CanterburyShore, W. Teignmouth (William Teignmouth)
History
Canterbury
Shore, W. Teignmouth (William Teignmouth)
Canterbury (England) -- Description and travel
Archbishop Stratford (1333-48) lies to the west of the above, a monument
sadly defaced. It was he who rendered weighty service to Edward III.,
when the monarch looked upon him with unfavourable eye, considering that
it was his advice that had caused his, the King’s, troubles. The
archbishop fled from London, seeking refuge at Canterbury. He preached a
pathetic sermon to the multitudinous congregation that had flocked into
the Cathedral, concluding by excommunicating the King’s evil advisers.
When the last words were spoken, the torches that struggled with the
gloom were put out; the bell was tolled; the people scattered in
confusion. So great was the power and awe of holy church in those days
that this proceeding of the archbishop’s proved powerfully effective and
the King’s hand was stayed.
Then there is the tomb of Cardinal Kemp, archbishop from 1452-54, with a
curious wooden canopy. He was at Agincourt with Henry V.
On the north side, noticeable is the monument to Archbishop Chichele,
founder of the colleges of St John and of All Souls, Oxford, by the
fellows of which latter college his tomb is kept in repair. The effigy
of the living man is gruesomely put in conjunction with a grisly
skeleton in a winding sheet; to the mediæval mind death was almost
disgustingly horrible. It was he who aided and abetted Henry V. in his
preposterous claim upon the throne of France, which prosaic plea has
been turned into poetry by Shakespeare in Scene 2 Act I. of _The Life of
King Henry the Fifth_.
Then of much more recent date, William Howley (1828-48), who so bitterly
opposed the Roman Catholic Relief Bill and the Reform Bill, which
brought him disfavour with the good citizens of Canterbury. He crowned
Queen Victoria, and performed the marriage ceremony of the Prince
Consort.
Archbishop Bourchier (1454-86) also lies here; who was visited by the
Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, Peter II., with his camels and his
dromedaries, and who left to the church “one image of the Holy Trinity
of pure gold, with the diadem, and xj balassers, x saphires, and xliiij
gems called perlys.”
Then proceeding toward the east we enter the Trinity Chapel, standing
upon the same site as the old chapel of the same name.
But it is not our purpose here to write in detail the story of
Canterbury Cathedral; it can be found elsewhere by those who desire it;
all our aim is to tell sufficient of it and in such manner as to make
the building a living thing, not the dead mass to which it is too often
reduced by guides and guide-books.
To the skill and genius of English William we owe the Trinity Chapel,
where stood the shrine of St Thomas of Canterbury, now but a memory,
where still stands the tomb of Edward the Black
[Illustration: EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE’S TOMB IN TRINITY CHAPEL,
CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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