Stanfield's coast scenery. A series of views in the British Channel, from original drawings taken expressly for the work

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FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS TAKEN EXPRESSLY FOR THE WORK.

BY

CLARKSON STANFIELD, ESQ. R.A.

LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY SMITH, ELDER AND CO. CORNHILL.

BOOKSELLERS TO THEIR MAJESTIES.

LONDON :

PRINTED BY STEWART AND CO.,
OLD BAILEY.

Annex

DA

TO THE

KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY,

THE FOLLOWING SERIES OF

VIEWS IN THE BRITISH CHANNEL

WITH ALL GRATITUDE AND HUMILITY,

MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED

BY HIS MAJESTY'S MOST DUTIFUL

AND OBEDIENT SERVANT,

CLARKSON STANFIELD.

Morninglon Crescent,
1st June, 1836.

PREFACE.

THAT Preface has probably never yet been written, which from candid
friend or gentle foe, has not been visited with the charge of egotism
or impertinence ; or, at the very least, the more venial sin of being
altogether irrelevant as an introduction to the volume which it pre-
ceded. Instead, therefore, of indulging in the usual licence of pre-
fatory rambling, we shall betake ourselves to giving a few emendatory
remarks, rendered necessary by deviations from the field of illustra-
tion originally intended.

It will be perceived by the reader, that there are some engravings
introduced that are not noticed in the letter-press, and which did
not in fact, come within the range of the artist's original intention
to introduce. These subsequent additions consist of the View of
St. Michael's Mount, Normandy, from the west ; The Greves, from
the summit of Mount St. Michael ; a second view in the Isle of
Wight (Brading Harbour) ; a View of Falmouth, and of Treport,
forming the Frontispiece and Vignette to the Volume ; a Martello
Tower ; and the Eddystone Light House, which last was not contem-
plated when the note at page 60 was written.

Although not at first intended that the Views of Mount St.
Michael ia Normandy should be multiplied, no one, we apprehend,
will complain of this beautiful addition to the series. To those
who have never visited the Mount and its neighbourhood, these
views will convey impressions of grandeur not easily effaced, and

those who have seen the original, will be pleased at possessing this

b

vi PREFACE.

opportunity of indulging a retrospective view of that extraordinary
scene. From all points, and for miles round, the imposing beauty
of this fortification on the mountain is visible. Not only from its
heights may be seen (as exhibited in the engraving,) the vast and
" idle" desert of sand which surrounds it — from its base, as in the
view from the west, — the formidable aspect of the towering pile;
biit from every portion of the neighbouring country it displays in
itself the grand feature of an interesting landscape.

Our pages do not contain a description of Treport, the view
of which forms the vignette to the volume. Although it may not be
usual to describe the subject of a Vignette, we cannot permit this
beautiful representation of Treport to be passed by unheeded, and at
the hazard of being considered too careful about a little matter, we
must announce to the reader that it is the Port of the town of Eu,
from which it is distant about half a mile, and fifteen miles from
Dieppe. Treport was once a place of considerable importance : Csesar
from this Port embarked his cavalry for the invasion of Britain, and
more than once the English thought proper to burn the town. It is
now a mere fishing village, subsidiary to the greater wealth of Eu,
yet still having a cast of antiquity about it sufficient to create an
interest.

Those Martello Towers which have had no description from us
beyond a note, bestowed upon them in the body of the letter press,
have since that note was written, been made the subject of an illus-
tration. No information, however, of a nature to excite interest can
be gathered with respect to these towers, beyond what has been
given in the note at page 71.

Our pleasing task is now completed, and if in the performance
of this grateful labour we have ever awakened associations of a
pleasurable kind, — created or excited a sympathy with the beautiful,
— our labours will be amply rewarded, and we are well convinced,
our errors will be kindly pardoned.

LIST OF THE PLATES.

1 FALMOUTII ........ Frontispiece.

2 TREPORT ......... Vignette.

3 ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, CORNWALL . . . Page I

4 ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, NORMANDY ..... 6

5 ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, NORMANDY, FROM THE WEST . . 6

6 THE GREVES, FROM THE SUMMIT OF ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT . 8

7 FALMOUTII .......... 10

8 THE BOTALLACK MINE, CORNWALL . . . . .12

9 LAND'S END, CORNWALL ....... 15

10 DARTMOUTH .......... 16

11 DARTMOUTH CASTLE . . . . . . . .18

12 ST. MALO 19

13 THE APPROACH TO ST. MALO 20

14 THE COAST OF BRITANY, NEAR DOLL . . . . .25

15 PORTSMOUTH HARBOUR ....... 26

16 THE SEMAPHORE, PORTSMOUTH ...... 42

17 PORTCHESTER CASTLE ........ 44

18 THE NEEDLES, ISLE OF WIGHT . . . . . .45

19 BRADING HARBOUR, ISLE OF WIGHT . . . . .46

20 THE ARCHED ROCK, ISLE OF WIGHT . . . . .49

21 POWDERHAM PARK, ExMOUTH . . . . . .51

22 THE HAMOAZE, PLYMOUTH ....... 55

viii LIST OF THE PLATES.

Fage

23 STONEHOUSE BRIDGE, PLYMOUTH ...... 60

24 RYE, OLD HARBOUR ........ 6.1

25 HASTINGS FROM THE SEA . . . . . . .68

26 MARTELLO TOWER 71

27 EAST CLIFF, HASTINGS 72

28 HAVRE DE GRACE ........ 75

29 DIEPPE . 80

30 BOULOGNE, UPPER HARBOUR ...... 87

31 BOULOGNE, OLD PIER ........ 89-

32 WRECK ON THE COAST OF BOULOGNE . . . . .90

33 CALAIS . 96

34 ROQUE DE GUET, GUERNSEY. . .- . . . .100

35 ST. PIERRE PORT, GUERNSEY ...... 104

36 DOVER PIER .106

37 RAMSGATE . . ' '.'«!? . . . . . .114

38 BROADSTAIRS . . . . . . . .119

39 EDDYSTONE LIGHT-HOUSE . . . . . . .123

40 WORTIIBARROW BAY, DORSETSHIRE ..... 126

STANFIELD'S COAST SCENERY.

SAINT MICHAEL'S MOUNT, CORNWALL.

ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, which has been so universally extolled for
its peculiarly majestic appearance, is an extra-parochial liberty in the
hundred of Penrith, county of Cornwall, and three quarters of a mile
south of the town of Marazion, with which it is connected by a narrow
bank of pebbles. At high tide this bank is overflowed, when the Mount
appears a complete insulated mass of rock, gradually diminishing in size
from the base, until it terminates in an ancient castellated and embattled
building, situated two hundred and forty feet above the level of the sea.
From the summit, the prospect is of no ordinary interest: surrounded by
the ocean, the magnitude of which is contrasted with the insignificant
objects on the neighbouring shore, and the rude aspect of the dwellings of
the fishermen at the base of the Mount, it presents a scene at once
sublime and almost unequalled.

The history of the Mount is variously given in different histories of
Cornwall. The following facts, however, appear to have been universally
agreed upon as correct. The original name in the Cornish dialect being
Careg Cowse, signifying " the grey or hoary rock in the wood," little
doubt existing that its

" base, encircled by the azure waves,

Was once with verdure clad ; the towering oaks
Here waved their branches green ; the sacred oaks
Whose awful shades among, the Druids strayed
To cut the hallowed mistletoe, and hold
High converse with their gods."

It is supposed that this is the island called Ixtis, mentioned by
Diodorus Siculus, whither the tin, when cast into cubit ingots by the

2 ST. MICHAEL S MOUNT, CORNWALL.

Britons, who dwelt near the promontory of Belerium, was carried in carts
over an isthmus, dry only at low water. The wood alluded to has disap-
peared for centuries.

Its present name is from the Saxon Milch elstor, meaning Michael's Hill
or Mount. According to monkish legends, this name originated in a
visit paid by St. Michael, the patron saint of the monastery, to some
hermits resident there. On the top of the height is a granite, or, as it is
technically called, a moor-stone lantern, known by the name of St.
Michael's Chair, in which it is asserted once sat the saint. Formerly it
was used as a beacon for mariners.

When first the Mount was consecrated to religious purposes is uncer-
tain ; but a priory of Benedictine monks, subsequently changed to
Gilbertines, was founded previous to 1044, when Edward the Confessor
gave the Mount to those ecclesiastics. It has been a great resort
for pilgrims; Pope Gregory VII. having, in 1070, granted indulgences
to all who should visit it, provided they bestowed an oblation. After
the Conquest, its revenues were augmented by Robert, Earl of Moreton.
The profits of a fair held at Marazion, or, as it was originally called,
Marca-iewe, or Market Jew, signifying market on the Thursday, were
also given to the priory of St. Michael's Mount, in the reign of Henry I.
In the reign of Henry III., Richard Earl of Cornwall empowered the
prior to hold three fairs and three markets, which had been previously
granted to them at Marghasbigan, by charter of the kings of England, on
their own land at Marchadyon.

The monks were, however, in spite of the good-will of their benefactors,
often disturbed during the turbulent times of the Plantagenets and the
Tudors. John Earl of Cornwall, afterwards King of England, and the
brother of Richard 1., persuaded one Henry de la Pomery, to take
possession of the priory by stratagem while the king was sufFerin«-
imprisonment in Austria, in the celebrated Tour Tenebreuse. Some
accounts say, he continued to hold it after the return of the king from his
captivity, until the approach of the army of Archbishop Hubert Walter,
aided by the sheriff and a civil force, when he surrendered at discretion.
Others say, that, fearing the king's anger, he died of grief shortly after he
had effected the surprise. The king, however, restored the Mount to the
Gilbertines, and placed in it a small garrison. In 1471, John Vere, Earl
of Oxford, after the battle of Barnet, having fled into Wales, assembled
a party of soldiers, and crossed over to the Cornish coast ; and, under the
disguise of pilgrinis, obtained admission into the castle, and overpowered

ST. MICHAELS MOUNT, CORNWALL.

the garrison. Sir John Arundel, the sheriff of the county, was sent
against the Earl, but was repulsed and slain in an assault upon the
castle ; it was ultimately surrendered to Sir John Fortescue, but not
until it had been defended from September to February, and on
condition that the lives of the Earl and his adherents should not be for-
feited. In 1498, Perkin Warbeck, the notorious impostor, and pretender
to the crown, landed at Whitsand Bay, in the neighbourhood of the
Mount, with three thousand men ; and, being favoured by the monks,
was admitted into the Castle. He improved the defences, and then
marched to Exeter, leaving his wife, Lady Catherine Gordon, in the
castle for safety, where she was taken prisoner. During the struggle
between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads, in the reign of Charles I.,
the Mount was often a scene of contention. Carewe says, alluding to
this time, " That, during the Cornish commotions, divers gentlemen, with
their wives and families, fled to the protection of this place ; where the
Rebels besieged them, fyrst wynning the playne at the hill's foote by
assault when the water was out, and then the even ground on the top, by
carrying up great trusses of hay before them to blench the defenders'
sight, and dead their shot, after which they could make but slender
resistance ; for no sooner should any one within peep his head over those
unflanked walls, but he became an open mark to a whole shower of
arrows. This disadvantage, together with Woman's dismay, and decrease
of Victuals, forced a surrender to these Rakehells mercy, who nothing
guilty of that effeminate Vertue, spoyl'd their goods, imprison'd their
bodies, and were, rather by God's gracious providence than any want of
will, purpose, or attempt, restrained from murdering the principal
persons."

The priory of St. Michael became a cell to Mount St. Michael in
Normandy, in 1085, by gift from Robert, Earl of Moreton and Cornwall.
During the war with France, it was seized by Henry V. as an alien priory.
It was first given to King's College, Cambridge, and passed through the
hands of several persons until it became the property of the family of the
present proprietor, Sir John St. Aubyn, Bart. This gentleman has con-
verted the remains of the priory into an occasional summer-residence.
The refectory of the convent has been converted into a dining-room, and
great pains has been taken to preserve its original characteristic appear-
ance. Round the apartment is a curious frieze in stucco, displaying
the mode of hunting several wild animals. The chapel has been recently
fitted up in the old English style, the seats being well carved, and

4 ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, CORNWALL.

ranged on each side in the same manner as stalls in cathedrals. An
organ of superior tone and power has been added.

The circumference of the island, comprising about seven acres of land,
is about three quarters of a mile. There is a small harbour, with a pier,
which was rebuilt by a member of the family of St. Aubyn, in 1727,
where about forty vessels may find shelter. The advantage of this
harbour to the fishermen is considered to be very great. The north side
is chiefly occupied by their huts.

" The sea," says Borlase, " is the great store-house of Cornwall, which
offers not its treasures by piece-meal, nor all at once, but in succession ;
all in plenty, and in such variety, as if nature were solicitous to prevent
any excess or superfluity of the same kind." As the pilchard-fishery is
that chiefly followed by the inhabitants of St. Michael's Mount, and, as
an old writer* says, " the comoditie that ariseth of this silly small fish is
wounderfull," it may be well that some account be given of it. The
pilchard in form and size resembles the herring, only that it is smaller,
and not so flat-sided. They mostly arrive from the north seas at the
Islands of Scilly, and at the Land's End, about July, shifting their
situation as the season prompts and food allures them. They are caught
in large nets called seines. The fishermen are directed to the shoals by
persons stationed on the high lands near the shore, who discover their
presence by the colour of the water. The nets are managed by three
boats, containing generally eighteen persons. The cost of these seines is
very great, amounting sometimes to £300 each. They are about two
hundred and twenty fathoms long, sixteen fathoms deep in the middle,
and fourteen at each end, with lead weights at the bottom and corks at
the top. The boats for carrying the seines cost about £60, and the
expences of the first outfit are estimated at above £1000. Upon being
brought on shore, the fish are carried to the store-houses or cellars, where
the small and damaged fish are picked out by women, to be sold to the
poor, or used for manuring land. The remainder are laid up in broad
piles, and salted, in which state they lie for twenty or thirty days, and so
through other processes, until with great weight they are pressed to-
gether, by which operation a quantity of oil issues through the holes
at the bottom of the casks. The number packed in each hogshead
generally amounts to about 3000. Forty-eight hogsheads of pilchards
yield about a ton of oil, and which generally fetches about £25. One

* John Norden.

ST. MICHAELS MOUNT, CORNWALL. 5

seine has been known to take in a season as much as would amount to
1500 hogsheads.

The greatest enemy encountered by the fishermen in their employment
is the Picked Dog-fish. Vast shoals of them occasionally are seen pur-
suing pilchards. They are very voracious, and devour great quantities of
pilchards, but will bite at any thing, even a piece of stick or iron, if held
near the water. They will even leap and snap at a hand held out of the
boat, even if a foot above the water. They are armed with a double row
of teeth, which cut like a knife ; and two spines, like the spurs of a cock,
on their back, with which they will inflict a wound so dangerous as to
render amputation necessary. They bring forth their young like the
viper, and when opened have been found full of eggs. The young ones
have been seen to run from their mouth. The way in which they injure
the fishermen is by cutting the pilchard seines to get at their contents.
Damage to the amount of £150 has thus been committed in the short
space of twenty-four hours. If an old and new seine are together, they
will cut up the new, and not touch the old, which the fishermen account
for by supposing that the old seines have been more frequently dipped in
bark for protection, and that they do not like the taste of bark. When
cut across the nostril, they do not sink, but die on the surface of the
water, and are devoured by their own species.

The pilchard-fishery is chiefly confined to Mount's Bay, East and West
Looe, Polparrow, Fowey, Charles Town, Megavizzy, the creeks of Fal-
mouth Harbour, and St. Ives. The number of persons employed is
estimated at 14,000, and the capital engaged £350,000. In addition to
the oil, commonly called Train oil, which is extracted from the fish,
there is a considerable exportation of dried and pickled pilchards to parts
of Spain and Italy. The trade has within the last three years greatly
decreased.

In addition to the pilchard, China clay and copper ore are exported
from St. Michael's ; the imports are timber from Norway, and coal.

ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, NORMANDY.

IF interest attaches to the history of St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall,
even more, probably, is excited by the recollections of the patron abbey
of the same name in Normandy.

St. Michael's Mount in Normandy is near the extremity of the province,
on the approach to Brittany. It is composed of granite. Its base is
about three quarters of a mile in circumference; and, including the
buildings that form its summit, it rises to the height of above four
hundred feet. With the exception of the neighbouring rock of Tombe-
leine, no object is near it, and the eye finds nothing to rest upon but
intersecting rivers over a vast desert of white sand, extending more than
twelve square leagues. Thus, at low water, the Mount is in the midst of
a barren waste, and at high water is surrounded by the sea. While in
the former state, it is passable on foot, but is considered dangerous
without the assistance of a guide. The Mount is surrounded with high
thick walls, flanked with bastions and semicircular towers. Steep, black,
and sharp-pointed rocks present themselves in dreary grandeur towards
the west and the north. In the opposite directions, in successive lines
descending in an easy slope, are houses with spaces between them, where
the luxuriant vine, the fig-tree, and the almond, flourish in the gardens.
The castellated abbey juts out in bold relief from the heights, and the
choir of the abbey church, built in the florid style of Gothic architecture,
crowns the whole of the imposing pile. The successive architects, who
have added to it or altered it, appear to have had a view to its effect from
below, consequently, the lines of the buildings and the projections are
more bold and simple, and the windows and pinnacles loftier and more
narrow than usual. Admittance is obtained through a gate of the time of
Louis XII. or Francis I. ; and, after proceeding along the walls, gradu-
ally leading upwards, towers above towers, and staircases surmounting
staircases — all overhanging, grassy, and desolate, the traveller arrives at
the gate of the abbey.

Traditions more numerous than those attached to the mount in Corn-
wall, in addition to its claim to the picturesque and romantic, have given
extraordinary celebrity to St. Michael's, in Normandy.

•

ST. MICHAELS MOUNT, NORMANDY.

Once, it is said, in times long before the Christian era — and the tradi-
tion is not improbable — the Mount was devoted to the worship of the sun,
under his Gallic title of Belenus. Less likely, but more amusing, is that
tradition which asserts that the Mount spontaneously reared its majestic
head, embosomed in a spacious tract of woods and thickets ; and the
hermits stationed on its summit received their daily bread from a
charitable priest in the neighbouring parish of Beauvoir, an ass voluntarily
conveying the pious relief, until one day he fell a prey to a wolf, who, as
a retribution for the crime, was by Providence compelled to labour as the
substitute of the animal he destroyed.

The traditions of later times, and of Catholic Christianity, assert, that
about the year 709, St. Michael, " the chief of the angels and of the host
of heaven, the protector of the Hebrew synagogue of yore, as now of the
Catholic church, the conqueror of the old serpent, and the leader of souls
to heaven," appeared to St. Aubert, the bishop of Avranches, and com-
manded him to erect a church to his honour upon the Mount. Aubert,
slow of belief, delayed to obey the revealed injunction, until three several
times it had been repeated by the archangel, who, on the last occasion,
touched the head of the bishop, and left the imprint of his celestial fingers
upon his skull ; in proof of which, for a thousand years afterwards, to
the great edification of all beholders, the skull of the bishop was shown
with its miraculous indentations. Other occurrences, alike tending to
establish the sanctity of the place, and the superstition of the times, are
related. A tethered bull pointed out the spot, and circumscribed the
limits of the holy undertaking ; a rock immoveable by human art receded
at the touch of an infant's foot ; the staff of St. Aubert gave to the
inhabitants from the barren earth a gushing and healthful spring ; and to
complete the miracle, the sea ingulphed the forest that surrounded the
mountain, and the whole aspect of things was so changed that three mes-
sengers commissioned by St. Michael to bear from Mount Garganus a
gift of a piece of red cloth to the monastery of the Mount, together with a
fragment of a stone on which he himself had sat, found on their return
the place so changed, that they thought they must have entered into a
new world.

Authenticated history gives us accounts not quite so wonderful, but
replete with interest. Richard I. Duke of Normandy, according to Dudo
of St. Quentin, built on the Mount a church of extraordinary size, with
spacious buildings attached, and established therein a body of monks of
the Benedictine order. This was in 988 ; he having first expelled the

8 ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, NORMANDY.

regular canons, whose licentious mode of life had rendered them the sub-
jects of much scandal. The monks of St. Michael, at the period of the
Conquest, furnished six transports to Duke William, afterwards surnamed
the Conqueror. Since that period, it has been repeatedly the scene of
war ; and, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, St. Michael's Mount
was the only place in France that successfully resisted the English arms.
The siege it supported upon that occasion was one of no ordinary character,
and at the present time are to be seen two enormous cannon for the dis-
charge of stone balls of a foot in diameter constructed for the purpose of
that heroic defence. During the time of the religious troubles in France
the Huguenots made many desperate but unavailing endeavours to obtain
possession of the Mount. The Mount, previously to the period of the
French Revolution, obtained melancholy notoriety by its vaults and
iron cage being made the receptacles of prisoners of importance, charged
with crimes against the State. At the period of the revolution no less
than three hundred ecclesiastics, whose age and infirmities would not
permit of their being transported, were confined within its walls. It is
now a Departmental prison.

Siege, fire by lightning, tempest, and the decays of time, have all, at
different times, contributed to dilapidate the buildings of the Mount. By
the munificence of kings, and its own abbots, repairs and additions have
been from time to time made, some of an ecclesiastical, and others of a
more warlike character, and the consequence is, that it consists of portions
of many kinds of architecture. One of its chambers is called the
Knight's Hall, and is* ninety-eight feet in length, by sixty-eight in width,
and is of a most noble appearance. Its groined stone roof rests upon
eighteen cylindrical columns, with capitals of high relief and beautiful
design. This was rebuilt, after a fire in 1113, which destroyed nearly the
whole pile, by Roger, the then abbot. It is in fine preservation. The
once use of the apartment is evident by its name. The knights of the
order of St. Michael — an order founded by the superstitious Louis XI. —
having held their council in it. This order he founded in 1469, six years
after having expelled the Britons from Normandy. Previously he had
made a pilgrimage to the shrine, and presented a donation of six hundred
crowns of gold. " The sandal shoon and scallopped shell1' appear to
have been worn by many of the French monarchs ; and vast concourses of
pilgrims of meaner rank testified to the sanctity in which the shrine of St.
Michael was held, and account for the magnificence of some of its
buildings. Superstition, slow to leave a spot she has once haunted, still

I^IHi^HW

ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, NORMANDY. 9

lingers here ; and where the female Druid once sold to sailors her
enchanted arrows, of magic power to still the angry ocean if cast on
its waves by maiden hands, the pious venders of the chaplets, rosaries,
crosses, and medals of St. Michael in present times, support the
endeavours of their ancient predecessors, by selling relics that, to say the
least, are as potent as the enchanted arrows.

The inhabitants of the Mount are reckoned at somewhere about three
hundred. They are divided into three classes; the cultivators, who
derive their subsistence from the main land ; the aubergistes and shop-
keepers, who deal in an acetous liquor called wine, and medals and scarfs
for the pilgrims ; and the fishermen.

The accompanying view is taken from the ramparts, and gives an accu-
rate representation of the style of architecture as seen from the back of
the Mount. Other views of this most interesting pile will be given in
the course of the work.

FALMOUTH.

THE name of Falmouth is derived from the situation of the town, at the
mouth of the river Fal. Norden calls it Famouth. On each side of the
entrance to the harbour are the castles of St. Mawes and Pendennis.
" It is a place," says the same writer, " of verye greate importance
for that parte of the Countrie in the time of foreign feede ; which being
considered by that famous King Henrie the 8. having warrs with the
Frenche, buylte thereupon firste a castle, which now serveth for the
governor's howse, a stronnge rounde pyle ; but since her late Maiestie
havinge like occasions withe Spaniardes, fortefyed it more strongly in
this manner." Pendennis, the place alluded to, is built upon a
peninsular eminence, and as it rises above three hundred feet from
the level of the sea, it presents a very majestic appearance. It contains
commodious barracks, store-houses, and magazines, with apartments
for the lieutenant-governor. In the time of the civil wars it was bravely
defended against the forces of the parliament by John. The earliest
mention of the port in British history occurs in the reign of Henry IV.,
when the Duchess Dowager of Bretagne landed in progress to celebrate
her nuptials with that monarch. Until 1613, this town now containing,
with Bridoch which joins it, a population of 10,766 persons, possessed
but a single house of entertainment for seafaring persons. Sir Walter
Raleigh, in his homeward-bound voyage from Guinea, put in at this
harbour, and his men were poorly accommodated at this house. He was
struck with the utility of providing more extensive accommodations
at the mouth of Falmouth Harbour, and he laid before the Council a
project of erecting four houses for that purpose. The ground then
belonged to Sir John Killigrew, Bart. ; and, after building several houses
upon it, his further designs were impeded by the corporations of Penryn,
Truro, and Helston, who were fearful of the interests of their towns being
injured. The lords of the Council settled the dispute in favour of
Killigrew, and the buildings proceeded apace. In 1670, Sir Peter
Killigrew constructed a new quay, and obtained an act of Parliament,
authorising the collection, for himself and heirs, of certain duties.*

* There is a silver cup and cover belonging to the corporation of Penryn, given by
Jane, Lady Killigrew, with this inscription, " From maior to maior to the town of

FA L MOUTH. 1 I

About 1688 it became a station for post-office packets to Lisbon and
the West Indies. Its prosperity from this period was rapid. The town
was once called Smithick, and is mentioned by that name in a resolution
of the House of Commons, in 1653. Its first mention under its present
name is in the charter of incorporation, bearing date 1661. In 1664, it
was made a separate parish, having been previously a part of Bridoch, a
parish a part of which is in the town of Falmouth. The town is agreeably
situated, consisting chiefly of one main street of neat houses ; and the
rising grounds behind overlooking the harbour and town, give to the
scene a most interesting appearance. In the centre of the principal street
stand the market-house and town-hall. The church is a modern
building, and has a handsome altar. It was built soon after the Restora-
tion, and dedicated to the memory of Charles I., " King and Martyr."
A handsome chapel of ease was built about five years back. There are
places of worship for Baptists, Bryanites, the Society of Friends, Inde-
pendents, Primitive and Wesleyan Methodists, and Unitarians. There are
several classical and mathematical, National, Lancasterian, and Infant,
schools, with numerous charitable institutions.

The Trinity House have lately erected a light-house at St. Anthony's
Point, at the east side of Falmouth Harbour. This light burns at an
elevation of sixty-five feet above the level of the sea at high-water
spring tides, and is visible in all directions from south 40° east, round
southward, westward, and northward, up the harbour of Falmouth. In
order to render it readily distinguishable from all other lights in that
vicinity, it presents a quick but regular succession of flashes of brilliant
light.

The view in the present number of this work is that which looks
towards the Castle of Pendennis. The principal object is a receiving-
ship, in the foreground, generally stationed there.

Permarin, when they received one that was in great misery. J. K. 1633." It is said by
Hals, that this lady had gone on board two Dutch ships with a party of ruffians, who slew
two Spanish merchants, and robbed them of two barrels of Spanish pieces of eight. The
lady was, according to the same account, by means of great interest, pardoned ; but her
accomplices all executed. It is certain, however, that she was divorced from her
husband, and probable that she was protected by the inhabitants of Penryn, who bore no
good-will to Sir John and his rising town.

THE BOTALLACK TIN AND COPPER MINE, LAND'S

END.

THE BOTALLACK TIN AND COPPER MINE is in the parish of St. Just,
remarkable for having been the birth-place of the celebrated Dr. Borlase,
a learned English antiquary, author of Antiquities of Cornwall, the
Natural History of Cornwall, and other works and papers. He was the
friend of Pope, and furnished him with the greatest part of the materials
for forming his grotto at Twickenham, consisting of the most curious
fossils to be found in the county. Previous to the destruction of the
grotto, the name of Dr. Borlase, in capitals composed of crystal, might
have been seen on the walls. In allusion to this, in a letter of thanks to
Dr. Borlase, acknowledging his kindness, Pope says, " I am much
obliged to you for your collection of Cornish diamonds. I have placed
them where they may best represent yourself, in a shade, but shining ;"
Dr. Borlase having passed his life in retirement.

St. Just's is about five miles distant from the Land's End ; the Land's
End itself, it should be understood, being only a nominal title intended
to express the extreme point of land, and not as the name of a village or
hamlet : it is in the parish of Sennan. The spot so called is, according
to Dr. Berger, three hundred and ninety-one feet above the level of
the sea.

The mine that gives the title to the Engraving in this Work is one of
the greatest wonders in the county of Cornwall. The entrance to the
Works is two hundred feet below the cliffs, and the operations of the
miners extend for nearly seventy fathoms under the bed of the sea.
The effect of the scene from below is most wonderful. Combined with
the wild sublimity of the rocks and the ocean, it forms no bad counterpart
of Shakspeare's famous cliff, and realizes the description of the place
where

" crows and choughs that wing the midway air

Show scarce so gross as beetles."

Troops of mules may at times be seen descending the heights, laden with
coals for the supply of the engine at work at the mine. The path by

HIV. BOTALLACK MINE. 13

which they approach is circuitous, and an unpractised person would as
soon think of walking down a precipice, as attempting the descent which
the riders of the mules do as fearlessly as a horseman rides a turnpike
road. The stupendous and majestic appearance of the rocks, the raging
of the ocean, and the amazingly numerous flocks of sea-gulls, and other
wild fowl, add not a little to the effect.

On approaching the engine that works the mine the cliff is nearly
perpendicular. The ore raised from the mine is drawn up over an
inclined plane by means of a horse-engine placed on the extreme verge of
the rock above, and which seems from below to be suspended in air. The
following is a good description of the nature of the work in mines, and
will undeceive many who have pictured to themselves a scene of bustle
very different from what actually exists. It is from the pen of Dr. Forbes
" A person unacquainted with the details of mining, on being informed of
many hundreds of men being employed in a single mine, might naturally
imagine that a visit to their deep recesses would afford a picturesque and
imposing spectacle of gregarious labour and bustle, tremendous noise,
and much artificial brilliancy to cheer the gloom. Nothing, however, is
further from the truth, as far as regards the mines of Cornwall ; for, like
their fellow-labourers the moles, the miners are solitary in their opera-
tions. Seldom do we find more than three or four men in one level or
gallery, at a time, where they are seen pursuing the common operations
of digging or boring the rock by the feeble glimmering of a small candle,
stuck close by them, with very little noise, or latitude for bodily move-
ment; besides whom, there are generally one or two boys employed
in wheeling the broken ore, &c., to the shaft. Each of these boys has
also a candle affixed to his wheel -barrow by the universal subterraneous
candlestick, a piece of clay. A certain band of men who, however
numerous, are always called " a pair," generally undertake the working
of a particular level. These subdivide themselves into smaller bodies,
which, by relieving each other at the end of every six or eight hours,
keep up the work uninterruptedly, except Sundays. By means of this
subdivision of pairs, there is in general not more than one-third of the
underground labourers below at any one time. Very seldom are the
miners within the sound of each other's operations, except occasionally
they hear the dull report of the explosions. In the vicinity of the main-
shaft, indeed, the incessant action of the huge chain of pumps, produces
a constant, but not very loud noise ; while the occasional rattling of the
metallic buckets against the walls of the shaft, as they ascend or descend

i.

14 THE BOTALLACK MINE.

relieves the monotony both of the silence and the scene ; still every thing
is dreary, dull, and cheerless ; and you can be with difficulty persuaded,
even in the richest and roost populous mines, that you are in the centre of
such extensive and important operations."

All mines are placed under the superintendence of a foreman, called
the captain, who keeps the accounts, and pays and regulates the
workmen.

The mines of Cornwall support a population estimated at 60,000,
exclusive of the artizans, tradesmen, and merchants, in the towns of
Truro, Falmouth, Penryn, Penzance, and other places.

The miners, in general, are a civil, honest, and active class of men. The
hardships undergone by some who have families are very great. Generally
they live in huts in the neighbourhood of the mines, seldom enjoy the
luxury of animal food. Many of them work like slaves, being obliged
to wheel barrows containing ore, often to the amount of four hundred
weight. Those employed underground have mostly an emaciated appear-
ance, and not unoften die at an early age of consumption.

Near the Land's End is Treryn Castle, in the parish of St. Levan,
worthy of mention for the Logan, or Rocking Stone, justly considered as
great a curiosity as any thing to be found in Cornwall. This extraor-
dinary granite stone is supposed to weigh ninety tons, and is so balanced
on the summit of an immense pile of pointed rocks, that on one person
placing his back against it, it moves to and fro with the greatest ease.

In Wales, this kind of stone is called Y-Maen Sigl, signifying, the
Shaking Stone. It is called Logan in Cornwall and Devonshire, from the
word logg, meaning, in the language of the country, to move to and fro.
Some have been of opinion that the Logan stone was placed in its extra-
ordinary position by human art, but it appears to be generally thus nicely
balanced by the hand of nature. The Druids made the people believe that
they alone could move these stones, but only by a miracle ; and by which
means they acquitted or condemned criminals ; often bringing accused
persons to confess, who looked upon the motion of these stones with
superstitious reverence. It is the opinion of Polwhele on this subject, that
the Druids, discovering this uncommon property in the natural Logan
stones, made use of their knowledge, and formed and consecrated
artificial Logan stones where nature' had not prepared them. Spirits were
reported by them to inhabit such rocks, and the vibratory motion was
adduced in support of this. There is a stone of this kind in Devonshire,
called the Nut-crackers, it having been the resort of the peasantry for

THE BOTALLACK MINE. 15

the purpose of cracking their nuts ; but, in consequence of being so fre-
quented, the owner of the estate where it stood had it moved, so that it
became motionless, much to the annoyance of the people, who execrated
the hands that profanely violated the spirit of the rock. One of these
stones in the parish of Manaton, in Devonshire, is called the Whooping
Rock, from the noise which it used to make when set in motion by the
winds, being in stormy weather heard at the distance of three miles.
This, like the other stone we have spoken of, was moved off its balance,
to the great exasperation of the neighbourhood. Nothing in the Druidical
remains of Cornwall is more curious than are these stones, and they are
worthy the inspection and attention of the traveller.

