Th e H o n and Ve Rev . . ry

H . F em n l e . t D D . W r a .

D ea n qf Rzpon

Illustrated by

La w o rt h W . p

' ° L t I i . d s b s t e r {9 C o .

G arden

Cante rb ury Cath ed ral

HE Metropolitical City is visited each year by increasing crowds of pil grims from the surrounding summer resorts . Its interest increases with the i ncreasing study of history, and from time to time new discoveries are made which throw fresh light upon its antiquities or architecture . We propose to touch chiefly upon the most salient points of interest, lingering for a moment upon the recent accessions to our knowledge . At the time when Canterbury first comes before the eye of the historian , it had ceased

D o ro ver nu m to be the Roman , the existence

9 C a n t e rbu r y C a t h e d ra l o f which is now attested only by the numer ous Roman bricks, some even in the walls of the Cathedral , and had become the Burgh or

Bury of the men of Kent . I t is not quite certain on which side of it Augustin entered

! it he had met King Ethelbert in Thanet, and the entrance from Thanet is from the north , on which side also is Staplegate where th e King allowed the monks to settl e . But it is generally assumed that h e approached

’ the city from the east over St . Marti n s H ill, from the northern side of which our principal sketch is taken . The foundations of St . Martin ’ s Church and the lower part of its 6 walls, which are Roman , stood in 59 as they stand in 1 891 and they were the walls of the little church which had been given to the Christian Queen Bertha and her chaplain Bishop Luith art by her pagan husband King

Ethelbert . When Augustin passed towards the city, as described by the Venerable

Bede, with his little procession headed by the monk carrying a board on which was

1 0

C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e d ra l

a rough picture of Christ, and a chorister bearing a silver cross, his heart, no doubt, beat high with hope ! but his h Ope would have grown into exultation could he have looked forward through the centuries, and beheld the magnificent Cathedral which was to spring up where his episcopal throne was

fixed, and the energetic and varied Christian life which has issued from this first home

- of Anglo Saxon Christianity . To us th e scene is full of h istorical recollections . Between the place where we are standing

th e and th e Cathedral are the city walls, on very site which they occupied in the days

- of Ethelbert , and the postern gate through which Queen Bertha came each day to her prayers in the nearer distance , a little to the right of the Cathedral , are the remains of the great abbey which Augusti n founded ; to

’ our left is the Pilgrims Way, by wh ich , after

’ Becket s canonisation , those who landed at

Dover made their way to the shrine of St .

Thomas . C a n t e rb u r y C a t h edr a l The eye glances over the valley of the

Stour, enclosed between the hill on which we are placed and that of St . Thomas , crowned

’ by the fine Buildings of the St . Edmund s (Clergy Orphan) School ; and ranges from Harbledown (Chaucer ’ s ! l ittle to wn under ” the Blean ycleped Bob -up- and- Down ) on th e left to th e !esuit College at H ale ’ s Place on the right and th ence down the valley to

Fordwich , where formerly the waters of the

Wants o me Stour j oined those of th e , the estuary separating Thanet from the main land . This town at the Domesday epoch was a port with flourishing mills and fisheries . There the Caen stone was landed to build the Cathedral , and the tuns of wine from the

’ monks Vineyards in France were lifted out

’ of the ships by the mayor s crane . For the use of this crane forty shillings a year con tinned to be paid by the monks, and their successors the Dean and Chapter, for some four centuries after Fordwich had ceased to — be a port an anachronism only paralleled

1 2 C a n t e rb ur y C a t h edr a l

F o rd w i ch by the fact that , now a village of a hundred and fifty people, returned two

. 1 8 2 members to Parliament till 3 , and was under the j urisdiction of its own mayor and corporation till 1 886 the memorials of which — facts the handsome mace, the election

- drums , the bar, the jury room, the prison for

- malefactors, and the ducking stool for scolds — may still be seen , most of them in the queer little wood - and - plaster court - house which is believed to have been built in the reign of Queen Mary .

