THE DIOCESE AND BISHOPS.
According to a curious legend,[15] widely circulated in the Middle Ages,
the men of Rochester did not accord a patient hearing to St. Augustine
when he first came thither to preach the Gospel. They, instead, used him
rudely, and in mockery threw at him and hung on his dress a lot of
fish-tails. In anger the saint prayed to God to avenge him on his
persecutors and "the Lord smote them _in posteriora_ to their
everlasting ignominy, so that not only on their own but on their
successors' persons similar tails grew ever after." A way of escape was,
however, according to the fourteenth century prose version of the
"Brut," soon provided, for "whenne the kyng herde and wiste of this
vengeance that was falle thurghe saynt Austines powere he lette make one
howse in honour of God ... at the brugges end," children born in which
would not be afflicted with the dreaded appendage. Other versions of the
story give Dorchester as the place where the saint was thus ill-used and
his assailants were thus punished, but both Kent and Dorset have been
zealous to repudiate any concern with it, and Lambarde in his
"Perambulation" has written an indignant diatribe in defence of the
former county.
[15] This account of it is chiefly taken from a paper by G. Neilson,
first published in "Transactions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society,"
1896.
Later, in the legends concerning St. Thomas a Becket, another form of
the same fable appears. The men of Strood are said to have docked the
tail of his horse and to have been punished in the same way as St.
Augustine's persecutors. In the story Rochester sometimes appears
instead of Strood, and this is our excuse for alluding to the variation
here. It seems to be due to a confusion of the old story with a new
fact, as we have a contemporary statement that St. Thomas, on the
Christmas Day before his death, excommunicated a certain Robert de
Broc, because the latter had, to insult and shame him, cut off the tail
of a mare in his service.
In the Middle Ages the matter was of national concern, for the disgrace
said to have befallen the inhabitants of one or other of the small towns
mentioned became "a scandal to their unoffending country." When the
story spread, as it did, nearly all over Europe, foreigners did not
particularize, but offensively alluded to all Englishmen as _caudati_,
or tailed. Such allusions often occur in narratives of the Crusades, and
the French and Scotch were especially keen to hurl the epithet at their
hereditary foes. Even in the sixteenth century John Bale says, "that an
Englyshman now can not travayle in an other land by waye of merchandyce
or any other honest occupyenge, but yt ys most contumelyouslye throwne
in his tethe that all Englishmen have tayles." The name "Kentish
Longtails" seems to have been early current, and in Drayton's
"Polyolbion" we find "Longtails and Liberty" given almost as a motto for
the county.
We are not told whether it was due to this miracle of the "tails," but
it is certain that the conversion of the townspeople of Rochester must
have been rapid, for we know that a see was founded here as early as
604. The diocese placed under its bishop's care was a small one,
including no more than the western part of the ancient kingdom of Kent,
the dividing line being roughly the course of the Medway, or, more
precisely, that of its tributary, the Teise. The whole diocese formed
only a single archdeaconry, which was divided into four deaneries, and
of this small number one was subject, as a peculiar, to the jurisdiction
of the Archbishop of Canterbury, "who holdeth his prerogative
wheresoever his lands do lye."
Not only "hath the See at Rochester well holden her owne: for during the
whole succession of ... Bishops, which in right line have followed
Justus, she hath continually mainteined her Chaire at this one place,
whereas in most partes of the Realme besides, the Sees of the Bishops
have suffred sundry translations," but it was long also before the
ancient limits of the diocese were changed. In 1845 it was enlarged so
as to include Essex and Hertfordshire, and was then divided into the
four archdeaconries of Rochester, Colchester, Essex and St. Alban's. The
old palace at Bromley, which had been since Cardinal Fisher's time the
chief home of the bishops, was at the same time quitted for Danbury in
Essex. In 1863 the archdeaconries of Rochester and St. Albans were
joined into one, and in 1867 the total number of archdeaconries was
reduced to two: Rochester and St. Albans forming one, and Essex the
other. The extent and composition of the diocese was again entirely
changed in 1877, when the new diocese of St. Albans was formed. Since
that time the diocese of Rochester has included West Kent and part of
Surrey, and has comprised three archdeaconries: Rochester, Kingston, and
Southwark. In 1877 Danbury Palace had to be given up and Selsdon in
Surrey became for a time the episcopal home. Quite recently a new palace
has been completed at Kennington, in the most populous and needy part of
the diocese.
