guard the north-west end of the important channel of the "Wantsume,"
which separated the island from the main part of Kent, the Romans
built Regulbium, corresponding to the greater Rutupiae of the
southern outlet.[9] The Roman fort was probably one of the earliest
in the country. It must have covered about eighty acres, and was
garrisoned by the first cohort of Vetasii from Brabant. In 670,
Bassa, a priest, erected a monastery and church here, which, nearly
three hundred years later, were annexed by the monks of Christ
Church, Canterbury. The greater part of these buildings was
ruthlessly destroyed by the villagers in 1809, but the intervention
of the Trinity House authorities in the following year saved the
towers of the church, to serve as landmarks to the mariner. The
churchyard is being slowly eroded by the sea.
[Footnote 9: It is possible that works now proceeding, necessitated
by the Great War, may result in the regulation of the waterways close
to Sandwich and in its neighbourhood in such wise as to open up again
this channel, and constitute Thanet once more an island in fact as
well as in name.]
RICHBOROUGH.--Rutupiae.
This furnishes one of the finest remaining relics of Roman Britain.
Built somewhat later than Reculver--about the middle of the third
century A.D.--the castle guarded the principal and oldest port of
entry into Britain in the Roman period. The rectangular enclosure
still existing was the fortress of a considerable Roman settlement
which lay to the south and south-west. At a little distance is an
amphitheatre with three entrances. Out of the West or Decuman Gate,
the Roman road to London and the North started. In the centre of the
North wall is the opening of the Postern Gate, and there were
probably central gates on the east and south. The feature of greatest
interest remaining is the subterranean structure in the centre. This
consists of an overhanging platform on a concrete foundation. There
are traces of an encircling wall, and projecting upwards from the
centre is an extraordinary cruciform platform. An underground passage
runs round the whole. Some antiquaries consider that all this formed
part of some temporary or substitutional building raised in lieu of
an original more ambitious design; others think it may have been a
signal tower combined with a lighthouse. In the Liverpool Museum are
to be found many objects discovered here, including mural paintings,
pottery, toys, dice, a steelyard with weights, and bone spurs, used
for cock-fighting.
ROCHESTER.--Durobrivae; Horfcester, 33 miles E.S.E. of London.
Its situation on the Roman Way from the Kentish ports to the
metropolis, as well as its strategical position on the bend of the
Medway, gave Rochester and the adjacent places on the river early
importance. It was a walled Romano-British town, though of no great
size. The original bridge across the Medway to Strood probably dates
from the Roman period, taking the place of a ferry.
SILCHESTER.--In North Hampshire--Calleva, 10 miles south of Reading.
A Romano-British town, which was thoroughly explored under the
auspices of the Society of Antiquaries between 1890 and 1909. The
whole plan of the ancient town within the walls was disclosed as
successive portions were uncovered. The suburbs, and the cemeteries,
which, as usual, were located without the gates, have not yet been
excavated. The ruins of the Town Hall still remain. The Duke of
Wellington, whose residence is at Strathfieldsaye, is the owner of
the site. He has arranged that most of the objects found at
Silchester shall be deposited in the Museum at Reading.
ST. ALBANS.--Verulamium.
Originally within the limits of the territory of the tribe of which
Cassivellaunus was, at one time, the head. Before the Roman Conquest
it was a British capital. In Roman times it received the dignity of a
_municipium_--implying municipal status and Roman citizenship for its
free inhabitants. Tacitus informs us that the town was burnt by
Boadicea in 61 A.D., but it soon rose again to prosperity. The site
is still easily recognisable, its walls, of flint rubble, surviving
in stately fragments, enclosing an area of well-nigh 200 acres. Of
the buildings formerly occupying this area but little is now known.
The theatre was excavated in 1847, and parts of the forum in 1898.
The tower of the famous Abbey is largely built of bricks taken from
the Roman buildings!
