Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.

SECTION ONE. DOVER CASTLE.

X. SOLDIERS OF THE FORTRESS.

To the history of the Fortress, it seems necessary to append a brief account of the soldiers who from time to time have held it.

Of the British soldiers who resisted Juhus Caesar at Dover, and who are mentioned in " Cassar's Commentaries,"  nothing definite can be said. It is not known whether  they were a local force or one brought for rhe occasion.

The Romans, undoubtedly, garrisoned the Castle Hill, and had some sort of an establishment there. " The Western Empire's Book of Notices " mentions that, at the time of Theodosius the Younger (the Prepositus Militum Tungricunorum), the Band of Tungricans, were quartered at Dover Castle. The defensive works — of Roman, Saxon, and Norman origin — indicate that there was a military force here during those successive periods. At the Norman Invasion, although all the men who could be spared had been marched to oppose the Normans at Hastings, there was a sufficient garrison left in Dover Castle to make considerable resistance, although not an effectual one.

After the Saxons were ousted, the Conqueror placed the Castle in the charge of a Constable, and he divided the lands of the County of Kent into Knight's Fees to secure a confederate body of knights and their retainers to permanently hold the fortress for the King of England. In the foregoing article is given a list of those Constables, extending from the Conquest to the present day; and, although the knights' service did not continue so long, those knights and their retainers for nearly five centuries formed the Dover Castle Garrison.

The authority of the Constable of Dover Castle and that of the confederate knights was intended to be permanent and, like the tenure of the land, hereditable ; but while the necesssities of State soon changed the hereditary Constable to one who held the post during the King's pleasure, the knights and their hereditary successors continued until chivalry ceased to be obligatory on the holders of land.

