Part 7
With regard to commerce, Rochester has a favourable position on the river Medway, in the creeks and branches of which are the oyster fisheries. The Corporation, assisted by a jury of free dredgers, hold a Court of Admiralty, in which they make regulations for the opening, stocking, and closing of the oyster beds.
In conclusion, we cannot help saying that Kent should be a proud county, possessing, as it does, the two most ancient sees in the kingdom, the dioceses of which are separated only by the Medway.
Ripon
("Doomsday Book.")
In the West Riding of the county of York, twenty-two miles north-west of the city of York and eleven miles north of Harrogate, the ancient city of Ripon is situated at the juncture of the Ure, Laver, and Skell. The narrow and irregular streets and well-built houses, some of which still retain the quaint, picturesque gables so reminiscent of earlier times, envelop the city with that delightful, indefinable air of mediaevalism--a something which, tempered with old associations and traditions, no modern city with all its improvements can supply. To saunter through the ancient, ill-lighted streets of an old town at night, when life is dormant and commercialism quiescent, is the time to view unexpected beauties of architecture unfold themselves, and to become oneself imbued with a spirit of romanticism and a feeling of rest. If a figure in mediaeval costume and rapier were to come round a corner suddenly, or emerge from some dark nook, it would scarcely startle the senses, so appropriate would it seem with the surroundings, enshrouded in mysterious shadows.
A new city can be admired, but can never be revered till it has survived the many storms of generations, and has emerged with a halo of traditions respected and treasured.
Ripon, in common with other cathedral cities, possesses this charm, and after many vicissitudes presents us with a magnificent cathedral. To revert to the commencement of the city's history, it is supposed to have derived its name from the Latin "Ripa," owing to its situation upon the bank of the river Ure. The earliest authentic record gives it under the name of Inhrypun, in connection with the establishment of a monastery in 660 by Eata, who was then Abbot of Melrose. It was subsequently given by Alfred, King of Northumbria, to Wilfrid, who had been raised to the archbishopric of York. He was afterwards canonised as a saint. Under Wilfrid's administration and influence the town very much increased its wealth and importance. Through the division of the bishopric in the year 678 Ripon became a see.
A great calamity overtook the city in the ninth century. The Danes burnt and plundered it, causing such devastation that it was almost wiped out. From its ruins, however, it recovered so quickly as to be incorporated as a royal borough by Alfred the Great. This happened by the year 886. In the suppression of the insurrections of the Northumbrian Danes it suffered severely through the terrible laying waste of the land which Edred found necessary to subdue them.
Little time was left for the city to regain its former prosperity, when the surrounding country was again laid waste, in 1069, by William the Conqueror after defeating the Northumbrian rebels. This monarch's vengeance so completely demolished the town that it still remained in ruins and the land uncultivated at the time of the Norman survey. The monastery, destroyed by Edred, was rebuilt by Oswald and his successors, who were archbishops of York. It was endowed and made collegiate by Archbishop Aldred somewhere about the time of the Conquest. The city was now enjoying comparative peace, and was regaining lost prestige when it again became a mere wreck. Under Robert Bruce, in the reign of Edward II., the Scots compelled the inhabitants to surrender everything of value they had, and burnt the town. This period of devastation lasted from 1319 till 1323.
By the exertions of the Archbishop of York, ably assisted with donations from the local gentry, the city rapidly recovered by the time a terrible plague compelled Henry IV. to leave London and take up his residence here. The court of necessity followed him.
This royal sojourn did the city immense good, and again it derived benefit some two centuries after by the presence of the Lord President of York in 1617. He had been obliged by a similar plague to remove his court hither.
Ten years later another royal visitor came, namely, James I., who rested a night here on his route from Scotland to London. On this memorable occasion he was presented with a pair of Ripon spurs. From early times till the sixteenth century Ripon was a recognised centre for the manufacture of woollen caps. On the decline of this industry the city acquired such a fame for the manufacture of spurs that it became quite a current phrase to say "as true steel as Ripon rowels." Ben Jonson and Davenant make references in their verses to Ripon spurs. This industry, together with those of manufacturing buttons and various kinds of hardware, flourished till quite recently, when mechanical industries supplanted them.
In 1633 Charles I. also paid the city a visit. During the Civil War the parliamentary troops, under Sir Thomas Mauleverer, took possession of Ripon. After mutilating many of the monuments and ornaments of the church, they were eventually driven out of the town in 1643 by the Royalists, under Sir John Mallory of Studley, a township comprised under Ripon. In recounting the political fortunes of the city little has been said about its chief attraction, the Cathedral, not because it has played no important factor in the welfare of the city, but because it has been considered better to give, apart, the chief characteristics of its architecture.
