the Roman Baths. This statue is now in the Dover Museum.

With the departure of the Romans from Britain we enter upon a period of history that is practically a blank. Tradition asserts that the Jutes, Hengist and Horsa, followed by a band of sea-rovers, landed at Ebbsfleet about the middle of the fifth century. They had been invited by the British to assist them in driving back the Picts, and received the Island of Thanet as their dwellingplace. Having once obtained a footing in Britain these fierce auxiliaries were more than unwilling to leave it, and in less than twenty-five years the whole of Kent was in their possession. All the Roman fortresses along the coast had been subdued, Dover among them. We know very little beyond the bare fact that they were captured, but they probably suffered the same fate as Anderida which, after a long blockade, was starved out, and the South Saxons rushing in "slew all that dwelt therein, nor was there henceforth one Briton left ". What occurred at Dover at that time, or during the following century, will never be known. One fact alone remains clear, that, after practically destroying every Roman building and institution, and, as some assert, the entire British population, the English conquerors gradually settled down into more civilised and peaceful habits. Towards the end of the sixth century Æthelberht was King of Kent, and gained a supremacy over most of the kings ruling south of the Humber. With the return of civilisation came also the return of the continental trade, and we may credit Dover with occupying a similar, or even better position, to that which it had enjoyed in the days of the Romans. As a result of this renewed intercourse with Gaul, Ethelberht married Bertha the Christian daughter of Charibert, king of a Frankish tribe,

and it is almost impossible to exaggerate the important influence that this event had upon the subsequent history of our island. It prepared the way for the mission of St. Augustine in 597, and opened up the southern portions of England to the civilising methods of the Christian Church. Dover Castle was very soon occupied by a devoted band of monks, who by the example of their lives rather than by their preaching won the hearts of the people. During the next two hundred years we may imagine the town growing and prospering, and the traffic with the continent and the herring fishery adding to its wealth and importance. In 691 the Priory of St. Martinle-Grand was established in the town, having been removed from the Castle by Withred the reigning king.

Towards the end of the eighth century the shores of England were again ravaged by a continental foe, this time coming from Norway and Denmark. These Northmen or Danes were still heathen, their only religion being a religion of war and plunder. They believed that a warrior who died fighting was received by their God Odin in Valhalla, where a perpetual battle was waged between the immortal dead. All wounds received during the fierce strife were healed each night in order that all might partake of the daily feast and be prepared for a renewal of the contest on the morrow. The man unfortunate enough to die peaceably in his bed was condemned to a dreary eternity in the realms of Hela, the Norse equivalent for hell. Holding such a creed as this, it may be imagined that the Norsemen were not a foe to be despised, and the ravages they committed on the English coast were terrible and continuous. first they came with a mere desire of plunder, and, after landing on some fertile spot, would raid and devastate the neighbouring district, load their ships with spoil, and

At

sail away. There can be no doubt that Dover, with other places along the coast, suffered considerably from their visits, but it is not probable that they succeeded in destroying the fortifications on the heights. In 851 they remained the whole winter in Thanet, and sacked both Canterbury and London, but were finally defeated by Ethelwulf at Ockley in Surrey. During the next four years they permanently occupied the greater part of England, the south-eastern corner, comprising Wessex, Sussex and Kent, alone retaining its independence. In 878 the Danish king Guthrun made a successful attack upon Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, and drove him. back into Somersetshire. Alfred, however, was able to renew the contest before the end of the year, and totally defeated Guthrun at a place called Ethandun. The result of this battle was the peace of Chippenham, by which Alfred was confirmed in the possession of Wessex, Sussex, Kent and a part of Mercia. Guthrun retaining the remainder of England, which henceforth became known as the "Danelagh". For over a hundred years Kent was comparatively peaceful, and it was not until 994 that a new invasion of Danes under Olaf Trygvasson and Svend caused immense destruction of property and loss of life throughout the whole of Alfred's former kingdom. It should be remembered that at the end of the tenth century the whole of England was united under the rule of one king, and that this invasion was entirely due to the incapacity of the king, Ethelred the "Unready". It was in his reign also that the English connection with Normandy began which ended so disastrously for the former state. In 1002 Ethelred married Emma sister of Richard the "Good," Duke of Normandy, who, after the death of Ethelred, was married a second time to Cnut, who became King of England in 1016. In

Cnut's reign the country was divided into three great provinces, Northumberland, Mercia and Wessex, ruled over by earls. An Englishman, Godwine, was Earl of the West Saxons, and was, therefore, under the king, responsible for the government of Kent. He died in 1053, and was succeeded by Harold, his second son, who died at Senlac in 1066.

There are very few documents which throw any light upon the condition of the towns in England during the Saxon period, but we are fortunate in having certain information about Dover in the reign of Edward the Confessor which enables us to prove that it was a place of considerable importance in his days. In 1048, Eustache, Earl of Boulogne, visited Edward the Confessor at Gloucester where he was holding his court. "On his return, when at a short distance from Dover, Eustache and his men put on their armour, and, entering into the town in a rude manner, they proceeded to take forcible possession of the lodgings which pleased them best. This was a right which the feudal barons of the continent claimed under the title of the droit de gîte, and which was expressly provided against in the English municipal charters subsequent to the Conquest. One of Eustache's men went to the dwelling of a townsman, and wounded the householder because he refused to admit him. The latter seized his own weapon and slew the intruder. 'Then,' to use the words of the contemporary Saxon chronicler, Eustache got upon his horse, and his companions upon theirs, and they went to the householder and slew him within his own dwelling; and then went up towards the burgh, and slew, as well within as without, more than twenty men. And the townsmen slew nineteen of the count's men, and wounded they knew not how many, and Eustache escaped with only a

few companions.' Eustache returned to the king, gave a partial account of the affair, and made him so wrath with the townsmen that he ordered Godwine, in whose Earldom of Kent the occurrence had taken place, to proceed with an army against the men of Dover. But Earl Godwine, knowing that Eustache had begun the quarrel, espoused the cause of the townsmen, and an irruption of the Welsh seems to have turned the king's attention in another direction. Four years after this, in 1052, Count Eustache again visited King Edward, and on his landing at Dover the old feud was renewed. Then,' says the chronicler, 'went his men inconsiderately after lodgings, and slew a certain man of the town, and then another, until seven lay slain. And much harm was then done on both sides, both with horse and with weapons, until the people gathered together, and then Eustache's men fled away till they came to the king at Gloucester.' On this second occasion Godwine more openly took the part of the townsmen of Dover, and, raising a considerable army, marched towards the king, and demanded that Count Eustache and his men should be delivered into his hands. We have here a town virtually claiming a very important municipal right, and defending it by force; while the king proceeds, not judicially against the individuals who had offended him, but against the whole corporate body, as though it were an independent state" (Celt, Roman and Saxon, pp. 511 512). That Dover possessed chartered privileges of some kind is certain, for in the Domesday Book it is distinctly stated that in return for the burgesses providing twenty ships for fifteen days' service annually, without cost to the king, they were granted the rights of sac and soc. entry in the Domesday Book is as follows:

The