176 KENTISH BOTANY. [Juue, 



of a people anterior to the arrival of the Angles and Saxons in 

 Britain. The way by land to the ancient Reculver was from 

 Hythe by the Roman road to Canterbury through Elham, and 

 hence to Regulbium (lleculver).,.,^^ .bmol',.m od hh\m nnr.-f.nT 



Appledore was a place of some importance in the ninth cen- 

 tury, when it was attacked and plundered by the Danes. Some 

 modern historians are puzzled to account for an attack on such 

 an insignificant place by those ruthless invaders, being so far 

 from the sea, where their great power then resided. The moderns 

 have forgotten, if they ever had known the fact, that for hun- 

 dreds of years after this event Appledore, now a rural and ob- 

 scure inland village, above half-a-dozen miles from the sea, was 

 a maritime and a principal town of the Anglo-Saxons. j,g.)j^.)3,m0 



The following extract shows that it was on.the sea so late as 

 the year 1377, the first of Richard II. : — -, •;, ,, • 



" Richard de Home, etc., were put in commission for to super- 

 vise the banks in this marsh from the town of Hethe (Hythe) 

 all along the sea-coast unto Apuldre ; as also all other marshes 

 within this county, viz. from the haven of Romney to Promhill 

 Church, and thence by the sea-coast to ,4-puJ^^. bef9i;e,.f»?en7, 



tioned.-" f(v^;-!( -(■ ■' '[■;[ .; ^-.r: •'■' 



These commissioners were appointed in the first year of 

 Richard II/s reign. See Sir William Dugdale's ' History of 

 Embanking and Drayning of divers Fens and Marshes,^ p. 33. 

 2nd edition. London, 1772, folio. 



Again. It also appears from ancient documents that there was 

 water communication between this village (Appledore) and Rom- 

 ney ; we presume Old Romney, for Dugdale writes : — ;, 



" In 11th Ed. III., A.u. 1323, there was an arm of the sea 

 leading from an arm of the sea called Apuldore, towards the 

 town of Romency, . . . which was then newly obstructed by the 

 sea-sands, that ships could not pass thereby to the;Said l^o^n of, 

 Roraeney as they had used," etc — Dugdale, p. 43.^ j^^^„ -/-, !,,--,,,«■; 



That the sea once flowed up the depression at and beyond 

 Dymchurch is an indisputable fact, for it would soon recover 

 part of its ancient bed, or channel, or creek, if it were not kept 

 within certain bounds by the sea-wall, which is about three miles 

 long, above twenty feet in height, and as njany feet wide at the 

 top, on which is the road ; its base is said to be three hu.ri(J^e|^" 

 feet wide, and in 1780 it was niaiutaiucd at a cost of ji^4000, 



