castle was finally deserted as a habitable dwelling, it was stripped of all its carpentry, the hewn stone composing the stairs was removed, and all the materials that could be turned to money were announced for public sale. The old timber, consisting of the oak joists, on which rested the roof and floors of the principal apartments, was bought up and employed in the construction of a brewhouse.1 But in attempting to remove the solid materials of the walls, the operations were suddenly arrested by this conviction, that it was much easier to quarry from nature than from such a reservoir of art; for the pickaxes made so little progress in the demolition of these massive walls-the very mortar of which is harder than the stones it cemented together— that the enterprise was soon given up in despair, as the chasm now left in the outer wall fully demonstrates.

The master tower, the donjon of feudal times, and which meets the traveller at the distance of many miles, is the grand and imposing feature of the scene. It rises in solitary state over the subject walls and towers, by which it is flanked and surrounded, and lifts its castellated, cranelated head, like a giant amidst a retinue of attendant dwarfs. Among the various countries abroad through which it is has been my fortune to pass, and among the grand imposing objects of feudal art which these countries present, I remember nothing, as a whole, that may be compared with Rochester castle. I had seen it on my first quitting England; seen it from Strood hill, and the impression I carried away with me continued to haunt me in all my peregrinations. If among "the Alps, the Appennine, the Pyrenean, or the river Po"; if among the fastnesses of Switzerland, or the solitudes of the Black Forest; on the banks of the Rhine or the Danube: all rich in monuments of feudal times, my attention was riveted by some baronial or monastic fortress, I fancied I heard this whisper always in my ear,-"Yes, very fine in its way, but nothing like Rochester castle". So I returned home; and as I came once more in sight of this ancient city, I exclaimed,-"True; nothing after all like the old CASTLE OF ROCHESTER !"

1 For particulars, see my Castles and Abbeys, vol. i. For the Plate 28 accompanying this paper, the Council have to express their thanks to my publisher, Mr. Vertue.

A MEMOIR OF GUNDULF, BISHOP OF ROCHESTER;

WITH NOTICES OF THE OTHER ECCLESIASTICAL FOUNDERS

OF THAT CHURCH AND MONASTERY.

BY THE REV. THOS. HUGO, M.A., F.S.A., F.L.S., M.R.S.L., ETC., HON. SEC.

THERE is a metaphysical connexion between the doer and the thing done. Our minds naturally recur from the thought of the one to that of the other. And in no case, perhaps, is this more conspicuously as well as more constantly evidenced, than in the instance of objects such as those which we have here met together to visit, to examine, and to study. The sight of mouldering ruins, blanched by the storms of centuries, full of solemn and suggestive peculiarities, and around which society has been changing age after age, forces upon us the thought of those who first erected and successively augmented the stately structures of which what we see are but the disjecta membra, the crumbling and picturesque remains. I desire, in what shall follow, to respond to and assist in the realization of this instinctive yearning of the mind, by presenting you with the history of those eminent ecclesiastics towards whom our thoughts turn as we tread the streets of this ancient and interesting city, on the edifices of which they have left their ineffaceable mark. The accounts which we have of them are, I grieve to say, with one happy exception, lamentably meagre. "Deficient siquidem multe scripture codicellorum et cartarum vetustate consumpte, alie per negligenciam, malam custodiam, et combustionem tempore guerre, sublate. Nam nunquam fuit locus certus nec securus deputatus ad reponenda munimenta, set quando in ecclesia cathedrali, vel in manerio de Hallynges, erant derelicta; et ideo si hoc registrum sit insufficiens, non imputetur compilantibus peccatum." And William of Malmesbury follows on in the same strain of apology, "dicendorum enim penuria pauca dicenti amolietur invidiam." Another

1 Registrum Roffense, ed. Thorpe, fol., Lond., 1769, p. 3.

2 Willielmi Malmesburiensis, de Gestis Pontificum Anglorum; ed. Henrico Savile, fol., Lond., 1596, lib. i, 132a.

difficulty, though one far more easy to overcome, is, that these notices are spread over a variety of writers, and are oftentimes presented in a form which requires from merely classical scholars a second education to elucidate its meaning, and even to understand its language. Relying, however, on your kind indulgence, so often afforded to me hitherto, I will proceed to give you, in chronological order, the notices which, after some little amount of research, I have been able to collect of all the subjects of this investigation, save one; and I will then enter, in detail, into the other main feature of my present communication-the previously omitted biography, which, as was stated before, happily furnishes an exception to the general meagreness of the rest.

I have examined the MSS. in the British Museum with a view of selecting what was applicable to my purpose; and I find that the majority of those relating to the monastic history of Rochester, including almost all of interest, have been already printed. The volumes in the Cottonian collection, marked Tiberius, B. v, Galba, E. IV, Vitellius, E. XIV, and Faustina, C. IV, are mostly on other matters. From Nero, A. VIII, I shall frequently quote. Nero, D. 11, contains extracts from the Rochester monk (printed in Anglia Sacra, vol. ii, pp. 273-292) and others, introduced amongst general history. Vespasian, A. XXII, of great use to me, contains a very interesting chronological table, a Registrum, and a transcript of parts of the Textus Roffensis. From Domitian, A. x, I shall extract; and Faustina, B. v, has been given in Anglia Sacra, vol. i, p. 356, etc. Of my numerous printed authorities, it will be better to state the edition, volume, and page, as I proceed.

The church of Rochester is one of the most ancient in England, and owes its foundation to the piety of Ethelbert, king of Kent. Originally a heathen, he had married Bertha, daughter of Caribert, king of Paris. The princess was a Christian, and was attended to England by a prelate named Luidhard, through whose teaching and exemplary life many of the courtiers were converted to the faith. The way was thus prepared for the arrival of S. Augustine and his brethren, whom S. Gregory sent from Rome to convert the Anglo-Saxons, A.D. 596. These missionaries succeeded so well in their holy labours, that, within three years after