|
With these few preliminary remarks, let
us start on our peregrination through the parish of Walmer.
But which way shall we go? We cannot follow the boundary,
for that runs right across the moat; with the paradoxical
result of cutting off Deal Castle (all but a piece
of the porter's lodge and the northern parts of the ramparts)
from the town after which it is named, and including it in
Walmer. And though it may be all very well for parish officials
to descend into that moat, and to clamber up the ramparts,
and for little boys to be made to scramble through the porter's
window, once in a decade during Rogation week, we are not
now beating the bounds; no, we are merely taking a tour through
the parish, to learn a few preliminary details with regard
to it. Well then, we will pass round the front of the castle!
These galleys and small boats on your left
belong to the Marines; and those low buildings in front of
us, about one hundred and thirty yards away, are the Clanwilliam
Baths, built in 1878, and named after a former Captain
of Deal Castle.
Turning now at right angles to the beach,
and leaving that building with the balcony on our left (the
Union Club), we get into the Dover Road, of which this
portion in front of the sea is called the Strand. Just
up here towards Deal the Gladstone Road branches off to the
left; and immediately beyond, toward Deal Castle, is the spot
where the Toll Gate used to be.
We have now a choice of two ways : either
to follow the Dover Road past the Royal Marine Infirmary
and Hospital Barracks — that block of houses just
beyond, known as Royal Buildings, is also government property,
and affords a home for the Commandant, the second Colonel,
and the Doctor; while on the opposite or seaward side are
the Local Board and Leith Estate Offices — or to take
the Gladstone Road. This time we decide to follow the
boundary, as there are no walls to scale, and take the latter.
Back in a garden on our left is Beachlands,* the residence
now of Capt. Jermain, R.N., but formerly the property of Admiral
Henderson.
* The original
house built in 1830 was known as "The Cottage on the
Beach," and was the residence of Captain Andrew Atkins
Vincent, R.N., Knight of the Hanoverian Guelphic Order, and
a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Her Majesty Queen Adelaide.
[Greenwood's Kent, 1838.]
A few yards further on we pass a disused
Rope-walk: and, if we could peer over that high brick wall
still further to the left, we should see a very dismal, neglected-looking,
and disused Burial Ground; where such patients as died in
what was once the Royal Naval Hospital (now the R.M.
Infirmary), formerly found interment. This road to the right
is Blenheim Road; and we are now on what is said to
have been a Roman road, connecting Deal with Richborough in
one direction, and Dover in the other; Pritchard calls it,
" the ancient Roman Road that led to the celebrated Abbey
of West Langdon and Dover."
Just beyond the Blenheim Road we come to
the Drill Ground, bounded on the west by the Railway
Embankment, which, further on, approaches the road we are
traversing and crosses over the boundary (the road has there
been diverted from its ancient course to obviate the necessity
of a very oblique arch) into Lower Walmer.
We will stay a moment, if you like, at
this Drill Ground, and watch the busy scene there, this bright
autumnal morning. You want to know about the grave enclosed
within the iron railing over there? It is merely the burial-place
of a favourite horse of a former Commandant. But look at these
twelve or fourteen squads of recruits, in various stages of
efficiency, going through their morning's drill: these "
with intervals " are in the initial stages; some standing
at ease, or " going through the turnings"; others
learning the mysteries of the Physical Drill, such as Swinging
the Arms, Bending the Body, Stretching the Arms, Lunging,
and so on; and others, again, learning to march to the beat
of the drum and the measure of the pace-stick; stepping out
or stepping short, marking time or changing step, or doing
the high step at the double : those in single or double rank
are more advanced and are practising, it may be, the diagonal
march, changing front, wheeling, or a number of other movements
: while over there a squad of Blue Marines, alias Artillerymen,
are preparing for cavalry. It is such a scene as can be witnessed
in few places, but we must stay no longer : in the afternoon,
perhaps we may return to a parade of the Bicycle Corps, recently
started here, the first of its kind in England; their wonderful
gyrations are worth our while to witness.
We will now proceed to the Strand by the
North Barrack Road, noticing, at the right-hand corner
as we turn into the latter, another disused cemetery, the
Military Burial Ground; a very sombre-looking place,
enclosed within brick walls and darkened by the stunted trees
with which it is thickly studded : there, just inside, not
far from the north-west corner, is the grave of Algernon Stephens,
"late lieutenant" of the 1st Royals, who carried
the colours of that regiment at Waterloo, and died here in
1865. Walking on, we pass on the left Court's Mineral-Water
Works, while on the opposite side of us we have the North
Barracks, which we presently leave in our rear, as we pass
the Foresters' Hall and approach the Strand : here,
perhaps, we .encounter the Drum and Fife Band of the Royal
Marines; they usually parade the street between 10.30 and
11 o'clock in the morning, from the South Barracks to the
Commandant's house and back.
On our left as we turn is the beach (there
are only three luggers properly so called belonging here now,
their business is dying out, ruined by steam, chain cables
— and free trade), and a walk of about two hundred yards,
takes us past the Boatmen's Reading Rooms (at the corner
of Wollaston Road), founded in 1873 by the late Mrs. Wollaston,
and brings us to the Lifeboat House, erected about
twenty years ago; it occupies the spot where formerly the
Little or White Bulwarke defended the shore; and its neat,
well-cared-for appearance, presents a strange contrast to
St. Saviour's Chapel-of-Ease on the opposite side of
the road, which, though only forty years old, looks weather-worn
enough to have been founded in the fourteenth century : between
the two is a Drinking-Fountain of grey granite whose inscription
tells its own tale :- “ The gift of Catherine Brooke,
1882."
