Rambles 
 
 

 
 n 
 
RAMBLES 
 
 ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
RAMBLES 
 
 ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANCIS W. CROSS & JOHN R. HALL. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 (Second Edition.) 
 
 London : Simpkin, Marshall & Co. 
 Canterbury : Cross & Jackman and Hal Drury. 
 
 1882. 
 
 (All Bights Reserved.) 
 
C'2,c7 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. The Settlement of Augustine at Canterbury 
 
 II. St. Martin's Church 
 
 III. The Ruins of St. Pancras' 
 
 IV. to VII. The Monastery of St. Augustine 
 VIII. The Hospital of St. John .. 
 
 The Hospital of St. Nicholas, Harbledown 
 
 East Bridge Hospital 
 
 St. Mildred's Church 
 
 St. Margaret's, St. George's, St. Mary Magdalen's, and St. Paul's. 
 
 St. Stephen's, Hackington 
 
 9972Hf2 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XI. 
 
 XII. 
 XIII 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 21 
 45 
 51 
 58 
 65 
 72 
 78 
 
Contents Continued. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE. 
 
 XIV. St. Dunstan's Church .. .. .. .. .. 85 
 
 XV. Iluly Cross, St. Peter's, St. Alphege, St. Mary (Northgate), and 
 
 other Churches 
 
 89 
 
 XVI. The Castle, City Walls, and Gates . . . . . . . . 9a 
 
 XVII. Priories, Nunneries, and Alms Houses in Canterbury . . . . 104 
 
 XVIII. Thanington and Tonford .. .. .. .. .. 113 
 
 XIX. Milton, Horton, and Chartham . . . . . . . . 122 
 
 XX. Chilham .. .. .. .. .. .. ..128 
 
 XXI. Nackington, Bridge, Bishopsbourne .. .. .. 134 
 
 XXII. Patiicksbourne, Bekesbourne, and Littlebourne . . . . . . 139 
 
 XXIII. Fordwich and Sturry . . . . . . . . . . 145 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 St. Augustine's Gateway 
 
 St. Martin's — The Church . . 
 
 ,, Norman Piscina .. 
 
 ,, "Bertha's Tomb" 
 
 ,, Roman Coffin Lid 
 
 ,, Roman and Saxon Masonry 
 
 ,, The Lich Gate 
 
 , , The Font 
 
 ,, Ancient Stone Cross 
 
 St. Pancras' — Roman Tiles in Wall . . 
 
 ,, Ruins of the Church 
 
 St. Augustine's— In the Cloisters 
 
 Ruins of the Abbey Church 
 Window in Abbot's Chamber 
 Door of N.W. Porch .. 
 Ruins of Ethelbert's Tower . . 
 Bay of Tudor Wall 
 St. John's Hospital — Ancient Font 
 
 ,, The Gate House 
 
 (to 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 PAGE 
 
 face) 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 21 
 
 (to 
 
 face) 
 
 25 
 28 
 33 
 3G 
 39 
 45 
 4G 
 
Illustrations Continued. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 .St. Nicholas' Hospital — Old Alms-Box .. .. .. .. .. 51 
 
 ,, Norman Doorway . . . . . . . . 53 
 
 East Bridge Hospital — The Doorway . . . . . . . . . . 58 
 
 The Pilgrims' Hall . . . . . . . . 61 
 
 St. Mildred's— Roman Masonry . . . . . . . . . . Go 
 
 ,, The Church .. .. .. .. .. 68 
 
 Old Bench-head .. .. .. .. .. 69 
 
 St. Stephen's — The West Door . . . . . . . . . . 78 
 
 The Church .. .. .. .. .. .. 80 
 
 St. Dunstan's— Old St. Dunstan's Place .. .. .. .. 85 
 
 ,, The Church, N. side .. .. .. .. .. 87 
 
 The City Walls— A Tower on the Dane John . . . . . . . . 95 
 
 ,, Westgate .. .. .. .. .. (to face) 97 
 
 The Castle .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 100 
 
 The Priories — The Grey Friars . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 
 
 Thanington and Tonford — A Corbel.. .. .. .. .. 113 
 
 The Church .. .. .. .. ..115 
 
 ,, The Manor House .. .. .. 118 
 
 The Tudor Gateway .. .. .. ..120 
 
 Note. — The illustrations in this volume are from original sketches made during the 
 
 present year, or from pen-and-ink copies of photographs which were specially 
 taken by Mr. John Bateman, of Canterbury. The aim has been to illustrate 
 the text rather than to ornament the book. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 ANTERBURY CATHEDRAL is too vast, too rich in 
 art, history, and tradition to be included in this little 
 book. But around that matchless pile, and overshadowed 
 by it, there are monuments which — more venerable than 
 Christ Church itself — are memorials of the earliest English Christianity. 
 Few, however, of the many thousands who, year by year, come to 
 Canterbury from all parts of the world, take more than a passing 
 glance, or bestow more than a passing thought, on these hallowed 
 sites. This partly arises from the fact that, while the Cathedral has 
 been repeatedly described and illustrated, there is no book which the 
 visitor can take as an intelligent guide to the city and the surround- 
 ing parishes. He must seek for information in various works which 
 are costly and difficult to obtain, or be satisfied with the few pages 
 of meagre and inaccurate description contained in the local guide 
 books. 
 
 The authors of this volume have endeavoured to give a popular 
 account of St. Martin's, St. Pancras, St. Augustine's, and the other 
 principal remains of antiquity in and around the city. They have not 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 attempted to write a history ; they make no pretence to be learned 
 in archaeology ; but they have tried to make their story of Old 
 Canterbury interesting and, as far as possible, correct. They have 
 visited again and again the places described, taking notes and sketches 
 on the spot. They have added to their own material more valuable 
 matter taken — fairly they hope — from many separate works, ancient and 
 modern ; and they have endeavoured to weave the gathered threads 
 into an original pattern. Their plan has been to describe only those 
 antiquities which still remain, and to describe them as they are. 
 This will explain to the reader many omissions. 
 
 In the course of their rambles, the authors have received the 
 greatest courtesy and kindness from all to whom they have applied 
 for information, or for free access to the places visited. They 
 take this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge the kindness and 
 encouragement rendered by many friends. 
 
 Correction.—/;;/^- 11G, Zrd line from the bottom, for Henry VI read Edward VI. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 9)|e Sjettlemeut of Jwpstfcie at fettcrburu. 
 
 N his " Historical Memorials 
 of Canterbury," the late Dean 
 Stanley bids his reader stand 
 "on the hill of the little 
 Church of St. Martin, and 
 look on the view which is 
 there spread before his eyes." 
 Immediately below are the 
 towers of the great Abbey 
 of St. Augustine, where 
 " Christian learning and 
 civilisation first struck root 
 in the Anglo-Saxon race." 
 He reminds us that this spot 
 was the earliest cradle of our 
 most cherished institutions ; 
 that " from Canterbury, the 
 first English Christian city 
 — from Kent, the first English Christian kingdom — has by degrees 
 arisen the whole Constitution of Church and State in England." The 
 
 Norman Piscina, St. Martin's. 
 
RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 horizon which bounds our view, as we stand on this hill-side, encloses 
 within its narrow circle the grave of English paganism and the 
 birth-place of English Christianity. Here, first of all, was the voice 
 of prayer and praise heard in the English tongue, uttered by men 
 whose descendants have carried the Gospel to every quarter of the 
 earth. Wherever in the wide world that English tongue is spoken 
 to-day, the little Church of St. Martin's is a known and hallowed 
 spot. To it come travellers from many distant lands, desirous to 
 tread the ground which Augustine trod, to see the ancient sanctuary 
 in which Bertha worshipped, to linger on the spot where the first 
 Englishman was called Christian. 
 
 The associations which are enshrined around this spot are a familiar 
 and oft-told tale. But amongst the thousands who tread from year to 
 year these famous sites, there are many who have but the dimmest 
 idea of their matchless interest as relics of the past, and as records 
 of the first dawn of English Christianity. If, on our rambles amid 
 these venerable remains, we can lead any who accompany us to look 
 with deeper interest on the history written in scattered stones and ruined 
 walls, and to set a higher value on the memorials of the past, we shall 
 have gained the end we have in view. 
 
 Let us, then, retrace in imagination the ages which separate us 
 from the times of which we write, and suppose ourselves to be standing 
 on this very hill-side about thirteen hundred years ago. The Stour, 
 a higher and wider stream than now, was cutting its channel deeper 
 as it ran swiftly between the wood-covered slopes. Upon its banks 
 stood the wretched cluster of wooden dwellings, roughly built and 
 thatched — some two or three hundred may be — that formed the Can- 
 terbury of that day. This was the capital of the most powerful of 
 the Anglo-Saxon Kings of that age — Ethelbert of Kent, the Bretwalda 
 of the English, whose influence was paramount from the southern shore 
 to the border lands of Northumbria. Between the swampy banks of the 
 Stour and the foot of the hill of St. Martin stood his palace, probably 
 a simple group of wooden buildings suited to the fierce fighting-men 
 of a Jutish Court, unused to luxury, and heedless as yet of art. 
 
ST. MARTIN'S AND ST. PANCRAS\ 
 
 On the hill-side above the palace there stood the remains of a 
 small church which, according to the Venerable Bede, was "built of 
 old in honour of St. Martin, while the Romans were dwelling in 
 Britain." Bede may have erred in saying this Roman church was built 
 in honour of St. Martin ; but it is certain that three or four hundred 
 years earlier than the time of Ethelbert and Augustine, there were 
 Christians at Canterbury among the Roman soldiers and the British 
 people. When Ethelbert's ancestors came into Kent with hordes of 
 hardy Jutlanders the Romans had gone away, and the British Christians 
 were either slaughtered by the new comers, or were driven westward 
 into remoter parts of Britain. At the foot of the hill, and within the 
 precincts of the palace, there stood another Roman building or some 
 remains of one. Whether used in Roman times for Pagan or for 
 Christian worship is doubtful, but in Ethelbert's time it had become 
 a temple, in and around which the King and his people offered their 
 sacrifices, and held their feasts in honour of a god of slaughter and a 
 goddess of lust. 
 
 Yet within the circle of Ethelbert's heathen Court the light of the 
 Gospel was not wholly unknown, for Ethelbert's queen was the daughter 
 of Charibert, the Christian King of France. It is probable that most 
 of those who surrounded the Kentish king regarded with hatred and 
 contempt the religion of Queen Bertha, and looked with little favour 
 on the refinement which her Christian practice and gentle life must 
 have brought within the palace. During the many years that the pagan 
 king and Christian queen had been united, Ethelbert must surely have 
 heard the story of the Gospel from Bertha's lips. Her influence, 
 however, had not conquered him ; he was still a pagan. 
 
 With the coming of Angles and Saxons into the country, if not 
 even earlier than that, the true faith had departed from this little church 
 upon the hill at Canterbury, but when Bertha came to her new home 
 in Kent the ruined building was repaired, and having been dedicated 
 to St. Martin, it became the Queen's Oratory. Bertha had been 
 accompanied from France by Bishop Luidhard, or Liudhard, a retired 
 Bishop, and probably therefore already an aged man, as her Chaplain, 
 
RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 and by a retinue of Christian attendants. She must often have had 
 to witness scenes of pagan superstition and heathen revelry, and must 
 gladly have escaped from the heathendom of the palace to the quiet 
 seclusion of St. Martin's Chapel, for prayer and meditation. 
 
 Thus, for about a quarter of a century, this little Church of St. 
 Martin remained a Christian oasis in the pagan desert ; but the time 
 arrived when the wilderness itself was to blossom. Pagan though he 
 was, Ethelbert must have been a man of noble character, as old Fuller 
 says, — " a good stock fit to be grafted on." The graft prospered, and 
 the fruit which has sprung from it has multiplied and spread over the 
 world. 
 
 Stone Coffin at St. Martin's, called "Bertha's Tomb.'" 
 While Ethelbert reigned in Kent, there was at Rome a tender-hearted 
 monk whose name was Gregory. He saw, it is said, in the market- 
 place three English youths, fair-haired and blue-eyed, true children 
 of the North. They were a group of slaves, and the sight of them 
 
THE LANDING OF AUGUSTINE. 
 
 aroused the pity and sympathy of Gregory, who hated slavery. He 
 spoke to the youths, and asked whence they came. He was told they 
 were Angles, from Deira, a Saxon kingdom of Britain. He replied, 
 "It is well, for they have faces of angels and should be saved, de ird, 
 from the wrath of God, and called to the mercy of Christ." He 
 enquired the name of their King, and was told "iElla." "Alleluia!" 
 exclaimed Gregory, " the praises of God ought to be sung in that 
 kingdom." 
 
 Gregory himself desired to carry the Gospel to the English people. 
 He was not permitted to do so ; but a few years later, when he became 
 Pope, he sent into the distant kingdom a band of forty missionary 
 clergy and monks, headed by Augustine, who was Prior of the Monastery 
 of St. Andrew at Rome. They slowly made their way across France, 
 meeting with hardships and difficulties, which led them, being faint- 
 hearted, to desire to turn back, and abandon their mission. Gregory 
 urged and encouraged them to persevere, and at last they landed in 
 the Isle of Thanet. The exact landing place is unknown, but they 
 were bidden to remain at the spot until Ethelbert met them, and heard 
 what they had to say. This interview took place in the open air, in 
 the spring of 597. Augustine set forth the object of his coming, and 
 his words were interpreted to the King. "These are fair words and 
 promises," replied Ethelbert, " but because they are new and uncertain, 
 I cannot at once assent to them." Nevertheless, he gave the strangers 
 permission to enter Canterbury. They came along the Roman road, and 
 down St. Martin's Hill, singing a Gregorian chant as they marched in 
 procession, and bearing aloft a silver cross and a picture of the Saviour. 
 They passed the Church of St. Martin, where Luidhard had ministered 
 until his death, and on reaching the city they first took up their abode 
 at the "Stable-Gate," which was close to the spot on which St. Alphege' 
 Church now stands. Soon afterwards they were permitted to worship 
 at St. Martin's, which they entered chanting " Open ye the gates, that the 
 righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in." (Isaiah xxvi.) 
 It was not long ere Ethelbert resolved to accept the new faith. He was 
 baptised by Augustine on Whit-Sunday of that same year (597). It is 
 
RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 not improbable that this event, so momentous in its consequences to 
 the English nation, took place at St. Martin's, or in the Stour below. 
 The King's conversion ensured that of his people, and on the Christmas 
 Day following ten thousand of them were baptised in the waters of the 
 Swale. 
 
 We have spoken so far of Augustine the missionary monk, but 
 between the conversion of Ethelbert and the baptism of the ten thousand 
 men of Kent, Augustine had gone over into France, and had been 
 consecrated at Aries. He returned as the first Bishop of the English 
 Church, and Canterbury became the seat of the English Primacy. 
 Owing to the influence of Ethelbert the religion of Christ had within 
 a few years been accepted throughout the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. So 
 far the footsteps of Augustine are traceable in history. In the following 
 century, however, we enter a misty region of tradition, in which facts 
 are uncertain, and the documentary evidence more than doubtful. Bede 
 finished his history of the Church in 731, and he might have gathered 
 his knowledge of the events at Canterbury from those whose span of 
 life extended back to the time when some of Augustine's companions 
 were still in existence. 
 
 Bede states that Augustine on his return from France repaired and 
 consecrated an old church which the faithful among the Romans had 
 erected, and that he dedicated it " in the name of God the Saviour 
 and Our Lord Jesus Christ." These words were assumed by the writers 
 of the spurious early charters to refer to the foundation of Christ Church, 
 and it has been generally said that the present Cathedral of Canterbury 
 stands on the site of that which Augustine dedicated. It is doubtful 
 if the words of Bede can fairly be so interpreted. They would 
 rather seem to refer to that Roman church of which the actual foun- 
 dations have been opened to view quite recently at St. Pancras ; 
 the church of which Thorn, a monk of St. Augustine's in the 14th 
 century, wrote: — " There was, not far from the city towards the east, as 
 it were midway between the church of St. Martin and the walls of the 
 city, a temple or idol-house, where King Ethelbert, according to the 
 rites of his tribe, was wont to pray, and with his nobles to sacrifice to 
 
AUGUSTINE AND ETIIELBERT. 
 
 his demons and not to God, which temple Augustine purged from the 
 pollutions and filth of the Gentiles, and having broke the image which 
 was in it, changed it into a church, and dedicated it in the name of 
 the martyr St. Pancras, and this was the first church dedicated by St- 
 Augustine." 
 
 It is said that Ethelbert, on accepting Christianity, gave up his 
 palace to Augustine, who founded there the monastery which was at 
 first dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, and at a later time was re- 
 dedicated to Augustine himself. It is almost certain that in obedience 
 to the orders of Gregory, the pagan groves and temples were not 
 destroyed, but were devoted to the worship of Christ. The conversion 
 of the Kentish people was, no doubt, more a proof of loyalty to their 
 king than a result of Augustine's preaching, or a miracle of grace as it 
 was represented to be. Even Ethelbert's own Christianity was probably, 
 like Constantine's, a mingling of the new faith with the old paganism, 
 and it is recorded that his son and successor went back for a time to his 
 old gods when Ethelbert and Augustine were no more. 
 
 It has seemed desirable to give a brief sketch of the history and 
 traditions which gather round this remarkable spot, ere we pass over the 
 entire site, and describe what there remains of the buildings in which 
 Bertha, Ethelbert, and Augustine joined in Christian worship, the foun- 
 dations on which were laid the whole structure of the English Church. 
 
 PIECE OF ROMAN COFFIN — ST. MARTIN S. 
 
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CHAPTER II. 
 
 St. Sariht's 9,\m\< 
 
 T. Martin's is the most ancient 
 church in England, and it was at 
 one period the only church in this 
 country in which Christ was wor- 
 shipped. Within its walls Christian 
 soldiers of the Roman empire and 
 Christian converts among the British 
 might have united in the service of 
 the Saviour. It survived the fall of 
 Roman and Briton, the pillage of 
 Saxon and Dane. The Normans, 
 who pulled down most of the 
 churches, to rebuild them according 
 to their own fashion, spared this, 
 though they left their hand-work upon and within it. It is not a site 
 merely ; the fabric is there. The very walls are in part, at least, those 
 which resounded to the praises of God fifteen hundred years ago. 
 
 The evidences of Roman material in the walls of St. Martin's are 
 abundant throughout, but while in some portions the Roman tiles are 
 mixed with other material, elsewhere they seem to have been undisturbed 
 since the day when they were laid one upon the other. This is the case 
 
 B 
 
10 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 especially in the south wall of the chancel, a portion of which has every 
 appearance of being original masonry. Quite recently, Canon Routledge, 
 who has devoted much time to the study of this church, has laid bare 
 the internal wall of the nave on the south side, and has discovered there 
 also original Roman tile work, overlaid with the characteristic salmon 
 coloured plaster ; so that it is probable that a considerable part of the 
 walls of the early Romano-British church remain intact. Then there is 
 another part very full of Roman tiles in good condition, but mixed 
 with flints and rough stones laid together irregularly. It is no 
 straining of probability to attribute this portion of the work, in the 
 chancel especially, to the period when the ancient Roman building was 
 repaired in order to fit it for Queen Bertha's sanctuary. 
 
 In that part of the south wall of the chancel in which we suppose 
 the masonry to date from Saxon times is a very rudely formed, flat 
 headed arch, composed of three blocks of oolitic stone. It has been 
 spoken of as a leper's window, which does not seem probable. It must 
 have been the work of unskilled masons such as we may suppose 
 Ethelbert's artificers to have been. A short distance east of this rude 
 arch is a small round-headed arch, formed of thin slabs of stone with 
 wide joints of sea-shore mortar. The sides of the arch are composed 
 of Roman tiles very regularly and evenly laid. It has been discovered 
 that the Roman tiles are regularly continued through the wall to the 
 inner surface, and the whole appearance and character of this arched 
 doorway is suggestive of very early construction. The engraving on 
 page 8 gives an accurate illustration of these two interesting arches 
 and of the wall masonry to which we have referred. 
 
 It has been supposed that the nave of the present church was 
 wholly an addition to the pre-Norman building, but Canon Routledge's 
 discoveries show that a part of the nave wall is of the Romano-British 
 period. In an old drawing of the church given by Stukeley there is 
 plainly shown a round arch close to the east end of the south wall of the 
 nave. On carefully examining that part of the wall in certain lights the 
 position of the arch can be traced in the flint work facing of the wall. 
 This arch must have been filled up before the construction of the 
 
ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH. 11 
 
 Norman piscina on the other side of it, within the nave, and it pro- 
 bably belonged to the Saxon if not to the Roman building. At the west 
 end of the same wall is an early English arch filled up and subsequently 
 pierced for a window. This was evidently the arch of a south porch or 
 door. Formerly there was a north porch also, but this too has been 
 removed and the wall filled in. 
 
 The plan of the church is of the simplest kind ; a west tower 
 opening to the nave, which is divided from a chancel of equal length by 
 an early English arch. There are no aisles, but on the north side of the 
 chancel is a small recess used as a vestry. In one of its windows is an 
 interesting representation of Bishop Luidhard, Queen Bertha's chaplain. 
 The inscription within the nimbus is " Lindardus Episcopus." The 
 Bishop has a crosier and mitre in his hand. This piece of painted glass 
 was, we believe, found some years ago in some old curiosity shop in 
 London. Whatever its origin it is admirably suited for its present 
 position, and it is alike excellent in design and execution. The painted 
 glass of the other windows is all modern. One shows St. Martin parting 
 his cloak with the beggar ; another represents Gregory the Great. 
 
 The Norman piscina (p. 1), mentioned above, is said to be one of 
 the earliest ; the stone-work has been pierced to support a canopy. In 
 the north wall of the chancel is a very perfect aumbry, still having the 
 carved oak door so rarely to be met with in these receptacles for the 
 sacred vessels. It is attributed to the 15th century. In the same wall 
 of the chancel is an arched recess, of modern construction, which 
 contains an ancient stone coffin. There is no inscription or carving 
 upon the lid, which is a slab of oolite, but it is commonly spoken of as 
 " Bertha's tomb" (see p. 4). 
 
 In the year 1845 the church was under restoration by the Rector 
 (the late Rev. W. J. Chesshyre), and in the lowering of the chancel floor 
 the coffin was discovered imbedded in the wall. It was opened in the 
 presence of the Rector and of the Hon. Mr. Finch. The lid was 
 removed with considerable difficulty, being firmly cemented on. The 
 inside of the coffin was hollowed to the shape of the body, a cavity 
 being formed for the head. Mr. Chesshyre was strongly of the opinion 
 
12 
 
 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 that the coffin might be that of Queen Bertha, whom a tradition of no 
 great antiquity represented as having been buried in the church. This 
 tradition is mentioned by Fuller (1655), but Somner, in 1640, makes no 
 allusion to it, so that it could scarcely have been current in his time. It 
 has to contend against the distinct assertion of the old chroniclers that 
 Ethelbert was buried beside Queen Bertha, in the porch of St. Martin, 
 
 in the Abbey Church of St. 
 Peter and St. Paul (St. Augus- 
 tine's Abbey). All that we 
 can say, therefore, is that in 
 the Church of St. Martin is a 
 nameless, ancient coffin which 
 some believe to be that of 
 the gentle and pious Bertha. 
 The Latin inscription, placed 
 by Mr. Chesshyre above the 
 tomb, gives expression 
 to the doubt as to the 
 burial place of Queen 
 I Bertha. 
 
 Many have been the 
 gBp^ opinions expressed on 
 the age of the Font, 
 which has probably given rise to more discussion, and been regarded 
 with greater interest than any other font in the kingdom. Some 
 even have declared it to be as old as the time of Ethelbert and 
 Augustine ; many have maintained that it is certainly a Saxon font, 
 and others that it is certainly Norman ; at last we seem to have arrived 
 at a composition of these two opinions, and archceologists of eminent 
 ability consider that the font itself is Saxon, but the carving upon it 
 Norman. This last theory appears to be one in which the actual evidence 
 and the uncertain tradition can alike be included. The font is made up 
 of three separate circular bands and a rim. The three bands are 
 composed of twenty-four distinct stones. The two lower bands are 
 
ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH. 13 
 
 ornamented with circles irregularly and rudely interlaced. One stone 
 bears what resembles a Runic knot, and it would be difficult to say why 
 the ornaments in the two lower bands should not be pre-Norman. On 
 the upper band is carved a series of interlaced round arches ; this 
 is almost certainly Norman. Contrasting the formal pattern of the 
 one with the archaic irregularity of the other bands, we should be 
 inclined to suppose them to be the work of two different periods. 
 Mr. Loftus Brock points out, however, that the whole carving of the font 
 was done with a chisel of not over a quarter of an inch, and appears 
 to have been executed at one time, and that a late Norman date ; but 
 he argues, with much force, that as many cases even now occur of old 
 fonts being " decorated " with carving quite out of keeping with the 
 age of the font itself, such might also have been done by the Norman 
 craftsman who chiselled the pattern on this ancient font. The font now 
 stands on a modern base. It was taken to pieces and remade during 
 the restoration of the Church. 
 
 Old brasses are rare in Canterbury, and though those in the pave- 
 ment of St. Martin's are not specially remarkable they are worth mention. 
 There are the figures of Michael Francis Sertivoli, and Jane his wife, 
 with the date 1587. A plate, also in the Chancel pavement, records that 
 " Here lieth Thomas Stoughton, late of Ash, in the County of Kent, 
 gentleman, who departed this life the 12th June, 1591." There is also 
 a plate to Stephen Fulks and Alice his wife, dated 1406, the oldest dated 
 brass in Canterbury. This calls to mind an inscription on an ancient 
 finial cross which was dug up in the year 1767, close to the churchyard. 
 Upon one face it bears Helbwhyte, in raised letters within a hollow 
 moulding. On the other side the words " And Alys ys wyfe," are sunk 
 in the hollow groove showing that it was used as a memorial of some 
 dame Alice at a later period. This old cross now stands on a pedestal 
 close to the Lych Gate and is well worth observing. There is an 
 interesting mention of it in the appendix to Mr. Bryan Faussett's 
 " Inventorium Sepulchrale." 
 
 In a letter to his friend, Dr. Ducanel, dated Nov. 13, 1767, he 
 say : — " About ten days ago an ancient stone cross such as you have 
 
11 
 
 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 seen on the gable-heads of churches was discovered in a garden near 
 St. Martin's Church. On one side is excuipt a word which we cannot 
 make out, but is no doubt the name of a man. On the other side is 
 insculpt four words which, like the former, being made up of barbarous 
 monkish letters, of no particular alphabet, puzzled me out of patience ; 
 
 but at length our friend Pearson un- 
 ravelled them, and they were no more 
 nor less than ' And Alys his wife.' 
 Say nothing; our President is to try 
 if he can make them out." 
 
 A number of coins, with a Roman 
 intaglio and a gold ornament con- 
 taining coloured glass were dug up at 
 St. Martin's. One of the coins is 
 remarkable both for the beauty of its 
 execution, and as bearing the image 
 Cross found at St. Martin's. of Bishop Luidhard, the Chaplain of 
 
 Queen Bertha. It has often been figured and described. During the 
 restoration, a mediaeval chrismatory, or vessel for the sacred oil, was 
 found in the wall. It is now in the possession of Mrs. Chesshyre of 
 Barton Court. 
 
 Many have desired to be laid in a spot so hallowed with Christian 
 memories as St. Martin's. Such was the wish of the late Dean Alford, 
 and there, in the spot he selected, is his grave, under the spreading 
 yew-tree beneath which he often stood to look down upon his own great 
 church. It bears that singularly felicitous inscription he had pencilled 
 down to be carved upon his tomb. "Deversorium viatoris Hierosolymam 
 Proficiscentis." (The sojourning place of the traveller to the heavenly 
 Jerusalem.) Many have vainly sought to discover whence Dean Alford 
 drew this poetical and beautiful figure. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 %\t Stums of St. Banou'. 
 
 THELBERT'S pagan temple, when reconsecrated 
 to Christ, was dedicated by Augustine to St. 
 Pancras. We may feel sure that it was in St. 
 Martin's that the Italian missionaries first held 
 their Christian services, but it is most likely that 
 St. Pancras' was the church in which Englishmen 
 first bent the knee to the Saviour. Dean Stanley 
 has given an interesting account of its Patron 
 saint: — " Pancrasius " he says "was a Roman 
 boy of noble family, who was martyred under 
 at the age of fourteen, and being thus regarded as the 
 Patron saint of children, would naturally be regarded as the Patron saint 
 of the first fruits of the nation which was converted out of regard to the 
 three English children in the market place (of Rome). And secondly, 
 the Monastery of St. Andrew on the Ccelian Hill, which Gregory had 
 founded, and from which Augustine came, was built on the very property 
 which had belonged to the family of St. Pancras." 
 
 The church of St. Pancras has long ceased to be more than a ruin, 
 and but a fragment of what remains above ground probably stands as it 
 did in Augustine's time, yet it is a venerable monument, whose broken 
 walls and crumbling arch are built of the materials which were first laid 
 
 ^orritfri. teles inihe 
 Diocletian at the 
 
16 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 together by Roman or British Christians upon the foundations which, 
 after being buried for so many ages, have again been exposed to view. 
 Modified in form alone they have stood where they now stand while 
 empires have fallen into more complete decay, and the English nation 
 has slowly built itself up. 
 
 The church of St. Pancras stood between the Abbey of St. Augustine 
 and the church of St. Martin. It is partly in the grounds of the Kent 
 and Canterbury Hospital, and partly in a field on the property of Mr. 
 Home, who kindly gave us full liberty to visit and explore it. The ruins 
 above ground include the east wall of the chancel, containing a large 
 and lofty pointed arch, turned in Roman tiles ; it was that of the great 
 east window of the mediaeval church. Portions of the north and south 
 walls of the chancel are also standing, and are from 2ft. 6in. to 
 3ft. thick. They are composed of very various materials, but Roman 
 tiles abound in every portion of the structure. On the south side of 
 the chancel, the lowest part of the wall is composed wholly of tiles, 
 quite evenly laid, and this is probably part of the original Roman 
 structure, but in the other portions the Roman bricks are mixed with 
 flint, with rough and with roughly-squared stones. In several places 
 stones showing early Gothic mouldings (the spoils of the destroyed 
 buildings) have been used to repair the fabric. The east wall of the 
 church is joined at right angles by the old boundary wall of the 
 Monastery, which in this place is very thick, but is composed of chalk, 
 rubble and flint, so loosely put together that it has been quite honey- 
 combed by rats. 
 
 Within the chancel and in its south wall is part of a piscina, the 
 moulding on one side and a part of the hollowed stone basin remaining. 
 A few feet from this, in the same south wall, is a part of an arched 
 doorway 7ft. wide, and from the arc of the curve remaining, it was 
 apparently a flatly rounded arch turned in Roman brick. It appears to 
 have been more ancient than the surrounding building, and there is no 
 trace of it on the exterior of the wall. 
 
 The extremely ancient stone font of St. Pancras, which was found 
 many years since within the ruined chancel, now stands for use as a 
 
RUINS OF ST. PANCRAS 1 . 
 
 17 
 
 flower-vase in the garden of a house at the back of the College buildings. 
 It is a rough-hewn square block, with a circular basin chiselled out, 
 quite archaic in character, and without the least trace of ornament. 
 
 Ruins of St. Patients'. 
 The boundary wall running westward from the church is full of 
 Roman bricks. In this wall is the famous stone which, for how many 
 ages we know not, was firmly believed to show the marks of the Devil's 
 talons. The monks of St. Augustine's were doubtless the authors of the 
 story, which ran that when Augustine first held worship in St. Pancras, 
 " the Devil, all enraged, and not brooking his ejection from the place 
 he had so long enjoyed (as a heathen temple), furiously assaults the 
 Chapel to overturn it ; but having more of will than power to actuate the 
 intended mischief, all he could do was to leave the ensigns of his malice, 
 the print of his talons." Somner quotes the tale from Thorn, and 
 adds, — "Let him believe it that can give any credit to it, forme; and 
 
RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 so I leave it." He says, however, that " on the walls outside of the 
 south porch such tokens as the historian will have it to be the marks 
 of the Beast are visible enough." The external wall of the south porch 
 is no longer standing, but the graven stone is built into the wall facing 
 the adjoining field. 
 
 In the summer of 1881 some excavations which were made in the 
 Hospital field, on the south side of the ruins of the mediaeval church, 
 led to the discovery of the foundations of the Roman building which 
 was dedicated by Augustine to St. Pancras. These were opened up 
 under the direction of the Bishop of Dover and Canon Routledge. The 
 latter gentleman ably explained the remains to the Archaeological Society, 
 at their Canterbury meeting, in July of the same year, and prepared a 
 ground plan of the entire site of the church. We had already pointed 
 out, in an article on St. Pancras, that the lower part of the south wall of 
 the chancel was wholly composed of Roman tiles regularly laid, and 
 that there stood above ground a considerable piece of wall which had 
 evidently formed part of a Romano-British building. The subsequent 
 discoveries confirm the observations, and, although the foundations have 
 not been laid open on the north side, we can now get a very clear idea 
 of the size and shape of the original building. The foundations of the 
 south wall of the nave and part of the chancel have been opened, as 
 well as those of a west porch, and a south porticus. Starting at the west 
 we commence with the previously mentioned wall, built of Roman tiles, 
 evenly laid, with sea-shore mortar. This wall is from 9 to 10 feet high, 
 and about as long ; it is undoubtedly a part of the building in which 
 it is believed that Christians assembled to worship during the period 
 of Roman occupation of Britain, and those very bricks must have 
 resounded to the voice of Augustine as he preached to the Kentish court. 
 This piece of wall formed the north side of the west porch, and thence 
 we trace, in the foundations, the line of wall until we come to a south 
 porch or porticus of the same size (10£ ft. by 9 J ft.) This south porticus 
 is one of the most interesting spots on English soil. It contains the 
 masonry of an altar, which there is reason to suppose stands on the 
 foundations of that before which Ethelbert sacrificed to heathen gods, 
 
RUINS OF ST. PANCRAS\ 19 
 
 and which Augustine consecrated to the God of Truth. The monkish 
 chronicler of St. Augustine's, writing in the 14th century, said : — "There 
 is still extant an altar in the southern porticus of the same church, at 
 which the same Augustine was wont to celebrate, where formerly had 
 stood the idol of the king." Five hundred years after Thorn wrote, the 
 porticus and the altar are unearthed, and bring confirmation to his facts, 
 though none to his legends. 
 
