Its distance from the city of Lincoln is twenty-one miles, and eighteen from the town of Boston.
HORNCASTLE DURING THE ROMAN AND SAXON GOVERNMENTS.
Before the invasion of Britain by the Romans, whilst yet the island was divided into independent states, the present scite of Horncastle with its immediate neighbourhood was doubtless appropriated, like the rest of the country of the Coritani, to the pasturing of herds and flocks. In the formation of settlements no other circumstances influenced the Britons than the conveniences which might be afforded them in their accustomed occupations. Vallies fertilized by streams, and the contiguous hills would supply food for their cattle and sheep, whilst the neighbourhood of forests invited to the pursuits of the chase. The rich tracts of open grass land stretching along the banks of the river Bane, and its tributary stream, would be populously occupied by the pastoral inhabitants of this district. Hence it may be presumed, that when the weak efforts of the Coritani for independence had left them vanquished by the victorious arms of the Romans, under Ostorius Scapula, and finally a tributary state by the more efficient achievements of Suetonius Paulinus, this portion of the country was soon secured by fixing on the present scite of Horncastle a military station. From the almost imperishable masses of the ancient wall which still remain, and by the numerous coins, urns, and other vestiges of the Roman people which have been found in this place, and are still met with in turning up the soil, it apparently became in process of time a station of considerable importance. It is however difficult to make any definite suggestions as to the period at which the fortifications might have been erected, no inscription having been found throwing light upon the subject.
To secure by effectual barriers against insurrections, the conquests which had already been made, whilst yet the bordering people to the north, the fierce and powerful Brigantes, remained unsubdued, might be deemed a sufficient inducement for raising frequent and effectual military works among the inhabitants of this state: for it was not until Petillius Cerealis was appointed by the emperor Vespasian to the command in the province of Britain, that that hitherto unbridled nation were either conquered or involved in all the calamities of warfare. Though there be no precise data by which the decision may be guided, as to the time of the earlier military erections which were formed at this place; yet it cannot be ascribed to a much later period than the above occurrences so intimately connected. At all events, it may not be considered posterior to the effects which resulted from the wise policy of Agricola. Immediately on his arrival to assume the command, he placed along the frontiers of the several subjugated districts, a chain of fortresses: these were constructed with so much care and judgment, that the inhabitants of those parts where the Roman arms had not then penetrated, could never consider themselves secure from the vigor of the conqueror. [4a] The people, soon after this, completed their submission to the yoke by yielding to the allurements of Roman manners. Their ferocity was tamed: from a savage people, running wild in woods, they became cultivated, acquiring knowledge, and dwelling in towns; and finally sweetened their slavery, by indulging in the pleasures of polished life.
From the circumstance of this station being situated on the river Bane, several antiquaries have concurred in fixing here the Banovallum of the Roman geographer Ravennas. This opinion has been the more readily adopted from the etymology of the name; the latter part of the word being Latin, and collectively signifying a fortification on the Bane. It is indeed probable that the Romans might have been induced at first to make a station at this place, from its convenient situation, easily rendered defensible by a vallum, or temporary barrier, drawn across the aperture of the two rivers from one bank to the other, and thence came its designation. Afterwards they built the indissoluble stone wall, whose vestiges after the lapse of ages are manifest nearly the whole compass round. [4b] It is to be regretted that Ravennas gives no distances: he merely places Banovallum next after Lindum, so that nothing decidedly certain can be gained from his work.
But, though it cannot be positively ascertained that this spot was the Roman Banovallum; yet as the name most evidently points out a fortification on the river Bane, there appears little reason to question it; both from its contiguity to the colony of Lindum, with which place it had communication by means of a military road; [5] as also from its situation; particularly as no other remains of the Romans have been discovered on that river, nor yet any near to it, except some coins at the village of Ludford, where the Bane has its source; and traces of an encampment at Tattershall, more than a mile distant from its banks.
In what circumstances this station may have been involved from the final subjugation of the Britons by Agricola, under whose paternal government the province felt some portion of enjoyment in cultivating the arts of peace, is not known: but, from the evidence of antiquities, it is perceptible that it continued a place of importance down to the period when the Romans in the decline of their empire had withdrawn from Britain; though probably, in the security of a long abstraction from war, its military strength was somewhat disregarded. No sooner however had the necessities and the mistaken policy of the enervated inhabitants, again left to themselves, called to their assistance the warlike Saxons, against the eruptions of the northern barbarians, than we find this place agitated, in common with the rest of the country, by all the calamities which were connected with the desperate contests that ensued;—the Britons struggling for liberty, against the eagerness for dominion on the part of the victorious Saxons. These people, according to the practice which prevailed amongst them of changing the names of Roman stations, gave to this the appellation of Hyrncastre or Hornecastre, from its situation in an angle formed by the junction of the two rivers, which denotes a fortification in a corner, of which the present name is evidently a corruption.
The Roman fortress was at that time either destroyed, or in a very dilapidated state; for Horsa, the Saxon general and brother of Hengist is stated to have enstrengthened the fortress of Horncastle. This fortification however did not continue long; for Horsa being defeated in an engagement with the Britons, under the command of Raengeires, at the neighbouring village of Tetford, Vortimer king of the Britons caused it to be beaten down and rendered defenceless. [6]
THE MANOR.
By the record called Domesday, compiled towards the latter end of the reign of William the Conqueror, it appears that the manor of Horncastle, previous to the close of the Saxon government, belonged to Editha the queen of Edward the Confessor; but at the time of making that survey it formed, together with the soke, part of the possessions of the king. [7a]