We have seen how a monastery was established in 660, by Eata, which later came under the patronage of St. Wilfrid. From the ruins of St. Wilfrid's Abbey the present cathedral was founded about 680 A.D., in the reign of Egfrid. With the exception of St. Wilfrid's crypt, called St. Wilfrid's Needle, which tradition says was used for the trial of female chastity, nothing of the original Saxon fabric remains. From the similarity of this crypt, and of another at Hexham, both erected by St. Wilfrid, in formation and arrangement to the catacomb chapels at Rome, it is inferred that this churchman had made himself familiar with their peculiarities during his residence in that Latin city. This is interesting to note.
The Cathedral, as it now stands, embraces various styles of architecture, and is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Wilfrid. It is a large cruciform church, with a square central tower and two western towers. They at one time carried spires, each not less than one hundred and twenty feet in height; but the central spire having been blown down in 1660, caused considerable damage to the roof, and it was thought advisable to pull down the others. Their removal accounts for the stunted appearance of these square towers. The construction of the present church was commenced by Archbishop Roger, dating from 1154 to 1181. To this period belong the transepts and portions of the choir. The western front and towers were carried out in the Early English style, most probably by Archbishop Gray, between 1215 and 1255, and near the close of the century the eastern portion of the choir was rebuilt in the Decorated style. The nave and part of the central tower were also rebuilt in the Perpendicular style at the close of the fifteenth century. The fabric was entirely renovated under the guidance of Sir Gilbert Scott, from 1862 to 1876. The episcopal palace is a modern building in the Tudor style, and is about one mile from the town.
The present bishopric dates only from the year 1836. There are several charitable institutions: namely, the Hospital of St. John the Baptist, founded by an archbishop of York in 1109; the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene, for women, by another prelate of York in 1341; and the Hospital of St. Anne, by some unknown benefactor who lived in the reign of Edward IV. A clock-tower was presented to the town to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. There is now, in place of the ancient industries, an extensive trade in varnish, in addition to the manufactories for saddle-trees and leather, but the most interesting industry is that of the Ripon lace. It is a torchon lace much resembling, in uniformity of pattern, the design used in peasant laces in Sweden, Germany, and Russia.
Ely.
Ely.
("Doomsday Book.")
In the early history of the majority, if not of all of these cathedrals, it is interesting to note the many points of resemblance. It will be observed that most of them had their inception in the seventh century. A most convenient way also of remembering, if actual dates be forgotten, is that the commencement of the same century heralded the arrival of St. Augustine and his forty monks at Canterbury, and the re-establishment of Christianity in England. Whatever previous efforts had been attempted to christianise the natives (prior to this century) pale into insignificance after the landing of this great missionary from Rome. The subsequent important events are invariably five; namely, the devastations of the Danes in the ninth century, the erections of castles to overawe the inhabitants with the ecclesiastical foundations, still extant, after the dreaded millennium had passed, from the Conquest; the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII.; the desecration and mutilation of the churches under Cromwell's Protectorate; and the inevitable restoration, not always happy, of these grand buildings.
The Venerable Bede, in his "Ecclesiastical History," ingeniously attributes the derivation of the name to an eel, called "Elge," on the assumption of the great abundance of this fish in the neighbourhood. At the same time another rendering, by some one else, supposes that the Saxon "Helyg," a willow, which flourished extensively, owing to the marshy nature of the soil round about the city, gave rise to the present contraction. However it may be, Ely dates from the year 673. The subsequent history of the Church and state of this famous place originated in that year from the small foundation of a monastery for monks and nuns by Ethelreda. This princess was the daughter of the King of the East Angles, and the wife of Egfred, the King of Northumberland. She had devoted a great deal of her life to monasticism, and eventually constituted herself as the first abbess of her religious effort. A contradictory account gives it that this lady more likely became the first abbess of a religious house which she had filled with virgins. Their number is not stated. Nothing more is heard or worth relating of the welfare of this royal benefice until the ninth century, when, in the natural order of things, it was destroyed by the Danes. In 879, a matter of nine years after this devastation, it was partially restored by those brethren who had fortunately escaped the massacre. Under the government of provosts they were established and existed as secular priests for nearly a century. At the end of this period of inactivity it received much attention from Ethelwold, Bishop of Winchester. This prelate in 970 purchased the whole of the Isle of Ely from Edgar. He then rebuilt the monastery and endowed it munificently. In it regular monks were placed under the rule of an abbot, to whom Edgar granted the secular jurisdiction of two hundreds within and five hundreds without the Fens. Many other important privileges were bestowed by the same monarch, recognised by Canute, and greatly increased by Edward the Confessor in recognition of part of his education here received. These many marks of royal favour caused it to become the richest in England, and the city participated in its prosperity.
