CA N T ERBU RY BY W I G M . T E N O UT H S H O R E A I BY W BI SCO MBE P N T E D . G A RD N E R P U B L I S H E D BY A D A M $9 CH A R L E S B L A C K A L W SOHO S! U RE ONDON . E . A . B . FROM E . G . O . CONTENTS FI RST Vw TH E STO R Y or T H E CAT H EDR A L — THn CAT H EDRA L I NT E R IO R — TH E CAT H EDR Alr EXT ER I O R CANT ER BU RY PILG R IMS T H : qmous OT H E R SH R INES A CA NT ERB URY RO UNDA BO UT Envol I NDEX LIST O F ILLUSTRATIONS The N e of th e C e a 1 . orth Sid ath dr l FACI N G P AGE 2 C C G a te . hrist hurch The S e o f th e C e a 3. South id ath dr l “ 4 Th e C a e of O a th e Un der cr ofl: . h p l ur L dy in th e Na e o f th e C e a aft e E e 5 . In v ath dr l r v nsong ’ 6 Edward the Bla ck Prince s Tomb in Tr inity Cha pe l ’ Th e Wa i C a e We a rr or s h p l , looking stw rds 8 The e T e a nd S - We E a e th e . W st ow rs outh st ntr nc to Cath edra l R of th e fi a 9. uins In rm ry 1 0 The a C e Ca e a . B ptistry, ant rbury th dr l ’ N a a K S 1 1 . S e orm n tairc s , ing s chool 1 2 The Ma C e Ca e a . rtyrdom, ant rbury th dr l ’ -We T a e a nd St G 1 3. South st r ns pt eorge s Towe r ’ 1 4 The G e f a H e . r y ri rs ous 1 5 D a fr th e C e th e Ma . oorw y om loist rs into rtyrdom 1 6 We a e . stg t 1 Th e Ca e Wea e 7 . nt rbury v rs ’ The a e St i e Co e e 1 8 . ! u drangl , August n s ll g ’ C 1 9. St Martin s hurch ’ 0 The C e a St a C T e a n 2 . d ath dr l , M rtin s hurch ow r, H a rbledown C A N T E R B U R Y FI R S T V I E W As we stand upon the summit of Bell Harry Tower—more happily called the Angel Steeple of Canterbury Cathedral , looking down upon city and countryside , much of the history of England lies spread beneath our feet : the Britons were at work here before the Romans came marching with their stolid legions here to Ethelbert , Saxon King of Kent, St Augustine preached the gospel of Christ ; in the church below, Becket was murdered and the Black Prince buried ; to this city, to the shrine of St Thomas , came innumerable pilgrims , one of them our first great English poet ; then the cras h of the R eformation swept away shrines d ae and pilgrims , the mirk and romance of me i val ism vanished into the mists of history, and the - city to day lives chiefly in the past . Away to 2 C AN TE RB U RY the east and south are the narrow seas , crossed and by conquering Romans Normans, crossed for centuries by a constant stream of travellers from all ends of the earth , citizens of every clime , to some of whom the sight of the English coast was V the first glimpse of home , to others the first iew of a strange land ; away to the north and west are the Medway and the Thames, Rochester and London . From no other tower, perhaps , can so ’ wide a bird s - eye View of our history be obtained ; Canterbury is so situated that ever since England has been and as long as England shall be, this city has been and will be a centre of the nation ’ s life . At first entrance to it , Canterbury does not impress with its antiquity ; there are, indeed , the ancient Cathedral, ancient gates and ancient houses . But as the sights of the city grow familiar, as its atmosphere enters into our souls , as its story becomes known , gradually and surely we realise that most o f what we see now is but youthful compared with the great age of the place ; and we feel that when all this of the present day has mouldered to dust , ’ as must all man s works, here will be another city , perhaps even fairer than the one we are looking o n l , and that the men of those days to come wi l F I R S T V I E W 3 wonder and speculate as to the likeness of us of - no to day. Canterbury is ancient and beautiful ; place for the mere tourist who fancies that in an hour or two of sight -seeing he can learn to know and love her : she is like a beautiful woman , whose charms never stale ; like a good woman , ever showing to those who love her some fresh enchantment . But it is not history - not the story of dead — fa s cmates events that chiefly us in Canterbury, i or, indeed , in any such city ; it is the l ves of the men who made that history, who took part in those events . Here , as we walk the streets , we think of Augustine , of Thomas , of the Black m of Prince, of any another ; and many great men — of letters Chaucer, Erasmus , Marlowe, Thackeray, : Dickens , Stanley the first painting for us the Canterbury of his own days , the last that of past times . To understand fully the beauty of m such a place , we ust allow not only its spirit to ’ enter into us , but we must in our mind s eyes people its ways with those who have walked there aforetime , with the shadows not of the great only but of the humble, who all in their degree helped to the making of history and of this historic city . 4 C A NT E RB U R Y It is to the Cathedral that most men , when set down here , first turn their steps ; and rightly so . We must not refuse to listen to the voices of its k o d stones , must not loo up n them as dull, dea , dumb things ; to those who are ready to hear — they will always a tale unfold of beliefs gone c beyond re all, of the men whose untiring patience and skill raised for us this splendid monument of the past, of saints and of sinners , of victors and of vanquished . The least advantageous way to attempt the attainment of any true sense of the fascination of Canterbury Cathedral is to enter it straightway, intent on seeing rapidly all that it contains of interest ; though every stone in its fabric is of interest, almost every charm that it possesses n will be lost to those who thus wro gly approach . R ather walk slowly round , entering the close by 1 5 1 Christ Church gateway, completed in 7 , sadly battered by time but unspoiled by the hand of the destroying restorer ; without stands the monu ment to Christopher Marlowe , son of the city. But we pass in to the quiet trees and the trim grass ; we look up at Bell Harry Tower, the centre of the Cathedral as the Cathedral is of the city. Walk round , not troubling to seek out the name or the record of this portion of the building or of that ; CHRIST CHURCH GAT E Entra nce to the precmcts of Canterbury Ca thedral 6 C A N T E R B U RY prolonged duration, each visit being devoted to a t specific end . The two principal points of interes are the history of the fabric, and the martyrdom a or murder of St Thomas Becket, with its consequences . T H E S T O R Y O F T H E C A T H E D R A L To the eye of the expert the buildings of any ancient church or cathedral tell their story with simplicity and directness . Even to the eye of the inexpert in such matters , it is at once apparent that Canterbury is a growth of long ages , the handi work of many generations of builders . The grey - weather beaten exterior, with its varied architecture, is evidently not the design of any single brain, and the dim , religious aisles and chapels echo with hints of memories of architects and masons into whose various hands came the glory of carrying on the work which their forefathers had begun t and lef for them to continue or to complete. It is believed that on this same site there stood once a Roman or British church , which was granted to Augustine by Ethelbert , and by him consecrated and reconsecrated in the name of the 8 C AN T E RB U RY r Saviour, our God and Lord Jesus Ch ist, and there i f all he establ shed an habitation for himsel , and for his successors in short , he founded the monastery of Christ Church To this church additions were made by Archbishop Odo toward the end of the r i w tenth centu y, concern ng hom is narrated a pretty monkish legend : The roof of Christ Church had become rotten from excessive age , and rested throughout upon half- shattered pieces : wherefore s et he about to reconstruct it , and being also des irous of giving to the walls a more aspiring altitude, he directed his assembled workmen to d remove altogether the isjointed structure above , and commanded them to supply the deficient c height of the walls by raising them .