On a ridge of rocks at the Land's End, called the Long Ships, is
a light-house, erected in the year 1797, by a Mr. Smith, under the
sanction of the Trinity Board.

DARTMOUTH.

DARTMOUTH, in Devonshire, appears to derive its name from its situa-
tion at the mouth of the river Dart. The town is situated on the western
shore of the bay formed by the river near its confluence with the sea.
The houses are built on an eminence which slopes gently towards the
margin of the water, and rise in ranges of streets one above another.
Most of them are ancient, and some ornamented with grotesque carvings.
The streets are inconveniently narrow, and only partially paved. The
scenery in the neighbourhood is of a very superior kind. The rocks are
of purple-coloured slate, which beautifully contrast with the foliage of the
trees, in which the houses are embosomed. The view of the town from the
bay, comprising a rich variety of plants and shrubs along the coast, is of
a most beautiful kind. In several points of view, where projecting rocks
shut out the view of both sea and town, the bay has the appearance of an
inland lake. The harbour is capable of containing five hundred vessels,
and is considered one of great security, its deep waters remaining in
peace, when, a quarter of a mile out, the sea is in strong agitation. The
entrance is between the ruins of Kingswear Castle, and the Fort and
Church of St. Petroch, where a battery has been erected. An artificial
quay has been constructed projecting into the harbour. The river is
navigable to Totness, a distance of ten miles, between banks abounding
throughout with beautiful scenery. The inhabitants are chiefly employed
in the Newfoundland fishery, which engages no less than 3000 persons,
some of whom must, by law, be landsmen. A trade is also carried on in
ship-building; and in 1826, no less than nineteen vessels were built in the
Dartmouth dock-yards. The Church, commonly called the Mayor's
Chapel, is a spacious cruciform structure, and possessing great internal
beauty. It is in the decorated style of English architecture. The pulpit
is of stone, elaborately carved and richly gilt. The stalls of the
corporation are modern ; but the old oak ceiling is preserved.

In 1190, Dartmouth harbour was the rendezvous of the fleet destined
for the Holy Land. In the reign of Richard I., the French effected a
landing, set fire to the town, and made good their retreat with trifling
loss. In the time of Edward III., the port contributed thirty-one ships,

!> AK I MOI'TII.

and nearly eight hundred men, to the naval armament, for the invasion of
France. In 1404, some French pirates burnt Plymouth, and came to the
attack of Dartmouth, but were gallantly repulsed by the united efforts
of the male and female inhabitants ; De Chastell, their commander, and
seven of his men being killed, and twenty of his crew taken prisoners.

During the Parliamentary war, this town was regarded as a port of
great importance, and was the scene of eager contention. In 1643, it
was besieged by Prince Maurice, who did not succeed in taking it until
after it had endured a siege of four weeks, when he garrisoned it for the
king. In 1646, it was taken by storm ; General Fairfax, in person,
commanding the assault.

It has separate jurisdiction. By act of parliament in the reign of
Richard II., the exportation of tin was made the exclusive privilege of this
port. It is said to have been incorporated by King John, but the first
authentic document, now existing, is dated in the reign of Edward III.
" King John," says Leland, " gave privilege of Mairalte to Dartmouth."
This is either a mistake, or the manner of exercising the privilege was
not sufficiently defined ; as the charter granted by Edward III. expressly
invests the burgesses with power to " chose a mayor every year." The
corporation which is formed under this charter, consists of a mayor,
recorder, two bailiffs, and twelve common council men, with other
inferior officers. Dartmouth was first represented in Parliament in the
twenty-sixth of Edward I. ; but afterwards intermitted sending till the
reign of Edward III.; since which the representatives have been regularly
returned. Under the Reform Bill, Dartmouth sends but one member.

The river from which the town takes its name, is called the Dart, as is
supposed from the velocity of its current, in the same way as a river in
Warwickshire is called the Arrow. By some old writers, the Dart is
called the Darant. It was probably originally written Darte ; for
Chaucer says,

" For what I wot he was of Dartemouth."

The town originally consisted of three villages, named Clifton, Dart-
mouth, and Hardness ; and, though now united by a continued chain of
buildings, they are still distinct with regard to many local regulations.

The view of Dartmouth from the bay, is, as we said, one of great
beauty; the houses, situated on a craggy hill, extend, embosomed in
trees, almost a mile along the edge of the water. The dockyards and
quay project into the river, and cause an apparent curvature in its course,

18 DARTMOUTH.

which produces a very delightful effect. Ships of war at anchor, and
smaller vessels sailing, add greatly to the view. No scene could be more
admirably adapted for a picture. Dr. Maton speaking of it, said, that
" the view towards the mouth of the harbour exhibits such a happy
assemblage of objects for a picture, that it is, perhaps, scarcely to be
exceeded. A rocky knoll projecting from the shore makes an admirable
foreground. One of the side screens is formed by the picturesque castle,
with the adjoining church, just emerging from a fine wood which enriches
the right hand side ; the other a high promontory with a fort at its feet ;
whilst the main sea appears in front through a narrow opening, and
leaves nothing for the imagination to wish for in the composition." Mr.
Stan field perceived those advantages ; and the accompanying plates
show how much of truth there was in the description of Dr. Maton.
The castle has two platforms of cannon. The fortification itself was
probably erected in the time of Henry VII. ; who, as appears from
Browne Willis, agreed " for himself and his heir to pay to the corporation
forty pounds per annum, for their building a strong and mighty tower,
and bulwark with lime and stone, for furnishing the same with guns,
artillery, and ordnance, and for finding a chain in length and strength
sufficient." The fortress, however, is not spacious, and mounts but few
guns.

At the south end of the town are the ruins of an ancient castle, rising
immediately above the water. It appears to have been a circular struc-
ture, but of no great strength. It contains 4485 inhabitants, is a
borough, sea- port, and market-town, and is distant from London, 204
miles. Its distance from Exeter, the capital of the county, is thirty and
three quarter miles.

ST. MALO.

THIS town, formerly called Haute-Bretagne, with a sea-port, a castle,
which served it for a citadel, and several other forts, is at the present
time the chief place of the arrondissement and canton of the department
of Ille and Vilaine. It is forty leagues north of Nantes, and eighty-three
leagues north-west of Paris. It was a place of no importance until the
time of Anne of Bretagne, who transferred to it the bishopric of Aleth, or
Guidalet, and gave it the name of St. Malo, or Maelon, which was that
of its patron and first bishop.

It is not large, the land on which it is built being limited ; but it is a
busy trading place, and thickly populated in proportion to its extent ; it
contains from 12,000 to 14,000 inhabitants. It is built on a rock, or
small island, formerly called the Isle of Aaron, which is connected with
the mainland by a causeway. This island is protected on the northern
coast with rocks, by means of which the fortifications of St. Malo under
this part of the enclosure are inaccessible to the enemy ; from the
southern and eastern coast it forms a kind of amphitheatre. Its enclosure
has been partly rebuilt since the commencement of the last century.

St. Malo resembles a long square, of which the angle, extending to
the bank, or causeway, and looking towards the land, is lengthened by
the bastion of the castle, which is called, la Point de la Galere. The
castle, considered without its bastions, forms a tolerably exact square, of
which the enclosure is flanked by four large towers at the angles : it
commands the town, and defends the access to it from the coast. La
Tour Generate , and that of Quinquengrone defend it from the side of the
town ; la Tour des Dames, and that of Moulins, flank the two angles
stretching to the Point de la Galere. There is a dungeon between the
Tour Generale and that of des Dames. The part of the town which is in
front of the castle is very regularly constructed, as also that looking to the
port of Dinan ; but in the rest of the town the streets are very irregular,
and the houses badly built ; a great part of them are constructed of wood,
by reason of the stone, which is common at St. Malo, being too hard for
the masons generally to work. The enclosure of St. Malo is open by
the gates of St. Vincent and St. Thomas, extending to the castle, the

20 ST. MALO.

one on the right and the other on the left ; by the great gates situated at
the extremity of the bastion of St. Vincent, in the middle of that part of
the town which looks towards the east ; and by the gate of Dinan, in
the middle of that part which looks towards the south. The land can
only be reached by the causeway. Though open spaces of ground are
rare in the enclosure of the town, there are, however, many public build-
ings, the chief of which is St. Thomas's, which separates the town from
the castle. St. Malo has a very extensive quay, facing the gate of
Dinan, between the bastion of St. Philippe and that of St. Louis.
There are two others at the eastern part of the town, of which one,
extending from the bastion of St. Louis to the great gate, and the other,
larger than the two first, begin at some distance from the great gate, and
extend to the gate of St. Vincent. At the end of the bastion of St.
Louis, a pier has been constructed which extends into the sea. Near the
great gate is a pump which furnishes water to the fountains of the town,
consisting of above eighty streets.

The port is esteemed one of the safest in France, but not one of the
most commodious ; the entrance is very difficult, on account of the sur-
rounding rocks, the points of which are found concealed just under the
water, so that it is necessary for those unacquainted with the harbour to
employ one of the pilots of the port.

When vessels arrive laden, or when they are about to leave the port
with a cargo, they cannot anchor except at the mouth of the river Ranee,
near the ancient city of Aleth, as the state of the water would not allow
them always to be afloat if they moored themselves against the quays of
the town, the tide, ebbing every twelve hours, leaving dry the whole of
the sands between St. Malo, the causeway, St. Servan, and the old city.

The town has been bombarded many times by the English. In 1693,
an English vessel was stranded on a rock opposite the port St. Thomas,
filled with machinery to crush the town, if it had succeeded, as was anti-
cipated ; but the assailants, finding themselves discovered and fired at from
the Fort Royal, quickly set fire to their vessel, seeking to save themselves
in their boats ; in this, however, they were frustrated, for of the entire
number of forty-one men all perished, including the engineer. This
infernal machine, as it was called by the inhabitants, caused much
devastation in the town, but it did no personal damage. In 1695,
another attempt was made, which was equally unsuccessful. In 1758,
two descents were effected near St. Malo, at Cancale, and at St. Cast; but
the resistance that they experienced compelled the troops to re-embark,

\

ST. MALO. 21

after having lost three thousand men, and seven hundred prisoners ; the
Malouins lost but four hundred men killed and wounded.

The commerce of St. Malo is very active ; there are many manufacto-
ries of soap, tobacco, biscuit, sail-cloth, and cordage, a forge for the navy,
and materials for building, as well within as without the walls. The
vessels which the Malouins employ for the cod-fishery from the port are
from a hundred to four hundred tons ; these vessels carry with them the
salts of Guerand, for the curing of the fish. The cod prepared by the
Malouins has an acknowledged superiority over that which is prepared in
England. They have also whale, mackerel, and oyster fisheries, in the
great road of Cancale, near their town ; the latter are considered the best
in France : they also trade largely in the cloths of Bretagne, and all sorts
of merchandise. When war intercepts commerce, the Malouins occupy
themselves almost entirely in making attacks on their enemies ; for which
purpose they arm the greater part of their vessels. By means of these
armaments they amply indemnify themselves for the profits which they
might have made by commerce, and likewise procure subsistence for a
great number of sailors and other sea-faring men, who, without this
assistance, would be deprived of employment. It is in the time
of these armaments that the Malouins trade most with the Nantais,
because the privateers bring into their port the greater part of the prizes
captured. The productions of the territory of St. Malo consist princi-
pally of grains, which are gathered in abundance. They furnish
also cattle, and a variety of fruits. Its commerce is only supported by
the vigilance and activity of its merchants ; they know how to surmount
by their labour the obstacles occasioned by the position of their town, and
render, in fact, this place as interesting as if it was in a favourable
situation.

In 1711 they lent to Louis XIV. thirty millions of francs, which they
have never been repaid. This town has given birth to great seamen and
eminent merchants, who by their industry have brought considerable sums
into France. It is the cradle of the Indian Company ; and we are indebted
to one of its inhabitants for the discovery of Canada. It is celebrated as
the birth-place of Bernard de la Bourdonnaye, a merchant and warrior ;
of La Mettrie, a philosopher, who was a man of so great a mind that he
discovered he had no soul, a qualification for the friendship of Frederick
the Great, who forthwith made him his physician ; of Maupertius, the
geometrician; of Chateaubriand, the celebrated pamphleteer, and author

ST- MALO.

of the Genius of Christianity ; and other characters of different degrees
of eminence.

Besides the castle cathedral, there are three parish churches, a chapter-
house, a seminary, and seven religious houses, of which three are for
men, and four for women.

Of the peculiar manners of the strange but sturdy people of Saint
Malo, an excellent account may be found in the Travelling Sketches on
the Sea-coasts of France, written by Leitch Ritchie, and illustrated by
Stanfield : — " Driven from terra firma," says that excellent writer, "by
the incursions of the Normans, the inhabitants of this part of Brittany
took refuge, like the Lombards in similar circumstances, on the rocks of
the sea ; and , even before they had enclosed themselves with proper
fortifications, they were enabled to afford an asylum to a fugitive prince
— the Earl of Richmond, who afterwards wore the crown of England.
At the time of the League, they had become so independent as to stand
aloof from both parties ; and, at length, haughtily declared, that they
would do without a master till the States-general of the kingdom,
assembled in due form of law, should elect a king.

"The governor of the chateau, however, the Count de Fontaine, was
of more accommodating sentiments ; and the garrison and the citizens
formed two hostile parties within the walls. The dispute was settled by
fifty fine young men scaling the chateau by night, by means of a cord
attached to a culverin on the ramparts. The garrison gave in ; and the
Malouins governed themselves till the year 1594, when they thought
proper to recognize the authority of Henri Quatre.

" One would almost think that the mind is in some degree impressed
with the character of the objects which the eyes have been accustomed
to look upon from infancy ; for the Malouins have always preserved the
stern, unaccommodating spirit, which is the moral feature, if we may so
express ourselves, of their native rock."

The circumstance of the fire-ship sent against the town by the English,
and which has been noticed above, is then narrated ; and the writer pro-
ceeds by saying, that, " The privateers fitted out from the place have
always been distinguished for their audacity and success ; and, in short,
to give the naval character of the people in a word, we have only to say,
that, when hailed at sea, their ships did not answer, 'We are French,' but,
' We are Malouin !'

" The customs and manners of the people, a little way out of the
town," continues the same lively writer, " are very striking ; and we

ST. MA 1,0. 23

cannot travel a Sabbath-day's journey without witnessing most of the
peculiarities of the Bas Bretons.

" The marriage ceremonies of the peasantry are absolutely poetical.
The compliments which are discharged at one another by the two go-
betweens (who are not women, as in ancient Greece, but men) remind
one of the eulogium of bards. The agent of the fair one, after being
driven from point to point in the palaver, is, at last, fain to avow that he
has no better reason for refusal than that the maiden has devoted her
virgin life to God. Even this fortification, however, is at length aban-
doned, and the advocate of the lover obtains permission to enter the
cottage, and search in person for the damsel. A wife, a widow, and a
child, are in turns presented to him ; but all these he declines with a
compliment and a jest ; and when, at length, the object of his search
appears, all parties sit down to the wine or the cider, and converse
reasonably on the subject.

" On the marriage-day the bride and bridegroom hold a taper in their
hands ; and the light which is first extinguished announces to the super-
stitious Bretons the one who is to die first. On the evening of the
marriage, a car, yoked with oxen, arrives to carry to her new home the
property of the bride ; but it is not without blows on both sides, severe,
though amicable, that this is effected. On the same night the lady is
hidden by her bride-maidens, and a severe fight takes place among the
young men. The struggles of the party of the 'happy man,' however,
are in vain ; for, by immutable rule, the first day of marriage belongs to
God, the second to the Virgin, and it is not till the third day the wife
is delivered to her husband.

" A thousand odd superstitions still prevail among the Bas Bretons.
When a sick man is about to die, a funeral car is sure to be seen
approaching the house, covered with a white cloth, and driven by skele-
tons ; or, if the cortege is not seen, the wheels, at least, are heard, and
the terrified listeners hide their faces in their hands till the unearthly
show has passed by. Certain dwarfs, one foot high, are supposed to
inhabit the earth under the chateau Morlaix, for the purpose of guarding
the treasures it contains. A man who has the good fortune to set eyes
on these riches, may fill his hands if he please, but woe betide him if he
puts any in his pocket ! ' John and his Father,' form a kind of Will o'
the Wisp, who carries a light on each of his four fingers, and twirls round
with them like a dervish. The belated hind is sometimes startled, at the
edges of the woods, with the sound of dancing; and, if he dare to turn

24 ST. MALO.

his eyes to the spot, he is sure to be seized by the unearthly revellers, and
compelled to join in their gambols till the crowing of the cock. The
laveuses de nuit are seen washing in the streams ; and they invite the
passer-by to help them to wring their clothes. The job continues all
night, and perhaps the assistant at last gets his arm broken for his pains.

" In some places they would not for the world sweep the floor after
sun-set, for fear of hurting the dead who are then making their invisible
rounds. When they wish to find the body of a drowned person, they fix
a burning taper in a loaf of bread, and send it afloat upon the water, con-
fidently expecting that the light will be extinguished above the spot where
the dead man lies. The crow of the cock before midnight, continued an
odd number of times, announces the death of a man ; an even number of
times, that of a woman. The song of a bird foretells, by its intonation,
the date of their marriage and death. On Christmas-night, the cows,
and other ruminating animals, lie awake, conversing on what is to happen
to their masters, who take care, on these occasions, to supply them with
a good supper. The howling of a dog in the night time presages death ;
and, in the howling of a storm are heard the voices of the unburied dead."

The Malouins are haughty shopkeepers, and scrupulous merchants.
Their uncompromising character appearing in all the transactions of their
lives.

When the harbour is filled by the tide, the scene presented is animated
and picturesque. The boats passing and re-passing, the costume of the
peasants of Brittany contrasted with the rude and not less strange
appearance of the veteran sailor, the bristling towers, and the black
rocks, form altogether a scene of great interest.

COAST OF BRITTANY NEAR DOL,

(THE ROCKS OF ST. MALO IN THE DISTANCE.)

WITH the austere St. Malo we have finished, and we now come to
the fertileplains of Dol.

The accompanying view is one merely of a windmill, but it well contrasts
with, and exhibits the effect of, the vast champaign around it. The town
of Dol is placed among marshes, and is remarkable chiefly for its large
Gothic cathedral. We have previously noticed the strong and strange
superstitions of the people of Brittany, nor are the Dolais one wit behind
the credulous Malouins. The cathedral is said to contain the mausoleum
of Saint Samson, who is such a very sensible saint that he cures the
Dolais of madness. Like other mad-doctors, he prescribes a straight
waistcoast, but instead of encloseting his patient in a mad-house, he
shuts him up in a niche near the altar. The prescription is only efficient
for an inhabitant of Dol.

On the road from Pontorson, the last frontier town of Normandy, to
Dol, the first town of Brittany, is seen, from a great distance, Mount
Dol. This place is invested with all the superstition peculiar to the
country. It was visited, like St. Michael's in Cornwall, and St. Michael's
in Normandy, by the " First Knight ;" and, as miracles are never absent
when the marvellous is to be substantiated, the imprint of the foot of
the saint remains to this day an incontestable proof of his visit. The
Druids had here a temple, but the French have a telegraph ; and the
view from the platform on which it is erected is extensive and beautiful,
adorned with chateaux and spots of inter' -f.

it

PORTSMOUTH.

UNDER the head of Portsmouth will be comprised a description of
Portsmouth Harbour, a view of which will be given in the course of this
work ; Porchester Castle, one of the engravings in the present number ;
and all points of interest connected with this great maritime and military
depot.

The origin of Portsmouth is affirmed by Camden to have been owing to
the retiring of the sea from the upper part of the harbour, which, rendering
the adjoining village of Porchester less convenient, the inhabitants were
induced to remove to Portsea Isle, on the south-west side of which they
erected the present existing town. It is called in the Saxon Chronicles,
Portesmuthe, from a Saxon chieftain of the name of Port, who, with his
two sons, Bieda and Maegla, landed on that part of the coast about the
year 501. After a severe conflict with the Britons, this chieftain suc-
ceeded in maintaining possession of the surrounding country. Alfred
fitted out a fleet of nine ships at the port, and after an obstinate engage-
ment defeated the Danes, who infested the coasts of Hampshire and
Dorsetshire ; and in his own peculiar way, hanged many of them along
the coast as admonitions to their countrymen. Harold also equipped a
large fleet at this port, with a view of intercepting the armament of
William, afterwards surnamed the Conqueror. After the death of
William Rufus, Robert, Duke of Normandy, landed with his forces to
take possession of the throne. Henry the First, who had raised an army
to support his claims to the crown, assembled his forces here; and, after
the two armies had remained some time in their encampments, an accom-
modation took place, and Robert returned to Normandy. The Saxon
Chronicle informs us, that the king passed the Whitsun-week here.
Henry the Third, also, collected at this place a numerous army for the
invasion of France ; but the enterprise was abandoned in consequence
of the treachery of his ally, the Duke of Bretagne. In 1377, the
beginning of the reign of Richard II., the French actuated it is said by
jealousy at the growing prosperity of its trade, attacked and burnt a con-
siderable portion of the town, but were compelled to retire to their ships

PORTSMOUTH. 27

with much loss. For the greater security of the harbour, Edward IV.
erected two towers, commanding its entrance. He also made additions
to the fortifications of the town, which previously consisted only of a
single wall, strengthened at the angles with bastions; and Richard III.
impressed with the growing importance of the place, carried on and
extended the works his predecessor commenced. Henry VII. established
seven extensive breweries for supplying the troops in time of war; and
Henry VIII., the first monarch under whom the navy obtained a system-
atic establishment, erected Southsea Castle at the south-west extremity
of the Isle of Portsea, and made other improvements; and instituted
regulations which made Portsmouth the principal naval arsenal in
England.* In July, 1544, Francis I., having previously quarrelled with
Henry, fitted out a large fleet under the command of D'Armebant, Admi-
ral of France. The vessels, with a numerous military force on board,
anchored off St. Helens, with intent to destroy Portsmouth, where an
English army, commanded by the Duke of Suffolk, had assembled.
The English fleet, under Viscount Lisle, Lord High Admiral of England,
anchored off Spithead, and a distant cannonade was maintained for two
days between the hostile fleets, during which the French suffered consi-
derable loss, and were at length compelled to haul their wind, and retire
to their own coast, but which they did not do without revenging
themselves by plundering some part of the Isle of Wight. At the com-
mencement of the action the Mary Rose, commanded by Sir George

* Henry VIII. was the first to erect a navy office, and range his ships into different
classes, keeping a regular inventory of their various stores. In the preceding reigns the
naval force was either hired from the merchant, or demanded by the king from the Cinque
ports. Leland, who visited Portsmouth in the reign of Henry, describes it as follows :
— " The land heere, on the east side of Portesmuth haven, rennith farther by a great
way strait into the se, by south est from the haven mouth than it doeth at the west
poynte. There is, at this point of the haven, Portesmuth town, and a great round tourre,
almost doble in quantite and strengith to that that is on the west side of the haven right
agayn it, and heere is a mighty chaine of yren, to draw from towre to towre. About a
quarter of a mile above this tourre is a great dok for shippes, and yn this dok lyeth part
of the rjbbes of the Henry, Grace «f Dieu, one of the biggest shippes that hath been
made in hominum memoria. Ther be above this dok crekes in this part of the haven."
After some further description of the town, Leland says, " King Henry viij at his first
warres into Fraunce erected in the south part of the towne 3 great bruing houses, with
the implements, to serve his shippes at such tyme as they should go to the se in tyme of
warre. One Carpenter, a riche man, made of late tyme, in the mydle of the high streate
of the toun, a Tounhouse. The loun is baie," he adds, "and little occupied in time of
peace."

28 PORTSMOUTH.

Carew, the largest English ship, next to the Great Harry of the Admiral's,
was overpowered by the weight of her own ordnance ; and, heeling
greatly, the water rushed in at her port-holes, and sunk her, by which
accident nearly 600 men, with Sir George, were drowned. In the reign
of Edward VI., all the maritime force of England consisted of fifty three
vessels, exclusive of merchantmen, but including galleys, pinnaces, and row
barges. They were all stationed at this port, excepting two at Deptford
Strand, and the Henry Grace de Dieu at Woolwich. The number of men
to man these vessels, including soldiers, marines, and gunners, was 7780.
The young king perceived the necessity of strengthening Portsmouth,
and, in a letter to his friend, Barnaby Fitzpatrick, during his progress in
1552, he writes, " From thes we went to Portsmouth toune, and there
viewed not only the toune itself, and the haven, but also divers bulwarkes;
in viewing of which we find the bulwarkes chargeable, massie, and ram-
parted, but il facioned, il flanked, and set in unmete places; the toune
weak in comparison of that it ought to be, to house great stores (for wh,
in the wallis are faire and large closis, and much vacant rome ;) the haven
notable greate, and standing by nature easie to be fortified. And for the
more strength thereof, we have divised two strong castellis on either side
of the haven, at the mouth thereof : for at the mouth of the haven is not
past ten score over, but in the middal almost a mile over, and in
length for a mile and a hauf hable to bear the greatest ship in Christen-
dome." The young king, who passed the night at Southsea Castle, after
reviewing the fortifications, and ordering the erection of the two towers,
also gave directions for an immense iron chain, extending from one tower
to the other, across the mouth of the harbour ; which chain, on the
French fleet appearing off Portsmouth during the American war, was
raised so as to prevent the vessels entering. In the reign of Elizabeth,
the fortifications were greatly strengthened, and the signals now used on
the approach of vessels were established. In the reign of Charles I.,
Portsmouth was the rendezvous for the armament destined to relieve the
Protestants in Rochelle, then besieged by Cardinal Richelieu. John
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the favourite of Charles, came to Ports-
mouth to hasten the preparations for the expedition, and was assassinated
by the enthusiast Felton, who was a lieutenant in one of the regiments
ordered for embarkation, and who had previously served under the Duke
at the Isle of Rhe.* Soon after the commencement of the Parliamentary

* The history of the motives which urged Felton to so atrocious a crime has never

PORTSMOUTH. 29

War, a party of Cromwell soldiers surprised Southsea Castle, of which
they took possession ; and, subsequently, they took the town, and garri-
soned it for the Parliament. After the Restoration, the nuptials of Charles
II. with Catherine, the Infanta of Portugal, were solemnized in the
chapel of the garrison. Charles enlarged and improved the fortifications
by surrounding Southsea. Castle with a kind of star fort. James II.,
while Lord High Admiral, frequently visited Portsmouth ; but, previously
to his abdication of the government, he imprisoned the officers of the
garrison for refusing to admit his Irish troops. The port was frequently
visited by George III. ; and, in 1814, the Prince Regent, afterwards
George IV., remained at Portsmouth for several days, in company with
the allied sovereigns.

Portsmouth received its first charter of incorporation from Richard
Coeur de Lion, in the year 1123, in which, after declaring that he retains
Portesmue in his own hands, with all that belongs to it, he grants to its
burgesses the privileges of an annual fair for fifteen days, and a weekly
market, together with all the immunities enjoyed by the citizens of Win-
chester and Oxford. As a consequence of this charter, the corporation
required of Henry III. that he would command the attendance of his
justices; and, to strengthen the request (no unnecessary precaution at

teen satisfactorily arrived at. The refusal of a captaincy, poverty, and blind fanaticism, are
all alleged ; and the last appears most likely. The narrative of the assassination is thus
given by Wrangham ; and, it is trusted, will not be ihought an uninteresting episode :
" In a bye cutler's shop, on Tower Hill, he purchased a tenpenny knife, the sheath of
which he sewed to the lining of his pocket, that he might at any moment draw forth the
blade with one hand, as he had maimed the other. This done, he reached Portsmouth,
partly (it is said) on horseback, and partly on foot; for he was in great poverty, which
might perhaps have a little edged his desperation. There, without any suspicion, among
numbers solicitous of employmeut, he pressed into an inward chamber, where Bucking-
ham was at breakfast with Monsieur de Soubes and Sir Thomas Fryer; and a little
before His Grace's rising from the table, moved thence into a kind of lobby between that
room and the next, where divers were in waiting for the duke's appearance. In this
lobby, as Buckingham was passing through, the assassin with a back stroke gave him a
deep wound in his left side. The Duke, having just time to pull out the knife, sunk down
under the table and expired." The Duchess, in an upper room, was scarcely out of bed.
Felton, far from attempting to escape, justified his crime. The house is No. 10 in the
High Street, then an inn called the Spotted Dog, and now in existence. Felton was
executed at Tyburn, and gibbeted on Southsea Common. The body of the duke was in-
terred at Westminster Abbey ; but, in the church of St. Thomas a Becket, at Portsmouth,
is a cenotaph erected to his memory, containing in the centre a marble urn which holds,
the heart of the ill-fated nobleman.

l

30 PORTSMOUTH.

that period) presented the monarch with three casks of wine; and, it is
scarcely necessary to add, that the justices followed the bribe. Other-
charters were conferred by succeeding monarchs, and the last was granted
by Charles I.

The port extends from the opening of Southampton Water, on the
west, to the town of Emsworth, on the east, including Langston, St.
Helens, Portsmouth Harbour, and Spithead. The harbour is unrivalled
for capaciousness, security, and depth of water : it is about two hundred
and fifty yards broad at the mouth, expanding into an open and broad
lake, which extends for several miles to the north, affording secure shelter
and ample sea-room for ships of the largest burden. The contiguity of
the Isle of Wight adds materially to the safety, by forming a vast natural
break-water between a portion of the English Channel and the harbour.
The extent of the harbour is almost sufficient for the whole navy of
England, and the greatest first-rates may ride at the lowest ebb without
touching the ground. Even when the sea at Spithead is so agitated by
the fury of the winds that the largest ships are sometimes driven from
their anchors, the ships within the harbour ride at ease. Hardly any wind
that can blow has power to endanger the shipping moored on its " breast
of waters," so effectually is it sheltered by the surrounding lands. From
the western side of the entrance is the sand-bank called the Spit, at the
head of which a ship of war is always stationed. This bank is above
three miles in length, but not perceptible above water. The roadstead is
called the Spithead, and marked out by buoys at regular intervals, and is
often the spot chosen for the assembling of the English fleet. The port
is the general rendezvous where all ships either homeward or outward
bound take convoy, and frequently seven hundred merchantmen have
sailed at one time from Spithead.

Allusion has previously been made to the loss of the Mary Rose, com-
manded by Sir George Carew, off Spithead, in 1544. Probably the
calamity that, on the 29th August, 1782, befel the Royal George,
was of a more awful nature, inasmuch as none of the dread circumstances
of war were connected with the melancholy event. This vessel carried
one hundred guns, and was considered one of the finest in the Royal
Navy. Some repairs being required on her keel, to save the delay of
going into harbour, she was hove on one side, by the removal of her
guns ; and, while in that situation, a sudden squall from the north-west
threw her broadside on the water, and the lower deck ports not having
been lashed clown, she filled, and sunk in about three minutes. Her

PORTSMOUTH. 31

brave admiral, Kempenfeldt, and upwards of four hundred of her crew
(eight hundred in all), besides two hundred women, perished in her.
Every assistance was immediately given by the boats of the fleet, which
had just returned from a successful cruise, but with little success. The
top-masts were long visible above water, and the spot where she lies is
marked by a red buoy attached to the wreck. The body of her gallant
commander was never found. A cenotaph in Alverstoke Church perpe-
tuates his memory, and records his talents and his virtues. By the assis-
tance of the diving-bell many of her stores have been recovered ; and,
only lately, by means of an ingeniously constructed diving-helmet and
apparatus, invented by Mr. Deane, stores have been discovered to a
considerable amount.

The following particulars of the loss of the Royal George have been
collected by Mr. Deane; and, as they have more of the stamp of
authenticity than many accounts which are current, and the subject is
connected in a most interesting manner with the history of the English
Navy, and consequently with Portsmouth, they are here introduced.

" Time has left few in the present day of those saved from the ship,
but her seventh lieutenant (aide-de-camp of Admiral Kempenfeldt, the
present Admiral Sir Philip Henderson Durham, G. C. B.) the only
officer alive who then belonged to her, and he has kindly presented us
the following anecdote, more immediately relating to himself.

" When the Royal George was going down, Lieutenant Durham threw
off his coat and dashed into the water, where he was siezed by a drown-
ing marine, by whom he was twice carried down. On rising the second
time, Lieutenant Durham succeeded in extricating himself from the
dying man's grasp, by tearing off his waistcoat, and he, with one of the
seamen, was eventually saved by siezing the halyards from the mizen
topmast head, by which they reached the mast head, from whence they
were taken with great difficulty by a boat. The poor marine's body was
washed on shore a fortnight afterwards, with the waistcoat, by which he
had caught hold of Lieutenant Durham, so firmly twisted round his arm,
that a pencil-case, bearing the lieutenant's initials, was found safe in the
pocket, and restored to the owner. The Captain, under whose direction,
with that of first Lieutenant Saunders, the ship was careening, was on
the quarter deck at the time the accident occurred, and ran down to
warn the Admiral, who was in his cabin ; but he was unable to effect his
purpose, from the cabin-door having become fixed. When Lieutenant
Durham had reached a place of temporary security, he observed the

32 PORTSMOUTH.

Captain holding by the weather mizen top sail-yard arm, and sent a
boat to his aid. These two were the only officers saved. The number
of the ship's company on board was nearly*800."

One of the Seamen who belonged to the Royal George, and who
was among the few persons saved, relates the melancholy event in the
following words: —

" I joined the Royal George, of one hundred guns, at Spithead, in
December, 1779, being then nineteen years of age, having been drafted
from the Princess Amelia, three-decker, and guard-ship at Spithead.
Lord Rodney was there, in the Sandwich, and Admiral Digby, in the
Prince George ; on board the latter ship was Prince William Henry, our
present gracious King.

