de Cobham, aged 19, who was Sheriff of Kent in 1 Richard II. (1377-8). He married Maude, daughter of Sir William Pympe (P John Pympe); she died 9 April 1380, and her brass is in Cobham Church. It is engraved in the Sepulchral Memorials of the Cobham Family (Maidstone Library). Beyond this point I cannot follow the Cobhams of Allington, for Dugdale says "of Thomas de Cobham and of his descendants I have no more to say in regard they were not peers of this Realm." I hope some day, however, to find out more about them.
   There now comes an absolute blank in the history of Allington Castle extending over about 100 years. During this time the Allington Cobhams, like so many of the Kent gentry, probably grew poor. During the hundred years’ war Kent sunk from the fifth to tenth place in wealth among English counties. In 1454 the wool of Kent was almost the poorest in quality in the country. Kent, too, was badly involved in the Cade rebellion and in the wars of 1460 and 1470.* Certain industries indeed advanced in Kent in the 

fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but the nobles did not share in them, and they only grew poorer as trade developed. The brewing and iron industries went ahead at this time, but the Cobhams of Allington were neither brewers nor iron-masters. I think it very probable that the castle suffered from some military attack in this dark period, and that then it was that the south wall was broken down as we see it to-day, and Solomon’s Tower breached. Certain it is that Solomon’s Tower was not among the parts occupied by the Wyatts, for they put new windows in all the parts they inhabited. The only sign of any repairs at this period to Solomon’s Tower is the filling of the top doorway, which gave access from the staircase to the south battlement walk. This was roughly turned into a window, I suppose to prevent people falling out when the battlement walk was gone. In the Jacobean restoration a rough and tumble roof was put
   * For the sufferings of Kent in the war of 1470 see Warkworth’s Chronicle, 21, 22.