During the first three centuries ten distinct general persecutions
swept over the nascent Christian Church. Owing to the remote position
of Britain, it appears to have escaped these fiery trials until the
time of the Emperor Diocletian, about 304. Several names among the
Britons have been traditionally handed down to us as having received
the honour of martyrdom, but the premier place among them has always
been accorded to a young soldier who was stationed at Verulam. It
appears that he was converted by an evangelist named Amphibalus, to
whom, when the trial came, he gave shelter, and even facilitated his
escape by an exchange of garments. When brought before the judges and
charged with concealing "a blasphemer of the Roman gods," Alban
avowed himself a convert to the proscribed religion and refused, in
spite of torture, to burn incense upon the heathen altars. He was
therefore beheaded outside the city about the year 285 (although the
precise date is uncertain).[10] About A.D. 785, Offa, king of that
part of Britain which we call the Midland Counties, caused search to
be made for the bones of the proto-martyr, and built a noble
monastery and church where they were found, which possibly may be
identified with the older parts of the present structure.[11]
Eventually his shrine was reared up in the South transept of the
Cathedral. Behind and just above the shrine is the Watching Gallery,
where devotees offered continual prayer and guarded the relics from
fire and robbery. Close by is another shrine in memory of S.
Amphibalus. The monastery attained to great eminence--its head was
the premier Abbot of England--and the shrine was loaded with
ornaments of enormous value. The glory departed at the time of the
Dissolution under Henry VIII. The Monastic Church is now admitted to
the rank of a Cathedral. The building was restored (or deformed?) at
great cost by the first Lord Grimthorpe, who did things with all his
right, but, as in this case, as some say, with all his wrong.
[Footnote 10: Appendix D.]
[Footnote 11: These words are written within a mile of a site in Kent
which bears the name of St. Albans, inasmuch as a small
daughter-house was established there.]
The church in the neighbourhood of old St. Albans, on the North side
of the chancel, contains a monument to the memory of Francis Bacon,
Viscount St. Albans, a great lawyer, an incisive thinker, the founder
of the school of inductive philosophers--a man who, unhappily, was
cast from his exalted legal position by the malice of his foes. How
far he himself contributed to his disgrace we will not say.
WINCHESTER.--Wynton, otherwise, Venta Belgarum (_Venta_, a Latin form
of _Win_, which is derived from the Celtic, _gwent_, a plain; hence
also _Venta Silurum_, and Bennaventa=Daventry); 66-1/2 miles S.W.
London.
The city is situated in and above the valley of the Itchen, mainly on
the left bank. Tradition ascribes its foundation to Tudor Rous
Hudibras, and dates it 99 years before the first building of Rome!
Earthworks and relics testify that the Itchen Valley was originally
occupied by Celts, and it is certain from its position at the centre
of six Roman roads, and from the relics found there, that the Caer
Gwent (White City of the Celts--_Ghwin_--white[12]) under the name of
Venta Belgarum, was an important Romano-British country town. Legends
accumulate here around the persons of Arthur and his knights. After
the conquest of Hampshire by Gervisus, the place became the capital
of Wessex, then of England, when the Kings of Wessex consolidated the
kingdom. Alfred and Canute resided here, amongst other English
sovereigns; and here were laid to rest Alfred's remains, until--at
the close of the eighteenth century--the coffin that contained them
was sold by a mercenary municipality for the sake of the lead in
which they were enclosed! Egbert, Edmund the Elder, and Canute were
also buried here. Edward the Confessor was crowned in the Minster in
1043. Being near the New Forest, and only 12 miles from Southampton,
Winchester was much frequented by the Norman Kings. William I wore
the crown there at Easter, even as at Westminster at Whitsuntide, and
at Gloucester at Christmas.
[Footnote 12: The two words _gwent_ and _ghwin_ probably look to each
other in a common meaning. _Gwent_, that which is extended, as a
plain; _ghwin_, that which presents a uniform lightish tint, such as
a plain or a lake, as contrasted with dark patches or morass.]
WROXETER.--(Towards the Welsh border the _c._ or _ch._ of _chester_
becomes an _x_, and the tendency to elision is very strong.) The
equivalent is Uriconium, properly Viroconium. The original Celtic
name survives in _Wroxeter_ and _Wrekin_, it being derived from
Celtic _rhos_--a moor. Wroxeter is situated on the Severn, 5 miles E.
of Shrewsbury.