"In January, 1782, the Royal George was docked at Plymouth, and
joined the grand fleet at Spithead, where she changed officers : Admiral
Kempenfeldt, Captain Waghorn, and first Lieutenant Saunders, joining
her.

" She left Spithead with the grand fleet, and cruised in the channel ;
but returned to Spithead again, being leaky. The leak was found to
arise from the pipe leading through the ship's bottom to a cistern in the
well from which the water was pumped for washing decks. To get at the
leak, at five o'clock on the morning of the twenty-ninth of August,
1782, all hammocks were piped up, and the word passed for stowing
them on the larboard side on the booms. When this was done, the
drummer was called to beat all hands to quarters; — I ran to mine, which
was the sixth gun on the main-deck. The order was given to run over to
leeward all the main-deck, and also the quarter-deck and forecastle guns.
The middle and lower-deck guns were run in on the weather side, as far
as the breechings would allow ; and on the lee side, both middle and
lower deck, the guns were run out — the lower-deck ports consequently
being open, occasioned the ship to fill and sink.

" When this happened, I was stationed on the middle-gun deck, at
the tackle fall, hoisting provisions out of the after-hold, and rolling
the same to leeward, to give the ship more heel, to enable the carpen-
ters to get at the leak on the weather side. This work continued until
about half-past eight, when the water was at intervals dashing in at
the lower-deck ports ; — at this moment, the captain was standing at the
entering port on the middle-gun-deck. About ten minutes after this
the danger was discovered, as the water began more rapidly to dash in at
die lower-deck ports. The drummer was immediately called to beat to

PORTSMOUTH. 33

quarters; when I let the tackle fall where I was stationed, and run upon
the main-deck to my gun, the sixth. When I got there, four of us,
Joseph Woodcock (the captain of the gun), myself, and two others,
immediately hooked the tackles on to windward, and while in the act of
endeavouring to bouse our gun to windward, I saw the signal lieutenant
(the present Admiral Sir Philip Henderson Durham) on the weather
gangway, hailing with a speaking trumpet, ' Bouse, bouse away, the ship
is sinking !' — the words were scarcely out of his mouth when the ship
capsized. At this moment, being obliged for our own safety to drop the
ends of the falls, the gun running away to leeward, I scrambled up to
windward by the assistance of the tackle fall, and got out of the weather
port; as also did my old companion, Joseph Woodcock, who died about
six years ago, in the Royal Hospital at Greenwich, — whom I, with
Charles Wilson, and several other old shipmates, saved from the wreck
of the Royal George, used to meet, particularly to commemorate the
29th of August, which we considered our birth-day. They are all dead ;
and I am now left to myself to reflect on my miraculous escape.

"I must now go back to getting out of the port. Not being able to
swim, I stood there until she filled. There were about three hundred
of us poor fellows standing on the ship's bottom, singing out, ' Boats,
boats, for God's sake !' The suction of the ship made a horrible noise ;
when down we went altogether, clinging hold of each other, many
catching hold of us, and I catching hold of others ; and after going
down several times, on coming up, the rest of my unfortunate companions
were pretty clear of me. In the confusion in the water, I caught hold of
a drum, and being nearly exhausted got my head entangled underneath
it. Something at that moment scratched my head, it proved to be a pig
swimming about, and I clung to his neck for a short time ; when, provi-
dentially, up floated some of the hammocks, and I let go my hold of the
pig for a hammock.

" By this time the ship had filled, sunk, and righted, part of the rigging
remaining above water; — when one of my shipmates hallooed out,
' Charley, Charley, strike off here !' I let go my hold of the hammock,
and did so, never having swam either before or since ; I then got
on the rigging, much exhausted, and where I recollect seeing many more
of the ship's company come up and swim to the rigging also. There
was, I suppose, about one hundred and fifty of us, and one woman,
with her husband, whose name was John Horn, and who was carried on
board the Victory with mo. It is supposed that six hundred men, with

K

34 , PORTSMOUTH.

unfortunate Admiral Kempenfeldt, and three hundred women, here
perished.

CHARLES BLUNDY, aged seventy-five,

Late Ordinary Seaman of the Royal George,

And now living at 19, Newcastle Street, Bethnal Green.
March 9, 1835.

The narrative then continues: — "Another of the survivors, Mr.
Ingram, a very respectable and intelligent man, who lives, and has lived
for many years, at Woodford, a village exactly midway between Glouces-
ter and Bristol — relates as follows, in a recent number of a weekly
periodical. We have, however, corrected his narrative in one or two
places, on the high authority we have mentioned.

" The Royal George was a ship of one hundred guns. Originally her
guns had been all brass, but when she was docked at Plymouth, either in
in the spring of 1782 or the year before, the brass forty-two pounders on
her lower gun deck were taken out of her as being too heavy, and iron
thirty-two pounders put there in their stead: so that after that she carried
brass twenty-four pounders on her main-deck, quarter-deck, and poop,
brass thirty-pounders on her middle-deck, and iron thirty-two pounders
on her lower-deck. She did not carry any carronades. She measured
sixty-six feet from the kelson to the taffrail ; and, being a flag ship,
her lanterns were so big that the men used to go into them to clean
them.

" In August, 1782, the Royal George had come to Spithead. She was
in a very complete state, with hardly any leakage, so that there was no
occasion for the pumps to be touched oftener than once in every three or
four days. By the twenty-ninth of August she had got six months'
provision on board, and also many tons of shot. The ship had her top-
gallant-yards up, the blue flag of Admiral Kempenfeldt was flying at the
mizen, and the ensign was hoisted on the ensign-staff, — and she was
in about two days to have sailed to join the grand fleet in the Mediter-
ranean. It was ascertained that the water-cock must be taken out and a
new one put in. The water-cock is something like the tap of a barrel —
it is in the hold of the ship on the starboard side, and at that part of the
ship called the well. By turning a thing which is inside the ship, the
sea-water is let into a cistern in the hold, and it is from that pumped
up to wash the decks. In some ships the water is drawn up the side

PORTSMOUTH. 35

in buckets, and there is no water-cock. To get out the old water-cock,
it was necessary to make the ship heel so much on her larboard side as
to raise the outside of this water-cock above water. This was done at
about eight o'clock on the morning of the twenty-ninth of August. To
do it the whole of the guns on the larboard side were run out as far
as they would go, quite to the breasts of the guns, and the starboard guns
drawn in a midships and secured by tackles, two to every gun, one on
each side the gun. This brought the water nearly on a level with the
port-holes of the larboard side of the lower gun-deck. The men were
working at this water-cock on the outside of the ship for near an hour,
the ship remaining all on one side as I have stated.

" At about nine o'clock A.M., or rather before, we had just finished our
breakfast, and the last lighter, with rum on board, had come along-
side : this vessel was a sloop of about fifty tons, and belonged to three
brothers, who used to carry things on board the men-of-war. She was
lashed to the larboard side of the Royal George, and we were piped to
clear the lighter and get the rum out of her, and stow it in the hold of
the Royal George. I was in the waist of our ship, on the larboard side,
bearing the rum-casks over, as some men of the Royal George were
aboard the sloop to sling them.

" At first no danger was apprehended from the ship being on one side
although the water kept dashing in it at the port holes at every wave ;
and there being mice in the lower part of the ship, which were disturbed
by the water which dashed in, they were hunted in the water by the
men, and there had been a rare game going on. However, by about
nine o'clock the additional quantity of rum on board the ship, and also
the quantity of sea-water which had dashed in through the port-holes,
brought the larboard port-holes of the lower gun-deck nearly level with
the sea.

" As soon as that was the case, the carpenter went on the quarter-deck
to the lieutenant of the watch, to ask him to give orders to right ship,
as the ship could not bear it. However, the lieutenant made him a
very short answer, and the carpenter then went below. This officer was
the third lieutenant ; he had not joined us long : his name I do not
recollect; he was a good-sized man, between thirty and forty years of
age. The men called him, ' Jib-and-Staysail Jack,' for, if he had the
watch in the night, he would be always bothering the men to alter the
sails, and it was 'up jib' and ' down jib,' and ' up foresail' and 'down
forsesail,' every minute. However, the men considered him more of a

36 PORTSMOUTH.

troublesome officer than a good one; and, from a habit he had of moving1
his fingers about when walking the quarter-deck, the men said he was an
organ-player from London, but I have no reason to know that that was
the case. The captain's name was Waghorn. He was on board, bat
where he was I do not know ; — however, captains, if any thing is to be
done, when the ship is in harbour, seldom interfere, but leave it all to the
officer of the watch. The admiral was either in his cabin, or in the
steerage, I do not know which ; and the barber, who had been to shave
him, had just left. The admiral was a man upwards of seventy years of
age ; he was a thin tall man, who stooped a good deal.

" As I have already stated, the carpenter left the quarter-deck and went
below. In a very short time he came up again, and asked the lieutenant
of the watch to right ship, and said again that the ship could not bear it.
Myself and a good many more were at the waist of the ship and at the
gangways, and heard what passed, as we knew the danger, and began to
feel aggrieved, for there were some capital seamen aboard, who knew
what they were about quite as well or better than the officers.

" In a very short time, in a minute or two I should think, Lieutenant
(now Admiral Sir P. H.) Durham ordered the drummer to be called to
beat to right ship. The drummer was called in a moment, and the ship
was then just beginning to sink. I jumped off the gangway as soon as
the drummer was called. There was no time for him to beat his drum,
and I don't know that he even had time to get it. I ran down to my
station, and, by the time I had got there, the men were tumbling
down the hatchways one over another to get to their stations as quick
as possible to right ship. My station was at the third gun from the
head of the ship, on the starboard side of the lower gun-deck, close
by where the cable passes, indeed it was just abaft the bight of the
cable. I said to the second captain of our gun, whose name was
Carrell, (for every gun has a first and second captain, though they
are only sailors), ' Let us try to bouse our gun out without waiting
for the drum, as it will help to right ship.' We pushed the gun, but
it ran back upon us, and we could not start him. The water then
rushed in at nearly all the port-holes of the larboard side of the lower
gun-deck, and I directly said to Carrell, ' Ned, lay hold of the ring-
bolt and jump out at the port-hole ; the ship is sinking, and we shall
be all drowned.' He laid hold of the ring-bolt, and jumped out at
the port-hole into the sea: I believed he was drowned, for I never
saw him afterwards. I immediately got out at the same port-hole, which

PORTSMOUTH. 37

was the third from the head of the ship on the starboard side of the
lower gun-deck, and when I had done so, I saw the port-hole as full
of heads as it could cram, all trying to get out. I caught hold of
the best bower-anchor, which was just above me, to prevent falling
back again into the port-hole, and seized hold of a woman who was
trying 'to get out at the same port-hole, — I dragged her out. The
ship was full of Jews, women, and people selling all sorts of things.
I threw the woman from me, — and saw all the heads drop back again
in at the port-hole, for the ship had got so much on her larboard
side, that the starboard port-holes were as upright as if the men had
tried to get out of the top of a chimney with nothing for their legs and
feet to act upon. I threw the woman from me, and just after that
moment the air that was between decks drafted out at the port-holes
very swiftly. It was quite a huff of wind, and it blew my hat off, for
I had all my clothes on, including my hat. The ship then sunk in a
moment. I tried to swim, but I could not swim a morsel, although I
plunged as hard as I could both hands and feet. The sinking of the
ship drew me down so, — indeed I think I must have gone down within a
yard as low as the ship did. When the ship touched the bottom, the
water boiled up a great deal, and then I felt that I could swim, and
began to rise.

" When I was about half way up to the top of the water, I put my
right hand on the head of a man that was nearly exhausted. He wore
long hair, as many of the men at that time did ; he tried to grapple
me, and he put his four fingers into my right shoe alongside the outer
edge of my foot. I succeeded in kicking my shoe off, and, putting
my hand on his shoulder, I shoved him away, — I then rose to the surface
of the water.

" At the time the ship was sinking, there was a barrel of tar on the
starboard side of her deck, and that had rolled to the larboard and
staved as the ship went down, and when I rose to the top of the water
the tar was floating like fat on the top of a boiler. I got the tar about
my hair and face, but I struck it away as well as I could, and when
my head came above water I heard the cannon ashore firing for distress.
I looked about me, and at the distance of eight or ten yards from me
I saw the main topsail halyard-block above water; — the water was
about thirteen fathoms deep, and at that time the tide was coming in. I
swam to the main topsail halyard-block, got on it, and sat upon it, and
there I rode. The fore, main, and mizcn lops were all above water, as

L

38 PORTSMOUTH.

were a part of the bowsprit and part of the ensign-staff, with the ensign
upon it.

" In going down, the main yard of the Royal George caught the boom
of the rum-lighter and sunk her, and there is no doubt that this made
the Royal George more upright in the water when sunk than she other-
wise would have been, as she did not lie much more on her beams ends
than s*mall vessels often do when left dry on a bank of mud.

" When I got on the main topsail halyard-block, I saw the admiral's
baker in the shrouds of the mizen-top-mast, and directly after that the
woman whom I had pulled out of the port-hole came rolling by : I said
to the baker, who was an Irishman named Robert Cleary, " Bob, reach
out your hand and catch hold of that woman ; — that is a woman I pul-
led out of the port-hole. I dare say she is not dead." He said " I
dare say she is dead enough ; it is of no use to catch hold of her.' I
replied, 'I dare say she is not dead.' He caught hold of the woman
and hung her head over one of the ratlins of the mizen shrouds, and
there she hung by her chin, which was hitched over the ratlin, but a
surf came and knocked her backwards, and away she went rolling over
and over. A captain of a frigate which was lying at Spithead came
up in a boat as fast as he could. I dashed out my left hand in a direc-
tion towards the woman as a sign to him. He saw it, and saw the
woman. His men left off rowing, and they pulled the woman aboard
their boat and laid her on one of the thwarts. The captain of the fri-
gate called out to me, ' My man, I must take care of those that are
in more danger than you.' I said, ' I am safely moored now, Sir.'
There was a seaman named Hibbs hanging by his two hands from the
main-stay ; his name was Abel Hibbs, but he was called Monny, and
as he hung from the main-stay, the sea washed over him every now and
then as much as a yard deep over his head, and when he saw it coming
he roared out : however, he was but a fool for that, for if he had kept
himself quiet he would not have wasted his strength, and would have
been able to take the chance of holding on so much the longer. The
captain of the frigate had his boat rowed to the main-stay, but they
got the stay over part of the head of the boat, and were in great dan-
ger before they got Hibbs on board. The captain of the frigate then
got all the men that were in the different parts of the rigging, including
myself and the baker, into his boat and took us on board the Victory,
where the doctors recovered the woman, but she was very ill for three
or four days. On board the Victory I saw the body of the carpenter,

PORTSMOUTH. 39

lying on the hearth before the galley fire ; some women were trying to
recover him, but he was quite dead.

" The Captain of the Royal George, who could not swim, was picked
up and saved by one of our seamen. The lieutenant of the watch, I
believe, was drowned. The number of persons who lost their lives I
cannot state with any degree of accuracy, because of there being so
many Jews, women, and other persons on board who did not belong
to the ship. The complement of the ship was nominally 1000 men,
but she was not full. Some were ashore, and sixty marines had gone
ashore that morning.

"The government allowed 51. each to the seamen who were on board,
and not drowned, for the loss of their things. I saw the list, and there
were only seventy-five. A vast number of the best of the men were
in the hold stowing away the rum-casks : they must all have perished,
and so must many of the men who were slinging the casks in the sloop
Two of the three brothers belonging to the sloop perished, and the
other was saved. I have no doubt that the men caught hold of each
other, forty or fifty together, and drowned one another — those who could
not swim, catching hold of those who could ; and there is also little doubt
that as many got into the launch as could cram into her, hoping to save
themselves in that way, and went down in her altogether.

" In a few days after the Royal George sunk, bodies would come up,
thirty or forty nearly at a time. A body would rise, and come up so
suddenly as to frighten any one. The watermen there is no doubt, made
a good thing of it : they took from the bodies of the men their buckles,
money, and watches, and then made fast a rope to their heels and towed
them to land.

" The water-cock ought to have been put to rights before the immense
quantity of shot was put on board ; but if the lieutenant of the watch
had given the order to right ship a couple of minutes earlier, when the
carpenter first spoke to him, nothing amiss would have happened ; as
three or four men at each tackle of the starboard guns would very soon
have boused the guns all out, and have righted the ship. At the time
this happened, the Royal George was anchored by two anchors from the
head. The wind was rather from the north-west, — not much of it, —
only a bit of a breeze ; and there was no sudden gust or puff of wind
which made her heel just before she sunk ; it was the weight of metal
and the water which had dashed through in the port-holes which sunk
her, and not the effect of the wind upon her. Indeed I do not recollect

40 PORTSMOUTH.

that she had even what is called a stitch of canvass, to keep her head
steady as she lay at anchor.

" I am now seventy-five years of age, and was about twenty-four when
this happened."

Such are the most authentic accounts relating to a disaster which might
be strictly termed national.

In Portsmouth harbour, and the dock-yards, every precaution that can
be devised has been adopted to guard against fire. Notwithstanding this,
since the year 1760, there have been no less than three great conflagra-
tions. The first appears to have been accidental ; the second, in all pro-
bability, the effect of design ; as the last was proved to be. The first
commenced in the night of the third of July, and raged for a long time
with amazing fury. The weather had been extremely tempestuous ; the
thunder was unusually loud ; the lightning more than commonly vivid.
Many hundred tons of tar, oil, and other combustibles, were consumed ;
besides 1050 tons of hemp, 500 tons of cordage, and about 700 sails.
A watchman of the harbour, who was examined after the fire, deposed to
the fact of a fire-ball having passed near him about ten minutes before
the flames were perceived. The windows of the hemp storehouse had
that night been left open, in order to air it ; so that the burning element
had the full benefit of an inflammable material, and a free circulation of
air. The second fire occurred on the morning of the twenty-seventh of
July, 1770 ; and, from various circumstances, gave rise to the opinion of
its being the work of an incendiary. The effects were tremendous. The
storehouses for pitch and tar were destroyed in an instant! Immediately
afterwards, the flames burst out at four different points, and with such
vehemence that the destruction of the entire dock -yard was expected.
The wind providentially shifted, and the active workmen, assisted by a
numerous body of seamen, marines, and townsmen, the progress of
the fire was arrested, and the flames at last extinguished. The third and
last fire was on the seventh of December, 1776. In this instance the
incendiary was discovered; his name was John Aitkin, but was mostly
known among the sailors as Jack the Painter. He was believed to have
acted under foreign influence ; and attempts he had previously been sus-
pected of making at Plymouth and Bristol had excited considerable
alarm. His plans were ingeniously contrived, and he had invented a
curious machine to facilitate his designs. With this he concealed himself
in the dock-yard at night, and, depositing his machine among the cordage,
he passed the gates in the morning unsuspected. There appeared, how-

PORTSMOUTH. 41

ever, to have been a miscalculation in his plans, for the fire broke out
some hours earlier than he had intended. Assistance being near at hand,
and the wind being in a favourable direction, the flames were soon
repressed, though not before the rope-house, and some adjoining store-
houses were consumed. The incendiary quitted Portsmouth, and was
not apprehended until two months subsequently to the perpetration of the
crime. The whole scheme of his villainy then became a matter of
evidence on which he was convicted at Winchester, and executed near
the Dock Gates, on the seventh of March, 1777. Previous to his death,
as some atonement for his atrocity, he communicated many useful hints,
by means of which, if carried out, the dock-yards and shipping, might be
secured from similar attempts.

L'Impeiueux, of seventy-four guns, and the Boyne, of ninety-eight,
were also destroyed by fire in Portsmouth harbour. The former was one
of the prizes taken by Lord Howe on the occasion of that battle ever since
distinguished by the proud title of the " Glorious First of June." *
L'Impetueux took fire in consequence of the accidental ignition of some
gunpowder. She burnt to the edge of the water, but no damage was
done to surrounding vessels. The destruction of the Boyne was of a
different kind. It occurred on the first of May, 1795. The fire broke
out aft of the vessel, with a fresh breeze blowing from the south-west.
The flames ran through the ship at a prodigious speed. The lower-deck
guns were shotted, and as the fire reached them, they discharged their
contents, to the great loss of life, and damage of property. The fire con-
tinued to rage with fury, and six or seven hours after it first broke out the
burning pile was seen floating, — a tremendous spectacle ! — towards South
Sea Castle, when the after magazine exploded, producing over the
greater part of Portsmouth the effect of an earthquake. A pillar of
smoke ascended from the shattered wreck, and swords of fire darting
from every unconsumed port-hole, presented an appearance of singular
sublimity. Boats, blown to atoms by the explosion, shot from the vessel;
and bits of her timber flew at all quarters, doing a deal of injury. When
she began to drift, the ships that were at leeward let go their anchors, and
ran clown to St. Helens, to escape the impending ruin. Numerous boats
succeeded in saving the greater part of her crew, with imminent danger,
and at the cost of great suffering.

The view of Portsmouth Harbour in the present work is highly

* This celebrated engagement took place on the first of June, 1794.
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42 PORTSMOUTH.

characteristic of the constantly recurring scenes, which render this port
a point of great attraction to all lovers of marine scenery. The mighty
hulk, rising like a floating city on the waters ; the dock-yard boat ; and
the task of weighing the ponderous anchor, which keeps these castles of
the deep safe to their moorings, is represented with all the accuracy of
truth, and all the poetry of effect.

And now, having told so much of the perils and adventures of the
deep, and matters therewith connected (no inappropriate space occupied,
it is trusted, in a work dedicated to Coast Scenery), we must terminate
our description of Portsmouth by a brief notice of the SEMAPHORE and

PORCHESTER CASTLE.

The Semaphore was erected, in 1823, over a magazine situated at the
head of the harbour. Telegraphic signals, by means of it, reach the
Admiralty in the almost incredibly short space of three minutes. But it
is not to the Semaphore as a building that attention should be so much
directed as to the stately vessel entering the harbour. To point attention
to it is sufficient ; for to those who cannot appreciate its beauty, no
description could assist, and to those who perceive, it would be needless
to attempt to enlighten. It is a scene truly naval and English ; its
equal was never before witnessed in any country, and probably never may
be again in any other.

As a piece of antiquity, some space may be afforded for the description
of Porchester Castle, which is situated at the head of a neck of land
projecting some distance into the sea. The castle is quadrangular,
surrounding an area of between four and five acres. It is very much
dilapidated ; but in sufficient preservation to be used as a place of con-
finement. During the late war, nearly 5000 prisoners have been secured
in it at one time. The walls vary from eight to twelve feet in thickness,
and are about eighteen feet high, having round them in many places
a passage covered with a parapet. There are also eighteen towers, of
various shapes, and different magnitude. On the north-west and south
sides is a ditch, varying in breadth, and in depth fifteen feet. The
entrance, on the west side, is thirty feet deep, and fourteen feet wide,
under a square tower. On the inside, over the gate, are two projecting
figures of a sphinx-like form.

The keep of the castle encompasses a parallelogram of sixty- five feet
by one hundred and fifteen. It has four towers, three of them standing
on the outside wall. One larger than the rest forms the north-west
angle of the square. The fourth tower stands at the south-east corner,

PORTSMOUTH. 43

containing several large rooms, some of them arched with stones, one of
which appears to have been a chapel. Several of these towers, as well
parts of the walls, now appear in ruins.

In the round and semicircular towers, defending, at unequal distances,
the outward walls, are to be found many remains of Roman workman-
ship. The round towers are placed at the north-east,. south-east, and
south-west angles ; the north-west being taken up by the great square
tower of the keep. These towers are some twenty, and others nineteen,
feet in diameter, and project about eighteen feet and a half from the wall.
Regular rows of Roman brick are still visible in places, dividing the
stone work. The extent of the outer walls, exclusive of the projecting
parts of the round towers, is about six hundred and twenty feet on the
north and south sides, and six hundred and ten feet on the east and west.

In the keep, forming the north-west angle of the castle, traces of
Saxon and Norman architecture are to be seen, and some as late even as
the time of Queen Elizabeth. The great tower is lofty, and contains
two dungeons at bottom, with the remains of three double apartments
above them, in so many several stories. Its walls are nearly eight feet
thick, and their external dimensions, on the north and south, fifty-seven
feet, and on the east and west fifty-eight. The light enters from narrow
loop-holes, excepting the third story, where on two sides, in what appears to
have been the state apartments, are small windows in the plainest Saxon
style. Adjacent to this tower, and immediately connected with it, are
the remains of a building, which at some period had been transformed into
an entrance, the original way of ingress appearing to have been by a
flight of steps on the same side.

Mr. King, in his Munimenta Antiqua, supposes the original tower to
have been of Saxon construction, and the works surrounding it to have
been erected by the Normans, between the periods of the Conquest and
the reigns of Edward I. Many alterations, however, took place about
the time of Edward III. ; and in the reigns of Henry VI. and VII.,
buildings were added, consisting of a great dining-hall, and various
domestic apartments ; while over them were the dormitories for the
servants, and the lodgings of the garrison. The curious part of the
inner, or, as it has been called, of the Norman Court, is its fortified
entrance, opening from the outer area on the east. At the extremity was
a noble portal, with an obtuse pointed arch, and in this was a gate of
great strength, and eight feet in width. Further on, at the distance of
about sixteen and a half feet, was a portcullis; and, beyond that, a

44 PORTSMOUTH.

second great gate. Eighteen feet further still, was a second portcullis;
and eleven and feet beyond this, was a third gate, of equal strength to
the outer gate. To make these impediments to besiegers more formi-
dable, the passage leading to them was only eight feet four inches in
width. Nearer the court, the side-walls increase in thickness from four
feet nine inches to nearly six feet ; and here the entrance passage, con-
tinuing forty-three feet further, becomes wider. This part was a place
designed for barricades ; and over the whole of this vaulted passage, of
ninety-four feet, are perforations and machicolations, for pouring on the
heads of intruders melted lead, boiling water, and such like insinuating
liquids.

In the year 1299, twenty-seventh of Edward I., the tower and castle
of Porchester, with the forest, then valued at 16/. 13s., was settled on
Queen Margaret as part of her dower. By a register of the abbey of
Glastonbury, it appears, that in the twelfth of Edward III., John Racket,
lieutenant of the Earl of Arundel, was constable of the castle, for the
defence of which, the Abbot was bound to find three men-at-arms for his
lands in Wiltshire, and one for those in Berks.

Some authors have asserted that the Roman general, Vespasian, landed
here on his arrival in Britain ; but, on good testimony, this has been
contradicted. That the castle was, however, at one time in his possession,
appears probable, as without it the conquest of the Isle of Wight could
scarcely have been effected.

The village of Porchester, called Porchester Street, extends for about
a mile on the road to Fareham, and contains several neat houses. Under
charter from Queen Elizabeth, the publicans enjoy exemption from the
custom of having soldiers billeted in their houses.

To all who love the picturesque we need not point out the beauties of
the engraving of Porchester Castle. The dredger mending his net in
the clear water, the buoy, the bridge, the overhanging garment, the
ruined arch and dilapidated turret — combine to tell a tale of glory
departed. Written history speaks to the mind ; a scene like this appeals
to the feelings.

ISLE OF WIGHT.

THE NEEDLES. ARCHED ROCK, FRESHWATER BAY.

THE ISLE OF WIGHT has, from time immemorial, been the subject of
eulogy for its beautiful scenery. Probably, no place has been more
be-sketched and be-praised. Tourists, and would-be travellers — artists,
and artists that would be — poets, and poetasters — have all joined in a
a generous rivalry to celebrate its beauties; and, if they have not
succeeded to admiration, the fault most certainly was not in their
subject.

Historically speaking, the Isle of Wight is replete with interest from
the earliest times to the imprisonment of King Charles in Carisbrook
Castle. The Romans called the island Vectis, and, under that name, it
is mentioned by Suetonius as having been conquered by Vespasian about
the year 43. It has been conjectured, and ingeniously supported, that
the isle was once connected with the mainland, and separated by the
violence of the sea : hence its name. After the Romans left the shores
of Britain, the inhabitants bravely defended themselves against the fierce
invasions of the Saxons. In the year 530, about eighty years after the
first arrival of Hengist in Kent, Cerdic and his son conquered the Isle of
Wight, with great slaughter. This chieftain, who died in 534, appears
only to have maintained himself in the district where he landed. His
posterity, however, enlarged the settlement he made in the island into a
kingdom. In the year 661, the Isle of Wight was subdued by Wulfere,
King of Mercia, who bestowed it upon the King of the South Saxons ;
but Ceadwalla, King of Wessex, retook it about fifteen years afterwards.
In 787, it was seized by the Danes, who apparently designed to make it
a place of retreat, whither they might retire with their plunder from the
neighbouring coasts ; but how long they maintained their station is
unknown. In 1001, in the reign of Etheldred, the Danes once more
seized it, and kept possession for many years. In the reign of Edward
the Confessor, the island was twice plundered by Earl Godwin ; and
again, in the reign of Harold, by Earl Tosti. Since then, the vicissitudes

M

46 ISLE OF WIGHT.

in the fortunes of this island were many. Edward II. granted the isle to
his favourite, Piers Gaveston. In the reigns of Edward III. and Richard
II., it was assaulted by the French, and plundered. In the reign of
Edward V. a large party of Frenchmen landed with the " intent to keep
their Christmas." They were soon compelled to retire to their ships.
Shortly afterwards, they paid the islanders another visit, demanding a
subsidy in the name of Richard II. and Isabella, his queen. " They
were answered that Richard was dead, and his queen sent back to France
without the payment of any subsidy being stipulated ; but, if the French
had any desire to try their prowess, they should not only be permitted to
land without molestation, but also be allowed six hours to refresh them-
selves, after which the islanders would meet them in the field." The
invitation was declined. If necessary, many more instances might be
offered of the bravery of the inhabitants, and at the same time illustrating
the importance attached to the place.

The Isle of Wight was formerly under the dominion of a governor
appointed by the king. The office still exists, but its onerous duties are
most probably confined to an occasional excursion, instead of, as hereto-
fore, in the levying forces, and doing battle.* Little indeed, is there in

* The ancient military force of this island," says Worsley, in his History of the Isle
of Wight, "with the arrays, arms, beacons, watches, and wards, prescribed in time of
danger, may, in some measure be collected from those authentic records, and genuine
papers, which have escaped the ravages of time. By a return to an inquisition taken at
Newport, in the seventh of Edward the Third, it appears, that the landholders were, by
their tenures, obliged to defend the castle of Carisbrooke for forty days at their own
charges. And two other inquisitions, taken at Shidebridge, the eighteenth of Edward
the Second, specify the several watches and beacons ; and likewise show, that every
person having £20 per annum in land, was obliged to find a horseman completely armed,
or more or less so in proportion to his possessions, according to the statute of Winchester.
By another inquisition, taken at Newport in the sixteenth of Edward the Third, it is
returned, that the Earls of Devon, Lords of the Isle, sent seventy-six men-at-arms from
the county of Devon for its defence ; and that, after Edward the First obtained the
island from the Countess Isabella, men-at-arms were sent for its protection by divers
bishops, abbots, and other persons who are therein specified. It also mentions, that the
King sent 100 slingers and bowmen, and the city of London 300 for the same
service."

" The authority of the Warden," says the same historian, " seems to have been very
extensive, as appears from a Commission granted in the twenty-sixth of Edward the
Third to John de Gattesden, appointing him to that office : it authorized him to array the
men-at-arms, hoblers (soldiers lightly armed, and mounted on small horses called
hobbies), and bowmen, with all others, as well horse as foot ; to levy new forces, if thoie

e «

E *

ISLE OF WIGHT. 47

the Isle of Wight to require the superintending care of a governor.
Excepting the town of Yarmouth, it possesses no staple trade, and its
inhabitants are materially indebted for their prosperity to the migratory
shoals of pleasure-seekers who, year after year, visit its shores to explore

already arrayed were found insufficient ; to provide them with weapons, and to marshal
them. He was empowered to take men, who were to be paid by the King, from the
County of Southampton, as well as from the island ; and that, not only within, but also
without the liberties. He was likewise to summon all absentees, who were bound by
their tenures to defend Carisbrooke Castle, or the isle ; to order them to return with
their families within a limited time, under penalty of forfeiting their lands and tenements,
goods and chattels, to the King's use ; and, in case of non-compliance, the said men to
supply their places."

The great power possessed, and the tyranny occasionally exercised by the Captains
of the Isle of Wight, may be understood by an anecdote containing something of the
ludicrous, respecting attornies, quoted by Sir Richard Worsley, from the papers of Sir
John Oglander, a descendant from one of the most ancient families in the island, and who
lived at the beginning of the seventeenth century. " I have heard," says the knight,
" and partly know it to be true, that not only heretofore there was no lawyer nor attorney
in owre island ; but, in Sir George Carey's time, an attorney coming iu to settle in the
island, was, by his command, with a pound of candles hanging at his breech lighted, and
with bells about his legs, hunted owte of the Island : insomuch that our ancestors lived
here so quietly and securely, being neither troubled to London nor Winchester, so they
seldome or never went owte of the Island ; insomuch as when they went to London,
thinking it an East-India voyage, they always made their wills, supposing no trouble
like to travaile."

When Jerome, Earl of Portland, was governor of the island, in the time of Charles I.,
he was committed to prison, on account, says Clarendon, " of his extraordinary vivacity
crossing their expectations ;" and " all the acts of good fellowship, all the waste of
powder, and all the waste of wine, in the drinking of healths, and other acts of jollity,
which ever he had been at in his government, from the hour of his entering upon it."

