not finished before they began to be covered with a saline efflorescence, the sure forerunner of decomposition and decay; and only a few years had elapsed when the arch which supported the first story gave way at its abutments, and threatened the immediate destruction of the building. This error was the more glaring, because excellent water in the greatest abundance may be obtained by digging within a few yards of the light-house! Strong buttresses were then erected, and thus propped on the north-east side, where the wall had most given way; it has hitherto weathered the storms, which sometimes beat with astonishing violence upon this exposed part of the coast; but there is great probability that the weight of the upper stories alone will ultimately occasion the walls to bulge above the top of the buttresses, and the light-house, and the fame of its architect, will together be laid low.

So little attention to convenience was paid by those who formed the plan of this edifice, that it was originally built with all the seven stories opening into each other; the staircase which communicated with the lanthorn at the top being carried up through all the apartments without even a door or any kind of partition to separate them; so that whoever had occasion to go up to the lamps was compelled to pass through every room in the building. The stairs which were designed to have been of stone, were begun so close to the outer wall, that when they had been completed to the height of about twelve feet, it was discovered that the conical shape of the building would not allow of their being carried up any higher;

so the remainder were made of wood, which were better than none at all; and at last upon the representation of the very ingenious old man who was engaged to take care of the light, the several stories were rendered habitable by being partitioned off with wainscot. Still, however, a great inconvenience remained, namely, that besides nine hundred gallons of oil annually consumed in the lamps, all the coal requisite for the stove, which is very considerable in quantity, must necessarily be carried up a narrow staircase, to the height of almost an hundred feet; for want of a small portion of mechanical contrivance by which that labour also might have been spared! Nor should it be omitted that if the windows, instead of being square, and of their present small size, in consequence of which the thickness of the walls prevents the rays of the sun from entering the apartments, had been made high and narrow, with arches over them, instead of having a single piece of stone laid across (in some instances too, resting not more than a quarter of an inch at each end upon the brick walls beneath) both more light would have been admitted, and the walls considerably strengthened and secured. Even incommodious as they are, the casements or sashes have been considerably improved, by being made to open inwardly instead of swinging upon a horizontal pivot, as they did at first, when they could never be shut without difficulty, nor be left open without danger.

So much for the construction of a light-house, erected by one of the most eminent architects in the kingdom (but it must be presumed not under the eye

of Mr. Wyatt) and at an expense so great that the proprietor has been heard to declare, that he burnt the bills for the work as soon as he had paid them; perhaps under the influence of some such feeling as that of Lewis XIV. of France, when he destroyed the accounts of the thirty millions laid out upon his palace of Versailles !

Over the chimney in the principal apartment is a tablet of the artificial stone, of Codes' invention, thus inscribed:

"For the direction and comfort of mariners, for the benefit and security of commerce, and for a lasting memorial of British hospitality; this light-house was erected by Thomas William Coke, Esq. of Holkham House, in the county of Norfolk; instead of the old light-house which originally stood five hundred and forty yards to the northward, and which by means of the land increasing from the violence of the sea, became useless to navigation. A. D. 1792, distant from the sea one hundred yards."

It has been inferred from the above inscription, that the country was indebted to the generosity and munificence of Mr. Coke, for this same lasting memorial of British hospitality!" but the fact is, that every ship which passes the light-house pays a certain sum for the benefit of it, which it is understood that Mr. Coke receives; and the total amount is so considerable that during the continuance of the property tax, this light-house was rated to the assessment at five hundred pounds per annum.

With whatsoever sensations the building and its numerous faults may be viewed, it contains at least one remarkable curiosity; a collection of beautiful

green-house plants in the lantern at the top, so that, as the facetious old fellow who keeps the light smartly observed, "you may see a myrtle ninety feet high, and growing taller every day!"

Besides a small fort at a little distance eastward of Dungeness, there is a station for the officers of the revenue, who have here, ready for being launched at a moment's warning, some very long, deep, and narrow boats, in which it is incredible with how much velocity they can dart across the Channel in pursuit of the smugglers. They have also very powerful and excellent telescopes, through which is kept a constant look out, upon the vessels in the Channel, and which enable them to discern even minute objects upon the heights near Sandgate and Folkstone, as well as in the opposite direction to FairlightDown, and Pevensey.

It has been remarked, that the military canal is interposed between the level of Romney Marsh and the foot of the hills northward. In shape, the Marsh may be considered as an irregular triangle, having this canal for its base.

There are numerous bridges over the canal; but the principal entrances into the level are those near the western extremity of the town of Hythe, and at the Sluices south of Appledore.

CHAP. XXVII.

Appledore.-Rye Harbour and Town.-Win

chelsea.

THE road from Lydd through Old Romney crosses the military canal, and turning towards the left hand, accompanies the course of that range of eminences, on one of which stands Lympne (before described) and on another Kenardington church. Below this latter are the remains of an ancient encampment northeast of Appledore, with a breast-work and small circular mount or barrow, attributed to the Danes, who in their wars with King Alfred sailed up the Rother, committed many depredations in the neighbourhood and ravaged Appledore, then a considerable town bordering upon the sea (which is now eight or ten miles distant), and the place itself reduced to a small village.

Pursuing this track, a narrow valley on the right appears to have formerly been the channel through which the Rother once flowed, and which reciprocally receiving the tides, was capable of admitting ships of considerable burthen; but the streamlets into which the current is now divided can scarcely be traced, losing themselves imperceptibly among the sands on the western border of the county of Kent,