Faversham. The long spring day was already drawing in when I came into
Davington, as delightful and charming a little place as is to be found
anywhere along the great road. Upon a hill-top there perhaps the
Romans had a temple or a villa, at any rate they called the place
Durolevum, and so it stands in the Antonine _Itinerary_. There is
evidence, too, that the site was not abandoned when with the failure
of their administration and the final departure of the Legions, there
went down the long roads, our youth and hope. Where the present church
stands, in part a Norman building, there was probably a Saxon Chapel.
Then in 1153 came Fulke de Newenham and founded here and built a
Benedictine nunnery in honour of St Mary Magdalen. That the house was
never richly endowed nor large at all, we may know from that name it
had--the house of the poor nuns of Davington. We know, however, very
little about them or it, but its poverty did not save it of course at
the dissolution. The Priory was then turned into a manor house, and
this in part remains so that we find there a part of the cloisters of
the time of Edward I., and other remains of Edward III.'s time. Then
in Elizabeth's day the house seems to have been practically rebuilt.
As for the little church, it owes all it is to-day to its late owner
and historian, Mr Willement, and though it is not in itself of very
great interest it serves as a memorial of his enthusiasm and love.

Davington is less than a mile out of the town of Faversham, and
therefore it was not quite dark when I made my way into that famous
place. Faversham must always have been an important place from its
position with regard to the great road. We have seen how the source
of the greatness of Rochester lay in its position upon the Watling
Street where that great highway crossed the Medway. Faversham has half
Rochester's fortune, for it stands where the road touches an arm or
creek of the Swale, that important navigable waterway, an arm of the