CANTERBURY, a municipal and parliamentary borough, a co. by itself, a cathedral city, and seat of the metropolitan see of all England, in East Kent, on the Stour, 56 m. e.s.e of London, on the high-road from London to Dover. The distance from London by the South-eastern railway is 81 rn.; by the London, Chatham, and Dover line, about 60. It stands on a flat between hills of moderate height. It has the aspect of an old town, many of the houses along the high street having gabled ends and projecting fronts. It has little manufacture or traffic. The chief trade is in corn, wool, and hops. Pop. '71, 20,962. Many are engaged in the hop-grounds. C. returns two members to parliament. It is noted for its brawn. Some remains of the walls (li m. in circuit and 20 ft. high) which formerly surrounded C., and one of the gates, still exist. Near the city wall is a large artificial mound, known as the Dane John (probably Donjon), and connected with this mound is a public garden, laid out in the end of the 18th c., from the top of which is a fine view of the country around. But the great glory of C. is its magnificent Cathedral. When St. Augustine became archbishop of Canterbury, 597 A.D., he consecrated. under the name Christ's church, a church said to have been formerly used by Roman Christians. Cuthbert, the 11th archbishop, 740 A.D., added a church to the e. of this. In the course of ages, it received numerous additions, until it assumed its present magnificent form. Among those who helped to repair, enlarge, and rebuild it, were archbishops Odo (9-10 A.D.), Lanfranc (1070), and Anselm (1093). In 1174, the choir was destroyed by fire, and in order to the rebuilding of it, a number of French and English artificers were summoned. Among the former was a certain William of Sens, and to him, a man of real genius, the work was intrusted. The church was rich in relics: Plegemund had brought hither the body of the martyr Blasius from Rome; there were the relics of St. Wilfred, St. Dunstan, and St. El fege ; the murder of Thomas Becket (q.v.) had recently added a still mom popular name to the list of martyrs. The offerings at these shrines, especially the last, contributed greatly to defray the expenses. of the magnificent. work. William of Sens did not, however, live to see its completion. He was succeeded by another William, an Englishman. and to him we owe the comple tion of the existing unique and beautiful choir, terminated by the corona or circular chapel called Becket's crown. Gervasius, a monk, who witnessed the fire of 1174, and has left an account of it, tells us that the parts of Lanfranc's church which remained in his time were the nave, the central and western towers, the western transepts, and their eastern chapels. In the 14th c., the nave and transepts were transformed into the per pendicular style of that period. The central tower, called the Angel steeple, was carried up (1486-1504) to about double its original height, also in the perpendicular style; it is 234 ft. high, and 35 ft. in diameter. The n.w. tower was taken down in 1834; it was 113 ft. high, and divided into five stories. The Norman plinth still remains on each side of the nave in the side aisles, and portions of Norman ashlaring may still be seen about the transepts outside the w. wall, and on the eastern piers of the great tower. The indiscriminate use of the "round" or " Norman," and the "pointed" or "early Eng lish" arch, is also a very striking feature in the eastern part of the building. The Lady
chapel, now called the Dean's chapel, stands on the n. side of the church, and was built in 1468; the roof is a fan-vault. The n. transept is called the Martyrdom, for here took place the murder of Becket, on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 1170. Fifty years later, his remains were translated from the crypt to a shrine in the newly erected Trinity chapel, eastward of the choir. About the year 1500, the yearly offerings at this shrine amounted to £4,000; but they had then declined much in value. A'curious mosaic pavement still remains in front of the place where the shrine stood, and the stone steps which lead up to it are worn by the knees of countless pilgrims; but the shrine itself was demolished in 1538, and the bones of the saint burned by order of Henry VIII. In 1643, the build ing was further "purified," as it was called, by order of parliament. Still very many most interesting monuments remain—such as the tombs of Stephen Langton; that which is commonly, but wrongly, supposed to be the tomb of archbishop Theobald; with those of the black prince, of Henry IV., of archbishops Maphan, Peckham, Chicheley, Courte nay, Sudbury, Stratford, Kemp, Bourchier, Warham, and of cardinal Pole. The total exterior length of the cathedral is 545 ft., by 156 in breadth at the eastern transept. The crypt is of greater extent and loftier—owing to the choir being raised by numerous steps at the east end—than any other in England.
The archbishop of C. is primate of all England, metropolitan, and first peer of the realm. He ranks next to royalty, and crowns the sovereign. His ecclesiastical province includes all England, except the six northern counties. Among his privileges, he can confer degrees in divinity, law, medicine, and music. His seats are at Lambeth and Addington park. He is patron of. 149 livings, and has an income of £15,000 a year. There are 14 old churches in C., mostly of rough flint, and fragments of still older structures. St. Martin's church stands on the site of one of the 7th c., and is partly built of ancient Roman brick and tile. Attached to the cathedral is a gram mar school, remodeled by Henry VIII. Part of St. Augustine's Benedictine abbey still remains, with its fine gateway, near the cathedral. It occupied, with its precincts, 16. acres. The old buildings have lately received large modern additions, in order to fit them for the purposes of a missionary college in connection with the church of England. Another recent institution for education is the orphan school, which occupies a conspicuous position on St. Thomas's hill, about a mile out of the city. The ruins of a Norman castle, 88 by 80 ft., the third in size in England, stands near the city wall. C. stood, in Roman times, at the union of two Romah roads from Dover and Lympne, the chief seaports of the Romans. C. was the capital of Kent. and the center from which England was Christianized. St. Augustine, the apostle of England, sent by Gregory I., was the first archbishop, and baptized king Ethelbert of Kent. C. was the Saxon Caer Gant, city of Kent, and capital of the kingdom of Kent. The Danes, in the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries, often ravaged and burned the city. Henry VIII. confiscated the treasures of the cathedral, and Edward VI. levied fresh exactions from it. The cathe dral suffered much in the parliamentary struggles, but it has since been repaired.