We pass down towards the great city, — leaving on the right the county prison an eyesore on which Ruskin ’ s wrath has been

— i n firmar j ustly vented and the y, in the grounds of which are the ruins of the old church of St . Pancras (a church originally built by Augustin , and named by him after

Pancratius, the Roman martyr boy) , with its foundations— those of a Roman temple or church— and its walls composed of Roman

- bricks ; and, passing the cemetery gate of I 3 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h edra l

the great abbey, now turned into Monastery

H ouse, and along under the chapel and th e

- - dining hall , formerly the guest room of th e d abbey, we stan in front of the great gateway

’ of St . Augustin s . We can but glance at the history of the institution , first, as a centre of learning where Greek was first taught in England under Archbishop Theodore (673 a native of Tarsus, the city of St . Paul and of the Stoic U niversity ; then as one of the centres of the English missionary energy by wh ich the Gospel was carried in th e eighth and ninth centuries into Frisia and Germany then as a great abbey, with its noble Norman church , and fine tower, commonly called

’ Ethelbert s Tower, its abbot sitting in the

H ouse of Lords, and its wealth which was

’ an obj ect of a king s j ealousy, as described in

! th e well - known Ballad of King j ohn and ” the Abbot of Canterbury ; then , after the dissolution of the monastery by H enry V I I I . , as a hunting- box for the King (there is a

I 4 ' C c G a a St. Augustine s hur h tew y

C a n t e rb ur y C a t h edra l picture in the dining-hall of a stag- hunt among the ruins) then , in a phase of deeper

- degradation , as a tea garden , with the Tower of Ethelbert tottering and decaying, and at

1 8 2 2 last, in , levelled with the ground by the ai d of a battering ram and two cannon the wall of the Norman abbey patched up to

- form a racquet court, and the room above the great gateway turned into a brewer ’ s vat

1 8 8 . and lastly, since 4 , a Missionary College The gateway has survived all changes from r the day when , in the thi teenth century, it stood forth as a choice specimen of Decorated

Gothic, till the present day, when it has undergone a timely restoration , the ancient lines being exactly preserved . But it is time that we go on into the

Cathedral Precincts . Making use of a

’ ’ canon s key, we pass, by Queen Bertha s

Postern , through the old city walls , along a — piece of the ancient Q uen i ngate Lane the only part now remaining of the reserved space between the walls of the city and the

I 7 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e d r a l

Precincts, along which the citizen s an d tr00ps could pass freely for purposes of defence h t rough the Bowling Green , where the tower of Prior Cliill end en is seen to have been used for a pigeon - house in the eighteenth ’ Y century, into the Cathedral ard . I n so doing we pass under a N orman archway of the date of Lanfranc and the Conqueror, which formerly stood in a wall run ning from

’ St . Anselm s Chapel to the garden wall opposite , an d separating the cemetery of the monks from that of the laity then along the

’ south side of the Cathedral , passing Anselm s

Chapel , and the beautiful Norman tower

- attached to the south eastern transept , with its elaborate tracery, which sh ows how d eli cate N orman work could be ; then observing,

’ in the canon s garden on the left , the mound made by the soil dug out in the construction of the crypt, on which stood a campanile where the bell tolled for funerals, and the stable loft on the site where th e monastery

th e t school stood, forerunner of the presen

1 8

C a n t e r bu r y C a t h edra l

gained of the Cathedral , especially about sunset, we may picture to ourselves the life

- of the monks . Above the n orth eastern side of the cloister are th e old Norman arches of their dormitory, now taken in to the new library ; on the eastern side is the chapter house, with its fine geometrical ceiling, where they transacted their business on the south the great church , the services of which occupied so many hours of each day . At the centre of the north side are two arches wider than the rest, as shown in the u sketch , nder which runn els of water were conducted from a fountain close by, to enable them to wash their faces and hands before din ner ; and opposite to these is the door through which they passed to the refec tory . The hours not consumed in church or chapter, in dormitory or refectory, were all passed in the cloister itself ! there they walked and sat and talked, and read the bo oks which were given them as a kind of task ; there they heard the scanty news and

20

C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e dr a l

gossiped over it ; there they wrote, if the temperature which reached them through the unglazed tracery permitted writing .

