In Shakespeare with Stratford-on-Avon. From a Drawing by HERBERT RAILTON. I saw few of these articles of commerce, and nothing whatever I am bound to say of the historic conviviality of the military. But I saw the cathedral and the castle, which are both fine, especially the castle; and I heard as it were in the air the voice of the immortal Jingle observing, "Glorious pilefrowning walls-tottering arches - dark nooks-crumbling staircases-old cathedral too-earthy smell-pilgrims' feet worn away the old steps-confessionals like money-takers' boxes at the theatre"; after which I looked at the bridge over which David Copperfield saw himself coming as evening closed in, footsore and tired, and eating the bread that he had bought for supper; after which I went to The Bull and Victoria Hotel and had supper myself. "Good house--nice beds," according to Mr. Jingle, who however did not put up here himself, if my memory serves me, but he dined with the Pickwickians and recommended broiled fowl and mushrooms-if he might be permitted to dictate. But why prolong the description of that immortal night? It is sufficient to say that at The Bull-which is the finest specimen of the inn of old days that I have seen on my travels-everything connected with the stay of the Pickwickians is preserved and cherished as the apple of his eye by the courteous and cultivated proBukhary prietor. All is shown to those who are Lane interested and reverent. The long room Canterbury of the departed genius should haunt one at every step? "The principal productions of Rochester," wrote Mr. Pickwick, "appear to be soldiers, sailors, Jews, chalk, shrimps, officers, and dockyard men." But I think the description is truer of the three other towns of Stroud, Chatham and Brompton, which are included in the category; for when I was at Rochester where the ball took place "with crimson covered benches and wax candles in glass chandeliers; the elevated den in which the musicians were securely confined; the corner of the staircase where the indignant Slammer met the victorious Jingle returning after escorting Mrs. Budger to her carriage, and said "Sir" in an awful voice, producing a card; the bedroom of Winkle "inside that of Mr. Tupman's," an arrangement which enabled Mr. Jingle to restore his borrowed plumage "unbeknownst" at the conclusion of the ball. All the first part of Pickwick is to be seen I say at The Bull and Victoriawith surroundings eloquent of the old world past; and which the author has in some other of his works thus graphically described. "A famous inn! The hall a very grove of dead game, and dangling joints of mutton; and in one corner an illustrious larder, with glass doors developing cold fowls and noble joints. And tarts wherein the raspberry jam coyly withdrew itself, as such a precious creature should, behind a lattice work of pastry." But to leave The Bull and Pickwick, for The Bull is not the only inn in Rochester to be described, nor is the History of Pickwick by any manner of means its only history. The Crown, which stands at the foot of the bridge, is a modern house now, but it is built on the site of a venerable place with gables and barge boards, which stood in 1390, and was pulled down (without a drawing having been made of it, it is needless to remark) so late only as 1863. A portion of the original stables still stands, which is a remarkably interesting fact, since it was here that that scene with the carriers took place in Henry IV., Act II., Scene 1, which was an introduction to Gad's Hill. To The Crown in its old shape came as visitor Henry the Eighth to have a private peep at Anne of Cleves. He came; he saw; he pronounced her a Flanders mare. departed, using strange words. The White Hart, another inn at Rochester almost opposite The Bull and Victoria, now presents the appearance of a small publichouse; but it can boast some antiquity in this way, was built in the reign of Richard the Second, and in 1667 sheltered the inquisitive head of Mr. Samuel Pepys --an incident which, remembering that Samuel was no enemy of good cheer, makes it probable that in those good old days it was the best inn in the place. Pepys was at Rochester on some business connected with the Admiralty and dockyards. He went to the Cathedral, but left before the service, strolled into the fields, viewed Sir F. Clark's pretty seat, and then retired to a cherry garden, where he met with an adven From a Drawing by HERBERT RAILTON. ture in the shape of a young, plain, silly shopkeeper, who had a pretty young woman as his wife. Mrs. Pepys not being present, on this plain shopkeeper's pretty wife the susceptible Samuel threw deathly glances. He also kissed her, I am sorry to have to say, and they then ate their dinners together, and walked