PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2104, 21 June 1894, Page 42

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

A Lost City.

It may be, if you look in your Atlas, along the coast of Suffolk you will see, where the shore is slightly indented, the word Dunwioh, marking the site of a once famous city. But unfortunately it was founded literally on the sand, and so now the city is represented by an old church tottering on the cliff, and a few bits of ruined wall, while the site of tho city has become a sandbank, over which fishermen shoot their nets.

Oace — and long since the Conquest, too— Dunwich was surrounded by a stone wall inset by bronze gates, and enclosing 50 odd churches, chapels, religious houses, and hospitals, besides containing a king's palace, and being the seat of a bishop's see. "It had a mayor's mansion, a mint, as many ships as churches, and not fewer windmills." Not only did this city exist, but between it and the sea there was a forest, the upturned roots of the trees of which were visible less than 150 years ago, after a heavy storm had laid them bare, and descendants of an old family that was privileged to hunt and hawk there are living at the present time in the vicinity.

In Domesday Book Dunwich was taxed a yearly sum and 60,000 herrings, and in Henry ll's reign it was fortified to awe the Earl of Leicester. In John's reign we get an idea of its size by the fact that when ships were required from the coast towns, no levy .exceeded five, and Dunwich was one of the towns furnishing that number. In Henry Ill's reign it seems to have reached the height of its prosperity, but its knell was sounded, for we read that Henry commanded the barons of Suffolk to aid the burghers in withstanding the ravages of the sea. At this time it was one of the principal ports on the east coast, and a list of the ships that frequented it shows a variety of vessels that would puzzle a Jack Tar of the present day. There were great ships and long ebips, dromons, sornecks, bussec, nascelles, passerettes, caraks, doggers, lodeships, tarikp, flunes, besides farccoasts, passages, g*liots, balingers, helibots, cogs, hocboats, segboats, lynes, pikards, pessoners, Bhutes, pinacp, — shall I extend the list ? Can you describe them? I can't. Nor do I know the etymology of more than perhaps half-a-dozen. If any of you havft ar.y good old or Middle English dictionaries, perhaps you can rnn out the derivations for me.

But*hese ship 3 didn't fiad n haven at Dunwich much longer, for from Henry Ill's reign its decay became rapid. Edward I called on it to furnish ships of war, and it responded with 11, mostly manned by 70 man ; but the French tocvk four, and some were lost. Dunwich lost 500 men, plus ships, plus munitions of war. In the reign of Edward 111, the King of the Sea, Camden quaintly tells us, " his turbulent waters overwhelmed by a private pique of Nature 400 houses in one year. In Henry VIII's reign only two of the gates of the city were left, and in Charles IPs time the Market Place "disappeared.

The history of the city of Dunwich is not only interesting on account of the illustration it affords of the action of water, oat it throws many a side light on English history. I think it is Green, in his " Shorter History," who tells us that English liberties have been purchased by money as well as by blood, and Dunwich annals bear this out. When John ascended the throne he conferred certain privileges and liberties on the burghers— such as allowing them to marry their sons and daughters to whom they pleased, and allowiDg them to dispose of th6ir lands and houses at pleasure. In return they gave him 300 marks, 10 falcons, and five gerfalcons — what the last are I don't know. And here I'll give another extract. It shows the difference in middle and modern English; the arbitrariness of spelling ; how social conditions changing coin new words for changed circumstances, and cast off old ones as a useless encumbrance. It will also supply you with more work for your old English dictionary, if you have one : —

"Also we have graunted unto our sayd Burgesses and their heires Salt and Salt and Toll and Tame and Infangenthef ; and that they and theire men with their cattels and shipps and all other theire goodes and pos-

sessions shall and may staund and be discharged and quit from Murage, Zastage, Passage, Pontague, Stallage, and from Qaymite and of and from all other customes, taxes, and exactions," &c.

