Mr. Hudson Gurney, after setting aside Wilkins as an authority, proceeds—
“In 1834, I went over the Camp at Caistor and the country adjacent, with Colonel Leake, who may be considered the greatest living authority for the sites of ancient cities and fortified camps, and he at once said that he was convinced that Norwich was the Venta Icenorum, and capital of the Iceni, and Caistor the fortified camp planted by the Romans over against it, on the other side of the estuary, to bridle, as was their custom, a hostile population.”
After quoting a letter to the same effect, Mr. Hudson Gurney continues—
“In the Roman Itineraries you have three Ventas; Venta Bulgarum, Winchester; Venta Silurum, Caer Went, in Monmouthshire; and Venta Icenorum; and of these Ventas, the confusion between Winchester and the Venta Icenorum seems to have been begun very early, both with the chroniclers and romancers, probably from the one having retained the rudiments of the name, and the other becoming known as Northwic.”
“Sir Francis Palgrave, in the researches which he has made for his forthcoming history of ‘England under the Normans,’ being led to the examination of all contemporary authors, in order to clear up points which he found otherwise inexplicable, has referred me to the two following passages, which would seem to prove that Norwich was the Venta Icenorum almost beyond dispute.”
Here follow Latin quotations from the life of William the Conqueror by William of Poictiers and from Ordericus Vitalis under the year 1067.
William of Poictiers says:—
“Gwenta urbs est nobilis atque valens, cives ac finitimos habet divites, infidos, et audaces: Danos in auxilium ceteris recipere potest: a mari quod Anglos a Danis separat millia passuum quatuor-decim distat. Hujus quoque urbis intra mœnia, munitionem construxit, ibidem Gulielmum reliquit Osberni filium præcipuum in exercito suo, et in vice sua interim toti regno Aquilonem versus præesset.”
And Ordericus Vitalis states:—
“Intra mænia Gwentæ, opibus et munimine nobilis urbis, et mari contiguæ, validem arcem construxit, ibique Gulielmum Osberni filium in exercitu suo præcipuum reliquit, eumque vice sua toti Regno versus Aquilonem præesse constituit.”