The Medway, "Kentish Men" and "Men of Kent"
The Medway is said to divide the county of Kent into two parts: this may allude to the fact that, since AD 604, there have been two dioceses: Canterbury and Rochester, whose jurisdiction covered much of everyday life. The tradition has grown up, and today is kept alive by the Association of Men of Kent and Kentish Men, that those born in West Kent - the area north of the river, but including Maidstone, Gillingham (other than Rainham), Rochester and Chatham - are labelled Kentish Men (or Maids); while those born in East Kent are Men of Kent (or Maids). This labelling applies equally to those born in those parts of the traditional county absorbed into London in the 1880s.
Read more about this topic: River Medway
Famous quotes containing the words kentish, men and/or kent:
“The red-eyed scavengers are creeping
From Kentish Town and Golder’s Green.
Where are the eagles and the trumpets?”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“I am primarily engaged to myself to be a public servant of all the gods, to demonstrate to all men that there is intelligence and good will at the heart of all things, and even higher and yet higher leadings. These are my engagements; how can your law further or hinder me in what I shall do to men?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Main Street was never the same. I read Gide and tried to
translate Proust. Now nothing is real except French wine.
For absurdity is reality, my loneliness unreal, my mind tired.
And I shall die an old Parisian.”
—Conrad Kent Rivers (1933–1968)