reigns of
the Saxon race, as the nursery of those stout seamen who would prove the
best bulwarks of their country against foreign invasion.

We now come to a fresh epoch in the history of Old England; but as no
writer of those days has thought fit to enlighten us as to naval
affairs, our knowledge of them is meagre and unsatisfactory.

Literature, in that iron age, was chiefly confined to monastic cells; we
hear of bishops becoming warriors, and leading their armies to battle on
the field, and it is recorded that there were other monks besides
Swithelm who took to the profession. Probably some sailors, after
growing weary of cutting throats on the high seas, and other acts of
piracy, assumed the easy and dignified position of monks, and endowed
their monasteries with their wealth; but then it may be questioned
whether they were likely to have been able to read, much less to write.

William of Normandy had, for some time, too much to do on shore in
keeping his new subjects in order, to attend to affairs afloat; but he
at length was compelled to build and fit out a fleet to defend his
kingdom from the attacks of the Danes, instigated by the sons and
followers of Harold. He, after much consideration, hit upon a new plan
for raising a fleet, and it is a point of history worthy of
recollection. He exempted five of the principal ports of the kingdom
from all taxes, impositions, or burdens, on condition that each should
fit out, man, and support a certain number of vessels for a certain
period. They were Dover, Romney, Sandwich, Hastings, and Rye, and were
thence called the Cinque Ports.

Though others were afterwards added, the name has ever since been
retained. It appears by Doomsday Book that Dover, Romney, and Sandwich,
severally, were to provide _twenty_ vessels each, with _twenty-one_ men,
provisioned for _fifteen_ days at their own charge. After that time the
crews were to be supported by the Crown.

Another document states that, besides the twenty men, there is to be a
master of the mariners, who is to receive sixpence a-day, a constable,
who is to receive a like sum, and each mariner threepence a-day. These
five ports, with other smaller ones attached to them, provided in all 57
ships, 1187 men, and 57 boys, one boy being on board each ship. These
boys were called gromets. A gromet is now the name given to a ring of
rope used sometimes to slide up and down the mast, and I conclude,
therefore, that the du