haps donkeys, on the grass in front of her
house and garden, and I believe she was occasionally rather rough with
the boys; but there the likeness to Betsey Trotwood ends. This was a
married lady living with her husband.

"I know it was a matter of conversation forty years ago that Dickens
must have found his original in the lady in question, but I think he was
rather in the habit of selecting his characters without reference to
locality, and then adapting them to his requirements.

"Dickens was a frequent visitor to Dover, and he may possibly have been
a witness of some encounter between this lady and the boys, and on that
occasion donkeys may have been present.[34] I do not know of any
relative of the lady answering to Miss Trotwood's worthy nephew."

"A moderate stroke," as Mr. Datchery said, "is all I am justified in
scoring up"; and we reluctantly leave the "sunny street of Canterbury,
dozing, as it were, in the hot light," and take our places in the train
for Chatham, distant about twenty-seven miles.

The only new parts of interest which we go over, on our return journey
by rail, are the green fields surrounding the ancient city, wherein are
numbers of those beautiful and quiet-feeding cattle, which the eminent
artist, Mr. T. Sidney Cooper, R.A. (who resides in the neighbourhood),
loves to paint, and paints so well; and in due time we pass the
chalk-topped hills called Harbledown, overlooking Canterbury, from
whence the best view of the city is obtained, and safely reach our
headquarters at Rochester.

FOOTNOTES:

[32] According to a "Note" in the _Rochester and Chatham Journal_, the
derivation of this curious term is from _uro_ to burn (ustus).

[33] One of the "Five Cinque Ports, and two Ancient Towns" often
referred to, but not always remembered--Hastings, Sandwich, Dover, New
Romney, Hythe, Winchelsea and Rye.

[34] Mr. Charles Dickens kindly writes to me:--"The lady who objected to
the donkeys lived at Broadstairs. I knew her when I was a boy."

CHAPTER XII.

COOLING, CLIFFE, AND HIGHAM.

"And now the range of marshes lay clear before us,
with the sails of the ships on the river growing
out of it; and we went into the Churchyard . . .
and the light wind strewed it with beautiful
shadows of clouds and trees."

* * * * *

"What might have been your opinion of the place?"

"A most beastly p