The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-07 00:00:00

THE SMALLEST CITY IN ENGLAND•

The miniature city of Rochester, famous as it 11a:
always been for its historical interest, as well •as for it:
quaintness and beauty, in consequence 'of the association
of i.he name of Charles Dickens with it, may henceforth
be expected. to become more celebrated than ever.
Entering Rochester, the train slides into that one outer
portion of the city which is composed chiefly of exceed-
ingly unpretentious houses, happily scanty in number',
old lime heaps, ponds of stagnant water, rough by-waYs.
and black boarding. Unprepossessing and disappointiw2:,
however, as this first view seems,- one has only to Pas'
under the sombre arch of the railway, and to step int,
the highway over the iron and stone bridge which,
crossing the winding Medway, serves as the opening to
the city proper, to witness some of the delightful points
of the surrounding scenery. It is While standing on the
bridge that the traveller first learns that Rochesteriane
have neither cause to think ill of their town, nor that they
do think meanly of it. The baronial castle reminding the
spectator somewhat of the Tower of London ; the
Mammoth cathedral, built under the auspices of Gundelf,
the confessor of Henry the First's queen ; the small but
handsome Guildhall, whose "pavements," according, to
a stone placed on the wall, were given to Roehester late
in the 18th century, by one Sir Thomas Fairborne—all
tend to substantiate the first, and the announcement on
board, erected on a gravel walk of scarcely a hundred
yards length, to the effect that this is "The City of
Rochester Esplanade," lends somewhat of proof to the
latter supposition. Passing along the narrow High Street,
which is filled with old English buildings abutting over
the roadway, the number of strange inns and the
peculiarities of • their titles, The Three Postboys,
The Bull Inn, and The King's Head; prove that
even the chief thoroughfare of the town Po'
sesses more than usual materials for the ink
of the imaginative novelist. The second-named he
is the only one in Rochester which boasts the ro:
arms over the doorway, and this privilege is said to ha\
been granted to its proprietors in perpettaity, in remeln"
brance of the many days the Princess ViCtoria and
suite stayed at the hostelry in Her Majesty's early
Beside the portal a motto taken from Pickwick, "
house, nice beds," also acids to the external recomme;
tions of the' establishment. The-Kii;',;'s Head is no
interesting a tavern, and probably irilitalie more antiq
of the two. When Falstaff -and Poins were disporti;
themselves as highwaymen outside-Rochester, on, the
to Gadshill—a place, by the bye, which, according
Bosworth and Malone, was "in the course of the Mit'
mas term, a famous resort for numerous horse thie
with such fat and lusty horses as were not like Lae/
horses nor far-journeying horses "—some one of the 0
pany suddenly exclaimed, "On with your visors, the
money of the King's coming down the hill %is going
the King's Exchequer." To which Falstaftleplied "
lie ! tis going to the King's Tavern." Therii is scarcely
doubt but that-the inn he referred to was the still respr
able one, the King's Head. In the High Street there
building chiefly notable now tis the one to which
Dickens, nominally as an "Uncommercial Traveller," and
dressed as a " casual," once paid a visit, the Watts Alms-
house. Over the doorway a large stone informs
paser-by that Richard Watts left the house and a fin.
for the benefit of poor men who might be journeying
through' Rochester, and who might require assistance.
The inscription on the stone orders that every
morning early the trustees for the alms are to-
render aid to four applicants, who must
known " not to be rogues," a modest bred_
and 4d. in money. Charles Dickens has chronicled,
favourable experience of the extent to which the charitY
is distributed. There is, however, an additional fact
which he apparently was not aware of, but, which may
worth recording. It seems that at dawn on certain morn-
ings not four but 40 apparent paupers present themsel.
at the threshold of the almshouse, and that a policeman ls
called upon to decide as to which are criminal and which
are not. None of the men are assisted on two mornings 0
succession. The almshouse is very nearly opposite the
east gate of the city walls. This large portico is surmounto
by a house, supposed to be the " Gatehouse ".referred to in
Edwin Drood, ' as it adjoins the precincts of the Cathedro;!
in which are situated the Corner. " Minor Canon Corner-
to be remembered as in future, and the small rows of .
domiciles devoted to the clergy and others connected wi,
Gundelf's edifice. In the catheral, which is in admirable
preservation, built in the form of a double cross, there all
very few monuments. The extreme whiteness 0'
the walls tends to' reveal the few there are more re-
markably. There is one huge stone in memory of Dame
Henniker, the lady whose finger is represented in her
,i
monument as pointingto Heaven, a position which is salt
to have been adopted as -a warning to those who stitehet'
on a Sunday, as she is understood to have been doing wile°
she died. The walls are unrelieved by any extraordinaa,
decoration, although traces here and there denote that
they were in a past age all frescoed.- Doric windows have
'been placed almost side by side with the antique Norm's
ones ; but the effect, if not in accordance with NI:00'i
Mr. Ruskin would have advised the authorities oI
cathedral to adopt, is certainly not
becoming. The plainest thing in the cathedral is Gundelfs
own tomb. The grave allotted for the body of Mr.
Dickens, and which on the morning of his burial- in the
Abbey ofi Westminster was prepared for its reception, l;!
situated in a corner of the " Lady Mary's Chapel," aftti
is almost alongside a stone on which is elaborately all
beautifully carved the scene in the story of the goo'
Samaritan, where the wounds of the man who lay by the
roadside are being bound up by his benevolent eare-taker•
Well worth seeing are the arched cloisters, the dungeons
the confinement of refractory retainers and the narrow
leading to the battlements. The first-mentioned re
tacks, upheld by a large number of sombre pillars,
the cloisters of almost every other cathedral, are enaPt:
and destitute of curiosities of any kind save those attar
ins to their own build or history. The cathedral
as a place of worship, is one of the simplest, and yet
of the most pleasing in England. Thero is nothing
ecclesiastical, too grand or obstrusive about it or its serf
Even its bell is a tidy; tinkling one ; and a single ye;
alone manages the entire arrangements of seating
congregation, attending to the clergymen, and preserN
the sanctity and cleanliness of the structure. Next.
the cathedral is a chapel of ease, and the roadway
immediately in front of both. Crossing the latter
railed-in graveyard, quite square, Studded -
red roses, and planted with willow,. sy_
and box trees, is noticed. This is undern
Rochester Castle, and Rochester folk will tell the
yeller that in the Doric-cut opening, high up in the
wall, and surrounding the holy acre of ground,
•Dickens, used often to sit watching over the city, no,
book in hand,--

