CANTERBURY. 13 



It may, perhaps, be proper to apologize for introducing 

 such remarks as these, on a county so well known as that 

 of Kent, and which lias been illustrated by Hasted, in a 

 work extending to twelve volumes in octavo. But we give 

 only remarks actually made on the spot, and at the times 

 mentioned ; and during a rapid journey, these could nei- 

 ther be very numerous nor important. 



Canterbury, 



We spent the afternoon at the seat of the ancient Me- 

 tropolitical See of Canterbury, greatly pleased with the 

 cleanliness of the streets, with the beauty of the terrace- 

 walks on the ramparts, and with the fine avenues of lime- 

 trees below ; but not a little disappointed, to find workmen 

 engaged in razing to the ground a keep or strong-hold of 

 Norman architecture, with walls ten feet thick : this, we 

 think, might have been spared, both as an ornament, and as 

 indicating the antiquity of the place. After having surveyed 

 the famed Cathedral, and made a pilgrimage to the shrine 

 of Becket, we visited the ruins of the Abbey of St Augus- 

 tine, said to have been the earliest Christian establishment 

 in England. In the neighbourhood of this abbey, we un- 

 derstood, were still to be seen some remains of Monkish gar- 

 dens. We accordingly found a mulberry-tree, two vines, 

 and three or four walnut-trees, all of them possessing the 

 marks of great age. 



The mulberry-tree is of the common black species (Mo- 

 ms nigra). The tree has a venerable aspect. It had once 

 been both lofty and spreading ; but had been blown down, 

 and has lain on its side for the last century or more. One old 

 man in Canterbury remembers it in its present recumbent 

 posture for above seventy years past, and declares that he 

 knows no change on it. By permission of the lessee of the 



