Colonels, John Lambert, John Deshborough, Robert Blake, and Charles Fleetwood. It is uncertain who was the first Lord Warden that came to reside at Walmer Castle, making it his official residence. It is generally thought to be the Earl of Holderness, in the reign of George II., in 1730. This nobleman was succceded by Lord North, and on his decease by the Honourable William Pitt, the second son of the first Earl of Chatham.

It is a singular circumstance, that Mr. Pitt's bed-room should have remained apparently undisturbed from his death, which happened in 1805, up to the Duke of Wellington's death. Visitors to the Castle were shewn the small room, with the tent bed and stettle on which Mr. Pitt slept, with the table, chairs, and furniture in the compartment, all of the very plainest description, by no means superior to what we can see in the best furnished apartments of our decent and well to do cottagers in our rural districts. Mr. Pitt was followed by the Earl of Liverpool, then by His Grace the Duke of Wellington, and at the present time by the Right Honourable Lord Palmerston, First Lord of the Treasury, who seems resolved that this antiquated post of honor shall not die out, for since his appointment to the office he has imparted to it all the vigour and freshness of former times, much to the delight of the members of the Cinque Ports. In the reign of King Henry VIII., when the Castles of Walmer, Deal, and Sandown were finished, he appointed suitable officers to each.

History is silent as to who was the first person fixed at Walmer, but we know that Richard Toke, gentleman, by Commission, for the term of his natural life, was granted the post of Sandown Castle, and he was to have the entire government and command there, and to appoint the men who were to be paid as the king had directed and the yearly stipends to the officers. At Deal Castle Thomas Boys was appointed in like manner with the same privileges in the preceding Commission, with sixteen gunners and eight soldiers.

Leland, in his Itinerary, gives the following description of Walmer at the time he wrote: he says, "It is about a mile from Dele shore and looke as from the farthest syde of the mouth of Dovre-the shore is low to Walmare to the very point of Dovere Castell, and the shore falleth flat, and a little beyond the towne of Dovre the shore clyrith to Falkstone."

On September 14th, 1852, His Grace the Duke of Wellington died at Walmer Castle, at the advanced age of eightythree years, after a short illness. He had filled the office of Lord Warden twenty-four years, to the satisfaction of every one connected with the Cinque Ports. During several days in succession the public were admitted into the Castle to go in and out of the room where laid the remains of the greatest soldier and statesman of modern times. The precincts of the Castle bore tokens of mourning, and the avenues to the fort also displayed emblems of like import. Black drapery met you suspended from the cornices of the passages at every step you took. Soldiers belonging to the Rifle Brigade were stationed, not only under cover in the Castle, but round and about the plantations of it; these were standing motionless and mute, their heads reclining on their rifles reversed—a representation in figure of the nation's grief for its great and irreparable loss. Alas! the great "Iron Duke " was no more, He who had fought and won a hundred battles was at length himself slain by the grim monster death. Unnumbered throngs of people from all parts of the country hurried to Walmer, testifying their sorrow at the bereavement which had so suddenly befallen the nation. The roads and every approach to the Castle.were filled with living human beings, attracted thither, not by idle curiosity, but in order to show the great veneration and respect they bore to the character and memory of the great General. It was considered a wonderful manifestation of public sentiment that, amidst it all, no circumstance occurred to mar or disturb the order so desirable to be

maintained. The people, one and all, were determined to preserve a solemn stillness befitting the occasion, and when the day arrived for removing the body, the same peace and quietness prevailed throughout.

It had been the custom of the Duke of Wellington to come to Walmer Castle as soon as possible after the prorogation of Parliament, remaining there until the first or second week in November, but before he left it for Strathfieldsaye, he usually held at Dover a Court of Lodemange, to consider the affairs connected with the Fellowship of Pilots. Often has he been seen, attended by a single groom, taking his morning's ride, and sometimes strolling along the streets of Deal, quite unconcerned with what might be going on around his path.