Less than one hundred yards further on,
beyond these store-houses and opposite the triangular space
recently enclosed by the Local Board (the Walmer-Road Post
Office is now on our right), we notice on the beach a
small brick building; close by it stand a little company of
Coastguards, who appear to be in full force this morning :
look ! they are swinging open those doors on which you see
in large letters, " Board of Trade Rocket Life-Saving
Apparatus"; they drag out the heavy-looking cart painted
blue and red; and are clearly preparing for one of their quarterly
practices : but, ha! what is going on now? the bluejacket
on duty has sighted a man-of-war; see him peering through
his spy-glass rested on a comrade's shoulder! now they approach
the flag-staff, where the white ensign floats at the peak,
and soon, it may be, the signal halliards will be busy.
Here from the top of the shingle, now the
tide is low, is the best point from which to view the beach:
how picturesque it is !— and here, is the traditional
landing-place of the great Julius Caesar: how different
now !—mark, low down upon the beach, those busy groups
of men, around their fishing boats, fresh from their dark
night's work upon the bleak November waves; and see, how the
silvery sprats sparkle in the sun, as they toss them from
the fatal meshes ! look at that lugger now launching from
the beach; how she rushes madly down the steep incline with
the noise of a rocket, and away to sea! the crew haul up the
sails in eager haste; and soon they will be far away on their
cruise of a month, or, it may be, six long anxious weeks in
the heavy channel seas. But look again landward! there, hauled
high and dry on the top of the shingle, close to those queer-looking
capstans, are a number of boats, whose dingy sails are spread
to catch the drying breeze : and by and by, another feature
will be added to the scene; those bare poles that slant this
way and that, and look so odd to a stranger's eyes, will be
bedecked with the sprat-nets, already nearly emptied, which
will float gracefully between them, or hang in loose folds
about a single pole. But we must leave this interesting scene,
for a considerable walk is still before us.
We have now a choice of four routes:
either to turn down Canada Road, where we shall see
on our left the Cavalry Barracks; and on the opposite
side, a hundred and fifty yards down, beyond York Street
and Campbell Street and immediately in front of
the entrance to the Barracks, the Walmer National Schools,
with the Garrison Chapel and Schools and the North
Barracks a little further on:
or, to take the Dover Road, which, after passing under the
South Barracks wall, runs bleak, dreary, and uninteresting,
for half a mile across the open fields, to Upper Walmer:
or, to proceed down Liverpool Road, named after a former
Lord Warden :
or, choosing what looks most attractive, to walk by the
Beach Esplanade.
We select the Dover Road, and thus
secure a closer view of these pretty Queen Anne Houses, whose
name of Delta Villas scarcely does them justice; though
it defines correctly their situation on the triangular plot,
which formerly existed here as an open space. Further on,
we get a peep through the large doors, dosed at the stroke
of ten o'clock at night, amid a flourish of bugles, or rather,
as their echo dies away, into the South Barracks Parade.
There, perhaps, we see the first squad of recruits undergoing
the Colonel's inspection before their departure for headquarters;
or, going through the Physical Drill, as we saw their younger
comrades on the Drill Ground, and roaring out, in time with
their movements, the words of some jovial song, such as "Sailing"
or "The Old Brigade" \ or a company at Skirmishing
Drill, extending or closing, advancing or retiring, inclining
or changing front, to the call of the bugle; when suddenly
the Alert is sounded, and the men halt, till the word is given
" form rallying squares ! " and fine bugle blurts
" prepare for cavalry " : or perhaps we may witness
a charge in line delivered with terrific shouts, like the
memorable charge that won Tel-el-Kebir.
And having satisfied ourselves that the
Royal Marines are capable of thrashing any foe who shall dare
to arouse the British Lion, we pass through Cambridge Road,
immediately opposite, to find ourselves once more upon the
Beach Esplanade; but not without having noticed on
our left, as we crossed the Liverpool Road, Mr. Tod's model
cottages and stables.
We have now extending north and south on
either side of us some of the finest houses in Walmer, though,
alas ! at this time of the year many of them are empty. The
second house northward, Seafield, is the residence
of a distinguished naval officer, Admiral Douglas; and the
second house past that, belongs to an equally distinguished
military officer, General Hughes, C.B.
Turning southward, we reach the corner,
where, until recently, stood the low wooden erection, which
once served the purpose of a Reading Room, but latterly
was known as Sharpe's Bathing Establishment. It, like
its poor old master — he left the oddest will you ever
heard — has been gone these three years past; and if
you want a dip now you must take it from a boat, or, in primitive
fashion, before your neighbours are awake, from the shore.
Away down this turning to the right, Clarence
Road, is the Lawn Tennis Ground or Subscription
Garden — it is either or both to you according to arrangement
with the Secretary —and if this had been the season,
which extends from May 1st to October 31st, you would have
seen the club-colours floating gracefully if not beautifully
— they are blue, red, and white, like the tri-color gone
wrong — from that little flagstaff over the railing.
