nd, and fluttering about in a state of the utmost bewilderment.
Methinks even Mr. Pickwick, had he been present in the flesh, would have
been equally amazed at this remarkable spectacle."

F. G. K.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] Mr. Kitton was, by an interesting coincidence, present at the
ceremony above referred to, and he has kindly given his impressions
thereon, which appear at the end of this chapter.

[7] This was a joint article; the description of the works of the
dockyard being by R. H. Horne, and that of the fortifications and
country around by Charles Dickens.

CHAPTER V.

ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL.

"That same afternoon, the massive grey square
tower of an old Cathedral rises before the sight
of a jaded traveller. The bells are going for
daily Vesper Service, and he must needs attend it,
one would say, from his haste to reach the open
Cathedral door. The choir are getting on their
sullied white robes, in a hurry, when he arrives
among them, gets on his own robe, and falls into
the procession filing in to Service. Then, the
Sacristan locks the iron-barred gates that divide
the Sanctuary from the Chancel, and all of the
procession having scuttled into their places, hide
their faces; and then the intoned words, 'WHEN THE
WICKED MAN--' rise among the groins of arches and
beams of roof, awakening muttered
thunder."--_Edwin Drood._

THE readers of Dickens are first introduced to Rochester Cathedral, in
the early pages of the immortal _Pickwick Papers_, by that audacious
_raconteur_, Mr. Alfred Jingle:--

"Old Cathedral too--earthy smell--pilgrims' feet
worn away the old steps--little Saxon
doors--confessionals like money-takers' boxes at
theatres--queer customers those monks--Popes, and
Lord Treasurers, and all sorts of old fellows,
with great red faces, and broken noses, turning up
every day--buff jerkins
too--matchlocks--sarcophagus--fine place--old
legends too--strange stories: capital."

But it was through the medium of _Edwin Drood_, and under the masked
name of Cloisterham, that all the novel-reading world beyond the
"ancient city" first recognized Rochester Cathedral--and indeed the
ancient city too--as