The Dover Road: Annals of an Ancient TurnpikeHarper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
The Dover Road: Annals of an Ancient Turnpike
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
Dover Road (England); England -- Description and travel; England -- Social life and customs
Buckland church was enlarged in 1880, and it was then found necessary to
move the ancient yew, reputed to be over a thousand years old, in the
churchyard. A writer calling himself "Old Humphrey" mentions the tree in
his _Country Strolls_, 1841:--"The tree is hollow, and time and the
elements have writhed it into fantastic shapes. I can see, or fancy I can
see, snakes and dragons in its twisted branches."
It was not without some anxiety that the people of Buckland viewed the
proposed removal by some sixty feet of a tree for which they have much
affection. The weight was estimated at fifty-six tons. The contractor was
to have forfeited a great part of his price if the removal and replanting
caused the tree to die; but the work was done skilfully, and the old yew
seems actually to have become more flourishing for its change.
Henceforward are streets, first suburban, but presently continuous and
crowded, for the two miles that remain. Dover is reached, and the road is
done.
XLI
In the London Road approach to Dover, one mile from the centre of the
town, there used to stand an old inn called "The Milestone." A hatter's
shop now occupies the site; but two old milestones are yet there. One says
"70 miles to London: 14 miles to Canterbury," and the other proclaims it
to be "1 mile to Dovor."
This old spelling of "Dover" was common until the opening of the railway
era; and the coach-bills of the great Dover Road coach-proprietors, Horne,
Chaplin, and Gray, spelt the place-name "Dovor," with two "o's," instead
of an "o" and an "e."
[Sidenote: "DEAR" DOVER]
It will be expected of me that I should say something of Dover, and I do
not intend to disappoint so very reasonable an expectation, although the
Dover Road having been traversed, the object of this book is accomplished;
and, therefore, any remarks I may have to offer must be informed, not with
the prolixity of the local history, nor with the stodgy statistics of the
Guide Book, but with conciseness and something of the sympathy which shows
that to which but few Guide Books ever attain--the true inwardness of the
place. It is quite easy to be contemptuous of Dover, from the visitor's
point of view; from other vantage-grounds it is a great deal more easy to
acquire a certain enthusiasm for the old Cinque Port, its streets, its
piers, its Castle, and the more modern fortifications which cross the
Western Heights.
Thy cliffs, dear Dover! harbour and hotel;
Thy custom-house, with all its delicate duties;
Thy waiters running mucks at every bell;
Thy packets, all whose passengers are booties
To those who upon land or water dwell;
And last, not least, to strangers uninstructed,
Thy long, long bills, whence nothing is deducted.
sang Byron.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
The Dover Road: Annals of an Ancient Turnpike — John Shaqi
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