curious and most interesting building, and it ought not to have been destroyed. The gateway of the Roper mansion in St. Dunstan's-street is very picturesque.

All the old churches have interesting relics; but we cannot describe more than a few of them. As you ascend the High-street, towards the Dane John, you have on your left hand the old Norman-looking church of St. George, spoiled, however, by a wooden spire. In the north aisle, there is a portion of a round massive column of the early Norman sort; and there is an octagonal font, supported by eight small shafts and a large central one, which is evidently of great age. Saint Margaret's Church stands in Saint Margaret's-street, which runs off the High-street to the right, nearly opposite to Mercery-lane and the grand entrance gate into the Cathedral Precincts. The original east end of this church has been sliced off at an acute angle, in order to make room for the street. The interior has been spoiled and barbarized. The brass monuments are all gone; but there are one or two monuments of a more recent date which merit attention. St. Mary Bredin's Church is a small structure, with a small wooden tower; it is rough cast on the outside, and the old decorated windows have been spoiled. It was built by William, the son of Harno, the son of Vitalis, one of the adventurers who came over with William the Conqueror. It stands in Rose-lane, leading from High-street. In Burgate-street there are two small ancient churches, standing on the same side of the way, and within 150 yards of each other. The first of these two churches is St. Mary Magdalene's, which has a square tower, built in the year 1503; the body of the church dates from the earliest Norman time. It has a fine old Norman font, octangular, and supported by a centre column. Saint Paul's Church stands near to St. Ethelburg's Gate, a part of the vast monastery of St. Augustine, and one of the finest of our old remains. The church is believed to have been built in the reign of Henry III. St. Peter's Church, at the corner of St. Peter's-lane, is poor and small; but its walls are of great thickness, it has curious square columns, a decorated window over the altar, and an old square font.

But by far the most interesting of all these ancient churches, and indisputably the most ancient of them all, is St. Martin's, which stands isolated on a beautiful sloping hill, in a suburb of the city, and at the distance of about half a mile from the Cathedral. It is supposed to have been first built by some Christians of the Roman army about A. D. 187. The quantity of Roman bricks which may be detected in many parts of the structure, would indicate that it was originally a Roman building, or one built with Roman materials adapted for other purposes. The walls of the chancel are almost entirely of Roman brick. Here Queen Bertha, the wife of King Ethelbert, had an oratory, and here St. Augustine preached at his first coming to Canterbury. The venerable Bede describes a church dedicated to the honour of St. Martin, in terms which leave little doubt that this was the identical church. After relating the favourable reception which King Ethelbert gave to the Christian missionaries, Bede goes on to say, "He gave them a dwelling-place in the city of Canterbury, which was the metropolis of all his dominions, and pursuant to his promise, besides allowing them their diet, permitted them to preach. It is reported, that as they drew near to the city, after their manner, with the Holy Cross, and the image of the great King, our Lord Jesus Christ, they, in concert, sung this litany or prayer: 'We beseech thee, O Lord, in all thy mercy, that thy anger and wrath be turned away from this city, and from thy holy house, because we have sinned. Hallelujah.' There was on the east side, near the city, a church dedicated to the honour of St. Martin, formerly built whilst the Romans were still in the island, wherein the queen, who, as has been said before, was a Christian, used to pray. In this they at first

began to meet to sing, to pray, to say mass, to preach, and to baptize, till the king being converted to the faith, they had leave granted them more freely to preach, and build or repair churches in all places. Nor was it long before he gave

his teachers a settled place in the metropolis of Canterbury, with the necessary possessions in several sorts."

