Home1815 Edition

FOLKESTONE

Volume 8 · 187 words · 1815 Edition

a town of Kent, between Dover and Hythe, 72 miles from London, appears to have been a very ancient place, from the Roman coins and British bricks often found in it. Stillingfleet and Tanner take it for the Lapis Tituli of Nennius. It was burnt by Earl Godwin, and by the French in the reign of Edward III. It had five churches now reduced to one. It is a member of the town and port of Dover; and has a weekly market and an annual fair. It is chiefly noted for the multitude of fishing boats that belong to its harbour, which are employed in the season in catching mackerel for London; to which they are carried by the mackerel boats of London and Barking. About Michaelmas, the Folkestone-barks, with others for Suffolk, go away to the Suffolk and Norfolk coasts to catch herrings for the merchants of Yarmouth and Lowestoft.—Folkestone gives the title of Viscount to William Henry Bouverie, whose grandfather, Jacob, was created in 1747. It has been observed of some hills in this neighbourhood, that they have visibly sunk and grown lower within memory.