the verdure, and Whiteleaf Cross stands out boldly and can be seen for miles.

By Wendover the line of the hills turns in a more easterly direction, so that as we ride along they seem to end a little way ahead of us. The limit of our view of them is marked by two lofty hills. Our attention is attracted to one by the monument which stands upon its summit, erected to the memory of men of the neighbourhood who fell in South Africa. The other hill is of a curious conical shape, and is known as Beacon Hill, and also as Cymbeline's Mount. A legend tells how Cymbeline's two sons died upon this hill in battle against the Roman invaders, and, hearing the legend, the origin of the names of the two villages through which we have just passed is apparent.

We take a turning to the right soon after leaving Little Kimble, and seem to be riding straight for Cymbeline's Mount. The little village of Ellesborough, which we pass, lies at the very foot of the Chilterns, and the ancient British road known as the Acknel Way runs through here - one of the oldest roads in England, for it was used by the Britons many years before the Romans first set foot in the land. After Ellesborough our road begins to ascend. It is flanked by high banks, and, judging by the thickness of the trees which surmount them, it is evident that we are passing through a wood. It needs a steady trudge to get up this hill, but it must be done if we wish to be in the Chilterns again, and our labour will be well rewarded. A break in the wood lets a flood of sunlight into the lane, and at the same moment our nostrils become aware of a pleasant fragrance. On our right is a hedge, and on our left a steep bank. It is from the left that the fragrance comes, for the sides and summit of the bank are a gray-green mass of wild thyme. The trudge up the hill has made us thirsty, and it is the hour for tea; the wild thyme tempts us, and we search for a way up the bank. At the far end is a gentle slope, and we wheel our bicycles up and, reaching the summit, prop them against a bush. It is the work of a moment to unpack the panniers, and we soon have the little spirit-stove placed snugly in the yawning mouth of a rabbit-bury. The breeze cannot reach it there, and we need not fear that Brer Rabbit will screw up enough courage to knock over the fearsome thing that bars the entrance to his home. While the kettle is boiling we can explore our camping ground. It is roughly triangular in shape, and there is not a square foot of it but yields its crop of thyme. The wood forms one of its sides, a hedge another, and the third is the little precipice with the lane at its base. The kettle is boiling by the time we have completed our survey, and we spread our table-cloth in the shade of a bush, make the tea, and sit

down in the fragrant thyme with our backs to the wood, so that, while we are refreshing the inner man, our eyes may feast upon the beautiful view over the hedge and the road. We are undoubtedly in the heart of the Chilterns again. Just below us are the tops of the trees through which our road has passed, and beyond them the rolling hills are spread with the cloud shadows racing over them. It is a beautiful scene and we are loth to leave it, but the sun is low and there is more to be seen. We finish our tea, repack the panniers, and the space left vacant by the consumed eatables we fill with a bunch of thyme: for some days its scent will serve to remind us of our day in the Chilterns.

Descending into the road again, refreshed and vigorous, we step out briskly up the hill. The banks on either side must be quite twenty feet high, and the trees grow to the very edge, their branches forming a green arch above us and their roots curling out of the banks in a confused tangle. We reach the top and are glad to mount our machines again, but, to our surprise, the road leads straight on to a common, and then ceases to exist. We find ourselves riding over short thick grass, worthy of a tennis lawn. We ride along on the turf, until the ground descends sharply and some deep cart-ruts make riding dangerous, but we do not have to wheel our machines far, for ere long the road begins again in the same irresponsible fashion in which it ceased. There is a little inn and one or two cottages in a cluster here, and a little further down the road are two or three more cottages and a church. This is Little Hampden. The church is a quaint little building that seems scarcely forty feet in length, and it is constructed chiefly of flints and mortar, building material that is characteristic of Buckinghamshire. Little Hampden is beautifully situated. Although itself by no means low-lying, it is surrounded by thickly wooded hills which shelter it from the winds, and render it an exceptionally salubrious spot. The road leading out of the village is down hill, and when we turn out into the lane at the bottom we find ourselves at the entrance to the great avenue of Hampden House, but a few minutes ride from Great Missenden, and not much more from Amersham, for it is mostly easy riding, and we cover the ground quickly. It is dusk when we reach Amersham, pleasantly tired and well satisfied, but with a firm resolve that ere the summer is gone we will spend yet another day in the heart of the Chilterns.

SHEPWAY CROSS.