[Illustration: THE GUILDHALL VANE (FROM A DRAWING BY R. J. BEALE).]
In mediaeval times the bishops of Rochester had a town house at
Southwark. This was afterwards changed for the one at Lambeth Marsh,
where the attempt to poison Bishop Fisher occurred. They had also other
country homes at Halling and Trottescliffe. Our space will not, however,
allow us to deal at length with these palaces outside the cathedral
precincts.
The poverty of the Church at the time of the Conquest has been already
mentioned, and even later we find that the episcopal revenue continued
to be very small. One diocese only, we are told, paid a lower
"Rome-scot," and only two English bishoprics appear as inferior in
value in the King's books. Some old sources of episcopal and monastic
income seem to us curious. The bulk was, of course, derived from manors
or estates, but we find also that the bishop was entitled to a share of
the whales killed on the shores of his diocese and that the monks of the
priory of St. Andrew owned oyster fisheries. Out of the estates assigned
to them the monks had to make an annual contribution, in kind, called
the Xenium, to the bishop's income, and this, due on St. Andrew's Day,
was on several occasions a subject of dispute. In Henry VIII.'s time we
find the bishopric valued at L358 4_s._ 9 1/2_d._, and later, in 1595,
it is stated that the clear annual profits did not exceed L220. To
supplement this paltry revenue the bishops often held other appointments
_in commendam_. During the latter part of the seventeenth century and
the greater part of the eighteenth, the deanery of Westminster was, in
this way, almost continuously attached to the bishopric of Rochester.
Such pluralities are, of course, no longer allowed, the estates of this,
as of other sees, being administered by the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners, through whom the bishop receives the regular and more
adequate income that he now enjoys. Poor though the see has been, we
find many distinguished men among those who have held it. A great number
of such passed on soon to richer bishoprics, and some even attained the
archiepiscopal dignity, but one or two of the greatest consistently
refused to be thus advanced.
For the sake of convenient reference, we now give a list of the bishops,
in chronological order.
#St. Justus#, sent to reinforce the English mission in 601, became the
first bishop in 604; fled to Gaul in 617, on the great relapse into
idolatry after Ethelbert's death; summoned back after a year by the new
king Eadbald; succeeded Mellitus as Archbishop of Canterbury in 624;
died in 627.
#Romanus#, consecrated in 624; drowned while on a mission to Rome
(_absorptus fluctibus Italici Maris_) probably in 627, but certainly
before November, 630.
#St. Paulinus# came over with Justus; ordained Bishop of York, in 625, to
accompany Ethelburga, princess of Kent, when she went to marry Edwin of
Northumbria; baptised Edwin himself in April, 627, and earned well his
title of the Apostle of Northumbria; preached also, we are told, in
Lancashire, in Cumbria, on the Trent, and at Lincoln; fled with the
widowed queen on Edwin's overthrow in 633, as he owed attendance to her;
gladly received in Kent and persuaded to accept the see of Rochester,
where, probably, he received the pallium sent him in 634; died in 644;
buried in the _secretarium_ of the church, whence his remains were
afterwards transferred to the Norman cathedral.
#St. Ythamar#, the first bishop who was an Englishman by birth; died in
655; like Paulinus, buried in the church, and much revered, though the
Normans seem to have been less eager to translate his remains.
#Damian# succeeded in 656, died in 664.
#Putta# succeeded five years later in 669; translated to Hereford in 676;
died in 688.
#Cuichelm# resigned the see, through poverty, after only two years.
#Gebmund#, appointed in 678, died in 693.
#Tobias#, appointed in 693; famous for his great learning, which included
a knowledge of both Greek and Latin; died in 726; buried in the
_Porticus_ of St. Paul, which he had himself built on to the cathedral.
Then came #Alduulf#, 726--d. 739 or 741; #Duina#, 741-747; #Earduulf#, 747 (or
757)-765; #Diora#, 778--d. 781; #Wermund#, 788-802; #Beornmod#, 803 (or
811)-814; #Tathnoth#, 841 (or 844)- ; #Godwin I.#; #Cutherwulf#,
868- ; #Swithulf#, 880- ; #Ruhric#; #Cheolmund#; #Chinefurth#;
#Burrhic#; #Alfstan# (#Athelstan#), 955- ; #Godwin II.# (#Godric#) and
#Godwin III.#, c. 995--c. 1012. This is as complete a list as can be given
until we come to Bishop Siward.
