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tified it, and built the great tower therein.

"In the 17th year of King John, the Barons held this castle against him, but he subdued and took possession of it and in the year following, it fell into the hands of Lewes, son of Philip, King of France. Being for some time in the possession of King Henry III. he gave it to Guy, of Rochford, a Poictovin, who was afterwards banished, and therefore lost the castle.

"In the year 1264, Simon, Earle of Leicester, besieged this castle, won the bridge and the first gate, then left the siege.

"In the fifth year of the reign of Richard the Second, the Commons

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of this country strongly besieged this castle, and by force took a prisoner out of it; and thus the whole ran to decay, and the old walls afterwards falling, King Edw. IV. repaired both the walls and the castle.

"I finde also three mint-houses to have been granted by King Ethelstan, about the year 930, to be in this city, viz. two for the King, and one for the Bishop. And 8 December, 1251, King Hen. III. held a just here."

Speaking of the cathedral and priory, Kilburne says, "It was built by King Ethelbert, in the year 600, and dedicated to the honour of God and St. Andrew, endowed with lands called Priest-fields, and established many channons therein. But the several

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devastations aforesaid of the city by the Mercians, Danes, and the West Saxons, caused this church and the priory to run to decay, both which were rebuilt by the aforesaid Gundulphus, being bishop there about the year 1080."

A judicious Editor, who published in the year 1772 the History and Antiquities of Rochester, says, " About April, 1556, Rochester became the theatre of one of those horrid scenes. that disgraced the reign and religion of Queen Mary I. John Harpole, of St. Nicholas' parish in this city, and John Beach, of Tunbridge, were burnt alive as heretics, according to the sentence of Maurice Griffin, bishop of Rochester, for denying the authority

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of the church, and the transubstantiation of the sacramental elements.

"The illustrious sister of Queen Mary was more propitious to this city. It has been observed by many historians of her reign, that travelling from one part of the kingdom to another was a favourite passion of Elizabeth; and, in order to gratify this laudable inclination, she, in the year 1573, visited various places in the counties of Sussex and Kent. Being on her return towards the metropolis from this tour, her Majesty came, on September the 18th, to Rochester, and, for four or five days of her continuance there, she took up her abode at the Crown Inn; but, on the last day, Mr. Watts had the honour and happiness of accommodating her at his house on Bully-hill, the

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same which lately belonged to Mr. Brooke. There is a traditional story of this royal guest having given the title of Satis to this mansion; either, as declaring it to be her opinion, that the apartments were sufficiently large and commodious, even for a lady of her exalted rank, and that therefore all further apologies (supposing he had made many on the subject) were needless, after expressing her satisfaction at the treatment she had received in it."

The name of Watts stands very conspicuously forward in the annals of Rochester, owing to the many benefactions he left to the city and its neighbourhood; one, from its singularity as well as its utility, particularly attracts the attention of both the traveller and the historian, and that is

the

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