It was a large Romano-British town, originally the chief town of the
Cornovii. At first (perhaps about 45-55 A.D.) it constituted a Roman
legionary fortress, held by Legio XIV (Gemina) against the Welsh hill
tribes. However, its garrison was soon removed, and it became a
flourishing town with stately Town Hall, Baths and other
appurtenances of a thoroughly Roman and civilised city. It was larger
and probably richer than Silchester. The lines of its walls can still
be traced, enclosing about 170 acres. Parts of important public
buildings have been disclosed by the excavations, which are still
progressing. They are carried on under the auspices of the Society of
Antiquaries.[13]
[Footnote 13: See Appendix D.]
YORK.--(Celtic, contracted from _eure-wic_; _wic_, from L. vicus),
otherwise Eboracum.
It lies in a plain watered by the Ouse, at the junction of the Foss
stream with the main river, 188 miles N. by W. of London.
In British times the city bore the name of Caer-Ebroc. It was chosen
by the Romans as an important _depot_ after the conquest of the
Brigantes by Agricola in 79. Ultimately it became the most important
Roman centre in North Britain. The fortress of Legio VI (Victrix) was
situated near the site of the present Minster, and a municipality or
colonia sprang up where now stands the railway station on the
opposite side of the Ouse. There is a large collection of remains to
be found in the hospitium of St. Mary's Abbey, derived from the
cemetery and the site of the railway station. The base of the
Multangular Tower, N.W. of the walls, is Roman, of mingled brick and
stone work. The present names of the Bars are Micklegate, Bootham,
Monk (Goodrum), and Walmgate. Of the Norman fortress erected by
William the Conqueror in 1068 some portions were probably
incorporated in Clifford's Tower, which was partly destroyed by fire
in 1684. The Cathedral, or Minster of St. Peter, if surpassed by some
other English fanes in certain special features, is on the whole the
most striking and imposing specimen of ecclesiastical architecture in
Britain.
The Emperor Hadrian visited York in 120. The Emperor Severus died in
this city in 211, and his body was probably burnt on the hill which
now bears his name. After the death of Constantius Chlorus at York,
his son, Constantine the Great (who, according to an ancient but
incorrect tradition, was born at York), was inaugurated in this
imperial centre. The Romans withdrew in 410, and after that, scarcely
is anything known of the state of things hereabouts until 627, when
King Edwin was baptized and Paulinus consecrated in what then
constituted the metropolitan church.
APPENDIX A
Of late years measurements and records in regard to racial characters
have been made more or less thoroughly throughout Europe, partly by
individual enterprise, partly by Government officials, who have
mainly taken children and soldiers as the material of observation. It
is thus established that there is along the Mediterranean, throughout
the Spanish Peninsula, extending into the western borders of France,
and as far north as the West of England, parts of Wales and of
Scotland, and of Ireland (where dwell the descendants in the British
Isles of the ancient Picts or long-barrow men), a predominating race
which is called "the Mediterranean" or "Iberian" race, characterized
by a narrow, long, skull, dark colour of the hair, eyes, and skin,
and short stature.
Fringing the north and north-west border of Europe, occupying
Scandinavia, and largely dominating Great Britain and Ireland (where
it has overrun the earlier Iberian, or Pictish people) is the second
great European race--the Nordic. It was formerly called the
"Teutonic," but, as this term has been misapplied in Germany for
political reasons, so as to include a large body of the last, or
third, race, it is better to use the word "Nordic." The Nordic race
is, like the Iberian, long-headed, but in contrast it is blond and
very tall.
The third great European race occupies a vast wedge intruding between
the areas occupied by the Iberian race to the South and the Nordic
people to the North. It fills all but the northern border of Russia
and occupies Hungary (where there are also intrusive Huns of
Mongolian origin), Austria, Roumania, Serbia, and Bulgaria. It also
populates Germany (except its northernmost provinces) and occupies
the north and north-west of Italy, the west and centre of France and
half of Belgium. It is characterized by the round head, sturdy size,
and a colouration intermediate between that of the Iberians and
Nordics, a colouration which may tend to brunette or blond according
as either of these races is mixed with it. It is best called the
Alpine race, but is also styled the Celtic, on account of its
association with the Celtic culture and language; though it never
occupied Ireland, and does not exist at the present day in Cornwall
and Scotland, and is hardly recognisable in Wales.
