the cover his name, the date of his visit, and the two words
"at Canterbury."

Now, I do not disguise the fact that many of the twentieth-century
pilgrims are not possessed of the true spirit of the devotee, and
instead of approaching the object of their journey by the old-time
way, along the beautiful hills of Surrey and Kent, they use the iron
road which rushes them all unprepared into the city of the
saint-martyr. But who will maintain that all those who formed the
motley throng of the medieval pilgrimages came with their minds
properly attuned, and who is prepared to say that because the majority
of modern pilgrims consummate their aim by using the convenience of
the railway they are less devout than Chaucer's merchant,
serjeant-at-law, doctor of physic, and the rest who rode on
horseback--the most convenient, rapid, and comfortable method of
travel then available?

There is, however, a material disadvantage suffered by those who use
the railway, in that they miss the first view of the Cathedral city
set in the midst of soft-swelling eocene hills, which comes as the
first stage of the gradual unfolding of the tragic story. The
lukewarm pilgrim should therefore remember that he will add vastly to
the richness of his impressions if he deserts his train at Selling or
Chartham and walks the rest of the way over Harbledown, where he will
see the little city of the Middle Ages encircled with its ancient wall
and crowned by the towers of its cathedral very much as did the
cosmopolitan groups of travel-soiled men and women who for century
after century feasted their eyes from the selfsame spot.

[Illustration: CHRIST CHURCH GATEWAY, CANTERBURY.
This beautiful entrance to the Cathedral precincts was built between
1507 and 1517. The richly sculptured stone has weathered exceedingly.]

CHAPTER II

THE STORY OF CANTERBURY

It would be a mistake to imagine that it solely was due to that bloody
deed perpetrated on a certain December afternoon back in Norman times
that Canterbury occupies a place of such pre-eminence in English
history, for the city was ancient before the days of Thomas of
Canterbury; and in this short chapter it is the writer's endeavour to
indicate the position of that tragic occurrence in the chronology of
the former Kentish capital.

The earliest people who have left evidence of their existence near
Canterbury belong to the Palaeolithic Age; but as it is not known
whether this remote prehisto