The cave was probably filled in with earth in 1547 and 1550, when the inscribed dates were affixed. After which its existence was forgotten, and the Mercat House was erected over it before 1610. The carvings have been supposed to belong to the period of Henry II. and Richard Cœur-de- Lion, but it is not possible to put them earlier than the beginning of the sixteenth century, at all events such as represent the Crucifixion. It is possible, however, that some of the kingly or knightly figures may be somewhat earlier. Stukeley was quite convinced that the Royston cave was the oratory of the Lady Rohesia, daughter of Aubrey de Vere, who succeeded his father in 1088, but there exists no evidence that she ever lived at Royston. The place takes its name from Rohesia, daughter of Eudo Dapifer. In 1537, says Froude, while the harbours, piers, and fortresses were rising in Dover, "an ancient hermit tottered night after night from his cell to a chapel on the cliff, and the tapers on the altars before which he knelt in his lonely orisons made a familiar beacon far over the rolling waters. The men of the rising world cared little for the sentiment of the past. The anchorite was told sternly by the workmen that his light was a signal to the King's enemies" (a Spanish invasion from Flanders was expected), "and must burn no more; and when it was next seen, three of them waylaid the old man on his way home, threw him down, and beat him cruelly." [Footnote: "History of England," vol. iii. p. 256.] The following notice appeared in the _Daily Express_ of 9th June 1910. "A subterranean chamber with a spiral staircase at one end and a Gothic roof has been discovered at Greenhithe. It is believed to have been a hermit's cell." The hermit left a pleasant memory behind him when he disappeared from England, perhaps just in time before complete degeneration set in as in France and Germany, Italy and Spain. Shakespeare, whenever he introduces him, does so in a kindly spirit, and represents him as a consoler of the afflicted and a refuge to the troubled spirit. By Spenser also he is treated with affection. "Towards night they came unto a plaine By which a little hermitage there lay, Far from all neighbourhood, the which annoy it may. And nigh thereto a little chappel stoode, Which being all with ivy overspred Deckt all the roofe, and, shadowing the roode, Seem'd like a grove faire braunched over hed: Therein the hermit, which his life here led In streight observance of religious vow, Was wont his hours and holy things to bed; And therein he likewise was praying now, Whenas these knights arrived, they wist not where nor how." [ILLUSTRATION: CHÂTEAU DE RIGNAC. A renaissance château on the Vézère, built partly into and partly out of the overhanging cliff. Since the sketch was made a portion of the first archway has fallen.]