upon their bodies," and it would be interesting to know whether a horse, wolf, stag, or other beast formed the tribal badge of the Catuvellauni. "They (the Britons) are a most warlike and sanguinary race, carrying only a small shield, a spear, and a sword." Caesar expresses admiration at their military tactics with the "Esseda," a small two-wheeled war chariot drawn by a pair of ponies, the driver of which galloped up to try and break into the ranks of the enemy, while his companion apparently ran along the pole and leapt upon the foe, using the chariot as a means of retreat when necessary. The pre-eminence of the Catuvellauni whether as a tribe or as a tribal confederacy, was mainly brought about by the possession of a territory to which, along its southern border, the Thames formed a strategic frontier, with only two entrances by the main fords at Brentford and Wallingford, where hostile tribes attacking from the South could be held in check. Through the first named ford, as already mentioned, ran the great trade route from the port at Dover to the Midlands, crossing Middlesex by Horsadun, Sudbury and Brockley Hills. In a subsequent chapter a full description is given of the forcing by Caesar of the passage of the Thames at Brentford, and of the remains of the extensive palisades protecting the great ford there, which were recently found embedded in the river and on its northern bank. This discovery settles the long vexed question as to the Thames ford crossed by Caesar.3

The dense forest of Middlesex, which stretched over the northern uplands of the County between the Colne and the Lea and beyond into Essex, formed a second line of defence to the southern territory of the Catuvellauni. At its eastern end the circular camp at Bush Hill guarded the upper Lea ford between Enfield and Chingford (Essex). A few miles to the west at Hadley lay a second enclosure, probably used mainly for the purpose of folding their cattle in the time of war, while still further westwards an important camp crowned the top of Brockley Hill-the Sulloniacae of Roman times-which has obliterated all traces of the earlier British works. But at Bush Hill Park three-fourths of the circular rampart of this camp of the Catuvellauni remain in fair condition, and gives a diameter of 150 yards. The earthwork may once have been from 8 to 10 feet in height, and when surmounted with the usual hedge of stakes and quickthorn must in those days have been a strong fort to storm in "hand to hand" warfare. At Brentford on the rising ground above the palisade work protecting the great ford over the lower Thames, formerly stood a circular entrenchment with a diameter of about 170 yards. Though its butts or earth works have long since been

1 Herodian, "Mon. Hist. Brit.," lxiv.

2 Caesar, "De Bello Gallico," iv, 33.

3 A granite monument was erected in 1909 at Brentford Ferry to commemorate this battle and other historical events which have occurred around that spot.

levelled' their position can be traced from old maps, and from the bend which the ancient road takes in psssing round the former lines. A public footpath also runs through it from north to south, but the site is now covered by modern houses. Similar enclosures probably once existed near Hyde Park Corner to guard the adjacent Thornea ford, and by Old Ford on the Lea before the Trinovantes were absorbed into the Catuvellaunian confederacy.

The British tribes seem to have been backward in the art of building, their houses being mere log cabins, "mean habitations constructed for the most part of reeds and wood." " "The number of inhabitants is very great, and they possess numerous buildings which generally resemble those of the Gauls. Their towns are protected with rampart and ditch situated amidst intricate woods, where they are wont to congregate to avoid the incursion of their foes. They keep much cattle."

3

With materials growing ready to hand the Catuvellauni would have had no difficulty in protecting their enclosures by a formidable hedge, much of the same character as that erected by the Nervii in Belgic Gaul, which Caesar thus describes:

"To secure themselves against the inroads of the cavalry of the neighbouring nations, they had everywhere fortified the country with barricadoes of young trees, which being split in the middle and bent down on both sides the vacant spaces were so closely interwoven with brambles, thorns, and a multitude of boughs taken from the trees themselves, that they formed a wall which could neither be passed nor seen through."

994

In Middlesex the British principally inhabited the Thames valley where have chiefly been found the various articles of Celtic manufacture next to be described. Here the soil is lighter than the heavy clays of the northern uplands of the County, on which in British times and for centuries afterwards flourished a vast forest. The numerous head of cattle possessed by the Catuvellauni would find grazing amid the glades of this forest, and there, hidden in its depths, enclosures would be made into which their herds would be collected in time of need.

Arts and Crafts.-Numerous relics relating to the daily life of the Celtic tribesmen have been discovered throughout Britain which, coupled with information from local sources, enables us to form some idea of the articles used by the Catuvellauni and found in Middlesex.