The next house we pass is Park House,
the residence of Mr. Frank May, the lessee of the ground just
mentioned; who, with much foresight and liberality, secured
a lease of what was then known as the Archery Ground, when
bricks-and mortar were threatened some five years ago.
Just beyond the next turning, which is important
as leading to the only public gangway down to the beach between
the Strand and Walmer Castle, is The Lodge, the residence
of Mr. Tod, to whose enterprise is due the existence of many
of the best houses in Lower Walmer. His large mansion occupies
the site of a small Inn, where an old inhabitant remembers
soldiers of the " King's German Legion " to have
been billeted. It has undergone many changes since that time,
and was once the property of the Countess Stanhope*, who lived
here at the time when the Duke of Wellington was Lord Warden:
she was a great friend of the Duke, and her son mentions,
in his " Conversations" a present made to her by
his Grace, in the autumn of 1836, of the telescope he used
at Waterloo.
* The mother
of the fifth Earl Stanhope, and grandmother of the present
Earl.
It was here that the Great or Blacke Bulwarke
used once to be; but there are no traces of it now. In the
State Papers of the time of Charles I., a trench is mentioned
as existing from this point to Walmer Castle: its exact whereabouts
is very difficult to determine at the present time, but possibly
the high bank of shingle between the low ground known as the
Lees and the shore, may have caused the term trench to be
applied to what is now the Wellington Road; which would certainly
have afforded a sheltered communication, 750 yards in length,
between castle and bulwark, even with a hostile fleet right
close inshore. The tall belt of trees fringing the Liverpool
Road at the back of the Lodge (would that we had more of them!)
were planted by Admiral Sir John Hill, who formerly owned
this property, and resided here for many years.
Turning now past Beach House to
the back of Walmer Lodge, we gain the old coach-road;
— not the road known as the Dover Road which is comparatively
new, but that which passes through Upper Walmer by way of
Liverpool Road and Castle Street: and here,
just beyond the pretty building called Lees Cottage,
we cross the conventional boundary between Upper and Lower
Walmer. A walk of about 250 yards brings us to the new road
leading to the beach; — the road in question was made
some four or five years ago, in lieu of a footpath, which
till then ran diagonally from this point to the opposite angle
of the meadow: and its continuation on our right past the
Cricket Ground to the Dover Road, was carried out shortly
afterwards.
In the low ground just traversed cannon
balls have occasionally been found at no great depth (one
weighing six pounds is at this moment in my possession); and
a perusal of Clarke Russell's "Betwixt the Forelands"
chapter xi, shows that these may very probably have found
their way there, during the great sea-fight, between Van Tromp
and the Spaniards, in 1693 : the latter, we are told, crept
close inshore, under the protection, as they hoped, of the
castles; but, during the engagement, in which the castles
appear to have taken no part, twenty-three of their vessels
were driven ashore by the Dutch, whose cannon-balls "
flew in hail-storms towards and over the land."
Passing the belt of trees which extends
from this point nearly to the beach (alas, how the storms
have thinned them within the last few years ! though the tar
burnt here when these asphalt paths were made had certainly
a hand in it), we have, between us and the sea, the Castle
meadows purchased by the Earl of Liverpool during his
tenure of office : they have been much improved by the present
Lord Warden, who planted those clumps of evergreen-oaks and
shrubs on either side of the otherwise bare-looking drive.
Just before we turn up Castle Street
we pass on our left Liverpool House, the residence
of Mrs. Leith, widow of the late Lord of the Manor, George
Leith, Esq., and we come now to as pretty a piece of scenery
of its kind as any to be found within a good many miles. Here
on our right, rising in verdant terraces, is the park-like
meadow which faces Liverpool House : a little further on,
winding upwards beneath the overhanging trees, is Castle Street,
whose houses, hidden by the foliage in summer, are now indistinctly
seen through the bare branches; before us are the grassy slopes
of Constitution Hill, crowned by the New Parish
Church, to the southward of which runs the new road (it
has supplanted a footpath over the hill into Love Lane), that
curves from where we stand to emerge in Gram's Lane,
close to St. Clare College; — the latter we can clearly
see, or at least its pedimented front, about a quarter of
a mile away as the crow flies, standing out from the fine
trees which almost enclose it. Another road, to the left of
the last, but visible here only for a few yards of its course,
winds past the base of Glen Hill to Kingsdown by way of Knight's
Bottom : and yet another, though this (except that it affords
a right of way to Hawkes Hill beyond) is little more than
a carriage drive to a few private residences, ascends Glen
Hill itself; whence some most charming views may be obtained
both seaward and landward. The Glen from which the
hill derives its name is a perfect marvel of beauty, thanks
in the first place to Lady Hester Stanhope, who, as narrated
in the history of the Castle, found here nothing but a chalk
pit, and "a frightful barren bit of ground." From
a seat above the Glen (you should visit the spot some fine
May evening and hear the nightingales), looking over the tree-tops
below and the house which belonged to the late Admiral Cannon,
you get a most lovely view, extending across Lower Walmer
and Deal right away to Ramsgate; the trees that rise from
the hill on either side fringing the whole with a perfect
framework of foliage.