 Continuing to pass eastward along the foundations we come to the 
 end of the wall of the nave. At this point there is a portion of a large 
 round Roman pillar with its base imbedded in the original masonry. 
 Beyond this the chancel wall of Roman tiles can be traced for some 
 distance. Canon Routledge's plan gives the dimensions of the nave as 
 42£ by 26 ft., and of the chancel as 31 by 21 ft. 
 
 The Roman wall of the south porticus was pierced during the 
 fifteenth century for a new doorway; the floor was covered with tiles 
 probably of the same date. Below them there was a layer of earth, and 
 then a concrete floor. Fragments of Roman pottery and fused bronze 
 were found during the excavations, and the earth showed clear signs of 
 the action of fire. The west porch had also a pavement of mediaeval 
 tiles, below which were discovered some remains of very ancient inter- 
 ments. In one case the skeleton, nearly perfect, lay upon the earth, 
 and was covered in with rough stones formed into a rude kind of coffin, 
 above which was a large oolitic slab not unlike that of the stone coffin 
 at St. Martin's. Unfortunately, no articles were discovered to give a clue 
 to the period in which these bodies were buried in the porch of the 
 church. The mouldings of the doorway leading into the church are 
 Norman. The mortar of the Roman walls are in some parts of the 
 salmon coloured tint due to pounded tiles. 
 
 It will be seen that these ruins of St. Pancras are of national 
 interest and importance. Unfortunately there is no security that such 
 priceless relics of our earliest history will be cared for or preserved, but 
 an effort should be made to rescue the remains of Augustine's first 
 church from desecration, and secure them for future ages. The county 
 of Kent contains a great number of wealthy churchmen and antiquaries. 
 
20 
 
 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 Can they not raise a fund to purchase the whole site, to be conveyed 
 to the Warden and Fellows of St. Augustine's, under covenant securing 
 to the public for ever the right to visit and inspect the ruins ? These 
 are days in which all intelligent persons deplore the ruthless destruction 
 of ancient monuments which might have withstood the hand of time 
 during centuries yet to come. We no longer expect to see column and 
 arch, and traceried window carted away to decorate some garden wall, 
 or marble tombs hacked to pieces for common building material : our 
 age has revived the love of beauty, and the respect due to the venerable 
 remains of ages whose art-sense was higher and purer than our own. 
 Surely, therefore, St. Pancras', with its fifteen hundred years' history and 
 associations of profound interest to English Christians will be duly 
 appreciated and religiously preserved. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Ilje IJJjoratos* of 3t Jtttpjstme. 
 
 UGUSTINE received from the hands 
 of the king a grant of land for the 
 erection of a monastery, in which to 
 house the band of missionaries — for as 
 such were they sent hither — and to estab- 
 lish a school in which promising English 
 converts might be trained as priests and 
 preachers. The founder of this earliest 
 monastery in England, " the first born, 
 the first mother" as it was called in Papal 
 bulls, was not a monk of the sort that in 
 later days brought scandal and shame on 
 Christendom. The friend and messenger 
 of the simple and pious Gregory was a 
 monk of poverty, and had little thought 
 of that luxurious and lordly 'pomp which afterwards became the rule 
 within the Conventual halls. Dr. Hook (Lives of the Archbishops, 
 vol. I) tells us what manner of men they were who now settled down 
 in the Kentish capital : they were indefatigable in preaching the 
 Gospel ; their books were .few, but many could repeat large portions 
 of Scripture ; few were they who did not know the Psalms so as to join 
 
22 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 in the service of the church ; the readers were incessantly employed ; 
 in the church, at meal times, early in the morning, and late at night, 
 the lector was at his post ; they lived in primitive simplicity, and were 
 perfectly contented with what was provided for them. Augustine laid 
 the foundation, but did not live to see the completion of the structure 
 first raised. The date of his death appears to be uncertain ; it was 
 probably within seven or eight years from his landing in England, but 
 in that short time much was accomplished. Augustine in bodily stature 
 towered a full head above his companions, but it does not appear that 
 his mental pre-eminence was proportionate to the physical ; yet that he 
 was capable of many of the actions ascribed to him ought not to be 
 believed on such unreliable testimony as that of the Anglo-Saxon 
 historians. It would be going beyond our province, however, were we 
 to enter into this debateable land. 
 
 Augustine died with his work only fairly begun. His royal convert 
 was beside him in his last moments, and comforted him, we may be sure, 
 with a promise to continue true to the Faith and to its ministers. The 
 remains of the missionary archbishop were buried in that ground which 
 afterwards became so renowned a cemetery, and near the church whose 
 first stone he laid. His successor, Laurentius, completed this abbey 
 church, and dedicated it to St. Peter and St. Paul in the year 613, for it 
 was not till the rededication by Dunstan, in 978, that it also received the 
 name of St. Augustine. Ethelbert was present at the consecration, but 
 his gentle queen had already been laid to rest. Her remains, with those 
 of Luidhard and Augustine, were then removed to the north porch of the 
 church ; and three years later the body of Ethelbert, the first Christian 
 Englishman of whom we have record, was also buried in that porch. 
 
 Upon the death of the king, a time of trial and adversity came upon 
 the newly-founded church. Ethelbert had married again, and his son 
 Eadbald, having resolved to wed his step-mother, began to quarrel with 
 those who opposed his desire ; he turned again to the heathendom which 
 he had but half abandoned. We are told that Laurentius, in his despair, 
 passed the night in the church, and fell asleep, with the thought in his 
 mind of giving up the mission and returning to Rome. In the still 
 
THE MONASTERY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 23 
 
 midnight hour, St. Peter appeared, and scourged the faint-hearted Arch- 
 bishop till his back was scarred and bleeding. In the morning, the 
 fresh wounds were exhibited to the King, who was so impressed by the 
 "miracle" that he renounced his unholy intentions, and was baptised. 
 He became a generous patron of the monastery, which rapidly grew 
 greater and richer as the years rolled on. 
 
 It was not only at Canterbury that reaction against the new faith 
 had set in. Mellitus, bishop of London, was driven out, and came as a 
 refugee to the monastery. A year after his coming, he was, on the 
 death of Laurentius, consecrated as his successor in the Primacy. A 
 story is told of him which is not quite so legendary as that of Laurentius. 
 He was lying ill with gout when he heard that a great fire was spreading 
 rapidly among the thatched, wooden houses of the city. He was carried 
 to the spot, and, in answer to his prayers, the fire was stayed. This 
 tale is told by Bede, to whom we owe most that is known about 
 Augustine and his successors at Canterbury. Bede obtained his infor- 
 mation from the Abbot Albinus, the first abbot who was an Englishman. 
 He was "a man skilled in all kind of learning," and he sent by letter 
 and messenger to the famous monk of Durham whatever knowledge of 
 the early history of the monastery could be gained from the written 
 records, or the oral report of aged brethren. Thorn, the monk of St. 
 Augustine's, wrote at a much later date, and is less to be trusted, being 
 farther removed from the events he described. 
 
 As the Church in England, grew older its wealth and power accu- 
 mulated, but its pristine simplicity was lost. The conventual life became 
 less pure ; luxury and revelling desecrated the monastic halls ; and bitter 
 jealousies and conflicts arose between the rival establishments of St. 
 Augustine and Christ Church. We read of a sumptuous feast, given 
 by Abbot de Bourne to six thousand guests, and no opportunity was lost 
 of lodging and entertaining kings and nobles within the monastery; the 
 mitred Abbot was jewelled and arrayed in gorgeous robes ; he rode forth 
 to chase, or travelled to Parliament with a retinue befitting a monarch ; 
 the convent kitchen was enlarged ; hosts of retainers were engaged in 
 the service of the great officers ; gratified kings bestowed estates upon 
 
24 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 those who excited their superstition, and ministered to their pleasure ; 
 and parish after parish became annexed to the monastery, for provision 
 of food or clothing, within which simple terms the costly luxuries of 
 mediaeval monasticism were conveniently included. 
 
 In Thorn's time the Abbot of St. Augustine's possessed nearly 
 ten thousand acres of land, and the revenues and rights of at least 
 a dozen great parishes in Kent. The sanctity attaching to a spot in 
 which Augustine and the next nine Archbishops were buried must have 
 added greatly to the influence of the Abbey in days when all men held 
 belief in the miraculous powers of dead saints' bones. The fact that 
 the Christian kings of Kent were interred in the same place would also 
 have its weight, and no chance was lost of adding to the number of 
 saintly relics. Thus Abbot Elstan in 1030 caused the bones of St. 
 Mildred to be brought from Minster to the Abbey. We have the usual 
 legendary tales of the wonderful works wrought by virtue of the relics. 
 According to accounts they were potent in time of fire and flood, and 
 could even stay the still more terrible scourge of Danish ferocity. It was 
 in 1011 that the Danes assailed and sacked the city of Canterbury and 
 destroyed the Cathedral. They seem to have spared St. Augustine's. 
 The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that Abbot Elmer betrayed the city to 
 save himself and his monastery, but of course the monks tell another tale. 
 Thorn's account is that when the ravaging Danes entered the monas- 
 tery to carry away what they could lay hands upon — "one of them more 
 desperately wicked than the rest of his comrades, conies boldly to the 
 sepulchre of our Apostle St. Augustine, where he lay entombed, and 
 stole away the pall with which the tomb of the saint was covered, and 
 hid it under his arm. But divine vengeance immediately seized upon 
 the sacrilegious person, and the pall which was hid under his arm stuck 
 to the arm of the thief, and grew to it, as if it had been new natural 
 flesh, insomuch as it could not be taken away by force or art, until the 
 thief came and discovered what he had done, and confessed his fault 
 before the saint and the monks, and then begged their pardon. The 
 example of divine vengeance so affrighted the multitude of the rest of 
 the Danes, that they not only offered no violence to this monastery 
 
THE MONASTERY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 25 
 
 afterwards, but became the chief defenders of the same." So runs the 
 monk's tale, but it is to be feared that the balance of probability is in 
 favour of Elmar's treachery. It is not likely that the men who sacked 
 the city, and murdered Archbishop Elphege would be awed into sparing 
 the monastery. Half a century later a new and more lasting invasion 
 brought great changes to St. Augustine's, as well as to most of the 
 ecclesiastical buildings in the country. The Normans destroyed to build 
 anew, and when, in the time of Lanfranc, Scotland, the Norman, was 
 made Abbot, he pulled down the rude Saxon church, and began to build 
 the Norman Church of which a few columns and arches still remain. 
 He died in 1087 and left the work to be completed by his successor 
 Wido. When all was finished, the bones of Augustine were once more 
 moved, to be deposited in the new Abbey, his stone coffin being secretly 
 built into the wall of the east end of the church. About seventy years 
 afterwards (1168) a fire broke out in the monastery, which destroyed 
 many of the ancient records and did much damage in the church. This 
 happened in a time of trouble and humiliation for the monastery, into 
 which an Abbot had been intruded whom the Chapter refused to own. 
 The monks would not let him minister in the church, or have any part 
 in the doings of the Chapter ; but he held his office, notwithstanding, 
 during thirteen years, when he was deposed by a mandate from the 
 Pope. We do not know to what extent the fire of 1168 rendered 
 rebuilding necessary. In 1271 the monastery was likely to be destroyed 
 by flood. A terrible storm arose in that year, during which there 
 were — "thunders and lightnings and such an inundation of rain that 
 the city of Canterbury was almost drowned. The flood was so high 
 both in the court of the monastery and the church that they had been 
 quite overwhelmed with water, unless the virtue of the Saints who rested 
 there had withstood the waters. During this storm rain poured down 
 for days as though a second universal flood was coming upon the earth ; 
 flocks and herds were swept away, and trees overturned ; the flood was 
 followed first by famine and afterwards by plague." 
 
 When the murder of Becket drew the interest and devotion of 
 the Christian world to the shrine in Christ Church, the monks of St. 
 
26 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 Augustine's were in danger of being neglected and forgotten. The 
 rival Chapter spared no means to turn the whole tide of popular favour 
 and munificence into their own channel. There was no love lost 
 between the two communities ; from the two Abbots to their lowest 
 serving men, jealousy, hatred and malice seem to have been cherished 
 by one against the other. 
 
 There were times when the Chapter of St. Augustine's found it 
 hard to supply the daily wants of their large community. In the Paston 
 Letters is one from a monk, who, writing in 1464, declares that the 
 community were in great debt and misery, and had hardly bread to eat. 
 There were worse times ahead, however, and the final crash came when 
 John Essex, the seventieth Abbot, and thirty of his monks, signed the 
 deed of dissolution, in the thirtieth year of the reign of Henry VIII. 
 That Royal appropriator converted the monastery and its lands into 
 a palace and deer park. His daughter Mary gave it to Cardinal 
 Pole for his life, and her sister Elizabeth granted it to Henry, 
 Lord Cobham, who being attainted, it reverted to the Crown. The 
 Queen then gave it to Viscount Cranbourne, Earl of Salisbury, and 
 subsequently it fell into the possession of Edward, Lord Wotton, of 
 Marley. Through his family it passed to Sir Edward Hales, who 
 married a Wotton, and ultimately to his descendant, Sir Edward Hales, 
 of St. Stephen's. 
 
 We have touched but lightly on the chronicles, more or less 
 historical, of the Monastery. On the history written in stone we can rely, 
 but how much of history in books is better than fable ? Somner re- 
 published copies of old Latin charters which purported to be those by 
 which Ethelbert gave to Augustine his palace at Canterbury. But the 
 cold blast of criticism has cast its blight on these, as on so many other 
 interesting things in which we would fain believe. After all, these same 
 charters, if spurious, may yet be to some extent based on originals. If 
 forgeries they are ancient ones, and interesting. They are dated A.D. 
 605, in the early summer of which year Augustine is supposed to have 
 died (there is some doubt as to the date of his death). The first charter 
 states that King Ethelbert gives, in honour of St. Peter, land on the 
 
THE MONASTERY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 27 
 
 east side of Canterbury "that a monastery may be there erected." The 
 second says that the King gives to God a portion of land " where he 
 had founded a monastery." The third charter names the monk Peter, 
 as first Abbot of the monastery, and gives to it " Chistelet otherwise 
 called Sturiag." It also gives to the monastery a golden sceptre, and 
 a bridle and saddle adorned with gold and precious stones. Mention 
 is made in it of Augustine having enriched the monastery with relics of 
 Apostles and Saints, and " other ecclesiastical ornaments," sent him 
 from Rome. A fourth charter appoints the monastery the sole place 
 for the burial of Kings, Archbishops and Princes. The differing degrees 
 of assent attached to the signatures to the charter are curious, and worth 
 briefly noting. The king " confirms " by his own hand with the sign 
 of the Cross. Augustine " subscribed willingly." Eadbald the king's 
 son, who afterwards became an apostate, declared himself " favourable 
 to it." One of the king's nobles " praised it," another " consented 
 to it," a third "approved it," and a fourth "blessed it." 
 
 Ethelbert's successor, Eadbald, built a church for the monastery, 
 dedicated to St. Mary. He also gave "30 plough lands" in the Manor 
 of Northbourne to it. Other royal benefactors added additional plough 
 lands to the estates. Canute the Dane not only gave the property of 
 the Abbey of St. Mildred, at Minster (Thanet), but presented the monks 
 with the body of the saint, and Edward the Confessor gave "all the 
 land he had in Fordwich." 
 
 During the greater part of the middle ages the Abbey was the most 
 famous in England, if not in Europe, but it was not without its vicissi- 
 tudes, even in the days of its glory. It had lean years as well as fat, 
 for one of its chronicles piteously tells of food being scarce, and the 
 cellarer so straightened, that the monks had to send to public houses 
 for their daily quantum of ale. The Abbots were more apt in luxury 
 perhaps than in management of the monastic exchequer, and their 
 rivalry with Christ Church led to a costly though splendid hospitality. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 IJrc gjcrmtfitcni of St. Jwpate. 
 
 (Continued) . 
 
 HE grand gate of St. Augustine's, at the 
 
 north-west^ corner of the monastery, 
 
 faces a small square, known since the 
 
 days of Charles II. as Lady Wootton's Green. 
 
 Everyone who has a sense of beauty must 
 
 rejoice that this matchless gate was spared 
 
 < ^At v -J^il^M^^ i hH by tne spoilers who destroyed the noble 
 
 buildings to which it gave access. It is 
 flanked by two octagonal towers, which rise, 
 elegant as Saracenic minarets, above the 
 main building, and from tower to tower 
 springs a pointed arch with deep cut mould- 
 ings ; above this is the Gate Chamber, whose 
 mullioned windows and canopied niches form 
 brilliant bays of an arcade of singular beauty, 
 spanning the whole facade, and encompass- 
 ing the towers on either side. The decorated 
 battlement rises above a band of trefoiled triangles than which Gothic 
 art never devised a more perfectly harmonious ornament. 
 
 Window of the Abbot'' s Chamber, 
 St. Augustine's. 
 
THE MONASTERY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 29 
 
 Within the front arch is a flatter one which frames in the massive 
 doors of panelled oak. One might fancy these two arches were designed 
 to symbolize the ideal and the actual of monastic life — the first soaring 
 heavenward, the other drawn earthward ; the one pure as the motive, 
 the other debased as the conduct. With such reflections we step within 
 the gates and pass under the finely vaulted archway into the Great Court. 
 How quiet, calm, and beautiful is the whole scene ; the green sward 
 framed in on the one side by the buildings of the " living present," and 
 on the other by the ruins of the past, whose crumbling remains are 
 shadowed beneath stately trees ; here the rich line of traceried cloister, 
 and the simple dormitories of the students ; there the noble Library with 
 its treasures of learning, and below it the interesting crypt in which the 
 Augustinians acquire skill in hand-labour and learn the mysteries of 
 carpentry and building. On the other side the eye ranges from the 
 Guest Hall and the beautiful little chapel to the distant ruins of the 
 Abbey church over which so many changes have passed. 
 
 Few are able to realize what must have been the proportions and 
 grandeur of that noble Abbey. The hand of time has been less ruthless 
 than that of man ; the same spirit of barbarism which permitted a spot 
 sacred in English history to be turned into a tavern, battered down the 
 Abbey walls, and scattered the memorials of saints and kings. How 
 little, alas, is left to aid us, in imagination, restore to these ruined walls 
 their original beauty, and people these courts again ! 
 
 Yet, thanks to the princely munificence of Mr. Beresford-Hope, 
 who has built for himself an enduring monument within this ancient 
 monaster)', this first home of missionaries to the heathen English, has 
 become a home and school for English missionaries to the heathen 
 world. Once more peace and order reign within these precincts, and 
 the new spirit which pervades them, links us with the memorable times 
 of old. We think of those who have gone forth, year after year, from 
 St. Augustine's into all the settlements of Englishmen in the " Greater 
 Britain," into Africa, India, and the farther East ; into the Western 
 Canadian wilds, the Australasian colonies, the West Indies, and the 
 distant Pacific isles ; and knowing that they have proved themselves 
 
30 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 valiant soldiers of the Cross, we are reminded of the beautiful lines 
 written by Dr. Neale, on the completion of the first solemn service of 
 consecration in the newly founded College : — 
 
 I see the white-wing'd vessels, that bound to realms afar, 
 
 Go conquering and to conquer, upon their holy war ; 
 
 No loud-voiced cannon bear they, those messengers divine 
 
 Of England's merchant-princes, and England's battle line ; 
 
 Yet they breast the broad Atlantic, the Polar zone they brave, 
 
 They dash the spray-drops from their bow in that Antarctic wave ; 
 
 The fiend that haunt's the Lion's Bay, the dagger of Japan, 
 
 The thousand wrecks they laugh to scorn of stormy Magellan. 
 
 Where earthly arms were weakness, and earthly gold were dross, 
 
 Safe go they, for they carry the unconquerable Cross : 
 
 The Cross that, planted here at first, now planted here again, 
 
 Shall bloom and flourish in the sight of angels and of men ; 
 
 Another St. Augustine this holy house shall grace, 
 
 Another English Boniface shall run the Martyr's race, 
 
 Another brave Paulinus for heathen souls shall yearn, 
 
 Another Saint Columba rise ; another Kentigern ! 
 
 Awake, and give the blind their sight ; teach praises to the dumb, 
 
 O Mother Church ! arise and shine, for lo ! thy light is come ! 
 
 Till all the faithful through the world, God's one elected host, 
 
 Shall welcome the outpouring of a brighter Pentecost : 
 
 And there shall be, and thou shalt see, throughout this earthly ball, 
 
 One Church, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Lord of all ! 
 
 It is not possible in our days to adequately appreciate the grandeur 
 of St. Augustine's when the all but sovereign Abbot ruled its little 
 world ; but, aided by a fragment here and there, we may form some idea 
 of the ancient buildings of the monastery, which extended over sixteen 
 acres of land, and were alike magnificent in size and style. The Abbey 
 church rose high above the surrounding edifices, as Christ Church now 
 does over the city. Its magnificent tower, named after Ethelbert, was 
 massive as a castle keep ; its lofty walls were pierced with arcades of 
 round arches, some of which, intersecting, formed the pointed arch 
 which ushered in the aspiring Gothic. There were countless pillars 
 cunningly carved in twist and spiral, with their capitals chiselled into 
 
THE MONASTERY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 31 
 
 quaint devices. This grand square tower rising to a height of 125 feet, 
 stood at the north west corner of the Abbey church. The nave was 
 34 feet wide, flanked by aisles, each 19 feet wide, with lofty columns 
 supporting the vaulted roof. Beyond were the choir and chancel with 
 the magnificent east window (resembling, it is said, the great window of 
 Tintern) forming a glorious background to the High Altar, within which 
 the bones of Augustine were laid. Around were numerous other altars, 
 all more or less resplendent in gold and jewels, and bearing saintly relics. 
 
 On the south side of the church was the porch of St. Martin, 
 wherein Bertha was first buried ; on the north side, the porch of St. 
 Mildred. Next to the church on the north side, was the Abbot's 
 chamber, and the Abbot's chapel, having access on one side to the 
 church, and on the other to the Cloisters, which ran north and then 
 east, around the Monk's garden. Beyond the Cloisters stood the 
 Refectory, and beyond that a lordly kitchen, a splendid hexagonal build- 
 ing with eight columns, and, doubtless, vaulted roof. A subterranean 
 way ran from the Kitchen to the Refectory. But yet farther to the 
 north was the Infirmary, another massive and extensive building, with its 
 own chapel adjoining. Then there were the Abbot's apartments, the 
 Dormitories for the monks, and the Dungeon, with its thick walls, 
 unpierced by door, and lighted only by a narrow window, too high to 
 be reached by the prisoner, who was probably lowered into the place 
 from above. Into this " Little Ease," there may have been put not 
 merely refractory monks, but quite possibly defaulting tenants, over 
 whom the Lord Abbot had jurisdiction. There were chambers also for 
 royal and noble visitors, a Guest Chapel, and Guest Hall. The monas- 
 tery had its own water course from the hills beyond ; its noble gardens 
 and orchards ; its mortuary chapel, where the dead awaited burial ; and 
 its cemetery where, age after age, the monks of St. Augustine, and many 
 of the citizens from without, were laid at rest. 
 
 What remains of all this ? A mere fragment of Ethelbert's tower ; 
 the wall of the north aisle of the church ; here and there the base of 
 a column, or the shaft of a fallen arch ; and the whole foundations of 
 the Church buried under a mass of earth and debris, which fills up the 
 
32 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 site of the nave, and extends far into the field beyond, where a great 
 mound marks the eastern limit, and covers the remains of the chancel. 
 Of the other buildings of the monastery, the Guesten Hall, the founda- 
 tions of the Refectory, and the Gate House, are parts of the ancient 
 structure. 
 
 Some portion of Ethelbert's tower was still standing in the early 
 part of this century. The achievements of the local Vandals appear to 
 have culminated in the year 1822, when one of the most interesting and 
 instructive fragments of early Norman work was cast to the ground. 
 The very stones might have found tongues to swell the chorus of 
 "shame" which rose from those who watched the stupid work of 
 spoliation carried on. The pictures of the Tower taken about this 
 time show a lofty pile which reared itself in massive grandeur, with here 
 and there a remaining arch and column. It was against this beautiful 
 ruin that local barbarians kept jamming a battering ram for days, because 
 someone was nervous lest the solid mass which had stood for centuries 
 should suddenly fall. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 %%t ^am&Uxg; of St Juipstiuc. 
 
 (Continued). 
 
 VAULTED archway led 
 from the Tower into a 
 Galilee Porch at the west 
 end of the church, beyond 
 which another porch, or 
 tower, stood at the opposite 
 south west corner. In the 
 recent excavations of the 
 earth covering the site of 
 the nave and north aisle, 
 the bases of some of the 
 columns of the church 
 have been laid bare, and 
 much of the tile flooring 
 of the mediaeval church is 
 still in situ. Some of the 
 tiles were very fine, both 
 as to design and colour, 
 many having the fleur-de- 
 lys, others the rose, and some a circular pattern requiring four tiles to 
 complete it. The ground sounds hollow in several places, and further 
 digging would probably lead to some interesting discoveries. 
 
 <>rof?ySri 
 
34 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 A portion of the base of Ethelbert's Tower, still standing-, enables 
 us to judge how vast was the material it contained. The pictures of it, 
 which can be seen in the College Library, give us a fair idea of its 
 style. It was square in form, and the parts of two sides which now 
 remain above the foundations indicate roughly the dimensions, its walls 
 for some height above the ground being from ten to twelve feet thick. 
 The columns still standing in the angles of the Tower show capitals of 
 the earliest Norman style. The entrance into the Church through the 
 massive wall remaining is of course the work of a later period (15th 
 century probably), and a wonderful piece of masonry it is. The ashlar 
 blocks of Caen stone, with which the coarse material of the tower is 
 here arched and faced are almost absolutely perfect in surface and joint, 
 after several hundred years of exposure. 
 
 The wall of the north aisle of the Norman church still stands, and 
 bears above it a lofty course of brickwork of the Tudor period, added 
 when the ruined wall of the Abbey was utilised for the new palace build- 
 ings, erected after the dissolution of the Monastery. The church to 
 which this aisle wall belonged was the work of the two first Norman 
 Abbots, and must have been finished just before the end of the 11th 
 century. There are still remaining six of the original bays of the north 
 aisle. They are separated by columns about twenty feet high, with plain 
 Norman capitals. The Norman windows have been filled up, but the 
 semi- circular arches are still nearly perfect. In the second bay of the 
 aisle wall is a very early Norman arch. In the next is a pointed arch 
 inserted, probably, at the date of the Tudor alterations. It is remarkable 
 how admirably the stone surface of the early columns and arches has 
 been preserved. At the extremity of the nave aisle, there is a fragment 
 of an aisle arch ; of the choir and chancel, only the site remains ; but as 
 the bases of the pillars and the foundations of the walls are still in 
 the ground, we hope that the whole of them will one day be laid open. 
 
 Passing to the exterior of the north aisle wall, we are upon the site 
 of the palace buildings of Henry VIII. ; which, earlier still, in the days 
 of the Abbey's prosperity, was the site of the Abbot's Chamber. Still 
 more recently, in the days of its degradation, it was turned into a 
 
THE MONASTERY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 35 
 
 fives-court and a skittle-ground for the public-house — to such base 
 uses had the Church of St. Augustine been brought. On the east 
 side of the court is an old wall in which a blocked-up arch marks the 
 entrance to the Abbot's Chamber. On the other side of the wall, the 
 bases of the numerous clustered columns on either side of the door are 
 still to be seen ; it must have been a doorway of great beauty. Over 
 this arch was a very fine pointed window, shown in the old drawings. 
 It suddenly fell in about forty years ago. (See initial to Chap. V.) This 
 old wall contains a grilled opening, which formerly looked upon the 
 Cloisters from the Abbot's larder, a spot which doubtless had a powerful 
 attraction for the monks without. The cellarer's room was close by. 
 There was, not long since, in this wall a rude arch of rough stones, 
 roughly set together, probably pre-Norman. It has of late fallen in. 
 Beyond, we have a pointed doorway, which originally opened into the 
 Cloisters. (See initial to Chap. IV.) The north wall of the Cloisters 
 shows traces of the sedilia for the monks. This wall contains a good 
 deal of a curious conglomerate of shingle, naturally cemented by lime 
 deposited by a calcareous stream. The Cloisters surrounded the monks' 
 garden, over the walls of which we can now look into the fields beyond, 
 but it must be remembered that the monks were wholly shut off by high 
 walls from any chance of an outlook upon the external world. 
 
 The large field between St. Augustine's and St. Pancras, and the 
 orchard beyond it, were formerly part of the Monastery. The whole site 
 to the farthest boundary wall is full of roughly-rectangular mounds, 
 marking the position of the foundations and walls which lie below. 
 There are acres of walled chambers buried here, with doubtless many a 
 hidden treasure amongst the debris. Stone and leaden coffins have been 
 dug up here at various times ; many Roman coins have been found, and 
 other articles of great interest to the archaeologist. We have seen frag- 
 ments of jasper columns and marble capitals of great beauty, which were 
 dug from one of the many chambers which are below the surface of this 
 large meadow. Roman tiles are to be found in every part in greater 
 abundance than the little Roman church of St. Pancras will account for. 
 
 During hot and dry weather, the position and dimensions of the 
 
THE MONASTERY OF ST. AUGUSTWE. 37 
 
 buried walls are made clear by the parched and withered vegetation 
 above them. The rectangular spaces are mostly from 18ft. to 24ft. 
 square, and without much difficulty a ground plan of the whole could 
 be made out. On the south side of the field is a much larger rectangular 
 space, surrounded by walls and debris. This is about 80ft. wide and 100ft. 
 in length, measured from the wall of the College. It marks the site of 
 the east end of the Abbey-Church. 
 
 On the east front of the Refectory, there was a subterranean passage 
 some thirty yards long at least, and about ten feet deep from the arched 
 roof to the floor. This was probably an underground communication 
 from the refectory to the kitchen. The foundations of the latter build- 
 ing remaining, indicate a grandeur in keeping with the Abbey. The 
 size of it can be readily made out, as the pathways in the garden are laid 
 down on its massive walls. It was hexagonal in shape, and must have 
 been extremely spacious. A base of one of the columns which is 
 now exposed, shows that it was grand in style as well as in size. Under 
 the kitchen ran the water-course, supplied from the springs on Scotland 
 Hills. Beyond the kitchen, and now beyond the boundary of the College, 
 stand portions of the walls of the Infirmary, and, at the spot called 
 Mount Pleasant, a part of the Infirmary Chapel. The thickness of the 
 walls of this Chapel and Infirmary, which were but adjuncts of the 
 Abbey, remind us how utterly different were the conditions under which 
 mediaeval builders did their work. 
 
 On the foundation of the old Refectory the College Library has 
 been erected, a very fine hall, lofty and well lighted, with its literary 
 treasures admirably arranged. Here also are preserved many objects of 
 interest which the visitor should not fail to see. It is worth noticing 
 that the fourth window on the west side frames in a view which contains 
 no building of later date than the era of the Reformation. The view 
 comprises the gate-house of Abbot Fyndon and the ancient buildings 
 adjoining, while Bell Harry Tower rises majestically in the distance. 
 The library contains several old drawings and prints of great interest as 
 showing the actual condition of the monastery during the last two 
 centuries. A curious relic of the public-house period is preserved in 
 
38 
 
 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 the shape of a placard which announces the opening of the gardens 
 by " Mr. Stanmore, late of Canterbury Theatre, every Tuesday and 
 Thursday, upon the principle of the Royal Gardens, Vauxhall ; with 
 dancing, walking the tight rope, fireworks, &c, &c." 
 
 The Refectory with its interesting crypt has been restored as nearly 
 like the original as the few remains rendered possible. The vaulted 
 roof of the crypt is supported on ten elegant columns, and the place is 
 well lighted and spacious. It is put to a very practical use, being 
 furnished with benches, lathes, and all the apparatus of the carpenter's 
 art, for here the students are trained in such technical work as is likely 
 to be of good service to them in their future mission-homes. For 
 instance, one who first learned to handle the saw and the plane under 
 this vault, has built two churches for his Dyak people in Borneo 
 (Mr. Croysland), and numerous other illustrations might be given of 
 the value of the instruction the students obtain from their master in 
 carpentry. The walls of the old crypt were lined with painted panelling, 
 a portion of which was many years ago carried away to be used, we 
 believe, at the George and Dragon Inn. 
 

 
 Sla^ 
 
 
 TVJ01 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ^l)t DJottasferg ai St. ^upstate. 
 
 ( 'Continued). 
 
 N the beautiful chequered 
 wall of the Warden's garden 
 there is an interesting relic 
 of the Tudor period, when 
 the Abbey was converted 
 into a palace for Henry 
 VIII. The chequered 
 squares of stone and flints 
 are singularly effective, and 
 the proportions of the 
 recesses by which the wall 
 is divided into bays very 
 
 in tkeffkrderisjfanlm . 
 
 harmonious. A single bay is sketched in the initial to this chapter. 
 
