4. DOVER.64
Dover lies by the sea in the mouth of a long deep valley of the east
Kent uplands. Chalk downs tower above it on either side. To the east are
the cliffs of the precipitous Castle Hill. Opposite, with a slightly
gentler ascent, rise the Western Heights. In the middle of the valley
the tiny stream of the Dour makes its way to the sea. The shore is a bar
of sand and shingle heaped through long years by the Channel currents,
but never heaped high enough wholly to block the river mouth. Behind
this bar, fed by the little river, spreads a lagoon, which, till the
great expansion of recent years, provided a harbour for Dover. The mouth
of the lagoon now opens beneath the seaward cliff of the Western
Heights. In earlier days, before the shingle had gathered thick and
pushed the river westwards, the lagoon and its mouth alike lay under the
Castle Hill near the Burlington Hotel. The harbour can never have been
deep or spacious. But it was sheltered by tall hills from northern and
western winds. It could be approached from the sea without fear of shoal
or quicksand. It was the one natural haven in the long range of chalk
cliffs between Walmer and Hythe. It was the nearest point to the
continent of Europe. It commanded the narrow seas at their narrowest
point. All this was recognized, but perhaps not fully recognized, in
Roman times. The true value of Dover was first seen in the Middle Ages.
Indeed, its importance has steadily grown as the years have gone by.
To-day Dover counts for very much more than we shall find it counting in
Roman days.
The Roman remains of Dover consist of a few traces of
inhabitation beside the harbour in the valley, some cemeteries, and the
remains of two lighthouses—the one still standing and the other almost
vanished—on the two heights which overhang the valley (Fig. 11).
(i) The traces of building in the valley represent no doubt
the Roman settlement at Dover. They do not tell us much about it, but
they are well worth recording and mapping (P1.
VIII).
(1) Near the parish church of St. Mary, walling has been
noted at and close to the site of Biggin Gate. It contained ‘bricks of
an extraordinary size, stone and other materials, singularly hard and
firm.’ Something of the same sort was observed about 1831—2 a little
east of this at Eastbrook.65 Whether this wall was
Roman or medieval, the description does not indicate.
(2) At various times the remains of a Roman bath-building
have been found under the west end of St. Mary’s church, and extending
both north and south of it. In I 77 8—9 the Rev. John Lyon saw parts
of a narrow passage and four rooms, one or perhaps two provided with
hypocausts and flue-tiles and another with ducts for water. His very
summary plan suggests two periods of Roman work. Some of the tiles bore
the stamp CL. BR (P1. IX, No. 5), showing that the building (or at least
its material) was officially connected with the classis Britannica or
the Channel Fleet. During the restoration of the church in I 843, Canon
Puckle found under the three western bays of the nave, at a
64 For the structural
remains of Roman Dover, see Wheeler, Arch. Journ. lxxxvi, 29; and
Amos and Wheeler, Ibid., p. 47. Much information has kindly been
supplied by Mr. E. G. J. Amos.
65 Puckle, Arch. Cant. xx, 129; Batchellor, Guide
to Dover (Dover, 1845), pp. 12—14. A solid wall found on the
sea-front, between Butchery Gate and Snargate, must have been the
sea-wall of the medieval town. A fragment of this wall can still be seen
in Townwall Street, where it is carried on an old arch over the Dour. |