Connected with the history of this gallant earl charged with the misdemeanour of
" extraordinary vivacity," we cannot forbear another anecdote, highly illustrative of the
times in which he lived. Harby, the curate of Newport, a man under peculiar obliga-
tions to the Earl of Portland, distinguished himself in spiriting up the besiegers of
Carisbrooke Castle (who were the inhabitants assisted by the Parliamentary forces),
against his lady and children ; assigning for a reason that she was a Papist ; and
exhorting them, in the prevalent cant of the period, to be valiant, as they were about to
fight the battle of the Lord. " The castle," says Worsley, " had not at that time three
days' provision for its slender garrison ; yet the Countess, with the maganimity of a
Roman matron, went to the platform with a match in her hand, vowing she would fire the
first cannon herself, and defend the castle to the utmost extremity, unless honorable
terms were granted." The terms were granted ; but the chivalrous lady was ultimately
indebted for her safety to the humanity of some seamen, who conveyed her, with her
family, to the coast of Hampshire.

48 ISLE OF WIGHT.

its many beauties. It has been called, until the expression has become
trite, the Garden of England. The name is not so much deserved from
the fruitfulness of its arable and meadow land, — though neither are defi-
cient,— as from the wild, luxuriant abundance of the plants and flowers
which greet the eye from every quarter, giving to every patch of rock the
appearance of fertility. Through the centre of this island, from east to
west, extends a range of lofty hills, affording pasturage for sheep, and
commanding views over every part, looking towards the ocean on the
south, and the beautiful shores of Hampshire on the north.

The form of the Isle of Wight is almost rhomboidal, or that of an
irregular lozenge. The greatest diagonal breadth is twenty-three miles
from east to west, and transverse from north to south about thirteen miles.
The face of the country is very diversified ; hill and dale, swelling pro-
montory, buried glen, barren rock, and exuberant foliage, appear in
quick succession to give interest to the prospects. The land round the
coast is in some parts extremely high, particularly on the south, or, as it
is called, the back of the island. The tract of downs situated at this part
of the island, terminate abruptly towards the sea in a precipice of lime-
stone rock, having the appearance, when seen from a distance, of an
immense stone-wall, overhanging the romantic spot called the Undercliff,
which extends along the sea-shore for a distance of nearly six miles.
The cliffs here are exceedingly steep, and vast fragments of rocks, which
the waves have undermined, lie scattered on the shore. On the northern
side, the ground slopes to the water in easy declivities, excepting towards
the Needles, or western point, where the rocks are bare, broken, and
precipitous.

The Needles, so happily represented in the present work, obtained their
name from a lofty pointed rock, conceived to be a gigantic resemblance
of that delicate implement of a lady's work-table, and which, with other
pieces of rock, had been disjointed from the main land by the force of
the waves. This rock was one hundred and twenty feet high above low
water mark. It is now about seventy years ago since it fell, and totally
disappeared, its base having been undermined by the sea. The height of
the cliffs, of which the Needles form the extreme point, is, in some places,
600 feet above the level of the sea, and, viewed from a short distance
from the shore, produce an effect stupendous and sublime.

" These cliffs," says Sir Richard Worsley, and his remarks are most of
them as applicable now as at the time when he wrote, "are frequented by
immense numbers of marine birds ; as puffins, razor-bills, wilcocks, gulls,

ISLE OF WIGHT. 49

cormorants, Cornish choughs, daws, starlings, and wild pigeons, some
of which come at stated times, to lay their eggs and breed, while
others remain there all the year. The cliffs are, in some places, per-
pendicular; in others, they project, and hang over in a tremendous
manner ; these serve as lodgments for the birds, where they sit in thick
rows, and discover themselves by their motions and flight, though not
individually visible. Here are many caverns and deep chasms that
seem to enter a great way into the rocks, and in many places the
issuing of springs forms small cascades of rippling water down to the
sea. The country-people take the birds that harbour in these rocks, by
the perilous experiment of descending by ropes fixed to iron crows,
driven into the ground ; thus suspended, they with sticks beat down
the birds as they fly out of their holes. A dozen birds generally yield
one pound weight of soft feathers, for which the merchants give eight-
pence ; the carcases are bought by the fishermen at sixpence per
dozen, for the purpose of baiting the " crab-pots." The gathering of
samphire — " dreadful trade !" — is also here carried on ; and in some
of the neighbouring cliffs, so late as 1780, an eagle's nest was taken
by one of those adventurous myrmidons of the rocks, who so securely
suspend themselves between time and eternity.

A little to the east of the Needles is Freshwater Bay, which, with its
arched rock and a band of smugglers landing their cargo by moonlight,
is the subject of one of the engravings for our " Coast Scenery." Those
gentle sons of the ocean, ever anxious that His Majesty's subjects
should be well provided, even if His Majesty's Exchequer should suffer
for it, have chosen a spot for their proceedings both secluded and beau-
tiful. The love of romance and adventure dwells with sailors, and pity
it is that a revenue cutter should ever interfere to destroy the romantic.
On the present occasion, however, these rogues, who love the illicit,
have none but the moon to observe them, and none but the rocks
echoing their own labour to disturb them. The preventive-service
cannot hinder them, and the blockade-men are in garrison. The sea,
often so violent on this part of the coast, and constantly making inroads
on the base of the cliffs, is now still, or murmuring only its gentlest
music. The picturesque arch, formed by the dashing of the waves,
doubtless made to grace the present scene, gives to this representation
an appearance of great beauty.

On the highest point of the Freshwater Cliffs is a light-house ; the
prospect from which is extremely magnificent, commanding the view of

o

50 ISLE OF WIGHT.

the Needles, and the surrounding country. The cliffs here, as at the
Needles, abound in flocks of birds innumerable, whose discordant
screams, mixed with the solemn roar of the waves, as they rush into
the caverns of the rock, produce a wild but pleasing effect. At high
water, one of the numerous caverns at the base of the cliffs may be
entered by a boat, when a scene will be disclosed that will well repay
the adventurer. The water is so clear that it defies a comparison.
Looking through its glassy surface, though several fathoms deep, it
appears as if the hand could reach the bottom. The most minute
particle is to be seen distinctly, and the sea has arranged the pebbles
in an order more exquisite than the skill of masonry could accomplish.
Each smooth-surfaced stone bears apparently the polish of an agate
fresh from the hands of the lapidary. The sea-weed is wildly luxuriant,
and the golden yellow, brown, azure, green, and in some places, posi-
tively purple tints, give the whole the appearance of an enchanted
garden of the deep.

Let none who love the beautiful omit to pay a visit to the arched rock,
and if the smugglers and the moonlight are not at hand to complete
the picture, memory may assist the imagination by the representation
contained in " Stanfield's Coast Scenery."

51

POWDERHAM CASTLE, EXMOUTH.

POWDERHAM Castle is situated on the banks of the river Exe, between
two and three miles of its confluence with the British Channel, and op-
posite to the town of Exmouth. Exmouth is, as its name denotes, on
the mouth of the river Exe. A century and a half ago it was a mere
fishing hamlet, but is now one of the best frequented watering places in
Devon. " It is situated," says Polwhele, " near the sea-shore, between
the cliffs, which open, as it were, on purpose to receive it, and is fur-
nished with every accommodation necessary as a watering place. It is
well sheltered from the north-east and south-east winds, by some high
hills, which rise almost close behind, and supply the place with excellent
water." Again, he says, " The walks are delightfully pleasant, com-
manding views worthy the pencils of the best masters. From a hill
called Chapel Hill, the eye is presented with a line of coast extending
from Exeter to the Berry Head, a distance of about twenty miles.
This line is broken by several hills, that gradually ascend from the coast
on the opposite side of the river, and are covered with lively verdure,
and woody inclosures ; the village of Starcross skirting their bottoms.
Behind these hills spring up some bold towering head-lands, of varied
shapes, and unequal heights, through which the sight is led to dis-
tant objects of various kinds, woody summits, and barren rocks, gradu-
ally diminishing, so as to form a complete landscape."

The grounds of Powderharn Park are extensive, and finely planted
with trees. On the summit of the highest ground, is a tower called the
Belvidere, which is a conspicuous object from many parts of the coast,
and from the British Channel. The path and plantations belonging to
this domain, extend through a circumference of nearly ten miles, and
the pleasure grounds are replete with a vast number and a great variety
of flowers and botanical rarities.

Powderharn Castle was probably built before the Conquest, to pre-
vent the Danes, who landed in Teignmouth in 970, from coming up the
river to Exeter ; or else by William de Orr, a noble Norman, who
came into England with the Conqueror, and to whom the King gave

52

POWDERHAM CASTLE.

Powderham. After William de Orr, who was convicted of an attempt
to deprive Rufus of his crown, was deprived of his right, Powder-
ham had owners of its own name, one John de Powderham holding it
in the reign of Edward the First. Powderham, on the death of John
Powderham, came to Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Herford and Essex,
who gave it with his daughter Margaret in marriage to Hugh, Earl of
Devon, who bestowed it on his son, Sir Peter Courtenay, about the
beginning of the fourteenth century.

The historian Gibbon, fastidiously correct, as he was on most subjects
bold and comprehensive, employed his pen in tracing the princely for-
tunes and unequal career of the founders of the family of Devon. " The
purple of three emperors," says this incomparable writer, " will autho-
rize or excuse a digression on the origin and singular fortunes of the
house of Courtenay." He then proceeds to trace the three principal
branches of Edessa, of France, and of England. The same liberty of
digression claimed by and allowed to the Roman historian, may per-
haps be here claimed with success for extracting the following interest-
ing narrative of the English branch, owners of Powderham Castle.

" According to the old register of Ford Abbey, the Courtenays of
Devonshire are descended from prince Florus, the second son of Peter,
and the grandson of Louis the Fat. This fable of the grateful or venal
monks was too respectfully entertained by our antiquaries, Camden and
Dugdale, but it is so clearly repugnant to truth and time, that the
rational pride of the family now refuses to accept this imaginary founder.
Their most faithful historians believe, that after giving his daughter to
the king's son, Reginald of Courtenay abandoned his possessions in
France, and obtained from the English monarch a second wife and
a new inheritance. It is certain, at least, that Henry the Second distin-
guished in his camps and councils, a Reginald, of the name and arms,
and, as it may be fairly presumed, of the genuine race, of the Courte-
nays of France. The right of wardship enabled a feudal lord to
reward his vassal with the marriage and estate of a noble heiress ; and
Reginald of Courtenay acquired a fair establishment in Devonshire,
where his posterity has been seated above six hundred years. From a
Norman baron, Baldwin de Brioniis, who had been invested by the
Conqueror, Hawise, the wife of Reginald, derived the honour of Oke-
hampton, which was held by the service of ninety-three knights, and a
female might claim the manly offices of hereditary viscount or sheriff,
and of captain of the royal castle of Exeter. Their son Robert, mar-

POWDKIUIAM CASTLE. 53

ried the sister of the Earl of Devon ; at the end of a century, on the
failure of the family of Rivers, his great grandson Hugh the Second,
succeeded to a title which was still considered as a territorial dignity ;
and twelve earls of Devonshire, of the name of Courtenay, have flourished
in a period of two hundred and twenty years. They were ranked among
the chief of the barons of the realm; nor was it till after a strenuous
dispute, that they yielded to the fief of Arundel the first place in the
Parliament of England : their alliances were contracted with the noblest
families of England, the Veres, Despensers, St. Johns, Talbots, Bohuns,
and even the Plantagenets themselves ; and in a contest with John of
Lancaster, a Courtenay, bishop of London, and afterwards archbishop
of Canterbury, might be accused of profane confidence in the strength
and number of his kindred. In peace, the Earls of Devon resided in
their numerous castles and manors of the west ; their ample revenue was
appropriated to devotion and hospitality; and the epitaph of Edward,
surnamed from his misfortune, the blind, from his virtues, the good earl,
inculcates with much ingenuity a moral sentence, which, however, may
be abused by thoughtless generosity. After a grateful commemoration
of the fifty-five years of union and happiness, which he enjoyed with
Mabel his wife, the good earl thus speaks from the tomb :

WHAT WE GAVE, WE HAVE J
AVHAT WE SPENT, WE HAD ;
WHAT WE LEFT, WE LOST.

But their losses, in this sense, were far superior to their gifts and
expenses ; and their heirs, not less than the poor, were objects of
their paternal care. The sums which they paid for livery and seisin,
attest the greatness of their possessions ; and several estates have
remained in their family since the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
In war, the Courtenays of England fulfilled the duties, and deserved
the honours of chivalry. They were often entrusted to levy and
command the militia of Devonshire and Cornwall ; they often attended
their supreme lord to the borders of Scotland : and in foreign service,
for a stipulated price, they sometimes maintained fourscore men at
arms, and as many archers. By sea and land, they fought under the
standard of the Edwards and Henrys ; their names are conspicuous in
battles, in tournaments, and in the original list of the order of the
garter ; three brothers shared the Spanish victory of the Black Prince ;
and in the lapse of six generations, the English Courtenays had learned
to despise the nation and country from which they derived their origin.

54 POWDERHAM CASTLE.

In the quarrel of the two roses, the Earls of Devon adhered to the
house of Lancaster, and three brothers successively died, either in the
field or on the scaffold. Their honours and estates were restored by
Henry the Seventh ; a daughter of Edward the Fourth was not disgraced
by the nuptials of a Courtenay ; their son, who was created Marquis of
Exeter, enjoyed the favour of his cousin Henry the Eighth ; and in
the camp of Cloth of Gold, he broke a lance against the French monarch.
But the favour of Henry was the prelude of disgrace ; his disgrace
was the signal of death ; and of the victims of the jealous tyrant, the
Marquis of Exeter was one of the most noble and guiltless. His son
Edward lived a prisoner in the tower, and died an exile at Padua ; and
the secret love of Queen Mary, whom he slighted, perhaps for the
princess Elizabeth, has shed a romantic colour on the story of this
beautiful youth. The relics of his patrimony were conveyed into strange
families by the marriages of his four aunts ; and his personal honours,
as if they had been legally extinct, were revived by the patents of
succeeding princes. But there still survived a lineal descendant of
Hugh, the first Earl of Devon, a younger branch of the Courtenays,
\vho have been seated at Powderham Castle above four hundred years,
from the reign of Edward the Third to the present hour. Their es-
tates have been increased by the grant and improvement of lands in
Ireland, and they have been recently restored to the honours of the
peerage. Yet the Courtenays still retain the plaintive motto," (Ubi
lapsus! Quid fed?) " which asserts the innocence, and deplores the
fall of their ancient house. While they sigh for past greatness, they are
doubtless sensible of present blessings ; in the long series of the Cour-
tenay annals, the most splendid era is likewise the most unfortunate ;
nor can an opulent peer of Britain be inclined to envy the emperors
of Constantinople, who wandered over Europe to solicit alms for the
support of their dignity, and the defence of their capital."*

Probably, there is not, in the whole range of landscape scenery, a
spot more truly picturesque than the view from the grounds of Pow-
derham. The indication of rustic life as seen in the team of horses, of
commerce in the distant vessels, the noble river, the far sea, the rising
turrets of the opposite city, combine to form a picture of most extraor-
dinary beauty.

* Camden says, Henry, Duke of Exeter, " notwithstanding his marriage with the
sister of Edward IV., was reduced to such misery, that he was seen to beg his bread,
ragged and barefooted, in the Low Countries."

55

PLYMOUTH.

HAMOAZE. — STONE-HOUSE BB1DGE.

PLYMOUTH is one of the principal naval and military stations in the
kingdom, and, during war, the most important; commanding the
entrance of the English Channel, and being the grand rendezvous of
the channel fleets. It is, according to the life of St. Indractus, sup-
posed to have been the Tameorwerthe of the Saxons. After the conquest
it acquired the name of South Town, or Sutton ; and in the reign of
Edward the First, of Sutton Prior, and Sutton Valletort, the north
part of the town being situated on the lands of the Prior of Plympton,
and the south part on the estate of the Valletorts. These names were
relinquished in the reign of Henry the Sixth, for the more appro-
priate appellation of Plym mouth, descriptive of its situation on the
River Plym, near its influx into the bay called Plymouth Sound.

About the commencement of the reign of Edward the Second, great
disputes arose between the Prior of Plympton and the king, respecting
certain rights and immunities claimed by the former, but always con-
tested by the crown. These disputes were at length settled by the
Court of Exchequer ; and the prior, in consideration of a fee farm rent of
291. 6s. 8d., was confirmed in his privileges of " granting leases of
houses as lord of the fee ; having a manor view of frank pledge, assize
of bread and beer, a ducking stool, and pillory, and the right of
fishery of the waters from the entrance of Catwater to the head of the
River Plym."

The port became at an early period the occasional rendezvous of
the British navy. In 1355, Edward the Black Prince embarked, on
his expedition to France, and landed on his return, with his royal pri-
soners. In the reign of the father of this prince, the growing pros-
perity of the place provoked the jealousy of the French, who landed,
and endeavoured to destroy the town by fire. They were, however, re-
pulsed, with the loss of five hundred men, by Hugh Courtenay*, Earl

* One of the Courtenays of Powderham Castle.

56 PLYMOUTH.

of Devon, under whose conduct the surrounding gentry and their fol-
lowers mustered with great alacrity. In a second attempt, made in the
sixth year of Henry the Fourth, the French were more successful ; their
soldiers were mostly natives of Brittany, and were commanded by the
marshall of Bretagne, and M. de Chastell. They landed near the part
called Britton's side, and, before any effectual resistance could be
made, burnt upwards of six hundred houses ; but failing in their at-
tempt to destroy the castle, and higher part of the town, retired to
their ships, and proceeded to Dartmouth, where they met with the recep-
tion described in the account already given of that place. From the
time of this occurrence, till the reign of Henry the Sixth, the town
dwindled to a mere fishing village. In this reign, the Prior of Plymp-
ton rebuilt many of the houses, and by granting liberal leases, en-
couraged persons to reside, by which means the population became
considerably increased; the port was once more frequented by mer-
chants, and its importance as a naval and military station became again
apparent. On a petition from the inhabitants, urging the necessity
of fortifying the town and port against the future assaults of the enemy,
the king granted them a toll on all merchandize entering the port.
In 1439, the town was incorporated under its present name of Ply-
mouth. In 1512, an act was passed for enlarging and strengthen-
ing the fortifications, and a grant of indulgence was issued by Bishop
Lacy, to all who contributed to that work. To prevent the accumu-
lation of sand at the mouth of the harbour, the tin mines were also
prohibited from working in the neighbourhood of any river communicat-
ing with the sea at Plymouth. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, through
the solicitations of the celebrated navigator and hero, Sir Francis Drake,
a new charter was granted, confirming former acquired privileges, and
more particularly defining the constitution of the corporation. The
gallant admiral conferred a still more lasting benefit on the inhabitants
of Plymouth, by supplying the town with water. By skill and per-
severance he succeeded in bringing a stream of water into a reservoir in
the town, from the springs of the neighbouring forest of Dartmoor, by
a winding channel of twenty-four miles in length. This great under-
taking he executed at his own cost, and also erected various mills on
different parts of the stream, for the use of the town. In the year 1579,
Plymouth was afflicted with a dreadful plague, occasioned by the
landing of some cotton wool, part of the cargo of a ship from Smyrna,
not being properly purified by exposure to the air. Six hundred persons

PLYMOUTH. 57

fell victims to its ravages, and so general was the fear of its spreading,
that the annual ceremony of electing the mayor was held in the open air,
on Catdown.

In 1588, at the period of the expected invasion by the so called
Invincible Armada, a British fleet assembled in Plymouth Sound, under
the command of Lord Howard and Admirals Sir Francis Drake and
Hawkins.* The fleet consisted of one hundred and twenty sail, seven
ships of which were contributed by Plymouth. The fleet sailed for Tor-
bay, to join the squadron at Exeter, and on the Sunday following, St.
James's day, the Spanish fleet appeared off the coast in the form of a
crescent. During the whole of Sunday, and the succeeding day, this
unwieldy armament remained in sight of Penlee Point, Mount Edg-
combe, (the beauty of which place so delighted the Spanish Admiral,
that he had determined upon it as a residence,) the Hoe, and the ad-
jacent coast, when it proceeded to the eastward, and was furiously as-
sailed by a storm, followed by the more dreadful attack of the British fleet.
Many of the natives of Plymouth were among the seamen who fought upon
the occasion of that memorable victory. In 1595, the inhabitants of
Plymouth were thrown into considerable alarm, by the intelligence that
a body of Spaniards had landed in Cornwall, and burnt Mousehole,
Newlyn, and some other places in that county. In the first moments
of consternation, barricades were thrown up on all the roads leading to
the town, and various other precautions adopted for securing its safety.
The progress of the Spaniards was, however, checked by the activity
of Sir Francis Godolphin, who seized upon twenty-two chests loaded
with papal bulls, dispensations and pardons, and afforded to the in-
habitants of Plymouth the gratification of making a bonfire of these
formidable implements of spiritual warfare. In 1596, the port was
the place of rendezvous for the British fleet destined for the expedition
against Cadiz, under the command of the Earls of Essex and Not-
tingham, in which Lord Howard was Vice Admiral, and Sir Walter
Raleigh Rear Admiral. Hence also on his unfortunate expedition to
Ireland, embarked the Gallant Earl of Essex. Nothing material occur-
red from this period till the year 1625, when Charles the First, with
his whole court, one hundred and twenty ships, and six thousand troops,
came from Portsmouth and remained here ten days, during which time

* The name of this brave Admiral is tarnished by his having been the first to introduce
the slave trade in England.

Q

58 PLYMOUTH.

he was sumptuously entertained by the Mayor and Corporation. In
the following year two thousand persons were destroyed by the re-
appearance of the plague. At the commencement of the civil war, the
inhabitants embraced the cause of the Parliament. And the year 1643
forms a memorable era in the annals of Plymouth, from the undaunted
resistance made by the inhabitants, against the forces of Prince Maurice,
who besieged it from September till the close of the year, without suc-
cess.* The means of defence possessed by the townspeople were,
apparently, inadequate to resist the superior strength of the King's
army, yet, like most of those engaged in the same cause, they were
full of enthusiasm, and held out till the approach of the Parliament's
forces, under the command of the Earl of Essex. After Essex had
marched into Cornwall, in pursuit of Sir Richard Grenville, impru-
dently leaving a superior army of Royalists in his rear, the King deter-
mined to follow him, and having, by forced marches, arrived in the vici-
nity of Plymouth, His Majesty halted a few days to refresh his soldiers.
During his residence at Widy, two or three miles from the town, where his
head quarters were established, a proclamation was issued by the King,
addressed to the " Plymothians," in which they were commanded on their
allegiance to surrender. This proclamation was sent by a trumpeter
to the Mayor and Governor, who peremptorily refused to obey; but
as the King's forces were so near at hand, and of considerable strength,

* The following passage is from a tract published in the year 1644, detailing the progress
of the siege, in all the twanging and canting style of the day. The extract is amusing, more
particularly the relation of the fact that poor Sampson Hele, Esq. was " persuaded" (the
thieves !) to give £2000, because he came " without drum or trumpet," " One remarkable
passage of God's providence to us, we must with thankfulness relate, remember, and
acknowledge, that, after the town had been a long time besieged strictly, and no fresh
victual, either fish or flesh, could be had ; whereby the poor people were grievously
punished ; there came an infinite number of pilchards into the harbour within the barbican,
which the people took up with great ease in baskets ; which did not only refresh them
for the present; but a great deal more were taken, preserved, and salted, whereby the
poor got much money; such a passage has not happened before." Again — " We
cannot forget the great humanity of the good women of Plymouth, and their courage in
bringing out strong waters, and all sorts of provisions, in the midst of all our skirmishes and
fights, for the refreshing of our soldiers ; though many women were shot through the clothes.
We cannot omit to set down also here, that in a few days after our arrival home, one
Samson Hele, Esq., of Fardel, came on a message from the Prince, to persuade the yielding
of it ; but, coming without drum or trumpet, he was persuaded to yield us £2000, for the
payment and clothing of our soldiers ; without which we could not possibly have subsisted
so long."

PLYMOUTH. 59

a council of war was summoned and held at the Guildhall, which was
attended by the principal inhabitants, when it was unanimously resolved
to defend the town to the utmost extremity. At this period the works
were in a state of ruin, but an attack being hourly expected, the troops
repaired to them, and, assisted by the women and children, proceeded so
rapidly with their labour, that in a few days they were in as complete a
state of defence as before the siege. Regularly for several days, the
King, with his body-guard of cavalry and trumpets, advanced to the head
of Townsend Hill, and were received by a brisk fire of cannon from the
whole line, and after a short time, as regularly retired. The eminence
the King's party occupied, was, by the inhabitants of Plymouth, jocu-
larly called Vapouring Hill, a name not yet forgotten. After the King
retired, repeated attempts were made by Sir R. Grenville, who endea-
voured to blockade the town, but was repulsed by the arrival of the Earl
of Essex. He commenced, however, a second blockade, which, after a
continuance of nearly a year and a half, notwithstanding repeated as-
saults, was abandoned, and the Parliamentarians remained in quiet
possession of the town. On the appearance of the combined fleets in
the channel in 1779, the French prisoners of war were removed from
this place to Exeter. In 1814, the Bellerophon anchored in the Sound,
having on board the Emperor Napoleon, previous to his exile to St.
Helena. In 1828, the Russian fleet remained for some time in this
harbour, while waiting for tidings of the Admiral's ship, which had
parted from it in a storm ; and in 1829, Don Miguel visited Plymouth,
which place subsequently afforded an hospitable asylum for several
months, to the adherents of Don Pedro.

Various fortifications have at different times been erected for the de-
fence of Plymouth. The most ancient fort of which there is any men-
tion, was built in the reign of Edward the Third, by Edmund Staf-
ford, Bishop of Exeter, and is described by Leland as a " strong castel
quadrate, having at each corner a great round tower." Numerous block-
houses and platforms were erected on different points of the harbour,
in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but which were demolished on the
building of the citadel, in the time of Charles the Second. The citadel
consists of three regular, and two irregular bastions. The curtains of
the regular bastions are further strengthened by two ravelins and horn-
works. On the east, north and west sides is a deep ditch, counterscarp
and covered way, pallisadoed. The prospect from this fortress, which is
on the summit of the Hoe Cliffs, comprises many points of interest. On

60 PLYMOUTH.

the south is the spacious sound, containing within the Breakwater nearly
five square miles, and affording safe anchorage to ships of the largest
burden. On the west are the richly wooded heights of Mount Edg-
cumbe, the much desired locality of the admiral of the Spanish Ar-
mada. On the east is Mount Batten and the Wembury Cliffs, the
fortified summit of Drake Island near the shore, and the Breakwater
in the distance. In the foreground are the towns of Plymouth, Stone-
house and Devonport, in a continued line. The inland view is bounded
by the lofty elevations of Cornwall, and the barren heights of Dartmoor.
On the south west is the vast expanse of the British Channel, and in
clear weather the distant rock of Eddystone and the light-house* is
visible.

Plymouth Harbour comprises the Sound, Sutton Pool, Hamoaze,
Stonehouse Pool, Barn Pool, the Catwater, and several small basons. The
three principal divisions are, however, considered to be the Catwater,
Hamoaze, and the Sound. The Catwater is a large expanse at the mouth
of the river Plym : Hamoaze is a still more extensive bason, at the

* The Eddystone light-house is built on a rock in the channel, about fifteen miles south -
south-west from the citadel of Plymouth. In 1696, a wooden light-house was first erected
on this rock, by Mr. Winstanley, who was so convinced of its security, that he desired to
be within it during " the greatest storm that might ever blow under the heavens." His wish
was fatally fulfilled. On the night of the twenty-sixth of November, 1703, in a hurricane
more raging, probably, than any that ever devastated the coast, the light-house, with Mr.
Winstanley, and the workmen assisting in the repairs, and the marines superintending the
lights, were swept into the sea. A second light-house of stone and timber was completed
by Mr. Rudyerd in 1709, which was destroyed by fire in 1755. The present building was
begun by Mr. Smeaton on the first of June 1757, and completed in October 1759. It is a
perfect monument of art. The outside and basement are formed of granite. The lantern
on the summit is composed of cast iron and copper. Its form is octagonal, and its height
is one hundred feet, and its diameter twenty six. Mr. Smeaton, in his interesting narrative
of the building of the light-house, relates the following anecdote : " Lewis the fourteenth
being at war with England during the proceeding with this building, a French privateer
took the men at work upon the Eddystone rock, together with their tools, and carried them
to France ; and the captain was in expectation of receiving a reward for his achivement.
"While the captives lay in prison, the transaction reached the ears of that monarch ; he im-
mediately ordered them to be released, and the captors to be put in their places ; declaring,
that though he was at war with England, he was not so with mankind. He therefore
directed the men to be sent back to their work, with presents, observing, that the Eddystone
light-house was so situated, as to be of equal service to all nations having occasion to
navigate the channel between England and France." The history of this work is altogether
one of " a strange " and " eventful " kind, and we can promise the curious reader a great
treat, should he think proper to peruse the tract of Mr. Smeaton.

PLYMOUTH. 61

estuary of the Tamar ; the Sound is the capacious bay formed by the
influx of the sea with the two rivers, and is capable of holding two
thousand vessels. It has been rendered more secure than formerly by
the construction of the Breakwater, which may be regarded as the most
gigantic undertaking ever effected in England. It was commenced on
the 12th of August 1812, and has during its progress experienced
two most severe trials. In January 1827 and November 1824 the
southern coast of England was strewed with wrecks, but the Breakwater,
although presenting an uneven and unfinished surface, and more liable
to be disturbed by the violence of the waters, proved the greatest pro-
tection to the vessels within its friendly shelter. This immense barrier
is composed of granite blocks of several tons weight. It is in length,
at the base, one thousand seven hundred and sixty yards, and in breadth
one hundred and twenty. The flat surface on the top, forms a fine
promenade, approached by three flights of steps, leading to one common
landing near the centre of the work. In the vicinity are numerous
cottages for the convenience of those who visit this interesting spot.

Near the Citadel is the Victualling Office, an extensive range of build-
ings, including the cooperage and the baking houses. The baking
houses are only two, but each containing four ovens, which may be
heated eight times a-day, and capable in that time of baking bread
for 16,000 men. The granaries are large, and well constructed ; when
the wheat is ground, the flour is conveyed into the upper stories of
the bake-houses, whence it descends through a trunk in each, im-
mediately into the hands of the workmen, who, by the means of
machinery, are able to prepare and bake the almost incredible quantity
mentioned. The dock-yard of Plymouth is considered, altogether, to
be the finest in the world, and presents a scene of activity, scientific
ingenuity, and perfection of arrangement, that the mind of an English-
man must contemplate with proud satisfaction.

In the " piping times of peace," the Hamoaze presents a magnifi-
cent spectacle, a very considerable portion of the English navy being
here laid up in ordinary.* The Hamoaze is about four miles in length,
and in general, about half a mile broad, with a bottom of mud ; its

* Ships laid up in ordinary, are stripped of all their rigging, aud guns, stores and other
contents are taken on shore. The men and officers are all paid off except the boatswain,
gunner, carpenter aud cook, and six ordinary seamen. The ships are moored by large chains
of iron, sixty fathoms long, consisting of one hundred and twenty links, and having at each
end a large anchor. The chains are stretched across the harbour, and the anchors sunk in

E

62 PLYMOUTH.

greatest depth, at high water, is between eighteen and twenty fathoms ;
at. low water, the depth is about fifteen fathoms. The entrance into
Hamoaze from the Sound, is very intricate and dangerous, and the aid
of a pilot is always necessary. The buildings on the gun wharf near
the Hamoaze, were erected after designs by Sir John Vanburgh ; the
armories, and the immense piles of ordnance in the yard, each marked
with the name of the ship in Hamoaze to which it belongs, are worthy
of especial notice. The barracks are calculated to accommodate three
thousand troops.

In the engraving of the Hamoaze attached to the present work, the
artist has presented us with the constant recurring scene, always grand,
and always different, of the "wooden walls of old England." The
soldiers and the soldier's wife; the sailors and the fishermen; the
rainbow —

" The airy child of vapour and the sun,
Brought forth in purple, cradled in vermillion,
Baptized in molten gold, and swathed in dun," —

a fitting zone to enclose such a scene of beauty ; the water and the
sky, all tend to constitute a picture full of charms, and creative of
all kinds of grateful feelings.

With a short account of Stonehouse, we must unwillingly dismiss
our description of Plymouth.

STONEHOUSE BRIDGE is the principal avenue between Plymouth and
Devonport (formerly called Dock), and is a stone fabric, consisting
of one arch, thrown across Stonehouse Creek. It was erected at the joint
expense of the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, and Sir John St. Aubyn,
Bart., in the place of an incommodious ferry, where passengers were

the mud. In the middle of each chain is a large iron ring, and a swivel, to which are
attached two thick cables, called bridles, sufficiently long to be taken on board the ship to
be moored. The bridles, when not in use, are constantly sunk ; a small cable being fastened
to them, which is brought up to a buoy on the surface of the water, and there made fast.
When wanted, the ends are easily hauled up by means of a buoy rope, and are then
passed through each of the ship's hawse holes, and fastened on board. By the bridles being
fastened to the same swivel, the ships swim easily with the tide, which runs amazingly strong,
especially the ebb, with the wind at north ; at these times, no boat can make head against
it. In Hamoaze are near a hundred of these moorings, each capable of holding a line of
battle ship !

PLYMOUTH. 63

pulled over in a boat in the true rustic style, and which sorry convey-
ance even was not permitted after the hour of nine in summer, and eight
in winter. Foot passengers, horsemen, and carriages, pay a toll at this
bridge, the rent of which, during the late war, was upwards of £400 per
annum. The tolls are now let annually at a public survey, and produce
a considerable income.

The parish of Stonehouse is a populous and improving place, extend-
ing from Plymouth towards Devonport. By the last returns it contained
6043 inhabitants. The place was originally called Slipperstone. In the
twenty-seventh year of Henry III. it belonged to Joel de Stonehouse,
from whom it derives its present name ; but has, by various marriages,
passed into the family of Edgcumbe. At the period mentioned, it was
situated more southerly ; but, after improvements and extension to the
northward, the ancient buildings were allowed to fall into decay. It
now consists of several streets of handsome and commodious houses.

At the quays in Stonehouse Pool, vessels unload their cargoes of wood
and coal. The maritime relation of this town to Devonport and Ply-
mouth renders the manufactures of the place active and extensive.

