The History of the College of All Saints, Maidstone, by the Rev. Beale Post. London, Whittaker, 1847, 8vo.
The college of All Saints, at Maidstone, has received from the researches of Mr. Post, a degree of illustration which we should gladly desire to see bestowed upon many other ecclesiastical foundations in England. During the alterations made in this building by the late Earl Romney, in 1854, the structure was greatly relieved of the modern erections by which it was choked up and disfigured, and availing himself of this favourable opportunity for examination, the author of the volume before us, with the spirit of a true antiquary, searched out the original plan and design, as well as the appropriate use of the rooms within the building. The county of Kent is not particularly rich in secular foundations. Besides the college at Maidstone, we believe there were similar establishments only at Cobham, Wye, and Wyngham. A deficiency remarkable, when the large number of its monastic institutions is borne in mind.
It appears that originally there was a hospital established at Maidstone for the benefit of pilgrims journeying to the shrine of Becket at Canterbury; and that in 1395, it became merged by Archbishop Courtney, in this larger foundation of his own. The terms of licence however, confirmed the original alms of the hospital in the grant of the new endowment. The former house had continued for about a hundred and thirty-five years, when this change took place; and after the union was effected, they existed conjointly for a period of a hundred and fifty years more. In 1547, they shared the general fate of religious establishments in this country; the lands were purchased by the Cobhams, and from their hands passed through the Salisburys and the Marshams, till they centered in the present Earl Romney. The union of a hospital with a secular establishment like that founded by the archbishop, presents many singularities in structural arrangement, and the unusual nature of the plan proportionately increases the difficulty of giving a true appropriation to the various parts of the building; but the minute investigations of Mr. Post, have thrown considerable light upon the characteristic features of this edifice. Having been used since the Dissolution for farming purposes, it has been much better preserved than is commonly the case with those buildings that have been diverted from their original intention; and it is mainly owing to this that there exists at the present day, the range of buildings which form so interesting an architectural group at Maidstone. Amongst the most conspicuous portion, there still remain a tower supposed to have been the kitchen, and priest's lodgings, considered the most ancient portion of the fabric: a tower near to the master's house, a large gateway tower, the ruins of a smaller one, and a barn; the different
