120 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



little doubt that this article only embodied in a formal manner 

 what had long been the practice of nations, the Downs being 

 specially mentioned as the most important anchorage in the 

 kingdom. 



When James decided to mark out distinctly on a chart the 

 boundaries of his neutral waters on the coast of England, the 

 matter was submitted to the Trinity House, and a jury of 

 thirteen men, specially skilled in maritime affairs, was appointed 

 to prepare tables and charts showing the position and limits of 

 the King's Chambers and ports and the sailing directions for 

 the same, according to their knowledge of what had been the 

 custom in the past. The charts and schedules were presented 

 to Sir Julius Caesar, the Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, 

 on 4th March 1604, together with a sworn declaration that 

 they represented the true boundaries. 1 The chambers formed 

 were nominally twenty-six in number, the points or headlands 

 selected by the surveyors being as follows, beginning at the 

 northern extremity of the east coast and ending at the Isle of 

 Man Holy Island, Souter Point, Whitby, Flamborough Head, 

 Spurn Point, Cromer, Winterton Ness, Caster Ness, Lowestoft, 

 East Ness, Orfordness, the North Foreland, the South Foreland, 

 Dungeness, Beachy Head, "Dunenoze" (Isle of Wight), Port- 

 land Bill, Start Point, Rame Head, Dodman Point, the Lizard, 

 the Land's End, Milford, St David's Head, Bardsey Island, 

 Holyhead, the Isle of Man. The extent of the "chambers" 

 varies in different places ; and while this is obviously due on 



flurninum, gurgites, aquas dulces, stationes navium, et prsesertim stationem vul- 

 gariter vocatam les Dunes, aufc alia loca maritima qusecumque jurisdiction! dicti 

 Regis Anglise subjecta aliquam navem mercatoriam, onerariam, armatam vel non 

 armatam, onustam seu vacuam, cujuscumque quantitatis aut oneris fuerit, de 

 quacumque natione eadem navis extiterit, capere, spoliare, diripere, seu merces, 

 victualia, aut armamenta qusecumque, ab eisdem navibus, aut earumdem nautis 

 auferre, nee eisdem vim, violentiam, aut molestationem aliquam inferre possit, 

 aut debeat," &c. Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, IV. i. 352. 



1 This interesting document is printed in Appendix E, from State Papers, Dom., 

 James I., vol. 13 (1605), No. 11 ; No. 12 is another of the same. It is not the 

 original, but a copy, the names being all in the same hand as the body of the 

 paper. Diligent search among the records has failed to furnish the " plott " 

 referred to, but there is no reason to doubt that the reproduction of it by Selden 

 (Mare Clausum, lib. ii. c. xxii.), and shown here on fig. 3, is an accurate repre- 

 sentation. Selden states that the plott or chart was engraved, and copies sent to 

 the officers concerned. 



