Dover The Port of Dover provides much of the town's employment, as does tourism. First recorded in its Latinised form of "Portus Dubris", the name derives from the Brythonic word for waters ("dwfr" in Middle Welsh. The same element is present in the town's French ("Douvres") and Modern Welsh ("Dofr") forms (though the modern Welsh name is in fact a borrowing from, and an adaptation of, the English name Dover), as well as the name of the river Dour and is evident in other English towns such as Wendover. The current name was in use at least by the time of
Dubris and garrisoned initially by the Classis Britannica, and later by troops based in a Saxon Shore Fort. At the start of his first attempt to conquer Britain in 55BC Julius Caesar initially tried to land at Dubris, whose natural harbour had presumably been identified by Volusenus as a suitable landing place. However, when he came in sight of shore, the massed forces of the Britons gathered on the overlooking hills and cliffs dissuaded him from landing there, since the cliffs were "so close to the shore that javelins could be thrown down from" them onto anyone landing there. After waiting