Handbook to the County of Kent; Containing Full Information Concerning All Its Favourite Places of Resort, Both on the Coast and Inland

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1878 Excerpt: ... High Street into the Mercery Lane, so called because it was formerly devoted to the sale of sacred wares, such as leaden a Becket brooches, to the pilgrims, as they entered or emerged from the visit to the shrine. Readers of Chaucer will be interested to know that the corner house of the lane was the inn or hostelry of the Checquers of the Hope, where Chaucer's pilgrims took up their quarters. As lately as 1865 a large room existed, which was entered by stairs from the outside, and called the Dormitory of the Hundred Beds; but this was burnt down in that year. The hospitium itself was really the work of Prior Chillenden, 1390. At the end of Mercery Lane is Christ church gate, 1517, built by Prior Goldstone, and a splendid example of late Perpendicular. The figure of Christ, which once filled the niche, was taken away in 1643. The visitor now enters the precincts, in the centre of which stands the glorious cathedral. (Open for inspection from 9 A.m. till 7 P.m., except during the hours of service, which are at 10 A.m. and 3 P.m.) Its history is so incorporated with its architectural features, that it is only by visiting each portion of the building, we are enabled to arrive at the different eras of the church, which, it must be borne in mind, is the third erected on the same ground. The first church was the very early Roman or Eomano-Briton one, said to have been founded by King Lucius. This church was given by the converted King Ethelbert to Augustine, but in 1011 it was injured by the Danes, who carried off and massacred the Archbishop Alphege; and it was finally destroyed about the time of the Conquest. This church, therefore, has utterly disappeared. When Archbishop Lanfranc was appointed, 1070, he commenced to rebuild both church and monastery; for it ...