CHURCHES AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 39 here given. This is the principal parish church in Dover, and is the property of the parishioners. It is partly Saxon, partly Norman, in its style, and the interior, much more prepossessing and imposing than the exterior, has been entirely restored. Barons of the Cinque Ports and municipal officers used to be elected there from the reign of Elizabeth to that of William the Fourth— scarcely religious ceremonies; but at old St. James's Church, which is now being restored, the Courts of Landmanage and Admiralty for the Cinque Ports were opened, and one was held there even so recently as six years back. The service at St. Mary's (where the Rural Dean, the Rev. J. Puckle, officiates) is conducted on rather High-Church principles, without being outré, and the same may be said of the service at the pretty little churches of Buckland and Charlton. The remaining churches are St. James's, a new structure of handsome proportions on the Maison Dieu Road; Trinity, contiguous to Strond Street; Christ Church; St John's (Mariners'); and the military churches already mentioned. A new church is now about to be erected in the parish of Charlton. The Dissenting and Nonconforming bodies in the town find their requirements fully met by ten chapels; the Jews have a synagogue in Northampton Street; and the Roman Catholics a pretty little church on the Maison Dieu Road, opened by Dr. Manning last year. The religious condition of the people of Dover ought, therefore, to be considered as being especially well cared for. In other respects, beside that of religion, Dover keeps pace ** with the age. Its educational establishments are both numerous and well-conducted; it has a Museum and Philosophical Institution, and several associations exist where the amusement and recreation provided partake of an educational character. The nearness of the place to the Metropolis, with which there are three postal communications daily, and the facilities afforded by the railways, contribute much to the excellent status the town has acquired as regards the general intelligence of its inhabitants, who also possess four of what Shakspere calls "the abstract and brief chronicles of the time," or, to put it in plainer terms, local newspapers. |