FOOTNOTES:
[406] Lucan, Phars. iv. cf. Fest. Avienus, “Ora Maritima,” v. 80-130, and Plin. iv. c. 16.
[407] Cæsar describes the ships of the Veneti, B. G. iii. 13.
[408] Sueton. Claud. c. 18. Cod. Theodos. v. 13, 5.
[409] Cæs. Bell. Gall. v. 12, 14.
[410] Ibid. ii. 4.
[411] Ibid. v. 22.
[412] Ibid. v. 12.
[413] Tacit. Agric. c. ii.
[414] Cæs. Bell. Gall. iv. 19.
[415] Cæs. Bell. Gall. vi. 13, 14.
[416] Ibid. v. 10.
[417] Ibid. v. 15.
[418] Sussex was the chief seat of the iron manufacture of England till coal became abundant. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth seventy-three furnaces are said to have been at work, and the last, at Ashburnham, was only blown out in 1827. The railings round St. Paul’s Cathedral (temp. Queen Anne) are made of Sussex iron.
[419] Virgil, Eclog. i. 67.
[420] Tacit. Agric. Sueton. Cæs. c. 46, 47.
[421] Cæs. Bell. Gall. iv. 18.
[422] Ibid. v. 16.
[423] Dio. xxxix. 51.
[424] Cæs. Bell. Gall. iv. 18.
[425] Cæs. Bell. Gall. iv. c. 21.
[426] It would be out of place here to discuss the vexed question of the places, respectively, whence Cæsar started from France, and where he landed in England. We can only say that, having read the several memoirs on this subject, by Halley, d’Anville, Dr. Guest, Master of Caius Coll., Cambr., the Astronomer Royal, and Mr. Lewin, we are inclined to think that the essay by the last-named writer (London, 1859) is the most consistent with the language of Cæsar himself. In the following pages, therefore, his views have been generally adopted.
[427] By the Passengers Act, which applies to all British possessions, except India and Hong Kong, the space allowed in passenger ships to each statute adult is not to be less than 15 clear superficial feet in the poop or in the upper passenger-deck, nor less than 18 clear superficial feet on the lower passenger-deck; and the height between decks is not to be less than 6 feet for the upper passenger-deck, nor less than 7 feet for the lower passenger-deck. Each person of twelve years and upwards, and two children between one and twelve years, count as an adult.
By the 16 and 17 Vict. cap. 84, however, the governors of colonies may, by proclamation, reduce this space to 12 superficial feet in the case of passengers, being natives of Asia and Africa, sailing from their governments.
[428] Cæs. B. G. iv. 32, 33.
[429] It seems a reasonable conjecture that in the name of Romney (i.e., Roman marsh or island) we have a relic of Cæsar’s invasion.
[430] Cæs. B. G. v. 2.
[431] Cæs. B. G. v. 1.
[432] The “Invasion of Britain by Julius Cæsar,” by Thomas Lewin, Esq., M.A., 1859.
[433] Cæs. B. G. v. 19; and Roach Smith’s “Antiquities of Richborough, Reculver, and Lymne. Lond. 1850.”
[434] It is generally supposed that Cassivelaunus, in execution of a well concerted plan, retired, followed by Cæsar, from the banks of the Stour along the southern side of the chalk hills running from Wye to Dorking, and then down the right bank of the Mole to the nearest point of the Thames at “Coway stakes,” situated between Walton and Shepperton. In the year 1855, the author of this work purchased the principal property in the latter parish, and a few years afterwards that of Halliford, so named from the ford at Coway, where the Romans are supposed to have crossed the Thames. Since then he has resided almost constantly in the Manor-house of Shepperton, which, on the authority of Stukeley and of other antiquaries, occupies the site where Cæsar pitched his camp after the final defeat of the ancient Britons. The paddock, about fourteen acres in extent, attached to his house, is said to have derived its name from the fact that there the battle between the Romans and Britons raged in its greatest fury, and that there it ended, with great carnage, in the overthrow of Cassivelaunus. In the recent Ordnance maps, as well as in some maps of an ancient date, this paddock is described as “War-close field, from which there has been dug spears, swords, and great quantities of human bones.”
Cæsar in his Commentaries remarks (book v. c. xvii): ‘Cæsar, perceiving their design, marched the army to the river Thames, towards the territory of Cassivelaunus; that river was fordable only at one place, and there with difficulty. When he arrived, he saw that the enemy was drawn up in great force at the opposite bank of the river; but the bank was fortified with stakes fixed in front; stakes also of the same kind were driven into the bed of the river, concealed from view by the stream. Cæsar, learning this from the prisoners and deserters, having sent the cavalry before, ordered the legions to follow closely. This the soldiers did with such celerity and vigour, their heads only seen above water, that the enemy could not sustain the shock of the legions and cavalry, but abandoned the banks and betook themselves to flight.
