shelter of pilgrims and travellers. A small Inn called "The
Volunteers" now stands upon or close to the site of this ancient
chapel and this hermitage." The chapel and hermitage it seems were
first built at Schamel in the time of King John, when they were
occupied by a priest named Samuel. He said Mass daily in the chapel
and gave such accommodation as he had to wayfarers, by whose alms he
lived. After his death the chapel fell into disrepair, but in the time
of Henry III. it was rebuilt on a larger scale. A hermit named
Silvester, of the "Order of St Austin," was appointed to the house
which had now attached to it four lodgings for pilgrims on the road to
Canterbury. But on Silvester's death it was realised that the chapel
interfered so much with the parish church that before the end of the
thirteenth century it was suppressed. It re-arose, and in Chaucer's
day would seem to have been in a flourishing condition; at any rate it
continued till the spoliation.

If indeed Chaucer and his pilgrims slept in Sittingbourne, as one may
well believe, it is probable that they slept either at this chapel at
Schamel or at the Lion Inn in the town. This Inn was certainly in
existence in his time, and there in 1415 King Henry V. was entertained
on his return from Agincourt by the Squire of Milton. There, too, in
all likelihood, Cardinal Wolsey rested in the autumn of 1514, and
there Henry VIII., who spoiled the face of England and changed her
heart, "paied the wife of the Lyon in Sittingbourne by way of rewarde
iiiis. viiid." for the accommodation given. This famous Inn stands in
the centre of the town, the road passing to the south of it. Unhappily
the church is less interesting, having been almost entirely rebuilt in
1762; but close by it were some old houses which apparently once
formed part of another old Inn called the White Hart. Certainly much
of the town must have been devoted to the entertainment of travellers.