Soon after the Conquest a determined resistance was made by many of the nobility against what they considered the tyranny of William. Led by such leaders as Edwin, Earl of Chester, Egelwyn, Bishop of Durham, and headed by Hereward, an English nobleman, they contrived to do considerable damage in the surrounding country. They built a castle of wood in the Fens, and made a vigorous stand against the Normans, who besieged the island, constructed roads through the marshes, threw bridges across the streams, and erected, as usual, a strong castle at Wiseberum. With the exception of Hereward, the rebellious subjects were reduced to submission. According to one authority, it is supposed that William's camp was simply an old Roman camp repaired for the occasion. We learn that the field, which contained the ancient site, was known as Belasis in some records of the reign of Henry III. It appears that one of William's generals was called Belasis, and that he was quartered on the monastery, which he had taken possession of after the conquest of the isle. He treated the monks with every mark of courtesy, allowing them to remain under an abbot of his own choosing. At first he laid them under certain restrictions, but subsequently restored the privileges they had previously been accustomed to.
In 1107 the eleventh and last abbot, Richard, employed all his interest with Henry I. and gained the royal sanction to the establishment of an episcopal see at Ely. To this the monarch granted, for a diocese, the county of Cambridge, which had till then been under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Lincoln. The isle was also invested with sovereign powers. Richard, however, did not live to become the first bishop, an honour which was conferred in 1109 on his successor, Hervey.
By this arrangement the Abbot was superseded by the Bishop, and an entire distribution of the property belonging to the abbey was effected between them. As the abbey became the church of the See, the Abbot was obliged to alter his dignity to that of a prior. A fair, to continue for seven days, commencing from June 20, to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Ethelreda, was instituted by the Bishop. The prelate Nigel, in the reign of Stephen, built a castle here, of which no remains exist, and whose site is now conjectural. The year 1216 witnessed dreadful scenes of spoliation of churches and large sums of money exacted from the inhabitants under the guise of ransom.
The cause of all this devastation being visited upon Ely was John's idea of revenging himself upon the barons. At their hands he had, the year previously, been compelled to undergo the mortification of signing the Magna Charta at Runnymede, a field between Windsor and Staines. Ever since that time the irresolute and mean king had been devising schemes of vengeance against his opponents. Three months spent in the Isle of Wight had enabled him, through agents and the promise of the estates of the barons as plunder, to raise a considerable army of the Brabanters. At their head he suddenly emerged from concealment, and surprised the barons by appearing before Rochester Castle and defeating them.
In the meantime John was well supported at Ely by his general, William Bunk, or rather an unexpected incident hurried on its doom. The elements unkindly betrayed the city into the hands of the Brabanters. At a critical time, the treacherous swamps--the isle's hitherto great natural fortifications--became the city's undoing; for a sharp frost set in and rendered a ready glacial access to the city. The enemy lost no time in reducing the barons to submission and the wretched inhabitants to great misery. The barons, thus reduced to dire extremities, invited Louis, the eldest son of the King of France, to aid them, promising him through his wife the crown of England.
The French landed at Sandwich, retook Rochester Castle, and compelled John to flee. John, crossing over the Wash, in his march from Lynn in Norfolk into Lincolnshire, suffered great loss through the return of the tide swamping the rear of his army, all his money, and stores. He himself escaped to Swineshead Abbey, in the Lincolnshire Fens, where a monk is said to have administered poison to him. With great difficulty and exhaustion the monarch arrived at Newark, where he died in the October of the year 1216.
From this time onward the city enjoyed comparative peace, and exercised the privileges granted by Edgar, Edward the Confessor, and William the Conqueror.
Till the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry VIII. the royal franchise of Ely, in several statutes, was recognised as the county palatine of Ely. Henry, by Act of Parliament, remodelled the privileges, and ordered the justices of oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery, and justices of the peace for the Isle of Ely, to be appointed by letters patent under the Great Seal. The dissolution of the monasteries also was the means of converting the conventual church into a cathedral--much more appropriate to the dignity of the Bishop, whose title had been granted, as we have seen, by Henry I. in 1107. This ecclesiastical building, first a conventual and then a cathedral church, was commenced in 1081, and entirely completed in 1534. The dedication to St. Peter and St. Ethelreda was changed to "The Holy Trinity."
It is a magnificent cruciform structure, displaying the many changes that took place in ecclesiastical architecture from the early years of the Norman Conquest down to the latest period of English style.
