Canterbury contains a cathedral church, the seat of an archbishop, who is primate of all England and metropolitan, and provincial of the dioceses south of Trent,—his own diocese comprising the greater part of Kent and a small piece of Surrey. The cathedral staff consists of a dean, six canons, twenty-four honorary canons, an auditor, six preachers, four minor canons, and subordinate officers; and attached to it is a school founded by Henry VIII., and called the king’s school, comprising a foundation for two masters and fifty scholars, with a few exhibitions also. The cathedral library contains about 9000 volumes, and is rich in ancient charters and registers of the monastery. Besides the cathedral there are fifteen parish churches, and places of worship for Roman Catholics, Jews, Unitarians, Independents, Baptists, Wesleyans, Lady Huntingdon’s congregation, and the Society of Friends. In the crypt of the cathedral there is also a church founded by Queen Elizabeth for French Protestant refugees, and still used by a small French congregation. A college for the education of missionary clergy of the Church of England was founded by Royal Charter in 1848 on the ruins of St Augustine’s abbey; and on St Thomas Hill in the suburbs is the boys’ school of the Clergy Orphan Corporation. The principal public buildings are the Guild Hall, the Corn Exchange with market-place below, the Museum, the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, an institution for upwards of 100 patients, and the gaol, which is for the eastern division of the county, with the county court-hall adjoining. The city contains barracks for horse, foot, and artillery,— that for cavalry being used for depots of regiments on foreign service, and that for infantry as the brigade depot of the 3rd regiment (Buffs) and the East Kent regiment, and as the headquarters of the East Kent militia. The trade of Canterbury comprises good markets for hops and corn, but has no other speciality. There are some pleasant public gardens known as the Dane-John Walks. The suburbs and neighbourhood are favourite spots for residence.

Canterbury returns two members to Parliament, the constituency being 2794 (revision 1875). The population in 1871 was 20,962, and the number of houses 4102.

Canterbury occupies the site of the Roman Durovernum, a city established upon that ford of the River Stour at which roads from the three Kentish harbour-fortresses, Rutupiae, Dubrοe, and Lernanoe (now Richborough, Dover, and Lymne) became united into the one great military way through Britain, known in later days as Watling Street. From this ford the city apparently derived its name, the first syllable of which is the Celtic clwr, “ water.” The Romans do not seem, at least towards the end of their occupation, to have made it a military centre, or given it a permanent garrison; but, as a halting-place for troops on the march, and commercially, as lying in the direct path of all the Continental traffic of Britain, its importance at this date must have been considerable. The city reappears, under its new name of Cantwarabyrig (since shortened to the present word), as the capital of Ethelbert, the fourth Saxon king of Kent, during the latter part of whose reign it became in a manner the metropolis of England,—the office of Bretwalda, or overlord, of the island to the Humber being held by Ethelbert. It was in this reign (in 596) and under these circumstances that Augustine and his fellow-missionaries arrived from Rome, and their settlement by Ethelbert in his capital became the origin of its position, held ever since, as the metropolis of the English Church. Its history from this time becomes chiefly ecclesiastical. Here lived and ruled Augustins and the succeeding archbishops, and here under their auspices, from the time of Ethelbert and Augustine downwards, arose two of the principal monasteries of England, the abbey of St Augustine and the priory of Christ Church, —the latter ruled by a prior only, as acknowledging the archbishop for its abbot. These were long rivals in importance and wealth, in which the abbey held for several centuries the advantage, as possessing the shrines of the earlier archbishops, the chief saints of the English Church, till the pre-eminence of the priory in turn became decidedly established by the murder of Archbishop Becket (1170) in its cathedral church, his canonization as St Thomas of Canterbury, and the resort of the Christian world on pilgrimage to his shrine. Miracles were almost immediately said to be worked at his grave in the crypt, and at the well in which his garments had been washed; and from the time when Henry II. did his penance for the murder in the church, and the battle of Alnwick was gained over the Scots a few days afterwards—it was supposed as a result— the fame of the martyr’s power and the popularity of his worship became an established thing in England. On the rebuilding of the cathedral after a fire, in 1175, a magnificent shrine was erected for him in a new chapel built for the purpose, which became thronged for three centuries by pilgrims and worshippers of all classes, from kings and emperors downwards. Henceforward the interests of the city became bound up in those of the cathedral, and were shown in the large number of hostels for the accommodation of the pilgrims, and of shops containing wares especially suited to their tastes. A pilgrimage to Canterbury became not only a pious exercise, but a fashionable summer excursion; and the poet Chaucer, writing in the 14th century, has given us an admirable picture of such pilgrimages, with the manners and behaviour of a party of pilgrims, leisurely enjoying the journey, and telling stories to each other on the road. Our very language still contains two words originating in these customs,—a “canterbury,” or a “canterbury tale,” a phrase used for a fiction,—and a “canter,” which is a short íoim for a “canterbury gallop,” an allusion to the easy pace at which these pilgrimages were performed. The largely ecclesiastical character of the city may still be seen in the numerous remains of buildings connected with the church with which its streets abound to the present day. The shrine with its vast collected wealth was destroyed, and every reminiscence connected with it as far as possible effaced, by King Henry VIII.'s commissioners in 1538.

