subsequent re-edification in a different style of architecture, having caused some small alteration in the plan of the building, as arranged by Bishop Gundulph.

The roof of the Keep, as well as the floors, has been entirely destroyed: it most probably consisted of a platform on a level with the top of the wall within the parapet: the latter was about five feet high, and had embrazures about two feet wide. The four towers at the angles were raised another story; and had also small platforms, with parapets and embrazures. These, as well as the platform, command a very noble and extensive view over the whole city, the river Medway, and all the adjacent country; so that no enemy could approach within the distance of several miles without being discovered. The gutters which conveyed the water from the platform, are still perfect. The entrance tower contained two apartments, the openings into which from without, though small, are less contracted than those on the same floors in the Keep this also was crowned by a platform, surrounded by a parapet, and embrazured.

All the walls are composed of the common Kentish rag-stone, cemented by a strong grout or mortar; in the composition of which, immense quantities of sea-shells were used, and which has acquired, from age, a consistency, equal, if not superior, to the stone itself. The coigns are of the yellow kind of stone, said to have been brought from Caen, in Normandy: the window-frames, together with the mouldings round the principal entrance, the faces of the columns in the state apartments, and the arches above, as well as those of the fire-place, and the steining of the Well, are all of this stone; but the vaultings of the galleries, together with the staircases, and all the arches within the walls themselves, are formed of the rude rag-stones, which seem to have been placed on wooden centres, and the grout poured over them in so liquid a state, as to fill up every crevice, and unite the whole in one impervious mass. The masonry of the south-eastern or circular tower, though of a different age, is essentially the same; but the coigns are of free-stone: at the base may yet be traced the square foundations of the original tower, which stood here prior to the

siege in the time of King John. About the beginning of the last century, an attempt, originating in sordid motives, was made to destroy the whole of this venerable fabric; but this, through the solidity of the walls, was found to be too expensive an enterprize, and was therefore abandoned on the same principles from which it had originated.

The SEE of ROCHESTER, though one of the most ancient, is at the same time one of the smallest in England; and those only of Glocester and Oxford are stated in the King's books as inferior in value. It was founded about the year 600, by Ethelbert, King of Kent, together with a PRIORY of Secular Canons, in honor of St. Andrew, to whose powerful intercession was ascribed many signal instances of Divine favor, and various miracles. Augustine, the Apostle of Britain, and first Archbishop of Canterbury, on the completion of the Cathedral Church which Ethelbert had founded, (anno 604,) conferred the episcopal dignity on Justus, a prelate of eminent learning and integrity, who had been sent from Rome to assist in the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity. From this period the See of Rochester has been held in succession by ninety-three Bishops, many of whom have been famous for their talents, piety, benevolence, and extensive acquirements.

Paulinus, the third Bishop, who had previously held the See of York, and was established here in 633, was, after his decease in 644, reputed as a Saint; and his memory acquired so much renown in after ages, that his relics were removed from the vestry, or sacristy, of the Church erected by Ethelbert, where they had been

* “ Ethelbert's Church was dedicated to St. Andrew, as a token of respect to the Monastery of St. Andrew at Rome, from which Augustine, and his brethren, were sent to convert the Anglo-Saxons; and, after the Church was rebuilt, Lanfranc did not change the name of its tutelary Saint, as he did in his own Cathedral, the Primate having such confidence in this Apostle, that he never transmitted by Gundulph any principal donation, without entreating the Bishop to chaunt the Lord's prayer once for him at the altar of St. Andrew." Denne's Mem. of the Cath. Ch. of Rochester, printed in the Custumale Roffense, p. 154.

been interred, into the choir of the Cathedral built by Gundulph, and were there placed in a shrine cased with silver, at the expense of Archbishop Lanfranc. The fourth Bishop, named Ithamar, was born at Canterbury, and is recorded as the first Englishman who obtained a prelacy in his own country: he also was regarded as a Saint, and his remains were translated into Gundulph's Church, by Bishop John, between the years 1125 and 1137. The Priory of St. Andrew was at an early period possessed of a legend of his miracles;* and his memory, like that of Paulinus, was revered for centuries: he died in 655. Tobias, the ninth Bishop, became eminent for his knowledge of the Greek, Latin, and Saxon languages; and is highly praised by Bede for his literary merits.ţ He died in 726, and was buried within the original Church, in the portico of St. Paul's, which he had purposely built for his sepulchre. These three Bishops are the only ones known to have been interred in the ancient Cathedral, of all the twenty-eight that held the See prior to the Norman Invasion.

The possessions of the Bishops, and of the Secular Priests, were occasionally increased by new grants from the Saxon Kings; yet the many losses sustained during the wars between the states of the Heptarchy, and in the subsequent destructive incursions of the Danes, caused such a considerable defalcation in their respective revenues, as to leave them scarcely sufficient for a decent maintenance. At the time of the Conquest, the Church was in such a state of poverty, that Divine worship was entirely neglected in it.'§ And even the Secular Canous, though reduced to four or five in number,' were obliged to depend for a portion of their sustenance on the alms bestowed by the pious.

