The road now grows suburban to Dover, and the valley commences to open out toward the sea. Where the Dour flows, all the vegetation is luxuriant, and there are lovely ponds decked with water-lilies beside the Crabble meadows, below the highway to the right and near the prettily named village of River; but as the hills rise on either hand they grow barren again and stretch for miles right and left. One green spot amid these eternal chalky undulations lies off to the right. This is Saint Radigund’s Abbey, sometimes called by two aliases, either “Kearsney” or “Bradsole” Abbey. The first is the legitimate name, the others are given by its neighbourhood and by the wide (or “broad”) pond (or “sole”) that stood beside the ruins. Little is left of the old abbey but a gatehouse and some beautiful stone-and-flint diapered walls, built into an old farmstead; but, although so little remains, what there is left deserves a visit from either architect or artist. Through this valley came King John on that shameful day when, having previously made an informal submission to Pandulf the Papal Legate in the Templars’ house at Ewell, he proceeded to formally ratify the gift of himself and his kingdom in the Templars’ Church on Dover Heights.
Where the Dour crosses the road at Buckland the open highway ends.
ST. RADIGUND’S ABBEY.
BUCKLAND
Buckland church was enlarged in 1880, and it was then found necessary to move the ancient yew, reputed to be over a thousand years old, in the churchyard. A writer calling himself “Old Humphrey” mentions the tree in his Country Strolls, 1841:—“The tree is hollow, and time and the elements have writhed it into fantastic shapes. I can see, or fancy I can see, snakes and dragons in its twisted branches.”
It was not without some anxiety that the people of Buckland viewed the proposed removal by some sixty feet of a tree for which they have much affection. The weight was estimated at fifty-six tons. The contractor was to have forfeited a great part of his price if the removal and replanting caused the tree to die; but the work was done skilfully, and the old yew seems actually to have become more flourishing for its change.
Henceforward are streets, first suburban, but presently continuous and crowded, for the two miles that remain. Dover is reached, and the road is done.