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still the only span over the Thames in
the metropolis. That at Westminster was not built until more than twenty
years later.
3 Gibbs. Doubtless James Gibbs,
architect of the present St. Martin-in-the-Fields and other well-known
early eighteenth-century buildings.
4 Dr. Thorpe. John Thorpe, F.S.A.,
the celebrated Kentish antiquary and editor of Registrum Roffense
(1769) and Custumale Roffense (1788). The former work includes an
invaluable record of the monumental inscriptions of the churches in the
Diocese of Rochester and the thirty-odd West Kent parishes within its
compass which were then, and long afterwards, Canterbury peculiars. It
appears that Thorpe had some help in so laborious a survey; and this may
account for some errors and omissions which seem at variance with the
high praise bestowed on him by the writer of this tour. In any case the
gathering of this mass of monumental material was in progress from about
the death of Queen Anne (1714) till circa 1750. Thorpe's labours
for West Kent no doubt explain the cursory treatment of these churches
by Hasted as compared with his far more detailed notice of those east of
Medway; for the "egregious blunders" of Dr. Harris, all over
the county, could hardly have dissuaded a man of Hasted's calibre (by
way of correction) from tackling the two dioceses with equal zeal. An
interesting parallel exists in East Kent. I have transcribed an enormous
mass of unpublished monumental materials, gathered by our other
antiquary, Bryan Faussett (ob. 1776), about the end of the reign of
George II. Working meticulously over the area east of a line drawn
approximately Faversham-Ashford-Hythe, he nevertheless completely omits
the Isle of Thanet, because Lewis in 1723 (revised edition 1736) had
already covered that ground, albeit in a manner inferior both to
Faussett, and Cozens who worked near the century's end. |
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It may be of use to
record (as possibly unknown to all students grateful to Thorpe) that his
MS. collections are now in the British Museum. The monumental text of Reg.
Roff. has, passim, minor variations from his MS. version; and
each contains the exceedingly valuable account of the painted glass at
Gillingham still extant in 1621, which deserves reprinting in Arch.
Cant. when present difficulties diminish. Though Gillingham was a
Canterbury peculiar, Thorpe printed it along with the few Rochester
parishes east of Medway. He also tackled the following Canterbury
churches moderately near his home at Rochester, but these ever since the
publication of 1769 have remained in MS.:—(Harl. 6587).
Rainham Newington Tunstall Bredgar (north of the Downs)
Linton Otham Bearsted Hollingbourne (south of the Downs)
5 King James. The reference is to
the abortive attempt of James II to escape to France after the landing
of William of Orange in November, 1688. There is, nevertheless, still a
tradition in Luddenham that the hated monarch slept the night there
before he fled from Faversham. It will be remembered that a little later
he tried again and got clear to sea from Rochester, apparently with the
connivance of his embarrassed son-in-law William, never again to set
foot on English soil.
6 Napleton. The name often occurs
in the neighbourhood of Faversham. Two Napleton brasses, each dated
1625, still remain respectively in the churches of Faversham and
Graveney.
7 Boughton-under-Blean. Chaucer's
"Bob-up-and-down" is more generally identified with the
village of Harbledown, much nearer Canterbury. The variations in the
road gradient here seem to me to fit Chaucer's delightful nickname
better than do those at Boughton under the great hill. |