 On the west side of the Great Court are the Guest Hall and Chapel, 
 access to both being gained by an old stone staircase, part of the original 
 building. The hall is a very fine apartment, a restoration of the ancient 
 Guest Hall, erected by Abbot Fyndon at the close of the 13th century. 
 Its splendid oak roof is in part ancient; the windows are reproductions of 
 the old ones, as nearly as could be ascertained from fragments of tracery 
 found in the ruins. Much as it is now it .must have been when royal 
 
40 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 and lordly guests were entertained within its walls, and when Queen 
 Bess, seated on the dais, in all her glory of paint and jewels, received the 
 homage and flattery of her great courtiers. Charles 1st and Charles 2nd, 
 were also entertained under the same roof. The former ill-fated sovereign 
 lodged in the Abbey on the occasion of his marriage ; the latter on his 
 journey to London at the Restoration. At the marriage of Charles 1st 
 Orlando Gibbons of the Chapel Royal came down to officiate as organist, 
 caught the small pox, and died here. He was buried in the Cathedral. 
 If the old walls could but repeat to us the conversations to which they 
 resounded on some of these historic occasions ! But after all, the grand 
 old room is put to better use than the casual entertainment of Tudors or 
 Stuarts. It is now the Common hall of the Missionary College. Here 
 the students take their meals in company with the Warden, the Sub- 
 Warden, and Fellows, who sit at the upper table on the dais. The 
 Warden's chair is an elaborate, carved oak piece, probably old Flemish. 
 It was presented to the College by the munificent founder. On the wall 
 behind hangs a fine mosaic, a copy by Salviati, of a celebrated Mosaic 
 in St. Mark's Venice. It represents the Saviour, seated on the throne of 
 judgment, with the great book open in his hands. Near the dais is an 
 old painting of considerable interest, which was once, we believe, the fire- 
 place ornament of a neighbouring tavern. It represents St. Augustine's, 
 probably at some time during the last century, and shows Ethelbert's 
 Tower and other buildings of the monastery now no longer standing. On 
 the walls of the hall are excellent portraits of the following benefactors 
 of the College — Bishop Coleridge, who was chaplain to Archbishop 
 Howley at the same time as Mr. Lyall (afterwards Dean of Canterbury). 
 The two chaplains were so much alike in features that they were con- 
 stantly mistaken for each other — The Rev. Edward Coleridge, who gave 
 the first impulse to the movement for founding a missionary college, 
 and wrote many thousands of letters to gather in funds for its permanent 
 endowment — Dr. Lochde, who gave his gratuitous and valuable services 
 to the College for 25 years, as lecturer on medicine — Canon Gilbert, 
 who was one of the choir boys of Canterbury, and was advanced from 
 the Choristers' School to the King's School. There he so well applied 
 
THE MONASTERY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 41 
 
 himself to study that he gained a scholarship at Cambridge; he received 
 the living of Grantham, and was made honorary Canon of Lincoln. By 
 his will be founded three scholarships for students in that diocese. He 
 made many benefactions to charities during his life, and bequeathed his 
 plate and books to the College of St. Augustine. 
 
 From the Hall we pass to the Chapel. This is built on the site of 
 the old Guest's Chapel, but only a portion of the walls and the beautiful 
 west windows are ancient. All the windows of the Chapel contain fine 
 painted glass, of excellent design and colour, by Willement. A pierced 
 oak screen of good execution and style, separates the ante-chapel from 
 the nave. The latter is admirably fitted with carved oak stalls for the 
 Warden, Fellows and students, the stalls being copies of ancient miserere 
 seats. The whole Chapel is very beautiful. The east window, of five 
 lights, contains St. Gregory, St. Augustine, the Baptism of John, the 
 Adoration, and the First Miracle. A south window, of four lights, 
 contains the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. The north 
 window contains the Four Evangelists. The Reredos of marble, and 
 the mosaic panels (the gift of Canon Bailey) admirably harmonize. The 
 floor tiles are equally beautiful in design and colour, and are copies of 
 original tiles of the 13th or 14th century. 
 
 Below the Chapel is an extended reproduction of the ancient crypt, 
 which was probably used by the monks as a mortuary chapel for the 
 Abbey. It is divided into two portions — the eastern is now used as a 
 little Guild-chapel by the students. It contains a small bronze figure of 
 the Good Shepherd, the pedestal on which it stands having a repre- 
 sentation of the expulsion of our first parents from Eden. A tablet 
 commemorates the first Warden of the College — Bishop Coleridge (of 
 Barbadoes), who died in 1849. In the other portion of the crypt a 
 number of mural panels bear brief memorials of students of St. Augus- 
 tine's, who have already passed to their rest. Many of these terse 
 records of young lives are full of touching interest, as they show how 
 wide is the field over which the missionary seed of the College is 
 scattered. Here we are reminded of poor Kallihirua, the Eskimo 
 convert and student, who was baptised at St. Martin's, Capt. Ommaney, 
 
42 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 who brought him to this country, acting as sponsor. The tablet to the 
 memory of this Christian child of the North, in whom so much interest 
 was taken during his life in England, runs thus : — 
 
 "Erasmus Augustine Kallihirua, 
 
 Arrived from 76 N.L., Nov. 1851, 
 
 Baptised Advent Sunday, 1853, 
 
 Deceased June 14, 1856, 
 
 Newfoundland." 
 
 Other memorials perpetuate the memory of Kona, who came hither 
 from Caffraria in 1861, and who fell an early victim to disease at 
 Grahamstown in 1865; Moshueshua, who left Basuto land in 1861, and 
 died at Hereford in two short years ; and of Mahmoud Effendi, who was 
 expelled from Turkey on having married a Christian English lady. The 
 same wall which bears these interesting records of departed students, 
 has two sculptured groups in high-relief. One which represents Gregory 
 in the market-place of Rome, speaking with the fair young English 
 slaves, has been erected in memory of the Rev. H. J. Hutchesson. The 
 other represents Augustine preaching to Ethelbert. This is interesting 
 in itself as a work of art, and also as the result of self denial. It was 
 erected by the students in memory of their deceased companions, and 
 they collected the cost of the group by abstaining from the use of sugar 
 for a considerable time. 
 
 On leaving the Chapel, visitors who are interested in the perfection 
 of the builder's art should notice two remarkable buttresses of the 
 building. They are composed of small flints beautifully shaped into 
 squares. Squared flints are not uncommon in Kent, but we have never 
 seen any to equal these. The edges of each flint are perfectly rectangular, 
 and the exterior surface is smooth and flat. They must have been 
 fashioned by Abbot Fyndon's skilful artificers, for the buttresses originally 
 belonged to the Gate House. 
 
 Below the Guest Hall is the present kitchen of the College. It is 
 a part of the original structure of the hall, as the old oak beams remain- 
 ing are sufficient to show. This was the kitchen of that outer circle of 
 the Abbey in which the Abbot's guests and retainers were lodged, and, 
 
THE MONASTERY OF ST. AUGUSTINE. 43 
 
 no doubt, munificently entertained. The grand kitchen we have pre- 
 viously mentioned was situated within the inner circle which was closely 
 sealed to the general world. Here, no doubt, some of those sumptuous 
 feasts were prepared, which the old records tell us were so often served 
 at Canterbury, on the occasions of Royal visits. The kitchen was in 
 the first part of the present century the bar of the public house. 
 Between this and the Manciple's Room, at the gate, is the chamber 
 which we have spoken of as the prison. Until recently it had no 
 doorway. If it was really used as a dungeon, in the olden times, the 
 prisoner must have been lowered into it from the ancient looking 
 chamber above. It was not a " black hole," however, for light would 
 have been admitted by the small loop in the thick wall. 
 
 We have now made the entire round of the ancient buildings of 
 the Abbey, and have returned to the Gate House at which we entered. 
 Passing into the lodge, we ascend a staircase into the fine old room over 
 the arch of the gate. This was the chamber in which Queen Elizabeth 
 slept when holding her Court at Canterbury, and it was occupied 
 by Charles I. when he received at St. Augustine's his French bride, 
 Henrietta Maria. The room is now used as a museum for the Missionary 
 College. It contains many objects of interest sent home by the students 
 from their distant mission homes. During the period of the desecration, 
 when the wall of the Abbey church served for a tennis court, this royal 
 chamber was used as a malt-house and sometimes as a cock-pit. 
 
 Before quitting the spot in which we have spent many pleasant 
 hours, we ascend, by a spiral stone staircase, to the roof of the Gate- 
 house and obtain a bird's-eye view of the whole extent of the monastery. 
 What a panorama of English history lies before us ! There is scarcely 
 an age or epoch in the roll of nineteen centuries but has its record here. 
 The long line of unbroken roof to the left covers the rooms of the 
 present Collegians, — no monkish cells, but pleasant little chambers into 
 which the young missionaries may retire for meditation and study by 
 day, fired, let us hope, by a nobler faith, and loftier ambition than was 
 ever developed in those old ruined cloisters in the distance. Thus as 
 we look on the training-home of the missionaries of our own day, so 
 
44 
 
 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 may we cast our glance beyond, to the site of the little Christian church 
 of Roman times, over which the flood of Saxon barbarism swept, but 
 happily did not endure. There is the pathway Bertha trod as she went 
 out to pray at St. Martin's. There is the spot where the gentle Queen 
 was laid to rest. There the burial place of Augustine and his immediate 
 successors ; of Ethelbert and the Christian kings of Kent. The ruined 
 Abbey stands on the site of one which pagan Danes destroyed. It was 
 itself the handwork of two races and of several eras — of Norman and 
 of Early English builders — while it bears in its Tudor masonry the 
 record of the dissolution of the Abbey, and the incoming of a new 
 order, and a reformed Faith. Thus Roman, Briton, Saxon, Dane, 
 Norman, and Englishman have all left their traces within the boundaries 
 of St. Augustine's. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 % \z l§m$M 0f St. Joint. 
 
 r^^#fe!lkiiSflii; 
 
 N or about the year 1084, Archbishop 
 Lan franc founded at Canterbury two 
 hospitals or almshouses. One of 
 these is in Northgate Street, and is 
 dedicated to Saint John ; the other 
 at Harbledown, is dedicated to Saint 
 Nicholas. The first was designed for 
 the support of maimed, sick, and weak 
 persons of both sexes. The other 
 was a lazar-house for lepers, and was 
 placed, like all similar institutions in 
 the middle ages, by the side of the 
 highway, at a little distance outside 
 the town. 
 
 We first visit the Hospital of St. 
 John. In the middle of busy Northgate there stands an interesting 
 old house, timber-panelled and gable-roofed, over a fine wooden arch. 
 We pass through this from the noisy street, and enter a quiet enclosure, 
 a peaceful haven of repose. The green sward is framed in by grey 
 rambling lines of buildings ; some, the ruined remains of long past ages ; 
 others, the present homes of those who are themselves quietly dropping 
 into decay. On the right is the old church, where the brothers and 
 
 <St. John's Hospital,* ''"sb* 
 
THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN. 47 
 
 sisters, who are still able to get out, meet and worship, and beyond it 
 the churchyard where former generations of brothers and sisters of St. 
 John's have been laid to rest. We wander among the graves, and see 
 by the inscriptions on the headstones that this retreat from the cares 
 and worries of the struggling world must ensure ripe old age. Presently 
 we find that one of the sisters of the hospital has just passed her 
 ninetieth birthday. 
 
 Around the churchyard are some interesting ruins, which would be 
 much improved by clearing away the old sheds and outhouses erected 
 against them. These walls are massive portions of what was probably 
 the original buildings of Lanfranc. His disciple and biographer, 
 Eadmer, dignifies them with the name of palace. It is evident by 
 the external appearance of the chapel, that it was originally much larger 
 in size. Gostling makes complaint of the unnecessary demolition of 
 the ancient buildings, perpetrated about the middle of the last century — 
 "the bells having been sold, the steeple and north aisle taken down, 
 as were many of the old houses, and smaller and less convenient ones 
 erected in their room ; a stone wall was also taken away, which sheltered 
 the whole from the cold north-west wind blowing over the river and 
 meadow land, and, being pentised over-head, was called by the poor 
 people their cloisters, under which they used to walk or sit, and converse 
 with each other on the benches." Gostling adds satirically, "all this was 
 done by way of improvement about thirty years ago." (1747). We can 
 imagine with what indignant emphasis the genial and gossipping old 
 minor canon would have shaken his walking stick (which is now sus- 
 pended over his portrait in the City Museum) at such barbarism. The 
 old wall on the north-west side of the Chapel still contains some inter- 
 esting remains of the early Norman masonry, with round-headed doors, 
 and windows, having only slight and coarsely-cut moulding. Within the 
 Church, the west doorway of which is early Norman, the chief object of 
 interest remaining is the ancient font of stone, roughly circular in shape, 
 without ornament, and with two curiously-shaped handles. The east 
 window was still in the last century filled with painted glass, containing 
 figures of the twelve Apostles, but this has entirely disappeared, as have 
 
48 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 also the pulpit and some other woodwork, said to have been good 
 examples of Tudor carving. 
 
 The " City Fathers" of the Tudor age had themselves some depre- 
 dations to answer for, as in 1507 a complaint was made to the Archdeacon 
 that the Mayor of Canterbury had carried off the ornaments of the 
 Chapel, such as a chalice, a paten of silver, a surplice, and a bell. 
 
 In the south-west corner of the enclosure is the old hall and kitchen, 
 believed to date from the 16th century. The hall, which is over the 
 kitchen, is entered by a narrow staircase. It still contains the old central 
 dining-table and benches, of rough-hewn oak, much more massive than 
 convenient, the space between the fixed seat and the table being evidently 
 designed to accommodate brethren of portly form and aldermanic 
 dimensions. Here, no doubt, for many ages the inmates of the hospital 
 have had their annual feast, as they do now, on St. John's Day. One 
 of the old registers gives the cost of the Midsummer feast in 1638, when 
 a sum of £3 6s. lOd. was expended. Some of the items are curious and 
 interesting. The bill of fare comprised 801bs. of beef, at 3d. per lb. A 
 calf cost 18s. Two lambs cost the same amount. Three "coople" of 
 chicken cost half-a-crown. To wash down these solid comforts, the 
 brethren and sisters appear to have required " halfe a barrel of beere," 
 costing 3s. 2d., a gallon of " sacke," 3s. 4d., a "pottle of claritt and a 
 pottle of white wine," in all 2s. 8d. " Beere to make the serving men 
 drinke that brought meat to our feast," cost 2d. " Beere for the 
 kitchen" cost 4d., and the " cooke for drissing the dinner" was paid 
 handsomely, — 4s. The "woman that helped in the kitchen" got 6d., 
 and the " two turnspets," 8d. The "spets" they turned are still to be 
 seen in the kitchen below. They are 8 or 10 feet long, and would have 
 served to roast a royal joint. There is a curious old fork, also of which 
 the "cooke" of 1638 might have made use. 
 
 The hall contains two fine old oak chests, in which are some things 
 of antiquarian interest. There is a large sword, having no doubt a 
 history, but about which we could get no information. An old pewter 
 drinking flagon, from which doubtless the brethren had, many time and 
 oft, quaffed a refreshing draught, bears a coat of arms, and the following 
 
THE HOSPITAL OF ST. JOHN. 49 
 
 inscription : — " The gift of Robart Mascoll, Esq., to St. John's Hospitall, 
 the 24th day of June, 1659." There are several old pewter dishes also, 
 and three ancient wooden bowls with medallions ; one having the Tudor 
 rose, another the Virgin and Child, another the sacred monogram, 
 I.H.S. Besides these there are a very curious alms box, in shape much 
 like a Roman lamp, an old folio copy of Fox's Book of Martyrs, and 
 other articles of interest. 
 
 Lanfranc endowed St. John's Hospital and that of Harbledown 
 with £70 per annum, out of the manor of Reculver and Boughton-under- 
 Blean. His next successor increased the endowment to £80 for each 
 hospital. This would have been an ample income according to the 
 value of money at that time, and indeed the number of the brothers 
 and sisters appears to have been originally much larger and to have 
 gradually decreased. Thus in the latter part of the 14th century the 
 hospital had one hundred inmates, a century later eighty only, and when 
 another century had passed the number provided for, in Archbishop 
 Parker's statutes, was sixty (including out-brothers and sisters). 
 
 Anciently, a few weeks before and after the two festivals of St. John 
 and Christmas, the brethren sent out certain of their number to travel 
 up and down the country begging for alms. They bore with them a 
 latin letter of authorization, bearing the seal of the hospital. This 
 letter, after recounting the indulgences granted by the Archbishops to 
 benefactors of St. John's, made abundant promises of future rewards for 
 present charitable gifts of gold or silver. 
 
 It declared that there were in the hospital one hundred brothers and 
 sisters who, between them, daily said no fewer than thirty thousand 
 Paternosters and Ave Marias, the benefits of which, with innumerable 
 prayers, fasts, and penances, would be shared by all their benefactors. 
 (This curious letter is given in full by Duncombe.) The custom of 
 sending out begging brothers and sisters was certainly kept up as late 
 as 1585. Archbishop Parker in 1560 drew up statutes for the government 
 of the Hospital, and these are supposed to have remained in force until 
 our own time. Some of the orders and rules have ceased to be observed. 
 For instance, the brethren and sisters were "to diligently come to the 
 
50 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 church twice in the day to offer up their common prayers unto Almighty 
 God, and attentively to hear God's Holy Scripture read." If any 
 absented themselves without permission, or being present, "jangled," or 
 slept during prayers, then " if after two admonitions given by the prior 
 to amend that fault, the party eftsoones commit the like offense that 
 brother or sister, whither it be, shall be punished in the stocks one half 
 day or more." If the offender still proved refractory there was the 
 penalty of expulsion to be looked forward to. For more heinous offences, 
 such as drunkenness, brawling, or blasphemous swearing, the punishment 
 on the first occasion was to sit in the stocks one day and a night, with 
 bread and water, the second time two days and two nights, the third 
 time three days and three nights ; if after that the offence was repeated 
 the sinner was "to be expulsed and driven out of the house for ever." 
 
 The ancient charters and records of St. John's and St. Nicholas' 
 Hospitals were carefully set in order and many of them transcribed by 
 the Rev. Henry Hall, M.A., who was appointed Librarian at Lambeth 
 by Archbishop Potter (1744), and subsequently became Rector of St. 
 Michael's, Harbledown. His work was completed by the Rev. Dr. 
 Beauvoir, whose MSS. "Liber Hospitalium Archiepiscopi" is at Lambeth. 
 Duncombe, the historian of the Hospitals, has quoted largely from these 
 records, which contain many things of interest to the antiquarian and 
 historian. 
 
 It is pleasant to see the care taken by the inmates of their plots of 
 garden ; to observe their happy and cheerful demeanour ; and to know 
 that this interesting and valuable institution is admirably administered 
 under the Wardenship of the Bishop of Dover, as Archdeacon of 
 Canterbury. 
 
 On the other side of Northgate Street, immediately opposite the 
 hospital, formerly stood the gateway leading to the ancient church of 
 St. Gregory, also a foundation of Archbishop Lanfranc, intended for 
 secular priests, whose duty it was to administer spiritual comfort to the 
 poor of the hospital, and to officiate at the burial of their dead. Leland 
 states that the church was converted into a priory for Black or regular 
 canons, in the time of Henry I. No vestige of the priory remains. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 aSSHM 2 " 5 - P 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 to"'—" 
 
 
 ^tisssd 
 
 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 %ty §a%phl of St Uit^olas, §mbltbabm. 
 
 UT of the city, but 
 intimately connected 
 with it, is the old 
 Hospital of St. Nicho- 
 las. Thither, on a 
 lovely summer after- 
 noon, we make our 
 way, past old Westgate 
 tower which, hoary as 
 it is, lacks three out 
 of the eight centuries 
 Old Alms-box, St. Nicholas' . to which St. Nicholas 
 
 can lay claim. We strike across the fields to the foot of the hill, where 
 the old Pilgrims' Way joins the high road. Few who enter this ancient 
 lane think that for at least two thousand years it has been a beaten 
 track, for it leads across the fields and hop gardens to the British camp 
 in Bigbury Wood. It was also the end of the Pilgrims' Way, which ran 
 across three counties, from the Hampshire port, over the Surrey downs, 
 the woods and vales of Kent, to the city of Becket. For many an age 
 that long thin line bore its continuous stream of life ; thousands and 
 tens of thousands of rich and poor, prince and peasant, gallant knight 
 and doughty burgher, natives and foreigners, horsemen and pedestrians 
 passed that way. We take our stand at the corner of the old lane, and 
 
52 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 watch in imagination the motley stream empty itself into the main road, 
 crowded with its own incessant current of curious and pious pilgrims. 
 
 Tempting as the fancy is, however, we must not linger to indulge 
 in day dreams, but continue our way to Harbledown. From the hill we 
 get the finest distant view of the Cathedral. On such a summer's day 
 as this one can most fully appreciate the exquisite beauty and the 
 massive supremacy of the noble pile. It rises above the city like a 
 great rock in an open plain, and as the sun lights up every niche and 
 crevice in the towers, the giant seems clad in gems. How thankful one 
 ought to be that in days when the souls of the builders were full of 
 beauty, the work of their hands was made so strong and enduring. 
 
 We turn the brow of the hill and descend to the hollow in which 
 the old village lies nestled. Its position is extremely beautiful ; viewed 
 from the fields above the hill, and behind Harbledown church, a more 
 lovely landscape is not to be met with even in the garden of Kent. 
 
 At the foot of the hill we reach the ancient gateway of the Hospital, 
 beside which there still stands a fine old yew. A companion tree was 
 standing not many years since, but it has disappeared. The old gateway 
 bears signs of great antiquity, and probably its rough and massive 
 timbers have stood for centuries, though it is doubtful to what age 
 it actually belongs. Formerly the roadway was deeper, and a longer 
 flight of steps led to the entrance. At these steps the brethren used to 
 show to travellers their far famed relics of Thomas a Becket, and solicit 
 alms of the passers by. 
 
 But the foundation of St. Nicholas goes back to a more remote age 
 than that which brought pilgrims to Becket's shrine. It was founded 
 by Archbishop Lanfranc, as a Lazar House, or hospital for lepers, in or 
 about 1084. The necessity of providing, at that early date, refuges for 
 sufferers from leprosy shows that the dreadful disease was not, as very 
 often stated, first introduced into this country by returning Crusaders, 
 the first Crusade having taken place twelve years later than the foundation 
 of the Hospital. It might have been first imported into England by 
 returning pilgrims from the Holy Land at an earlier date ; it was in 
 any case to be found at Canterbury while the Conqueror reigned over 
 
THE HOSPITAL OF ST. NICHOLAS, HARBLEDOWN. 
 
 53 
 
 England, and the learned Lanfranc ruled the Church. It would be 
 interesting to know when the last of the lepers disappeared from this 
 hospital in the Blean, and when a new order of inmates began to be 
 settled there, but we have no information on the point, the historical 
 memorials of St. Nicholas being meagre in the extreme. 
 
 Doonvay of St. Nicholas" . 
 The hospital of Harbledown was, as Somner called it, " the other 
 twin" of St. John. It had a like endowment and similar statutes. 
 Anciently St. Nicholas' appears to have been a rectory, but in 1342 
 Archbishop Stratford united it to East Bridge Hospital, obliging the 
 latter to provide a chaplain for it. A few years later a perpetual chantry 
 was founded, the priest of which lived at Clavering. The chantry was 
 
64 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 abolished at the Reformation. The number of inmates at Harbledown 
 was much larger during the middle ages than it has been in modern 
 times. Its income from the Archiepiscopal funds was supplemented by 
 the alms of the faithful, and the brothers and sisters, like those of St. 
 John, went out at certain times on begging expeditions. The old deeds 
 of benefactions to the Hospital contain some curious grants. Thus, in 
 1379, one Wm. Yue gives an annual grant of two cercells (wild fowl), 
 one-third of a hen, one third of half a hen, and 15 eggs. 
 
 When the tide of devotion set in towards Becket's tomb, the 
 hospitallers of St. Nicholas must have flourished. Many a broad noble 
 and many a mark, no doubt, dropped into the alms-box, for plenty of 
 company passed that way, high and mighty travellers many of them. 
 There were few probably of the pre-Reformation monarchs who did not 
 visit Canterbury, and, as their way lay past St. Nicholas, we may feel 
 sure that they either visited the hospital, or gave alms at the gate. 
 Hither came Henry II. from Southampton, along the Pilgrims' Way 
 above alluded to. He alighted and entered the Church of St. Nicholas, 
 whence he walked barefooted to the Cathedral. " For the love of St. 
 Thomas" Henry gave in grant twenty marks of rent to the Hospital. 
 Here passed, twenty years later, his son Richard, who had landed at 
 Sandwich after his release from captivity. Though he had a vast deal 
 of work to do in a few brief weeks, Coeur-de-Lion would not have left 
 St. Nicholas unnoticed. Whether, a little later, John, on his way to 
 Dover, would stop to visit the Hospital is doubtful, but he was often in 
 the neighbourhood. Edward I. and the noble Queen Eleanor passed 
 on their return from Palestine, and tradition runs that the Black Prince, 
 returning from his victory of Poictiers with his royal prisoner (King 
 John of France), visited the church and Hospital. Close at hand there 
 still remains what is known as the Black Prince's well, a spring on the 
 hill side, behind the Hospital. A round arch has been built over it, 
 and it is surrounded with ferns and flowers, a few steps leading down to 
 the water. It is said that at this well the hero of Cressy and Poictiers 
 drank as he returned home to die. A little later his remains were carried 
 by the same spot to be buried in the Cathedral. 
 
THE HOSPITAL OF ST. NICHOLAS, HARBLEDOWN. 56 
 
 The enclosure contains the dwellings of nine brothers and seven 
 sisters, comfortable cottages ranged on either side of a hall or frater-house. 
 Opposite them is the venerable old church of St. Nicholas, with its great 
 ivy tree clinging to the ancient tower. Most of the church is of later 
 date than the building of Lanfranc ; but some interesting portions of the 
 original are preserved in the present building ; these include the round 
 arch of the west door, a pillar and capital on the north side of the 
 nave, the circular arches of that side, and a small round headed 
 window. There is a trace of the ancient rood-loft ; here and there 
 a few fragments of old glass remain, and there are signs of frescoes 
 having formerly adorned the walls. In the floor are some very early 
 tiles, and in the chancel there is an ancient tomb-recess. 
 
 The churchyard of the Hospital, from which there is a lovely view 
 of wooded hill and valley, is studded with memorials of past brothers and 
 sisters, the ages recorded being most frequently beyond the fourscore 
 years. 
 
 The Hall is not of interest in itself, but contains articles of un- 
 questionable antiquity. There is a quaint old chest, the cover of which 
 appears to be a rough- hewn portion of an old tree trunk. In this no 
 doubt the treasures of the Hospital were formerly preserved, but they 
 are now kept in a more convenient place, and the Prior sets them 
 all before the visitor, with a list of the " Relics of St. Thomas a Becket." 
 While he produces them we read on the wall as follows : — " The ancient 
 building of this Hospital, being utterly ruined and decayed, it was 
 repaired A.D. 1674 in this form of a Frater House, and six houses on 
 each side, the charge of the whole building amounting to the sum of 
 £200, whereof £100 were given by Archbishop Sheldon and £50 by the 
 Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. Mr. John Somner gave £50 towards 
 the new dwellings of this Hospital." On the walls hangs the coat of 
 arms of the present Master of the Hospital, the Bishop of Dover, as 
 Archdeacon of Canterbury. In one of the windows is a stained glass 
 panel containing the arms of Archbishop Abbott. 
 
 The so-called relics of St. Thomas are mostly, we fear, apocryphal, 
 but one is possibly a genuine memento of the murdered Archbishop, and 
 
56 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 the other articles are ancient and interesting. They include a curious 
 old alms-box with a chain attached. It was such a box as this, no 
 doubt, which long after Lanfranc's death the leper inmates of the 
 Hospital held out to wayfarers who passed through the Blean Forest. 
 We can imagine how gaunt and ghastly figures would, from the old 
 steps, proclaim their terrible misfortune, and solicit the charity of the 
 faithful. They dared not approach travellers, but they used to put out a 
 long pole with a box hanging from it, wherein a coin might be dropped- 
 The old alms-box which is still preserved at St. Nicholas' is certainly 
 centuries old, and was probably that in which the gentle Erasmus 
 dropped his offering after inspecting the relics. He was then travelling 
 from Canterbury to London with Dean Colet, the founder of St. Paul's 
 School. Erasmus himself gives an account of the visit. As the two 
 travellers approached the Hospital, on their way to London, an aged 
 almsman came down the steps, and having sprinkled the visitors with 
 holy water, proceeded to exhibit for their veneration that most choice 
 and sacred relic — the upper leather of the shoe of St. Thomas. When 
 this saintly treasure was offered them to kiss, Colet's indignation knew 
 no bounds, nor did he hesitate to express his contempt and disgust in 
 language more forcible than polite. 
 
 Of this incident, so significant of the disposition of the two 
 Reformers, Stanley characteristically says: — "In the meeting of that 
 old man with the two strangers in the lane at Harbledown, how 
 completely do we read in miniature the whole history of the coming 
 revolution of Europe." 
 
 Erasmus says that the shoe-leather of the Saint contained a crystal. 
 The shoe-leather has disappeared, but the crystal which is supposed to 
 have sparkled on the foot of Becket is possibly the same as that which 
 is still preserved at Harbledown, fixed in the bottom of an old maple 
 bowl. There is another maple bowl, belonging to the Hospital, which 
 has long been an object of great interest to antiquarians. It is a good 
 specimen of a 14th century mazer bowl, and was annually used on the 
 feast of St. Nicholas. Let into the bottom of it is a finely executed 
 silver-gilt medallion which bears, in basso relievo, a mounted figure of a 
 
THE HOSPITAL OF ST. NICHOLAS, HARBLEDOWN. 
 
 57 
 
 knight in armour slaying a dragon, a lion lying near. The knight is the 
 Guy of Warwick, famed in mediaeval story. The inscription round the 
 medallion has been somewhat of a puzzle to archaeologists. It runs 
 thus — Gy De Warwyc : Adanovn : neci occis : le dragovn : 
 
 This ancient work of art is specially valuable and interesting, 
 because it connects the obscure legend of Guy and the dragon with an 
 episode in English history. The knight's shield bears the arms of 
 Beauchamp, whence it is inferred that the knight is intended for Guy 
 Beauchamp, and the dragon for the hated favourite of Edward II., Piers 
 Gaveston, who met his fate at the hands of the remorseless earl of 
 Warwick. There are other articles, ancient and interesting, among the 
 relics and curiosities of Harbledown, but undoubtedly the chief attrac- 
 tion of St. Nicholas' lies in the associations which cluster around it, and 
 which still draw pilgrims to the spot of which five hundred years ago 
 Chaucer wrote these lines : — 
 
 "Wete ye not wher stondeth a litel town 
 Which that ycleped is Bob-up-and-down 
 Under the Blee in Canterbury way?" 
 
 H 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 (Bust §x\hQt Septal. 
 
 AST Bridge Hospital, or the Hospital of 
 St. Thomas, was founded for the accom- 
 modation of poor pilgrims, whom the 
 renown of the murdered Becket drew to 
 his shrine at Canterbury. The passion 
 for pilgrimages was not confined to the 
 nobler and wealthier orders ; there were 
 others who could neither hire horse nor 
 pay for hostelry, and who were content to 
 travel many a weary mile on foot along 
 the pilgrim ways, receiving the alms of 
 their more fortunate fellow-travellers, and 
 lodging as best they could at the various stages on their journey. There 
 were no workhouses or vagrant wards in those days ; but there was a 
 generally-recognised obligation to find a dole of food and a night's 
 shelter for any poor travellers, more especially for such as might be on 
 their way to visit some sacred spot or relics. Hospitals designed 
 to accommodate such wayfarers were commonly founded during the 
 middle ages. Such was the object and the use of the Hospital of St. 
 Thomas, in the High-street. 
 
 The date of the foundation is uncertain, but it must have been as 
 early as the beginning of the 13th century, for by a Bull of Innocent III., 
 
EAST BRIDGE HOSPITAL. 59 
 
 there was, in the year 1203, united with it the adjacent hospital 
 founded by William Cokyn or Cockyn. There appears to have been 
 some tradition apparently ascribing the foundation to Archbishop Becket, 
 but this probably originated from the fact that it was used by pilgrims 
 to Becket's shrine. As Battely puts it, if Becket had been the actual 
 founder, " it would not have been passed over in silence by those who 
 made it their chief work to recommend this saint to the highest esteem 
 and veneration of all men." As no mention of his founding this hospital 
 was made by his early eulogists, it is not likely that he was its originator. 
 It had certainly, however, been erected within a few years of his death. 
 
 The first benefactor to the hospital, of which record remains (1200), 
 was Archbishop Hubert Walter, who was contemporary with Richard I. 
 and King John. He endowed it with the tithes of Westgate mill and of 
 certain other mills. In his time lived the above-mentioned Wm. Cokyn, 
 a worthy citizen who founded his hospital in St. Peter's-street. This he 
 gave over to Archbishop Hubert, to be united with Eastbridge. The next 
 Archbishop (Stephen Langton) confirmed the gift of Blean Church and 
 parsonage, by Hamo de Crevequeur, to the Eastbridge Hospital, an 
 appanage which it still retains. 
 
 The fame of Becket as a saint, and the admirable advertising by the 
 monks of Christ Church of the miraculous cures wrought at his shrine, 
 proved an irresistible attraction to the countless numbers who, in that 
 superstitious age, sought either physical or spiritual benefit from pilgrim- 
 age or penance. They flocked in vast numbers to Canterbury, and the 
 hospital of St. Thomas was open day and night to receive, to welcome, 
 and to entertain poor pilgrims who could not afford to pass on to the 
 spacious halls of the "Chequers" — Chaucer's famous hostelry. 
 
