Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) THE DOVER ROAD HISTORIES OF THE ROADS BY CHARLES G. HARPER. THE BRIGHTON ROAD: The Classic Highway to the South. THE GREAT NORTH ROAD: London to York. THE GREAT NORTH ROAD: York to Edinburgh. THE DOVER ROAD: Annals of an Ancient Turnpike. THE BATH ROAD: History, Fashion and Frivolity on an old Highway. THE MANCHESTER AND GLASGOW ROAD: London to Manchester. THE MANCHESTER ROAD: Manchester to Glasgow. THE HOLYHEAD ROAD: London to Birmingham. THE HOLYHEAD ROAD: Birmingham to Holyhead. THE HASTINGS ROAD: And The "Happy Springs of Tunbridge." THE OXFORD, GLOUCESTER AND MILFORD HAVEN ROAD: London to Gloucester. THE OXFORD, GLOUCESTER AND MILFORD HAVEN ROAD: Gloucester to Milford Haven. THE NORWICH ROAD: An East Anglian Highway. THE NEWMARKET, BURY, THETFORD AND CROMER ROAD. THE EXETER ROAD: The West of England Highway. THE PORTSMOUTH ROAD. THE CAMBRIDGE, KING'S LYNN AND ELY ROAD. [Illustration: MERCERY LANE, CANTERBURY.] _The_ DOVER ROAD Annals of an Ancient Turnpike _By_ CHARLES G. HARPER _Illustrated by the Author and from Old Prints and Portraits_ [Illustration] HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT EDWIN VALENTINE MITCHELL _First Published 1895._ _Second and Revised Edition 1922._ Manufactured in England by C. TINLING & CO., Ltd. 53, Victoria Street, Liverpool, and 187, Fleet Street, London. [Illustration: THE MILLER] PREFACE _It has been said, by whom I know not, that "prefaces to books are like signs to public-houses; they are intended to give one an idea of the kind of entertainment to be found within." But this preface is not to be like those; for it would require an essay in itself to give a comprehensive idea of the Dover Road, in all its implications. A road is not merely so many miles of highway, more or less well-maintained. It is not only something in the surveyor's way; but history as well. It is life, touched at every point._ _The Dover Road--the highway between London and that most significant of approaches to the Continent of Europe--would have been something much more in its mere name had it not been for the accident of London: one of the greatest accidents. It would have been considered a part of the great road to Chester and to Holyhead: the route diagonally across England, from sea to sea, which really in the first instance it was._