boar: the tusks, grinders, and many of the bones were perfect, and had undergone but little change. Several grinders and fragments of bones of a horse, were found immediately above the remains of the boar. These were succeeded by a stratum of muscle and oyster shells, imbedded in a bluish clay. In most instances the external coating of the shells was destroyed, the pearly covering alone remaining. Above the shells was a layer of decayed wood, with fragments of charcoal, which was succeeded by loam, and a thin layer of lime; the latter was covered by a stratum of decayed wood of a deep chocolate colour, much resembling surturbrand.

The following section of the pit, and position of the urn, will perhaps convey a clearer idea of the order of the substances with which it was filled, than can be done by mere description :

It is to be regretted, that the excavation was not allowed to be pursued farther, from the fear of endangering the bank, which considerably overhung the scite of the interment, or there is every reason to believe that other vessels would have been found.

The late Rev. J. Douglas, of Preston, who had made at Chesterford', a

'The following account of the discovery of an urn, containing the bones of a cock, at Chesterford, by the Rev. J. Douglas, is extracted from his Nenia Britannica. "In the year 1783, I received information from Canterbury, that part of an eminence on which was situated an orchard, to the south-east of Don John, or Dane John hill, near the Riding-gate, through which the Watlingstreet went in a straight line to Dover, had fallen down by the frost, when discovery was made of ancient earthenware, which contained burnt bones. Considering this spot to have been the burial place of the Romans, so often sought for by antiquaries, I visited it in the year following, in May, and

evidently discerned the impression of the urn and one of the vessels situated on a stratum of wood ashes, about a foot above the native soil, over which was thrown the bank of dark factitious soil, blended with Roman potsherds, fragments of Roman bricks, oyster shells, and animal bones. Having procured a labourer, I found close to the other vessels, another about seven inches in height, of a conic form, of ordinary brown earth, and which contained the bones of a cock, discernable by the bone of the leg, and the one which entered the horn of the spur. The sepulchral vessels I should hope would speak, beyond conjecture, in favour of the people to whom they are attributed.

discovery similar to the one above described, offers the following, amongst other remarks on the subject, in a letter addressed to Mr. Mantell:

"In looking over my entries of Roman burial places, I find that the spot where I discovered the urns and the one with the cock's bones, was situated without the Roman walls at Canterbury, always the scite (extra mænia) of the funeral ceremonies. One of the urns is rayed like the one in which you found the bones of the cock. It is one foot in height, and nine inches in diameter. There were several other vessels near it.

"The cock, independent of the story of Socrates and his friend Crito, was much venerated by the ancients, and their breed much attended to, (see Plin. lib. x. c. xxi.), so much so, that the town of Rhodes was renowned for their breed, and held the highest rank; after it Melos and Chalcis. Other sacrifices of the noblest animals were less regarded than the omens from the entrails of the cock. No wonder then, that this whimsical and superstitious people interred this favourite bird, from some fancied peculiarity of his nature, as an augural relic near their own ashes.

"The discovery of these remains is of much importance to the claim of a Roman station at Lewes, which I have always considered to be the Mutuantonis in the Itinerary of Ravennas, after which follow Lemanis and Dubris."

It is certain that the interment of this urn, with the funeral remains which it contained, was antecedent to the formation of the mound on which the western keep of the castle is built. The excavation was made in the natural chalk rock, and the superincumbent mound, on which the keep of the Castle stands, is evidently artificial. The deposit of the urn &c., must, therefore, have taken place previously to the formation of the mound.

The spot where they were found is near the principal highway of the Roman city, and every criterion with respect to the vessels themselves, equal to the best demonstration. The Roman stations

which I have elsewhere visited, have uniformly produced specimens of the same kind of pottery; and which, in my opinion, leaves no doubt of the authenticity of their Roman claim."—p. 141.

CHAPTER V.

FROM THE DEPARTURE OF THE ROMANS FROM BRITAIN TO THE
NORMAN CONQUEST.

SECTION I.-Degeneracy of the Romanised Britons-their invitation of the Saxons.-Massacre of the Britons.-Vortigern dethroned.—Arrival of Ella in Sussex—his conquests.—Battle of Mercreades-bourn and Anderida.—Death and character of Ella.—Reign of Cissa.—the South Saxon kingdom absorbed into Wessex.-reign of Egbert, and union of the Octarchy.

AFTER the departure of the Romans from the Island, the miserable Britons corrupted by the vices of their conquerors, and weakened by the political dependence in which they had long been held, found themselves incapable of checking the incursions of the Picts and Scots, who plundered, with impunity, the northern districts of the kingdom, and returned, laden with booty to their native glens. Year after year were their ravages continued, and but ineffectual efforts were made to repel the bold invaders. Indeed, so far degenerated were the Britons, that the very name of this formidable foe was heard with terror: the prowess of the mountain warriors was magnified, and their deeds of cruelty and carnage were urged as reasons for hiring others to subdue them, instead of calling forth that manly courage, and indignant feeling, which their ancestors would have displayed. But such is the effect of slavery! It corrupts the finest, and destroys the noblest, feelings of the soul: the mind loses its dignity; patriotism becomes an empty name, and independence is bartered away for whatever can minister to immediate gratification. The Picts and the Scots were, indeed, a brave and daring people, who knew not Roman luxury, and had felt not Roman chains: but still they were few in number, and if the inhabitants of the south had possessed but a moiety of the valour of their ancestors, there would have been no need of a foreign army, to shield them from destruction.