 But in the history of all human institutions, the ebb succeeds the 
 flood ; and there came a time when the hospital of St. Thomas fell into 
 decay, for we find that no later than 1343, Archbishop Stratford (who 
 was the next of its great benefactors) put on record the fact that this 
 hospital, " founded for the receiving, lodging, and sustaining of poor 
 pilgrims, was but meanly endowed, and that the buildings belonging to it 
 were in a ruinous condition." It had by this time in fact fallen in the 
 
GO RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 way of those who covet their neighbours' goods, as it is declared that 
 " lands in Heron, Reculvre, Swalclif, Chistelet, and Beaksborn," had 
 been alienated upon pretence of being chantry lands. 
 
 It appears that, although it had been granted charters, it had not 
 hitherto received rules for its proper government. The Archbishop 
 framed statutes and regulations, and established it, as he no doubt 
 imagined, on a permanent foundation, but the history of almost all 
 these old hospitals and charities shows that, even in the middle ages, 
 the wills and wishes of pious founders were set aside. Its revenues 
 arose from lands and tenements in Canterbury, Harbledown, and Birch- 
 ington, as well as at Blean, the Manor of Blean and Hoath Court 
 being settled upon it by Thomas de Roos, of Chilham. It was or- 
 dained that the master of the hospital should be in priest's orders, and 
 should keep a vicar under him. A grant, then no doubt held to be of 
 great importance was made to pilgrims dying within the hospital, that 
 they should have the right of burial in the cemetery of Christ Church. 
 
 The statutes contemplated no needless loitering on the part of 
 pilgrims, who were expressly to get but " one night's lodging and enter- 
 tainment," and then to make way for other comers. There were to be 
 twelve beds in the hospital, and an aged woman had to provide all 
 necessaries for the pilgrims, at the cost of not more than fourpence 
 a head. 
 
 A few years later, King Edward III. was among the benefactors to 
 the charity, on which he bestowed the "Chaunge" in Canterbury — a 
 Royal Exchange of unknown antiquity, the site of which was in All 
 Saints' parish, with an entrance from the High-street. 
 
 Stratford's statutes did not preserve the hospital from spoliation. 
 Somner tells us that " in the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, the 
 lands and tenements belonging to the hospital — yea, and the hospital 
 itself, were occupied and possessed by private persons." Archbishop 
 Parker recovered these properties, and refounded the hospital (1569) 
 " for the reception of poor and maimed soldiers that should pace back- 
 wards and forwards through Canterbury," and for the support of a school. 
 He restored the house, and laid down ordinances which, whilst suitable 
 
THE HALL OF EAST BRIDGE HOSPITAL. 
 
62 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 to the times in which he lived, were yet in unison with the intentions of 
 the former founders. 
 
 Archbishop Parker also founded out of the funds of the hospital 
 two " Canterbury Scholarships " at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 
 each of the yearly value of £3 6s. 8d. This arrangement was to endure 
 for 200 years, but within a single life-time ruin and robbery were again 
 at work. A commission under Sir James Hales, appointed by Elizabeth, 
 reported that "the hospital house stood ruinated, and that neither 
 Master nor brethren were resident or dwelling of long time, the house 
 let into tenements for yearly rent, the beds that were wont to lodge and 
 harbour poor people, resorting hither, were gone, and sold contrary to 
 the old order and foundation of the same, and the said hospital to be 
 relinquished and concealed from her Majesty." The Queen decided that 
 this robbery of the poor should be repaired. She carried out her decision 
 in true Tudor fashion, by giving the property to one of her gentlemen 
 pensioners, a certain John Farnham, who transferred it to one Hayes 
 for £550, and the balance of a debt. Later on, however, (1584) the 
 hospital found a friend in Archbishop Whitgift, who, after a troublesome 
 lawsuit, actually succeeded in recovering the property which had been 
 filched from the poor. He obtained an Act of Parliament for the more 
 permanent establishment of the charity, and framed the statutes under 
 which the hospital is still governed. In the same year the Dean and 
 Chapter gave the small bell for the chapel, called the Wackeral. Later 
 benefactors among the Archbishops were Juxon, Sheldon, and Sancroft. 
 
 It will be seen that East Bridge Hospital is of deep interest, not 
 only from the antiquity of its buildings, but as illustrating the peculiarities 
 of life and manners in the middle ages. It stands in the High Street, 
 at the spot where the chief branch of the divided Stour passes under 
 the old East bridge, or King's bridge, as it was sometimes called from 
 the King's mill which stood next to it, opposite the Hospital. 
 
 We enter the hospital by an ancient arched doorway, whence a few steps 
 lead into a vaulted hall, the floor of which is much below the present 
 level of the street. A flight of steps leads to the ancient refectory, in 
 which the pilgrims were received and entertained. The refectory is 
 
EAST BRIDGE HOSPITAL. 63 
 
 separated from the passage to the dwelling rooms of the inmates by a 
 row of three octagonal pillars, with capitals of a transition character, 
 supporting early-pointed arches. The columns are much out of the 
 perpendicular, and it is evident that, owing to the nearness to the river, 
 and the frequency with which it was formerly flooded, the foundation 
 must have sunk at an early period. The most interesting- feature of the 
 hall at present remaining is a large fragment of an ancient wall painting; 
 the colours are still remarkably vivid, and much of the detail can be 
 readily distinguished, although the chief painting was probably executed 
 in the 14th century. This valuable relic of mediaeval art was discovered 
 during some alterations carried on in 1879. The workmen, in removing 
 the accumulation of whitewash, came upon traces of figures. Unfortu- 
 nately they did not recognise the importance of their discovery, and went 
 on scraping for some time until the prioress, happening to learn what 
 had been found, informed the Master of the hospital. Then the work 
 was stopped, and means taken to remove the rest of the whitewash with 
 great care. A huge fireplace and chimney built against the wall 
 being removed, the painting was gradually brought to view. In the 
 centre is a fine vesica, enclosing a picture of Our Saviour enthroned. 
 This part of the work is evidently the most ancient, and it was certainly 
 the finest in regard to art. The emblems of the four Evangelists surround 
 the central figure, and the whole is enclosed in a circle. Below is another 
 painting of Christ and the Apostles at the Last Supper, Jesus handing 
 the sop to Judas. On one side of the central design is a representation 
 (probably of later date, and more rudely executed) of the murder of 
 Becket. On the other side another picture, unfortunately for the most 
 part destroyed, apparently pourtrayed Henry the Second's penance at 
 Becket's Shrine. These treasures of early art were coated before the 
 time of James I. with a thick layer of whitewash, for upon this 
 barbarous covering had been painted the Royal arms, and the arms of 
 Archbishop Abbot. The utmost care and delicacy were required on the 
 part of the accomplished architect Mr. James Neale, F.S.A., who carried 
 out the restoration of these interesting buildings, in order to preserve 
 the ancient pictures. Standing in this Refectory, it requires no great 
 
64 
 
 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 stretch of imagination to people it once more with dust stained and 
 foot-sore pilgrims gazing with reverent eyes on the picture of Christ, 
 and probably still more devoutly on that of Becket, for in the age we 
 speak of more reverence was paid to the Saint than to the Saviour. 
 
 From this hall we enter the chapel of the Hospital, a fine chamber 
 lighted by three traceried windows of the 14th century. This was till 
 recently used as a school, but has now been restored, to be used for 
 divine worship. It contains remains of an open timber roof. At 
 the East end is a Table of the Commandments, written in 1634, and 
 below this an old oak reading desk, which has been well scored over 
 with initials and dates — one cut in that fatal year for the monarchy, 1649. 
 
 The Hospital at present contains five brothers and five sisters, who 
 have comfortable rooms, and enjoy pensions amounting in value to a 
 little over £30 each. A similar number of out brothers and sisters enjoy 
 a pension of £25 each. Below the Refectory there is a fine crypt, which 
 is very interesting as an example of transition from Norman to Early 
 English. The round arches of the groined roof have the character of 
 the former, while the round abaci of the pillars correspond to the 
 latter style. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 m. gpfadfr ttfriirrfr. 
 
 T. Mildred's lies out of the beaten track, 
 
 and is hidden away in an obscure part of 
 
 the city which has long ceased to be the 
 
 abode of the affluent ; it is probable 
 
 therefore that visitors to Canterbury often 
 
 miss seeing it, and that many who have lived all their 
 
 lives in the city have never entered this church, which 
 
 is one of the most interesting in Canterbury. 
 
 As we pass through Stour Street it is sad to see 
 the signs of squalid poverty which abound in the 
 densely packed courts and alleys which lie between 
 the street and the river. Here and there an old 
 timber-framed house stands sound and sightly yet, in 
 the midst of modern decay, though its foundations 
 were laid two hundred years or more ago. But St. Mildred's was old 
 St. Mildred's then, and although some part of its beauty has departed, 
 we may be glad that in our own days a new reverence has grown up for 
 the ancient fabrics which were reared in the dawn of our history, so that 
 they are cared for and religiously preserved. 
 
 At what epoch a Christian church was first built where St. Mildred's 
 now stands we know not, but the record of the stones antedates that of 
 the historian. The walls of the church bear witness to an antiquity 
 
 6". IV. quoin, 
 St. Mildred's. 
 
66 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 beyond that which arch and window would imply, and we do not doubt 
 that here, as at St. Martin's, there has been a building of importance 
 since the Roman times. Not only do Roman tiles abound in the walls, 
 but there is strong reason to believe that the massive blocks of oolite 
 which are built into the quoins of the south wall of the nave, were also 
 taken from a Roman building. Mr. Hussey called attention to these 
 stones in Vol. I. of Archceologia Cantiana. Since then the late Sir Gilbert 
 Scott pointed out that the very peculiar coarse oolite of these blocks is 
 exactly that of the Roman pillars from Reculver, which are now on the 
 south side of Canterbury Cathedral. It is also of exactly the same kind 
 as the large blocks found in the most ancient part of the old Saxon 
 church at Dover Castle. 
 
 Gostling, writing a century ago, speaks of undoubted Reman remains 
 still visible at St. Mildred's, and states that, in the pulling down of part 
 of the city wall in 1769, the destroyers were stopped by a course of 
 Roman brick, quite through the wall. He also speaks of " a fair Roman 
 arch " over the window of the " west end of the south aisle." The 
 " fair Roman arch," however, is no more than a pointed arch in which 
 Roman bricks from an earlier building have been made use of. Gostling 
 supposes that the Christians of the Roman garrison may have had a 
 chapel at St. Mildred's. According to Stow, the church was destroyed 
 by fire in 1246. That part of it was burnt is probable, but portions of 
 the present fabric seem undoubtedly earlier than the date mentioned. 
 The Rectory was an appanage of St. Augustine's Monastery, until the 
 time of the dissolution, when it was taken by the King. 
 
 The church, at the present time, consists of a nave and chancel, 
 each with its north aisle. A south chancel of the Tudor period has 
 been converted into a south chapel by filling up its arch. A small north 
 chapel opens into the chancel aisle, and is now used as a vestry. A 
 tower formerly stood on the north side between the two north aisles, but 
 this was pulled down, the materials of the tower and the fine peal of 
 bells it contained being sold. The church is large and lofty, but its fine 
 chancel would appear to still greater advantage if the south chancel were 
 again opened, and the organ, which now blocks up the north aisle, 
 
ST. MILDRED'S CHURCH. 67 
 
 placed therein. There is a remarkable variety in the pointed arches 
 dividing the nave and the chancel from the north aisles. The two 
 nearest the west end are alike, and very obtuse, the next is higher and 
 more acute, while the chancel arcade is more pointed still. Mediaeval 
 architects were never slaves to symmetrical monotony ; they adapted the 
 lines of their work to the necessities of the situation, and no doubt that 
 is sufficient explanation of the peculiar dissimilarity of these arches. 
 The pillars supporting the nave arches are octagonal, each face slightly 
 concaved, as are also the capitals and bases. On the westernmost pillar 
 is a bracket and niche, with a rectangular canopy, once probably occupied 
 by a statuette of the Madonna, or St. Mildred. 
 
 The windows are various in style ; the five-light east window of the 
 chancel has good rectilinear tracery ; it is to be hoped some munificent 
 churchman will one day give it its due adornment of painted glass. 
 The west window, in the same style, is of three lights, and the south 
 windows have elegant curvilinear tracery. In the aisle are five lancet 
 windows, two of which are filled with stained glass. One is a memorial 
 window " to James and Sarah Houlden, erected by their daughter, Mary 
 Ann, September, 1881." The second has a mournful interest, as being 
 the gift of the late Miss Pemell, who met with a tragical death in the 
 fire on the Dane John. In one of the south windows is the only frag- 
 ment of old glass in the church — a rude figure of St. Mildred. 
 
 The ceiling at the east end of the chancel is pannelled in wood ; 
 the carved oak bench heads of the stalls are interesting remnants of the 
 ancient miserere stalls. The carved bird is possibly a rebus on the 
 name of the ancient family of Cokyn. Another genuine relic of old 
 wood carving is the font-cover. The stone font is octagonal, each panel 
 bearing a quatrefoil. 
 
 The monuments are interesting, especially those to the Cranmers. 
 The first of these is an elegant marble monument, painted and gilded, 
 in memory of Thomas Cranmer, son of Edmund Cranmer. The latter 
 was Archdeacon of Canterbury, and Provost of Wingham, and held 
 various other preferments bestowed upon him by his brother, Archbishop 
 Cranmer, but in 1554 he had to escape into Germany to save his life, 
 
' ' ' i ft 
 
 mm 
 
 iIi|I!;Mf#fi \ 
 
ST. MILDRED'S CHURCH. 
 
 being charged that he, a priest, had married. His preferments were 
 taken from him, and he was enjoined to abandon his wife, but he refused 
 to do so, and died many years after in Germany. His son, Thomas, 
 whose tomb is in St. Mildred's, lived in that parish, was a charitable and 
 
 worthy citizen, and died in 
 1604, aged 69. 
 
 Another monument is to 
 the memory of Sir William 
 Cranmer, Knt., a descendant 
 also of Edmund Cranmer. In 
 1691, he was chosen governor 
 of the Merchant Adventurers 
 Company, London. He died 
 in 1697, but was not buried 
 at St. Mildred's. 
 
 The numerous mural, and 
 other memorials of departed 
 worthies, once resident in St. 
 Mildred's, remind us that the 
 parish had its fair share, in 
 former days, of wealthy parish- 
 ioners. One tablet commem- 
 orates " Thomassine Hony- 
 wood, widowe, late ye wife of 
 Antiony Honywood of this 
 Pishe, Esq., and before ye 
 €^i. wife of John Adye, of Dodd- 
 ington, 9th July, 1626. One 
 of her sons married Elizabeth 
 Old Bench-head, St. Mildred's. Waller, eldest daughter of 
 
 Thos. Waller of Beckons field, in the county of Buck." In the chancel 
 aisle is a handsome marble monument to various members of the 
 Bridger family. Here also, concealed by the organ, is an altar tomb of 
 Sir Francis Head, Bart., who died 1716. Close by is a memorial tablet, 
 
 #/ 
 
70 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 dated 1844, to John Cooper, "Alderman and Magistrate of this city for 
 30 years, and during that time, three times elected to the important 
 office of Mayor." 
 
 The churchyard contains one monument, which the citizens ought, 
 out of gratitude, to take under their charge. It is the tomb of worthy 
 Alderman Simmons, who, at the beginning of the present century, con- 
 verted what was then known as the Dane John Field, into a beautiful 
 garden and recreation ground for the citizens. This he did at a cost of 
 £1,500. We read on his monument (which much needs some " Old 
 Mortality's" loving hand to set it in order) that — " The many services 
 which he rendered to his native city, added to the extraordinary ability 
 that he possessed, so raised him in the estimation of his fellow citizens, 
 that they, with one voice, conferred on him the honour of a seat in 
 Parliament, the important duties of which it pleased God he should but 
 a very short time fulfil. Death rendered the motto of his arms ' Vincit 
 qui patitur,' of no further avail." The Alderman died in 1807. Close 
 to his grave is that of Capon Weekes, the father of a distinguished son 
 — Henry Weekes, R.A., of whose memory, as a native genius, Canterbury 
 should feel proud. On other tombs around, we read the brief records 
 of many notable Canterbury families who formerly resided in this parish. 
 
 The exterior of St. Mildred's is worthy of attention and study, the 
 remarkable south wall of the nave especially, in which flint, Roman tiles 
 and oolitic stones are mingled. It is evidently the most ancient part of 
 the church. The south chancel is a curious example of the chequered 
 flint work so much fancied in the Tudor period. There is a rough cross, 
 shaped in flints, in the west wall. In the east wall of the chancel there 
 is another cross of elegant design, carved in low relief, on a stone 
 tablet. The south chancel was erected by Thomas Attwood, who lived 
 in Stour Street, in the time of Henry VIII., and was four times Mayor 
 of Canterbury. He and several of his family were buried in it, but their 
 monuments have disappeared. 
 
 We were anxious to ascertain some account of the tower, and the 
 Rector (Dr. Mangan) kindly sought among the archives of the church 
 the faculty obtained for its destruction. This informs us that, at a 
 
ST. MILDRED'S CHURCH. 71 
 
 meeting of the vestry, on 25th June, 1832, it was resolved the tower 
 should be pulled down, to make room for additional sittings " for the 
 poor parishioners," and that four of the five bells should be sold, the 
 remaining one being " sufficient for the necessary uses of the said 
 parish." A sum of £101 6s. had been raised in the parish. This, with 
 the price obtained for the bells, was to be devoted to the necessary 
 alterations. Two bells were inscribed Richard Phelps, 1711, one 
 "Josephus Hatch mee fecit 1622." Another dated 1536 had a figure 
 of Christ, bound, and wearing the crown of thorns, and an inscription 
 in old English — " I.H.S. Have marce on the soules of Thomas Wood, 
 and Margaret his wyfe." 
 
 With the Rectory of St. Mildred's is united that of St. Mary de 
 Castro. This latter church has long since been destroyed. Somner, 
 speaking of " St. Mary Castle," says — " this Church hath lyen long 
 desolate ; and the chancel only is left standing of it. Time was, it was 
 as absolute a Parish Church as any about the city." The chancel ruins 
 have long since disappeared, and only the name of the Church survives 
 in St. Mary Street. St. Mary of the Castle had at an earlier period 
 absorbed the adjacent small parish of St. John the Poor. This church 
 stood at the end of St. John's Lane, and Somner speaks of its having 
 been " of a long time prophaned into a malt-house or the like." 
 

 
 
 
 --;>;. •V^llV- S^i. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 »t. Iprgarri's, St. t&toxQt's, M. Iprg UJagfralnt's axtJtr 
 
 $i 1 awl's. 
 
 HE Church of St. Margaret is not architecturally note- 
 worthy. It formerly consisted of a nave and chancel, with 
 two aisles and two chancel-chapels. Somner says that the 
 south chapel was dedicated to St. John, and the other to 
 " Our Lady." The chapel of St. John was sliced off, and 
 the east end of the church deformed, in order to straighten the street. 
 The deformity was skilfully masked by the late Sir Gilbert Scott in the 
 restoration carried out during the incumbency of the Rev. E. H.Woodall. 
 The wall of the south chancel was set back and an apse erected. The 
 fine organ, which fills up the irregular space in the north aisle, was the 
 gift of Mr. Woodall, who contributed most generously to the cost of the 
 restoration, and devoted a very considerable sum to the adornment of 
 the church. 
 
 The three aisles are separated by arcades of pointed arches on 
 octagonal pillars. The small belfry-tower at the west end of the south 
 aisle contains three bells, one dated 1599, and two by Hatch dated 1625. 
 The Baptistery under the tower has been recently paved with tiles. 
 Reverent care has been devoted to the adornment of the church 
 throughout ; its decorations and fittings are in good taste, and several 
 of the windows have been filled with stained glass. The most imposing 
 
ST. MARGARETS CHURCH. 73 
 
 monument is that of Sir George Newman, whose recumbent figure is 
 carved in marble. He was a Judge of the Cinque Ports, and Commissary 
 of Archbishops Whitgift, Bancroft, and Abbot. High up on the south 
 wall, almost out of sight, is a bust of John Watson, a worthy citizen of 
 Canterbury, who filled the several offices of Mayor, Chamberlain, and 
 Sheriff, and in 1633 left property to be applied to the purchase of "good 
 russett cloth gowns " to be given to the " most miserable, poorest, aged, 
 blind, impotent and decrepit." The bust was originally in the chancel. 
 The most notable of those whom we know to have had their last resting- 
 place in this church was William Somner, the learned author of the 
 "Antiquities of Canterbury," to whose memory there is a small brass 
 wall tablet. Somner wrote his great book during the reign of Charles I., 
 and published it under the patronage of Archbishop Laud, in 1640. In 
 that same year, as Batteley tells us, "a dismal storm did arise, which did 
 shake and threaten with a final overthrow, the very foundation of the 
 Church. The madness of the people did rage, and prevailed beyond 
 resistance. The venerable Dean and Canons were turned out of their 
 stalls, * * * and whatsoever there was of beauty or decency in the 
 Holy Place, was despoiled by the outrages of Sacrilege and Prophane- 
 ness." At such a time the work of so thorough a churchman as Somner 
 was ill-timed, and "the best fate which the book or its author could at 
 that time expect, was to lie hid, and to be sheltered under the security 
 of being not regarded." Laud fell ; the King fell ; Cromwell passed 
 away ; the Commonwealth came to an end ; and the Restoration found 
 Somner still living, and his book unsold. In 1662 the publisher printed 
 a new title page, bearing that year's date, and the work was sold. 
 Somner thought of issuing a second edition, but died, in 1669, before 
 he could carry out his design. 
 
 Among the noted parishioners of St. Margaret's was a certain 
 John Winter, who, in 1470, left two tenements at the " Yren Cross," of 
 the value of sixteen shillings annually, to pay the cost of a lamp to burn 
 continually before the High Altar. The Iron Cross spoken of stood at 
 the junction of Watling Street and St. Margaret's Street. The two 
 houses left by John Winter were confiscated to the Crown when lamp 
 
74 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 burning before altars came to be considered superstitious ; they were 
 purchased by Alderman Watson, above referred to, and were left by him 
 for the poor of the city. John Winter was buried in the chancel of the 
 church. Leonard Cotton, Mayor in 1579, the founder of Cotton's 
 Hospital, was also buried in St. Margaret's. 
 
 An Ecclesiastical Court, which was established in 1560, held its 
 sittings in the Chapel of the Virgin. There the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury held his quadrennial visitation of the clergy of this part of the 
 diocese. In this church also till very recently, the Archdeacons of 
 Canterbury have held their annual visitations. The living is a rectory ; 
 it was one of the many benefices attached to the Abbey of St. Augustine; 
 but in 1271 it was transferred to the Poor Priests' Hospital. Since 1586, 
 however, it has been in the gift of the Archdeacons of Canterbury. 
 
 FEW years ago St. George's Church underwent extensive 
 alterations and enlargement, to accommodate the parish- 
 ioners of the united parishes of St. George and St. Mary 
 Magdalen. Some portion however of the ancient structure 
 remains. It was one of the churches attached to Christ 
 Church, and when the Monastery was dissolved, the rectory was trans- 
 ferred to the Dean and Chapter. The original church consisted of a 
 nave and south aisle. It had formerly a steeple extending into the 
 street, the footpath passing through an arch in the tower, but this was 
 taken down towards the end of the last century. There is in the north 
 wall a small closed-up doorway, which, no doubt, formerly gave access 
 to the steeple. The church, as it now stands, consists of a nave and 
 chancel, with north and south aisles. The chancel and the north aisle 
 are new, having been erected during the recent restoration of the 
 church, which was due to the energy and zeal of the late Rector (the 
 Rev. N. H. McGachen). 
 
 The nave and aisles are separated by arcades of five pointed arches 
 on octagonal pillars, with square abaci. Three of the pillars on the 
 
ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH. 75 
 
 north side were brought from old Burgate Church. The others, which 
 are new, have been made to correspond in style. The tower is supported 
 on pointed arches. Access to the belfry and clock-chamber is obtained 
 from the gallery. In the south wall is a tomb recess, and a piscina of 
 early date. In the east end of this south aisle, is a three light window, 
 to the memory of Mrs. Kingsford, who died in 1841. The altar formerly 
 stood below this window. In the south wall, at this end, are two sedilia; 
 an ancient door, now blocked up, was probably a priest's door. In 
 the floor of the nave is a brass, with the figure of John Lovelle, priest, 
 rector of the church, who died 1438. A tombstone, partly broken, bears 
 an inscription to Villai Dole, minister of the French church, in 1686. 
 The north aisle contains a three light window to the memory of the 
 Hon. Mrs. Isaac, who died in St. George's parish in 1850. 
 
 The font is ancient and curious, octagonal, supported on a central 
 pedestal and seven surrounding pillars. There was formerly, at the east 
 end of the church, on a panel of wood, a painting representing Guy 
 Fawkes entering the Parliament House. It bore a latin inscription 
 showing that it had been placed there "to perpetuate the memory of 
 popish infamy." It was apparently painted during the reign of Charles I. 
 The Registers of the church, which date from 1574, contain a copy of 
 the entries of a previous Register, dating back to 1538. 
 
 HE living of St. Mary Magdalen, Burgate, was united to that 
 of St. George's in 1681, and the former church was pulled 
 down in 1871. The tower remains still standing. It is 
 recorded that Sir Harry Ramsey, of St. George's parish, 
 gave six seams of lime towards the rebuilding of it in 1503. 
 A few monuments are preserved under the tower, one being to an ex- 
 traordinary Canterbury character, Betty Bolaine, the miser, who was 
 buried in the church in 1805. The church contained incised brasses, 
 which "disappeared" during the process of demolition. Two of these, 
 the oldest figured brasses in Canterbury, were in memory of Christopher 
 
76 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 Klook, and his wife Margareta. The earliest bore date 1494. The 
 church had a Norman font, which was sold, we believe, to a church near 
 Dover. The ancient bells were also sold. One is in St. George's 
 Church, and two went to Madagascar. In a house close to the church 
 "Tom Ingoldsby" (Rev. R. H. Barham) the author of the " Ingoldsby 
 Legends," was born. William Gray, a relative of Stephen Gray, the 
 first discoverer of electrical conduction, was buried in this church in 
 1714. He had been sixty years in the city Council. 
 
 ASTED speaks of St. Paul's as a small mean building, but 
 much has been done, since his day, to enlarge and beautify 
 the church. Its pointed arches and round pillars are Early 
 English, but the oldest windows belong to the late pointed 
 style. There are three piscinas in the chancel and the 
 north aisle ; the roof is pannelled ; the tower contains three bells. In 
 the reign of Henry' III. the Rectory of the parish belonged to Hamo 
 Doge, who endowed the Vicarage and founded the Chantry, of which the 
 name survives in Chantry Lane. The living was settled by Henry VIII. 
 on his new Dean and Chapter, and remained with them until its union 
 with St. Martin's in 1681. It was then arranged that the presentation 
 should alternately be made by the Archbishop and the Dean and Chapter. 
 The church had no burial ground of its own, and the parishioners used 
 that of St. Augustine's Abbey until 1591, when the ground in Longport 
 was purchased and consecrated. There is a brass tablet on the chancel 
 wall in memory of John Twyne, a worthy schoolmaster, who, in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, taught the boys Latin, and ruled the city as 
 Mayor. He died in 1581. A tombstone in the north aisle bears an 
 inscription on a brass plate — " Sacred to the never dyeing memory of 
 the much bemoand and lamented patterne of all goodness, George 
 Fineux, Esq., gent, second sonne to Thomas Fineux, Esq., of Huttam, 
 who changed this mortall life the 24th October, A.D. 1653." 
 
 In this parish died in 1737 David Fferne, a noted dwarf. The 
 
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH. 77 
 
 parish Register records that " David Fferne, the short man, born in the 
 shire of Ross, in the parish of Fferne, aged 27 years, was but 30 inches 
 from head to foot, and 36 inches about." A mural monument records 
 the loyalty and the reward thereof of Sir William Rooke — " After some 
 years' imprisonment, and other sufferings," during the Commonwealth, 
 he was, soon after the Restoration (1660), given a regiment of foot, and 
 the command of a troop of horse, with other proofs of Royal gratitude. 
 Sir William's seat was at St. Lawrence, Canterbury, at which he lived 
 and died. Here too lived his more distinguished son, Admiral Sir George 
 Rooke, who did good service in driving out the next Sovereign of that 
 Stuart line, to which his father had been so devoted. William III. 
 promoted him to the rank of rear admiral of the red, and his capture of 
 Gibraltar in 1704, won for him a deathless fame in English history. 
 Queen Ann received him with all honour, but he retired, still in the 
 prime of life, to spend a few years in his quiet home at Canterbury, 
 where he died in 1708, and was buried in St. Paul's church. Still 
 another Rooke is connected with the traditions of St. Paul's, having 
 fought a fatal duel in the North Holmes with Ensign Buckeridge. Both 
 were killed. A stone, on which the words "Rooke died here" are 
 barely legible, still marks the spot. 
 
 The enlargement of St. Paul's Church is due to the late Rev. W. J. 
 Chesshyre, M.A., for 17 years rector of St. Martin's with St. Paul's. To 
 his memory the handsome west window was erected by public subscrip- 
 tion in 1859. The south aisle was erected by him, and other extensive 
 improvements carried out. The chancel was enlarged and a new four- 
 light east window with good Decorated tracery and painted glass, 
 was erected to the memory of William Henry Furley, Esq. A handsome 
 new reredos has recently been placed below it. The north aisle also 
 contains a new three-light east window. The chancel has a memorial 
 window to the Rev. W. A. Newman, formerly Dean of Cape Town, and 
 in the new south aisle is a window to the late Mr. John Lancefield. The 
 font is new, and replaced an ancient one, the square basin of which 
 stood on four marble columns. Joseph Hatch, the celebrated founder 
 of bells, was married at St. Paul's in 1607. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 \t j$tej$m\% fadimcjt0u. 
 
 T. STEPHEN'S, Hackington, is situated 
 about a mile from the centre of the city, 
 on the north. It is a charming spot, with 
 the old church half hidden amidst sur- 
 rounding circles of limes, the quaint cluster 
 of cottages and almshouses, the fine man- 
 sion of Hales Place, the park with its 
 timbered background of hill, the village 
 school, the adjacent farm, and the 'Beverley,' 
 S=? whose ancient host has catered to his rustic 
 sapS- neighbours for three score years, and has 
 jr-Sg^" officiated as parish-clerk over three genera- 
 tions of them, from baptism to burial, ever 
 since George the Third was King. 
 
 We must go back to the days of Stephen 
 S*»s! Langton for the origin of the intimate 
 connection of the church with the Arch- 
 deacons of Canterbury. The great Arch- 
 bishop who had so large a share in the 
 struggle between King John and the Barons, attached the living of 
 Hackington to the Archdeaconry then held by his brother Simon. This 
 Simon Langton had taken a notable part against John ; he had been an 
 active partizan of the French Dauphin, who made him his Chancellor. It 
 
ST. STEPHEN'S, HAC 'KINGTON. 79 
 
 is not surprising therefore that by the time John's son Henry had grown 
 to manhood, Simon had grown " not only out of means, but also out 
 of favour both with the King and Pope." It was then, however, that 
 Stephen Langton, remembering that " charity begins at home," provided 
 handsomely for his brother by making him Archdeacon of Canterbury, 
 and giving him the livings of St. Stephen's and Teynham. Simon 
 removed to the vicaiage of Hackington, which long continued to be 
 the residence of the Archdeacons, who had previously occupied a small 
 house in St. Gregory's. He founded the Poor Priests' Hospital at 
 Canterbury, and died in 1248, having held the archdeaconry for twenty- 
 one years. Matthew Paris, the monk, says of him that, having upset 
 the peace of two kingdoms, it was not wonderful that he became a 
 perturber and persecutor of his Church at Canterbury. Hackington, as 
 the residence of the Archdeacons of Canterbury during three centuries, 
 must have been the home of many distinguished men — whether of 
 Archdeacon Peter Roger, who became Pope Gregory XI., we know not. 
 It was there that Archbishops Arundel and Warham died. It narrowly 
 missed becoming a more important place. Archbishop Baldwin, who 
 went with Cceur de Lion to the Crusades, and died in the Holy Land, 
 began to build a college for secular canons at Hackington, but it was 
 never completed, for the monks of Christ Church, with their Prior 
 Alan, appealed to the Pope against the scheme, and a bull was issued 
 commanding the Archbishop to pull down what he had erected. 
 
 Hackington can boast of a connection with royalty. Edward III. 
 held a tilt there on his return from the French war. Henry VI. had a 
 house and park there ; these in the reign of Elizabeth were granted to 
 Sir Roger Manwood. This worthy barrister, who became Chief Baron 
 of the Exchequer, was a great benefactor to St. Stephen's, and founded 
 the almshouses which serve to perpetuate his memory in the village. 
 His mansion, which adjoined the churchyard, was no doubt the former 
 residence of the archdeacons ; it remained in the Manwood family till 
 1637, when the estate was sold to Colonel Colepepper. In 1675 Mr. E. 
 Hales became the owner of it ; he was knighted by James II., and it 
 was his great grandson, Sir Edward Hales, Bart., who pulled down the 
 
ST. STEPHEN'S, HACKINGTON. 81 
 
 old mansion and built, on the slope of the hill, the fine house which 
 has recently been so greatly altered and enlarged for St. Mary's Jesuit 
 College. 
 
 The church is beautifully situated at the base of the hill, and is 
 surrounded by rows of splendid lindens. It is cruciform in shape, the 
 massively buttressed tower at the west end being equal in breadth to the 
 nave. The west door is a most valuable example of the transition 
 from the Norman, to which style its mouldings and capitals belong, 
 but the arch is pointed. Through this door we enter into the belfry, 
 from which a rather curious carved oak door leads into the nave. 
 Over it is the date, 1630, and the text, " Let all things be done 
 decently and in order." The tower contains eight bells, which are 
 sweet toned and melodious. The St. Stephen's ringers have a reputation 
 to maintain, and are not unmindful to place on record their efforts in 
 the delightful art of change-ringing. A tablet tells us that the two 
 trebles were added to the peal in 1845, when Holt's ten-part peal of 
 5040 grandsire triples was rung by the St. Stephen's Amateur Society in 
 three hours and one minute. Another tablet records that in 1847 there 
 was rung a true and complete peal of 6720 Bob-Major changes in four 
 hours and three minutes. 
 
