114 THE DOVER ROAD 



should ever exercise the rights and privileges of the gift. 

 This was Stephen Langton. The Castle was found to be 

 too important in those times for it to be held by any 

 other than the King, and so to the Crown it reverted. 

 NoAv that it is ruined and open to the sky the Mayors of 

 Rochester are CcV officio constables, and they wear a 

 sword on grand occasions as an outward and visible 

 sign of their dignity. 



Rochester Keep rises to a height of a hundred 

 and twenty-five feet. Walls ranging from ten to 

 twelve feet in thickness attest its old-time strength, 

 and the ornamentation both of the State apartments, 

 and of the Chapel on the third floor, betokens a 

 considerable display made in those far-off times. But 

 although one of the loftiest Norman keeps extant ; 

 though strong and internally ornate, it seems to have 

 been built by a copyist of Gundulf who perhaps had 

 neither his resources nor his love of a neat and 

 workmanlike finish. AVhatever the cause, certain it 

 is that here we miss the close- jointed external ashlar 

 that we are accustomed to see in such grand con- 

 temporary Norman keeps as those of Castle Hedingham 

 and Scarborough. Ashlaring has been only sparingly 

 used for quoins and dressings of door- and window- 

 openings, and the exterior of this keep chiefly shows a 

 broad expanse of roughly set Kentish rag-stone. 

 The result, although it does not commend itself 

 architecturally, is at least bold and rugged and 

 altogether satisfying to the artist. 



There is, according to a legend of unknown age, 

 a vast treasure buried beneath the ground here ; 

 concealed in some mysterious crypt Avhose door may 

 only by rarest chance be found. From this door 

 hangs a Hand of Glory, and not until the Hand is 

 extinguished, finger by finger, can it be forced open. 

 Absolute silence is to be observed by the adventurer 

 while extinguishing the Blazing Hand, or the mystic 

 power is broken. There was once, says a sequel to 

 the foregoing legend, a bold and fortunate spirit who 