According both to chronicle and tradition, the good Christian Queen Bertha was buried in the church. On one side of the chancel there is a recess in the wall, arched over head, and having within it an old stone coffin, or scarcophagus, of the simplest make. This has been for many ages pointed out as the tomb of the good Bertha; and we see no substantial reason for doubting that it may have been so. The structure of the church is primitively simple: it is a small oblong building, consisting of a chancel and nave, with no columns, with a plain pointed roof, and a low square tower, beautifully overgrown on the outside with ivy. It is indeed the very beau idéal of a painter's country church. The font is certainly one of the first that was made in England: it has no stand, but rests on the ground; it is about three feet in height, and capacious within; the sculptures upon it are a sort of ornamental interlacings in low relief. It closely resembles the font delineated by the old illuminators in representing the baptism of King Ethelbert, and it is believed to have been the very font in which that first of our Christian kings was baptized. There is better ground for believing it to be so than for disbelieving the fact; and the belief is a far pleasanter thing than the unbelief. The interior of this church was a few years ago restored by the taste and munificence of the Hon. Daniel Finch, and is now the most perfect and beautiful image of an antique oratory that can be seen anywhere. The churchyard, with which great pains have also been taken, is beautiful and poetical, having several fine old yew trees and rich green sward, gently sloping to the plain. Some trees which intercepted the prospect have been cut away, and now there is a magnificent view from the church porch, and from nearly every part of the churchyard, of the glorious towers of Canterbury Cathedral, and of a good portion of the picturesque city. That every thing should be complete, as in the olden time, Mr. Finch had a lich-gate erected at the entrance into the churchyard: it is built of fine solid oak, and may stand for centuries.

Old St. Mildred's Church, with its flints and Roman bricks, its leaning gables and its perpendicular windows, and its cool avenues of lime-trees, would merit description; and so would several other of the smaller churches, if we had space and time for it. But the lover of ecclesiastical antiquities, in visiting Canterbury, will find out all these places.

Besides the magnificent monastery of St. Augustine, of which much remains, and of which a good deal must be said presently, there are in Canterbury and its vicinity the remains of several monastic establishments, and of cells, hermitages, and lone chapels. The Gray Friars, who settled in Canterbury, in a. D. 1220, had their dwelling in the south-western part of the city, southward from St. Peter's-street, where among the meads and garden grounds are to be seen some walls and ruined arches which once belonged to their house. Their church has been so entirely destroyed, that the site of it can only be conjectured. Weever, the historian of old monuments, has preserved the names of many men of note who were buried within it. The Black Friars, who settled in Canterbury in the year 1217, being the first of King Henry III.'s reign, had their convent, or priory, on the opposite or north side of St. Peter-strect. Of this building a good deal yet remains; but it has been formed into houses and tenements, and part of the hall is now occupied as a Baptist meeting-house, and another portion has been turned into a Unitarian chapel.

Some of the low arrow-headed arches continue to be picturesque, in spite of all that has been done to spoil them and their adjuncts. Formerly the priory had three beautiful gates, but these have entirely disappeared. The nunnery of St. Sepulchre, some ruins of which are still visible, stood in the eastern suburb of the city, about a quarter of a mile from the ancient Ridingate, and almost upon the ancient Roman road, called Watling-street. It was founded by Archbishop Anselm, about the year 1100. In the ground behind these ruins several Roman sepulchral urns have been dug up, which seems to indicate that the spot had been used as a burying-place before the introduction of Christianity. In this nunnery Elizabeth Barton, the farfamed Holy Maid of Kent, who so sorely disquieted King Henry VIII. by her visions and prophecies, and who was executed at Tyburn for treason, together with several of her accomplices, was a veiled nun and votaress.

The hospitals and almshouses were very numerous, and of very old foundation. Archbishop Langfranc founded two: St. John's hospital, for diseased men and women, near Northgate, in A. D. 1084; and the Hospital of St. Nicholas, at Harbledown, on the London-road, about a mile from the Westgate, in or about the same year. At St. John's, the ruins which exist show it to have been an extensive and fine edifice. The semicircular-headed doorway of the chapel is preserved; and there are two or three small old arches. The old spits, from eight to ten feet long, may still be handled in the kitchen. St. Nicholas, at Harbledown, stands upon a most lovely spot of ground, elevated, wooded, and affording some delightful prospects. It was intended by its founder for a lazar-house, or a place of reception for such persons as suffered from the horrible and then common malady, the leprosy. The old chapel, though much neglected within, remains entire, and has suffered little or no alteration since the end of the eleventh century, when it was built. With its ivy and its wild wallflowers, its cool gray stone, and its rents and seams, it is eminently picturesque. From it you look right down into a chasm through which the old London road passes, and has passed for many ages. Erasmus, in his Peregrinatio Religionis, written about the year 1510, mentions this hollow road, and the hospital above it.

