Sandwich is in a miserable, decayed condition, following apace the downfall of its mother Rutupium: it might easily be made the best harbour on this coast, by cutting a new channel for the river about a mile and half through the sand-hills south easterly; for the water of the river Stour would sufficiently scour it, did it run strait, and with that direction. All the walls and bulworks of the town are dismantled, the gates tumbling down; and a few cannon lie scattered here and there. This town likewise might be made very strong; for, besides the river Stour, another rivulet runs through it, that would keep the ditches always full.
[118] At Hardres place, the seat of Sir William Hardres, lay king Henry VIII. when going upon his expedition at Boloign: he left his picture here, and an old dagger, very broad, and about as long as a Roman sword: the handle is of silver gilt and enamelled, with mottos on it. The old gates of this seat were the gates of Boloign, brought thence at that siege by Sir William’s ancestor, who accompanied the king.
[119] By St. Margaret’s are many natural cavities in the chalk cliffs, and an admirable large spring arising from the beach with great force when the tide is out.
[120] To Dover from Canterbury the Watling-street is still the common way: it is left intire over Barham downs, with a high ridge strait pointing to Canterbury cathedral tower: as soon as it enters the downs it traverses a group of Celtic barrows, then leaves a small camp of Cæsar’s: further on it has been basely inclosed through two fields, and levelled with ploughing: then it passes by a great single barrow, whereon stood the mill, which is now removed higher up: then it ascends the hill to a hedge corner, where are three barrows, a great one between two little ones, all inclosed with a double square intrenchment of no great bulk: I fancy them Roman, because parallel to, and close by, the Roman road: the great barrow has a cavity at top, and an entrance eastward; whether casually, or with design, I know not. At Lyddon the Watling-street falls into that noble valley of Dover, made of two huge ridges of chalk, which divide themselves into lesser valleys, dropping into the great one at regular distances, as the little leaves of plants meet at the main stem: this valley, when viewed from the end, looks like a landscape on scenes lessening, according to perspective, to Dover, between the two Phari and the sea at the end, inclosed between them. The street slides along the northern declivity, crosses the rivulet which wanders through the midst of the valley at Buckland, so to Biggin gate, where is its termination, by the side of the old port, having now run from Chester about 250 miles. Many barrows on the sides of those hills.
[121] Such a Roman Pharos at Damiata in Egypt, the view of it in Le Brun, plate 70. letter A.
[122] I suppose likewise that the sails of ships ought to be narrower at top, where they are fastened to the yard’s arm, broader at bottom, like a cloke; and so they are ordinarily made in some measure.
[123] At Folkstone the famous Dr. Harvey was born, ob. 1657.
[124] The seat of Ostenhanger, through the park whereof the Stone-street runs to Limne, was a noble building: they sold it lately for 1000 pounds to a mason, who pulled it all down. An inscription of the chapel there is now made a stone step in the house of Mr. Smith of Stanford; thus copied by Mr. Godfrey:
IVIL. V. ET. XX A LINCARNATION NOSTRE CHRIST ET LE XII. ANNE DV TRES HAULT ET TRES SANT ET TRES EXCELLENT PRINCE NOSTRE ET ROY HERY VIII A LE HONEVR DV DIEV ET DE LA GLORIEUSE VIERGE MARIE FVT FAICTE ET ACHEVEE CESTE CHAPELLE PAR MESSIRE EDOVARD POYNINGS CHEVALIER DE LA NOBLE ORDRE DV GARTIER ET CONTRE ROYLER DE LA MASON DV ROY CVY DIEV DDINT SA GRACE ET BONNE VIE ET LONGVE ET PARADIS A LA FIN AMEN.
[125] Asclepiades says Boreas, a king of the Celts, planted an unknown tree on the tumulus of his daughter Cyparissa; whence the name of it, and its funeral use. Trees planted on Protesilaus’s sepulchre, Pliny, XVI. 44. So an oak on Illus’s tumulus, ibid. so on the tomb of Amycus king of the Bebrycians, ibid.