O rd eri cus Vitalis, the monkish historian , at the beginning of one winter in his cloister

! in Normandy, says, The weather is so cold f I that my fingers have become sti f, and must

’ cease writing until the spring . No wonder that the monk ’ s life was accounted harder

’ than the soldier s , and that they were very shortlived . I t was reckoned that each of them must spen d some three days every

i nfirmar month in the y, to which a Norman passage conducts from the east side of the cloister . l f from the place at wh ich we have in

- imagination been standing, at the north west corner of the cloister, we look for a moment

-u behind us, we see in th e wall a blocked p door with a curious hole at the side of it . Th e hole is said to have been made in order to pass bottles and other articles through

’ from the cellarer s lodgings , which were on

2 3 C a n t e rb ur y C a t h e dr a l

the other side of the wall . The doorway was the entrance from the Archbishop ’ s

Palace , which occupied the space a little farther to the west ; an d through it Becket

2 th passed out to his death , on the 9 of De

mb r 1 1 ce e 0 . , 7

The knights , who had come to England to force the Archbishop to a change of policy on pain of death, had held a violent alterca tion with him in his palace . They com plained of the act which had thrown their master, King H enry I I . , into a paroxysm of fury, namely, that , on return ing to England after a reconciliation with the King, the Archbishop had at once reopened th e quarrel by excommunicating the bishops who had,

’ at the King s desire , taken part i n the coro nation of his son as his colleague on the throne . Becket had refused all concession , and the knights left him in great wrath . Soon after it was reported that they were arming in an orchard at the west of the

’ cathedral , and the Archbishop s friends urged 24 Place of Martyrdom

C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e d r a l

! site the doorway now stands . Where is the traitor Where is the Archbishop they

. I a m cried here , answered Becket ,

! Archbishop and Priest of God , but no

! traitor . Then absolve the bishops , they retorted ; and so the altercation proceeded, with violent words on both sides . Th ey dragged him down from the steps to the l f oor of the transept , wish ing to remove h im from the church and thus avoid the charge of sacrilege but he placed his back

w r against a pillar, hich then suppo ted a

. chapel on a high er level , dedicated to St

Blaise, an d taking one of the knights in his arms flung h im down in h is armour upon the pavement . The others rushed

him a n d . upon , he was felled by their blows . Then he knelt on th e floor and commended his soul to the saints , saying that h e died i n

’ the Church s cau s e and the last bl ows which were dealt h im severed the whole crown of the head from th e rest , and spilled the brains

U pon the stones . The knights then fled ;

28 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h edra l

r ifli n and , after g the palace, made their way back to Saltwood Castle, near Hythe, whence they had started in the morning . Their deed had very opposite effects from their intention . They themselves, indeed , did not suffer but the cause for which they committed the crime was depressed for nearly four centuries . H enry had to do penance, and practically to concede the clerical immunities for which Becket had contended ; and Becket became a saint,

! ” the holy, blissful martyr, himself the worker of a thousand miracles , and h is shrine the goal of pilgrimages from all parts of

England and of Europe . But, whatever we may think of his claim to saintship, his death was certainly the making of Canterbury and

’ its Cathedral . Four years after Becket s death the choir was burnt down but the treasure which was poured into the martyr ’ s church enabled the monks to rebuild i t in its present grander pro portions ; and the city, which before was

29 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e dra l

insignificant , became wealthy, populous, and renowned .

- ’ The crypt .was the first place of Becket s interment, and into the crypt we now pass . The column which is figured in the drawing

’

1 . . at p . 3 , stands under St Anselm s chapel Its fantastic fluting is probably due to I talian influence, both Anselm and h is predecessor

Lanfranc having been natives of Italy . The capital of the column is filled with grotesques

wh o a concert of the beasts , are playing on various instruments— and the vaulting above it retains some of the original painting

(twelfth century) , and also the great rose, combining the red petals of Lancaster with

Y k th e the white of or , which was placed at crown of all the arches by Archbishop t t Mor on , when h e decora ed the crypt in the reign of H enry VI I . Th e dark chapel of St .

Gabriel close by, which can only be entered by special leave , sh ows , when lighted up , some remarkable frescoes of ‘ the twelfth century, depicting the nativity of our Lord,

30 The Crypt

C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e d ra l and of the Baptist, and other subj ects, which are still for the most part in good preserva tion .

The tomb in the crypt, represented on

1 page 3 , is that of Isabel , Countess of Atholl , who owned the castle of Chilham, five miles from Canterbury, in the reign of Edward I .

(d . Beyond it, on the left, was the shrin e of the Virgin , with its silver statue, the elaborate tracery of its screens, and the unparalleled wealth of its votive offerings ;

o ff and not far , in the south aisle, the tomb of Cardinal Morton , with its historical em b lems , the crown and united rose , the

’ cardinal s hat, the portcullis of the H ouse of

Lancaster, and the punning representation of th e name, the M ort (or hawk) and Tun .

