284 HARBOUIS AND LIGHTHOrSKS. 



Kent, were mostly beach harbours, and were constantly 

 liable to be choked by the movement of the shingle up 

 channel, so that Winchelsea, Eomsey, and Hythe thus 

 became completely lost. For the same reason Dover 

 was always a port most difficult to be preserved. The 

 shingle, rolled up along the coast by the prevailing- 

 south- westerly winds, from time to time blocked up the 

 port by a bank which extended from east to west, until 

 the pent-up inland waters collecting behind it forced 

 their way to sea, and thus maintained an opening always 

 more or less partial. Various attempts were made to 

 preserve the harbour in early times, the most important 

 improvements being those conducted by Sir John 

 Thompson, master of the Maison Dieu in the reign of 

 Henry VIII. He enclosed a small basin with a quay 

 by driving two rows of piles into the sea bottom as far 

 out as the Mole Rock, and filling in the interstices with 

 blocks of stone and chalk. The stones were floated along 

 shore from Folkestone by means of empty casks, as at 

 Lyme. It is said that not less than 50,000/. were expended 

 on these works ; but the imperfect manner in which 

 they were constructed may be inferred from the fact that 

 the sea very soon made several breaches in the wall and 

 the pier, and the beach accumulated as before all round 

 the bay, so that a boat drawing only four feet of water 

 could scarcely enter the harbour. Foreign engineers 

 were then called in amongst others Ferdinand Poins, a 

 Fleming, and Thomas Diggs, who had studied harbour- 

 construction in the Netherlands ; and various additions 

 were made by them to the works in the reigns of Eliza- 

 beth and James. The harbour was always, however, in 

 danger of becoming silted up down to our own times ; and 

 the best means of improving it has formed the subject of 

 repeated reports of Perry, Smeaton, Eennie, and Telford. 

 Indeed it is doubtful, notwithstanding the enormous 

 expenditure which has been incurred in the construction 

 of the modern works at Dover Harbour, whether the 



