above the floor, once upheld the rood-beam. The south and eastern sides of the central, or St. Wilfred's tower, falling in 1459, necessitated the rebuilding of part of the south TRANSEPT. The STALLS bear the date 1494, and are not surpassed in lightness and delicacy by any tabernaclework in the other cathedrals. They offer a forcible instance of the great innovation of Gothic art upon the old principles of symmetry and proportion of Grecian taste. Indefinite altitude was the grand object of attainment, and well-selected contrasts were to form a countervailing beauty in place of exact rules. Rich and minute tracery set against the plainer arch and massive pillar make the column appear more majestic, and the tracery finer and more delicate by the force of position. The sedilia are original; the reredos was erected in 1832. The throne was the gift of Archbishop Markham in 1812. In the NORTH TRANSEPT is part of a rich stone Perpendicular pulpit. The apsidal CHAPTER-HOUSE, built by Archbishop Thomas 1069-1100, and spared by Archbishop Roger when he rebuilt the minster, is on the south side of the choir, and contains some ancient paintings of sixteen kings on panel. Over it is the LADY CHAPEL, built 1482; a most extraordinary position-it is now the library. The ORGAN is by Booth of Leeds, 1833, but has some portions incorporated of Father Schmidt's organ of 1696.

There are two low-browed crypts: one is a CHARNEL under the chapter-house, lined and paved with the poor relics of humanity. The other, on the south side, is Norman, with buildings of the same style above it, probably of the time of Archishop Thurstan, now used as vestries. There is a Saxon cross, found in 1832, over the door: it contains some bosses of the old choir groining, but most have been replaced among those of the new vaulting. The TRINITY CHAPEL is under the central tower, and had an altar; it is approached by nine steps and a passage 45 feet long, and is of Saxon architecture, dark and cheerless as the grave, and cylindrically vaulted. On the north side is St. Wilfred's Needle, 13 in. by 18 in., possibly used as an Easter sepulchre in the services of Holy Week,

as a relic-chamber and a place of penance. It was reputed to be an ordeal efficacious as the waters of jealousy. "Those,” says Fuller, "who could not thread the needle, were pricked in their reputation.”

The principal monuments are the following—

S. Aisle, Nave.-A lion, palm-trees, and a man kneeling; an Irish crusader prince.

N. Transept Aisle.-St. Andrew's chantry; Sir T. Markenfield and
Dame Dionysia, altar-tomb and effigies, time of Richard II.; Sir
T. Markenfield and Dame Eleanor, effigies, 1483.

S. Transept Aisle.-Mallorie chantry; Sir William and Sir John
Mallorie the cavalier; W. Weddell, bust by Nollekens.
Choir, East End.-Seven sepulchral slabs of the 13th century.

DIMENSIONS OF THE CATHEDRAL IN FEET.

Towers (the spires had an additional height of 110) 120 feet.
Total length

270

On Nov. 18, 1569, the insurgents in the Rising of the North heard mass sung at the high altar; and Richard Norton and Thomas Markenfield displayed their memorable banner.

The Chapter consists of a dean, five canons, two minor canons, six singing-men, and eight choristers. There is a daily choral service at 10 A.M. The capitular income in 1852 was 50157.; and in 14 years 38157. were spent upon the fabric. The library contains 1730 volumes; some early books of Caxton and Wynkin de Worde, and a "Book for Travellers," French and English, of unparalleled rarity.

By Act 2 Jac. I., Ripon was erected into a Collegiate-church. In 1839, by Act of Parliament 6 & 7 William IV. c. 77, it became the seat of a bishopric. The first bishop was the Right Rev. Charles Thomas

Longley, D.D.; and on his translation to the bishopric of Durham, in 1856, the Right Rev. Robert Bickersteth, D.D., the present bishop, was appointed. Eadhead, Bishop of Lindisse and Stow, 678–680, styled himself Bishop of Ripon.

The palace was built 1841; it is a mile distant from the city.

Arms Arg. a cross saltier, gules, on a chief, gules, the Holy Lamb, nimbed or, bearing the cross-flag, ppr.

Rochester.

