Y G O N E KENT / . : ; i. ,vy/ / j>, /;.,: / -v.'. .//,.-. THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES BYGONE KENT. NOTE. Of this book 750 copies have been printed, and this is No.. DOVER CASTLE. BYGONE KENT. EDITED P,Y RICHARD STEAD, B.A., F.R.H.S. CANTERBURY: H. J. GOULDEN HULL: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. LONDON: SIMFKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & Co., LIMITED. 1892. preface. FEW counties are so interesting as Kent from antiquarian, historical, and architectural points of view, and probably no county can surpass the " Garden of England " in these respects. Its cathedrals, its castles, and its old mansions are known far and wide, and the county is connected with some of the most stirring and remarkable incidents in our national story. So wide is the field to be covered that the present little volume cannot pretend to do more than as it were touch its borders. But an attempt has been made to give a fairly representative series of pictures of Kent and Kentish life in olden times ; and it is hoped that " Bygone Kent " may do some little towards stirring up a more general interest in the history of this famous old county. It should be explained that some little change has been made in the original series of papers. During the progress of the work through the press some very valuable papers were most kindly placed at my service, especially by the learned and respected Canon Jenkins, M.A., and by Mr. 643084 PREFACE. G. M. Arnold, J.P., D.L., F.S.A., of Milton Hall, Gravesend ; Mr. S. W. Kershaw, M.A., F.S.A., librarian, Lambeth Palace Library ; and Mr. Wollaston Knocker, Town Clerk of Dover. A few of the less important papers were consequently set aside to make room for these more important ones. To the gentlemen just named my best thanks are due, as well as to my old and valued friend, Mr. F. Ross, F.R.H.S., a most able and zealous antiquary ; and to the Rev. J. S. Sidebotham, M.A. ; the Rev. W. J. Foxell, B.A., B.Mus. ; and others, who have so kindly assisted in the preparation of the present volume. I have also to thank Mr. E. Lamplough for his obliging readiness in undertaking the index. It is, perhaps, as well to add that though I have undertaken generally to see the several articles through the press, I have not the time nor in some cases the ability to verify all the statements contained in papers other than my own. The various writers are, therefore, alone responsible for whatever is contained in their respective articles. RICHARD STEAD. GRAMMAR SCHOOL, FOLKESTONE, Oct. 24! h, 1892, PAGE Contents. "'HISTORIC KICNT. By Thomas Frost i KENTISH PLACE-NAMES. By R. Stead, B.A. , F.R. H.S 21 ST. AUGUSTINE AND HIS MISSION. By the Rev. Geo. S. Tyack, K.A 39 THE RUINED CHAI-ELS AND CHANTRIES OK KENT. By Gco. M. Arnold, J.r., I). L., F.s.A 51 A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OK THE CHURCH OR BASILICA OK LYMINGE. By the Rev. Canon R. C. Jenkins, M.A. 86" CANTERBURY PILGRIMS AND THEIR SOJOURN IN THE CITY. By the Rev. \V. J. Foxell, B.A. ... ... ... ... 97 WILLIAM LAMBAUDE, THE KENTISH ANTIQUARY. By Frederick Ross, K. R. H.S. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 115 THE REVOLT OF THE VILLEINS IN- THE DAYS OF KING RICHARD THE SECOND. By Edward Lamplough ... 128 ROYAL ELTHA.M. By Joseph W. Spurgeon ... - ... ... 144 GREENWICH FAIR. By Thomas Frost 167 THE MARTYRED CARDINAL. By Frederick Ross, F.R.H.S. ... 177 THE KENTISH DIALECTS, AND PEGGE AND LEWIS, THE OLD COUNTY GLOSSARISTS. By R. Stead, B.A., F.R.H.S. ... 190 THE KING'S SCHOOL, CANTERBURY. By the Rev. J. S. Side- botham, M.A. ... ... .. ... ... ... ... 206 SMUGGLING IN KENT 218 HUGUENOT HOMES IN KENT. By S. W. Kershaw, F.S.A. ... 228 DOVER CASTLE. By E. Wollaston Knocker 250 INDEX 265 BYGONE KENT. Ibistoric Ikent. BY THOMAS FROST. NO portion of England has been the scene of so many important events in the history of the nation as the county of Kent. Forming the south-eastern extremity of the country, and being nearer than any other to the shores of the European continent, it has naturally been the landing-place of successive invading hosts. It was on its coast that the earliest event in our national history was enacted, for Britain was an unknown land to the rest of the world, until Julius Caesar was prompted by the sight of the white cliffs of Kent to cross the narrow channel with his victorious legions. Passing over the second Roman invasion, which was prompted by the failure of the chiefs of the Cantii to send to Gaul the promised hostages, it 2 BYGONE KENT. is enough to observe that the Kentish chiefs found themselves constrained to follow the example of their allies, and submit to the Roman rule. Kent, at this time, and for more than 800 years afterwards, occupied a unique position among the counties, the Cantii inhabiting no other part of the country, while, during the period of the Saxon Heptarchy, it formed a kingdom of itself. Roman writers state that the Cantii were more civilised than the other British tribes, and under the Roman rule they made considerable advances in the same direction. Roman bricks, mingled with masonry of Saxon origin, may be seen to-day in the lower part of the tower and portions of the walls of Swanscomb Church, near Gravesend, in the foundations of Lyminge Church, and in the remains of the Pharos on the east cliff at Dover. Fragments of Roman pottery may be found even now in the mud of the marshy banks of the Medway, at Upchurch, and on the ridge behind the marsh, to the east of the Otterham Creek, is a cemetery of the same period, while near Lower Halstow Church, the remains of the houses which those buried there occupied in life may be traced. Roman bricks and broken pottery, may be found HISTORIC KENT. 3 also in the embankment at this place, and many of the former have been worked into the lower portion of the walls of the church. The site of the military station of Regulbium, from which name Reculver is derived, is now under water, owing to the constant encroachments of the sea on the east coast ; but Hasted, the historian of Kent, says that " from the present shore, as far as a place called the Black Rock, seen at low water- mark, there have been found great quantities of tiles, bricks, fragments of walls, tesselated pave- ments, and other marks of a ruinated town." The only existing traces of this place are two or three ditches through the marshes, but large quantities of Roman coins, pottery, and utensils have, at different times, been found there. The Roman governors established a military station there for the defence of the channel which then divided Thanet from the mainland : and they had another at Rutupiae, now Richborough, to guard the passage of the Stour, then much more important than in modern times. Layers of Roman bricks may be seen between the courses of stones in the walls of Richborough Castle, and some remains of a Roman amphitheatre are said to have been visible sixty years ago, in the fields, about five 4 BYGONE KENT. hundred yards south-west from the ruins of the castle. The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent was founded by Hengist, in 475, and welded by Egbert with the United Kingdom of England in 823. Ethelbert I. the first Christian monarch of this miniature ^kingdom, is said to have built a palace at Reculver, and this may have been' the castle mentioned by some writers, remains being traceable southward and eastward from the roofless church. These fragments show that the walls were of flints and septaria. There are no traces of towers. Of the monastery said to have been founded by Ethelbert not a stone remains, but the magnificent gate of the one founded by Augustine still exists at Canterbury, where also is the oldest parish church in England, that of St. Martin. The unity of England had not long been achieved when the country began to be harassed by the incursions of the Danes. The first descent of these invaders was made on the island of Sheppey, in the reign of Egbert ; but that was a mere plundering expedition. They came again and again, however, and in constantly increasing numbers ; and in 857 they ventured, for the first HISTORIC KENT. 5 time, to take up their -winter quarters in England. In the following spring, having received strong reinforcements, they advanced inland from Thanet, and plundered and burned Canterbury. Though they were afterwards defeated and obliged to retreat, they maintained their settlement in Thanet, and spent % the following winter in Sheppey. In the reign of Edward the Elder, the men of Kent supported the claim of that monarch's cousin, Ethelwald, to a portion of the kingdom, and he also enlisted the Danes settled in the eastern part of the county in his cause ; but his death in battle with the Kentish men put an end to the dispute. The subsequent struggle with the. Danish invaders was fought out in the northern and north midland counties, and ended in the settlement of Danish colonies along all the eastern half of England. Kent remained undisturbed until the Norman invasion. At the battle of Hastings the Kentish men formed the front line of the English army, a position which they always claimed as of right, and after the defeat which gave the crown to the Duke of Normandy they fell back upon their native soil. Kent submitted at once to the conqueror, though, according to tradition, a body 6 BYGONE KENT. of Kentish men surprised a Norman force on the march to London by issuing from the woods around the village of Swanscomb, a few miles from Gravesend. During the reigns of the Norman and early Angevin kings, the chief events in the history of Kent centred in the city of Canterbury. There, at the foot of the altar, in the cathedral, Archbishop Becket was assassinated, and there also arose the conflict between royal and ecclesiastical authority, which, in the reign of John, resulted in the kingdom being placed under an interdict. The story of the murder of Becket is so well known that there is no need to tell it here. John's submission to Pandolfo, the Papal legate, was made at or near Dover. The invasion of England by the French, in order to enforce the Papal decree of deposition against John, was thus averted ; but in the following reign a French army, acting in support of a rebellious movement of the English nobles, landed on the coast of Kent, and besieged Dover, which was gallantly defended by Hubert de Burgh. A French fleet, with reinforcements on board, was repulsed off the coast of Kent, and this defeat, combined with their ill-success in HISTORIC KENT. 7 Lincolnshire, which another French army had invaded, induced the enemy to withdraw. In the next notable events in the history of Kent, the actual and the legendary are closely interwoven, but the facts, so far as they can be gathered, so well illustrate the age that they ought not to be passed over without notice. The corpse of a seaman who had been drowned in the Medway was washed ashore near the village of Minster, in the Isle of Sheppey, on the foreshore of the extensive domain of Sir Robert Shurland, by whom directions were given for its interment in the parish churchyard. The priest refused to comply with the knight's order, upon which the latter ordered a couple of his serfs to dig a grave in the churchyard, and again commanded the presence of the priest, who, knowing that Sir Robert was not a man to be trifled with, was speedily in attendance. He refused, however, to offer a single prayer, which so exasperated the knight that he kicked him into the grave, whereby his neck was broken. The grave was then filled up, and Sir Robert returned to his castle. Reports of this affair soon reached the ears of the Abbot of Canterbury, who called upon the Sheriff of Kent to set the law in motion against the 8 BYGONE KENT. sacrilegious Knight of Shurland, with the result that the sheriff summoned the posse coniitatus, and, presenting himself before the gates of Shurland Castle, demanded the surrender of the murderer. The knight ordered the drawbridge to be raised, and the portcullis to be lowered, and set the sheriff at defiance. On the summons to surrender being repeated, he sallied out at the head of a dozen armed retainers, and put the upholders of the law to Might. The Abbot thereupon appealed to the Pope, and the Papal legate in London was instructed to demand justice of the King, Sir Robert Shurland being at the same time menaced with excommuni- cation. Edward I. was then preparing for war with Scotland, and the Knight took the opportunity presented by the presence of the royal barge on the coast to wait upon the monarch. What he urged in extenuation of his crime is not recorded ; but he received the royal pardon, and probably cared little for any other consequences. He had been knighted by Edward for his gallant conduct at the siege of Caerlaverock Castle, along with another brave Kentish soldier, Sir John Hadloe, who derived his name from the village now called Hadlow, HISTORIC KENT. 9 near Tunbridge, and whose castle and estate there afterwards passed into the possession of a family named Fane. The name of Shurland still attaches to a mansion near Eastchurch, on the right of the lane leading from Minster to Warden, and the tomb of Sir Robert may be seen in Minster Church. Whether the person known in history as Wat Tyler was an Essex man or a Kentish man has never been determined, but it is certain that it was upon Kentish soil that the insurrection which he led in assertion of the rights of man against the exercise of arbitrary and irresponsible power reached its culmination. After an ineffectual attack on Rochester Castle, the insurgents marched to Blackheath, where, with the Essex men, they are said to have numbered one hundred thousand. Thence the Dartford tiler sent a message to the King, who had taken refuge in the Tower, asking for a conference with him. Richard sailed down the river in the Royal barge for that purpose, but the formidable aspect of the insurgents deterred him from landing, and he returned in fear to the Tower. The rest of the story need hardly be given in detail in this place, being treated indeed in another paper. io BYGONE KENT. The doctrines of Wickliffe, which, preached by John Ball, had no inconsiderable part in promoting this movement of the serfs, were held in some degree by both Henry IV. and his father, the Duke of Lancaster, but the former, on his usurpation of the throne adopted the view that toleration of heresy was incompatible with the due maintenance of order. Hence the enactment of the law against heresy under which William Sawtree, a London priest, was condemned to death by fire by the convocation of Canterbury. The same law in the following reign was put in force against Lord Cobham, who was regarded as the chief of the Lollards, then become a formid- able body. He was indicted for heresy and condemned to death, but escaped from the Tower before the day appointed for his execution. Subsequently becoming, implicated in a political conspiracy, he was arrested and hanged as a traitor, his corpse being afterwards burned in execution of the sentence formerly pronounced upon him as a heretic. The tendency towards greater purity of religion continued, notwithstanding these persecu- tions, and, in combination with other and less laudable motives, brought about the religious HISTORIC KENT. n reformation of the sixteenth century. The dis- solution of the monasteries was not, however, regarded with general approval ; and, with the view of reconciling the minds of the people to this innovation, a commission was appointed to expose the impostures which priests and monks had been practising for centuries on the credulity of their ignorant and superstitious flocks. Amongst these was a large crucifix, kept at Boxley, in Kent, and regarded with much reverence, the eyes, lips, and head moving on the approach of its worshippers. This was broken by the commissioners, and the secret mechanism by which the movements had been produced were exhibited to the public. The shrine of Becket, commonly styled St. Thomas of Canterbury, in Canterbury Cathedral, was also destroyed, much to the regret of a large section of the people. So great was the veneration in which the memory of Becket was held that it is recorded that while, in one year, not a single penny was offered on the altar of God, and only four pounds one shilling and eightpence on that of the mother of Jesus, nine hundred and fifty- four pounds six shillings and threepence were offered at the shrine of Becket. These exposures took away much of the odium 12 BYGONE KENT. that attached to the reforming measures of Henry VIII., and the minds of the people were quieted by the representation that the king would now be able to dispense with taxes, as the revenues of the abolished abbeys and monasteries would suffice for all the purposes of the State. It was in this reign that the incidents of the grimmest of Barhara's Kentish ballads were enacted, the scene being the gloomy passage in the cathedral precinct at Canterbury known as the " Dark Entry." The old house at the corner of that long, narrow, paved court was then inhabited by one of the canons, whose housekeeper was a young woman named Ellen Bean, between whom and her master an illicit connection was more than suspected. One evening a young lady arrived at the house, whom the canon introduced to his friends as his niece, representing that her father had gone abroad, confiding her to his guardianship. Ellen Bean was not long, however, in arriving at a different conclusion, and having, by watching and listening, assured herself of the young lady's frailty and the canon's infidelity to herself, she administered poison to both, fatal results following in a few hours. Ellen Bean disappeared, and was supposed to have been sent away. Her HISTORIC KENT. 13 victims were yet unburied when it was rumoured that persons passing through the Dark Entry had heard subdued groans, which seemed to proceed from beneath the flagstones, close to the canon's house, one of which appeared to have been recently removed and relaid. No investigation appears to have been made, but about a century afterwards, when the entry was being repaved, a vault was discovered, at the bottom of which was the skeleton of a woman, in a sitting position, with a pitcher and a piece of pie crust beside it. It was surmised that the remains were those of Ellen Bean ; and that the canon's friends, being assured of her guilt, and desirous to avoid the scandal that must have resulted from a public enquiry, had buried her alive, and placed a portion of the poisoned pie in the vault, in order that if the agonies of starvation prompted her to eat it, she might suffer the torture endured by her victims. Barham states that " a small maimed figure of a female, in a sitting position, and holding some- thing like a frying-pan in her hand, may still be seen on the covered passage which crosses the Brick Walk, and adjoins the house belonging to the sixth prebendal stall." Though some discontent had resulted in Kent, i 4 BYGONE KENT. as well as in other parts of the kingdom, from the dissolution of the monasteries, or rather from the social consequences of that measure, the men of that county were not disposed to regard with equanimity the restoration of Roman Catholicism by Mary. The more prudent, indeed, of the nobility and gentry thought it would be soon enough to correct evils when they began to be felt, but the warmer-blooded among them deemed it easier to prevent grievances than to redress them. Sir Thomas Wyatt, some remains of whose castle at Allington may still be found, joined with the Duke of Suffolk and others in a conspiracy to depose Mary, liberate Lady Jane Dudley from the Tower, and place her on the throne. The plans of the conspirators were not well executed, however, and the enterprise was a failure. Wyatt and the duke lost their heads, as did Lady Jane and her husband, and the queen's authority, instead of being shaken by the outbreak, was considerably strengthened by its prompt suppression. During the two following reigns the people of Kent enjoyed peace, and even the commotions of the Civil War only extended to this county when the strife between King and Parliament had HISTORIC KENT. 15 nearly reached its conclusion. In the spring of 1648, when the fortunes of Charles I. were almost at their lowest ebb, the royalists resolved to make a last desperate effort to restore them. Kent was strongly Parliamentarian, but the gentry were, as a rule, on the side of the King ; and Charles being then in extremity, they convened meetings at Canterbury and other places in the county, to test the feelings of the people by raising the cry of " God and the King ! " The moving spirit of this movement was a gentleman named Hales, who resided in the neighbourhood of Canterbury, where he owned a considerable estate. The avowed object of the meetings was the considera- tion of grievances, under cover of which associations were formed, arms collected, and plans laid for a rising for the relief of the King. The meetings were suppressed without difficulty by the prompt action of Fairfax, who commanded the Parliamentary forces in the south-east, but the design of their promoters was not aban- doned. The crews of six ships of war lying at this time in the Medway, and who probably had less knowledge of the political condition of the countrv than the dwellers in the towns, declared 1 6 BYGONE KENT. for the King, and, in spite of the arguments and remonstrances of Rainsborough and the Earl of Warwick, the Lord High Admiral put to sea, and sailed for Holland, the purpose of the captains being to offer the command of the squadron to the Duke of York, who was then at the Hague. The Prince of Wales, on being apprised of this movement, went himself to the Hague, whence he returned with nineteen vessels, and anchored in the Thames. Warwick avoided an engagement, however, and all the efforts of the princes to create a movement in London in support of the royal cause proved unavailing. In the meantime their friends in Kent had mustered at Maidstone, and opposed a bold front to Fairfax, who marched against them as soon as the news of the rising reached him. For six hours the royalists resisted the efforts of the Parliamentary force to dislodge them, but; at length they were driven out of the town, leaving two hundred of their supporters dead in the streets, and twice that number prisoners. Those who escaped returned at once to their homes. There was another royalist force on the move, however, under the command of the Earl of New- port, who, on the day after the sanguinary conflict at HISTORIC KENT. 17 Maidstone (June 2nd) advanced to Blackheath, in the hope of being able to penetrate into London, and strike a blow that might prove a turning- point in the fortunes of the royal cause. This plan they were prevented from carrying out by the vigilance of General Skippon, who intercepted their communication with the city ; and their leader, deeming that nothing could be done in Kent, where, indeed, his position soon became precarious, crossed the Thames, and led his force to Colchester. Once more, in 1660, an English fleet sailed to the shores of Holland to bring over the sons of Charles I. No one could have foreseen twelve years before that they would so soon be welcomed back to England. They landed at Dover, and proceeded to London, where they were received with every demonstration of joy. Four years later, a Dutch fleet appeared in the Medway, and spread consternation throughout the country. A chain had been drawn across the river, and some additions made to the defences of the banks ; but these preparations were made in vain. Sheerness was soon captured, and the Dutch ships sailed on, breaking the chain, and overcoming the obstacles presented by the ships sunk by order of the Duke i8 BYGONE KENT. of Albemarle. Destroying all the shipping in their passage, six warships and five fire-ships advanced up the river as far as Upnor Castle, where they burned three English ships of war. It was expected that they would sail up the Thames, and destroy all the shipping, and even the city of London, but, owing to the failure of the French fleet to support them, the Dutch ships turned seaward, and after making a hostile demonstration along the coast, returned to their own ports. Kent was not the scene of any other event of importance in the national history until 1688, the year of the flight of James II. from a kingdom which he declined to govern constitutionally, and which would not be governed after the manner of his father. Leaving Whitehall by stealth, he rode on a dark December night from the Thames to the Medway, being conducted through by-ways by a guide, and crossed the latter river by Ayles- ford bridge. Changing his horse at Woolpeck, he rode on to Elmley Ferry, near Faversham, where he arrived at ten o'clock on the following morning. There a hoy, hired by Sir Edward Hales, lay ready to receive him ; but a strong wind was blowing, and the vessel had no ballast HISTORIC KENT. 19 on board. This omission being supplied at Shilness, it was determined to sail as soon as the tide served, it being then half-ebb ; but when the vessel was nearly afloat she was boarded by the crews of three fishing boats, who seized James and his two companions, Hales and another, on the pretext that they were Papists, seeking to escape from the kingdom. Hales gave the master fifty guineas, as an earnest of more should he permit them to escape. He promised ; but, instead of keeping his word, he took the rest of their money, under the pretence of securing it from the seamen, and then left them to their fate. The fugitives were at length taken in a coach to Faversham, where, on their rank transpiring, much commotion ensued. SirJamesOxendoncame with a company of militia to prevent the king's escape. James contrived to send a letter to London, which reached the Earl of Mulgrave, and was by that nobleman read before the House of Lords. The result was that the Earl of Faversham was sent, with two hundred of the Guards, to protect James and attend him wherever he resolved to go. He chose now to return to London, but a message was sent from 20 BYGONE KENT. the Prince of Orange, desiring him to advance no farther in that direction than Rochester. The messenger missed James by the way, and the latter went on to London. He found Dutch soldiers guarding Whitehall, and he was commanded to retire to Rochester. He obeyed, and remained in that city three nights. At midnight on the third day he left the house at which he lodged, secretly, attended only by his illegitimate son, the Duke of Berwick, and one servant, and went in a boat to a smack which was in readiness at Sheerness. Thence they sailed for the coast of France, and early on the morning of Christmas Day anchored before Ambleteuse, from which port the fugitives posted to St. Germain's, whither the queen had preceded them before James fled from Whitehall. Of the connection of Kent with more modern history, of Atterbury's plot, of the long residence of the Duke of Wellington at Walmer, and so forth, it is not necessary to treat here. ikentisb place-Hamee, BY R. STEAD, B.A., F.R.H.S. IT is curious to observe with how little interest the ordinary reader regards the names of the rivers, hills, towns, villages, and what not, around him. To the typical Englishman, even if of fair education, the inner meaning of the place-names he meets with is a matter of supreme indifference. Yet listen to what the learned Canon Isaac Taylor, one of our greatest authorities, has to say on this subject : u Local names, whether they belong to provinces, cities, and villages, or are the designations of rivers and mountains, are never mere arbitrary sounds, devoid of meaning. They may always be regarded as records of the past, inviting and rewarding a careful historical interpretation." And the Canon proceeds to say that these local names "may indicate emigrations immigrations the commingling of races by war and conquest, or by the peaceful processes of commerce ; the name of a district or a town may 22 BYGONE KENT. speak to us of events which written history has failed to commemorate." And there can be no doubt that this is true in the fullest sense, and to an extent hardly to be imagined by those who have not thought much on this matter. The name of even the obscurest hamlet, or lone farm-house, or tiniest brook, may be " full-fraught with instruction " to him who knows how to read aright. The fine old county of Kent presents attrac- tions to many students, and not least of all to the student of local names, and this for many reasons. Here landed Csesar and his Romans, here St. Augustine first preached, and here was the chief settlement of the Jutes. Then again, the geographical modifications which the county has undergone, and its proximity to the Continent always the "shortest and quickest route "- lend additional interest to the study of Kentish place-names ; to say nothing of the fact that amongst these names are some of the queerest to be found outside Wales and the Highlands. Witness such philological nuts to crack as Lympne and Lyminge, Reculver, Hardres, Swaltenden, and a host of others. The present short paper has no pretentious to KENTISH PLACE-NAMES. 23 being the result of original research, and the writer certainly does not propose to set up as an "authority." What is here given may be got at by anyone who will take the trouble to study diligently such works as Canon Taylor's " Words and Places," Edmund's " Names of Places," together with the writings of Kemble, Latham, etc., in connection with a few of the old itineraries, using the while a modern ordnance map, and not forgetting to peep into Domesday Book. This article will have served its purpose if it succeeds in pointing out what rich stores of information may be got out of a study of the names to be found on the map of Kent, and in shewing that the subject is anything but dry and forbidding. The present volume is entitled "Bygone Kent," and certainly a study of our local names will often carry us very far back into " bygone " times. It is indeed hardly too much to say that if all the written history of the country were lost, a diligent study of the place-names would enable us to piece together more than a little of the lost records. Indeed local names often do supply the desired information where no written account at all has come down to us ; whilst it is interesting to note how local names confirm the truth of trustworthy 24 BYGONE KENT. historical records. The earliest inhabitants of Kent, so far as written accounts go, were of Celtic race, and their occupation is abundantly shown to this day by the names they have left behind them. To begin with, the very name of the county is derived from the Celtic ccnn, a head, certainly an appropriate name in every way for a district of its configuration and position. Of its rivers there are few which do not owe their names to the same early race. The word dwr, water, appears in Dour, Rother ( = Red Water), and Darent, or Derwent as it once was. Stour is probably a double word from is and dwr, which both mean water, whilst the lordly Thames itself is almost certainly the Broad Water. In Medway, Canon Taylor sees the Welsh word gwy or wy, water. Then Romney is said to be from ruimne, a marsh, so that the name Romney Marsh means something very like the Marsh Marsh. In South Wales there is another Romney, though usually it is spelt Rhymney. The very common cum, meaning a hollow, is still represented in Kent in its Saxonized form of Combe. We have several farms of the name in the county. And here I may say, particularly, that often the most interesting of all place-names, KENTISH PL A CE-NAMES. 2 5 and the best worth studying, are those of isolated farms and remote hamlets. Not seldom these places have a history dating back far beyond that of the great towns. Kent is full of such outlying farmsteads and hamlets, as a glance at the ordnance map will shew Terlingham, Conicks, Scuttington, Wadling, Rhoads, Edings, Yonsee, and hundreds more. But on the whole the proportion of Celtic names is not large in Kent, and this is just what history would lead us to expect. What with one invasion and another by Romans, Teutons, and Northmen our Celtic predecessors must have had a hard time of it, and no wonder they went further westward, and left their lands to others. Probably hardly five per cent, of our local names are of Celtic origin, and what we have are in nearly all cases the names of natural features. Possibly the Latinised Dubris and Regulbium, our modern Dover and Reculver, were Roman attempts to render earlier Celtic names. And Canon Jenkins is of opinion that Lyminge repre- sents the Celtic Heol Maen (Stone Street), the old form <zt Limming (or at Lemaen) would mean near the Stone Street, a description which certainly suits the place exactly. 26 BYGONE KENT. Notwithstanding an occupation of several hun- dred years, the Romans left behind them few traces in the way of place-names. Rochester, of course, occurs at once to the mind, as well as Stone Street, just mentioned (Latin Strata], and Watling Street. Such places as Minster date only from later times, after the introduction of Christianity into England. To come to the immediate ancestors of the " Men of Kent," the Jutish section of the Saxon invaders, it is probable that not less than ninety per cent, of the local place-names are of Anglo- Saxon origin. If we owe the name of the county to the Celtic race, at all events two-thirds of the name of its venerable city, Canterbury, are Saxon. To the Latinised form of Cenn, Cantium, the Saxons added wara, inhabitants, thus getting Cant- ware, the men of Kent. To this was placed byrig, burgh, thus we get Cantwarabyrig, the "burgh of the men of Kent," or better still the "town of the men of the headland." We still have " Edward W. Cantuar. " But the most striking thing about Kentish names, and a thing which the general reader can hardly fail to notice, is the enormous number of them indicating a densely-wooded country. KENTISH PLACE-NAMES. 27 There they are, hursts, leys, dens, charts, holts, fields, and so forth, in bewildering numbers, and nearly all of these are Anglo-Saxon names, except perhaps den, which would possibly be better classed as Celto-Saxon. Let us begin with the hursts Chislehurst, Penshurst, Hawkhurst, Staplehurst, Shadoxhurst, and others in plenty. This "hurst" is. the Anglo-Saxon hyrst (wood), in a slightly more modern dress. Another wonderfully favourite ending in Kentish place-names is the den just mentioned, meaning a thicket, or wooded valley. Let anyone examine the portion of the map of Kent to the south of the railway line from Tunbridge to Ashford, and he will find a perfect swarm of these dens Tenterden, Halden, Smarden, Frittenden, Marden, and so on ad libitum. Again, scattered up and down the country, we find plenty of names with ley for their termination. This " ley " is akin to the modern lie, and is indicative of a clearing in the forest where the wood has been laid, or the cattle love to lie. In these clearings, of course, our Teuton ancestors often built their houses, and thus formed the nucleus of many a village or town. So we get Bromley, Bickley, Swanley, all within sight 28 BYGONE KENT. almost of London, with plenty of others more remote, like Calverley, Idley, Willesley, Tudeley. But we have by no means exhausted the names telling of forest-land. There is hot, or holt, which means a copse, or gentle slope covered with scrub. These are not as numerous in Kent as they are further west, but we have Knockholt, Calshot, and perhaps others. In Highfield, Matfield, Ensfield, we have places where the trees had been felled. The charts peculiar to two or three of the south-eastern counties deserve men- tion. Says Dr. Isaac Taylor, "the word chart is identical with the word hart (wood or forest) we find in such German names as Hartz Mountains." In Kent we have Chartham, Chart-Sutton, Great Chart, and Little Chart. We have still left an abundance of such isolated but suggestive names as Mapleton, Sevenoaks, Ashenfielcl, Broad Oak. Now to what does all this point ? Undoubtedly to this fact, that a very large portion of the county was once covered with dense forest. This we should know even if there were no written record of the fact. But we learn from historical sources that a very large portion of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, and Hampshire was once covered with an KENTISH PLACE-NAMES. 29 immense forest called Andresleah, or the " Untrodden Forest." This is now called the " Weald," a word akin to wold (Cotswolds, etc.), from the German wald, a wood. "In the Weald almost every local name, for miles and miles, terminates in hurst, ley, den, or field" Canon Taylor gives a most interesting analysis of the forest-names of the district. In the Kentish Weald alone, there are 33 " hursts," 42 "dens," 22 "leys," i "holt," and 19 "fields," or a total of 117 such names, all in an area of a few square miles. It is curious to note, too, says the learned Canon, that the great family of Howard (hog-warden) first turns up in Kent, that is, amongst the woods, just where one would have expected it. The other form of the name, Hayward, is common enough yet in Kent, and so is Woodward (forest- warden), whilst the Hogbens seem very unlikely to die out in the old county. A very common ending in Kentish local names is ing, often followed by some other termination like ham, or ton. This ing was a patronymic, and meant much the same as Mac in Scotland, or Ap in Wales, An old writer speaks of the people of Kent as " Centings." Authorities think that 3 o BYGONE KENT. when the ending ing stands alone we have the original settlement of the clan or family, but where there is a suffix (like ham] it marks a filial colony sent out from the parent settlement. In Kent we have these original family settlements at Selling, where were found the " Sillings, a Vandal tribe, mentioned by Ptolemy," at Harling, where were the Harlings ; and others at Bobbing, Stelling, Mailing ; whilst offshoots from the parent settlements are met with at Hastingleigh, Godington, and twenty or thirty more. Indeed it is said that Kent boasts of twenty-two parent settlements (a larger number than any other county, just as might have been expected in a district so early settled) and twenty-nine filial colonies. A curious variation of the termination ing is found in Lyminge, Ottinge, Sellinge, Arpinge, Hawkinge, and a few more. It is worth while to look for a moment at the very important modifications in the contour of the county, and see how these have affected the place-nomenclature. Some portions of the district adjoining the Thames are damp enough for ordinary people even now, but how waterlogged the whole locality must have been formerly may be clearly seen by looking at the place-names. KENTISH PL A CE-NA MES. 3 1 Marshes in plenty there are, Plumstead, Crayford, Dartford, Cowling, St. Mary's. There we have Marsh Street, and such names as Sheppey, Chitney, Graveney. This termination ey (or ea) indicates an island, or land so water-begirt as to be practically an island. Of the Goodwin Sands, and the encroachments of the sea on the coast thereabout, nothing need be said, as " every school-boy " knows all about it. If anyone wants to see "what the envious siege of watery Neptune " can do, let him start at Folkestone Harbour, and follow the coastline eastwards for a mile or two. But we will rather pass on to an instance or two of an opposite character, that is where the sea has lost ground, as an Irishman might say ; we still speak of the Isle of Thanet, and everybody knows in a vague sort of way that it was once really an island, though how or when or why it ceased to be one in any true sense is known to far fewer people. Yet ships once entered from the North Sea, near Sandwich, and sailed along the broad channel which then separated Thanet from the mainland, coming out into the mouth of the Thames, near Reculver. Sandwich (Sandybay) and Rich- borough were famous ports in early times, whilst 3 2 BYGONE KENT. Ebbfleet was one till a comparatively recent date. If we knew nothing of all this from history we could still gather much of it from a careful study of local names. Starting from Pegwell Bay and going westward, let us note a few of these names. To Sandwich allusion has just been made. Ebbfleet is now quite half a mile from any tide, and Durlock, meaning wafer-lake, is now over half a mile from the sea. [This is not the only Durlock in Kent, the district overlooking Folke- stone Harbour, on the East Cliff, is still called the Durlocks]. Then there come Marshborough, Marsh House, West Marsh, Stodmarsh, Ash Marsh, Elmstone Marsh, which must have been named later on, when the great channel had to a considerable extent disappeared. The most noteworthy name, however, is perhaps Stour- mouth, which village is now a tolerably fair before- breakfast walk, say some five or six miles, from the sea, but at which place it is evident the river Stour once emptied itself into the German Ocean. Chislet, from the word chesel, shingle, was once a shingle island, just as we have Chelsea, anciently Chesel-ea, also a shingle island. Fordwich, or Fordwick, which means " the bay on the arm of the sea," near Canterbury, was formerly the port KENTISH PLACE-NAMES. 