with horses, preparing to carry off Helen; and in the distance they appear offering up their vows in the temple of Venus, or perhaps solemnizing their nuptials, while the horse or horses are waiting without."

The chief memorials of antiquity remaining in the town have now been enumerated and described, perhaps as regards some, with too much minuteness. But as the extensive alterations and improvements, which at the present time are constantly going on, involve, in many instances, an entire removal of the few remaining memorials of olden time; it has become. necessary to particularize, what, under less changeful circumstances, would meet with but a passing notice.

We will now retrace our steps and take a slight glance at the early history of the town.

No information handed down to the present generation, or discoveries made by antiquaries, have led to the decision that the site of modern Ipswich was occupied by the Romans. Probabilities incline to the opinion, that as the Danes found a considerable town here, the Saxons being undoubtedly located upon the spot, the Romans were acqainted with a locality offering many natural advantages. Still, no certainty exists with reference to this point, and it is therefore to be presumed only, that these great civilizers of the world might have erected villas, or raised altars upon the ground on which the town now stands.

That the district was known to the Romans admits of no dispute, and that they fixed and occupied military stations in this as in other counties, the Itinerary of Antoninus, the researches of the Rev. Charles Mason, D.D. F.R.S. rector of Orford, the Rev. Thomas

Leman, late of Bath, (rector of Wenhaston,)* and John Ives, Esq. F.R S. fully prove. The Romans had stations at Wulpet, (now Woolpit) Thetford, Burgh near Yarmouth, and Caister, in Norfolk. At Walton also, near Ipswich, it is believed a Roman camp existed, upon land now covered by the sea. They can be traced at several spots down the river Orwell, both on its right and left banks. Roman remains have been found at Coddenham, and nearer the town than that village. The plough occasionally throws up in the neighbourhood, indications of Roman households, or of the troops of the empire. Coins, brooches, buckles, rings, vases, spear heads, and fragments of horse furniture, have been disturbed from spots where they have remained inurned from the time of their deposit. Still no such indications have been found within the old or modern circuit of the town of Ipswich likely to settle the enquiry whether the Romans were the first founders of the town, with any degree of certainty.

Gippeswic, the earliest name of Ipswich which has come down to us, is undoubtedly of Saxon origin. This is powerful evidence in favour of the non-existence of a town upon the site before the Saxons had bestowed their own name upon the place, particularly

He

*The Rev. Thomas Leman, A.M. F.S.A. son of the Rev. John Leman, of Wenhaston, by Anne his wife, daughter of Clement Reynolds, of Cambridge. Mr. Leman was a most intelligent antiquary, and a great authority on the Roman roads of Britain. died on the 17th of March, 1826, at Bath, the last male descendant of his ancient name, and was buried in the burial ground of Walcot parish in that city, but an altar tomb is erected to his memory in the chancel of Wenhaston church. Six brass plates are affixed to this monument, each bearing a shield of arms. There are 64 quar

terings on the tomb, most of which were brought by the marriage of John Leman, grandfather of the antiquary, with Theophila Naunton, daughter of Robert Naunton, nephew of Sir Robert the secretary. There are also the achievements of the marriage of his ancestors with the Sherwoods and Sterlings.

as it is known that the word Gippeswic is a compound derived from the small stream, the Gipping, in early days perhaps carrying its name to a considerable distance down the Orwell, and the "wic," or town upon its banks.

The history of the Romans in Suffolk is soon told. In A.D. 43, the Emperor Claudius, determined on conquering the Britons, dispatched to the country of his intended enterprize 50,000 soldiers of the empire, who established themselves in Essex, and in other places. The neighbouring parts of the country were inhabited by a warlike race, the Iceni, with whom the new-comers made truce, and sought rather to ingratiate themselves than oppose them. Eighteen years after the first landing of the Romans, the king of the Iceni, in whose dominions the present county of Suffolk is included, died, and he perhaps fearing his powerful neighbours, or knowing the desolateness of his kingdom at his own death, thought to preserve his possessions to his family, and to maintain peace, by a division of his riches between the Roman emperor and his own daughters. As might naturally be inferred, the precisely contrary effect was the result. The Romans, not satisfied with a portion of the spoil, desired the whole, and the entire mass breaking the truce which had existed during the life-time of the deceased monarch, spread themselves over the face of the hitherto peaceful country and seized all the lands as their own. It was at this period the widowed queen, the well-known Boadicea, collected the forces of her outraged kingdom, as well as those of her neighbouring powers, and made to them that celebrated harangue, familiar to all readers of English history. Displaying her two daughters who had been ravished by the Roman soldiery, she called loudly on the Britons to extirpate the bloody and wicked inva

ders from the soil of the island. The dauntless natives, fired by the language of their widowed queen, and prone to revenge her wrongs, attacked the Romans with the greatest impetuosity. They were at first victorious, but bravery alone could but ill withstand equal courage, supported by the consummate discipline of their enemies. The Britons were eventually routed, and 80,000 men left dead upon the fields of battle.

The victorious general, master of the district, proceeded to put his projects in force for the perfect occupation of the locality he had conquered, and which perhaps had occupied his thoughts when he yet dwelt in peace under the truce existing between himself and the last monarch of the Iceni. Roads were pushed forward from Camulodunum (Colchester) towards the sea-coast, passing through Woolpit and Thetford, to Burgh, near Yarmouth, and Caistor, in Norfolk. Sitomagus, by some placed at Woolpit, by others at Thetford, and lately by the Rev. A. G. H. Hollingsworth, vicar of Stowmarket, at Haughley,* upon the site of the castle farm, if not their chief camp or station, yet divided the palm with Burgh. From these points they traversed the district to the right and left, at the same time advancing towards the object of their desire, a communication with the sea. They made numerous small settlements where the country favoured their purposes, or attracted them by its fertility. Modern research has tracked these people along the shores of the county from Burgh to Walton, where they appear to have erected a strong building, now submerged in the sea.

Although all positive evidence seems adverse to the supposition that the site of Ipswich was ever occupied as a Roman town or colony, yet a con

*History of Stowmarket. Ipswich: Pawsey, 1844.

sideration of the general practice of these people, (as evidenced by their abundant remains in different parts of the county,) would seem to render such a circumstance extremely probable, and altogether favours the idea that they would hardly have failed to occupy the head of a river, so important as the Orwell. Why indeed might not the Saxon castle of Ipswich have been erected on the remains of some military defence of the Romans, and why may not the very site of Ipswich have borne some important settlement of the ancient conquerors of the Iceni?

Perhaps the future discovery of the remains of a Roman villa, with tesseræ, hypocaust, &c. may place the question of the Roman occupation of the site of Ipswich on more tangible grounds than it rests at present, and afford additional and local evidence of the richness and comfort, as well as durability, of Roman domestic residences. For this however we must wait with patience.

At the departure of the Romans from Britain, a veil of impenetrable darkness appears to envelope the history of every portion of the country. At length the incursions of Picts and Scots led the inhabitants, considerably changed by the admixture of Roman blood among them, to invite the war-like nation of the Saxons to pay a visit to the land, a proceeding eventually leading to the more complete subjugation of the kingdom to these people, than had been the case under their Roman conquerors.

It would be apart from the particular subject of this volume to record the many immigrations of the Saxons to this land. It is sufficient here to state that the tribes which over-ran the county of Suffolk came over at the end of the sixth century, and by their superior power and strength fixed themselves so permanently in the soil, as to give this portion of Great