CANTERBURY 187 



XXXIV 



The entrance to Canterbury from London is one of 

 the most impressive approaches to a city to be found 

 in all England. The traveller passes through the 

 suburb of Saint Dunstan, by the old parish church 

 that holds the severed head of Sir Thomas More, 

 coming into the city through a street of ancient 

 houses and under the postern arch of West Gate. 

 The great drum towers of West Gate mark the ancient 

 limits of the mediaeval city, and guard an opening 

 in the city wall which stood on the further side of the 

 little river Stour. A drawbridge effectually prevented 

 the entrance of an enemy, and when the strongly- 

 guarded gate was closed at nightfall, belated citizens 

 had to stay outside and put up with the inconvenience 

 as best they could, in company with such travellers 

 and pilgrims as arrived late from too much story- 

 telling, feasting, or praying, on the road. For the 

 accommodation of these travellers the suburbs of 

 Saint Dunstan and West Gate arose early without the 

 walls of the city, and several inns — the " Star " and 

 the " Falstaff " among them — remain to show how 

 considerable was the belated company entertained here. 



West Gate, as we now see it, is the successor of a 

 much earher gate, and was built by the ill-fated Simon 

 of Sudbury. It is the only one remaining of all the 

 seven gates of the city, and owes its preservation 

 rather to its convenience as a prison for poor debtors, 

 than to any love our eighteenth-century barbarians 

 had for mediaeval architecture. It is to-day a police- 

 station, and thus carries on the frugal and utilitarian 

 traditions which originally spared it in the destruction 

 of much else of beauty and interest. 



Ancient buildings are carefully preserved noAvadays. 

 Why ? Can we flatter ourselves that the provincial 

 mind is more enlightened ? I am afraid not, and 

 must sorrowfully come to tlie conclusion that the 



