Traces of other antient British and Roman roads have been discovered in Kent. These were adopted by the Saxons, and, with the public bridges, formed that portion of the "Trinoda Necessitas" comprised under the general designation Bucze-bót (pontis constructio). This burthen has descended to us from our A.-Saxon ancestors, and from it we derive our present system of laws for the maintenance of the public highways.

The public roads and bridges were generally maintained by the counties in which they are situated; and this law continues to the present day with respect to public bridges, except in those instances only in which some persons, spiritual or temporal, corporate or not corporate, are bound to repair them by reason of their lands or tenements, or by reason of

usage and prescription, of which we have seen a remarkable instance in the case of the bridge at Rochester.

Since the division of counties into parishes (and which took place much earlier in Kent than in the other kingdoms of the Saxon Octarchy), the general charge of repairing all highways is thrown by the common law upon the occupiers of the lands in the parish wherein they are; but particular persons may in this case, as well as in that of bridges, be bound, by reason of tenure or prescription, to repair them; but if there be no parish, township, or person thus bound to repair them, then these extra-parochial highways, like the public bridges, must be maintained by the county at large.

An instance of this peculiarity occurs in this county, upon the site of the antient Guethelinga Via,' or Watling Street. That part of the present turnpike-road from Canterbury to Rochester which passes through the antient royal forest of Blean, lies in an extra-parochial district, now called the Vill of Dunkirk, and was always maintained by the county at large, until the year 1812, when, by an act of the legislature, it was incorporated with the Chatham and Canterbury road, and is maintained by the general funds of that trust. But should the act of Parliament be permitted to expire, the burthen of maintaining it will again devolve upon the county at large, according to the antient "Trinoda Necessitas," or common law of the realm.90

90 In closing our history of the public roads, we think it right to notice an inaccuracy in the Map of Antient Britain, published by the Society for Useful Knowledge, in 1834. It describes a branch of the 'Watling Street' as leading direct from Durovernum (Canterbury) to Regulbium (Reculver). No such Roman road ever existed. The error may probably have arisen from the xvth Iter of Richard of Cirencester, for which there is no authority. It is contradicted by that of Antoninus, which shows that branches of the Watling Street led only to Rhutupium (Richborough), Dubris (Dovor), and Lemanis (Lymne); but there was no branch to Regulbium (Reculver). Nor, indeed, could any such road to Regulbium have existed in the Roman period, inasmuch as a great portion of the intermediate country was an impassable morass. If a Roman cohort were required to march from Regulbium to Canterbury, it must have sailed down the Wantsum estuary to Richborough, and thence marched to Canterbury.

"

The second portion of the "Trinoda Necessitas which requires our attention is Bunz-bót (the maintenance of the Castles and Fortresses).

Kent is peculiarly rich in the remains of antient British cities, and of Roman castra, fortresses, and stations, as Rhutupium (Richborough), Dubris (Dovor), Lemanis (Lymne), Durobrivis (Rochester), Vagniacis (uncertain), Durolevo (uncertain), Anderida (the antient British city was at Newenden, in Kent, but the antient Roman fortress of that name is at Pevensey, in Sussex), and Caer Ceint, Durwhern, Durovernum or Dorobernia, Lant-papa-bynig (Canterbury), to which the Britons retired after their unsuccessful conflict with Julius Cæsar on the banks of the Lesser Stour.91

As these were maintained at the public charge in precisely the same manner as the public bridges, it is unnecessary to dwell more at length upon this branch of the "Trinoda Necessitas."

We therefore proceed to

The third branch of the "Trinoda Necessitas," Fynd (Expeditio contra hostem, or Military Service).

