246 THE DOVER ROAD 



the land and the open roadstead of the Downs ; and, 

 although the grey Castle crowns one cliff and the 

 modern fortifications crest the other, yet, for all the 

 ages during which man has been burrowing galleries 

 here and piling up stonework and masonry there, if 

 Csesar could revisit the scene of his ineffectual descent 

 upon Britain, he w^ould find no difficulty in recognizing 

 it. Only, the estuary where he beached his vessels is 

 long since silted up and is buried beneath many feet of 

 the rubble and refuse, the shards and potsherds that 

 mark the passing of many busy generations. Here, 

 on these ancient dust-heaps and kitchen-middens 

 stands the chief business street of Dover, Snargate 

 Street, running parallel with the sea, but now separated 

 from it by the breadth of the Harbour and many 

 intermediate alleys, smelling vehemently of tar and 

 stale reminiscences of ocean. Snargate Street is long 

 and narrow, a model neither of cleanliness nor of 

 convenience, and it crouches humbly beneath the 

 towering cliffs which rise on its landward side, cut, 

 carved, and tunnelled ; honeycombed with stores, forts, 

 and galleries, and grimed with the smoke from the 

 clustered chimneys of the houses below. Other short 

 and frowzy alleys run against the soiled chalk, and 

 end there with a whimsical abruptness. Elbow room 

 here is none, and to find it, one ventures upon the 

 Harbour quays, toward the Docks and the Basins, 

 where little gangways and iron swing-bridges lead 

 to culs-de-sac, or end in sudden and precipitous descents 

 into the water, causing the unwonted stranger fre- 

 quently to retrace his steps and to swear freely. 

 But, if one avoids these cryptic curse-compelling j^laces, 

 the Harbour is a very interesting place ; much more so 

 than the " front," where people walk up and down 

 aimlessly, the women dressed to kill, and glaring at one 

 another as they pass, like strange cats on a roof-top. 

 Here, instead, is the reality of life, and a variety that is 

 lacking beyond. In the basins floats generally a 

 strange and fortuitous concourse of vessels ; schooners. 