The Royal Naval Hospital, for the reception of wounded seamen and
marines, opened in 1762, is the most important public establishment in
the place. It is situated on an eminence near the creek, and comprises
ten buildings, each containing six wards, each ward affording accommo-
dation for about twenty patients, with a chapel, store-room, operating-
room, small-pox ward, and dispensary, forming an extensive quadrangle,
ornamented on three sides with a piazza, and the entire building with a
spacious lawn, occupying an area of twenty-four acres. In 1795, the
government of this institution was first vested in a post-captain, a
first and second lieutenant, a physician, surgeon, dispenser, chaplain,
agent, and steward.

The Royal Marine Barracks on the east side of Stonehouse are a
noble range of buildings, built" with granite, and form an oblong
square; they are calculated for the accommodation of one thousand
men. The Low Room Barracks, chiefly built of wood, will contain
about nine hundred.

A new victualling establishment has lately been erected at Devil's
Point, upon a scale of great magnitude. No less than three thousand
cubic yards of limestone rocks was removed for its erection, and a
granite sea-wall was raised, one thousand five hundred feet in length,
the foundation of which was achieved by means of a diving bell. The

64 PLYMOUTH.

water for the brewery is supplied at the rate of three hundred and fifty
tons per day from the Plymouth Leat ; it first runs into a reservoir
capable of receiving two thousand tons, and is then conveyed in iron
pipes into a second basin of six thousand tons.

So much for the information of those who love matters of fact. To
those who love the picturesque — to those who out of every thing would
extract

" Emotions beautiful and new,"

we invite them to feast their eyes on the scene of repose and harmony —
shortly to be disturbed as the threatening clouds assure us — which ap-
pears in the representation of Stonehouse Bridge, Plymouth.

65

RYE.

RYE is one of the Cinque Ports, and is situated at the eastern extremity
of the coast of Sussex. It has been conjectured to be the Portus Novus
of Ptolemy. In ancient Latin, it is termed Ripa, and its English name
is imagined to be either derived from the Norman rive, bank ; Saxon
rhee, or British rhy, a river or ford.

The authentic history of Rye commences in 893, at the latter end of
which year a fleet of 250 sail brought an army of Danes from France,
to the coast of Kent, when, landing near the town, they seized the neigh-
bouring Fort of Apuldore. Rye was given with the adjacent town of
Winchelsea, by Edward the Confessor, to the monks of the Abbey of
Fescampe, in Normandy ; but in the thirty-first year of the reign of
Henry III. it was exchanged* by that monarch for the manor of
Chilceham, otherwise Cheltham, or Cheltenham and Sclover, in Glouces-
tershire. Camden, speaking of Winchelsea, says, " at first it was in-
closed with a mud, after a very strong wall : but scarce began to flourish,
till it was sacked by the French and Spaniards ; and by the seas
shrinking back from it, as it were on a sudden, faded and fell to decay.
By which accident," he continues, " and the benefit of the sea, its
neighbour, Rye, began to flourish, or rather to reflourish ; for that it
flourished in ancient times, and that William of Ipres, Earl of Kent
fortified it, Ipres Tower, and the immunities and privileges that it had
in common with the Cinque Ports, do sufficiently show. But either by
reason of the vicinity of Winchelsea, or the sea's recess, it was inconsi-

• "It was exchanged," says Jeake, in his bistory of the Cinque Ports, "for the belter
defence of his realm, and it might be to conceal from foreigners the intelligence of affaiis at
home, and stop them of such convenient ports of passage." The account given by Cam-
den authorizes this. He says, speaking of ^Vinchelsea and Rye, — we always quote entire
from this, to us moderns, quaint, but still most pure English writer, — " These tvvc
(neither may it seem impertinent to note it) belonged to the Abbey of Fescampe i
mandy. But when King Henry III. perceived that religious men intermingled secretly in
matters of state, he gave them in exchange for these two, Cheltenham and Sclover, two ma-
nors in Gloucestershire, and other lands ; adding for the reason, that the abbots and monks
might not lawfully fight with temporal arms against the enemies of the Crown."

s

66 UYE.

derable for a long time. But when Winchelsea decayed,* and King
Edward III. walled it about, it began to recover itself; and within the
memory of our fathers, the ocean, to make a rich amends for the injury
it has done, swelled with an extraordinary tempest, and broke so
violently in, (insinuating itself in form of a bay,) that it made a very
convenient port, which another tempest likewise in our age, did not a
little contribute to. Since which time it has greatly reflourished with
inhabitants, buildings, fishing and navigation, and is now the usual
passage from hence to Normandy."

The approach to Rye from Winchelsea is imposing. At high tide it
is nearly surrounded by water, and the massive centre tower of the
church, with Ipres Tower, shows conspicuously.

The harbour has been much improved by a new channel, cut by a
Dr. Pape, Vicar of Penn, in the neighbourhood of Rye, who also pro-
jected a dam across the old channel, a work of great ingenuity. Ships
of 200 tons burthen can come up to the north quay of the town, one
mile and a half from the sea. , The port of Rye extends from Jewry's
Gut, about two miles eastward of .the harbour of Beachy Head, and the
port includes Hastings and Earlbourne as creeks. In the year 1725,
George the First, on his return from Holland, endeavouring to make
Dover, was compelled to put into this harbour, but had some difficulty
in landing.

The church of Rye is considered to be one of the largest in England.

* The inhabitants of old Winchelsea appear to have been a piratical and sanguinary set,
which facts were the forerunners and cause of the decay of the town. In 1265, Simon de
Montfort, intending to bring over foreign troops to cause an insurrection in England, repaired
to Winchelsea, at the time of Lent, intending to pass over to France, but was induced to
stay and take a share in their piracies, in which they were borne out by others of the Cinque
Ports, but the heir apparent, afterwards Edward the First, put a stop to his career. " Old Win-
chelsea," says Pennant, " had been a most powerful port, but like the others, its vessels
acted in most of the cruizes with savage barbarity. During the time that Simon de Montfort,
Earl of Leicester, held his iron rod over these kingdoms, they gave full loose to their piracies,
and flung overboard the crew of every ship they met, whether it was foreign or English :
Leicester had share of the booty, so winked at their enormities. In 1266, Prince Edward
put a stop to their cruelties ; he attacked Wiuchelsea, took it by storm, and put to the sword
all the principal persons concerned in the inhuman practices of the times : the rest he saved,
and granted the inhabitants far better terms than they merited. He at that time feared their
power, and the assistance they might give to the rebellious Montfort, had he been too rigor-
ous in his measures. By the date of this transaction, it is evident that the destruction of
Old Winchelsea could not have happened till after the accession of Prince Edward to the
throne."

HYE. 67

The nave is one hundred feet long, and the chancel sixty, with a tower -
between, making the whole length 161 feet. The transept is rather more
than eighty feet in length. The architecture throughout is mixed Saxon
and Gothic, and in the north transept is a Norman arch in the wall
with a chain moulding, a variety of style almost without a counterpart.
The principal curiosity of the church is the great clock, which tradition
asserts to have been taken from the Spanish Armada, and given to the
town by Queen Elizabeth. The church has been considerably mutilated
and disfigured by the introduction of unseemly windows. It has never-
theless some grand features, and a few of the windows are similar to
those in the western aisles of Westminster Abbey, more particularly one
at the eastern extremity. The north chancel is in a state evincing great
neglect, but still displays a grand appearance. The floor is thick set with
brasses. The centre chancel is alone kept in repair, and divided from
the sides. Passing under the tower, the long gilt lead pendulum of the
Spanish clock swings some few feet above the head of the spectator.
The works of the clock are entirely of iron, and the hour-weight weighs
nearly three hundred and forty pounds. Over the arch are the arms of
Queen Anne, and a lofty and rather stately altar-piece appears to be of
the same period. The communion table, also conjectured, truly or not
we cannot decide, to be a spoil of the Spanish Armada, is of old ma-
hogany, finely inlaid, and legs richly carved. From the top of the tower
may be seen the shore of Boulogne. This tower contains eight bells, and
the ringing loft immediately under the bell chamber, is covered with
turf an inch thick, an expedient adopted for absorbing the sound, which
was previously of rather a deafening character.

" Rye Old Harbour," is probably as full of the materials that form
the picturesque, -as any scene that has adorned the present illustrations
of Coast Scenery, or any other work of art. The blockade station, the
wooden battlements stranded for repair, the sailors or shipwrights at
their labour, the blazing tar-barrel, and the smoke gracefully curling,
compose a picture of uncommon beauty.

68

HASTINGS.

HASTINGS, situated in the county of Sussex, is the principal of the Cinque
Ports, and contains about 7000 inhabitants. During the Saxon Hep-
tarchy it was of considerable importance ; and is supposed to have been
named after a celebrated Danish pirate contemporary with Alfred. The
plunder of the neighbouring towns, and the spoils of the ocean were
deposited in a fortress purposely erected by the nautical freebooter ;
who was thus enabled to enjoy the fruits of his lawless enterprise, secure
from the enmity of the victims of his violence. In Doomsday-book, we
find that a mint was established here by Athelstan in 924, and from
the fortress, William the Conqueror marched to meet Harold, and
fought the great battle which has given imperishable celebrity to this
town. On the site of the conflict, the Norman erected Battel Abbey in
commemoration of his success.* Extensive remains of the ancient castle,
built on an eminence to the west of the present town, may still be seen,

* The history of the battle of Hastings is necessarily familiar to every Englishman, from
the deep-read student, to those whose knowledge may have only been gathered from the gos-
sip of the most illiterate. Yet is the account, given by the author of Paradise Lost, (in
his own time known as John Milton, with the profound prefix of a MR.) so little circulated
and of so beautiful a kind, that we cannot forbear a lengthened extract. Previously giving an
account of Harold and his proceedings, " The Duke, "he continues, "for fifteen days after land -
ingkept his men quiet within the camp, having taken the Castle of Hastings, or built a fortress
there. Harold secure the while, and proud of his new victorie, thought all his enemies now
underfoot: but sitting jollily at dinner, news is brought him, that Duke William of Normandy,
with a great multitude of horse and foot, slingers and archers, besides other choice auxiliaries
which he had hired in France, was arrived at Pevensey. Harold who hadexpected him all the
summer, but not so late in the year as now it was, for it was October, with his forces much
diminish'! after two sore conflicts, and the departing of many others from him discontented,
in great haste marches to London. Thence not tarrying for supplies which were on thir
way towards him, hurries into Sussex (for he was always in haste since the day of his corona-
tion) and e're the third part of his army could be well put in order, finds the Duke about
nine mile from Hastings, and now drawing nigh, sent spies before him to survey the strength
and number of his enemies : them, discover'd such, the Duke causing to be led about, and
after well fill'd with meat and drink sent back. They not over-wise, brought word that the
Duke's army were most of them priests ; for they saw thir faces all over shav'n ; the Eng-
lish then useing to let grow on their upper-lip large mustachios, as did anciently the Britans.
The King laughing, answer'd, That they were not priests, but valiant and hardy souldiers.

HASTINGS. 69

and afford fine specimens of the feudal architecture of the times. Some
of the ruins having been removed, the relics of a church, after the lapse
of two centuries, were discovered, together with portions of a free college
for a dean and seven prebendaries, supposed to have been founded by
Henry de Eu in the reign of the first Henry. It was dedicated to the
Virgin, and at the dissolution, twenty pounds per annum was the revenue
of the deanery, and of the prebends collectively 4H. 13s. 5d. The colle-

Therefore said Girtha his brother, a youth of noble courage and understanding above his
age, Forbear thou thyself to fight, who art obnoxious to Duke William by oath, let us un-
sworn undergo the hazard of battel, who may justly fight in the defence of our country ;
thou reserved to filter time, may'st either reunite us flying, or revenge us dead. The King
not hark'ning to this, lest it might seem to argue fear in him, or a bad cause, with like
resolution rejected the offers of Duke William sent to him by a monk before the battel,
with this only answer hastily deliver'd, Let God judge between us. The offers were these,
That Harold would either lay down the scepter, or hold it of him, or try his title with him
by single combate in the sight of both armies, or referr it to the Pope. These rejected, both
sides prepar'd to fight the next morning, the English from singing and drinking all night, the
Normans from confession of thir sins, and communion of the Host. The English were in a
strait disadvantagious place, so that many discourag'd with thir ill ordering, scarce having
room where to stand, slip'd away before the onset, the rest in close order with thir battel-
axes and shields, made an impenetrable squadron : the King himself with his brothers on
foot stood by the royal standard, wherein the figure of a man fighting was inwov'n with
gold and precious stones. The Norman foot, most bowmen, made the formost front, on
either side wings of horse somewhat behind. The Duke arming, and his corslet giv'n
him on the wrong side, said pleasantly, "The strength of my dukedom will be turn'd now
into a kingdom." Then the whole army singing the song of Rowland, the remembrance of
whose exploits might heart'n them, imploring lastly Divine help, the battel began ; and was
fought sorely on either side ; but the main body of English foot by no means would be
brok'n, till the Duke causing his men to feign flight, drew them out with desire of persuit
into op'n disorder, then turn'd suddenly upon them so routed by themselves, which wrought
thir overthrow ; yet so they dy'd not unmanfully, but turning oft upon thir enemies, by the
advantage of an upper ground, beat them down by heaps, and fill'd up a great ditch with
thir carcasses. Thus hung the victory wavering on either side, from the third hour of day
to evening ; when Harold having maintain'd the fight with unspeakable courage and perso-
nal valour, shot into the head with an arrow, fell at length, and left his souldiers without
heart longer to withstand the unwearied enemy. With Harold fell also his two brothers,
Leofwin, and Girtha, with them greatest part of the English nobility. His body lying dead,
a knight or souldier wounding on the thigh, was by the Duke presently turned out of
military service. Of Normans and French were slain no small number ; the Duke himself
also that day not a little hazarded his person, having had three choice horses kill'd under
him. Victory oblain'd, and his dead carefully buried, the English also by permission, he
sent the body of Harold to his mother without ransom, though she oftet'd very much to re-
deem it, which having rcceiv'd, she buried at Waltham, in a Church built there by Harold.

X

70 HASTINGS.

giate church is one hundred and ten feet in length, and adjoining it are
the remains of the parish church of St. Mary in the Castle, and the pre-
bendal buildings. This interesting mass of ruins has been enclosed not
long since by the Earl of Chichester. A variety of Saxon coins, frag-
ments of columns, and other indications of early times have been disco-
vered on the spot. One Walter Bricet in the reign of Richard I. founded
the priory of Black Canons. The church and other buildings having
been destroyed by the sea, the brethren were presented with the lands of
Warbilton for the foundation of a monastery by Sir John Pelham, in
the reign of Henry IV. Hastings, by a charter of William I. together
with Hythe, was added to the Ports of Sandwich, Dover and Romney,
which had been previously incorporated, and were invested with peculiar
privileges. In the time of Edward I. it was rated at twenty-one ships,
each containing fourteen sailors. These were required for the service of
the King for fourteen days, and were to be kept up in warlike condition at
the expense of the town. In 1377, the French effected a landing on
this part of the coast, and destroyed Hastings by fire, but it was rebuilt in
a short time afterwards.

Hastings is pleasantly situated in a vale so formed that the body of the
town is completely in a hollow, and is agreeably sheltered from the rude
visitation of stormy squalls so prevalent on the coast. Lofty cliffs on
either side, impart a bold and picturesque effect to the otherwise pleas-
ing appearance of the town ; and the adjuncts of splendid scenery are
not wanting, in the singular manner in which the houses are constructed
on the rocks, and the sea views rendered striking by a judicious selection
of the ground for the erection of the buildings. The two principal
streets of the Town are parallel with each other, and owing to their
declining; towards the sea, are alwavs clean and much drier than

•/

in most other towns. It is provided by distinct acts of the legisla-
ture, that Hastings be well lighted, paved, and otherwise kept com-
fortable and convenient ; and the expenses consequent upon its being
so preserved are defrayed by a duty of three shillings levied upon every
chaldron of coal brought into the port. It is divided into two almost
equal parts by the Bourn, the waters of which supply the town. Inva-
lids find Hastings peculiarly adapted to their debilitated constitutions,
both for the pleasing diversity of the neighbouring scenery, as well as
its healthful and salubrious situation ; and the openness of its coast and
smoothness of its beach, fit it especially for the comfort of bathers. It
has long been recognised as a fashionable summer resort ; and on the

HASTINGS. 71

whole, few places of its kind are better adapted for sustaining the cha-
racter it has acquired, both for the purposes of health, recreation, and
elegant enjoyment. The fine level sands at low water form a prome-
nade, the equal of which is not easily found ; and it would be not less
difficult to select a spot, in which- the grandeur of prospect, and all the
attributes of the highest civilization are more desirably combined.

A strong fort guards the town, and the adjacent coast is protected
by Martello towers.* Formerly the harbour now called Stade, was
deemed a safe anchorage for ships ; but since the pier was destroyed in
Elizabeth's time by a storm, it has fallen into disuse, and vessels of
more than one hundred tons burthen cannot now enter.

According to the Charter of Corporation, granted by Elizabeth, in
1588, and confirmed by Charles II., the government is vested in a
mayor, recorder, and twelve jurats, called barons, who are assisted by
a town clerk, chamberlain, and other officers, one of whom is Pier
Warden, regulator of the port, and who receives ten shillings for every
vessel that enters not in ballast. On the third Sunday after Easter, the
freemen elect the Mayor from among the jurats, and if he refuse the
office, he incurs the punishment of fine or imprisonment. As vacan-
cies may occur, the Mayor has the power of nominating jurats, who also
act as Justices of the Peace; but in respect to the laws of Custom
and Excise, the County Magistrates exercise concurrent jurisdiction.
The eldest sons of freemen are entitled to the freedom of the borough,
which also may be had by gift of the Corporation. There is an exemp-
tion extended to the inhabitants of this town, whereby they are absolved
from attendance on Juries at Assizes or at County Sessions. Courts
of Sessions are held quarterly by the Corporation, at which the Mayor
presides, for adjudicating offences committed within the borough, but
this privilege is rarely exercised in matters of moment, as all criminal
derelictions are generally punished at the Lewes Assizes. However,
debts to any amount are recoverable every alternate week, in Courts of
Record, at which the Mayor also presides.

Each of the Cinque Ports sends one or two deputies at uncertain
intervals, which constitute what is called a gnestling or brotherhood,
and which deliberates on affairs of secondary importance.

* The Martello towers, of an almost impregnable construction, were erected at the period
of Napoleon Buonaparte's threalened invasion of England, and according to the plan of the
late Duke of Richmond. Their excellence in defence may not appear so great as it is, but
although possessed of but one piece of ordnance, from their proximity and station, they can
be made to bear upon almost any point, and acting in concert are a most formidable battery.

72 HASTINGS.

The public buildings of Hastings do not claim any lengthened notice,
for, although they are for the most part neat, and in some cases elegant,
it is unnecessary to speak of their peculiarities, otherwise than briefly,
as our illustrations have no immediate reference to them. TheTownhall,
rebuilt in 1823, is the principal, and is a respectable construction.
The gaol is a diminutive edifice, divided into two compartments, and cal-
culated only for the reception of eight prisoners. Mutilations and repeated
repairs and alterations have deteriorated the once handsome appearance
of the churches, of All Saints and St. Clements, which were originally
built of flint and stone, and must have had an imposing and graceful
appearance. The rectories of both these parishes are in the archdea-
conry and diocese of Chichester. In Pelham Street there is a chaste and
elegant building, belonging to the Episcopalians, and the town has
also many places of worship for the followers of various religious
persuasions. Reading, writing, arithmetic, and navigation are taught at
a school founded in 1619, by the Rev. William Parker, and endowed by
him with the sum of 210Z. per annum. In 1708, James Saunders, Esq.
also endowed a school, with 240J. per annum, for the efficient in-
struction of seventy boys in English and Latin, and also left 10£. per
annum, for educating thirty children, by two mistresses, chosen for
that purpose. The sum of 270Z. arising from lands belonging to
the dissolved Priory, was bequeathed in 1714, by Mr. Richard Ells-
worth, but in consequence of the property having become involved in
Chancery, the benefaction has not been carried into effect. The two
schools are under the direction of the corporation, who are also trustees
for the Magdalene charity, which some unknown benefactor endowed
with more than 1501. a-year. The stone on which it is said William I.
dined, on the occasion of his landing on the Sussex coast, is distant
from Hastings about two miles, and the house in which dwelt the re-
nowned Titus Gates, the ministerial informer in the days of the Second
Charles, is still in existence. In East Cliffe House dwelt Mr. Chapel,
one of Shakspeare's innumerable critics, and in the garden Garrick
planted a mulberry-tree. The title of Marquis, in the noble family of
Rawdon- Hastings, is taken from this town.

The views of " The East-Cliff, Hastings," and of " Hastings looking
from the Sea," will at once be recognized by all familiar with the scenes,
as being faithful representations, and admired by those who are un-
acquainted with them, as delightful specimens of those particular parts
of the English Coast.

73

HAVRE-DE-GRACE.

FIIOM the white cliffs of Albion \ve must again return to our description
of the ports of La Belle France — the land of gallantry and crime, of the
gaiety of the heart and the ferocity of passion, — land of cafes, soldiers,
vineyards, and milliners, — of a Napoleon, who parcelled out empires,
dethroning and creating princes, — of a Louis Philippe, a citizen king
and a stockbroker !

" I think I could paint," says the author of ' France, Social, Literary,
and Political,' " the place of ' Louis le Grand,' " and he proceeds to
describe that part of Paris as seen in the time of the regency : " Lo,
there are tents!" he says, " not the tents of war — the canvass is too
white and delicate. There are tents ! beneath the canopy of which you
will find the cups of Venice, and the chains of Malta, and the cloths of
Persia, and the silks of Ind ; and the avenues between are soft to the
feet, for they are spread with the richest and most moss-like carpets ;
and at every corner you are offered the juice of the orange and the
citron ; and if your pulse flag, it may be stimulated by the vintage of
Champagne, and if your lip be feverish, it may be cooled by the ice of
the Pyrenees ; and by night and by day the musician, and the courte-
zan, and the juggler forbid the festivity to repose ; and the gay seigneurs
and the gentle and graceful ladies of the riotous court of France, form
part of the many-coloured group, which, reader ! I would bring before
you ! What is the business for which these tents are pitched ? what
cause has collected this crowd of musicians, courtezans, and jugglers? —
and why are the great ladies and the high dignitaries, who in days of
state are to be seen in the royal chambers of the regent, among the indo-
lent loungers and the noisy speculators of yon unhallowed place ?
Yea, speculators ! for that scene, gay and brilliant as it appears to you,
is the sombre and fatal spot from which bankruptcy is departing to
every corner of the kingdom : it is there that, already degraded by a
frantic avarice, a once chivalric people — amidst all the symbols of
mirth and wealth, and flushed with the shameful passion of the stock
exchange, are witnessing like the Hunchback's brother in the Arabian

u

74 HAVRE-DE-GRACK.

story, the transformation of their gold into dry and withered leaves,
which the wind, as so many signs and tokens of an avenging Provi-
dence, will soon scatter over the most fertile provinces of France. Thus
was it : but the nation had not merely to regret its gold ; — the honour,
which Montesquieu calls ' The Education of a Monarchy,' and which,
of such a monarchy as that of the French, was the vital principle, the
only moral and enduring force — that honour sunk beneath the projects
of law, and the sentiment which was the fortune of the ancient regime —
never ceased to languish after being exposed to the infection which
breathed amidst the flowers and festivities of that voluptuous and terri-
ble bazar."

" So much," he continues, " for ancient France — for France during
the elegant reign of tyranny and pleasure. So much for France when
she was careless and gay in all times and in all places ; treating the
lightest matters with an air of importance, the gravest with a passion for
amusement. So much for France, with her joyous dance and her dark
bastille, her bankrupt exchequer, and her shameless court. Then was the
moment to have known her ! Then was the moment to have known her —
if you wish to have known a country which, already bound to the altar,
was decorated with the garlands of the victim. Then was there wit and
gaiety; but neither virtue nor character, nor greatness. The majesty
of the monarchy had followed the independence of the nobility — both
were gone. The martial enterprise of the League no longer mingled
with the masked debauch — a cold system of licentiousness had suc-
ceeded the valiant follies of the French. Dead was the chivalry of that
intoxicating time when the smile of beauty was the graceful incentive to
rebellion ; when the conflict was sought rather to vary the amusement
of society than to change the destinies of the people ; when the art of
the Roman Gladiator rose to its perfection, and death was studied for
the purpose of dying — in an agreeable position. The reign of the
regent emasculated the character, chilled the enthusiasm, blunted the
honour ; but, black as were the wings of pestilence and ruin — it
did not for an instant darken the character of the French. Amidst all
her changes that gaiety remained the characteristic of olden France,
and with that gaiety there was a frivolity, a light and frivolous air,
which sat as naturally on the philosopher as the fop ; which was in
manners even where it was not in ideas — which was on the surface of
society where it was not at the core."

But it may be well exclaimed that this is no description of Havre,

HAVRE-DE-GRACE. 75

but of France, and of France at a different period from the present.
And so it is, but it is at the same time a vivid description of the men-
tal characteristics of a people greatly frivolous, and over whom time hath
had but little influence. More than that, Paris is France, and Havre is
well denominated a little Paris.

Havre is situated at the embouchure of the Seine, and is the port of
Paris, enjoying little less than a third portion of the entire commerce
of France. It was founded, according to some authorities, by Louis
XII., and was called at that time Le Havre. So late as 1509, its site
was occupied by a few hovels, clustered round a thatched chapel, under
the protection of Notre Dame de Grace, from which the place derived
the name of Havre de Grace. Francis I., however, claims to be the
founder ; but it is quite clear that there were some buildings previous
to his time. Francis gave to it the name of Francoisville, or Fran-
ciscopolis, in honour of himself; but the inhabitants, however grateful
they might feel for the patronage and improvements of the monarch,
continued to indulge their indolence, and retain the old title ; the
Tower of Francis I. being the only public building bearing his name.
The importance of this new sea-port town, thirteen years after its erec-
tion, Francis determined to signalize, by the construction of a vessel so
extraordinary in size, that it should excite the admiration of all France,
and so powerful that it should effect the destruction of the Turks.
This vessel was called Grande Fran$oise, and had on board a chapel,
a forge moved by water, a tennis court, a windmill, numerous apart-
ments, and was constructed for the conveyance of two thousand tons.
She was completely finished and ready for sea, when a discovery was
made which altered her destination ; and instead of carrying the thunder
of France against the Ottoman, the vessel was dismantled, and broken
to pieces for the building of houses in the good town of Havre, her
size being too enormous to find its way into the element for which she
was intended. In 1544, the same chivalric, but sometimes unfor-
tunate monarch, equipped a vast fleet at Havre, for the purpose of
clearing the seas of the English, and was about to go on board
one of the vessels, as guest, to a magnificent entertainment prepared
by the Governor of Normandy, when the ship took fire and was burned
down to the water's edge. The plunder of the Isle of Wight was the
only result of an undertaking that had so ominous an event for its
commencement.

At the period of the religious wars which distracted France under

76 IIAVRE-DE-GRACE.

the Guises, the English, with the assistance of the Prince de Conde,
took possession of Havre. For a twelve-month it was in the hands of
Queen Elizabeth, when Marshal Brissac starved the garrison into a
surrender, and the English vacated the town. But one of the most
extraordinary events in the history of Havre, and a stain upon it, so
long as the feelings of sympathizing humanity shall be excited by the
relation of cold-blooded barbarity and brutal oppression, instigated
by the sordid lust for gain, is the facts detailed in connection with
the slave traffic. The stage of this dreadful drama was a vessel that
belonged to this port. The Rodeur was her name — her burden two
hundred tons. She cleared out from Havre for Guadaloupe, on the
15th of January, 1819, and the action of the melancholy and diabolical
tragedy may be said to commence after the arrival of the vessel at
Bony, in the river Calabar, on the coast of Africa.* From the journal
of a youth of the name of Romaine, supposed to be from eleven to
fourteen years of age, first published in the Travelling Sketches of
Leitch Ritchie in the Picturesque Annual, we collect, among others,
the following incidents. The boy writes for the subsequent perusal of
his mother, and he says : —

" Since we have been at this place, f I have become more accustomed
to the howling of these negroes. At first it alarmed me, and I could not
sleep. The Captain says that if they behave well, they will be much
better off at Guadaloupe." [The captain has before been described as
a man the youth is very fond of, who is very good-tempered, and who
" drinks a great deal of brandy, as a fine handsome man, and one," as
the boy says, " I am sure I shall like very much."] The narrative
then continues : " And I am sure I wish the ignorant creatures would
come quietly, and have it over. To-day one of the blacks, whom they
were forcing into the hold, suddenly knocked down a sailor, and at-
tempted to leap overboard. He was caught, however, by the leg, by
another of the crew ; and the sailor, rising up in a passion, hamstrung
him with his cutlass. The captain, seeing this, knocked the butcher
flat upon the deck with a handspike. ' I will teach you to keep your
temper,' said he, with an oath ; ' he was the best slave of the lot !' "
The boy then runs to the chains, and sees the slave who was found to be

* The profits of the slave trade were so enormous, that it has been calculated vessels
leaving the port of Havre, engaged in that traffic, have realized eight thousand pounds
a voyage.

t Calabar.

HAVRE-DE-GRACE. 77

" useless," dropped into the sea, where he continued to swim after he
had sunk under the water, making a red track, which broke, widened,
faded, and was seen no more. At last they got fairly again to sea.
The captain is described as being in the best temper in the world ;
walking the deck, rubbing his hands, humming a tune, and rejoicing
that he has six dozen slaves on board — men, women, and children ;
and all " in prime, marketable condition." The boy says, their cries
were terrible ; that he dare not go and look into the hold ; that, at first,
he could not close his eyes, the sound so froze his blood ; and that one
night he jumped up, and in horror ran to the captain's state room, who
was sleeping profoundly, with the lamp shining upon his face, calm as
marble. The boy did not like to disturb him. The next day two of
the slaves are found dead in the hold, suffocated by the foulness of the
atmosphere. The captain is informed of this, and in gangs orders them
to the forecastle to take the fresh air. The boy runs upon deck to see
them, but did not find them so very unwell ; but adds, " that blacks
are so much alike, that one can hardly tell." On reaching the ship's
side, first one, then another, then a third, of the slaves leaped into the
sea, before the eyes of the astonished sailors. Others made the attempt,
but were knocked flat upon the deck, and the crew kept watch over
them with handspikes and cutlasses, until they should receive orders
from the captain. The negroes who had escaped, kept gambolling upon
the waves, yelling what appeared like a song of triumph, in the burden
of which some on deck joined. The ship soon left the " ignorant crea-
tures" behind, and their voices were heard more and more faint ; the
black head of one, and then another, disappearing, until the sea was
without a spot, and the air without a sound. The captain having
finished his breakfast, came on deck, and was informed of the revolt. He
grew pale with rage, and in dread of losing all his cargo, determined
to make an example. He selects six from those who joined in the
chorus, has three hanged and three shot before their companions. That
night the boy could not sleep. The negroes, in consequence of the revolt,
are kept closer than ever. As a consequence, ophthalmia makes its ap-
pearance among them. The captain is compelled to have them between
decks, and the surgeon attends them just as if " they were white men."
All the slaves, then the crew, save one, the captain, surgeon, and mate,
the boy, and at last the solitary one of the crew, are stone blind.
" Mother," says the boy, " your son was blind for ten days." The
crew were some swearing from morning till night, some singing abo-

x

78 HAVRE-DE-GRACE.

minable songs, some kissing the crucifix and making vows to the saints,
wanting in short only to complete the horrible reality of Byron's too
true picture of the shipwreck, that they should have been -

-" With strange convulsions racked,

Drinking salt water like a mountain stream,
Tearing, and grinning, howling, screeching, swearing,
And with hyaena-laughter, died despairing."

The ship in the meanwhile helmless, but with sails set, driving on like the
phantom vessel, is assailed by a storm, and the canvass bursts with loud
reports, the masts strain and crack, she carrying on her course down the
abyss of billows, and being again cast forth like a log on the heights of
the waters. The storm dies away, when the crew are startled with a
sound which proves to be a hail from another vessel. They ask for
hands and are answered with a demand for like assistance. The one
crew is too few to spare them, the other is too blind to go. " At the an-
nouncement of this horrible coincidence," continues the boy, " there was
a silence among us for some moments like that of death. It was broken
by a fit of laughter in which I joined myself; and before our awful merri-
ment was over, we could hear, by the sound of the curses which the
Spaniard shouted against us, that the St. Leo had drifted away."* The
captain, crew, and some of the slaves gradually recover, some partially,
•with the loss of an eye, others entirely. The conclusion of the journal
must be told in the boy's own words. " This morning the captain called
all hands on deck, negroes and all. The shores of Guadaloupe were in
sight. I thought he was going to return God thanks publicly for our
miraculous escape. * Are you quite certain,' said the mate * that the
cargo is insured ?' ' I am,' replied the captain ; ' every slave that is lost
must be made good by the underwriters. Besides, would you have me
turn my ship into a hospital for the support of blind negroes ? They
have cost us enough already. Do your duty.' The mate picked out
the thirty-nine negroes who were completely blind, and with the assist-
ance of the rest of the crew, tied a piece of ballast to the legs of each.
The miserable wretches were then thrown into the sea." Such is a
story and catastrophe, which proves that more things strangely wicked

* This vessel is supposed to have foundered.

HAVRE-DE-GRACE. 79

are done in the actual world, than dreaming fancy in her wildest mood
and most morbid and depraved moments could ever conceive.