#Siward# was appointed in 1058; under him the establishment reached the
greatest extreme of poverty, but, though it is suspected that the
services of the church were also neglected, he was allowed to retain the
see after the Conquest until his death in 1075.
#Ernost#, a monk, appointed by Lanfranc in 1076, died in the same year.
#Gundulf#, consecrated in 1077; came over with Lanfranc; also a great
friend of Anselm; a skilful architect, rebuilt much of the cathedral,
built the White Tower in London, St. Leonard's Tower and the nunnery at
Malling, part of Dartford Church, and a tower at Rochester earlier than
the present keep; substituted Benedictines for the old secular
establishment of the cathedral; famous for piety and holiness, and in
favour with the Conqueror and the two sons who succeeded him; died in
1108, aged 84; buried by Anselm in the cathedral, where a plain tomb is
still called by his name.
#Ralph d'Escures#, an abbot of Sees who had been forced to flee by Robert
of Belleme; a friend of Gundulf; some architectural work at Rochester
carried out under his sway; Archbishop of Canterbury in 1114; died in
1122.
#Ernulf# came next in 1115; had been successively Prior of Canterbury and
Abbot of Peterborough; built at both those places as well as at
Rochester; famous for saintliness, and a great authority on canon law;
perhaps best known generally by Sterne's comments in "Tristram Shandy"
on the terrible excommunication curse contained in his "Textus
Roffensis"; died in 1124.
#John#, formerly Archdeacon of Canterbury; Bishop of Rochester in 1125;
cathedral consecrated in his time; died in 1137.
#John#, formerly Abbot of Sees; appointed in 1137; died in 1142.
#Ascelin#, succeeded in 1142; active bishop, even visited Rome for the
monks of his cathedral; died in 1148.
#Walter#, chosen in 1148; the first bishop elected by the monks of the
Priory of St. Andrew, the right being granted them by his brother
Archbishop Theobald; formerly Archdeacon of Canterbury; died in 1182.
#Gualeran#, appointed in 1182; formerly Archdeacon of Bayeux; died in
1184.
#Gilbert de Glanvill#, consecrated in 1185; employed earlier by Becket on
a mission to the Pope; quarrelled with his monks and helped Archbishops
Baldwin and Hubert Walter (a friend of his own) against those of
Canterbury; died 1214, before the Interdict was removed; buried at
Rochester, where a tomb is shown as his.
#Benedict de Sansetun#, succeeded in 1215; saw cathedral plundered, and
great works in new choir; died in 1226.
#Henry Sandford#; new choir entered in his first year, 1227; in a sermon
at Sittingbourne said that the release from Purgatory, in one day, of
Richard I., Stephen Langton, and a chaplain of the latter, had been
revealed to him; died in 1235.
#Richard de Wendover#, not consecrated till 1238; monks had to appeal to
Rome, against the archbishop's claims, to get their election of him
confirmed; died in 1250.
#Lawrence de Saint Martin#, succeeded in 1251; appealed to Pope against a
robbery of his see by Archbishop Boniface; at Rome for the canonization
of St. William in 1256; died in 1274; his tomb (in the choir) has been
described.
#Walter de Merton#, appointed in 1274; before this, chancellor (1261-63;
1272-74) and justiciar; founded his college at Maldon, and afterwards
transferred it to Oxford; drowned in the Medway in 1277; buried in the
cathedral (north choir transept).
#John de Bradfield#, a monk at Rochester; became bishop in 1277; died in
1283; buried in the cathedral (south choir aisle).
#Thomas Inglethorp#, appointed in 1283; formerly Dean of St. Paul's and
Archdeacon of Middlesex; died in 1291; buried in the cathedral
(chancel).
#Thomas de Wouldham#, Prior of Rochester, became bishop in 1292; died in
1317.
#Hamo de Hythe#, appointed in 1319 after a delay caused by Pope's wish to
nominate John de Puteoli; did much for church and renewed the shrines of
St. Paulinus and St. Ythamar; died in 1352; tomb in the cathedral (north
choir aisle).
#John de Sheppey#, succeeded in 1352; treasurer of England, 1326-58; died
in 1360; buried on the north side of the choir.
