was famous at least as the scene of Shakespeare's "Henry IV.," pt. i.
act ii. sc. i., as the resting-place of Queen Elizabeth in 1573, and as
the inn honoured by Mr Pickwick. It should never have been destroyed.]

In Rochester, serene and yet active, the very ancient seat of a
bishopric, we have something essentially Roman, the fortress on the
Watling Street guarding the passage of the Medway, precisely as
Piacenza was and is a Roman fortress upon the Emilian Way guarding the
passage of the Po. The Romans called the place Durobrivae, and though
we know little of it during the Roman occupation of Britain, we may be
sure it was a place of very considerable importance, as indeed it has
remained ever since, twice in fact in our history the possession of
Rochester has decided a whole campaign.

Rochester, indeed, could not have escaped the military eye of the
Romans. It must be remembered that the natural entry into England is
by the Straits of Dover, and that for a man entering by that gate
there is only one way up into England and that the line of the Watling
Street, for he must cross the Thames, even though he be going only to
London. The lowest ford upon the Thames is that at Lambeth, which the
Watling Street used. Now there is but one really formidable obstacle
in the whole length of the Watling Street south of the Thames. That
obstacle is the estuary of the Medway, which Rochester guarded and
possessed. Rochester then was first and foremost a great fortress,
just as Piacenza was and is.

What was its fate in the Dark Age that followed the failure of the
Roman administration we do not know; but with the advent of St
Augustine Rochester at once received a Bishop. It was, indeed, the
first post in St Augustine's advance from Canterbury, King Ethelbert