The accession of the Conqueror was marked by new spoliations; nearly all the estates that remained to the Church were given to VOL. VII. OCT. 1806.

$ s

*Registrum Roffense, p. 6.

Bishop

+ Tobiam pro illo consecravit, virum Latina, Græca, et Saxonica lingua atque eruditione multipliciter instructum. Histor. Bedæ, B. v. Cap. 8.

+ Ibid. Cap. 23.

Hasted's Kent, Vol. II. p. 22. Fo.

Bisliop Odo; and the Sce itself, neglected by its Primate, secmedi verging rapidly to entire dissolution. Lanfranc, whom the revolu-tions of empire had advanced to the See of Canterbury, and who appears to have been unfeignedly zealous in his endeavors to promote the interests of religion, raised Ernost, a Monk of the Abbey of Bec, in Normandy, to the Bishopric of Rochester, in 1607, for the avowed purpose of improving its affairs.. The death of Ernost, in the same year, made room for Gundulph, who was appointed by Lanfranc in 1077, and who, also, had been a Monk in the Abbey of Bec. He was a native of the diocese of Rouen, in Normandy; and, according to a tradition preserved by William of Malmsbury, his advancement had been foretold by Lanfranc, from a trial made by the Sortes Evangelica, many years before either of them could have entertained the most distant idea of their subsequent promotion to episcopal dignities.

Gundulph proved a most active agent in the re-establishment of this See; and the estates granted by the Conqueror to Bishop Odo, having been recovered by Lanfranc in a Solemn Assembly, held during three days at Pinenden Heath, he determined to rebuild the Church, which was now in a state of complete ruin. By his own exertions, also, he recovered the Manor of Isleham, in Cambridgeshire, which had been taken possession of by Pichot, the Sheriff; and having removed the Secular Clergy from the Priory of St. Andrew, he replaced them by Benedictine Monks, to whom he conveyed the greatest part of the estates belonging to his See; and was likewise the means of procuring for them considerable acquisitions, in grants of land, and other property. Out of those manors, however, which he had assigned to the Monks, he reserved to himself, and successors, a right to certain articles of provision, which were to be rendered annually, on St. Andrew'sday, under the name of a Xenium.†

#W. Malmsb. de Gestis Pontif.

The

+ From iv; a present given in token of hospitality. The original record concerning this provision, has been copied into the Registrum Roffense: it differs, in a few particulars, from another copy preserved in

the

The Cathedral erected by Gundulph, if a judgment can be formed from the remains of his building, still apparent in the nave, and west front, must have been a magnificent and spacious edifice. His friend, Archbishop Lanfranc, advanced large sums towards its erection; and it appears, also, that he was assisted by gifts from William the Conqueror, William Rufus, and Henry the First. More fortunate than many of the Norman prelates, he had the pleasure of nearly completing his own Church, as appears from the following passage in the Textus Roffensis, which was compiled by Bishop Ernulph before the year 1124. Ecclesiam Andreæ pæne vetustate dirutam, novam ex integro, ut hodie apparet, ædifi cavit." It seems, however, not to have been entirely finished till Ss 2 several

the British Museum, among the Cott. MS. A. x. 9. fol. 98. a. 6. The following is a translated abstract from that in the Regist. Roff. p. 6.

I, GUNDULPH, "do appoint, that every year, at the celebration of the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, there be reserved to me, and my successors, out of the estates which I have assigned for the maintenance of the Monks, such a Xenium as is here specified: that is to say, from Woldham, and from Frindsbury, and from Denton, and from Southfleet, and from Stoke, sixteen hogs cured for bacon, thirty geese, 300 fowls, 1000 lampreys, 1000 eggs, four salmon, and sixty bundles of furze; and from Stoke, sixteen seam, and one measure of oats:-but half the fish and eggs to be the Monks' portion and from Lamhea, (Lambeth,) 1000 lampreys, for the use of the Monks: also from Hadenham, twenty shillings-worth of fish, to be carried to their cellar. But if it should happen, contrary to my wishes, that I, or any of my successors, shall be absent from the feast, then, in God's name and my own, I order that the whole Xenium be carried to the Hall of St. Andrew, and there, at the discretion of the Prior and Brethren of the Church, be distributed to the strangers and poor, in honor of the festival." The claims of the Bishops to the Xenium, were afterwards contested by the Monks with much pertinacity; but the disputes were at length settled, by the former consenting to receive a composition in money, in lieu of the provisions in kind. This composition, as appears by some passages in the Regist. Roff. p. 124, 125, amounted, in the time of Hamo de Hethe, to 41. 12s. 9d. for all the articles, except corn, which was to be estimated according to the current price.