One leaves Dartford, on the Pilgrim's Road, with a certain regret, to
find oneself, at the top of the East Hill, face to face with a problem
of the road. For there on the hill-top the road forks; to the left
runs the greater way of the two, into Gravesend; straight on lies a
lane which after a couple of miles suddenly turns southward to
Betsham, where the direct way is continued by a footpath across
Swanscombe Park. Which of these ways was I to follow? That question
was hard to answer, because the road through Gravesend is full of
interest, while the direct way is almost barren all the way to
Rochester. There can be little doubt, too, that many of the pilgrims
on the way to Canterbury did pass through Gravesend, to which town
doubtless many also travelled from London by water, while others
landed there from Essex and East Anglia. But the lane which is the
straight way and its continuation in the footpath across Swanscombe
Park is undoubtedly the line of the Roman road and in all probability
the route of Chaucer.
Face to face with these considerations, being English, I decided upon
a compromise.
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