one, though its commencement forms a brilliant page in our annals ; since in 1340 the Cinque Ports, commanded by the King in person, destroyed a French fleet at Sluys. The French courtiers were afraid to tell King Philip of this disaster, and they deputed his jester to perform the unpleasing duty - who told the King that he thought the French sailors much braver than the English ; and on being asked why, replied, because they leaped out of their ships into the water , and that the English did not attempt to imitate them .
In 1350 the Ports vanquished a Spanish fleet off Winchelsea ; yet in a little while they were unable to defend the coast ; for in 1360, Hastings, which had 14 years before assisted in the siege of Calais with five ships and 96 men, was sacked with many other towns. The success at Calais was fraught with injury to our town, as it tended to make Dover exclusively the channel of inter course with the continent. In 1371, the Parliament took notice of the decay of the navy, as well they might; for next year the whole fleet of the Ports, with the Earl of Pembroke on board , was captured by the Spaniards; and in the following reign, John of Gaunt at the head of a gallant army, had to linger for months at the mouth of the Severn , awaiting the arrival of a Portuguese fleet to convey him to the coasts of Spain , and guard him from the Spaniards. This inefficiency of the English ships may be attributed to the superior size of the Spanish and Portuguese vessels, built to encounter the storms of the Atlantic. In 1377 Hastings was burnt, the French coasting along and -