But if the history of the slaves is a blot upon the history of Havre, her
trade is increasing, her port is crowded, and lately, she could number
thirty thousand inhabitants.* It contains but one great street, but it is
of imposing appearance, and considered to be as fine as any in France,
out of Paris, running through the whole town, and containing the theatre,
the great church, and the exchange. The city is built on a level with
the docks and harbour ; but on a steep of considerable height by its
side is Ingouville, the houses of the inhabitants, chiefly English, rising
terrace upon terrace. From this eminence may be seen the windings of
the finest river in France, burthened with her choicest vessels, and on
the opposite shore, those charming villas, ready at all times to come in
to the assistance of the imagination in a conception of the beautiful.
Those who would judge of the appearance of its port may turn to the
engraving that so faithfully pourtrays it, and if they cannot recognize
some peculiar characteristics that distinguish La Belle France from the
land of white cliffs, we should be no true men if we did not tell them
they were of those, who had eyes but saw not.

* Havre has given birth to many celebrated characters, but none are so universally known
as Bernardin de Saint Pierre, the author of the " Studies of Nature," and " Paul and
Virginia."

80

DIEPPE.

DIEPPE is situated at the embouchure of the little river Arques. It is
guarded by cliffs, and on entering the town by the harbour, is observed
an old chateau, commanding the town on the right, while the chateau is
Commanded by the cliff. On the left is a mount almost perpendicular,
and between is a bank behind which are the old walls of the town.

Dieppe, like its opposite neighbour, Brighton, was at first only a
fishing village, but instead of, like Brighton, becoming a fashionable
watering place, and the residence of royalty, it became a great mari-
time station. Its own historians boast an origin as early as the days of
Charlemagne, and even an antiquity of eight centuries higher has been
claimed by our author, who represents it as the Portus Ictius from
whence Julius Ceesar sailed^ for Britain. When a fort which had been
erected by Charlemagne, on the site of the present town, called
Bertheville, in honour of the Berthas, his mother and daughter, was
taken by the Normans, they changed the name to Dyppe or Dieppe,
signifying a good anchorage. It is also contended, that William
the Conqueror embarked here for the invasion of England. Little,
however, can be ascertained of its early history. It was visited by
Francis I. who was magnificently entertained at the expense of
a single individual. France had then no established navy, yet
Francis was the guest of one whose ships swept the seas and dic-
tated terms to his rivals. The enterprising spirit of the Dieppois
had early led them into Africa, and nearly a century before the
expedition of Vasco de Gama to India, they had formed a settlement*
where none had been since the days of the Phoenicians. Two mariners
of Dieppe, Ariher and Veragan, founded Quebec; in 1520 the brothers
Parmentier, discovered the island of Fernambourg; and under the
auspices of Admiral Coligny, an expedition was fitted out by Captain
Ribaud, a Dieppois, who was the first Frenchman who landed in Florida.
Philip II. of Spain did not allow him unmolested possession. Under

* Called Le petit Dieppe.

. 81

the pretext, that half a century before, some Spaniards had disembarked
in Florida, he sent a fleet to recover it, attacked and beat the settlers,
hanging those who escaped the attack. The Spaniard inscribed on the
gibbets " Not as Frenchmen but as heretics:" so that the protestant
Admiral Coligny might have no appeal to the insulted honour of the
French king. The king did not notice it, but Dominique de Gour-
gues did. He sold his possessions, and became the apostle of vengeance,
collected his proselytes, sailed to Florida, exterminated the extermi-
nators, gibbetted those who submitted, and under the gibbets inscribed
" Not as Spaniards, but assassins." On his return to France, this
brave and bitter wit found that his head was in jeopardy, but fortune
that favours the brave favoured him, and he escaped.

The river Arques separates Dieppe from the Faubourg Le Pollet, the
inhabitants of which pride themselves on the cognomen of sea-wolves,
and of living, it is said, " by, in, on, and under the water." Formerly
a rivalry that would have done no discredit to more important com-
munities existed between the two districts; but the Polletais now only
cherish the memory of the sumptuary glories of their forefathers, which
consisted of a black velvet cap, with an aigrette of spun glass, surcoat of
dark blue cloth laced on the seams with a light blue tissue, neckcloth
with silver tassels, waistcoat embroidered with flowers, laced small
clothes, silk stockings, cloth shoes and silver buckles, contenting them-
selves, at the present day, with that less tasteful raiment, the wide blue
petticoat peculiar to the mariners of Holland, and tying their surcoats
with ribbons, altogether eschewing the modern refinement introduced
by those levellers of the poetic, the Birmingham manufacturers. The
absence of buttons is now in as much account as was before the
presence of the cloth, the velvet, and the silk, which, with marrying
among themselves, conversing in a strange dialect, and adding an oath
to almost every word they utter,* comprehend the claims of the modern
Polletais to consideration and distinction.

The Chateau d'Arques, in the neighbourhood of Dieppe, is intimately
connected with its history. It is now only an imposing ruin, the autho-
rities having permitted it to be dismantled, and the materials used for

* To such an extent is this practice indulged, that it is said to be no uncommon thing,
even at the confessional when seeking absolution, to swear they will not again be guilty of it.
On the other hand, they are a sturdy, honest race, devoted to their clergy, and ready at all
times to fight for their country.

Y

82 DIEPPE.

building. To the lover of antiquity, and admirer of the picturesque,
this is sad desecration ; but the young world respects not the feelings
of the old, and beauty is constantly sacrificed to utility. Such things
must be. The chateau was built by the uncle of the Conqueror ; and
although it now gives but food for dreaming speculation, or at most
serves the purpose of the artist, Osmond de Chaumont, the prisoner of
the First English Henry, pined in its dungeons ; Philip Augustus and
the lion-hearted Richard have, in turns, besieged, taken, and held it ;
Charles VII. and his chivalry ; Warwick and the gallant veteran Talbot,
whom Shakspeare makes to say : —

•" I have what I would have,

Now my old arms are young John Talbot's grave,"

and that wise and magnanimous prince, Henri Quatre,* have performed
deeds of arms before it. The history of castles is commonly the history
of crimes, relieved by festivities ; and with this thought in mind, how
solemn is the repose of their ruins. Enough remains of the dilapidated
chateau d'Arques to bespeak its former greatness ; and from its heights,
looking through the hills down upon the town, and far off to the ocean,
the wanderer may find sufficient matter for reflection.

Speaking of the approach to this castle, the learned and elegant
author of the Bibliographical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Tour in
France and Germany, says, " I resolved to seize the opportunity of a
tolerably fair, or rather grey-looking day, to go and pay due homage to
those venerable remains of antiquity. The road thither is completely
rural : apple-trees, just beginning to burst their blossoms, hamlets, small
farm-houses, a profusion of rich herbage of various kinds — delighted
and regaled me as I pursued my tranquil walk. The country is of a
gently undulating character ; but the flats or meadows, between the
parallel ranges of hills, are subject to constant inundation from the sea ;
and in an agricultural point of view are consequently of little use, except
for summer grazing of the cattle. It was drawing on to vespers as I

* This was in 1589, when the army of the league, thirty thousand strong, commanded
by the Duke de Mayenne, were compelled to retire before a third of the number. A walk
close to the castle is still shown, called the walk of Henry IV., from which the monarch
used to reconnoitre the forces of the enemy. Napoleon once visited the site of the field
of battle, and ascertaining the position of the two armies, said that the king ought to have
lost the day. He said the same of Wellington at Waterloo.

DIEPPE. 83

approached the village of Arques. The old castle had frequently
peeped out upon me, in my way thither, from its elevated situation ; but
being resolved to see ' all that could be seen/ a French village for the
first time was not to be overlooked. For a country church, I know of
few finer ones than that of Arques. The site of the castle is admirable.
My approach was to the western extremity, which, as you look down,
brings the village and church of Arques in the back ground. If the eye
were to be considered as a correct judge, this venerable pile, composed
of hard flint stone, intermixed with brick, would perhaps claim pre-
cedence, on the score of antiquity, over most of the castles of the middle
ages. A deep moat, now dry pasture land, with a bold acclivity before
you, should seem to bid defiance, even in times of old, to the foot and
the spear of the invader. There are circular towers at the extremities,
and a square citadel or donjon within. To the north a good deal of
earth has been recently thrown against the bases of the wall. The day
harmonized admirably with the venerable object before me. The sun-
shine lasted but for a minute ; when afterwards a gloom prevailed, and
not a single catch of radiant light gilded any portion of the building.
All was quiet, and of a sombre aspect, — and what you, in your admi-
ration of art, would call in perfectly ' fine keeping.'

" I descended the hill, bidding along adieu to this venerable relic of
the hardihood of other times, and quickened my pace towards Dieppe.
In gaining upon the town, I began to discover groups of rustics, as well
as of bourgeoises, assembling and mingling in the dance. The women
never think of wearing bonnets, and you have little idea how pictu-
resquely the red and blue (the colours of Raffaelle's Madonnas) glanced
backwards and forwards amidst the fruit-trees, to the sound of the spirit-
stirring violin. The high, stiff, starched cauchoise, with its broad flop-
pers, gave the finishing stroke to the novelty and singularity of the
scene ; and to their credit be it spoken, the women were much more
tidily dressed than the men. The couples are frequently female, for
want of a sufficient number of swains ; but whether correctly or incor-
rectly paired, they dance with earnestness, if not with grace. It was a
picture a la Teniers, without its occasional grossness. This then, said
I to myself, is what I have so often heard of the Sabbath gambols of the
French, and long may they enjoy them ! They are surely better than
the brutal orgies of the pot-house, or the fanatical ravings of the
tabernacle."

St. Jacques is the principal church in Dieppe ; it is of gothic struc-

84 DIEPPE.

ture, and for its antiquity, magnitude, architectural ornaments, and the
valuable paintings with which it is decorated, well deserves the attention
of the traveller. " As we entered it," says the author from whom we
have just quoted ; " a general gloom prevailed, and a sort of premature
evening came on ; while the clatter of the sabots was sufficiently audible
along the aisles. In making the circuit of the side chapels, an usual
light proceeded from a sort of grated door-way. We approached, and
witnessed a sight which could not fail to rivet our attention. In what
seemed to be an excavated interior, were several figures, cut in stone,
and coloured after life, (of which they were the size,) representing the
Three Maries, St. John, and Joseph of Arimathea in the act of entomb-
ing Christ ; the figure of our Saviour being half sunk into the tomb.
The whole was partially illuminated by some two dozen of shabby and
nearly consumed tallow candles, affording a striking contrast to the
increasing darkness of the nave and the side-aisles. We retired, more
and more struck with the novelty of every object around us, to our
supper and beds, which were excellent."

The trade of the town consists principally in manufactures of ivory,
to which the inhabitants bestow much attention, and in which species
of workmanship they particularly excel, though not, it is said, to the
extent they did formerly. Thread lace is also a manufacture of the
place, and three or four thousand females are said to earn a comfortable
livelihood at it. The chief dependence of the inhabitants for support,
however, is on the fisheries. The mackarel fishery commences about
the month of July, along the coast of Picardy, gets into the Channel
in April, and moves towards the straits of Dover as the summer
advances ; large decked vessels, manned with from twelve to twenty
men, are employed for this fishery. The herring* fishery takes place in
August and October ; that commencing in August, is carried on along
the shores of England, and a great number of vessels are employed ; the
October fishery is very much inferior, and takes place along the coast of
France, from Boulogne to Havre. There is also a considerable trade
in the fresh and dried cod fishery; besides the vessels usually em-
ployed for the purpose of taking and drying the fish, there are others
which go to Newfoundland laden with brandy, linen, flour, beans, and
woollen cloths, which are disposed of to the inhabitants for dried cod.

The general aspect of the town seems to indicate poverty ; the houses,

* The common people call the herring, a " child of Dieppe."

DIEPPE. 85

which are extremely lofty and very irregularly built, being too large to
be entirely occupied. Dieppe, notwithstanding, is a picturesque looking
place, and possesses many advantages both by land and sea ; the sides
of the wall on entering are lofty, steep, and strong ; and the navigation
into the harbour is difficult and intricate, which would render any
hostile approach hazardous to the assailants.

" The quays," says the author to whom we are so much indebted,
" are constantly crowded, but there seems to be more of bustle than of
business. The town is certainly picturesque, notwithstanding the
houses are very little more than a century old, and the streets are formal
and comparatively wide. Indeed, it should seem that the houses were
built expressly for noblemen and gentlemen, although they are inhabited
by tradesmen, mechanics, and artizans, in apparently very indifferent
circumstances. I scarcely saw six private houses which could be called
elegant, and not a gentleman's carriage has been yet noticed in the
streets. But if the Dieppois are not rich, they seem happy, and are in
a constant state of occupation. A woman sells her wares in an open
shop, or in an insulated booth, and sits without her bonnet, and works
or sings as humour sways her. A man sells gingerbread in an open
shed, and in the intervals of his customers' coming, reads some popular
history or romance. Most of the upper windows are wholly destitute of
glass ; but are smothered with clothes, rags, and wall-flowers. The
fragrance emitted from these flowers affords no unpleasing antidote to
odours of a very different description ; and here we begin to have a too
convincing proof of the general character of the country in regard to the
want of cleanliness. At Dieppe there are fountains in abundance ; and
if some of the limpid streams which issue from them were directed to
cleansing the streets (which are excellently well-paved) the effect would
be both more salubrious and pleasant — especially to the sensitive
organs of Englishmen."

There is a stone basin in the harbour of Dieppe capable of holding
two hundred vessels, and which, at the flow of the tide, is full of water,
but at ebb exhibits little more than a sheet of mud. Round the harbour
is built the town, which, backed by the stiff cliff to the east, contri-
butes not a little to the picturesque effect before alluded to. The
regularity of the streets, and the modern appearance and superiority
of the houses to most other towns in France, are to be accounted for by
its having been built according to a royal ordinance, shortly after the
bombardment by the English in 1694, who reduced it to ashes. The

z

86

DIEPPE.

architect pleased the inhabitants so little by his plans, that they gave
him the nickname of M. Gateville, or, as we should call him, Mr.
Spoil -town.

Among the changes that have lately taken place in Dieppe, the
establishment of baths is one of the greatest ; they are very magnificent,
and are visited every year by numerous and distinguished company.

The view of Dieppe, taken by Mr. Stanfield, is from the sands look-
ing towards the castle which commands the town. The hill upon which
the castle stands is, as represented by the engraving, steep and im-
posing. It has been thought, on a nearer view, that the general out-
line bears some resemblance to Stirling Castle, although it cannot com-
mand the same degree of admiration. It is a confused mass, erected at
different periods, many parts of it being entirely modern : and although
bearing an incongruous appearance, consequent upon all such patch-
work architecture, presents a pleasing and picturesque effect from that
very circumstance. The singularity produced by the confusion and
irregularity of its roofs and turrets, is augmented and increased into
romantic beauty, by a row of lofty arches thrown across a ravine, sup-
porting a bridge leading to the castle, which appears at a distance like
the remains of a Roman aqueduct. Some of the gates still remain
perfect, and one of them, leading to the sea, was lately used as a military
prison. The Sieur des Marets, the first governor of Dieppe, began the
castle shortly after the year 1443, when the dauphin, afterwards Louis
XI., drove the English from the place, carrying by assault the formi-
dable fortress constructed by Talbot in the suburb of Pollet. The
Huguenots made it a place of great strength ; but it was in the time of
Henry IV. that it was completed — time and siege, in the meanwhile,
having done their work — when permission was given to the inhabitants
of Dieppe to add to it a keep. While defended by this keep its strength
was great, and extensive outworks, and bomb-proof casements, were
added. This imposing condition was not long permitted, the un-
settled state of the people and their leaders creating fears in the govern-
ment, that the fortresses of the country might become rallying points
for the partisans of the league. The castle of Dieppe had, conse-
quently, its chief defences levelled, and it now is in a state fit only to
" point a moral," and we are sure we may add " adorn" — a picture.

87

BOULOGNE.

BOULOGNE is a large and important sea-port of France, in the depart-
ment of Pas de Calais. It is composed of two towns — the upper and
the lower. The ancient or upper town, is situated on heights overlooking
the strand, on which are the more modern buildings of Boulogne-sur-
Mer. On the approach from the sea, the appearance is of a very im-
posing character. The buildings of the lower town or suburbs, which
are surrounded by a lofty wall, have that white and lively character,
which distinguishes the ports and other towns of the Continent, from
those of our own island ; these are surmounted by the more indistinct
and sombre mass which is composed of the erections of the old town.

The ancient town of Boulogne owes its origin to Caesar, who was
desirous to establish a communication between the Continent and
Britain ; it is said to have been founded by Quintus Pedius, one of his
generals, and to have received its name from him in honour of the city
of Bologna, his native place ; it appears to have been chosen as the first
point of communication between Gaul and Britain. The harbour, formed
by the river Lianne, which runs below it, is shallow, though basins were
dug by order of Napoleon, to hold the flotilla with which he intended
to invade England. Just out of the town, is seen the column of the
Bourbons on the Calais road, which marks the spot on which the army
of Napoleon encamped. It is a pillar of marble, about one hundred and
fifty feet in height, with a staircase in the interior, conducting to a
gallery near the top, which commands a magnificent view of the sur-
rounding country. The first stone was laid in 1804; it was finished
under the auspices of Louis XVIII. in 1821, when the last stone was
added, inclosing a bronze medal with the following inscription : —

88 BOULOGNE.

THIS COLUMN

RAISED BY THE ARMY ASSEMBLED AT BOULOGNE
WHEN IT THREATENED AN INVASION OF ENGLAND,

WAS COMMENCED IN 1804 :
BECOME A MONUMENT OF PEACE

BY THE RESTORATION OF THE THRONE OF THE BOURBONS,
IT WAS FINISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES

OF S. M. LOUIS XVIII.
AND CONSECRATED TO THE REMEMBRANCE, ALWAYS

DEAR TO THE FRENCH,
OF HIS HAPPY RETURN TO HIS STATES IN 1814.

The Church of St. Joseph, in the upper town, is a remarkably fine
and noble edifice ; it was in this church that Louis XVIII. came on his
disembarkation, to do homage to the Virgin for his crown. One of the
principal buildings in Boulogne-sur-Mer, is the hospital, which is at-
tended by twelve sisters of- the order of St. Augustine.

There is a good library, and a museum of natural history and cu-
riosities ; these afford the means of study and amusement to those resi-
dents who choose to avail themselves of them ; and baths, billiards,
dancing, and gaming, form a sufficient variety to please the tastes of
almost all classes residing in or visiting the town.

It is a busy and populous place, the shops presenting an appearance
of great opulence, and the numerous hotels indicating a place of con-
siderable resort. It is much frequented by the English, and particu-
larly by that class whose moderate incomes are sufficient to indulge a
taste for luxury when it is to be procured for a reasonable amount.
It is also an asylum for those who love England so well, that they are
not easily prevailed on to take up a more distant abode, yet are not
sufficiently attached to their country or loyal to their king to covet a
residence at the expence, or in obedience to the summonses of His
Majesty issued from the courts at Westminster. Gentlemen who love
darkness rather than light — a species lately known by the cognomen
of Black-leg — are said very much to abound in Boulogne, though we
believe that of late years, their numbers have something diminished.
Be that as it may, those who are fond of play will not find any great
lack of opportunity; and, as duelling is rather prevalent, they may finish
with that not unusual accompaniment.

BOULOGNE. 89

Boulogne bears the addition of sur Mer, to distinguish it from three
other places of the same name ; one in the diocese of Cambray ; another
in the Isle of France ; and a third in Languedoc, The old town is of
great antiquity. Evident proofs of this have been discovered in the ruins
of ancient edifices composed of Roman brick in addition to the known
historical facts connected with its foundation. After the fall of the
Roman power in Gaul, the territory of Boulogne was held by the counts
of that name as vassals to the kings of France ; but like many others in
those periods of romance and barbarism, they determined to set up for
themselves, being great admirers of obedience, but in those only who
were beneath them. During many vicissitudes and civil wars, the earl-
dom of Boulogne remained in the hands of the family of Auvergne,
the original possessors; but in 1419, Philip the Hardy, Earl of Bur-
gundy, took possession of it by force of arms, and it was held by him
and his formidable successors until recovered by Louis VI. of France,
who treated with Bernard de la Tour d'Auvergne, who, in right of his
mother, claimed the succession, and gave him in exchange for his inheri-
tance the county of Lauraguais, reckoned to be of adequate value. The
Earl of Burgundy, however, still insisted upon his undoubted right as
lord paramount; and the king, sensible of the justice of this, but loath
to do fealty as a vassal, hit upon an expedient for the accommodation of
his conscience, and at the same time retaining his newly acquired posses-
sions. He declared he would hold the earldom of Boulogne of the Virgin
Mary ! This he did by doing homage to his divine mistress in the
cathedral, and offering at her altar a golden heart weighing thirteen
marks. Subsequently, he issued letters patent dated at Hedin, in April
1478, that all his successors in the kingdom of France should, as Earls
of Boulogne, perform the same ceremony, and offer the same oblation.

The town, situated on the frontiers of France, has been often the ob-
ject of attacks, but until besieged by Henry the Eighth of England,
they were 'successfully repulsed. Henry had ratified a treaty with
the Emperor, Charles the Fifth, to enter France by Picardy, while his
ally entered by Champagne, their project being to unite their armies
near Paris. The emperor was however detained by the siege of St.
Didier, and Henry beginning to fear the result of his expedition, instead
of proceeding to Paris, sat down before Boulogne, the garrison of which,
after a siege of fifty days, surrendered. Peace was shortly afterwards
concluded, but Henry retained Boulogne, * which was hot restored until

* Francis made many attempts to recover Boulogne, but all unsuccessful, and one ludi-

A A

90 BOLOUGNE.

the time of the troubled minority of Edward VI., when, on the 24th
March 1550, a treaty was concluded at Outrcau for the surrender of
Boulogne into the hands of the French, on consideration of the payment
of four thousand crowns of gold.

The commerce of Boulogne has of late years flourished, so that, with
the vast accession of English visitors, the town is particularly prosperous.
Formerly, the inhabitants dealt scarcely in any commodities but herrings
and mackerel, though of late years both French and English merchants
have opened various branches of commerce. From Burgundy, Cham-
pagne, and other places, are deposited large quantities of the wines
and brandies of those provinces ; much also of the wine bought for the
English market is here kept in a kind of temporary deposit until ripe
for use. To such an extent did this trade increase at one period, that
the cellars belonging to the merchants not being sufficient, private
individuals and religious houses enlarged their cellars, turning them into
depositaries, and receiving ten p~er cent, for all the wines they could
store. At the fairs of Boulogne, are sold great quantities of young
colts and horses, which are purchased in large quantities by the mer-
chants of Normandy, who send them to the pastures of Lower Normandy
to feed and fatten, and afterwards sell them as horses of the Norman
breed.

To the three engravings of Boulogne, we need scarcely point atten-
tion. The " wreck on the coast" exhibits what is always to be seen in
France on the occasion of any disaster, namely, the mounted soldiery,
whose clothing and accoutrements add so much to the brilliancy of the
picturesque. The scene of repose in the " Upper Harbour," and the
pale moon-light, relieving the " old pier," — the black looking telegraph,
with its tall slender limbs, reared high above the sleeping waters, are sub-
jects for those who can feel them, and such feelings are more likely to
be destroyed by attempts at description, than increased or improved.
We therefore leave others to pronounce on defects we have not been
able to detect, and on beauties to which we could not do justice.

crously so ; all his instructions being thwarted by his general, the Marshal de Biez. The
marshal was ordered to build a fort to contain five thousand men and provisions, to the
end that all English ships attempting to enter the harbour should be sunk. He built the fort
in the wrong place, and ships could enter and clear out untouched. The bastions were
made too small to permit of cannon being mounted, and the whole fort would not contain
five hundred men. It was demolished, another commenced, but never finished.

91

CALAIS.

CALAIS is situated in the department of the Straits of Calais, and is the
most important sea-port on the north coast of France. It was anciently
called Calesium, Calasium, and Caletium, and reached no higher than
a village till the year 1222, when Philip of France, the son of Philip
Augustus and Agnes de Meranie, having married the Countess of Ma-
liault, took the title of Earl of Boulogne, inclosing Calais with walls
and conferring upon it a charter of incorporation. Its inhabitants
increased, and in the year 1347, it was strongly fortified, when it was
besieged by Edward III. Edward, upon the death of Charles le Bel,
who died without issue, claimed the succession to the crown of France,
as being the nephew and nearest relation of the deceased king. The
French preferred the pretensions of Philip de Valois, and Edward
determined to enforce his claims at the head of an army. He entered
into alliances with the emperor and several of the princes of Germany,
and began a war more disastrous to his enemy, and more glorious to
himself, than almost any on record. In the year 1340, with a fleet of
eight hundred ships, he fell in with the French fleet consisting of four
hundred, on the coast of Flanders ; and in an engagement which lasted
from seven in the morning until eight in the evening, continued on both
sides with great determination and gallantry, he obtained a victory
so signal and complete, that thirty ships out of the numerous fleet
alone escaped, the rest having been sunk or taken. He then landed his
troops without opposition, and soon assembled an army of one hundred
and fifty thousand men, comprised of English, Germans, Flemings, and
Gascons, being the largest force ever commanded by an English king,
and which the French dared not meet the whole of that campaign. He
was successful in over-running Brittany, and a few days before he invested
Calais, he gained that immortal battle which has made the name of
Cressy to Englishmen a watchword and a sound of triumph. With this
victorious army, on the 8th of September, 1346, he commenced his
siege of Calais. He summoned John de Vienne, the governor, to sur-
render, threatening in case of refusal, to put the garrison and inhabitants

92 CALAIS.

of the town to the sword ; which threat failing to intimidate, he resolved to
carry the place by famine, and drew round it on the land side four lines
of circumvallation, and opened a blockade by sea with no less than seven
hundred vessels. The governor foreseeing the length of the siege, turned
out all the useless hands from the city, said to amount to seventeen
hundred, whom the generous Edward allowed to pass through his camp,
unfettered by any thing but the golden chains of obligation. He gave
them audience, and ordered them " crowns for convoy," to cheer them on
their way. Philip, in the meanwhile, became exceedingly uneasy at the
prospect of losing a place of such importance as Calais, and tried all
means to raise the blockade ; but Edward, who had determined upon its
reduction, was not to be diverted from his purpose. All proper measures
of precaution had been taken ; huts had been raised by his orders,
covered with straw and broom, and numerous contrivances resorted to
for the purpose of supporting the courage of his soldiers and protecting
them against the inclemency of the winter. In vain did Philip lead an
army to its relief; Edward was so surrounded with marshes and defended
by entrenchments, that an attack must have ended in utter defeat ; and
to the taunts of his rival, who was anxious to decide the siege by single
combats, he was equally impervious. To call off the attention of Edward,
an expedient was at last resorted to of obtaining the aid of David, king
of Scotland, who was persuaded, at the head of thirty thousand men, to
invade England. He advanced as far as Durham, but Edward still
persevered; while Phillippa his queen hastily assembled the forces of
the kingdom, beat back the invaders, and took the Scotch king prisoner.
The siege proceeded, and famine began to do its work, when the governor
agreed to capitulate on condition of the lives and liberties of his com-
panions and the inhabitants being spared. Edward granted this, — six of
the inhabitants excepted, who were to be delivered up, bound, bare-
footed, and with halters about their necks, as a sacrifice for their fellows,
who had so long kept the haughty conqueror waiting at their gates.
Despair was among the townspeople at the announcement of this
imperious mandate, when Eustace de Pierre, a burgess, deserving the
name of a patriot, stepped forth, and five others quickly followed,
willing to emulate an example they had not courage to set. They
arrived at the camp of Edward, who spared their lives on the interces-
sion of the queen, she, with tears and intreaties, having begged his
mercy. By order of the queen, too, clothes were brought them, and
she entertained them in her tent, dismissing them each with a present of

CALAIS. 93

six pieces of gold ; a generosity similar to that exercised by her
husband at the commencement of the siege, and probably influenced
by his secret counsel, it not suiting his policy to let it appear to
the inhabitants that he was a conqueror to be trifled with. Edward
then took possession of Calais, the siege having lasted eleven months,
and immediately ordered all the inhabitants to evacuate the town, and
their place to be supplied by English. He made it the staple of wool,
leather, tin, and lead, the four chief commodities of the kingdom, for
which there was any considerable demand in foreign markets ; thither the
English brought these goods, and foreign merchants were obliged to come,
in order to purchase them. In removing the staple of wool, previously
at Middlebourg in Zealand and some towns in England, he had the
double motive of revenging himself on the Flemings, who had shown
an inclination to favour the interests of the French, and of improving
and enriching Calais. In both he succeeded, and in the reign of
Louis XI. * the trade of Calais furnished the most considerable portion
of the English revenue.

Soon after the reduction of Calais, a truce was negotiated through
means of the pope, which was to continue a year, at the end of which
time, Edward leaving a strong garrison behind him, returned in triumph
to London. Philip made preparations for war, but despairing to regain
the lost city by force, determined to try the effect of a bribe upon the
governor, — one Aimeri de Pavia, a native of Lombardy, to whose care it
had been entrusted, and who agreed to deliver up Calais, for the sum of
twenty thousand crowns, to Geoffrey de Charni, who commanded the
French forces. Edward was apprised of this by the secretary of
Aimeri, and immediately summoning the governor to London in such a
manner as to avoid exciting his suspicion of a discovery of his intentions,
charged him with the guilt, but promised him his life, on condition, that
he would turn the contrivance to the destruction of the enemy, — a pro-

* So sensible was this crafty, wise, and superstitious monarch of the importance of Calais,
that he has been said to have expressed his readiness " to lie in hell for seven years," if by so
doing he could regain it. The revenue drawn from it must have been immense ; the old and
stately buildings afterwards called the Court of Guise, but then used as the Exchange of the
English, being frequented by merchants from all parts of Europe : and in 1472 it may be
mentioned, as some indication of the nature and extent of the trade carried on, that Ed-
ward IV. offered Louis XI. to come into France with all his forces, and assist him
against the Duke of Burgundy, if he would only repay him the amount of the tax of the
wool which had been sent from his dominions to the Low Countries.

B B

94 CALAIS.

position to which he easily agreed. A day was appointed for the French
to be admitted, and Edward secretly departed from London, with the
Prince of Wales, and about a thousand men under the command of
Sir Walter Mamry, and arrived the evening before at Calais — his ap-
pearance undetected : he made arrangements for the reception of the
enemy, kept all his forces and garrison under arms, and Charni and his
soldiers were admitted at the postern ; the stipulated sum being paid
to Aimeri, the great gate was opened to the troops, and Edward rushed
to meet them with cries of battle and of victory. In the fierce engage-
ment that ensued, the French behaved with great valour, but being over-
powered by numbers, and intercepted in their retreat, lost either their
lives or their liberty. The king fought under the banner of Sir Walter,
and while engaged with Eustace de Ribaumont, the leader of one of
the assaulting parties, was by him twice struck down upon his knees ;
but being relieved by some of his own soldiers, renewed the fight, and
at last succeeded in capturing both him and his party. Edward treated
his prisoners with his usual generosity, entertaining the principal officers
at supper, when he upbraided Charni with his conduct, but compli-
mented Eustace de Ribaumont on his gallantry, presenting him with a
string of pearls, which he was in the habit of wearing in his cap, with
an expression of his belief that the ladies, of whom Ribaumont was a
devoted lover, would not like him the less for being in possession of
such a gift ; he then gave him his liberty without a ransom. Aimeri,
met a traitor's fate. Edward displaced him, and gave the office of gover-
nor to John de Beauchamp. Philip, into whose hands he afterwards
fell, had him torn by wild horses. Each king liked the treason; they
both hated the traitor.

After this attempt, Calais remained in the undisturbed possession of
England for upwards of two hundred years; and giving so easy an en-
trance into France, was considered as the most important possession be-
longing to the crown. It was left for the imbecile and guilty council-
lors of the inglorious reign of the bigot Mary to cover themselves with
shame, and the reign of their mistress with disgrace, by permitting the
French to recover Calais. Never, perhaps, was the national pride of
Englishmen more deeply wounded, nor was ever indignation more deep
and universal, against a government as that which everywhere prevailed
on the receipt of the news of this event. The protestants arraigned the
government of treachery, some accused them of treason, and their
most zealous adherents could not be found to say any thing in their

CALAIS. 95

defence. What made the conduct of the queen's councillors appear
more culpable was, the fact that Philip of Spain, the consort of Mary,
gave notice at the end of the year 1557, of the intentions of France upon
Calais ; and Lord Wentworth, the governor, made repeated and urgent
solicitations for succour previous to the attack, which was made on the
first of January in the ensuing year, by the Duke of Guise. He carried
the fort called Newmanbridge and the Risbank, which commanded the
harbour, and on the seventh day of the siege the governor was compelled
to capitulate.* When master of the place, he ordered the English to
depart, as Edward III. had expelled the French two hundred and ten
years before. Mary, who died the same year, said that Calais would be
found at her heart, so bitterly did she. regret the loss of it. Her succes-
sor, Elizabeth, made peace with France by a treaty which stipulated
that after the expiration of eight years, Calais, and some other places
taken at the same time should return into the hands of the English.
The performance of this stipulation, however, the French court contrived
to evade. In 1594, however, Calais was for two years in the possession
of the Spaniards. Henry IV. of France, having declared war against
Spain, a French officer named Rosne, who had been a field-marshal in
the time of the League, and a bigoted partisan of the Duke of Guise,
persuaded the Arch-Duke Albert to attack Calais. The governor, Bo-
dossan, was killed, and the command fell on Bertrand de Patras de
Campaigno, called the Black Cadet, who, in a general assault, was taken
sword in hand, when the remainder of the garrison who had escaped
the fury of the besiegers submitted. This was on the sixteenth day
after the opening of the entrenchments. The inhabitants had liberty
granted them to remain in the city, but with the exception of two
families they departed. The Spanish soldiers seized all the merchandise
and goods of the town, and as an instance of their prodigality in the
disposal of all sorts of property, it is affirmed that one house was sold
for a gammon of bacon and a few bottles of wine, which for two centu-
ries afterwards retained its origin of Le Jambon, given at the time to
perpetuate the memory of this plundering kind of traffic. During the
long war, commencing at the early part of the reign of Louis XIV., and
which terminated by the peace of Ryswick, Calais was bombarded by
the English fleet under Sir Cloudesley Shovel, but without inflicting a

* There were forces at Dover for the relief of the place, but either from storm or want of
transports, they were detained. Lord Wentworth was in April, 1559, tried by his peers for
the loss of Calais, and acquitted.

