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Canterbury (City and parliamentary)

a city and parliamentary and municipal borough of England in Kent, 62 miles S. E. of London, giving name to an archiepiscopal see, the occupant of which is primate of all England. The Roman name was Durovernum, and the place was of early importance. Its present name is a a modification of the Saxon Cant-wara-byrig, CANTERBURY cathedral. The city is beautifully situated in a fertile vale, on the river Stour. Small portions of the old walls and one of the old gates still remain. The cathedral, one of the finest ecclesiastical structures in England, 530 feet in length and 154 in breadth, has been built in different ages, the oldest part dating from about 1174. The great tower, 235 feet in height, is a splendid specimen of the Pointed style. Other ecclesiastical buildings are St. Augustine's monastery, now a church missionary college, St.

Margaret's church, and the church dedicated to St. Martin, believed to be one CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL the Kentishmen's city. The foundation of the archiepiscopal see took place soon after the arrival of St. Augustine in 596.

In the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries the city was dreadfully ravaged by the Danes, but at the Conquest its buildings exceeded in extent those of London. The ecclesiastical importance of the place was consummated by the murder of Thomas à Becket in the cathedral, the priory and see benefiting by the offerings of devotees and pilgrims at his shrine. Henry VIII. dissolved the priory in 1539, and ordered the bones of Becket to be burned; and the troopers of Oliver Cromwell made a stable of the oldest existing Christian churches.

The old archiepiscopal palace is now represented by a mere fragment, and the archbishops have long resided at Lambeth. Canterbury has a royal grammarschool, founded by Henry VIII., numerous other schools, art gallery, etc. There are breweries and malting establishments; and the principal articles of trade are corn and hops. There are extensive barracks for cavalry and infantry. Pop. about 25,000.