Dover, a Cinque Port and parliamentary and municipal borough of Kent, 77 1/2 miles by rail ESE. of London. It is not only a charmingly situated watering-place, but, being the nearest point of the English coast to France, is a seaport of growing importance. Great harbour extensions, costing over £5,000,000, were in progress in 189S-1908. The National Harbour will cover 685 acres, the Commercial Harbour 75. Dover, see of a bishop-suffragan since 1898, is the seat of the packet service for Calais and Ostend. The fortifications comprise Dover Castle, on the chalk-cliffs, 375 feet above the level of the sea; Fort Burgoyne on the north side of the town, Archcliffe Fort to the west, and the batteries on the Western Heights, where large barracks are situated. There are also remains of a Roman pharos or lighthouse, and of a Romano-British church, which has been restored. Dover has a new town-hall (1883), a museum, a hospital, a new promenade pier (1893), 900 ft. long, etc. It is chiefly dependent on its shipping trade and its attraction as a watering-place, but shipbuilding and sail and rope making are carried on, and there are also flour and paper mills. Since 1885 it returns but one member. Pop. (1841) 17,795; (1901) 41,782. The name (Roman Portus Duris; Norman Dovere) is from the Celtic ' Dour,' the name of the small river which runs through the town. Fortified by William the Conqueror, during whose reign it was nearly burned down, noted as the place of King John's submission to the pope, besieged by the French, held during the Civil War by the parliamentarians, threatened by the first Napoleon, and celebrated as the headquarters of the Lord Wardens of the Cinque Ports, Dover holds a distinguished place in English history. Three submarine cables connect it with the Continent, and here is the entrance to the proposed Channel Tunnel.

Dover

Dover, (1) the capital of Delaware, U.S., on Jones's Creek, 48 miles S. of Wilmington by rail. Pop. 3811. - (2) The oldest town of New Hampshire, founded in 1623, on the Cocheco River, 68 miles N. by E. of Boston by rail, with large cotton-nulls and print-works, and manufactures of boots and shoes, woollens, and iron. Pop. 13,790.

Dover

Dover, Strait of (Fr. Pas de Calais), the channel between England and France, connecting the English Channel and the North Sea, whose tides meet here. It is 18 to 25 miles broad, and 6 to 29 fathoms deep. See Channel (English).