 Within the south porch is a well preserved Norman doorway ; the 
 head of the arch is filled in with diapered squares, and the shafts have 
 cushion capitals. This doorway, a nave window near it, and the lower 
 parts of the tower are the only portions of the church which retain 
 Norman characteristics. The nave windows, with the one exception 
 mentioned, are pointed, some lancets. The chancel arch is pointed, 
 but the transept arches round. The chancel is large in proportion to 
 the nave. It is well lighted by a handsome east window of five lights, 
 the tracery perpendicular. The windows north and south of the chancel 
 are very elegant ; their tracery is apparently late Decorated merging into 
 Perpendicular. The north transept has a three light window which is 
 worthy of notice, but the other windows are without interest. The 
 chancel screen is carved oak. The stone font was presented by Sir 
 Roger Manwood in 1591. 
 
 K 
 
82 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 The most noteworthy of the monuments is that of Sir Roger 
 Manwood in the south transept. It is of marble, and contains in a 
 central niche a fine bust of the knight in his costume as Chief Baron 
 of the Exchequer. In panels below are kneeling marble figures of his 
 first wife Dorothy and their five children ; on the other side kneels his 
 second wife Elizabeth, without offspring. On the slab of the tomb, 
 upon an admirably carved pallet of plaited rush, lies the effigy of Sir 
 Roger in grim and bony nakedness. The skeleton is a clever work 
 of wood-carving. Above the tomb are suspended a helmet, sword, 
 and gloves, presumably those of Sir Roger, though his weapons were 
 probably such as the arm of the law might wield. A Latin inscription 
 tells us that, amongst his other good works, he founded Sandwich 
 School. He died in 1592. 
 
 This monument of Sir Roger Manwood is of greater interest to the 
 archaeologist than a casual observer would expect. The bust of the 
 Chief Baron bears the famous ;< collar of SS," which has engaged the 
 pens of so many antiquarians. The collar is so named from certain 
 links shaped like the letter S. The interest arises as to what that letter 
 signifies and what was the origin of this particular collar, evidently a 
 badge of great distinction. Whether the S stands for the martyred 
 Simplicius ; or for the name of the Countess of Salisbury, whose garter 
 became historical ; for " Soverayne," the motto of Henry IV., or for 
 " Souvenez," a supposed motto of his noble father, " time-honoured 
 Lancaster," which are some of the many explanations given, it is not 
 for us to decide. It was undoubtedly worn by Henry IV. and by his 
 Queen. It has passed through stages of development ; and it is still a 
 collar of SS that is worn by the Lord Chief Justice. Sir Roger Manwood 
 was, it seems, the first of the Lord Chief Barons to receive the honoured 
 decoration, the use of which was limited by special statute in the reign 
 of Henry VIII. The Latin epitaph records the chief points in the 
 career of Sir Roger, who died in December, 1592. It is curious that 
 the thirteen lines, commencing — 
 
 " Inclines oculum me conspice marmore pressum " 
 are also quoted by Parsons as graven on a tombstone, dated 1436, in 
 
ST. STEPHEN'S, HACKINGTON. 83 
 
 Graveney Church, to John Martyn, who was a Judge in the time of 
 Henry VI. 
 
 On the wall of the nave, near the south door, is a beautiful epitaph, 
 written by Sir John Manwood, in memory of his wife, 20th May, 1642. 
 It is a touching record of a true and noble woman. The first part of 
 the inscription is as follows :—" Glory be to God on High, our Most 
 Gracious Saviour! Within this Church (the temple of the everlasting 
 God) lies the body of Lievina, Lady Manwood, in the vault belonging 
 to my family. She was eldest daughter to Sir John Ogle, Knt., some- 
 time a Colonel in the Netherlands and Governor of Utrecht, where he 
 was in martial affairs and at home in England, both in his life and 
 death justly preclare. She was a most indulgent wife to me from the 
 very hour of our happy and blessed conjunction in marriage, which was 
 on the 11th December, 1627, till the 19th February, 1641, in the evening 
 of which day, between 9 and 10 o'clock, we were separated by her 
 dissolution and my recovery out of a dangerous sickness. In the ex- 
 tremity whereof grief so possessed and pierced through her most pious 
 heart that she instantly sickened, and died five days after, in the 36th 
 year of her age. Her life was most pious and full of charity ; her 
 conversation sweet, most sweetly discreet ; for she flattered none, yet 
 obliged all. Her love to me was most singularly true and eminent ; and 
 as God's priest united us sacredly in marriage, so God Himself did our 
 hearts and souls, for we had but one heart and one soul : death hath 
 separated our bodies, but can never our souls. For hers is praising God 
 in Heaven, and so doth mine, though my body is on the Earth. Death 
 and the Resurrection will unite again our souls and bodies eternally to 
 praise our God, the most Glorious Trinity — which God of His infinite 
 mercy grant." 
 
 The north transept contains the memorials of the Baker family, 
 long intimately associated with St. Stephen's, and on the wall of the 
 nave are monuments to other members of the same family, whose 
 present representative is W. de Chair Baker, Esq., of St. Stephen's. 
 One is to the memory of Colonel Charles Cyril Taylor, C.B., who was 
 killed at Sobraon. He was the eldest son of Lieut.-Col. Taylor (who 
 
84 
 
 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 was killed at Vimiera) and Elizabeth, daughter of the late John Baker, 
 formerly M.P. for Canterbury. 
 
 The chancel east window is filled with stained glass, representing 
 our Saviour and the Four Evangelists. It was the gift of the late Rev. 
 John White, who was Vicar of the parish for 39 years. The chancel 
 contains a memorial of " Captain William Alcock, Esquire, who served 
 his country faithfully, both by sea and land, lived virtuously, and on 
 21st February, 1616, ended his life most Christianly in sure hope to rise 
 again." On the south side of the chancel is a painted window (Christ 
 and the Woman of Samaria) by Willement, which, with a handsome 
 brass, is " in memory of John Furley, of Canterbury, Banker, born 5th 
 April, 1773, died 7th November, 1854." 
 
 Close to the Church are the almshouses of Manwood's Hospital, 
 six single houses, the seventh (a double house) the abode of the parish 
 clerk. The present occupant (Edward Austen) has held the office for 
 63 years, and is one of the very few certificated parish clerks remaining 
 in the kingdom. He was one of the ringers of the two peals alluded to 
 above, and still takes his place in the octave with as much spirit, if not 
 as much strength, as he did half a century back. The patronage of the 
 almshouses is attached to the ownership of the Hales' Estate. 
 
ftfefe^- 
 
 ~y , lvi 
 
 
 535tf<r *■•"-" ^i 
 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 3t §uwifcnt's CIntrrjr. 
 
 HE Church of St. Dunstan's is 
 one of the most interesting 
 of the parish churches of 
 Canterbury. It is outside the 
 ancient boundaries of the city, 
 but it has long been brought 
 practically within it. It was 
 one of the many foundations 
 of Archbishop Lanfranc (1070- 
 1089), who made it an appanage 
 of his Priory of St. Gregory in 
 Northgate. 
 
 A hundred years passed 
 away, and St. Dunstan's formed 
 a stage in the pilgrimage of 
 the King of England to the 
 shrine of Becket. Henry had 
 dismounted at Harbledown, 
 and walked with his attendants 
 to St. Dunstan's. Entering the 
 church, the king partly stripped, 
 put on the hair shirt and the cloak of the pilgrim, and walked barefooted 
 
RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 to the Cathedral. The little Norman Church became, no doubt, a place of 
 some note in connection with the king's penance. Other pilgrims would 
 be likely to follow Henry's example, and pause at St. Dunstan's before 
 passing on their way into the city. By whom the church of Lanfranc 
 was enlarged we cannot say, but the vicarage was established and en- 
 dowed by Archbishop Reynolds in 1322, and during the same century, 
 one Henry of Canterbury, a chaplain of the king, founded a chapel on 
 the north side of the church, dedicating it to the Holy Trinity. He 
 endowed there a perpetual chantry, which he gave in charge to the Poor 
 Priest's Hospital. This chantry was continued until the Reformation. 
 It was not the only one, however, attached to the church, for we read 
 that two chaplains were maintained by the Roper family to sing masses 
 at the altar of St. Nicholas, for the souls of their dead. This family, 
 during several centuries, lived in the parish, and were buried in the 
 church. It was a Roper who built the chancel aisle, known as the Roper 
 Chancel. The family residence was at Place House, or St. Dunstan's 
 Place, which stood opposite the churchyard, its site being at present 
 occupied by the brewery of Messrs. Flint and Sons. Only the old gate- 
 way of the mansion remains (see initial). One William Rosper, who 
 resided there in the reign of Henry III., was a great benefactor to St. 
 Martin's Priory, Dover. The Ropers continued to be buried in the 
 church till the elder male line became extinct, but their vault continued 
 to receive members of the family down to 1741. Lord Teynham, a Roper- 
 Curzon, is descended from a Christopher Roper, of the 16th century. 
 
 The chantries and masses, with their attendant friars, were swept 
 away at the Reformation, but that same period furnished to the church 
 a relic which is still preserved in it — the decapitated head of Sir Thomas 
 More. The sturdy Chancellor preferred to accept death rather than 
 acknowledge Henry VIII. to be the supreme head of the church. He 
 was executed on Tower Hill in 1535. His body was first buried in 
 the tower, and afterwards in Chelsea church. His head, as usual in 
 such cases, was set up on a pole on London Bridge. There it 
 remained for a fortnight, when his daughter Margaret obtained posses- 
 sion of it, and having encased the head in a leaden casket treasured it 
 
ST. DUNSTAN'S CHURCH. 
 
 87 
 
 as a precious relic till her death. Margaret More married John Roper, 
 and spent her last days at St. Dunstan's. She was buried in the Roper 
 vault, where her leaden coffin was found intact a few years since. At 
 her earnest desire the head of her father was buried in the vault. It 
 was placed within a grated niche in the wall, and there remains to the 
 present day. 
 
 St. Dunstan's Church : North side. 
 
 St. Dunstan's, like most of our churches, shows the work of several 
 ages. During the recent restoration the plaster having been removed 
 from the exterior, some ancient "herring-bone"' flint work was laid 
 bare in the north wall ; this was probably a part of Lanfranc's original 
 structure. The present entrance to the church is by the north porch, 
 erected in the reign of the second James. From this a door opens into 
 the Trinity Chapel which is now used as a vestry. The original external 
 doorway of the chapel has been blocked up, but it can still be seen. 
 The chapel contains a well preserved piscina and a "squint," now closed, 
 through which when the " poor priests " chanted mass the altar of the 
 Trinity Chape! could be seen from the church. 
 
 The church consists of a nave, with a south aisle, and a chancel 
 which has a south aisle known as the Roper Chancel. Four pointed 
 arches, with elegant moulded piers and circular shafts, divide the nave 
 
88 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 from the aisle. The nave and aisle windows have good tracery ; the 
 west window is later, but good. There is a trefoiled lancet in the 
 chancel, and a square-headed, two-light window filled with stained glass, 
 " in memory of Edward and Sarah Holttum, erected by their only 
 surviving son, Charles Holttum, F.R.C.S.E." The east window of three 
 lights with good tracery, contains small painted medallions. There 
 appears to be no old glass in the church. Two pointed arches with an 
 octagonal pillar, separate the chancel from the Roper chancel ; the 
 latter has a flat timber ceiling, panelled. It contains two ancient altar 
 tombs of Bethersden marble, monuments of the Ropers, once richly 
 carved, but now in a sad state of decay. Their brasses have been 
 stolen. Below this chancel is the Roper vault above referred to. A 
 monument to the son of Margaret Roper is now on the north wall ; it 
 was formerly in this chancel. There are no other monuments of any 
 note, but several quaint old tombstones cover the now filled up vaults. 
 One in the south aisle commemorates Claude Rondeau, a "marchant" 
 at Canterbury, " refugee in England for the Protestant religion." Several 
 of the Rondeau family were buried there. The father died in 1720. 
 One son died at St. Petersburg, after living there nine years as His 
 Majesty's Resident (1739). 
 
 Near this is a curious memorial of "Elizabeth Scranton, who, 
 having lived a vertuous and pious life, died ye sixth day of February, 
 in the 47th yeare of her virginity, and of man's salvation 1685." Other 
 old tombstones commemorate Christopher Browne, who died 1657, and 
 Daniel Hall, who was twice Mayor of Canterbury ; his first wife was 
 Leah Rigden, who died in 1703. The tower at the west end of the 
 south aisle contains a belfry with six bells. Below it is an octagonal 
 font, with an oak cover of elaborate tabernacle work. 
 
 In a field opposite to the church once stood a chapel, built by 
 Archbishop Baldwin in 1187, and dedicated to Thomas a Becket. A 
 fair used annually to be held in St. Dunstan's. The parish once also 
 enjoyed two privileges which it would scarcely desire to recover — a 
 prison and a gallows, the former in St. Dunstan's Street, the latter on 
 St. Thomas's Hill. 
 
kO^ 
 
 ^Ss 
 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 f0ljr (to, Htafepte; m. |*ta's; <Ji ^{rcp; 
 
 OLY Cross, Westgate, was erected by Archbishop Sudbury 
 about 500 years ago. It replaced the church which stood 
 over the former Westgate, and which was pulled down 
 when the Archbishop rebuilt a part of the city wall and 
 erected the present Westgate. The church consists of a 
 nave, chancel, and two aisles ; it has a square tower at the south west 
 corner. Formerly a porch and chantry stood where the road now 
 intervenes between the church and the Westgate. Over the porch 
 anciently stood a sculptured representation of the Crucifixion— with 
 Mary and John at the foot of the Cross. In a will dated 1521, Richard 
 Marley instructed his executors " to see gilt well and workmanly the 
 Crucifix of our Lord." The Crucifix, however, had disappeared by 
 Somner's time, and had been replaced by the King's Arms. There was 
 anciently a priest's room over the porch, for the accommodation no 
 doubt of the priest of the "Jesus Masse," who was maintained by the 
 " Fraternity of the Jesus Masse, with the help and devotion of the 
 parishioners." This Chantry was supported by lands and tenements 
 in St. Dunstan's and Harbledown. The priest's stipend, including costs 
 of wax and wine, amounted to £7 a year, the parish clerk having 6s. 8d. 
 for ringing to the said mass, and helping to sing it. The Fraternity was 
 dissolved in the time of Edward VI. Holy Cross was frequently used 
 
90 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 for the performance of the " Miracle Plays " so common in the middle 
 ages. 
 
 The church has probably undergone considerable alterations since 
 its erection ; the present tower dates only from a few years since, the 
 old structure having become unsafe ; it contains five bells. No trace 
 of the old chantry now remains, the site having been taken up in 
 making the new road. Close to the spot on which this chantry stood 
 there was buried the last criminal executed at Westgate. A few aged 
 citizens still remember seeing Nicholas Nolan hanged there for highway 
 robbery on the Sturry Road. The church is spacious but architecturally 
 of no great interest. The windows are either late Decorated or Perpen- 
 dicular. The chancel contains a three-light pointed east window and 
 two square headed windows on each side. It has a few old carved oak 
 miserere stalls, and there is a piscina in the south wall. It also con- 
 tains a mural monument to Deane John Parker, who died 1838, aged 
 72 years. Below this is a memorial to Robert Deane, " a man of meek 
 and humble manners and unostentatious piety." We are told that a 
 Sunday School which he founded in this parish, together with a gallery 
 and organ erected at his own expense, remain to perpetuate his memory. 
 But gallery and organ have already disappeared. Mr. Deane died in 1808 
 at the ripe age of 90. There is a monument to James Six, M.A., Fellow 
 of Trinity College, Cambridge, who died at Rome, 1786, aged 62, 
 Canterbury being his native place. The Six family were descended, we 
 believe, from a celebrated Burgomaster of Amsterdam. Into the tower 
 has been shifted the monumental bust of Abraham Colfe, a worthy 
 whose name and fame are all but forgotten in his native city. He died 
 in 1656, and left his estate to the Leather Sellers' Company, of which 
 he was a member, directing, by his will, that 27s. yearly should be paid 
 to the minister of " Rood Church," near the Westgate, to be spent in 
 distributing bread to the poor. The font is octagonal, on a shaft of 
 similar form ; the carved wood cover is an elaborate specimen of 
 tabernacle work. 
 
 Holy Cross originally belonged to the Priory of St. Gregory. The 
 vicarage was endowed by Archbishop Stratford in 1347. It was united 
 
ST. PETER'S CHURCH. 
 
 91 
 
 with the rectory of St. Peter in 1681, by Archbishop Sancroft. The 
 patronage is alternately vested in the Archbishop and the Dean and 
 Chapter. 
 
 HE old Church of St. Peter in the High Street is rarely 
 entered, and has ceased to be used for Divine Service, 
 although an occasional marriage is solemnised there. It 
 is in a shocking state of disrepair and dirt, and owing to 
 many years of gross neglect is rapidly becoming a ruin. 
 It is a most singularly irregular building ; the nave has a decided curve, 
 and narrows from east to west ; the south aisle is very narrow, the north 
 aisle very broad. The nave is separated from the aisles by arcades of 
 pointed arches, which all vary in size and are not regular in position. 
 There is no chancel arch, but the piers of the arcades at the east end 
 are pierced on either side ; on the north by a low feathered ogee arch 
 within the side of which there is a small square recess, probably an 
 aumbry ; on the south by a splayed lancet opening. The arches of the 
 nave are pointed, without mouldings, mostly on square piers ; on the 
 north side there is one square pillar with square abacus. The arch and 
 pier edges are chamfered. The middle pier on the south side has a 
 pointed arch, high up. It is now filled up, but was evidently open to 
 both nave and aisle. It is clear that the west end of the church and 
 the north aisle have been much altered from the original building. It 
 appears as if there had been at one time a chapel or baptistery at 
 this end where is now the vestry ; a north door opens to a bay of the 
 aisle which is evidently much older than the curiously shaped extension 
 of the aisle at that end. In this bay the aisle arch is pointed, the nave 
 arch round. The tower at the south west corner has a small trefoiled 
 window in the lower part, and later pointed windows in the belfry. The 
 masonry of the tower indicates an early date, and then a reconstruction 
 from material of a previous building. In its quoins are some unusually 
 massive oolite stones not unlike those of St. Mildred's, and mixed with 
 
92 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 the flints of the walls are many apparently Roman tiles. The south 
 door was originally handsomely arched, with shafts and carved capitals, 
 a fragment of which remains on one side. There was no lack of doors 
 to the church, for there are two more on the north side and one, hooded 
 and moulded, in the east wall of the north aisle. These doors can only 
 be properly seen from the churchyard outside, where it is not too safe 
 to venture, for a vault occasionally caves in, and the centre buttress of 
 the north aisle is ready to fall. The condition of the church on this side 
 is most dangerous. Some of the windows are pointed, with fairly good 
 tracery, others square and poor, and one "modern" pointed, hideous. 
 A square window in the north aisle has elegant tracery, containing some 
 fragments of good old glass. There is an old square font. The pulpit 
 has an elaborate sounding board carved with cherubs, flowers, fruit, &c. 
 Under the west window is a grand state pew with a painted back and 
 canopy. 
 
 T. Alphege, St. Alphage, or St. Elphege, for the name is 
 variously spelt by both ancient and modern writers, is one 
 of the oldest of the parish churches of Canterbury. It is 
 dedicated to the Saxon Archbishop whom the Danes in 
 their sack of the city in 1011 barbarously murdered. It is 
 the only city church which was not at some time in the patronage of 
 either St. Augustine's or Christ Church Abbeys. It has so long suffered 
 neglect both within and without that it is now in a like condition to 
 St. Peter's. It is doubtful if the fabric is safe ; the tower is cracked, 
 and not long since a part of its parapet fell into the churchyard. The 
 interior of the church has not for many years been in a fit or decent 
 state for Divine Worship ; but recently an effort has been made to 
 improve the condition of the church, and to infuse new life into the 
 services, so that a marked improvement has taken place. The church 
 has two aisles, the chancel being continuous with the south aisle. Five 
 pointed arches on octagonal pillars separate the aisles ; the roof has 
 
ST. ALPHEGE CHURCH. 93 
 
 tie-beams and king-posts. The tower is square, plain and low, and 
 stands at the west end of the north aisle. It serves as a porch to the 
 church, the principal entrance being by a doorway of the Tudor period. 
 There is also a west door opening to the churchyard, and a south door 
 in the chancel. The windows, most of which are Perpendicular, are 
 but poor, with the exception of the two-light Decorated windows on the 
 south side. The font is octagonal, and of the Tudor period, the panels 
 bearing roses and shields. Fragments of old glass remain in some of 
 the windows. On the second pillar is an inscription " Laude Prude 
 Thoma per quern fit ista columptna." By his will, dated 1468, this 
 Thomas Prude left money to erect a pillar in St. Alphege church, and 
 from this the age of the greater part of the present building may be 
 inferred. The most noteworthy parishioner buried in the church was 
 John Caxton, a mercer, who died in 1483 ; he was brother of William 
 Caxton, the first English printer. 
 
 LD Northgate Church, or St. Mary Northgate, stood in part 
 over an archway which formed the north gate of the city. 
 It was removed and for the most part re-built. The north 
 side of the old Norman church, however, remains in the 
 present building, which is devoid of architectural interest. 
 It has a remarkable brass of one Ralph Brown, who was Mayor of 
 Canterbury in 1507 and during part of 1510. His epitaph is certainly a 
 remarkable sample of spelling : — 
 
 All ye that stand up on mi corse 
 Rembember but lat Raff Brown I was 
 All dyr man and Mayer of this cete 
 Jesus a pon mi sowll have pete. 
 
 It was at Northgate that the Recorder of the City, with the Mayor, 
 Aldermen, and other civic dignitaries, used to meet the King when 
 passing through the city on his journey from Margate to London. At 
 
94 
 
 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 such times the ceremony of delivering up the keys of the city to the 
 Sovereign was carried out with various loyal and flattering speeches from 
 the Recorder, as the mouthpiece of the citizens. 
 
 Pp^^jtr; 
 
 
 S3h 
 
 ITTLE need be said of the remaining city churches, for 
 they contain scarcely anything to interest a visitor. St. 
 Mary Bredman was so called it is said from a bread market 
 which formerly stood next to it. The church is a plain 
 oblong building without arches or divisions whatever. The 
 adioining Church House has a somewhat curious window looking into 
 the church. The sister church, St. Andrew's, was only built in 1763-4, 
 and has now ceased to be used. Old St. Andrew's stood in the centre 
 of the street at what is now the Parade. In it was buried, in 1592, the 
 Rev. Thos. Swift, rector of the parish for 22 years, and in 1624 his son 
 Wm. Swift, rector for 33 years. The latter was also for 22 years rector 
 of Harbledown. He was the great-grandfather of the celebrated Dean 
 Swift. St. Mary Bredin's is an entirely new church, erected in 1866; 
 it replaced a small Norman church which was built by a grandson of a 
 certain Vitalis, who came into England with the Conqueror. In the old 
 church were buried several of the Chiches, of the Donjon Manor, and 
 members of the Hales family, who at a later date held that manor. All 
 Saints' Church is also a modern church without a single feature calling 
 for observation. It replaced an ancient church, the tower of which 
 projected into the street. A beam crossing from the steeple to the 
 opposite side of the road bore a large square clock in the centre. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SDJf* telle, Cttjj WMb, jw& §vks. 
 
 Tower of the city wall, Dane John. 
 
 OMESDAY Book records 
 that Canterbury Castle was 
 given to the Conqueror by 
 the Archbishop and the 
 Abbot of St. Augustine's, 
 in exchange for twenty-one 
 burgenses. If the Castle, 
 which still in part remains, 
 was the one alluded to, it 
 must have been built within 
 the half century immedi- 
 ately preceding the Con- 
 quest, during which period 
 Norman influence was 
 manifest in English archi- 
 tecture. There is no earlier 
 mention of a castle at 
 Canterbury than that in 
 Domesday, and although 
 it has been supposed that 
 the present building re- 
 
 placed an older castle there seems to be no evidence of it whatever. 
 The castle is Norman in style, and very similar in general plan to 
 
96 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 Rochester and other castles erected by the Conqueror. There only now 
 remains the central keep which is remarkable for its area and massive- 
 ness. The walls, which are of enormous thickness, are composed of 
 rubble ; the round headed windows of the grand stage, the loops of the 
 lower stages and the quoins of the walls were faced with ashlar stones. 
 The surrounding court and ditch have long disappeared, and the keep, 
 now a mere shell, has been turned into a coal store for the Gas Company. 
 The history of the castle has not been remarkably eventful. It was used 
 as a common prison as early as the time of Edward II., for in the 
 Crown-rolls of that reign is a record that two prisoners, who sat chained 
 to beg their bread at the barbican of the castle, escaped ; the one took 
 sanctuary in St. Mary de Castro, and the other, involuntarily drawn away 
 by his companion, returned to his prison. During the periodical perse- 
 cutions of the Jews in the middle ages many of that nation were 
 imprisoned in the castle ; it is recorded that centuries afterwards the 
 walls remained inscribed with verses of the Psalms which they had 
 carved in Hebrew characters on the stones. 
 
 Canterbury was surrounded by a wall of defence at a very early 
 date. It is mentioned in one of the Ethelbertine charters of St. 
 Augustine's, which is evidence at least of the supposed antiquity of the 
 wall at the time that those fictitious charters were concocted. Roger of 
 Hoveden, describing the siege of Canterbury by the Danes in 1011, says 
 that many of the unfortunate citizens were cast headlong from the wall 
 of the city. William of Malmesbury, writing in the reign of Stephen, 
 speaks of Canterbury as being much renowned for the walls whole and 
 undecayed enclosing it round about. It is not improbable that it was 
 surrounded by a rampart of some kind as early as the period of the 
 Roman occupation, although it is extremely doubtful if there was, as 
 Mr. Godfrey Faussett argues in " Canterbury Till Domesday," a Roman 
 wall around the city. The conical mound of the Dane John (as well as 
 the lesser mounds which were formerly around it) might have been an 
 early British work, which was afterwards included in the ramparts of a 
 later period. The strengthening of the embankment with a casing of 
 flint, the building of the towers, and the completion of the circuit of 
 
THE CASTLE, CITY WALLS, AND GATES. 97 
 
 walls were carried out at various times subsequent to the conquest. In 
 the reign of Richard I. vassals of the Prior of Christ Church were 
 impressed to labour with other citizens at the fortification of the city 
 with " ditches, walls and other fortresses." By the time of Richard II. 
 the wall had ceased to be effective for defence, and was spoken of as 
 tottering and decayed. The king gave a grant towards its repair, and at 
 the same period Archbishop Sudbury built Westgate, and either erected 
 or rebuilt part of the wall to Northgate. At the beginning of the next 
 reign, however, the citizens were again labouring at the fortifications of 
 the city, for a Royal writ of Henry IV., in the year 1403, says "Our 
 well beloved, the citizens of our city of Canterbury, as we hear, have 
 begun to fortify and strengthen the same city as well with one wall of 
 stone as with a ditch." A survey of the city wall, taken in the previous 
 year by Alderman Thomas Ickham, showed the whole circuit of the 
 walls, with the seven gates and river to be 582^ perches. 
 
 The most ancient portion of the wall was undoubtedly that on the 
 southern side of the city. Commencing at the right bank of the river, 
 behind St. Mildred's Church it continued to the Worthgate, the site of 
 which was probably in Castle Street, adjacent to the castle. Thence it 
 bounded the Dane John, as it does at present, to the Riding Gate. 
 From the Riding Gate we trace it, in what is now St. George's Terrace, 
 to St. George's Gate or Newi?igate, which was the eastern part of the city ; 
 thence to Bargate (the present St. George's Lane is built upon the wall, 
 and the houses on the west side of Bridge Street were built in the ditch). 
 From Burgate it skirted Christ Church precincts to Queeningate, a small 
 gate nearly opposite the grand gate of St. Augustine's Abbey ; thence 
 it continued to Northgate, from Northgate round to Westgate, and thence 
 to the end of the circuit on the right bank of the river opposite St. 
 Mildred's. It will be seen that anciently the city had seven gates, of 
 which, thanks to the barbarism of the civic authorities in the early part 
 of the present century, but one remains. Even that, the noble Westgate, 
 was only spared from destruction, it is said, by the casting vote of the 
 Mayor. There was also a gate called Wincheap Gate, but this formed 
 no part of the ancient line of the city fortifications. It was rebuilt 
 
 M 
 
during the last century by a Dr. Jacob. Besides the seven gates there 
 were a number of posterns or small gates for more convenient ingress 
 or egress. When the walls were complete they were furnished with 
 twenty-one watch towers, of which several still remain. On the Dane 
 John there are four, all round ; in the wall bounding the Cathedral 
 precincts, the towers are remarkably interesting. In the Deanery garden 
 the walk along the ramparts is still preserved, and the wall appears to 
 be from six to seven feet thick. Numerous Roman tiles have been built 
 into it, as well as a great many English bricks of a period previous to 
 the taxing. The Deanery wall contains two square towers ; the one 
 nearest to Northgate is a mere ruin ; the other is in a much better state of 
 preservation, and below it is an arched cave or magazine. The square 
 tower in Queeningate-lane, close to the Postern gate opposite St. 
 Augustine's, was evidently an important position. It has a side cell 
 with a look-out towards Northgate, and the remains of a fire-grate and 
 chimney. The next is a round tower in the part of the wall, bounding 
 the old Bowling-green. The whole internal surface of it has been 
 honeycombed with some hundreds of cells, and doubtless it was the 
 columbarium or dovecote of the monastery. There is a further round 
 tower in the next garden of the Precincts. Between Northgate and 
 Westgate some towers have been utilized as dwelling houses, and 
 one has also been included in the mansion beyond Westgate, known 
 as Tower House. The towers were arranged at such distances around 
 the walls that a cross fire could be directed from the turret loops 
 upon an enemy crossing the moat or attempting to scale the walls. 
 A great part of the moat has been filled up, built upon, or converted 
 into garden ground, but there is little difficulty in tracing it over a 
 considerable distance. 
 
 The ancient Worthgate, of which a picture and description were 
 given by Dr. Stukeley, was destroyed in 1791. It appears to have been 
 a semi-circular arch of tiles, resting on piers of massive stones, the 
 walls on either side showing several courses of tiles. Dr. Stukeley 
 speaks of the arch as of Roman or British construction, and Somner 
 describes it as " a perfect arch of British brick, not sampled of any 
 
THE CASTLE, CITY WALLS, AND GATES. 99 
 
 other about the city." There has been a disposition to dispute that the 
 Worthgate had the remote origin which these observations and the draw- 
 ing of Dr. Stukeley would imply; there is little doubt, however, that the 
 arch was round, was built of Roman tiles, and rested on piers of such 
 large oolitic blocks as the Romans made use of in their buildings in 
 Kent. (See p. 66). This must be regarded as strong evidence of the 
 arch being as old as the Romano-British period. 
 
 Next to Worthgate was the Riding Gate, Radingate, or Roadgate, 
 through which passed the ancient Watling Street, one of the four great 
 ways crossing the country since the earliest times of British history. The 
 Riding Gate also appears to have had vestiges of Roman arches. 
 Somner speaks of Roman bricks still to be seen about it in his time, 
 and Dr. Stukeley has given a drawing of the gate which shows parts of 
 what were clearly round arches of tiles. One of the wall turrets stood 
 by the side of the arch. Close to this gate there once stood the church 
 of St. Edmund, King and Martyr ; this Norman church was united to 
 St. Mary Bredin's in 1349. It had formerly belonged to the Prioress 
 and nuns of St. Sepulchre's, under grant from the Abbot of St. Augus- 
 tine's. Every trace of the church has disappeared for centuries, but 
 some skeletons were dug up on its site when excavations were made for 
 the drainage works about fifteen years ago. The present Riding Gate 
 was erected in 1791. 
 
 St. George's Gate, Newingate, or Newgate was standing until 1801, 
 when the city authorities most needlessly went to great expense to 
 destroy what they ought to have been proud to preserve. The date of 
 its erection is not known, but it bore a marked resemblance to Westgate, 
 like which it had round towers, a portcullis, and machiolated apertures 
 above the drawbridge-port. It was probably erected about 1470, at 
 which date a certain Wm. Bigg bequeathed ten pounds to " the making 
 and performing of St. George's Gate." There had been a gate at that 
 place before the end of the twelfth century however, for Newingate is 
 named in a Bull of Alexander III. to the monks of Christ Church. We 
 have heard from an old citizen a curious story in explanation of the des- 
 truction of St. George's Gate. It seems that it was customary for the 
 
THE CASTLE, CITY WALLS, AND GA-TES. I'Ol. 
 
 Commandant of the Garrison to place sentries at this gate, and frequent 
 complaints had been made of the rudeness of the men, especially to 
 ladies passing through the gate. The Mayor waited on the Commandant 
 and asked him to take away the sentries. He replied that he could not 
 remove them. "Then," said the Mayor, "we can remove the gate." 
 Forthwith a Burghmote was called, and the order was given for the 
 removal of the old structure. Such is the tale as we heard it some 
 years ago from one who was old enough to have remembered the act of 
 Vandalism. 
 