These articles may be thus classified:

I. POTTERY. Drinking and incense cups, cinerary urns, food vessels, also late wheelmade articles with graceful lines and kiln fired.

1 They were situated in the 9 acres of common of the manor of West Brentford enclosed and sold in 1664.

2 Siculus, 44 B. C., "Mon. Hist. Brit.," ii.

3 Caesar, "De Bello Gallico," v, 12 and 21.

Idem, v, 11-17.

MIDDLESEX. Ornamented drinking cups from Old England, Brentford. Cinerary urns have been unearthed at Acton, Ashford, and Hanwell. A large number of urns as well as stone celts have been found in the gravel pits by the Boston Road, Hanwell, specimens of which have been preserved by Mr. W. Seward, the owner. A series of cinerary urns, dating from about 1,000 в.c. have been found on the Common between Ashford and Sunbury. About thirty burials were found in a space of 50 ft. by 20 ft. The specimens are at the British Museum. A cylindrical brick at Great Stanmore.

II. METAL WORK. Bronze, cast and wrought: Shields,' helmets, swords, sheathes, horse strappings, chariot fittings, celts, brooches, a chaldron riveted, and ornamental work for tankards and pails. Gold and silver': Rings, armulets, neck torques, wire chains, chased mirrors, engraved metal, and figures of animals. MIDDLESEX. In bronze: Old England, Brentford, shield with concentric ornament, swords, one in sheath, celts, ornamented axle cap with traces of enamel from a chariot, tankard lined with oak, and a water clock. Feltham, double hook; Hammersmith, brooches, bowls, pins, and rings; Hampton, spearhead and dagger; Hanwell, a caster's hoard of 30 lb. of nearly pure copper, and an imperfect socketed and ringed celt; Hounslow, palstaves, celts, swords, and three small figures of boars; Southall, mould for casting celts, palstaves, and a ring; Stanmore, ornamental work; Sunbury, celts; Teddington, sword and sheath; Twickenham, sword and brooch and eight pieces of tin money; Chelsea, from the Thames, a shield, a beautiful piece of late Celtic work, and a spear head with fragment of shaft. In iron: Brentford, knives, sickles, spearheads, dagger in ornamented bronze sheath, etc. Hammersmith, a late Celtic sword and sheath.

III. ENAMEL WORK. This " had reached a high stage of indigenous development before its contact with Roman culture." Philostratus in his "Icomes," writing early in the third century, and doubtless referring to the British, states: "They say that the barbarians who live in the ocean pour their colours on heated brass, and that they adhere, become as hard as stone, and preserve the designs that are made upon them." Specimens have been found, viz.: brooches set with red, blue, and yellow enamel, amber, and glass, an ornamental fly with blue enamel wings, shields, belt bosses, etc., set with coral and white shell.

MIDDLESEX, adjoining to, but in Catuvellaunian territory: Datchet (Bucks), bronze fibula set with amber and blue glass; Witham (Essex), bronze shield set with coral; Welwyn (Herts), various works of art.

1 Caesar is said to have carried back from Britain a breast-plate adorned with precious pearls which he dedicated in the temple of Victory at Rome. "Political Hist. of Eng.,” 22, Hodgkin.

2 “Britain produces gold, silver, and other minerals," Tacitus, “Agricola,” xii.

3 See specimens in Brentford Museum.

"Glass and Enamel," Waring and Franks,

Coinage. In nearly every part of Britain where an inscribed coinage was current, one that was uninscribed had preceded it, and in most instances the use of the uninscribed currency was prior to the Roman invasion. The Catuvellauni and most other British tribes had an uninscribed coinage chiefly in gold, silver, and copper, commencing from about the year 200 to 150 B.c. Their coins were modelled after those in Gaul, which in turn had been copied from the gold stater of Philip of Macedon (359-66 B.C.). Thirteen kings or reguli in Britain possessed an inscribed coinage, and amongst those which have been found belonging to the Catuvellaúni are:

In MIDDLESEX, uninscribed gold staters, have been found at Enfield Chase, Harlington, New Southgate, St. John's Wood. Inscribed "Cuno" in London, and "Tascio" in Victoria Park, Middlesex. Numerous coins of a similar character are doubtless to be found in private collections.'

