portsmen were of considerable service to the king during the campaigns in 1303 and 1306.

Several of the sailors left the king's service without permission, and the Warden with John de Northwode were employed on a commission to inquire into their conduct. In 1304 a levy of twenty ships was made upon the Ports for service against Flanders, but Dover was exempted from furnishing either men or vessels. The fleet was again employed in Scotland, Dover finding her usual proportion. It will be sufficient to add that with the death of Edward I., which took place in July, 1307, began the gradual decline of the Ports as the first naval power of the kingdom.

In 1298 the king granted a charter to Dover and six other towns, in which they were made "quit of all tallage and aids payable from their own ships". And as regards the merchandise which they may buy in Ireland, "no one shall participate with them against their will". "Also all persons born within the Cinque Ports may marry according to the liberty of the Ports, although they may hold lands outside, and, therefore, their marriage, by reason of minority, belongs to the king."

John de la Sale, a citizen of Dover, received a gift from the king of the "Cogge Scarlate of Santander, with all her fittings," as he was going on the king's service to Scotland. This was probably some prize taken from the

66

enemy. Another citizen, Nicolas Archer, received licence to export corn and other victuals to Gascony as he meant to bring back wine". In the succeeding reign he was made Bailiff of Sandwich, and received a gift of land, the king being in his debt for passage provided for the queen.

John Oxe, also of Dover, received full pardon for the murder of a Canterbury citizen, "for good service in

Scotland". This gallant soldier, but indifferent character, found it necessary to appeal for further royal protection, as five years later we find a second writ of pardon issued to him "for divers robberies and felonies and other trespasses, and of the outlawry incurred thereby ".

EDWARD II. TO EDWARD III., 1307-1377.

To the beginning of the reign of Edward II. may most fitly be ascribed the enclosing of the town with walls. It is not without hesitation that we put aside the statement made by Captain Burrows in his Cinque Ports that "Dover alone was certainly walled in Norman times," but in the absence of any direct record of the fact, and the easy capture of the town recorded in the previous chapter, we are induced to believe that it was not until the fourteenth century had commenced that walls were first built. It is worthy of notice that no repairs to any of the gates are recorded until the fifteenth century had well set in, although the accounts of the town exist from 1365. Those who claim a still earlier date, like the late Canon Puckle, partly base their arguments on the fact that two of the gates were named after two Roman emperors, Hadrian and Severus. This is very

insufficient proof to adduce against the fact that nothing at all approaching the remains of a Roman wall has yet been discovered. Moreover, gates with such names do not appear in any of the older documents connected with Dover. The direction of the old walls may be traced with a fair amount of exactitude, especially as portions of them existed until comparatively modern times. The naming of the gates presents greater diffi

culties. According to the best authorities the wall starting from the foot of the Castle hill was pierced by an opening called Eastbrook Gate. From thence, in a south-westerly direction, the wall ran down to the sea, where the important "Sea Gate" stood. According to Lyon, the wall was pierced between Eastbrook Gate and the sea by St. Helen's Gate and a fisherman's postern, both near the old harbour. The Sea Gate, called also "Butchery" or "Cochery" Gate, was in all probability the entry into the harbour, as a bridge at Cochery Gate is spoken of in 1475. The wall was continued along Townwall Street to Boldware Gate, which stood near Bench Street. This would appear to be the gate named Severus by Lyon, and said by him to have been used as the office of the king's custom officer. "Here was а place paved with stone, where the merchants used to transact business, and in course of time it was called Pennyless Bench." In earlier days the market seems to have been held here, and it is curious that a similar name was given to a bench near Carfax in Oxford, which was used by the hucksters and butter women of that city. Near to Boldware in the wall was a tower called Standfast," mentioned in 1428, which was in use as the mayor's prison in the sixteenth century. Mr. Lyon's identification of the remains of this tower, partly standing in his day, with St. Nicholas' Church, is unquestionably wrong. It was called Marshes or Prison Tower (vol. i., p. 135). The next opening was called Snar Gate, built about 1370, and sometimes called Pier Gate. We believe this to have been a sluice gate which afforded an exit to the river after the old harbour became useless. The position of this gate is still marked by an inscribed tablet. It was taken down in 1588, the new harbour works having rendered it useless. The wall then turning

to the north was pierced by the Upwall Gate, but why it is called "Adrian's" by Mr. Lyon we have not been able to discover. The New Gate "at Wenlocks Clyffe is mentioned in 1596, but we cannot place it. The Cow Gate leading to the Common was also in the north face of the wall, as well as the Wall Gate, originally a postern to the Priory. A tower called Tinker's existed about 1470 somewhere in the north wall, and it would seem probable that several towers, whose names and positions have alike been lost, were erected between the gates. The last gate in the circuit of the walls was Bekyn," or Biggin as it is now generally written, and was apparently the main entry into the town from the land side. This gate was demolished about 1750, and the Cow Gate in 1776. It will be seen, therefore, that the town was originally very small, extending from St. James's Church in the east to the top of Snargate Street in the west; and from Townwall Street to the cliff above Adrian Street and Saxon Street in the north. Small as the space enclosed was, it sufficed the needs of the population until the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the town began to extend towards what is now known as the Pier District. A considerable part of the town was occupied by ecclesiastical buildings, viz., St. Martin-le-Grand, St. Mary the Virgin, St. Peter, and St. James the Apostle. A description of these churches will be found in chapter x., and nothing further need be said about them here.

At some date posterior to the Conquest the number of ships provided by Dover was increased from twenty to twenty-one, and we find that the town was divided into a similar number of wards, termed in 1429 Bekyn, Burman, Bullys, Canon, Castledene, Derman, Delfys, Deeper, Halfguden, Horsepol, Moryns, Nankyn, Ox, Snargate, Syngyl,