Part 2

The method of the construction of the Roman roads largely varied with the nature of the country traversed; but they were uniformly raised above the surface of the neighbouring land, and ran from station to station in a straight course, almost regardless of hills. The more important lines were elaborately constructed with a foundation of hard earth, a bed of large stones, sometimes two more layers of rough stones and mortar, then gravel, lime, and clay; and, above all, the causeway was paved with flat stones. The width was generally about fifteen feet, and at regular intervals were posting stations. The distance was regularly marked off by milestones (_mille passuum_--a thousand paces). The principal roads were four in number, viz., Watling Street, the Fosse Way, Icknield Street, and Ermine Street.

Originally, Watling Street probably ran from London to Wroxeter. Its northward and westward continuations proceeded from Wroxeter into Wales; its southern continuations between London, Canterbury and the parts about Dover seem also to have received the same name.

Drayton, in his Polyolbion, XIII (1613), says:

"Those two mighty ways, the Watling and the Fosse ... the first doth hold her way From Dover to the furth'st of fruitful Anglesey; The second, north and south, from Michael's utmost mount, To Caithness, which the farth'st of Scotland we account."

The Fosse ran from the sea-coast at Seaton, in Devonshire, (R. Maridunum) to Leicester, with a continuation known as High Street, to the Humber.

The Icknield Way seems to have extended from east to west from Icilgham, or Icklingham, near Bury St. Edmunds, underneath the chalk ridge of the Chilterns and Berkshire Downs, to the neighbourhood of Wantage, thence to Cirencester and Gloucester.

The Ermine Street ran north and south through the Fenland from London to Lincoln.

Besides the four great lines there were many scarcely subordinate ones. There were, _e.g._, several Icknield Streets. Akeman Street ran from Bath, north-east by Cirencester, through Wych-wood Forest and Blenheim to Alcester and Watling Street. A high-road ran from Exeter to the Land's End in continuation of the Fosse. Another route ran from Venta Silurum to St. David's Head; another to the Sarn Helen up the western Welsh coast to Carnarvon (Welsh, _sarn_--a road).

ROMAN INFLUENCE.

To a certain extent the conqueror enters into the entail of the conquered. Nevertheless he must obey the conditions of life which the natural features, or the climate of the country of which he has possessed himself, have compelled the aborigines to adopt. Occasionally, as in the case of Greece and Rome, the conquered enslave their masters in regard, at all events, to literature and art; but this did not obtain in the case before us, for the Roman occupation of Britain was largely military, and the Britons had little enough to impart either in literature or art. It is observable, however, that the Romans either did not seek to impose, or were unable to impose, their religious ideas on the Britons. In this connection it must be remembered that the composition of the Roman legions was largely cosmopolitan.

The moral and religious influence brought to bear upon the native Britons by reason of the Roman occupation of close on four centuries can easily be overestimated. A section of the people in the vicinity of Roman towns were humanized and civilized, but the sequel proved that (to a certain extent) the fibre of the hardy and courageous Briton deteriorated and his faculty of resource and fighting diminished; so that when he was deserted by his Roman masters and deprived of his leading strings, he fell a prey--though not until after a protracted and sanguinary struggle--to the Pict and Scot and Saxon, who were able to combine for the attack, and who were regardless of ease and privation and love of life. Although the days of this old time are far away, and the face of the land has changed, this lesson is not without warning to the ignorant, indifferent, pleasure-loving sections of our England of the twentieth century, and this lesson is even now being brought home to us in no uncertain way in our death-grip with a cruel and relentless foe.

LIST OF TOWNS

Here follows an alphabetical list of the Roman towns described in the following pages:

Aldborough (Yorkshire), Aldborough (Suffolk), Bath, Caerleon, Caerwent, Caistor, Canterbury, Cardiff, Chester, Chesterford, Chichester, Cirencester, Corstopitum, Dorchester, Dover, Exeter, Gloucester, Isle of Wight, Kenchester, Lancaster, Leicester, Lincoln, London, Lympne, Maldon, Manchester, Portsmouth, Reculver, Richborough, Rochester, Silchester, St. Albans, Winchester, Wroxeter, York.

