There, too, in
all likelihood, Cardinal Wolsey rested in the autumn of 1514, and
there Henry VIII., who spoiled the face of England and changed her
heart, "paied the wife of the Lyon in Sittingbourne by way of rewarde
iiiis. viiid." for the accommodation given. This famous Inn stands in
the centre of the town, the road passing to the south of it. Unhappily
the church is less interesting, having been almost entirely rebuilt in
1762; but close by it were some old houses which apparently once
formed part of another old Inn called the White Hart. Certainly much
of the town must have been devoted to the entertainment of travellers.
From Sittingbourne I wandered out to Borden, lovely in itself and in
its situation upon the rising ground under the North Downs. It
possesses a very fine church with a low Norman tower and western door
of the same date. Within is a very nobly carved Norman arch under the
belfry.
If Schamel was, as it were, the western part of Sittingbourne with its
chapel and hermitage, Swanstree was the eastern part, and it, too, had
its chapel of St Cross and its hospital of St Leonard.
Pages:
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90