On his return from Palestine, after his father’s death, in the summer of 1274, Edward I. landed at Dover. He again visited the castle in 1278, 1296, and 1299. Dover was his usual port when he visited or returned from the Continent, and in his time the castle was maintained and strengthened, and some of its most considerable parts, such as the Constable’s Gate and St. John’s Postern, are of the conclusion of the reign of Henry or early in that of Edward, and most probably the latter.
Edward II. was here in the January following his father’s death, and here he embarked for Boulogne on the occasion of his marriage in 1308, and here he received the queen. Edward III. was not infrequently at Dover, but is more likely to have lodged in the Maison Dieu than in the castle. He probably drew troops from hence when he sailed from the port on his celebrated secret expedition to Calais in 1348. In the reign of Henry V. the Emperor Sigismond was received at the castle as a visitor, and from hence the king embarked his army for France in 1421, as did Henry VII. in 1491.
Henry VIII. suppressed the Maison Dieu, the celebrated foundation of Hubert de Burgh, within which very many kings and princes had been entertained, but the castle was an object of his special care, and was repaired and garrisoned. Henry also built the blockhouses of Sandown, Deal, Walmer, and Sandgate, and placed them under the charge of the Constable of Dover. Three bulwarks also were constructed under the cliff and upon the pier of the harbour. Later on the castle fell into neglect, and in the reign of Charles I., being garrisoned by a small force, and but little cared for, it was taken by surprise and held for the Parliament. In 1648 the Kentish royalists made a vigorous effort to recover it, but were repulsed by Algernon Sydney, then its governor.
DESCRIPTION.
Dover Castle is called by Matthew Paris “the very front door of England,” and described by William of Poitou as “Situm est id castellum in rupe mari contigua quæ naturaliter acuta undique ad hoc ferramentis elaborate incisa, in speciem muri directissima altitudine, quantum sagittæ jactus permetiri potest consurgit, quo in latere unda marina alluitur.” It presents a good combination of the defences of several architectural periods, the general result being a concentric fortress, the growth of many centuries, and which, a century ago, presented much both of earthwork and masonry of great and unmixed antiquarian interest. More recently, however, the works have been delivered over to the military authorities of the country, and the result has been a series of alterations, additions, and removals, necessary, it is in all courtesy to be presumed, for the defence of the country, but very destructive of the ancient features of the fortress. The ancient earthworks have been scarped, extended, retrenched, and tunnelled, barracks and magazines have been built, the keep has been converted into storerooms and water-tanks, and in its basement are two powder magazines. In its present condition, and having regard to the strict regulations, prohibiting even the use of the pencil, under which the whole is placed, an accurate examination of what remains of the ancient works, whether in earth or masonry, is almost impracticable.
The British camp was oblong, following the figure of the hill. It was composed of a deep and broad ditch, the contents of which were in part thrown inwards and upwards so as to form a bank. The area thus enclosed measured within the bank about 875 yards by 350 yards, the latter being its diameter at the cliff, by which it is cut off, the northern end running to a point. This main ditch has probably been deepened and more or less altered during the Norman period, and it is now connected with various bastions, hornworks, and caponnières, but its general outline is sufficiently clear, and it may, from internal evidence, be presumed to be British. Within the area, rather nearer to its northern end, a second earthwork, also composed of bank and ditch, has been thrown up. This includes the lighthouse tower, and is therefore called the Roman ditch, but there is nothing about it of a Roman character, and it is far more probable that it was the work of the English, and formed the inner defence of the castle which Harold undertook to surrender. The space between this and the great earthwork forms the outer ward of the Norman castle; the inner work has been divided into two parts. That to the south, containing the lighthouse, forms the middle ward; that to the north contains the keep, and is the inner ward. The lighthouse has been employed as a belfry to the adjacent church of St. Mary, which is the subject of an excellent memoir by Mr. Puckle, though he can scarcely be admitted to establish its connexion with the British church. The two are undoubtedly the oldest buildings within the castle area.
The Keep and Inner Ward are Norman, of the reign of Henry II., but the curtain and most of its towers have been refaced or rebuilt, a great part recently, but more or less on the old lines. The plan is an irregular polygon, about 120 yards each way, with fourteen rectangular mural towers of no internal projection, and not rising above the curtain, which, however, is lofty. Two of those to the south-west take their name from Magminot and one from Gore. The walls were of flint rubble, quoined with ashlar, and battering outside at the base, the top of which is marked by a bold cordon of stone. Upon the sides of some of the towers are bold machicolated openings from garderobes. The keep stands detached in the centre of the ward, and within the area, built against the walls, are several buildings, as Arthur’s Hall, the guard chamber, and the officers’ quarters, some of early English character, others modern.