Continuing our way up Castle Street, as
we ascend the hill, we pass on our right the grounds attached
to The Lawn, formerly the abode of Admiral Montresor.
On the opposite side is the Chalet; and, just beyond,
St. Mildred's, whose happy owner is much to be envied
for the magnificent view which the tower of his house commands.
In those grounds a quantity of Roman remains have been unearthed
: the soil is full of them; — pottery, cinerary urns,
bones of animals, and the like : pointing to the conclusion
that there must have been a considerable settlement not far
off, during some period of the Roman occupation.
Immediately beyond St. Mildred's, on the
same side of the way, there is another new road leading to
the church : and fifty yards further on — it is the second
* house on that side — is Wellesley House, or,
as it is often called, "the Duke's House"; which
owes its title to the fact that the great Duke of Wellington,
at that time Sir Arthur Wellesley and a General of Division,
resided in it shortly before his departure for the Peninsula.
Leelands, the property of Capt. Bushe, R.N., which
takes its name from its former owner, Admiral Sir Richard
Lee, is on the opposite side, but the house is some thirty
or forty yards up the street.
* The first
house, which has recently undergone a complete metamorphosis,
was once the residence of Admiral Sir Thomas Harvey.
We come now once more to the Dover Road,
from which we deviated in Lower Walmer: it is straight according
to the modern fashion, therefore convenient, but decidedly
open and breezy (try it in a gale in March with snow and hail
from the north-east!) and commands a fine panoramic view of
Lower Walmer, Deal, the Downs, and the country between this
and Thanet; the high chalk-ridge of the " Island "
stands out sharp and clear against the northern sky.
The rising ground on which we stand is
known as Drum Hill, but whether it derives its name
from the Drum Inn close by, or vice versa, it is hard
to say.
* This Inn
is probably by far the oldest in Walmer.
Holly Cottage, which you see a little
way down the hill, was once the residence of Admiral William
Boys, well-remembered by his sobriquet of " Buffalo"
Boys (Mr. Coleman, the sexton, lives there now); the next
house " Cotmanton" was that of Admiral Sir
Edward Harvey; the vicarage is a hundred yards further; just
past the latter is Sunnyside, associated in my mind
with very pleasant recollections of its late owner, Admiral
Henry Harvey; and the large red house immediately beyond that,
is The Downs Ladies' School.
Turning round we resume our peregrination,
which now takes us up Walmer Street past Hill House
(Dr. Davey's) and several other good houses; one of the principal
of which is The Shrubbery — the red brick Elizabethan-looking
mansion just past Glebe House on the left — which
though a new building has many interesting associations. For
the old mansion, of which the present house has taken the
place, belonged once to the Princess Amelia, daughter of King
George III, and Her Royal Highness is said to have resided
here for many years; later on, about 1780, it passed into
the hands of the Marquis of Lothian*, sometime Captain of
Sandown Castle (Hasted says he was appointed in 1779); and
it was pulled down by a subsequent owner, General Smith, at
whose death the property passed into the hands of Admiral
Sir Thomas Baker. But besides royal, military, and naval associations,
the place has a literary fame, Mr. G. P. R. James, the novelist,
having also been its owner; and some of his later works were
written during his residence here. The late owner, Mr. Arthur
Smith, was one of the original promoters of the New Parish
Church; and its eventual completion, which however he did
not live to see, was largely due to his earlier efforts. At
the present time the place belongs to Mrs. Bannister.
* This was
William John Ker, 5th Marquis of Lothian, K.T., General in
the army, Colonel 11th Dragoons and 1st Life Guards, a representative
peer 1778, 1780 and 1784; born I3th March, 1737, died 4th
Jan., 1815. Foster's Peerage.
We come now to the National Infant Schools,
leaving behind us on the opposite side to the Shrubbery, Gothic
House, the residence of Capt Leicester Keppel, R.N.**
** The next
house on the same side, known as St. Clare Cottage, is said
to have been the residence of a former Lord Chancellor; and
for some considerable time it served as the Vicarage, as did
also Glebe House above mentioned.
The narrow walk between the high walls
on our left, Love Lane, leads to the New Church, from which
it takes its new name of Church Path : the Shrubbery
grounds are to the northward and the Convent grounds to the
southward of this path. Shall we keep to the main street,
or turn westward up Church Street to the Old Church?
As we wish to pass by nothing of importance, we will go, if
you please, a few yards up the former, in order to see the
Harriet Cooke Almshouses, pretty little red brick dwellings
with stone dressings, here on our right (the Post-Office is
just beyond), and the Convent buildings, with their
little Decorated Chapel erected in 1881, across the
road.
Retracing our steps as far as Church
Street (there used to be a Toll Bar at the corner), we
pass on to Walmer Court and the Old Church,
noticing en route the old house (Falkland House) that
projects on the left about midway down the street: it has
queer little bay-windows and slated gables; and was formerly
occupied by Admiral Walpole Browne. Opposite the churchyard
gates, which are on our left, the road winds in semicircular
fashion to the Railway Station, named after this parish,
but really, like the cottages near the arch beyond, in Great
Mongeham. The narrow road here at the back of Walmer Court
forms the boundary, and is itself the continuation of the
Roman road we noticed in Lower Walmer, in which direction
it may still be traced as a cart-road beyond the cutting and
embankment; though here again the requirements of the railway
have caused the introduction of a sharp bend in what was originally
a tolerably straight road. The meadow just passed is traversed
by two footpaths, and commands another grand view northward
and eastward, more extensive than any that our walk has hitherto
afforded.
