236 THE DOVER ROAD 



they never spoke to one another, and actually lived 

 in different parts of the house ; only using this staircase 

 between them as they retired along it at night to their 

 several apartments. One night they met on top of the 

 stairs. No one knew what passed between them, 

 whether black looks or bitter words were used ; but as 

 the Cavalier passed, his Puritan brother drew a dagger 

 and stabbed him in the back. He fell and died on the 

 spot, and the blood-stains are there to this day. 



Opposite Tappington is the modernized Denton 

 Court, with the old chapel of Denton standing in the 

 Park. Of this you may read in the Legends, but 

 those who seek the brass of the Lady Rohesia, with 

 its inscription — 



'"* ^raic for ^e aohilc of ye i^atru ilo^ae, 

 %nh for alle Cljrtslen aoinlcs ! " 



will be disappointed, for it is one of Barham's embellish- 

 ments upon fact. " Tappington Moor " is, of course, 

 Barham Downs, and the wild characteristics of the 

 place are very well described in The Hand of Glory. 

 The nearest approach to the Tappington gates existing 

 in fact are the entrance gates to Broome Park, standing 

 on the road near the lane leading to Barham ; and the 

 mansion of Broome, an Elizabethan country house, 

 bears a strong resemblance to the stately seat seen in 

 Barham's drawing. 



The whole district abounds with legends and folk-lore 

 suitable to this wild and treeless country, and that so 

 romantic a humorist as Barham should have sprung 

 from a local family of Kentish squires is only fitting. 

 The terror of these parts at the end of last century 

 was Black Robin, a highwayman who frequented the 

 roads and made his headquarters at a little inn on the 

 by-road between Bishopsbourne and Barham. " Black 

 Robin's Corner " it is still called, but the negro's head 

 of the sign is a libel upon that " gentleman of the road." 

 He took his name, not from the colour of his skin, but 



