Part 2

If ruminating upon antiquities at home be commendable, travelling at home for that purpose can want no defence; it is still coming nearer the lucid springs of truth. The satisfaction of viewing realities has led infinite numbers of its admirers through the labours and dangers of strange countries, through oceans, immoderate heats and colds, over rugged mountains, barren sands and deserts, savage inhabitants, and a million of perils; and the world is filled with accounts of them. We export yearly our own treasures into foreign parts, by the genteel and fashionable _tours_ of France and Italy, and import ship-loads of books relating to their antiquities and history (it is well if we bring back nothing worse) whilst our own country lies like a neglected province. Like untoward children, we look back with contempt upon our own mother. The antient Albion, the valiant Britain, the renowned England, big with all the blessings of indulgent nature, fruitful in strengths of genius, in the great, the wise, the magnanimous, the learned and the fair, is postponed to all nations. Her immense wealth, traffic, industry; her flowing streams, her fertile plains, her delightful elevations, pleasant prospects, curious antiquities, flourishing cities, commodious inns, courteous inhabitants, her temperate air, her glorious show of liberty, every gift of providence that can make her the envy and the desirable mistress of the whole earth, is slighted and disregarded.

You, Sir, to whom I pretend not to talk in this manner, well know that I had a desire by this present work, however mean, to rouse up the spirit of the Curious among us, to look about them and admire their native furniture: to show them we have rarities of domestic growth. What I offer them is an account of my journeyings hitherto, but little indeed, and with expedition enough, with accuracy no more than may be expected from a traveller; for truth in every particular, I can vouch only for my own share, strangers must owe somewhat to informations. I can assure you I endeavoured as much as possible not to be deceived, nor to deceive the reader. It was ever my opinion that a more intimate knowledge of Britain more becomes us, is more useful and as worthy a part of education for our young nobility and gentry as the view of any transmarine parts. And if I have learnt by seeing some places, men and manners, or have any judgment in things, it is not impossible to make a classic journey on this side the streights of Dover.

Thus much at least I thought fit to premise in favour of the study of antiquities. And with particular deference to the society of British Antiquaries in London, to whom I remember with pleasure you first introduced me: since for some time I have had the honour of being their secretary; to them I beg leave to consecrate the following work. To the right honourable the Earl of Hartford the illustrious and worthy President, the right honourable the Earl of Winchelsea, Peter le Neve, esq; Roger Gale, esq; the illustrious and worthy Vice-presidents, and to the learned Members thereof. Then, lest I should fall under my own censure passed upon others, that know least of things nearest them, I shall deliver my thoughts about the history of +Holland+ before mentioned, which may serve as a short comment upon the map of this country which I published last year, with a purpose of assisting the gentlemen that are commissioners of sewers there, though it is of such a bulk as cannot conveniently be inserted into this volume.

If we cast our eyes upon the geography of England, we must observe that much of the eastern shore is flat, low ground, whilst the western is steep and rocky. This holds generally true throughout the globe as to its great parts, countries or islands, and likewise particularly as to its little ones, mountains and plains. I mean, that mountains are steep and abrupt to the west,[2] especially the north-west, and have a gentle declivity eastward or to the south-east, and that plains ever descend eastward. I wonder very much that this remark has never been made. I took notice of it in our own country, almost before I had ever been out of it, in the universal declivity of that level eastward, in those parts where it did not by that means regard the ocean; particularly in South Holland, or the wapentake of Elho: the natural descent of water therein is not to the sea, as the rivers run, but directly eastward, and that very considerable. Beside, the current of every river is lower as more eastward: thus the Welland is higher in level than the Nen, the Nen than the Ouse; and probably at first both emptied themselves by the Ouse or Lyn river as most eastward. I observed in June 1732, that the Peterborough river Nen would willingly discharge itself into Whitlesea mere, and so to the Ouse at Lyn, if it were not hindered by the sluice at Horsey bridge by the river Nen. I see no difficulty to attribute the reason of it to the rotation of the globe. Those that have gone about to demonstrate to us that famous problem of the earth’s motion, have found out many mathematical and abstracted proofs for that purpose, but neglected this which is most sensible and before our eyes every minute. It is a property of matter, that when whirled round upon an _axis_, it endeavours to fly from the _axis_, as we see in the motion of a wheel, the dirt and loose parts are thrown the contrary way in a tangent line. This is owing to the natural inactivity of matter, which is not easily susceptible of motion. Now at the time that the body of the earth was in a mixt state between solid and fluid, before its present form of land and sea was perfectly determined, the almighty Artist gave it its great diurnal motion. By this means the elevated parts or mountainous tracts, as they consolidated whilst yet soft and yielding, flew somewhat westward, and spread forth a long declivity to the east: the same is to be said of the plains, their natural descent tending that way, and, as I doubt not, of the superfice of the earth below the ocean. This critical minute is sublimely described by the admirable poet and observer of nature,

