page_title: Walmer Castle
section_title: 1700–1828
hierarchical_section_title: Walmer Castle / History / 18th–19th centuries / 1700–1828
caption_attribution_description: English: British engraving, a political satire cartoon by Isaac Cruikshank, titled A New Catamaran Expedition!!!", 1805. It is a detailed scene with various speech balloons. William Pitt the Younger (Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and former Prime Minister) looks on from Walmer Castle, as a fleet of fishing boats sails out to attack a French fort across the English Channel. Pitt is saying, "If this does not succeed I'll never Catamaran again as long as I live." The Bilingsgate Cutter, in foreground, carries four fishwives (back then a shrewish woman stereotype) to terrorize the French. They are armed with a "potatoe magazine" (sack of potatoes, perhaps to throw) and two bottles of "royal gin" aimed like cannon. The women are shouting: "We'll pepper you scoundrels", "Give it 'em well, my hearties.", "Yea ye dirty Blackguards we'll soon be with you.", and "Look at our ammunition, you poltroons." Coming from the French fort is the reply, "Begar dese le Catamarans wid a Vengeance." (apparently eye dialect for something like "Bugger this, catamarans with a vengeance"). The point of the piece was to satirise Pitt's recruitment of 35 luggers manned by fishermen as a seaborne militia. The word "catamaran" was used for a fire-raft (used against French ports from 1804) and also a quarrelsome woman.
context_page_description: Walmer Castle is an artillery fort originally constructed by Henry VIII in Walmer, Kent, between 1539 and 1540. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the strategically important Downs anchorage off the English coast. Comprising a keep and four circular bastions, the moated stone castle covered 0.61 acres and had 39 firing positions on the upper levels for artillery. It cost the Crown a total of £27,092 to build the three castles of Walmer, Sandown, and Deal, which lay adjacent to one another along the coast and were connected by earthwork defences. The original invasion threat passed, but during the Second English Civil War of 1648–49, Walmer was seized by pro-Royalist insurgents and was only retaken by Parliamentary forces after several months' fighting.
  In the 18th century, Walmer became the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and was gradually modified from a military fortification into a private residence.
context_section_description: In the 18th century, Walmer Castle became the official residence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. The Lord Warden was originally a medieval title linked to five key ports along the coast of England; the position's prominence had faded, but it still retained important judicial and military functions. When Lionel Sackville, the Duke of Dorset, was appointed to the post in 1708 he decided that the existing residence in Dover Castle was unsatisfactory, probably because of the semi-ruinous state of the castle, and moved into Walmer Castle instead.
  The Duke occupied the post of Lord Warden until 1765, save for two periods when it was filled by James Butler, the Duke of Ormonde and John Sidney, the Earl of Leicester. He carried out extensive work to make the castle more habitable, building extensions towards the north bastion and constructing a small house in the south bastion for the soldiers. Under the subsequent Lord Wardens, the politicians Robert Darcy, the Earl of Holderness, and Francis North, the Earl of Guildford, the castle continued to house artillery but it became increasingly less military in character.
  The Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger was then made the Lord Warden in 1792. Pitt was badly in debt and King George III believed that the post, which came with a salary of £3,000 a year, would usefully supplement Pitt's income. Pitt made extensive use of the castle and by 1803 he used it as his main residence in an effort to reduce his living costs. Pitt's niece, Lady Hester Stanhope, joined him at Walmer between 1803 and 1806; together with Pitt, she carried out extensive work on the castle gardens, transforming them from a simple kitchen garden into a set of landscaped ornamental enclosures; Stanhope enlisted the Dover militia to help with the landscaping and planting.
  With the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, Pitt became energetically involved in the protection of the ports along the coast, entertaining the local garrison commanders, naval captains and the local gentry at Walmer on a regular basis. After Pitt resigned as Prime Minister in 1801, fears remained of a French invasion and he formed a volunteer cavalry unit at Walmer Castle, where he lived with his new officers.  He also formed a unit of bombardier infantry and a fleet of 35 fishing boats called luggers, which he armed with 12-pound (5.4 kg) or 18-pound (8.2 kg) guns, reviewing them from the castle. Stanhope remarked on the constant drilling of army units around the castle during her time there.
  Robert Jenkinson, the Earl of Liverpool, took possession of Walmer Castle following the death of Pitt in 1806. Liverpool was a favourite of King George's, and his appointment as Lord Warden was again intended to provide a valuable income and a country retreat. As Prime Minister, Liverpool used Walmer as a personal retreat and as a location for private political discussions with selected guests.
caption: A satirical cartoon of 1805, depicting William Pitt the Younger directing operations against the French from Walmer Castle (left)
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