in the fields till dark. An hiatus here occurs in the Diary. But the paragraph on emerging from mystery ends in the usual way-"and so to sleep." Besides Mr. Pepys there came to Rochester in 1573 Queen Elizabeth, and in 1606 James the First and that exceedingly jovial boon From a Drawing by HERBERT RAILTON. companion, the King of Denmark; but they appear to have been both in decent and sober frame-indeed, something in the penitential mood, for they underwent a sermon in the Cathedral. James the Second was at Rochester too, but not in the best of spirits I apprehend, or in the mood for viewing any ruins except those of his own life. For he came here under a Dutch guard, after his first attempt to escape, and after a week's detention was probably allowed to do so. He embarked on board a tender in the river from a house which is still standing, and was landed in due course at Ambleteuse. But the most interesting events connected with royal visits to Rochester surround the stay of Charles the Second at Restoration House, in the course of his triumphant procession to London. The present owner of this house, which was built about 1587, Mr. S. J. Aveling, has kindly obliged me with some details about this royal and memorable visit which are full of interest and have been most religiously preserved. The king arrived at Rochester on the Monday following his landing at Dover. The first thing he did was to refresh himself; the second to go and see the Royal Sovereign then lying at Chatham. After which he returned to Restoration House, and was immediately presented with a most dutiful and loyal address from Colonel Gibbons, then in temporary possession of the place; and also from the regiment of Colonel Gibbons stationed at that time in Rochester. John Marloe, the mayor of the city, now had his opportunity for displaying loyalty, and went to the length of a "faire piece of plate, value one hundred pounds," being a bason and ewer gilt. The king must have been tired that night, and no doubt he slept well. He should have done, at all events, for he slept in a delightful room which I have had the pleasure of seeing, containing amongst other curiosities a secret panel which opens into passages communicating with the garden and with the roof. The first half of the Dover Road-that part of it as far as Rochester, at all eventswhere I propose, as I said, to stay for a month, is so closely associated with the memory of Dickens, that another reminiscence of him may fittingly round its story. There is a passage then in Great Expectations referring to this very Restoration House, a place which always took his fancy, and well it might. "I had stopped," thus the passage runs, "to look at the house as I passed, and its seared red brick walls, blocked windows, and strong green ivy clasping even the stacks of chimneys with its twigs and tendons, as if with sinewy old arms, made up a rich and attractive mystery." This mystery held him to the end. On the occasion of his last visit to Rochester, June 6th, 1870, he was seen leaning on the fence in front of the house, gazing at it, rapt, intent, as if drawing inspiration from its clustering chimneys, its storied walls so rich with memories of the past. It was anticipated, it was hoped, that the next chapter of Edwin Drood would bear the fruits of this reverie. The next chapter was never written. W. OUTRAM TRISTRAM. converting the quaint couplet into a fatal prophecy. This same John Howard, created Earl Marshal of England, was the direct ancestor of the present owner of Arundel Castle, Henry Fitzalan Howard, thirty-fifth Earl of Arundel, and fifteenth Duke of Norfolk ; Premier Duke and Earl, and hereditary Earl Marshal of England. The first mention found of Arundel is in King Alfred's will, where it is described simply as a manor, although he at one time made it his royal residence. In an entry of Doomsday Book the Castle of Arundel is mentioned as rendering "between the town, and the port, and the customs of the shipping, twelve pounds," and "as being worth thirteen." At the period of the Conquest it was designated the "Honour of Arundel," and as such was given by William the Conqueror to a certain Roger, Baron Montgomery, who commanded the centre division of the victorious army at the battle of Hastings, in return for which services he received the two earldoms of Arundel and Shrewsbury. The venerable keep was even then in existence, but the great Norman 1 The following article has been read and revised by the Duke of Norfolk, by whose permission the historical portraits are now for the first time published. eway, sometimes called the clock-tower, hits drawbridge and portcullis, as well Bevis' Tower, are attributed to Earl Roger, the immense vault under the east end the building. To