33 of Canterbury, and a corporate town. Clearly a branch of the great channel ran eastwards to that place. And then there is Olantigh, half-way between Canterbury and Ashford, whose earlier and perhaps better form, Olantige, shows that in former times it must have been an island. A worthy inhabitant of Wye, with whom the present writer was conversing on the subject, stoutly refused to believe that Olantigh was ever an island, or that the seawater ever came anywhere near the place, but the evidence furnished by the name is too strong for him. Few districts better repay a study respecting its place-names than the far-famed Romney Marsh. History informs us that Lymne (or Lympne, as some prefer it) was once a famous Roman port indeed, next to Richborough, the most important in Kent. It is to be feared that Lymne has small chance of ever being a port again. It is now a mile and a half or two miles from the shore. But this is not all. Appledore, now some half a dozen miles from any part of the present coast, was formerly a maritime town, and the name, from Celtic sources, is said to mean "waterpool." It is clear, therefore, that an arm of the sea must have extended from Lymne to 34 B YGONE KENT. Appledore, and there are good reasons for thinking that this channel was practically the same as that of the now dried-up river Limene. When the channel silted up, both Appledore and Lymne decayed, and the newer port of West Hythe sprang up, which in its turn gave place to the modern Hythe, it is to be noted that Hythe is not Celtic, like Lymne and Appledore, but Saxon. Hythe tries hard to keep itself to the shore, but it will have to succumb. As a port it is now a thing of the past, being many hundreds of yards from the sea, whilst West Hythe is more than a mile as the crow flies. So much for the fringe of Romney Marsh. If we come to the district itself, a glance at the names between the modern Military Canal and Dungeness will show how comparatively recently much of the district has become habitable. We cannot do better than fall back upon Canon Taylor again. " Throughout the greater portion of the Marsh the local names are purely English (or modern) such as Ivychurch, Fairfield, Brookland, and Newchurch. In a few of the more elevated spots the names are Saxon or Celtic, as Winchelsea, or Romney, whilst it is only when we come to the inland KENTISH PL A CE-NAMES. 3 5 margin of the marsh that we meet with a fringe of ancient names like Lymne or Appledore, which show the existence of continuous habitable land in the times of the Romans or the Celts." The change in the character of Romney Marsh is shewn, too, by the fact that the river Rother, which now runs into Rye Harbour, to the west of Dungeness, formerly emptied itself into the sea some distance to the east, or rather to the north of that headland. The Danish or Norse element which forms so conspicuous a feature in the local names of some of the eastern counties, such as Lincolnshire, is not so plentiful in the place-names of Kent. Indeed this county has about as small a proportion as any of the names derived from the Northmen. Still we have a few. An interesting instance is the termination gate, which so often occurs : Ramsgate, Margate, Kingsgate, Northgate, Sandgate. In Romney Marsh this word becomes gut, as Romney Marsh Gut, Jew's Gut, Marsland Gut, Globesden Gut, and so on. In every case these gates or guts are passages down to the sea, and the word originally meant the way one goes. A man's gait is still the way he goes. The Indian word Ghaut is derived from the same 36 BYGONE KENT. root. Deptford is the "deep reach," whilst the wicks were probably stations of pirates Wick, Sandwich, Greenwich (the " green reach,") Woolwich (the "hill reach,") and so on. Walton is probably the "walled enclosure," and in the parish of Chartham we have Danesbanks. Characteristic Norse names in ness (nose) abound, like Sheerness, Dungeness, Shellness, Foreness, Whiteness, Ness Corner. Dungeness, or Dengeness, is perhaps Dengeyness, or Danes' Island Head. That the Northmen made pretty frequent settlements along the Kentish coast is certain ; and who knows how much of the proverbial seafaring skill and hardihood of the Kentish boatmen and fishermen is due to the admixture of old " Sea Rover " blood in their veins ? Considering its proximity to the Continent, it is remarkable that there is so little of French or Norman-French in the Kentish place-nomen- clature. Here and there we find a Capel-le-Ferne or a Wickhambreaux, but the number of such instances is small. On the other hand, it is most interesting to note that Anglo-Saxon names abound on the French coast near Boulogne. Com- pare the Sangatte, Lozinghem, Wimille, Ham, KENTISH PLACE-NAMES. 37 and so forth, of the opposite coast with our Kentish Sandgate, Lossingham, Windmill, Ham. And such English-looking names as Warhem (Warham), Hollebeque (Holbeck), Maninghem (Manningham), Colincthun (Collington), Wer- wick (Warwick), are as plentiful as blackberries in the Calais- Boulogne-St Omer District. Were our corresponding English settlements made from France, or did we colonise that corner of our continental neighbour's country ? It would occupy too much space to give in full the pros and cons ; suffice it to say there is good reason to think that the French corner was colonised from England, and that as a matter of fact the colonists set sail from somewhere near the Kentish Hythe. In short, we owe but little in the way of place- names to France ; it is all the other way ; to our colonisation France owes a multitude of its village settlements, in its north-eastern corner at least. One is sorely tempted before closing this short and inadequate paper to attempt to crack some of the hard philological nuts presented by some of our local names, but we must forbear. The way of the philologer is hard, yet there are few things we more easily drift into than deriva- 38 BYGONE KENT. tion. As a witty member of the English Dialect Society has said, "every man thinks he can drive and derive" But a large series of disasters in both driving and deriving has taught the present writer to be wary in attempting either, lest haply in the latter art he should tumble into some of the delightful pitfalls into which of yore fell dear old Lambarde, the Kentish Perambu- lator. St. Hu0U6tine anfc bt6 BY THE REV. GEO. S. TYACK, B.A. THE latter half of the sixth century found England almost wholly heathen still. It is true that long before that date Christianity had made its way into the island, whether through the preaching of S. Paul, the labours of S. Joseph of Arimathea and his companions, in answer to the prayers of King Lucius, or by what other now forgotten means, we cannot say. Certain, however, it is that there were British martyrs, as S. Alban, in the Diocletian persecution (A.D. 303), and British bishops present at the Councils of Aries (A.D. 314), Sardica (A.D. 347) and Ariminum (A.D. 360). The next century saw a change. From the stormy shores of the Baltic the English sea-kings came down upon the land, now left defenceless by the Roman power ; like the successive waves of an incoming flood they swept across it, driving before them or destroying almost every vestige of what was character- istically British, and covering the land with their 40 BYGONE KENT. own masterful being, rugged, daring, and withal heathen ; until at length all that was left of the British Church was to be found only amid the wild hills of Wales and Cornwall, like drift-wood at the water's edge, marking the utmost limit of the advancing tide. For some unexplained reason no effort was made^ by this remnant to convert their English conquerors to the Faith. Whether their resent- ment at their sufferings overcame their Christian charity, or the continuance of a desultory conflict gave no opportunity of intercourse, or whether the civil strifes into which we are told they fell amongst themselves, was the hindrance, we can only conjecture ; the Venerable Bede, however, reckons it " amongst other most wicked actions " of which in this time of distress they were guilty, " that they never preached the faith to the Saxons or English who dwelt amongst them." The work thus neglected was to be taken up nevertheless by others. We need not tell again the oft-told tale of S. Gregory's noticing the group of fair-haired slaves in the Roman market, and of the holy humour with which he punned upon the names of their country and their king, but we pass rather to the fulfilment of the sacred ST. AUGUSTINE AND HIS MISSION. 41 ambition which was that day born within the saint's breast. It was not until some years later that Gregory was able to take steps for the conversion of the English, and by that time the calls of other duties he was then Bishop of Rome prevented his personally undertaking the mission. As abbot of the Monastery of S. Andrew on the Ccelian Hill, he had had ample opportunity of judging the worth and work of Augustine, the prior, and him he chose to whom to confide the responsibility of this task. The band of missionaries, consisting of about forty monks, traversed Provence, stayed for a while in the Isle of Lerins, and at length, after some doubts and delays, caused by the account given them of the roughness of the English nation, landed in the Isle of Thanet on the 7th August, 596. Thanet was then far more entitled to the name of isle than it is to-day. Bede gives the following description of it: "On the east of Kent is the large isle of Thanet, containing, according to the English way of reckoning, six hundred families, divided from the other land by the River Wantsum, which is about three furlongs over, 42 BYGONE KENT. and fordable only in two places, for both ends of it run into the sea;" and even as late as the sixteenth century, John Twyne says of the stream which insulates it, " There be right creditable persons now living that have often seen not only small boats, but vessels of good burden to pass to and fro upon the Wantsum, where now the water, especially towards the west, is clear excluded ; and there be apparent marks that Sarr, where they now go over, was a proper haven." Within this island, therefore, S. Augustine and his company waited until the king should give them an audience, or signify his pleasure concerning them. The condition of things in the kingdom of Kent was not unfavourable for the foundation of the faith, nor for its extension from that centre. Ethelbert, the king, had taken to wife Bertha, daughter of Charibert, King of Paris, who had stipulated at the marriage that she should be permitted the full enjoyment of the Christian religion, in which she had been brought up ; Luidhard, Bishop of Senlis, was therefore present at the Kentish Court as her chaplain, and both from him and from the queen, Ethelbert must often have heard something of the mysteries of ST. AUGUSTINE AND HIS MISSION. 43 their faith. Moreover, the King's influence extended beyond the limits of his own dominions, ST. AUGUSTINE FROM THE DOOR OF THE CHAl'TER-HOUSE, ROCHESTER. since he held the position of Bretwalda, the third who had been advanced to that dignity and thus exercised some degree of over 44 BYGONE KENT. lordship over all the country south of the H umber. S. Gregory the Great, writing to Bertha, intimates that it was understood that " an anxious desire " had arisen among her people for admission to the Church, and suggests that she " ought early to have inclined her husband favourably " towards her own faith ; it is therefore most probable that when at last the missionaries came into the royal presence, Ethelbert was prepared to give them something more than an impartial hearing ; nor did they, on their part, as they advanced to meet him, chanting a pathetic litany, and preceded by a silver cross and a crucifix painted on a panel, fail to make use of the opportunity afforded them of at once impressing his mind with the beauty and solemnity of the message they had come to bring. The result of the important conference that followed was as favourable as, from a first interview, could have been looked for ; the monks were permitted to cross to the mainland and take up their residence in the royal city of Canterbury ; provision was there made for their sustenance, and leave was granted them to preach and to make converts. Two buildings, still existing, recall the early .ST. AUGUSTINE AND HIS MISSION. 45 days of S. Augustine's life in Canterbury. The first is the Stable Gate, which is said to have been the first home of his little company in the city. The second is S. Martin's Church. " There was on the east side of the city," says that father of English history already quoted, "a church dedicated to the honour of S. Martin, built whilst the Romans were still in the island, wherein the Queen used to pray ; in this they first began to meet, to sing, to pray, to say mass, to preach, and to baptize, until the King, being converted to the Faith, allowed them to preach openly, and to build or repair churches in all places." Towards the little church of S. Martin, whose bells still call to prayer, and thanksgiving, and the Holy Sacrifice, within whose walls so many generations of the faithful have met to worship, the thoughts of all Englishmen, but especially of the men of Kent, must turn as they recall the landmarks still left to us of the Bygone Days. Much, if not all, of the present building dates only from the thirteenth century, but the later builders were evidently largely indebted to their predecessors for their materials, the walls being full of Roman bricks which formed part of the church, where was heard the voice of S. 46 B YGONE KENT. Augustine singing the holy offices or preaching to the heathen ; within which, two centuries earlier, ere Rome's Empire crumbled to decay, priests and people now nameless to us met to " sing hymns to Christ as God." The conversion and baptism of King Ethelbert not only allowed S. Augustine to seek other and larger centres for his work, but even compelled him to do so, for the multitude was not slow in following the royal example ; but a good foundation having thus been laid, the head of the mission returned to France before proceeding to build further upon it, and obtained episcopal consecration at the hands of Virgilius, Archbishop of Aries. The second church provided for the growing community of Christians was also an ancient British church, desecrated and in ruins ; this the new-made bishop repaired and enlarged, and constituted it the cathedral, or episcopal seat, for his diocese, under the name of Christ Church. The magnificent pile, which now forms the metropolitan Church of England, was commenced by Lanfranc (1070-1092), the thirty-third archbishop, and has grown under the hands of successive occupants of the see to its present ST. AUGUSTINE AND HIS MISSION. 47 dignity ; yet it is thought by some to enshrine part of that humbler building- which contained the rude throne of the first of the long line 1 * of archbishops of Canterbury. The walls of the crypt proclaim its great age, and it is this part of the cathedral which is said to have come down to us, through all the storms that have more than once wholly or in part wrecked the greater church above it, as a memorial of the times of King Ethelbert and S. Augustine. So rapidly spread the effects of the missionaries' work among the people that at Christmas, 697, less than eighteen months after their landing, more than 10,000 persons were baptized at the mouth of the Medway, opposite Sheppey. The news of the conversion of the king, and of the progress of the work, brought from Rome a crowd of additional helpers, and the outward signs of the victory of the Cross became more and more evident in the city. A third ancient church, which had been degraded into a heathen temple, was cleansed and re-dedicated to its original use under the name of S. Pancras, and near it rose a monastery for the accommodation of the missionary-monks. One religious house they already possessed, for * The present archbishop (Dr. Benson) is the 92nd. 48 BYGONE KENT. Ethelbert had given up to their use his palace, which lay hard by the new cathedral. The second monastery, destined to be one of the greatest and most famous of abbeys, was seven years in building, but the founder was 'not to see its consecration, which took place under Laurentius, his companion and successor. It was at first dedicated to the Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul, but Dunstan, the twenty-third archbishop, added the name of S. Augustine, and this title has supplanted the rest. Many have been the changes in its fortunes ; it has been abbey, royal hall, and bishop's palace, and now, not inappro- priately it forms a college of missionary students. It will be seen from the above notes that the footprints of S. Augustine are to be found all over his ancient city of Canterbury, but his work spread beyond that city, or indeed the kingdom of Kent. By the aid of Ethelbert a second see was founded within his domains, and Julius, one of S. Augustine's first helpers, was made the first bishop of Rochester. The cathedral, built chiefly by Bishop Gundulf (1077-1108) was dedicated to S. Andrew, in memory of that monastery at Rome, whence the first company of missionaries came to Kent ; and the majestic figure of S. 57! AUGUSTINE AND HIS MISSION. 49 Augustine, bearing the cross staff of an Archbishop, still stands without the Chapter door. Westward and northward the light spread from Kent into the surrounding kingdoms, so that even far Northumbria for a brief space caught its gleams. With all the questions of ritual and theology that arose between the Italian priests and the British Church, and with the details of their labours beyond the borders of Kent, we must not trouble the reader of the present volume. One word only will we add as to his claim to the title "Apostle of the English." It must be remembered that not all of England, much less of Great Britain, was touched by his work ; the English never penetrated to Cornwall, Wales, or Scotland, and these people owe little or nothing directly to the mission of S. Augustine ; moreover his work, or that of his assistants, north of the H umber, was superficial and shortlived, so that in a few years time it had to be re-commenced from the foundation. From lona came a band of devoted men, whose simple lives and burning words brought the knowledge of the Faith to .northern England, and who may fairly claim an equal share with S. Augustine in the Apostleship of the English. 50 BYGONE KENT. The great S. Gregory was called to his rest early in 605, and but two months later his friend and follower, S. Augustine, laid down the weapons of life's warfare. His body was laid within his monastery at Canterbury, whence S. Dunstan removed it to the Cathedral. ZTbc IRuinefc Cbapds anfc Chantries of Itcnt BY GEO. M. ARNOLD, J.P., D.L., F.S.A. S. KATHARINE, SHORNE. IN the year 1890 I observed a small freehold property was advertised for sale by auction, and in the particulars of sale it was thus described : "The property comprises a comfortable old- fashioned residence in good repair, whilst adjoining and in the rear is an HllClCllt (Ibnpcl, supposed to have been formerly occupied by Monks, and visited by the Pilgrims on their way to the Shrine of Thomas a Beckett." Attracted by this description, I instructed my agent to purchase it, and having removed the stalls and mangers from the interior, and cleared it of manure and rubbish, I proceeded to explore its history, but found none, and that all records were silent upon it, with the exception that Mr. John Thorpe inserted the following account of its appearance as an oast-house in 1774, 52 BYGONE KENT. accompanied by a plate. His work, known as the Customale Roffense, was published 1788. " On the right hand of the road leading up to Shorne Street, and opposite Mr. Maplesden's house, stands an antient and fair chapel or oratory ; which, with some additional building, is now used as a malt-house, and a small tenement erected against the east end of it, inhabited by the maltman. I was informed by an antient and creditable person there that in digging the foundation of the new building or lean-to, a stone coffin and many human bones were disturbed. On the north side is a small orchard, which probably was the cemetery to it. This edifice has not been mentioned by any writer, nor have I been able hitherto to meet with anything relative to its foundation and endowment." After considerable research I discovered that the little building had been suppressed as a chantry under the statute of the i Edward VI., and had thereupon probably become abandoned and derelict, that it had been included in a Commission of Queen Elizabeth for the discovery of "concealed lands," and having been returned by the Commissioners as falling within their powers, was found to be known as the little chapel RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 53 of S. Katharine, of small value, and was accordingly comprised in one of their omnibus deeds (as we should now call them) of sale, in which the lands of many pious persons (confiscated under the statute) were gathered together and appropriated to Secular purposes in return for money, fee farm rents, or other financial considerations. As these official documents have been given by the Kent Archaeological Society to the public this year, in a paper written by me, I do not purpose here to dwell further upon them. The building now will be made safe from any further inroads of adverse weather, and from more direct mischief at the hands of Man. In the progress of the above researches it occurred to me that the existing references to the various decayed and ruined Kentish Chantries, were few and not easily brought together, and that it would interest many if this collection was now made, accompanied by any original remarks or reference to authentic records relevant to the subject, and thus I came to place the following notes at the service of the editor of " Bygone Kent," not without an earnest hope that they would lead to enquiry into these small but interesting ruins, and 54 BYGONE KENT. where it was not too late, to take measures for their preservation, but anyhow in the expectation that they would at least keep the memory of them to the fore, and not improbably lead to the discovery of what remains still unknown or obscure in reference to their past history. We are indebted to the painstaking industry of the late Mr. John Thorpe for the means of now reproducing views (as they existed in his time) of several of these our smaller Ecclesiastical Build- ings in Kent. / ROCHESTER BRIDGE CHAPEL OF ALL SOULS, established in what was the then narrow lane (upon which it conferred the designation of Chapel Lane) leading to the east end of the then " new bridge " of Rochester. This chapel is mentioned by Thorpe in his Customale Roffense, page 150, and was founded and endowed by John de Cobham and Sir Robert Knowles. It was customary at those periods to erect chapels or chantries at or near either end of important fords or hazardous ferries, and this chapel, which was called Allesolven or Allsouls, seemed to have been designed chiefly for the use of travellers and wayfarers. By the foundation RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 55 charter the three chaplains who were to officiate within its walls were to be appointed by the Wardens of the bridge, and were to pray for the soul of John de Cobham, and for the souls of the benefactors of the bridge, and for certain other specified individuals, and generally for all faithful people. Under the statute of King Edward VI., BRIDGE CHAPEL, ROCHESTER (SOUTH-EAST VIEW). referred to in relation to St. Katharine, Shorne, it was enacted that " all sums of money and emoluments which by virtue of any assurance had been given or applied, to have continuance for ever ; which in any one year within five years next before the beginning of this present parliament, have been paid, or bestowed, by any Corporation, Guilds, Fraternities, Companies, 5 6 BYGONE KENT. Fellowships of Mysteries, or Crafts, etc., toward or about the finding maintenance or sustentation of any priest, or priests, of any anniversary, or obit, lamp, light, or lights, or other like thing ; shall go to our said Lord the King, his heirs and successors for ever ; to be yearly as a rent charge at the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel and the Annunciation of our Lady," etc., but it appears that from some cause or other, possibly in view of some such legislation being imminent, the chapel had already ceased to be used or to depend upon these stipends. This is shewn by a plea in the Exchequer of the XIX Queen Elizabeth, where the Queen's Attorney-General sued the Wardens of the bridge for no less a sum than ^513, being the accumulations of ^18 per annum (the stipends of 6 each which used to be paid to the three chaplains) for twenty-eight and a half years then last past. The Attorney- General contended that the total claim was forfeited, and due to the Queen by virtue of the above act of Edward VI. for dissolving chantries. It did not appear, however, to the jury that any service had been performed there, or at all events that any stipend had been actually paid to any chaplain or chantry priest by the bridge authorities RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 57 for officiating there, for five years next before the passing of the said act (which was an essential requisite according to the limitation therein specified), and so a verdict was given in favour of the Wardens. The case shews the tenacity with which the pursuit of the confiscated property was often-times conducted. The circumstance that this Exchequer suit by Queen Elizabeth, against the bridge Wardens was lost in consequence of the defendants being able to shew that the priests' stipends had not been maintained during the period of five years before the session of 1547, induced me to investigate the suppression of the adjacent parish church of S. Clement, within which parish the bridge chapel was situate a suppression effected by the Statute 2 and 3 of the same King, cap. 17. The enactment, which has not, I think, been printed, but which I have consulted in the parliamentary rolls at Westminster, after reciting that S. Clement's was so small that the parish had had no incumbent for some years, in consequence of which the King had lost his first- fruits, or tenths, and the inhabitants had no church ministrations ; proceeds to enact that the parish of S. Clement be united to the parish of S. 5 8 BYGONE KENT. Nicholas, and that William Harrison, the then present incumbent of S, Nicholas, should be the incumbent of both parishes, and all payments were to be due to him, while he was to pay the King his first-fruits and tenths. The furniture, etc., was to be appropriated to S. Nicholas, as the Bishop of Rochester and the Mayor of Rochester should arrange. These circumstances seem indirectly to corroborate the accuracy of the line of defence set up by the wardens. That the chapel was not extra parochial is clear from the language of John de Cobham, the founder, addressed to the Bishop. " Therefore I, the said John, desiring by the divine mercy heavenly treasure, and knowing that naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return unto the dust of the earth ; and that we shall reap alone that which we have sown ; have established a certain perpetual chantry in the chapel next the bridge of the city of Rochester, within the parish of the parish church of S. Clement's in the same city situate." The view annexed is that supplied by Thorpe, but the chapel has since been cleared by the recent but praiseworthy action of the Bridge Corporation, RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 59 and this at the instance, I believe, of my brother, Mr. Arnold, the Bridge Clerk, to whom the Kent Archaeological Society is indebted in its XVII. vol. for several very interesting papers bearing upon the bridge and its estates. S. LAWRENCE DE LONGSOLE. This chapel at Allington, higher up the river Medway, is situate towards the south-west limits of the parish, and was formerly called the Free Chapel, or Chantry, or Hermitage of S. Lawrence de Langsole, otherwise Longsole, and so designated probably from being near to if not erected upon Longsole Heath. The owners of the Castle and Manor of Allington seem to have been the general, if not the constant, patrons of this chapel, and the farm attached to the chapel was known as the " Hermitage " Farm in the time of Thorpe. It may be interesting to mention that John, Bishop of Rochester, issued from Southfleet, under date 22nd September, 1422, a commission to enquire whether this chapel was really in Aylesford or in Allington, since the right to the offerings made at it, on the Vigil and Feast of S. Lawrence (its patron Saint) was in dispute 60 BYGONE KENT, between the Vicar of Aylesford and the Rector of Allington. ESLINGHAM CHAPEL, FRINDSBURY. In reference to the Chapel of Eslingham, Hugh de St. Clare, Lord of the Manor, obtained from Bishop Gundulph a grant of a Free Chapel within that Manor. This first structure perished, and the chapel was rebuilt in the time of John (the second Bishop of Rochester of that name, who was consecrated Bishop of Rochester A.D. 1137), and between that year and A.D. 1 144 he dedicated it in honour of " S. Peter, the chief of the apostles," and confirmed all the privileges which Bishop Gundulph had granted to Hugh de St. Clare in respect of it. The chapel is stated by Thorpe to have been " a massive stone building with Gothic windows and iron bars." It seems to have been about thirty feet in length by about twenty feet in width, and stood east and west on the side of the yard south of the dwelling-house, and was used as an oast house, but becoming ruinous " was pulled down in the year 1772, and a new oast erected near the spot." There are now no traces of it above the surface. RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 61 THE CHAPEL OF S. MARGARET, HELLE, DARENTH. The Chapel of S. Margaret, Helle, is situate in Darenth, and according to the account of it which the Reverend Samuel Denne (the Vicar) supplied to Mr. Thorpe, it appeared to him quite uncertain when it was built, but no question exists of its antiquity. S. Margaret's Chapel is mentioned in CHAPEL OK S. MARGARET, HEI.I.E, DARENTH. the Textus Roffenses as subject to the payment for Chrism of the yearly sum of sixpence to Rochester Cathedral. A composition was confirmed by Archbishop Wareham, in 1522, relative to the duty to be performed at the chapel, respecting which a difference had then arisen between the vicar of 62 BYGONE KENT. the parish and the parishioners ; upon which occasion it was ordered by the Archbishop (inter alia) that owing to the distance, the privileges of baptism and burial were to be obtained at the chapel, but marriage was restricted to the parish church. It is singular that both the parish church and this chapel were dedicated to S. Margaret. In reference to the mention of Chrism, it should be added that it appears to have been customary for parish Churches in the Diocese of Rochester to pay a Chrism Due of ix</., as distinguished from the Chapels which paid only v\d. yearly. By an Episcopal ordination of the Vicarage, of the 4th December 1292, the vicar was to find "duos capellanos celebrantes, unum videlicit in ecclesia de Darenth, et alterum in Capella de Helles." Nothing of the Chapel remained even in Thorpe's time, but the Tower ; the walls of the main structure having been then many years since removed, and the materials converted to other uses, which, he adds, " has been generally the fate of these disused edifices." Of this Tower I have reproduced the north-east view which he has left us. RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 63 THE CHANTRY OF S. MARY AT MILTON, NEXT GRAVESEND. This chantry was founded by Aymer de Valence, Earl Pembroke, owner of the Manor of Milton, who lies buried in a place of remarkable honour on the north side of the Choir of Westminster Abbey a distinction which he probably owed to the circumstance that his father was half-brother to King Henry III. Bishop Hamo de Hethe, by an instrument dated April i5th, 1322, at his palace at Hailing, ordained at the instance of the Earl Aymer (who was patron of the Chantry) and of the secular priests residing at it, among other things "that they should be for the future ' Regulars ' who should receive and keep a certain rule, and who, in celebrating divine offices for the souls of the family of Montchensie, and of the Earl himself, his wife, etc., should especially commemorate him and the founder. And that of the priests who should be the first placed in this Chantry should be appointed by him, the said Bishop, one of whom adjudged most fit by him for this purpose should be appointed Provost or Master, whom the rest should obey as their superior, and on his death or removal the brethren, within three 64 B YGONE KENT. months after the vacancy, were to choose for a successor another priest who had professed the rule of the Chantry for one year, and after being presented to the patron, or if he was at an incon- venient distance, to the steward or bailiff of his estate, he was to be admitted as Provost by the Bishop of Rochester." And the Bishop also granted that they should " have an altar in the Chapel of the Chantry, and a competent burial place for themselves, but for no others whatsoever, and that no one but themselves should administer the sacraments of the Church therein (and that with bells, in a becoming manner) and without prejudice to the Mother Church, and he willed they should possess the same for ever, freely, peaceably, and quietly, saving all episcopal right to him and to the Church of Rochester." In the list of the benefices of the Bishop of the Diocese {Reg. Roff. 14) the Rectory and this chantry are enumerated together as " Ecclesia de Meltone cum Cantaria ibidem." There was no chantry within the Church, but this chantry of S. Mary was within a few hundred yards distance of it, to the north-west. No exterior indications of the chantry are now RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 65 visible, but the walls are enclosed in the Barracks of New Tavern Fort. The foundation was suppressed and alienated in the latter part of the reign of King Henry VIII. THE FREE CHAPEL OF S. LAWRENCE, HALLING. This " Libera Capella Sancti Laurentij in Hallyng," is another of the suppressed chantries under the operation of the Edwardian statute. It appears to have been an edifice of fair antiquity, being built with rough stones, and was, Thorpe says, from his earliest memory in a ruined condition, without roof or timbers, but had then for some years past been converted into a workshop and dwellinghouse, and inhabited by a wheelwright, the chancel portion being the house. It was at that time plastered over and whitewashed. The chapel is mentioned in the Reg. Roff. as being in the collation of the bishop. At a distance of a mile is the parish church, and near to it the remains of the ancient Episcopal Palace ; close to, and connected with which, was another chapel for the Bishop's use. DODE CHAPEL, in the parish of Luddesdown, was originally, I believe, the parish church of a separate parish of 66 BYGONE KENT. its own name, and as seems from the Textus Roffensis, it was accordingly subject to the yearly Chrism of ninepence to the Bishop of Rochester. The origin of its nonuser is now lost in the obscurity and maze of years, but it was ultimately annexed to the Rectory of Paddlesworth, by instrument dated the ist March, 1366. The view of the ruins given in Thorpe is not correct, since there is no reality of any erection by squared stones or ashlar work, as there portrayed, but the structure is of flint chalk and rag rubble work, with an exterior coat of plaster much indurated and hardened by years of exposure. The nave is about thirty-six feet in length and the chancel eighteen feet, and now so surrounded by a dense underwood and brushwood as to be scarcely accessible. MAPLESCOMB. This little building, like the one last mentioned, was formerly the church of a rectory, down to a comparatively late period, since it was only united to the adjoining parish of Kingsdown in A.D. 1638, or thereabouts. Dr. Harris writes (as quoted i-n Thorpe's Customale] "Will de Valorgnes tenet de D. R. RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 67 in capite medietat in maneris de Maplescampe," by the service of "finding a halfpenny for an offering whenever he should hear mass at Maplescamp." The length of the building was fifty-one feet by a width of twenty-one feet, and the engraving supplied shows how the ruins appeared in A.D. 1768. RUINS OF MAPLESCOMB CHURCH, 1768. ROKESLEY, NOW RUXLEY. This ruined building is said to stand near and just above the XIII. milestone on the road from London to Farningham. It appears that Cardinal Pole united it upon the occasion of his visitation, in 1557, to the parish of North Cray. The little church building, which in Thorpe's time, was entire, then stood in the corner of a 68 BYGONE KENT. garden, and had been converted into a barn. The southern (priest's) entrance had been enlarged, and fitted with a pair of barn doors, allowing a width of space for a waggon to draw through. It was then called " Church Barn," in order to distinguish it from other barns upon the same farm. In the chancel portion he mentions that there then remained "two confessionary stalls, with mitred arches and seats in them, and nearer to the east end on the same side the receptacle for the holy water," by which it is clear that he meant the usual Sedilia and Piscina. LULLINGSTONE. These ruins are alleged to have anciently formed the church of a distinct parish, though, according to the Textus Roffensis, doubt is cast on the claim, since it is shown to have paid to the mother church of the Diocese only the chapelry Chrism of sixpence yearly. The fabric had a length of thirty-seven feet by sixteen feet and a half, and was measured as well as was possible, owing to the briars and nettles, by Mr. Thorpe himself. He considered the circular RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 69 windows indicated the presence of Roman work, which, to say the least, is open to more than doubt. The little parish and vicarage of Lullingstone was for ecclesiastical purposes merged in the adjoining parish and rectory of Lullingstone as late as A.D. 1712. S. LEONARD, AT WEST MALLING. The remains of this building are extremely well known, and like S. Mary Helle, consist of a Tower only, of massive erection. The chapel appears, from the records collected in the Textus Roffensis, to have been one belonging to Mailing, and was seventy feet in length by thirty-three feet in breadth. Thorpe's view of the tower, taken in 1772, gives an inadequate impression of the massiveness of the work, the walls being seven feet in thickness and some seventy feet even in the then reduced state of its height. Thorpe remarks that " the destruction of the body of the chapel was without doubt for the materials, and that the upper part of the tower has shared the same fate, as would the whole most likely but for the labour and expense owing to the hardness and strong concretion of the cement." 