Canterbury also contains a number of ancient churches, mostly built of rough flint, and other ecclesiastical buildings of considerable historical importance. The Church of Saint Martin is be lieved to date from pre-Saxon times, and in it King Ethelbert is said to have been baptized by Saint Augustine. Near by is the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Augustine. which has been re stored and added to, and is now occupied as a mis sionary college in connection with the Anglican Church. The Church of Saint Dunstan contains the burial-vault of the Roper family, in which the head of Sir Thomas More is said to have been placed by his daughter. The secular build ings of interest are tbe guildhall, containing a collection of ancient arms, the corn exchange, military barracks for cavalry and infantry; the keep of the old castle. now utilized for gas works; King's School, founded. according to tra dition. in the Seventh Century, and remodeled under Henry "III.; Saint John's Hospital, founded by Archbishop Lanfranc; and, in the Chequers Inn. scanty traces of the original hostelry of the pilgrims in Chaucer's Canter bury Talcs, the 'dormitory of the hundred beds' having been destroyed by fire in 1565. Besides the two schools already mentioned, the educa tional institutions include the Simon Langton Schools, opened in ISS2: the Clergy Orphan School, a mile outside the city; and a museum and art school.
The city carries on a considerable trade in hops and corn, has important malting and brew ing establishments, and a specialty in the manu facture of brawn. The manufacture of silks, formerly a thriving industry, has been replaced by manufactures of damask linen and worsteds. The economic branch of Canterbury's history is interesting. The city returns one member to Par liament, and is governed by a mayor, aldermen, and councilors. The civic spirit has always been distinguished by a combative tenaciousness for its rights, and by progressiveness. The city owns real estate, markets, and electric power and lighting works, operated by the heat of a de structor, which consumes the city refuse; it provides technical instruction and maintains a museum, school of art, cemetery, and an irriga tion farm, where the city sewage is deposited, chemically treated, and manufactured into ma nure and sold for fertilizing purposes.
Canterbury. the Roman Duroverni:ni, was built on a ford of the river Stour. at the point where roads from the three fortified Roman ports—Dover, Lynne, and P‘ichborough—joined the great Roman highway through Britain. later known as Watling Street. It subsequently be came the Saxon Canticaraburh (burgh of the men of Kent). the capital of that southeastern kingdom, and the centre from which England was Christianized. The Danes, in the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh centuries, often ravaged and burned the city. After the murder and canoni zation of Thomas S Becket, Canterbury became of considerable importance as a place of pilgrimage. 'I he poet Chaucer, 'alio died in 1400. has furnished interesting contemporary accounts of these religious excursions in his Canterbury Tales. In 1215, during hnis invasion of England, Louis, Prince of France, took the castle. In 13s1 Tyler's Rebellion (q.v.) originated in Can terbury. In 15:3S the cathedral and other ecclesiastical institutions underwent extensive spoliation at the command of Ilenry VII I., and later suffered from fresh exactions levied by Edward Vl. During the Civil War Can terbury was the scene of exciting struggles between the Royalists and the victorious Parlia mentarians, at whose hands the cathedral sus tained considerable mutilation. Population, in 1891, 23,000; in 1001, 24,900. Consult: Willis, Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral (2 vols., London, 1S45-69) ; Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury (12 vols.. London. 1S60-76) ; Brent, Canterbury in the Olden Time (London, 1S791; Jenkins, Diocesan History of Canterbury (London, ISSO) ; Stanley, Canter bury Cathedral (Philadelphia. 1S95) ; White. Canterbury Cathedral (London, 1S96) ; Evans and Goldney, Canterbury (Dover, 1S99) ; "Can terbury as a Civic Centre," in Municipal Jour nal, Vol. V111. (London. 1S99). Snow, "English History in Canterbdry Cathedral," in Canadian Magazine, Vol. XIV. (Toronto, 1900).