There were eight principal knights in the Dover Castle confederation, namely: — Sir William de Albrinces, Sir Fulbert de Dover, Sir William d'Arsich, Sir Geoffrey de Peverell, Sir William Magminot, Sir Robert de Portn, Sir Hugh Crevequer, and Sir Adam Fitzwilliam, whose names were perpetuated in the ancient towers of the Castle ; and the whole of the lands were divided into 117 Knights' Fees, those knights and their retainers forming a rota, supplying a Castle guard changed monthly, and designed to be perpetual. Under a strong and unchanging Government, the Castle guard might have been perpetual ; but Court favouritism in some instances allowed knights to evade their services while retaining their lands, and in other cases during the revolt of the Barons and the Wars of the Roses the knights who happened to have been on the wrong side, had their estates confiscated, and those lands passing to others, without their ancient obligations, the Castle Guard at the
Tudor period had ceased to be operative. When Henry Vni. took stock of the actual condition of the Castle Guard in 1523 he found it necessary to make radical changes. Such of the lands as .still remained subject to Castle Guard, including the Constable's Warren were appropriated to the crown, and the revenue was used to pay a permanent body of soldiers to man the defence works at Dover and the other smaller castles on the South Eastern Coast. These works
of defence (including Sandown, Deal, and Walmer Castles, the new works at Dover Castle, the Moat Bulwark, Archcliff Fort and Sandown Castle), the King found to be of great value when the clergy, instigated by Rome, succeeded in raising an insurrection in the Midlands .and the North, when suppression of the Monasteries was threatened. While the King, by very energetic action, was quelling that disturbance, Cardinal Pole induced the Continental Powers to collect a fleet which was designed to invade England and effect a landing between Sandwich and Dover. Before that fleet was ready to move, Henry had quelled the rising inland, and had marched his forces to the South Coast. There were many thousands of armed men massed on the shore between Sandwich and Walmer, and the new artillery was manned in all the forts and bulwarks at Dover and east and west of it. Sir Thomas Cheyne, the Constable of Dover Castle, was in command of all the forces, which the King personally inspected. Cheyne, who had a strenuous time, never took off his clothes for a fortnight, for all the time there was a strong east wind blowing and the fleet might have crossed the Straits of Dover in two or three hours; but the huge Armada lay motionless, and at length it broke up. They had hoped to find the English in insurrection, but when it became known that the King's army was waiting in hostile array on the shores of Kent, the invasion was abandoned. During the remainder of the reign of Henry VIII., sufficient soldiers were kept at Dover Castle to form an efficient guard, but after his death this garrison was neglected, and it continued to be a mere .skeleton until the Eighteenth Century. The ancient towers became uninhabitable, and no modern provision was made for housing troops. In the early part of that century whenever there were regiments at Dover they were quartered in the town, and the old towers on the Town Walls were used as guard-houses. In ihe year 1745 the Duke of Cumberland paid an official visit to the Castle, and recommended the construction of barracks on that open space, now a small drill-ground south-west of the Keep. That building was soon after fully occupied, but it was accidentally burnt down in July 1800. In the meanwhile other accommodation was provided for the troops, which were crowded into Dover. After the Castle fire, regiments were again quartered on the inhabitants, but permanent accommodation was made in exten.sive casemates excavated in the face of the Castle Cliff, and in temporary block-houses erected on the Western Heights. The Dover fortress was never so crowded with soldiers as it was, at intervals, from 1776 to 181 5. During parts of that period an enormous number of soldiers were quartered in Dover, and in camp on Barham Downs. It will be of interest to record from what Counties
of England regiments came to garrison Dover at that period. In 1798, in addition to the Dover Volunteers, Militia Regiments came here from Cornwall, York, East Suffolk, Nfontgomery, Glamorganshire, Sussex, Denbigh, Hertford, the Kentish Light Horse and the Cinque Ports Cavalry. These troops which were under the command of General Coote consisted of about 10,000 soldiers, but they were not all in Dover Garrison at one time, portions of them being transferred to camps or temporary -iDarracks at Barham Downs, Ashford, Hythe and Walmer, making room for others who came in 1799 as follows: — Militia Battalions from Radnor, Surrey, South Gloucester, South Middlesex, and the 27 and 35 Regiments of the Line. After a short stay most of them had their marching orders, and in 1800 the 31st and 63rd Regiments came in. Most of these soon marched away again, so that on 1st January, i8gi, the Dover volunteers and the Essex Militia were all the soldiers in Dover to take part in the feu-de-joie to celebrate the union of Great Britain and Ireland. Later in that year the 52nd Regiment, from Lisbon, and the Northampton Militia marched in. On the 22nd of July in that vear the soldiers from the Castle could see the hills around Boulogne covered with the tents of Napoleon's Army of Invasion, and could hear Nelson's ships bombarding the flotilla which was being prepared, outside Boulogne Harbour, to land Fiench troops in England. Nelson continued that blockade until Napoleon was tired of it, after which followed the Peace of Amiens.

During 1802 Dover Garrison was again reduced to a skeleton, for all the Militia Regiments marched home. The war having been resumed in 1803, the Oxford and Lancaster Militias marched into Dover. A corps of Dover Artillery Volunteers was formed and instructed to man the Castle guns. Admiral Sydney Smith (a Dover msn) organised a Gunboat Brigade, for shore defence, consisting of 43 boats, carrying one gun each. In May, 7804, the Surrey Militia returned to Dover, and worked in making entrenchments on the Western Heights. On the 9th August, 1805, another attempt was made to embark a French Army at Boulogne. The soldiers garrisoning Dover at that time were Militia Regiments from Northampton, Hereford, East Yorkshire, Surrey, the Light Dragoons, and the Royal Miners, the Royal Artillery, and the Engineers. As it was uncertain where the invaders might attempt to land, other troops were encamped at Dungeness, Hythe, Saltwood, Shornclifife, Barham Downs, and Walmer. The British Fleet at sea, under Nelson, again knocked the heart out of Napoleon; the invasion was abandoned, and the tide of war rolled away across Europe. About that time the ist Coldstream Guards, the 3rd Regiment of Guards, the 3rd BattaHon of the King's German Legion, and the South Lincolnshire Militia marched into Dover. With the exception of the MiUtiamen, they only made a brief stay. Many other Regiments that had marched from inland Counties passed through Dover to Deal, to embark in the Downs, for the Continent.

