244 THE DOVER ROAD 



of the Cinque Ports, from whose historic office the hotel 

 takes its title — I name here, of course, the one and only 

 " Duke of Wellington " — he usually resorted to an 

 unpretending hostelry, the " Royal Oak Commercial 

 Hotel," in Cannon Street, nearly opposite the old 

 Church of St. Mary's, whenever he was called to the 

 town. 



It is not enough to know that Dover is a town of 

 hoary antiquity ; that Caesar landed here B.C. 55 (or 

 that he did not land here, but at Deal, as the more 

 scholarly antiquaries inform us). It is not sufficient to 

 be floored with such heavy slalDS of historical informa- 

 tion as those by which we learn that the name of Dover 

 has been arrived at through a long series of British, 

 Roman, and Saxon forms, originating from the little 

 stream called anciently the Dour, that flowed, once upon 

 a time, through the chalk valley of Temple Ewell and 

 Buckland, tinkling cheerfully through the old town and 

 falling into the waves over the pebbles of Dover beach ; 

 now, alas ! pouring a contaminating flood through 

 sewer-pipes far out to sea. I say, it is not enough to 

 know that the Romans latinized the name to Dubris, 

 that it w^as variously Doroberniic, Dofris, Dovere, and 

 in the eighteenth century occasionally " Dovor," 

 finally to have the seal set on these changes by its 

 present name. It is not even sufficient to know 

 (although it is highly interesting) that Domesday Book 

 opens with Dover, commencing as it does, " Dovere 

 tempore regis Edwardi." But this last slice of historical 

 provand is more than usually welcome because it gives 

 us a foothold whereon to begin the exploration of the 

 old town. When one comes to reduce the tough and 

 gnarled latinity of Domesday Book to English as we 

 speak it, we find this first entry to recite that King 

 Edward the Confessor held a lien on a portion of the 

 town rents, and that Earl Godwin also partook of 

 what the Radical politics of our own time term 

 " unearned increment." Edward the Confessor was a 

 mild-mannered man and weak. It is, for instance, 