70 BYGONE KENT. CHAPEL OF S. JOHN, AT NEWHITHE, EAST MALLING. The following account is taken almost totidem verbis from the Customale Roffense. Newhithe, commonly called Newhede, from its situation on the banks of the Medway (the termination of the Saxon word hithe signifying a small port or haven for embarking, and landing, loading, and unloading goods) is a hamlet in the above parish. In the street stands an ancient chapel, which was dedicated to S. John, but was in Thorpe's time already converted into a dwelling-house. The structure seems to have been a free chapel for the benefit of this hamlet, situate at a good distance from the parish church : but the founder and endowments are unknown. On the general suppression, the lands annexed to them were granted to different persons and uses. In the augmentation of the Vicarage of East Mailing, in the time of Archbishop Islip, dated at Charing in the year 1363, mention is made that John Lorkyn, then vicar, and his successors, should receive all oblations or offerings of what kind soever given to the said chapel, " percipiet insuper vicarius predictus et sui successores RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 71 vicarii in dicta ecclesia ministrantes cunctis temporibus in futurum omnes et omnimodas oblaciones tarn in dicta ecclesia parochiali quam in capella Sancti Johannis apud Newhithe in parochia dicte ecclesie constitute," etc. This building, together with a small piece of ground on the south side, which seemed to have been the cemetery, became in course of years the property CHAPEL OF S. JOHN, NEWHITHE, EAST MALLING. of Sir Roger Twisden, Bart. The chapel then stood in a small square at the back of the houses, on the south side of the street, from whence were two passages that led to it. The east window had been taken out, and the space worked up with stones, etc. The west window also appeared a ruin, as in the drawing taken from Mr. Thorpe's book, and the old door-case, which 72 BYGONE KENT. from the stonework was a Gothic one, had been taken away and a modern one put in its place. The window on the north side was likewise a Gothic one, belonging to the chapel, but being too large for the dwelling-house, had been contracted, and the upper mitred panels plastered over. The length of the chapel is stated to be thirty- one feet and the breadth twenty feet. The draw- ing was taken A.D. 1777, and shews the north-west view of the chapel. MERSTON. Of this little church there are no remains above the ground level, and the living has become a sinecure rectory. The church, when existent, was dedicated to St. Giles, and it stood at the north-east corner of a wood known as Chapel Wood, about half a mile to the east of Green Farm, now occupied by Mr. Jull, which wood has since been grubbed, and the dismembered remains of the walls are even now continually dispersed by the ploughshare. Merston, which adjoins Shorne, was (judging from its name) probably a place of more importance than is now apparent. Taking Mere as equivalent to Sea, it would read Water or Seatown, in relation to the sea water RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 73 which here finds entrance from the Thames Mouth. The parish for all practical purposes is absorbed in Shorne. PADDLESWORTH. These ruins again, as in several earlier cases, are those not so much of a chapel as of a parish church, if we depend upon the Textus Roffensis. The walls in Thorpe's time were entire excepting a breach on the north side, made wide enough for farm carts to enter for shelter from the weather, and for the reception of ploughs, harrows, and other implements of husbandry, which was then, he adds, " the only use that was made of it." GREENHITHE, SWANSCOMB, ST. MARY'S CHAPEL. This chantry, in the parish of Swanscomb, was erected in the reign of Edward III., and dedicated to Almighty God under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, " in which the Divine Offices should be daily offered for the health of the King's soul and of John Lucas of Swannes- compe " while they lived, and afterwards for their souls, " cum ab hac luce substracti fuerimus," and for their ancestors, and for the souls of all the 74 BYGONE KENT. faithful departed. The site was 100 feet square, and the endowment was 20 acres of pasture in Swanscomb parish, of which, as above mentioned, the village of Greenhithe formed part. PEMBURY, THE CHAPEL OF ST. MARY IN THE CEMETERY. In this parish we have, for Kent, the very unusual circumstance of the distinct and separate building of the chantry within the limits of the churchyard of the parish. It was known as "the Chantry of St. Mary in the Cemetery," and was founded by John Culpepper, in the reign of Edward III. The structure was in length thirty feet, and in width eighteen feet, and its roof was covered with lead. It remained intact until the general suppression of such chantries in the i Edward VI., when it was speedily 'pulled down, and its materials converted into cash, while the lands forming its endowment were sold to different persons. Richard Hill was the last incumbent of the chantry (A.D. 1553), and it appears that as such he received a compensatory life pension of 6 135. 4d. upon being sent adrift. No remains now exist, and no view of the chantry appears to be extant. RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 75 RECULVER, ST. JAMES'S CHANTRY. Leland is quoted as writing " that there was a neglect chapel owt of the churchyard," etc. This chapel, it seems, stood at a small distance west of the renowned Parish Church, and was dedicated to St. James, and a Hermit was appointed to officiate in it. King Richard II., in the third year of his reign, granted to Thomas Hamond, the then Hermit of this chapel, the right of collecting alms for its rebuilding, It was then stated that the old chapel had been instituted for the burial of persons whose bodies were found upon the sea shore, a fate which unhappily overtook this ancient, though rebuilt, structure, which perished by the like encroachments of the insatiable sea. STROOD, ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S. The well-known Lazar House at the east end of Rochester, known as St. Bartholomew's, Chatham, was not an isolated establishment of that character in the locality, for in the opposite (the west) extremity of the City of Rochester stood a similar institution. This second St. Bartholomew's was at the top of Strood Hill, at a spot called "The White Ditch," on the south side of the present highway there, 7 6 B YGONE KENT. and doubtless the appellation of White arose from the natural appearance of the chalk sub-soil upon excavation. The hill long -retained, and perhaps still retains to this day, the name of " Spittal Hill." We find in the will of Thomas de Woldham, Bishop of Rochester, amidst other bequests was the following, u Item, lego leprosis de Alba fossa vis. viiitf'." The personnel of this hospital apparently comprised a Sisterhood as well as Brethren, and probably therefore received patients of both sexes. In the same way at Pilton, Devon, we find " Adam Teighe, under date the 24 Edward III., A.D. 1350, gave a tenement in that place to the Brothers and Sisters of the Leper Hospital of the Blessed Margaret of Pilton." We can unfortunately now procure no view of any part of this suppressed foundation. Referring to St. Bartholomew's, at Chatham, I should add that to the west of the Norman Church the nave extended sixteen feet, but in this and in the last century the nave has been much more extended in a westerly direction. It is noteworthy that at the western entrance of the City of Canterbury (upon the same high road from London) existed the similar hospital for lepers of St. Nicholas, one mile from the west gate RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 77 of the city, the same distance of the Strood Lazar House from the western entrance into Rochester. It was founded by Archbishop Lanfranc, circa 1084, with two other houses, which were dedicated respectively to St. James and St. Lawrence. Both of the latter foundations were swept away at the time of suppression, in 1537 and 1551, but the retention of the ancient church of St. Nicholas for congregational worship saved the Harbledown Lazar House, as St. Bartholomew's Chapel at Chatham saved the hospital attached to it. Although the church or chapel at " Whiteditch," Spittal Hill, Strood, was dedicated to St. Bartholomew, it would appear that the Lazar House itself (from Stowell's Records of Wills) was called after St. Katherine. Edward Munn, of Strood, bequeathed "to the poor folke of the Spittlehouse a bushel of malt," and another testator left "to the Lazar House of Whiteditch, 2s." ASH, NEAR RIDLEY, CHAPEL OF SCOTS GROVE, in this parish. The dedication of this chapel, like that of St. Katharine in Shorne, is not mentioned in Hasted's " Kent/' or any other book to my knowledge. 7 8 BYGONE KENT. It was probably a chapel attached to Scot Grove, since the latter was anciently accounted as a manor. Hasted speaking of it says, " there was once a chapel belonging to this estate, the foundations of which are still visible in a wood called Chapel Wood," and Thorpe says that in August, 1769, its foundations were visible, and that he had seen them. FAWKHAM. Mention is made in the Textus Roffensis, p. 136, of a chantry of St. Catherine in the parish church, but Sir W. de Faukham, in 1274, founded another within the parish church in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and for the good of the souls of himself and of his successors, which he endowed with five marks of yearly rent in pure and perpetual alms, to be paid out of fifty-five acres at Scotbury, in Southfleet, and this foundation was confirmed by the bishop in A.D. 1278. St Catherine's seems to have been a chantry under the jurisdiction of the Archdeacon of Rochester, since it is so recorded at p. 136 Reg. Roff., by the name of " Cantaria Stae Katarinae de Fawkham." The view given by Thorpe in his Customale, p. 1 1 6, was taken by his express instructions, in the RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 79 year 1769, and it shews clearly the outline of this ancient chantry, though his reference to it is curt. "There was another chantry dedicated to St. Catherine, but by whom founded is uncertain," and he seems to regard the ruined building as possibly other than St. Catherine, but Hasted, writing later, says, " the foundations of the ancient Mansion House of Fawkham are yet visible. . . . What remains of the building seem to have been the walls of the chapel." COSENTON CHAPEL, AYLESFORD PARISH. Sir Stephen de Cosenton, Knight, was with King Edward I. at the noted siege of Carlaverock, in Scotland, and was there made a Banneret by the King for his good service. At this period it would seem there was a chapel at Cosenton Manor dedicated to St. Michael, with a Chantry in it founded by Sir Stephen. It further appears that in 1444, September 12, (23 Henry VI.) he released by deed the Master and Brethren of the Hospital of the Newerk at Strood from the obligation of finding a Chaplain to celebrate yearly in this Chapel of St. Michael, and it would seem that they in return released all privilege of providing such Chaplain, and all So BYGONE KENT. claims connected with it, though this last and complimentary release seems to have come somewhat tardily, since it was not executed till some eleven years later, and then at Strood on the loth October, 34 Henry VI. Thorpe, writing in 1788, says no vestige remained to point out the exact site of the chapel. TOTTINGTON CHAPEL, AYLESFORD. In the same parish of Aylesford also stood the Chapel of Tottington, the exact site of which Thorpe had the good fortune to discover, and he ascertained its dimensions to have been thirty-nine feet in length by twenty-two feet six inches in width. The structure stood east and west, and was also, like the last-mentioned chapel, dedicated to St. Michael. After the suppression, it seems to have fallen into disuse, and the natural forces of nature, assisted by the acts of men, speedily completed the ruin. COBHAM, COBHAMBURV. The chapel here was doubtless a free chapel, but it must not be confused with the " Quandam perpetuam Cantariam " which Pope Urban the VI. authorised, " in parochiali ecclesia de RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 81 Cobeham," which the parents of John, Lord Cobham, had chosen for their own interment, and in which latter chantry five perpetual Chaplains, forming a College, should serve "in Divinis " for ever. This latter foundation of the 36 Edward III., A.D. 1362 (so amply furnished and endowed by the piety of John de Cobham), continued till the reign of Henry VIII., when, foreseeing the approaching dissolution, the Master and Brethren aliened it to George Brooke, Lord Cobham, who had interest with the King, to protect the transaction, and so it happened the property in the suppressed chantry when thus sold to him was by express words exempted from the destructive opera- tion of the statute of the 3151 year of that king, and again from the statute for the suppression of Chantries, i Edward VI., c. 14. In the course of making some recent searches in connection with the St. Katherine's Chantry, Shorne, I ascertained the existence at Hatfield House, Herts, of two Rolls of the accounts of the Masters of this College, temp. Henry VII. Sir William Brooke, the son of George Brooke de Cobham, by his will left the property to trustees, under which instrument, and by the aid 82 BYGONE KENT. of an Act of Parliament of the 39 Elizabeth, an entirely new foundation was created and the Wardens of Rochester Bridge brought into connection with it, and this latter foundation in its general outlines has continued with better fortune than its predecessor till this day. Returning to the free Chapel of Cobhambury, there is, I believe, no trace of the building now remaining, but in the list of Collations of Benefices appertaining to the Bishop stands recorded the " libera capella de Cobhambury." DARTFORD, ST. EDMUND THE MARTYR. This is another chantry the building of which disappeared, according to Hasted, at the general suppression. It was situate on " East Hill," and overlooked the parish church and churchyard, both of which lay in the town below, but although the building itself was destroyed and its materials sold, the ground around it was continued as a burial ground, and so remains to this day. The advowson of this chantry was vested in the Priory of Dartford Convent, in the 46th year of Edward V., indeed it was given to the Nuns at the period of their first endowment. The other chantry at Dartford was within the parish RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 83 church, and was founded by a former Vicar, Thomas de Dartford, alias A. H. Stampett, in A.D. 1338. It was well endowed, and at its suppression in 1553, Robert Bacon was its incumbent, and was pensioned off at 6 per annum. It was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and paid the Vicar xii</. yearly, and was usually called " the Stampett Chantry." In the list of the Bishop's benefices (Reg..Roff. 141) it appears that the separate " Cantaria Sti Edmundi de Dertford" was under the jurisdiction of the Archdeacon, while the " Vicaria de Dertford et Cantaria ibidem de Stampetts " were not. No remains of St. Edmund's Chantry are extant. HORSEMONDEN. The " Cantaria annunciationis Beatse Maria;; in Horsemonden," to follow the words of the old record, is the last of the three chantries dependent on the jurisdiction of the Archdeacon, and though it does not fairly come within the scope of this paper, as not being contained in an independent edifice (since, as was most frequent and far more convenient, a chantry was located within the 84 BYGONE KENT. parish church), it is yet interesting as a rare instance of an elective advowson in Kent. Thus the founder, Robert de Grovehurst, by deed of the 4th July, 1338, provided that on the first vacancy the parishioners who should "be present at the usual time of mass on the next Sunday, being six in number, should nominate a priest to be presented to the chantry," to which there was apparently a house of residence assigned, with the obligation of celebrating daily. MATDSTONE CHAPEL OF CORPUS CHRISTI, in Earl Street, with its adjacent building, was a work of much importance. The revenues of the fraternity were ample, and not only did their chaplain act as chantry priest in their own chapel, but they also maintained out of their revenues a priest to celebrate in the parish church of All Saints'. On the suppression, the Corporation, by the sale of the community vest- ments, church plate, etc., were enabled to purchase this property of the Crown, and it is now the receptacle of the tubs and casks of a brewery, against which misappropriation its massive walls and beautiful traceried windows offer a silent but ineffective protest. RUINED CHAPELS AND CHANTRIES. 85 DOVER ROUND CHURCH. The dedication of this little Round Church on the heights at Dover, is, I believe, unknown. It has been well described in the Arch&ologia Cantiana, with a plan shewing the circular nave of an interior diameter of twenty-five feet, and a chancel possessing a length of twenty-seven feet by a width of about fourteen feet. The foundations are now cleared, and rise to a level with the surrounding land. These remains will always command a large interest, as being the reputed place of conference between King John and the Pope's Legate, Pandulf. a Sfcetcb of the Ibistoq? of tbe Cburcb or Baeilica of Xpminge* BY THE REV. CANON R. C. JENKINS, M.A. I ^HE Church of Lyminge, dedicated originally JL to " St Mary the Mother of God," * and on its refoundation by St. Dunstan having the double title of S. Mary and S. Ethelburga (or Eadburgt) its first foundress, possesses a historical interest which very few of the Saxon foundations can equal, and none certainly surpass. Bound up inseparably with the life and history of the saintly Queen, the only daughter of Ethelbert and Bertha, and the widow of the martyred King Edwin of Northumberland, the earliest lines of its history are traced in those of her own, and from the mention of the place in the early charters as a royal possession, and her subsequent choice of it as the scene of her conventual life, we may reasonably conjecture that it was from Lyminge * Charter of King Wihtraed, A.D. 696. tGoscelinus writes, "In the Church of Lyminge which belongs to the Archbishop, the Queen Ethelburga is known to be buried, but there she is called Eadburg" (A.D. 1097). Ethelbald and Ethelward are in like manner contracted into Eadbakl and Eadward. THE CHURCH OF L VMINGE. 87 that she took her eventful journey to York as the betrothed of the unfortunate Edwin. Accom- panied by S. Paulinus, and with his aid, she brought about the conversion of her husband and his subjects, whose romantic narrative is given us so fully by Bede. The fatal battle of Heathfield, in which the King" fell, and his army was almost destroyed, broke up the great work of conversion, whose success had been so sudden and brilliant. The widowed queen, with her only daughter and the two sons of her husband by his former marriage, took refuge in flight, and reaching Kent in safety with her faithful chaplain, Paulinus, asked of her brother Eadbald the gift of the ancient park and villa of Lyminge, a Roman foundation of importance, out of whose materials she built her monastery and nunnery a double foundation according to the Benedictine usage of that early day and received the veil from Archbishop Honorius in the latter end of the year 633. Lyminge became thus the second monastery and (with Folkestone) the first nunnery founded by the Saxons in England, and as Montalembert, in his " Moines d' Occident," observes, "forms the link of connection between the two great centres of Catholic life in England," Canterbury and York. 88 BYGONE KENT. But she founded her nunnery not for herself alone, but for her niece Mildretha or Miltrude, who succeeded her as Abbess in 647. But who, it may be asked, was this Mildred ? Certainly not the far greater saint of Thanet, who lived a generation after. And how in any case could she have been the niece of Ethelburga, whose only recognised niece was the only daughter of her only brother King Eadbald ? The only means of reconciling the statements of the chroniclers with the pedigree of the Kentish kings is the assignment of her origin to that unlawful marriage of Eadbald with his step-mother, which caused so grave a scandal in the early church of Kent, and which led to the suppression of the names of both mother and daughter in the genealogies. The fact that this Mildred was buried in the same grave with Ethelburga, and the confusion occasioned by the attempt to identify her with her later namesake, led to that controversy between the inheritors of their respective relics, the monks of S. Augustine and the Canons of S. Gregory in Canterbury, which continued smouldering until the rival foundations and the bones of contention were mingled together in the ruin of the dissolution. The Danish invasions had in the THE CHURCH OF LYMINGE. 89 ninth century rendered the isolated position of the nuns one of continual danger, and in the opening of that century the nunnery was removed to Canterbury, Ccenulf and Cuthred having granted by a charter to " the Abbess Selethrytha and her family at the church of S. Mary ever- Virgin, which is situate in the place called Limming, where rests the body of S. Eadburg (ubi pausat corpus B. Eadburgae), a portion of land in the city of Canterbury, ad necessitatis refugium" The incursions of the Danes soon rendered the position of the Monastery no less untenable, and gave S. Dunstan an opportunity of carrying out his great plan of suppressing the double foundations. He accordingly removed the monks to Canterbury in the year 965, and restored the church, having obtained a charter in 960, addressed no longer to the monastery or " family " of Lyminge, but to the church itself. " When the manor and church came thus into the hands of the Archbishops, they are said by the ancient chroniclers to have restored it 'in a certain fashion,' utcumque restauraverunt" And the extraordinary rudeness of their work, a kind of wild imitation of the almost Roman work of the original church, and out of the materials of it, is 90 BYGONE KENT. the most conspicuous feature of the chancel and south wall of the nave, which are the undoubted work of Dunstan. In these we find irregular herring-bone work, with bonding courses of Roman bricks and flat stones, with occasional courses of large blocks of stone, and the widest jointed masonry (if it could be called such) that can possibly be found. The character of these walls is unique, and indicates the extraordinary rudeness of the Saxon work of the Transition period, which it represents. A portion of the south wall of the nave is built upon a fragment of the north wall of Ethelburga's Church, and exhibits a masonry of the closest kind, almost resembling a mosaic-work. This formed part of the outer wall of the original church, enclosing the remarkable apsidal remain which contains the burial-place of the Queen, which is now clearly disclosed, a fragment of the outward plastering being even now visible. This interesting remain was discovered in 1859, and is an object of the greatest interest to the many visitors of the church. In 1085, Lanfranc, in order to endow his new foundation of S. Gregory at Canterbury with relics of sufficient importance, bestowed upon it THE CHURCH OF LYMINGE. 91 those of Ethelburga which were disinterred by the priest of the place, Radulfus, and received with great pomp by the Gregorian Canons. With the body of the queen there was found also the body of her niece, and upon this began the great conflict between the religious of the rival foundations. A remarkable unpublished treatise of the Augustinian monk Goscelinus (A.D. 1097) gives us the early history of the controversy, and describes the translation of the relics. The destruction of the burial place is still distinctly traceable in the different masonry and mortar used for restoring the wall, against, and indeed under which, it was constructed. Lanfranc, who is said to have imported square stones from Caen for building his manor-houses, raised upon the ancient foundations of the monastic buildings a palace which both he and the successive archbishops occupied in succession with their other numerous manor-houses in Kent and Sussex. In 1279, Archbishop Peckham held a grand court at the Aula or Camera de Lyminge, and received there the homage of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, who came with a great retinue to take the oath of feudal obedience to the archbishop. Archbishop Winchelsey and his successors up to , 92 BYGONE KENT. the time of Courtenay occasionally resided here ; but the last, finding himself overhoused, and seeing the necessity of having a residence rather of the military than the civil type, obtained permission from the king and the priory to pull down some of his manor-houses in order to build the Castle of Saltwood, the stones being chiefly reserved for the nearest churches or chapels. It is to this reservation that we are indebted for the present massive tower, whose stones become larger as they approach the top, indicating the fact that the builders had come to the larger blocks of the foundation when they arrived at the upper portion of the work. The arms of Cardinal Morton and Archbishop Warham on the sides of the western door lead to the conclusion that the work extended from about 1486 to 1527, in which latter year the last benefaction towards it is mentioned. The body of the church underwent a considerable change at a somewhat earlier date. An ancient north chapel (probably added by William Preene, the rector in 1404) appears to have been utilised for the completion of a north aisle, which is separated from the nave by an arcade of great lightness and beauty, a very fine specimen of Tudor work. This improvement was most THE CHURCH OF L YMINGE. 93 probably effected by Cardinal Bourchier, whose arms in stained glass were originally in the east window of the aisle, and are now to be seen in the early window over the porch. In the south wall of the nave is a very curious recess, formed of Roman bricks, which appears to indicate the place of an altar. The chancel arch, of the most massive structure and extending to the walls on either side, appears, as well as the remarkable flying buttress at the south-east angle of the chancel, to have been one of the repairs effected by Archbishop Peckham, in 1279-80. He found that his predecessor, Archbishop Boniface, had left the churches and manor-houses of the see in such a state of disrepair as to need the disbursement of large .sums for their restoration. These arches belong to that century, and may therefore be reasonably assigned to his work. The east window of the chancel, inserted in close-jointed masonry, which is singularly contrasted with the wide joints of the earlier work, was probably among the repairs enjoined by Archbishop Warham on his visitation in 1511. The ruin of the manor-house and the adjacent buildings had begun in the days of Archbishop Arundel, and is described in the inventory of his 94 BYGONE KENT. property taken by a commission held at Lyminge, on the occasion of his brief attainder. The stained glass window of the chancel, the work of the late Mr. Gibbs, of Bedford Square, representing the Nativity, the adoration of the shepherds and of the Magi, is designed in its lower tier to illustrate the humiliation of Christ, the upper portion exhibiting the Saviour enthroned in glory, surrounded by the Apostles, while the crown of the arches contains the symbols of the Evangelists. The manor, which originally was one of the largest in Kent, extending over Romney Marsh, and to the borders of Sussex on the south, and in the west covering several parishes in the weald, was surrendered by Cranmer to the crown, together with the advowson of the rectory and vicarage of Lyminge, with the ancient chapelries of Stanford (afterwards including Westenhanger) and Paddlesworth. The last still forms a part of the rectory of Lyminge, though it constitutes a separate parish. The entire estate was granted by King Henry VIII. to Sir Anthony Aucher, the Master of the Jewels, who was killed in the siege of Calais under Queen Mary. It passed to his elder son, whose only daughter was married THE CHURCH OF LYMINGE. 95 to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, then to the second branch of the Auchers (of Bourne Place, in Bishopsbourne), and from them through the Roberts and Taylor families to the Lord Chancellor (Lord Loughborough), from whom it was purchased by the family of Price. It is now held by the trustees of the late Mr. Kelcey. The advowsons which were granted separately, by a deed now preserved in the British Museum, and signed by Cranmer himself, passed through the same successive ownerships, but were separated from the manor in 1853. The living is a rectory and a vicarage, and had until recent times a double succession, the rectory having been bestowed as a sinecure on many persons of great eminence in the church. Among these may be mentioned Adam de Murimuth, the historian, Cardinal Gaucelinus de Ossa, the nephew of Pope John the XXII., William de Cusaneia, keeper of the king's wardrobe, Audomarus de Rupy, Archdeacon of Canter- bury, Philip Morgan, Bishop of Worcester, and others. The ancient charters relating to the monastery and church, most of them originals, 96 BYGONE KENT. and fourteen in number, are to be found in the Harleian and Cotton collections in the British Museum, and in the Library of Canterbury Cathedral. They are published in the Saxon Chartulary of Kemble, and extend from 689 to 960. Canterbury pilgrims anfc their Sojourn in tbe City. BY THE REV. W. J. FOXEI.L, B.A. " I "HERE is no place within the whole length -A- and breadth of England which surpasses in interest and charm the ancient city of Canterbury. All through the summer months, day after day, fresh crowds of visitors veritable Canterbury pilgrims flock to catch a glimpse of its quaint old houses, the massive relics of the walls which once girt it round, and above all its venerable cathedral. " He that Seville hath not seen Is no traveller I ween," runs the well known jingle, but our patriotism may well be excused if we substitute Canterbury for Seville. To have seen Canterbury, to have trodden its streets, to have studied its memorials, to have unearthed the history which lies embedded within it, to have listened to the story which its magnificent church has to tell where " the stone cries out of the wall and the beam out of the H 98 BYGONE KENT. timber answers it"- this is, in sober truth, a "liberal education." The poetic attractiveness of old Canterbury extends to regions far beyond our own country. Across the Atlantic, from the shores of that new world whose history is but of yesterday, our American cousins come in search of the ancient and the picturesque. We know those enterprising travellers go everywhere : they must " do " everything. But no place charms them more than the sleepy old city that lies in the hollow of the Stour valley, between the hills of S. Thomas on the west and S. Martin on the east. And hither, too, flock all manner of tourists the 'Arry from Margate, the business man from town, artists and amateur photographers galore, clerics of every degree and every shade of theological opinion, Royalty itself. History, it is said, repeats itself; and the nineteenth century tourist is, for the most part, but a new edition of the mediaeval pilgrim, who hurried to the tomb of the famous martyr, devout in the veneration of relics, or anxious in the search for health. In these days the point of interest is mainly aesthetic and antiquarian ; but in those old times the motive of the pilgrimage CANTERB UR Y PIL GRIMS. 99 was chiefly a religious one. Either the pilgrimage was undertaken as a penitential exercise or as a pious duty ; or, as in very many cases, the pilgrim was suffering from some obstinate complaint and came to worship at S. Thomas's shrine, in the confident expectation that the saint would work a miracle and restore him to health, as he had restored so many. Every schoolboy knows that Thomas a Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. Before that momentous event took place there was hardly anything to mark off Canterbury Cathedral from any other of the great Benedictine churches of Norman foundation. It is true that the great church of Canterbury could trace its history back to St. Augustine, and to times even prior to him. From the first, its ecclesiastical jurisdiction, its privileges, its authority had been considerable, Lanfranc and Anselm had shed a glory over the chair of S. Augustine names that could never pass into oblivion. But still, all these were circumstances intangible in themselves, and incapable from their very nature of awaking any great popular enthusiasm. The martyrdom of " S. Thomas of Canterbury " changed all this. The dispute between Henry II. and the proud zoo BYGONE KENT. prelate who had been so strenuous for his rights and privileges, had culminated in the tragic deed of that December evening, when the four knights brutally murdered the Archbishop within the sacred walls of the cathedral itself. Visitors to the cathedral are shown the actual spot in the " Martyrdom "-the name ever since given to the north transept of the nave, the scene of the murder where Becket fell. They descend the steps by which the Crypt is entered, passing beneath the very arch under which, the day after the murder, the dead body of the archbishop was carried from before the high altar, where it had rested for one night, to its burial place at the east end of the Crypt. In less than three years Becket had become a saint, duly canonised by Pope Alexander III. ; and four years after the murder, the king himself in the humble dress of a poor pilgrim knelt at this tomb in the Crypt, and then and there submitted to do penance by scourging at the hands of the assembled monks and bishops. And now the fame of the miracles which were beginning to be wrought at the tomb, gradually spread far and wide. What those miracles were we are not left simply to ourselves to imagine. CANTERB UR Y PIL GRIMS. i o i Accounts of them have come down to us, and pictorial memorials of some are still preserved in the three remarkable stained-glass windows situated in the north wall of the Trinity Chapel where stood the shrine after the " Translation "- which have survived the brutal energy of Henry VIII. and the fanatical zeal of the Roundheads. The old monkish chronicler rejoiced to describe the Becket miracles, quoting the language of the Gospels : " The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the dumb speak, the poor have the gospel preached to them, the paralytic, the dropsical, the lunatic, the epileptic, the fever-patient, all are cured." Passing wonderful are some of these miracles. Here, for instance, on one window is depicted the story of the boy who, playing by the banks of the Medway, fell into the stream and was drowned, and who, after having been three hours in the water, was dragged out, and restored to life with a few drops of the martyr's blood. It was the fame of such wonders which drew an ever- increasing tide of pilgrims to the shrine. At first for the fifty years between 1 1 70 and 1 2 20 the body of the saint reposed in the tomb 102 BYGONE KENT. in the Crypt that tomb which was the scene of so many miracles, and which is represented so often in the three windows mentioned above. At length, the seventh of July 1220 witnessed the grand ceremony of the "translation" of the precious bones to the gorgeous shrine destined to receive the holy relics in the Trinity Chapel above. Magnificent was the celebration of this great function. During the space of the two years before it took place, proclamation had been made throughout Christendom of the forthcoming festival, and preparation was made for the reception of those who would be drawn to it from all parts. The young king Henry III., the aged Cardinal Archbishop, Stephen Langton, he who had wrung from John the great Charter of English liberty, Hubert de Burgh, the Arch- bishop of Rheims, Primate of France, Pandulf, the papal legate, were the most distinguished of those who took part in that day's glorious ceremony. Thus to the original Festival of the Martyrdom, December 29th, was added the Festival of the Translation, July 7th, destined to be more popular still, as occurring in summer time, when, of course, travelling would be better, and pilgrimages could be undertaken with less peril and greater CANTERB UR Y PIL GRIMS. \ 03 ease. Thus, too, a fresh impetus was given to that swelling tide which flowed from all parts of England and of Europe of those who came " The holy blissful martyr for to seek, That them hath holpen when that they were sick." From all parts of England, from Normandy, from Brittany, from France came pious pilgrims. But best known to us are those that travelled along- O the London Road. It is this road to the shrine which is the scene of Chaucer's great poem, " The Canterbury Tales." Foreigners would wend their way along the Sandwich Road, having landed at that port ; other pilgrims, from the west of England, as well as from abroad, would have landed at Southampton, and followed the rough track which led from thence to Canterbury. But it is Chaucer's pilgrims, it is that company of " all sorts and conditions of men " which assembled on that April day at the Old Tabard Inn at South- wark, and which he has immortalised " the knight, the yeoman, the prioress, with her attendant nuns and three priests, the monk, the friar, the merchant, the Oxford Scholar, the lawyer, the squire, the five tradesmen, the cook, the shiprnan, the physician, the great clothier of Bath, the parish priest, the miller, the reeve, the 104 BYGOXE KENT. manciple, the apparitor of the law courts, the seller of indulgences, and the poet himself: " it is these over whom our imagination loves to linger. How we wish that the poet had told us more of that old world which has passed away never to return : that he had let us see more of that life sc utterly different from this hurry-scurry of existence which we call life to-day. We can gain but a few tantalising glimpses here and there. The action of the poem occupies one day ; in other words, the pilgrims take a whole day to go from London to Canterbury. But long as this time may seem to us, in these days of the " Boat Express," which, running between London and Dover, reaches Canterbury in less than ninety minutes yet even so the poet is romancing. As a rule, in Chaucer's time it took three or four days to accomplish the journey ; but practical conditions of time and space do not trammel the poet. The motley company start from London at dawn. Deptford and Greenwich are reached in an hour or two : by noon Rochester " standeth here fast by " and so the journey is continued through " Sidenbourne " and " Boughton under Blee." The road now becomes a succession of hilly steeps and sudden dips. The pilgrims are CA NTERB UR Y PILGRIMS. 1 05 nearing the famous city, arid all eyes are strained to catch from the top of one of these hills the first sight of the great Tower of the Cathedral the predecessor of the present one surmounted as it then was with a gilded angel. And then just before they reached the last hill of all, which slopes down into Canterbury, they passed through Harbledown, the " Little town, Which that ycleped is bob-up-and-down, Under the Blee in Canterbury way." The tedium of the journey had hitherto been alleviated with "music, song, and merry tales:" but now as they came nearer holy ground, they engaged in more fitting exercises prayers and telling of beads and serious converse. At Harbledown they would pass the old leper hospital of S. Nicholas, founded about 1084 by Lanfranc. An old alms-box is still preserved here, such as was hung out at the end of a long pole to receive from pilgrims and travellers whatever charity might prompt them to give. It may well be that this is the very box into which the cultured Erasmus let fall a coin when he was on his way back from Canterbury to London, after that visit which with Dean Colet he paid 106 BYGONE KENT. to the shrine, and of which he has left so interesting and entertaining an account. Here also is still shown a crystal, now set in a maple bowl, but formerly adorning, it may be, the very shoe of the martyred saint. The leather of the shoe itself has long since disappeared, but we know it was for centuries religiously preserved, and when presented for Erasmus and his companion to kiss, it still contained the crystal. Successive generations of pilgrims must have stayed a few moments here that they might venerate so sacred a relic. Just before the city itself is reached, the road takes a sharp turn to the East. At the corner of the road stands the ancient church of S. Dunstan, also founded by Lanfranc. Here it was that one celebrated pilgrim to Becket's tomb already mentioned Henry II., having first dismounted at the hospital of S. Nicholas, changed his royal robes for the plain tunic and cloak of the pilgrim, and so walked barefoot to the scene of his voluntary humiliation. The band of pilgrims would enter by the West Gate. At that time Canterbury was like the Homeric Thebes " seven-gated : " now, alas, this west gate is the only one which has survived CANTERBUR Y PILGRIMS. 107 the positive mania for destruction which seemed to possess the worthy civic authorities of the last century. The company would pass along the High Street each individual anxious to secure lodgings for the night they were to spend in the city. There was many a hospitable roof ready to NORMAN STAIRCASE, CANTERBURY. shelter them : first and foremost the great monastery, of which the Cathedral formed part ; then the Abbey of S. Augustine, so long its rival in fame and power ; then the houses of the friars, " Black," " Grey," and " Austin ; " as well as the various " hospitals " of S. Gregory, S. Lawrence, io8 J3YGONE KENT. S. John, S. Margaret, and S. Thomas. This last, founded about the beginning of the thirteenth century expressly for the reception of poorer pilgrims, cannot escape the notice of the observant visitor of to-day, standing, as it does, by the Eastbridge, on the south side of the High Street. In addition to these, there were inns and taverns and hostelries without number. But, most famous of all, there was the inn standing at the south-west corner of Mercery Lane " The Chequer of the Hope," with its " Dormitory of the Hundred Beds." Here, according to the anonymous poet, the author of the " Supplemen- tary Tale," " the Continuator " of Chaucer (for it will be remembered that Chaucer does no more than bring his pilgrims up to the city) the twenty- nine pilgrims of the "Tales" put up for the one night during which they would remain in the city. " When all this fresh fellowship were come to Canterbury As ye have heard to fore, with tales glad and merry. They took their Inn, and lodged them at midmorrow, I trow, At Chequer of the Hope that many a man doth know ; Their host of Southwark, that with them went, as ye have heard to fore, That was ruler of them all, of less and eke of more, Ordained their dinner wisely ere they to church went, Such victuals as he found in town, and for none other sent." CANTERB UR Y PIL OR IMS. 1 09 The building itself still stands, preserving something of its mediaeval appearance, but the houses of which it now consists are no longer an inn. Gone is the courtyard into which the mounted pilgrims rode, with their horses' hoofs clattering on the rough stones : gone too is the ancient staircase, which stood on the outside of the inn. We can imagine pilgrims arriving on the eve of either of the two great festivals of S. Thomas to find the whole city en fete : some delighted with the novelty of everything, with the bustle and the air of festivity, others anxiously expecting the hour which was to bring solace to the soul and blessing to the body all intent on paying their homage at the famous shrine. What a red-letter day in their lives was that when the pilgrims set foot within the walls of the church itself! At the door a monk sprinkled them with holy water : and once in the cathedral, they passed on from one rare sight to another, from one glory to another yet greater. To the visitor of our time, the interior of Canterbury Cathedral looks somewhat bare. The mediaeval pilgrim, it may be fairly said, would hardly recognise it now : he would miss the gay hangings and tapestries, the many side-altars and chapels no BYGONE KENT. fitted up for worship, and so much, alas, of the old stained-glass, the figures and the designs of which set the pilgrims disputing in the manner so amusingly narrated by the " Continuator." " He beareth a balstaff, quoth the toon, and else a raked end. Thou failest, quoth the miller, thou hast not well thy mind, It is a spear, if thou canst see, with a prick to fore To push adown his enemy and through the shoulder bore. Peace, quoth the host of Southwark, let stand the window glazed, Go up and do your offering, ye seemeth half amazed." Eastward up the nave the pilgrims would move, and so reach the north transept the " Martyrdom." The spot where S. Thomas was killed would be pointed out to them ; and the wooden .altar, set up to mark where the martyr fell ; and the broken sword-blade belonging to one of the four knights who had murdered him. Thence they would go to the Crypt to the spot where stood the first tomb, where also a most sacred relic awaited their veneration part of the martyr's skull, set in silver. It was here, as he tells us, that Erasmus saw the celebrated hair-shirt, which the monks found on Becket's body when they stripped it after the murder. The choir was next visited, where still more and more sacred relics were exhibited by an CA NTERB UK Y PIL GRIMS. 