Deal : Past and Present. By Henry Stephen Chapman. (Reeves
and Turner.)—Mr. Chapman, of course, believes, and is probably right in believing, that Deal was the point at which CEesar made his first landing. With this incident, therefore, he begins ; it is to be regretted that he does not give the account of it in CEesar's own words, words on which he was scarcely likely to improve. From Cesar we have to go, almost at a bound, to Domesday-Book. In 1278 Deal was incorporated, being then a subordinate part of Sandwich, paying a quarter mark out of the total assessment of .C1 which was made on that port. So Mr. Chapman continues to trace its history, which, of course, is closely connected with the story of our Navy. It was in this neighbourhood that some of our fiercest and most doubtful battles were fought ; those with the Dutch especially, battles in which we did not fare particularly well, and deserved, as far as the causes of the war were concerned, to fare much worse. In 1699 Deal became independent of Sandwich, not a little to the loss of the latter town. In 1703, the then Mayor, Thomas Powell by name, made a vigorous effort to reform the morals of the town ; a drunken sailor he put in the stocks, and ordered a woman of bad character to receive twelve lashes as punishment, which he emphasised by exhortations to repentance.. Altogether, Mr. Chapman's volume contains much interesting matter.
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