nst the Romans--unless, as is
more probable, they submitted without fighting.]

DORCHESTER (Oxfordshire).--Situated at the junction of the Thames and
the Thame.

There is a Roman station near the present village, and (across the
Thames) the double isolated mound known as Wittenham Hills (Sinodum),
on the summit of which are strong early earthworks. In 655, this
place was the seat of a bishopric, the largest in England, including
the whole of Wessex and Mercia. In 1086, William the First and Bishop
Remigius removed the bishop's stool to Lincoln.

DOVER.--Roman _Dubris_, on the Dour (_dwr_--water), the principal
Cinque port, is situated close to the South Foreland, and is 72 miles
from London.

It is the eye of England, looking over to the nearest part of the
continent. It is also the gate of England, through which have come
and gone in all historic ages kings and queens and lesser folk on all
kinds of missions, relating both to war and peace. Geologically it is
knit to the French shore, by the existence both of _white_ and
_black_ rocks, _i.e._, chalk and coal. At a time when Britain was
joined to what is now Europe, when the cave bear devoured his prey in
Kent's cavern, and the monkey gambolled in the lofty trees, when the
Thames was a tributary of some great eastern stream, the Dour might
have been a considerable river, as it has worked for itself a deep
erosive valley. Even in early historic times its estuary must have
occupied a great part of the land on which stands modern Dover.
Originally wood fires were lighted on corresponding sites on the E.
and W. cliffs to guide vessels into the intermediate beach and
natural harbour during the darkness of a winter's night. Even when
the Pharos was reared, the primitive mode of illumination by means of
wood or coal was employed. The modern form of lighthouse, with glass
or metal reflectors, dates but from 1758, when the first Eddystone
lighthouse was built. A common coal fire-light was continued at St.
Bees Head, in Cumberland, as late as 1820. Architecturally, the Dover
Pharos (so called from one erected at Pharos, Alexandria, in 285
B.C.--550 ft. high--said to have been visible 42 miles away) is
interesting from the fact that the stones from which it is built are
not native, but are supposed to have been brought over as ballast in
Roman galleys. In some places it would appear that they were built up
wall-shape, liquid cement being poured into the inters