Edge"

/\Jc‘aTu‘fb'

 

    

ovfer/‘lmllooiirhe

x\.\~...,
‘_.._..

   

 

 

 

 


 

 

BRIDGE.

Ill-2 Romans were the cleverest road makers in the world.
Many of those they laid some two thousand years ago
are still in existence, or rather, their foundations survive,
l and no others of more recent make are equal to them in

firmness, nor are they likely to prove as durable. And

J one of the most important of these old Roman roads

is known as \\'ntling Street, extending from Dover to London. On

the run of this ancient higliway stands the village of Bridge, just
outside the cztthedral city of Canterbury. \Vhat sights have passed
this way in all those two thousand years! Here Roman legions
marched, here came merchants from the south with pack horses laden
with costly goods, here for hundreds of years have trod the feeble and
smarting feet of pilgrims and the ancient mendicant and modern
tramp; here have come horse-drawn vehicles, market carts, and
luxuriously fitted carriages of the rich, and the modest caravan of
the gipsy; here has resounded the stirring note of the silver trumpet

‘of the Roman hosts and later from the horn of the guard of the

London and Dover coach; and now the horn of the motor makes
less noise, and not such sweet music, and the rubber-tyred wheels
send up dense clouds of dust.

The _little village street of Bridge has stood there all these years
and seen all these passing sights. Yet to look at it now, it does
not impress you with antiquity. The architect who takes a glimpse
at the church will tell you that the Normans have left traces of
their skill behind: but, beyond this, we see nothing to recall the
centuries of the far past. And it is not pretentious of great beauty,
as Kent villages go. The street is long, with houses mainly humble
in appearance, and built without a vestige of architectural style.

 


 

20 1;IuI)(‘.I-:

the recumbent stone effigy of an ecclesiastic in robes, Macobus Kasey,
vicar of Patrixbourne, who died in 1.512, and the strange feature is
:1 bit of masonry or wall built right across the centre of the figure,
dividing it in two. Above, let into the wall, is a mutilated Latin in-
scription and a hand with pointing finger at its side. Near by are
marble tablets on the wall, one with a shield of arms and the other
with the gruesome ornamentation of a skull and cross-bones and
spade and matlock. Between, on a black stone slab, is this inscrip«
tion :—
“_IoANE THE SECOND DAVGHTER our wAI.TI;I< HAR-
FLET OF BEAKESBOVRNE ESQ.‘THF. FIRST \v1I-‘E OF SR.
ARNOLD BRAEMS KNT. DEPARTED THIS Lll-‘E THE 26
DAY 01-‘ JYLY 1635 AND LYETH BVRIED IN THE PARISH
CHVRCH OF ST. MARIES DOVOR ERECTED To HER LAST-
ING MEMORY. ELIZABETH THE SECOND DAVGHTER OF
SIR DUDLEY DIGGS OF CHILHAM CASTLE KNHT. MASTER
OF THE ROVLES SECOND wu-‘E 01-‘ SIR ARNOLD BRAEMS
KNHT. DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 27TH DAY or-' MAY
1643 AND LYETH BVRIED IN THE MIDLE or THIS
CHANCEL WHERE HER NAME Is ENGRAVEN AND FOR
WHOM THIS MONVMENT IS Eiu-:cTI-zn."

An exquisite piece of Norman carving that was once the filling of
an archway has also been reclaimed from the north wall of the
chancel. There are two rows of subjects. Those in the upper range
are too mutilated to be clearly made out, but the lower compart-
ments represent the angel of the Lord expelling Adam and Eve
from Paradise, with the words “Justitia Dei" on a label over their
heads; the second, Adam and Eve on each side of the forbidden
tree, with the Devil climbing up it in the shape of a cormorant;
the third, Cain's offering; the fourth, Abel's offering, with the flames
and smoke rising from the sacrificial pile; and the fifth, Cain slay-
ing his brother. Above this old bit of carving is a seventeenth
century painting on copper of Robert Bargrave. On the opposite
wall is some more stone carving in the shape of scrolls, possibly
taken from some old tombstones or slabs and inserted in their
present position quite recently. The cast window that lights the
chancel is of stained glass and represents scenes in the life of
Christ, but a window of greater antiquity is the small one in the
north aisle, deeply-splayed, containing stained glass and of Norman
date. The north chancel was once used as a village school.

 

A SAUNTER THROUGH KENT 21

Various tablets hang on the walls of the church—to the merrxory
of Baron de Montesquien, of Bridge, died 1824; Martha. Baldock, of
Bridge, and buried at Elham, died 1826; Lieutenant-Colonel E_ J‘
Pratt, 9th Lancers. died on his passage home from India in 18 57 ;
Amelius Sicard, M.R.C.S., of Bridge, died 1880; and John Lang-
berry, died 1849; Baby Fitch, wife of Thomas Fitch, died 1807-
Another inscription is as follows :-

" This tablet is erected by the Guardians of the
Bridge Union as a mark of their respect and esteem for
the memory of the late Mr. William Forth who from
the formation of the Union, a period of 30 years, per-
formed the duties of Relieving Officer, Master, and
finally Clerk. A zealous, upright officer and kind friend
to the poor. He died, regretted by all who knew him,
on the 18th day of April, 1865, in the 70th year of
his age."

There are also tablets relating to vaults containing the morgag
remains of James Lord. of Patrixbourne, and Catherine Brice.

Let us now retrace our steps down the village to the bridge, just
opposite, to which hangs a sign from the Plough Inn to inform
us that the Fire Brigade has its headquarters within. This brigade
was formed in 1873. the residents of the district purchasing the
engine. At that time the Marquess Conyngham took a. keen interest
in fire-extinguishing apparatus, and he undertook the captaincy, the
other members being Messrs. Smith, Pilcher, Verrier, Sargent, I-la.-d;_
man, Hodges. Evers, Jarvis, Garland, Vi/inter and Carpenter. [n
1878 the Earl of Mount Charles, the marquess's son, was captain,
with Messrs. R. Smith and F. J. D. Sams as lieutenants. The
present honorary secretary, Mr. C. \‘Vills, has seen no less than
thirty-three years’ service.

Strolling up the street we find some of the houses shaded by the
branches of lime trees, and then comes the village smithy——how luxuri-
antly the moss grows and blooms on the tiles hereabouts!——more trees
shade a house from the western sun and then we come to the oldest
building in Bridge. This is one of the old frame houses of the
sixteenth century, the timber beams being filled in" with bricks.
Additions have been made, but apparently it was once a. pretentious
house, though now divided into the habitation of several families_
At the upper end of the -street are villas—the " west end" of