Besides the traces of a great Roman camp, still distinctly visible on the brow of St. George’s hill, about two miles from Coway stakes, the footprints of the legions are to be seen in many places round Shepperton, and have been noted by Bede, Roy, Camden, Salmon, Gale, Stukeley, and other antiquarian writers. To these the author may add his own testimony, having found, in different parts of the property (especially when cleaning out a ditch which runs through War-close), various Roman coins and spikes, resembling spear-heads. Other relics of the Romans, such as urns, have frequently been dug from the gravel-pits opened during his time in different fields in the parish.
[435] Tacit. Agric. c. 13; and Strabo confirms this view (iv. c. 4.).
[436] Ibid. c. 15.
[437] Tacit. Ann. xii. 34.
[438] Strabo speaks, from personal observation, of the large stature of the Britons whom he saw at Rome.
[439] Generally considered to be represented by the village of Bittern, about one and a half miles up the Itchen, above the present Southampton.
[440] Cæs. B. G. vi. 13 and 14. Ibid. v. 14.
[441] Ptol. Geogr. ii. c. 3.
[442] “Uriconium, or Wroxeter,” by T. Wright, F.S.A. Lond. 1872.
[443] Tacit. Ann. xii. c. 31.
[444] “Abury Illustrated,” by W. Long, M.A. Devizes, 1858.
[445] Nor can we omit noticing here a matter which has in former times been much disputed, whether or no there are any coins, clearly British, antecedent to the invasion of Cæsar. On the evidence of all the best MSS. of Cæsar’s Commentaries, especially of a very fine one of the tenth century in the British Museum, we find Cæsar distinctly stating that the Britons “use either brass money or gold money, or instead of money, iron rings, adjusted to a certain weight.” (Cæs. Bell. Gall. v. 10. E. Hawkins’ “Silver Coins of England” (1841), pp. 9-14. Evans’ “Coins of the Ancient Britons,” pp. 18 and 285. Lond. 1864.) It was only about the seventeenth century that the editors of Cæsar, Scaliger leading the way, corrupted this passage and made him assert that only substitutes for money were used by the natives. All the facts are in favour of the MSS., for coins of gold, sometimes of silver, but very rarely of copper, are found in different parts of England, and as is evident to any eye, are in form, fabric, and type, constructed on a model differing essentially from any thing of Roman origin. Indeed, as is well known to numismatists, the original British coins were constructed on Greek models, and, however rude, may be traced back, step by step, to the gold money (staters) of Philip, the father of Alexander the Great. Plenty of coins exist of the time of Cæsar’s second invasion and of Cunobeline, who was alive in the reign of Claudius; the first, in a purely British (i.e., Greek) type, the second, with an obvious imitation of those of the Romans—and perhaps executed, as some have thought, by Roman artists.—Tacit. Annals, xii. 31-36.
[446] Dion. Cass. lx. c. 21.
[447] Strabo, iv. 2.
[448] Strabo, iii. p. 119; ii. p. 190; iv. pp. 279, 318. Diod. Sic. v. s. 22.
[449] Ibid. ii. p. 176; and iv. p. 306.
[450] Ibid. i. p. 132.
[451] Dion. lx. 21.
[452] J. Evans, “Coins of the Ancient Britons,” p. 284, &c. Lond. 1864.
[453] Details of early London in Ptol. i. 15; vi. 8. Tacit. Ann. xiv. 33. It is first mentioned by Tacitus.
[454] Tacit. Vit. Agric. c. 19.
[455] Tacit. Ann. xiv. 33.
[456] Juvenal, Sat. iv. 140.
[457] Martial, xiv. 99.
[458] Dion. lxvi. 12.
[459] For further details, see Rev. J. C. Bruce, “The Roman Wall from Tyne to Solway.” 4to., 1867.
[460] An attempt has been made by one or two writers to connect the name of Carausius with the “War of Caros” in the so-called “Poems of Ossian.” For this there will be some pretence, whenever it shall be shown that Ossian exists, except in the brain of Macpherson.
[461] Camden describes Kiulæ as a general name for all Saxon vessels. Other writers say that Kiula meant “long ships,” i.e., men of war, or galleys, whatever might be their precise shape. Keel now represents a description of barge which has long been in use in the north of England, and especially on the Tyne, built to hold twenty-one tons four hundredweight, or a keel of coals.
[462] Macpherson’s “Annals of Commerce,” i. p. 217.
[463] Bede places the final withdrawal of the Roman forces from England, and the consequent misfortunes which befell the native Britons, at just before the siege of Rome by Attila, A.D. 409. Eccles. Hist. i. c. 2. See also “Uriconium,” by T. Wright. 8vo., 1872.