’ Atho ll s Further, beyond the Countess of tomb , the crypt is much loftier, and becomes almost a church in itself . This is the part beyond the apse of the original Cathedral ,

’ the place of Becket s first burial , where

11. 1 2 1 1 H enry did penance (on j uly , 74, 33 C a n t e rbu r y C a t h e d ra l

l on y seven weeks before the great fire) , passing the night in fasting, an d in the morning baring h is back and receiving th ree lashes from each of the monks .

H ere the miracles began to be wrought,

! and the Tumba, even after its contents were removed , was still reckoned a holy place . The present lofty crypt was built over and round the Tumba after the

1 1 great fire of 74 an d, some forty years after its completion and that of th e Trinity

Chapel over it , the remains of Becket were translated by Stephen Langton , with great pomp, to the shrine prepared for them in the sanctuary above .

1 88 About the year 9 there was found, near the spot where the Tumba was originally f placed, a short stone co fin , into which were

- huddled the bones of a full grown man , the skull showing some marks of violence . The theory was immediately formed that these were the bones of Becket h imself, but the evidence appears to be unfavourable to this

34

Can t e rb u r y C a t h ed ra l

known , they should not , like those of St .

F r id es w id e at Oxford , have been exhumed, and become again the object of venera tio n . The position of the shrine in the chapel above, at the side of which the tomb of the

Black Prince was subsequently placed, is clearly marked . The pavement in the centre of the Trinity Chapel (the part east of the screen) is very rough , being composed of the stones which formed the steps and pavement of the shrine but the marble pavement round it is still as it was when the shrine was

the standing, and a perceptible line marks impress of the pilgrims’ feet as they stood in a row to see the treasures . The shrine stood upon a platform approach ed by three marble steps, some stones of which , grooved by the

’ pilgrims knees, are still seen in the flooring . The platform was paved with mosaic and medallions, specimens of which may still be seen in the present pavement . Above this platform was the chased and gilded coffin of 36 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e d ra l b the saint , supported y two arches, which were hung with votive offerings of extreme Of richness, and through one which sick a persons were allowed to p s s, so that by rubbing themselves against the stones they might draw forth virtue from the relics of the saint . The whole was covered with an oaken case richly decorated, which , at a given signal from the monk whom Erasmus styles

h e the mystagogus or master of t mysteries , was drawn up and revealed the riches within to the wondering gaze of the pilgrims . I n the painted windows of the chapel are the records of th e miracles wrought by the inter

! cessi o n of St . Thomas here, a dead man

I being carried out to burial S raised ; there, the parents of a boy who has been drowned in the attempt to catch frogs in the river are informed of their loss by his companion s with eager gestures, and he too is restored to life ; and in each case offerings of gold and silver are poured upon the shrin e the mad man is s een coming back in his right mind

3 7 C a n t e rb ur y C a t h edra l

acced it Sanus reced it Amens , . and on several occasions the saint himself comes on

be d the scene to heal the sick man upo n h is , in one case flying forth from th e shrine in

e his episcopal robes . The worsh ip of B cket was the favourite cultus of the unreformed E Church of ngland yet, strange to tell, from the day when H enry gave orders to

. his demolish the shrine, and to expunge name from all the service b oo ks and his memorials from all th e churches, no one seems to have thought anything more about

. o him The bl w which , to adapt the language f Old o the Testament, destroyed Becket out

t . of I srael , hough violent , was timely

The Black Prince, whose wife was the Fair

Maid of Kent, founded two chantries i n the

o r i crypt - undercroft in recognit on of the

’ Pope s dispensation enabling h im to marry h is cousin . These now form the French Church where th e descendants of th e Walloon and ' H uguenot refugees still wor ship i n the forms of thei r ancestor s and 38 Tomb of the Black Prince

C a n t e rb ur y C a t h edr a l the continuance of a Presbyterian service in an Anglican cathedral for more than three centuries is a special and honourable feature of Canterbury . The Black Prince had desired to be buried below ; but, partly from the special devotion which he had to th e Trinity, partly that so great a man might have the place of honour, his tomb was

’ erected at the side of Becket s shrine . H e left to the church of Canterbury his velvet coat embroidered with lions and lilies, his