1 1 1 attendant monk, and devoutly kissed by the pilgrims. To many a pilgrim, no doubt, would be shown the costly vestments and ornaments and vessels of the sanctuary, a list of which still exists : chasubles, copes, tunics, dalmatics, and albs, almost / without number ; crosses, chalices, and patens ; mitres and pastoral staffs ; rings and precious stones, and sacred books. Onward and upward still they would go, mounting the steps leading to the Trinity Chapel on their knees, till at length they stood before the great shrine itself. The shrine consisted of two parts, the stone pedestal with arches, and the shrine proper ; the latter encased in a canopy of wood, which could be raised at any moment by pulling ropes suspended from the ceiling. Round the lower part of the shrine, the sick and infirm thronged and pressed. There was healing virtue in the very stones on which the body of the saint rested. We can but faintly imagine the overpowering emotions of those who had travelled many a weary mile, as at length they found themselves laid at the foot of the martyr's shrine, when health and happiness seemed to lie once more within their grasp. The feelings so created, when the very depths of the soul were stirred, ii2 BYGONE KENT. were sufficient, we cannot doubt, to work a complete cure in some cases of nervous disorder. Then, last of all, the canopy was raised, and the gorgeous ark, the shrine, was displayed to view. What a sight it was, glittering in gold and precious stones ! Specially remarkable, rivetting all eyes, was the wondrous ruby, which had been given to the original tomb in the crypt by Louis VII. of France when he came as a pilgrim. The gem so the legend ran which had at first been refused by the king, had leapt of its own accord from the ring in which it was set, and fastened itself to the tomb, "as if a goldsmith had fixed it there." Can we wonder that religious piety in that simple age was profoundly stimulated by such marvellous tales? The pilgrims, the old rhymster tells us, "Prayed to S. Thomas in such wise as they couth And sith the holy relics each man with his mouth Kissed as a goodly monk the names told and taught." After the pilgrims had feasted their eyes on all this wealth and splendour, while they were still under the spell of so much that was grand and mysterious and holy, they made their offerings, and so went their way ; to give place to others who were following close upon them as CANTERB UR Y PIL GRIMS. 1 1 3 they did on great occasions in a continuous stream. But the pilgrimage was not completely finished unless the pilgrim took away with him a permanent memorial of his visit in the shape of a little "ampulla," or leaden bottle, to be obtained in the monastery, and containing water mixed with a small portion and in the course of centuries it must have been the merest trace of the blood of S. Thomas. Leaving the monastery, the pilgrims would pass along Mercery Lane to the " Chequer of the Hope." Before the Civil War in the seventeenth century, there was a colonnade on each side of this lane, in front of the shops. Under this colonnade (which no longer exists, as the shopkeepers took advantage of the general unsettlement during the Commonwealth to encroach upon it, and to bring their shop fronts forward so as to include it) they would make their way, at every step encountering the eager shopkeepers, pressing on them to buy all manner of mementos, especially a cap^lt Thoma, a leaden brooch with the mitred head of the martyr upon it. Dinner was awaiting them at the Chequer: and after dinner the sights of the city especially its massive walls, would be ii 4 BYGONE KENT. visited, or friends and old acquaintances would be looked up. Past for ever is the age of such things. It concerns us not now to discuss whether " miracles" do or "do not happen." Certainly now no miracles happen at the shrine of S. Thomas ! The end came in 1538, when, in the September of that year, the tomb was destroyed. No record exists describing its actual destruction, and hence some doubt lingers not about the fact, it is true but about the manner. Most probably the bones were burned and " scattered to the winds." As for the gold and silver and precious stones, and all the valuables, Henry VIII. exercised his royal prerogative to seize them for himself. Nothing now remains but the vacant space where once the shrine stood. The pavement still gives evidence by the marks upon it of the rough- and-ready way in which the smashing of precious relics went on while the depression in the floor, worn by the toes of those who knelt upon the step above, alone marks the scene of so many prayers and supplications and vows and thanks- givings ! William Uambarbe, tbe Ikentisb antiquary BY FREDERICK Ross, F.R.H.S. KENT occupies a foremost position among the counties of England in regard to antiquities and historical associations. It was the Cantii, the Celtic inhabitants of Kent, who opposed so vigorously the landing of Julius Caesar near upon two thousand years ago, and whose country afterwards constituted a portion of the Roman province of Britannia Prima. It was here in the 5th century, after the departure of the Romans, that Vortigern and Hengist contended for the empire in two pitched battles, resulting in the conquest by Hengist, the loss of four thousand natives on the battlefield, and the establishment of the Saxon Kingdom of Kent. It was here where S. Augustine planted the banner of the Cross, and re-established the Church and Bishopric of Canterbury, on the spot where there had been a Church and Bishopric of the Apostolic Age, which had been trampled out by the n 6 BYGONE KENT. paganism of the Jutes and Saxons. And ever since has Kent been the scene of important and often tragical events in history, politics, social upheavals of the serf claims, and, above all, of significant incidents of an ecclesiastical character. Thus there is in the annals of Kent, and in the castles, abbeys, and towns of the county, an abun- dance of material to occupy the pen of the historian and topographical antiquary ; and it was fitting and appropriate that the first published county history should be that of Kent. General topographical writers, who have included Kent, there have been from the 2nd century downwards, a series of geographers, topographers, and annalists, some fairly correct, others fabulous and abounding in miracles, such as, says Fuller, it is difficult to digest. Of these Ptolemy was the earliest, who was followed by Antoninus Pius, whose works are invaluable as records of the past. The writings of Julius Caesar and Tacitus are scarcely worth mentioning as topographical works and much the same may be said of Strabo, Pomponius, and other copyists. Then followed the Monkish Chroniclers, amongst whom Bede and Giraldus Cambrensis stand out prominently ; and Geoffrey of WILLIAM LA MBARDE. 1 1 7 Monmouth, of the i2th century, who published some most astounding stories hence to the time of Henry VIII., when modern antiquarian and topographical research may be said to have had its birth. Leland, a Londoner born, may be considered the father of modern antiquaries. He lived in the 1 6th century, in the reign Henry VIII., who appointed him to the office of the Royal Librarian, and in 1533 "King's Antiquary," the first and last to hold the office, whose duty was " to search out England's historical antiquities, and peruse the libraries of all Cathedrals, Abbies, Priories, and Colleges, and all places wherein records, writings, and secrets of antiquity were preserved." In 1536, he was given a dispensa- tion from residence in his living of Popeling, and for six years wandered forth over England, visiting and examining all the conventual, ecclesiastical, and collegiate libraries, " con- cerning," as he said " many good autors the which otherwise had been like to have perischid." As a result of his journeyings he wrote "The laboryeuse journey and serche of Johan Leylande for Englande's antiquitees, geuen of hym as a New Yeares gifte to Kynge Henry the VIII. in n8 BYGONE KENT. the xxx vij. yeare of his Regne ;" dedicated to King Edward VI. by John Bale, 1549. The " Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary," published from the original MS. in the Bodleian Library, by Thomas Hearne, M.A., 1710-12. These works have served as the foundations of all subsequent antiquarian and topographical researches. Ralf Brooke, who printed Leland's " New Yeares Gifte," says to Camden that he has done it "to the ende that the world may know with whose plumes you have feathered your nest, and to show who was the first author of the new born ' Britannia,' he whose name is clean rased out or you who have taken the tytle and whole credit to yourself." He was a learned man, and the author of some other works, and died in the year 1552. The Tudor age sees the birth and labours of the three great antiquaries Leland, 1506-52, Lambarde, 1536-1601, and Camden, 1551-1623, who, discarding the miracles and fables of monkish chroniclers, based the annals of England on a sure foundation of fact, and taught writers that the history of towns, counties, and limited localities, with descriptions of their peculiarities and ancient remains, are deserving of record. Of WILLIAM LAMBARDE. 1 1 9 these writers, Lambarde, the second in date, less rugged than Leland, and less polished than Camden, will occupy our attention for a few paragraphs. " I am now," says Camden, "come to Kent, a county which William Lambarde, a person eminent for piety and learning, has described so much to the life in a complete volume, and who has withal been so happy in his searches, that he has left very little for those that come after him. ... I here gratefully acknowledge that his work is my foundation." " Let this be observed for the honour of Kent," says Kennet, in his life of Somner, " that while other counties (and but few of them) have met with single pens to give the history and descrip- tion of them ; ours has had no less than four writers to celebrate the glories of it (1570) " Lambard, Somner, Kilburn, and Philpot." Archdeacon Nicolson hopes he may be allowed "to enlarge the catalogue" (1696), adding " Lambarde's Perambulation of Kent, was indeed the first account that was published, which was not only highly applauded by Camden and other chief judges, but gave the hint to many more men of learning to endeavour the like services for their several counties," further observing that JtENT. " 'twas not well approved by the gentlemen of the Roman Communion, notably Reiner, ' Antiquary of Canterbury,' who censures it as a work under- taken with a design to expose the lewdnesses and debaucheries of the inhabitants of the monasteries of that county, in describing whereof (he thinks) many things are spitefully misrepresented." Dr. Nicholson adds to the list of Kentish historical writers the names of John Norden, whose "Survey of Kent" remains in MS., John Weaver, whose "Funeral Monuments" were chiefly collected in the dioceses of Canterbury and Rochester, Taylor's " History of Gavel- Kind," Gillingham's " History of Canterbury," circa 1390, John Twyne's " Canterbury," W. Somner's "Survey of Canterbury," Spott's "Canterbury," Archdeacon Battaly's " Antiquitates Rutupice," Edm. Bedenham's " Textus Roffensis," etc. The Lambardes were originally, as far back as their recorded genealogy goes, a Herefordshire family. Thomas Lambarde, " Gent.," of Ledbury, who died early in the sixteenth century, was father of William Lambarde of the same place, whose son John settled in London, served the office of Sheriff in 1551, and died in 1554; having married Juliana, daughter and heiress of WILLIAM LAMBARDE. 1 2 1 William Herne, of London, by whom he had issue two sons, William, the antiquary, and Giles, of London, the latter of whom married Margaret, daughter and co-heiress of John Stephenson, of London. William, the elder son, married, first Jane, daughter of George Multon, secondly Silvestria, daughter and heiress of Robert Deane, of Hailing, Kent, and relict . of William Dalison, and had issue by the latter with a daughter Margaret, who married Thomas Godfrey, of Lydd, an only son, Sir Multon, of Westcombe, near Greenwich, who married Ann, daughter of Sir Thomas Lowe, an alderman of London, and died in 1634. Sir Multon was buried in Greenwich Old Church, where a monument was placed to his memory, which, with that of his father in the same church, was removed to Sevenoaks, at the rebuilding of Greenwich Church. Thomas, his son, was a zealous Royalist during the Civil War, had to compound for his estates in 1648, and in consequence was obliged to dispose of Westcombe to Hugh Forth, from whom it passed to the Biddulphs, Barts. It was purchased about the year 1553, by Alderman John Lambarde, from Nicholas Ballard, since which time it formed the 122 B YGONE KENT. residence of the Lambardes until 1648. In 1638 he married Isabella, daughter of Sir John Garrard, Baronet, and had issue, with two daughters, Thomas, who died sine prole, and William. William, his son, of Beechmount, Sevenoaks, married Magdalen Humphrey, and had issue Thomas, his heir, and Sir Multon, Baronet, who died in 1758. Thomas, his son, who died in 1 745, was father of another Thomas, who died in 1769, whose son, Multon, was born in 1757, and died in 1836, and was succeeded by his elder son, William, of Beechmount, who was born in 1796, and had issue by his wife, Harriet Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Nasmyth, Baronet, Multon, his heir, born in 1821, who married in 1848 Teresa Livesay, daughter of Edmund Turton, and had issue John, Bell, William, Edmund, and another son and daughter. Besides whom William Lambarde had other issue six sons and five daughters. William Lambarde, the subject of this sketch, was the son of Alderman John Lambarde of London, the purchaser of the Manor of West Combe, by Greenwich, in 1553, where his son chiefly resided, and where he wrote most of his works. He was born in the year 1536, presum- WILLIAM LAMBARDE. 123 ably in London, and was bred to the legal profession, having been entered at Lincoln's Inn in 1556, and distinguished himself early in his career, by the publication of two or three legal works, promising to become eminent in law, had he not turned his attention more particularly to the study of historical topography, then in its infancy, when he took up his residence in Kent. Nevertheless he attained a high degree in law, having been elected a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1578; in 1592 a Master in Chancery; in 1597 Keeper of the Rolls in Chancery Lane ; and in \6oo Keeper of the Records in the Tower. In 1579 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the County of Kent, in which capacity his well- grounded knowledge of the laws and customs of Kent proved of great use to himself and his brother justices. At Lincoln's Inn he studied under Lawrence No well, who was famous for his profound know- ledge of the Anglo-Saxon tongue and antiquities, from whom he imbibed that taste for antiquarian learning which has rendered his name so famous in the history of Kent. In 1576 he founded a hospital at Greenwich for twenty poor persons, male or female, with an original allowance of six 124 BYGONE KENT. shillings per month, afterwards increased to fifteen shillings, and a yearly allowance of a chaldron and half of coals ; preference in appoint- ment to be given to aged, maimed, or blind, persons impoverished by casualty, afflicted with incurable sickness, or burthened with a large family. He denominated the hospital "The College of Queen Elizabeth," and placed it under the charge of the Master of the Rolls and the Drapers' Company. It is said to have been the first institution of the kind founded by a Protestant. He was a staunch Protestant a protestor against monkish tricks and miracles, and Popist superstitions in general ; thus in the " Perambula- tions," in speaking of Montindene, he states that the Friars there, within memory, had an annual procession in which " one berayed like a divel " met the holy brethren and attempted to carry off the cross, but was put to flight by the sprinkling of holy water, " and thus forsooth, the virtue of holy water in putting the divell to flight is confirmed at Montindene by a demonstrative argument ; which, if it be so, then greatly was St. Paul deceaved in sixth of his epistle to the Ephesians, where he goeth to arme us from toppe WILLIAM LAMBARDE. 1 2 5 to toe againste the assaultes of the divell, for what needed he, good man, to recite sallet, shield, sword, etc., when the holy waters ticke would have served his turne." Respecting the Boxley Rood of Grace, he informs us that a carpenter having a block of wood, considered with himself whether he should make it into a bench or fashion it into a god, and finally decided on the latter, whereupon he got together some " wyer, paste, and paper," and with these and his block of wood "he compacted a roode of such exquixite arte, and excellencie that it not onely matched in comelyness and due proportion of the parts of the best of the common sort, but in straunge motion, variety of gesture, and nimbleness of joints, passed al others that before had been scene ; the same being able to bow downe and lift up itself, to shake and stir the handes and feet, to nod the head, to roll the eis, to wag the chaps, to bend the brows, and finally to represent to this eie both the proper motion of each member of the body, and also a lively expresse and significant shew of a well-contented or displeased minde." When finished he placed it upon the back of a "jade" and came into Kent to dispose of his god, but 126 BYGONE KENT. the "jade" persisted in going to Boxley Abbey, and nowhere else, where it was left, and rendered the Abbey a famous place of pilgrimage. " Lambarde," says the English Cyclopaedia, " was one of the most accurate antiquaries of his day, and in all respects a man of learning and worth." He died at his residence, Westcombe, in 1601, and was buried in the parish church of Greenwich, with a monument placed over his remains. On the rebuilding of that church his remains were removed to Sevenoaks Church, which had become the burial-place of his descendants. The " Memoirs of Lambarde " were published in Vol. I., No. XLIL, of Nichols' " Biblio Topog. Brit.," 1787. Works. : " APXAIONOMIA, sive de priscis Anglorum Legibus Libri, etc.," 1568; with Map of the Saxon Heptarchy, Translation of a collection of Saxon Laws, made by his College Tutor, Lawrence Nowell. Reprinted in Wheloc's edition of Bede, 1644. Bishop Nicholson styles the translation " false and affected." " ' A Perambulation of Kent,' collected and written (for the most part) in the yeare 1570, and WILLIAM LAMBARDE. 127 now increased by the addition of some things which the Author himself hath observed since that time, 1576. The first history of any separate county. The 3rd and 5th editions, 1640 and 1656, contain the Charters of the Cinque Ports, and the edition of 1826, is preceded by a sketch of the Author's life." " Dictionarium Anglise topographicum et his- toricum : an Alphabetical Account of the chief places in England and Wales, with Portrait of the Author, 1730. This work, intended for a general Survey of England, was written before the appearance of Camden's ' Britannia,' upon the publication of which work he relinquished the undertaking, and it did not see the light until 1730." " Eirenarcha, or the offices of the Justices of the Peace; in two books, 1581, several subse- quent editions up to 1619." " The Duties of Constables, Borsholders, Tythingmen, etc., 1582. Several times reprinted, up to 1637." " Archion, or a commentary on the High Courts of Justice in England, 1591." ZTbe IRevolt of the IDilleins in tbe 2Da\>6 of Iking IRtcbarfc tbe Second BY EDWARD LAMPLOUGH. T) EHIND the mail-clad baron of the fourteenth -L-J century, in costly panoply, with emblazoned surcoat and crested helmet the advertisements of his chivalric rank there rose a dramatic background, with a mediaeval fortress frowning over fertile acres, in which toiled some scores of sturdy peasants the men whose sweat sustained the profusion and pride of the barons, and furnished them with pikemen and archers, when clarions blared, and the King's standard was carried over the borders of Scotland, or over sea to France. To such men as those Wiclif preached, and in his free gospel there was a divine ring of free humanity that touched the soul of vassal and peasant, and increased their interest in the rumours that reached them from beyond sea of Van Artavelde and Dubois, with the white-hoods at their back, and the lion of Flanders fleeing REVOLT OF THE VILLEINS. 129 before them ; of the armed resistance of the French peasantry to the collectors of their taxmasters. Commerce and trade were lifting the inhabitants of the towns to freedom and affluence ; and the peasant who abode in a town for a twelve-month and a day, unclaimed of his lord, became a free man. Between villein and noble rose the merchant and manufacturer, yielding allegiance only to the state, representing the commons of England in Parliament, and by example pointing the peasant to higher and truer conditions of life. The peasantry had suffered from the French wars ; in the building of Windsor Castle, King Edward had constrained each county to furnish its proportion of the necessary workmen ; and when the nation was scourged, and the population reduced, by the sweating sickness, raising the value of labour, a law was passed making the old wages compulsory ; but such a law could not, even then, be carried out. The prosperous villeins, land- tenants, and copy-holders purchased in the King's Court exemption from servitude, leagued themselves together for mutual protection, "and would not suffer distress to be taken either by the servants of their lords, or the officers of K 130 BYGONE KENT. justice." Parliament declared the exemptions valueless, and threatened the confederates with punishment. The ruler made the laws ; the villein was the source of his wealth. Among the peasantry moved a priest, John Ball, who loved to take for his text the couplet, " When Adam delved and Eve span, Pray who was the gentleman ?" The villeins admired the text, and agreed with the sermon, but the Archbishop of Canterbury clapped the popular preacher into prison at Maidstone. The following examples of the preaching popular with the peasantry are interesting and instructive. " John Balle Seynte Marye prist greteth wele alle maner men, and byddes hem in the name of the Trinite, Fadur and Sone and Holy Cost, stond manlycke togedyr in trewthe, and helpeth trewthe and trewthe schal helpe yowe. Now regneth pride in pris, and covetise is holde wys ; and lecherye with outen shame, and glotonye with outen blame ; envye regneth with tresone, and slouthe is take in grete sesone. God do bote, for now is tyme, Amen." REVOLT OF THE VILLEINS, 131 " lakke Mylner asket help to turn his mylne aright. He hath grounden smal smal ; the King's sone of heven he seal pay for alle. Loke thy Mylne go aryght with the four sayles and the post stand in steadfastnesse. With ryght and with myght, with skill and with wylle, let myght help ryght, and skyl go before wylle and ryght before myght, then goth our mylne aright. And if myght go before ryght, and wylle before skylle, then is our mylne mys a dyght." In January, 1380, Parliament made a spirited attempt to curb the extravagance of the Court. Nevertheless, in the autumn of the same year increased subsidies were demanded. In reply they stigmatised the demand as u outrageous and insupportable." The fatal capitation tax was then resorted to. It demanded three groats per head for every male and female who had come to the age of fifteen years. Indulgence was extended to the poor of some districts, the tax being graduated, so that while the mass of the people paid one groat each, the rich paid sixty groats per head. Government required the money with the least possible delay, and accordingly farmed the tax. Probably the indignant peasantry would have revolted against the imposition under any 132 BV GONE KENT. circumstances, but when hired collectors added insolence and extortion to oppression, the rising was sudden and furious. The first amount came short of the calculation. Commissioners were appointed to investigate the collection, and demanded further payments. The people, sullen and brooding, refused to pay. Commissioner Thomas de Bampton tried conclusions with the delinquents of Fobbings, Essex. He and his officers they chased out of Brentwood. The Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Sir Robert Bealknass, was deputed to deal with the rebels of Kent. He was denounced as a traitor to King and Kingdom, and also retired in haste before the raging mob that spread through the country, carrying as ensigns the heads of the jurors and clerks of court, elevated on long poles. The insurgent leader was a priest known only by his nom de guerre of Jack Straw. The Lord Treasurer's mansion was then visited by the enraged peasantry, and was found to contain an ample provision of meats and liquors ; Sir John having, in his capacity of Prior of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, summoned a chapter-general of the order, and generously provided for their entertainment. After con- REVOLT OF THE VILLEINS. 133 suming the provisions, the rebels demolished the house. The whole of Essex was in arms, a tumultuary force, undisciplined, and rudely armed with clubs, bows, pikes, and swords. While the people thus trembled on the eve of aggression, the tragic event whose incidents are so well known took place at Dartford, in Kent, at the house of Walter the Tyler. The fate of Tyler was decided. Agents from Essex were calling the men of Kent to arm in the common cause, for the reformation of the government and the abolition of taxes ; and Tyler's rash act had brought him a large following of discontented spirits, for " the rude officers had in many places made the like trial." The revolt spread from the Thames to the H umber. Leaders came to the front, nameless men, known to the peasantry as Jakke Milner, Jak Carter, Jak Treweman, and John Balle. Tyler and his fellows requested the villeins of the revolted counties to march upon London, and fully 60,000 men converged upon the capital, determined " that there should not be one bondman in England." At Maidstone they released John Ball from his bonds. Rochester Castle they surprised, liberating a man claimed 134 BYGONE KENT. by Sir Simon Burley as his bondman, although the poor fellow swore he had lived over a year and a day at Gravesend. Sir Simon had been content that the unfortunate man should languish in prison, although he placed upon him a price of three hundred pounds of silver. When the insurgents poured into Canterbury, John Ball is said to have called for the, death of the archbishop, but that prelate had fled to London ; they had, however, the satisfaction of pulling down his house. They terrified the monks and residents ; exacted from the mayor and aldermen an oath of fidelity to the King and commons, and advanced upon London, after hewing off the heads of three wealthy citizens. They carried with them the governor, Sir John Newton. The King's mother had been making a pilgrimage to Canterbury, and was surprised by the peasantry. She and her ladies were allowed to proceed on their journey, after being saluted with kisses by a few of the rude fellows. Concentrated at Blackheath, 100,000 strong, they dispatched Sir John Newton to the King, with complaints of the national mismanagement, the assurance that they were acting for his Majesty's honour, and a demand that the Arch- REVOLT OF THE VILLEINS. 135 bishop of Canterbury should render an account of his administration of the revenue. Sir John's children were retained as hostages for his fidelity, and he was naturally anxious to conciliate the King. Richard understood his subject's peculiar position, and as a temporising policy was the most likely to serve his interest, he accordingly returned a gracious answer to the peasants, promising to see them on the morrow. The villeins received the royal message with great satisfaction. He appeared before them on the following day, but on the river in his barge. He was welcomed with a tremendous cheer from 10,000 men massed on the banks at Rotherhithe, with two banners of St. George and sixty pennons stream- ing over their tumultuary array. The cry of welcome carried terror into the hearts of King and courtiers, and his barge was immediately turned back, the Earl of Salisbury excusing the King from landing by asserting that the peasants were not formed in proper array to receive him. Stung to sudden fury by their disappointment, the army surged upon London, tearing down abbeys and fair houses, if Froissart may be credited. Prison doers were beaten in, and the 136 BYGONE KENT. liberated felons swelled the ranks of their deliverers. They invaded the Archbishop's palace at Lambeth, made a fire of his furniture, and committed the chancery records to the flames. London Bridge barred their advance, but they had sympathisers within the gates. The bridge fell, and, once within the city, they were hospitably entertained by the people. A few houses were sacked, a number of Flemings slain, and the Duke of Lancaster's palace, the Savoy, was assaulted. Its. defenders were killed, and the building burnt. They found the Duke's liquor so much to their taste, that thirty of their men perished in the flames, overcome by intoxication. Even in rage and desperation, and despite their ranks being swollen by idle and dissolute persons, they maintained the integrity of their intentions, and finding one of their number in the act of appropriating a silver cup, they flung man and cup into the river together. They destroyed the house of the Hospitallers in Clerkenwell ; and their common question to all comers was, " With whom holdest thou ?" and woe to him who made other reply than, " With King Richard and the Commons," for on the instant his head -rolled in REVOLT OF THE VILLEINS. 137 the dust. Newgate, the Fleet, and the Temple were destroyed. Their furious pursuit of Lom- bards, Flemings, and other foreigners, led to frequent violations of the privilege of sanctuary. The army was formed into three divisions, one occupied Heybury, and burnt the house of the Knights of St. John in that locality ; the men of Essex and Hertfordshire formed the second body, and occupied Mile-End-Green ; the third division took up their quarters at Tower Hill and St. Catharine. Threatening messages were sent to Richard, and the provisions intended for his use were seized. On the following morning, a royal herald pro- claimed to the rebels before the Tower his Majesty's decision to honour them with a confer- ence at Mile-End. In due course he rode forth with a few friends, but so threatening was the appearance of the villeins, that Richard's uterine brothers, the Earl of Kent and Sir John Holland, spurred off in alarm, although the latter was a man of ferocious courage. The Tower was sufficiently guarded to have defied the utmost rage of the insurgents, yet, aided by the fears or treachery of the garrison, Wat Tyler and Jack Straw contrived to gain possession of the fort- 138 BYGONE KENT. ress, and with it those doomed objects of their resentment, Sir Robert Hales, the treasurer ; the Archbishop of Canterbury, the chancellor ; William Appledore, Richard's confessor ; and four of the tax-farmers. Short and bloody work was made with them, and the Archbishop's head, with the hat nailed on, was carried on point of lance to London Bridge, and there stuck up. Again the King's mother fell into their hands, and, after some rough salutes, was carried off in a fainting condition by her attendants. At Mile-End the more reasonable of the villeins presented their demands : The abolition of bondage ; the reduction of the rent of land to fourpence the acre ; the free liberty of buying and selling in all markets ; a general pardon for past offences. Richard readily, and with courtly grace, agreed to these not immoderate demands, and promised to supply the peasants with royal banners, under the protection of which they were to march home ; with the exception of two or three persons from each village, who were to wait for the royal charters, in the copying of which thirty clerks were occupied the whole of the night. The young King sought his mother at her REVOLT OF THE VILLEINS. 139 house, the Wardrobe, in Carter Lane ; and on the following morning, after attending mass at West- minster, rode through Smithfield, with sixty horse in attendance, and held a conference with Wat Tyler, who had 20,000 men at his back. Wat is said to have repudiated the charter granted on the previous day, to have demanded the abolition of the game or forest laws, with the privilege of taking fish in all waters, and the free- dom of chase in park, forest, and field. Against him was also levelled the accusation of plotting the massacre of the royal retinue, and the seizure of the King, in whose name he proposed to govern the nation. On Richard's arrival the rebel leader rode up to him so close that the horses touched, and, pointing to his followers, boasted of their fidelity, declaring that they would not depart without the King's letters. Richard's life was unquestionably in the hands of the villeins, but he maintained his temper, and exhibited unfaltering courage. According to Froissart, Tyler exhibited unbounded insolence, and demanded the life of one of the royal squires ; whereon Sir William Walworth drew near with twelve horse, and reproved his insolence. To him the doomed man made stern HO BYGONE KENT. reply, but was butchered the next moment by the doughty Mayor, whether by thrust of sword or blow of mace matters not. Enraged by the death of their leader, but obviously unprepared to slay the King, the insurgents clamoured loudly, and stood to their arms, when Richard rode up to them, exhorted them to accept him as their leader, and concern themselves no further about the traitor who had fallen. Some believed the boy- King, and followed him ; others, distrusting his Majesty's intentions, withdrew from the press, and made for the country. Arrived at Islington, the insurgents found 1000 men-at-arms awaiting them, under the command of Sir Robert Knowles. A scene of confusion followed. Some turned to fly, others fell on their knees, imploring the King's pardon, and doubtless others stood to their arms to strike a last blow for life or vengeance. Knowles was impatient to charge, and a bloody tragedy would probably have been enacted had not Richard wisely resolved to let the peasants depart in peace. He contented himself with proclaim- ing death to any strangers remaining overnight in the city. Once dispersed and powerless, the peasantry could be punished at leisure. REVOLT OF THE VILLEINS. 141 The death of Tyler, and the dispersion of the insurgents, came in good time, for numerous hostile bands were making for the capital. The men of Hertfordshire did not disperse on receiv- ing news of the disastrous ending of the move- ment, but extorted the written acknowledgement of their freedom from their lords, and at St. Alban's 'kindled a fire in the market-place, and consumed therein the charters and privileges of the Abbey, which they had compelled the Abbot to deliver into their hands. The story of the disturbances in the different eastern counties, Suffolk, Cambridge, Norfolk, Huntingdon, need not be related here. Spencer, the doughty bishop of Norwich, played a great part in suppressing these. So determined were the men of Essex that they sent deputies to Richard praying for a confirmation of their charter, but their time of triumph was past, and that of Richard had dawned. His standard streamed on Blackheath, surrounded by 40,000 men ; and on the 3Oth of June, having commanded all vassals to return to their duty, he despatched an expedition into Kent, to complete the pacification of that county, while he marched against the men of Essex, having 142 BYGONE KENT. first stuck a clump of ghastly heads, including Wat Tyler's, over London Bridge. At Billericay and Sudbury those obstinate sticklers for liberty struck fiercely against his arms, and sealed their devotion to the cause in which they were engaged by streams of peasant-blood, before they submitted to the King's grace. After this Richard was able to complete his progress through the kingdom, restoring tranquility, and gathering up the charters wrung from him under the cruel compulsion of peasant force. John Ball, Jack Straw, and Westbroome were among the leaders who suffered execution. Luttester and Westbroome are reputed to have pretended to the title of Kings of Norfolk and Suffolk ; but the peasants have no voice in history, the story of their revolt is bequeathed to us by the pens of their enemies, and doubtless absurd rumours, and the ravings of intoxicated slaves, have been recorded as the studied statements of the leaders. The Commons, in summing up the causes of the revolt, were just to the unfortunate peasantry, and imputed their action to the burthens cast upon them by the lengthy wars, the rapacity of tax-collecters, the extortion of the purveyors, and the outrages committed by the numerous bands of REVOLT OF THE VILLEINS. 143 outlaws that infested the country, and preyed upon the poor. They were so far in sympathy with the people that they were with great difficulty induced to grant further taxes ; but on wringing the concession from them, Richard pardoned the villeins, of whom, according to Holinshed, he had put 1 500 to death during his progress through the country. The popular notion that Richard acted so very wisely in his dealings with the peasantry, who were certainly loyal to the boy-king, looking to him as the redresser of their wrongs, is hardly borne out by the tone of his address to them, when he felt himself to be once more safe : " Rustics ye have been and are," he is reported to have said, " and in bondage shall ye remain ; not such as ye have heretofore known, but in a condition incomparably more vile." IRo^al jeitbam. BY JOSEPH W. SPURGEON. " Pity the fall of such a goodly pile." Shirley. THE precise date of the first erection of a palace at Eltham is involved in some obscurity. The work is generally, and doubtless correctly, attributed to Anthony Bek, Bishop of Durham from 1283 to 1311. Most writers on the subject agree, too, in suggesting the year 1270 as possibly the one which saw the completion of the buildings, thus adopting the opinion expressed by Lambarde, in his " Perambulation of Kent," as follows : " King Henrie the third (saith Mat. Parise) toward the latter ende of his reigne, kept a Royall Christmas (as the manner then was) at Eltham, being accompanied with his Queene and Nobilitie : and this (belike) was the first warming of the house (as I may call it) after that the Bishop had finished his worke." It is more likely, however, that the Bishop had not even begun his work, as I will endeavour to show. First, it will be necessary to mention a few facts in the career of this remarkable man. He was born probably about the year 1240, his ROYAL ELTHAM. 145 father being Walter, Baron of Eresby. In 1270 he went with Prince Edward to the Crusades, and, it may be presumed, was with him until his return in 1274. Taking orders soon afterwards, he was appointed in 1283 to the see of Durham ; but his propensities fitted him better for the life of a courtier and soldier than that of an ecclesiastic. "He loved military parade, and had always knights and soldiers about him." He was often employed in important political negotiations, especially in the matter of the Scottish succession in 1290. In the campaign which followed (1296- 1304) he took a prominent part, receiving the submission of Balliol, and holding high command, riding at the head of the army by the king's side. His extravagance was proverbial, and his ambition unbounded. The Pope gave him the proud but empty title of " Patriarch of Jerusalem ;" the king gave him more substantial benefits, making him Count Palatine of Durham, and King of the Isle of Man. Part of the manor of Eltham, which from time immemorial had belonged to the Crown, was conferred by Edward I. upon John, first Baron de Vesci, of Alnwick, who, dying in 1288, left his possessions to his brother, William de Vesci. 