Near this was placed the south tower, which, being undermined a few years since by the force of the water running down the vallum after some very heavy rains, is fallen on one side near its former situation, but remains perfectly entire. The north tower having met with a similar accident is reclined from the wall at the top about six feet, has drawn a part of it, and caused a breach near it. The whole area of the station contains four acres and two roods, and, including the walls, five acres, two roods and twenty perches.
The mortar made use of by the Romans in this work was composed of lime and sand, unrefined by the sieve, and incorporated with common gravel and small pebbles. It was used two different ways; one cold, in the common manner now in use; the other, rendered fluid by fire and applied boiling hot. From the artful mixture of both in the same building, and from the coarse materials of the composition, this cement is extremely hard and durable, very difficult to break, and for several days indissoluble in water. The Romans, raising the wall to a convenient height with the former sort, at the end of every day’s work poured the latter upon it, which immediately filled up the interstices, and when cold, proved a most powerful adhesive. The Roman bricks made use of at Burgh are of a fine red colour and very close texture; they are about one foot and a half long, one foot broad, and an inch and a half thick. It does not, however, appear that the Romans had any exact standard for the size of their bricks: in different stations their dimensions are considerably varied. We ought, however, to observe that either in the choice of their materials, or in their method of preparing them, they far excel those of later days, being much harder and less porous than ours, and for durableness more resembling stone, for which they were undoubtedly substituted.
In the area of this camp, and in many of the fields around it, vast numbers of Roman coins have been, and are still, found; but none of them rise higher than the reign of Domitian, [19] and the generality of them are much later. Few are found of any other metal than copper, and they are seldom curious, either for design or execution.
The fields adjoining to the eastern wall of Garianonum was the place allotted for depositing the ashes of the dead, and for the performance of the funeral rites. Here great numbers of Roman urns have been found, and innumerable pieces of them are everywhere spread over it: but neither the workmanship nor the materials of these urns have anything to recommend them: they are made of a coarse blue clay, brought from the neighbouring village of Bradwell, ill-formed, brittle, and porous. One of these urns, when the pieces were united, contained more than a peck and a half of corn, and had a large thick stone operculum on the top of it; within was a considerable number of bones and ashes, several fair pieces of Constantine and the head of a Roman spear. Here also was found a cockleare, or Roman spoon: it was of silver, and had a long handle very sharp at the point, that being used to pick fish out of the shell, as the bowl, or other end, served to take up liquids and small meat. Rings, keys, buckles, sibulæ, and various other reliquiæ of the Romans, are continually ploughed up in the fields adjoining to the station.
The intestine feuds of Italy called the Romans from their Britannic conquests between the years 418 and 427. They gathered all the treasures which could be found in Britain, some part of which they hid, perhaps in hopes of returning again in better days, and of recovering their effects from whence they had deposited them; or it might proceed from an ambitious design of informing posterity, that the Romans were once masters of this place. [20a] The Britons, forsaken by their Roman guards, and exposed to the ravages of their merciless northern neighbours, frequently hid their money when threatened with fresh invasions; and if death or exile was the fate of the owners the secret was lost, and the treasure remained till an accidental plough or pick-axe once more brought it to light. Thus both Romans and Britons may have contributed to the great number of ancient coins discovered in the eastern parts of this county.
A Roman spur, which belonged to the Stablesain Horse, was found some years ago, in the area of this station; and is now in the possession of Mr. John Jex, Lowestoft. [20b] Sigebert, one of the heptarchial kings, and fifth monarch of the East Angles, ascended the East Anglian throne in the year 636. The Christian faith had made some faint progress in his dominions during the reign of his father, Redwald. To reinstate some of his subjects in their belief, and to convert others, was the great object of Sigebert’s ambition: and to assist him in this design, he brought over from France a priest of Burgundy, named Felix, whom he procured to be consecrated bishop of the East Angles, and fixed the episcopal see at Dunwich. [20c]
Whilst Felix, under the patronage of the king, was spreading the gospel among the East Angles, Furseus, an Irish Monk, came over to his assistance; and collecting a company of religious persons, under the monastic rule, placed them at Burgh Castle, then called Cnobersburgh. [21a]
Sigebert may be considered as the founder of this early monastery; but being afterwards slain in a battle with Penda, king of Mercia, the walls of the Roman camp afforded to Furseus and his monks a comfortable asylum; and like the Roman soldiers, they lived in tents or huts within the area. At this early period, regular edifices for the service of religion were unknown: churches were erected with hurdles, and covered with straw; and such buildings were fully sufficient for the devotion of a people, who in compliment to their next prince, might return to Paganism. The death of Sigebert deprived Furseus of a great and zealous patron; and to avoid the troubles which succeeded it, he left his monastery at Burgh, and retired into France.
The monks, however, appeared to have been endued with more constancy and resolution; for by the favours granted to this religious society, by some of the latter kings of the East Angles, we find they remained there for several years: but how long they continued at Burgh, or when they left it, is uncertain.
It appears that in the reign of Edward I. the prior of Bromeholme held the manor of Burgh, of our lord the king, in capite; and the prior and monks of Bromeholme continued lords of this manor till the dissolution of their house, 26 Henry VIII.; when, with their revenues, it again reverted to the crown, who possessed it till Queen Mary sold it to William Roberts, town-clerk of Yarmouth.