The work before us is of a high class; and if the learned Editor could be induced to take up a second series of these invaluable linguistic remains, he would, indeed, deserve hearty thanks of all scholars of the Teutonic branches of philology. As it is, these twenty lists, embracing upwards of eight hundred closely pointed columns, will be found to comprehend words and explanations that may be sought for in vain elsewhere. The annotations are not the least valuable part of the book; and we may safely say that no future lexicographer can fail to make the most thorough use of the work, which has been issued very opportunely, when two great dictionaries of the English language are just passing through the press.

The Records of St. Michael's Parish Church, Bishop's Stortford. Edited by J. L. GLASSCOCK, JUN. (London: Elliot Stock, 62 Paternoster Row, E.C. Bishop's Stortford: Arthur Boardman, North Street.)-This work contains, among other things, transcripts of churchwardens' accounts from 1431 to 1847, with notes; names of the vicars from 1332; the churchwardens from 1430; the collectors and overseers from 1563; papers relating to the Chantry and the Guild of St. John the Baptist; inventories of church goods, temp. Henry VIII and Edward VI; rentals; old overseers' accounts; papers relating to the charities, etc. A list is also given of all the monumental inscriptions now in the church; and a list of those which were formerly there, but which have now disappeared. To these are added a full copy of all those inscriptions hitherto not printed; also a list of the inscriptions now remaining in the disused burial-ground, giving the names, dates of death, and ages of about eight hundred persons.

Sandgate Castle.-Professor T. Hayter Lewis, F.S.A., communicates the following note, which further illustrates his remarks on Sandgate Castle at p. 175, 1. 3, after " erection":

"The earliest notice of Sandgate Castle which I have been able to find is in the time of Richard II, when the Castle appears to have been of a considerable size, admitting horses, etc. The notice is in the form of a letter from the King to the Captain of Sandgate Castle, and is as follows, the date being 1398, an. 22 Richard II:-Rex Capitaneo Castri sui de Sandgate, vel ejus Locum tenenti ibidem, salutem. Sciatis quòd (de Gratiâ nostrâ speciali) concessimus consanguineo nostro Henrico de Lancastre, Duci Herefordiæ, quod ipse Castrum prædictum, cum Familiâ, equis & Hernesiis suis, ingredi & ibidem per sex septimanas morari possit, ad ipsum cum Familiâ suâ prædictâ, inibi recreandum. Et ideò vobis mandamus quòd ipsum Ducem Castrum prædictum, cum Familiâ, Equis & Harnesiis prædictis, ingredi permittatis juxta Tenorem Præsentis Concessionis nostræ. In cujus &c. Teste Rege apud Castrum de Wyndesore tertio die Octobris."" (Rymer's Foedera, vol. viii [1397-1413], p. 49.)

THE JOURNAL

OF THE

British Archaeological Association.

SEPTEMBER 1884.

ST. THOMAS OF DOVER.

BY REV. CANON SCOTT-ROBERTSON, M. A.

(Read at the Dover Congress, August 1883.)

A REMARKABLE event in the history of the Priory of St. Martin's took place in August 1395, when certain Frenchmen landing at Dover, during the course of a few hours, ravaged all the town near the shore with fire and sword. Assaulting St. Martin's Priory, they overcame all opposition, and, having forced an entrance, they ransacked the whole place, destroyed much, and carrying off whatever valuables they could find. By the time that they had forced their way in, the monks had sought safety in flight, all but one, an aged man of great holiness, named Thomas de la Hale. He being old and infirm, refused to fly. The Frenchmen found him sitting in the dormitory, and tried to induce him to guide them to the treasures of the Priory. This he steadfastly refused to do. Threats and cajolery proving in vain, the Frenchmen resorted to violence. This was equally unavailing. At last, irritated beyond endurance by the old man's faithfulness in refusing to obey them, they took the aged monk's life, and, having slain him there in the Priory, they withdrew to their ships with their spoil. When the refugee monks returned to the monastery, they found the buildings damaged, and the whole place stripped of all that was of any value; but in one of the ransacked buildings they found something to repay them for all their losses. This was the dead body of their

1884

17

aged brother, Thomas de la Hale. Had he not been slain because of his faithfulness to his order and his duty? Was he not, then, a martyr in his Priory's cause? The pity and indignation of the monks, and subsequently of the people, at once elevated the poor old monk to a place among the saints, and Thomas de la Hale became the saintly martyr of Dover. His burial in the Priory Church was an imposing ceremony; and his tomb was resorted to by devotees, who declared they received bodily benefit from their pilgrimage to it, and from prayers thereat. In fact, the monks asserted that miracles were wrought by their martyred brother's remains.