_Namque canebat, uti magnum per inane coacta Semina terrarumque, animæque, marisque fuissent, Et liquidi simul ignis. Ut his exordia primis Omnia, & ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis. Tum durare solum & discludere nerea ponto Cœperit, & rerum paulatim sumere formas._ +Virg.+ Ecl. +VI.+

which may thus be englished.

He sang, how from the mighty void, in one Large space, collected were the fluid seeds Of earth, air, sea and fire; from these came all. The callow world became one massive globe; The ocean by the hard’ning ground disjoin’d, New forms surpris’d the beauteous face of things.

The truth of this observation I have seen universally confirmed in all my travels, and innumerable instances of it will occur to the reader throughout these discourses. I design another time professedly to treat of it in a philosophical way. But consequent to this doctrine it is that we have so large a quantity of this marshland in the middle of the eastern shore of England, seeming as if made by the washings and _eluvies_ of the many rivers that fall that way, such as the Welland, the Witham, the Nen, the Ouse great and little, together with many other streams of inferior note. These all empty themselves into the great bay formed between the Lincolnshire wolds and cliffs of Norfolk, called by Ptolemy _Mentaris æstuarium_, as rightly corrected by Mr. Baxter, seeing it is composed of the mouths of so many rivers; _Ment_, or _Mant_, signifying _ostium_ in the British language. Beside the great quantity of high and inland country that discharges its waters this way, even as far as Fritwell in Oxfordshire; all the level country lies before it, extending itself from within some few miles of Cambridge south, to Keal hills near Bolingbroke in Lincolnshire north, about sixty miles long, known by the names of the Isle of Ely, Holland and Marshland. This country, since the flood, I believe was much in the same state as at present, and for its bulk the richest spot of ground in the kingdom; once well inhabited by gentry, especially the religious. I apprehend the more inland part of it, the Isle of Ely, Deeping Fen, &c. was not in distant ages in so bad a condition as now, because the natural drainage of it was better, before the sea had by degrees added so much solid ground upon the coasts.

[Sidenote: +Holland+, _its name_.]

In this country I have observed abundance of old Welsh words left among us; and I am persuaded that the name of Holland is derived from that language, though now terminated by a later word, as is frequent enough. It signifies no more than salt or marsh land, such as is gained from the sea; and to this day we call the marshes adjoining to, and sometime overflowed by the sea, _salt marshes_. Likewise upon the sea shore they formerly made salt in great abundance. The hills all along upon the sea bank, the remains of such works, are still called salt hills: such are at Fleet, Holbech, Gosberton, Wainflet,[3] &c. Many names of rivers and roads, thence derived, remain still, such as Salters Lode, Salteney Gate, &c. _Hallt_ in the British is _salsus_, salt, as ἅλς in the Greek is _mare_, the sea; and most evidently borrowed from the British, because of its most notorious quality. The adjoining part of this country in Norfolk, is called marsh land, in the very same sense: so is Zeland and Holland at the mouth of the Rhine, where our Cimbric ancestors once lived. In the Cimbric Chersoness, now Denmark, is Halland, a division of the country by the Saxons called _Halgo land_. Vid. Spelman’s Glassary, voce _Sciringes heal_. Holsatia, Holstein, &c. and our Holderness in Yorkshire, must thus be understood. Hence the isle of Ely too is denominated, the very word _heli_ being _salsugo_ in the British. This, in the most antient British times, was as much marsh land as our wapentake of Elho is now, which acknowledges the same original; _hoe_ signifying a parcel of high ground.

