THE ISLE OP RUIM. 233 



itself fell into the Wantsuin Strait at the place which 

 still bears the historic name of Stourmouth. Bound the 

 outer coast only a few houseless gaps marked the spots 

 where ' long lines of cliff, breaking, had left a chasm '- 

 the gaps that afterwards bore the familiar names of 

 Barnsgate, that is to say Buim's Gate, or ' the Door of 

 Thanet ; ' Margate, that is to say, Mere Gate, the gap of 

 the mere (Kentish for a brook), Broadstairs, Kingsgate, 

 Newgate, and Westgate. The present condition of 

 Dumpton Gap (minus the telegraph) will give some idea 

 of what these Gates looked like in their earliest days ; 

 only, instead of seeing the cultivated down, we must 

 imagine it wildly clad with primaeval undergrowth of yew 

 and juniper, like the beautiful tangled district near 

 Guildford, still known as Fairyland. Thanet is now all 

 sea-front it turns its face, freckled with summer resorts, 

 towards the open German Ocean. Buim had then no 

 sea-front at all, save the bare and inaccessible white 

 cliffs ; it turned, such as it was, not toward the sea, but 

 toward the navigable Wantsum. Even until late in the 

 middle ages Minster was the most important place in the 

 whole island ; and after it ranked Monkton, St. Nicholas, 

 and Birchington villages, all of them, on the flat 

 western slope. The growth in importance of the seaward 

 escarpment dates only from the days when Thanet 

 became practically a London suburb. 



"Wi th the Boman invasion Buim saw a new epoch begin. 

 A great organization took hold of Britain. Boads were 

 made and colonies established. Verulam and Camulodun 

 gave place in part as centres of life and trade to York and 

 London. Even in the native days, I believe, the Thames 