146 BYGONE KENT. The latter, before his death in 1297, made them over to Anthony Bek, as trustee for his little natural son, but the covetous bishop defrauded the orphan of his inheritance, and by some legal trick made himself master of the property, after which, as I take it, he built Eltham Palace. From the foregoing it will be seen that Eltham could not have been granted to Bek by William de Vesci until after his brother's death in 1288 ; therefore the Christmas Feast of 1270 must have been held, not in Bishop Bek's palace, but in the manor-house which doubtless preceded it. Further, it is unlikely that the Bishop was" able to misappropriate the manor before the decease of William de Vesci in 1297, or that he commenced building before he was certain of possessing the estate. This would bring the probable date of the erection of the building to about 1300, and would also dispose of the statement that he bequeathed it to Queen Eleanor, for she died in 1290. However this may be, it is known that the Bishop made the palace his favourite residence, and breathed his last there in 1311. Three years before that date the palace was honoured by what appears to be the first royal visit. Edward II., on his arrival from France ROYAL ELTHAM. 147 with his bride, Isabella, brought her to Eltham, where they remained for about fifteen days await- ing their coronation. It was not until after the decease of Anthony Bek that Eltham became, properly speaking, a royal residence ; indeed, it is evident that the Bishop's legatee was Queen Isabella, not Queen Eleanor. With the reign of Edward II. the history of the palace begins, which, if completely told, would fill a fair-sized book. I can therefore only select the most important events, of which a few of minor interest, though not unworthy of mention, may first be briefly summarised. Eltham was the scene of three royal births, the first being that of Prince John, second son of Edward II., in 1316, who was created Earl of Cornwall, but was better known as "John of Eltham," and whose tomb is in Westminster Abbey. Two princesses also were born here, namely, Philippa, daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, in 1355, afterwards Countess of March, and Bridget, seventh daughter of Edward IV., in 1480, who became Prioress of Dartford. These three infants, and also Katherine, Edward IV.'s sixth daughter, were christened at Eltham. Edward III., when a boy, was partly educated 148 BYGONE KENT. here, Griffin, the son of Sir Griffin of Wales, being one of his companions. Three royal brides were brought to the palace, whence, after a short stay, each went forth to her coronation ; they were (i) Isabella the Fair, wife of Edward II., as already mentioned ; (2) Isabella of Valois, Richard II.'s child-queen; and (3) Elizabeth Woodville, married a year previously to Edward IV. Edward III. held at least three Parlia- ments at Eltham, on the last occasion, in 1376, creating his grandson Prince of Wales. In 1386 Richard II. here received a deputation from both Houses, opposing his intended invasion of France, and in 1395 held an important council, of which further mention will be made. The festival of Christmas, with the splendour which in those days characterised its observance by royalty, was often celebrated here ; notably by the Duke of Clarence in 1347, Richard II. in 1384, 1385, and 1386, Henry IV. in 1400, 1405, 1409, and 1412, Henry V. in 1414, Henry VI. in 1429, Edward IV. in 1482, and Henry VIII. in 1 5 1 5> ! 5 2 3. and T 525- Passing now to those historical matters which deserve to be treated of more fully, and taking them in chronological order, we commence with ROYAL ELTHAM. 149 the year 1364, which was one of the proudest in the history of Eltham. King John of France, who was taken prisoner by the Black Prince at the battle of Poitiers in 1356, had, after the signing of the treaty of Bretigny, returned to France to arrange for payment of his ransom, leaving as hostage his son, the Duke of Anjou. The latter, however, broke his parole, and left England ; but John sent the young Lord Ingebrand de Coucy in his stead. De Coucy's captivity brought him unexpected good fortune, for he succeeded in gaining the affections of Isabella, the Princess-royal. The French king, finding his Government repudiated the terms of the treaty, voluntarily returned to England in 1364, saying that if honour were lost elsewhere upon earth, it ought to be found in the conduct of kings. Froissart thus tells the story of his reception : " News was brought to the king of England (who at that time was with his queen at Eltham, a very magnificent palace which the king had, seven miles from London) that the King of France had landed at Dover. . . . The third day he [king John] set out, taking the road to London, and rode on until he came to Eltham, where the king of England was, with a number of lords, ready to receive him. It was on a Sunday, in the afternoon, that he arrived ; there were, therefore, 150 BYGONE KENT. between this time and supper, many grand dances and carols. The young Lord de Coucy was there, who took pains to shine in his dancing and singing whenever it was his turn. ... I can never relate how very honourably and magnificently the king and queen of England received King John. On leaving Eltham, he went to London," where, in the Savoy Palace, he died on April 8th of the same year. Next year de Coucy was married to the princess, but unfortunately they did not live happily ever after, their romantic attachment ending twelve years later in a separation. The last days of Edward III. were spent at Eltham and Shene, where, broken down in health and spirit, and worn out with his active life, he was left almost alone, deserted by his friends. He died at Shene in 1377. Richard II. was at Eltham, keeping Christmas, in 1386, when there came to him Leo, King of Armenia, "under pretence," says Stow, "to reform peace betwixt the kings of England and France ; but what his coming profited he only understood ; for besides innumerable gifts that he received, . . . the king granted to him a charter of a thousand pounds by year during his life. He was, as he affirmed, chased out of his kingdom by the Tartarians." ROYAL ELTHAM. 151 In 1395, Richard, having lost his " Good Queen Anne," summoned his council to Eltham, partly to broach to them his intention of marrying Isabella of Valois, and partly to lay before them a petition from Guienne, asking that that province, which Richard had conferred upon the Duke of Lancaster, might remain an appanage of the English crown. While the council was deliberat- ing, Jean Froissart, the famous chronicler and poet, was at the palace, waiting for an opportunity to present the king with a volume of his poems. He relates at length the doings of this parliament, as told him by Sir Richard Sturry. The Duke of Gloucester opposed the petition, and " To show that he governed the king and was the greatest in the council, as soon as he had delivered his opinion and saw that many were murmuring at it, and that the prelates and lords were discussing it in small parties, he quitted the king's chamber, followed by the earl of Derby, and entered the hall at Eltham, where he ordered a table to be spread, and they both sat down to dinner while others were debating the business. When the duke of York heard they were at dinner, he joined them. . . . On the Sunday, the whole council were gone to London, excepting the duke of York, who remained with the king, and sir Richard Sturry : these two, in conjunction with sir Thomas Percy, mentioned me again to the king, who desired to see the book I had brought for him. . . . The king asked me what the book treated of: I replied 'Of love!' He was pleased with the answer, and dipped into several places, reading parts 152 BYGONE KENT. aloud, for he read and spoke French perfectly well, and then gave it to one of his knights, called sir Richard Credon, to carry to his oratory, and made me many acknowledgments for it." While at Eltham in the following August (1396), the king was informed of a plot against him, headed by the Duke of Gloucester ; who soon afterwards was seized and conveyed .to Calais, there to meet his death. The historic quarrel, in 1398, between the Dukes of Norfolk and Hereford, when in the king's presence each accused the other of treason, occurred, according to Froissart, at Eltham Palace. * The king decided that on September 1 6th, at Coventry, they should settle their differ- ence by mortal combat ; but when the time arrived, having changed his mind, he forbade the duel to proceed, and sentenced both combatants to banishment, Hereford for ten years, and Nor- folk for life. Before one year had passed, however, Hereford returned to claim his father's estates, and gained possession, not only of his * Froissart is often inaccurate as to details, and even in the account of this transaction he makes three mistakes, calling Norfolk and Hereford respectively by their earlier titles of Earl Marshal and Earl of Derby, and placing the scene of the combat at Eltham instead of Coventry. We must not, therefore, place too much reliance on his statement that the quarrel took place at Eltham. See Shakespeare's Richard II. ROYAL ELTHAM. 153 inheritance, but of the throne of England. After Richard's abdication and death, the Constable of France, Count d'Albret, came to enquire after the welfare of the young widowed queen Isabella. He and his party were received by Henry at Eltham, and splendidly entertained, both before and after their visit to Isabella at Havering-atte-Bower. In 1402 an unusual ceremony, that of marriage by proxy, was performed at Eltham Palace. The cause of this strange proceeding was the exist- ence of two rival popes, of whom the one at Avignon was favoured by the bride, Joanna of Navarre, while the bridegroom, Henry IV., supported him who ruled at Rome. Joanna, however, outwitted her particular pope by obtain- ing from him permission to marry anyone she pleased within the fourth degree of consanguinity, without naming the person. She then sent Antoine Riczi, one of her esquires, to England, with authority to make a contract of matrimony in her name with King Henry. He was received on the 3rd of April at Eltham, and, the articles of the transaction being signed, " Henry plighted his nuptial troth to Antoine Riczi, and placed the bridal ring on his finger .... on which the 154 BYGONE KENT. trusty squire, having received Henry's plight, pronounced that of Joanna in these words : ' I, Antoine Riczi, in the name of my worshipful lady, Joanna, the daughter of Charles, lately king of Navarre, duchess of Bretagne, and countess of Richmond, take you, lienry of Lancaster, king of England and lord of Ireland, to be my husband, and thereto I, Antoine, in the spirit of my said lady, plight you my troth.'," In 1412. the king kept his last Christmas at Eltham, "being," as Holinshed puts it, "sore vexed with sicknesse, so that it was thought sometime that he had beene dead. Notwithstand- ing it pleased God that he somewhat recovered his strength againe, and so passed that Christmasse with as much joy as he might." Henry V., while keeping Christmas here in 1413-14, was alarmed by a rumour that the Lollards were assembling in arms, intending to seize his person. The report was probably false, but it caused a sudden removal of the court to Westminster, and led to the execution of some forty Lollards. In 1415, on his return from the great victory of Agincourt, the king stayed one night at Eltham with his prisoners, the French noblemen, among them the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, who were subsequently again S.fc 9 156 BYGONE KENT. lodged there. It was here, in 1416, that Henry received Sigismund, Emperor of Germany, who was conducted to the palace in great state, and magnificently entertained. The objects of his visit were to establish peace between England and France, and to enlist the aid of Henry in putting an end to the ecclesiastical dissensions of the time. The boy-king Henry VI. stayed at Eltham on his return from Paris, where he had been crowned " King of France ;" and after his marriage he restored and beautified it, with other palaces, in honour of the queen. In 1460, after his capture by the Yorkists at Northampton, Henry was brought to Eltham, and allowed to indulge in hunting and other sports, which, though he was a prisoner, and his wife and child fugitives, he seems to have greatly enjoyed. By Edward IV. the palace was repaired and enlarged, the principal work being the rebuilding of the banqueting-hall, and the placing of a stone bridge across the moat instead of the wooden o drawbridge. Both these remain to the present day. The reasons usually given for crediting Edward IV. with the erection of the Hall are (i) the style of its architecture, which corresponds ROYAL ELTHAM. 157 with that of other buildings of his reign, and (2) the special badge of this monarch, namely, the rose en soleil, which is to be seen in one of the spandrels of the principal doorway. More conclusive evidence, however, is supplied by an ancient document, still preserved, which contains particulars of the "Cost and Expenses don upon the hildyng of the newe Halle wtyn the manor of Eltham, in the charge of James Hatefeld, from Sonday the xixth day of Septembr the xixth yere of the reigne of our Sovreyn lord Kyng Edward the iiijth unto Sonday the iijd of October, the yere aforeseid.* [1479.] In 1482, probably on the completion of the work, the king held his Christmas festivities here in splendid style, more than two thousand guests being daily entertained. The short reigns of Edward V. and Richard III. afford no items of Eltham history, but Lambarde, writing in 1570, says "it is not yet fully out of memorie, that king Henry the seventh, set up the faire front over the mote there "- doubtless on the western side, where there are still indications of a former range of buildings. But Henry VII. was the last monarch who paid more than occasional visits to the palace, "since * Treasury of reel, of Exchq. , Paper clocum. Portfo. II, No. 1644. 158 BYGONE KENT. whose reigne," says the same writer, "this house, by reason of the neerenesse to Greenewicke, . . . hath not beene so greatly esteemed : the rather also for that the pleasures of the emparked groundes here, may be in manner as well enjoyed, the Court lying at Greenwiche, as if it were at this house it selfe." Nevertheless, excepting Prince Arthur, all the children of Henry VII. were educated at Eltham, where, in January 1500, the great scholar Erasmus was introduced to them by his friend Mr. Thomas More, afterwards Lord Chancellor. " When they came into the great Hall, they saw the whole train of the young Princes. In the middle stood Prince Henry, then nine years of age ; foreshewing the signs and tokens of majesty, a greatness of mind supported by a singular humanity." After the visit, Erasmus composed a long poem in praise of England and the royal family, which he sent to Prince Henry, and so commenced their frequent correspondence. Henry VIII., though generally preferring Greenwich, spent Christmas here on three occasions, the first of which, in 1515-16, was marked by unusual splendour. On the Christmas Eve, after vespers, Cardinal Wolsey ROYAL ELTHAM. 159 took the oath and office of Lord Chancellor, in place of Archbishop Warham, who had resigned. When Twelfth-night came, a grand entertainment was given in the great hall. Among the state papers at the Record Office is one giving an account of this masque, which, if only for its quaint spelling, is worth quoting. A castle of timber having been prepared, and, as Holinshed has it, " wonderouslie set out," Master William Cornish and the children of the chapel performed "the story of Troylous and Pandor rychly inparylled, allso Kallkas and Kryssyd inparylled lyke a wedow of onour, in blake sarsenet and other abelements for seche mater ; Dyomed and the Greks inparylled lyke men of warre, akordyng to the intent or porpoos.* After weche komedy playd and doon, an harroud [i.e. herald] tryd and mad an oy that 3 strange knyghts wer cum to do batall with [those] of the sayd kastell ; owt weche yssud 3 men of arms with punchyng spers, redy to do feets at the barryers, inparylled in whyghthe saten and greeyn saten of Bregys, f lynd with gren sarsenet and whyght sarsenet, and the saten cut ther on. To the sayd 3 men of arms entered other 3 men of arms with lyke wepuns, and inparylled in sclops of reed sarsenet and yelow sarsenet, and with speers mad sartayn strooks ; and after that doon, with nakyd swerds fawght a fayer batayll of 12 strooks, and so departyd of foors. Then out of the kastell ysseud a quyen, and with her 6 ladyes, with spechys after the devyes of Mr. * The story was evidently Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida, largely a translation of Boccaccio's Filostrato. t Bruges? 160 BYGONE KENT. Kornyche : and after thys doon, 7 mynstrells inparylled in long garments and bonets to the saam of saten of Bregys, whyght and greeyn, un the walls and towrys of the sayd kastell played a melodyus song. Then cam out of the kastell 6 lords and gentyllmen inparelled in garments of whyght saten of Bregys and greyn, browdyrd with counterfyt stuf of Flandyrs making, as brochys, ouchys, spangs and seche ; and allso 6 ladyes inparelld in 6 garments of ryght saten, whyght and greeyn, set with H and K* of yelow saten, poynted together with poynts of Kolen golld. Thes 6 garments for ladyes wer of the Kyng's stoor, newly repayryd. Allso the sayd ladyes heeds inparylled with loos golld of damask, as well as with wovyn flat golld of damaske," [etc. then follows an account of the expenditure.] On the conclusion of these performances, "the banket," says Holinshed, "was served in of two hundred dishes, with great plentie to everie bodie." On the Eve of Epiphany, 1524, at the end of the Christmas holidays, the king and queen received Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, who had come to explain to the queen the plans of Christ Church College, Wolsey's new foundation at Oxford. The festival in 1525, because of an epidemic in the city, was held at Eltham with only a few guests, and was named the " Still Christmas." It was on this occasion that Wolsey presented the king with the lease of Hampton * The initials of the king and queen, a pet idea of Henry's ; though the second letter had rather frequently to be altered ! ROYAL ELTHAM. 161 Court Palace. At the same time he drew up a most minute and elaborate set of "Articles devised by the King's highness, with the advice of his council, for the establishment of good order and reformation of sundry errors and misuses in his most honourable household and chamber." These rules, which are too long to quote, are preserved among the state papers, and are known as the Statutes of Eltham. They are said to contain precedents for many of the Court customs of the present day. After this date the royal visits to Eltham were but few. On July 21, 1555, Queen Mary removed from St. James's Palace, taking a barge to Lambeth, whence she drove to Eltham Palace, escorted by Cardinal Pole, Lords Pembroke and Montague, and others. Over 10,000 persons assembled to see her, this being, as is supposed, her first appearance since her mysterious illness. Queen Elizabeth, who when an infant had often been taken to Eltham, paid at least one important visit to the palace, on August 6th, 1559, nine months after her accession, when she met there the Earl of Arran, son of the former Regent of Scotland. The young Earl, who was handsome but weak-minded, had been at one time regarded M 1 62 BYGONE KENT. as the future husband of Mary Queen of Scots, and was subsequently proposed as a suitable con- sort for Elizabeth. Evidently the object of this interview was to ascertain his prospects in that direction. Elizabeth, as she was wont to do with her admirers, appeared to encourage him, all the while scheming how to utilise his devotion for her political ends. Three years later his weak mind gave way altogether, and he never recovered his reason ; perhaps disappointment had something to do with it. In this reign the palace was usually occupied by Sir Christopher Hatton ; after which time, with the exception of one visit of James I. in May and June, 1612, and one of Charles I. in November, 1629, it was abandoned by royalty. On the passing of the Self-denying Ordinance, in 1645, the Earl of Essex resigned his commission, and retired to Eltham House (as the palace was now called), where he died on September i3th, 1646. In 1650 the property was sold by Parliament to Major-General Rich. According to the survey taken in 1649, the buildings consisted of: " One fair chapel, one great hall, thirty-six rooms and offices below stairs, with two large cellars ; and above stairs, in lodgings called the King's side, 17, the Queen's side, 12, and ROYAL ELTHAM. 163 the Prince's side, 9 ; in all 38 lodging-rooms, with other necessary small rooms . . . thirty-five bays of build- ings, containing [in two stories about 78 rooms, etc.] with one inward court containing ^ an acre, and one garden called the Arbor, lying South of the Mansion ; also one orchard." All this was sold for .2,753, the estimated value of the materials. On April 22, 1656, Evelyn " went to see his Majesty's house at Eltham, both Palace and chapell in miserable ruines, the noble woods and park destroy'd by Rich the Rebell." The restoration of Charles II. did not bring about the restoration of the palace. Sir John Shaw, to whom the estate was granted by the king, proceeded straightway to demolish the buildings, which were really in such bad repair as to be uninhabitable. Happily they were not all destroyed ; the great hall, which somebody happened to remark would make a good barn, was spared for that purpose ! Such was the base use to which the noble building was put for many years. At last, in 1828, after nearly two centuries of neglect, the roof showed signs of giving way, and the hall was only saved from demolition by order of the Government, who expended ^700 on its repair. Smirke, the celebrated architect, superintended 1 64 BYGONE KENT. the operations. In 1859 a dwelling-house was erected against the eastern end. The hall itself, which had until then continued to be used as a barn, was cleared out, and since then it has been carefully preserved. The moat, which varies in breadth from fifty to one hundred feet, is still spanned on the north by the three-arched bridge built by Edward IV., but, excepting the portion below the bridge, it is now quite dry. Before crossing it, there is seen on the right hand a picturesque wooden house, which, if it be not the actual building, occupies the site of "my Lord Chancellor's lodging," as shown in a plan of 1509. Portions of the wall within the moat are yet visible, and in the enclosure, incorporated with the modern residence, are some remains of the ancient kitchen and buttery. There are also a number of subterranean passages, now used as drains. The hall, however, claims our chief attention. It is built principally of bricks, faced with stone. Its outward appearance is not remarkable ; indeed, if it were not for the windows, it would almost justify the misnomer of " King John's Barn," which the people of Eltham for many years applied to it. The architectural effect was ROYAL ELTHAM. 165 intentionally restricted to the interior. On entering, one is struck with its fine proportions, the measurements being one hundred feet in length, thirty-six in width, and fifty-five in height. The body of the hall is lighted by ten windows on each side, each window divided by a mullion without a transom, and the sections cinquefoil- headed with a quatrefoil between. These windows only extend half-way down the walls, the space below being left for tapestry. At the western end, projecting north and south, are two large bays, with windows reaching from top to bottom, and finely vaulted roofs. Across the hall between these bays was the dais, and at the opposite end a carved screen reached from side to side, with an inner entrance in its centre, forming a lobby into which the outer doors opened. Above this was the minstrels' gallery. But the finest feature of the hall is its hammer-beam roof, constructed of oak, with braces resting on stone corbels, carved pendants, spandrels pierced with trefoils, and pierced panelling above the collar-beams. Standing within the Hall nowadays it is difficult to realise its former magnificence. The dais is levelled with the ground ; the music-gallery has gone, and the present screen is but a patchwork ; 1 66 BYGONE KENT. no rich hangings decorate the bare, rough walls ; the windows, all unglazed, are sadly mutilated ; and the roof, the best-preserved portion, is almost hidden by the huge unsightly framework raised to support it. Yet, while we deplore the damage done to the building in the days of its degradation, we must not forget that, but for its adaptability to the purposes of a barn, it would have been totally destroyed more than two hundred years ago. (Sreenwicb Jfair. BY THOMAS FROST. THE pleasure fairs of our towns and villages are diminishing year by year, both in number and attractiveness, under the combined influences of legal enactments against them and the facilities now enjoyed for a higher class of entertainments than those which they provided. At the rate at which they have of late years been disappearing, the next generation will know them only by the pictures of Hogarth, Rowlandson, and Setchel, and the contemporary descriptions of Hone and others. The fairs of Kent which had survived the changes of the last fifty or sixty years have been swept away by magisterial edicts under the powers conferred by the Fairs Act. It may be well, therefore, to present a picture of one of the most famous of them, while there are yet living some few persons who can recall its chief features. Let it be Greenwich. There were really two pleasure fairs held at 1 68 BYGONE KENT. Greenwich, at Easter and Whitsuntide respec- tively, but for the purpose of this paper they may be dealt with as one. The earlier fair was the opening event of the year with the showmen, the stall-keepers, and the proprietors of the drinking and dancing booths. The portable theatre then owned by Richardson, a notable character in his way, always occupied a prominent position at both fairs, and many actors who afterwards became favourably known to the frequenters of the London theatres acquired their early experience on its boards. It is known that Edmund Kean, James Wallack, Oxberry, and Saville Faucit, were of the number, but it cannot be said positively that those stars of the theatrical world ever appeared under a canvas canopy at Greenwich. There, however, were certainly seen, in the palmy days of the fair, James Barnes, afterwards famous as the pantaloon of the Covent Garden pantomimes ; John Cartlitch, the original representative of Mazeppa ; Nelson Lee, well known to a later generation as the enterprising manager of a metropolitan theatre, as well as Richardson's successor ; John Douglass, after- wards lessee of the Standard, the largest theatre in London ; Paul Herring, the GREENWICH FAIR. 169 famous pantomimist ; Crowther, who was subse- quently engaged at Astley's ; Charles Freer and Mrs. Campbell, favourites later on at the Pavilion ; and Mrs. Yates, who was afterwards engaged at the Standard. Some really good things were occasionally to be seen on the boards of Richardson's theatre. For instance, in the first year of Lee's management, the ballet in " Esmeralda," which was then attracting large audiences to the Adelphi, was produced at the Whitsuntide fair at Greenwich, where the theatre stood at the extreme end of the ground, near the bridge at Deptford Creek. It proved a great success, and Oscar Byrne, who had arranged the ballet for the Adelphi, visited the theatre, and complimented Lee on the manner in which it was produced. The ballet was probably much better worth seeing than the sensational dramas, cut down to an extent that enabled them to be played in twenty minutes, upon which the popularity of Richardson's chiefly depended. Actors who have long since departed from the stage of this world used to tell some singular stories in connection with this well-known show. Among these may be quoted the deception 170 BYGONE KENT. practised on Nelson Lee by an eccentric panto- mimist named Shaw, who, in addition to oddities of mind and manner, possessed but one eye. Towards the close of the season of 1841, this young man's freaks became so remarkable as to raise a doubt as to whether he was perfectly sane, and, in the interests of the theatre, he received his dismissal. When the company was being formed for the following season, an application for the vacancy was received by letter from one Charles Wilson, who stated that he had been engaged as Harlequin at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham. Lee engaged him, but did not see him until he presented himself at the theatre on Easter Sunday, at Greenwich. There was then observed a remarkable resemblance between the new Harlequin and his predecessor, extending to every feature except the eyes, and even they were the same colour as Shaw's. It was soon discovered, however, that the eye, which had made a puzzle of the identity, was a glass one ; and " Wilson," charged with being Shaw, acknowledged the deception. Lee overlooked it, and experience seems to have made the panto- mimist a wiser man in the future. Menageries and circuses enjoyed a large share GREEN WICH FAIR. \ 7 1 of the patronage of the visitors to the fair, and in connection with one of the former Wombwell's the original Wombwell's, for George Wombwell was then living a terrible catastrophe occurred there rather more than fifty years ago. The attractiveness of performances with lions and tigers by women had brought so much money into the coffers of Hilton and Edmunds, that Helen Blight, the daughter of a musician in Wombwell's band, was induced to undertake the role of "lion queen," in rivalry with Miss Hilton and Miss Chapman (now Mrs. George Sanger). Unfortunately, she had not sufficient command of her temper for the successful exercise of so dangerous a vocation. While performing with the animals at Greenwich Fair, she applied a riding-whip she was carrying to a tiger which exhibited some refractoriness. The enraged beast immediately sprang upon her, seized her by the throat, and dragged her to the floor of the cage. The keepers endeavoured to beat off the tiger, but the unfortunate young woman was dead before she could be rescued. Hilton's menagerie passed into the possession of Manders in 1852, and when the show came to Greenwich that year, it was without a lion- 172 BYGONE KENT. performer, Tom Newsome brother of the late circus proprietor of that name having just before terminated his engagement in that capacity some- what abruptly. On one of the fair days an athletic negro, in the garb of a sailor, accosted one of the musicians, and asked whether employ- ment could be found for him in the show. Manders was communicated with, and the negro was invited to enter the show, and see the " governor." His appearance led Manders to offer him the vacant position of "lion-king," which he accepted with so much seeming confidence in his power to control the animals, that he was, at his own request, allowed to enter the lion's cage, in which situation he displayed so much coolness and address that he was engaged there and then. This black sailor was the famous Macomo, who travelled with the menagerie for several years, realising to the uttermost the expectations raised by his first performance with the beasts. After the shows of one kind and another, the most prominent features of the fair were the large booths devoted to refection and dancing. There were sometimes a score of these in the fair, the principal being the Crown and Anchor and GREENWICH FAIR. 1 7 3 the Albion, the only two at which a charge was made for admission to the "assembly room," the tickets being a shilling at the former, and sixpence at the latter. The Crown and Anchor was three hundred and twenty-three feet long by sixty feet wide, seventy feet of the length constituting the refreshment department, and the rest of the space, rearward, being devoted to dancing. The culinary operations were conducted in open air, behind the booths, where glowing charcoal fires burned in grates of immense width. At night both the refreshment bar and the dancing room were lighted with coloured lamps, arranged in a variety of devices, as crowns, stars, anchors, wreaths, etc., and in the latter com- partment, separated by a partition, a good band played, generally consisting of two harps, three violins, a bass viol, two clarionets, and a flute. In the palmy days of the fair the sons and daughters of the shopkeepers of the district resorted to the Crown and Anchor in the evening, and joined in the quadrilles and country dances without the slightest fear as to what Mrs. Grundy might say. The company became less select, however, in the latter years of the fair. The fair did not, even in its best days, always 174 BYGONE KENT. pass without some disturbance. Half a century ago, when the respectable portion of society was so frequently scandalized by the wild freaks of certain scions of aristocratic families, a party of these young men visited Richardson's theatre, and annoyed both actors and audience by throwing nuts at the former, and talking and laughing loudly throughout the performance. A dozen years later the show was wrecked by a party of soldiers from Woolwich, the riot originating in a practical joke played by one of the party upon a man in the crowd. This being resented, the soldier assaulted him, and on his retreating up the steps he was followed by his assailant. Nelson Lee interposed, and was himself assaulted, upon which some of the company bundled the aggressor down the steps. He returned, supported by a number of his comrades, and a fight ensued on the exterior stage. The defenders were over-matched, however, and retreated into the auditorium or jumped off the platform and fled. The soldiers then began destroying the front of the theatre and smashing the lamps. Fortunately these were not lighted, or a terrible conflagration might have been the result. Lee exerted himself bravely to prevent the destruction of his property until a GREEN WICH FAIR. 1 7 5 rope was fastened round him, with which the rioters were about to hoist him to the top of the front, when a dozen constables arrived and rescued him from his dastardly assailants. The latter fled, but several of them were captured, and probably would have been dealt with as severely as they deserved to be if Lee had not withdrawn from the prosecution in the expectation that compensation would be made by the officers of the regiment, as the recorder had suggested, but he never received a penny. Richardson's or rather Johnson and Lee's theatre appeared at this fair for the last time in 1852. Wombwell had died two years before, his fine collection being then divided, in conformity with his will, into three equal parts, which he bequeathed to his widow and two nieces, Mrs. Edmunds and Mrs. Day. The fair had been declining for several years, though its decadence was not perceptible to ordinary observers, who saw no diminution of the crowds before the principal shows and thronging the avenues, and as many shows as had been seen in earlier years. But the showmen and the keepers of booths and stalls did not find their receipts at all proportionate to the number of visitors. The 1 76 BYGONE KENT. growth of population swelled the crowds, but the middle classes no longer patronised the shows, and it had become infra dig. to be seen in the dancing booths. The railway and the steamboats brought a larger number of visitors, but they were chiefly of the class for whom the showmen found reduced charges to be a necessity, without a commensurate increase in the number of patrons. The decadence of the fair proceeded more rapidly during the last few years of its existence. By the absence of Richardson's show it was shorn of half its glory, and its abolition in 1857 left little cause for regret. The proprietors of portable theatres found it more to their advantage to locate them for two or three months in a town which was as yet without a permanent temple of Thespis, than to set them up for three days in the suburbs of London. The tenting circuses followed their example, and the opening of the Zoological Gardens to the public did much to cause the travelling menageries to be comparatively neglected. Greenwich Fair had, in short, outlived the age for which it had provided a welcome means of relaxation and amusement, and its end did not come at all too soon. CarMnal. BY FREDERICK Ross, F.R.H.S. IT was in an eventful period when John Fisher was born at Beverley, Yorkshire. The first part of the Wars of the Roses had just terminated; the battle of Wakefield had been fought, and Queen Margaret had spiked the head of Richard, Duke of York, over the gate of York; and Towton fight, with its ocean of blood, had reversed the former, and placed the young Duke of York, Edward, on the throne of the Plantagenets ; the land had been reft of many a noble name ; titles had become extinct by the sword, the axe, and attainder ; and in every great family of the realm there was mourning and desolation. The father of John Fisher was named Robert Fisher, and was a wealthy mercer in Beverley, a zealous upholder of the established faith, and a determined opponent of the Wiclifian heresy, who left by will 2od. to the Collegiate Church of St. John, 2od. to each of the almshouses in the town, 35. 4d. to each of the friaries, 133. 4d. to N 1 7 BYGONE KENT. the chaplain of St. Trinity to pray for his soul, 6s. 8d. to Robert Kuke, Vicar of St. Mary's, and other legacies. Agnes, his mother, was a most devout woman, and it was at her knees that he imbibed his religious sentiments and depth of devotional feeling. Robert Fisher died in 1477, leaving his widow with John and three younger sons to educate and bring up ; she afterwards married a man of the name of Wright, to whom she bore issue three sons and a daughter, named Elizabeth, who afterwards became a nun at Dart- ford, in Kent, for whose edification her half- brother wrote two treatises on religion when in the Tower. In 1483, John was sent to Cam- bridge, where he graduated B.A. 1487, and M.A. 1491 ; was chosen Fellow of his college and Proctor in 1494 ; made D.D. and Vice-Chancellor 1501 ; Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity 1502 ; Chancellor of the University 1504; Head of Queen's College 1505 ; and Master of Christ Church College 1506. Whilst the young student was passing through the successive steps of his collegiate career, other important events of historic interest were taking place. King Edward the Fourth had passed away, leaving his crown to his youthful son, THE MARTYRED CARDINAL. 179 Edward the Fifth, who, with his brother, the Duke of York, was murdered by their uncle, the Duke of Gloucester. Then followed the short nightmare reign of Richard the Third, which terminated at his death on Bosworth Field, when his corpse was thrown across a horse and carried away for burial, whilst his crown, which was found in a bush, was placed on the head of Henry, Duke of Richmond, the first of the Tudors. The new King established his court at Greenwich, placing at the head of his household his mother, Margaret, daughter and heiress of John, Duke of Somerset, great-grand-daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and relict of Edmund Tudor, who had been created Duke of Richmond by his half-brother, King Henry VI. He was thus the representative of the Red Rose, and, from motives of policy, soon after his accession he married Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., representative of the White Rose, and so, in the person of their son, Henry VIII., united the Roses, and put a final end to the disastrous contentions amongst the descendants of Edward III., which had been caused by the usurpation of Henry IV. Margaret, now Countess Dowager of Richmond, i8o BYGONE KENT. was a most amiable, pious, and devout lady, spending her days and nights in prayer, and hearing mass, in fasting, maceration of her flesh, and in charitable deeds, spending her wealth in works of philanthropy, and promoting the spread of education. She spent her life, according to the light of her age, in self-abnegation and the performance of her duty to God ; and if ever woman deserved canonisation, that woman was Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond. It chanced that when Fisher was Proctor, he was sent on business of the University to the Court of Greenwich, where he obtained an introduction to Countess Margaret, who was struck by his edifying conversation, his unassuming manners, and his piety, and in consequence constituted him her confessor and spiritual adviser, and subsequently her chief, indeed sole, director in matters secular as well as spiritual. Under his advice, she founded at Cambridge, in 1503, a Divinity Lecture, and the following year a preachership for six sermons to be preached yearly in London, Lincoln, and Ely. Many other objects of charitable, educational, and religious character were also carried out by her, at his suggestion, by far the most important being THE MARTYRED CARDINAL. 