Chapter I: Preface

_"INGOLDSBY" has always been of that comparatively small number of authors who command a personal interest and affection. Reading the "LEGENDS" you cannot choose but see that when he sat down, often at the midnight hour, to dash off the fun and frolic that came so readily to his mind, it was a part of himself that appeared upon the page. He did not and could not, when he wrote for publication under a pseudonym, be other than himself, and did not self-consciously draw a veil of style around him and speak, a cloaked figure lacking ordinary human attributes, or as other than a man of the world. He claimed no sacerdotal privileges, and we know, from the published "_Life and Letters_" by his son, that he was in his life and intimacies, as the Reverend R. H. Barham, the same genial wit and humorist he appeared as "Tom Ingoldsby." He must, therefore, have been a likeable man, and those who knew him were fortunate persons. The next best thing to knowing him is to know something of the Ingoldsby Country, that corner of Kent where he was born and whose legends he has put to such splendid literary uses. The "INGOLDSBY LEGENDS" have so long since become a classic that it is indeed somewhat surprising that no literary pilgrim, for love of their author and interest in his career, has before this traced the landmarks of his storied district._

CHARLES G. HARPER.

PETERSHAM, SURREY.
_January, 1904._

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY 1

II. BARHAM: THE AUTHOR OF THE _INGOLDSBY LEGENDS_ 7

III. CANTERBURY 28

IV. THE CATHEDRAL: THE MURDER OF BECKET 41

V. TAPPINGTON HALL 63

VI. ROMNEY MARSH 77

VII. ROMNEY MARSH (_continued_) 98

VIII. OLD AND NEW ROMNEY, AND DYMCHURCH 110

IX. HYTHE AND FOLKESTONE 124

X. FROM HYTHE TO ASHFORD 143

XI. FROM HYTHE TO ASHFORD (_continued_) 159

XII. THE BACK OF BEYOND 165

XIII. THE BACK OF BEYOND (_continued_) 181

XIV. THE COASTWISE ROAD: FOLKESTONE TO
DOVER AND SANDWICH 192

XV. SANDWICH TO THE VILLE OF SARRE 208

XVI. SARRE AND RECULVER TO CANTERBURY 222

XVII. THE ISLE OF SHEPPEY 233

XVIII. SOME OUTLYING INGOLDSBY LANDMARKS 257

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The "Dark Entry," Canterbury, From the Green Court _Frontispiece_

Sketch Map: The Ingoldsby Country 5

"Tom Ingoldsby:" the Rev. Richard Harris Barham 13

No. 61, Burgate Street, Canterbury _Facing_ 14

St. Mary Magdalene, Burgate Street, Canterbury 15

Westwell 16

The Hall, No. 61, Burgate Street, Canterbury _Facing_ 16

The Barham Coat-of-Arms 18

No. 4, St. Paul's Churchyard 22

Amen Corner, where Barham died.... 24

Ruins of St. Mary Magdalene, after the Fire of
December 1886 26

Canterbury Castle 32

The Dane John, Canterbury 34

The Dark Entry 37

" " " 38

"The Martyrdom," Canterbury Cathedral 52

The Vale of Barham 65

The "Eagle Gates," Broome Park 67

Broome Park, the Real Original of Tappington
Hall _Facing_ 68

Tappington, from the Folkestone Road 69

Denton _Facing_ 70

Denton Church and Court 71

Tappington Hall 73

The "Merchant's-Mark" of Thomas Marsh of Marston 74

Tappington Hall: Night _Facing_ 74

Warehorne 79

A Sundial, Warehorne Church 81

Warehorne 82

The Royal Military Canal at Warehorne 84

Snargate 100

Brookland 102

Ivychurch 104

Newchurch, on Romney Marsh: "This recondite
region; this fifth quarter of the globe" 105

Old Romney 111

New Romney 116

A Martello Tower 119

Dymchurch Wall 121

" " 122

The "Smugglers' Nest," Hythe 127

Hythe, from the Road to Sandgate 128

Folkestone 132

The Stade, Folkestone 135

Folkestone Harbour 137

Folkestone in 1830. _After J. M. W. Turner, R.A._
_Facing_ 140

Romney Marsh, from Lympne " 144

Lympne Castle 146

A Cottage Tablet, Lympne 147

A Kentish Farm 148

The Ruined Chapel, Court-at-Street 149

An Old Sundial, Aldington 151

Aldington 154

Cobb's Hall 159

Aldington Knoll 160

Bilsington Woods 161

Bilsington Priory 162

Bilsington Church 163

Orlestone Hill 164

Saltwood Castle 169

Westenhanger House 175

Lyminge 182

Lyminge Church 183

Old Houses at Elham 185

Acryse 187

The Preceptory, Swingfield Minnis 190

The "Lone Tree" 197

East Langdon 199

"Marston Hall" 200

The "Three Horseshoes," Great Mongeham 201

St. Peter's, Sandwich 205

The Barbican, Sandwich 209

Sandwich, from Great Stonar 210

Richborough, and the Kentish Coast-line towards Ramsgate 213

The Smuggler's Leap 215

Monkton 217

" 218

The "Ville of Sarre" 220

Chislett 223

Reculver 225

Fordwich 228

Fordwich Town Hall 230

Sturry 232

The Devil's Footprint 234

Minster-in-Sheppey 243

Tomb of Sir Robert de Shurland 245

The Horse-vane, Minster-in-Sheppey 246

The Soul, from a Monument in Minster-in-Sheppey Church 249

The Estuary of the Medway, from the Road near
Minster-in-Sheppey 251

Shurland Castle 253

Netley Abbey 261

Salisbury Plain: where the Lavington Road branches off
to the left from the one to Devizes 266