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imagination pictures the same spot under widely dissimilar features
years ago, he must now perforce take the advice of Byron, and

"Condense his soul

To more immediate objects."

The morning is a bright one, and the weather is not too hot; the visitor, pleasantly warm after a brisk run up the steps, whose number he dares not count, has passed the sentries who are on guard at almost every turn, and finds himself at the new entrance which, seventy-two years ago, was constructed with all the improvements of modern fortification and military engineering skill. Here is the drawbridge, there is the fosse; we are within the precincts of what, to adopt Sir Walter Scott's description, is

These towers, by the way, are many in number, and peculiar interest is attached to some of them. The chief one is called Fiennes, or the Constable's Tower, a noble specimen of Norman architecture, which, it is said, owes its erection to the time of William the Conqueror; and not far away are six or eight towers built during the reign of King John, who married "the shrinking maid of Angoulême" in the chapel in the Castle, still called after him who, though faithless, was yet hedged by the divinity which is the fortunate attribute of both good and bad kings. Then there is the tower built by and named after Earl Godwyne, the first Constable

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of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, who died in 1053; and, continuing his exploration, the visitor will be able to walk among the bastions, the casemates, the under-ground works, and inspect the Saxon fortifications, glance at the famous "Pocket Pistol" of Queen Elizabeth, which, it is said, only required loading well, and cleanliness, to carry a ball a distance far beyond the range of even the breech-loading Armstrong guns that peep over the ramparts; and next he will perhaps ascend the Keep, erected during the reign of Henry the Third, in whose sovereignty there were thirty-three "Constables." From here a splendid view of the Castle, Dover, its fortifications, a large portion of the County of Kent, and especially of the sea-coast, is obtained. Then the gazer discovers the truth of the lines,—

"Safe upon her sea-beat rock

She may brave an army's shock,

For the British banner keeps

Safe the fortress where it sweeps."

And he can further say, with Byron,—

"The whirlwind's wrath, the earthquake's shock,

Have left untouched her hoary rock,

The keystone of a land."

It is now that we can form a correct estimate of the stupendous dimensions of the whole fortress, the works of which cover nearly forty acres of ground-something different from the times when the Castle resisted the arms of Philip Augustus in 1216, "when the patriotism of the Barons who secured the Magna Charta

alone saved the country from becoming a French province;" from the date when Edward the First, though not then king, was confined here after his defeat at Lewes ; from the stirring times of the Great Rebellion, when Dover, which took up with warmth the cause of the Parliament, was the theatre of the most exciting scenes; and when, during the war of the Spanish succession, the very Keep on which the moraliser now stands was used as a place of confinement for the French captives who, in utter weariness, used to drop many a pensive stone down the draw-well not far away. "Ah, me !" one exclaims, as he confuses himself with all these historical reminiscences, "there has been change upon change here with a vengeance!"

Of these historical associations so much has already been said in the voluminous works published in former years, and whose numbers are augmented every now and then by more modern productions, that we shall avoid dealing with them. But it may be remarked that the history of the Castle, and of Dover generally, will afford a wealth of instructive material for those who are inclined to become acquainted with the events which made the past so interesting to the enquirer of to-day.

At the present time the modern portion of the Dover fortifications are being gradually enlarged, though the only work now in active progress is the Castle-Hill Fort, beyond the Castle itself, and on the road to Deal. The Officers' Barracks at the Castle are handsome and complete in every respect: they face the sea, and were erected in 1856–8, at a cost of nearly £50,000, of which sum about £10,000 was spent in merely preparing the site.

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