3-003-789 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Installation of Lord Palmerston as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports: the Roman Dubris (Dover), with its two lighthouses - from an old print, 1861. 'Through the courtesy of Mr. Knocker, Town Clerk of Dover, we are enabled to give an Engraving of the Roman Dubris (Dover), which is taken from a curious old print, entitled "The Appeareance of the Roman Dvbris," in that gentleman's possession. Of the two Roman lighthouses shown in our Illustration, which guided the Imperial galleys into the port below or lent their flickering glare to the British oyster-boats, the one on the Western Heights has altogether disappeared, and only a portion remains of that on Castle Hill. Concerning this pharos, which is attached to a ruined church of the Castle Keep, and which is the only fragment of Roman masonry remaining, the guidebooks give us the following particulars: It was built by the Romans early in the second century, to guide their galleys across the strait. The material employed is a casing of flints and tufa, in blocks about twelve inches by seven, strengthened with bonding courses of large Roman tiles, and filled up with stones and mortar. Originally it had on the east side an arched door; on the other sides Roman windows, 13½ ft. by 4 ft., which Bishop Gundulph blocked up and reduced into Norman loopholes'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.