[Sidenote: _First Inhabitants the_ +Britons+.]

We may be assured that this whole country was well inhabited by the antient Britons, and that as far as the sea coasts, especially the islets and higher parts more free from ordinary inundations of the rivers, or though not imbanked above the reach of the spring tides; for the nature of this place perfectly answered their gusto, both as affording abundant pasturage for their cattle, wherein their chief sustenance and employment consisted, and in being so very secure from incursion and depredations of war and troublesome neighbours, by the difficult fens upon the edge of the high country. Here I have not been able to meet with any remains of them, except it be the great quantity of _tumuli_, or barrows, in all these parts; scarce a parish without one or more of them. They are generally of a very considerable bulk, much too large for Roman; nor has any thing Roman been discovered in cutting them through; though, a few years ago, two or three were dug quite away near Boston, and another at Frampton, to make brick of, or to mend the highways. I guess these were the high places of worship among our Cimbrian predecessors, purposely cast up, because there are no natural hills in these parts; and we know antiquity affected places of elevation for religious rites. No doubt, some are places of sepulture, especially such as are very frequent upon the edges of the high countries all around, looking down upon the fens. Hither seem to have been carried the remains of great men, whose habitations were in the marshy grounds, who chose to be buried upon higher ground than where they lived; as is the case all over England; for the _tumuli_ are commonly placed upon the brink of hills hanging over a valley, where doubtless their dwellings were.

[Sidenote: +Romans.+]

[Sidenote: _The_ +Hermen Street.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. LVI.]

But when the Romans had made considerable progress in reducing this island into the regular form of a province, and began the mighty work of laying down the great military ways; then I suppose it was, that they cast their eyes upon this fertile and wide-extended plain, and projected the draining it. In the reign of Nero, in all probability, they made the _Hermen Street_,[4] as now called by a Saxon word equivalent to the Latin _via militaris_. That this was the first, seems intimated by the name, in that it has retained κατ’ εξοχην, what is but a common appellative of such roads. This noble work, taking in the whole of it, was intended to be a meridian line running from the southern ocean, through London, to the utmost bounds of Scotland. This may be inferred from the main of it, which runs directly north and south. And another argument of its early date, drawn from three remarkable particularities, I have observed in travelling upon it, and which show it was begun before that notable people had a thorough knowledge of the geography of the island. One is, its deviation westward as it advances towards these fens from London: another is, the new branch, drawn a little beyond Lincoln westward into Yorkshire, out of the principal stem going to the Humber: a third is, that it is double in Lincolnshire. Of these I shall speak again when we come to the following _Iter Romanum_. Now we will only consider such part of it as has relation to the country we are upon; and that is the road going from Caster by Peterburgh to Sleford in this county, which is undoubtedly Roman, and which first occasioned the draining this fenny tract, and surely more antient than that which goes above Stanford, and along the heathy part of the county to Lincoln. My reasoning depends upon the manner of the road itself, and upon that other great work which accompanies it, called the _Cardike_, equally to be ascribed to the same authors. This road is nearer the first intention of a meridian line than the other: but, when they found it carried them through a low country, where it perpetually needed reparation, and that they must necessarily decline westward to reach Lincoln, they quitted it, and struck out a new one, more westerly, that should run altogether upon better ground. This, if we have leave to guess, was done after the time of Lollius Urbicus, lieutenant under Antoninus Pius, who with great industry and courage had extended and secured the whole province as far as Edinburgh. Then it was they had time and opportunity to complete the work in the best manner, being perfect masters of the country, and of its geography: and this road was for the ready march of their armies and provisions to succour those northern frontiers. But it seems as if they had long before that time brought the Hermen Street as far as Lincolnshire,[5] especially that eastern branch, or original stem, of which we are treating, and that as early as the reign of Nero, and at the same time made the Cardike. I shall give you my further reasons for this conjecture, and nothing more than conjecture can be expected in such matters.

