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BYGONE KENT.

NOTE.

Of this book 750 copies have been printed, and this is

No..

DOVER CASTLE.

B\ v J

V,y

EOITM...

RICHARD STi

K»'*'T'awii

Bygone Kent.

EDITED P.Y

RICHARD STEAD, B.A., F.R.H.S.

CANTERBURY: H. J. GOULUEN

HULL:

WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., THE HULL PRESS.

London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., Limiteu.

1 892,

DA

(olO

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. 241 h, iSgs.

Contents. .

)'AGE

'^Historic Kunt. By Thomas Frost i

Kkntish Place-names. By R. Stead, b.a., k. u. u.s 21

St. Augustine and his Mission. By the Kcv. Geo. S.

Tyack, K.A 39

The Ruined Chai-els and Chantries ok Kent. By Geo.

M. Arnold, J. r., n.L., K.S.A 51

A Sketch of the History ok the Church or Basilica

OK LYMiNtHi. By the Rev. Canon R. C. Jenkins, m.a. 86"

Canterbury Pilgrims and their Sojourn in the City.

By the Rev. W. J. Foxell, b.a 97

William Lambakde, the Kentish Antiquary. By Frederick

Ross, K. R. U.S. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 115

The Revolt ok the Villeins in- the Days of King

Richard the Second. By Edward Lamplough ... 128

Royal Eltham. By Joseph W. Spurgeon ... - ... ... 144

Greenwich Fair. By Thoni.as Frost 167

The Martyred Cardinal. By Frederick Ross, k.r.h.s. ... 177

The Kentish Dialects, and Pegge and Lewis, the Old

County Glossarists. By R. Stead, b.a., k.r.h.s. ... 190

The King's School, Canterbury. By the Rev. J. S. Side-

botham, .M.A. ... ... .. ... ... ... ... 206

S.muggling in Kent 21S

Huguenot Homes in Kent. By S. W. Kershaw, k.s.a. ... 228

Dover Casile. By E. Wollaston Knocker 250

Index 265

BYGONE KENT

1bi£itoric Ik cut.

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 Caisar 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 prorhised 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 Rutupia^, 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 .kins'dom, 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 PVench 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 couiitatus, 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 fiight.

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. g

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.

lo 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. \ i

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 Barham.'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,

14 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 hav^e 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

1 8 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 Med way, 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 balkist

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. Sir James Oxendon came 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 W^ellington at Walmer, and so forth, it is not necessary to treat here.

Ikcnttsb placc«*1Rame6.

By R. Stead, u.a., f.k.h.s.

IT is curious to observe with how Httle 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 : — " 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 Ceesar 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 pretentions to

KENTISH PL A C EN AMES. 2 3

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 '' Bygotic 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 earHest 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 divr, which both mean water, whilst the lordly Thames itself is almost certainly the Broad Water. In Medway, Canon Taylor sees the Welsh word qwy or wy, water. Then Romney is said to be from ricimne, 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 PLACE-NAMES. 25

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 nearlv all cases the names of natural features. Possibly the Latinised Dubris and Reoulbiuni, 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 est Limming (or cet 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 by rig, 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 libittim. Again, scattered up and down the country, we find plenty of names with ley for their termination. This "lev" 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 liolt, 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 h^^n 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, Ashenfield, 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 fields Canon Taylor gives a most interesting analysis of the forest-names of the district. In the Kentish Weald alone, there are '^2i " 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. Hay ward, 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

30 BYGONE KENT.

when the endinsf iito- 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 FLA 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 ed) 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

32 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 zvater-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 ckesel, 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

D

34 BYGONE 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 FLA 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 ov 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 auQustinc anb bie flDieeion.

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 Hmits 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 BYGONE KENT.

Augustine singing the holy offices or preaching to the heathen ; within which, two centuries earher, 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* 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.

ST. AUGUSTINE AND IIJS 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.

^be IRuineb Cbapele anb Cbantrice of 1kent.

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 HUClCnt (Tbapcl) 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,

56 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 Hmitation 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. Tiie circumstance that this Exchequer suit by Queen EHzabeth, 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.

58 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

6o BYGONE KENT.

between the Vicar of Aylesford and the Rector of AlHngton.

EsLiNGHAM Chapel, Frindsburv.

In reference to the Chapel of EsHngham, 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. i 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. 6i

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 ixrt^., 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 15th, 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 baiHff 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, I768.

