CHAPTER IV.
THE TOWER AT DOVER.
The summit of the lofty down at Dover, now crowned by the famous castle, with its Norman keep and towers, was used as a military post from a very remote antiquity. There can be little doubt that the Britons here kept watch and ward: that it was the site of a Roman stronghold, we know from indisputable evidence. A circular entrenchment of Roman work is still extant, and so too are the remains of the Roman lighthouse, whose steady blaze lighted the imperial galleys as they hovered about the port, or guided the British oyster-boats returning from their market at Boulogne.
With the history of the stronghold, however, we have nothing to do. It is the pharos which attracts our steps, and induces us to ascend the steep acclivity. A recent antiquary is of opinion that there were two lights; one on the eastern, and the other on the western edge of the hill. The ruins of the latter are so shapeless and indistinct that no description of them could interest the reader, or enable him to picture to his “mind’s eye” the form and structure of the ancient edifice. Of the former enough remains to assist our imagination very materially.
THE TOWER AT DOVER.