Proceeding for about a hundred yards down
the ancient road just mentioned we will now, with Mr. Page's
leave, take the nearer cut back to Walmer Court through
the farm-yard, and examine the ivy-clad ruins just to the
north-east of the church : they form all that is left of a
Norman mansion or castle, built here by a member of the illustrious
family of Auberville, who held this manor by knight-service
of the Lord of Folkestone. The principal ruin here in front
of us seems to have been the Keep: there, built into the eastward
wall, is apparently the slab of an old altar-tomb; it has
traces of an artistic cross upon its upper part, but no sign
of an inscription : and over there, a little further eastward,
is a depression, which represents the moat, that once no doubt
enclosed within its circuit both castle and church.* The history
of church and manor are alike full of interest, but these
topics will engage us later on.
* Hasted speaks
of a ''deep single fosse" round Walmer Church; which
fosse Mr. Flinders Petrie in his Notes on Kentish Earthworks,
states he failed to see when a few years since he examined
this spot (Arch. Cant, xiii, p. 13). The reason this
fosse escaped Mr. Petrie's observation is because it was filled
in when the churchyard was enlarged; but if he had secured
the services of a competent local guide, he could not have
missed, as he seems to have done, the remains of the moat
in the grounds of Walmer Court just over the churchyard wall.
Our route now lies, for sixty yards, down
Church Street, till we turn into the footpath, which, after
several diversions, has at last found an abiding-place to
the southward of the churchyard, for half the length of the
latter; whence it turns across the middle of Pond Pasture
(so called from Wigmore Pond, now dry, here on our
left) to Station Road. There are signs of entrenchments
in this meadow, as you see; but what warriors made them, or
when, who shall say?
Christopher Packe, the author of the Ancographia,
who, with other authors, believed that the sea, at the time
of the Roman Invasion, covered all the low ground between
Upper Walmer and Thanet, imagined Caesar's first battle on
the shore to have been fought near this spot: indeed; he appears
to have associated the moat already mentioned, and which Hasted
describes as " a deep single fosse," with that event
too; though the moat is undoubtedly of Norman, and the earthworks
in this meadow probably of still more recent origin. It is
worth mentioning that Hasted considered Caesar's Landing to
have been effected somewhere between the spots now occupied
by Upper Deal Mill and Walmer Castle.
You will hardly find a better spot than
this, unless it be from Station Road, from which to view the
Old Church, which, standing over there, some eighty yards
to the north west, under the shadow of its venerable yews,
served as the parish church for close upon eight centuries.
There it rose almost before Walmer was a parish : and now
it is closed with its monuments and memories, and seems almost
ashamed of itself, as it nestles beneath the trees of Walmer
Court. But its associations will never die, linked as they
are with the great men of the past; — the Aubervilles
and Criols of the Norman and Plantagenet periods; — the
Fogges of the Middle Ages; — the Lisles and Boys's of
Stewart times; — and, more recently still, with Pitt
and Wellington and Palmerston, and many another noble name.
Turning away, we pass along by the Station
Road (just down here to the right is the little Wesleyan
Chapel, an iron building opened in January, 1888) to gain
once more the main street, where again we have a choice of
routes. If you wish for one of the most extensive views in
Kent, we will turn to the right and go up the Dover Road,
past the Workmen's Club (whose closed doors, alas!
appear to say " tarn mortuus quam uncus"), to the
top of the hill beyond Messrs. Thompson & Son's Brewery;
but we must not forget to notice, on Messrs. W. and T. Denne's
premises here to the right of us, the site of the old building
where, many years ago, soldiers of the King's German Legion
were quartered.
Exactly five hundred yards from Station
Road we cross the boundary, and proceed about three hundred
yards beyond that; passing as we go the site of the old Toll-gate,
and the reservoir that supplies the parish with water. We
are in Ripple parish now and have a grand prospect
.
* On a very
clear day no fewer than twenty-one churches can be seen from
this spot, namely, Broadstairs, St. George's at Ramsgate,
St. Laurence, Minster, St. Clement's and St. Peter's at Sandwich,
Worth, Monkton, St. Nicholas, Wodnesborough, Ash, Great Mongeham,
Northbourne, Ripple, the three churches in Deal, Sutton, Ringwould,
St. Margaret's, and Kingsdown; and very nearly the same number
of windmills may also be counted.