#William of Whittlesea#, Bishop of Rochester, 1362; of Worcester, 1364;
Archbishop of Canterbury, 1368; died in 1374.
#Thomas Trilleck#, succeeded in 1364; formerly Dean of St. Paul's; died in
1372.
#Thomas Brinton#, appointed in 1373 by the Pope, who rejected the monk's
nominee, their prior, John Hertley; a Benedictine of Norwich; had been
penitentiary to the Roman see; died in 1389.
#William de Bottisham#, transferred from Llandaff in 1389, the Pope
rejecting John Barnet; died in 1400.
#John de Bottisham#, succeeded in 1400; died in 1404; this repetition of
the same surname has caused some confusion.
#Richard Young#, translated from Bangor in 1404; seems not to have taken
full possession of see till 1407; died in 1418.
#John Kemp#, at earlier dates Keeper of Privy Seal and Chancellor of
Normandy; Bishop of Rochester, 1419; of Chichester, 1421; of London,
1421; Archbishop of York, 1426; of Canterbury, 1452; Cardinal, 1439;
prominent member of Beaufort party; Chancellor of England; served on
several important political missions; died in 1454.
#John Langdon#, appointed in 1434; a royal councillor; author of an
Anglorum Chronicon; died at Basle in 1434.
#Thomas Brown#, succeeded in 1435; in 1436, while still at Basle,
translated by the Pope to Norwich; died in 1445.
#William Wells#, Abbot of York, succeeded in 1437; died before 26 February
1444.
#John Lowe#, translated from St. Asaph in 1444; English Provincial of the
Order of St. Augustine; died in 1467; buried in north choir transept.
#Thomas Rotheram# (or #Scott#), appointed in 1468; translated to Lincoln,
1472; Archbishop of York, 1480; died in 1500; had been Chaplain to
Edward IV., Keeper of the Privy Seal, and, in 1474, Lord Chancellor.
#John Alcock# succeeded in 1472; Privy Councillor, 1470-71; Lord
Chancellor, 1474; first Lord President of Wales, 1476; tutor to Edward
V., removed by Gloucester; under Henry VII., baptized Prince Arthur;
comptroller of the royal works, and again Lord Chancellor; a great
architect, works at Ely and Cambridge; translated to Worcester in 1476,
to Ely in 1486; "devoted to learning and piety"; died in 1500.
#John Russell#, succeeded in 1476; translated to Lincoln, 1480; died in
1494.
#Edmund Audley#, Canon of York; Bishop of Rochester, 1480; of Hereford,
1492; of Salisbury, 1502; died in 1524; a legatee and executor of Henry
VII.
#Thomas Savage#, Canon of York, Dean of the King's Chapel at Westminster;
Bishop of Rochester, 1492, of London, 1496; Archbishop of York, 1501;
died in 1507.
#Richard FitzJames# succeeded in 1496; translated to Chichester in 1503
and to London in 1506; died in 1522; a famous warden of Merton; Royal
Almoner in 1495; did not favour Colet's efforts at reform.
#John Fisher#, having risen to the Chancellorship of Cambridge University
in 1504, was then made, for his "grete and singular virtue," Bishop of
Rochester; he and his patron, Lady Margaret, were great benefactors to
Cambridge; a friend of Erasmus; opposed Henry VIII.'s divorce and the
royal supremacy; made a cardinal just before he bravely and resignedly
met his death in 1535.
#John Hilsey# came then in 1535; formerly Prior of the Dominicans in
London; one of Cromwell's commissioners, compiled at his orders a
service book in English; exposed the miraculous rood of Boxley at St.
Paul's Cross; died in 1538.
#Richard Heath#, succeeded in 1539; had been Almoner to Henry VIII.;
translated to Worcester, 1543; deprived for a time, but restored on
Queen Mary's accession; Archbishop of York, 1555; Chancellor; held both
the last appointments under Elizabeth, whose accession he proclaimed,
but had to resign when the Act of Supremacy was enforced.
#Henry Holbeach#, succeeded in 1543; translated to Lincoln in 1546;
previously suffragan Bishop of Bristol, and Prior (later Dean) of
Worcester.
#Nicholas Ridley#, succeeded in 1547; translated to London when Bonner was
removed in 1550; a famous Protestant, learned and pious; the story of
his martyrdom with Latimer at Oxford, in 1555, is well known.
