From Sittingbourne I wandered out to Borden, lovely in itself and in
its situation upon the rising ground under the North Downs. It
possesses a very fine church with a low Norman tower and western door
of the same date. Within is a very nobly carved Norman arch under the
belfry.

If Schamel was, as it were, the western part of Sittingbourne with its
chapel and hermitage, Swanstree was the eastern part, and it, too, had
its chapel of St Cross and its hospital of St Leonard. There is,
however, this difference, that, whereas the priest and people of
Sittingbourne did all they could to suppress the chapel and hermitage
of Schamel, they on the contrary did all they could to encourage the
chapel and hospital of Swanstree. Why? Because pilgrims coming from
London or the north with full pockets towards Canterbury, would reach
Schamel _before_ passing through Sittingbourne, but Swanstree only
_after_ passing through the town!

Following the Pilgrim's Road out of Sittingbourne one soon comes to
Bapchild, where at the exit from the village on the north side of the
road of old stood an oratory, and a Leper's Hospital, of which nothing
seems really to be known save that it was founded about the year 1200.
According to Canon Scott-Robertson, it was dedicated in honour of St
James, which is a curious dedication for a Leper House, but common
enough in a Hospital for pilgrims. Oratory and Hospital have alike
disappeared, but close by the place where they stood there still
remains St Thomas's Well, now known as Spring Head or Spring.

So I went on through Radfield, where of old was a wayside chapel, and
Green Street to the Inn at Ospringe, passing, half a mile away to the