This place has been at different periods subject to dreadful irruptions of the sea, particularly in the year 1574, when it broke in, and carried away 121 houses: Scheveling has its portion of historic celebrity. In 1650, the expatriated Charles II. after a long exile, embarked from this place for Scotland, to which he was invited, with a promise of assistance in recovering the rest of his dominions. Clarendon, in his History, vol. iii. p. 287, says, the king went from the Hague to Scheveling, where “the States of Holland, at infinite hazard to themselves from Cromwell and England, suffered their ship to transport him. They gave all countenance to the Scotch merchants and factors who lived in their dominions, and some credit, that they might send arms and ammunition, and whatsoever else was necessary for the king’s service, into that kingdom.” And this the States did “when the king was at his lowest ebb, and was heartily weary of being in a place (Paris) where he was very ill-treated, and lived very uncomfortably, and from whence he foresaw he should soon be driven.” Having experienced the most romantic vicissitudes after his escape from Worcester, this monarch, in the disguise of a sailor, escaped to Dieppe in Normandy, in 1651; and he again, in 1660, embarked at Scheveling on board of his own fleet, which was waiting to receive him. The grateful monarch declared war against his Dutch friends in 1672, and entered into a private league with the French king to lay waste their provinces with fire and sword. From this beach too the Stadtholder, his son the hereditary prince, and two or three Dutch noblemen attached to the prostrate fortunes of the house of Orange, embarked when they fled to England: the vessel they sailed in was a small fishing cutter, navigated by five men; the princesses took their departure in a similar conveyance the day before.