Walls and ditches
WHEN THIS CITY was first inclosed with A WALL is
nowhere to be found; but the many British bricks still
to be seen in different parts of it are no small token of
its antiquity. These bricks were in particular to be
seen in the wall on the south side near to where Riding-gate stood; at the remains of the gate now
pulled down called Worthgate, leading from the Castle-yard to Wincheap; at the place in the city wall,
where Queningate once stood, at a few yards distance
northward of the present postern opposite to St. Augustine's abbey; and on the bank on either side of
the river behind St. Mildred's church, in the remains
of the wall there, where there is a course of these
bricks quite through the wall.
That this city was walled in the time of the English Saxons, may be proved from several records,
among the archives of the cathedral; (fn. 1) that it was
walled before the Norman conquest, is evident by the
testimony of Roger Hoveden, who, in his account of
the siege and surprisal of the city anno 1011, by the
Danes, in the time of king Ethelred, mentions many
of the English having been cast, by them heading
from the wall of the city, which being taken, was,
with the cathedral, burnt and utterly wasted; in the
rage of which, the city wall, as being its best recurity
against a like surprisal, was not at all likely to be
spared by that destroying enemy. (fn. 2) However this
might be, it seems afterwards to have been again repaired, and archbishop Lanfranc, in the Conqueror's
time, was a great benefactor for that purpose; and
William of Malmsbury, who wrote in king Stephen's
reign, tells us, that in his time the walls of it were
whole and undecayed, inclosing it round about. After
which there are several instances of the attention paid
towards the support of them. Queen Alianor, on her
son's, king Richard I.'s absence, when he was taken
a prisoner on his return from the holy land, gave orders in her son's behalf for the better strenghening
of this city, in regard to the ditches, walls and other
fortresses belonging to it; (fn. 3) and king Richard II. gave
two hundred and fifty marcs for the same purpose;
in which reign archbishop Sudbury, after this royal
example, at his own expence, rebuilt the western
gate of the city, as well as the wall, called the Long
wall, between that and Northgate, and intended, had
he lived, to have done the same by the rest of the
wall round the city, much of which was at that time
in a tottering and decayed state, insomuch, that Sir
Simon de Burley, then constable of Dover castle, and
warden of the cinque ports, advised, that the rich
jewels of Christ-church and of St. Augustine's, should
be removed for more safety to Dover castle. (fn. 4)
What cost it had in reparation afterwards bestowed
on it, was chiesly raised in king Henry IV.'s reign,
by the general tax of the whole city, as appears by
the book of murage, in the city chamber. Towards
the sustaining of this charge, the citizens having begun to strengthen it with a wall of stone, as well as by
a ditch, and as an encouragement for them to proceed, as well then as in future, the king in his 10th
year, considering that the city was situated near the
sea, and was a port or entry to all strangers coming
into the realm by the same parts, by his writ of privy
seal, granted to them a licence to purchase lands and
tenements, to the value of twenty pounds within the
city, in mortmain, to hold to them and their successors, in help towards the building and making the
same wall and ditch, for ever; and he also granted to
them, that they might arrent and build up all lands
and places voyd and waste within the city, and hold
the same to them and their successors in help and relief of the charge, and in maintenance of the premises
and other charges to the city happening in the fortifying of it, for ever. The charge of this work may be
best judged and estimated by the compass and circuit
of the wall, which was measured in the 3d year of the
above reign of king Henry IV. by Thomas Ickham,
an honorable citizen, and an alderman of this city, (fn. 5)
and a note taken of it, was registered in the records of
the city chamber. The total measure of the wall, as
cast up at the end of it, being 569 perches, and the
4th part of one. (fn. 6) But it is miscast, for exclusive of
the gates and the bank of the river, the whole is 572
perches and a quarter, to which add the six gates and
the bank of the river ten perches, the whole compass
of the city is, as Mr. Somner has made the sum total,
in his Appendix, as below recited, 582 perches, and
the fourth part of one, besides Quyningate, which was
a very small one. (fn. 7) By this record, it may be perceived,
that the whole wall between Westgate and Northgate, was not then built as it was afterwards; for on
either side the river, the wall, as appears by the record, clearly breaks off, so that there is an interjected
distance of eighteen perches long between the one and
the other wall, and indeed it appeared to but a slight
observation, that so much of the wall as stood, and
was made up in that, then, as it seems, unwalled part,
namely, between the postern and the waterlock next
Northgate, through which, under three arches with a
portcullis, the river, till of late, passed from Abbot's
mill, was in the stone work much different from the
rest of the wall, and shewed not in any part the least
wreck or decay, as the other doth. This, therefore,
was an exception to what archbishop Sudbury is said
to have built, and was, no doubt, made afterwards. (fn. 8)
In the city wall there were built twenty-one turrets
or small watch towers, orderly placed, though now,
as well as the wall, all decayed and in ruins. (fn. 9)
These walls were of chalk, faced and lined with
flint, excepting between Westgate and Northgate,
where they are faced with squared stone. They were
about six feet thick, the parapets and battlements well
coped with mason's work, as were the tops and loopholes of the towers. The walls, except where the river runs at the foot of the wall, are incircled with a
ditch, at first 150 feet, though now to all appearance
not near so wide, and from the incroachments on it is
distinguishable only from Northgate, round the east
and south sides of the city, as far as the postern beyond Wincheap-gate; the whole of which is now either built on with tenements, or converted into gardens, under leases from the city, to whom it all belongs. (fn. 10) The wall on the west part of the city, a little
westward of St. Mildred's church-yard, has several
large breaches made in it, the work of the Parliamentarians, about the year 1648; in one of which, however, they seem to have been stopped by a course of
Roman bricks, quite through the wall, of which notable feat further mention will be made hereafter.—
This part of the wall being built on low ground,
among the meads at but a small distance from the river, has never had any ditch, nor indeed any occasion
for one.