THE NEW DOVER GUIDE; INCLUDING A CONCISE SKETCH OF THE ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY OF THE TOWN AND CASTLE, WITH SUCH OTHER GENERAL INFORMATION AS MAY BE USEFUL TO VISITORS AND A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE NEIGHBOURING VILLAGES. BY W. BATCHELLER. The Sixth Edition, much enlarged. EMBELLISHED WITH TWENTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS, AND PLANS OF THE Large portions of this small work, first published in 1829, and also of DOVER: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY W. BATCHELLER, LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND Co. TO THE READER. IN publishing a sixth edition of this short treatise, which is principally intended for the use of visitors, care has been taken to select such portions of Dover History, and such other particulars as may be most desirable and most interesting, so far as the limits, necessary to be observed, would admit. An addition has been made of at least twenty pages, and notice has been taken of the late discoveries relative to the further course of the Roman town wall, whose foundations had lain concealed through a period of many centuries, until traced and brought to light within the last few years. After giving a general outline of the Cinque Ports, among which Dover has ever held a conspicuous rank, the history of the town is delineated by taking a retrospective view of it under the victorious Romans, when it was enclosed with massy walls, battlements, and towers; under the sanguinary Saxons and Danes, during whose fierce conflicts the fortifications are supposed to have been mutilated or despoiled; and under the conquering Normans, who repaired the dilapidations, and adorned the place with magnificent buildings. These at length fell a prey to avarice and voluptuousness under the reforming hand of Henry the Eighth; and the prosperity of the town seems to have fallen with her stately edifices. Over a great part of the three next centuries a narrow self-interested policy appears to have shed its baneful influence. A momentous change has lately been effected in the local government of the town by the Reform Act; but should a spirit of selfishness, and a blind adherence to party be suffered to preponderate, whatever may be the change, no real or substantial good can result from it. The churches and religious houses have all been mentioned, and their situations pointed out; but many particulars relating to them have been necessarily omitted. It has been attempted in describing the harbour, to point out its ancient and modern state so concisely, that the visitor may be enabled to form a general conception of the various changes that have taken place in it. In describing the castle, endeavours have been used, with as much conciseness as possible, to illustrate the successive periods of its history during the space of nearly two thousand years; and to conduct the reader among the mouldering piles of the haughty Roman, and the massy walls and towers of the fierce Saxon, or the more finished and extended fortifications of the polished Norman, presenting before him, within a short distance of each other, specimens of ancient masonry, through a long succession of past ages. The present state of the fortress and its modern defences, have been duly considered. The grand and beautiful views of the surrounding scenery presented to the eye of an observer placed on its towering battlements, and the noble and commanding appearance of the castle itself, when observed from various points, have also claimed attention. A short description is given of the adjacent villages, whose picturesque and romantic beauties are strikingly calculated to excite an interest truly impressive and delightful. Miscellaneous articles, such as may claim a place in a work of this kind, are included in the Appendix. In addition to the four ground plans of the castle, and those of the ancient town wall, and St. Mary's church, this edition is embellished, at a considerable expense, with twenty-six illustrations. It is hoped they will prove acceptable to those who visit Dover, and enable them to describe more minutely to their friends whatever may be worthy of notice in this favorite and interesting watering-place. The confusion and defective arrangement in all former attempts of the kind, have been obvious to every reader; and much time has necessarily been employed in collecting the materials for this little work from various and numerous sources, and in reducing them to an orderly system. Nor was it an easy task to separate the heterogeneous mass, to place each subject in regular succession under its proper head, select some of the leading features, and compress them into so small a compass. |