- ornamental shield, his lion crested helmet, his sword and his gauntlets, all of which still f hang above his bronze e figy, except the sword, which is said to have been removed by Cromwell , and of which only part of the f scabbard remains . The e figy is believed to be a good likeness . I t was placed upon the tomb where the body lies soon after 8th his death , which occurred on the of

1 6 re june, 37 , the feast of the Trinity, as corded in the inscription in the French of h w ’ is o n Aquitaine . The Prince of Wales s 41 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h edra l

feathers and the lions and lilies, with the

’ ” e Prince s two motto s, I ch diene (I serve) , ” Ho umo ut and \ (H igh Courage) , form the i ornaments of the tomb , wh ch is also sur rounded by some French verses chosen by the Prince himself, and describing the van ity of earthly glory . A little to the east of the Black Prince ’ s tomb , but on the south side of the aisle,

' a to mb w as beneath the window, is which long a mystery to all inquirers . Many con jectures had been made as to its contents ; an d the absence of all certainty, and the

a nd notion , derived from its shape from the

effi ies numerous g on its covering stone, that it was a shrine or reliquary rather than a tomb , seemed to j ustify the opening of

f 1 88 . it , which was e fected in December 9 Within were found the remains of an arch bishop , since identified as H ubert Walter d ( . the warrior prelate and Crusader, who was elected in the camp at Acre, and a who kept the realm for h is m ster, Richard 42

C a n t e rb u r y C a t h edra l

marble . I n it each successive archbishop for the last six hundred years has sat when he has been admitted to his metropolitical functions . Here have sat Peckham , the bold

d efier I. Brad w ar d i ne of Edward , and the

Schoolman ; Sudbury, who was decapitated

’ in Wat Tyler s insurrection ; Courtenay, the f foe of Wycli fe , whose tomb is next to that of the Black Prince, his friend ; Arundel , the persecutor of the Lollards ; Chichele, who persuaded H enry V . to make war with France so as to draw away the attention of the country from the Lollard schemes for the confiscation of clerical property ; War ham , and Cranmer, and Pole, the representa tives of opposite sides in the Reformation

- struggle ; the ill starred Laud, the liberal

Tillotson , and the whole succession of pri mates down to Sumner, Tait, Benson , and — Temple men ancient and modern , Romanist and Protestant , clericalist and liberal , states men , chancellors , and ecclesiastics , showing the continuity and the variety of the English

44 Th e E nthron e ment Chair

C a n t e r bu r y C a t h edr a l

Primacy, and giving us a good hope that it w l k il now in the future, as in the past, how to adapt itself to the ever - changing needs of the nation .

’ O o s ite ‘ to pp the Black Prince s tomb, across the chapel, is th e tomb of King H enry I V . and his wife, j oan of Navarre, and on the other side of the aisle the chantry erected

r i es tes by him, where twy p sang for the repose o f his s oul continually till th e time of H enry when the endowment was appropriated to the support of twelve bedes men wh o still remain . N ext to the tomb of

. H enry I V is, the monument of Wotton , the ecclesiastical diplomatist wh o, on the sup

a pression of the monastery, bec me the first

Dean and opposite to this, on the south , is the plain structure of plastered brick erected

O d . ver the remains of O et de Coligny, brother of the Admiral of France, wh o, though d being prince, bishop, car inal an d inquisitor, adopted the Protestant opinions, and was a married man , and came to seek the aid of

47 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e d ra l Elizabeth in the civil war that was impend

mi s n ing . The s m had some success ; but , as h e was staying on his return j ourney at

Canterbury in the guest house , now a

’ canon s residence, beyond the east end of the Cathedral , he was poisoned, as was

n believed, by h is serva ts ; his body was laid on the pavement and the temporary structure erected over it in the expectation that it would soon be carried into France ; but in the troubles of the civil war it remained unnoticed . We descend now to th e south aisle of the choir by steps worn by the knees of the

’ pilgrims, an d reach , on our left , St . Anselm s

Tower, wh ich formed part of the choir of Prior E rn ulf (about 1 3 08) and was set on obliquely to the apse . It survived the fire of

1 1 74 , and , in the rebuilding, the choir aisle

u (which , if carried on straight , wo ld have gone through the tower) , had to be deflected . i thus producing a narrow ng i n of the fabric , which gives it a special character as seen 48 C a n t e r bu r y C a t h e d ra l

from the interior of the choir . I f we enter

’ St . Anselm s Tower, and stand at th e southern corner of the apse, tracing its

Norman arcading and curious roof, we see on the northern part of the wall the painting f o . St Paul shaking off the viper into the fire .

