EAST AND SOUTH-EAST 85 



Two thieves, as like each other as twins, dressed 

 themselves in similar clothes, conspicuous in pattern 

 and cut. One thief visited a number of West-Country 

 towns, treated guests at the inns, complimented the 

 barmaids, flattered the landlords. He paid his bills 

 liberally and promptly as a man of spirit, and won 

 the good opinion of all. Meantime, his confederate 

 robbed the Dover mail. 



When the actual robber was caught and brought to 

 trial, plenty of honest people from the West — bar- 

 maids, commercial travellers, and landlords — came 

 forward and swore an alibi. The poor gentleman 

 languishing in the dock they would know amongst a 

 thousand. Anxiety had paled his face, maybe, but 

 those whiskers, the cut of that coat, the prisoner's 

 height and bearing, they would swear to. He was 

 no more guilty than the jurors, or my lord. ' Not 

 guilty,' then said the jury promptly, without turning 

 round in the box. 



From the accident of Calais being opposite Dover, 

 the mind — whether lay or official — insensibly turns 

 from Dover as a large and important town, a fortress, 

 and the chief of the Cinque Ports, to Dover as the 

 goal of the first stage on the journey to the Continent 

 and the eastern ends of the earth. If one launches 

 on this view of the subject, the difficulty is where to 

 begin, because a local historian of mark is inclined, 

 with perfect justice, to date the earliest cross- Channel 

 communication from an epoch before the Christian 

 era. That opens a wide field of history. 