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 Httle parish and vicarage of Lullingstone was for ecclesiastical purposes merged in the adjoining parish and rectory of Lullingstone as late as a.d. 17 12.

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 Malling, 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 Newphthe, East Malling.

The following account is taken almost totidem verbis from the Czistomale 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 Malling, 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 Newhitiie 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 loo 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 13s. 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.

76 BYGONE 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, " Item, lego leprosis de Alba fossa v\s. vvixdy 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 Sto well'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.

78 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 Southfieet, 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 Stse Katarinae de Fawkham."

The view given by Thorpe in his Customale , p. 116, 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

8o 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, COBHAMBURY.

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. 8i

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 31st 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

G

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 tts 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 Mariae 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.

Maidstone 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 Httle Round Church on the heights at Dover, is, I beheve, unknown. It has been well described in the Archceologia 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 SJ^ctcb of tbc 1bi5tor^ of tbe Cburcb or Basilica of Xprningc.

By the Rev. Canon R. C. Jenkins, m.a.

THE Church of Lyminge, dedicated originally to " St Marv 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.

tOoscelinus 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 Eadbald and Eadward.

THE CHURCH OF L YMINGE. 87

that she took her eventful journey to York as the betrothed of the unfortunate Edwin. Accom- panied by S. PauHnus, 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 B YGONE 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 L YMINGE. 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, Coenulf 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 restauraverunty 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

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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 i486 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 151 1.

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

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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 VI IL 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.

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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 anb their Sojourn in the Cit^.

By the Rev. W. J. Foxei.l, b.a.

THERE is no place within the whole length 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 B YGONE KENT.

timber answers it " — this is, in sober truth, a " Hberal 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 V 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 11 70. 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

I oo BYG ONE 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 PILGRIMS. loi

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." Passinof 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 1220 — the body of the saint reposed in the tomb

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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 V PIL GRIMS. 1 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 alongf 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 shipman, the physician, the great clothier of Bath, the parish priest, the miller, the reeve, the

I04 BYGONE 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 so 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 V PILGRIMS. 1 05

nearing the famous city, and 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

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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 H., — 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 BYGONE 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 UK Y PIL GRIMS. 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

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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 marXyr'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 UR V 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 oh 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,

112 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, w^as 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 caput Thomce, 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

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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 !

Milliam Xambarbe, the Ikentiab Hntiquari?,

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

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paganism of the Jutes and Saxons. And ever since has Kent been the scene of important and often tragical events in history, poHtics, 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 12th 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

ii8 BYGONE KENT.

the xxxvij. 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., 17 10- 12. These works have served as the foundations of all subsequent antiquarian and topographical researches. Ralf Brooke, who printed Leland's " New Year.es 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, 1 536-1601, and Camden, 1 551-1623, 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 acknov/ledge 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

1 26 BYGONE KENT.

" '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 Rutupioe," 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. 121

William Heme, 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 BYGONE 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 1745, 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 0OO 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 LAMBAKDE. 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

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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 Angliae 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 16 19."

" 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."

^be IRevolt of the Dilleins in tbe E)a^0 of Iking IRicbait) tbe Secon^,

By Edward Lamplough.

BEHIND the mail-clad baron of the fourteenth 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

I30 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 Gost, 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."

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" 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 " 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 BYGONE 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 no7n 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 hostagfes 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 doors 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 boldest 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, tlie 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

140 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 looo 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. Albans '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 30th 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."

IRoi^al leitbam.

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 131 1. 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 Elthajn, 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 kniehts 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 1 300, 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 1 3 1 1 .

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 13 16, 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 141 2, Henry V. in 1414, Henry VI. in 1429, Edward IV. in 1482, and Henry VIII. in

1515. 1523. and 1525.

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,

ISO 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 Ha vering-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, Antoiiie 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, Henry 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 141 2. 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 141 3-14, 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 141 5, 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

c .«

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lodged there. It was here, in 14 16, 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 oi a stone brido-e across the moat instead of the wooden 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 bildyng 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 rect. ofExchq. , Paper docum. Portfo. ii. No. 1644.

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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 1 515-16, 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 war 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?

i6o 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 goUd. 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 goUd 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. i6i

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.

Oueen 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

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 13th, 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

t64 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 dilTficult 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.

(Brccuwicb Jfaii\

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 M erring, the

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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

I70 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 184 1, 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

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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-

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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. M an ders 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