ign of Henry II., a
MS. in the British Museum tells us, the Earl of Leicester came to attack
it. 'When he came neare and beheld the strength thereof, it was terror
and feare unto him to behold it; and so retired both he and his people.'
Dunwich aided King John in his wars with the barons, and thus gained the
first charter. In the time of Edward I. it had sixteen fair ships,
twelve barks, four-and-twenty fishing barks, and at that time there were
few seaports in England that could say as much. It served the same King
in his wars with France with eleven ships of war, well furnished with men
and munition. In most of these ships were seventy-two men-at-arms, who
served thirteen weeks at their own cost and charge. Dunwich seems to
have suffered much by the French wars. Four of the eleven ships already
referred to were captured by the French, and in the wars waged by Edward
III. Dunwich lost still more shipping, and as many as 500 men. Perhaps
it might have flourished till this day had if not been for the curse of
war. But the sea also served the town cruelly. That spared nothing--not
the King's Forest, where there were hawking and hunting--not the homes
where England nursed her hardy sailors--not even the harbour whence the
brave East Anglians sailed away to the wars. In Edward III.'s time, at
one fell swoop, the remorseless sea seems to have swallowed up '400
houses which payde rente to the towne towards the fee-farms, besydes
certain shops and windmills.' Yet, when I was a lad, this wreck of a
place returned two members to Parliament, and Birmingham, Manchester and
Sheffield not one. Between Covehithe and Dunwich stood, and still
stands, the charming little bathing-place of Southwold. Like them, it
has seen better days, and has suffered from the encroachments of the
ever-restless and ever-hungry sea. It was at Southwold that I first saw
the sea, and I remember naturally asking my father, who showed me the
guns on the gun-hill--pointing seaward--whether that was where the
enemies came from.

Southwold appears to have initiated an evangelical alliance, which may
yet be witnessed if ever a time comes of reasonable toleration on
religious matters. In many parts of the Continent the same place of
worship is used by different religious bodies. In Brussels I have seen
the Episcopalians, the Germans, the French Protestants, all assembling at
different times in the same building. There was a time when a similar
cus