Chapel, with an endowment of 181. per annum, payable out of the bridge lands, for supporting three priests. This is now a dwelling house, and the entrance into it is through a portico nearly opposite the east end of the bridge. In the apartment above the portico the muniments of the bridge are kept, and over the gateway of the Crown Inn is the audit-chamber, in which the wardens and assistants hold their meetings. A considerable part of the stone moulding of the Gothic door of the chapel is in good preservation, and on each side of the door are mouldings of the west windows, with pointed arches. Traces of the old windows in the east and south walls are discernable in the yard of the inn; and the house on the north side, in leases, has been usually called THE CHAPEL HOUSE, as having been the residence of the chaplains. By the rules established by the founders, there were to be three masses said every day; the first between five and six o'clock in the morning, the second between eight and nine, the third between eleven and twelve, to the end that travellers might have the opportunity of being present at these divine offices, this being the principal cause for which the chantry was endowed. But at each mass there was to be a special collect for all living and dead benefactors to the bridge and chapel, and for the souls of Sir John Cobham and others, whose names were to be recited *. Immediately beneath the centre window is the following inscription: Custodes et Communitas pro sustentatione et Instaurari fecerunt, There was another chapel at the west end of the bridge, but where placed is not known; chapels for the like purposes were not uncommonly fixed near bridges that were much frequented, and a custom is said to have obtained in Ireland, at the beginning of this century, for the natives at passing over a bridge, to pull off their hats or shew some other token of respect, and pray for the soul of the builder of the bridge. Το To the right of the Audit Room, or Bridge House, are the magnificent remains of ROCHESTER CASTLE. The entrance to this stately ruin is behind the Crown Inn. Lambard thinks that the castle was the work of William the Conqueror, who erected such fortifications in England, to keep the English in obedience; hence we may conclude, that nearly eight hundred years have elapsed since the foundation of this building. Its present remains prove it to have been a strong fortification, especially when it is considered, that during the several conflicts betwixt the barons and the kings of England, this castle sustained many sieges. The architect is supposed to have been Gundulphus, bishop of Rochester. It stands on a small eminence near the river Medway, and is nearly of a quadrangular form; being about three hundred feet square within the walls, which are seven feet in thickness, and twenty feet in height. The sides of the castle were surrounded with a deep broad ditch, now nearly filled up, and the Medway. In the angles and sides of the castle still remain several square towers. But the chief attraction of a spectator, is, the noble tower standing in the south-east angle, so lofty, as to be seen distinctly at twenty miles distance. It is quadrangular; its sides parallel with the walls of the castle, about seventy feet square at the base, and the walls twelve feet thick. Adjoining to the east angle of the tower is a smaller, about two-thirds height of the large tower, and about twenty-eight feet square. The apartments are divided by a partition wall, from the bottom to the top, so that the rooms were twenty-one by forty-six feet on each floor. In this wall are arches by which a communication was opened from one room to the other. In the centre is a curious well, two feet nine inches diameter, by which every floor was supplied with water. On the north-east side of the tower is a descent, by steps, into a vault under the small tower, probably used as a prison. In the east angle there is a winding staircase, which ascends from the bottom to the top of the tower. In the west angle is another staircase, winding from the floor of the first story to the top of the tower, with communications with every room. There are many holes in the outward walls, on every side, for the admission of light, and for annoying the enemy. On the third floor, were the apartments of state, and here the architect seems to have exhibited immense ability. These apartments were about thirty-two feet high, and separated by columns, forming four grand arches curiously ornamented. About midway to the ascent to the next floor, is a narrow arched passage or gallery in the main wall, quite round the tower. From the upper, or fourth floor, the staircase is carried the height of ten feet, to the top of the great tower, which is about ninety-three feet from the ground; round the top is a battlement seven feet high, with embrasures. From this elevation is an agreeable and extensive prospect of the country, the city and adjacent towns, the barracks and dock-yard at Chatham, and the pleasing and romantic meanders of the river. Near the castle is a descent to Bully or Boley-hill. From the many Roman urns and lachrymatorics found on digging this hill, it is conjectured to have been a place of sepulture of the Romans; and historians add, with great probability, that the mound was cast up by the Danes when they besieged the city in 884. Whence the hill itself derived its appellation, has puzzled antiquaries; but an attention to its situation with respect to the castle, and the use to which it was applied while that fortress was in its prosperity, may lead to a very reasonable surmise concerning the etymology. To most old castles were appertaining outworks called Ballia; and that there was an outer ballium is clear, from Matthew of Westminster's History, who, relating the unsuccessful attack of Montfort earl of Leicester and the confederate barons against the castle, observes, that having by a fireship de stroyed the bridge, and a tower of wood upon it, he became possessed of the city cum exteriori ballio castri. But there |