96 CALAIS.

great deal of damage, and is the last event in its history worthy of any
notice.

The fortifications of Calais erected at different periods, are very ex-
tensive, but the strength and security of the place is not so much to be
attributed to these, as to the circumstance of the abundance of water
which the inhabitants by means of their sluices can deluge the adjacent
country, and thus destroy or prevent the approach of an enemy. Were it
not for this, their works are considered by no means impregnable, especially
on the east side, where it is said they are too much crowded to be capable
of making a good defence. But by means of these sluices, one of which
runs direct through the town, and empties itself into the harbour, the
country can within twenty-four hours be laid under water as far as St.
Omer, twenty-one miles distant from Calais.

It is often asserted by people who dignify an excursion with the name
of a tour, and two days absence from England as travels on the Conti-
nent, that Calais is in appearance but little different to an English
fishing town. They must indeed be dull observers, that having landed
at Calais, can close their eyes to peculiarities that present themselves
at every instant. The number of soldiers, the walls of the town, the
gates, the ramparts, the antiquity and size of many of the houses, the
caps and cloaks of the women, and the general aspect of the shops, pro-
claim at once a people and a place of a character widely differing from
any thing to be seen on the opposite coast.

The entry into the harbour is formed of two good jetties of wood,
both of which extend a great distance into the sea. The end of one of
the jetties is represented in the plate illustrating Calais in this work,
which presents also the peculiar aspect of the town on the approach to
the harbour. The chopping-sea, tossing the steam boat and the boat of
the fishermen, is a representation of what so often prevails in the Chan-
nel, and prevents such numbers of visitors viewing with an artist's eye,
the really imposing scene, and probably makes their recollections of their
entrance on a foreign shore, redolent of all kinds of thoughts save those
of a roseate hue. Let them now look, suffering under no bodily infir-
mity, on the wide stretching scene and the group of garcons, from Des-
seine's, Roberts', and other hotels, — not writeable, — anxiously waiting
the landing of passengers on the quay, that they may bury them under a
shower of cards, and stun them with the clatter of praise and recom-
mendation, and tell us whether our engraving of Calais is not true to a
pier pile, and beautiful as true.

97

GUERNSEY.

GUERNSEY is the most westward of those islands (more particularly
known as the Channel Islands) lying in a bay on the French side of the
Channel, formed by the coast between Cherbourg and Trequier, and
called Mount St. Michael's Bay. Its length from north-east to south-
west, is about eight miles ; the breadth from north-west to south-east
nearly six, and the circumference about thirty. As Guernsey and the
neighbouring islands formed part of the Duchy of Normandy, and are
the relics of the extensive domains which the kings of England once
possessed in France, they are subject to the British crown ; but are in
the possession of peculiar privileges and exemptions, and are excepted
from the operation of the acts of the legislature in this country, unless
specifically alluded to. They have a jurisdiction in every respect inde-
pendent of the English courts of law, and an appeal only lies from
their higher courts to the king in council.

At the time Gaul formed part of the dominions of the emperors of the
West, this island was known by the name of Sarnia, of which its present
name is supposed to be a corruption. There are but few authentic
particulars on record respecting its early history. It was visited by the
Romans about seventeen years before Christ, when Octavius Augustus
appointed a governor over it ; its surface was then in a state of nature,
covered with woods, and overrun with briars. About the year 520, it
was visited by Sampson, Bishop of Dol in Brittany, who is said to have
built a chapel at that part where he landed, which is now known as St.
Sampson's Harbour. At this period, the maintenance of the inhabitants
arose entirely from fishing, and Guernsey, though the most distant of
this group of islands from France, was reckoned the most considerable
on account of the safety and convenience of its harbour, and the quantity
of fish on its coast. As Christianity advanced, and the population
increased, chapels were built in different parts of the island near the
sea-shore, and the priests who officiated, were allowed for their subsis-
tence the tithe of all the fish that was caught, a custom which has

c c

98 GUERNSEY.

continued ever since. Towards the close of the tenth century, a spa-
cious castle was erected on an eminence, in that part of the island now
called the Close of the Vale, to afford means of protection against the
incursions of the Danes, who had ravaged the monastery, and subse-
quently plundered the defenceless inhabitants of their corn and cattle.
This castle is still well calculated to defend the mouth of St. Sampson's
Harbour, where vessels of heavy burden find secure shelter. It was
originally called St. Michael's Castle, or the Castle of the Archangel,
and now the Vale Castle. It was here that Robert, Duke of Normandy,
was conducted, when his fleet was dispersed by a tempest, which carried
a vessel containing the Duke himself, and some others, down the Channel
as far as Guernsey, where they would have been dashed upon the rocks
but for the assistance afforded by the fishermen, who piloted them safely
into a bay on the north side of the Vale. To recompense the islanders,
the duke left engineers and workmen to finish the Castle of St. Michael,
and to erect such other fortresses as might be necessary for their protec-
tion against piratical invaders. The duke, to reward the abbot for the
hospitality he had received during his stay at the castle, gave to him and
his successors, in fee, all the lands within the close of the Vale, towards
the north-western part of the island, whenever settlers could be found to
clear and cultivate. About a fortnight after his landing, the duke de-
parted, and the place where his fleet lay, has ever since been called
L'Ancresse, or the anchoring-place. The officers and artisans whom he
had left, erected two other very strong castles ; one of these was called,
from its marshy situation, Le Chateau des Marais, part of which still
remains in the town parish, and from its walls being covered with ivy,
has acquired the name of Ivy Castle ; the site of the other is on a point
of land on the southern coast, now called St. Martin's Point, but there
are no remains of this building. At the same time mounds were thrown
up on the most elevated parts of the island, to enable the inhabitants to
observe when ships came in sight ; one of these ancient alarm posts,
called La Hougue Hatenas, remains in St. Martin's parish, and another
called La Hougue Fongue, in St. Saviour's,

About the year 912, Charles the Fourth of France, concluded a treaty
with Hollo, the first Duke of Normandy, by which the islands adjacent
to the Norman coast were annexed to the bishoprick of Coutance in
Normandy, and from the period that elapsed from the establishment of
Norman independence under this celebrated chief, until the accession of
William the Conqueror, including upwards of a century, little mention

GUERNSEY. 99

is made of these islands. In the reign of William, Guernsey, among
other Norman possessions, was attached to the English crown, and has
continued dependent on it almost ever since, except during the reign of
Robert, Duke of Normandy, when he held it as part of his Duchy, and
for a short time in the reign of Richard the First, who granted all the
islands in the British Channel to his brother John, when Earl of
Montaigne.

Various attempts have been made by the French kings to dispossess
England of these islands. Philip of France made a violent effort to gain
them, but failing, his contemporary, John, then king of England, used this
opportunity of strengthening the military defences of Guernsey, and more
firmly securing it against any other hostile descents, so that every future
attempt to disturb the English possession of the island has failed, and
its dependence on the British crown has continued almost uninterrupted
to the present time. It is, however, asserted by some historians, that in
the reign of Edward the Third, who assumed the arms and title of
France, that the fort still known by the name of Castle Cornet, was taken
by one Maraus, a Frenchman, and held in opposition to the natives for
three years ; but this is disputed by some of the old writers, and others
are silent on the subject.

Castle Cornet is a striking object in approaching Guernsey ; it is
situated upon a rock, at a distance of somewhat less than half a mile
from the shore, having few or no avenues to it ; it stands before the
town and harbour, east by south, and commands all the roads and
avenues in that part of the island where the Channel is narrow and
dangerous. It is surrounded by the sea, and is never dry but at the ebb
of spring tides. It is supposed to have been originally constructed by
the Romans. The governors formerly made this castle their place of
residence, but it is now placed in the care of a guard of soldiers. In
the time of the civil war, the castle held out a long tedious siege, and
although assaulted with the utmost vigour by the forces of Oliver Crom-
well, when the soldiers in it were suffering under disease, it was not
taken ; but the provisions of the garrison being exhausted, and its
strength reduced by sickness, it capitulated upon honourable terms. In
December, 1672, it was visited by one of the most remarkable thunder
storms recorded in history ; * the magazine of powder was set on fire by

* We find the following quaint and curious description of this accident in a history of
Guernsey written by Dicey. — " On Sunday night about twelve o'clock, the day above men-
tioned, the magazine of this castle was blown up with the powder in it, by thunder and

100 GUERNSEY.

the lightning, which, with the surrounding buildings, were instantaneously
destroyed, and many of its inhabitants buried in the ruins.

An extensive and intricate chain of rocks environs the island both
above and under water, and the strong tides and currents which run
among them, render access to the shore very difficult and hazardous
except to such as are well acquainted with the coast.* It is not impro-

lightning ; the night was very stormy and tempestuous, and the wind blew hard at south-west,
to which aspect the door of the magazine exactly fronted, and the thunderbolt or clap, which
accompanied this dreadful calamity, was heard to come circling (or as it were serpentining)
over the platform from the south-west. In an instant of time, not only the whole magazine
was blown up in the air, but also the houses and lodgings of the castle, particularly some fair
and beautiful buildings, that had just before been erected at great expense, under the care and
direction of the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Hatton, their then governor, who was
at the same time within the buildings of the castle, all which buildings were, with many
others, reduced to a confused heap of stones, and several persons buried in the ruins. In
the upper part of the castle, at a place called the New Buildings, was killed by this accident,
the Right Honourable the Lady Dowager Hatton, by the fall of the ceiling of her chamber,
which fell in four pieces, one of them upon her breast, and killed her on the spot. The
Right Honourable the Lady Hatton, wife to the governor, and daughter to the Right Honour-
able the Earl of Thanet, was likewise destroyed in the following manner. Her ladyship
being greatly terrified at the thunder and lightning, insisted (before the magazine blew up)
upon being removed from the chamber she was in, to the nursery, where, having caused her
woman to come also to be with her, in order to have joined in prayer ; in a few minutes after
that noble lady and her woman fell a sacrifice, by one corner of the nursery room falling in
upon them, and were the next morning both found dead. In the same room, was also killed
a dry nurse, who was found dead, having my lord's second daughter fast in her arms, holding
a small silver cup in her hands which she usually played with, which was all rimpled and
bruised, yet the young lady did not receive the least hurt. The nurse had likewise one of her
hands fixed upon the cradle, in which lay my lord's youngest daughter, and the cradle almost
filled with rubbish, yet the child received no sort of prejudice. A considerable number cf
other persons were all destroyed by the same accident."

* From this mention of the great number of rocks so dangerously surrounding the island,
we are induced to extract the following account from the author to whom we have previously
referred. " We were on board the ship Henningham Castle, about three hundred tons bur-
then, bound for London, from the Island of Antigua. After a long passage of twelve weeks
and five days, in which we had met with very blowing contrary winds, and exceedingly tempes-
tuous weather, and for many days had not been able to make any observations from the sun,
we at length met with two vessels, whose captains gladly followed the course we steered.
Through the obstinacy or ignorance of our commander, and notwithstanding the captain of
the Pacquet had well informed how the Lizard Point bore from us, and consequently how we
ought to have shaped our course that night ; yet from the imprudence of our captain, or an
unhappy fatality, we were about twelve o'clock the same night, suddenly surprised by a
frightful noise of the surge of the sea beating against rocks or mainland, for at that time we

, ;

GUERNSEY. 101

bable that the rocks once formed part of the mainland of the island,
and that the action of the sea has removed the loose deposits which
formerly filled up the spaces now open to the waters. On these rocks a
sea-weed is found, extremely serviceable as manure, but which is also used
as a substitute for coal and fire-wood ; it is called in French, " varech,"
and in the island dialect, " vraic." Regular seasons are appointed by
the island legislature for gathering this weed, which is so intimately con-
nected with the domestic economy of the inhabitants, as well as the
agriculture of their country, that vraic-gathering is considered a most
important affair, and is ushered in with great solemnity. It is a singular
usage peculiar to Guernsey and the neighbouring islands; nearly all the
population concerned in agricultural pursuits, as well as the poorer
inhabitants, are engaged in it, and the morning for gathering vraic, pre-
sents an animated and curious scene. At the appointed time, parties
set out at an early hour on the expedition, each person having on his leg
and foot some necessary gear, and carrying with him a small scythe to
separate the weed from the rock. From the carts, in which they proceed
to the shore, are slung small kegs of the best beverage at command,
and boats to contain five or six persons are in readiness to convey them
from the water-side to the scene of action. At high water an immense
number of persons are seen eagerly waiting for the moment when the
retreating tide will enable them to pursue their avocation, and so anxious

knew not which. And here, without affecting the orator, or endeavouring to captivate by a
tedious description, I can venture to affirm, that the night was really as dark and dismal in
its appearance through every part of the sky and horizon, as poetical fiction could well paint
it, and in the sailors' phrase, not being able to see one's hand held out on the deck. Upon
all hands being called up, we found ourselves instantaneously surrounded by rocks, and on
sounding, we found not above one fathom water more under us than what the ship drew. This,
with the shrieks and cries of some ladies who were passengers, was no small addition to the
disastrous shock we laboured under, not knowing or being able to conceive what particular
land we were near. In this confusion, having about fifty souls on board, all stood amazed,
not knowing which way to disengage ourselves, or how immediately to get down anchors ;
in the attempt of which, two actually were cut to pieces by the rocks and shoals ; but at
last our sheet anchor happily held, and preserved us, and we rode safe till the weather broke
out clear, and the morning ushered in. — When to our more than common astonishment, we
found ourselves every where environed by rocks and a mainland ; great numbers of people
coming down from the country, equally amazed at the sight of a ship being seen where we
lay at anchor. However, after firing two or three guns, we instantly weighed, and with the
utmost difficulty got clear from between two rocks, which Providence had so miraculously in
our favour, suffered our ship to pass through, unperceived by any of the crew, in the midst of
rlaikness and blowing weather."

D D

102 GUERNSEY.

.are they to make the most of their time, that their carts are often float-
ing, and their horses swimming, in order to hasten their approach to the
rich spoil. One of these seasons commences about the middle of March,
the other is in July, each usually lasting for about ten days. They are
seasons of feasting and merriment, as well as of labour: " vraicking
cakes," composed of flour, milk, and sugar, are made, and plentifully
distributed, and the best cask of cider left in the buttery is broached.
At other times than the regular vraicking seasons, the inhabitants on
the coast are engaged in collecting the vraic thrown on the beach by the
sea. Men, women, and children, gather and spread it out to dry, and
the produce of their labour either serves for fuel, or is sold ; it is almost
the only fiiel of the country, making a warm, though not a very cheerful
fire. Coal is scarcely ever used but upon feast days, or some other
important occasions. s

There is an ancient custom prevalent in Guernsey, which probably
originated in the poverty and, consequently, the parsimony of the natives;
this is the " lit de veille," which is a broad bed-frame placed in one
corner of the room usually occupied ; it is raised a little distance from
the floor, and is covered with dry fern, or hay, or pea-haum. The
" young people " of several neighbouring houses assemble, and sit in a
circle on it during the long winter evenings. One large lamp is sus-
pended over head, furnishing light for the inhabitants of several houses,
who, thus packed closely together, dispense with the superfluous luxury
of a fire. The roof of the apartment, and the walls against which the
" lit de veille" is placed, are festooned with dried flowers, and branches
of laurel, myrtle, and other shrubs. The dress of the poorer inha-
bitants is as peculiar as some of their customs. The bonnet is curious,
and of large dimensions ; the crown is formed of a long piece of silk,
gathered into three rows of plaits, of an oval shape from the front to
the back of the head, and is set off between the folds with lace or crape,
according as the wearer is or is not in mourning. A very large and
very complex bow of narrow ribbon is plaited immediately in front. The
top of the crown is either flat or plaited to correspond with the rest of
the bonnet; and on the top another bow is perched. The front, which
is of paste-board, is covered with silk, and resembles the vizor of a boy's
cap. Underneath this piece of workmanship, is a close mob cap, with a
narrow muslin border, plain on the forehead and temples, but plaited
from the ears to the chin. The gown is of an old-fashioned chintz
pattern, and open in front, which exposes to view a thickly quilted

GUERNSEY. 103

black stuff petticoat ; a coloured handkerchief is worn with the boddice,
which is open in front to the waist ; the sleeves are tight, and terminate
just below the elbow ; blue worsted stockings, with black velvet shoes
and buckles, complete this fanciful costume. The dress, and also the
style of living among the higher classes, are receiving great modifications
from an increasing intercourse with England ; and though scarcely any
of the country people can speak a word of English, it is almost univer-
sal in the higher ranks, who have obtained a tolerably correct pronun-
ciation of it. The old Norman language is usually spoken, that is, the
French some centuries back, but the patois varies in different parishes.

The climate of Guernsey is mild and healthy, and said to bear a great
affinity to that in the south-west coast of England. The cold in winter
is not so great as in other parts under the same latitude, and the heat of
summer is tempered by those fresh breezes which blow almost continually
from the surrounding ocean. The soil is fruitful, and yields abundance
of grass for sheep and other cattle. The fields in the spring and summer
seasons are agreeably diversified with flowers ; and the various cottages
and villas, to which are attached gardens containing choice plants and
flowers, — the luxuriance of vegetation, and the rare plants occasionally
seen in the open air, are evidence both of the mildness of the climate *
and the taste of the inhabitants. Mr. Inglis, in his pleasing and enter-
taining history of the Channel Islands, gives the following account.
" One of the most remarkably successful plants, is the verbena triphylla ;
I have seen it almost a tree in Guernsey, reaching to nearly twenty feet
in height, and reminding me of the gardens of the Aleazar, at Seville,
where I saw it for the first time in perfection. The magnolia grandiflora
is another plant very successfully cultivated in Guernsey, flowering both
regularly and luxuriantly ; but which, excepting in parts of Cornwall,
cannot generally be depended upon in England. I have seen splendid
specimens of the fuchsia in Guernsey gardens ; some of them, I am certain,
from six to eight feet high, and ten or twelve in circumference, and
covered with their beautiful pendent blossoms, many of them an inch
and a half long. Many other rare and beautiful plants, which require
artificial heat in England, grow in Guernsey out of doors ; among others,
the celtis macrantha, and both varieties of camellia japonica, which
sometimes attain the height of twenty feet." The fig-tree attains great

* Dr. Mac Culloch, in a paper addressed to the Caledonian Horticultural Society, states
that the canna indica, a native of very warm climates, has become so naturalized in Guern-
sey, as to become a weed in the gardens it has occupied.

104 GUERNSEV.

luxuriance, and a remarkable size ; aloes have been known to thrive
well, and the most hardy species of the orange-tree will bear fruit in
winter with very little shelter. Great numbers of the " Guernsey lily "
are annually exported to England and France, but will not blow a
second time out of the island. The orchards are very productive ; they
are composed chiefly of apples, which are used for making cider, the
usual beverage in Guernsey.

St. Peter's Port, which is the principal port, and gives name to the
town, is built on a hill which slopes gradually down to the sea, studded
with villas, to which are attached gardens tastefully laid out ; and one or
two buildings of some importance, rising above their more humble neigh-
bours, are seen to advantage, and meet the eye on entering the harbour,
at once giving the place a most imposing and panoramic effect. The
attractions of the town quite disappear upon coming on shore, the
streets being narrow and crooked, composed of " old dusky looking
houses," all the principal residences and ornamental villas being in the
outskirts. There is a public seminary in the town of considerable note,
called Elizabeth College ; it was founded in 1563, under the authority of
letters patent of Elizabeth, by whom it was endowed with a corn rent,
the present value of which is above two hundred pounds per annum.
It was, however, a mere nominal institution until the year 1824, when
the states of Guernsey adopted means for rendering this establishment
an efficient and easily available seminary for the education of the youth
of the island. Under its present management, the endowment just
mentioned, assisted by a contribution in the nature of a college fee of
twelve pounds per annum, affords for every class of scholars a sufficient
variety of instruction to qualify them for any pursuit for which they may
be destined, whether prime minister, parish minister, or other less
onerous duty. The building is a striking object in the prospect of the
town from the sea ; it is situated on the high ground at the back of the
town ; it is of considerable extent, and its architecture though perhaps
not in quite correct taste, has a monastic and almost oriental appearance,
and from its situation in a spacious area, has an air of quiet, harmonizing
with the ideas entertained of a pile of buildings devoted to study.

There is another public institution in Guernsey which is creditable to
the moral feelings of the islanders, as that just mentioned is to their
tastes and intellectual ; we refer to the establishment called (a misnomer)
the " Hospital ;" it embraces the dissemination of almost every descrip-
tion of charity ; it partakes of the nature and supplies the place of the

GUERNSEY. 105 ~

poor houses, the workhouses, the places of refuge for the destitute, and in
some respects the national schools of this country. The system pursued
here is one of the most liberal, and at the same time economical and
orderly that can be imagined ; it requires only conformity to its rules, as
a return for supplying almost every want of its inmates, and neither
youth nor age, sex, religion, or country, form a valid ground of exclusion.

The fish market of St. Peter's Port, is a new building, and for conve-
nience, and the abundance of its supplies, is unrivalled by any market
in Europe. It is a hundred and ninety feet in length, and broad and
lofty in proportion. The interior, which is light and airy, has a double
row of marble slabs extending the whole length of the building, con-
stantly supplied with abundance of fresh water, the view of which is
perfectly beautiful.

The two views of Roque de Guet, Cobo Bay, — and St. Peter's Port, are
eminently characteristic of the scenery of the place, the former being an
admirable represensation of its sterile coast, and the latter equally in-
teresting as a picturesque representation of an English town, built in the
continental style.

E E

106

DOVOR.

DOVOR, or Dover, in the Itinerary of Antoninus, is called Ad Portum
Dubris. The ancient British name of the town was Dwyr, derived from
Dwfyrrha, signifying a steep place. The Saxons called it Dorfa, and
Dofris, which in the Domesday Book is, in the words of Mr. Brayley,
" softened into Dovere." In the time of the Romans, Dovor was a
seaport, and at one period was surrounded by walls, having ten gates ;
and is supposed to have been the place at which Julius Csesar first en-
deavoured to effect a landing ; but finding the coast dangerous and the
cliffs bristling with warriors, prepared to receive him, he abandoned his
intention, and landed about eight miles to the eastward.

At a very early period the Saxon invaders made themselves masters
of the castle of Dovor, and constructed works which are yet in existence.
Long previous to the invasion of Csesar, the site of the present castle
must have been a British hill-fortress. " The real existence of such a
prior stronghold," observes Mr. King; " may not only be concluded
from its situation on the summit of a cliff so very proper for the purpose,
more than three hundred feet in height, and from the peculiar form of
the outlines still remaining ; but may be also inferred from the old tra-
dition which says, that here Arviragus, the British chief, fortified him-
self, when he refused to pay the tribute imposed by Julius Csesar ; and
that here, afterwards, King Arthur also held his residence." Currency
has also been given to the castle having been founded by Csesar, and an
old author is quoted in support of this supposition, who says, that " they
of the castell kept till this day certeine vessels of olde wine and salte,
which they affirme to be the remayne of suche provision as he (Csesar)
brought into it." But as Csesar informs us in his Commentaries that he
was only a few months in England, such an opinion must be void of any
reasonable foundation. Edward the Confessor granted to Dovor a
charter of privileges, and in his reign the institution of the Cinque Ports
is supposed to have taken place, and Dovor made one of them. Earl
Godwin was during that reign the governor of the castle, and took part

UOVOR. 107

in an incident which is strongly indicative of his proud and independent
character, and of the troublous times in which he lived. Eustace, Earl
of Boulogne, the father of the famous Godfrey, who won Jerusalem from
the Saracens, being on his return from a visit to his brother-in-law,
Edward the Confessor, came to Dovor ; one of his suite insisted on
having private lodgings in the town, selecting the house of a man who
was unwilling to let apartments, and according to the law of might, so
prevalent in those romantic times, the dispute grew from a quarrel to a
fray, and from a fray to a desperate battle, in which nineteen of the
townsmen and twenty-one of the Earl's retinue were slain, with a due
complement on both sides wounded. Eustace himself escaped the fury
of the people, and hastened to the king, then at Gloucester, and de-
manded satisfaction for what he called an insult, and Edward, willing
to afford him the redress he desired, ordered Godwin to proceed with his
power, and take vengeance on the rioters. The Earl refused, hotly re-
plying, " It was not the custom in England, to punish persons unheard;
and the rights and privileges of the subject ought not to be violated ;"
adding, " the accused should be summoned, and if upon inquiry they
were found guilty, should make satisfaction with their bodies, or their
estates; or if innocent, should be discharged;" hastily concluding,
" that being Earl of Kent, and constable of Dovor Castle, it was his
business to protect those who were under his government, from the in-
sults of foreigners." The King, highly incensed at this, determined to
chastise Godwin and his sons Swane and Harold ; but Godwin, aware
of this intention, assembled his forces and demanded, accompanying his
demand with a threat of open rebellion in case of its not being complied
with, that Eustace and his followers should be delivered up to him.
Godwin was however compelled, in consequence of the events which en-
sued, to leave England with his sons; but by a well concerted plan,
soon returned, and obtained such an acquisition of strength, that the
king, on his merely nominal submission, reinstated him in all his estates
and honours.

The importance of Dovor Castle was so well known to William the
Conqueror, that when he was taking measures for ensuring himself as
the successor of Edward, he refused to pennit the departure of Earl
Harold* from Rouen, holding him in restraint till he bound himself by a

* Of this earl, afterwards king of England, Milton writes in his history, that he was
" no sooner plac't in the throne" than he "began to frame himself by all manner of com-
pliances to gain affection, eruleavour'd to make good laws, repeai'd bad, became a great

1 08 DOVOR.

solemn oath, to deliver up to him after Edward's death,* " the Castle of
Dover with the well of water in it." Hither, too, the Conqueror hastened
after the battle of Hastings, many of the people having fled to it as an
impregnable fortress, and although the resistance he met with was slight,
he revenged it by burning the town, putting to death the governor,
Stephen de Ashburnham, and his lieutenant ; acts of cruelty, it is pre-
sumed, intended to intimidate all who thought of opposing him. Accord-
ing to Domesday Book, Dovor equipped twenty vessels annually for the
king's service, in consideration of being exempt from all tolls and taxes,
and of various other privileges.! The possession of Dovor was assigned

patron to church and churchmen, courteous and affable to all reputed good, a hater of evil
doers, charg'd all his officers to punish theeves, robbers, and all disturbers of the peace,
while he himself by sea and land labour'd in the defence of his countrey : so good an actor
is ambition. In (he mean while," he continues, " a blazing star, seven mornings together,
about the end of April, was seen to stream terribly, not only over England, but other parts
of the world : foretelling heer, as was thought, the great changes approaching ; plainliest
prognosticated by Elmer, a monk of Malmsbury, who could not foresee, when time was, the
breaking of his own legs for soaring too high. He, in his youth, strangely aspiring, had
made and fitted wings to his hands and feet ; with these, on the top of a tower, spread out
to gather air, he flew more than a furlong ; but the wind being too high, came fluttering
down, to the maiming of all his limbs ; yet so conceited of his art, that he attributed the
cause of his fall to the want of a tail, as birds have, which he forgot to make to his hinder
parts. This story," concludes the author of Paradise Lost, and he writes our apology for
this extract, if apology were needed, " though seeming otherwise too light in the midst of a
sad narration, yet for the strangeness thereof, I thought worthy enough the placing as I
found it plac't in my author."

* Of this prince, Milton says, " That he was harmless and simple, is conjectured by his
words in anger to a peasant who had cross'd his game (for with hunting and hawking he
was much delighted) : — By God and God's mother, said he, I shall do you as shrewd a turn
if I can ; observing that law-maxime, the best of all his successors, that the king of England
can do no wrong."

t The following is an extract from Domesday book, and is curious. " In the time of
king Edward, Dovere paid eighteen pounds, of which sum Edward had two parts, and
Earl Goodwin the third part of one moiety, and the canons of St. Martin had the other.
The burgesses have furnished the king with twenty ships, once in each year for fifteen days,
and in each ship, were twenty-one men ; this they had done because he had freed them from
Sac and Soc. When the king's messengers have come there, they have given for the passage
of a horse, three-pence in winter, and two-pence in summer ; but the burgesses found a
steersman, and one other assistant ; if more were necessary, they were provided at the
expense of the king. Whoever constantly resided in the town, was quit of toll throughout
England. All these customs were in use there when King William came into England. At
bis first coming, the town itself was burnt, and therefore the value of it, when the Bishop of
Baieux received it, could not be computed, nor is it rated at forty pounds, though the bailiff

DOVOlt. 109

by the Conqueror to Bishop Odo, his half brother, whom he created
Earl of Kent, Justiciary of England, and Governor of Dovor Castle.
This proud, avaricious and imperious prelate, soon rendered himself
obnoxious to the people. By the most oppressive means he obtained
for himself one hundred and eighty fiefs in Kent, besides two hundred
and fifty more in other parts of the kingdom. This state of things soon
induced the brave men of Kent to make an attempt, while the king was
absent in Normandy, to seize the castle and expel the intruders ; arid
for the " better achieving their desire," says Lambard, " it was agreed
that Eustace, Earl of Boulogne, should crosse the seas in a night by
them appointed, at whiche time they would not faile with all their force
to meet him, and so (joyning bands) soudainly assayle and enter it.
They met accordingly, and marched by darke night toward the castell,
well furnished with scaling ladders; but by reason that the watch had
descried them, they not only fayled of that whiche they intended, but
also fell into that whiche they never feared ; for the souldiours within
the castell (to whom Odo, the Bishop of Baieux, and Hugh Montfort,
which then were with the king in Normandie had committed the charge
thereof,) kept themselves close, and suffered the assaylents to approache
the wall, and then, whyles they disorderly attempted to scale it, they set
wide open their gates, and made a soudaine salie out of the place, and
set upon them with such fury, that they compelled Eustace, with a few
others, to returne to his shippe ; the rest of his companie being either
slaine by the svvorde, destroyed by fall from the cliffs, or devoured by
the sea." Some years after this attempt the king had Odo sent prisoner
into Normandy, and confiscated his property, fortified the castle anew,
and gave the command of it, extensive powers, and lands, to John de
Fiennes, who extended and repaired the fortifications, and gave thereto
the defence of eight knights, whom he chose to act with him, and who
were bound by the tenure of the lands they held of him under the king,
to keep in turn, one hundred and twenty-five soldiers from month to
month, to be ready on necessity, and to keep watch and ward, at the
same time allotting particular towers, turrets, and portions of the bul-
warks, to their charge, which they were enjoined to put and keep in de-
fence ; and which afterwards bore the names of the several captains to
whose care they had been assigned. At this period, and during several

renders fruin thence 15 ft} -four poiii.ds. l:i Dover are twenty mansions, of which the
has lost tl.e custcin."

V V

110 DOVOll.

successive centuries, the castle of Dovor was called " the key and bar-
rier of the whole realm."

Henry the Second, on his arrival from Normandy, rebuilt the keep on
the Norman plan, and otherwise materially increased the fortifications.
Lewis the Dauphin in 1216, having landed near Sandwich, and possessed
himself of several strong places, besieged Dovor. The alleged object
of the dauphin, was to assist the discontented barons. But Herbert de
Burgh, the then governor, so strenuously defended the castle with only
one hundred and forty soldiers, exclusive of his own servants, that the
dauphin was compelled to retire. Many of the castles in the southern
counties had submitted to him, but when Philip Augustus heard that
his son had not obtained Dovor, he swore by St. James, that he had not
gained a foot of land in England ; so great was the importance at that
time attached to it. The siege was several times attempted, and as
often raised between the reigns of John and that of Henry the Third,
and the remains of a work may still be traced on the side of the hill
next to the town, which was raised by the dauphin to cover the ap-
proaches of his men. On the last occasion of the dauphin's besieging
the castle, he sent a message to Hubert, the governor, by upwards of
forty barons, appointed to confer with him, promising to enrich him and
confer upon him any amount of honours, if he would deliver up the
fortress ; but the governor was not to be seduced from his duty, and he
was afterwards handsomely rewarded by Henry for his gallant services.

