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St. Martin's, near Canterbury.

[Illustration: St. Martin's, near Canterbury.]

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THE FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH ERECTED IN ENGLAND.

(_For the Mirror_.)


The venerable and interesting church of St. Martin is situated on the
side of a hill, (named from it,) at the distance of little more than a
quarter of a mile from the dilapidated walls of Canterbury. It is
generally believed to have been erected by the Christian soldiers in the
Roman army, about the time of king Lucius, A.D. 182, and hence is justly
esteemed as _the first Christian church erected in Britain_, and
indeed nothing appears to contradict this assertion; for the Britons,
before the arrival of the Romans, were, as is well known, in a state of
barbarism and idolatry, and their habitations huts of clay and turf; and
as to its being built after their departure, I do not think it at all
likely, for England was then ravaged and overrun by the warlike clans of
its mountain neighbours, and consequently its inhabitants had not time
or inclination to erect buildings, when their lives and property were