The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 2Finden, W. (William)
History
The Ports, Harbours, Watering-places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain Vol. 2
Finden, W. (William)
Coasts -- Great Britain -- Pictorial works; Great Britain -- Pictorial works
So named in consequence of its having been the point at which King
Charles II. and his brother, the Duke of York, disembarked on their way
from London to Dover, as recorded in the preceding inscription. It
consists of a narrow sloping passage, cut through the chalk cliff, and
communicating with the beach for the convenience of the fishery formerly
carried on in this neighbourhood. It was originally known as "St.
Bartholomew's Gate," from the circumstance of its having been completed,
according to tradition, on the festival of that Saint, and therefore
placed under hallowed auspices. The eastern side of this portal,
opposite the sea, bears, in Saxon characters, ~God Bless Barth'lem's
Gate~. It is about a mile from Broadstairs, and in the midst of scenery
which Henry Lord Holland did much to embellish by great liberality and a
correct taste in architecture. His marine residence here was built after
the model of Cicero's villa on the shore of Baiæ, near Naples; but being
subsequently purchased by some monied speculator, who had most likely
never heard of Cicero, it was despoiled of its rich Italian marbles,
curtailed and barbarised in its proportions, and metamorphosed into
three insignificant dwellings. Around it were several fantastic
buildings, intended to represent various Gothic ruins; the most
considerable of which was the convent, containing the remains of a
chapel and five cells, which once afforded an asylum to poor families.
Nearer the cliff is a rude Gothic structure, erected on the larger of
the two tumuli, called Hackendown Banks, which, according to tradition,
marks the spot where a sanguinary conflict took place between the Saxons
and the Danes, in which the latter were defeated. On opening these
barrows, graves were found excavated in the solid chalk, of an oblong
oval form, about three feet long, and covered with flat stones. In one
of them were discovered three urns of coarse, black, ill-burnt earth,
which, on being exposed to the air, crumbled to pieces. On a tablet
erected by Lord Holland is a Latin inscription, to the memory of the
Danes and Saxons, who here fought a sanguinary battle for the possession
of Britain; the natives having before been perfidiously and cruelly
expelled. The village of St. Peter, situated on a conspicuously wooded
eminence, is much frequented by pleasure parties from the three
bathing-places adjacent. The church is a fine, venerable structure, the
steeple of which, of great strength and solidity, is remarkable for a
rent from top to bottom, occasioned, it is said, by the shock of an
earthquake, which was severely felt along this coast in 1580.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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