On February 5th, 1807, the Shropshire Light Infantry Regiment arrived at Dover, having marched direct from from Shrewsbury. These men, and the Lincolnshire Militia, worked on the new fortifications. After the war was transferred to the Peninsula, Dover Castle had barely sufficient soldiers left in it to man the guns for saluting purposes, until the Spring of 1815, when Bonaparte's escape from Elba caused troops to pour into Dover again in a continuous stream, but they only remained long enough to get transports to carry them to Belgium. After the final victory at Waterloo, wounded soldiers in great numbers landed here, but the victorious British Army remained to occupy France until peace and the regular Civil Government had been settled. Later, transport after transport l)rought back J he heroes of \\'aterloo, l)ut they marched away to their several counties, after which Dover Garrison had but very few soldiers in it until the Crimean War in 1854.

During the operations in the Crimea and the closely following Indian Mutiny, there was a fluctuating stream of soldiery passing through Dover. When the lioops returned from the Crimea in 1856, a larger number of soldiers •were, for a .short time, encamped at Dover than had been at any time during the century. The whole of the available quarters in the Castle were crowded, and the 41st. 42nd, 44th, 49th, ygth, and 93rd Regiments were under canvas on the Western Heights. The Swiss Legion was amongst the troops then occupying the enlarged casements at the Castle. The strength of the Dover Garrison, since the Indian Mutiny, has remained about the same for manv years, consisting of three Battalions of Infantry, Rcyal Garrison Artillery (Coast Defence Companies), Royal Engineers (Fortress Company). Army Service Corps, and Army Medical Corps. The tendency in later years has been to reduce the number of soldiers in the Castle, the principal defensive works l)eing outside it. The Head Quarters of the Garrison, however, are just under the Castle Cliff at Guilford Battery. In the Castle itself are the Head Quarters of the South-Eastern Coast Defences, and there also is the directing centre of those defence.s — an arrangement which links up
with the Comes Littoris Saxonici of the Roman Period, who, in those far back times, at Dover Castle, had charge of the defences of these shores.

In connection with the Soldiers of the Castle, mention should be made of the soldiers' sons at the Duke of York's School, which occupies, on the Swingate Downs, a beautified spot which, in years past, presented a bleak aspect from the northern ramparts of the Castle. The crowds of smart little fellows from the School, in their scarlet tunics, in these days when the ordinary dress of the soldier is drab, remind us of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers who garrisoned the Castle in days gone by. A century ago the site of the Duke of York's School grounds, now so luxuriant in foliage, had only " The Lone Tree " to break its monotony. Of that solitary tree, which still lingers within the School grounds, a story is oft repeated to visitors of the Castle. It runs thus: — In the year 1784 two soldiers quartered at the Castle fell in love with the same girl. One of them, named Donald, discovering, one evening, that his rival had gone for a walk with her, he set off in pursuit along the Deal Road, carrying a stout elm plant torn from the hedge. Overtaking his comrade, Donald struck him a furious blow on the head, which, apparently, killed him. Horrified by the result, he thrust the blood-stained stick into the sodden ground and hurried back to the Castle. The next morning Donald marched away from Dover with his regiment, but the missing man, who was left behind, unknown to Donald, recovered. The elm plant toc^k root and became the Lone Tree, which still survives ; Ijut Donald, after many years' service in India, returned to Scotland, and confessed the foregoing facts to the minister of his kirk. The minister wrote to Dover to seek confirmation of the story, and the reply that he received enabled him to comfort Donald, before his death, with the assurance that the man supposed to be slain was still living.

Since the days of the Cinque Ports Fleet, very little use has been made of Dover in connection with the Navy until recent years. Ever since Tudor times, there has been talk of making a harbour here, where H.M. ships could assemble, lie, or refit; but, as the present purpose of this harbour seems to be to present a bold front to the North Sea and narrow neck of the Straits, the Naval activity of Do\er, probably, will fluctuate, like the Military activity has in the past, and we shall see most of the fighting men and fighting craft " when war spreads its wide desolation," or rumours of war puts the nation on its guard. When that happens, in a Naval sense, we shall see great things at Dover, and then, although the old Castle will not have much of a voice in the matter, the forts in its vicinity will speak with no uncertain sound.