31 
THE CINOUE PORTS. 
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(Illustrated by the Lantern). 
By Rev. JOCELYN PERKINS, M.A., F.R. Hist. S. 
February 25th, 1908. 
The Lecturer, in a racy, interesting and humorous manner, 
entertained and instructed a large audience by a compre- 
hensive history of the origin and the part played by the 
Cinque Ports, which originally embraced Hastings, Romney, 
Hythe, Dover, Winchester and Rye. He traced their origin 
back to the Roman occupation. It was on these five ports 
that King Alfred relied for ships in his struggle against the 
Danes, and from the time of King Alfred onward they came 
to be of increasing value. The incorporation of the ports 
had its origin in the necessity for some means of defence 
along the Southern seaboards of England and in the lack 
of any regular navy. After the Norman Conquest the 
ports were made the object of attack by the Danes, and in 
return for services rendered then the men were given certain 
privileges. The first charter to the ports was granted in 
the time of Edward the Confessor. Directly after his great 
victory, William the Conqueror made a rapid dash for Dover 
Castle ; he knew that Dover was then as now, the key of 
England. The old charter of Edward the Confessor, was 
confirmed over and over again and in 1278 their Magna Charta, 
the palladium of their liberties, was granted by Edward I., 
the greatest of the Plantagenets. But the ships of the 
period were nothing more than sailing vessels which could 
be transformed into some sort of men-of-war, and that fleet 
came to be the terror of the Channel, and was the forerunner 
of Trafalgar. These ports were strongly democratic and 
quite in advance of their age. They were the first towns 
to receive charters — freedom of speech and local self-govern- 
ment — and so they found them year by year meeting together 
in their churches. He firmly believed if churches were 
now used as polling booths for their elections, it would add 
greatly to consecrate the national and municipal life of the 
country. Of those elections and privileges many relics 