According to the town records, Dovor, in the reign of Edward the
Second, was divided into twenty-one wards, each of which was com-
pelled to provide at its own charge, a ship for the king's service, and in
return, the town had the exclusive privilege of a licence fora packet boat
to convey passengers to and from France. In 1382, Anne, daughter of
the Emperor Charles the Fourth, and afterwards consort of Richard the
Second, arrived here. When the Emperor Sigismund disembarked at
Dovor in 1416, on a visit to his cousin, Henry the Fifth ; he was formally
met at the water's edge by the Duke of Gloucester and several of the
nobility, with drawn swords, in order to oppose his landing, should the
object of his visit prove to be of a hostile nature. In 1520, the Em-
peror Charles the Fifth, was met here by Henry the Eighth, whence both
monarchs proceeded to Canterbury, and there kept the festival of
Whitsuntide.*

* Henry, aware of the importance of Dovor, contributed eighty thousand pounds towards
the erection of a pier, which was completed in the reign of Elizabeth, at which period the

DOVOK. Ill

The last time that the castle of Dovor was the subject of warlike con-
tention, was in the reign of Charles the First, when it was taken by sur-
prise, by a few men in the night. A merchant of the name of Drake, a
zealous partizan of the Parliamentarians, with the aid of only ten or
twelve men, was the hero of this notable feat. About midnight on the
first of August, 1642, was the time fixed for the enterprise, and at the
time appointed the men assembled, and by the aid of scaling ladders,
ascended with their muskets undiscovered, to the top of the cliff from
the sea-side, which having been considered inaccessible, had been
left unguarded. Having reached the summit unmolested, Drake ad-
vanced, seized the centinel, and threw open the gates. The officer on
duty believing that Drake was supported by a strong party, surrendered
at discretion. Drake immediately sent messengers to Canterbury to the

harbour was likewise constantly undergoing improvements. The importance in which the
place was held in the reign of Elizabeth, may be inferred from the following extracts taken
from a memorial presented by Sir Walter Raleigh to his royal mistress. — " No promontory,
town, or haven in Christendom, is so placed by nature and situation, both to gratify friends
and annoy enemies, as this town of Dover. No place is so settled to receive and deliver
intelligence, for all matters and actions in Europe, from time to time. No town is by nature
so settled, either to allure intercourse by sea, or to train inhabitants by land, to make it great,
fair, rich, and populous ; nor is there in the whole circuit of this famous isle, any port, either
in respect of security or defence, or of traffic or intercourse, more convenient, needful, or
rather of necessity, to be regarded, than this of Dover. Situated on a promontory, next
fronting a puissant nation, and in the very strait, passage, and intercourse of almost all the
shipping in Christendom," &c. After some farther statements, the memorial thus concludes :
" Seeing, then, it hath pleased God to give unto this realm such a situation for a port and
town, as all Christendom hath not the like, and endowed the same with all commodities,
both by sea and land, that can be wished to make the harbour allure intercourse, and main-
tain inhabitants, and that the same once performed, must be advantageous to the revenue,
and augment the welfare and riches of the realm in general, and both needful and necessary,
as well for the succour and protecting friends, as annoying and offending enemies, both in
peace and war ; methinks there remaineth no other declaration in this case, but how most
sufficiently, and, with greatest perfection possible, most speedily, the same may be accom-
plished." The greatest improvements that have been made in Dovor harbour are to
be ascribed to a charter of James the First, appointing eleven commissioners, the lord
warden of the cinque ports, then lieutenant of the castle, and the mayor of Dovor, being
always three, as conservators of the port, and incorporating them under the title of " Warden
and Assistants of the port and harbour of the port of Dovor." Of all the attempts, however,
to benefit the port of Dovor, the most strange, was an act of the Tenth of Edward the Third,
which enacted, that " all merchants, travels, and pilgrims, going to the Continent, should
not go from any other place than Dovor." In the time of Richard the Second, the convey-
ance to France, was in summer, for a single person, sixpence ; for a horse, eighteen-pence ;
in winter, for a single person, one shilling, and for a horse, two shillings.

112 DOVOH.

Earl of Warwick, with intelligence of his success, who sent him fifty
men, and the city sent seventy men to assist him in retaining possession.
The King, on receiving the news of this event, dispatched a general
officer to retake it; but the Parliament knew its importance, and by
means of a superior force, compelled the royalists to raise the siege.

The last events that can be mentioned as having any thing of an his-
torical tendency, are, that in 1814, on the restoration of Louis the
Eighteenth to the French throne, his late Majesty George the Fourth,
then Prince Regent, accompanied him to Dovor, and in the same year,
Alexander Emperor of Russia, and Frederic William King of Prussia,
with the veteran Blucher, and other distinguished foreigners, embarked
at Boulogne on board the " Impregnable," bearing the flag of his then
Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence, now our Most Gracious Sovereign,
as Admiral of the Fleet, and landed at Dovor, on a visit to the Regent.

Near the edge of the cliff on which the castle is situated, is a piece of
brass ordnance twenty-four feet long, which was cast at Utrecht in 1544,
and presented to Queen Elizabeth by the States of Holland. It is called
Queen Elizabeth's pocket pistol. It carries a twelve-pound shot, and it
is said that if loaded well and kept clean, it will carry a shot to the
French shore. This is too great a marvel to be true, and it is generally
understood that it is altogether unfit for use. The gun is covered with
many curious devices, and on the breach are the following lines in old
Dutch :

" Breeck scvret al mure ende wal

Bin ic geheten

Doer Berch en dal boert ininen bal
Van mi gesmeten."

The generally received translation is as follows :

" O'er hill and dale I throw my ball,
Breaker, my name, of mound and wall."

It would be foreign to our purpose to enter into a description of the
fortifications, or a disquisition upon the different styles of architecture
observable in the numerous buildings. To the antiquary it is a subject
of great interest, and several books have been written on the subject.
We must be content with stating, that during the late war with France,
the western heights of the town were strongly fortified upon the modern
system, and the works were so well arranged, that whilst a small gar-
rison would have been sufficient for the defence, a large army could

DOVOK. 113

have been disposed of within the walls. There are three entrances to the
heights ; one by a fort called Archcliff Fort, another by a new military
road commanded by the batteries of the castle, and the third from the
head of a tower by a staircase of very peculiar construction, called the
grand military shaft. The immediate entrance to the harbour is pro-
tected by Archcliff Fort, at the extremity of the pier, and Amhurst bat-
tery at the north pier-head. A new military road has been constructed
to the fortifications of the western heights, the lines which connect them
extending from the eastern redoubt to the sally port, west of ArchclifF
Fort, making altogether, a complete line of defence round the town,
from the castle to the cliff called Shakspeare's cliff. There are case-
mates, dug in the solid chalk rock, magazines, covered ways, and vari-
ous subterraneous communications and apartments for soldiery, the latter
being sufficiently capacious for the accommodation of two thousand
men, and which form, with their inmates, a most curious spectacle. Light
and air are conveyed by well-like apertures dug in the chalk, and ,by
lateral openings carried through to the face of the cliffs.
. The castle and the cliffs combined, give great interest to Dovor; and
the broad beach, the semi-circular form of the town, the entrance of the
port terminated by an extensive sea view, the French coast in the dis-
tance, with the numerous vessels passing to and fro in the Channel, give
an imposing and beautiful appearance to the different views, which are,
perhaps, not to be exceeded any where on the sea-coast of England.
For our present illustration, Dovor Pier, we need not appeal to any who
have visited Dovor for its fidelity, for it must at once be recognized. To
those who have not been so fortunate, it will convey a correct impression,
and bring to their mind, not Only the Pier and the Castle, but the cliff
from whence

" The murmuring surge,

That on the unnumber'd idle pebbles chafes,

Cannot be heard so high — "

and whence the "shrill-gorged lark," — so great the height — "cannot be
seen or heard !" — it will bring to mind Shakspeare's Cliff! and a name
will be breathed that all good men reverence, and all great men in vain
attempt to praise.

G G

114

RAMSGATE.

LIKE most of the watering-places on the eastern coast of England,
Ramsgate was a mere fishing hamlet, consisting only of a few mean and
shabby-looking dwellings, and until the 21st of June 1827, was part of
the parish of St. Lawrence, when it was made a distinct parish by an
Act of 7 & 8 Geo. 4. In all judicial proceedings, it is called the Ville
of Ramsgate, and is an ancient member of the Cinque port and town of
Sandwich, to which it was finally annexed by a charter granted by Henry
VII. According to a maritime survey made in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, the whole place contained only twenty-five inhabited houses;
yet the boats and vessels belonging to the port amounted to fourteen,
of from three to sixteen tons burthen.

After the Revolution of 1688, the inhabitants of this place engaged
very successfully in the trade with Russia and the Eastern countries,
and the buildings were in consequence much enlarged, and greatly
increased in number ; but the improvements made in the harbour about
the middle of the last century have been the cause of the principal in-
crease and importance of Ramsgate. There was a pier for shipping as
early as the time of Henry VIII. but quite inadequate to afford security
to the numerous vessels that were driven on this coast in tempestuous
weather; and a storm which happened in December 1748, that forced
many ships from their anchorage in the Downs, exciting much public
attention, parliament determined in the ensuing year (22 Geo. 2.) that
" a sufficient harbour should be made for the reception of ships of and
under three hundred tons burthen." The work was accordingly begun
about the year 1750, from the designs of William Ockenden, Esq. and
Captain Robert Brooke : the east pier, designed by the former, was to
be of stone ; and the west pier of wood. The work was carried on with
much energy and spirit for several years ; when disagreements arising
among the superintendents, together with various difficulties with which
they met as they proceeded, the undertaking was considerably delayed,
and many years elapsed before it was completed ; but the utility of the

RAMSC.ATE. 115

work is now perfectly established, as is shown by the improvement in
the shipping trade, and by the number of ships and vessels that an-
nually take shelter here in stormy weather since its completion. Be-
tween the years 1792 and 1802, several additional buildings were made;
a new light-house, of stone, with Argand lamps and reflectors, was
erected on the head of the West Pier ; good convenience was afforded
by the construction of a wharf, for the landing and shipping of goods ;
a low edifice was built as a watch-house, on the head of the advanced
pier, in which hawsers were deposited for the assistance of ships in dis-
tress ;a handsome structure cased with stone, was erected for the meet-
ings of the trustees, committees, &c., on the top of which is a cupola,
and when in a line with the light-house, forms the leading mark for
vessels entering; so that no expense has been spared in rendering this
harbour as extensively useful as the stormy nature of the Channel ren-
ders it requisite it should be. The sums expended in its construction
are stated to amount to above a million. Its surpassing utility may be
conceived from the mention of the fact that during the storms which
occurred in December 1795,* upwards of three hundred sail of vessels
were sheltered here at one time ; some of them upwards of three hun-
dred tons burthen. In 1780, the number of vessels seeking shelter only
amounted to twenty-nine during the whole year, but the annual average
is now one thousand one hundred. The area of the harbour is nearly
circular, and comprehends about forty acres, and is two hundred feet
wide at the mouth. The pier, which forms the harbour on the sea side,
is built principally of Purbeck and Portland stone ; in the latest im-
provements, of Cornish granite. For extent and beauty it is unrivalled
in the kingdom. It projects eight hundred feet into the sea, before
making an angle, and including the parapet, is twenty-six feet broad at
the top ; the front presents a polygon, each side of which is four hundred

* Among the facts stated before a Committee of the House of Commons, proving the
great local advantage of Ramsgate as a harbour are the following: — "That in the said
great storm of the December preceding, a number of ships were actually forced into and
saied in Ramsgate harbour, although then so small as to be scarce capable of receiving
vessels of two hundred tens at any state of the tide ; the pier then having been only built
and maintained by the fishermen of the place. That at Ramsgate, or near it, was not only
the best, but, in reality, the on/y place, where any harbour could be built, that would be
serviceable to ships in distress in the Downs, because Ramsgate was right in the lee of that
road, with such winds as produced that distress ; and at such a proper distance, that after
driving, or breaking loose, they had time to get under sail, so that with a slender share ot
seamanship, they could make an harbour, if built there.

116 RAMSGATE.

and fifty feet long. The eastern pier, including its flexures and angles,
is about three thousand feet long, and the western about one thousand
five hundred and fifty. The difficulties encountered in erecting these
piers, and furnishing the harbour with its adjoining basins, have been
enough to intimidate the enterprise and check the ingenuity of any man
of science ; but Mr. Smeaton, the architect of the Eddystone, and after
his death the equally celebrated Mr. Rennie, and since then his son and
successors, have by unremitting perseverance achieved a work which it is
not exaggeration to call a national monument. In the year 1754, a massive
frame-work of timber was erected near the north end of the West Pier,
including a stair-case, called Jacob's Ladder, which forms a communi-
cation from the top to the bottom of the cliffs. The mouth of the
harbour being far advanced into the sea, the entrance of a vessel in
tempestuous weather is a spectacle of considerable interest, and generally
attracts a crowd of spectators, among whom any thing but apathy pre-
vails. The alternations of hope and fear are apparent in the dullest,
although the known security of the haven leads them to expect at worst
a "hair breadth scape" rather than a tale of shipwreck. The sea-
views are very fine, particularly when the Downs are full of shipping.
On a fine clear day, the cliffs of Calais, which are about thirty miles dis-
tant, may be seen, and a view of the towns of Sandwich and Deal, with
some strikingfeatures of theuplands andfruitful vallies of Kent, altogether
forming a series of pleasing and delightful views. The warm baths, lately
constructed on the cliff, are contained in an elegant and commodious build-
ing ; they are supplied with sea-water every tide, by means of a deep well
communicating with a subterranean passage dug through the chalk to the
sea side. The bathing-place is a fine sandy shore below the cliffs, to the
south of the pier. Many vessels now belong to this port, which are con-
stantly employed in the importation of coals from Newcastle and Sunder-
land. Boat-building, and the repairs of shipping, which are so frequently
required after the heavy gales of wind, are carried on here to a consider-
able extent. The village of St. Lawrence is on the brow of the hill,
immediately above Ramsgate, but in fact forming part of it ; it is a long
and winding street, extending westward. It was anciently a chapelry
to Minster, but was made parochial in the year 1275. Its name is de-
rived from the patron saint of the church, — which is a large edifice, built
principally with field-stones, rough- casted over. A little eastward
from this church, are the remains of a small chantry chapel that was
dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and endowed with some contiguous lands,

TIAMSGATE. 117

for the maintenance of a priest; after the Reformation these endowments
were converted into a lay fee, and the chapel became a cottager's
dwelling;; it is now a mere ruin. Nearly two miles westward from St.
Lawrence, is the picturesque hamlet of Mansion Green, adjacent to
•which was a curious cavern, excavated about sixty years ago, by
some eccentric yeoman, for the purpose of obtaining chalk to mix
with manure. It consisted of three long passages, with lateral com-
munications ; some parts of it have recently fallen in. A little further
in the same direction is a large and ancient mansion erected here by the
Mansions, which for many generations was the seat and inheritance o
that family ; it has since been converted into a farm-house, but still
retains many vestiges of its ancient splendour. Near the north end of
this building are the ruins of the family chapel, now reduced to its outer
walls, which are finely mantled with ivy. About one mile southward
from the church of St. Lawrence is Pegwell Bay, which every visitor to
Ramsgate will remember as easily for the dinner he has enjoyed, as an
Alderman remembers Blackwall — " with a difference" that mullet sup-
plies the place of white- bait.

On the 25th of September 1821, His Majesty George IV. embarked
from Ramsgate pier for Calais in his progress to Hanover, having been
entertained the previous night at the residence of the late Sir William
Curtis ; and he also landed here on the following 8th of November on
his return. To commemorate the event a granite obelisk with appro-
priate inscription was erected on the pier, at the ^entrance by the land
side, at the expense of the trustees of the harbour and visitors. It is a
pillar of graceful proportions, and a pleasing ornament to this great
structure.

The pier, about which we have said so much, and about which we
could say much more if our limits permitted, with the light-house, is
represented in the accompanying engraving of Ramsgate. The extent
of this bold invasion of the sea may be judged by the houses on the
cliffs in the back ground. On the opposite side from the foreground,
where the sailors and labourers are at work in the Summer and Autumn,
may be seen the characters that form the motley promenade : — gentle-
men with shooting caps and shooting jackets, who look as if they would
faint at the report of a pop-gun ; the half-shabby-dressed man of wealth
from the city thinking of "his house, his money, and his bags;" the
clerk with his " comfortable" income, strutting the perfect image of
self-sufficiency, and discussing politics and stock for the benefit of all

11 H

118 RAMSGATE.'

who perambulate within speaking-trumpet distance ; the voyageur who
never went further than Margate, until he ventured to Ramsgate, and
who for a week has been meditating a trip to Dovor, and has serious
thoughts of going next year to Calais; those young ladies who expect
" Pa" by the early boat on Saturday, marching with all the regularity of
the " Invincibles,'' but making no conquests; a stately dame with
handkerchief, lap-dog, and footman, among which 'twere difficult to say
what most courts attention — the flapping of the cambric, the yelp of the
cur, or the ostentatious livery of the lackey ; and then perhaps the eye
may be relieved by the sight of some kind mother with her " daughter
dear" — some group of truth and nature that makes us bless the world
we live in — or haply it may rest on one fair form that, evening after
evening, has been seen on the beaten track inhaling a momentary fresh-
ness from the grateful breeze, and creating hope destined to die, in some
attendant relative, who vainly fancies that the hectic glow is no transient
visitor, and that health is again about to illuminate a countenance that
will convey gladness to a family of rejoicing hearts too surely doomed
to mourn.

Such are sea-side scenes ; and in Ramsgate they are more abundant
than in most places on the eastern coast, — not that fashion sends thither
her votaries (though she does), nor that the place is cheap (for it is not),
nor that the air is most salubrious (which it is,) but because the universal
agent, steam, carries visitors in safety round the North Foreland, on the
Margate side of which, before this agency came into operation, the
sailing-packets used to land them.

119

BROADSTAIRS.

BROADSTAIRS* is a small seaport and hamlet in the parish of St. Peter,
the same parish which forms part of Ramsgate — from which place it is
but two miles distant. It was anciently called Bradston, and exhibits
vestiges of once having been a place of importance. Subsequently it
was reduced to a mere fishing village, but again has obtained some
celebrity as a place of resort for sea-bathers, the influx of which class
has caused a due proportion of buildings to be erected under the novel
names of Hotels, Boarding Houses, and Warm Baths. With respect to
the Boarding Houses, it is shrewdly recorded by some travellers who
have explored the country in that direction, that there is nothing in the
exteriors to please the lover of antiquities, although their interiors abound
at particular periods with the choicest and strangest specimens.

For the accommodation of the fishermen a small wooden pier was built
about the time of Henry VIII., and although an Act of Parliament was
passed in the 32 Geo. 3. for the improvement of the harbour and the pier,
the trade of the place had so much decreased that its provisions were
never carried entirely into effect. Let us however be consoled : what the
town has lost in utility we gain in the picturesque. Leading down to the
shore is a stone arch or portal, with walls built of flint, in which were
gates and a portcullis with a drawbridge attached ; erected to protect
the inhabitants from the incursions of privateers. Above the arch is
this inscription : " York gate, built by George Culmer, A. D. 1540, re-

* Near here, a monstrous fish, shot himself on shore, on a little sand, now called Fish-
ness, about six o'clock one evening, where for want of water he died : the next day " his
roaring," says Kilburne in his ' Survey of Kent,' " was heard above a mile : his length
was twenty-two yards, the nether jaw opening twelve feet ; one of his eyes was more than a
cart and six horses could draw ; a man stood upright in the place from whence his eye was
taken ; the thickness from his back to the top of his belly was fourteen feet ; his tail of the
same breadth : the distance between his eyes was twelve feet : three men stood upright in
his mouth : some of his ribs were sixteen feet long ; his tongue was fifteen feet long ; his
liver was two cart loads ; and a man might creep into his nostrils.1'

120 BIlOADSTAlRS.

paired by Sir John Henniker, Bart. 1795." At a short distance from
the gate is a dwelling house, the remains of a small chapel dedicated to
Our Lady of Broadstairs, and formerly held in so much veneration, that
the ships used to lower their top-sails as they passed. The principal
business carried on, except in the Summer season, is ship-building.

Some persons have supposed that the Romans may have had a station
here, principally from the circumstance of many coins of Roman em-
perors having been found at different times, when rain and other causes
have occasioned a fall of the cliff. The appearance of the land, however,
does not bear out the probable correctness of this supposition.

At Kinsgate, in the vicinity, is the Bead House, built in the form of a
chapel, now appropriated to the entertainment of parties of pleasure.
Part of the house has been taken down, the sea having undermined the
cliff. Near the cliff is a rude ancient building erected on the larger of
two tumuli, named Hackendon, or Hackingdon Downs, where a san-
guinary battle is said to have taken place in 853, between the Danes
and Saxons, the latter commanded by the Earls of Kent and Surrey ;
and which, according to an ancient historian, was fought so near the
sea, that many on both sides were pushed into it and drowned. In
1743, the largest of the tumuli was opened, and in 1763, the smaller
one. They both contained graves cut out of the solid chalk, but not
more than three feet long, so that the bodies must have been thrust in
almost double. Three urns of coarse black earthenware, besides wood
and coal ashes were found in the former. In both, however, were dis-
covered the bones of rnen, women, and children, a fact which would
appear to contradict that they were the bodies of those who fell in
battle. Kinsgate, formerly called St. Bartholomew Gate, is an opening
cut through the cliff to the sea shore about the time of the Restoration,
for the convenience of fishermen, there being a small inlet or bay then
suited for shelter. The original name was changed by command of
Charles II., who with his brother the Duke of York, landing in June 1683,
passed through in his passage from London to Dovor. In the vicinity
are several curious buildings erected by the late Lord Holland as orna-
ments to the grounds of a villa he had built here on the model of Tully's
Formian Villa at Baise. The remnants of this mansion and the ad-
joining buildings are now an incongruous, fantastic, yet amusing mass of
ruins. The remaining part of the Bead House mentioned above, is one
of them.

Between Broadstairs and Kinsgate is the North Foreland, the most

BROAI>STAIRS. 121

eastern part of England, and supposed to have been the Roman station
Cantium, mentioned by Ptolemy. It projects into the sea nearly in the
form of a bastion, and the land being rather more elevated here than on
the contiguous coast, a light-house was erected for the safety of mariners,
but more particularly to enable them to steer clear of the Goodwin
Sands,* when weathering the Foreland. The first light-house built here
was of timber and lath plastered, with a large glass lantern at the top.
In 1683, this was burnt down, and for some years merely a common
beacon used. This was superseded by a strong building of flint, with a
large iron grating on the summit quite open to the air in which a blazing
coal fire was kept during the night. Other alterations were made, when
in the year 1793, the building was repaired and carried up to the
height of sixty-three feet by two stories of brick work. Thus, instead of
the coal fires, patent lamps were used, each having a patent lens, twenty
inches in diameter, with a highly polished metal reflector behind. These
are contained in the room or lantern glazed with plate glass, and being
lit every evening at sun set, burn till day break. In clear weather they
are visible at the Nore, a distance of ten leagues. In 1795, a signal
house was erected near this spot, where a lieutenant and two midshipmen
were stationed during the war ; a telegraph was also constructed here in
1813, and one on the steeple of the church at St. Peter's, forming the
commencement of a line of communication with the Nore, which was
kept up until the proclamation of the peace with France in 1814.

* There is an ancient saying that " Tenterden Steeple was the cause of Goodwin Sands;1'
yet it would seem, from the Dialogues of Sir Thomas More, that the adage was first applied
to the decay of Sandwich haven. — " At an assembly of old folke of the cuntre, they bygan
fyrst to ensearche what thinge had ben the occasion that so good a haven was in so few
yerys so soone decayed," &c. At length, as " dyvers men alledged dyvers causes, ther started
up one good old father, and said, ' Ye maysters, say every man what he wyll, 'cha (I have)

marked this matter as well as senn other, and by I wote how it waxed noughte well

ynoughe.' ' And what hath hurt it, good father?' quod those gentlemen. ' By my fayth,
maysters,' quod he, 'yonder same Tenterden Stepell, and nothing ellys, by the masse;
sho'lde 'twere a fayr yfshpole !' ' Why hath the stepell hurt the haven, good father?' quod
they. ' Nay, by'r Lady, maysters,' quod he, ' yeh cannot tell you why, but 'chote well it

hath ; for by I knew that a good haven tylt the Stepell was bylded, and by the Mary •

misse, 'cha yt never throve sinnys.'" '' The idea entertained," says Mr. Brayley — from
whose Delineations of the Isle of Thanet this anecdote is copied, as well as much other
useful information in the course of this woik obtained, — "the idea entertained by the shrewd
countryman was, that the funds which had been originally appropriated to the preservation of
the harbour, had been expended by the monks in erecting the steeple of this church."

I I

122 BUOADSTAIRS.

The view of Broadstairs 'given in this work, shows its elevated situation,
and whether the picturesque wood-work in the foreground, or the views
that the imagination will picture from the high cliffs on each side are
likely to be most attractive, will depend upon individual taste. Those
who go armed with telescopes, may mount the cliffs when the naked
eye will perceive the shipping in the Downs, and the assistance of their
long-sighted companion will introduce them to an intimate acquaintance
with the opposite coast of France. The more idle and dreamy may seat
themselves in listless speculation below, count the timbers in the pier,
the waves that come murmuring to the shore — think they are thinking,
and bless their stars they are at ease.

123

EDDYSTONE LIGHT-HOUSE.

IN a note to the description of Plymouth, we have already stated that the
Eddystone Light-House* is built on a rock in the Channel, about fifteen
miles south-south-west from the citadel of Plymouth. The few particu-
lars .relating to this magnificent and scientific structure, not before
noticed, need occupy but a very small compass. The congeries of
irregular rocks upon which the light-house is erected, are exposed to the
heavy swells from the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean, which
send the waves breaking over them with prodigious fury. The rocks
are supposed to have obtained their appellation of Eddystone from the
great variety of contrary sets of the tide, or current, flowing from the
different points of the British Channel. In the year 1696, under the
authority of Queen Elizabeth, a statute " for setting up marks and signs
for the sea," Mr. Henry Winstanley,f of Littlebury in Essex, commenced
the erection of a light-house, which he completed after the expiration of
a little more than three years ; the difficulty and danger of conveying
materials to the rock, and getting backwards and forwards from the
shore, having caused an expenditure of time not originally anticipated.
" The fourth year," says Mr. Winstanley, " finding in the winter the
effects the sea had upon the house, and burying the lantern at times,
although more than sixty feet high ; early in the spring, I encompassed
the aforesaid building with a new work, four feet in thickness from the

• See page 60.

t " This gentleman," says Mr. Smeaton, in his narrative of the Construction of the
Eddystone Light House, ."was the MerlhTof his day, and had distinguished himself in a
certain branch of mechanics, the tendency of which is to excite wonder and surprise. He
had in his house at Littlebury, a set of contrivances such as the following : — Being taken
into one particular room of his house, and there observing an old slipper carelessly lying in
the middle of the floor, if, as was natural, you gave it a kick with your foot, up started a ghost
before you ; if you sat down in a certain chair, a couple of arms would immediately clasp
you in, so as to render it impossible for you to disentangle yourself, till your attendant set
you at liberty : and if you sat down in a certain arbour by the side of a canal, you was
forthwith sent out afloat into the middle, from whence it was impossible for you to escape till
the manager returned you to your former place."

124 EDDYSTONE LIGHT-HOUSE.

foundation, making all solid near twenty feet high ; and taking down
the upper part of the first building, and enlarging every part in its pro-
portion, I raised it forty feet higher than it was at first, and made it as
it now appears ; and yet the sea, in time of storms, flies in appearance,
an hundred feet above the vane ; and at times, doth cover half the side
of the house, and the lantern, as it were, under water." The light-house
thus finished, had more the resemblance of a Chinese Pagoda, than of a
structure intended to resist the violence of the sea. In hard weather it
was commonly said, that such was the height of the waves, that a six-
oared boat might be lifted upon a billow and driven through the open
gallery of the light-house. The public predicted its destruction, but
Mr. Winstanley felt so well assured of its stability, that he expressed a
wish to be there " in the greatest storm that ever blew under the
face of the heavens." His wish was fatally gratified. On the twenty-
sixth of November, 1703, commenced a storm unparalleled for the
devastation it committed about the coast, and during which, Mr. Win-
Stanley, with his workmen and the light keepers, were in the building, all
of whom with the building were swept into the sea. Mr. Winstanley
had been entreated by experienced seamen, who urged the " brassy "
appearance of the sky and other indications of foul weather, not to risk
his life, but with great temerity he persisted, fully confident in the
capability of the light-house to resist any attack of the waves. As a
proof of their power, three days after the storm had abated, some
people went off to see if any thing remained, when the only vestiges
were a few large irons which had fastened the work to the rock, and
part of an iron chain, so firmly jambed into a chink, that it could not
be disengaged until 1756, when it was cut out. Shortly after this
calamitous occurrence, a Virginia merchantman, laden with tobacco,
was wrecked on the rocks at night, when every soul on board perished.
Three years afterwards, another light-house was commenced under
the superintendence of Mr. John Rudyerd, a silk-mercer, of Ludgate
Hill, and which being completed in three years, subsequently sustained
for forty six years successively the attacks of the sea, but was destroyed
by fire in August 1775. The fire broke out in the lantern, and burning
downwards, drove the men, who in vain attempted to extingush it, from
chamber to chamber, until at last, to avoid the falling of the timber and
the red hot bolts, they took refuge in a cave on the east side of the rock,
where they were found at low water in a state little short of stupefaction,
and conveyed to Plymouth. One of them on his arrival made off, and

EDDYSTONE LIGHT-HOUSE. 125

was never afterwards heard of, which was at the time attributed to his
having wilfully set the light-house on fire, a conjecture not at all sup-
ported by probability, there being much greater reason for supposing
that he took to flight from a panic-stricken feeling of fear.

The present light-house was after this erected by Mr. Smeaton on an
improved plan, the proprietors having determined to spare no expense in
" advancing so noble, so beneficial, so humane a design, that this preser-
vative of trade and navigation should be rendered as durable as nature
and art could furnish means of doing." In the most ingenious and
scientific way that skill could devise, Mr. Smeaton commenced and
completed his undertaking, rearing a beautiful stone fabric, to which the
last stone was placed on the twenty-fifth of August, 1759. Between the
latter end of August and the middle of October, the lantern and cupola
were erected, and the whole edifice surmounted by a gilt ball. The lan-
tern is octagon, the frame work being composed of cast iron and copper.
On the night of the sixteenth of October, when the light was exhibited
in the new light-house, a very great storm happened, and the light
keepers observed a very sensible motion in the building ; but, from their
experience of its strength, they were neither agitated by fear nor surprise.
The outside and basement is built of granite, but the interior is chiefly
of Portland stone.

To those who " go down into the sea in ships," or to those who admire
the efforts of human enterprise, that occasionally in its daring, lords it
over the most turbulent of the elements, even unto a more humble class
who are content to be delighted with the representation of the natural
and beautiful wherever they may find them, we appeal with pleasure,
fully convinced that all will pay a just tribute of admiration to the
engraving of the Eddystone Light House, and pronounce it a conspicuous
ornament to a volume of Coast Scenery.

K K

126

WORTHBARROW BAY, DORSETSHIRE.

WOR.THBARROW, or Worbarrow Bay, as it is sometimes called, is one of
those numerous inlets that abound on the coast of Dorsetshire, and
which contribute so much to the romantic beauty of that dangerous
shore. It is situated off Tyneham, between East Lullworth and Corfe
Castle, and near the eastern extremity of the county bordering upon
Hampshire. Like much of the adjacent coast, it is full of bold and
peculiar features. At no great distance from it, is Lullworth Cove, a
sort of natural bason, into which the sea flows through a wide gap in
the cliff sufficient for the entrance of vessels of seventy or eighty tons
burthen. " The rocks around it," says Dr. Maton, in his Observations
on the Western Counties, " rise to a great height, particularly those
opposite the entrance, which are composed of a hard calcareous grit ;
those nearer to the main sea-coast, consist of a shelly lime-stone (similar
to that of Peverel Point * and Saint Adhelm's Head) and chert : and it
is observable that the strata of these substances on one side of the Cove
correspond exactly to those of the other, both in direction and texture.
It may be remarked too, that the whole range quite from Peverel Point
makes the same angle, about forty-five degrees with the horizon, or
nearly so, pitching, or dipping, in general, to the north. The rocks
west of the Cove have been undermined in a singular manner by the
sea ; and there are large grotesque caverns, through which it pours with
an awful roar. Immense masses seem just ready to drop in the deep,
exhibiting marks of some wonderful convulsion : alterations in their
aspect daily take place, and the depth and extent of the sea within the
Cove have considerably increased even in the memory of several natives

* The most eastern point in the county, and about ten miles distant from Worthbarrow
Bay.

WORTHBARROW BAY. 127

of the village. Above these rocks the razor bill and puffin lay their
eggs. They generally make their appearance towards the middle of
May, and emigrate before the end of August. The former deposits its
eggs on the bare rocks ; and even those belonging to different birds are
placed contiguous to each other. These eggs are food for the country
people, who often run most terrific risks, by trusting themselves at the
end of a rope to the strength only of one person above, if whose footing
should be insecure, they must both tumble down the precipice together."
Near to the Cove is one of those wonderful marine curiosities, an arched
rock ; the opening is from fifteen to twenty feet high in the middle,
the arch projecting into the sea from the shore, unlike the one in
the Isle of Wight, which rises on two natural pillars, and is distinct
from the shore.

The inhabitants of Dorsetshire were anciently called Durotriges, signi-
fying maritime people, or dwellers on the sea-shore, and although it is
at present a considerable agricultural county, yet along the whole line
of coast, the numbers employed in the fisheries still justify its ancient
title. The mackerel fishery is the most considerable, and so abundant
at times has been the supply, and so skilful or fortunate the fishermen,
that as many as thirty or forty thousand have been taken at a draught,
and sold at a hundred for a penny. But the coast is dangerous, and
the fishermen superstitious. If a season of scarcity arrives, they attri-
bute the failure of their endeavours to the commission of some enormity
among themselves, or among the people of the neighbouring villages.
Shooting the seines * on a Sunday, manuring the land with superabun-
dant fish in a plentiful season, or proceeding to sea on a Monday morn-
ing without having performed their usual devotions, are causes severally
assigned for any calamity. Not one of these irregularities but is held in
universal abhorrence, and should any presumptuous sailor violate the
common belief in any of these respects, his comrades regard him as the
Jonah who has provoked the fury of the tempest : that the fish will quit
their coast ; that their nets and boats will be destroyed ; or that they
themselves will become the victims of the elements, are among the mis-
fortunes they surely forebode. Even in the best of seasons, however,
their success is naturally precarious. " Whenever it blows," says the
author from whom we have just quoted, " a capfull of wind from the
south or west points, there is a very large surf on the shore, so that it is

* For a description of seines, see St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall, p. 4.

128 WORTHBARROW BAY.

not only dangerous to launch the boat, but the net could not be drawn
with any probability of success, when tossed in every direction by the
boisterous waves, which, instead of fish, would fill it with pebbles and
floating sand." But the nature of the coast, with its mountain tops, that
" midway leave the storm," and of the perilous disasters incident to it,
may be better understood by the engraving of Worthbarrow Bay, than
by any written description of its terrors.

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