#John Poynet#, succeeded in 1550; translated to Winchester, 1551; left
England when Mary became Queen; died at Strasburg in 1556.
#John Scory#, appointed in 1551; a great preacher; translated to
Chichester in 1552; bishop of Hereford in 1559, when able to return from
Friesland; died in 1585.
#Maurice Griffith#, appointed after an interval of about two years;
educated by the Dominicans at Oxford; formerly Archdeacon of Rochester;
one or two Protestants were burnt during his episcopacy; died in 1558.
#Edmund Gheast#, consecrated in 1559 and made Almoner to the Queen;
transferred to Salisbury, 1571; died in 1578.
#Edmund Freake#, succeeded in 1571; previously Dean of Rochester, and of
Salisbury; Queen's Almoner in 1572; translated to Norwich in 1575, to
Worcester in 1584; scandal at Norwich, his wife "will looke on him as
the Divell lookes over Lincoln;" troubles with Puritans; died in
1590-91.
#John Piers#, succeeded in 1576; Bishop of Salisbury, 1577; Archbishop of
York, 1589; Lord High Almoner, 1576; employed and consulted by the
Queen; died in 1594.
#John Yonge#, became bishop in 1578; thought avaricious, but the annual
revenue of his see shown not to exceed L220; died in 1605.
#William Barlow#, succeeded in 1605; wrote other works besides his
account, denounced as partial by the Puritans, of the famous Hampton
Court Conference; translated to Lincoln, 1608; died in 1613.
#Richard Neile#, succeeded in 1608; introduced Laud to the King's notice;
Bishop of Lichfield, 1610, of Durham, 1617 and of Winchester, 1627;
Archbishop of York, 1631; privy councillor; employed in famous Essex
divorce case; sat in the courts of High Commission and of the Star
Chamber; died in 1640.
#John Buckeridge#, formerly a canon at Rochester; confirmed as bishop in
1611; formerly a royal chaplain; took part in Essex case; active in
religious discussions; translated to Ely, 1628; died in 1631.
#Walter Curle#, appointed in 1628; translated to Bath and Wells in 1629,
to Winchester in 1632; deprived by Parliamentarians and apparently in
great straits before he died, c. 1650.
#John Bowle#, appointed in 1629; apparently in ill-health, and
consequently neglectful, for three years before his death in 1637.
#John Warner#, succeeded in 1638; seems to have been the last to struggle
for his order's place in Parliament; deprived of revenues, but allowed
to stay at Bromley under the Commonwealth; one of the nine bishops who
lived till the Restoration; employed in the Savoy Conference; wealthy;
benefactor to the cathedral and to Magdalen and Balliol Colleges,
Oxford; founded college for clergymen's widows at Bromley; died in 1666;
the last bishop buried in the cathedral.
#John Dolben#, made bishop in 1666; had served at Marston Moor and been
wounded at York; retained his deanery of Westminster _in commendam_;
translated to York in 1683; died in 1686.
#Francis Turner#, succeeded in 1683; translated to Ely in 1684; one of the
seven bishops who petitioned against the Declaration of Indulgence,
though he had been James II.'s chaplain; had to give up his see on
account of his belief in James' divine right; died in 1700.
#Thomas Sprat#, Dean of Westminster, became Bishop of Rochester in 1685;
of such literary ability as to have a place in Johnson's "Lives of the
Poets;" wrote a poem on the death of Cromwell, a history of the Royal
Society, a life of Cowley, etc.; in no great favour with William's
government; implicated in the fabricated Flower-pot Plot, the papers
concerning which were said to have been found in a flower-pot at
Bromley; seems to have been somewhat of a time-server; died in 1713.
#Francis Atterbury#, born in 1662; took orders after the Revolution;
became a Royal Chaplain, but still lived usually at Oxford; took part in
the great controversy between Boyle and Bentley, on the Epistles of
Phalaris; successively Archdeacon of Totnes, Dean of Carlisle, Dean of
Christ Church, Oxford, and finally in 1713 Bishop of Rochester; in 1710
composed the speech for Sacheverell's defence before the House of Lords;
a Tory, but, though he had tried to procure the proclamation of James
III., he assisted at George I.'s coronation; deprived, for Jacobitism,
of his see and banished in 1723; retired to Brussels and then for his
health's sake to Paris; served James almost as a prime minister; in 1728
he left this service owing to bad treatment, but re-entered it before
his death, after nine years of exile, in 1731-2.
