I believe I shall in a week`s time pass over to the Continent and stay

F R O M L O R T 28 J U L Y 1788
211
I believe I shall in a week's time pass over to the Continent and stay
a fortnight at Boulogne for sea-bathing, and to reconnoitre the places
figured in the Cowdry paintings, and just published by the Antiquarian] Society.9 T h e nob<le> pharos10 formerly there, of which there was
a counterpart at Dover,11 was built by Caligula, and yet he is supposed
to have done nothing whilst he stayed at Boulogne but gather cockleshells!12 Montfaucon, in his description of this pharos, in the Mem.
de I'Acad., torn, vi,13 mistakes an old church tower in Dover Castle
for the pharos, reasons upon it, and then afterwards slightly mentions
that he had mistaken the object.14
I a m , Sir,
Your obliged and faithful servant,
M. LORT
9. 'The Siege of Boulogne by King
of Henry VIII, but they had been completely demolished at the time Lort was
Henry VIII, 1544, from a coeval Painting
at Cowdray. Drawn by S. H. Grimm. Enwriting. See John Lyon, The History of
graved by J. Basire,' 1788. T h e Society of
. . . Dover, Dover, 1813-4, *• 2 ° Antiquaries also published A Description
12. Caligula 'ordonna a ses soldats de
of Some Ancient Historical Paintings, Pre-ramasser des coquillages et d'en remplir
served at Cowdray in Sussex . . . Repre- leurs vetements et leurs casques: "Ce sont,"
senting: I. The March of King Henry VIII leur dit-il, "les depouilles de l'Oc^an, on
from Calais towards Boulogne; II. The En- les doit au Capitole et au Palatium!"'
campment of the English Forces at Mar(Hauttefeuille and Benard, loc. cit.). Lort
quison; and III. A View of the Siege of made his journey and made notes on it, as
his Sale Cat., lot 290, indicates: 'Roman
Boulogne, in the Year 1544, 1788. Another
pharos at Dover and Boulogne—Journey
print from a painting at Cowdray is menfrom Lyons to Paris by water, MS.' T h e
tioned in C O L E ii. 8. See also Sir Joseph
whereabouts of the M S is not known.
Ayloffe's 'Account of Some . . . Paintings
13. 'Dissertation sur le phare d'Alexanat Cowdry, in Sussex,' Archaologia, iii
drie, sur les autres phares batis depuis, et
(1775). 239-72, with a reference to H W ' s
particulierement sur celui de Boulogneviews on the Cowdray pictures at p. 271;
sur-Mer, ruine depuis environ quatresee Anecdotes, Works iii. 83.
vingts ans,' Memoires de litterature tirez
10. 'C'etait, disent les plus anciens audes registres de I'academie royale des inteurs qui l'ont decrite, une vaste pyramide
scriptions et belles lettres, vi (1729). 576octagone d'une hauteur de plus de 200
pieds, large de plus de 60 a sa base, se com- 91posant de douze etages superposes et mar14. Lort exaggerates somewhat: Montfaucon, assuming that there must have
quees par des ouvertures symetriques; au
been a lighthouse at Dover, a counterpart
faite se voyait une sorte de lanterne ou
of the one at Boulogne, wrote to friends
s'allumaient les feux destines a guider les
navires' (Auguste d'Hauttefeuille and Louis in England for information. They interested the Archbishop of Canterbury, WilBenard, Histoire de Boulogne-sur-Mer,
liam Wake, in having researches made on
Boulogne-sur-Mer, i860, i. 14). Undermined by the ocean, the pharos at Boulogne the spot and in books. Most of the informafell into the water 29 July 1644; see Mont- tion which Montfaucon received suggested
that a tower in Dover Castle was the
faucon's essay cited by Lort, p. 589.
pharos, but some indicated that the pharos
11. T h e walls of the pharos, or lighthad been near Dover and was then a heap
house, at Dover were standing in the reign