Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

CANTERBURY HOSPITAL.

387

cross, is divided into six wards, about three miles in circumference, and sends two members to parliament. Upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantz, by Louis XIV., thousands of French protestants fled to this country, many of whom employed in the silk manufacture, took up their abode at Canterbury. The dissenters here are numerous, having several places of worship. The meeting of the General Baptists standing in the Black Friars, used to be agreeably encircled by trees, but they have lately been cut down, which is far from being an improvement. The remains of a castle are to be seen at the extremity of the city, and there is an artificial mount, called the Dungell, or Dane Johnhill, and by others, Donjon, or Dungeon, a high tower in old fortifications. It is supposed to have been raised by the Danes when they, in Ethelbert's time, besieged the city. From the summit there is a view of Canterbury and the surrounding country. In 1790 this spot was embellished by the late James Simmons, Esq. one of the aldermen, who rendered it a place for recreation to the citizens. Of late years Canterbury has experienced many improvements. Nor must we forget to mention the Hospital, a neat spacious building, erected within these few years, and supported with equal zeal by churchmen and dissenters: indeed it is deserving of every countenance, because institutions of this kind mitigate the pains of suffering humanity. We shall also just add, that there are two handsome booksellers' shops, with good circulating libraries, in this city, where

388

CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL.

the London papers may be seen daily. There are three papers published here twice a week, which have an extensive circulation throughout the county.

The Cathedral is a vast pile of building, and exhibits marks of hoary antiquity. It rears its towers with elegance, and its interior is decorated by monuments well worth examination. The choir is thought to be the most spacious in the kingdom; the stalls for the Dean and Prebendaries are of wainscoat, divided by neat fluted pillars, with capitals of the Corinthian order supporting the insignia of ecclesiastical authority. It is remarkable, that this structure has been more than once burnt to the ground. The agonising distraction shown by some of the poor monks, on one of those occasions, in preserving the dead bodies of the saints from the flames, forms a striking picture of the superstition of those times. Some of the bodies were scorched, others half consumed; but all were, at the hazard of their lives, snatched from the devouring element, and borne away with triumphso precious were these miserable relics of their devotion.

About this period it was customary to adorn the churches in this country with the heads of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and a long train of saints. The spectacles were so contrived as to astound the gaping and credulous multitude. It is so at present in Popish countries; and that you, my young friend, may have some idea of it, take the following extract from Lord Blayney's Travels through

EXTRACT FROM BLAYNEY'S TRAVELS. 389

Spain, 1810" In many houses on the road I had observed a head of CHRIST engraved in a singular manner, and I now found that they were copies from a painting in the cathedral of Jaen, which on my requesting to see the Dean, politely prepared to gratify my curiosity. Having retired for some minutes, he returned dressed in his canonicals, accompanied by twelve priests bearing lighted wax tapers in large golden candlesticks; after a mass had been said, two small folding doors were thrown open with great devotion, and, by the light of some candles, I observed in a niche a dark representation of the head and neck of our SAVIOUR so inimitably executed that I was struck with an awful sensation not to be described! The eyes appeared to penetrate the inmost recesses of the soul; and the whole had so much the appearance of life, that, if any thing could excuse the superstitious worship of the material representation of the Divinity, it would certainly be this picture. The crown of the head is covered with a veil, and the picture is placed in a frame of solid gold set with diamonds and emeralds of immense value. The miraculous history of this Santa Farsa is, that an old woman is said to have placed a handkerchief thrice folded on the face of our Saviour on his descent from the cross, and when taken off each fold was found to have received an exact impression of the co;intenance; one is preserved at Madrid, a second at Toledo, and the third here at Jaen !!!"

Behind the altar in this cathedral of Canterbury

390

SHRINE OF THOMAS BECKET.

used to stand the shrine of St. Thomas Becket, which old Stow thus describes :-" This shrine was built about a man's height, all of stone, then upwards of timber, plain, upon which was a chest of iron, containing the bones of Thomas Becket, scull and all, with the wound of his death, and the piece cut out of his scull, laid in the same wound. The timber work of this shrine on the outside was covered with plates of gold damasked with gold wire, which ground of gold was again covered with jewels of gold, as rings, ten or twelve cramped with gold wire, into the said ground of gold, many of these rings having stones in them, brooches, images, angels, precious stones, and great pearls, the spoil of which shrine in gold and precious stones filled two great chests, one of which six or seven strong men could do no more than convey it out of the church at once, all of which was taken to the king's use, and the bones of St. Thomas, by command of the Lord Cromwell, were then and there burnt to ashes, in Sept. 1538, the 30th year of Henry the Eighth." I transcribe this description of the shrine, because it was frequented previous to the reformation by thousands of pilgrims from every part of the kingdom. This Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury, in the reign of Henry the Second; and by his insolent behaviour to that monarch, precipitated his own destruction. He was, after various broils and intrigues, seized in the cathedral, and tumbled head-long from an eminence, so that his brains were dashed out on the pavement. They show you

CANTERBURY TALES.

391

the fatal spot; and an old man, pointing to the identical part where he fell, assured me that there was a stain which time had not obliterated.

The numbers of pilgrims that formerly visited the tombs of Becket, and other saints, at Canterbury, are incredible. They included individuals of every description. Hence Chaucer, in his Cunterbury Tales, draws the respective characters of these pilgrims in so masterly a manner, that he satirizes every vice, and exposes every folly, by which his times were distinguished. Dryden remarks, that "Chaucer must have been a man of a wonderfully comprehensive nature, because he has taken into the compass of his Tales the various manners and humours of the whole English nation. Not a single character has escaped him. Even the grave and serious characters among the pilgrims are distinguished by their several sorts of gravity."

An engraving of a beautiful painting by Stoddard of Chaucer's Pilgrims has just been given to the world.

There are in this metropolitan church some elegant monuments, particularly those of Henry the Fourth and his Queen-Edward the Black Prince -Cardinals Chartillon and Pole-Archbishops Courtenay, Chichely, Bourchier, &c. Viewing such a variety of tombs, I was impressed with a passage from Addison:-" When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies within me. When I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, every inordinate desire goes out. When

« ElőzőTovább »