f the pilgrimages, about 100,000 people are said to have visited it every
year. The steps that lead to it show how they were deeply worn by
pilgrims, who ascended in pairs on their knees. Where stood the shrine the
pavement has also been worn deeply down to the shape of the human knee by
pilgrims while in prayer. Each pilgrim brought an offering, and nothing
less than gold was accepted. Not alone the common people, but princes,
kings and great church dignitaries from foreign lands came with gifts.
Erasmus was here in 1510 and wrote of the Becket shrine that it "shone and
glittered with the rarest and most precious jewels of an extraordinary
largeness, some larger than the egg of a goose."

The brilliant duration of these pilgrimages came finally to a sudden end.
During the Reformation, Henry VIII. seized and demolished the shrine. The
treasure, filling two large chests, and which eight men could with
difficulty carry, was seized, and on the adjoining pavement the bones of
the saint were burned. Not a single relic of Becket now remains in
Canterbury. With no ordinary feeling does one stand amid the scene of this
most interesting and curious chapter in church history. Not far from the
shrine is the place where the murder of Becket was committed. You are
shown the actual stone that was stained with his blood. A piece of this
stone, about four inches square, was cut out of the pavement at the time
of the murder and sent to Rome, where it is still preserved. Among many
interesting tombs not already referred to are those of the great St.
Dunstan; of Admiral Rooke, the hero of Gibraltar; of Stephen Langton
(immortal with Magna Charta), and of Archbishop Pole, of Mary Tudor's
time, who died the same day as that queen, and thus made clear Elizabeth's
path to a restoration of Protestantism.

After the cathedral, the most interesting place in Canterbury is St.
Martin's Church. With few exceptions--including, perhaps, a very early and
well-preserved church in Ravenna--it is doubted if an older Christian
church now remains in Europe. There certainly is none that can claim more
interest for Englishmen and for descendants of Englishmen in the New
World. St. Martin's is somewhat removed from the town, where it stands
alone on a sloping knoll, and is very simple in form. The tower that rises
over the doorway is built of plain Roman brick and broken flint stones,
and has occasionally a piece of drest stone on corners. The tower is
square