may all be made out from the raised terrace in front of the abbey, whence, in the distance, Beachy, the English headland which first greeted the Conqueror as he neared the coast, is also visible. And, turning to the abbey itself, we know that the eastern apse of the church, at or close to which was the place of the high altar, was the spot where the Saxon standard was raised, and where Harold himself fell. On that altar William offered the sword he had carried in the battle and the robe worn at his coronation. All the minute details of the battle which the chroniclers have preserved, have been illustrated and explained with a most thorough knowledge of all the localities by Mr. Lower;* and it is with a singular feeling of interest that we find ourselves, with his help, tracing on the spot, with hardly less certainty and minuteness than we should be able to bring to the battle-fields of Vittoria or Talavera, the events of the most momentous struggle which the soil of England has ever witnessed. Even if no more substantial memorials of the Conqueror's abbey remained than the few foundation-stones in the midst of a swamp '-by which, as Dr. Lappenberg, with strange error, asserts, we are alone able to determine the spot where it once reared its towers and pinnacles't-the main features of the country, still unchanged, would be sufficiently attractive; but much of the existing building recals the splendour and state in which the token and pledge of the royal crown,' as the abbey was called by its monks, continued until the dissolution; and the Conqueror himself becomes considerably less of a shadow as we stand on the scene of his victory and within the walls that commemorated it. There are few spots in England more interesting.

6

Relics which more or less directly illustrate the history of our country become so numerous and are so thickly strewn throughout Kent and Sussex, after passing the period of the Conquest, that we are fairly puzzled by an 'embarras des richesses.' But to follow up with the greatest advantage the historical tour we have been proposing, we should next lead the student to Canterbury Cathedral, thronged with remembrances of almost every reign in English history. There is no church, no place in the kingdom,' says Dean Stanley, with the exception of Westminster Abbey, that is so closely connected with the history of our country. But the architecture of the Cathedral-of various dates and of strongly-marked character-is itself an historical monument, or rather a series of monuments. Its architectural history has

*Mr. Lower's paper will be found in his 'Contributions to Literature' (1854). He is also the translator of the Chronicle of Battle Abbey,' from 1066 to 1176. + England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings,' vol. ii. p. 302 (English translation). been

been traced by Professor Willis, in his admirable work on the subject, through all the successive stages of the building. The remarkable Transition work of the choir takes us back to the latter years of the twelfth century, the years (1174-1184) which immediately followed the murder of Becket (1170) and the subsequent burning of the glorious choir of Conrad.' It is all later than Becket's own time,* yet there is not a stone which does not in some way speak of him. No doubt the cost of the new choir was mainly defrayed by offerings which poured in at the tomb of the new saint; and it was these very piers and arches that looked down on the solemn procession-such, we are told, as had never been seen in England before-which, led by the young King Henry III., and by Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of the Great Charter, conveyed (1220) the relics of Becket from their resting-place in the crypt to the shrine which had been prepared for them behind the high altar. Thus the existing choir of Canterbury Cathedral rose with, and witnessed the beginning of, the veneration for the saint whose shrine made Canterbury one of the great places of European pilgrimage. The superb Perpendicular nave (1380-1411) bears testimony to its culmination. Within little more than a century after this had been completed the shrine itself disappeared; but although the place on which it stood is now marked only by a slight furrow in the pavement and by some fragments of a once rich mosaic, the visitor will do well to follow its history as it has been traced for him by Dr. Stanley, observing carefully such traces of the 'Martyr of Canterbury' as still linger in stained glass or in carved stone, and resting well assured that the slightest of these relics will assist him (and he must, after all, do this work mainly for himself) in reconstructing a true picture of the past. Of other and more prominent memorials preserved in the Cathedral we need here say very little. It is impossible to look on the tomb of the Black Prince, with his own helmet and gauntlets still hanging

above it

That helm which never stooped, except to time,'

without passing back, for a few moments at least, to the great days of Cressy and Poitiers; and there are few of the Archbishops buried here-Stephen Langton, Chichele, Courtenay, Warham, Pole-whose monuments will not at once recal the events of English history with which they were connected. These tell their own story, and the series is sufficiently complete to enable us to

Of course, when we say the choir is later, we do not forget how very much there is in Canterbury Cathedral that is older than the days of Becket.

pass

pass almost from the days of the Conquest to those of the Reformation. Dr. Hook's volumes will be read with tenfold interest after our eyes have rested on these, the most definite existing memorials of the Archbishops, when they were indeed 'alterius orbis papæ.

Among the remarkable things to be seen at Canterbury we ought not to omit mention of two columns lately set up within the precincts of the Cathedral. These columns formerly contributed to form the triple chancel-arch of Reculver Church, which, in consequence of the encroachments of the sea, was partly destroyed in 1810. From that time they lay forgotten and unknown in an orchard near Canterbury, until at the end of half a century they were identified as the originals of an engraving after Gandy, A.R.A., in Mr. Roach Smith's Antiquities of Richborough, Reculver, and Lymne.' The third volume of the Archæologia Cantiana' contains an account of the discovery, with an engraving which faithfully represents the general appearance of the columns, although on too small a scale to show the details. Mr. Roach Smith supposes them to date from the time when Reculver was a Roman station; Mr. Fergusson is inclined to regard them as an imitation of Roman work, and to refer them to the ninth century. According to either of these theories, they would be unique among English antiquities.