From the antient records already noticed, we find that all proprietors of land were, from the earliest times, compelled by the obligation of their tenure to military service for defence of the realm; and not only were the landed proprietors, but all freemen among the Anglo-Saxons (except the ministers of religion) were trained to the use of arms, and were obliged to take the field, under the severe penalty of forfeiting their lands, and of paying a heavy fine in case of disobedience, and that they might be expert in the use of their arms, when called out into actual service, the freemen of each tithing,

91 See the author's paper, on 'The Celtic or Antient British Mound, called the Dane John Hill, at Canterbury.' (Gloucester Congress Volume of the British Archæological Association, 1846, pp. 136-148.)

hundred, and county were appointed to meet at certain stated times and places for the exercise of arms; and there was to be one general review of all the arms and armed men in all the counties of England, upon one day in the month of May, that there might be no possibility of imposing upon the public by lending arms to each other. And they came to their hundred and county courts, and other public meetings, in arms, for which reason these meetings were commonly called 'wapentakes,' or the touch of arms.

The lands granted to the church were, as we have seen, subjected to the same military services, which, however, the clergy performed by their ceorls, or free tenants.

The civil and military government of the Anglo-Saxons were perfectly similar, and executed by the same persons. The king was commander-in-chief of the whole army, an office which he commonly executed in person, but sometimes by substitute, who was called the Lyninger-hold, or Deɲetoza, i. e. "The Leader of the Army." The Caldonman, or Heretoga, of each county commanded the troops of each county, which formed a complete battalion, and were subdivided into trithings, commanded by the trithingmen, and these into hundreds, commanded by the hundredaries, and these again into tens, commanded by the decennaries, who were commonly called sithcundmen, or conductors, when they acted in their military capacity.92

When they came to action, they commonly formed their infantry into a figure called a sow's head, or hollow wedge. This figure was used by the Franks, Saxons, and all the other northern nations. They form their troops into the figure of a wedge, or of the Greek letter a, the point of which towards the enemy is very sharp, and the sides gradually diverge, by

which it becomes broadest at the rear. The ranks on all the

92 The reader will have remarked, that in the Jutish kingdom of Kent the divisions are lathes, hundreds, and boroughs.

three sides are very compact, and the men, standing with their faces outwards, and their backs towards the empty space in the middle, form a kind of rampart with their shields. When an army was composed of several distinct battalions, or the troops of several different counties, under their respective Ealdonmen and inferior officers, they often formed as many of these hollow wedges as there were battalions at proper intervals.93

We will conclude this subject with extracts from the Saxon Chronicle relating to Kent, and which show the efforts of our Saxon ancestors to defend their country from foreign aggression.

"A.D. 787. In his [K. Bertric] days, first came three ships of Northmen out of Hæretha-land [Denmark], and then the reeve rode to the place, and would have driven them to the King's Town, because he knew not who they were; and there they slew him. These were the first ships of Danish men which sought the land of the English nation.

A.D. 832. This year the heathen men ravaged Sheppey.

A.D. 838. This year Herebert, the ealdorman, was slain by the heathen, and many with him among the Marshmen [Romney Marsh ?]. And afterwards, the same year, in Lindsey, and in East Anglia, and in Kent, many men were slain by the enemy.

A.D. 839. This year there was a great slaughter at London, and at Canterbury, and at Rochester.

A.D. 851. This year : King Athelstan, and Elchere, the ealdorman, fought on shipboard, and slew a great number of the enemy at Sandwich, in Kent, and took nine ships, and put the others to flight, and the heathen-men, for the first time, remained over winter in Thanet. And the same year came 350 ships to the mouth of the Thames, and the crews landed, and took Canterbury and London by storm.

A.D. 853. In the same year Ealhere, with the men of Kent, and Huda, with the men of Surry, fought in Thanet against the heathen army, and at first they were victorious, and many there were slain and drowned on either hand, and both the ealdormen were killed.

A.D. 855. This year the heathen-men, for the first time, remained over winter in Sheppey.

93 See Henry's History of Britain, vol. iv, book 2, cap. 5, and the authorities there cited, from which this account of the Saxon forces is principally taken.