181 the foundation of Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1506, and of St. John's College, the latter having been erected under the direction of Fisher, after her death, and opened in 1516. She died in 1509, and Fisher preached her funeral sermon, with a panegyric on her character. In 1503 the see of Rochester fell vacant, and King Henry thought of Fisher for the office, but did not think proper to appoint him without his mother's consent. He therefore wrote to her : " I am well myndit to promote Master Fisher, youre Confessoor, to a bishopric, and I assure you, madam, for non other cause, but for the grete and singular vertue that I know and se in hym, as well as in conyn and wisdome, and specially for his good and vertuose ly ving and conversation. And bye the promotion of suche a man, I know well it should corage many others to lyve vertuously, and to take soche wages as he dothe, which shoulde be a good exampl to many others," etc. Of course Lady Margaret assented, and he was advanced to the episcopal bench, the appointment being ratified by the Pope, July 2nd, 1504. He was highly esteemed by the King, who appointed him tutor to his sons, Arthur and Henry ; and when the latter came to the throne 1 82 BYGONE KENT. as Henry VIII., Fisher became his friend and counsellor in all matters relating to religion and the Church. When Henry was young, he was a good Catholic and hater of heresy, whether Wiclifite or Lutheran, looking up to the Pope as his spiritual superior and the Vicegerent of Christen- dom ; and so he remained until he became enamoured of the fair Anne Boleyn, when, as is well known, because the Church threw obstacles in his way of getting rid of his wife Katherine, a pious daughter of the Church, his affections became alienated from the Pope, and, by gradual steps, he threw off the Papal yoke, plundered the Church of its wealth, and assumed for himself the headship of the Church of England. It was in the interval that, in his ardent zeal for theological distinction, he produced a book, which he pro- fessed to have written, against Luther, entitled " Assertio Septem Sacramentorum Adversus Martyn Luther." The manuscript was sent to Rome, and circulated among the cardinals and bishops, causing considerable sensation by its learning and ability, and was deposited in the Library of the Vatican as one of its chief treasures. The Pope granted plenary indulgence THE MARTYRED CARDINAL. 183 to all who should read it, and a College of Cardinals was called to consider what title should be accorded to the Royal writer for so signal a service to the Church. The Apostolic ; the Orthodox ; the Faithful ; the Angelic ; and others JOHN FISHER. (From the portrait by Holbein.) were suggested, and finally that of " Defender of the Faith " was adopted. It is tolerably certain that Henry was not the author of the book ; he may have suggested it and laid down the outlines of the arguments, but he had neither intellectual capacity nor sufficient learning to have written it ; 1 84 BYGONE KENT. and it has been conjectured, from internal evidence and other circumstances, that the real author was Fisher, and this most probably is the truth, as he was one of the few who were capable of writing it, and it would be naturally to him his quondam tutor and spiritual adviser that the King would turn for assistance in the production of the book. In his writings and sermons, Fisher ever up- held, as an indubitable truth, the supremacy of the Pope above all earthly potentates, and declaimed vehemently" against the Lutheran and all other heresies as the spawn of hell ; and it was his bold and conscientious adherence to these principles that alienated him from his master, and caused his overthrow and death. The first breach occurred on the divorce question, he telling the King, when asked his opinion on the marriage, that " there could be no doubt of its validity, since it was good and lawful from the beginning, and could not be dissolved without sin," and he appeared before the Legates Campeggio and Wolsey, to plead for the Queen, which he did with great boldness and eloquence. He still further displeased the King in 1529, by vigorously denouncing in Parliament the Act for THE MARTYRED CARDINAL. 185 the dissolution of the lesser monasteries as an act of sacrilege, and consummated his offence by protesting, in outspoken plainness, in Convoca- tion, against the assumption of the Headship of the Church by the King. He now began to be looked upon as a troublesome character, whom it would be well to be rid of; and in 1530, one Rouse gained admittance to his kitchen, and put poison in the food then being prepared. For- tunately, the Bishop was ill, and unable to eat, but of seventeen persons who partook of the food two died, and the rest never wholly recovered their health. The crime was brought home to Rouse, and he was boiled to death in Smithfield. The sought-for opportunity of criminating Fisher was not long in forthcoming. He listened to the utterances and gave some credence to the visions of "The Holy Maid of Kent," and was indicted for misprision of treason, tried, and condemned to imprisonment during the King's pleasure, but obtained his release on payment of a fine of ^300. In 1534, the Act of Succession was passed, enjoining an oath of submission to the King and his heirs begotten of " his most dear and entirely beloved Queen Anne," and making it high 1 86 BYGONE KENT. treason to speak against his marriage with her. Fisher was called upon to take this oath, and on refusal to do so without some modification of it, was cast into the Tower, but was liberated on promising allegiance to the King and his heirs by his new marriage, declaring, however, that "his conscience could not be convinced that the marriage was not opposed to the laws of God." The King was now determined, at once and for ever, to get rid of so pestilent a subject, and issued a commission to try him for high treason, specially for his denial of the King's supremacy over the Church. Solicitor-General Rich deposed that the prisoner had said to him, " I believe in my conscience, and assuredly know by my learning, that the King neither is nor can be head of the Church of England," admitting, however, that this was said to him privately and confidentially, when he went to him from the King, who wished his candid opinion on the question, and assuring him that whatever he might say should not be made use of to his detriment. The aged bishop, then 77 years of age, defended himself with great dignity and ability, but a packed jury found him guilty, and he was condemned to death. THE MARTYRED CARDINAL. 187 He was sent back to the Tower, where, notwithstanding his venerable age, he was treated with the greatest indignities, and subjected to great privation and suffering. In a letter to Cromwell, still extant, he writes " I beseech you to be good, master, in my necessity ; for I have EMBLEMATIC DEVICE. (Front the English version [Jj6o] of Fisher s treatise on the " Need of Prayer." ) neither shirt nor other clothes that are necessary for me to wear, but that be ragged and rent shamefully. Notwithstanding, I might suffer that if they would but keep me warm. But my diet, also, God knoweth how slender it is. And now, in mine age, my stomach may not away but with a few kinds of meat, which, if I want, I decay forthwith." 1 88 BYGONE KENT. On the morning of his execution he was awakened at five o'clock, and, when told -the time, turned over, saying, "Then I can have two hours more sleep, as I am not to die until nine." At seven he rose and dressed himself in his best apparel, observing that "this was his wedding day, when he was to be married to death, and it was fitting to appear in becoming attire." He met his fate with the greatest firmness and composure, and when his head was stricken off, the executioner stripped the body, and it was left naked on the scaffold until the evening, when it was taken by the guard to All Hallows' Church- yard, and buried in a grave dug with their halberds, but was afterwards exhumed and buried in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula, in the Tower. The head was placed over London Bridge for fourteen days, "the features," says Hall, "becom- ing fresher and more comely every day." Thus died this good and famous Kentish bishop. When the news reached Rome, the King, whom it had been proposed to style " the angelic," was stigmatised as a foul miscreant and diabolical murderer, and branded as "the Nero, the Domitian, the Caligula of England." A short time before his execution, the Pope sent Fisher a cardinal's THE MARTYRED CARDINAL. 189 hat, upon which the King made a brutal jest, saying, " 'Fore heaven, he shall wear it on his shoulders then, for by the time it arrives he shall not have a head to place it upon." His portrait, by Holbein, is in St. John's College, and another is in the English Bene- dictine Monastery at Paris, and his bust was one of the eight on the Holbein Gate, at West- minster. He was a very voluminous writer of devotional and polemical works, and his life has been frequently written, from different points of view. Ikentisb dialects, anfc pegoe an!) Xewis, the oR> County (Slossarists. BY R. STEAD, B.A., F.R.H.S. TWO friends are rather inclined to find fa.ult with the writer for including in a volume on " Bygone Kent" a short paper on the dialects of the county. One sees no connection between "bad English "and things " bygone," whilst the other finds nothing worthy of special notice in the folk-speech of Kent, he supposes "they talk English in Kent, just as they do all over the country." Now these two persons well represent two great classes in their attitude towards provincial dialects. Large numbers of people- even of the so-called educated classes regard these dialects as simply " bad English" and so not worth troubling one's head about. What they say is in effect this : the sooner railways and Board Schools knock all that sort of thing out of existence the better. On the other hand the uneducated or half educated, who have never been much out of their own district, are unable to see THE KENTISH DIALECTS. 191 any great difference between their own dialect and ordinary received English. They suppose that all their own peculiarities of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation obtain as a matter of course all over the country. An amusing instance of this was furnished in Kent itself some three or four years ago. The Kent Glossary, by Messrs. Parish and Shaw, then just issued by the English Dialect Society, received a long notice in the columns of one of the leading Kentish weeklies. The writer expressed his unbounded astonishment that some of the commonest words in his own vocabulary should be set down as mere provincial words, and not ordinary English- that they are in fact totally unknown to millions of Englishmen. He ended by saying that if all this turned out to be correct! he was evidently more than a little doubtful about the correctness of Messrs. Parish and Shaw's statements it would be news, and amazing news, to most people. Like Monsieur Jourdain with his prose, this young man had been talking a dialect all his life without knowing it. Now nothing is more certain than that provincial English is for the most part not bad English but old English. Local dialects are, in fact, as compared with the received or literary 1 92 BYGONE KENT. tongue, in the position of poor (and despised) relations. Under circumstances that need not be dwelt upon here, one of the many provincial forms of speech became the court or " standard " English. The favoured dialect was that of the South Midlands (though at one time it looked as if that of the North would come to the fore). Of course the court dialects soon came to be regarded as the only "good" English, and fine folks began to look down upon the poor sister dialects dialects every whit as good as that of the South Midlands which soon found themselves stigmatised as "bad" English. As Tennyson's "Northern Farmer" says, "the poor in a loomp is bad," and naturally the English of the poor is set down " in a loomp "as bad English. Amongst these poor unfavoured dialects which did not become court English, was the dialect of Kent for there is a dialect of Kent, notwithstanding the incredulity of the young newspaper-man just alluded to, and it is as well worth studying as its sister dialects. Unluckily but little attention has been given to the Kentish folk-speech until very lately. For years there was an ominous blank after the name of Kent in the English Dialect Society's annual lists of what was being done in the way of dialect THE KENTISH DIALECTS. 193 investigation in the different counties. Whereas in many districts workers galore were to be found, in Kent there was apparently not a single one who thought it worth his while to investigate the old Kentish folk-speech. Fortunately this re- proach has now been removed, as will be explained further on. The famous mediaeval poem entitled th e " Ayenbite of Inwyt" (or ''Remorse of Conscience)," by Dan Michel of Northgate, in Kent, is written in the Kent dialect. From that time till 1674 nobody seems to have much regarded the county speech, but in that year Ray, the famous naturalist and collector of local words, included a good many Kentish words in his " South and East Country" collection. In 1736, appeared the first genuine Kentish glossarist. This was the Rev. John Lewis, who gave to the world a short glossary of words used in the Isle of Thanet. This glossary formed part of his work " History and Antiquities, as well Ecclesiastical as Civil, of the Isle of Tenet, in Kent." In the same year the famous Samuel Pegge, a native of Derbyshire, but long vicar of Godmersham, in Kent, published his well-known "Alphabet of Kenticisms." He included in his list almost all o 194 BYGONE KENT. the words previously given by Lewis, and added to them some hundreds more. Both collections have been within the last few years re-issued by the English Dialect Society. And under the auspices of the same Society has lately appeared a far more important work, " A dictionary of the Kentish Dialect," by the Rev. W. D. Parish and the Rev. W. Frank Shaw, alluded to above. A copy of this, now the " Authority " on the subject, together with copies of Pegge, Lewis, Ray, and the " Ayenbite of Inwyt," ought to be in every public library in the county. Before noting its peculiarities it may be well to show how the Kentish dialect is related to the rest of the English provincial dialects. Leaving out the Lowland Scotch district, the English dialects of this island may be all grouped under one or other of three great divisions, which may be called respectively the Northern, the Midland, and the Southern. These three leading forms have obtained from very early times. A line drawn obliquely across England from Morecambe Bay to just below the H umber may be taken as roughly separating the Northern dialects from the Midland varieties ; whilst a very irregular boundary line between the Midland and the THE KENTISH DIALECTS. 195 Southern forms of speech runs from a little below the Wash to near Bristol. Each of these three great divisions has certain well-marked peculiari- ties of pronunciation. The late, learned Dr. A. G. Ellis, whom the present writer was privileged to know, and to assist to some extent, devoted many years to the investigation of the different forms of provincial pronunciation. Those who wish to see what he did, should consult his truly marvell- ous work on Early English Pronunciation (Early English Text Society), especially his Part V. On this whole subject, Dr. Ellis was far and away the greatest authority. As test words by which the great divisions of dialect (whatever their varieties) may always be distinguished, he took the words u some house." In the Northern dialects these words are always " soom hoose," in the Midland forms they appear as "soom house," and in the South as "sum house." Kent, of course, belongs to the "sum house " district. Coming now to the good old county itself, the labours of Dr. Ellis went to show that though th^p folk-speech is fairly uniform over the whole of Kent, yet two distinct varieties may be observed, viz., the North Kent and the East Kent varieties. There might even be said to be a third form, for 196 BYGONE KENT. a small portion near the western boundary of the county resembles East Sussex in its dialect. The line dividing the north Kent from the East Kent forms is not very clearly ascertained, but it would seem to be roughly a line drawn from about Staplehurst through Canterbury round to Sandwich, with a little fringe round the coast, perhaps as far as Hythe, to include the boating and fishing population, whose dialect seems to agree in some respects with that of North Kent rather than with that of East Kent. Taking the county as a whole, the pronunciation is marked by many peculiarities, a few of the more important of which may be given. 1. The use of d for the initial th ; this, that, there, etc., becoming dis, dat, dere ; th in the middle of a word is not always so sounded, though furder and farden (farthing) are common enough. 2. The use of a for the short o in a vast number of words : tap (top), spat (spot), packet (pocket). With many speakers the o becomes even aa, or ah, and it is quite a common thing to hear such a sentence as putt it ahn tahp (put it on the top). This is a very striking peculiarity of the Kentish speech, .. THE KENTISH DIALECTS. 197 3. The pronunciation of the long a (as in slate), and the diphthong ai (or ay]. Day, plate, rain, become dye, plyte, ryne. This is almost universal in North Kent, but much less so in the eastern portion of the county, where with many speakers it is almost unnoticeable. This pronunciation of a, is of course well known in the cockney dialect. 4. On the other hand the peculiar sound of oo, or u long, which is almost universal in East Kent, is hardly so common in North Kent. Two becomes tiw, food, fiwd, or better still, perhaps, fud, where the u resembles pretty closely the German u. Sometimes it even approaches ee, as soon is not very different from the ordinary English seen. 5. Long i becomes oi, as moine (mine), voilet (violet). 6. Ul often becomes ol, as solphur (sulphur), moltitiide, or even maultitude. 7. What Dr. Ellis calls the "final reverted /" is universal in Kent. Large numbers even of fairly educated people use it, though they would be indignant if told they were to that extent using provincial forms of pronunciation. This reverted / practically 198 BYGONE KENT. makes the letter into two syllables : thus bill becomes bee-id, or bi/il, mail becomes may-ul (or meJilj) steel, stee-ul, and so forth. 8. One of the best known characteristics is the use of w for v Nowember, wacancy, willage, wisit, uoittles. But some doubt seems to have been expressed by those whom Dr. Ellis consulted as to whether the contrary use of v for w obtained in Kent. It is, however, quite certain that this usage, though rapidly becoming obsolete, is still to be met with here and there. An old man living near Westenhanger said to the present writer with a hearty laugh, " I have a cousin comes here sometimes and amuses us all. He calls this place Vestenhanger. He lives in the 'veskit' district you know," he added, by way of explanation. It turned out that this cousin came from near Wingham. (The worthy old fellow who was so much amused with his relative's Vestenhanger saw nothing funny in his own wery, weal [veal], and winegar.} It is worth noting, too, that even in his own district people speak of Postling Vents, instead of Wents, or roads. And the writer has heard a Folkestone fisherman call a friend Vellard (Wellard). But this cockneyism as it may be THE KENTISH DIALECTS. 199 called everyone will recall Dickens' " Samivel Veller" is rapidly dropping out of use in most parts of the county. Before leaving the pronunciation and we have indicated but a very few of its peculiarities two general characteristics may be pointed out. First the vowel sounds are almost without exception remarkably impure, or rather, undecided. The i in milk, for instance, is a sort of cross between the short e and the short u, melk, or mulk. Past is neither clearly pahst nor past, but a peculiar half-way, so to speak, between the two, paest, which must be heard to be appreciated. The a for o, oi for /, u for oo, and so forth have been already noted. The second great characteristic of the -Kentish provincial pronunciation is a very remarkable clipping out or jumbling together of syllables, which renders the dialect at first very puzzling to a stranger. It rarely happens that three or four consecutive words, are uttered complete; some one or more portions are sure to be left out : " Ae paes tiw " does duty for "half-past two," " goozbriz" for gooseberries, " Satdy " (or Setdy) for Saturday, "Eshf" (or "Eshfd") for Ashford, "bar" for barrow. At the railway stations " morn-peyp " 200 BYGONE KENT. stands for morning paper, "scursh," with a very faint soupcon of an n at the end, passes for excursion. Such a rapid jumble as " moillgooberrneez " (!) for " mine will go better than his," may be constantly heard from the street boys. The effect of all this is very striking, and teachers know the difficulty there is sometimes in getting children to read without slurring over or dropping two-thirds of the syllables. Thus the sentence "A collision between ourselves and the natives now seemed inevitable," will sometimes be read something like this, " clizh-twee-seln-nate- now-see-nevl," with a faint "filling in," so to speak, between these strongly marked syllables. Of the grammar little need be said here, but a few curious turns of expression may be noted. Double negatives are extremely common, and such phrases as " no more you don't," " no more I didn't," are everywhere heard. Then we get "you didn't ought to," for "you ought not," "he don't dare," for " he dare not," and so forth. "The next to the last," for "the last but one," is one of the commonest of phrases. As plurals we get nesties (nests), posies or posties (posts), etc., to any extent. Baint (or beent), for "is not" still survives here and there, though it is evidently THE KENTISH DIALECTS. 201 dying out. To after help is omitted, " She wont help carry the basket." "Directly minute" for "immediately" is a curious phrase which may be heard used even by well-educated people of the upper middle class. " Deleft " is the past participle of believe. Then people " keep all on " doing things, and boys may be heard constantly using, " No, you never," " No, I never," and so on, for " No, you did not," " No, I did not." The rustic Kentishman has a fairly copious vocabulary, and some of the words he uses are very curious ones. A very familiar word is " flead," which Pegge demies as "lard, or rather the leaf of fat whence lard is got." To a native of the county it seems incredible that there should be millions of folk in England who never heard of either ''flead" or "flead cakes." "Lodge" means a wood or toolshed, just about the last place where one would like to lodge. Oast or oast-house is so common a feature of the Kentish hop districts that the inhabitants look upon the word as inseparably connected with hops. Yet oast was used in Kent for a kiln long before hop culture was introduced. There were "brick- oasts," or " brickhosts," u lymostes " (lime-oasts), 202 BYGONE KENT. and probably other species as well. A very short and handy word is "lew," which is much better than the ordinary English "sheltered." " It lays lew," it lies in a sheltered position. Culverkeys, colverkeys, or cauverkeys is Kentish for cowslips, though a native of Charing called these flowers " horsebuckles." The word shires, pronounced sheeres, is used in a vague way to denote any part of England more than a county or two away. " He comes from the sheeres," or "he's gone to live somewhere in the sheeres," seems delightfully vague in a country possessing forty shires, but it seems to satisfy the good folks of rural Kent. A very extraordinary expression is "to make old bones," for to live to old age. To make bones at all seems a difficult matter, but to make old bones seems a truly puzzling feat. Yet the phrase is found all over Kent and some of the neighbouring counties. " Kentish fire," for long and hearty cheering, is so well known that it need not be dwelt upon. Effet for newt, crock, a large earthenware pan or dish, may bug for cockchafer, cater, for aslant or askew, with scores of others are good Kentish words. Nailbourne or eyle- bourne, deserves a passing word. It signifies an intermittent brook, of which many exist in the THE KENTISH DIALECTS. 203 county. Similar springs are met with in or near the Yorkshire Wolds, and are there called gipseys (g hard, as in go}. Lathe for a division of the county, and Minnis, a common (e.g., Stalling Minnis) seem peculiar to this part of England. A teg (or tag] is a sheep of a year old ; a hurdle is called a wattle. Ampery, mouldy, decayed, and tetter, cross, peevish, are very common. Terrible, often pronounced ter'bl, is almost invariably the word used to intensify the meaning. "He's ter'bl bad," " dat aint ter'bl loikly," " dere's a ter'bl many rabbits 'bout here." " There's no bounds to him," means " there's no saying what he may do." One might go on culling these interesting words and phrases from the Kentish glossaries to almost any extent. Dip where you will into them, and you can hardly fail to light upon some racy old word or form of speech which "bygone" Kentishmen used, but which, alas ! is now either wholly obsolete, or on the way to becoming so. How many nowadays, especially of town-dwellers, would understand such a sentence as this given by Lewis : " I took up the libbit that lay by the sole, and hove it at the hagister that was in the poddergrotten ?" I took up the stick that was 204 BYGONE KENT. lying by the pond, and threw it at the magpie that was in the pease-stubble. Yet libbet, soal. hagister, podder (peas, beans, etc.) grotten or gratten (stubble) were formerly good Kentish words, if they are now all but forgotten in many parts of the country. A glance at some of the old Kentish proverbs or proverbial sayings given by Pegge must conclude this imperfect paper : " A knight of Gales, A gentleman of Wales, And a Laird of the North Countree : A yeoman of Kent With his yearly Rent, Will buy 'em out all three." This is one of the best known of these proverbial sayings. Learned men have disputed as to the origin of the curious phrase " Neither in Kent nor Christendom." Dover figures in a good many of these old sayings. " Dover a den of thieves," is as uncomplimentary to that town as " When it's dark in Dover It's dark all the world over," is the reverse. " As sure as there's a dog in Dover " is at any rate more picturesque than the common "as sure as a gun." "From Barwick (Berwick) to Dover" is equivalent to saying THE KENTISH DIALECTS. 205 " from one end of the land to the other." Further uncomplimentary references to towns are found in such sayings as " Long, lazy, lousy Lewisham." " He that will not live long, Let him dwell at Muston, Tenham, or Tong." " Folkstone Kent Fools " is an anagram. " He that rideth into the Hundred of Hoo, Besides pilfering Seamen, shall find Dirt enow." " Deal Savages, Canterbury Parrots, Dover Sharps, and Sandwich Carrots." " Naughty Ashford, surly Wye, Poor Kennington hard by." Iking's School, Canterbury BY THE REV. J. S. SlDEBOTHAM, M.A. INHERE is no question that this old school (a school which has the Differentia among cathedral schools of being known by initials, for " K. S. C." are sufficient to identify it) has of late years attained a position, if different in degree, at least no less distinguished, than at that period which is said to have been one of the times of its greatest prosperity, viz., during the head-mastership of the Rev. Osmund Beauvoir, D.D., from 1750 to 1782. In the very incomplete "Memorials" of the school which I compiled and published in 1865, I cannot consider that I recovered more than a very fragmentary account of a foundation which has contributed quite an average quota pro raid to the list of England's men of learning and distinction. John Johnson, the well-known author of "The Unbloody Sacrifice" (1714), mentioned in his King's School Sermon, in 1716, four men of THE KING'S SCHOOL, CANTERBURY. 207 eminence as having received their education at the school, viz., Bishop White of Peterborough, Bishop Gunning of Ely, William Somner, the antiquary, and Dean Spencer of Ely. There was no question as to the three last named, but I could nowhere trace the connection of Bishop White with the school. I abstained from saying in the " Memorials " that the then auditor, Mr. Finch, declined to allow me to see the cathedral records (although Dean Alford, with his ready courtesy, had given me full permission to consult them) " without the usual office fees," which would of course have added seriously to the cost of publication. " Besides," added the auditor, " I do not know what use might be made of the information." As if any use of such facts would be prejudicial to anybody's interests ! This refusal is the principal cause of the incompleteness of the work. A search in the records of Canterbury Cathedral would most likely bring to light at least a few eminent names, as connected with the school, in addition to those which are now known. I was enabled, however, to recover some names of men of learning and ability prior to the date of the existing school register (the earliest known, begun by Dr. Beauvoir on his appointment as 208 BYGONE KENT. head-master in 1750), from Masters' " History of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge;" Hasted's "History of Kent;" Nicholls' "Literary Anecdotes ; " and from various manuscript collections in the Bodleian and British Museum Libraries. When I consulted the former head-master, to whom I shall always feel that I, in common with many others, owe so much, the late Rev. George Wallace, duringthe compilation of the "Memorials," he gave me, with his usual ready kindness, much valuable assistance and information, partly from notes which he had made, partly from his own early experiences and recollections. He added, with his characteristic love for the past : " Remember, I shall not be satisfied unless you trace back the origin of the school to Theodore of Tarsus." As will be seen on a reference to page 7 of the work, an attempt was made to give effect to his wish. And there can be little reasonable doubt that, although the existing King's School is well- known to owe its origin to Henry VIII., who founded it soon after he had dissolved the monastery of St. Augustine, a school has existed continuously in connection with Canterbury Cathedral from the time of Archbishop Theodore. THE KING'S SCHOOL, CANTERBURY. 209 The name of "The King's School" was, however, first given to it by Henry VIII., in 1542, who then re-modelled the entire Cathedral establishment, as he re-modelled all but eleven of the Cathedrals of England and Wales, those, the constitution of which remained unchanged, being St. Paul's in London, Wells, Chichester, Exeter, Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, St. Asaph, St. David's, and Sarum in the South ; and York, the one instance in the Northern province. These are still known as " The Cathedrals of the Old Foundation ;" the remaining establishments, which were remodelled more or less on the principle adopted at Canter- bury, being known as "The Cathedrals of the New Foundation." The statutes then given to Canter- bury Cathedral, and afterwards "corrected, ex- plained, and confirmed " in the reign of Charles I., will be found in the second volume of the works of Archbishop Laud, in the " Anglo-Catholic Library." The original foundation staff of a head and second masters and fifty scholars remains, but the common table was discontinued as early as 1 546 ; and the school underwent other changes about that time. The idea of the " Memorials " occurred simultaneously, and almost accidentally, to Bishop 210 BYGONE KENT. Mitchinson and myself. I happened to be in Canterbury on the day he entered upon his duties as head-master, and met him coming down the Norman staircase after his first morning's school. At the same moment the idea struck us both, that, so far as we knew, no one had ever attempted to recover any history of the school, and that yet there must be a history. "Why," said he, "should not you write it?" He then and there invited me to visit him for a few days, during which time I collected all that I could collect from the documents he was then able to place before me. Much kind assistance was also received from many known and unknown to me ; but it is to the knowledge and recollections of the late Rev. George Gilbert, Prebendary of Lincoln, and Vicar of Syston, that the most valuable information of all is due. In my own time, 1843 to 1848, not so much as the name was known of any head-master earlier than Mr. Naylor. The names of the later head-masters are as follow : 1750. Rev. Osmund Beauvoir, D.D. 1782. Rev. Christopher Naylor, M.A. 1816. Rev. John Birt, D.D. 1833. Rev. George Wallace, M.A, THE KING'S SCHOOL, CANTERBURY. 211 1859. Rev. John Mitchinson, D.C.L. 1873. Rev. George John Blore, D.D. 1886. Rev. Thomas Field, M.A. Dr. Beauvoir and Mr. Naylor had been King's Scholars, but, till the election of Mr. Field to the head-mastership in 1886, no old King's Scholar had been so elected for 104 years. I believe Dr. Mitchinson was always desirous that an old King's Scholar should succeed to the head- mastership, and he has lived to see his wish realised. Mr. Talbot, head-master from 174510 1750, had a future Lord Chancellor (Lord Thurlow) under his care ; Dr. Beauvoir had the early education of Lord Chief Justice Tenterden. It is in Dr. Beauvoir's time that the school was said to have reached the most prosperous condition it had then known, and it was at that time the resort of many boys of old county families. But although that connection ceased about a century ago, the reputation of the school for sound scholarship has certainly increased very considerably since that time, and successive masters especially In the last half century have each in his turn rendered essential services to the school. At the death of Mr. Naylor at an advanced age, in 1816, the number of boys in the 212 BYGONE KENT. school had fallen to twenty-six. Under Dr. Birt, his successor, the number rose rapidly, but he also left but a small number of boys on his presentation to the Vicarage of Faversham and election to the head-mastership of Faversham School, in 1833. Mr. Wallace, a master of much energy, ability, and tact, raised the school again to a number exceeding a hundred. Twenty-six years of steady and Conscientious work told on him, and through him on the school ; though, on his presentation to the Rectory of Burghclere, in Hampshire, by the Earl of Carnarvon, in 1859, the number had not fallen to anything like the extent of former reductions. To him the school owes its present Schoolroom, which replaced the old and effete building, where, however, many sound scholars had been educated. But the old building was rightly condemned on sanitary grounds, and these alone, though there were many others would have amply sufficed. Indeed had Mr. Wallace done no more than this, the thanks of all interested in the King's School would be due to him for this most essential service. In some points he thoroughly understood the character of boys, in others less clearly. For THE KING'S SCHOOL, CANTERBURY. 213 instance, he always inveighed against " paper- chases," but never succeeded in thoroughly putting them down. When I had been a short time living in Canterbury, as rector of St. Mildred's (1869-77), I asked his successor, Dr. Mitchinson, how it was that " paper-chases," to which Wallace had always been so strongly opposed, were now not only permitted, but thoroughly recognised. He replied that, finding no prohibitions or even penalties could stop them, the only remedy was to legalise them, and place them under proper conditions. But Wallace had certainly gauged boy-character in other ways with no little accuracy. On going back to Canterbury to reside after an absence of just twenty years, I found as Parish Churchwarden a plumber and glazier who had married the daughter and had been the foreman of the glazier who did all the school work in my time. He told me that Wallace had said to him, " Cole, never wait for an order when you see a broken pane of glass, but mend it at once, because when boys see one broken pane, there's an immediate temptation to break another." Dr. Butler, of Shrewsbury, once gave as the differentia of a boy that he was " a pelting animal," and he was not 214 BYGONE KENT. far wrong. Wallace always made an enquiry into broken windows, but he had the discernment to do all he could to prevent gratuitous breakages. Dr. Mitchinson, who succeeded him, sound Churchman as he is, is not a more sound Churchman than was Wallace, and no boys could have been more thoroughly grounded in the Church Catechism, the thirty-nine Articles, and religious knowledge generally than by Wallace ; but Dr. Mitchinson was a younger man at the commencement of his time than Wallace was, and a more accomplished scholar. Wallace had been educated at Charter- house, under Russell ; Mitchinson at Durham, under Elder, one of Russell's best boys ; and Russell used to say that he thus looked on him as a grandson ; and he thought most highly both of his ability and his attainments. He further procured a considerable augmentation in the value of the King's Scholarships and Exhi- bitions, built a new head-master's house, and greatly added to and improved the whole of the school buildings. In his time, 1859-1873, more university honours were attained by King's Scholars than in any previous period of the school's history. The same high reputation, THE KING'S SCHOOL, CANTERBURY. 215 though in another way, was maintained as it had been through the mastership of Dr. Beauvoir ; and it was in the time of Dr. Mitchinson's successor, Dr. Blore, that a King's Scholar, Lawrence J. Ottley, scholar of C. C. C., and now Fellow of Magdalen, who had received his earlier education under Dr. Mitchinson, gained the first university prize since Lord Tenterden (who, in 1784 and 1786, had gained the Chancellor's Prize for Latin Verse and English Essay), by obtaining the Hertford Scholarship. A former alumnus of the school, who knew nothing about University Scholarships, once spoke of it as "a poor thing" that no one from the King's School had for so long a time gained any great University Scholarship or Prize. It could scarcely be said " to be a poor thing " not to obtain one, but it was unquestionably a great thing to be successful in a competition for which none but the first scholars in the university would ever think of entering. Dr. Blore also brought great and varied attainments, together with the prestige, like Dr. Mitchinson, of the highest honours from Oxford, to the work which he took up, on Dr. Mitchinson's consecration to the Bishopric of Barbados. He ably and worthily maintained the high character 216 BYGONE KENT. for scholarship which the school had obtained ; and on his retirement, in 1886, after thirteen years of successful work, he was succeeded by the present headmaster, the Rev. Thomas Field, a pupil of Dr. Mitchinson. He brought to the work before him the antecedents of a scholarship of C. C. C., Oxford, two classical first classes, a fellowship at Magdalen, and a mastership at Harrow. Under his careful diligence the school has no doubt before it a brilliant future. Its visitors, the Archbishops of Canterbury, have, of late years especially, shown an active interest in it, and the Dean and Chapter, as its governors, have promoted those interests not only by their influence, but by their personal care and knowledge of the boys. One of its warmest friends was the late Bishop (Parry) of Dover ; and his successor, Bishop Eden, shows similar interest in the school. Among the more eminent of its alumni who have not yet been mentioned in this brief notice, are : Christopher Marlowe, the dramatist (1574) ; John Boyle, Bishop of Cork (1578); Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork (1580); Dean Boys of Canterbury (1582) ; Dr. Wm. Harvey, of immortal memory, as one of the greatest of England's physicians (1588) ; Accepted Frewen, Archbishop THE KING'S SCHOOL, CANTERBURY. 