Down the road before us beyond Ripple
Mill, a landmark well known to sailors, lies the village
of Ringwould; — we see the Rectory and Ringwould
House peeping through the trees, which, now the leaves are
off, only partially conceal the church; a little to the left,
beyond the valley that stretches away westward over there
to Oxney Woods, rises the lofty ridge of Freedown, terminating
eastward in the copse called Kingsdown Wood, and remarkable
for its Celtic tumuli, its orchids, and its heather : to the
southward, some four or five miles off, where you see the
summits of four lighthouses standing out against the clear
blue sky like sentinels, is the South Foreland, close upon
400 feet above the sea : (you should have been here on a pitch-dark
night about five years since, when experiments were being
tried at those lighthouses with various kinds of burners,
electric, oil, and gas, each versus each; and watched the
brilliant flashes of the first, which lighted up the sky and
country-side in its revolutions, so that, even at this distance,
you could tell the time by your watch): a little nearer, and
just to the right of the lighthouses, is the massive Norman
church of St. Margaret's, anciently an appendage to the priory
of St. Martin : to the left looking over Clayton Hill and
the hill beyond (Knight's Hill), we see nestling in the valley
to the southward of Clim Down, and to the left of the spot
called the Butts, where Kentish archers kept their hand in
with the long bow, the little fishing village of Kingsdown,
an offshoot from Ringwould, with its memories of the old judge
Sir John Mellor, of Tichborne-trial renown; — he lived
at Kingsdown House, and lies buried in the little churchyard
on the cliff there: beyond, stretch the silvery waters of
the Downs and the Dover Strait (you can see the South Sand
Head Light-ship and the breakers on the Goodwin Sands), bounded,
some three or four and twenty miles away, by the white cliffs
of the French coast: and about north-east of us are the plantations
of Walmer Castle.
Now turning our faces rather more to the
northward, we see Walmer and Deal stretched at our feet; and,
a few miles further off, due north of us, the Sandhills, famous
for their Golf-ground, one of the finest in England; Pegwell
Bay of crustacean celebrity; and the Isle of Thanet terminating
eastward in the bluff point of the North Foreland: (you can
distinctly see the houses of Ramsgate; and the position of
the harbour is clearly shewn by the stone pier, which lies
on the water like a faint white line) : a little more landward,
rising, some six miles off, from the marshes, where by the
way is the detached portion of the parish of Walmer already
mentioned, and just beyond the little village of Worth, is
the ancient Cinque-Port town of Sandwich; — you can see
the square tower of St. Clement's, and St. Peter's with its
bulb-like cupola, while Richborough and Ebbsfleet appear beyond
: nor-nor-west of us, the high ground of Ash and Woodnesborough
with its Pagan associations, bounds our view : further west
still, we see the ivy-mantled tower of Great Mongeham church;
and, beyond that, the plantations and church at Northbourne:
here, about a mile away, the little spire of Ripple church
appears above the trees, nearly in a line with the woods beyond
at Betteshanger and Tilmanstone : and right away over there
to the westward, beyond Sutton, and Waldershare Park with
its far-famed tower, are Coldred and Shepherd's Well; the
latter marked by the windmill which appears on the horizon.
There is but one thing more to notice before
we resume our walk, namely, the Dane Pits, or rather
their remains, which can only be distinguished by the lighter
colour of the soil, in the field down the turning to the right;
— the road bisects them obliquely, a little more than
two hundred yards from its junction with the main road : Hasted
describes the spot as " an oblong square entrenchment,
comprehending about half an acre, with various little eminences
in it"; but it has been ploughed up these fifty years,
and, whatever purpose it served originally, it contributes
now to the annual yield of farm produce, and will soon have
disappeared altogether. Now, if you please, we will retrace
our steps through Walmer Street, and take the first
turn to the right (Gram's Lane), where we see again
the Roman Catholic Chapel already noticed; and, passing
on, have the Convent grounds* on our left, and on the
opposite side those of St. Clare: both are enclosed
by high walls.
* Within these
grounds is the house known formerly as " Roselands,"
the quondam abode of Admiral Sir Henry Harvey; indeed he built
the place, and his son Sir Thomas Harvey lived there after
him.
St. Clare is a fine mansion as you
see: it has extensive grounds, well wooded; and commands pretty
views. It was originally built about eighty years ago by Mr.
Andrew Gram, a native of Drontheim in Norway, and a very successful
merchant: lately, it was the residence of Lord Conyers, the
twelfth baron of that name, who died here in 1888 : and it
is now a College for boys. At the foot of the hill we are
now descending (here where Gram's Lane unites with the road
to Kingsdown), an old inhabitant remembers a felo-de-se to
have been boned; — poor wretch ! long may his bones lie
undisturbed! The part of the valley where we now stand receives
the name of Rays Bottom, but half a mile further to
the south-west it is known by the more suggestive title of
Knight's Bottom; — recalling to the imagination
past scenes of jousts or tournaments, which in the days of
the Aubervilles and Criols were perhaps not unfrequent here.
The hill before us (Hawkes Hill), which we now proceed
to climb, bears evident traces of earthworks, ** but again
we have no clue to their date; and from its summit we obtain
a very pretty view of the winding valley just left behind.
** Mr. Flinders
Petrie remarks concerning these works as follows: " The
faint banks at Hawkshill close joining the south side of the
Castle grounds at Walmer, seem decidedly not for defensive
works, but rather like the ancient field boundaries so common
on the Wiltshire Downs, and only known in Kent at Hayes."
(Arch. Cant, xiii, p. 13.)
Passing on by the footpath which skirts
the Castle plantations from the Glen to the beach (there is
another footpath southward over Hawkes Down to Kingsdown),
we have once more the sea in view as we leave Hawkes Hill.
