the year the pilgrims came and went, and instead of falling off in
numbers as the martyrdom receded, the popularity of the saint did not
reach its zenith until the fifteenth century. Royal visits were of
frequent occurrence, and of all the cities of England, after London,
Canterbury would appear to have entertained more distinguished
personages than any other.

Between 1378 and 1411 Prior Chillenden pulled down Lanfranc's Norman
nave and transept, which had survived the fire, and rebuilt them in
the Perpendicular style, then prevailing. When this work was finished
and the south-western tower had been completed, in 1481, there was not
much left of the Norman priory church built by Lanfranc. The
north-western or Arundel Tower, the last survival of Lanfranc's
church, was rebuilt in 1840 and made to match its Perpendicular
neighbour and the central tower--the external masterpiece of the
cathedral--commenced by Prior Molashe in 1433, and completed by Prior
Selling in the closing years of the century. The piers supporting this
tower are Norman with a later casing, and the foundations of the nave
walls belong to the same period.

Having reached its greatest glories, Canterbury began to decline, and
the dissolution of the two great monasteries and the demolishing of
Becket's shrine must have been to the city, on a much larger scale,
what the sweeping away of all the Shakespearean landmarks and relics
from Stratford-on-Avon of to-day would imply. Nevertheless the city
could afford to present Queen Elizabeth with £30 in a scented purse
when she came thither in 1564, and the fact that Canterbury remained
the chief centre of the authority and state of the English Church
prevented the city from decaying. And even if this dignity had not
remained the position of the town in relation to the comings and