one was built, within the fortress, at Dover Castle' upon a similar plan with that at Bolougne.

The form of the building was octagonal without, and within a square, and the sides of each were nearly of equal dimensions; or about fourteen feet each, and the thickness of the walls, to the first floor, ten feet. Time has impaired this tower very materially, and it is now impossible to say, whether the walls were of equal thickness to the top, or how high they raised them.

It is a singular fact, which has for ages escaped the prying eye of the antiquary, that the Roman masons built the walls of this tower with a stalactical concretion, instead of stone. It was formed under water, and they cut it into small blocks, about a foot in length, and seven inches deep; but they were not all of equal size or solidity.

The walls were raised, first with seven courses of the stalactical blocks, and then two courses of tiles; and this work was continued alternately; but the tiles are of different dimensions; and some of them were cast in moulds, peculiar to the makers of them at this place. The course of tiles, on the eastern side of the tower, and nearly level with the first arch, were about twenty-two inches in length, with a projecting part' at one end, on each side of the tiles, and an open space at the other, of equal dimensions; that when the tiles were laid in the wall, with their ends reversed, they might fit into each other. The surface of the tiles, on one side, had many curved furrows, and four hemispherical knobs, or one equi-distant from each angle of the tile.

There were, originally, two windows, and as many passages, on the ground floor, in the middle of each side of the square. The entrance on the north-east is about six feet wide, and the durability of the materials, and of the workmanship, seem to bid defiance to time; for in the course of sixteen hundred and fifty years, there is no visible

'See plate ii, fig. 1.

* See the first volume of this work, plate i, fig. 4..

decay in the arch over the passage. The arches over the windows have suffered much more by an idle curiosity, in breaking off pieces by force, than they have by the weather, or the gradual decay of time.

As this Pharos was built by the Romans on a similar plan with that of Bolougne, and at no great distance of time from it, search has been made, on the opposite shore, for a specimen of the materials used in that building. Several pieces of the tophus were collected and it was with this petrefaction that the Romans built their Pharos at Bolougne, as well as at this place; which may be considered as one of the oldest pieces of masonry now remaining in this kingdom; and probably one of the first erected in it.

As every thing must yield to time, when there are no means used to preserve it, so must this tower; which is now going to decay, for want of a little repair, which would preserve it some centuries more.

The use of the tophus, in building, was well known, both to the Greeks, the Romans, and the Egyptians; and it was worked in the partition walls of many of their elegant buildings.

The tophus, though rough, gritty, and light, and resembling pumice, easily crumbles, when rubbed; yet it is durable, even when exposed to the weather, in such a lofty and bleak situation as Dover Castle. It is common, both in Germany and Italy;' and there are great rocks of it on the Rhine; and the Germans have used it instead of pumice. The Romans being perfectly acquainted both with its use and durability, and wanting materials to erect a Pharos, instead of venturing to search an enemy's country for stone, which they had just entered, at the risk of being surprized and cut off, they imported the tophus, which was light for water carriage, and for conveying up the hill, which was, at that time, difficult to ascend; and they had no materials on the spot.

De Costa on Fossils.-Piozzi's Tour in Italy.

This is a strong proof of the antiquity of the tower; and that it was erected by the Romans, as soon as they determined to subdue the Britons; for if they had waited until they had been better acquainted with the country, they might have found stone, for building, not many miles from their fortress.

When this tower was made a place of defence, before the building of the exterior walls of the Castle,' the windows were altered, according to the plan of Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, who was military architect to William the First. In making the alterations, though they suffered the original arches to remain over the windows, they extended the space in the walls, on the ground floor; but they were obliged to carry the quoins inclining to each other, to reduce the space to the original width over the window. Both the materials, and the workmanship, in the alterations, are very different from the Roman masonry. The openings under the arches, on the outside, were contracted to a narrow slip, to which they ascended by a flight of steps, made in the inside work in the wall.

This ancient structure was repaired, and the greatest part of it cased with flint, in the year 1259, when Richard de Grey, of Codnore, was Constable of the Castle; and his arms, cut in a small square stone, were placed on the north side of the tower, and are still remaining there. A barry of six, argent, and azure.

When this building became useless, as a place of defence, a set of bells were hung in it; which Sir George Rooke, by his influence, had removed to Portsmouth.

The board of ordnance, for a trifling sum, suffered the lead to be disposed of, which covered it; and the tower has remained open ever since, exposed to the rain and the frost; which must, in time, destroy the texture of the mortar, and crumble away the walls.

Vol. ii.

'Godwin's Lives of the Bishops.-King on Ancient Castles.
E

The flint caseing is now dropping off, and the original masonry will, once more, be exposed to the storms, which, in its present ruinous state, must rapidly hasten its fall.

As there is but little probability that this tower will ever be repaired again, it must, like many sumptuous buildings of the Romans, be levelled with the ground; but some of its fragments may remain, for ages, scattered about the Castle, and shew, that there was once a light-house erected on the Castle hill, by that people, to guide their ships into the bay at Dover.

The old Church in the Roman Fortification.

This ancient structure has frequently attracted the attention, both of the antiquaries, and of the curious travellers; and they have all adopted the same opinion, that it was either built by a Roman architect, or with the materials of some dilapidated edifice," left by them on the hill, when they finally quitted our island.

There are but few churches in the kingdom which can boast of an earlier date; but it may be deemed credulity by some, to receive the story related in the monkish chronicles, of its having been built by Lucius, who, they tell us, was converted to Christianity, about the year of the Christian æra 172, in the time of pope Eleutherius. There is not any thing very improbable in the account of Lucius having been a provincial King in the eastern parts of Kent, by the courtesy of the Romans, nor of his renouncing the idolatrous worship of the Pagans, in being baptized, and building a church; but the precise time when all these events happened, appears rather doubtful.'

If we can credit the legendary tale, recorded of him in the Roman calendar, he was a King in Britain, towards the close of the second

'Those who wish to examine more particularly into the story of Lucius, may consult Gildas, Nennius, Bede, and other ancient authors; and among the more modern, Archbishop Usher, Spelman, Cambden, Stillingfleet, and others.

century. After he became a believer in Christ, we are informed, that he felt an ardent zeal for making converts to his faith; and this induced him to quit his sceptre, his subjects, and his country, and embark for the continent. Being warm in the cause he had undertaken, he wandered through the forests, and over the mountains of Switzerland; and at Coire he built an hermitage, where he instructed the inhabitants in the important doctrines and duties of Christianity, by his preaching and his practice. He was considered as an apostle by the Grisons; and reverenced as a saint by the Catholics.

At the cathedral of Coire, they pretend to have some of his bones, which they shew to the credulous spectators, richly ornamented. In contradiction to this legend, it is said, that he built a monastery at Bangor, and died at Gloucester.

If what has been recorded of this King could be deemed authentic, there would not be any inconsistency in considering him as the founder of a church in Dover Castle.'

The Romans had been a sufficient time in Britain, to teach our ancestors to build temples, courts, and market places; and to give them a taste for the elegant, as well as the useful arts; but neither the remains of bases, capitals, or columns, have ever been found on this hill; which have usually been seen near the ruinated buildings of the Roman temples, and given decisive proofs of the execution produced by the chisels of their artists.

This seems to be a conclusive evidence, that the present building has not that high antiquity, which monkish writers have ascribed to it; and before we adopt the opinion of modern antiquaries, relative to this ruin, it will be necessary to examine it accurately.

The prevailing notion has been, that the walls and the tower of this church, were raised with the materials of a dilapidated Roman edifice, and laid by the masons, without any regular order, as they

'Fordum, lib. 3, c. 36.-Tacitus.