The main feature is the extraordinary variety of arches built according to successive styles. Though this peculiar treatment suggests an unfinished appearance, it cannot rob the church of its wonderful beauty. There is a departure from the general plan of other cathedrals. The nave is continued through an extended range of twelve arches. It belongs to the Late Norman period, and its completion probably dates from about the middle of the twelfth century. From 1174 to 1189 the western tower and the transepts were built by Bishop Ridall. Bishop Eustace, between 1198 and 1215, erected the Galilee or western porch, a noble Early English structure. Much at the same time a curious coincident is noticeable. Bishop Pudsey was busy at Durham building the Galilee or Western Chapel, which is such a noble adjunct to that city's cathedral.
Ely's choir was originally Early Norman, and terminated in an apse. Unfortunately this Norman apse was destroyed. In restoration the church was extended eastward by six more arches under the guidance of Bishop Northwold, about the middle of the thirteenth century. His addition is Early English. The carving is very rich and elaborate.
While Bishop Hotham was engaged upon the building of the Lady Chapel, the Norman tower erected by Abbot Simeon tumbled down in 1321. Hotham immediately replaced it by an enlarged octagonal substitution. On it he placed a lofty lantern of wood, a rich ornament and in good keeping with the rest of the holy edifice. Though this prelate deserves every recognition, yet we are much more indebted to Alan of Walsingham, who designed the Lady Chapel and the octagonal tower and lantern so ably carried out by Hotham. Alan had also made his influence felt in the choir-bays of this same cathedral, where he has so cleverly preserved and combined the old Early English elegance of proportion with richness of detail. Under the superintendence of Sir G. B. Scott the fabric has been extensively restored.
Attached to the Cathedral is the church of Holy Trinity; it was formerly the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral. It was commenced in the reign of Edward II., and is one of the most perfect buildings of that age. Another handsome church is that dedicated to St. Mary, and is partly Norman and partly Early English in character.
At the Grammar School, founded by Henry VIII., Jeremiah Bentham, the celebrated political writer, received the rudiments of his education. The Sessions House, the new Corn Exchange, and Mechanics' Institute are other notable features of Ely.
An historic relic, now preserved at Trinity College, Cambridge, is the "Ely Book." It cannot be passed over without a word. On a page are portrayed Ethelwold and King Edgar, but its chief importance is the record of instructions received by the commissioners to supply details and valuation of property for the "Doomsday Book." The inquiries and answers indicate that England had already been divided up into manors, and furnish besides a variety of most interesting information.
Another incident in the history of Ely, if not of great importance to the city, is nevertheless an interesting insight of the respective position of the Church and State soon after the dissolution.
In the good days of Queen Bess, the Bishop of Ely received a royal rebuke.
In the great struggle between the Protestants, or anti-papal world, and the Catholic reaction, there was little leisure for the clergy to air their grievances. They were compelled to submit to the will of the Queen and her counsellor Cecil, from whom Archbishop Parker of Canterbury received his cue for the government of the Church. Though he enjoyed the personal confidence of Elizabeth beyond any other ecclesiastic of the time, his complaints were unavailing. The supremacy of the lay power over the ecclesiastical was too thoroughly accomplished to allow of the Church to exist apart in the early years of Elizabeth's reign. The Bishop of Ely, for expressing unwillingness to hand over the gardens of Ely house to Sir Christopher Hatton, received a characteristic warning, couched in elegant language, for his temerity. "By God, I will unfrock you!" was the Queen's gracious answer to the daring prelate, if he did not mend his ways.
Through the cultivation of its fertile soil by market-gardeners, Ely offers its produce to the London market.
A considerable factory for earthenware and tobacco-pipes, and numerous mills for the preparation of oil from flax, hemp, and cole-seed, help to furnish the trade resources of this historical town, which is situated on the river Ouse, in Cambridgeshire, and just sixteen miles from the celebrated University of Cambridge.
Gloucester
Glowecestre.
"Doomsday Book."
To the long list of "cesters," the Anglicised form of the Latin "Castra" (camp), must be added Gloucester, famous in more respects than one; the city where Henry I. died from a surfeit of lampreys, where Henry II. held a great council in 1175, where the coronation of Henry III. in its abbey took place; the city which the same monarch "loved better than London," the city extolled by Bede as one of the noblest in the land. Prior to the Roman invasion it is held to have been of considerable importance, and to have originated from the settlement of a tribe of Britons, called the Dobuni. This tribe, with that of the Cornavii, also controlled about the same time the destinies of Worcester, now renowned for its beautiful china. By the Dobuni the city was called Coer Glou, either out of compliment to its founder Glowi, a native, with the meaning, "the city of Glowi," or because the same British words, according to another interpretation and its reputation, can be rendered "the fair city." In the year 47 this stronghold passed into the Roman possession, under Aulus Plautius, and according to Richard of Cirencester, a colony was established. This he styles Glebon, whilst the "Itinerary" of Antonine and other ancient records enter it as Glevum Colonia.