 Burgate or Borough Gate, sometimes called St. Michael's Gate, 
 stood in the street which now retains its name. There was certainly a 
 gate here in very early times, but the building, which was finally des- 
 troyed in 1822, was erected about 1475, as an inscription upon it 
 recorded. Through this gate lay the high road to Sandwich, which was 
 no doubt originally continued in a straight line to St. Martin's Hill, 
 but was subsequently diverted into Longport by the monks of St. 
 Augustine's, in order to enlarge the boundary of their cemetery. The 
 right of way through the cemetery gate to St. Martin's was, according 
 to Somner, the subject of a fierce dispute early in the reign of Henry VI. 
 between the city bailiffs and the monks. The latter resisted the bailiffs 
 in spite of their having the civic maces carried before them. The 
 citizens got the better of the encounter, and then the monks went to 
 law in the matter. Burgate, according to an old engraving of it, appears 
 to have been flanked by octagonal towers. 
 
 "Come we now to Queeningate," says Somner, "but where shall 
 we seek it ? There is none of the name at this day ; and few know 
 where it stood. I sought as narrowly for it as for ants-paths, and at 
 length having found it will show you where it was." The spot was a 
 little beyond the postern gate still remaining, opposite St. Augustine's. 
 Somner says a remnant of an arch of British bricks marked the site. 
 Scattered Roman bricks are to be seen in abundance hereabout in the 
 wall, but neither within nor without can any arch such as that spoken of 
 be found. The wall in Queeningate-lane, close to the Deanery garden, 
 shows a break in the ancient wall which has been filled up in recent 
 
102 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 times, and which is not unlikely to have been the spot alluded to by 
 Somner. The Dean having kindly given us free access to the wall and 
 ramparts, we sought narrowly for a clue to the site of the gate, but 
 can only echo the old Rambler's question — " where shall we seek it ? " 
 The name Queeningate or Queen's Gate is suggestive of Queen Bertha, 
 and has usually been ascribed to her. If the city was walled in the 
 sixth century, and Ethelbert's palace was on the site of the Cathedral, 
 and not on that of St. Augustine's, we can imagine Bertha using this 
 gate on her way to St. Martin's. But the probabilities are greatly 
 against the surmises. Somewhere near this gate formerly stood a church 
 of St. Mary Queeningate. 
 
 Northgate stood under the church of St. Mary Northgate, and was 
 destroyed when the old church was rebuilt. 
 
 Westgate, which alone remains to us of the city's seven gates, was 
 erected in the reign of Richard II. by Archbishop Simon of Sudbury, 
 who was murdered by Wat Tyler's men. Leland, in his quaint descrip- 
 tion of ' Cantorbyri,' says — " Sudbury builded the Westgate and made 
 new and repaired to gither fro thens to the north gate, and wolde have 
 done lykewise about al the town yf he had lyved. The mayr of the 
 town and aldermen, ons a yere, cum solemply to his tumbe to pray for 
 his sowle, yn memory of his good deade." This gate replaced an older 
 one which had fallen into decay, and upon which stood Holy Cross 
 Church. Westgate is a splendid example of a fortified city gate. On 
 the east or inner side a large square tower stands over a fine pointed 
 archway, the roof of which is vaulted ; on the west side the square 
 central building is flanked by two circular towers, one on either side of the 
 gate, which was defended by a portcullis, and by the machiolated 
 apertures through which boiling water, molten metal, and other 
 means of a warm reception, could be showered on an enemy who had 
 gained possession of the drawbridge, or crossed the river which was 
 then open to the towers. The holes may still be seen through 
 which the chains of the bridge passed ; the grooves of the portcullis 
 also remain. The towers on the outer side have no windows, but 
 numerous loops through which the enemy could be aimed at. On the 
 
THE CASTLE, CITY WALLS, AND GATES. 103 
 
 city side the great room which is over the archway has a fine pointed 
 window which commands a view of the main streets. In the opposite wall 
 is a recess, apparently for the portcullis when raised. From this room 
 access is obtained to the circular towers with their gloomy cells. Some 
 of these are lighted only by loops, trebly barred with iron gratings. The 
 cells which open to the roof have strong iron-grated doors through which 
 the prisoners could be seen by a warder on the outside. For several 
 centuries this old tower was used as the city prison, and here all kinds of 
 prisoners appear to have been cast indiscriminately. The place, within 
 the memory of persons still living, was a foul and horrible den, in which 
 the unfortunate debtor shared alike with the felon the filth and horrors 
 of the prison. The felons, however, were heavily manacled, and in one 
 of the cells we found but the other day quite a collection of their leg 
 chains — ponderous iron links, some of them weighing at least thirty 
 dounds. A strong iron ring in the floor of one of the towers was used no 
 doubt to chain up a refractory or desperate criminal. We could but 
 remember as we lingered in the dismal cells that among the prisoners 
 who have been enjailed and tortured, there were many poor men and 
 women whose only crime was loyalty to their God ; martyrs whose faith 
 enabled them to endure not only the cruelties of their prison, but the 
 subsequent death at the stake. In the brief but horrible epoch of the 
 Marian persecution, not less than forty-one men and women were burnt 
 to death in the martyr's field near Wincheap. 
 

 
 ffsg^ 
 
 Steffi 
 
 k%* £Jj 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 tones, IfeMmes, atttr Jta $0KSM in faferburg. 
 
 HE Black Friars or Dominicans were seen for the 
 first time in Canterbury in 1221 ; the first Grey Friars 
 or Franciscans arrived in 1224 ; and the White Friars or 
 Augustine Friars took up their abode here about a century 
 later. The rival orders soon established themselves in the 
 city, and were active agents in the religious life of the middle ages, but 
 only a few remains of their extensive monastic buildings are left in our 
 day. The Dominicans or Preaching Friars appear to have been first 
 welcomed to Canterbury by Archbishop Stephen Langton, but it 
 was not till the year 1236 that they returned to settle in the city. 
 This was in the part of St. Alphege parish which still retains the name 
 of Blackfriars. The chief of the three entrances to the monastery was 
 by a gateway in St. Peter's Street, nearly opposite Eastbridge Hospital. 
 It was built in the time of Edward III., and was of squared flints, with 
 a pointed arch, niches, and other ornaments. It was pulled down 
 towards the end of the last century. The church of the monastery has 
 entirely disappeared, but the Unitarian Chapel in the Black Friars is 
 part of the ancient refectory. It has been much altered, but contains 
 some of the original pointed windows, each of two-lights, with quatrefoil 
 head. A door in the gallery opens into a small square tower; this 
 contains a pointed arch which appears to have led to a staircase. On 
 the opposite side of the river, upon the island of Binnewith, were 
 some further buildings and grounds belonging to the monastery. The 
 
THE GREY FRIARS. 
 
 N 
 
106 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 extent of the enclosed land was rather more than five acres. The chief 
 royal patron of the preaching friars was Henry I., who not only granted 
 them land for their buildings, but mainly provided the funds for the 
 erection of their church. He also gave them a great part of the oak 
 timber required, while the Archbishop gave them allowance of firewood. 
 The position of the several buildings of the Priory is known from an 
 old drawing and plan of them made soon after the Dissolution. From 
 the St. Peter's gate a long road called the " Friars' Way" passed to the 
 river, which it crossed on a bridge of three pointed arches, and on the 
 opposite bank fell into another way leading from the St. Alphege gate 
 to the main group of buildings. These formed a Quadrangle, enclosing 
 the friars' cloisters ; the church was on the south side of it, the 
 churchyard being south of that ; the refectory, dormitories, kitchen and 
 other offices completed the Quadrangle. Within the Priory there was 
 anciently a Guild or Fraternity of the Parish Clerks of the city, called 
 the Brotherhood of St. Nicholas. The Priory fell with other monastic 
 houses in 1538, but three years earlier the Prior had been cited to 
 appear in Archbishop Cranmer's court. Cranmer had been preaching 
 in the Cathedral against the authority and supremacy of the Pope, and 
 the Prior had dared to publicly maintain the Pope's cause against the 
 Archbishop, whereby Cranmer, writing to the king, declared himself to 
 be " m'velously sclawndered in thies parties." The Priory became 
 private property, and passed from one to another until in 1658 it was 
 purchased by one Peter de la Pierre, a surgeon from Flanders, who 
 introduced the Anabaptists here. The sect established their meeting 
 house in the old refectory, and used a part of the Friars' cemetery 
 as their burial ground. The churchyard still contains some old 
 memorials of the Baptists of the last century, including one to a 
 Mrs. "Experience" Brown. Somner mentions that the churchyard 
 was in 1640 " the Artillery Ground for the young artillery of the 
 city." In the time of Edward I. it appears to have been the 
 rendezvous of the citizens in a plot they entered into against the 
 monks of Christ Church, who had refused to share in furnishing 
 twelve horsemen demanded by the King. The citizens engaged in an 
 
PRIORIES AND NUNNERIES. 107 
 
 early case of boycotting. They forbade any man to " send or sell to 
 the monks any victuals," or to pay rent for any house belonging to 
 them; they threatened to stop all men fiom going into or coming out 
 of the monastery, and "to spoil of their garments any monks who 
 ventured forth ;" but the fractious citizens were appeased by the Arch- 
 bishop. 
 
 The Grey Friars first came to Canterbury in 1224. They were a 
 company of four clerics and five laymen, and were lodged their first 
 night in a small-room under the school-house of Christ Church, where, 
 in the evening, some of the scholars joined them, and " all made merry, 
 drinking from one pot." The new comers were next taken in by the 
 Provost of the Poor Priests' Hospital, who gave them "a plot of ground 
 set out with a convenient house and a decent chapel or oratory." In 
 1270 Alderman John Diggs, an ancestor of Sir Dudley Digges, of 
 Chilham Castle, bought and presented to them the island of Binnewith, 
 formed by the divided branches of the Stour. Here they established 
 their monastery, which had one entrance in Stour Street, and another in 
 St. Peter's, the latter by a gateway which stood over against that of the 
 rival order of Dominicans. The Franciscans in Canterbury certainly 
 did not observe their rule of poverty, but soon became possessed of 
 goodly property. They lost no opportunity of enriching themselves by 
 granting sepulture in their church to wealthy citizens as a reward for 
 benefactions to their monastery. They had not long been settled in 
 Binnewith before they began to seize on houses and lands belonging to 
 Christ Church, and in the disputes which arose out of this, the Friars, 
 who had vowed to possess no property whatever, held so firmly to their 
 ill-gotten estate that they ultimately secured it at about half its rental. 
 Of the buildings of the monastery there remains a very curious and 
 interesting old house, built on pointed arches over the river. There 
 are also a few portions of the old boundary walls still to be seen in the 
 surrounding gardens. This old house of the Grey Friars was for some 
 time the residence of members of the Lovelace family. Wm. Lovelace, 
 serjeant-at-law, was counsel for the city of Canterbury during a portion 
 of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and also sat for the city in Parliament. 
 
108 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 He died, in 1677, in some remarkable way, the history of which is now 
 unknown, but it was the subject of various publications at the time. He 
 was buried in the Cathedral. He not only owned the Grey Friars, but 
 had bought the St. Lawrence estate, a purchase which involved him in a 
 costly law suit. His son seems to have suffered from the ungenerous ill 
 will of Sir Roger Manwood, the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, between 
 whom and the elder Lovelace there had been enmity. This son, who 
 was knighted in 1599, unsuccessfully contested Canterbury in 1624. Five 
 years later he died at the old house of the Grey Friars. His grandson 
 was the celebrated Cavalier, Richard Lovelace, who was declared to be 
 " the most amiable and beautiful person that eye ever beheld." He 
 was the most handsome man at the Court of Charles I., and was a 
 soldier, dramatist, and poet. He played a prominent part in the great 
 Rebellion, and was chosen at Maidstone to deliver the famous Kentish 
 Petition in 1642, for "the restoration of the King to his rights," a 
 petition which was burned by the common hangman. It was during 
 his imprisonment for his part in this transaction that he is said to have 
 written the lines : — 
 
 " Stone walls do not a prison make 
 Nor iron bars a cage ; 
 
 Mindes innocent and quiet take 
 That for an hermitage ; 
 
 If I have freedom in my love, 
 And in my soule am free, 
 
 Angels alone that soare above 
 Enjoy such liberty." 
 
 The closing days of his life were in striking contrast to the brilliant 
 promise and favour of his early manhood. He is described as having 
 become melancholy, poor, ragged, an object of charity ; living in 
 obscure and wretched abodes. He died in London at the age of forty, 
 in a miserable lodging in Gunpowder Alley, Shoe Lane. 
 
 The White or Augustine Friars first came to Canterbury in the year 
 1325, and having established themselves in a house in St. George's 
 parish, built a chapel, and began to celebrate mass. This was regarded 
 as poaching on the preserves of the parish priest, and the Archbishop 
 
PRIORIES AND NUNNERIES. 109 
 
 gave orders for an interdict to issue against the newly-arrived mendicants. 
 The affair was settled by a compromise, the Friars agreeing to pay the 
 parson of St. George's nine shillings yearly. Of the Priory of White 
 Friars scarcely a trace now remains. The principal entrance was by a 
 gateway in St. George's Street. The Middle Schools now occupy the 
 site of the ancient buildings. 
 
 The suppression of these three orders in Canterbury was carried out 
 by Ingworth, Bishop Suffragan of Dover, on December 14th, 1538, as 
 appears from a letter of his to Lord Cromwell, reporting his progress 
 in the affair: — "The xiij day of dece'ber I cam to ca't'bury wher y* I 
 fynde iij howseys, more in dett than all y* they have ys abull to pay, 
 & specyally y e austen fryers .... ye blacke and gray be abull 
 w* ther impleme'ts to pay ther detts and for ow r costs, and lytyll more 
 . . . . & so this sonday I woll make an ende in ca't'bury, and on 
 mu'day to sandwyche." 
 
 The Priory of St. Gregory in Northgate Street has already been 
 spoken of in connection with St. John's Hospital. It was originally 
 founded by Lanfranc for secular priests, but it was changed in the time 
 of Henry I. into a Priory of regular Canons. A small part of the ruined 
 buildings remained at the close of the last century, but now not a trace 
 of them can be seen. 
 
 The Poor Priests' Hospital, to which reference has been made, was 
 founded by Archdeacon Simon Langton, in or about 1240. Thorn says 
 that he founded it with the charity of others. Its name sufficiently 
 explains its purpose. The livings of Stodmarsh and St. Margaret's, 
 Canterbury, were granted to the Hospital within a few years of its 
 foundation. The Poor Priests were spared at the Dissolution of the 
 Monasteries, but in 1575 the Hospital and its estates were transferred to 
 the Mayor and citizens of Canterbury. Its use then became twofold — 
 a hospital school for poor children, and a bridewell or House of Correc- 
 tion. In 1728 it became the Workhouse, the property being passed over 
 to the Guardians of the Poor, who were to clothe, feed, and educate 
 sixteen poor boys, and to hand the surplus of the estate to the city 
 authorities to lessen the poor rates. A few years ago a scheme was passed 
 
110 ' RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 by which the estates were transferred to the Governors of the Middle 
 Schools, who are at present the administrators of the largely increased 
 income of the ancient charity. The buildings ceased to be used as a 
 workhouse when the present Union-house was erected. Some portions 
 of the old Hospital remain ; not of the earliest building, however, as 
 it was " new-built of stone " in 1733. 
 
 The Hospital of St. Lawrence, the name of which survives in the 
 adjacent County Cricket Ground, was founded in 1137 by the Abbot of 
 St. Augustine, as a lazar-house for leprous monks and sisters. In the 
 time of Edward III. it ceased to be used for brothers ; in the reign of 
 Henry VIII. the Hospital was leased to Sir Christopher Hales, free of 
 rent for nine years, on condition of providing for the prioress and sisters 
 during their lives. By 1562 the number had dwindled down to two. 
 The estate subsequently became the seat of Sir George Rooke (see p. 77). 
 It afterwards passed to Viscount Dudley and Ward, and at the present 
 time it belongs to Earl Sondes. There was formerly on one of the piers 
 of the old gateway a figure of St. Lawrence on the gridiron, with a man 
 standing at his head and another at his feet. The sculptured stone 
 still remains in the old wall, but the figures upon it are almost wholly 
 obscured. 
 
 Somewhat nearer to the city than the Hospital of St. Lawrence was 
 the Nunnery of St. Sepulchre's of which but a small piece of wall 
 remains in the grounds of the Hoystings. It was a Benedictine 
 nunnery founded by Anselm in 1100, and is memorable in history as the 
 abode of the so called Holy Maid of Kent, Elizabeth Barton. The 
 story of this famous nun of St. Sepulchre's has been fully and graphically 
 told by Mr. Froude. Elizabeth Barton was an instrument in the hands 
 of those who regarded the divorce of Henry from Catherine of Aragon 
 with horror, and who still more disliked the severance of the English 
 church from Rome. The poor girl was one of those hysterical subjects 
 who are likely to fall into trances, and to see visions. She was quickly 
 tutored by the arts of those around her, and her ravings were declared 
 to be revelations of the Divine will. ". Her fame was spread abroad, and 
 many great people had interviews with the nun-prophetess. Archbishop 
 
PRIORIES AND NUNNERIES. Ill 
 
 Warham introduced her by letter to Wolsey as " a very well disposed 
 and vertuouse woman as I am enformed by her susters." Sir Thomas 
 More saw and conversed with her. Her visions, unhappily for her, were 
 directed into the channel of treason ; she denounced the king's divorce, 
 and predicted his speedy death. Henry was not of the metal to be bent 
 by such means ; but the poor tool was broken. The nun and a number 
 of her confederates were tried in the Star Chamber. She and several 
 others, including the Warden of the Grey Friars, and the cellarer of 
 Christ Church, were executed in April, 1534. Fisher, Bishop of 
 Rochester, and Sir Thomas More narrowly escaped then, but their fate 
 was only postponed till the summer of the following year, when both 
 were beheaded. 
 
 The ground upon which the modern houses stand, on the side of 
 the old Dover Road opposite to the Hoystings, appears to have been 
 the cemetery of the nunnery, in which it seems probable that interments 
 were granted to others than the nuns of St. Sepulchre's. In the opening 
 up of the ground for the foundations of the new houses, skeletons were 
 found at a depth of about four feet, so thick together that Mr. Brent 
 describes them as lying shoulder to shoulder, presenting a ghastly 
 spectacle. These remains showed no trace of coffins, and we believe the 
 general impression at the time was that the densely crowded collection of 
 human remains indicated the hurried interment of a large number of 
 victims at some visitation of the plague. About two feet below this layer 
 of skeletons the excavators came upon a more ancient cemetery, evidently 
 Roman. It contained a great number of sepulchral urns, and such 
 objects as are usually found associated with them in Roman burial 
 places. Below this second deposit of human remains there were 
 evidences of a third still more ancient, the human bones unburnt, the 
 interments apparently belonging to the Celtic period. It is remarkable 
 that this spot at St. Sepulchre's should thus be stratified with the dead 
 of three several races. 
 
 At the farther end of Wincheap stood the Hospital of St. James, 
 or as it is more generally known St. Jacob's (Jacobus), founded during 
 the twelfth century for twenty-five leprous sisters, a prioress, and attend- 
 
112 
 
 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 ant priests. It escaped the general fate of such establishments at the 
 Dissolution, but only to fall, very shortly after, into the hands of persons 
 who seized and divided the property. In 1557 there was but one sister 
 still alive. 
 
 Besides these ancient religious houses brief mention must be made 
 of a number of charitable foundations of later date. In Northgate 
 is Jesus Hospital, founded as an alms-house for eight poor men and four 
 women by Sir John Boys, the first Recorder of Canterbury, who died in 
 1612. Cogan's Hospital, founded in 1657, in St. Peter's Street, as an 
 alms-house for poor widows of clergymen, has of late years been 
 removed to new buildings in the London Road. Maynard's or Cotton's 
 Hospital is in St. Mildred's. The first founder was John Maynard, 
 called the Rich, who in 1312 left estates for the maintenance of four 
 brothers and three sisters. In 1604 Alderman Cotton left property to 
 maintain an additional brother and two sisters. The deeds of the 
 Hospital were destroyed in the Great Fire of London, 1666. There are 
 some other alms-houses in the city which do not fall within the scope of 
 the present work. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 OamnQtan \mh ^anforb. 
 
 EW, perhaps, who visit Thanington 
 
 V are aware that it is one of the 
 
 country churchyards for which the 
 
 honor has been claimed of being 
 
 the churchyard of the Elegy. Many 
 
 years ago this claim was ably set forth 
 
 gfll&i'=^ ~ hi the columns of the Athenaum by the 
 
 lla^SsLf Rev. William Pearson, then vicar of the 
 
 cnurch. Whether Gray did actually 
 derive inspiration for his matchless 
 elegy in the little churchyard of Than- 
 ington we cannot say, but he must have 
 been familiar with the spot when resi- 
 Corbd, Tonford. dent at Canterbury. It was then much 
 
 more secluded than at present, the road which now passes it having 
 been made during the present century. It might certainly have 
 suggested not a few of the pictures in Gray's exquisite verses. We 
 can imagine the poet walking out across the meadows to Thanington 
 and resting for quiet meditation beneath its venerable " yew-tree's 
 shade," in view of those grand Cathedral towers beyond, whence still 
 " The curfew tolls the knell of parting day." 
 
 The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is mainly Early English, 
 
114 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 but a portion of the walls is of Norman masonry, and the chancel has 
 two small round-headed Norman windows, The east window is a 
 double lancet. The church is now undergoing restoration, and the 
 architect, Mr. John Cowell, is carrying out the work with praiseworthy 
 care to preserve the ancient character of the building. The present 
 plan of the church consists of a nave and chancel which are continuous, 
 a south chancel, opening without arches to the nave, its roof most 
 inadequately supported by timber uprights. The cruciform plan is 
 completed by a north tower, opening to the nave by a pointed arch. 
 The works now in progress include the erection of a chancel arch and 
 an arcade of two arches to the south chapel. This chapel will be 
 greatly improved by the removal of an utterly incongruous square 
 window inserted in a previous restoration ; two lancet windows will be 
 substituted. The nave at present has but a single pointed window on 
 the south side and a late pointed two-light west window. The north 
 wall is being pierced for two additional windows. These and the 
 additions throughout will be in Early English style, to harmonize with 
 the genera] character of the ancient building. An interesting discovery 
 has been made that there was originally a south aisle with two Early 
 English arches. When these were filled in a window was inserted in 
 one arch, and the present south door in the other. The original door 
 was at the west end. The existence of this aisle was wholly unsuspected. 
 The tower was erected within the present century to replace the old one 
 which had fallen. Hasted speaks of several inscribed tombstones in 
 the chancel, but only a single one remains ; it has a very perfect brass, 
 the armoured figure being that of Thomas Halle, Esquire, 1485. The 
 stolen brasses included two to the memory of Sir Charles Hales (1623) 
 and his lady, Anne (1617). In the south wall of the chancel is what 
 Hasted terms a tomb, but it has more the appearance of one of those 
 ancient confessionals in which the priest sat within, while the penitent 
 knelt outside the church, so that he might be shriven without being seen. 
 The east windows were filled with painted glass by the late Miss Hetty 
 Betty Sankey, and some other windows by Mrs. Powell, of St. Dunstan's. 
 The only bit of old glass remaining is in the east window of the 
 
THANINGTON AND TONFORD. 
 
 115 
 
 chapel — a head of Our Lord. The churchyard contains a fine old yew, 
 probably as old as the church. The lych gate was erected as a memorial 
 of the Rev. William Pearson, for many years vicar of the parish. There 
 is a curious circumstance connected with the vicarage of Thanington. 
 It anciently consisted of two rooms under the roof of the old Cockering 
 Farm-house, the quaint old place still standing on the upper road to 
 Ashford. A large field adjoining it is known as the vicarage field, 
 but when this and the modest vicarage were alienated from the living 
 we have failed to discover. The living- of Thanington at one time 
 
 Thanington Church. 
 pertained to St. Gregory's Priory. The Registers are in complete and 
 excellent preservation, dating from the "ye begininge of ye Queene's 
 Maiestie's raigne, viz., ye 17 daye of Nov., 1558." 
 
 The ford beside Thanington and the road which leads to it, carry 
 us back two thousand years, to the time when these were the way between 
 the two British camps or towns at Iffin and Bigbury. Each of these 
 camps will well repay a visit ; for, although overgrown with wood, there 
 is not the slightest difficulty in making out the ancient mounds, ramparts, 
 and trenches. The most remarkable feature at Iffin is a tumulus, 150 
 
116 
 
 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 ^\l 
 
 feet in circumference and nearly six feet high ; it stands a little distance 
 west of the entrenchments. This tumulus was opened some years ago by 
 Mr. Bell, of Bourne Park, and five urns were discovered in it. They were 
 rudely formed of half-baked clay, containing particles of flint ; but one 
 was of a very unusual size for urns of the Celtic age, its height being 
 25 inches, its diameter 22 inches. The urns contained ashes and frag- 
 ments of bones ; they were all found with the mouths downwards, and 
 were closed with clay. The tumulus is formed of brick earth, almost 
 entirely free from pebbles. The camp at Bigbury and Howfield woods 
 lies just behind Tonford, its length being, in the direction from east to 
 west, about three furlongs ; its breadth, from north to south, two furlongs. 
 A double bank with trench forms the outer line of defence, a single bank 
 and trench the inner line. The shape is irregular, and evidently resulted 
 from the natural formation of the ground. 
 
 Thanington and Toniford manors are not mentioned in the Domes- 
 day survey ; in the time of the Conqueror the former, under the name 
 of Tenitune, is mentioned as included in the Archbishop's manor of 
 Westgate. It was early held by the Valoyns family, and in the reign 
 of Edward III. by Sir William de Septvans ; in the time of Richard II. 
 it belonged to Sir William Waleys; in that of Richard III. to the 
 above-mentioned Thomas Halle; from the reign of Henry VIII. to 
 that of Elizabeth it was the residence of the Hales family. The 
 manor of Toniford, Tonford, or Tunford stood on the north bank 
 of the river opposite Thanington. In the reign of Henry III. it was 
 the residence of John de Toniford ; it subsequently became the seat 
 of the Fogges, and by the reign of Henry VI. had passed to Sir Thomas 
 Browne, to whom the right was granted to " embattle and impark within 
 his manor of Tonford." 
 
 The melancholy fate of Sir James Hales attaches a sombre interest 
 to Thanington and Tonford. He was the eldest son of Sir John Hales, 
 of the Dungeon, and was a Justice of the Common Pleas at the time 
 when the dying young king, ffenry VI., had been induced to set 
 aside his sister Mary, and name Lady Jane Grey as his successor. 
 Nine Judges signed a deed of assent to this ; but Sir James Hales, 
 
THANINGTON AND TONFORD. 117 
 
 though an earnest Protestant, refused to do so, declaring it to be 
 unjust and unlawful. When Mary had established herself on the throne, 
 the loyalty of the upright judge did not save him. He was disgraced, 
 dismissed, imprisoned, and persecuted until he yielded to the pressure, 
 and recanted. He went down to his nephew's house at Thanington 
 crushed in mind by remorse at his weakness. " Melancholy marked him 
 for her own," and shortly after he was drowned in the Stour at Tonford. 
 Harris says he probably fell in, being aged and weak; other historians 
 accept the recorded verdict oi felo de se, as a proof that he committed 
 suicide. It is supposed that the curious pleadings offered in a lawsuit 
 arising out of this verdict, suggested to Shakespeare the argument of the 
 gravediggers in Hamlet : — 
 
 1 Clown. Here lies the water; good : here stands the man ; good : If the man 
 go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nil he, he goes ; mark you that : 
 But if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself: Argal, he that 
 is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life. 
 
 2 Clown. But is this law ? 
 
 i Clown. Ay, marry is't ; crowner's-quest law. 
 
 In tracing out the connection of the Hales family with Thanington, 
 we were led to examine the curious monument of another Sir James 
 Hales in the nave of Canterbury Cathedral. This Sir James died and 
 was buried at sea, on his return from a Portuguese expedition, and in 
 his monument he is represented being dropped into the sea. Almost 
 hidden behind the kneeling figure of his lady, there is a marble slab on 
 which there is a very old painting of a landscape. We made a close 
 inspection of this picture, and found it to be a representation of Thaning- 
 ton Church ; while, across the river, and in the background, there is a 
 castellated edifice with lofty walls and round towers — the ancient Toniford 
 manor undoubtedly. Why should this view of Thanington have been 
 painted on the monument of Sir James Hales ? In the picture there are 
 four men, with poles in their hands, apparently hastening to the river. 
 Are the sculptures and the painting meant to be memorials of two family 
 disasters — Sir James drowned at Tonford in 1555, and another Sir 
 James buried at sea in 1589 ? It is interesting, in any case, to have a 
 
THANINGTON AND TONFORD. 119 
 
 16th century picture of the manor. The remains at Tunford confirm the 
 general accuracy of the view. On the north side of the present farm- 
 house are two round towers at the angles, similar in character to those 
 of the painting. That these are remains of the ancient building we 
 cannot doubt, and indeed this part of the house contains more extensive 
 relics of the castellated mansion than is generally known. 
 
 By the courtesy of Mr. Bing, the tenant, we have been able to go 
 into all parts of the building, and to explore it thoroughly, the result 
 being singularly interesting. The doorway shown in the accom- 
 panying sketch (p. 118) opens to the ancient kitchen, a spacious 
 apartment lighted by a fine three-light window. The great fireplace is 
 evidently as old as the Tudor building, and so also is the apartment 
 adjoining. We were wholly unprepared, however, to find the ancient 
 roof still preserved. In the range of bed-rooms, our attention was 
 directed to some pendant-posts, which, though covered by papering, 
 and partly hidden in the ceiling, evidently belonged to a timber roof. 
 Mr. Bing kindly permitted us to get into the gabled roof through a 
 small aperture, and, lights having been passed in, there was at once 
 revealed a very handsome timber roof, the wood, oak or chestnut, so 
 remarkably preserved that it might have dated from a few years 
 instead of centuries. The rafters and cross-bars of the panelling are 
 moulded or chamfered, and the collar-braces form three elegant pointed 
 arches, with moulded edges. We should imagine this fine open roof, 
 which extends the whole length of the building, to have belonged to 
 the chapel of the manor. It is singular that, hidden away so long in 
 the dark roof of the old farm-house, this most interesting and perfect 
 relic of old Tonford manor should have remained unnoticed ; we have 
 sought in vain the slightest allusion to it. In one of the external walls 
 beyond the house, are two corbels and niches, which might also have 
 belonged to the chapel. They are nearly alike, the brackets being sup- 
 ported by winged female figures, bearing shields. The figures have 
 curiously-waved hair, and wear collars of ecclesiastical cut. There is a 
 very similar corbel in Boughton Aluph Church. The carving is very 
 delicate, and, in spite of long exposure to the weather, well preserved. 
 
TUDOR GATEWAY, TONFORD. 
 
TIIANINGTON AND TONFORD. 
 
 121 
 
 The wing-marking is remarkably clear. The wall in which these corbels 
 have been inserted, contains a round tower, not shown in the sketch of 
 the main building ; it has a very small pointed window. At the 
 foot of this wall and all round the circuit of the house was a moat, which 
 was only filled up a generation back. The drawbridge was in use until 
 the moat was done away with ; it was at the fine Tudor gate, of which 
 a sketch is given. It will be admitted, we think, that Tonford is a place 
 of remarkable interest ; we are glad to add that the present tenant 
 appreciates its value as an ancient relic, and is careful to preserve it from 
 injury. 
 
 There is one further point of interest to mention in relation to 
 Thanington. Opposite the church is a large field long known as 
 Up-and-Down Field. Mr. J. M. Cowper maintains that this is Chaucer's 
 "Bob-up-and-down," of the Manciple's Tale. It is usually supposed that 
 Chaucer meant Harbledown, but there has always been some doubt 
 about it, and Mr. Cowper argues very ably against the accepted theory. 
 (See The Athentzum, Dec. 26, 1868, and Mr. Furnivall's "Temporary 
 Preface to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales," published for the Chaucer 
 Society). 
 

 
 
 kCili&iKfflljr 5 ^f 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 SSSS&feJra^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 iiltau, §oxtoxi f mh Clrartlmm. 
 
 ITHERTO our rambles have been within the city, or to the 
 parishes next beyond it. In the following pages we propose 
 to describe much more briefly the points of interest in the 
 villages immediately encircling Canterbury. In a walk to 
 Chartham, the upper road (which is the ancient way) affords 
 the most charming views of the Stour valley, with its characteristic 
 Kentish landscape. As we ascend the hill from Wincheap, we see below 
 us the charming little church of Thanington, the old ford, and the ruined 
 walls of Tonford manor ; while over marsh and lea the eye ranges to 
 Bigbury with its British camp, to Harbledown on the crest of the hill, 
 and old St. Nicholas' Hospital on the slope below it ; to the city with 
 the Cathedral towering above it, or still farther to the pale outline of the 
 distant Thanet shore. We cross the old British path from Iffin to the 
 ford, trodden by ancient Celts ages before Roman legions or Jutish im- 
 migrants came this way ; and presently we come to old Cockering Farm, 
 the nearest corner of which was once the vicarage of Thanington. 
 Thence, passing Cockering Wood with its primrose glades and nightin- 
 gale groves, we arrive at Milton, one of the smallest of English parishes, 
 for it has only two houses and less than a dozen parishioners. Milton 
 manor was granted to Christ Church before the Conquest. In Domesday 
 it is entered as held by Hamo de Crevequer. At a later date it belonged 
 to the Septvans and other noble families. The tiny parish church is 
 
MILTON, HORTON, AND CHARTHAM. 123 
 
 prettily situated on the hillside : it is dedicated to St. Nicholas, like its 
 neighbour Thanington, and Lanfranc's church at Harbledown. It con- 
 sists of a nave and chancel, in the Early English style, but the present 
 structure is mainly the work of the restorer. 
 
