have been tried to prevent the increase of the bar, which, after a gale of wind from the seaward, is sometimes increased so much, as to prevent all vessels, except those that are of very light draught of water, from entering or leaving the port. It is high water at Dover pier at sixteen minutes past eleven on the full and change of the moon; and the rise of the water at spring-tides is about twenty feet. Dover is much frequented in summer as a watering-place; and for the convenience which it affords, and the beautiful and interesting scenery in its neighbourhood, it is surpassed by no other town on the coast. At a short distance from the entrance to Dover Castle is mounted the long brass gun, usually called Queen Elizabeth's pocket-pistol, which was presented to her Majesty by the United Provinces. It is twenty-four feet long; but is so much "honey-combed," that, were it fired, it would be certain to burst. Popular tradition says that it contains an inscription to this effect:-- "Sponge me well, and keep me clean, And I'll throw a ball to Calais green." There is, indeed, an inscription on it in the Dutch language, but though it commemorates the destructive power of this long piece of ordnance, it says nothing which implies that its range was so extraordinary. The distance from Dover Castle to the church of Notre-Dame, at Calais, is rather more than twenty-six miles. This gun was cast at Utrecht in 1544, by James Tolkys, and the verses inscribed on its breech have been translated as follows:-- "O'er hill and dale I throw my ball; Breaker, my name, of mound and wall." About a mile to the southward of the town is the celebrated cliff which is supposed to have been described by Shakspeare in King Lear. "_Gloster._--Dost thou know Dover? _Edgar._--Ay, master. _Gloster._--There is a cliff, whose high and bending head Looks fearfully in the confined deep: Bring me to the very brim of it. * * * * *