Preface

The welcome given to my previous book, " Dover; a Perambulation," encouraged me to proceed with "The Annals of Dover," a work to which the former was a natural introduction. In the "Perambulation" I narrated the historical association of things which meet the eye in walking the streets and climbing the heights of Dover; but the "Annals" go deeper into local history, telling the story of the Town, Port and Fortress as fully as the limits of one volume will permit. 

In considering the order in which these "Annals " should be recorded, it had to be remembered that Dover presents many phases, and that, for centuries, many of its institutions have had their special spheres of operation;  therefore, I have arranged the "Annals " in nine stctions, under which the histories of the Castle, the Port, the Passage, Religion, the Corporation, the Mayors and their Times, Officers of the Corporation, Dover in Parliament, and Social Life are given. 

In gathering my materials I have been aided by the many manuscripts stored in the Dover Corporation's Muniment Cabinet, and other records of Dover which are preserved in the British Museum and the Record Office. 

In writing of the Castle, however, I had to follow the track of earlier historians, for the original records of that ancient fortress have been scattered or destroyed. It is known, for instance, that an original copy of Magna Carta, deposited at this Castle by Hubert de Burgh, soon after King John signed it, was, in the Reign of Charles I., handed by one of the Constable's Lieutenants to Sir Robert Cotton, who added it to his library, which is now in the British Museum. The same official dealt in like manner with some Saxon Charters and the famous Domesday Book of the Cinque Ports. The scattering of the Castle Records had 
begun much earlier and was continued later, therefore it is not a matter of surprise that there is little left at Dover Castle to encourage original research. 

Touching the history of the Port, the Passage and the Religious EstabHshments of Dover, the manuscripts in the possession of the Corporation, as well as those of the Record Office and the British Museum, afford a superabundance of material, and the same embarrassing richness was available in dealing with the History of the Corporation, the Mayors and their Times, and the Officers of the Corporation. 

The history of Dover's Representation in Parliament has not been previously attempted, probably owing to the difficulty of obtaining the facts from the 287 bundles of Chancery Returns now stored in the Record Office ; but a modern Blue-Book having given an abstract of them, that obstacle is removed. Founded on that abstract is the section, " Dover in Parliament," the official skeleton of names and dates having been clothed with contemporary facts which I have gathered from Sir Francis Palgrave's Collection of Parliamentary Writs, from the Minute Books of the Corporation, and the narratives of ancient Freemen of Dover whose memories went further back than the Parliamentary Reform Bill of 1832. 

The concluding section, on Social History, is an omnium-gatherum which includes a variety of topics of much historical interest, which might have been treated more fully if space had permitted. 

The book was written, and the printing had been commenced, before the outbreak of the Great War in 191 4, and the completing of the printing, under war conditions, led to some curtailment of the latter parts of the volume. 

In this Preface I have stated generally the sources from which I have obtained my information, so as to avoid the use of foot-notes, which are never very acceptable to the general reader^ but, from time to time, my authorities for important historical statements are mentioned in the text.
  Dover, 1916.