The story of his death, or martyrdom, finds a place in several of the chronicles or annals of the time. One chronicler, John of Tynemouth, has left an elaborate record of the Life and Passion of Thomas de la Hale, Monk of Dover, slain by the French". It is still preserved in the Bodleian Library (MS. 240, p. 798). The Chronicon Roffense' outstrips all others by presenting to us at the foot of the page a spirited sketch of the scene of his murder, very cleverly drawn. Within a few months. after his death, when the Priory buildings were still suffering from the effects of the Frenchmen's raid, the monks had prospered greatly in their efforts to make a market of their aged brother's death. In the January after his murder, Dover was visited by the Bishop of Winchester, John de Pontissard; and from him the monks obtained a grant of forty days' indulgence for all Christian people who would pray for the soul of Brother Thomas de la Hale, lately a monk in the Conventual Church of St. Martin, Dover, and wherein he is buried. His tomb, thus advertised, was frequented by hundreds of devout persons. The chroniclers descend to details, and narrate the raising to life of five dead men, and cures of the blind, the deaf, and the lame, all ascribed to the saintly virtues of the martyred Thomas of Dover; all connected with his tomb in this Priory Church. Nor did the monks suffer time to dim the lustre of the martyr's reputation, or lessen the revenues they gathered from pilgrims to his tomb. In October 1370, they obtained from Archbishop Wittlesey (who was then at

1 Cotton MS., Nero D. ii, fol. 187A..

Dover) a grant of forty days' indulgence for all devout pilgrims praying at the tomb of Thomas de la Hale. But their greatest achievement was the winning over the Black Prince's widow to such an interest in them, and such reverence for their martyr, that she persuaded her son, King Richard II, to join her in requesting the Pope to canonize Dover's Saint Thomas. Things went so far that in December 1380, a papal Bull was issued by Urban VI, directing the Archbishop and the Bishop of London to examine into the claims of Thomas de la Hale. These Prelates commissioned the Priors of Christ Church and St. Gregory's at Canterbury, together with the Archdeacon of Oxford (Thomas Southam), a canon of St. Paul's (Robert Bradgar), and the Rector of Southflete (Robert Bourne), to examine the evidence as to each reputed miracle. The commission is dated in October 1382. Thomas of Dover was bidding fair to rival Thomas of Canterbury. But it would never suit the monks of Christ Church to see another St. Thomas enshrined so close to their own great martyr. No Bull of canonization was issued, and we must, therefore, infer that the evidence of the reputed miracles was not sufficient to produce conviction in the minds of the five ecclesiastics who formed the commission. In this, Thomas de la Hale shared the same fate which awaited Henry VI. Similar application was made to canonize that King, and a similar commission issued, but he was not made a saint.

Nevertheless, the reputation of Thomas of Dover continued to flourish; and his tomb seems to have been regarded as an altar by many. At so late a date as the year 1499, Thomas Riche, Vicar of Bokeland, desired (by his will) to be buried in the Priory Church of St. Martin, "near to the altar of the blessed Thomas de Halys there". In fact, we have evidence that this thirteenth century martyr formed one of the chief attractions and notabilities of the Priory up to the last day of its existence. When the dissolution came, one of the monks who signed the deed of surrender in 1536 was Thomas Cristun, who had, "in religion", adopted the name of the local martyr. His signature to the deed, acknowledging the Royal Supremacy, in 1534, is simply "Thomas de la Hale".

BY

RICHBOROUGH.

G. DOWKER, ESQ., F.G.S.

(Read at the Dover Congress, August 1883.)

ASSEMBLED as we are beneath the walls of the ancient Rutupiæ, whose massive structure has defied the ravages of the barbarians, and withstood for fifteen centuries the assaults of the elements, we are reminded of Rome's former greatness in Britain, and of the great changes that have taken place since the marshes, now surrounding this castrum, were filled with the waters of the Wantsum, on which floated the fleet of the Comes Littoris Saxonici. Doubtless these shallow waters of the Rutupian shore afforded safe and commodious harbours; and Rutupiæ must have been a port of the first pre-eminence and importance in connection with the traffic from the Continent at a time even dating from the beginning of the Roman occupation. Important problems still await a solution: first, was Rutupiæ more than a port, was it also a town? secondly, at what period were the present walls constructed? thirdly, were there any defensive walls before the present, or did the subterranean structure exist before the present walls were built? fourthly, what was the date and intention of the cross erected on the platform? fifthly, what are the walls, of which fragments only remain, that are found resting on the platform and surrounding the cross?

I must presume that you are acquainted with the history of this place, so well written by Mr. C. Roach Smith, F.S.A., and I shall, therefore, merely summarise the chief points that have been ascertained respecting it, and the discoveries which have been made since that work was written. Mr. Boys, the historian of Sandwich, measured the dimensions of the walls, and discovered the structure within, termed the platform, and made an accurate plan of the castrum and its surroundings in 1792; subsequent excavations were made by Mr. Gleig in 1826, notes of