 Next we reach Chartham Downs, and pass the spot which " Master 
 Tom Ingoldsby" has celebrated in his legend of "Nell Cook and the 
 Dark Entry," as that whereon "Charles Storey, too, his friend who slew," 
 was "gibbeted on Chartham Downs." (Bentley's edition says Chatham, 
 a palpable misprint). We traced in the Register of Chartham the entry 
 of the burial of Storey's friend, a papermaker at the mill : — " Henry 
 Perkins, who was most inhumanly murdered by Charles Storey, was buried 
 May 25th, 1782." Storey was hung on Oaten-hill, and was gibbeted in 
 chains on " Chartham Downs." It was to his gibbet the Mayor of Can- 
 terbury alluded when, as Barham tells us, he begged Archbishop Moore 
 to allow him to have the honour of attending his Grace as far as the 
 gallows T 
 
 On the south bank of the river below the Downs stands Horton 
 Chapel, and the site of Horton manor. The manor was one of the 
 estates granted by the Conqueror to his turbulent half-brother Odo. No 
 remains of the manor are now to be seen, but considerable foundations 
 are met with adjacent to the present buildings. The old chapel of the 
 manor, which has given the farm its name, ceased to be used for reli- 
 gious purposes when the mansion fell into disrepair ; it is at present used 
 as a hop-oast. 
 
 Where the Kent County Asylum now stands on Chartham, or 
 Kenville, Down, there was formerly a considerable Saxon cemetery. 
 The numerous barrows, some eighty in all, were long supposed to be 
 connected with Caesar's advance into Britain, and to mark the site of a 
 battle between the Romans and the Britons. The Rev. Bryan Faussett, 
 in 1773, opened up the graves, and carefully described, in his "Invento- 
 rium Sepulchrale," the remains found in them. The graves were from 
 two to six feet deep ; the bodies had, in many cases, been buried in 
 wooden' coffins, which had been charred to make them more durable. 
 The skeletons were those of men, women, and children ; a verv few 
 
124 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 darts and javelins were found, but many articles of ordinary use, knife- 
 blades, buckles, pins, beads, and trinkets of various kinds. One of the 
 objects was a cross of silver with a centre boss of silver in a socket of 
 gold. This Christian emblem was on the neck of a female skeleton. 
 The whole surface of the Chartham and neighbouring Downs formerly 
 showed remains of trenches, embankments, and tumuli, but many have 
 been levelled by the plough, or obscured by overgrowth of wood. 
 
 We descend the hill into Chartham, a village of respectable antiquity, 
 and of considerable importance in early times. " Certeham" is named 
 in Domesday as one of the pre-Norman manors belonging to Christ 
 Church. It remained in the possession of that monastery until the 
 Dissolution, and was a rural retreat for the Abbot. In it Archbishop 
 Winchelsea found an asylum when, having fallen under the displeasure 
 of Edward I., his estates were seized by the King. 
 
 On the dissolution of Christ Church monastery, the manor of 
 Chartham was settled on the newly-established Dean and Chapter, and 
 the mansion-house became a residence of the Deans of Canterbury. It 
 was the favourite abode of Dean Bargrave, who was also rector of 
 Chartham. A few remains of the ancient manor-house are included in 
 the present "Chartham Deanery." The paper-mill at Chartham, though 
 not the oldest in the county, has been long established. It was originally 
 a fulling-mill, and was converted by Peter Archer (who died in 1737) into 
 a paper-mill. There formerly stood by the village-green a large 
 mansion, the residence of the Kingsford family ; it was destroyed by 
 fire, and was long known as the " Burnt House." There is still 
 remaining, though much modernised, the house built by Dr. De L' Angle, 
 a Canon of Canterbury, and Rector of Chartham, who died in 1729. 
 In front of De L' Angle House is a fine marble bust of Charles II. 
 
 The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, is cruciform, the transepts being 
 extremely shallow. There are no aisles ; the west tower is bold and 
 massive ; the nave is plain but lofty ; while the chancel is large and 
 handsome. There is a good south porch with trefoiled windows and 
 timber roof. The tower, which is 70 feet to the vane, is of much later 
 date than the church ; it has a square stair turret on the north. Like the 
 
MILTON, HORTON, AND CHARTHAM. 125 
 
 rest of the structure, it is built of flint, the buttresses being chequered 
 with squared stone. The tower was evidently a work of the Tudor period ; 
 the nave and transepts are probably due to the earliest portion of 
 the Decorated period, the chancel being somewhat later work. The 
 absence of aisles increases the effect of length and height. There is a 
 lofty, unbroken Perpendicular tower-arch opening to the nave ; the latter 
 is sparsely lighted in comparison with the splendid chancel ; its windows 
 are short double lancets, trefoiled, under splayed arches. The piers at 
 the junction of the nave and transepts are each pierced with a ' Squint,' 
 
 There is a very fine timber roof. The chancel is strikingly light 
 and spacious ; it has an east window of four lights, containing beautiful 
 tracery. In each of the side walls there are four two-light windows, 
 all with elegant star tracery ; they have recently been filled with stained 
 glass, but in some of them there still remain some relics of the 
 beautiful original glass. The roof is panelled, the ribs having carved 
 bosses. The hoods of the chancel windows are all connected by small 
 trefoils. In the north wall is an arched tomb, said to contain a leaden 
 coffin ; the stonework is a restoration from the original pattern. The 
 Chartham brasses have often been described and figured ; the oldest 
 and finest — that of Sir Robert de Septvans — is one of the earliest of 
 the incised brasses still extant in this country; it is of special interest 
 as the memorial of a notable member of that famous Kentish family. 
 This Sir Robert was born in 1250, and served with Edward I. in Scot- 
 land, being knighted at the siege of Carlaveroch. He sat in Parliament 
 as Knight of the Shire, his residence being at that manor of Milton, to 
 which we have already alluded. The brass has the figure of a cross- 
 legged knight, in coat of mail, the surcoat and ailettes.. as well as the 
 shield, bearing the heraldic winnowing fans of the Septvans. Sir Robert 
 was buried in the chancel of Chartham Church in 1306, which there is 
 good reason to think is about the date of the chancel, although it has 
 usually been described as later. 
 
 The next oldest of the brasses bears the figure of a priest, wearing 
 a cope : it is that of Robert London, 1416, a rector of Chartham. There 
 are also brasses of two other rectors — Robert Arthur, 1454, and Robert 
 
126 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 Sheffelde, 1508. There is besides these, a small brass bearing the figure 
 of a lady, and this inscription — " Off your charyte pray for the soul of 
 Jane Dowther of Lewys Clefforht, obt. 1530" — i.e. Jane, daughter of 
 Lewis Clifford. 
 
 On the east wall of the chancel is a small monument, in the Eliza- 
 bethan style, to the memory of " Mr. John Bungeye, Clerke, one of 
 y e Prebendaries of Christ Church in Cant., and Parson of 
 this Parishe," * * * "which John bylded Mystole, and there 
 died Y E 20 Noveb., a.o. 1596. Among other monuments is one by 
 Rysbrach, to Sir Wm. and Lady Young, the latter a daughter of Charles 
 Fagge, Esq., of Mystole. 
 
 The Registers of Chartham commence in 1558, but are not com- 
 plete. We sought in vain for the autograph of " Blue Dick," as the 
 notorious Richard Culmer was called. On the death of Dean Bargrave, 
 in 1642, Culmer got himself appointed to the rectory of Chartham, 
 Archbishop Laud being then in the Tower. He was the ringleader of 
 the attacks upon the Cathedral, and the chief agent in smashing the 
 painted glass of the beautiful window given by Edward IV. He himself 
 describes the exploit thus : — " Whilst judgment was executing on the 
 Idols in that window, the Cathedralists cryed out againe for their great 
 Diana — ' Hold your hands, holt, holt, heers Sir,' etc. A Minister being 
 then on the top of the Citie ladder, neer 60 steps high, with a whole pike 
 in his hand rattling down proud Becket's glassy bones (others then present 
 would not adventer so high), to him it was said, ' 'Tis a shame for a 
 Minister to be seen there.' The Minister replied, ' Sir, I count it no 
 shame, but an honour. My M r - whipt the living buyers and sellers out 
 of the Temple ; these are dead Idolls, which defile the worship of God 
 here, being the fruits and occasions of Idolatry.' Some wished it might 
 breake his neck ; others said it should cost bloud. But he finished the 
 worke, and came downe well, and was in very good health when this was 
 written." 
 
 Culmer was called " Blue Dick " from his habit of wearing blue 
 instead of the clerical black. He was born in Thanet and was educated 
 at Canterbury ; he is said to have held the livings of Chartham, 
 
MILTON, NORTON, AND CHARTHAM. 127 
 
 Goodnestone, Harbledown, and St. Stephen's. He was buried at last at 
 Monkton. His hold over Chartham was but short : we could find no 
 trace of him in the Register, which is almost a blank during the period 
 of the great Civil War. There are no entries at all from 1638 to 1645, 
 and only twelve during the next four years. The Register contains 
 numerous entries of money paid for killing foxes and "grays" (badgers). 
 The price seems to have been a shilling a head. 
 
 On the upper road between Chartham and Chilham is Mystole Park 
 and the mansion, which Parson John Bungeye 'bylded.' It is most 
 pleasantly situated above the Stour valley, with Penny Pot Wood at its 
 back. How long-lived are names ! This "Penny Pot" is but the cor- 
 ruption of the Celtic name, Pen-y-pwth, the " crown of the hill." On 
 Pen-y-pwth, the grave mounds of some of the British people who called 
 it by that name are still to be seen. 
 
 Our way now leads us down the hill through the straggling hamlet 
 of Shalmsford Street. Here at the bridge across the Stour below, there 
 stood an important manor, owned at the time of the Conquest by a 
 noble Saxon named Alret, who fought at Hastings. It was subsequently 
 divided into two separate manors — Shalmsford Street and Shalmsford 
 Bridge, the latter being the most important. In the reign of Edward II., 
 the daughter and heiress of William de Shamelesford married one John 
 Petit, and various members of the Petit family possessed the manor down 
 to the end of James I. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 CHIIram. 
 
 HILHAM CASTLE is one of the least known of our 
 ancient fortresses ; it is rarely visited, and still less often 
 described. Few appear to appreciate its singular interest 
 and antiquity. By the kind permission of C. S. Hardy, Esq., 
 we have been able to repeatedly visit and examine it. 
 Hasted says the keep is plainly Norman ; but it differs in several 
 respects from the castles of Norman builders, and we have little doubt 
 that part of the structure is much earlier than the Conquest. Its 
 octagonal keep most closely resembles the simple tower-fortresses 
 of an earlier and ruder age, the strongholds of petty kings or 
 tribal chiefs. It is notable for its huge thickness of wall and 
 small-contained area ; the external diameter of the octagon is 
 but 39 feet, while the walls have an irregular thickness of from 
 8 to 10 feet, leaving but a small clear space within. The extension of 
 a square wing on one side of the octagon seems to have been made 
 subsequent to the main tower. The court around the keep is of made 
 ground, and is surrounded by a very high wall, except on the side on 
 which the extended part coincides with the line of that wall. On this 
 side the depth from the parapet of the keep to the present level of the 
 ground is about 60 feet. Such a plan is quite unlike the regular Norman 
 castle of the period to which this has been ascribed. The rude character 
 of the masonry, the small dimensions of the apartments, the singular 
 
CIIILHAM. 129 
 
 height of the court, the disproportionate thickness of the walls all tend 
 to confirm the old tradition that Chilham Castle was standing before 
 the Normans entered the country. Traces of Caen stone, or Norman 
 mouldings in the windows, are no proof of its being a Norman structure 
 as a whole. The present entrances are manifestly not the original, but 
 later piercings of the walls. The spiral staircase also is a recent renewal 
 of the old one. The dungeon below the keep had been filled up for 
 centuries, but a few years ago Mr. Hardy had it excavated. Its 
 shape is the same as the keep ; its walls are of enormous thickness, and 
 are pierced by three slants, originally with very small loops in the outer 
 walls. Mr. Hardy caused a tunnel to be driven under the castle, 
 commencing in the slope of the mound below the north west wall of 
 the Court. Here the skeletons of two tall men were found, lying 
 close together in the earth. The passage was made eighty to ninety feet 
 in length, under the wall, the court, and the castle ; first through earth, 
 then loose chalk, then singularly regular layers of chalk, 4 to 6 in. thick, 
 alternating with thinner bands of flint and chalky gravel ; and at last 
 the workmen came to a wall barring their passage. This, with much 
 labour, they forced, and found on the other side of it a room filled with 
 earth, chalk, and rubble. When wholly cleared out, the space was found 
 to be rectangular, about 17 feet by 14 feet, the height over 20 feet. It 
 was immediately below the square-shaped extension of the keep, and 
 its floor lower than the present level of the ground. We were furnished 
 with lights and a ladder, in order to be able to thoroughly examine the 
 walls of this long buried chamber. We found them to be of flint and 
 rubble concrete, except on the south-east, where the wall seemed to 
 consist of squared blocks of hard chalk. On closer scrutiny we found 
 that the chalk wall was but the filling up of a large round archway, the 
 opening of which is 16 ft. 8 in. We traced the arch to the keystone at 
 a height of 19 ft. 6 in. It is turned in slabs of thin stone, which, in the 
 upper part, are alternate with red tiles, very like Roman. Where did 
 this arch lead to ? Clearly to the perpendicular face of the tower. 
 Going out once more we found the external wall covered with dense and 
 deep growth of ivy, but there, with some difficulty, the arch could be 
 
130 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 traced. We returned, and examined the interior with additional interest. 
 We could no longer regard it as being originally a room ; its walls were 
 without window or loop, but the wall opposite to the great arch was 
 pierced by two smaller arches. One of these opens to a low and narrow 
 passage leading into a small spiral staircase, which had also been filled 
 up entirely with earth and rubble. Its walls, steps, and even the newel 
 around which they ascend are built of a very hard flint concrete. This 
 staircase had been abandoned at some period, and was then domed over 
 and blocked up. In it is a very rudely shaped loop, over which a single 
 slab of stone was originally inserted into the concrete. The exterior of 
 this loop must at present lie several feet below the surface of the earth 
 in the court outside. This ancient disused staircase ascended not far 
 from what we have termed the grand staircase. The wall pierced by the 
 two passages is massive, but terminates at a height of about 20 feet, the 
 wall of the tower above crossing it at an angle. The north-east wall of 
 the extension of the keep rests partly on the corresponding wall of this 
 lowest portion, but projects over it considerably. In the floor of this 
 buried place a well was discovered. Its pipe had been continued 
 through the earth into the room above. It would thus appear that the 
 supposed room, which the excavators found in so singular a manner, was 
 probably a court, having a large round arch at its entrance, which gave 
 access to the keep tower. 
 
 Returning to the staircase now in use, we pass first into a fine 
 octagon room, which is, in fact, two stories in one. The large window 
 openings of this room have evidently been at some time roughly 
 enlarged, the original openings being probably mere loops. On one 
 side of the room is a fragment of a round column, one of two which 
 flanked a doorway, long since blocked up. A passage has been forced 
 into the square wing of the tower, through a wall 12ft. 6in. thick. The 
 topmost room of the octagonal tower was evidently the chief room, It 
 is well lighted by large round windows, and forms at present a very 
 handsome billiard-room, the prospect from its windows over the 
 surrounding country being magnificent. When and by whom this 
 remarkable keep was built we will not venture to guess. Whether the 
 
CHILHAM. 131 
 
 traditions which have ascribed to the earliest fortress of Chilham a 
 British, a Roman, or a Saxon origin be fact or fable, it is almost certain 
 that a stronghold of some kind was here before Norman barons 
 supplanted Saxon earls as lords of the land. 
 
 Camden says that in his time (1586) it was the confirmed opinion 
 of the inhabitants that the Romans had on this spot one of their 
 permanent camps. He believed it to be the site of the battle in which 
 Cassar lost his tribune Quintus Laberius Durus. Long before Camden 
 visited Chilham, the great barrow, still to be seen on the slope of the 
 hill behind the old French Mill, was called Julaber's or Julaberry's 
 grave. It would, indeed, be a remarkable instance of the persistence of 
 ancient names, strangely corrupted, if the name of this grave mound be, 
 as some have conjectured, derived from Julius and Laberius. The 
 barrow is situated on the south bank of the river opposite the Castle- 
 hill. Its length is about 150ft. and its width 45ft. ; the depth increases 
 as the hill slopes, so that the central line of the top is nearly horizontal ; 
 it is roughly round in section, and the earth of which it is composed 
 seems to be fine and free from pebbles. The barrow was opened in the 
 last century by the Earl of Winchilsey, a cutting having been made 
 across the centre, but no remains were discovered. They would more 
 probably be found in the deepest part at the north end. One of the 
 most interesting of the many ancient earthworks in this district is the 
 earth-circle half-a-mile south east of Chilham, which Mr. Petrie, in his 
 " Notes on Kentish Earthworks," speaks of as " one of the most perfect, 
 regular, and delicately executed works in existence; nearly equalling the 
 very best of the Wiltshire remains, as it has an average error of under 
 four inches from a true circle, on a diameter of about one hundred and 
 thirty feet." 
 
 Chilham Castle was the scene of a memorable meeting between 
 King John and Archbishop Stephen Langton, the Castle being then held 
 by Roesia de Dover, whose second husband was a natural son of the 
 king. Their daughter Isabel married first the Earl of Athol, and subse- 
 quently Alexander Baliol, brother of King Baliol, the " Toom Tabard." 
 Isabel de Chilham died at the Castle in 1292, and was buried in the 
 
132 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, where her altar-tomb is one of the most 
 ancient monuments remaining ; it bears a recumbent figure of the 
 Countess. Her son John was concerned with Robert Bruce in the 
 murder of the treacherous Red Comyn. Edward I. caused him to be 
 hanged at Canterbury on a gallows fifty feet high, and in order to "make 
 siccar," as Sir Roger Kirkpatrick said, the Earl was beheaded after he 
 was hanged, and his body burnt after that. The Lords of Chilham in 
 those days indulged somewhat freely in treason, for the next one, the 
 rich Lord Badlesmere, was also executed on that charge. Henry VIII. 
 granted the Castle to Sir Thomas Cheney, who added greatly, it is said, 
 to the strength and beauty of the buildings. Sir Thomas must have been 
 a man of changeable humour, however ; for, according to Leland, who 
 visited the place in 1552, he soon after pulled down most of the mag- 
 nificent mansion he had erected, and carried off the materials to build 
 his house at Shurland, in Sheppy. It is to Sir Dudley Digges that we 
 owe the present beautiful mansion. Philipot says he was "A great 
 asserter of his country's liberties in the worst of times," and his epitaph 
 in the church records that "His noble soul could not stoop to ambition." 
 It may be taken as an illustration of what was possible in the "worst of 
 times" that the office of Master of the Rolls was conferred on the knight 
 in spite of the fact that he was entirely ignorant of the law. Sir Dudley's 
 life was an active and varied one. He had sat in Parliament ; had been 
 a voyager in the Arctic Seas in search of the north-west passage ; had 
 been sent as Ambassador to the barbaric Court of Muscovy ; and had 
 been a prisoner in the Fleet Prison before he was raised to the Bench. 
 When he became master of Chilham, he pulled down what was left of 
 the old house, and built on the site of it the beautiful Jacobean mansion 
 which still remains. 
 
 Chilham Church, dedicated to St. Mary, consists of a nave and two 
 aisles, a west tower, north and south transepts, and a chancel with side 
 chapels. The nave arcades are each of four pointed arches on octagonal 
 pillars. The tower, erected about 1534, is square, with a beacon turret: 
 it opens by a fine arch to the nave. The ceiling of the nave is flat, some 
 of the original timber spandrels remaining. The aisle and clerestory 
 
CHILHAM. 133 
 
 windows are Perpendicular. The north chapel contains an early piscina. 
 The south transept has a timber roof with king-posts. The transept 
 windows are of the Decorated period, but in no way remarkable. The 
 present spacious chancel is due to the munificence of the late Mr. 
 Charles Hardy, who enlarged and restored this portion of the church. 
 The south pier of the chancel arch contains the door of the Rood screen ; 
 it is at present blocked up, but might easily be opened. On the 
 north side of the chancel there was formerly a circular, domed Mauso- 
 leum of the Colebrooke family : it was Italian in style, and was removed 
 during the extension of the chancel. Formerly an old chantry stood on 
 the north side of the chancel ; it was dissolved in the reign of Edward VI. 
 The Digges chapel on the south side contains the monuments of that 
 family. In the chancel is an exquisite monument, by Chantrey, to the 
 late Mr. James Wildman, of Chilham Castle. 
 
 The Digges monument is a " Jacob's pillar" which Sir Dudley set 
 up over the grave of his lady. Its square pedestal has epitaphs on the 
 knight and his lady, in the exaggerated style of eulogy which prevailed 
 in the seventeenth century. Around the black marble pillar are figures 
 representing the cardinal virtues. A later inscription traces back the 
 Digges family to "John Digge" who gave the island of " Bynwith " to 
 the Grey Friars. Sir Dudley died in 1638. At the west end of the 
 church is a monument of Bethersden marble, the surface beautifully 
 ornamented with flat scroll-work. It is to the memory of Lady Palmer, 
 sister of Sir Dudley Digges. A similarly decorated monument in the 
 Digges Chancel, to one of the Fagge family, has a very quaint epitaph. 
 There are several other monuments of interest in this church. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 $l%tli\\Qtaxi t §*&#*, ^xshognboxxxxxt. 
 
 BOUT a mile south-east from Canterbury, and standing 
 apart from the high road, is the little church of St. Mary, 
 Nackington. It consists of a nave, chancel, and south 
 chapel, with a small square tower at the north-west corner 
 of the nave ; it has a south door and a north porch. The 
 roof is timbered, the old tie-beams and king-posts remaining in sound 
 condition. 
 
 Some of the windows are early Norman, small, without mould- 
 ing, and deeply splayed internally ; others are Early English lancets ; the 
 east window is a modern double lancet, filled with stained glass, 
 and dedicated to the memory of Richard and Hannah Mount. The 
 south chapel, which is divided from the chancel by a low, wide, 
 unbroken, pointed arch, has a two-light window, containing some 
 fragments of old glass. The north wall of the chancel has two pointed 
 recesses, one evidently an aumbry. In the east pier of the chapel 
 arch there is another recess, in which was, no doubt, a piscina, and be- 
 side it what was probably another aumbry. There are no brasses, but 
 the chapel contains several mural monuments of the Milles family, and 
 there are in the floor of the church tomb-stones which date back to the 
 17th century. Several members of the Godfrey-Faussett family are 
 buried in the church and churchyard, amongst them the learned author 
 of " Inventorium Sepulchrale," the Rev. Bryan Faussett, of Heppington. 
 Here also lies his descendant, the late Mr. Godfrey-Faussett, a genial and 
 accomplished antiquary, author of " Canterbury till Domesday," We 
 
NACKINGTON, BRIDGE, BISHOPSBOURNE. 135 
 
 recognised in the memorial cross which stands above his grave, a copy 
 of that interesting cross found near St. Martin's churchyard, of the 
 discovery of which Bryan Faussett wrote a century before. Even the 
 style of the ancient inscription has been followed. Close to the church 
 is a farm-house, which was originally the court lodge of the manor of 
 Sextries, the name a corruption of Sacristy, the manor having been 
 appropriated to the use of the Sacrist of St. Augustine's Monastery. 
 Heppington is another manor in this parish. Among its ancient owners 
 were the Chiche's, the Fagge's, and the Hales's ; subsequently it was 
 possessed by the Godfrey's, from the last of whom it passed to his son- 
 in-law, the Bryan Faussett above mentioned. Nackington house, 
 another old mansion in this parish, was, during the Stuart period, the 
 residence of the Nutt family, of whom several are buried at Nackington. 
 It was at a later date the residence of the Milles family. 
 
 Next to Nackington in our circuit around the city, we come to 
 Bridge, on the main road to Dover — the old Roman road or Watling 
 Street. It is about two-and-a-half miles from Canterbury, and is the 
 largest of a series of villages within the valley of the Lesser Stour or 
 Bourne. Several of these, situated in the midst of sylvan and pastoral 
 scenery of great beauty, and having churches which possess features of 
 interest, lie within easy access from Canterbury. 
 
 Bridge Church, dedicated to St. Peter, has always been regarded as 
 a chapel to Patrixbourne, although Bridge gives its name to the deanery 
 and to the hundred. The ancient manor of Bridge or Blackmansbury 
 belonged, like Nackington, to the Sacristy of St. Augustine's Abbey. 
 Some time after its alienation it was held, in 1638, by Sir Arnold Braems, 
 a descendant of an old Flemish family. He built there the splendid 
 mansion of Bridge Place, the greater part of which was in the early part 
 of the seventeenth century pulled down by John Taylor, the first of that 
 name who was squire of Bifrons. The manor of Beracre, or Baracre, in 
 Bridge parish is supposed to have given a name to the family of Bargar, 
 or Bargrave, long resident in the village. The Register of Bridge 
 records the baptism, in 1580, of "Isaacke Bargar," to which a note has 
 been added, "Afterwards Deane of Canterbury." 
 
136 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 Bridge Church (St. Peter's), though it has undergone extensive 
 restoration, still retains many signs of its antiquity. It has a nave, 
 two aisles, chancel, north transept, and south-west tower with spire. 
 The most ancient portions of the church are — the plain round headed 
 and deeply splayed windows of the tower and of the chancel, and those 
 of the east end of the south aisle ; the west door which has a bold 
 round moulding, square capitals with billet ornament and circular shafts, 
 and hood-moulding with tooth-ornament and head terminals ; the small 
 round headed door with chevron mouldings on the east of the north 
 transept, and which is certainly not in its original position — all these are 
 Norman. Other portions of the church are Early English, including the 
 lancet windows of the north aisle and the north transept. The rest of the 
 church has been so much altered as to make it difficult to ascertain what 
 it was before it passed under the restorer's hands. The chancel arch 
 was probably Early English ; the plain pointed arches of the north aisle 
 arcade are of that period, but their piers have been removed and double 
 round pillars substituted. The windows other than those mentioned are 
 various in style, and call for no comment. The north wall of the chancel 
 contains a very curious piece of ancient sculpture, within the tympanum 
 of a round arch. The upper part, which is very much defaced, appa- 
 rently represented Our Lord seated on clouds of glory. Below this is a 
 band of five panels, illustrative of the Fall, and of the first murder. The 
 2nd represents the Temptation by the Serpent; the 1st the Expulsion 
 from Eden ; the 3rd and 4th the offerings of Cain and Abel, the 5th the 
 murder of Abel. There is in the same wall of the chancel an interest- 
 ing painting of Richard Bargrave, of Bridge, gent. obt. 1649. Within 
 the altar rails, on the same side, there is a recess containing the life-sized 
 figure of a man, most singularly divided into two halves by a central 
 pier. Above this there is a brass plate commemorative of the two wives 
 of the builder of Bridge Place. It says : — " Joane, second daughter of 
 Walter Harriet of Beakesbourne, lieth buried in the parish church of 
 Dover: Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir Dudley Diggs, Master of the 
 Rolls, second wife of Sir Arnold Braems, lieth buried in the middle of 
 this chancel." In the same wall there are two shields, one with armorial 
 
NACKINGTON, BRIDGE, BISHOPSBOURNE. 137 
 
 bearings, the other with the emblems of mortality, the skull, cross bones, 
 pick and spade, nicely carved in marble. The south wall contains some 
 very singular memorial devices, with scrolls bearing inscriptions in Latin, 
 the lettering Old English. Hasted says one of these is in memory of 
 " Macobus Kasey," Vicar of Patricksbourne during 21 years. We could 
 not see to decipher the inscription, but Canon Scott Robertson, in his 
 account of the Vicars of Patricksbourne, says it is a memorial to Malcolm 
 Ramsey, M.A., who died in 1538, having held the living for forty- four 
 years. The church has an open timbered roof. The lower part of the 
 tower forms a Baptistery. 
 
 Bourne Park is just beyond Bridge. The miniature river flows 
 through it and expands into a small lake in front of the mansion, behind 
 which a mass of fine timber connects the park with Gorsley Wood. 
 Although it lies beyond the first circle of villages from Canterbury, we 
 cannot resist the temptation to cross the park to the little village of 
 Bishopsbourne, the peaceful home in which Hooker lived his gentle, 
 learned, pious life, planting those grand yew hedges which still enclose 
 his garden, and writing the great work on Ecclesiastical Polity which 
 will outlive the yews. 
 
 Bishopsbourne church has a nave and chancel, without chancel 
 arch ; a chapel south of the chancel ; a north chapel divided from the 
 nave by two pointed arches, with an octagonal pillar, the abacus of 
 which is square ; a south transept, also with two pointed arches, has a 
 round pillar, the capital of which is square. The chancel has an east 
 window, of five lights, which contains the arms of Hooker, and of 
 Archbishop Howley. The two-light side windows, with Decorated 
 tracery, contain modern stained glass. The chancel walls have 
 recently been faced with beautiful glass tiles, and a handsome reredos 
 in three panels of mosaic, contains the representation of the Trans- 
 figuration. In the south wall is a piscina, the back of which is 
 diapered with a pattern of quatrefoils. The chancel contains the 
 monument of Richard Hooker. There is a rood door in a pier on the 
 south side. There anciently stood, within a recess in the church, an 
 image of the Virgin, the pedestal of which was a famous relic, for it is 
 
 R 
 
138 
 
 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 recorded that, in 1462, one William Hawte bequeathed to the church 
 this stone as a piece of that on which the Archangel Gabriel descended 
 when he saluted the Virgin. The north doorway is Early English and 
 has outside, on the left hand of it, a pointed stoup ; the tower at the 
 west end is in the Perpendicular style, with three stages, and an 
 octagonal staircase-turret. The church contains several monuments and 
 memorial windows of interest. 
 
 The Rector (the Rev. T. Hirst), very kindly showed us the ancient 
 rooms of the Rectory, the study of the " Judicious Hooker," which was 
 also the room in which the great scholar died in 1600. This room has a 
 fine ceiling, richly panelled in oak. We were able also, to inspect the 
 old parchment register containing his signatures. Some unscrupulous 
 hunter after autographs deliberately cut out one of them a few years 
 back. The yew-tree hedges which Hooker planted nearly three 
 hundred years ago are flourishing still, and have grown to an immense 
 size ; they are looked after with the greatest care. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 latrirhlwunte, ^tktxbtmxnt, mh Sittleternt. 
 
 SHORT walk from Bridge along the bank of the Bourne, 
 by Bifrons Park, brings us to Patricksbourne, one of the most 
 picturesque of Kentish villages. It was originally called 
 Bourne only, the prefix Patrick's being probably derived 
 from one of the owners of the manor in the 13th or 14th 
 century. The church is mentioned in Domesday, but much of the pre- 
 sent building was probably erected in the next century. It consisted, 
 before its enlargement, of a nave and chancel, with a south aisle bisected 
 by a tower forming a porch, a very rare arrangement. The porch has 
 one of the finest Norman doorways known. It was the opinion of the 
 late Sir Gilbert Scott that it was considered to be too beautiful to be 
 removed, and the later tower was built over it. The round arch of the 
 door has three tiers of moulding, with carved capitals on round shafts. 
 The tympanum contains a sculptured representation of Our Lord with 
 attendant angels. The enrichment of the mouldings is remarkably varied 
 and elaborate. It consists of foliage, human and animal heads, gro- 
 tesque birds and beasts, and smaller ornaments very delicately carved. 
 Above the tympanum is a tall canopy, which contains a semi-circular 
 niche, within which is the Agnus Dei. The tower has three bells ; the 
 oldest bears the inscription, "Ave Maria gracia plena." The other two 
 were cast by Palmer, of Canterbury, in 1674. 
 
 The tower has one round arch opening to the west part of the aisle, 
 its other two arches being pointed. The Chancel arch is somewhat of 
 horse-shoe shape, and rests on slender shafts. The east end has a fine 
 
140 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 wheel-window of eight lights, the mouldings chevroned. Below this is a 
 triplet of narrow round-headed windows, the middle one higher than the 
 others. On each side wall of the Chancel are two small and plain 
 Norman windows. The Chancel contains two aumbries, and an early 
 piscina with a crocheted canopy. There is also a squint from the south 
 aisle. The Priest's door in the south of the chancel has a rich carving 
 of early Norman work, with handsome capitals and shafts. On the north 
 side of the church there is another Norman doorway, which was moved 
 to its present position when the north aisle was built in 1824. The 
 chancel window contains some Flemish glass of the 16th century, 
 collected by the first Marchioness Conyngham. 
 
 The mansion of Bifrons, the Kent seat of the Marquis Conyngham, 
 was erected by John Bargrave, brother of Dean Bargrave. The Latin 
 epitaph of John Bargrave in Patricksbourne Church states that the family 
 stood and fell with the cause of the King in the Civil Wars. The grand- 
 son of the first builder of Bifrons was obliged to part with the estate, 
 almost immediately after the Restoration, to Sir Arthur Slingsby. In 1694 
 it was sold to Mr. John Taylor, in whose family it remained until the 
 beginning of the present century. In 1767, the Rev. Edward Taylor 
 succeeded to the estate, and was also vicar of the parish. He pulled 
 down the old mansion, and built the present one close to the old site. 
 
 Bifrons Park contains the site of one of the most extensive Saxon 
 cemeteries in this part of Kent. In 1866 some workmen, digging for a 
 new plantation on Patricksbourne Hill, found a few Saxon graves, and in 
 the autumn of 1867, Mr. T. G. Godfrey-Faussett, having obtained per- 
 mission from the Marquis to excavate, discovered the principal cemetery, 
 half way up the slope of the hill, on the south-eastern side of the valley, 
 and about 200 yards from the Dover road ; more than a hundred graves 
 were opened, and a very valuable and interesting collection of Saxon 
 antiquities was formed ; this is now preserved at Bifrons. During the 
 present year, the Rev. F. T. Vine, vicar of Patricksbourne, has opened 
 up some additional barrows in Gorsley Wood. 
 
