264 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



early inhabitants were much annoyed at this catastrophe. 

 They held no local inquiry according to our more modern 

 custom, but they beat the walls and pavements of the 

 church and blasphemed, with equally satisfactory results. 

 After which they sent for another architect, and William 

 of Sens appeared upon the scene. All went well with 

 William till one day there was an eclipse of the sun, 

 upon which he fell off a scaffolding raised for turning the 

 vault, and found himself so extremely unwell when he 

 sj;ot to the bottom that he had to return to France — via 

 Dover of course. 



The cathedral, in spite of these mishaps, was com- 

 pleted in 1 1 84. To Becket's shrine, "blazing with gold 

 and jewels," came amongst others, Richard Cceur de 

 Lion, on shanks's mare — barefoot too, and from Sandwich, 

 which seems a curious place to have come from ; but 

 Richard at the time was fresh from an Austrian dungeon, 

 and could not be expected to know what was what, or 

 what was the best port in his own country. After 

 Richard came Edward — he with the long legs, who knew, 

 as he proved in the case of Wallace, what to do with a 

 patriot when he caught him. Edward approached the 

 shrine with a kingly gift — with nothing more or less in- 

 deed than the crown of Scotland, which next to his own 

 crown, which he kept on his head, was about as costly a 

 thing as he could have thought of. At Becket's shrine 

 knelt Henry the Fifth, " his cuises on his thigh, gallantly 

 armed," but his beaver off on this occasion, I trust, though 

 it was fresh from the splendid shocks of Agincourt. In 

 1520 Henry the Eighth knelt here with a much greater 

 man — that is to say, with Charles the Fifth. The two 

 /oung kings rode together from Dover, and entered the 

 city through St. George's Gate. They sat in the same 

 coach — I mean under the same canopy, and Wolsey, who 

 was going strong at the time, was not far off. In point 

 of fact he rode in front, which was the right place for 

 him, if intellect took precedence in the processions of the 

 age. Canterbury looked its best, I should imagine, on 