Besides the declension of military virtue among the inhabitants, the dis

tracted state of the kingdom, occasioned by the contests of ambitious partizans, gave additional security to the depredators of the north. The interval between the emancipation of the islanders from the imperial yoke, and the arrival of the Saxons, was occupied in civil broils and struggles for precedence. Numerous chiefs arose, who assumed to themselves regal dignity; and warring with each other for self-aggrandizement, weakened the resources of the country, and exhausted the national strength, which might otherwise have been well employed in driving to their mountains and their glens, the daring plunderers of the north'. Amongst these British chiefs, Vortigern gained the ascendency. By some, he is believed to have been King of the Silures, by others Prince of the Danmonii, who inhabited Cornwall, Devonshire, and a part of Somersetshire. During his reign, · which is placed about the year 426, a report was propagated throughout the island, that the Picts and Scots designed another attack upon the Britons, and that they were advancing in considerable numbers towards the south, with a view of making a settlement in the more fertile parts. This intelligence caused a counsel to be summoned by Vortigern, of the leading men of the independent districts, whose internal disorders were, in some degree, allayed by the impending evil. The council met; the means of repelling the frequent and fatal invasions of the common enemy was the subject of debate; and the conclusion to which they arrived was, to invite over a band of Saxons, to revenge the insults the nation had received, and to defend it from the future ravages of the barbarians. The event was such as might have been forseen, had not the consiliarii been blinded by fear, by ignorance, or petty ambition: the Saxons came and settled amongst them; they repelled the Picts and Scots indeed, and soon reduced to slavery those who had ignominiously bought their services2.

The continually increasing numbers of their Saxon auxiliaries, began at length to raise suspicions in the inhabitants, of the ultimate design of their allies:

'The allusion of Horace to the destructive consequences of the civil wars of Rome, subsequent to the death of Cæsar, is applicable to the state of Britain at the time of the Saxon conquest. See Ode 2, Lib. I.

Audiet cives acnisse ferrum,

Quo graves Persæ melius perirent;
Audiet pugnas, vitio parentum
Rara juventus.

The bitter invectives of Gildas against his countrymen, on account of their moral and political degeneracy, might amuse the reader: I will give one passage: "The time drew near, in which their iniquities, like those of the Amorites of old, would be full. They consulted what was best, and

| most effectual to repel such destructive and frequent inroads of the aforesaid nations, and to divide the spoil. Then all the counsellors, with the haughty tyrant being blinded, devised for the defence, or rather ruin, of their country, to let in those fierce abhorred Saxons, detested both by God and man, into the island, like wolves into a sheepfold, to subdue the northern nations. No step could be taken more destructive or fatal than this. What profound blindness, what desperate and strange insensibility! the foolish princes of Zoar, giving foolish counsel to Pharaoh, voluntarily invited under the same roof with them, those whom, even at a distance, they dreaded worse than death."

and these suspicions were gradually strengthening, when at last, an act of perfidy which has seldom been equalled, exposed the character and design of the Saxons to full view. The circumstance is thus related by Turner, who laments that the fair laws of evidence will not permit him to blot it out of history:

66

Hengist appointed a meeting of peace: weapons were not to intrude. The perfidious German counselled his friends to conceal their swords in their garments, and at his signal to use them against the Britons. The conference began; the horns of festivity went round; when at the terrible exclamation of "Nemed eure Saxes," out rushed the Saxon weapons: the disarmed Britons fell before the execrable assassins, and three hundred of the bravest chiefs of the country, are stated to have perished. Of all crimes, those perpetrated in abuse of generous confidence, are most to be abhorred: they break the noblest bonds of society, and tend to deliver up mankind to the government of suspicion, one of the most malignant fiends which human misery can foster1."

This base act of perfidy seems to have aroused the Britons from their dishonourable lethargy. The unprincipled deeds of their invaders, opened their eyes to their real character; and blushing at their own weakness, and condemning their own pusillanimity, in admitting amongst them a treacherous and ferocious enemy, under the false hope that they should be protected by his valour and rewarded by his services, they began to feel within them that spirit of independence, and flame of patriotism, which, existing in their ancestors, had been extinguished by the passive and unwarlike condition into which they had been seduced by Roman luxury and licentiousness. They resolved to be no longer tame spectators of the ravages of their country-they saw the necessity of vigour and they boldly flew to arms.

A furious war succeeded, and in the first battle, fought at Ailesford, Horsa fell, and left to his brother Hengist and his son Esca, the completion of their ambitious design. The duplicity of Vortigern, who appeared to be in alliance with the encroaching Saxons, called forth the execrations of the suffering people, and his son Vortimer was raised to the throne which his unworthy father was compelled to abdicate. Several battles were fought between the Britons, under the command of Vortimer, and the Saxon forces, in which the latter were more or less victorious. After the last of these contests in 455, fought at Wyppeds Fleot, on the sea coast of Thanet, in which twelve British chieftains fell, Hengist appears to have established his settlement in Kent, where alone he remained for twelve years, exposed to the attacks of the natives. The sufferings of

'Turner's Hist. of the Ang. Sax., vol. i., p. 161.