MEMORIES OF MALLING AND ITS VALLEY. A CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. MONGST the many lovely valleys of which Kent can boast, none perhaps excels in beauty the Vale of Malling, which can be so well viewed from the neighbouring chalk hills. Not only its beauty, but its varied flora and fauna, and above all its history, make it repay the lover of nature or antiquity, or the student who prefers the chronicles of his own native land to those of the Continent. the county of Kent (as will be seen by the appended lists of natural history specimens at the end of this book) are to be found a great number of the most beautiful of the various members that form the fauna and flora of the British Isles, most of which may be found in this fertile vale. In From Holly Hill (642 ft.), or the Vigo (680 ft.), the eye may wander over this lovely valley, from the ground beneath one's feet to where the greensand hills, clothed with the Malling, Great Comp, and Mereworth woods, shut out the scene; and from the banks of the muddy, meandering Medway, to where the valley is almost closed near Wrotham. The parishes inclosed in this tract are West or Town Malling, East Malling, Ditton, Aylesford, Allington, Snodland, Halling, Paddlesworth, Birling, Leybourne, Ryarsh, Trottescliffe, Addington and Offham. These parishes were at one time all of them in the bishopric of Rochester, saving East Malling, which was a peculiar of the archbishop; but during the recent changes of that see, all except Aylesford, Halling and Snodland (whose fortunes have been attended by Paddlesworth, now no longer considered, though really a separate parish) have been transferred to the archbishopric of Canterbury. Addington, Birling, Ditton, East and West Malling, Leybourne, Offham, Ryarsh and Trottescliffe continue in the deanery of Malling, to which deanery East Malling was added. Allington was during these last twelve months transferred to the Sutton deanery, without any regard to geography or history. While Aylesford, Snodland and Halling, which belonged to the old Rochester deanery, now make part of the division of Rochester diocese which is known as the Cobham deanery. These parishes are all in the jurisdiction of the Malling division of magistrates, with the exception of Halling, which is in the Rochester division; and with the same exception they all form part of the Malling Union. They are all in the Lathe * of Aylesford. By the different Reform Bills these parishes have been transferred to the Parliamentary Divisions of West Kent, Mid Kent and Medway, according to the different ways into which the county has been divided. Though these parishes have never been very populous, they have maintained their own through every period of English history, owing to the bountiful supply of water and the fertility of the district. We subjoin a table of their population in the order of the last census :— This district has been always well supplied with water, for not only does the Medway bound the valley, but also several other streams that spring from the foot of the chalk hills in the Gault on one side, and from the overflow of the reservoirs that lie in the greensand range on the other flow through it. The most important of these streams takes its rise at Nepicar, in Wrotham, and is fed by one of those peculiar underground springs known in Kent as Nailbournes (a word of uncertain origin), which overflow at certain periods in a number of years, and finding its way though Addington Park and past Ryarsh Church, is joined by a considerable rivulet that rises near St. Leonard's Tower, in Malling, where there is an archway and a paved bottom (perhaps this once formed a baptistery to St. Leonard's Church), passes under the Malling and Tonbridge road, forms an ornamental * Kent is divided into five divisions, called Lathes: these Lathes, proceeding from west to east, are Sutton at Hone, Aylesford, Scray, Shepway, and St. Augustine. pond, and proceeds onwards to the abbey grounds, where it once fed the fish ponds of the nuns; leaving them by the cascade built by Mr. Foote in the year 1810, so well known to all visitors to Malling for its picturesque appearance, it runs through the bottom of what are called Banky Meadows, where it formerly was utilised for the tanyards which once gave Malling the importance it possessed. The two streams together unite to form the Leybourne mill pond, just below which the rivulet-no doubt in ages past-was used for the mote to Leybourne Castle, traces of which may still be seen. Keeping not far from the road it runs to Snodland, before reaching which place a considerable stream from Birling joins it, one of the heads of which is an iron spring, said to have been one of the constituents of the Birling drink,-a bottle of this is reported to have been an infallible cure for the bite of a mad dog. At Snodland this rivulet supplies the water to the paper-mills, and falls into the Medway after a winding course of about seven or eight miles. This stream was once, no doubt, the river that formed the valley. Another brook that rises in the uplands of East Malling, and turns the corn- and paper-mills there, once formed a mote round Bradbourne House, where there is still a pond; and then, passing across the London and Maidstone roads, it falls into the Medway a little below Aylesford. On the other side of the river the Boxley stream and Cosington spring are both well known. This great supply of water has, from time immemorial, been most serviceable for corn- and paper-mills, for which East Malling and Snodland have been famous for two hundred years. At the former place, we are told, the cardboard called millboard was first manufactured by Mr. Barling some forty or fifty years ago. The plentiful moisture has made this land valuable for orchard purposes, and at Leybourne and Snodland forms fine pasture land; at the former place were bred the famous horses that won the Derby for the late Sir Joseph Hawley, viz.: Musjid, Teddington, Bedesman and Blue Gown. CHAPTER II. THE EARLY PERIOD OF ENGLISH HISTORY. HE valley which we have already described, which forms the Tsubject of our history, was filled in the earliest days by the great forest of Andredswolde, which appears to have covered the whole country between the North and South Downs, and was one hundred and thirty miles in length. We may here remark, in passing, the statement that the beech not being a native of Britain, resting as it does on the sole authority of Julius Cæsar, who says that timber of every kind which is found in Gaul also grows in Britain except the beech and the silver fir,* can hardly be believed, since the short time that that commander stayed in this country was not sufficient to explore this mighty forest. At the foot of the chalk hills this great forest was bounded by what is most probably the oldest road in this country, which is popularly known as the Pilgrim's Path, and which, entering this county from Surrey, runs on to Canterbury. This road passes into our district from Wrotham at Trottescliffe, and traverses that parish and Birling to Snodland, then on to Halling, where a branch road went on to Rochester; but the main road crosses the Medway, and proceeds under the Downs by Debtling and Hollingbourne. As might be expected, this road forms the basis of all discoveries of an early period. At Wrotham have been found a number of British bronze celts. At Trottescliffe, not far from this road, still stands the ancient cromlech called Coldrum: this not only has three upright stones remaining, but one, though broken, still on the top-the front one has gone; besides this, part of the circle round it continues, consisting of stones to the number of nineteen, which, though fallen prostrate, are in their original places. When the Coldrum monument was re-discovered some years ago, two young gentlemen found under it a skeleton, which was removed and buried in the churchyard of Meopham by the vicar of that parish. Upon this the Rector of Trottescliffe, in which parish Coldrum stands, wrote to ask the Vicar of Meopham what he meant by stealing his oldest * Materia cujusque generis ut in Gallia est praeter Fagum et Abietem. |