CANTERBURY is one of the most ancient cities in this kingdom, and its history is probably second to none in the interesting associations which it is adapted to awaken in the mind. Its name among the ancient inhabitants of the island was Durwhern, so called from the Stour, which runs through and by the city in two branches. The Romans, after the conquest of Britain, latinized it into Durovernum, and under this name it is "marked conspicuously in the Itinerancy of Antoninus, which is now nearly 1500 years old."

It was known, in the early history of the Saxon Conquest, as the chief city of the kingdom of Kent, where the king made his abode. Bede calls it "the chief city of king Ethelbert," and by Matthew of Westminster it is styled, "the head of the empire;" but what a different political structure was the Saxon empire of twelve centuries ago from what the British empire is at this day. So different that one hardly can avoid thinking that the title "empire" was then employed in burlesque rather than in sober earnest.

Canterbury is justly celebrated as having been the scene of the labours of Augustine when he opened his Mission in this country with such marked success, that Ethelbert is said to have given up his palace to the illustrious Missionary as a residence, while he, himself, retired to Reculver, where he built another royal residence on the ruins of a Roman fort. The palace given to Augustine was ultimately converted into a Monastery, which bore his name. This city also, in after times, became still more celebrated on account of the martyrdom of Thomas à Becket, to whose shrine, under the reign of Popish superstition, multitudes of the blind and maimed were accustomed to resort, in the hope of recovering the use of their eyesight and of their limbs. The times of that ignorance have happily passed away, but the city of Canterbury is still one of the most celebrated cities in Great Britain. In our day, it is mainly celebrated as the Ecclesiastical metropolis of an establishment, which, to use the words of the late Edmund Burke, "lifts its mitred front in Courts and in Parliaments," and on account of its antique churches, with which it abounds, more probably than any other Protestant city in Christendom. But of those sacred edifices, there is one, so much more magnificent than any of the rest, that we must confine the attention of our readers exclusively to it. We allude to the Cathedral-in which Cromwell is said to have established his barracks-of world-wide celebrity. The following description is taken from the pen of one who knows it well

"Nothing upon earth is more picturesque, or more solemn and imposing, than the exterior of our Cathedral! Huge are its dimensions; of many different ages, and of various styles is its architecture; yet there is some magic in these old Gothic piles,-differences become like similarities, and every part is in harmony and keeping with all the rest. The sober grey colouring, with here and there a darker hue which reigns throughout, is the very colour a painter would have chosen for such an object-is the best tint that the eye can rest upon. The great tower, called Bell Harry Tower, is one of the most chaste and beautiful

specimens of the pointed style of architecture in England. The two towers at the west end are full of grandeur and of beauty. Part of this stupendous edifice was built by St. Augustine shortly after his arrival, upon ground which was said to have been occupied by some Christians of the Roman army. This edifice suffered from Danish fires. Archbishop Egelnoth, who presided from 1020 to 1038, repaired the mischief which the Danes had done, being aided by the royal munificence of Canute. But about the year 1067, in the time of Archbishop Stigan, the church was again injured by fire; and nothing appears to have been done towards its repair until after the year 1070, when Archbishop Lanfranc, with architects and masons from Normandy, began to rebuild and enlarge it. Then, too, rose into magnificence the archbishop's palace and the monastery. Archbishop Anselm, who succeeded Lanfranc, made great improvements, and designed far more than he lived to finish; he was aided by Prior Ernulph, and by that prior's successor Conrad, two men of eminent taste in architecture, whose names are preserved in different parts of the Cathedral. 'the glorious choir of Conrad.' In 1174, in the fourth year after the murder of Thomas à Becket within its walls, the Cathedral suffered again greatly by fire. Except in the great tower, nearly all the wood-work, with every thing that was combustible, was consumed; but this left the solid walls and columns erect, though scorched and blackened. Thomas à Becket, however, was now canonized, and a new and unprecedented impulse was given to the spirit of pilgrimage. Pilgrims of the highest rank crowded to visit the scene of the martyrdom, and did not quit it without leaving their oblations. In 1177, Philip, count of Flanders, came hither to meet king Henry II. In June, 1178, king Henry, on his return from Normandy, paid another visit to the Cathedral; and in the next month William, archbishop of Rheims, came over from France, with a great retinue, to pay his vows to St. Thomas at Canterbury, where the king met and received him honourably. In the course of the following year, Louis

