In this country I have observed abundance of old Welsh words left among us; and I am persuaded that the name of Holland is derived from that language, though now terminated by a later word, as is frequent enough. It signifies no more than salt or marsh land, such as is gained from the sea; and to this day we call the marshes adjoining to, and sometime overflowed by the sea, salt marshes. Likewise upon the sea shore they formerly made salt in great abundance. The hills all along upon the sea bank, the remains of such works, are still called salt hills: such are at Fleet, Holbech, Gosberton, Wainflet,[3] &c. Many names of rivers and roads, thence derived, remain still, such as Salters Lode, Salteney Gate, &c. Hallt in the British is salsus, salt, as ἅλς in the Greek is mare, the sea; and most evidently borrowed from the British, because of its most notorious quality. The adjoining part of this country in Norfolk, is called marsh land, in the very same sense: so is Zeland and Holland at the mouth of the Rhine, where our Cimbric ancestors once lived. In the Cimbric Chersoness, now Denmark, is Halland, a division of the country by the Saxons called Halgo land. Vid. Spelman’s Glassary, voce Sciringes heal. Holsatia, Holstein, &c. and our Holderness in Yorkshire, must thus be understood. Hence the isle of Ely too is denominated, the very word heli being salsugo in the British. This, in the most antient British times, was as much marsh land as our wapentake of Elho is now, which acknowledges the same original; hoe signifying a parcel of high ground.
First Inhabitants the Britons.
We may be assured that this whole country was well inhabited by the antient Britons, and that as far as the sea coasts, especially the islets and higher parts more free from ordinary inundations of the rivers, or though not imbanked above the reach of the spring tides; for the nature of this place perfectly answered their gusto, both as affording abundant pasturage for their cattle, wherein their chief sustenance and employment consisted, and in being so very secure from incursion and depredations of war and troublesome neighbours, by the difficult fens upon the edge of the high country. Here I have not been able to meet with any remains of them, except it be the great quantity of tumuli, or barrows, in all these parts; scarce a parish without one or more of them. They are generally of a very considerable bulk, much too large for Roman; nor has any thing Roman been discovered in cutting them through; though, a few years ago, two or three were dug quite away near Boston, and another at Frampton, to make brick of, or to mend the highways. I guess these were the high places of worship among our Cimbrian predecessors, purposely cast up, because there are no natural hills in these parts; and we know antiquity affected places of elevation for religious rites. No doubt, some are places of sepulture, especially such as are very frequent upon the edges of the high countries all around, looking down upon the fens. Hither seem to have been carried the remains of great men, whose habitations were in the marshy grounds, who chose to be buried upon higher ground than where they lived; as is the case all over England; for the tumuli are commonly placed upon the brink of hills hanging over a valley, where doubtless their dwellings were.
Romans.
But when the Romans had made considerable progress in reducing this island into the regular form of a province, and began the mighty work of laying down the great military ways; then I suppose it was, that they cast their eyes upon this fertile and wide-extended plain, and projected the draining it. The Hermen Street.In the reign of Nero, in all probability, they made the Hermen Street,[4] as now called by a Saxon word equivalent to the Latin via militaris. That this was the first, seems intimated by the name, in that it has retained κατ’ εξοχην, what is but a common appellative of such roads. TAB. LVI.This noble work, taking in the whole of it, was intended to be a meridian line running from the southern ocean, through London, to the utmost bounds of Scotland. This may be inferred from the main of it, which runs directly north and south. And another argument of its early date, drawn from three remarkable particularities, I have observed in travelling upon it, and which show it was begun before that notable people had a thorough knowledge of the geography of the island. One is, its deviation westward as it advances towards these fens from London: another is, the new branch, drawn a little beyond Lincoln westward into Yorkshire, out of the principal stem going to the Humber: a third is, that it is double in Lincolnshire. Of these I shall speak again when we come to the following Iter Romanum. Now we will only consider such part of it as has relation to the country we are upon; and that is the road going from Caster by Peterburgh to Sleford in this county, which is undoubtedly Roman, and which first occasioned the draining this fenny tract, and surely more antient than that which goes above Stanford, and along the heathy part of the county to Lincoln. My reasoning depends upon the manner of the road itself, and upon that other great work which accompanies it, called the Cardike, equally to be ascribed to the same authors. This road is nearer the first intention of a meridian line than the other: but, when they found it carried them through a low country, where it perpetually needed reparation, and that they must necessarily decline westward to reach Lincoln, they quitted it, and struck out a new one, more westerly, that should run altogether upon better ground. This, if we have leave to guess, was done after the time of Lollius Urbicus, lieutenant under Antoninus Pius, who with great industry and courage had extended and secured the whole province as far as Edinburgh. Then it was they had time and opportunity to complete the work in the best manner, being perfect masters of the country, and of its geography: and this road was for the ready march of their armies and provisions to succour those northern frontiers. But it seems as if they had long before that time brought the Hermen Street as far as Lincolnshire,[5] especially that eastern branch, or original stem, of which we are treating, and that as early as the reign of Nero, and at the same time made the Cardike. I shall give you my further reasons for this conjecture, and nothing more than conjecture can be expected in such matters.
42·2d.
Old Hermen Street.