Musing in solitude, and oft perceiving,
Fair trains of imagery before him rise.,"
The late author, clad in a black velvet jacket, was
the habit of coming into Rochester accompanied
small pack of large dogs, and it is said that the rei
cracking of his whip • and the baying of his dogs
warning of his coming long before he appeared in si)
The well shaded grounds of Rochester Castle have
lately purchased by the corporation of the city, who
pose throwing them open freely. for the people's use.
thisis done, pleasant and improving advantages will no
be extended to the latter ; but the privacy which,
and without the walls seems to be such a charm.of
place, and in the enjoyment of which one can quietly
ness and reflect upon the vast scene over the whole cil
far away to Cobham on one side, and. along the silo
Medway as it wanders out to sea on the other,
taken from it. The building is chiefly remarkable in
tory as having afforded a refugeto the Lady Elizabeth -
she was flying from her malicious sister, Mary. Me:
point out now as distinctly as ever the path along
the. Princess escaped from. -the Queen's soldiers
Watts's house (which, by-the-bye, she called then and
ever afterwards, by the name of " Satis ") to the cas
and again from the castle to the river. The summit of
castle is now reached by. only one set of stone
greatlY injured by age, and so rough and- uneven t,
rope has had to be placed along the wall to assist
climber.. It' was probablii -these steps that suggested
postern stales mentioned in "Edwin Drood." Some •
think the similitude between sights in Rochester•
those described in Mr. Dickens'g last work may be too
drawn. Be this as it may, one cannot leave the
without fancying that all that has been seen there •
to recall the town of Cloisterham and the many
scences in connection with it impressed upon the ri
of the Lest novel of the deceased writer. The view
the wall surrounding the top of ' the square cast
one of the most satisfying kind. Sitting
upon the grass-covered and ivy-mantled buttresses,
seems to rest above a little world full of poetry and
breathe an atmosphere pregnant with thousands of Nat-
-dowers; It ie too high up to hear the small sounds of the
but far away there seems to rise in the air the clinki
hammers and the hoisting of cranes. Looking in
direction, over to the east of the castle, one sees the
:bats 'of many soldiers as the wearers move about hei
there busily. There are large ironclads, too, anchare,
the river, and then we know that it is Chatham.
:may in another part over and above the hills is •
Pitt, several military hospitals, and a large new W'.4
building, almost the only externally white buile,l4,
in Rocester. This is the newly-erected hospils;
'o It for the purposes of the Contwibus Diseases Actbr
stretching over towards Gadshill mid Higham the tiles
listing hills and bright green fields are spotted with -"vlrs'
mills, round which swarms of minute birds seen'
tad playing, 'and here and there, very widely apart, °eels
Portable far houses dot the nplands. Carts are also 8440
plodding slowly onwards ever the roads, and the gr'-'W
sound of the wheels comes to one's ear as distinctly e'5e,e,...
lowing of cattle and the hammers at, the dockyt,s,
[Jetting the eye fall nearer to eyLere we are staff?` te
,6 he little city in its entirety, surrounded b,Y.tijea
!tornan Wall, is open to view. Countless red jest'
muses,, capped with tin chimneys, present thews
el the sides- of the h t.im and narrow streets; N‘ThP-
resider'
:orners of the town quiet domiciles, the resi
the wealthier classes of Rochester, are visl!•-t nse-
lusters of trees a , , way ''from the NY';O10-
['lie many small fires lighted in the place propagate Soise
11 the atmosphere, bile it is only dense enough toreujot
,übduing effect to the scene and to prevent, the b
~,lours of the flowered gardens of the city, the red .1000
,f the houses, and the verdant nature of the plentiful
'rom being too glaring to the spectator's vision. g.
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