In secular history Canterbury has been less remarkable. The castle was taken by Louis, son of Philip Augustus of France, during his incursion into England in 1215. Here, in the cathedral, Edward I. was married in 1299 to his second queen, Margaret of France, and Charles I. to Henrietta Mana in 1625. Hence started the Kentish rebels under Wat Tyler on their march to London in 1381, taking with them as prisoner Archbishop Sudbury, whom they beheaded later on Tower Hill,—in this point curiously repeating the action of the Danes during their invasion of 1011, who seized Archbishop Elphege from this cathedral, and shortly afterwards put him to death at Blackheath. The “Canterbury Christmas,” that of 1647, is known for the resistance offered here to the attempt to carry out the decree of Parliament against the observance of the day. Out of the rising that ensued grew the “Kentish Petition” for the release of Charles I., supported, in the following summer, by an armed gathering of the gentry and yeomanry of the county, which was scattered by General Fairfax in the battle of Maidstone.

The cathedra) stands on the site of a Roman church given by King Ethelbert, together with his own palace adjoining, to Augustine and his monks. This early church and its adjacent buildings were destroyed and entirely rebuilt by Archbishop Lanfranc in 1070, and the choir was again rebuilt on a larger scale by his successor Archbishop Anselm, whose work, in turn, on being restored after the fire of 1172, was then considerably enlarged, especially by the addition of a chapel and corona, both dedicated to St Thomas, at its eastern end. In this state substantially the choir remains to the present day. Lanfranc’s nave survived till the 14th century, when it was rebuilt, with the exception of one western tower, taken down in 1834. The central tower was not completed till about 1500. The most interesting parts remaining in the present church are—(1) the site of the murder of Becket in the north-west transept, which still shows the mark of the altar erected in its commemoration, though a prevalent story of a stone in the pavement from which his bloodstain has been cut out, is a modern fiction; (2) the site of the shrine itself, shown by the rough flooring in the centre of its chapel, King Henry’s commissioners having destroyed the very pavement on which it stood; (3) a few remaining windows of rich . 12th century glass, unique in England and scarcely equalled on the Continent; (4) monuments of the Black Prince, of Henry IV. and his queen, and of several of the archbishops from Peckham to Pole; (5) fine remains of Norman fresco-painting in the apse of St Gabriel in the crypt; and (6) the choir itself, built through the ten years succeeding 1174, an interesting specimen of the gradual transition from the Norman style progressing in England at the latter end of the 12th century, and showing especially the first introduction of that Southern-French variety of detail which gained a place in the new style now known as Early English. Many of the monastic buildings still remain, as the cloisters, the chapter-house, the treasury, the two entrance gateways, and the lavatory tower now used as a baptistery; and scattered in the precincts are relics of the infirmary, the dormitory, the prior’s house, and three sets of buildings for hospitality to three different grades of pilgrims—all showing great beauty of architecture. The chapter buildings, added in the last few years, are not so praiseworthy.

Of St Augustine’s Abbey the remains are fewer; but a beautiful gateway of the 14th century, the abbot’s hall, and some remains of the great church, attest its former magnificence. Of the other religious foundations of the city, no remains exist of St Gregory’s priory or St Sepulchre’s nunnery, but interesting parts are left of the Grey or Franciscan Friars, the White or Augustinian, and the Black or Dominican Friars (the latter the first friary of this order established in England); also of the hospitals of St John, Northgate; St Nicholas, Harbledown; St Thomas, Eastbridge; St Lawrence; and that of the Poor Priests,—of which the first three still remain in use as almshouses. Of the fifteen parish churches which exist the most remarkable is St Martin’s, the church frequented by Bertha the queen of Ethelbert before Augustine’s arrival and thus the earliest seat of English Christianity. In this church Ethelbert must have been baptized, and the existing font has been supposed of that age; rude and archaic, however, as it is, it is not earlier than a Norman date, though Saxon masonry still exists in the church walls.

Among the secular remains there are large portions of the city walls, mostly of the 15th century, but connected in parts with an earthen bank of a very much earlier date, and in one spot with a conical mound called the Dane-John or Donjon, probably of Celtic origin. The Norman keep of the castle, one of Bishop Gundulph’s works, still exists, but in a very mutilated condition, as well as a fine gateway tower, the west gate of the city, built about the year 1380 by Archbishop Sudbury. The Guild Hall is of old work, but has been refaced with modern brick; and part remains of the Chequers Inn for pilgrims, built by Prior Chillenden about the year 1400, and mentioned by Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales ; but much of this was burnt down in 1865.