this vault, at present d as one of the cellars of the castle, were merly brought not only the military capes of the earls, but all other delinquents thin the extensive liberties of the earldom. e vault is entered through a circular arch ing the doorway, and the vaultings are circular, formed by square blocks of alk, and strengthened by four immense ansome ribs of stone. There are two rrow round-headed windows for the purpose lighting this dismal ancient prison of the stle, and in a corner of the inner division the apartment there is apparently a long he buttress, which is in fact a secret amber, doubtless used as a hiding-place in en times; there was formerly a trap-door d narrow staircase leading to it from the om above. A curious instance of escape from this ison, as connected with the law of sancary, is recorded as having occurred in the Tear 1404. A person named John Mot had been apprehended and committed on a charge robbery, but having contrived to elude e vigilance of his keepers, passed the osure of the castle, and had nearly sucled in securing his retreat, when his ght became known, and the constable, companied by a party of the inhabitants, lowed in pursuit. Finding that he was ely to be overtaken, the fugitive fled to he college, and seizing the ring which was tached to the gate, claimed the rights of anctuary. The constable however seems to are doubted the validity of the claim, and he captive was once more conveyed to his Engeon. Investigations were made and the ecision given that the immunities of the Church and the laws of sanctuary had been olated; so eventually the prisoner was restored to the Church," whilst each of the arties concerned in the capture was anded to offer a burning taper at High ass on Sunday in the collegiate chapel. In the time of Henry I. the "Honour of rundel," together with its castle, reverted the Crown, and when in the year 1139 Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I., nded in England to assert her claim to the rone in opposition to Stephen, she retired once to Arundel, which was then in ssession of the widow of Henry I., stepother to the empress. Preparations were ade for a vigorous defence, and in a few ys Stephen appeared beneath the walls. com History tells of the negotiations between him and Matilda, resulting in his consent to let her leave Arundel, upon which she promptly joined her adherents in Bristol. con Towards the close of the thirteenth century the present entrance to the keep was structed, while the ancient hall with its appendant buildings on the south-west side of the great area of the castle, was the next addition to the splendour of the edifice. It is difficult to carry our minds back through seven hundred and eighty-nine years, and to realize that parts of the magnificent building which delights our eyes to-day were looked upon by William Rufus when on his return from Normandy he landed at Arundel, and celebrated his Easter at the castle in the year 1079. Later on in 1302 Edward I. crossed the old drawbridge over which we drive to-day, into the grand open space between the castle itself and the ancient keep, and passed some time within the walls which, could they only speak, might tell so much. In this keep for many years there existed a peculiar race of owls, which is however now extinct. A sad fate awaited the beautiful old castle in the tumultuous period of the seventeenth century. During the absence of its owner abroad it fell, first into the hands of the Parliamentary army, from which in the year 1643 the Royalists determined to dispossess their opponents. The third day after their attack the castle surrendered to the royal arms, but the patient Roundheads bided their time, and while with proud humility they ascribed all their success to the Lord, they finally succeeded by very carnal means in recapturing the place, which, by the time the siege was ended, was reduced almost to a ruin; it was deserted as a residence, and not until 1720 did Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, make it his occasional abode, repairing from time to time portions of the building. In 1795 a successor to Duke Thomas enlarged and beautified it still more, giving it the grand dimensions it now has. The Baron's Hall, which with its appendant chapel was designed to commemorate the triumph of the barons over the tyranny of King John, was commenced in 1806. The rich stained glass which was formerly in the thirteen original windows of this hall, has all been removed, and ordinary white glass been put in its place. In the large east drawing-room of the castle, which for the moment is used as a dining-room, hang some of the most interesting of the family portraits. As a bordering above the tinted walls of this room shields |