Harry the King, Bedford, and Exeter,
Warwick, and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester....




CHAPTER V

THE PILGRIMS' ROAD

FAVERSHAM TO CANTERBURY


From Faversham at least to the environs of Canterbury, the Pilgrim's
Road seems to be unmistakable, for the Watling Street runs all the way
straight as a ruled line. Yet so few are the remaining marks of the
pilgrimage, so little is that great Roman and mediaeval England
remembered by men or even by the fields or the road which runs
between them with so changeless a purpose, that at first sight we
might think it all a myth. And yet everything that is fundamental or
really enduring and valuable in our lives we owe to that England which
was surely one of the most glorious and strong, as well as one of the
happiest, countries in Europe. Yet must the disheartened voyager take
comfort, for in how many small and negligible things may we not see
even to-day the very mark and standard of Rome, her sign manual after
all, under the rubbish of the modern world. And if you desire an
example, let me give you weathercocks.

No man can walk for day after day along this tremendous road which
leads us straight as a javelin thrust back through all the lies and