There are slight remains also of the archbishop’s palace, built on the very ground originally given by King Ethelbert before his conversion, and then known as Staplegate; but the archbishops have ceased to reside in Canterbury since the 17th century.

The following is a list of archbishops of Canterbury to the present day :— [table]

CANTERBURY, a province of New Zealand, occupying the central portion of the Middle Island on the eastern side of the great dividing range of the Southern Alps. It is bounded on the E. by the sea, and on the N., W., and S. by the provinces of Nelson, Westland, and Otago respectively. The area of Canterbury is about 8,693,000 acres.

Physically, the province may be divided into two longitudinal sections, from north to south. Of these the more westerly, which is considerably the larger, is mountainous, sloping eastward into downs, while the other consists of a plain, covering an area of 2,500,000 acres. To these two main divisions must be added Banks Peninsula, an isolated hilly district on the eastern edge of the plain, jutting into the sea, and with an area of 250,000 acres. Thus the surface of the province is of the most diversified character, varying from the snow-clad peaks of the Southern Alps, which culminate in Mount Cook (13,200.feet), the highest mountain in New Zealand, to the dead level of the plain on which Christchurch stands, only a few feet above the sea. In lakes Canterbury gives place to Otago and Auckland, though Lakes Ohau and Coleridge are large sheets of water, situated amid scenery of the most beautiful description. The rivers of Canterbury are short and rapid, running with a direct course to the sea, and quite useless for purposes of navigation. Apart from the Hurunui and Waitangi, which divide Canterbury on the north-east and south-east from Nelson and Otago respectively, and hence belong equally to those provinces, the principal rivers of Canterbury are the Ashley, Waimakariri, Rakaia, Ashburton, and Rangitata. They are all very liable to sudden and disastrous floods. The coast is poorly supplied with good harbours, that of Akaroa, in Banks Peninsula, being the only one safe in all kinds of weather. The harbour of Lyttelton is spacious, but exposed to easterly winds. The capital of Canterbury is Christchurch, and the other principal settlements are Lyttelton and Akaroa already mentioned, Kaiapoi a few miles north of Christchurch, and Timaru, 110 miles south of the latter place.

The downs and great plain of Canterbury are devoid of forests, but the mountain regions and Banks Peninsula yield abundance of excellent timber. The principal trees are the totara (Podocarpus Totara), rimu or red pine (Dacrydium cupressinum), and kahikatea or white pine (Podocarpus dacrydioides). Coal well adapted for household and industrial purposes, though not of the first quality, is found in the Malvern Hills, to the west of Christcl1ur3h, and beds of clay ironstone exist in various localities, but are not yet worked. Gold is found in the south-western angle of the province, near the Otago border, though not in sufficient quantity to tempt many to search for it. The wealth of Canterbury consists in its flocks and its yield of agricultural produce. In 1874 the province contained 2,965,000 sheep and 79,000 cattle. The number of agricultural holdings was 3969, and the total area of land under crops of all kinds, including cultivated grass, was about 390,000 acres, of which 112,000 acres were under cereals. The imports of Canterbury in 1874 amounted to £1,568,826, and the exports to £1,108,531,—by far the greater proportion of the latter consisting of wool, wheat, and oats. The export of phormium fibre (New Zealand flax), from which much was at one time expected, has greatly declined, but on the other hand the export of preserved meats is rapidly rising in importance. The population of the province on 31st December 1874 was 71,316. Besides possessing many good roads, Canterbury is fast being opened up by railways. The first of these, from Lyttelton to Christchurch, a distance of eight miles, was tunnelled at great expense through the hills at the back of the former town. The line has since been continued on both sides of Christchurch—as far south as the River Rangitata, and as far north as the River Ashley, while branch lines have been, or are being, constructed to the settlements of Southbridge, Malvern, and Oxford. The first railway having been of the 5-feet 3-inch gauge, the main line is for the most part of that width, while the branches are of the narrow gauge of 3 feet 6 inches, which is almost universally adopted in other parts of the colony.

The educational system of Canterbury is comprehensive and efficient. In addition to the New Zealand University (an examining institution, supported by the colony as a whole, but having its headquarters at Christchurch), there are in the capital several educational institutions of high standing. Spread over the province there are also, in addition to schools maintained by private enterprise, many Government schools. The number of these on 31st March 1875 was 93. They were conducted by 288 teachers and attended by 12,000 scholars.

Canterbury was founded in December 1850 by an association headed by men of influential position in England, and’ connected with the national church. It was indeed sought for a time to prevent persons not members of the Church of England from settling in Canterbury, but the attempt was a failure. In 1867 the portion of the province west of the Southern Alps was formed into a separate province, under the name of Westland. Further particulars regarding the history of Canterbury will be found under the heading New Zealand.