obtained from miracles wrought by the relics of St. William of Perth, a
pilgrim who was murdered on his way to Canterbury and who lies buried in
the cathedral. Rochester is the scene of many incidents of Dickens'
stories. It was the scene of his last unfinished work, "Edwin Drood,"
and he made many allusions to it elsewhere, the most notable perhaps in
"Pickwick Papers," where he makes the effervescent Mr. Jingle describe
it thus: "Ah, fine place, glorious pile, frowning walls, tottering
arches, dark nooks, crumbling staircases--old cathedral, too,--earthy
smell--pilgrims' feet worn away the old steps."

Across the river from Rochester lies Chatham, a city of forty thousand
people and a famous naval and military station. The two cities are
continuous and practically one. From here, without further stop, we
followed the fine highway to Canterbury and entered the town by the west
gate of Chaucer's Tales. This alone remains of the six gateways of the
city wall in the poet's day, and the strong wall itself, with its
twenty-one towers, has almost entirely disappeared. We followed a
winding street bordered with quaint old buildings until we reached our
hotel--in this case a modern and splendidly kept hostelry. The hotel was
just completing an extensive garage, but it was not ready for occupancy
and I was directed to a well equipped private establishment with every
facility for the care and repair of motors. The excellence of the
service at this hotel attracted our attention and the head waiter told
us that the owners had their own farm and supplied their own
table--accounting in this way for the excellence and freshness of the
milk, meat and vegetables.

The long English summer evening still afforded time to look about the
town after dinner. Passing down the main street after leaving the hotel,
we found that the river and a canal wound their way in several places