historically, however, it has not much claim upon our notice, its
chief boast being that it was here the first act of violence in the
Peasants' Revolt of 1381 occurred, when Wat Tyler broke the head of
the poll-tax collector who had brutally assaulted his daughter. Wat or
Walter--Tyler, because of his trade, which was that of covering roofs
with tiles--would seem, however, not to have been a Dartford man at
all. The very proper murder of the tax-collector would appear to have
been the work of a certain John "Tyler" of the same profession, here
in Dartford.

The Peasants' Revolt, which, alas! came to nothing, brings us indeed
quite into Chaucer's day, but it would have had little sympathy from
him, nor indeed has it really anything specially to do with this town.
The true fame of Dartford, which is its paper-making, dates from the
end of the sixteenth century, when one Sir John Speelman, jeweller to
Queen Elizabeth, is said to have established the first paper-mill.

If Dartford is poor in history, nevertheless it is worth a visit of
more than an hour or so for its own sake, as I have said. It boasts of
a good inn also, and the country and villages round about are
delicious. All that upper valley of the Darent, for instance, in which
lie Darenth, Sutton-at-Hone, Horton Kirby, and, a little way off
Fawkham, Eynsford, and Lullingstone, is worth the trouble of seeing
for its own beauty and delight.

There is Darenth for instance, Darne, as the people used to call it,
only two miles from the Pilgrims' Road, it is as old as England, and
doubtless saw the Romans at work straightening, paving, and building
that great Way which has remained to us through so many ages, and
which the Middle Age hallowed into a Via Sacra. What can be more