LIST OF TOWNS

ALDBOROUGH--(A.S. burh, buruh, byrig--an earthwork) is situated in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 16 miles W.N.W. of York. It is now remarkable only for its numerous ancient remains.

It was the Isurium Brigantum (the capital of the Brigantes) of the Romans, and here and there in the neighbourhood the remains of aqueducts, spacious buildings, and tesselated pavements have been found, as well as numerous implements, coins and urns. The Museum Isurianum is in the grounds of the Manor House.

ALDEBURGH, or ALDBOROUGH--is situated in the county of Suffolk, 25 miles E.N.E. of Ipswich.

The borough was incorporated by a charter of Edward VI, and in former times was a place of considerable extent, but the old town known to the Romans was gradually submerged by the encroachments of the sea.

BATH.--107-1/2 miles W. by S. of London. On the banks of the Avon.

Aquae Solis, corrupted by the Anglo-Saxons to Akemannes-ceaster--the invalids' city--reached by the Akemannes Way.

For many centuries it has been known by its truly descriptive name of Bath.

Tradition says it was founded by the British King Bladud, 863 B.C.; but there is no real evidence of an early British settlement, though the hot springs must have been known from the beginning. However, the name of Aquae Solis is thought to point to a British goddess, Sol or Solis, somewhat equivalent to the Roman Minerva. It was never a Roman military station, being used apparently solely as a Spa.

The remains of the Roman Baths were first uncovered in 1755, when the Duke of Kingston pulled down the old priory to form the Kingston Baths. The remains disclosed included a bath, hypocaust, channels and pipes for the passage of water and hot air, and tesselated pavements. But very little use was made of the discovery for, though some antiquaries took an interest in it, and a few relics were removed and preserved, the spot was filled in and the site covered with buildings for another 120 years. In 1878, however, public interest was aroused, a number of houses were removed, and a large area (of which that opened in 1755 was only a small part) was cleared, with the result that an extensive system of baths in a remarkable state of preservation was laid bare.

The great bath, some 70 feet long and 28 feet wide, was found to be floored with lead two-thirds of an inch thick, in a perfectly sound condition. The service-pipe being cleared out, the bath still held water as it had done 1,500 years before.

What a find this lead floor would have been to the builders of the houses above it had they but laid their foundations a few inches deeper! It would have gone the same way as Alfred's coffin at Winchester.

Several other baths--one circular--and hypocausts were opened out, and--perhaps as interesting as anything--the culvert was discovered for drawing off the waste water, an excellent piece of masonry, and high enough for a man to stand upright in it. The remains of these old Baths of the Romans are not mere traces of walls, intelligible only to the antiquary, but are the actual basins, capable still of use, and one can ascend by the same steps and tread the same pavement as did the Roman bather of old.

On the Romans leaving Britain, the baths were for a long time deserted, and were soon buried under alluvium by the flooding of the river; but the hot springs never ceased to pour forth their abundant stream. The waters are impregnated with calcium and sodium sulphates and sodium and magnesium chlorides, and we must not forget the metal which called forth Mr. Weller's description: "I thought they'd a very strong flavour o' warm flat-irons." They are in greater vogue than ever now that radium has been found to be one of the constituents.

Bath was a place of resort even in Saxon times; for our forefathers--before the days of goloshes, mackintoshes and umbrellas--must have been sad sufferers from rheumatic affections.

It is also clear that the brine-springs, or _wyches_, of Droitwich, in Worcestershire, were also known to the Romans, as well as Spas in other parts of the country. That there was a Roman station at Droitwich is evidenced by the remains of a villa, containing interesting and valuable relics, discovered some years ago during the construction of the Oxford and Wolverhampton Railway.

CAERLEON, IN MONMOUTHSHIRE.

This is the Isca Silurum of the Romans. It is situated on the right bank of the Usk, and is the Old Port, in contradistinction to the New Port, some 3-1/2 miles distant, lower down the river. Caerleon seems to be a corruption of _Castrum Legionis_. The place was one of the great fortresses of Roman Britain, and constituted the station of the Second Augustan Legion in the first century A.D. It ranked as a Colony, and as the capital of Britannia Secunda during the period of Roman domination. Its position was favourable for the coercion of the wild Silures. No civil life or municipality seems to have grown up outside its boundaries; like Chester, it remained purely military. There remain fragments of the walls, and outside these limits there is a grass-grown amphitheatre, 222 ft. by 192 ft., in which the tiers of seats are distinctly visible. The hamlet on the opposite bank preserves in a modified form the Roman name of _Ultra Pontem_. It is probable that the connecting bridge was a pontoon similar in character to that which survived to the close of the last century. The local Museum is rich in objects of archaeological interest.

On the hill-side, which formed the burial place of the ancient city, fragments of slabs and memorial urns are even now often exhumed. Giraldus Cambrensis, or Gerald de Barry, Archdeacon of Brecknock (1147-1220), borrowing from Geoffrey of Monmouth (1130-1140, Bishop of St. Asaph, author of _Chronicon sive Historia Britonum_), says that "its splendid palaces, with their gilded roofs, once emulated the grandeur of Rome," which testimony we receive with a certain amount of incredulity; nevertheless, it bears witness to the reputation it enjoyed in his day.

The city is connected with the romance of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It is said that hither Arthur came at Pentecost to be crowned, and that here he often took council with Dubric, or Dubritius, "the high saint."

The keep of a castle is mentioned in Domesday Book, the ruins of which, now limited to a solitary bastion on the river's side, were very extensive, even in Leland's time (1506-1552). Caerleon was a place of great ecclesiastical importance and the seat of an archbishopric. It is noticeable as the place of martyrdom, according to Giraldus Cambrensis, of two saints, Aaron and Julius. Their bodies were buried in the city, each afterwards having a church dedicated to him. There is good reason for regarding these as historical personages, but as Caerleon-upon-Dee was also called "the City of the Legions," there is some doubt whether their martyrdom occurred at the former, now called Chester, or at the latter, which still retains its British name.

Around the church of S. Cadoc there are abundant remains to show the important centre Caerleon-upon-Usk constituted in Roman times. There is a tradition that its bishop was one of three who attended the Council held at Arles, in 314, to discuss the validity of ecclesiastical orders conferred by such bishops as in time of persecution had delivered up to be burnt their sacred writings.

CAERWENT.--This place is on the Chepstow side of Caerleon, near Severn Tunnel Junction.

It was a military station, and important discoveries of Roman remains have been made here.

CAISTOR CASTLE, or VENTA.--4-1/2 miles from Yarmouth. Caistor Village is 3 miles distant.

This place occupies the site of a Roman camp, which, in conjunction with Burgh Castle, guarded this part of the coast. No remains of the camp now exist, but Roman urns, pottery, and coins have been found in and near the village. A field west of the church, styled "East Bloody Furlong" has been fixed upon as the site of the Castrum.

CANTERBURY.--Cant-wara-byrig--the burgh of the men of the headland. (Hence, Archepiscopus Cantuariensis).

Before the invasion of Caesar, a tribe of the Belgae from Gaul had taken possession of a large portion of South Britain, including Kent.

The principal Roman road was the Watling Street, between Dover and London, which followed much the same course as the modern highway. This road was joined at Canterbury by two others, proceeding respectively from Lympne and Reculver. Two other important Roman stations may be distinguished, Durolevum and Vagniacae, the one probably by Faversham, the other by Springhead, near Gravesend. The important position of modern Canterbury is affirmed by the fact that no fewer than 16 roads and railway routes now converge upon the city. So, too, in the olden time, it was a great nerve-centre, and the mid-point of the important Roman fortresses of Dover, Richborough, Reculver, and Lympne.

The Roman remains found throughout Kent are numerous and important. There were potteries of purple or black ware at Upchurch, on the S. bank of the Medway. Leaden coffins, elaborately ornamented glass and bronze vessels, and gold and silver ornaments, have been found in Roman cemeteries. The city itself occupies the site of the Roman Durovernum (Celtic, _dwr_--water), and was established upon that ford of the Stour at which the roads from the four harbour-fortresses before mentioned became united into the one great military way through Britain, which became known as Watling Street in later times. The Romans do not seem (at least towards the end of their occupation) to have made the city a military centre, or given it a permanent garrison, but rather to have used it as a halting place for troops on the march. In a commercial sense (lying, as it did, in the direct path of all the south-eastern continental traffic of Britain) its importance at this epoch must have been considerable. The Cathedral stands on the site of a church founded in Roman times, and given by King Ethelbert (together with his own palace adjacent) to Augustine and his monks. St. Pancras (the foundations of which have now been uncovered) was originally Ethelbert's "Idol-house"; and St. Martin's, the sanctuary where the King's christian queen, Bertha, worshipped under the tutelage of Bishop Luithard. The structures existing in Ethelbert's day were destroyed, and ultimately the cathedral was entirely rebuilt by Lanfranc (1005-1089); to this additions were made by Anselm (1033-1109), and by succeeding builders even as late as 1495, when the addition of Goldstone's Central Tower left the Cathedral as we have it to-day.

St. Martin's Church cannot be dismissed in a summary manner. It is said by Bede to have been built whilst the Romans still occupied Britain. It is dedicated to the well-known Bishop of Tours (371-397). Certainly the nave shows evidences of Roman workmanship and plaster. A high arch has recently been discovered in the west wall, on each side of which is a window, apparently Roman in its origin, but which has been subsequently lengthened out by Saxon or Norman builders. The chancel, originally but 20 feet long, is variously conjectured to be Roman work or to have been built by St. Augustine. There is a square-headed Roman doorway and a round-headed Saxon one, in the south wall; also an early English sedile, bordered by Roman tiles on the same side, eastward.

The writer, the present Rector of Chillenden, feels a peculiar pleasure in recalling the fact that two of the Priors took their names from his parish, viz., Adam de Chillenden (_d._ 1274) and Thomas de Chillenden (_d._ 1411). The name of the latter, in the Diocesan Calendar, is distinguished by bold type, by reason of the fact that between 1370 and 1410, the present nave and transepts of Canterbury Cathedral, with the middle part of the present central tower, were built upon Lanfranc's old foundations by the Convent under his superintendence, assisted as he was by King Richard II and Archbishops Courtenay and Arundel. The Chapel of St. Michael, the Warriors' Chapel, was also added to by him. Moreover to him is due the building of most of the cloisters, the great Dormitory windows, the vaulting here and along the north alley, as also the foliated window-like screens in the latter alley.

The house in the precincts, known as Chillenden Chambers, was used in mediaeval times for the reception of pilgrims. It has been occupied for some years by Dr. Walsh, Bishop of Dover.

CARDIFF.--Castle on the Taff, in the County of Glamorgan.

The position between the rivers Taff and Rhymney, as also between the mountains and the sea, marked out this site, probably to the Romans, certainly to the Normans, as a favourable position for a fortified station. The remains of the Keep of the Castle still exist, and the church of St. John has venerable memories. The buildings of the Blackfriars and Greyfriars have long ago disappeared. The old church of St. Mary, too, was washed away by the sea. To the west, beyond the suburb of Canton, the foundations of Roman buildings have been uncovered and various objects of interest found and lodged in the National Museum.

CHESTER.--Otherwise Caerleon Vawr, or Caerlleon ar Dyfyrdwy.

Here was situated the great camp of the renowned Twentieth Legion on the Dee, the Deva of the Roman Itinerary. It stood at the head of the then most important estuary on this part of the coast, and at a point where several Roman roads converged. It is doubtful whether the city constituted a Colonia. It boasted a fine Basilica. There may still be seen the remains of a Roman arch impinging upon the Keep, or Caesar's Tower, in the Castle.

CHESTERFORD.--In Essex, 47-1/2 miles N. of London.

To-day the Great Eastern Railway crosses the Cam, or Granta, near a Roman station. Great Chesterford is the ancient Iceanum, once thought to be Camboricum. The foundations of walls enclosing about 50 acres are known to have existed a century and a half ago. The site was thoroughly explored between 1846 and 1848, under the superintendence of the Hon. R. C. Neville, afterwards Lord Braybrooke. Many Roman remains were recovered and are preserved at his seat, Audley End--one of the finest examples of Jacobean architecture now remaining in England. In this neighbourhood, at Heydon, two miles N.W. of Chrishall, and in the extreme angle of Essex, there was discovered, in 1848, a chamber cut in the chalk. It contained a sort of altar and an abundance of Roman fibulae. Its purpose has not been clearly made out.

