48 



The village of Otford, too, is not without interest, for although in 

 the present day it is a place of very small importance, the road along 

 which it is built and the two or three others that join up with it 

 being mere country lanes connecting similar unimportant villages, 

 yet in times of old it appears to have been a place of note. Situated 

 on the " Pilgrim's Way," in the direct line of route between Win- 

 chester, Rochester, and Canterbury, it would no doubt have been a 

 convenient halting-place for much of the trafific that passed between 

 those important ecclesiastical centres. It was attached to the See of 

 Canterbury before the Norman conquest; and so early as a.d. 1070, 

 and for some centuries later, it appears to have been a favourite 

 dwelling-place of the Archbishops of Canterbury. So far as I am 

 aware, no relics of these very early times now remain. The palace 

 (or castle) was rebuilt about the end of the fifteenth century, and the 

 tower, which is still standing, forms a conspicuous object, and is 

 regarded as an interesting example of the decorated brickwork style 

 of that period. The church is probably of more recent date, its 

 register commencing with the year 1630 ; it is built of Kentish rag- 

 stone, and forms a prominent, if not particularly picturesque object, 

 near the entrance of the village. The houses are for the most part 

 modern, but the " Bull Inn," with its low ceilings and large fire- 

 places, although recently somewhat modernised in its internal 

 arrangements, still carries an air of respectable antiquity ; and- 

 although its present resources are perhaps not of the highest order, 

 it affords a convenient. house of call for the weary wayfarer, and the 

 views obtainable from the garden at its rear, across the valley to the 

 sandy hills and woods of Seal Chart, are very pleasant. In the 

 matter of water the village is singularly well off. In addition to the 

 river, which flows hard by, there is, near the centre of the village, a 

 banked-up pond, which appears to maintain a fairly constant level, 

 and numerous springs of delightfully fresh clear water flow out from 

 the chalk hills. Some of these are in private grounds, but one of 

 them may be seen gushing out from a wall, be the weather ever so 

 dry, as one passes from the railway station to the village. 



Of greater interest, however, than the historic matters connected 

 with this ancient settlement are the features of the surrounding 

 country. The timber of the woods already referred to consists 

 largely of beech and oak, with a sprinkling of birch, maple, ash, fir, 

 etc. Although in the main these woods are somewhat closely pre- 

 served, they are sufficiently cut up by lanes through or alongside 

 them to admit of their being fairly well worked. The hedge-rows 

 are a feature of the neighbourhood, not only on account of their 

 bulk, but of the variety of the shrubs of which they are composed, 

 among which may be mentioned oak, beech, maple, hawthorn, hazel, 

 sallow, ash, damson, cherry, elder, yew, privet, broom, honeysuckle, 

 clematis, etc. What small portions of the down lands still remain 

 bear a growth of a very mixed character. In addition to patches of 

 many of the shrubs already mentioned, there are a number of young 