"Og. In the road to London, not far from Canterbury, is a way, extremely hollow, as well as narrow, and also steep, the bank being on each side so craggy that there is no escaping; nor can it by any means be avoided. On the left side of the road is an almshouse of some old men, one of whom runs out as soon as they perceive a horseman approaching, and after sprinkling him with holy water, offers him the upper leather of a shoe, bound with brass, in which a piece of glass is set like a gem. This is kissed and money given him. Me. I had rather have an almshouse of old men on such a road than a troop of sturdy robbers. Og. Gratian [the learned Dr. John Colet, dean of St. Paul's, &c.] rode on my left hand, nearer to the almshouse, and so he was sprinkled with the water; to this he submitted; but when the shoe was held out for him to kiss it, he asked what it meant. And on being told it was the shoe of St. Thomas à Becket, he was sore provoked. I took compassion on the old man, and gave him some money, by way of consolation." The shoe of the saint and martyr has long since disappeared. The hospital has an old maple pole, with a medallion fastened to the bottom, representing Guy Earl of Warwick killing the dragon. The medal has also an inscription in Gothic and scarcely legible characters. The original buildings of the hospital are gone, and those which remain are falling fast to ruin :-not from their antiquity, but from having been slightly built. They are low, and stand in a row, or in rows, like our modern almshouses; and almshouses they now are, and have been for some centuries. By the statutes of Archbishop Jackson, who was the restorer of this establishment, lodging, and fuel,

and a certain annual sum of money, were to be given to thirty poor honest men, and to thirty poor women. The number has gradually been decreased; there are not now more than fifteen men and fifteen women lodged here, and of money these have received very little. All the ground about Harbledown is hallowed by legends and traditions. There is a well of mineral water, called through long ages the Well of the Black Prince; the tradition being that that warlike Prince in his declining health sought a cure by drinking that water. The well is ancient and primitive, lying under the green hill-side.

The hospital of St. Lawrence, which was founded towards the middle of the twelfth century, stood a little to the east of the nunnery of St. Sepulchre's. It was the asylum for the sick brothers of the great monastery of St. Augustine, and was opened to their distressed relatives. A part of one of its walls is still erect, with a rude sculpture, representing St. Lawrence on his gridiron.

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The Bridewell, or poor priests' hospital, stands in Lamb-lane, not far from the south side of the High-street. It was first founded about the year 1240, by Simon Langton, archdeacon of Canterbury, and brother to the great archbishop of that name. This hospital, intended as a place of succour and relief for poor priests— chaplains, curates, and other like unbeneficed clerks" escaped the general dissolution, and remained unsuppressed down to the time of Queen Elizabeth, when it was turned into a workhouse. It has since served both as a prison and a poorhouse, and it is now the city workhouse. The buildings have been sadly altered. Maynard's or Mayner's Hospital is of ancient foundation, but the present buildings are not very old. They stand in a lane leading from Castle-street to that quiet and picturesque street called Stour-street. The Spittle was founded about the time of Henry II. by a citizen of Canterbury, who was so wealthy that he was styled Mayner le Riche. Its object was the support of four brothers and four sisters, single persons, of the age of fifty and upwards. It now affords a tolerably comfortable almshouse. Adjoining Mayner's Spittle was another similar institution, founded by one Leonard Cotton. We pass over several more modern charities. A Spittle' for the poor stood without Northgate, founded by Sir John Boys, who died in 1612, and has a monument in the Cathedral. The priory of St. Gregory was another foundation of Archbishop Langfranc: it was intended for infirm men and women, and regular canons of the order of St. Augustine had charge of it. It is supposed to be the first house of regular canons in this kingdom. The establishment is mentioned in Domesday-book. Its site was between Northgate-street and the new Military-road, and is now almost covered with modern buildings. A small part of the priory is, however, still to be traced. Of the house of the Knights Templars, which stood under the town wall, in a place called Water Lock-lane, which led by Northgate church down to the river, near the Abbott's mill, nothing remains. The Black Prince's chantry, which stood near to the eleemosynary of the monastery of Christ Church, has been equally obliterated.