#Samuel Bradford#, refused the see of St. David's in 1710; accepted that
of Carlisle in 1718; translated to Rochester in 1723; in 1725 first dean
of the revised Order of the Bath; his "Discourse concerning Baptismal
and Spiritual Regeneration" (1709) had great popularity; died in 1731 at
the Deanery, Westminster; buried in the Abbey.
#Joseph Wilcocks#, translated in 1731, from Gloucester, which see he had
held since 1721; the new west front of Westminster Abbey finished in his
time; he refused the Archbishopric of York before his death in 1756.
#Zachary Pearce#, succeeded in 1756; previously Dean of Winchester in
1739, and Bishop of Bangor in 1747; in 1768 he resigned the Deanery of
Westminster, which he had held with his bishopric, but was not allowed
to resign the see; died in 1774. While a fellow of Trin. Coll., Camb.,
he edited Longinus' works and Cicero's "De Oratore" and "De Officiis."
#John Thomas# was then bishop from 1774 until his death in 1793.
#Samuel Horsley#, born in 1733; a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1767, and
one of its secretaries in 1773; Archdeacon of St. Alban's in 1782;
resigned his membership of the Royal Society on account of the dispute,
in 1783-4, with Sir Joseph Banks about its management; in 1785 he
completed his edition of Newton's works; Prebendary of Gloucester, in
1787; Bishop of St. David's in 1788; translated to Rochester, with the
deanery Westminster, in 1793, and thence to St. Asaph in 1802; died in
1806, showing his carelessness in money matters by letting a life policy
for L5,000 lapse two days before his death; had engaged much in
controversy with Priestley.
The Bishops of Rochester during this century have been #Thomas Dampier#,
from 1802 to 1808, when he was translated to Ely; #Walter King#, from 1809
to 1827; #Hugh Percy#, appointed in 1827 but translated in the same year
to Carlisle; #George Murray#, from 1827 to 1860; #Joseph Cotton Wigram#,
from 1860 to 1867; #Thomas Legh Claughton#, from 1867 until his transfer
to the new see of St. Alban's in 1877; #Anthony Wilson Thorold#, from 1877
until his translation to Winchester in 1891; #Dr. Randall Thomas
Davidson#, who succeeded Dr. Thorold at Rochester, and again, on his
death, at Winchester in 1895, and #Dr. Edward Stuart Talbot#, appointed in
1895, and still governing the diocese. These have all been worthy of
their distinguished position and of their predecessors in the see.
CHISWICK PRESS:--CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.
TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.
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art."--_Star._
"Each of them contains exactly that amount of information which the
intelligent visitor, who is not a specialist, will wish to have. The
disposition of the various parts is judiciously proportioned, and the
style is very readable. The illustrations supply a further important
feature; they are both numerous and good. Taken altogether, therefore,
the two 'Guides' very worthily inaugurate a series which cannot fail to
be welcomed by all who are interested in the ecclesiastical buildings of
England."--_Glasgow Herald._
"Those who, either for purposes of professional study or for a cultured
recreation, find it expedient to 'do' the English cathedrals will
welcome the beginning of Bell's 'Cathedral Series.' This set of books,
edited generally by Mr. Gleeson White, is an attempt to consult, more
closely and in greater detail than the usual guide-books do, the needs
of visitors to the cathedral towns. To judge it by its first two
volumes, those on Canterbury and Salisbury, the series cannot but prove
markedly successful. In each book a business-like description is given
of the fabric of the church to which the volume relates, and an
interesting history of the relative diocese. The books are plentifully
illustrated, and are thus made attractive as well as instructive. They
cannot but prove welcome to all classes of readers interested either in
English Church history or in ecclesiastical architecture."--_Scotsman._
"A set of little books which may be described as very useful, very
pretty, and very cheap ... and alike in the letterpress, the
illustrations, and the remarkably choice binding, they are ideal
guides."--_Liverpool Daily Post._
"They have nothing in common with the almost invariably wretched local
guides save portability, and their only competitors in the quality and
quantity of their contents are very expensive and mostly rare works,
each of a size that suggests a packing-case rather than a coat-pocket.
The 'Cathedral Series' are important compilations concerning history,
architecture, and biography, and quite popular enough for such as take
any sincere interest in their subjects."--_Sketch._
LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS.