Page images
PDF
EPUB

5. Valentia, between the Tyne and the Frith of Forth, was occupied by the Ottadini on the east coast, the Gadeni in the centre, and the Selgoviæ and Novantæ to the west. This province contained the Roman walls known as, (1) the Wall of Agricola (or of Lollius Urbicus), which was the most northern, and (2) the Wall of Hadrian, to the south; this last being re-edified in the third century, or rather replaced by a wall of stone, the new structure is commonly spoken of as (3) the Wall of Severus k. A wall, or rather chain of forts, also existed in the central part of the country, stretching from the Nen to the Avon; few traces of this remain, but of the other walls most of the stations have been identified, and many portions are still in a good state of preservation.

Beside these walls strong fortresses were erected in many places, particularly on the coast, of which the remains at Burgh castle, in Suffolk, Reculver, Richborough and Lympne, in Kent, and near Pevensey, in Sussex (probably Anderida), are especially interesting, as evidently built to guard a tract of country almost coinciding in limits with those of the famous incorporation of the Cinque Ports, and thus rendering probable the Roman origin of that peculiar system for the defence of the sea-board.

Our early historians mention four great roads by which South Britain was traversed, and these have usually been considered the work of its conquerors, but

This wall was about 68 miles in length; it had on its northern front a deep ditch, and on its southern side a turf wall and fosse ran parallel with it, at a distance generally of 60 or 70 yards; the included space was traversed by a military road, along which were disposed nearly twenty stationes (permanent camps), linked together by numerous smaller posts and watch-towers.

recent research has led to the conclusion that the Romans only kept in repair, and perhaps improved, the roads which they found in use on their settlement in the island. These great roads, under their modern names, are, the Watling Street, the Hermin Street, the Foss Way, and the Ikenild Street', and along their course, or in their immediate vicinity, are found the principal cities which, in pursuance of their usual policy, the Romans either founded or re-edified, and to which, according to the privileges bestowed, the various names were given of colonies, municipalities, stipendiary, and Latian cities; Richard of Cirencester, a writer of very doubtful authority, has given a list of them".

Many other Roman roads exist, one of which stretches beyond the Wall of Agricola to the foot of the Grampians, and a Roman camp is found near the mouth of the Spey, on the Murray Frith, which may probably be taken as the most advanced post of the Imperial rule. The names of several tribes beyond the Roman limits

1 The Watling Street from Kent to Cardigan Bay; the Hermin Street from St. David's to Southampton; the Foss Way from Cornwall to Lincoln; and the Ikenild Street from St. David's to Tynemouth. Such are the courses usually ascribed to these highways, but there appears reason for supposing that they are incorrect, and that the Watling Street extended from Kent to the Frith of Forth; the Hermin Street from the Sussex coast to the Humber; the Foss Way from Cornwall to Lincolnshire; and the Ikenild Street from Caister to Dorchester.

m His list (which is not to be accepted as complete) contains nine colonies, two municipalities, ten Latian cities, and twelve other towns called stipendiary, whose privileges are not accurately known. Among the colonies (which should be purely Roman) appear (using modern names) Bath, Caerleon, Chester, Gloucester, Lincoln, London, Maldon, Richborough, and perhaps Cambridge and Colchester; the municipia are St. Alban's and York; among the Latian cities, Carlisle, Cirencester, Dumbarton, Old Sarum; and among the stipendiariæ, Canterbury, Dorchester, Exeter, Leicester, Rochester, and Winchester; the remaining places are not satisfactorily identified.

occur in Ptolemy and other writers, but before the time of Severus they appear to have been all merged in the general appellations of Caledonians and Mæatæ, as these in their turn in after-times are known only as Picts and Scots.

The towns, and forts, and roads, already enumerated, are, however, very far from being the only traces of Roman occupation that remain in cur country. Camps, occupying well-chosen positions, occur in numbers which testify the difficulty with which the subjugation of the island was accomplished; while the remains of stately buildings, ornamented with baths, mosaic pavements, fresco paintings and statuary, and articles of personal ornament, which are discovered almost every time that the earth is disturbed to any considerable depth, prove the eventual wide diffusion of the elegant and luxurious mode of life which it was the aim of the conquerors to introduce".

[graphic][graphic][merged small][merged small]

Roman glass and pottery, in great variety, and frequently of most elegant shape, abounds, but the most valuable are the sepulchral urns, which betoken the neighbourhood of towns of which perhaps no other See A.D. 79, p. 25.

traces now remain. A few specimens are here engraved, which were discovered at Felmingham, in Suffolk°.

Independently of a somewhat doubtful passage in Gildas, there seems sufficient ground for the belief that the light of Christianity was diffused in our island as early as the apostolic age, as Clement of Rome says that St. Paul carried the Gospel to the extreme bounds of the West, a phrase used by other writers where Britain is unquestionably intended. St. Peter, St. Joseph of Arimathea, Aristobulus, and others, are also named, but with less probability, as agents in the conversion of Britain. The British Church is often spoken of by writers of the second and succeeding centuries; and, as such an anomaly as a Church without a hierarchy was then happily unknown, the episcopacy of our island doubtless dates earlier than the era of King Lucius, (circa 180,) whose story has most probably its foundation in truth although, from the destruction of documents, no list of sees can be given on anything more than conjecture, and no names have come down to us preceding those of the signers of the decrees of the council of Arles (A.D. 314). The Christian population of Britain, evidently numerous at the time of the Diocletian persecution, appears to have steadily increased, and when the Romans withdrew from the island they left behind them a people universally professing the truths of the Gospel, but corrupting them by the rash and dangerous speculations of the Pelagian and other heresies, and soon to be driven into the more remote quarters of the country, where

;

• In the neighbourhood is Brampton, the Roman remains of which occasioned Sir Thomas Browne to write his Hydriotaphia, or Urn Burial.

their faith, purified by affliction, shone more brightly than it had done in the days of their prosperity. They were visited by many holy men from Ireland, (which had early received the Gospel, and had as yet escaped the ravages of the northern nations,) such as St. Piran, St. Ia, St. Gwythian, and others, who, inflamed by missionary zeal, in the fifth and sixth centuries, proceeded to the coast of Cornwall, and have left numerous memorials of their labours, not only in the names of villages, but in the sculptured crosses and humble oratories still found there. To this period, prior to the coming of Augustine, and free from the influence of Rome, belongs the foundation of the Welsh sees of Caerleon or St. David (long considered metropolitan), Llandaff, St. Asaph and Bangor, which, as they gathered the scattered sheep to the fold, may be regarded as the living representatives of the Churches planted among us in the very earliest age of Christianity.

P One of the most interesting of these is the church of St. Piran, near St. Ives, which, after being for ages buried in the sand, (hence the name of the hamlet, Perran-zabuloe) was brought to light by its removal in 1835. It is of very small size (about 30 feet by 16) and simple architecture.

a The foundation of Llandaff is sometimes ascribed to Lucius, but the succession of bishops cannot be traced higher than Dubritius, in the fifth or sixth century.

« PreviousContinue »