o have been
buried there." "The two picturesque towers" (quoting Bevan again),
"which form so conspicuous a land and sea mark, are called 'The
Sisters,' and are in reality modern-built by the Trinity Board in place
of two erected traditionally by an Abbess of Faversham, who was wrecked
here with her sister on their way to Broadstairs." The sea is fast
encroaching on the land here, notwithstanding the erection of a large
sea-wall and piles.

Passing Margate, we reach Broadstairs, about thirty-seven miles from
Chatham. Broadstairs, immortalized in _Our English Watering Place_
(which paper, says Forster, "appeared while I was there, and great was
the local excitement"), is so inseparably associated with the earlier
years of Charles Dickens's holiday-life, that it becomes most
interesting to his admirers. Forster also says, "His later seaside
holiday, September 1837, was passed at Broadstairs, as were those of
many subsequent years; and the little watering-place has been made
memorable by his pleasant sketch of it." At the time of his first visit
(1837) he was writing a portion of _Pickwick_ (Part 18); in 1838 part of
_Nicholas Nickleby_; and in 1839 part of _The Old Curiosity Shop_. He
was also there in 1840, 1841, and 1842, when writing the _American
Notes_; in 1845 and 1847, when writing _Dombey and Son_; in 1848 and
1850, when engaged on _David Copperfield_; and in 1851, when he was
drafting the outlines of _Bleak House_. At the end of November of that
year, when he had settled himself in his new London abode (Tavistock
House), the book was begun, "and, as so generally happened with the more
important incidents of his life, but always accidentally, begun on a
Friday." After 1851, he returned not again to Broadstairs until 1859,
when he paid his last visit to the place, and stayed a week there. The
reason for his forsaking it was that it had become too noisy for him.

Broadstairs stands midway between the North Foreland and Ramsgate, and
owes its name to the breadth of the sea-gate or "stair," which was
originally defended by a gate or archway. An archway still survives on
the road to the sea, and bears on it two inscriptions, (1) "Built by
George Culenier about 1540"; (2) "Repaired by Sir John Henniker, Bart.,
1795."

Broadstairs has good sands, precipitous chalk cliffs, and a very fine
sea-view. The railway station is about a mile from the pier, and the
town is approached by a well-kept road ("the main street of our