The choir is called

VII. king of France, came to Canterbury with Henry II., and a great train of nobility of both nations, and were received by the Archbishop and his provincials, the Prior and all the Monks, with great honour and unspeakable joy. "The oblations of gold and silver made by the French, were incredible. The French king came in the manner and habit of a pilgrim, was conducted to the tomb of St. Thomas in solemn procession, where he offered his cup of gold and a royal precious stone, with a yearly rent of one hundred muids of wine for ever to the convent, confirming the grant by royal Charter, under his seal, delivered in form.' By the help of such munificent benefactors, the monks of Christ's Church soon found themselves enabled not only to repair all the damage Lanfranc's church had suffered, but also to make it far more glorious than ever. A vast deal of this work was done within eight years after the fire; William of Sens appears to have been the chief architect. In the ninth year from the fire, the monks were brought to a stand still for want of money. But soon a fresh stream flowed in, and brought so much more money than was necessary for the repairs they were employed upon, that they set about a grander design, which was to pull down the east end of Lanfranc's church, with a small chapel of Holy Trinity adjoining, to erect a most magnificent one instead of it, and to add to that another building in honour of the new object of their devotion-St. Thomas the Martyr. While they were thus employed, votaries continued to bring their oblations in abundance; and St. Thomas had visitors who soon put the monks in a state to erect a chapel for the reception of his relics. The ceremonial of removing the body of the saint was performed on the 7th July, 1220, with the greatest solemnities: the Pope's legate, the archbishops of Canterbury and Rheims, with very many bishops and abbots carrying the coffin on their shoulders, and placing it in his shrine. King Henry III. was present, and the archbishop, Stephen Langton, was so profuse on the occasion, as to leave a debt on the see which his fourth successor could hardly discharge. During the two following centuries devotees to the saint increased,

daily pilgrimages became more numerous, and gifts and offerings came in so fast, that his shrine grew as famous for its riches as for its holiness. Erasmus, who visited it about 1510, says, 'Gold was the meanest thing to be seen there; all shone and glittered with the rarest and most precious jewels of an extraordinary bigness; some were larger than the egg of a goose.' This chapel, at the east end of the chapel of the Holy Trinity, was called, à'Becket's crown! The monks were still employed in adding glory and beauty to it, when Henry VIII. put a stop at once to the works and the oblations; seized on the treasures and estates of the monastery, and provided for the members of it as he pleased."

The history of the building of the Cathedral fills a large volume, but the history of its decline is soon told. These seizures of Henry VIII. left not money enough to keep the vast buildings in proper repair: fresh spoliations were perpetrated in the days of Edward VI. by the Protector Somerset and his rapacious associates. During the Civil war between Charles I. and the Parliament, the redoubtable Puritans-who had exceedingly little reverence for steeple-houses, smashed nearly all the beautiful old stained glass, destroyed much of the sculpture and carving, turned the nave of the church into stabling for their horses, and quartered themselves in the transepts and chapels.

In the days of Queen Anne and the two first Georges, repairs were ordered: they were executed in execrable taste; and it is only within the last quarter of a century, that these works had been done as they ought to be; the recent repairs and restoration have been very extensive, and they have been executed in excellent taste. No cursory view can give the visitor any adequate notion of this immense and complicated building, of this world of masonry, and it is impossible for us to attempt here anything like a detailed description. It may be sufficient to say, that the choir is one of the most spacious in the kingdom, being nearly 200 feet in length, from the west door to the altar, and 38 feet in breadth, between the two