TEE HEART OF THE NAVY

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2254, 14 September 1914, Page 8

TEE HEART OF THE NAVY

Nothing oould have been more delights '■ ful (says the "Queen" of July 25), than the solemn ceremony at Dover on Saturday last of installing Earl Beauchamp as the new Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.; The presence of a 'number of cruisers and torpedo, destroyers in the ! harbour was.a.reminder that the great-, est navy the world has ever known was first brought into existence by the daring jhariners of this little group of coasttowns. The, .first'portion of the ceremony took place on, the Heights, within the historic walls of Dover Castle itself.- The church of St: 'Mary-m-the-Castle, with the possible exception of St. Martin's, Canterbury, must be the oldest Christian sanctuary . now in use iii' Our : landr - Roman and ' Britoii, Dane and Norman,' hare one and all of'ihem_worshipped the common God and Father, of us all within those venerable, walls.' On Saturday last it presented a brilliant spectacle indeed, for the whole'of the nave was occupied by the representatives of the constituent members of the ports, who thronged it to ,overflowir.g.--.-..The, ..space beneath . the tower .was .set apart' for the clergy taking part," the';choiry and a- number of distinguished"^persons, who included; in yaddition to .the'new;'Lord Warden and \Ccuntess Beauchamp, the- Earl of Rosehery,'Lord and Lady Nprthbourne,.Lord and Lady George Hamilton, Viscount and Viscountess Dmicannon, the Dean of Canterbury,, and Brigadier-General .Wilson.- - After the!.service ,the whole company proceeded through; the town to the Western Heights, . where, in a marquee, the remainder of the cereniony took place. The harbours of the Cinque Ports'havo all silted up, and the gtory of tho 'ports is departed, but tho spirit of the medieval "pojismen still, survives. The ancient and honourable office of the Lord Warden has for' something like two centuries past almost invariably been held by-an Englishman of real distinction. It was from his official residence at Wilmer Castle that v William Pitt the younger succeeded in quickening our southern coasts; with an. invincible determination to hurl back Napoleon's flatbottomed flotilla, did it ever succeed in touching 1 our frontiers. Here, too, did Arthur Wellesley, Dulw of Wellington, in tho evening' of his weather-beaten life, find a congenial home, and here in the heart of the people from whom the British Navy derived its origin did he ■draw .'his latest breath.