Bat Dunwich and its charters have disappeared, yet ie seems destined to live in name, for Danwich Fair Day was held on July 25, aud the farmers still say that " by Dunwioh Fair turnip sowing should be done."

Bankok.

Affairs do not seem very happy in Siam. As review articles written some months ago predicted, France is badgering, and will no doubt — in the^ Interests of civilisation of course — take successive bites at coveted territory until Eogland and France have their boundaries co-terminous. An article in Blackwood's Magazine says there are three journals in Bankok. There is the Siam Observer, an independent journal whioh devotes a part of its space to the vernacular, and is therefore popular with the natives ; the Bankok Times, the subsidised Government organ ; and the Siam Free Press, run by Irishman with French tendencies. The town contains about 40,000 inhabitants, of whom 12,000 are priests in charge of hundreds of wats (temples). It is pre-eminently a place for mosquitoes, smells, Chinese pawnshops, wild dogs— the mangy curs are never touched by the timid ana superlatively lazy native — priests, and an agglomeration of police made up of dwarfs shrivelled up like mummies, and robbing, as far as size and appearance goes, bat the cradle and the grave. The dead poor are Bung promiscuously in heaps outside the town boundary, and vultures, hogs, and dogs wait ravenously for the corpses. The gaols are full of prisoners, and now and then an attempt to escape results in the decapitation of a few as a warning to others. Side by side with the eleotric^tram are the 'ricksha, gharry, and the bullock carb of the East. These are a few of the points of interest striking a foreigner on entering the city.

The Navies of the World.

A Bangitota reader asks me to supply him with a table showing the relative strength of the principal European countries and that of the United States. I will try and get the information for next week, and give what particulars I can of the British navy to-day. I am afraid that it will be difficult to satisfactorily supply the information, for there aro so many classes of vessels, and numbers and efficiency vary so much, that only an expert could give an approximate idea of their value in time of war. Three things are now pretty well recognised ; that the French and the Russians have been building in a faster ratio than the English ; that the British navy is very little superior to their forces combined ; and that to prevent serious interference with Britain's food supplies and commerce in time of war her navy must be strong enough to sweep the others off the sea.j

In September '93 Hazel's Annual gives the numbers of vessel on the stations as follow : — Mediterranean 30, North America 12, south-east coast of America 4, Pacific 8, Oape and West Coast of Africa 15, East Indies 10, China 20, . training squadron 4, particular service 10, surveying service 7, — making a total of 120. But this does not include the Australasian and Canadian vessels as far as I can make out ; and many of them, again, are valueless in war : then, too, torpedo boats and torpedo-boat catchers are excluded. In the annual manoeuvres of '93 about 90 vessels, all told, took part in the evolutions. BATTLESHIPS, &C , BUILDING OR TO BE LAID DOWN.

I have not Bpace to give full particulars, but will do the best I can. Battleships, (barbette class) 8 ; tonnage, 12,350 to 14,150; speed, 17*5 to 18-25 knots; heaviest guns, 46 to 69 tons. Crnisers: Eight first-class, from 7350 to 14,000 tons ; speed 19 sto 22 knots; heaviest guns, 92i0, 22 tons. Second-clasß 10, from 19-5 to 20 knots ; from 3400 to 4360 tons, and carrying up to 6in guns. Two sloops, 960 tons, 13 knots, 25pounders. Seven torpedo gunboats, 810 to 1070 tons, 19-2 knots, 4-7 in. Twenty tor-pedo-boat destroyers, 215 tons, 27 knots, 12pounders.

The Havoc or the Hornet, I forget which, has just been launched, and over the trial course ran up to 32 miles an hour I This has been partly brought about by the new water tube boilers. In these, instead of water surrounding the tubas and the heat passing through them, the water \$ in the tubes and the heat surrounds them. By this means 8f earn is generated at a very rapid rate.

In Hazell's Annual 10 pages of clOselyprinted matter are devoted to the English navy alone.