of Tennyson, by a local carver named W. Hughes, who was
formerly employed at Gad's Hill Place. No pilgrim in "Dickens-Land"
should omit visiting Maidstone and its treasures in Chillington Manor
House; nor of seeing the splendid view of the Medway from the
churchyard, looking towards Tovil.

[Illustration: Chillingham Manor House Maidstone]

We are particularly anxious to verify Dickens's experience of the walk
from Maidstone to Rochester. In a letter to Forster, written soon after
he came to reside at Gad's Hill Place, he says:--"I have discovered that
the seven miles between Maidstone and Rochester is one of the most
beautiful walks in England," and so indeed we find it to be. It is,
however, a rather long seven miles; so, cheerfully leaving the
gloomy-looking gaol to our right and proceeding along the raised terrace
by the side of the turn-pike road, we pass through the little village of
Sandling, and soon after commence the ascent of the great chalk range of
hills which form the eastern water-parting of the Medway. The most
noticeable object before we reach "Upper Bell" is "Kit's Coty (or
Coity) House," about one and a half miles north-east from Aylesford,
and not very far from the Bell Inn. According to Mr. Phillips Bevan, the
peculiar name is derived from the Celtic "Ked," and "Coity" or "Coed"
(Welsh), and means the Tomb in the Wood. Seymour considers the words a
corruption of "Catigern's House." Below Kit's Coty House, Mr. Wright,
the archaeologist, found the remains of a Roman villa, with quantities of
Samian ware, coins, and other articles.

There are many excavations in the chalk above Kit's Coty House,
apparently for interments; and the whole district appears in remote ages
to have been a huge cemetery. Tradition states that "the hero Catigern
was buried here, after the battle fought at Aylesford between Hengist
and Vortigern."

The Cromlech, which is now included in the provisions of the Ancient
Monuments Protection Act, 1882, lies under the hillside, a few yards
from the main road, and is fenced in with iron railings, and beautifully
surrounded by woods, the yew,[29] said to have been one of the sacred
trees of the Druids, being conspicuous here and there. That somewhat
rare plant the juniper is also found in this neighbourhood. The
"dolmens" which have been "set on end by a vanished people" are four in
number, and consist of sandstone, three of them, measuring about eight
feet each, forming the uprigh