217 of York (1598) ; Gostling, the historian of Canter- bury (1736) ; Dean Lynch of Canterbury (1707) ; Archdeacon Randolph, President of C. C. C., Oxford (1709); Castle, Dean of Hereford, and Master of C.C.C., Cambridge (1710); Herbert Marsh, Bishop of Peterborough (1770) ; and William Grant Broughton, Bishop of Sydney (i797). This notice cannot claim to be more than a sketch in but faint outlines, and touching if anything more on the modern and present, than on the origin and past, history of the school. But perhaps those who read this paper will for the most part feel greater interest in this more modern period of the school's history. As for the past history of the institution it is greatly to be wished that a fuller and more complete account may some day be produced than my " Memorials " of 1865. It is to be hoped too that the time has passed when office fees and other such obstacles can prevent access to documents which any one engaged in such a pursuit can have but one object in wishing to search. Smuggling in Ikcnt ANY book on the Kent of past days would be lamentably defective if it did not contain some allusions to smugglers and smuggling. Whatever else " Bygone Kent " did, it smuggled. It smuggled hard, it smuggled long, it smuggled not unprofitably. Not a few substantial or comfortable Kentish folk of to-day owe their substance and comfort mainly to their grandfathers, the eminent "free traders." For it is to be noted these bygone worthies did not call themselves smugglers, or anything else so coarse. They were law-abiding, or if the law and their trade did seem at variance sometimes, it was the law which was wrong. They were "free-traders," as had been their forefathers ever since the days of the Conqueror. They explained the matter in this wise. The Norman William struck a bargain with the five chief ports of the south-eastern coast ; these Cinque Ports were to furnish ships and men for the use of their country when need was, and in return they were to export and import as freely SMUGGLING IN KENT. 219 as they could wish. This compact was loyally kept on both sides for one hardly knows how many hundreds of years. Many a gallant ship did the ports send to their country's assistance, and many a brave sailor from Sandwich, or Hastings, or Dover, went out to fight his sovereign's battles, and never to return. And many a goodly cargo of wines or silks from France, of woollens and diapers from the low countries, did the citizens land on the Kentish coasts, without fear of custom-house official or revenue cutter. And as almost every town and hamlet on the coast was either a Cinque Port or a " limb " of one, it followed that the whole of the Kentish shore was within the limits of "free-trade." Of course the men of the neighbouring counties were not to be expected to be behind their Kentish neighbours, and indeed the Cinque Port jurisdiction extended over parts of the coasts of Essex and Sussex, so that "free trade" was pretty well established from Yarmouth to the Isle of Wight. But degenerate days came. There arose governments which knew not the Cinque Ports, and which said that the smuggling, as they coarsely called it, must stop. To take away 220 BYGONE KENT. privileges without giving a qiiid pro quo was held to be a shabby proceeding on the part of the government, and the honest seafaring men of Kent snapped their fingers at authorities, and went on running cargoes as before. They were as law-abiding as ever, when the law was in the right, but in this case the law was clearly in the wrong. Unluckily, the law had armed men and revenue-cutters on its side, and the ancient coast industry was at times carried on under decidedly hampering conditions. But this was not by any means the first time the men of the fine old county had resisted tyranny on the part of govern- ments, and so now official watchfulness was met by extra caution, and trained troops by extra tact and audacity. Many a cave in the chalk cliffs was used as a hiding-place for goods which had not been subjected to the indignity of a duty, and there is hardly a mile of rock-bound coast in Kent which has not its " Smuggler's Cave." Still better hiding-places were found in the Sandwich Flats district, and in the water-logged Romney Marsh. Casks of brandy and water-tight boxes of valuable silks or tobaccos were weighted and sunk in the interminable open land drains of the latter SMUGGLING IN KENT. 221 district, to be fished up again when the meddling revenue officers had for the nonce ceased their prying. Look-out places were built or adapted, from which cunning systems of signals were sent THE "SMUGGLERS NEST AT HYTHE. to comrades afloat. Of these the famous " Smuggler's Nest " at Hythe has happily remained to our own days in pretty much its old form, and an illustration of this picturesque old place is here 222 BYGONE KENT. given. Then, rightly or wrongly, a certain Belvedere at Deal, near the present well-known Lloyd's signalling station, is credited with having been a guide and friend to the good men of that locality. But for that matter well nigh every village along the coast of Kent can show its " Smuggler's Nest," whatever may happen to be the particular appellation of the building. All sorts of odd hiding places were found, and adjoining families arranged through communication by means of the cellars. At Folkestone, we are gravely told, the whole of the houses on one side of the street were thus connected, so that whilst the officers were diligently fumbling about the cellar of No. i in search of a "free trader" who had been seen to enter the house, the said free trader was quietly coming out of No. 45 at the other end of the street. Vessels galore were built for the " trade," and very fine boats they were many of them, capacious yet swift, and in all ways admirably adapted for their peculiar duty. And a bolder yet withal a better-humoured set of fellows never manned boat than their crews. The whole of the seaside population was of course interested in the business, and each and all were ever ready to rally round comrades in case of a contretemps, or to SMUGGLING IN KENT. 223 help to trick the government officials. Many a hard knock was received on both sides, and many a goodly haul was made by the revenue. Yet sometimes the " trade " had it all its own way, and cargoes of untaxed goods were often sold in broad daylight on the very beach. Many are the funny stories told of how the officers were outwitted, so many indeed that some of them may probably be not uncharitably set down as pious fictions. In one case however, the depositions before the magistrates show that the unauthorised cargoes were carried off under the very eyes of the revenue officials, who were held by the mob at the gate of the field in which the goods were hidden. This took place at Folkestone in 1723. But for really thrilling, and withal often funny, accounts of "free trading" exploits the reader is commended to some of the genuine old salts to be met with even yet in some of the Kentish fishing towns, notably Folkestone. A capital little collection of stories, gathered from this and other sources, is published by Mr. English of that town. Many of the incidents related are very droll, but we must not venture upon more than one extract, or we may lay ourselves open to the charge of being literary " free-traders." On the 224 BYGONE KENT. incumbent of a country parish a mile or two inland going to his " coach-house one morning, he found to his surprise that he could not open the door, and had to obtain access from the hay-loft above. To his utter astonishment he discovered the place was almost filled with kegs of spirits, which had evidently been deposited there by smugg- lers. He was in a fix, and quite at a loss what course to pursue. His loyalty would have prompted him to give information, but his consideration for his poor parishioners overcame his conscientious scruples, and he resolved to take no notice, but to wait the result. Perhaps it was well that he did so, for we may be sure he was pretty closely looked after by those interested in the consign- ment, who, if they had seen any attempt to 'peach,' would have taken measures to prevent it. Accordingly the tubs remained secure all day, but the next morning they were all cleared out, with the exception of one, which was labelled ' For our Parson.' ' Did all these little "free tradings" succeed on the whole ? Well, the present writer can only say he was informed by an old gentleman that his grandfather, a noted smuggler the word has slipped out somehow a native of Deal, made at SMUGGLING IN KENT. 225 the trade the round little sum of .40,000. That certainly looked like paying, but it is to be feared his was a somewhat solitary case. Yet not a few of the "somebodies" inhabiting the coast towns, who have never been known to toil or spin them- selves, are the descendants of the old contra- bandists, so that somebody must have made money. The descendants not only feel no shame respect- ing, but in many cases are very distinctly proud of, their descent. And it would be both useless and unpleasant to recall some of the not very merciful or law-abiding exploits of the " bygones." It is well known that the export of gold, though, as far as possible prevented, was carried on with great vigour, especially at Folkestone. The profits were too enormous for the temptation to be resisted. With the recital of a little story anent this " guinea " trade this little sketch may be brought to a conclusion. The writer heard the o story from the lips of a most worthy old Folkestone sailor now alas! no more who vouched for the truth of the story in every particular. The father and mother of the narrator lived in one of the narrow streets of old Folkestone, famous as a haunt of smugglers. The couple were about to retire to rest one dark 226 BYGONE KENT. and stormy night, when they were startled by a particular tapping at the window. Opening the door, the occupant of the house perceived a man enveloped in a huge cloak, and wearing a big slouch hat, which prevented his face fromb eing seen. Motioning to him to keep silence, the stranger entered, and threw off his hat and cloak. He was the head of a very great financial firm, whose name is known all over the world. The old Folkestoner knew his visitor well. A few moments sufficed to explain how matters stood. The eminent financier had a trifling matter of a hundred thousand guineas, which he wanted to get safely across the Strait, and he wanted to secrete the sum till a favourable opportunity occurred. After much debating it was agreed at last that the couple should ''sleep upon it " literally. Accordingly the gold was carefully brought in, in bags of a thousand guineas each. This was laid between the bed and the mattress, a hundred bags of shining gold ! The couple slept on this, or, at least, tried to do, for the old boy afterwards declared that he spent the very uneasiest night of his life on that gold. Next day every bag was taken away. " What every bag?" we asked, "surely one was left, or a part SMUGGLING IN KENT. 227 of one!" "Not a single guinea out of a single bag," replied the narrator, " and the best of it was, my father could have stuck to it all ! They dared not have made a row about it if he had stuck to it, or it would have been worse still for 'em. However, the firm's going to take my boy into their bank, so it's all right." Ibnguenot Ibomea in Ifcent. BY S. W. KERSHAW, F.S.A. THE county of Kent is perhaps richer than many others in historical associations ; its proximity to the coast, the main roads leading to the metropolis, the former importance of the Minster City of Canterbury, all contributed to make the so-called "Garden of England" famous. Among its past annals, few have inter-twined themselves so closely with the religious, intellectual, and commercial life of the district, as the advent of the refugees, first from the Netherlands and later from France, escaping the cruelty of the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, the St. Bartholomew massacre in 1572, and from the results of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Thus, two great emigrations occurred, distinct in their bearings, but of much consequence to our own history. The Reformation had sounded the key-note to the changes in the ecclesiastical world, and the advent of Edward VI. to the throne, HUG UENO T HOMES IN KEN T. 229 coupled with the Charter which he granted to the foreign Protestants in 1550, for the free exercise of their religion, made a fixed rallying point for the fugitives to settle in England. These advantages were increased in many ways, by the arrival of John a Lasco, a famous Pole, who had the general superintendence of the foreign churches. His influence, and the subsequent aid of Cecil, Lord Burleigh, who obtained the King's Letters Patent for a Protestant to set up a French printing press, in 1552, are recorded in Strype's life of Archbishop Cranmer. The Book of Common Prayer was now translated into French, printed by Thomas Gualtier in 1553, and dedicated to Thomas Goodrich, Bishop of Ely. The " Marches of Calais," as they were called, were then in English possession, and the towns therein had their orders from Cranmer for the Bible to be read, and its different versions, especially those in French, all had their in- fluence in spreading the truth of the Reformed doctrines, added to which the French church of Guisnes, near Calais, was founded, and drew together more closely both native and foreign inhabitants, in one common sympathy. 230 B YGONE KENT. It is not surprising, then, as we shall see, that a large number of those who settled in Eastern Kent may be traced into districts round the northern and opposite shore of France. Another powerful aid was given by Archbishop Cranmer, who, at his archiepiscopal houses of Lambeth and Canterbury, warmly received John a Lasco, Peter Martyr, Bucer, and other learned foreigners, for the discussion of doctrinal questions which were then uppermost in men's minds. The old Palace of Canterbury is fraught with many memories of Cranmer and the Elizabethan Archbishops, who made it one of their chief homes ; the business of the See was as much transacted in this glorious Kentish city, " Where thoughts and shadows gather round," as in the distant metropolis. A fragment, how- ever, but remains of this Palace, near the Cathedral, and an archway and other portions, built into modern houses, alone testify to the former importance of a building in which so many stirring events took place, from having been a refuge to Thomas a Becket before his murder, to the invasion of its precincts by the Commonwealth soldiery. Thus those refugees who first came into Kent, HUG UENO T HOMES IN KENT. 2 3 1 or who approached it from London, found a congenial welcome in the freedom of religious worship and thought which the times afforded. The arrival of many Walloons to Canterbury, in 1547, was the first actual settlement, and a con- gregation of exiles was formed under the care of Utenhovius, and the leadership of other eminent men. The death of Edward the VI. caused a great change. Several of the English bishops and divines, who had upheld Protestantism, fled to Frankfort, Zurich, or Geneva, and then began that dire persecution which darkened Queen Mary's reign. In Canterbury, the spot known as the " Martyrs' Field," a little outside the city, commemorates their place of suffering, and it is probable some of these were foreigners. The accession of Elizabeth, in 1558, opens a brighter page on this refugee colony, for about that date we may assign the regular congregation in the Crypt church of the Cathedral, which had been granted for their use by the Queen, and afterwards by the Dean and Chapter, remains in historic sequence to this day. The Walloons had now been increased by the French contingent, who, even before the fatal 232 BYGONE KENT. St. Bartholomew, escaped from the untold severities which had been imposed on all who tried to leave France. Besides religious, commercial advantages were secured to the newly-formed group of refugees by their admission as freemen of the City of Canterbury,* and in their successful petition to the Mayor for grants of liberty and privilege to exercise their callings, about the year 1561. Weaving, and making of different woollen fabrics, formed the staple industry, in 1564, we read of one Giles Cousin, as " superintendent " of these trades, and described by the local historian, Somner, as " Magister operum et conductor totius congregationis in opere." The manufactories increased so rapidly that a hall for essaying and receiving such goods, and for other purposes, was established in the quarter of the " Black Friars," along which the little river Stour pursues its maze-like track. This hall, though now converted to other uses, re- mains in part, and shews how extensive a craft must have been carried on by the "strangers." The fanciful but picturesque tradition that the *A paper on above subject, by R. Hovenden, F.s. A. , appeared in Canterbury Press, 1884. HUGUENOT HOMES IN KENT. 233 cathedral Crypt, fashioned so deftly by the great medieval builder, Prior Ernulph, was used by the weavers, is without real foundation in fact. Rather can we imagine that the long and narrow rooms, with their glazed windows, in the upper floors of many a house in the old city lanes, were the veritable houses where the loom and the shuttle plied their busy trade. The influx of Walloons and others was so great that, in 1641, a book was furnished, " where their names shall be entered, with their testimonials, it being found that by their trade they are beneficial to the city." In 1665, there were 126 master weavers, and the number so great that Charles II. granted them a charter to become a company ; the first master was John Six, the warden and assistants were John de Bois, John Lepine, Gideon Despaigne, Peter le Houcq, Henry Despaigne, Philip Leper, and others. Now that the industrial element had grown so large, the con- gregations had also increased, and we turn for a moment to the annals of the Crypt church. From its encouragement under Queen Elizabeth, aided by the Primates Parker, Grindal, and Whitgift, the community became very influential, and at one period, about 1640, we learn that the 234 BYGONE KENT. * " congregation, for the most part of distressed exiles, had grown so great that the place, in a short time, is likely to prove a hive too little to contain such a swarm." This protection lasted till the days of Arch- bishop Laud, when that Primate exercised a coercive domination over all the refugee churches, forcing them to a strict conformity with the English ritual, causing thereby many dissensions, and a breaking up of their numbers. It is not to be supposed, however, that the members of the foreign church here were without their own differences, which arose on doctrinal questions, to which the rise of Socinianism gave a powerful impetus. It was owing to such disagreement that many severed themselves from the Crypt church, and formed a new place of meeting in a building called the " Malthouse Chapel," in or adjoining the once existing Arch- bishop's Palace before alluded to, and called themselves the " French uniform church." We cannot pass unnoticed the long list of " Pasteurs" who have presided over the fortunes of the Crypt congregation from 1564 to the present day, and whose names are recorded on a tablet inside the * Somner's " Canterbury." H UG UENO T HOMES IN KENT. 235 building. On the arched recesses, scripture verses, copied from earlier sources, are to be seen, reminding the exiled worshippers of their old custom, when on the mountain slopes of southern France they would sing aloud these hymns in one vast assembly, thus recalling to them the sunny land of their forefathers. As time progressed, the foreign colony amalga- mated with the native inhabitants, and resorted to many of the parish churches, especially St. Peter's, Holy Cross, and St. Alphage, whose registers, replete with the names of "strangers," have been published and ably edited by Mr. J. M. Cowper, of Canterbury. In the eighteenth century is recorded many an interchange of service between the incumbents of these churches and the pastors of the French congregation, and we may now trace the assimila- tion of the two nationalities, and the absorption or change of many a foreign family name into that of its English equivalent. In so rapid a survey, it is impossible to mention more than some of the noted refugees who, either at Canterbury or around, have left a distinct memorial in the ranks of theology, literature, or commercial enterprise. Of these may be named 236 BYGONE KENT. Meric Casaubon, prebend and rector of Minster and Monkton, whose father, Isaac, was illustrious for his learning ; M. de L'Angle, who also held Kentish livings, and died in 1724. John Castillion, the Dombrain family whose ancestors escaped from France in an open boat, and whose descendant is the present Vicar of Westwell, Herault, Du Moulin, Charpentier, Durand, Le Sueur and M. le Cene, from Caen, whose transla- tion of the Bible and collection of rare manuscripts worthily endorsed his memory. Among others who have held official positions, representing the county, may be cited the names of Cartier, Delasaux, Fineux, Harrenc, Perrin, Petit, Picard, and others to be found either in the city archives, local histories, or in Diocesan registers. The weaving trade, towards the end of the eighteenth century, had greatly declined, though efforts were made to uphold it, and a petition was presented by Archbishop Tenison, asking him to promote the bill to restrict the importation of East India silks. Here may be mentioned the influence and aid given by the Primates, Wake, Tillotson, and Seeker, generally, in the cause of relief for the distressed refugees, and specially to those who were connected with the Kentish HUG UENO T HOMES IN KENT. 2 3 7 capital or its district. In 1779, Hasted, the historian, writes, " There are not more than ten master weavers." Though the industries rapidly lessened, and the foreign families have dispersed, there still lingers in this Minster city a strong representative lineage, descended from those who lived and laboured here and whose names survive on many a tombstone, tablet, or ancient inscription : "As records stand alone * Of races that have passed away." So powerful was this element that it was thought advisable to place a stained glass window in the east end of Holy Cross Church, and this memorial to the Huguenots was unveiled in December, 1889. There is thus a standing remembrance to perpetuate the recollection of those who left home, house, and kindred, to enjoy that freedom of conscience which France had denied them. Among the historical features with which this ancient city is surrounded, not the least has been the welcome and noble reception of those strangers, who have not ungenerously requited such kindness, and whose association with our own lives has been vividly described by the late 238 BYGONE KENT. Archbishop Tait. " I do not forget that in this cathedral there still remains a memorial of those days when the Church of England gave an asylum to our persecuted brethren who came from other lands, so there is something to remind us of our connection with those who in distant lands maintain, under great disadvantages, the truths for which the Reformers were contented to die."* Dover has been much identified with the landing of the refugees. As the nearest port to France, it would naturally attract the strangers, whose stay here was often of short duration, most of them proceeding to more industrial centres, or to London. The early settlements here are obscure, and the trade, which was principally shipping, did not admit of long continuance at a time. Our tenure of the district round Calais caused much reciprocal communication, and the migration of many families from northern France to East Kent is not surprising. This fact is corroborated by several names in the register of the foreign church at Guisnes re-appearing round Dover and the locality. Sir Hugh Paulet was Governor of Calais in the reign of Edward VI., when the French translation * Diocesan charge, 1876. // UG VENO T HOMES IN KEN T. 239 of our Prayer Book was made and prepared by the King's authority. The State papers (domestic series) mention that from 1619-23, the influx of strangers was great, and that through Lord Zouch's mediation Archbishop Abbot granted them the occasional use of the parish church of St. Mary's. A return of their members was ordered to be made, communicants and non-communicants who are worthy of receiving alms, and also that they contribute towards the support of their fellow countrymen. The varied nature of those refugees who settled at Dover has always been a subject for discussion, but it may be generally affirmed that they were the French speaking Flemish of northern France, who were succeeded by those from the interior parts of that country. A regular community appears to have been formed in 1646. Philippe le Keux was their first minister, and from the researches of W. H. Overend, F.S.A.,* four distinct congregations were at different times represented in Dover, beginning at the above date, and lasting till 1710. It does not appear the refugees ever had a church of their own, though a most fortunate " Strangers at Dover." Huguenot Society Proceedings, 1890, Vol. III. 2 4 o BYGONE KENT. circumstance lately occurred which resulted in recovering its registers, not long ago " edited " and published. The Dover church was represented in the London colloquy of the foreign churches in 1646, and some of its pasteurs have been associated with that at Canterbury and elsewhere in Kent. The constant and shifting transit of the strangers to and from this port has, notwith- standing, left its impress on names which have sur- vived, and given a local colouring to the town and adjacent district. Especially that of Minet, a family connected with the church of Guisnes, is found again in or round Dover. Others of foreign lineage may be quoted, as Beauvoir, Delannoy, Campre- don, d'Evereux, Lavaure, Lernoult, Quetville, Monins, Mommerie, and several which the limits of this sketch will not allow. Sandwich claims peculiar interest. For a very long time it was the home of Dutch, Walloon, and French refugees, its trading capabilities, harbour, and river 'all contributed to make it a desirable resort. The picturesque and quaint town of to-day, its red tiled houses and sloping eaves, over which the massive towers of St. Peter's and St. Clement's rise so boldly, seems to be the very same as when it welcomed the weary and distressed fugitives of H UG UENO T HOMES IN KENT. 24 1 the 1 6th century. An ancient gateway or grey stone parapet peeps out from some hidden corner, while a carved bracket or oaken beam juts forth from many a half timbered house. Almost the first settlement here was in Queen Elizabeth's reign, though there had been arrivals from the Low Countries before that date. Archbishop Parker visited Sandwich in 1563, and noticed the French and Dutch, or both, and it is recorded in his life by Strype that the Primate said, on the occasion of his visit here, " that profitable and gentle strangers ought to be welcomed and not grudged at." Industrial resources were abundant, and the archives of 1622 (James I.) give a return of some 150 weavers, their trades and professions, the chief of which was making of " bayes, lynsie woolsies," etc. We find several foreign names at this port again recurring at Norwich and Colchester, shewing that there must have been inter-communication with these towns, and that trade was diverted from one place to another, according to its success or decline. Though jealousy could not fail to exist between the natives and the strangers, the former learned 2 4 2 BYGONE KENT. from the latter many industries, especially that of cloth-making, spinning, etc., and on the Queen's visit to Sandwich, in 1573, on one of her progresses through Kent, these fabrics were exhibited to her. Other occupations were carried on, as hatmakers, taylors, whitesmiths, so that great activity prevailed for some years. A French congregation seem to have existed here in 1568, according to a book of receipts, in which is mentioned " 1'eglise de Sandevuyt Francaise." It does not appear the refugees ever had a church of their own, but were allowed the use of St. Clement's, to which they contributed a sum for expenses, and a proportionate cost for repairs. This congregation, like the others in Kent, came under the ban of Archbishop Laud, and proceedings were taken against it to enforce uniformity of worship, but the mightier events which preceded the Scotch war were at hand, and precluded further action. The harsh treatment of the "strangers" is fully set forth in a rare pamphlet by John Bulteel, minister of the French church in Canterbury, and entitled "Troubles of the three foreign churches in Kent." Allusion has been made before to the industries which were HUGUENOT HOMES IN KENT. 243 begun or perfected by the refugees, but we must not forget that Sandwich claims the honour of introduction by the Flemish of the homely cabbage and celery, and so much were these vegetables in demand that gardeners from this ancient Cinque Port, settled at Battersea, Bermondsey, and round London, and planted those fields that even to-day shew traces of past and successful culture. Similarly, with the settlements at Dover and Canterbury, that of Sandwich has bequeathed names surviving to the present, and tracing back to the time of the different immigrations. Of these may be mentioned Van Dale, De Long, Cowper, Sayer, Verrier, Rondeau, and others in the district around the same foreign element can be identified. Hythe, though in a lesser degree, is also associated with our annals ; it is probable that the refugees were few in number, and for their religious exercises resorted to Dover or Canter- bury. Connected with this place, however, is the family of De Bouveries (Earl of Radnor), who represented it in Parliament on several occasions. The valued name of Huguessen, originally a refugee from Dunkirk, and now better known 244 B YGONE KENT. as Lord Brabourne, claims local importance. Several well-born emigres were chiefly mer- chants from the Low Countries, and a list of them, with their callings, is to be found in a volume of the Camden Society, entitled " Foreign Protestants, etc., resident in England," 1618-88. In 1622, it appears that a return of the strangers of Hythe by the mayor and jurists was ordered to be sent to the Lieutenant of Dover Castle. The Weald of Kent can hardly be passed unnoticed, for its varied industrial resources, which naturally attracted the refugees, would lend them substantial aid. Foremost was the cloth trade, specially at Cranbrook and Headcorn ; the arrival of Flemish weavers, so long as the time of Richard II., may have induced succeeding strangers to settle, and it was only towards the middle of the 1 8th century that the Kentish industry had to compete with the great cities of Leeds and Brad- ford, and to relinquish its local ascendancy. Woollen goods were exported, and the sacking of Antwerp, in 1576, transferred much of the trade to England, and, in all probability, many foreign craftsmen followed. Queen Elizabeth, always H UG UENO T HOMES IN KENT. 2 4 5 ready to promote her subjects' welfare, secured her manufacturers great prosperity. The cast iron industry, though much practised in Sussex, was found in the Weald, and one of the master founders employed as his principal assistant, Peter Baude, a Frenchman, and to this day some of the old furnace ponds remain. * The Wealden annals, though scattered, may fairly claim a part in " Bygone Kent," for in 1689, four years after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, we read that there was a collection at Cranbrook in aid of the Protestant exiles, and that Sir Thomas Roberts, an old inhabitant, greatly sympathized in their cause. There appears to have been no foreign church at all in the district, but the strangers would have resorted to the border town of Rye, where a French con- gregation had been formed. The results from their advent and residence are ably commented on by Canon Jenkins, who, in his " Diocesan History," observes "they tended to leaven the population with which they held daily intercourse those who had established their industries among themthe clothiers of the Weald, the ironworkers * " The names of Furnace Farm, Furnace Pond, and Cinder Hill, are still preserved. 1 ' Furley's " Weald of Kent." 246 BYGONE KENT. of the district bordering on Sussex, and the gardening population of Sandwich and South- East Kent all contributed to the signal and almost unparalleled success of a movement which brought at the same time temporal prosperity and spiritual freedom." Little remains to indicate the past, but in the picturesque and gabled houses in and near Cranbrook, which shew traces of Flemish architecture, and in the cloth halls (now converted into private use) the story of refugee life can still be told. At Faversham there was a French congregation about 1696, and although few particulars are extant as to this settlement, there is evidence in the local names of a distinct foreign element, of which the family of Giraud, both in this town and surrounding districts, has long held honourable mention. Intimately connected with our subject is Maidstone, where many industries attracted the Walloon and Flemish fugitives, who came from the Netherlands and formed a strong contingent m J 573. having the Royal protection and sympathy. The corporation granted them the use of S. Faith's Chapel and burial ground, and before that date they petitioned the Queen to HUGUENOT HOMES IN KENT. 247 allow them to establish their manufactures, which was granted. The cloth trade was one of the staple com- modities ; Guilds were established, to which strangers had to be admitted before they could practise their craft. Threadmaking was another enterprise, and this flourished in Maidstone for some time, till the trade decayed by the importation of thread from Flanders. The State Papers of 1622 give a list of such strangers born in the town, of which the thread- makers formed a considerable portion. Their religious liberties were permitted until, like the other Kentish settlements, they came under the Laudian sway, when many left the country, dis- persing with them the industries which had already benefited this district, and, as related by the late Mr. Furley in his " History of the Weald," ''clothiers, merchants, and others, being deprived of their ministers, and overburdened with grievances, have departed the kingdom to Holland and other parts." Towards the end of the seventeenth century the refugee annals of Maidstone are not so o frequent, and the strangers had either repaired to 248 BYGONE KENT. the parish churches or had embraced Noncon- formity, whose progress was much increased by this addition to its ranks. A remarkable instance of the effects of the persecutions in France, and the singular accident of its results in the little colony at Boughton Malkerbe, near Maidstone, may fitly close this chapter. In 1 60 1, the Marquis de Venours, of Poitou, sought protection in England, and having taken a house and land here (probably Boughton Place), the seat of the Wottons, had a recommendatory letter from Archbishop Bancroft to the Rector of this spot. " That the inhabitants shall receive him and his following with Christian charity, and that as they do not understand English, the Arch- bishop appoints M. Jacques Rondeau to preach in the parish church of Boughton, to which access may be given at such times as shall not hinder the ordinary congregation." This proceeding fully bears out the generous character of Bancroft, who, on more than one occasion, like Bishop Ken, showed warm sympathy with the cause of the suffering refugees, both by recom- mending his clergy to raise subscriptions, and by other assistance. HUG UENOT HOMES IN KENT. 249 Round this neighbourhood, of which Maidstone may be called a centre, many foreign names assuredly had their origin ; in the settlements of those was found freedom in this fair and favoured County. The following may serve as examples : De la Douespie (East Farleigh), Le Geyt (Chislet), De L'Angle (Tenterden), Fremoult (Wotton), who were incumbents of the above parishes. In tracing but a few of the "homes and haunts " of the strangers, we may apply to them the graphic words which Canon Jenkins* uses to those of the Cathedral city, "The numer- ous surnames of purely French origin which meet the eye in every direction, prove that a large proportion of the inhabitants are the descendants of the settlers from France and Flanders, in the time of Edward the Sixth, and some of the most eminent prebendaries of the Cathedral had a similar origin." * Diocesan History. Rev. R. C. Jenkins, 1881. T IDover Castle. BY E. WOLLASTON KNOCKER. HIS fortification, crowning the white cliffs of Albion, overlooked, centuries since, the valley through which ran the estuary now known as the river. Dour, three-and-a-half miles long, and on its south side the antient small but walled town of Dover. The banks of the stream formed the landing- place of Romans, Saxons, Vikings, and Normans ; and around it in later years was formed the port, at which in successive ages have arrived and departed crusaders, pilgrims, sovereigns, tourists, and pleasure-seekers. The position is almost unrivalled throughout the world ; it was the true clavis regni, and it has been the scene of many interesting events and several sieges. When in B.C. 55 Julius Caesar landed in Kent, he found hardy warriors with well-found chariots to oppose his march inland, and it is not improbable that the art of warfare thus learnt by DOVER CASTLE. 251 the Britons may have led to the construction of such an earthwork as that on which the Roman Pharos still stands. Caesar in his Commentaries makes no mention of any fortifications which he constructed in this realm. The first Roman cohort, iioo strong, was stationed at Dover. It claimed the post of honour and the custody of the imperial eagle. It is not improbable that a fortification was erected (A.D. 43-49) by Aulus Plautius or Publius Ostorius Scapula, both generals of consular dignity, who had been despatched with armies by the Emperor Claudius, the first to reduce part of Britain to a Roman province, and the second to quell the turbulent Britons who had refused to pay their stipulated tribute. The castle was called Caesar's Castle for some centuries. The Pharos, or light-house, and its companion on the opposite hill, were probably both of Roman construction. The one in the castle is thought to have been used by the Normans for the purposes of defence. The early Christian Church, dedicated to Saint Mary, adjoining the Pharos, is said to have been reconsecrated by St. Augustine. It requires a volume to itself, and this has been admirably 252 BYGONE KENT. provided by the Rev. Canon Puckle in his history. Much controversy has raged over its origin and date, but these cannot be entered upon within the limits of this paper. Its restoration by the Government for a military church has saved it from the oblivion its ruined state for many years seemed to portend. Eadbald, the son of Ethelbert, who had been Governor of the castle, after the death of his father succeeded to the kingdom of Kent about A.D. 600, and we are told that he founded a college in connection with the church, and its establishment has been stated at from six canons and a provost to twenty-four. It is difficult to determine the site of the religious house used by these clerics, but it is supposed to have been situated near Colton's Gate. From the time of St. Augustine therefore (who landed in Kent A.D. 596) it is probable that there was a small separate ecclesiastical establishment in the castle. During the Wardenship of John de Fienes, about A.D. 1084, it is said there were three chap- lains, who had separate duties assigned to them, and among these, that, not of punishing offenders, but DOVER CASTLE. 253 of advising the Constable in the exercise of his judicial functions. From the subordinate position of these chaplains and their successors is probably to be attributed the fact that history tells so little about the religious part of the castle administration. At the Reformation the number of chaplains was reduced to one, but service was regularly performed until the year 1690. Hengist (A.D 449-455) probably extended the Brito-Romanic earthworks so as to include what is now the keep yard, and he is stated to have built the fortress. Its extension would at least have provided for a larger garrison. Horsa became Governor of the castle. Alfred the Great was the first of the Saxon kings who employed the mason in the art of fortification, and he doubtless enclosed the Saxon and Roman earthworks of the castle with walls, gates, and towers. Earl Godwin (who died A.D. 1053) m tne re ig n of King Edward the Confessor, was perhaps the first Lord Warden who was also Governor of the castle. These offices have remained in combina- tion to the present day. Godwin made consider- able additions to the castle, and one tower, which 254 BYGONE KENT. formerly stood at the entrance of the keep yard, bore his name. At the Norman Conquest (A.D. 1066) and after the Battle of Hastings, William, Duke of Normandy, marched first towards Dover Castle, then the most important fortress of the kingdom, and during the opposition to his approach, among the privileges extracted from the Duke was the one known as the law of gravelkind, which is still in force in Kent, and regulates the descent and inheritance of land in it. At the same time (it is said) arose the fabled distinction between " Men of Kent" and <; Kentish men." Duke William did not cross the Medway as a Conqueror, so the inhabitants of the eastern division of the county were styled " Men of Kent." Hence, too, the County motto, " Invicta." William remodelled and extended the castle fortifications, enclosing the portion between the British, Roman, and Saxon works and the edge of the cliff. He also built some of the additional towers in the outer wall. To each he assigned one of his knights, and, according to the custom of feudal tenure, made him a grant of land on condition that he kept his tower in a state of defence, and did service in the DOVER CASTLE. 