And it is
there at Mad Tom's corner that we first catch sight of the glorious
city of St Thomas.
"Mad Tom's corner!" That name, it is needless to say I hope, has no
reference to the great archbishop or the pilgrimage. Mad Tom's corner,
whence we get our first view of Canterbury, is intimately connected
with the gate close by, called Courtenay's gate, and refers to the
exploits of a mad Cornishman who came to Kent and especially to
Canterbury about 1832, and presently proclaimed himself to be the New
Messiah and showed to his deluded disciples the sacred stigmata in his
hands and feet. It was the custom of these unhappy people to meet in
the woods of the Blean, and it is said one may still see their names
cut upon the trees. Mad Tom, who, besides proclaiming himself to be
the Messiah, claimed also to be the heir to the earldom of Devon, and
called himself Sir William Percy Honeywood Courtenay, the Hon. Sydney
Percy, Count Moses Rothschild and Squire Thompson, to say nothing of
Knight of Malta and King of Jerusalem, was a madman, with a method in
his madness and a certain reasonable truth behind his absurdities.
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