Here it was that Charles II., with his Scottish army, was defeated by Cromwell, who had taken up a position on Red Hill without the city gates. Fortune and disguise helped Charles to escape, and from here he began his adventurous journey to Boscobel. The cathedral city has since increased steadily in prosperity. Besides the Worcester China Company, founded in 1751, and still flourishing, a Company of Glovers was incorporated in 1661, and is an important industry. These, in addition to hop-growing, help to keep up the trade prosperity of Worcester. The See has enriched the Church of Rome by four saints, and has yielded to the English State several Lord Chancellors and Lord Treasurers.
("Doomsday Book.")
N a geographical account of this city it is given as being locally in "the hundred of Box and Stockbridge, rape of Chichester, county of Sussex." The origin of this term "rape," comes from the Icelandic "hreppr," meaning a village or district. From the Icelandic verb, "hreppa," to catch, obtain, arose the Anglo-Saxon rendering—"hrepian, hreppan," to touch. Rape came thus to be one of six divisions of the county of Sussex, possibly by reason of their nearness to each other. It formed the intermediate between the shire and the hundred. A sketch of the shire and the hundred is treated in the description of Wells. After this slight digression, we will immediately enter upon the history of Chichester.
Its foundation dates, with certainty, from the time when England formed a portion of the Roman Empire. About the year 47 A.D., Flavius Vespasian conquered this part of England. He established a camp on the site of the present city, close to the road now known as Stane Street, throwing up an entrenchment three miles long. This is attributed to be the "Regnum" of the Belgæ, mentioned in the "Itinerary" of Antonine.
There is no reason to doubt this, if it be borne in mind that, situated almost on the south seaboard of England as Chichester is, it might quite conceivably be expected to be classed accidentally as forming a part of the territory of the Belgæ, though geographically wrong. The advantage of a site at the foot of a small spur of the South Downs, within easy distance of the sea, though inland, would offer great attractions to the Roman invader.
The early history of England shows us that invasions took effect generally on the south and east coasts of the island. The conquered tribes travelled westwards, retreating before the fierce invader.
Little seems to have been known about the Roman occupation of Chichester till the accidental turning up of a Sussex marble slab on the site of the present council chamber. This discovery took place about the year 1713. From this a little information is gleaned about the Roman buildings. The slab bears a defaced inscription in Latin, the missing letters of which having been supplied, give a conjectural reading. It appears that Chichester was the seat of a British king, Cogidubnus; and that under the auspices of a certain Pudens, a temple of Neptune and Minerva was erected out of compliment to Claudius. The evidence of this stone seems also to have been borne out by Tacitus, who mentions in his writings the existence of Cogidubnus as a native king possessed of independent authority. This king, also, is said to be the father of Claudia, who figures in the Second Epistle to Timothy. The conjectural reading again leads us to suppose that the city was occupied by a large number of craftsmen, who, in fact, were responsible for the erection of the temple mentioned above, besides the walls and other buildings.