

 Commissioners destroyed the monastery. Queer 

 passages, dark and tortuous, giving suddenly upon 

 little cloisters and grassy quadrangles, are to be 

 found everywhere ; conspicuous among them the 

 " Dark Entry," immortalized by Tom Ingoldsby in 

 his Legend of Nell Cook. 



By walking outside Canterbury, a mile distant to 

 Saint Thomas's Hill, on the Whitstable Road, you 

 shall see how thoroughly the Cathedral dominates 

 the city ; and arrive, by an exploration of the narrow 

 lanes and the meads below, at an understanding of 

 how this great Minster was Canterbury, and how 

 subservient to it was all else. Affairs are now very 

 different. A vigorous and pulsing life belongs to 

 the streets and lanes, while it is the Church that 

 has passed away from the intimate life of the people, 

 and sunk back into retirement. Canterbury is far 

 larger than ever before, and its modern pavements, 

 that ring with soldiers' tread, or with the speedy walk 

 of busy citizens, are raised many feet above the street 

 level of old Durovernum. Where the old Roman 

 Watling Street left the city by what is now called the 

 Riding Gate, the original paving of that military way 

 was discovered some few years ago at a depth of 

 fourteen feet below the level of the present road. 

 Everywhere, when foundations for new houses have 

 been dug, are discovered Roman pavements and the 

 walls of forgotten buildings, and thus does Canterbury 

 progress through the ages, rearing itself upon itself 

 until its beginnings are hidden deep below the light of 

 day. Strangely do modern ways here jostle with the 

 old. A newly fronted house, proclaiming nothing of its 

 antiquity, will yet often be found to contain much of 

 interest. The ugly fronted Guildhall is an instance. 

 Without, it is of the plainest and most uninteresting 

 type ; within, it has panelling and portraits and old 

 arms to show the curious. At its door, too, stands all 

 day and every day, or walks about the streets, a 