But passing to the vast monastery of St. Augustine, we find tall and massive towers, beautiful gateways, and immense masses of wall, yet standing, and now likely to stand for at least as many years as they have hitherto stood. These splendid remains, and the modern works now almost completed within them, might occupy the tourist the whole of a long summer's day. The site of St. Augustine is at the south-east angle of the city, without the walls, but very near to them. Its earliest traditional history is, that the spot was designed by King Ethelbert as a royal cemetery, and was thus selected, according to the law of the twelve tables, which prohibited the burying or burning of corpses within the walls of the cities and towns. By very ancient custom, the sepulchres of the dead were placed by the sides of the

highways, of which there are examples without number in the neighbourhood of Canterbury. Accordingly, the cemetery here was on the straight road from Burgate to Richborough. The monks turned that road aside to Longport, in order to secure that burying-place within their own enclosure. The monastery which St. Augustine began to build with the assistance of Ethelbert, very soon after the conversion of that Saxon king, was probably not very spacious; "it was dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul." In the year 978, when it had been enlarged, St. Dunstan dedicated it afresh, not only to St. Peter and St. Paul, but also to its founder, Augustine, who had been canonized since the first building was erected. From this period the monastery has always been called by the name of St. Augustine. The monastery was gradually increased by the piety and munificence of successive kings and nobles: all progress made in architecture, in sculpture, in painting, or in glass staining, was applied here; so that the place grew even more in beauty than in size. King Athelstane granted to the Abbot of St. Augustine the licence to have a mint for coining money. This privilege was enjoyed by the house until the year 1161, when Abbot Sylvester died, and the monastery was seized by King Stephen, who was hard pressed for money wherewith to maintain the war against the Empress Maud. The privilege was never restored afterwards. By the Pope's licence, the Lord Abbot used a mitre and sandals like a bishop. Before King Stephen laid his hands upon the revenues of the house, the monastery had suffered much from the Danes. In the year 1168, the greater part of the church of the monastery was burnt, and there perished in the flames, together with altars and shrines of saints, very many ancient charters and codicils. The extent of ground covered by the various buildings of the monastery, and enclosed as its precincts, was immense. So splendid was the place, that at the dissolution Henry VIII. appropriated it as a royal palace. In Queen Mary's time the monastery was granted to Cardinal Pole for his life. In 1573, Queen Elizabeth, making a royal progress, kept her court here. She attended divine service at the Cathedral every Sunday, during her stay at Canterbury, and was magnificently entertained, with all her attendants and a great concourse of other company, by Archbishop Parker, on her birth-day, which she kept at the archiepiscopal palace. The site of the monastery was afterwards granted to Henry Lord Cobham. On the attainder of that nobleman in 1603, it was granted by James I. to Robert Cecil, Lord Essenden (afterwards Earl of Salisbury). From the possession of Cecil it passed to that of Thomas Lord Wootton of Marley. Here King Charles I. consummated his marriage with the Princess Henrietta of France, on the 13th of June, 1625; he had met the princess at Dover, and had brought her to Canterbury that day. Mary, the dowager of Lord Wootton, resided in part of the monastery during the civil war between Charles I. and the Parliament; and at the restoration Charles II. lodged here while on his way from Dover to London. A square facing one of the remaining gateways of the monastery is still called Lady Wootton's Green. It is no longer possible to trace the wide circuit of the walls of the monastery. In several places they have been knocked down in order to admit the view of tasteless modern buildings; in other places they have been cleared away to make room for houses, for the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, and for the county jail. This ruthless devastation was perpetrated within these seventy years, and great part of it within the last five-and-twenty years. In Gostling's time the walls which enclosed the whole precincts, were standing. The west wall, which was the principal front, remains tolerably complete, to the extent of some three hundred feet, or from the great gate at the northern end, to the cemetery gate at the east. Far behind these two splendid gates there stood St. Ethelbert's Tower, the pride of the edifice, and the loftiest and most ancient remaining part of it. A portion of this magnificent tower had fallen, or