te coast. Its harbor is almost
entirely artificial, and there has been much difficulty in keeping it
open. That there is any port there now at all is due mainly to Raleigh's
advice, and there is at present a well-protected harbor of refuge, with
a fine pier extending nearly a half mile into the sea, with a fort at
the outer end. From the top of the hill there looks down upon this pier
the Saluting-Battery Gate of the castle, within which is kept that
curious specimen of ancient gunnery known as "Queen Elizabeth's Pocket
Pistol."

[Illustration: SALUTING BATTERY.]

Farther down the coast is the ancient "limb" of Dover, which has grown
into the rival port of Folkestone. This modern port, created to aid the
necessities of travel across the Channel, stands at the north-eastern
corner of the Romney Marsh, a district that has been raised out of the
sea and is steadily increasing in front of the older coast-line, shown
by a range of hills stretching westward from Folkestone. This marsh has
made the sea retreat fully three miles from Hythe, whose name signifies
"the harbor," though it is now an inland village, with a big church
dedicated to St. Leonard, the deliverer of captives, who was always
much reverenced in the Cinque Ports, their warlike sailors being
frequently taken prisoner. In a crypt under its chancel is a large
collection of skulls and bones, many of them bearing weapon scars and
cuts, showing them to be relics of the wars. Beyond Hythe the Rother
originally flowed into the Channel, but a great storm in the reign of
Edward I. silted up its outlet, and the river changed its course over
towards Rye, so as to avoid the Cinque port of Romney that was
established on the western edge of the marshes to which it gave the
name. Romney is now simply a village without any harbor, and of the five
churches it formerly had, only the church of St. Nicholas remains as a
landmark among the fens that have grown up around it, an almost treeless
plain intersected by dykes and ditches.

RYE AND WINCHELSEA.

[Illustration: OLD HOUSES, RYE.]

The unpicturesque coast is thrust out into the sea to the point at
Dungeness where the lighthouse stands a beacon in a region full of peril
to the navigator; and then the coast again recedes to the cove wherein
is found the quaint old town of Rye, formerly an important "limb" of the
Cinque port of Hastings. It has about the narrowest and crookedest
streets in England, and the sea is two mile