There are two entrances, the north, or King’s Gate, and the south, the Duke of Suffolk’s, or Palace Gate. The gateways are vaulted passages, with a flat segmental arch, opening externally between two square flanking towers. There is a groove for a portcullis, and the vaults have an early English import. Each of these gates is defended by an additional work. A sort of hornwork is thrown out in advance, enclosed within a wall with towers, and with a second gate placed obliquely to the first, to allow the approach to be commanded. The north, called the King’s Gate, is tolerably perfect. The southern outwork is nearly destroyed. It had two gates, one to the south, connected with which was the tower containing a well, and one to the east, called King Arthur’s Gate, close to which was the Armourer’s Tower, and near this was Earl Godwin’s Postern. The masonry of this inner ward was probably of the date of the keep. It was included within a broad and deep ditch, now incomplete, on the southern front.
The Middle Ward includes the southern half of what was probably the English earthwork. Its southern two-thirds is rounded, but at its base are, or were, walls and towers connecting it right and left with the curtain of the outer ward, which it thus divided into two parts. In advance of this work were three towers: two, to the east and west, Clinton and Mortimer, were square. Both seem to have been of Norman date. The central tower to the south was circular, and was called Valence. It was, no doubt, later, probably of the reign of Henry III. The foundations of Clinton Tower were laid open and removed in 1794. A fragment of Mortimer’s Tower remains. Valence Tower was destroyed in the last century. The gatehouse of the ward is called Colton Gate. It is Norman, but an octagonal story has been added to the square base. The curtain connecting these towers is gone, and the lofty south bank has been scarped, and its outline changed. In this ward is a well 380 feet deep, once covered by a tower.
The Outer Ward is contained within a curtain, much of which is reduced by an internal ramp to a parapet wall. Upon the three landward sides it is narrow, and chiefly occupied by the ditch of the middle and inner wards. Upon the remaining or southern side it expands and includes a large space between the middle ward and the cliff. Its circuit is only not complete because its walls rest at either end upon the cliff. The plan of the wall is irregular, with an occasional angle or shoulder for raking the ditch. Exteriorly it rises from the outer dry ditch, and upon it are twenty-seven towers of various dates, figures, and dimensions, square, circular, and multiangular. Most of those on the western face are simply hollow bastions, and have no internal projection. Those on the eastern face are mostly mere sentry-boxes, or bartizan turrets of small dimensions. Upon the seaward front, where the cliff is perpendicular, there is no wall. The ingenuity of the engineer has been exercised on the landward and weaker sides. Five of the towers are connected with gates. These towers, commencing at the south-west angle of the ward, near the cliff, are: 1. Canon’s or Monk’s Gate, now destroyed; in it was a well. 2. Rokesley’s Tower, semicircular. 3. Fulbert de Dover’s Tower, square; near which was long the office of the “bodar,” or sergeant-at-arms, to whom all civil warrants of arrest for debt or breach of the revenue laws were addressed. Fulbert’s Tower was also his prison. 4. Hirst’s Tower, semicircular; it commands a shoulder or re-entering angle in the wall. 5. Arsick’s Tower, semicircular. 6. Gatton Tower. 7. Peverill’s, Beauchamp’s, or Marshall’s Tower. This is also the gatehouse between the two divisions of the outer ward, which was strong, with a ditch on the south front, and a drawbridge. It was also the marshal’s prison. 8. Port, Gosling, or Queen Mary’s Tower, having been repaired by that sovereign. 9. Fiennes’s Tower, or the Constable’s Gate. This is one of the grandest gateways in England. It is in plan a triangle with its obtuse angle presented to the field. The angles at the base fall within the line of the curtain, and are capped by two large drum towers. The salient angle in like manner is capped by an oblong tower, rounded at each end and flat in the centre, through which the entrance passes. These three towers are large and lofty, and are connected by an embattled curtain. Within the triangle a central tower rises to a still greater height, and commands the whole. The entrance passage is broad and vaulted, and provided with gates and a portcullis. Within, it opens upon the level of the outer ward; without, it terminates abruptly upon the scarp of the ditch, there about 50 feet deep. From this gateway a bridge communicates with the opposite bank. A single lofty pier rises from the centre of the ditch, and from it an arch springs to the outer abutment, carrying a regular roadway and parapets. In the opposite direction the parapets alone spring, as two arches, from the pier to the gateway, and serve to steady the pier, but the roadway is omitted, and its place supplied by a drawbridge. This arrangement is not uncommon, but is here specially necessary, owing to the height and consequent weakness of the pier. Upon the counterscarp of the ditch is a tête-de-pont, from which a steep road descends by a traverse towards the town. This gate, though open, is but little used. The ordinary gate is modern, and near the site of Canon’s Gate. The Constable’s Gate is of the Decorated period. Its interior is said to be very curious, but is not shown.