CHAPTER X.
THE GAD’S HILL COUNTRY.
About midway between Gravesend and Rochester, on the old Dover Road, and in the parish of Higham, is Gad’s Hill, immortalized both by Shakespeare and Dickens. With regard to the derivation of the name there seems to be a little doubt, some regarding it as a corruption of “God’s Hill,” while others incline to the belief that it must be traced to the word “gad” (i.e., rogue), for, even prior to Shakespeare’s time, unwary travellers were here waylaid by highwaymen, and for such audacious thefts from the person this particular spot became notorious.
In 1558 a ballad was published entitled “The Robbery at Gad’s Hill,” and in 1590 Sir Roger Manwood, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, wrote: “Many robberies were done in the bye-ways at Gadeshill, on the west part of Rochester and at Chatham, down on the east part of Rochester, by horse-thieves, with such fat and lusty horses as were not like hackney horses, nor far-journeying horses, and one of them sometimes wearing a vizard grey beard ... and no man durst travel that way without great company.” In the first part of Shakespeare’s “King Henry the Fourth” (Act I., Scene 2) Poins thus addresses Prince Henry: “But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o’clock, early at Gadshill! there are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses: I have visors for you all; you have horses for yourselves.”[113]
To present-day pedestrians, who have no need to fear unwelcome attentions from “knights of the road,” the chief attraction of this locality is the house which stands upon the brow of the hill, reposing in delightful grounds, and commanding magnificent views of the surrounding landscape. This is Gad’s Hill Place, the home of Charles Dickens, where he resided from 1856 until his death on “that fateful day” in June, 1870. One of the most remarkable incidents of the novelist’s life was the realization of his boyhood’s ambition to live there, in the very house which he so often admired when, during his early years at Chatham, he accompanied his father on walking expeditions thence to Strood and beyond, and which, as his parent foretold, might really become his home if he worked hard, and were to be very persevering. The desire to own the property never left him; indeed, it may be said that, as time passed, his craving to possess it increased, and we may imagine his delight when, in 1855, he learned from his trusty henchman, W. H. Wills, that the place was available for purchase.
Having spent the final years of his active career at Gad’s Hill Place, it is natural that Gad’s Hill Place and its environment should be regarded as the very heart of Dickens land, so replete is it with Dickensian memories and associations.
Gad’s Hill Place is a red brick building, with bay windows and a porch in the principal front, a slated roof with dormers, surmounted by a cupola or bell-turret, the latter a conspicuous and familiar object to all accustomed to travel by road between Gravesend and Rochester. The house was erected in 1779 by a then well-known character in those parts, one Thomas Stevens, an illiterate man who had been an hostler, and who, after marrying his employer’s widow, adopted the brewing business, amassed wealth, and eventually became Mayor of Rochester. On relinquishing the business he retired to his country seat at Gad’s Hill, and at his death the house was purchased by the Rev. James Lynn (father of the late Mrs. Lynn Linton, the authoress), who, like Dickens, had fallen in love with the house when a youth, and resolved to buy it as soon as the opportunity offered. It was not until 1831 that he was enabled to take up his residence there, and Mrs. Lynn Linton, in recording her impressions of her home at that date, recalled the liveliness of the road: “Between seventy and eighty coaches, ‘vans,’ and mail-carts passed our house during the day, besides private carriages, specially those of travellers posting to or from Dover. Regiments, too, often passed on their way to Gravesend, where they embarked for India; and ships’ companies, paid off, rowdy, and half-tipsy, made the road really dangerous for the time being. We used to lock the two gates when we heard them coming, shouting and singing, up the hill, and we had to stand many a mimic siege from the bluejackets trying to force their way in.”[114] To counteract these obvious drawbacks there were natural advantages—the luxuriant gardens, orchard, and shrubberies, while the trees near the house offered a veritable sanctuary for song-birds. The worthy clergyman occupied Gad’s Hill Place until his decease in 1855, when, for want of an heir, the property had to be sold. Shortly afterwards his daughter and W. H. Wills met at a dinner-party, and in the course of conversation it transpired that the estate would presently be in the market. On learning this, Dickens immediately entered into negotiations for acquiring it, with the result that before many months had elapsed he became the owner. “I have always in passing looked to see if it was to be sold or let,” he wrote to his friend M. de Cerjat, “and it has never been to me like any other house, and it has never changed at all.”
RESTORATION HOUSE, ROCHESTER. ([Page 217].)
The “Satis House” of “Great Expectations.” Charles II. slept here on the eve of the Restoration, May, 1660.
After drawing a cheque (on March 14, 1856) for the amount of the purchase-money, £1,790, he discovered that, by an extraordinary coincidence, it was a Friday, the day of the week on which (as he frequently remarked) all the important events of his life had happened, so that he and his family had come to regard that day of the week as his lucky day.
Dickens did not, however, obtain possession of the coveted house until February of the following year, after which, for a brief period, he made it merely a summer abode, Tavistock House being his town residence during the rest of the year. In April, 1857, he stayed with his wife and sister-in-law at Waite’s Hotel, Gravesend, to be at hand to superintend the beginning of a scheme of alterations and improvements in his new home, which were carried on for the space of several months. The winter of 1859-1860 was the last spent at Tavistock House, and he and his family then settled down at Gad’s Hill. “I am on my little Kentish freehold,” he observed to M. de Cerjat, “looking on as pretty a view out of my study window as you will find in a long day’s English ride. My little place is a grave red-brick house, which I have added to and stuck bits upon in all manner of ways, so that it is as pleasantly irregular, and as violently opposed to all architectural ideas, as the most hopeful man could possibly desire. The robbery was committed before the door, on the man with the treasure, and Falstaff ran away from the identical spot of ground now covered by the room in which I write. A little rustic alehouse, called the Sir John Falstaff, is over the way, has been over the way ever since, in honour of the event. Cobham Woods and Park are behind the house, the distant Thames in front, the Medway, with Rochester and its old castle and cathedral, on one side. The whole stupendous property is on the old Dover Road.”