St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

"About the year 1152" a hospital for lepers was built outside the town by the Prior of St. Martin-le-Grand. In 1373 two of the monks compiled from documents in the possession of the prior a manuscript which contained the laws for the government of the house, and a list of its lands and other sources of income. From this ancient authority, which exists in the Bodleian Library, Mr. Lyon was enabled to give an interesting account of the society as it existed in the fourteenth century. As the hospital was outside the jurisdiction of the Castle or the mayor and jurats of Dover it hardly comes within the scope of this work, and it is only mentioned to explain the dedication of a modern church to St. Bartholomew. The foundation was always a poor one, and was suppressed, with the priory of St. Martin Newark in 1535.

Arcliffe Chapel.

A small chapel formerly stood close to Arcliffe Fort, and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of Pity. It was probably an ancient building in the sixteenth century, for it was restored in 1530 by Joachim de Vaux, French Ambassador to England. It is said that a happy escape from death by shipwreck prompted his benevolence. It was a small place, and over the door was a stone with the arms of England and France impaled, and on another stone a rose and a crown with the date 1530 upon it. In 1535 the chapel was served by a friar named John de Ponte, who applied to Cromwell to be appointed master of the Maison Dieu on the death of Clarke in January. Later in the year "certain naughty persons" razed out the French king's arms over the chapel, and it is certain that de Ponte was extremely unpopular in the town. He and de Vaux both wrote to Cromwell complaining of the mayor's action in

trying to turn him out of his chapel, and it would appear that a valuation of its contents was made with a view to its suppression. The leading persons in Dover had found certain rich pickings at the suppression of the priory, and were probably willing to appropriate some of the valuables in the French chapel. The letters were not without effect, for de Ponte remained in possession. Another effort to depose him was made by John Thompson, who during the friar's absence broke into the chapel and reported to Cromwell that he found the Pope's name before the king's in the mass book. De Ponte was imprisoned by the mayor in 1538 on a charge of communicating with the French during the war by keeping lights burning in his chapel during the night, and, with the exception of a bitter complaint sent by him to the Government, we hear no more of him henceforward. The harbour works eventually undermined the place, and the chapel either fell into ruins, or was carried away by a storm. The chapel is also spoken of as "Our Lady of the Rock," and donations to it are recorded by Elizabeth of York and Henry VIII., the latter giving "ivs. viijd.” on his landing in Dover in 1532. Lyon says it became the residence of a fisherman until 1576, when, with several other buildings near, it was destroyed by a tempestuous sea.

[State Papers, Dom. Series; Lyon; Seymour, Survey of Kent.]

Knight Templars' Church.

The foundations of an ancient building were discovered on the western heights in 1806. Further investigation proved them to be the remains of a church. The nave, which was circular, was twenty-seven feet in diameter, the walls being four feet thick. An oblong chancel was attached twenty-five feet in length, and fourteen feet wide

at the west end, but only thirteen feet at the east end. The building was Norman in design, and Caen stone was used in its construction.

The date on King John's surrender of the kingdom to the Legate Pandulph is as follows: "Teste meipso apud domum Militum Templi juxta Dovoram, xv. die Mai, anno regni nostri decimo quarto". It is impossible not to believe that this was the place where the king knelt before the Pope's legate and did homage for his kingdom, England and Ireland. It has been maintained that juxta could not mean "in" Dover, but as late as the seventeenth century the Bredinstone was spoken of as being a mile south of the town.

[Arch. Cant., xi., 45.]

A Wayside Chapel.

The remains of a very interesting thirteenth century chapel are still to be seen hemmed in by the shops in Biggin Street and Priory Road. It is a small building some twenty-eight feet in length by fourteen broad. The walls, which are fairly intact, are built of rubble masonry two feet thick, with Caen stone quoins and dressings. The west doorway is plain pointed with roll mouldings. The north and south walls are pierced by two lancet windows each, widely splayed, and a moulded string course ran round the interior below their sills. The roof was of a good pitch, and had tie-beams, collars and struts. The chapel is now entirely given up to trade purposes and is difficult of access. We conjecture that it was erected by the canons of St. Martin's and St. Mary's Priory, and was used as a wayside chapel, although it is not impossible that it may be the remains of the Hospital of St. Bartholomew's Chapel.

[Journal Arch. Assoc., xl.]

210

CHAPTER XI.

THE PHAROS-ST. MARY-IN-THE-CASTLE.

The Pharos.

THE Roman tower standing on the Castle heights was, undoubtedly, only one of two erected at the same time. In the beginning of the century the foundations of the second were discovered on the western heights whilst excavations were being made for the Drop Redoubt. Above these foundations stood for a long period a puzzling lump of masonry called locally the " Ara Cæsaris " or Bredinstone, near which the Lord Wardens were on several occasions sworn in. The origin of the term "Bredinstone" has been a considerable difficulty, and the only suggestion we can offer is, that, as in appearance it resembled the ordinary "pudding stone," which in some parts of England is called "Breeding" stone from the idea that it multiplied itself, the origin of the title may most probably be thus accounted for. What could be seen of these foundations showed that they were entirely similar to those of the Pharos in the Castle, composed as they were of green sandstone, Kentish rag, tufa and Roman brick, cemented together with typical salmon-coloured Roman mortar. Mr. Hambrook of Dover and the Cambridge Museum possess the only Roman tiles taken whole out of these foundations, and