CHICHESTER.

This city is built on a Roman site, near a line of road now known as Stane Street. It is usually identified with Regnum, a town of the Belgae, mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary. A slab of grey Sussex marble, now at Goodwood, discovered in 1713, on the site of the present Council House, bears an inscription which gives rise to an hypothesis which represents Chichester as the seat of the native king, Cogidubnus, mentioned by Tacitus as possessing independent authority. It is further conjectured that this king was the father of Claudia (2 Tim. iv, 21), whose husband seems to have been Pudens, mentioned in the same verse (traditionally said to have been a Roman Senator, who became a Governor of Britain). Cogidubnus appears to have taken to himself the more euphonious name of his imperial patron, Tiberius Claudius, hence, too, Claudia. It would appear from this slab that Chichester was the abode of a considerable number of craftsmen, and that they erected a temple to Neptune and Minerva under the patronage of a certain Pudens--in his unregenerate days, doubtless, if this be the same as St. Paul's Pudens. In the early Saxon occupation, the town was destroyed by one Ella, but restored by Cissa, hence Cissa's Castra, or Chichester; hence, also, the Bishop's signature, Cicestriensis.

CIRENCESTER, or CORININUM.--In Gloucestershire, 93 miles W.N.W. of London, on the river Churn, a tributary of the Thames.

This was a flourishing Romano-British town, a cavalry post, also a civilian city. At Chedworth, 7 miles, N.E., there has been unearthed one of the most interesting Roman villas in England.

COLCHESTER.--51 miles N.E. of London, on the right bank of the Colne, 12 miles from the sea.

Colonia Victricensis, Camolodunum, or Camulodunum. (This colony is on the River Colne, even as another stream of the same name flows by the colony of Verulamium).

Before the Roman conquest it was the royal town of Cunobelin, the Cymbeline of Shakespeare. When Claudius had conquered the south-eastern part of the island, he founded a _colonia_ here, which may be said to be the first in time of the Roman towns of Britain. Even now, the walls of Colchester are the most perfect Roman walls in England. There are other remains, including the guard-room at the principal gate. A large cemetery has been disclosed along the main road leading out of the town. A valuable collection of sepulchral remains has been made and placed in the local museum. The city was refounded and ultimately developed into a municipality, with discharged Roman soldiers as citizens, to assist the Roman dominion and spread Roman civilization.

Under Boadicea, the Iceni burnt the town and massacred the colonists.

CORSTOPITUM, or CORCHESTER.--In Northumberland.

This important station lies half a mile west of the little town of Corbridge, at the junction of the Cor with the Tyne, which is here crossed by a fine bridge of seven arches, dating from 1674. It has been suggested that the name Cor is associated with the Brigantian tribe of Corionototae. In regard to building operations hereabouts extensive use has been made of materials derived from Corstopitum. This--in its day--occupied a commanding position as a Roman Station, inasmuch as it furnished a storehouse for grain and a basis for the northward operations carried on about the time of Antoninus Pius. When these operations became unsuccessful, Corstopitum ceased to be a military centre, though it still furnished a basis of civilian occupation. The town was brought to desolation early in the fifth century, and was never again occupied. It was only to be expected that valuable finds should be unearthed from the remains. Many have been found by accident, as _e.g._, in 1734, a silver dish was dug up weighing 148 oz., and ornamented with figures of deities. Again, much later, in 1908, there was recovered a hoard of gold coins, wrapped in leadfoil, and thrust into the chink of a wall by a fugitive who was fated never to return and recover his treasure. The first-rate importance of the city in its relation to the Roman Wall, and military operations based on Corstopitum as a centre, was only fully revealed by systematic investigations begun in 1907. There were then uncovered, the foundations of several structures fronting a broad thoroughfare, one of which is the largest Roman building found to the present in England, with the exception of the Baths at Bath. Two of these warehouses were evidently granaries. All testified to the importance attached to Corstopitum as a storehouse and distributing centre.

THE WALL OF HADRIAN.