 Bekesbourne, which is next Patricksbourne, is a small parish con- 
 taining less than a square mile. It is remarkable, as having been since 
 
PATRICKSBOURNE AND BEKESBOURNE. 141 
 
 a very early period, an outlying limb of the Cinque Port of Hastings, 
 and a court of Shepway, for the Cinque Port Jurisdiction has been held 
 here. Hasted says that the Mayor of Hastings formerly appointed one 
 of the principal inhabitants of Bekesbourne to act as his deputy, but 
 that the custom having been discontinued, " the natives are in 
 consequence necessitated to journey upwards of fifty miles in order to 
 obtain redress in cases of emergency, so that the district, from that 
 inconvenience, has become an ungovernable and lawless tract of 
 country." Happily all that has changed, and a better order prevails. The 
 parish takes its name from the family of Beke, who held the manor some 
 time after the Conquest. In earlier times it was called Living or Livings- 
 bourne. The parish is less than a square mile in extent. Its church, 
 dedicated to St. Peter, is prettily situated on the slope of the hill which 
 rises towards Adisham downs. It has a nave, chancel, and south transept, 
 with small west tower, the latter a specimen of the " Churchwarden 
 Gothic" of 1814. The north door is Norman. Its outer arch has 
 courses of chevrons, the recessed arch mouldings being a round and 
 hollow. The capitals are all different in style of ornament, two of them 
 having rudely formed heads with other carvings. The hood-moulding has 
 tooth-ornament, and terminates in masks. Two small Norman windows 
 on either side of the chancel can be seen externally, but they have long 
 been filled up. The chancel contains several lancet windows ; its east 
 window is a double lancet, deeply splayed, and with three exceedingly 
 fine Early English brackets on the piers. Below the string course, and 
 immediately behind the altar, are two niches, now concealed by the dorsal 
 hangings. One has apparently been an aumbry ; the other is smaller, and 
 has an early trefoiled moulding. In the south wall is an interesting double 
 piscina, within a deep rectangular recess, divided by an octagonal pillar. 
 Close to the north door is a pointed stoup. The south transept is used 
 as a vestry. Its walls contain some monuments of interest ; one is to Sir 
 Thomas Pym Hales, Bart., "A Representative of the Borough of Dover, 
 and a true friend to Liberty and the laws of his country." He died in 
 1773. Another has this inscription, " Here lyeth y e body of Richard 
 Fogg, Esq., descended of y e ancient family of y e Foggs of this county : 
 
142 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 he sarved King Charles y e First as Captaine at Sea. Afterwards he 
 retired himselfe to a private life in this parish and attained unto y e 81st 
 yeare of his age." He died in 1681. In the tower, removed from the 
 chancel, is a fine marble monument of Sir Henry Palmer, who died in 
 1611. The knight is clad in armour, and is kneeling in the act of prayer. 
 In the floor of the church is a stone, with a brass plate bearing a Latin 
 epitaph on Henry Porredge, 1593, written by himself. Here also is the 
 grave of Nicholas Battely, Vicar of Bekesbourne and Rector of Ivy- 
 church, the learned editor of Somner. He died in 1704. Several of 
 the family were buried here. 
 
 The church has recently been restored. It anciently appertained 
 to the Priory of St. Gregory, but since the Dissolution it has been in the 
 patronage of the Archbishop. In 1314 a chantry was founded in it by 
 James de Bourne, then lord of the manor. The Registers of Bekes- 
 bourne are well preserved. They commence in 1558, when the name is 
 spelt Beakesboorne. At the end of the book is a list of vicars, appa- 
 rently copied from an older record. The first name is thus given : — 
 "William de St. Edmundo, Rector de Living, 1250." The church plate 
 includes an ancient chalice of silver, engraved. The body appears to 
 have been restored, but the lid contains an inscription — " Beksborn 
 in AN - D mi 1578." 
 
 Opposite the church is an old mansion known as Beke House. This 
 was the site of an archiepiscopal palace. The manor of Bekesbourne 
 becoming the property of Archbishop Chicheley, was transferred by him 
 to Christ Church. Prior Goldstone, in the reign of Henry VII., enlarged 
 the mansion, and erected a chapel, hall, and other buildings there. On 
 the fall of the monastery, the manor and the prior's mansion passed into 
 lay hands ; but Archbishop Cranmer soon after obtained it by exchange 
 for the manor of Bishopsbourne, and made it one of his palaces. It is 
 said to have been the favourite residence of Archbishop Parker. Very 
 little trace remains of the old palace, which was sacked by the round- 
 heads in the Civil War. A memorial of Cranmer's connection with it 
 is left in a wall of the present buildings, viz., his arms, with his initials 
 and motto : " T. C. 1552. Nosce te ipsum et Deum." 
 
LITTLEBOURNE. 143 
 
 Between Bekesbourne and Littlebourne we pass Howlets or Owlets, 
 the seat to which, in 1620, Sir Charles Hales removed from Thanington. 
 The mansion had been previously the residence of the Sir Henry 
 Palmer, whose effigy is in Bekesbourne church. While the Hales's lived 
 there the old house fell down, and the estate was sold to Isaac Baugh, 
 Esq., who built a new house near the site of the former one. There are 
 some very fine beeches in the grounds. 
 
 Littlebourne is distant about two miles from Bekesbourne and five 
 from Canterbury. It is a long straggling village, with the church lying 
 at the outskirt. The manor of Littlebourne anciently belonged to St. 
 Augustine's Monastery, its vineyards being planted there, while some- 
 what nearer to the city, at the place now known as Fishpool-bottom, 
 the monks had their fish-ponds. The church, which is dedicated to St. 
 Vincent, is mainly Early English. It consists of a nave, two aisles, and 
 chancel, with a west tower. The exterior has a singular outline, the 
 chancel roof being considerably higher than that of the nave. There is 
 a south doorway with slender round pillars and capitals, the mouldings of 
 the first pointed period. No one could suppose from the outside that this 
 door is blocked up inside with masonry. The west door in the tower is 
 also pointed, but plain. The chief feature of the church is its lofty 
 Early English chancel. The east window is a beautiful triple lancet 
 deeply splayed, with the hood-moulding springing from slender round 
 columns. Each side has four splayed lancet windows, and in the whole 
 chancel nothing is incongruous. The eleven lancets have all been filled 
 with stained glass memorial windows. The east triplet, which represents 
 the Nativity, Crucifixion, and Burial of our Lord, is in memory of the 
 late Henry Kingsford, Esq., obt. 1866, set. 73. The south windows con- 
 tain the Evangelists ; two windows were dedicated by the late Vicar 
 (The Rev. F. Rouch) ; two were given by Denne Denne, Esq., in 
 memory of his wife and third daughter. The northern windows have 
 the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. They are memorial 
 windows to Mary and Richard Pembrook, Mary Gardener, and Frederic 
 Swaine. In the south wall is an early-pointed piscina with two basins. 
 Above the string course on the north side is a square aumbry with an 
 
144 
 
 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 old oaken door. The chancel arch is early pointed ; its pillars are 
 curiously encased in wood. The nave arcade on the south side has five 
 Early English arches resting on wall piers. There was probably a 
 corresponding arcade on the north side, one of the original arches of 
 which may be seen on the outside wall of the nave, where a two-light 
 window has been inserted. When the present north aisle was erected, 
 the arcade on that side was formed of two large and disproportioned 
 round arches, quite out of style with the general building. In the east 
 wall of this aisle is a two-light pointed window which is probably older 
 than the aisle itself. There is a memorial window to Captain James and 
 his wife. The south aisle has one lancet, and a later two-light window 
 which is filled with stained glass ; one light in memory of Henry Denne, 
 1822, and the other of the Ven. John Denne, Archdeacon of Rochester, 
 born at Littlebourne, 1693, buried at Rochester, 1707, The tower has a 
 lancet which is also filled with stained glass. In the chancel is a flat 
 stone bearing the arms of De L' Angle, in a widow's lozenge, and the 
 inscription Elizabeth De L' Angle, died June vn., 1750. In the east 
 respond of the south aisle arcade the Rood door is still seen. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Jwfofoirfr mb M\xxx$. 
 
 OLLOWING the circle of parishes which join those of the 
 city, we next come to Fordwich, a very ancient place, 
 which, with the population of a small village, still enjoys the 
 dignity of a corporate borough. In Domesday it is named 
 Forewic. It is a limb of the Cinque Port of Sandwich. 
 The town was, no doubt, an important place in the remote times when 
 there was a broad estuary between the mainland and Thanet, and the 
 tidal way was open to Reculver. The Corporation of Fordwich consists 
 of a Mayor, Jurats, and Freemen. The Mayor is also Coroner, and the 
 jurats are justices. There is a Town Hall, in which the magistrates hold 
 sessions, and administer justice. They are not wholly without the means 
 of executing judgment, for below the Court-hall is the lock-up. 
 There was, until the last century, a gallows by the quay ; and there is 
 still preserved — though no longer used — the ancient ducking-stool for 
 termagant wives. The Corporation has its insignia ; the mace is a fine 
 specimen, silver gilt and richly ornamented. It was a present from 
 Admiral Graydon, who served with Sir George Rooke in the storming of 
 Vigo. Both of these veterans retired to spend their last days near 
 Canterbury. The Graydons had long been resident at Fordwich, and 
 in the old mansion there the gallant Admiral died in 1727. Among 
 the ancient privileges of the jurats was the right to take each a 
 night-turn at netting the delicious trout for which the Stour was so 
 renowned. 
 
146 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 Fordwich gave a territorial title to two peerages. Sir John 
 Finch, recorder of Canterbury, and member for that city, was chosen 
 Speaker in the Parliament of 1628. It was he who was kept in the 
 Chair by force while the House passed the resolutions against the 
 King's oppressive demands. During the long interval in which Charles I. 
 dispensed with a Parliament Sir John Finch was made Chief Justice of 
 the Common Pleas, being a zealous supporter of the King in his 
 exactions. He was created Lord Finch, Baron Fordwich. Being 
 impeached by the Long Parliament he was obliged to escape to Holland. 
 He returned at the Restoration, and took part in the trial of the 
 Regicides, but soon after died, and was buried at St. Martin's, Canter- 
 bury. Lord Cowper, on elevation to an earldom in 1718, was created 
 Viscount Fordwich. 
 
 The Church of St. Mary is an ancient structure, with a nave, north 
 aisle, and chancel. Three early-pointed arches divide the nave from the 
 aisle; the chancel aisle and the tower arch are also pointed. The windows 
 are later. There are some curious inscriptions on the ancient grave-stones 
 in the floor of the church. One dated 1605 is in memory of Aphra, wife 
 of Henry Hawkins, " who scarcely having arrived to 21 years of age yet 
 fully attayned perfection in many vertues " ere she " departed this frayle 
 life." The epitaph of Catherine, wife of Valentine Norton of Fordwich, 
 gent, also records an early death. She died in 1610, in her 21st year. 
 The following lines are upon her tombstone : — 
 
 Fame soundes so shrill over this tender coarse, 
 
 The dead growne deafe and Fame herselfe growne hoarse. 
 
 Malicious Envye cannot carpe at Fame ; 
 
 For what she soundes the dead deserv'd the same. 
 
 All speake her worth that knewe her mayde or wife : 
 
 Let all speake, all too little to her life. 
 
 Fate is excus'd : it robs not her of bliss, 
 
 But us that such a lively mirrour miss. 
 
 One onely sonne she bore, at whose deare byrth 
 
 She changed her earthlye joyes to Heavenlye mirth. 
 There is in the church an ancient stone shrine, ark shaped, the roof 
 carved with overlapping scallops, and one side with a series of small 
 
FORDWICH AND STURRY. 147 
 
 interlacing round arches, springing from round columns. This shrine 
 has been for some years exposed to the weather, on the outside of the 
 church. Hasted says it was originally inside, but was cast out into the 
 churchyard, where it was likely to be destroyed. It was purchased by 
 someone who removed it to the Precincts of Canterbury Cathedral. 
 From there it was brought back, some years since, to Fordwich church- 
 yard, and has now, quite recently, been once again taken within the 
 church — its proper place. Its original history is not known. 
 
 On the opposite side of the Stour, close to Fordwich, is the village 
 of Sturry (the Stour isle). At the time of the Domesday survey there 
 was a much greater extent of river area in the parish. "Esturai," as it 
 was then called, had only 28 acres of meadow land, but it had no 
 less than ten mills and seven fisheries on the Stour. Sturry Court, 
 now a farm, is an old mansion house of the time of James I, The 
 present building contains part of the original, but has been much 
 altered. The entrance has still the ancient gate archway. The manor 
 of Sturry was, in the reign of Elizabeth, sold by John Tufton to Thomas 
 Smythe, of Westenhanger, who was also owner of the manor of Barton, 
 at Canterbury. He was the Mr. "Customer" Smythe, named in the 
 curious deposition of the Aldermen of Canterbury, concerning the 
 breaking up of a part of Babb's Hill, Canterbury, by one Robert Young. 
 The Customer's grandson, Sir Thomas Smythe, was created, in 1628, 
 Viscount Strangford. The Strangfords appear to have resided at Sturry 
 Court, but in 1700, on the death of the Viscount Strangford of that time, 
 the estate passed to his son-in-law, Henry Roper, Lord Teynham. 
 
 Sturry Church (St. Nicholas), is large and interesting. It has a 
 nave, chancel, two aisles, and west tower. It has passed through many 
 changes since its earliest walls were built. Above the four Early English, 
 plain-pointed arches, on square piers, forming the nave arcade on either 
 side, circular arches can be seen, apparently the remains of clerestory 
 windows of a Norman building. The chancel was probably built during 
 the transition to the first pointed style. Its east window has two lancets, 
 trefoiled. There is an aumbry in the north, and a piscina in the south 
 wall. The present windows of the church are mostly of second or third 
 
148 RAMBLES ROUND OLD CANTERBURY. 
 
 pointed style. The roof has tie-beams and king-posts. The chancel 
 arch is pointed. There is a new oak screen. One of the pillars of the 
 south aisle has a pointed niche ; the same aisle has an early-pointed 
 piscina. On the west wall of this aisle is a stone tablet with inscription 
 recording the burial, in 1544, of Katherine, wife of Johne Churche. 
 In the floor is a flat stone with a brass, the Latin inscription on 
 which commemorates Thomas Childmel, of Sturry, and his two wives, 
 Joan and Katherine. He gave lead for the roofing of the church to the 
 value of £40, and in other ways proved a benefactor to the parish ; he 
 died in 1496. The north aisle has a square aumbry enlarged internally. 
 The north porch, with a good timber-framed roof, apparently dates 
 from the Tudor period. The west tower is square and opens to the 
 nave by a pointed arch. 
 
 Note to Chapter II. — Since this chapter was printed, further discoveries have been 
 made at St. Martin's, in connection with the two ancient arches illustrated on page 8- 
 The internal wall has been laid bare, and the round arch exposed on the inside, 
 corresponding exactly to that on the exterior. The flat headed arch, which has 
 been a subject of so much speculation, was found to contain a squint, the slope of 
 which was inclined to the west, as though directed to a side altar. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abbot, Arcbbisbop, 55 
 
 "Bob-up-and-down," Chaucer's, 121 
 
 Albinus, Abbot of St. Augustine's, 23 
 
 Bolaine, Betty, Burgate Church, 75 
 
 Alcock, Capt. "William, St. Stephen's, 84 
 
 Bourne, Abbot de, 23 
 
 Alford, Dean, St. Martin's, 14 
 
 Bourne, James de, Bekesbourne, 142 
 
 All Saints', 94 
 
 Bourne Park, 137 
 
 Alms-box, ancient, Harbledown, 56 
 
 Boys, Sir John, Jesus Hospital, 112 
 
 Altar, ancient, at St. Pancras, 18 
 
 Braems, Sir Arnold, Bridge, 135 
 
 Anabaptists, 106 
 
 Brasses— St. Martin's, 13 ; St. George's, 
 
 Archer, Peter, Charthara, 124 
 
 75 ; Burgate, 75 ; St. Paul's, 76 ; 
 
 Arundel, Archbishop, 79 
 
 St. Dunstan's, 86 ; St. Alphage, 93 ; 
 
 Athol, Countess of, Chilham, 131 
 
 Northgate, 93; Thanington, 114; 
 
 Athol, Earl of, 132 
 
 Chartham, 125 ; Bridge, 136 ; Bekes- 
 
 Attwood, Thos., St. Mildred's, 70 
 
 bourne, 142 ; Sturry, 148 
 
 Augustine Friars, 108 
 
 Bridewell, the old, 109 
 
 Augustine, his landing in Kent, 5 ; his 
 
 Bridge, The Church, 135 ; Manor, 135 
 
 settlement at Canterbury, 6 ; his 
 
 Bridger family, St. Mildred's, 69 
 
 simple life, 21 ; his remains trans- 
 
 British camps, near Canterbury, 115 
 
 lated to the Abbey Church, 25 
 
 Brock, Mr. Loftus, on St" Martin's 
 
 Badlesmere, Lord, Chilham, 132 
 
 font, 13 
 
 Baldwin, Archbishop, 79, 88 
 
 Brown, Ralph, Northgate Church, 93 
 
 Bargrave (Bargar) family, 135, 124 
 
 Bungeye, Rev. John, Chartham, 126 
 
 Barham, Rev. R. H., 76 
 
 Burgate, or Borough Gate, 101 
 
 Barrows, Chartham Downs, 123 ; Chil- 
 
 Burgate Church, 75 
 
 ham, 131 ; Iffin, 115 
 
 Burnt House, The, Chartham, 124 
 
 Barton, Elizabeth, St. Sepulchre's, 110 
 
 Canute's gifts to St. Augustine's, 27 
 
 Batteley, Nicholas, Bekesbourne, 142 
 
 Canterbury, in Saxon times, 2 ; sacked 
 
 Beauvoir, Dr., " Liber Hospitalium," 50 
 
 by the Danes, 24 ; Scholarships at 
 
 Becket, "'relics" at Harbledown, 56 
 
 Cambridge, 62 
 
 Bede, his account of St. Martin's, 3 
 
 Castle, The, 95 
 
 Beke House, 142 
 
 Caxton, John, St. Alphage, 93 
 
 Bekesbourne, a limb of Hastings, 141 ; 
 
 Cemeteries, ancient, St. Sepulchre's, 111 
 
 The Church, 140 
 
 Change ringers, St. Stephen's, 81 
 
 Beresford-Hope, Mr., 29, 31 
 
 Chantries — Harbledown, 54 ; St. Paul's, 
 
 Bertha, Queen, her Oratory at St. 
 
 76 ; St. Dunstan's, 86 ; Holy Cross, 
 
 Martin's, 3 ; her so-called tomb, 11 ; 
 
 89; Chilham, 133; Bekesbourne, 142 
 
 buried at St. Augustine's, 12, 22 
 
 Charles I. at St. Augustine's, 40 
 
 Bifrons Park, 140 
 
 Charters of St. Augustine's, 26 
 
 Bigbury Wood, ancient camp, 115 
 
 Chartham — The Church, 124 ; Deanery, 
 
 Bigg William, St. George's Gate, 99 
 
 124; Saxon Cemetery, 123 
 
 Binnewith Island, 107 
 
 Chaucer's " Bob-up-and-down," 57, 121 
 
 Bishopsbourne, 137 
 
 Cheney, Sir Thomas, Chilham, 132 
 
 Black Eriars, The, 104 
 
 Chequers, Chaucer's Inn, 59 
 
 Black Prince, at Harbledown, 54 
 
 Chesshyre, Rev. W. J., 11, 77 
 
 Blue Dick (Culmer), 126 
 
 Chiches family, 94, 135 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Childmel, Thomas, 148 
 
 Chilham, The Castle, 128 ; Romans at, 
 
 131 ; The Church, 132 
 Chrismatory found at St. Martin's. 14 
 Churche, John, Sturry, 148 
 Cogan's Hospital, 112 
 Cokyn (Cockyn), William, 59, 67 
 Colebrooke family, Chilham, 133 
 Colepepper, Colonel, Hackington, 79 
 Coleridge, Bishop, St. Augustine's, 41 
 Coleridge, Rev. Ed., St. Augustine's, 40 
 Colet, Dean, at Harbledown, 56 
 Colfe, Abraham, Westgate, 90 
 Conyngham family, Bifrons, 140 
 Cotton, Leonard, 74 ; his Hospital, 112 
 Cranmer family, St. Mildred's, 67 
 Cranmer, Archbishop, and the Black- 
 friars, 106 ; his palace at Bekes- 
 bourne. 142 
 Cross, ancient, found at St. Martin's, 13, 
 
 135 ; The Iron, 73 
 Culmer (Blue Dick), 126 
 Dane John, The, 96 
 De L' Angle, Rector of Chartham, 124 
 Denne, Archdeacon, Littlebourne, 144 
 Diggs, John, Greyfriars, 107 
 Digges, Sir Dudley, Chilham, 132 
 Doge, Hamo, St. Paul, 76 
 Dole, Villai, St. George's, 75 
 Dominican Friars, 104 
 Ducking stool, Fordwich, 145 
 Dunstan, St. Augustine's, 22 
 Eadbald, his apostacy, 22 
 Earth -circle at Chilham, 131 
 Eastbridge Hospital, 58 
 Elizabeth, Queen, at St. Augustine's, 43 
 Elmar, Abbot, and the Danes, 24 
 Erasmus, at Harbledown, 56 
 Essex, Jobn, Abbot, St. Augustine's, 26 
 Ethelbert, his palace, 2 ; buried at St. 
 Augustine, 12 ; his temple, 15, 18 ; 
 his second marriage, 22 
 Ethelbert's Tower, 31," 34 
 Exchange, ancient, in Canterbury, 60 
 Fagge family, Chilham, 133, 135 
 Farnham, John, Eastbridge Hospital, 62 
 Faussett, Bryan Rev., on the cross at 
 St. Martin's, 13 ; his " Inventorium 
 Sepulchrale," 123 ; Nackington, 134 
 Fferne, David, dwarf, St. Paul's, 77 
 Finch, Sir John, 146 
 Fineux, George, St. Paul's, 76 
 Fishpool-bottom, 143 
 Flints, squared, 42 
 
 Fogg, Richard, Bekesbourne, 141 
 Font— ancient, St. Martin's, 13 ; St. 
 
 Pancras, 16 ; St. John's, 47 ; St. 
 
 George's, 75 
 Ford, at Thanington, 115 
 Fordwich, 27, 145 
 Fraternity of Jesus Masse, 89 
 
 ,, Parish Clerks, 106 
 
 Fulks, Stephen and Alice, 13 
 Furley, John, St. Stephen's, 84 
 Furley, William Henry, 77 
 Fyndon, Abbot, St. Augustine's, 37 
 Gallows— St. Dunstan' s, 88 ; Westgate, 
 
 90; Fordwich, 145 
 Gates, City, 97 
 
 Gibbons, Orlando, at Canterbury, 40 
 Gilbert Canon, a choir boy, 40 
 Gray, William, Burgate Church, 76 
 Gray, The poet, at Canterbury, 113 
 Graydon, Admiral, 145 
 Gregory, Pope, and Augustine, 5 
 Grey Friars (Franciscans), 107 
 Guy, of Warwick, Harbledown, 57 
 Hackington, Tournament at, 79 
 Hales family, St. Augustine's, 26 ; St. 
 
 Stephen's, 79 ; Thanington, 116 ; 
 
 Bekesbourne, 141, 143 
 Hales, Sir James, Tonford, 116 
 Hales' Place, 81 
 
 Hales, Sir Thomas Pym, Bekesbourne, 141 
 Hall, Rev. H., St. John's, 50 
 Halle, Thomas, brass at Thanington, 114 
 Harbledown, 52 
 Harriet, Walter, 136 
 
 Hatch, Joseph, married at St. Paul's, 77 
 Hawte, William, Bishopsbourne, 137 
 Head, Sir Francis, St. Mildred's, 69 
 Henry II., at Harbledown, 54 
 
 ,, St. Dunstan's, 85 
 
 Henry of Canterbury, St. Dunstan's, 86 
 Heppington, 135 
 Holy Cross Church, Westgate, 89 
 Holy Maid of Kent, 110 
 Honywood family, St. Mildred's, 69 
 Hooker, Richard, Bishopsbourne, 137 
 Horton Manor, 123 
 Hospitals— St. John's, 45 ; St. Nicholas 
 
 (Harbledown), 51 ; East Bridge, 58 ; 
 
 Poor Priest's, 109 ; St. Lawrence, 
 
 110; St. James', 111; Jesus, 112; 
 
 Cogan's, 112; Cotton's, 112; May- 
 
 nard's, 112 
 Howlets, near Bekesbourne, 143 
 Hussey, Mr., on St. Mildred's, 66 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Iffin, British camp at, 115 
 
 "Ingoldsby" (Rev.R.H.Barham), 76,123 
 
 Ing worth, Bishop of Dover, 109 
 
 Iron Cross, 73 
 
 Jacob, Dr., Wincheap Gate, 98 
 
 Jesus Hospital, Northgate, 112 
 
 Jesus Masse, Fraternity of, 89 
 
 Jews, imprisoned in the Castle, 96 
 
 John, King, at Chilham, 131 
 
 Julaber's grave, Chilham, 131 
 
 Kent, Kings of, St. Augustine's, 24 
 
 Kingsford family, Chartham, 124 
 
 Klook, Christopher, 76 
 
 Lady Wootton's Green, 28 
 
 Lanfranc, Archbishop, 45, 49, 50, 52, 85 
 
 Langton, Simon, 79, 109 
 
 Langton, Stephen, Archbishop, 58, 78, 104 
 
 Laurentius, St. Augustine's, 22 
 
 Leper Hospitals 45, 52, 110, 112 
 
 Leprosy in England, 52 
 
 Littlebourne, 143 
 
 Living, Livingsbourne, Bekesbourne. 142 
 
 Longport, 76, 101 
 
 Lovelace family, Greyfriars, 107 
 
 Lovelle, John, Priest, St. George's, 75 
 
 Luidhard, Chaplain to Queen Bertha, 3 
 
 Manwood, Sir Roger, 79, 82, 108 
 
 Martyn, John, Graveney Church, 83 
 
 Martyr's Field, Wincheap, 103 
 
 Mascoll, Robert, St. John's, 49 
 
 Maynard's Hospital, 112 
 
 Mazer-bowl, ancient, at Harbledown, 56 
 
 Mellitus, St. Augustine's, 23 
 
 Milles family, 134 
 
 Milton Manor, 122 
 
 Miracle Plays, Holy Cross Church, 90 
 
 Monastery, the first English, 21 
 
 More, Sir Thomas, St. Dunstan's, 86 
 
 My stole Park, 127 
 
 Naekington, 134 
 
 Newingate (St. George's), 99 
 
 Newman, Sir George, St. Margaret's, 73 
 
 Nolan, Nicholas, Westgate, 90 
 
 Norman piscina, St. Martin's, 10 
 
 Northgate, 93, 102 
 
 Nun of St. Sepulchre's, 110 
 
 Nunneries, 104 
 
 Nutt family, Nackiugton, 135 
 
 Paintings, ancient, Eastbiidsre, 63 ; of 
 
 Thanington. 116; Bridge"", 136 
 Palmer, Lady, Chilham, 133 
 Palmer, Sir Henry, Bekesbourne, 142 
 Paper Mill, Chartham, 124 
 Parker, Archbishop, 49, 60, 62, 142 
 
 Patricksbourne (Patrixbourne), 139 
 
 Penny Pot Wood, 127 
 
 Petit family, 127 
 
 Pierre, Peter de La, 106 
 
 Pilgrims' Hall, Eastbridge, 58 
 
 Pilgrims' Way, The, 51 
 
 Pole, Cardinal, St. Augustine's, 26 
 
 Poor Priests' Hospital, 107, 109 
 
 Porredge, Henry, Bekesbourne, 142 
 
 Priories, 104 
 
 Prison at St. Dunstan's, 88; The Castle, 
 96 ; Westgate, 103 
 
 Prude, Thomas, St. Alphage, 93 
 
 Queeningate, 101 
 
 Ramsay, Sir Harry, Burgate Church, 75 
 
 Ramsey, Malcolm, Patricksbourne, 137 
 
 Riding Gate, 99 
 
 Roman remains — St. Martin's, 10 ; St. 
 Pancras, 18 ; St. Mildred's, 66 ; Rid- 
 ing Gate, 99 
 
 Rondeau family, St. Dunstan's, 81 
 
 Rooke'sduel, 77 
 
 Rooke, Sir George, St. Paul's, 77 
 
 Rooke, Sir William, St. Paul's, 77 
 
 Roos, Thos. de, Chilham, 60 
 
 Roper family, St. Dunstan's, 86, 147 
 
 Routledge, Canon, St. Martin's, 10 
 
 St. Alphege, 92 
 
 St. Andrew's, 94 
 
 St. Augustine's, Foundation of the Mon- 
 astery, 21 ; rededication byDunstan, 
 22 ; Kings of Kent buried at, 24 ; 
 Spared by the Danes, 24 ; Partly 
 destroyed by fire, 25 ; Occasional 
 distress, 26 ; Dissolution of the 
 Monastery, 26 ; The Grand Gate, 28 ; 
 The ruins of the Abbey, 33 ; A 
 palace of Henry VIII., 26, 34; A 
 local Vauxhall, 38 ; Royal visitors to. 
 40 ; College, foundation of, 29 ; 
 College, Dr. Neale's poem on, 30 
 
 St. Dunstan's Church, 85 
 
 ,, Place (Roper House), 86 
 
 ,, Edmund, Ridingate, 99 
 ,, George's Church, 74 
 ,, Gate 99 
 
 ,, Gregory's Priory, 50, 109 
 
 ,, James's (St. Jacob's), Hospital, 111 
 
 ,, John's Hospital, 45 
 
 ,, John the Poor, 71 
 ,, Lawrence, Hospital of, 110 
 ,, Margaret's Church, 72 
 ,, Martin's Church, 9 
 
 ,, Porch, St. Augustine's, 31 
 
— . — _ 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 St. Mary, Bishopsbourne, 137 
 
 Smythe, Mr. Customer, 147 
 
 ,, Bredman, 94 
 
 Somner, John, Harbledown, 55 
 
 „ Bredin, 94 
 
 Somner, William, St. Margaret's, 73 
 
 ,, de Castro, 71, 96 
 
 SS, Collar of, St. Stephen's, 82 
 
 ,, Chartham, 124 
 
 Storey, Charles, Chartham, 123 
 
 ,, Chilham, 132 
 
 Stoughton, Thomas, St. Martin's, 13 
 
 ,, Fordwich, 14G 
 
 Stratford, Archbishop, 53, 59, 90 
 
 ,, Magdalen, Burgate, 75 
 
 Strangford, Viscount, 147 
 
 ,, Nackington, 134 
 
 Stukeley, Dr., 99 
 
 ,, North gate, 93 
 
 Sturry, 147 
 
 ,, Patricksbourne, 140 
 
 Sudbury, Archbishop, Westgate, 89, 97 
 
 ,, Queeningate, 102 
 
 Suppression of the Priories, 109 
 
 St. Michael's Gate (Burgate), 101 
 
 Swift, Dean, his ancestors rectors of St. 
 
 St. Mildred, her relics removed to St. 
 
 Andrew's, 94 
 
 Augustine's, 27 
 
 Taylor, Rev. Edward, Bifrons, 140 
 
 St. Mildred's Church, 65 
 
 Teynham Lord, a descendant of the 
 
 ,, Porch at St. Augustine's, 31 
 
 Ropers, 86, 147 
 
 St. Nicholas, Brotherhood of, 106 
 
 Thanington, 113 
 
 ,, Harbledown, 57 
 
 Thorn, a monk of St. Augustine, 6, 17 
 
 ,, Sturry, 147 
 
 Tonford Manor, remains of, 119 
 
 ,. Thanington, 113 
 
 Tournament, at St. Stephen's, 79 
 
 St. Pancras, 6, 15 
 
 Towers of the City Walls, 98 
 
 St. Paul's Church, 76 
 
 Trinity Chapel, St. Dunstan's, 87 
 
 St. Peter, Bekesbourne, 141 
 
 Tumulus, aclffin, 116; Chilham, 131 
 
 ,, Bridge, 135 
 
 Twyne, John, St. Paul's, 76 
 
 ,, Canterbury, 91 
 
 Valoyns family, 116 
 
 St. Sepulchre's Nunnery, 99, 110 
 
 Vicarage of Thanington, the ancient, 114 
 
 St. Stephen's, Hackington, 78 
 
 Waleys, Sir William, 116 
 
 St. Vincent, Littlebourne, 143 
 
 Walls of the City, 96 
 
 Saxon Cemetery, Chartham Downs, 123 
 
 Warham, Archbishop, 79, 111 
 
 BifronsPark, 140 
 
 Watson, John, St. Margaret's, 73 
 
 Saxon Masonry at St. Martin's, 10 
 
 Weekes, Henry, R.A., of Canterbury, 70 
 
 Scotland, Abbot of St. Augustine's, 25 
 
 Westgate, 102 
 
 Septvans, Sir Robert de, Chatham, 125 ; 
 
 Whitefriars, 104 
 
 Sir William de, 116 
 
 Whitgift, Archbishop, Eastbridge, 62 
 
 Sertivoli, Michael Francis, 13 
 
 Wido, Abbot, St. Augustine's, 25 
 
 Sextries, manor of, Nackington, 135 
 
 Winter, John, St. Margaret's, 73 
 
 Shalmsford Street, manor of, 127 
 
 Wincheap Gate, 98 
 
 Sheldon, Archbishop, 55 
 
 Woodall, Rev. E. H., St. Margaret's, 72 
 
 Shrine, ancient, Fordwich, 146 
 
 Workhouse, The old, 109 
 
 Simmons, Alderman, 7o 
 
 Worthgate, The, 98 
 
 Six, James, M.A., Westgate Church, 90 
 
 Wotton, Lord, St. Augustine's, 20 
 
 JPI& 
 
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