[Sidenote: _Old_ +Hermen Street+.]

[Sidenote: _The_ +Cardike+.]

The road which we suppose the original stem of the Hermen Street goes in a direct line, and full north and south from Durobrivæ, or Caster, to Sleford; and there, for aught I know, it terminates. It is manifest, that if it had been carried further in that direction, it would have passed below Lincoln heath, and arrive at the river where it is not fordable. It parts from the present and real Hermen Street at Upton, a mile north of Caster; but this is continued in a strait line, which demonstrates that it is the original one: the other goes from it with an angular branching. This traverses the river Welland at Westdeeping, and is carried in a high bank across the watery meadows of Lolham bridges.[6] These are numerous and large arches made upon the road, to let the waters pass through, taken notice of by the great Camden as of antiquity; and no doubt originally Roman: then it crosses the Glen at Catebridge, (whereabouts it is now called King’sgate, _via regia_) to Bourn, (where Roman coins are often found, many in possession of Jos. Banks, jun. esq.) so to Fokingham and Sleaford. It is now called Longdike. All along parallel to this road runs a famous old drain, called _Cardike_.[7] Mr. Morton has been very curious in tracing it out through his county, Northamptonshire. I am sorry I have not yet had opportunity to pursue his laudable example, in finishing the course of it through Lincolnshire: but as far as I have observed it, it is marked in the map. This is a vast artificial canal drawn north and south upon the edge of the fens, from Peterburgh river to Lincoln river, about fifty mile long, and by the Romans without all peradventure. It is taken notice of by serjeant Callis, our countryman, in his readings on the sewers. That wise people, with a greatness of thought peculiar to themselves, observed the great use of such a channel, that by water carriage should open an inland traffic between their two great colonies of Durobrivæ and Lindum, or Lincoln, without going round the hazardous voyage of the Estuary: just such was the policy of Corbulo in Tacitus, Annal. xi. _Ne tamen miles otium indueret inter Mosam Rhenumque trium & viginti millium spatio fossam produxit, qua incerta oceani evitarentur._ And lest the soldiery should be idle, he drew a dike for the space of three and twenty miles between the Maese and the Rhine, whereby the dangers of the ocean are avoided; which is exactly a parallel case with ours. Besides, it is plain that by intercepting all the little streams coming down from the high country, and naturally overflowing our levels, it would much facilitate the draining thereof, which at this time they must have had in view. This canal enters Lincolnshire at Eastdeeping, proceeding upon an exact level, which it takes industriously between the high and low grounds all the way, by Langtoft and Baston: passing the river Glen at Highbridge, it runs in an uninterrupted course as far as Kyme: beyond that I have not yet followed it; but I suppose it meets Lincoln river near Washenburgh, and where probably they had a fort to secure the navigation, as upon other proper intermediate places, such as Walcot, Garick, Billingborough, Waldram-hall, Narborough, Eye antiently Ege, _agger_; and I imagine St. Peter’s de Burgo hence owes its original: and a place called Low there, a camp ditched about, just where the Cardike begins on one side the river: another such fortification at Horsey bridge on the other side the river: all these names point out some antient works. It is all the way threescore foot broad, having a large flat bank, on both sides, for the horses that drew their boats. Roman coins are frequently found through its whole length, as you well know, who are possessed of many of them of different emperors. Now it seems to me highly probable that Catus Decianus, the procurator in Nero’s time, was the projector both of this road and this canal, two notable examples in different kinds of Roman industry and judgment; and the memorial of the author of so great a benefit to the country is handed down to us in several particulars; as that of Catesbridge before mentioned upon the road, and of Catwater, a stream derived from this artificial channel, at the very place where it begins, to the Nen at Dovesdale bar: likewise at Dovesdale bar comes in another stream from the north, from a place by Shephey bank, called Catscove corner; and this was first hinted to me by our deceased friend, the learned and reverend Mr. John Britain, late schoolmaster of Holbech: to which we may add Catley, a town near Walcot upon the Cardike beyond Kyme; and Catthorp, a village near Stanfield, upon the road. We may likewise upon the same grounds conjecture that Lollius Urbicus repaired this work; whence it seems that his name, though corrupted, is preserved in Lolham bridges; for there is no town of that kind near it. Vid. Gale’s _Itinerar._ pag. 28. Lowlsworth upon the Hermen Street without Bishops-Gate, in Spittle-Fields. Certainly this is a good hint for our imitation, had we a like public spirit. Now this road thus accompanying the canal, was of great service to the traders, who might have an eye upon their vessels all the while. And even after the projection of the other branch which goes to Lincoln upon the higher ground, the navigation here was undoubtedly continued in full perfection, till the Romans left the island; for such is its advantage of situation, that it could never want water, nor ever overflow: that stream of Catwater seems to be cut on purpose, at least scoured up, to preserve these uses in drawing off the floods of Peterburgh river into the Nen, if its proper channel was not sufficient. The meaning of the word _Cardike_ is no more than Fendike: we use the word still in this country, to signify watery, boggy places: it is of British original.