The Nordic element is predominant in Great Britain and Ireland,
associated with the earlier and partly absorbed Iberian, with hardly
a trace of the Alpine or Celtic race, in spite of the talk about
Celtic fringes and the ancient introduction and prevalence of Celtic
language and culture due to the influence of small groups of Celtic
immigrants.
APPENDIX B
In the course of an enquiry in Australia, having for its object the
fostering a love of the country districts and stemming the exodus to
the cities, which is a disquieting feature of life in the
Commonwealth, medical inspectors in the schools of Victoria have come
to the conclusion that blue-eyed people seek the land, and that the
city populations are recruited largely from the brown-eyed. If this
conclusion could be generally supported, it opens up interesting
questions as to the connection of eye-pigmentation with race, and its
possible modification by inter-marriage. From the uncertainty of our
knowledge as to the immediate cause of eye and hair pigmentation one
cannot but be faced with the alternative--either that little formal
attention has been paid to the subject, or that the elements of
investigation are uncertain and conflicting. What would Mendel have
said to this problem?
APPENDIX C
In the course of the compilation of this History, the Author
re-perused the _Handbook to the Roman Wall_, in the fifth edition,
put forth by Mr. Robert Blair, many years after the death of the
original compiler, Dr. Bruce. In the light of succeeding events it is
curious to note what is said of Corstopitum, a site noted in the text
as being near Hadrian's great line of wall and its defences. Thus the
record runs:
This site, which lost its military importance with the retreat of the
Romans, apparently became a commercial emporium, and underwent very
various fortunes, culminating in its destruction by barbarians; so
that, from the fifth century, it ceased to be from that day to this;
no man dwelling on the site.
Mr. Blair says of the place itself:
Its form and extent gave it the aspect of a city rather than of a
camp. Remains of a bridge across the Tyne are to be seen when the
river is low. Excavations were made in the summer of 1906. Nothing of
account was found except a few walls, an intaglio, some fragments of
pottery and a few coins.
How frigid and disappointing is not this record! But listen to the
story which Sir Arthur Evans related to the British Association for
the Advancement of Science in his Presidential address at Newcastle
last September:
The work at Corbridge, the ancient Corstopitum, begun in 1906, and
continued down to the autumn of 1914, has already uncovered
throughout a great part of its area the largest urban centre--civil
as well as military in character--on the line of the Wall, and the
principal store-house of its stations. Here (together with well-built
granaries, workshops, and barracks, and other records of river life
as are supplied by sculptured stones and inscriptions, and the double
discovery of hoards of gold coins) has come to light a spacious and
massively constructed stone building, apparently a military
store-house, worthy to rank besides the bridge-piers of the North
Tyne among the most important monuments of Roman Britain. There is
much here, indeed, to carry our thoughts far beyond our insular
limits. On this, as on so many other sites along the Wall, the
inscriptions and reliefs take us very far afield. We mark the
gravestone of a man of Palmyra, an altar of the Tyrian Hercules--its
Phoenician Baal--a dedication to a pantheistic goddess of Syrian
religion and the raised effigy of the Persian Mithra. So, too, in the
neighbourhood of Newcastle itself, as elsewhere on the Wall, there
was found an altar of Jupiter Dolichenus, the old Anatolian God of
the Double Axe, the male form of the divinity once worshipped in the
prehistoric Labyrinth of Crete. Nowhere are we more struck than in
this remote extremity of the Empire with the heterogeneous religious
elements, often drawn from its far Eastern borders, that before the
days of the final advent of Christianity Roman dominion had been
instrumental in diffusing. The Orontes may be said to have flowed
into the Tyne as well as the Tiber.
This quotation has been given at length in order to sustain the
contention--put forth more than once in this book--that treasures
associated with the Roman epoch lie around us in every part of our
island, and that all sorts of novel surprises mutely await the advent
and quest of the diligent investigator.
