In Unfamiliar England: A Record of a Seven Thousand Mile Tour by Motor of the Unfrequented Nooks and Corners, and the Shrines of Especial Interest, in England; With Incursions into Scotland and Ireland.Murphy, Thos. D. (Thomas Dowler)
History
In Unfamiliar England: A Record of a Seven Thousand Mile Tour by Motor of the Unfrequented Nooks and Corners, and the Shrines of Especial Interest, in England; With Incursions into Scotland and Ireland.
Murphy, Thos. D. (Thomas Dowler)
Great Britain -- Description and travel
Rye itself is quite as interesting as its church, a place of crooked
lanes and odd buildings, among which the hospital pictured in such a
realistic manner by our artist is one of the most notable. It is a
splendid combination of stucco and timber, with red tiled gables and
diamond-paned lattice windows. Much else there is in Rye to tempt one
to linger, but the sun is setting and we are off on the fine level
road to Folkestone. For the latter half of the distance we run along
the very edge of the ocean--as we saw it, fifteen miles of shimmering
twilight water. Those who are attracted by the gruesome will pause at
the old church in Hythe to see the strange collection of human remains,
thousands of skulls and bones, that are ranged on shelves or piled in
heaps on the floor in the crypt. Whence these ghastly relics came,
antiquarians dispute; but local tradition has it that a great battle
was fought near Hythe, between the Britons and Danes, and these bones
are the remains of the slain. Be that as it may, one does not care to
linger--a mere glance at such a charnel house is quite sufficient.
Folkestone may well contest with Brighton, Bournemouth and Portsmouth
for first honors among English watering-places. We have seen nearly
all of them and we should be inclined, in some particulars, to give
the honors to Folkestone; but let those who enjoy such places be the
judges. Anyway, there are few statelier hotels in England than those
on the east cliff and few that occupy a more magnificent site. At the
Grand they are more willing to permit you to take ease than at most
English hotels of its class. You are not required under penalty to be
on hand for dinner at a certain hour, announced usually by a strident
gong, and to make the pretense of swallowing an almost uneatable table
d'hote concoction pushed along by a vigilant waiter bent on making
all possible speed. This hotel and many others stand on the east cliff
several hundred feet above the sea, but one may reach the shore by
a lift, or if inclined to exercise, by a steep winding pathway. On
moderately clear days, the white line of the French coast may be seen
from the hotel.
Very like to Folkstone is Dover, but seven miles farther up the coast,
and thither we proceed over a steep road closely following the sea.
Dover was chief of the cinque ports of olden days and its small bay
still affords shelter for shipping, including ocean-going steamers. But
the first thing that catches the pilgrim's eye when he comes into Dover
is the splendidly preserved, or rather restored, castle, which stands
in sullen inaccessibility on the clifflike hill overlooking the city.
We make the stiff climb up to the castle gateway, only to be halted by
the guard with the information that we are an hour early. We have had
such experiences before and we suggest that no possible harm can be
done by admitting us at once.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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