IX. A CONCLUDING RETROSPECT.
In closing this Section, which has been designed as an omnibus to carry a variety of matters about the social state of Dover, which could not have been conveniently included in the earlier Sections of the book, we will take a retrospective view of Dover and its people at various out.standing periods.
In history's dawn we see the ancient Britons in battle array on the Dover cliffs, differing greatly in many respects from Dovorians of to-day, yet as true and patriotic as those of the Twentieth Century. Adventurous have the mariners of Dover ever been. In pre-Roman times their primitive ships crossed over to Gaul, transporting British warriors to assist their neighbours to keep out invaders, like as they have done in their greater ships and more imposing hosts in these latter days. In Saxon times the cradle of tiie British Navy was represented by the twenty-one ships which Dover maintained for the King's service; and although the day is long past when the Cinque Ports figured largely in nautical affairs, the great National Harbour at Dover and the war ships that use it, continues and magnifies the glory of the Cinque Ports days. It was the Mariners of Dover who founded the famous Dover Passage, which, with improved ships, from age to age has kept up and increased the con tinuous stream of Continental travellers.
Dynastic changes have had very little effect on the social life of Dover. When Earl Godwin ruled in Saxon times, Dover mariners were his staunch supporters ; and when Edward I. gave his great Cinque Ports Charter, which organised the Five Ports and their members in a maritime confederation, his Fleet always received its largest number of ships from Dover ; and, to-day, Dover is the only port of the confederation which has an effective harbour, and the town that has most continuously striven to keep alive the memory of the Cinque Ports days. Always patriotic, when Kings misruled the men of Dover were loth to lift hand or voice against " the Lord's Anointed "; but when there was no King to be loyal to, they did their best to " carry on" until the times did alter. The people of Dover have always had strong opinions, especially on religious and political matters, but they knew where to draw the line. It has been jocularly said that when " George in pudding time came o'er, they turned, like cat-in-pan once more, and embraced the creed of Whigs." That saying did for a joke, and it described the official Whigs of the Georgian Period, but there remained staunch Tories in Dover, nor is the breed likely to die out.
Dover, from the earliest times, margined a charming bay, and although Saxons, Normans and English have slightly modified its features, the Town and Port still nestles between the tall, white cliffs, the addition of forty thousand more people to the population having altered but little the physical features. Dovorians, both indwellers as well as Dovorians scattered all over the world, are proud of the status of the Port and the traditions of the people. Features strikingly characteristic of the old times remain ; the Roman Pharos and Norman Keep crowning the eastern hill, and the Bredenstone topping the Western Heights. The Maison Dieu, the Priory, and the old Churches (what is left of them) are carefully utilised. Of the narrow and crooked streets and lanes, there are some quaint old specimens left, although the necessities of traffic have made the widening of some of them absolutely indispensable. Dovorians in far-off lands, before they left fifty years ago, may have heard the learned members of the Dover Philosophical Institution discussing the probability of there being thick coal-beds underlying Dover. The dreams of those days have come true. Coal and iron have been found, but although those trea.sures of the earth may in the future enrich the locality and swell the population, the characteristic beauties of Dover, " situate on hill and dale," there is reason to hope will remain as long as suns shine and tides ebb and flow.
FINIS.