The connexion of Rochester-the first outpost advanced by St. Augustine-with Canterbury deserves to be carefully marked, and the Cathedral itself should be compared with its mother church. The work of the Norman period in Rochester Cathedral is very interesting and suggestive; but we especially wish to point out here the great value of the Norman keep, towering above and overlooking the Cathedral, as one of the best illustrations of that age remaining in England. The various arrangements-the outworks and defences-of an ancient castle may, no doubt, be better studied at Dover, and by all means with M. Viollet-le-Duc's book-excellently translated by Mr. Macdermott *—in hand. But even the keep of Dover, so grand and strong that, according to tradition, it was the work of evil spirits, yields, in the degree of impression it produces, to the keep of Rochester. Dover, still a fortress, with its ancient chambers still in use, has (as is now the case with the magnificent keep of Richmond in Yorkshire) too much of modern warfare about it to carry us back completely and at once to the days of the

Essay on the Military Architecture of the Middle Ages,' translated by Mr. Macdermott; with the original French engravings. Oxford and London, 1860. Norman

Norman monarchs. Rochester, on the other hand, shattered and roofless, with the light from the open sky streaming across the great pillars of its hall, has nothing of the present to interpose between ourselves and the twelfth century. The position of the Castle with reference to the walls and defences of the city, and with regard to the Cathedral below it-to which it more than once, and especially during the Barons' wars of the thirteenth century, proved a troublesome neighbour—is well seen from the highest story, which still rises to the height of 100 feet. With the help of such a book as that of M. Viollet-le-Duc, a most interesting lesson in mediaval defence and engineering might be read from this point; and a comparison with the Castles of Canterbury and of Dover would render it still more valuable. Leeds, too, which was the great central stronghold of Kent, and is partly Norman, is still to be seen rising grandly in the midst of its lake, a true feudal castle. It retains much of its ancient arrangements, and will assist in rendering complete the series of military illustrations. Pevensey, in Sussex-the 'Castle of the Eagle Honour,' as it was called-brings us to the first years of the fourteenth century; and, besides its architectural importance, has a special interest as the place from which the carliest existing letter in English was despatched by Lady Pelham to her 'trew lorde.'* Bodiam, with striking arrangements for defence, is a fine example of the end of the same century, when it was built by Sir Edward Dalyngrudge, one of those successful adventurers whom the French wars had called forth, and who were then raising their stately castles in different parts of England. Hurstmonceaux, again, entirely of brick-the largest post-Roman building of that material in the country-dates from the reign of Henry VI., and shows us the half-fortress, half-mansion, of the later days of feudalism.

Turning from military to domestic architecture-in examples of which Kent and Sussex are very rich-we shall find that the character of each successive period is not less distinctly marked on the manor-house or the hall than on the castle. At Sore Place, not far from Plaxtole, is a small manor-house, quite perfect, which must have been built about the year 1300, during the reign of the first Edward. The insecurity of times in which a solitary manor-house was always liable to plunder from bands of outlawed men, or even from soldiers who passed it to join the King's military gatherings, is marked by the narrow loops which alone light the ground story; and the slender accommodation-the poor life of even the higher classes-is strongly

* See it in Hallam, Lit. Hist.,' i. 71.

brought

brought before us in the few and narrow rooms above. The Moat House at Ightham-a veritable manor of romance, such as we read of in the 'gestes' of Sir Lancelot or Sir Percival— carries us onward through the days of Edward III., when its great hall was built, to those of Henry VII. and Henry VIII.; and witnesses, in its changes and alterations, to the gradual change of life and manners. And then-leaving unnoticed many an ancient roof-tree and many a quiet old hall, telling its own story of past ages among its own woods and meadows-we come to those later mansions, belonging, in their present state, at all events, to an age which had no longer special need of barbacans or dungeon-towers-Knole, for example, and Penshurst. They contain, of course, portions of far earlier date; but as we now see them, they rank among the best illustrations of the great Tudor mansion. And what recollections of the profoundest interest are connected with each of the places we have mentioned Of Penshurst, especially, we may say, that if, as the famous words of Johnson suggest, it should be impossible to tread the soil of Marathon without renewing our patriotism, or of Iona without an increase of veneration for ancient piety, all that makes up the best and most thorough English character ought to gain fresh life and strength from a visit to the home of Sir Philip Sidney. Here we may return, more completely than anywhere else, to the great days of his short life. Sir Philip himself, with his own keen look,' his parents, his uncles, his brother, and his sister,

.. the subject of all verse, Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother,'

regard us from the walls of the venerable apartments, some of which are lined with furniture which Queen Elizabeth herself sent as presents to her cousins of Penshurst. As we wander from room to room, and recal the associations-the chapters from our own history-which are suggested by each one of these portraits, we begin almost to feel with the old monk, that they are in truth the realities, and we who gaze on them the shadows.

We have thus, at the risk of dwelling on what must be familiar to many of our readers, been indicating some of the most prominent historical relics of Kent and Sussex, because we desired to show how much may be found in this way within the limits of even a single county, without at all drawing for illustration on those lesser remains which every old church and every old manor-house would surely furnish. But there is no fragment of antiquity-no hint or trace of former days-which may not be made to tell its own story, and in its own degree to

aid