Once, when Queen Victoria anchored early one evening in the Downs, the Duke took a boat and went off in it, to pay his respects to her Majesty. On coming to the beach again as the flood-tide was making, a heavy swell rose up (a very common occurrence) and rolling waves pitched into the boat, which nearly swamped her. The Duke stuck fast to his seat, escaping only by having a good sousing, which apparently did not in the least discompose his wonted equanimity, for he no sooner found his foot on the beach than he mounted his horse and rode home to the Castle regardless of the accident.

On one occasion the Duke of Wellington honored the town of Deal by inviting its Mayor, Edward Darby, Esq., to dine with him at Walmer Castle. It was a lucky incident that Edward Darby was Chief Magistrate at the time, for without casting any reflections on the qualifications of his compeers, he, above them all, was pre-eminently adapted to sustain the position he was so unexpectedly called upon to fill. The Town Council and the Burgesses in general felt assured that, in the person of the Chief Magistrate, they could not possibly be better represented. It is unnecessary to say

that the Duke was very attentive to his guest at dinner, directing his conversation chiefly to him, although there were several distinguished persons present. Discussions on various topics followed, and many very pertinent questions were put by the Duke to the Mayor relating to Deal-to its trade, and more particularly to that class of mariners known as the Deal boatmen. He wished to know how it was that their circumstances, as a useful body of men on this coast, had become so altered (as he had been informed they were) to what they once had been within his knowledge.

The Mayor felt at home, and was at no loss to answer the Duke's inquiries, which he did, not in that enigmatical style of oratory so peculiar to some of his brethren, but in a clear and manly tone, explained to his Grace how and in what manner certain circumstances had occurred by which the employment of the boatmen had become less profitable. He instanced the rigid suppression of the illicit trade that war had created and fostered, the introduction of chain cables, and the presence of steam-tugs in the Channel, as being some out of many others that tended to lessen the demand for the services of the boatmen, all which the noble Duke understood fully, evincing at the same time some degree of feeling, that whilst science was doing its work in adding to the comfort of mankind on the one hand, it was taking away some of them from others, all which appeared in the very nature of things inevitable. Seeing, therefore, the impossibility of averting the evil, the Duke inquired if it was not possible for some of the boatmen to turn their attention to some other mode of employment, so as to procure a maintenance for themselves and their families with this remark the conversation ended.

Much credit was given to Mr. E. Darby, for the admirable arrangements he made for that special demonstration of loyalty and devotion of the great body of boatmen living in Deal, Walmer, and Kingsdown, to her Majesty Queen

Victoria, when she was staying at Walmer Castle in November, 1842.

The whole fleet of first-class luggers, as pre-arranged, launched from the beach simultaneously along the whole line of the coast upon a signal being made for that purpose, and making a good offing in the Downs, hoisted sail, proceeding under press of canvass for Walmer Castle and the south Foreland. The number of boats assembled on this occasion could not be much under fifty, and the crews on board were all animated with one and the same felling of making the display as interesting as possible. It was in fact as pleasing a sight as can be imagined, for neither a description or delineation can adequately represent it. Although it was nothing new or unusual for the inhabitants to witness ten or more boats competing with one another, as to which one should arrive first at the Goodwin to rescue the crew or to afford help to a ship stranded on the sand, yet the novelty of so great a number of boats assembling in the Downs for such a specific purpose as this was, drew to the beach almost the entire population of the three adjoining parishes, leaving their occupations and daily duties to gratify their passion of sight-seeing.

The Queen and Prince Consort, with the nobility that formed her suite, were spectators of the animated picture so unexpectedly presented to their observation, and it was said that the Royal party were highly gratified by the spontaneous exhibition of adherence to her Majesty's person by so useful a body of mariners in her immediate neighbourhood. The handling of the luggers on this coast is somewhat peculiar, and when the wind blows from certain points they require much practice and skill in sailing them.

The Duke of Wellington was very fond of children, and though so great a soldier and statesman, he could descend to play and amuse them. He was accustomed to have always by him a number of half-sovereigns and sovereigns that had