ROCHESTER CASTLE 113 



Matilda. The other is the unsurpassed Decorated 

 doorway of the Chapter House, whose sculptured 

 emblematic figures of the Church, and of angels, priests 

 and bishops are at the other, and more beautiful, end 

 of decorative art. 



Having seen all these things, the verger who has 

 hitherto shepherded his flock of visitors through 

 these upper regions, takes them down a flight of 

 stone stairs and unlocks the door of the crypt. An 

 ancient and mouldy smell rushes up from the dark 

 labyrinth of pillars and indistinct arches, and the 

 ladies of the party pretend to be terrified. But they 

 might just as well be afraid of a coal-cellar, which is 

 generally darker and dirtier, for neither bones nor 

 coffins, nor anything more awful than a few shattered 

 fragments of architectural carvings are to be seen. 

 The usual legends current in most old places would 

 have us believe that a subterraneous passage runs 

 between Castle and Cathedral, and certainly they are 

 sufficiently near one another for such a communication 

 to have been made ; but these legends have never been 

 resolved into fact. Near neighbours they are, and the 

 Cathedral has suffered not a little at different times 

 from this close proximity. For when Rufus besieged 

 the Castle, and when, in 1215 and 1264, it was closely 

 invested for respectively three months and a week, the 

 Cathedral had its share of the violent doings that 

 resulted in the Keep being undermined and the wooden 

 bridge of Rochester burned. Gundulfs Tower had not 

 been completed when that mighty master-builder died, 

 and although it is generally ascribed to him, it seems 

 really to have been finished under the supervision of an 

 inexperienced architect employed by that Archbishop 

 William de Corbeil to whom and his successors of 

 Canterbury Henry the Second granted " the perpetual 

 charge and constableship of the Castle of Rochester." 

 This prelate died in 1139, and the irony of circumstances 

 decreed that only one other of the Archbishops to 

 whom the " perpetual constableship " was granted 