But to return for a moment to Corstopitum. It has been realised that
the city was a centre of iron-work and pottery-making to supply the
needs of the troops. It furnished a base for the invasion of
Caledonia by Lollius Urbicus in A.D. 140, and for the great
expedition of Septimius Severus in A.D. 208. Much of the area
excavated during 1906 and the following years has been filled in, but
the most important buildings remain open--two large granaries, the
fountain or public water-pant, and a large unfinished building, which
may have been designed as a military storehouse, or as the praetorium
of a legionary fortress which never came into being. The most
remarkable finds made here have been the Corbridge lion in stone,
which now enjoys an European reputation, and two hoards of gold
coins, now in the British Museum.[1]
[Footnote 1: _Vide_ Official Handbook to Newcastle and District, put
forth on the occasion of the last visit of the British Association to
that city.]
The Map above gives the line of Hadrian's Wall through the two
counties of Northumberland and Cumberland, viz., from Wallsend to
Bowness, and indicates the principal places on the route. For further
details of this absorbing subject the reader is referred to such
works as the Proceedings and Transactions of learned societies, such
as the _Archaeologia Aeleana_, or the _Lapidarium Septentrionale_.
The _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, Vol. vii gives a full rendering
of the inscriptions.
APPENDIX D
"The Society of Antiquaries, in conjunction with the Shropshire
Archaeological Society, carried on extensive excavations at Wroxeter
during the years 1912, 1913, and 1914.
"Wroxeter, the ancient Viroconium or Uriconium, is situated on the
east bank of the Severn, between five and six miles south-east of
Shrewsbury. The lines of its walls can still be traced, enclosing an
area of about 170 acres, and the town must have been an important
centre in Roman-Britain, as it stood at the junction of two of the
main roads, viz., the Watling Street from London and the south-east,
and the road from the legionary fortress of Caerleon in South Wales.
There were also other roads running from it into Wales and to
Chester. The town is referred to by the Ravenna Geographer as
Viroconium Cornoviorum, and was probably the chief town of that tribe
which inhabited a district including both Wroxeter and Chester.
"That the site was inhabited soon after the invasion under Claudius
in 43 A.D. is evident. Coins and other objects of pre-Flavian date
have been met with in some quantities, and there are tombstones of
soldiers of the XIV Legion from the cemetery. This legion came over
with Claudius, and left Britain for good in the year 70 A.D.
Wroxeter, situated on the edge of the Welsh hills and protected from
attack on that side by the river Severn, would have formed an
admirable base for operations against the turbulent tribes of Wales,
and it is more than likely that it was used as such in the campaigns
undertaken by Ostorius Scapula in 50 A.D. and by Suetonius Paulinus
in 60 A.D.
"The Welsh tribes were finally subdued before the end of the reign of
Vespasian, and the country became more settled. Wroxeter appears to
have ceased to be a military centre and to have grown into a large
and prosperous town. It is in this period--namely, the last quarter
of the first century A.D.--that the occupation began on the part of
the site recently excavated. Very little of the earlier buildings
remained, as they all appear to have been built of wood and
wattle-and-daub.
"In the second century more substantial houses were erected, and in
the course of the excavations the following buildings were uncovered.
In 1912, four long shops, with rooms at the back and open fronts with
porticoes on the street. In 1913, a temple, which must have been of
some architectural pretensions, and contained life-sized statues, of
which several fragments were discovered. In 1914, a large dwelling
house, consisting of a number of rooms with a large portico on the
street and a small bath-house on the south side. The porticoes of all
these buildings formed a continuous colonnade by the side of the
street. At the back of the large dwelling-house another structure was
discovered. Unfortunately it could not be entirely explored, as its
west part was beyond the reserved area. It consisted of two parallel
walls, 13 ft. apart, which enclosed an oblong space with rounded
corners 144 ft. wide and 188 ft. long to the furthest point
excavated. No other building of this form appears to have been found
elsewhere, and it is difficult to say for what purpose it was used,
especially as part of it is still unexcavated. It is possible,
however, that it may have been a place of amusement for games,
bull-baiting, etc., and that the two parallel walls held tiers of
wooden seats.