234 THE DOVER ROAD 



name about until it became plain " Barham," and the 

 manor finally descended to one Thomas Barham, who, 

 in the reign of James the First, alienated it to the 

 Rev. Charles Fotherby, Archdeacon of Canterbury. 

 Thus were the Barhams torn from their native soil 

 and rendered landless, for already they had sold 

 their adjacent manor of Tappington Everard situated 

 at Denton. Some improvident Barham had done 

 this deed in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and the 

 property passed through a number of hands until 

 it was bought from Colonel Thomas Marsh by a 

 wealthy hop-factor of Canterbury, Thomas Harris. 

 The hop-factor died in 1726, leaving as sole heir his 

 daughter, married to a Mr. John Barham. In this 

 manner the Barhams became once more owners of 

 a portion of their ancient heritage, and from this 

 John Barham was descended that witty Minor Canon 

 of St. Paul's, Richard Harris Barham, author of the 

 Ingoldsby Legends. To one who knows his Ingoldsby 

 well, and is possessed, moreover, of some antiquarian 

 fervour, the neighbourhood of Denton and Barham 

 must needs be of the greatest interest. Fact and 

 fiction are so inextricably mixed up in those delightful 

 tales of mirth and marvels that it would require 

 all the knowledge of an expert in local and family 

 history to disentangle them. The countryside appears 

 in those pages under fictitious names, and the deeds 

 or misdeeds of local families are decently veiled under 

 many an alias ; and yet here and there are real 

 names, and actual facts are cited, leaving the stranger 

 in a delightful uncertainty what to accept for truth and 

 what to disbelieve. The manor-house of Tappington, 

 where Barham spent his youth, would seem to readers 

 of the Legends to be a grand Elizabethan mansion, 

 approached by a long avenue and guarded by gates 

 bearing " the saltire of the Ingoldsbys." Indeed, 

 Barham's fertile imagination led him to picture such a 

 place on the frontispiece of the Legends ; but the 

 stranger would seek for it in vain. Instead, he would 