I doubt not but that the Romans likewise made that other cut, between Lincoln river and the Trent, called the Foss: the name seems to indicate it, as well as the thing itself; for it is but a consequent of the Cardike, and formed on the same idea: so that I suppose it was not originally cut, but scoured by Henry I. as Hoveden mentions: then the navigation was continued by land from Peterborough quite to York, and this was very useful to the Romans in their northern wars. The other way they might come from Huntingdon.

The 20th of October, 1726, I traced the Cardike round the out-skirts of Sir William Ellys’s park of Nockton: it runs near the site of the old priory, whose ruins are just visible: it bounds the park entirely on the fen side, and is very perfect thereabouts; the high-country streams from Dunston, and others, running along it. We saw where it crossed a marshy valley, and reached the opposite high ground in its course to Washenburgh. A well of the old priory is well preserved, remarkably good water.

That part of the Cardike between Lincoln and the Trent was begun to be cleansed by bishop Atwater, but he died before completed. It is highly probable that the Romans called our Cardike _Fossa_, which happens to be preserved only on that part between Lincoln and the Trent.

The Fossdike in being in Edward the Confessor’s time. Vide Camden, _Nottingham_.

Cardike runs close by Thurlby town end.

The marquis of Lindsey gave me an exceeding fair Maximinus; the reverse, +GENIO POP. ROM.+ found at Grimsthorp.

Mrs. Tichmus of Stamford told me she once had many Roman coins, from a great parcel found at or near Sleford.

The 18th of October, 1728, I travelled on the Roman road, the eastern branch of the Hermen Street from Sleford, for about three miles southward. I observed that it went not to Sleford town directly, but to the old house of Sir Robert Carr’s, formerly Lord Hussey’s (attainted for treason in time of Henry VIII.) called Old Place. We saw by the way, on the east side the road, a mile or more south of Sleford, an old work, square, ditched about, large, with an entry from the road; the earth of the vallum thrown on both sides.

[Sidenote: +Sleaford+ Ro. _town_.]

[Sidenote: +Stanfield+ Ro. _town_.]