1450.]
COAST DEFENCES.
435
castles or towers, but Henry's strongholds were, for the most part, much finer coast defences than had previously been seen in England. The sums thus spent may be regarded as having been to a large extent wasted; for, even in those days, they might have been to
CHART OF THAMES MOUTH, 1580.
(From original in the possession of the Marquess of Salisbury. Copied by permission.)
better advantage assigned to the increase of the fleet; but in an age when ships were much more at the mercy of the winds and waves than they were when the art of navigation had somewhat further progressed, it would perhaps have been injudicious of the govern-