BEFORE the ancient bridge which spanned the noble stream of the Medway, with its ten pointed arches, built by Sir R. Knowles in the time of Edward III., was destroyed, no city presented a more romantic prospect than Rochester (the British Rorbis and Saxon Hrof Ceastre, though Bede says it is Hrof, a Saxon princess, Ceastre). But still the river runs broad and swift, bearing on it the strong shipsof-war, which may again be called to loose their thunders, though now lying idle and dismantled; far beyond, as a background, are the lines of Chatham, forts bristling with the iron mouths of cannon, to protect the dockyard and arsenal, that are below the hill. Immediately in front, is the magnificent ruin of the Keep of the Norman Castle, built by Gundulph, 70 feet square, and 104 feet high, with towers at each angle of Kentish ragstone, and coigns of Caen stone, and rooms varying in height from 20 ft. to 32 ft.; and in the centre, rising above the purple crowd of clustered houses, are the grey walls of the Cathedral, hoary and full of years. John de Salisbury, the friend of à Becket, was a native. The city was burned by Ethelred, 676; it gallantly resisted the Danes, 885, until relieved by Alfred. Ethelred II. was bribed by St. Dunstan to retire, having laid siege to it. William Rufus, in 1088, captured the castle, after a six weeks' siege. Robert, Earl of

Gloucester, in 1141 was a prisoner in the castle. In 1174, the city and part of the Cathedral was burned. John, 1215, took the castle after a siege of twelve months. Louis, the Dauphin, reduced it; Simon de Montford, in 1264, failed in an attempt upon it. In 1251, Henry III. held a tournament here. In 1264, the Earl of Leicester took the city and spoiled the church. Here Jack Cade's rabble rout dispersed themselves. In 1768 Christian VII. slept here. Queen Elizabeth visited the city in 1573. James II. was detained here on his flight from his throne. St. Augustine, whose robes were hung here with fish-tails, or à Becket, whose horses' tails were docked by the townsfolk, is said to have appended tails to the inhabitants.

In the George and Crown are some ancient Early English vaults; and there are remains of the city walls. Near High-street is the Norman apse of Bishop Gundulph's Hospital of St. Bartholomew. The Dockyard, established by Queen Elizabeth, and the Lines, made 1758-1807 at Chatham, deserve a visit. On June 12th, 1667, De Ruyter burned the English ships in ordinary then lying off Upnor Castle.

St. Catharine's Hospital was founded in 1315 for lepers, and Watts', in 1579, to entertain poor travellers, "not being common rogues or proctors."

The church is composed of a central tower, a NAVE of eight bays, and aisles, a WEST CHOIR and TRANSEPT, each of one bay; and CHOIR, with solid walls interposed between it and the aisles; an EAST AMBULATORY, and a LADY CHAPEL of four bays, into which the altar has been removed, to the destruction of ritual and architectural effect. The Cathedral is dedicated to St. Andrew.

At the end of the 10th century, in accordance with the popular and universal superstition, all archives began with the words, "Now that the end of the world is approaching ;" and when at last the panic passed away, the Church hastened to rebuild her buildings with enthusiastic devotion-of this period we have few remains in England. The nave of Rochester is the most ancient of any in the kingdom. With the tower, on the north-east side of the

transept, now unroofed, it was begun by Bishop Gundulph, who also built Rochester Castle, and St. John's Church in the Tower of London. Its comparative lightness would show that it was not designed to bear a stone vaulting. Many of the Norman cathedrals, and Rochester especially, lost by being copies of foreign churches, built long before the landing of William I.; and the consequent introduction of an earlier, smaller, and less finely developed scale of dimensions and mode of construction. Ernulph, the architect of great works, while Abbot of Peterborough and Prior of Canterbury, completed the church, and built dormitory, infirmary, and chapter-house, and. lengthened the nave by two bays eastward, 1115-25. The Cathedral was dedicated, May 7th, 1130, in the presence of Henry I., by the primate. The narrow Early English CHOIR, enclosed by solid walls, rebuilt by William de Hoo, the sacristan, was first used May 9th, 1227; he added the CHOIR TRANSEPTS with the offerings made at St. William's shrine. The NORTH AISLE was begun by Richard Eastgate, and completed by William Axenham in the 13th century: the SOUTH AISLE, was built, 1240, by Richard the Sacrist. The eastern arches of the north and south arcades of the NAVE were rebuilt, probably with the intention of its complete reconstruction. The north wing of the MAIN TRANSEPT, Early English, was built by the monks, Richard de Eastgate, sacrist, and Thomas de Meopham; and the southern wing, by the monk Richard de Waledene, about the year 1200. Haymo de Hethe added a window in the south-west transept, the doorway, and lower walls of the chapter-house, and a wooden spire on the great tower in 1343; the refectory was built by Silvester, the prior, after 1177. The murder by his servant, outside the walls of Rochester, of a baker of Perth, who gave every tenth loaf to the poor, and was on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, A.D. 1201, led to the erection of a shrine of St. William (canonized 1256) in this Cathedral, at which great offerings were made towards the structure. Up to that period the north choir aisle had been a parish church; but now, not to interrupt the service, it was necessary to