If we ask why that painting stands alone , and why the stencilling near it is unfinished, a curious piece of architectural history discloses itself . I n th e changes necessitated

1 1 by the fire of 74, it was necessary to mi nimise th e process of narrowing in j ust described, and for this purpose to remove a part of the wall where the tower j oins the aisle . I t would seem that at that time the painting within had been begun , when an alarm was given that the wall had been made

- too thin . To obviate this danger, a cross wall was built from the pillar on the north side of the apse across to the centre of the east window, which it bisected . When the chapel was restored in the year 1 888 this wall was removed so as to show the circle of

49 C a n t e rbu r y C a t h e dr al

; the arcading, and the painting, which had

00 b een concealed for 7 years , was revealed in its primitive brightness . The chapel originally contained the remains of St .

Anselm , its founder, which , h owever, were lost in the confusion ensuing on the great

1 1 fire of 74 . Th e Schoolman , Archbishop Brad w ard i ne who died (1 349) in the Black

Death , a few weeks after his consecration ,

was buried close to the south wall , u nder

the great window . The marble tomb across the entrance is that of Archbishop Meopham (1 3 2 8 - 3sr

n o w Passing into the aisle, we may n otice

in the s outh wall a red tinge, which is the mark of the great fire ; and a cornice on

’ which the arches of the aisle of C o nrad s

choir were based . I n the south transept we may study the manner i n which Conrad ’ s work was pieced in with the new work after — the fire observe especially the contrast between the small Norman arches of the

triforium windows with the sharp - pointed

50

C a n t e rb u r y C a t h edr a l

Bo urchi er , who held the see during five

a . reigns and crowned Edward I V . , Rich rd I I I

n V f and He ry\ II. Next to him is th e e figy of

1 8 2 8— 8 H owley ( 4 ) and then , in his painted o tomb, Archbishop Chichele . The riginal painting has been kept up in successive generations by All Souls College in Oxford , which he founded as an expiation for having caused the war with France, made notable by

Agin court and by j oan of Arc , the Fellows of th e College being bound to pray for soul of th eir founder and of all who fell i the French wars . Th e stone screen round the choir is th

’ work of Prior H enry d E s tria (of Eas try) i n

1 2 0 and 9 , the finely carved stalls of black oak at the w est e nd belong to the era of

Charles I I ., the time of Grinling Gibbons, if not actually his work . I n th e n orth aisle we have the chapel of St . Andrew, correspond ing with that of St . Anselm in the south , in wh ich are some curious remains of medi aeval painting ; and beyond it the fine Norman 5 2 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e d ra l

Treasury, above which is a secret chamber only approached by a staircase ente red by a

- door half way up the wall . Other objects of interest are the desk placed in the wall of the aisle in the time of H enry V I I I . , to receive the newly translated Bible which all might read ; i n the north transept the window

’ placed in St . Stephen s Chapel by Dean

1 8 2 Stanley (Canon , 5 to commemorate f his j ourney in the East, and the e figy and cenotaph of Archbishop Tait ; and in the aisle west of the transept the remains of the curious fresco representing the life of the hunter Saint Eustace, and the fine painted w indows of the time of Stephen Langton

Leaving now the choir aisle, and looking down on the right into the Martyrdom, we turn to the left along the top of the steps which lead to the nave . There we look up

- to the splendid fan work under the tower, and notice the cross-pieces of masonry and the thickening of the piers in the nearest S3 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e dr a l

arches of the aisle, by which they are con verted into abutments to bear up the weight

r of the towe . Th e upper part of this vast pile was substituted at th e beginning of the 1 6th century for the gilded angel wh ich was origi nally placed above the dwarf -tower ; it was w the work of Prior Goldstone , hose initials

T . P . (Thomas Prior) , with three gilded stones

- between them , are seen on the cross pieces . We notice in the north transept the glass w indow placed there by Edward IV ., and containing figures of h imself and his wife

wh o Elizabeth Woodville , his two sons were

e murdered in the Tow r, and his five daughters, Y the eldest of whom, Elizabeth of ork, by her marriage with H enry V I I . united the

! In houses of Y ork and Lancaster . the opposite window in the south transept, a magnificent specimen of the Perpendicular

