difices, from the bigotry of their
opponents. The following passage, from a paper entitled "Mercurius
Rusticus," of 1647, is quoted in "The History and Antiquities of
Rochester." "In September, 1640" (apparently a mistake for
August--September, 1642) "the rebels coming to Rochester, brought the
same affections which they express'd at Canterbury; but in wisdom
thought it not safe to give them scope here, as there; for the
multitude, tho' mad enough yet were not so mad, nor stood so prepared to
approve such heathenish practices. By this means the monuments of the
dead, which elsewhere they brake up and violated, stood untouch'd;
escocheons and arms of the nobility and gentry remained undefaced; the
seats and stalls of the quire escaped breaking down; only those things
which were wont to stuff up parliamentary petitions, and were branded by
the leaders of the faction for popery and innovations; in these they
took liberty to let loose their wild zeal: they brake down the rails
about the Lord's table or altar; they seized upon the velvet of the holy
table; and, in contempt of those holy misteries which were celebrated on
the table, removed the table itself into a lower part of the church. To
conclude with this farther addition, as I am credibly informed, they so
far profaned this place as to make use of it in the quality of a
tippling place, as well as dug several saw-pits, and the city joiners
made frames for houses in it." Even the Royalist and Church party,
therefore, allow that comparatively little damage was done here. The
statement that the monuments "stood untouch'd" is especially interesting
and valuable as coming from them.

The name of one despoiler is on record. In the answer by the dean and
chapter to an enquiry by Bishop Warner, a certain John Wyld, a shoemaker
of Rochester, is mentioned as having taken down and sold iron and brass
work from some of the tombs. The Rev. S. Denne gives the following
additional information,--on the testimony of "Mr. William Head, senior
alderman of the city, a very antient worthy man, who died March 5,
1732,"--that the church was used as a stable by Fairfax's troops, who
turned their horses' heads into the stalls in the choir.

[Illustration: NORTH-WEST VIEW, EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
(FROM AN ENGRAVING PUBLISHED IN 1719).]

Great efforts were made directly after the Restoration to bring the
building into a decent state once more. On the 10th of April, 1661,
Samuel Pepys, then on