It may appear idle to speculate on the origin of this name,
but it happens that a certain William Hawkes. was captain
of the Castle in 1576. It is curious, too, that in a document
amongst the State Papers of that year, dated April 29th, mention
is made of a "controversy" between him and Mr. Henry
Isham, the Lord of the manor; though what it was all about
appears not. A good deal of the land around the Castle has
been in dispute at one time or another; and supposing the
controversy in question to have had reference to .this hill,
it might easily, and whichever way it terminated, have suggested
the name that has come down to us.
It should be mentioned that quite recently
an unsuccessful claim was made to Hawkes Hill as Common ground;
the principal argument, apparently, on behalf of the people,
having been the custom of holding a fair there on Good Friday.
The trees on our left as we descend to the beach, are those
planted by the soldiers, whom Lady Hester Stanhope brought
over from Dover in 1805, during Pitt's absence in town.
We stand now once again upon the "
low open shore " which gladdened Caesar's legions in
the year 55 B.C.; — yes, low and open still, in spite
of that pretty passage in Black's Guide to Kent, which tells
us of the " glittering perpendicular wall of cliff"
between this spot and Deal. You never heard the passage? then
let me give it you in full : — " One mile's breezy
walk along the cliffs (from this very spot) and we reach Deal.
But it should be noted that the tourist may also proceed by
the sea shore. He must, however, be careful to ascertain the
hour of high water, as if overtaken by the tide, he would
find no safety in the glittering perpendicular wall of cliff
that here defends the sea-girt Albion." The author of
that passage is to be congratulated on his inventive genius;
or did his notes get somehow muddled up? But others have erred
besides Black's Guide; for Leigh's Road Book, published in
1831, speaks of Martello Towers at Deal, though certainly
there were never any on this side of Dover.
There was once a "jetty or head of
tymber", a sort of groyn in fact, extending into the
sea here in front of the moat wall of the Castle, " in
length 8 rodde", which was intended to " staye the
foote of the beach upp against the saide walle." That
was more than two centuries ago, though a passage in Professor
Burrows's recently published book (Cinque Ports, p. 19), reads
as though " barriers running out into the sea,"
both at Walmer and Deal, were still necessary (they are at
the north end of the latter where the sea-wall has just been
made), "in order to prevent absolute denudation":
the wide extent of shingle, heaped up all along the shore
at Walmer, and stretching away out there beyond the rifle-butts
at Kingsdown, points to a very different conclusion, at least
as far as this parish is concerned.
The parish of Walmer terminates in the
direction we are now looking, that is towards Kingsdown,
just beyond that house in the first gap in the cliff, that
rises gradually to the southward of the Castle : a Bridle
Road across to Knight's Bottom forms the boundary. On the
shingle a road was made, from the point where we stand, seventy
years ago, of which circumstance the history is recorded in
the parish books in the following words: — "Oct.
28th, 1819. Proposed by Mr. G. U. Leith on behalf of the Earl
of Liverpool that the Parish should in consideration of the
Sum of Eighty Pounds (given by his Lordship for the purpose)
make a Road on the Beach from Walmer Castle towards Kingsdown,
as now marked out, in the course of the ensuing Winter or
at the leisure of the Parish." This road has recently
been made into an asphalt walk for foot passengers only, as
far as the Bungalows, and other houses, erected some five
or six hundred yards away; though further on it still exists
as a cart-road to the Parish boundary, along which it passes
to join the Cliff Road. About midway between us and the Bungalows
(notice what vast quantities of shingle have been of late
removed for building and other purposes!) you see a pole with
footholds, rising from the shingle; — it is used by the
Coastguards at their quarterly practices with the Rocket Apparatus,
and an interesting sight it is to watch them. You see the
rocket whizzing seaward with a roar, and carrying a line with
it to an imaginary wreck, of which that pole is supposed to
be the mast; the line is made fast at some height from the
ground; and two or three sturdy coastguardsmen rehearse the
process of being saved. This is effected by means of the sling
life-buoy, which is rapidly hauled out to the mast, and back
again to the foot of the cliff; each return journey being
made with a man in it.
Now let us turn our attention to the
Castle, whose history will by and by occupy a chapter
or two of its own; — how picturesque it looks, its ivy-covered
walls nestling there among the trees! the guns upon its ramparts
are ever silent now, though once they used to honour the Queen's
Birthday with their old-fashioned thunder : why have they
become dumb? There is a tale about those guns (there are eight
smooth-bore Armstrongs, 32 pounders, on the Upper, and six
of a similar description, 6 pounders, on the Lower Ramparts),
that they are some of those taken by Earl Howe from the French,
in his great victory of the "glorious first of June"
(1794): the Illustrated News gave currency to this story on
the occasion of Her Majesty's visit in 1842; but (unfortunately
shall we say?) all the guns on Upper and Lower Ramparts alike,
are marked with the royal initials G. R. 3. (Georgius iii.
Rex.). When the lower ramparts were added is not quite clear;
but I have seen an engraving, the date of which is fixed approximately
by the semaphore that appears on the cliff towards St. Margaret's,
in which a low cliff is shewn in the place they now occupy
: probably Pitt added them when he put the castle into a state
of defence at the commencement of the French Revolutionary
War. The footpath through the meadows used once to pass, it
is said, in front of the castle by way of those ramparts;
but it has long been diverted, and now joins the road behind
the northernmost clump of shrubs there on the beach.