BY A. DENTON CHENEY, F. R. HIST. S.

"L

YMME HILL, or Lyme, was sumtyme a famose haven, and good for shyppes that might come to the foot of the hille. The place is cawled Shipway or Old Haven. Farther, at thys daie the lord of the V ports kepeth his principal court a lytil by est from Lymme hill." Thus wrote Camden in his "Britannica" of a spot now remote from the world's busy affairs, leaving no trace nor sign of any special interest or antiquity, situated on a bye-road, in the vicinity of an unimportant village, yet replete with historical associations of so varied a character, and so momentous importance, that it is surpassed by none and equalled by few places in the whole realm of England.

In the days of the old Roman occupation Shepway stood upon the great Roman highway running from London, through Rochester and Canterbury, to the Portus Lemanus, the principal port in Southern Britain.' In the Itinerary of Antoninus (the fourth route) the distances are detailed thus: from London to Rochester 27 miles, thence to Canterbury 25 miles, thence to Lymme 16 miles. This latter portion of the road is excellently well defined throughout the greater part of its course, and is known as the Stone Street, from its having been paved with that material. It runs in a direct line from Canterbury, but at the foot of the hill from whose summit it points towards Lympne, it breaks suddenly off; its course, however, may be traced almost up to the site of the ancient port (see "Antiquities of Richborough, Reculver and Lym," by C. Roach Smith, published in 1850). There can be little doubt but that the Stone Street road at this end is incorrectly marked in the Ordnance Survey and County maps. Some years ago a local antiquary, Mr. Thurston, pointed out that

1 Somner, in his "Roman Ports and Forts," argues at some length that this port stood at New Romney, but this rather far-fetched hypothesis has been universally discredited. He also derives “Studfall" from stud fold, a place for breeding horses or cattle, instead of the generally received interpretation of “a fallen place."

2 Messrs. Forbes and Burmester, in their recent work upon "Our Roman Highways," mention the road from Lympne to Canterbury as one of the earliest, if not the earliest, Roman road in England. "The three roads," they tell us, "running from Lympne, Dover, and Richborough on the Kentish coast to a junction at Canterbury, appear to have been undoubtedly the three first constructed by the Romans in Britain.” (P. 261.)

66

"The Stone Street Road leads direct from the castle at Canter"bury to the parish of Lymne, but on reaching New Inn Green, near Westenhanger, it appears to diverge to the west to Stud"fall Castle. It is remarkable that if the straight line were con"tinued from New Inn Green it would point to the Shepway "Cross, and continue down the present roadway which descends "the hill to West Hythe. Now this is the only place along the "hill where a roadway could possibly descend it in a straight line, "and I believe was naturally selected as the road to the ships in "port, and therefore called the Shipway. There is one remark"able peculiarity in the Stone Street Road (he adds), namely, "that it forms a boundary to almost every parish along its course, "thus evincing its existence before these parishes were distin"guished from each other."

It is a well-known fact that public footpaths frequently perpetuate ancient British and Roman roads, and a reference to the Ordnance Map will show an existing right-of-way exactly following the presumed line of the old Stone Street from New Inn Green to Shepway Cross. A corroborative piece of testimony is found in the fact that the principal entrance to Studfall Castle, the official and business centre of the old Roman City,' lie east and west, which would correspond with the line of road above mentioned; the western gate doubtless was the entrance and exit to the city from Chichester and Pevensey (Anderida), mentioned in the 15th Iter. of Richard of Cirencester; which road, and not the Stone Street, by the way, gave the name to the hamlet of Court-at-Street, about two miles to the west of Lympne.

There has been some difference of opinion regarding the origin of the name Shepway; one or two writers have derived it from the vast numbers of sheep which from time immemorial have fed upon the Romney Marshes, and which they contend were probably driven along this route to and from the villages and pastures on the higher country round. Somner somewhat fancifully suggests that the hill afforded a fine prospect of the way of the ships passing through the Channel, and quotes Talbot and Lambard as of the same opinion; but as we know that the old Roman port lay at the foot of this hill (the site of its quays has been traced and placed beyond doubt), there can be little question but that it derived its name from its use, viz., the road or way to and from the ships in port.

But the peculiar point of interest attaching to Shepway Cross is not that it stood upon the busy highway of Roman commerce,

1 "The fortified praetorium, standing in the centre of the city, towards the four cardinal points of the compass." ("Our Roman Highways.")