The road which we suppose the original stem of the Hermen Street goes in a direct line, and full north and south from Durobrivæ, or Caster, to Sleford; and there, for aught I know, it terminates. It is manifest, that if it had been carried further in that direction, it would have passed below Lincoln heath, and arrive at the river where it is not fordable. It parts from the present and real Hermen Street at Upton, a mile north of Caster; but this is continued in a strait line, which demonstrates that it is the original one: the other goes from it with an angular branching. This traverses the river Welland at Westdeeping, and is carried in a high bank across the watery meadows of Lolham bridges.[6] These are numerous and large arches made upon the road, to let the waters pass through, taken notice of by the great Camden as of antiquity; and no doubt originally Roman: then it crosses the Glen at Catebridge, (whereabouts it is now called King’sgate, via regia) to Bourn, (where Roman coins are often found, many in possession of Jos. Banks, jun. esq.) so to Fokingham and Sleaford. It is now called Longdike. All along parallel to this road runs a famous old drain, called The Cardike. Cardike.[7] Mr. Morton has been very curious in tracing it out through his county, Northamptonshire. I am sorry I have not yet had opportunity to pursue his laudable example, in finishing the course of it through Lincolnshire: but as far as I have observed it, it is marked in the map. This is a vast artificial canal drawn north and south upon the edge of the fens, from Peterburgh river to Lincoln river, about fifty mile long, and by the Romans without all peradventure. It is taken notice of by serjeant Callis, our countryman, in his readings on the sewers. That wise people, with a greatness of thought peculiar to themselves, observed the great use of such a channel, that by water carriage should open an inland traffic between their two great colonies of Durobrivæ and Lindum, or Lincoln, without going round the hazardous voyage of the Estuary: just such was the policy of Corbulo in Tacitus, Annal. xi. Ne tamen miles otium indueret inter Mosam Rhenumque trium & viginti millium spatio fossam produxit, qua incerta oceani evitarentur. And lest the soldiery should be idle, he drew a dike for the space of three and twenty miles between the Maese and the Rhine, whereby the dangers of the ocean are avoided; which is exactly a parallel case with ours. Besides, it is plain that by intercepting all the little streams coming down from the high country, and naturally overflowing our levels, it would much facilitate the draining thereof, which at this time they must have had in view. This canal enters Lincolnshire at Eastdeeping, proceeding upon an exact level, which it takes industriously between the high and low grounds all the way, by Langtoft and Baston: passing the river Glen at Highbridge, it runs in an uninterrupted course as far as Kyme: beyond that I have not yet followed it; but I suppose it meets Lincoln river near Washenburgh, and where probably they had a fort to secure the navigation, as upon other proper intermediate places, such as Walcot, Garick, Billingborough, Waldram-hall, Narborough, Eye antiently Ege, agger; and I imagine St. Peter’s de Burgo hence owes its original: and a place called Low there, a camp ditched about, just where the Cardike begins on one side the river: another such fortification at Horsey bridge on the other side the river: all these names point out some antient works. It is all the way threescore foot broad, having a large flat bank, on both sides, for the horses that drew their boats. Roman coins are frequently found through its whole length, as you well know, who are possessed of many of them of different emperors. Now it seems to me highly probable that Catus Decianus, the procurator in Nero’s time, was the projector both of this road and this canal, two notable examples in different kinds of Roman industry and judgment; and the memorial of the author of so great a benefit to the country is handed down to us in several particulars; as that of Catesbridge before mentioned upon the road, and of Catwater, a stream derived from this artificial channel, at the very place where it begins, to the Nen at Dovesdale bar: likewise at Dovesdale bar comes in another stream from the north, from a place by Shephey bank, called Catscove corner; and this was first hinted to me by our deceased friend, the learned and reverend Mr. John Britain, late schoolmaster of Holbech: to which we may add Catley, a town near Walcot upon the Cardike beyond Kyme; and Catthorp, a village near Stanfield, upon the road. We may likewise upon the same grounds conjecture that Lollius Urbicus repaired this work; whence it seems that his name, though corrupted, is preserved in Lolham bridges; for there is no town of that kind near it. Vid. Gale’s Itinerar. pag. 28. Lowlsworth upon the Hermen Street without Bishops-Gate, in Spittle-Fields. Certainly this is a good hint for our imitation, had we a like public spirit. Now this road thus accompanying the canal, was of great service to the traders, who might have an eye upon their vessels all the while. And even after the projection of the other branch which goes to Lincoln upon the higher ground, the navigation here was undoubtedly continued in full perfection, till the Romans left the island; for such is its advantage of situation, that it could never want water, nor ever overflow: that stream of Catwater seems to be cut on purpose, at least scoured up, to preserve these uses in drawing off the floods of Peterburgh river into the Nen, if its proper channel was not sufficient. The meaning of the word Cardike is no more than Fendike: we use the word still in this country, to signify watery, boggy places: it is of British original.
I doubt not but that the Romans likewise made that other cut, between Lincoln river and the Trent, called the Foss: the name seems to indicate it, as well as the thing itself; for it is but a consequent of the Cardike, and formed on the same idea: so that I suppose it was not originally cut, but scoured by Henry I. as Hoveden mentions: then the navigation was continued by land from Peterborough quite to York, and this was very useful to the Romans in their northern wars. The other way they might come from Huntingdon.