A HISTORY OF KENT tnoating includes within the protected area some remains of a Com- mandery of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. At Horton Kirkby, over two miles up stream, the river Darent is divided into two courses, which run, at Sutton, about a quarter of a mile apart ; the remains, being on the eastern side of the western course, lie between the two streams, the western one forming one side of the moat. ToNGE Castle. — Tong, or Tonga, is on the low lands south of the Swale, only about 40 ft. above sea level. There is evidence of a castle here soon after the Conquest, and it is highly probable that defences of some description guarded the site in earlier days. With the Watling Street close by on the south and, on the north, a creek of the Swale,' the importance of the position to Saxon or Dane is A=^.^Et8 C->^^r~D M//f ToNGE Castle. manifest ; either may have wrought a work here, but it was probably altered in late Norman times to accommodate buildings of masonry. A large pond now occupies the southern portion, and though possibly a sheet of water aided defence on this side, it is more likely that the mill-pond is of later mediaeval date, its construction destroying much of what was before-time a stronghold of more power than its present poor remains suggest. The moat, now much silted up, was doubtless deep enough to receive water from the strong springs which rise on the south-west of it to fill it, and there may have been a moat enclosing the raised platform, or keep, but the whole place is in so poor a state of preservation that any attempt to realize its former condition is somewhat difficult. It will be noticed that an entrance exists on the east ; this may be the original site, but in early times the access would have been by a ' The Swale is said to have been part of the main waterway from the continent to London from early days till the thirteenth or fourteenth century. 434