255 castle with a fixed number of retainers for a specified period of the year. Among these towers, commencing from the south-east, are those of Albranche of Folkestone. He delegated his command to one Rokesley, whose name the tower afterwards bore. Fulbert of Dover was Lord of the Manor and Castle of Chilham in Kent, on condition that he kept one fort in repair. Hence the tower was first called Chilham, but its Deputy-Governor was one Chaldercot, and the tower later was called by his name. This tower had a small one as an appendage to it, which took its name from Hurst, a village near Chilham, the rents of which were allotted to its repair and defence. Near Fulbert's Tower was the Bodar's house. As sergeant-at-arms he was also gaoler of the adjoining prison. For many centuries, and within the recollection of the present generation, it was used as a prison for debtors. These used to ring a bell near the outside of the Canon's Gate, and attract the attention of passers by, to obtain alms in a box placed close to the bell. The next tower anciently took its name from Arsick, its first commandant. He got Say to take 256 BYGONE KENT. charge of it, and it was called after him, Say's Tower. Two good estates, Langdon and Pevington, were held by this tenure. In the same way the defence of other towers was provided for. Galton Tower, with which was held Galton in Surrey on castle-guard tenure. Peverill's, called also Beauchamp's and Marshal's Tower. The Marshal resided in it. Perth's Tower later named Castings. It was rebuilt by Queen Mary and then called Mary's Tower. The Constable's Tower, which was larger than the others, was first named Fienes, or the Newgate Tower, later after Hubert de Burgh, but because of its use by the governors for business purposes it afterwards had its present name, The Constable's Tower. It was for many years the residence of the Deputy- Warden or Deputy-Governor of the castle (an office which continued to the present century) and it is now the official residence of the General commanding the south-eastern district. The towers to the north of this one are : Pencester (which was the Treasurer's or Pay- master's residence) ; Godsfoes ; the Earl of Norfolk's (Marshal of England) or Craville, which commanded the royal bridge supposed to have DOVER CASTLE. 257 been built by the Romans leading to the castle ; Fitzwilliam's or John's ; Avranche or Maunsell's ; Veville's ; Godwin's ; and Valence's or Morti- mer's. The commandants of all these towers held estates on the castle-guard tenure. Inside the castle were several towers : Clintons ; Colton's Gate, near the Church (in which were the chaplain's lodgings) ; Harcourt's Tower ; The Fountain or Well Tower ; Arthur's Gate, leading to Pencester Tower ; the Palace Crate, leading to the palace or keep ; and the Duke of Suffolk's Tower adjoining. Near the last named was another Tower, in which were stored all the arms, machines, and stones necessary for the defence of the castle ; adjoining to this arsenal was the King's kitchen. Surrounding the keep and the keep yard are lofty walls, having in them some of the towers already named, and built against them were many rooms formerly used for the accommodation of the Court, and which are now used by men of the Royal Artillery quartered there. Among these was a hall called after the renowned King Arthur. The mere enumeration of these towers and S 258 BYGONE KENT. gates shows the importance attached to the defence of the castle ; the large and numerous estates alloted to its maintenance, and the strength of the garrison. The principal gates of the castle were the Canons' Gate ; Friars or Old Gate ; the principal one, long called the New Gate, because it took the place of the older one through the Constable's Tower, now known as the Queen's Entrance or Constable's Gate ; a postern in Earl Godwin's Tower ; and a small gate called the Ethetisfordian Gate. There is yet another approach. At the foot of the cliff, between the castle and the sea, Henry VIII. built a fortification called Moat's Bulwark. A shaft was made in the cliff with circular steps, by which access was given from the bulwark to the castle. It is said that George IV., then Prince of Wales, in 1798, was conducted down these steps as the nearest way to the town. The keep, we are told, was 89 feet in height, and its walls so thick that they had apartments within them, and some of these can still be seen. In it is Harold's Well, said to have been 240 paces deep. Its importance during the sieges was duly estimated. Harold swore to William of Nor- DOVER CASTLE. 259 mandy to deliver it up with the castle. The well still exists, though it has been partially filled in from visitors having been allowed for many years to throw pebbles down it to enable them to judge of its great depth. The keep contains two chapels ; the lower one, called St. John's, near the grand staircase, is of beautiful Norman work, which has been partially restored. The upper one above it was a private chapel for the use of the sovereigns and others occupying the keep. The banqueting hall and presence chamber are now used as armouries. One of these was called Arthur's Hall, though it is different from another in the Keep Yard which bore the same name. These halls are of large size, and were fitted for the uses of a royal residence at the time they were so appropriated. Their oak floors are said to consist of the original timber used when they were constructed. How many sieges, surprises, and reliefs the castle has witnessed it would be difficult to recount, even if the present space allowed. The most important siege was that by the Dauphin of France in 1216, after he had marched to London and laid waste Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk. 260 BYGONE KENT, Stephen de Pencester, with 400 men, succeeded in reinforcing the garrison by entering it undiscovered, it is said, through the sally-port under Godwin's Tower. But the Dauphin, after a long siege, did not succeed in taking the castle. In most of our civil commotions the castle attracted the attention of both parties. So lately as the troubles during the reign of Charles I., it was taken by surprise in the night of the ist August 1642, by a merchant named Drake, with a few men who had scaled the cliff by the aid of ladders and ropes. Having secured the sentinel, they threw open the gates, and the garrison being weak, and the officer in command supposing in the dark that the force against him was large, surrendered the castle. The Earl of Warwick, who was at Canterbury, sent a small force to guard it. It was besieged afterwards by the Royalists, but the siege was raised by a Parliamentary force sent for that purpose. Many of our Sovereigns have occasionally resided there. Among these were : Stephen, who died at Dover, either in the castle or at one of the religious houses. Henry II., on his way to Normandy, Richard I., on embarking for the Holy DOVER CASTLE. 261 Land, as well as on other occasions. Edward I., on his way to and from the Continent. Edward 1 1. and Edward III., each several times. Henry V. In his reign the Emperor Sigismund was allowed to land on his assurance that he was a messenger of peace. After seventy years, during which period none of our kings visited the castle, Henry V. embarked at Dover with an army. Henry VIII. was a regular visitor to the castle, and embarked there for the Field of the Cloth of Gold, having his then Queen at the castle. Its last royal occupant is believed to have been Charles I., who met his Queen, Henrietta of France, on the grand staircase, and she made the keep her abode on the night of her arrival, Sunday, 1 3th June 1625. Beyond a visit by day made by Her present Majesty, with Arthur, Duke of Wellington, there appears to be no record of any intermediate visit of an English sovereign. Many of the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports, as Governors of Dover Castle, resided there from time to time. Several were members of the royal family, others distinguished generals and statesmen. 262 BYGONE KENT. Those of the present century have been, Pitt, Hawkesbury, Wellington, Dalhousie, Palmerston, Granville, W. H. Smith, and the present Lord Warden, who is believed to be the i5Oth, the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava. Possibly no castle can boast such a succession of governors, so identified with the interests of the kingdom that to write their lives would be to re-write its history. Many have seen something of the wonder- ful subterranean passages of the castle. These were perhaps originally formed to give means of escape, or communications with the outside, to a beleaguered garrison. Tradition says that there were passages to Walmer Castle, Langdon Abbey, and St. Radigund's Abbey. At Langdon there is still an opening to what may have been such a passage. During later years the passages inside the castle have been adapted and extended for defensive purposes. Whether or not they can be so utilized now seems doubtful. As a modern fortification the castle cannot take a high rank. During the present century, Fort Burgoyne has been constructed on the higher land to the north and west, with the object no doubt of DOVER CASTLE. 263 giving additional strength to the other fortifica- tions at Dover, and thus of compelling an invading army either to reduce the place or leave a force of observation to protect its communica- tions. At present the castle is a garrison and military storehouse only. Another well besides Harold's has been sunk, but water is raised by steam power. Married soldiers' quarters, recreation rooms, and all the modern accessories of barracks, cluster round the remains which still speak to us of bygone ages. If there is but little other similarity between the Dover Castle of the early Christian era, and the Dover Castle of 1892 the sounds of discipline and trumpets still echo within its walls. This paper cannot lay claim to be original, or to contain anything new, but it is only an attempt to give a few facts upon a large subject deserving of a better hand and more extended treatment. Abbey, St. Augustine's, 48 A'Becket, Thomas, the " trans- lation," 102 ; Relics, no, 113; Shrine, 112, 114 Act of Succession, 185 Alms box, ancient, 105 Appledore, William, 138 Arran, Earl of, 161 Ayenbite of Inwyt, 193 Ball, John, 10, 130, 133-134 Hampton, Thomas de, 132 Battles, Hastings, 5, at Maklstone, 16 Bealknass, Sir Robert, 132 Bean, Ellen, 12-13 Bek, Anthony, Bishop of Durham, 144-146 Bertha, Queen, 42-48 Boxley Rood of Grace, the, 125 Boy, definition of a, 213 Brabourne, Lord, 244 Bulteel's pamphlet, 242 Burley, Sir Simon, 134 Canterbury, 5-6, 134 Canterbury, Archbishop of, 134, 138 ; Cathedral, 46 Canterbury Pilgrims, 97 Capitation Tax, 131 Cathedral of the Old Foundation, 209 Celery, etc., introduced, 243 Chrism due, 62 Christianity, decline of, 39 Christmas at Eltham, 148 Church or Basilica of Lyminge, 86- 96 ; Foundation, 87 ; Restored by Dunstan, 89 ; Endowed with relics, 90 ; Manor House, 91 ; Surrendered, 94 ; Ancient Charters, 95 Church, St. Martin's, 4, 45 ; St. Pancras, 47 Cloth trade, 244 Cohham, Lord, 10 Coucy, Ingebrand de, 149 Danes, the, 4-5 Dancing booth at Greenwich, 173 Dark Entry, Legend of, 12 Devil, the, at Montindene, 124 Dover Castle, 250 ; Roman Post, 251 ; Pharos, 251 ; Church of St. Mary, 251 ; Eadbald's College, 252 ; Chaplains, 252 ; Hengist and Horsa, 253 ; Alfred the Great, 253 ; Godwin, 253 ; William I., 254; Knight service, 254 ; Debtor's prison, 255 ; Towers, 255-258 ; Gates, 258 ; the Keep, 258 ; Chapels, 259 ; Sieges, 259, Wells, 259, 263 ; Royal residents, etc. , 260 ; Governors, 261-262 ; Subter- ranean passages, 262 Dunstan, 89 Dutch in the Medway, 17 Elizabeth, Queen, 161 Ellis, Dr. A. J., 195 Erasmus, 158 Essex, Earl of, 162 Ethel bert I., 4, 42-48 Ethelburga, Queen, 86-89 Ferry Chapels, 54 Fisher, John, 177 ; Early history, 1 77- 178; appointed to Rochester, 181 ; Defends Catherine, 184; his superstition, 185 ; imprison- ment, 185 ; trial, 186 ; priva- tion, 187 ; execution, 188 Fleet, revolt in the, 16 Folkestone Smugglers, 225 French Invasion, 6 Froissart and Richard II., 151 T 266 INDEX. Gaunt, John of, 151 Gloucester, Duke of, 152 Gold, Export of, 225 Gravelkind, 254 Greenwich Fair, 167 ; Abolition, 176 Hales, Sir Robert, 138 Henry VI., 151 Henry VIII. (Defender of the Faith), 182-184; A cruel jest of, 189 Hereford accuses Norfolk, 152 Historic Kent, I Holy Maid of Kent, the, 185 Hubert de Burgh, 6 Huguenot Homes in Kent, 228 ; Foreign weavers, 232 ; Laud's action, 234; Places of Worship, 234 ; Noted refugees, 235 ; Decline of Weaving, 236 ; re Dover, 238 ; re Sandwich, 240; re Hythe, 243 ; re Cranbrook, 245 ; re Faversham, 246 ; re Maidstone, 246 ; re Boughton, 248 Iron, cast, 245 James II., flight of, 18 John, King of France, 149 Kent, the Fair Maid of, 134, 138 Kentish dialects, etc., 190 ; Provincial English, 191 ; Court Dialect, 192 ; pronunciation, 196 ; curious phrases, 200 ; Rustic vocabulary, 201 ; Pro- verbs, etc., 204 Kentish Place-Names, 21 ; Deriva- tions, 24-26 ; terminals, 27-31 ; Ancient Ports, 31 ; Romney Marsh, 33 ; Danish derivations, 35 ; Anglo-Saxon names in France, 36 Kentish ships, etc., 218 King's School, the, Canterbury, 206 ; Eminent scholars, 207 ; Head Masters, 210; Celebrities, 216 Knowles, Sir Robert, 140 Lambarde, William, 115; genealogy of, 120; works of, 126 Lambeth Palace sacked, 136 Lanfranc, 90 Leland, John, 117 Lewis, Rev. John, 193 Lollards and Wiclifites, 10, 154 London Bridge, 136 Macomo, 172 Marriage by proxy, 153 Martyred Cardinal, the, 177 Mary, Queen, 161 Masque on Twelfth-Night, 159 Mildretha, 88 Miracles, re A'Becket, 101 Mitchinson, Rev. John, D.C. L., 213 Mylner, lakke, 131 Navarre, Joanna of, 153 Newton, Sir John, 134 Paper-chases, 213 Pegge, Samuel, 193 Penance of Henry II., 100, 106 Priest, tragic death of a, 7-9 Priestly imposture, 1 1 Punishment by Boiling, 185 Ray, 193 Reformation, 10-11 Regulbium (Reculver), 3-4 Restoration, the, 17 Revolt of the Villeins, 128 ; Causes, 131 ; Leaders, 133 ; at London, 136; Demands, 138; leave London, 140; St. Alban's, 141 ; Essex men, 141 ; Suppres- sion, 142; Parliament on, 142; Royal grace, 143 Rich, Major General, 162 Richard II., 135, 137, 138-143 Richardson's Theatre, 168 ; riot at, 174 Richmond, Margaret, Countess of, 179 Rochester Cathedral, 48 Roman Remains, etc., 2-3 Royal Eltham, 144 ; re Building, 146 ; royal residents, 147-154 ; Armenia, King of, 151 ; royal births, 147 ; decay, etc., 162- 166 Royalist Rising, A.D. 1648, 15 Ruined Chapels and Chantries, 51 : St. Katherine, Shorne, 51-54; Bridge Chapel, Rochester, 54- 59 ; St. Lawrence de Longsole, 59-60 ; St. Margaret, Helle,. INDEX. 267 61-62; St. Mary at .Milton, 63; Eslingham Chapel, 60; St. Lawrence, Hailing, 65 ; Dode Chapel, Luclclesdown, 65 ; Maplescomb Church, 66 ; Rokesley Church, 67 ; Lulling- stone Church, 68 ; St. Leonard, 69 ; S't. John, Chapel of, 70 ; Merston Church, 72 ; Paddles- worth Church, 73 ; St. Mary's Chapel, Swanscomb, 73 ; St. Mary's Chapel, Pern bury, 74 5 St. James's Chantry, 75 ; St. Bartholomew's, 75 ; Chapel of Scots Grove, 77 ; St. Cathe- rine, Fawkham, 78 ; Cosenton Chapel, 79 ; Tottington Chapel, 80; Cobham Chapel, 80; St. Edmund the Martyr, 82 ; Horsemonden Chantry, 83 ; Maidstone, Chapel of Corpus Christi, 84 ; Dover Round Church, 85 Savoy, the, burnt, 136 Saxons, 4 Shaw, the pantomimist, 170 Shurland, Sir Robert, his crime, 7-9 Sigisnuincl, Emperor, 156 Skippon, General, 17 Smuggling in Kent, 218 Smugglers' Nests, 221 ; Anecdote, 223 Stable Gate, 45 Statutes of Eltham, 161 St. Augustine and his Mission, 39 St. Gregory, 40, 44 Still Christmas, the, 160 Straw, Jack, 132, 137 Taylor, Canon Isaac, on place- names, 21 Threadmaking, 247 Tower, the, seized, 137 Villeins, league of, 129 ; Sir S, Hurley's bondman, 134 Wallace, Rev. George, M.A. , 212 Walworth, Sir William, 139-140 Wat Tyler, 9, 133, 137 ; death of,. 139-140 Windsor Castle, building of, 129 Wolsey, Cardinal, 158 Wombvvell's, Catastrophe at, 171 Wyatt's rising, 14 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS OF WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo., 6s. Social Studies in its Historic Byways and Highways. By WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. Author of " Old Church Lore," "Curiosities of the Church," " Old Time Punishments" etc. Contents : Under Watch and Ward. Under Lock and Key. The Practice of Pledging. The Minstrel in the Olden Time. Curious Landholding Customs. Curiosities of Slavery in England. Buying and Selling in the Olden Time. Curious Fair Customs. Old Prejudices against Coal. The Sedan-Chair. Running Footmen. The Early Days of the Umbrella. A Talk about Tea. Concerning Coffee. The Horn-Book. Fighting-Cocks in Schools. Bull-Baiting. The Badge of Poverty. Patents to wear Nightcaps. A Foolish Fashion. 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" Liverpool Daily Post. Hull : William Andrews & Co., The Hull Press. Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo., 7s. 6d. one Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. Author of " Old Church Lore" " Cztriosities of the Church" " Old Time Punishments" etc. Contents : Historic Leicestershire. By Thomas Frost. John Wielif and Lutterworth. By John T. Page. The Last Days of a Dynasty : An Introduction to Redmore Fight. The Battle of Bosworth. By Edward Lamplough. Scenes at Bosworth : The Blue Boar at Leicester. Bradgate and Lady Jane Grey. By John T. Page. Leicester Castle. By I. W. Dickinson, B.A. Death of Cardinal Wolsey at Leicester Abbey. By I. W. Dickinson, B.A. Belvoir Castle, Robert, Earl of Leicester : A Chapter of Mediaeval History. Local Proverbs and Folk Phrases. By T. Broadbent Trowsdale. Festival Customs in Leicestershire. By Henrietta Ellis. Witchcraft in Leicestershire. By J. Potter-Briseoe, F.R.H.S. William Lilly, The Astrologer. By W. H. Thompson. 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Contents of Volume II. : Lincoln Cathedral, by T Tindall Wildridge Lincoln Castle, by E Mansell Sympson, M.D. Tattershall, its Lords, its Castle, and its Church, by E Mansell Sympson, M.D. Bolingbroke Castle, by Tom Robinson, M.D. Ancient Stained Glass at Barton-on- Humber, and the great Earl Beaumont, by T Tindall Wildridge On the Population of Lincolnshire, by Tom Robinson, M.D. Suj>erstitious Beliefs and Customs of Lincolnshire, by the Rev. Wm. Proctor Swaby, D.D. The Legend of Byard's Leap, by the Rev. J Conway Walter Thornton Abbey, by Frederick Ross, F.R.H.S. The Witches of Belvoir, by T Broadbent Trowsdale The Battle of Lincoln, by Edward Lamplough Lincoln Fair, by Edward Lamplough Alford Fight, by the Rev. Geo S Tyack, B.A. Robert de Brunne, by Frederick Ross, F.K.H.S. Dr. Dodd, the Forger, by John T Page Sir Isaac Newton Barton- on-Humber Ferry, by C H Crowder An Eighteenth Century Poet, by the Rev. 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Historic Essex, by Thomas Frost Epping Forest : Its History, Customs, and Laws, by Jesse Quail Greenstead Church, by Edward Lamplough The Burial of Harold at Waltham, by William Winters, F.R. H.S. St. Osyth's Priory, by John T Page Colchester in Olden Times, by Joseph W Spurgeon The Siege of Colchester, by Joseph W Spurgeon Colchester : Its Historic Buildings and Famous Men, by Joseph W Spurgeon Essex Tokens, by Thomas Forster Queen Elizabeth at Tilbury : A Glance at Armada Days, by Edward Lamplough The Lawless Court, by the Rev. Geo. S Tyack, B.A. The Dunmow Flitch A Deserted Primitive Village, by G Fredk. Beaumont \Villiam Hunter, the Young Martyr of Brentwood, by John W Odling Fairlop Fair by John W Odling -Thomas Tusser and his "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry," by W H Thompson John Ray, Naturalist, by W H Thompson Wanstead House, by John T Page Hopkins, the Witchfinder, by Frederick Ross, F.R. H.S. An Essex Poet, by the Rev. Geo. 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Contents : Historic Lancashire, by Ernest Axon The Religious Life of Lancashire during the Commonwealth, by W A Shaw, M.A., Kersal Moor, by Janet Armytage A Lancaster Worthy (Thomas Covell), by William Hewitson Some Early Manchester Grammar School Boys, by Ernest Axon The Sworn Men of Amounderness, by Lieut. -Col. Henry Fishwick, F.S.A. Lancashire Sundials, by William E A Axon, M.B.S.L. The Plague in Liverpool, by J Cooper Morley The Old Dated Bell at Claughton, by Robert Langton, F.R.H.S. The Children of Tim Bobbin, by Ernest Axon The " Black Art " at Bolton An Infant Prodigy in 1679, by Arthur W Croxton Wife Desertion in the Olden Times The Colquitt Family of Liverpool Some Old Lancashire Punishments Bury Simnels Eccles Wakes, by H Cottam Furness Abbey Colonel Rosworm and the Siege of Manchester, by George C Yates, F.S.A. Poems of Lancashire Places, by William E A Axon, M.TC.S.I.,. Father Arrowsmith's Hand, by Rush worth Armytage Index Illustrated. "A work of considerable historical and archaeological interest. "- Liverpool Daily Poxt. ' ' The book is handsomely got up. " Manchester Guardian. "In the collection of papers forming this highly interesting volume, many antiquarian and historical matters connected with the County Palatine are dealt with, and at least a dozen authors have contributed essays rich in curious facts. . . All the articles are good, and should make this volume a favourite among the historical students of the County Palatine. " Liverpool Mercury. " The book is excellently printed and bound." Library Review. " ' Bygone Lancashire' is a welcome addition to the literature of the County, and we echo the hope expressed by the editor that its appearance ' may encourage the local patriotism which is such a striking character- istic of the Lancashii-e Lad.' It may be added that the work, which contains a few illustrations, is well got up, and does credit to the publishers. " Manchester Courier. " This is another of those clearly-printed, well-covered, readable, accurate, and entertaining ' Bygone ' volumes that come forth with pleasant frequency from the Andrews' press, Hull. . . The volume is sure of a ready sale among the more intelligent of the ' Lancashire Lads.' " Antiquary. HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd, Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy Svo., price 'js. 6d. Only 500 copies printed, and each copy numbered. Its History, Folk-Lore, and Memorable Men and Women. Edited by WILL/AM /HI/DREWS, F.R.H.S., Author of "OLD-TIME PUNISHMENTS," "CURIOSITIES OF THE CHURCH," "OLD CHURCH LORE." Contents : Historic Northamptonshire, by Thomas Frost The Eleanor Crosses, by the Rev. Geo. S Tyack, B. A. Fotheringhay : Past and Present, by Mrs. l)empsey The Battle of Naseby, by Edward Lam plough The Cottage Countess The Charnel House at Rothwell, by Edward Chamber- lain The Gunpowder Plot, by John T Page Earls Barton Church, by T Tindall Wildridge Old Fairs, by William Sharman Witches and Witchcraft, by Eugene Teesdale The City of Peterborough, by Frederick Ross, F.R.H.S. The English Founders of the Washington Family of America, by Thomas Frost Ann Brad street, the Earliest American Poetess -Liber Custumarum, Villa; Northamptonia?, by Christopher A. Markham, F.S. A. Thomas Britton, the Musical Small-Coal Man, by E E Cohen Old Scarlett, the Peterborough Sexton Accounts of Towcester Constables, by John Nicholson Miserere Shoemaker of Wellingborough, by T Tindall Wildridge Sir Thomas Tresham and his Buildings, by John T Page Northamptonshire Folk-Lore, by John Nicholson Northampton- shire Proverbs An Ancient Hospital, by the Rev. I W T odhams, M.A. A carefully prepared Index Illustrations. PRESS OPINIONS. "The volume is very interesting, and for those who dwell in the county, or whose tastes lead them to explore its history, it will have especial attraction. " Publishers' Circular. "A welcome contribution to the literature of the county." North- ampton Herald. " The book is published in a form that is well worthy of the high standard that the Hull Press has achieved, and we can congratulate Mr. Andrews on adding one more stone to the fabric of the bygone history of the Midlands. " Hull Daily 'News. " An interesting volume, as well as being got up in exceptionally good style. The matter is well chosen and well rendered, so that the book is not only a thing of beauty, but also a veritable treasure-house of reliable and entertaining articles." Beverley Independent. " A welcome addition to the shelves of anyone interested in the antiquities of Northamptonshire, while even those who are not, will be able to pleasantly while away many odd half-hours by perusing its pages." Kettering Leader. HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & Co., LTD, Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo., price 7s. 6d. IDerb^sbire: Its History, Romance, Folk-Lore, Curious Customs, etc. EDITED BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. T~\ERBY SHIRE is rich in historical associations of an out-of-the-way *-' character. In the pages of " Bygone Derbyshire " are presented in a readable, and at the same time in a scholar-like style, papers, pro- fusely illustrated, bearing on such subjects as the history of the county, ancient castles, monumental brasses, gleanings from parochial records, old church lore, family romance, traditions, curious customs, witchcraft well-dressing, old-time sports, etc., etc. Contents : Historic Derbyshire On an Early Christian Tomb at Wirks- worth Curious Derbyshire Lead-Mining Customs The Place-Nam Derby Duffleld Castle Haddon Hall The Romance of Haddon Hall The Ordeal of Touch The Monumental Brasses at Tideswell Bolsover Castle The Lamp of St. Helen Peveril Castle Samuel Slater, the Father of the American Cotton Manufacture The Bakewell Witches Mary Queen of Scots in Derbyshire The Babington Conspiracy Eyam and its Sad Memories Well-Dressing Old-Time Football After Thirty Years ; An Incident of the Civil War Derbyshire and the '45 Bess of Hardwick Shadows of Romance Index. -^'- PRESS OPINIONS, -i^- "' Bygone Derbyshire ' is a valuable and interesting contribution to local history and archaeology." The Times. " The volume is pleasant reading of a most attractive county. 1 ' Daily Teler/raph. "A very interesting and welcome addition to the literature of Derby shire." Derbyshire Courier. "Mr. Andrews is to be warmly complimented on the all-round excellence of his work, which forms a valuable addition to Derbyshire literature." Alfreton Journal. " A valuable addition to any library." Derbyshire Times. HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. LONDON : SIMPKIN', MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & Co., LTD. Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo., price 7s. 6d. Begone ; %on6on, By FREDERICK ROSS, F.R.H.S., Author of "Yorkshire Family Romance," "Legendary Yorkshire," etc. CONTENTS. The Walls and Gates Episodes in the Annals of Cheapside Bishops- gate Street Within arid Without Aldersgate Street and St. Martin's-le- Grand Old Broad Street Chaucer and the Tabard The Priory of the Holy Trinity, Aldgate Convent of the Sisters Minoresses of the Order of St. Clare, Aldgate The Abbey of St. Mary of Graces, or East Minster The Barons Fitzwalter of Baynard's Castle Sir Nicholas Brember, Knight, Lord Mayor of London An Olden Time Bishop of London : Robert de Braybrook A Brave Old London Bishop : Fulco Basset An Old London Diarist Index. PRESS OPINIONS. " Mr. Ross deals with the chief episodes in the history of London architecture, and with existing London antiquities in a garrulous, genial spirit, which renders his book generally attractive." The Times. "Beyond all doubt a more interesting and withal informing volume than ' Bygone London ' it has not been our good fortune to come across for many a long day." The City PRICE ONE SHILLING. In the Temple. In the Temple The Knights Templars The Devil's Own Christmas in the Temple Howto become a Templar On Keeping Terms Call Parties. ' Amusing and interesting sketches." Law Time*. " Pleasant gossip about the barristers' quarter." Gentleiroman. " A very pleasant little volume." Globe. " An entertaining little book." Manchester Examiner. HULL: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd. Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8vo,, 6s. Legendary + Cjorkshire. By FREDERICK ROSS, F.R.H.8. Content* : The Enchanted Cave The Doomed City The Worm of Xunnington The Devil's Arrows The Giant Road Maker of Mulgrave The Virgin's Head of Halifax The Dead Arm of St. Oswald the King The Translation of St. Hilda A Miracle of St. John The Beatified Sisters -The Dragon of Wantley The Miracles and Ghost of Watton The Murdered Hermit of Eskdale The Calverley Ghost- The Bewitched House of Waketield. PRESS OPINIONS. Beverley Recorder says " It is a work of lasting interest, and cannot fail to delight the reader." Driffield Obxereer says : The history and the literature of our county are now receiving marked attention, and Mr. Andrews merits the support of the public for the production of this and the other interesting volumes he has issued. We cannot speak too highly of this volume, the printing, the paper, and the binding being faultless." Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8vo. , 6s. UJorhsbfve jfamil^ IRomance. By FREDERICK ROSS, F.R.H.S. Content* : The Synod of Streoneshalh The Doomed Heir of Osmother- ley St. Eadwine, The Royal Martyr The Viceroy Siward Phases in the Life of a Political Martyr The Murderer's Bride The Earldom of W'iltes Blackfaced Clifford The Shepherd Lord The Felons of Ilkley The Ingilby Boar's Head The Eland Tragedy The Plumpton Marriage The Topcliffe Insurrection Burning of Cottingham Castle The Alum Workers The Maiden of Marblehead Rise of the House of Phipps The Traitor Governor of Hull. PRESS OPINIONS. " The grasp and thoroughness of the writer is evident in every page, and the book forms a valuable addition to the literature of the North Country. " Gentlewoman. " Many will welcome this work." Yorkshire Poxt. HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd. El&jantly bound in doth (/lit, demy Svo. , price 6. yorkshire Battles. By EDWARD LAMPLOUGH. Contents: Winwidfield, etc. Battle of Stamford Bridge After Stam- ford Bridge Battle of the Standard After the Battle of the Standard Battle of Myton Meadows Battle of Boroughbridge Battle of Byland Abbey In the Days of Edward III. and Richard II. Battle of Bramham Moor Battle of Sandal Battle of Towton Yorkshire under the Tudors Battle of Tadcaster Battle of Leeds Battle of Wakefield Battle of Adwalton Moor Battle of Hull Battle of Selby Battle of Marston Moor Battle of Brunnanburgh Fight off Flamborough Head Index. PRESS OPINIONS. " A remarkably handsome volume, typographically equal to the best productions of any European capital." North British Daily Mail. "An important work." Becerley Independent. " Does great credit to the new lirm of book publishers." Yorkshire County Magazine. " A beautifully printed volume." Halifax Courier. Cloth, 4*. yorkshire in Olden Times. Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.s. Content*: An Outline History of Yorkshire, by Thomas Frost The Cow-'Devil : A Legend of Craven, by William Brockie The First Anglo- Saxon Poet, by John H Leggott, F.R.H.S The Battle of Brunnanburgh, by Frederick Ross, F.R.H.S Old Customs of York, by George Benson Elizabethan Gleanings, by Aaron Watson The Fight for the Hornsea Fishery, by T Tindall Wildridge Folk Assemblies, by John Nicholson Quaint Gleanings from the Parish Register-Chest of Kirkby Wharfe, by the Rev Richard Wilton, M.A. The Wakefield Mysteries, by William Henry Hudson- A Biographical Romance, by William Andrews, F.R.H.S. Some Sera ps and Shreds of Yorkshire Superstitions, by W Sydney, F.R.S.L. The Salvation of Holderness, by Frederick Ross, F.R.H.S. Yorkshire Fairs and Festivals, by Thomas Frost James Nayler, the Mad Quaker who claimed to be the Messiah, by William Andrews, F.R.H.S Duke Richard's Doom : A Legend of Sandal Castle, by Edward Lamplough Obsolete Industries of the East Riding, by John Nicholson -Bolton Abbey: Its History and Legends, by Alfred Chambei'lain, B.A. To Bolton Abbey, by the Rev E G Charlesworth. PRESS OPINION. "The work consists of a series of articles contributed by various authors, and it thus has the merit of bringing together much special knowledge from a great number of sources. It is an entertaining volume, full of interest for the general reader, as well as for the learned and curious." Shields Daily Gazette. HULL: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, & Co., LTD. SECOND EDITION. Bound in cloth gilt, demy 800. 6s of t$e Studies of Curious Customs, Services, and Records, By WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S., AUTHOR OF "HISTORIC ROMANCE," "FAMOUS FROSTS AND J/K.OST FAIRS," " HISTORIC YORKSHIRE," ETC. CONTENTS: Early Religious Plays : being: the Story of the English Stage in its Church Cradle Days The Caistor Gad-Whip Manorial Service Strange Serpent Stories Church Ales Rush-Bearing Fish in Lent Concerning Doles Church Scrambling Chari- ties Briefs Bells and Beacons for Travellers by Night Hour Glasses in Churches Chained Books in Churches Funeral Effigies Torchlight Burials Simple Memorials of the Early Dead The Romance of Parish Registers Dog Whippers and Sluggard Wakers Odd Items from Old Accounts A carefully compiled Index. I LLU Ipress pinions. " A volume both entertaining and instructive, throwing much light on the manners and customs of bygone generations of Churchmen, and will be read to-day with iuL.cli interest." ,\~i~;('&ery House Magazine. "An extremely interesting volume." North. British Daily Mail. "A work of lasting interest." Hull Examiner. ' The reader will find much in this book to interest, instruct, and amuse." Home Ch mes. ' We feel sure that many will feel grateful to Mr. Andrews for having produced such sn nteresting book." The Antiquary. ' A volume of great research and striking interest." The Bookbuyer (New York). "A valuable book." Literary World (Boston, U.S.A.). " An admirable book." Sheffield Independent. "An interesting, handsomely got up volume. . . , Mr. Andrews is always chatty and expert in making a paper on a dry subject exceedingly readable." Newcastle Courant " Mr. William Andrews' new book, 'Curiosities of the Church,' adds another to the series by which he has done so much to popularise antiquarian studies. . . . The book, it should be added, has some quaint illustrations, and its rich matter is made available fot reference by a full and carofvillv compiled index." Scotsman. Hull : William Andrews & Co., The Hull Press. London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd. Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, demy 8uo., price Gs. Bore, By WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S., Author of " Curiosities of the Church" "Old-Time Punishments^ "Historic Romance" etc. CONTENTS. The Right of Sanctuary The Romance of Trial A Fight between the Mayor of Hull and the Archbishop of York Chapels on Bridges Charter Horns The Old English Sunday The Easter Sepulchre St. Paul's Cross Cheapside Cross The Biddenden Maids Charity Plagues and Pestilences A King Curing an Abbot of Indigestion The Services and Customs of Royal Oak Day Marrying in a White Sheet Marrying under the Gallows Kissing the Bride Hot Ale at Weddings Marrying Children The Passing Bell Concerning Coffins The Curfew Bell Curious Symbols of the Saints Acrobats on Steeples A carefully-prepared Index. i I_LU STHAT ED PRESS OPINIONS.-'- " A worthy work on a deeply interesting subject. . . . Wo commend this book strongly. " European Mail. " An interesting volume." The Scotsman. "Contains much that will interest and instruct." Glawjow Jferald. " The author has produced a book which is at once entertaining and valuable, and which is also entitled to unstinted praise on the ground of its admirable printing and binding." Shitlds Daily Gazette. " Mr. Andrews' book does not contain a dull page. . . . Deserves to meet with a very warm welcome." Yorkshire Post. "Mr. Andrews, in 'Old Church Lore,' makes the musty parchments and records he has consulted redolent with life and actuality, and has added to his works a most interesting volume, which, written in a light and easy narrative style, is anything but of the ' dry -as-dust ' order. The book is handsomely got up, being both bound and printed in an artistic fashion." Northern l)uiiy Hull : William Andrews & Co., The Hull Press. London : Simphin, Marshal/, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd. Fcap 4to. Bevelled boards, gilt tops. . Price 4s. jf amous df rosts anb jfrost Jfairs in <5reat Britain. Chronicled from the Earliest to the Present Time. BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. This work furnishes a carefully prepared account of all the great Frosts occurring in this country from A. D. 134 to 1887. The numerous Frost Fairs on the Thames are fully described, and illustrated with quaint woodcuts, and several old ballads relating to the subject are reproduced. It is tastefully printed and elegantly bound. PRESS OPINIONS. " The work is thoroughly well written, it is careful in its facts, and may be pronounced exhaustive on the subject. Illustrations are given of several frost fairs on the Thames, and as a trustworthy record this volume should be in every good library. The usefulness of the work is much enhanced by a good index." Public Opinion. " A very interesting volume."- Northern Daily Telegraph. " A great deal of curious and valuable information is contained in these pages. ... A comely volume." Literary World. " The work from first to last is a most attractive one, and the arts alike of printer and binder have been brought into one to give it a pleasing form." Wakefield Free Press. ' ' An interesting and valuable work. " West Middlesex Times. " Not likely to fail in interest." Manchester Guardian. " The book is beautifully got up."J3arnsley Independent. ' ' This chronology has been a task demanding extensive research and considerable labour and patience, and Mr. Andrews is to be heartily con- gratulated on the result." Derby Daily Gazette. " A volume of much interest and great importance." Eotherham Advertiser. One hundred copies only printed for sale, and each copy numbered. Evolution of Brama* BY SIDNEY W. CLARKE. " A carefully written work. . . . It is a readable contribution to dramatic history." The Critic. HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd. Price 6s. Demy 8vo. Elegantly bound cloth gilt. Qttonf j! in a A Woman's Wanderings in Northern India. BY CHRISTINA S. BREMNER. Contents : The Ascent from the Plains to the Hills Kasauli and its Amusements Theories on Heat Simla, the Queen of the Hill Stations Starting Alone for the Interior In Bussahir State The Religious Festival at Pangay On Congress On the Growing Poverty of India. PRESS OPINIONS. " The author of a ' Month in a Dandi ' has a facile pen, and is evidently a shrewd observer. Her book differs from many belonging to the same class by reason of its freshness, its spontaneity, and its abundance of interesting detail. Moreover, the book is written with a purpose. ' If by perusing these pages the reader obtains a clearer view of England's attitude to her great dependency, if his prepossessions against ' black men ' and the ' poor heathen ' should melt away in any degree, if the assumption that what is good for England must necessarily be so for India receives a slight shake, the writer will feel rewarded.' To these conclusions one is almost certain to come when the experiences of Miss Bremner's ' Month in a Dandi ' are recalled. There would be no end to our quotations were we to reproduce all the passages we have marked as being interesting. Miss Bremner is always in good spirits, and writes with ease, and evidently con amore." Birmingham Daily Gazette. " Miss Bremner's book describes a woman's wanderings in Northern India, and it is written from adequate knowledge, with shrewd discern- ment, and a pleasing amount of vivacity." Speaker. " ' A Month in a Dandi ' is full of instruction. It shows a great deal of ability and determination to express truths, even if they be unpalatable. The chapters on the vexed questions of Baboo culture and Indian Congress are well worth reading." -Manchester Guardian. " Miss Bremner's style is chastened, for the most part humorous, faithful to detail, and oftentimes polished to literary excellence. The earlier chapters are full of raciness and agreeable personality. Hull Daily Mail. " ' A Month in a Dandi ' describes the writer's wanderings in Northern India, following upon a shrewdly observant account of the seamy side of Anglo-Indian Society. The subject throughout is approached from a political economist's point of view. The chapter on the growing poverty of India sounds a warning note." Gentlewoman. " The author of a ' Month in a Dandi ' is evidently a keen observer of men and things, and we know that her opinion is shared by many of our countrymen who have had a much larger experience of India and Indian affairs than herself. The book is full of the most exquisite word pictures, pictures that are full of light, beauty, and grace, but, unfortunately, some of them have more shade than we care to see ; but, doubtless, Miss Bremner's treatment is correct and life-like." Hull Daily News. HULL : WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS. London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Ltd. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. DEC 3 1 1952 Form L9-42wi~8,'49(B5573)444 DA Stead - -570 Bygonu Kent, K3579 DEC 3 1 195b" DA 670 K3S79 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL UBRARY FACILIT A 000 992 832 6