ANTIQUITY OF DOVER. 



241 



Stretching one's vision a little farther are seen the lofty white cliffs of the French coast; 

 Cape Grisnez, near Calais (which itself lies on low land, and is therefore undiscernible) , 

 and the heights of Boulogne. 



The antiquity of Dover is undeniable. Julius Csesar here made his first descent on 

 Britain, in August, B.C. 55. Picts and Scots, Danes and Normans, successively attacked 

 it; while at the period of the Conquest, 1066, the town suffered fearfully, the whole place 

 being reduced to ashes except twenty-nine houses. But when it became one of the Cinque 



EAMSGATB. 



Ports it soon rose in importance, and Dover men largely helped that brilliant attack on 

 Philip IV/s fleet, by which France lost 240 vessels. That enraged monarch retaliated on 

 Dover by burning the larger part of the town; but before the year 1296 the British 

 navy had not merely swept the enemy from the Channel, but had made several reprisals 

 on the coast of France. At the period of the Armada, Dover, with the other Cinque Ports, 

 fitted out, at a cost of 43,000, six large ships for the Queen's service, which were the 

 means of decoying the great Galleas of Spain on a shoal, afterwards engaging and 

 burning her. 



Biding or walking over the Downs some interesting places may be seen on or near the 

 coast. At St. Margaret's Bay, seven miles north from Dover to the merits of the 

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