Agriculture, etc.-Pytheas, who visited Britain in the fourth century B.C., describes the abundant wheatfields in the South, and that the corn was threshed in covered barns. The geographer Strabo (20 B.C.) refers inter alia to the export from Britain of corn, cattle, and skins. Caesar (54 B.C.), mentions the cornfields in Kent, and that corn was daily brought to his camp. Again, during his march northwards, from the Thames to Verulamium, that the inhabitants and cattle were driven from the fields. The geographer, Diodorus Siculus (44 B.C.), says that the corn was harvested by cutting off the ears and heaping them in pits, from which they daily draw those that are old and dress them. The historian (Tacitus) (A.D. 80) writes that the soil of Britain is fertile and bears good crops. Pliny the naturalist (A.D. 60) writes that the British used a wheeled plough and turned in marga (marl or chalk). Later on in the Romano-British period, Eumenius, the Imperial Panegyrist (A.D. 310) states that the country was remarkable for the richness of its corn crops and the number of its cattle."

1 Twenty-nine British coins, including the above, are well shown on a plate in "The British Numismatic Journal," i, 354. Cunobeline is said to have fought at Thornborough, three miles from Whaddon (Bucks), and near there, in Feb. 1849, at Little Harwood, on some land called Northbury, recently cleared and enclosed, the plough turned up about 420 British gold coins, of which 320 reached the hands of Mr. W. Selby-Lowndes, "Numismatic Chronicle," 1849, xii, 50.

* See generally "Mon. Hist. Brit.,” and also "Origins of English History," Elton.

So in many parts of Middlesex, and more particularly to the south and west of the County, the Catuvellauni ploughed their patches of fertile soil for a crop of wheat, barley, millet, etc. They also used the axe, saw, billhook, and sickle.' In the next age, when the Romans planted their settlements, the natives received regular or measured plots of land in exchange for their scattered patches. The ponies and cattle, of which large numbers were captured in the Verulamium enclosure, found grazing in the fields and amidst the forest glades among the northern uplands of the County, also along the marshy fringes of the Brent, Colne, Lea, and Thames. The oxen were smaller than the present Alderney breed, and were known as the "Bos Longifrons." Their remains are met with throughout England, and locally by the Thames at Brentford, where they had probably been lost when endeavouring to cross at the ford, or slaughtered for the use of the adjoining camp.

Like other tribes the Catuvellauni kept sheep, goats, geese, and swine, the latter finding abundant pannage in the extensive forest of Middlesex. Beer brewed from barley was drunk, a liquor which "Dioscorides the physician, who lived shortly after the Claudian conquest of Britain, pronounced as headachy, unwholesome, and injurious to the nerves," and doubtless we should agree with him in this! Honey supplied the place of sugar, and so bees were kept, perhaps in hives of fine wicker work, for basket making was peculiarly a British industry. British baskets were exported to the Continent, and were highly prized in Rome among the precious goods of the wealthy.' This industry, perhaps a survival from these ancient days, thrived in the county town of Brentford until quite recent times.

Trade.-A considerable trade with the Continent must have been established long before 54 B.C., since Caesar mentions that he sent in all directions for those

The soil of the county has been a fruitful one, thanks to the toil and labour of countless generations, beginning with the hardy Briton who commenced the work of winning the land from the clutches of the roots of forest trees. In modern times with improved appliances this preliminary expense may be put at £26 per acre (see cost of clearing Wychwood Forest in "The Making of the Land in Eng.," Pell. Journal Roy. Agric. Soc., 1899). Though a comparison cannot be drawn between the extent of arable land in Middlesex in the first and eighteenth centuries respectively, it may be mentioned that at the latter period it principally lay in the Elthorne, Isleworth, and Spelthorne Hundreds, and between the New River and Ermine Street in the Edmonton Hundred. Market gardens stretched between Brentford and Chelsea, and from the north of London to Islington and Hackney. In 1798 about 7,000 acres were annually cropped with wheat, and 3,800 with barley. In Norwood, Cranford, and Heston, much of the soil is of a highly productive loam, the latter place being celebrated for producing the finest wheat in the County. Camden in M. Brit. states that the wheat bred there made such delicate flour that our kings in ancient times made choice of it, "Agriculture of Middlesex," Middleton, 1798. The Middlesex area doubtless contributed its share of the corn exported in the fleet of 800 ships which went to and fro between Britain and the Rhine district to supply the armies of the Emperor Julian, A.D. 358. Zosimus, "Mon. Hist. Brit.," lxxvi.

2 Martial, Epig. xiv, circa A.D. 70.

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