This green in front of the Castle (a sloop
or brig-of-war used, according to Ireland's Kent, to be stationed
off here in wartime) is, like the Castle itself, the property
of the Lord Warden for the time being of the Cinque Ports;
though there still appears to be some doubt as to the actual
boundary on either side : the stones you see not far away
from us, were put down a few years ago by the War Office,
during the absence of Earl Granville and without his 'knowledge
or concurrence: if correctly placed, they limit the Lord Warden's
ownership over the beach, to the portion, a little more than
ninety yards wide, immediately in front of the Castle itself;
though the part claimed is much wider. The clumps of trees
and shrubs on the beach north and south were planted by Earl
Granville.
Are visitors allowed to inspect the Castle,
do you say? Yes, when the Lord Warden and his family are not
in residence; — and there is a good deal that is interesting
about the old place too. It was Pitt's residence during the
French Revolutionary War; and he worked himself nearly to
death organizing and drilling his famous Cinque Ports Volunteers,
when an invasion from Bonaparte's forces, then concentrated
at Boulogue, seemed imminent: here too, in a narrow little
room which now forms a sort of alcove to the Drawing Room,
Nelson is said many a time to have conferred with Pitt, while
his flagship lay in the Downs : and here also the Iron Duke
passed in happy retirement the last days of an event-full
life; — and here he breathed his last on September 14th,
1852. Some of the articles of furniture used by the Great
Duke are still shewn at the Castle, in the room that was his
bedroom, though some have been removed to Apsley House. The
present Lord Warden has endeavoured to preserve everything
of historical value about the place; and some plates with
an inscription, on the chairs in the Drawing Room that once
were Pitt's, are due to his conservatism. There is a handsome
old bell here which is worthy of inspection; — it used
to be in the tower, but now you get at it from the upper ramparts
to the northward: it has the initials C. R. (for Carolus Rex)
upon it, and Stahlschmidt says (Bells of Kent, p. 432), though
I think erroneously, the date 1662. It is twenty-two inches
in diameter, and has around its upper part an ornamental double
band of foliage. Originally an Alarm Bell, it now serves the
more peaceable purpose of summoning the inmates of the castle
to dinner.
It now remains for us but to proceed as
far as Walmer Lodge, and we shall have completed our
circuit of the parish. We have a choice of ways, however;
either the Wellington Road, or the path on the shingle : the
latter, which we choose, was originally known as the Liverpool
Walk from its having been constructed at his Lordship's expense;
later on, it was called the Wellington Beach, but the Local
Board have recently (1887) made it an asphalted path, and
renamed it the Marina. If you come here in the morning
you will probably find Marines at drill; — distance judging
and the like: at the present moment some boatmen are spreading
out their newly-oiled nets to dry. You ask about that line
of verdure on the shingle a dozen yards or so on our seaward
side? It has a history of its own, for it marks the line of
a path made by the Coast Blockade-men, sixty or more years
ago, when the Government made a vigorous effort to repress
the smuggling, or, as it was once called in these parts by
an appropriate euphuism, the Owling Trade [State Papers, Domestic,
William and Mary, Ixix. 3: June 1700]: every inch of coast
along here was closely patrolled both night and day, to the
great loss, Pritchard says, "of the inhabitants generally
of the town (Deal)," and no doubt of the poorer classes
of Walmer too. The truth is the Smugglers had long had by
far too much their own way, and every one was afraid of them.
An old lady well known in Walmer, and still living here, remembers
being at an evening party at Beach House — the
next house past Walmer Lodge — somewhere about the time
in question, when a gang of these gentry suddenly appeared
on the scene, and having taken possession of the house, ordered
all lights to be immediately extinguished; — an order
which the host dared not disobey.
Among the sights of Walmer not the least
interesting, particularly during long-continued south-westerly
winds, is that wonderful anchorage the Downs, eight
miles in extent from north to south, and about five miles
wide : in the good old days before the introduction of steam,
it was by no means uncommon to see four or five hundred vessels
of all sorts, outward bound, detained here windbound at a
time; and even now when such a large proportion of all the
vessels that pass through are propelled by steam, two hundred
may often be seen at anchor in the winter months. Then is
the time to see the Downs at night, the countless lights at
sea giving the appearance of a vast town out there a mile
or two away. But if even there are no ships, the Downs at
night are by no means devoid of interest; — mapped out
as they are by flashes of light from all the most important
headlands, and from the light-ships that guard the shoals
and channels of this dangerously narrow sea. On the land are
the lights of the North and South Forelands : thirty miles
away to the southward across the Straits, and looking sometimes
not a tenth of the distance, the white and red flashes from
Cape Grisnez (Grinny the sailors call it), sparkle on clear
nights with marvellous brilliancy : Calais though low down
is nearer, and its four-fold flash lights up the sky in the
offing. Then there are the light-ships; three guarding, the
Goodwin Sands, namely, the North Sand Head, the South Sand
Head, and the East Goodwin; (the green light of the last is
just about nine miles away); and another, the Gull, marking
the fairway through the Gull Stream. An eighth light is said
to be occasionally visible, namely that on the French coast
at Dunkirk, but, as it can scarcely be less than five and
forty miles away, you can believe it or not as you please.
And booming across the sea from the North-East Goodwin come
the weird groans of the mis-named " whistling "
buoy.
November, 1889.
|
This page was updated on October 6, 2018