the bridge, and thereafter climbs the East Hill.

Dartford Bridge, which already in the Middle Ages had supplanted ford
and ferry, happily remains to the extent of about a third of the width
of the two pointed arches which touch the banks. It was kept in order
and repair by the hermit who dwelt in a cell at the foot of the bridge
on the east, a cell older than the bridge, for the hermits used to
serve the ford. Here stood the Shrine of Our Lady and St Catherine of
Alexandria, which was much favoured by the pilgrims, so we may well
suppose that Chaucer and his friends did not pass it by without a
reverence.

Here too at the eastern end of the town stood a hospital dedicated in
honour of the Holy Trinity, but this Chaucer knew not, any more than
we may do, for it was only founded in 1452. It seems, however, to have
been built really over the stream upon piers, perhaps in something
the same way as the thirteenth-century Franciscan house at Canterbury
was built, which we may still see.

Dunken tells us that "the steep ascent of the Dover road leading
towards Brent was in ancient times called St Edmunde's Weye from its
leading to a Chapel dedicated to that saint situated near the middle of
the upper churchyard." This chapel, of which nothing remains, Edward
III. bestowed upon the Priory of Our Lady and St Margaret. On its
site, such is the irony of time, a "martyr's memorial" has been
erected to the unhappy and unfortunate folk burnt here in the time of
Queen Mary.

But Dartford is too pleasant a place to be left with such a merely
archaeological survey as this. It is a town in which one may be happy;