The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1881-02-10
A HYPOORITE UNMASKED.
BY A. II. B.

lng-place OF Margate and the more arlS
tocratic but less frequented town OF
Broadstairs there is very quiet ham,
let, the legends of which date for many
centuries back.
This place is Kingsgate. The castle
there is known to have once sheltered
the unfortunate Charles i. for a night,
during which he hoped to escape to
France.
The sloop, however, which was to
convey him to those shores was either
intercepted by Cardinal Mazarin OF pre-
vented by stress of weather. That mat
ters little now.
At any rate, the vessel did not make
her appearance, and the King, after
vainly waiting twenty-four hours for her
trace his steps instead.
But the chalk cutting in the cliffs,
down which he was to descend from the
castle to the sea-beach. still exists, and
gave to the little hamlet the title of
Kings Gate.
Kingsgate, however, existed and flour
ished long before Charles i. was born.
1t was place of some note as far back
rs the ''Wars of the Roses" but, like
Sandwich, Deal, Margate, Sandgate,
Kingstown, and many other old Kentish
towns, it has legends dating as far back
as the times of the Saxon kings, into
which legends it is not now our prov
ince to enter.
No county in England is so prolific in
traditions as is Kent, and it may be
styled the antiquary's county par excel
lence. Ethelbert, King of Kent, it is
well known, had partiality for Kings
gate, and some persons go SO far as to
say that it was from him, and not from
Charles l., that the place derived its
name.
Be this as it may, in modern days
Kingsgate does as it's neighbors, Rams
gate, Margate, and Broadstairs, dot,
or, at least, its inhabitants, let lodgings
in ''the season. to such of the smoke
dried Londoners as run down there for
a week or two's enjoyment of the sea
breezes.
Not far from the castle, and in the
hollow of the little town, facing the
bay, is the preventive station-Kings-
gate was always notorious place for
smuggling-and hard by the preventive
station are certain small houses, of some
pretentions, which pride themselves in
letting out to visitors ''genteef' lodgg-
ings.
In one of the 'sgenteer' cottages al
luded to were residing retired naval
officer and his daughter. Having but
his scanty pension, eked out by his
lieutenancy of the coastguard, Joseph
Furnival was exceedingly glad to add a
few pounds to his income during the
seaside season. by letting furnished
apartments to respectable visitors.
At the time of which we write. his
apartments were occupied by a widow
lady and her grown-up son and daugh-
ter.
Mrs. Merriton was a CHEEKY person
age, bordering upon fifty, with a very
independence left to her by her late
husband, who had been a wine-mer-
chant IN an extensive way of business.
Algernon Merriton, her son, was a
handsome, likely young fellow of five
and twenty, who had adopted the bar as
his profession, and Leila Merriton, his
sister, a pretty, timid, shrinking, ''nam-
by pamby' sort of girl just of age.
The verdict usually passed on Leila
by most of those who first saw her was,
''very pretty, but nothing in her," 9th
ers limited that ''still waters are deep"
that the ''still sow sucks all the broth. :"
You would have said that Leila MerritOn
was pretty, yet you could not for your
life have defined where her beauty lay.
Her hair was of no particular color
and her features of no particular cast.
Tone of character she appeared to have
none. And yet her buxom, honest
hearted mother and her broad-shoul-
dered, outspoken brother both deferred
to her opinion, and, in fact, almost
seemed to stand in awe of her.
Well, the trio-that is, the Merritons
were sitting at breakfast, when sud-
denly the servant of the house rushed
in, exclaiming-
"a wreck-a wreck, ladiesr'
The Northern Belle, United States
vessel, laden with mahogany and wheat,
had just gone ashore on the ''White
built, ivy-grown inn, the Digby Castle,
WAS thronged with customers.
The lifebOats had gone out. amidst a
billowy sea of fOaming waters. Lieu
tenant Joseph FurnivaI was there ut the
head of the volunteers, directing, scold-
ing. praising, all in one breath. His
daughter Adelaide was not one whit be-
hind her father in energy and resolu-
ton.
After seeing him to the beach-she
was a veritable Grace Darling-she
went home, got beds ready, hot water
bottles provided, bricks at hand, and,
in short, everything that could contrib
ute to the restoration of the partially
drowned.
At the Digby Castle, said a country
man, with a wedge of bread and cold
boiled pork in his hand, and pewter
pot of vast dimensions at his side
'She'l never weather this storm"
She did weather the storm, and after
wards stuck on the '.Ness'' for fifteen
weeks.
Meanwhile, the scene was most har-
rowing.
Four lifeboats, one from Margate, one
from Broadstairs, and two from Rams
gate, had put forth.
Seventeen souls were saved from the
barque. But the captain-who made
the eighteenth, and who, besides being
captain of the vessel, was its owner