1 8 26 style, th e glass was taken in from the

ch o ir and 200 Norman windows in the , is some years older than th e mullions in which it is

xactl th e k set . The nave occupies e y space ta en

54 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e dral

x up by the old Sa on Cathedral , which was ld ’ in th e basilican form like the o St . Peter s at Rome , from wh ich the design was prob ably taken . We leave the Cathedral by the south -west door, and passing to the left along the

s churchyard on the outh side, the old burial place of the monks , go round the east

’ end , past the tower called Becket s Crown , which has an unfinished appearance . This is caused by the removal , at the end of the

Middle Ages, of the original roof, with the

i nte n intention of adding an extra story, an tion which was frustrated by the dissolution of the monastery . To the east of the Cathedral are three canonical houses dating from early times— that anciently called Master

’ H omer s , from a surveyor of the fourteenth century , the guest house in which Odet de

Coligny died ; the red brick house, at the entrance of which is the fine traceried

nfirmar window of the i y chapel , the h ouse in which Dean Stanley lived when Canon of 5 5 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e dra l

r Canterbu y and the Archdeaconry, which is forme d out of the extra hospital built at .the

1 0 . time of the Black Death , about 35 The

o i nfir mar arches are th se of the monastic y, which bear on the reddened surface of their rough N orman pillars the marks of the great

1 1 fire of 74 . Passing through a low archway under the window of what was once the Checker

H ouse, the place of business of the mon as ter y, we turn to the right up the dark entry, having on our left the graceful double columns of the i nfirmary cloister and the fin e N orman tank tower of the

n time of King Stephen , and in fro t the

’ Prior s lodgings, under which we pass into

r the Green Cou t . Here we have on our right the Deanery , a house chiefly of the

th e age of Elizabeth , but containing also

- bath house used by the pilgrims . The north side of the court is taken up by the minor

’ canons houses , formerly the granary, brew h ouse and bakehouse of the monks , the 56

C a n t e rb u r y C a t h e dra l

’ ’ the King s School . The King s School buildings stand round the ancient Mint Y ard used by the - archbishops while they had the privilege of coining money . The building on the south side divides the M int Y ard from the area where stood the Archbishop ’ s

Palace, of which but a very few fragments remain . We might go out into the town by the M int Y ard Gate ; but shall do better to go back round the Cathedral to its south -west corner . We pass out of the precincts by the

Christ Church Gate, still beautiful even in its defacement , and through the narrow

Mercery Lane, where stood in old times the booths for the sellers of relics and of the little leaden bottles supposed to contain in

’ their water some drops of St . Thomas s blood ; where also stood the Chequers of

’ re the H ope, at which Chaucer s Pilgrims galed themselves, and of wh ich one fragment, marked by the Black Prince ’ s emblem of the lion with protruding tongue , may still be

60 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h edra l seen at the corner of the lane ; down the

H igh Street, where we pass the old East

a Bridge H ospital , founded by L nfranc,

n fis endowed by Becket, and saved from co

l o w cation by Cranmer, with its Norman doorway and the crypt under its hall ; and leave the city by the West Gate, which was erected by Archbishop Sudbury on the line where the eastern wall ran along the Stour f and past the Falsta f I nn , where the sign of the roystering old knight hangs out on some beautiful ancient ironwork, and wel comes the cyclists who specially affect his inn and so on to the South - Eastern Railway

Station . We entered Canterbury on foot with

Augustin , we leave it by a modern railway .

We have traced the monuments of the past , and the men of many generations . We have reviewed the institutions of days long gone by, their changes, demolition , and recon struction and through all we have traced a continuity of life . The glory of England

6 1 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h edr a l

t is its capaci y to blend the old with the new , n ot to destroy but to adapt ; to learn from

b ut th e past, , not to be enslaved by it ; to t rej oice in modern progress, but to at ach it to that which has preceded it . We must j udge the men and institutions of old times not with blind admiration , nor with an equally blind contempt, but with a true estimate of their circumstances, an d of their position in the development of our h istory .

And, as we perceive a gradual increase in power and in enlightenment , in knowledge, i n the arts, in refinement of life, in force of h character, in the reality of religion , t rough k out our past h istory, so we may loo on to th e future with the hope that all these bless ings will abound more richly still ; that the conflicts of the past will be merged in a

th e higher unity, strife of statesmen and ecclesiastics i n a common effort for social and religious good, the monastic discipline in th e employment of all we have in the cause of God and man , the rivalry of town

6 2 C a n t e rb u r y C a t h edra l and cathedral -i n a practical and civic Christ ianit y, our ecclesiastical and political divisions in a fuller brotherhood ; and that so the great Church which is the mother of English Christendom may look forth in the ages to come on a world - wide community knit t t toge her as one family by true rela ions, and fostered by the divine and b ene ficent Power to which her aisles and towers have borne witness through succeeding cen

turi es .

Pri n te d b Bu m w w r‘ as s o s {5 00 y . H . E d i n b urg h 6 Lo nd o n

E ng l i s h Cath eb ral s .

Ea h f c i s . net ; po st r ee , i s . 2d .

Il l us tr a ted b HE R BE RT R ILTON a nd OTHE R y A S.

Da inty bookle ts the n ames of the a uthors are a guara ntee th a t they a re writt e n with knowl e dge the illustra tions ad d to

. m s c a m i ttle . Tu the h r of the volu es ne . da ca a d a n I - ock A inty series refully illustr te well got up . R c a m e i b d a nd e x i t a d A h r ing s r es , prettily oun , q e illustr te . — r l e S zmd ay S choo l Cfi on z c . — l ma n ea dm b i . Gen t ew o A r lly a ira le ser es . ! i a a ec a — Ma z l D . Da i l eserv ng of very gener l ppr i tion y .

W t i t A es m ns er bbey .

. a o f A TE BU Y By the Very Rev the De n C N R R . Y k Mi t or ns er . a o fY K By the Very Rev . the De n O R . Wi t a nchester Ca hedr l .

. a E A MB. D. By the Rev C non B NH , ’ St A . lban s A bbey .

D E M. . a LI D A . By the Rev C non LL, t t Can erbury Ca hedral . a o I By the Very Rev. the De n fR PO N .

No rwich Cathedral . NO WI . a o f By the Very Rev the De n R CH . G t t l ouces er Ca hedral .

a o f O U CE TE . By the Very Rev . the De n G L S R S i t a al sbury Ca hedr l .

an o f SA I BU Y . By the Very Rev. the De L S R ’ St P t . au l s Ca hedral .

a NE WBO T MA . By the Rev . C non L , . E l t y Ca hedral .

t M. A. he . a n ICK O By Rev C no D S N , W t el ls Ca hedral .

M. A . a n U C By the Rev. C no CH R H ,

I BI TE o d a d Lo n n. C . Lt . n G d S S R , Cove t r en , o E ng l i s h G atb eb ral s .

E ch i s . net o s t f ee i s . 2d . a ; p r ,

Ill ustr a ted by HE R BE R T RAI LTON a nd OTHE RS.

Da mty booklets the n a mes of the a uthors a re a gua ran tee tha t they a re written With knowledge th e illustra tions a d d to ' m e — es c a th l m s . the h r of litt e volu es . d i d —R ocb A a inty series ca refully ll ustra te a nd well got up . ” s c a m e r b d and e x tu ue l a d . —A h r ing s ies , prettily oun , q y illustr te S un d a c l y S /wo Clz r om cl e.

a a dm a b i —Gm tl ew 0ma rz A re lly ir le ser es . . ! ’ Des erv m —D a i l TWa z l g of very general a pprecia tion . y .

E t t xe er Ca hedral .

a E DMO D . By the Rev . C non N S , B D Li t ncol n Ca hedral .

a B M. A . . a E A E By the l te Rev C non V N L S , P t h t e erboroug Ca hedral .

. o f PE TE RBO RO U G II By the Very Rev the De a n . i t Carl sle Ca hedral .

a c r . S. F E G U O F . S By Ch n ello R R S N , A D t urham Ca hedral . W M. . a FO E By the Rev C non L R , A h t t C es er Ca hedral .

. a o fC E TE By the Very Rev the De n H S R. Ri t pon Ca hedral .

. c d a D D c A K . D. By the Ven Ar h e on N S, Li chfield t Ca hedral . B an BO DI NG TO N. y the Rev . C on W t orces er Cathedral .

. a M T. TE IG M O U T O E . A. By the Rev C non N H SH R ,

’ To be ol/ow ea b m n l l/ r f y a y a e r .

Bo x d i d 25 . Cloth to hol twelve vols g lt lettere , net .

Is Bl S’ i ‘ E R Co . Ltd . G a d L nd , Covent r en , o on .