N.B. The passages within inverted commas are taken from Sharon Turner's Anglo Saxons. Stowe's Chronicle. Collier's Church History. Hudson Turner's Domestic Architecture, FIRST LECTURE. Ancient Britain, so far as we have any records concerning it, seems to have been divided into a number of petty sovereignties, amongst which Essex held by no means an unimportant place, under the name of the Kingdom of the Trinobantes. The name Trinobantes described the dwellers beyond the waters, either because the original inhabitants of Essex were immigrants from the ancient Belgi beyond the sea, or because looking upon them from the county of Kent, they were said to dwell beyond the estuary of the Thames waters. Above on the map to the north of the Trinobantes, dwelt the Iceni, occupying Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire at least, and leaving traces of their former kingdom in the still well-known names of Ickworth, Ickelton, Icklingham, Ickleford, Icklesham, Ickford, and Ickenham. In behalf of these ancient inhabitants of our land, there is not much to be said; those at least who dwelt in Essex exhibited the vices more than the virtues of savage nature-they were neither courageous nor faithful to their word; some of them doubtless fell in the early battles of the Roman invaders, but as the Romans came rather to colonise than exterminate, the old inhabitants soon became hewers of wood and drawers of water to their victorious guests, or even became incorporated with them and dwelt peaceably under their protection. We have, however, little to do with them this evening, for the parish in which we dwell was then probably forest ground, more like to the "bush" in Australia, or to the back woods of America than anything else. The rude inhabitants must have been thinly scattered here and there, though it is not improbable that a trackway may have been made through this part of the forest at that early date connecting the capital of the Trinobantes, which was near the present site of London, with that which then vied with it in importance, the city of Camulodunum. That this trackway passed somewhere near the present road is probable, from many circumstances; but the probability is strongly increased by the fact, that British cinerary urns have been found in Mount-field, by Mr. Pattisson (in 1844), and which have been pronounced by an eminent antiquarian to be 2,000 years old. The presence of the Romans among our forefathers B for more than 400 years must have been generally beneficial in softening and civilizing the rude barbarism of the ancient Britons. There is hardly any part of England in which some traces have not been discovered of Roman works and of Roman dwellings, and both testify to the arts and mechanical skill which they introduced. It is probable that the first sounds of civilisation were heard in this parish when the Roman soldiery were occupied in felling the trees which obstructed the old British way through the forest, and making, with much care and skill, a permanent road in the place where the present highway is used. The great characteristic of the old Roman roads is their remarkable straightness, and this, indeed, is a natural characteristic, where there is no obstruction of private property and private interests to cause a deviation. Compare on the map any of the lines of the old Roman roads: Watling-street, Stane street, or this, with a modern cross road, for instance that from Witham to Dunmow, and observe how many turns the rights of enclosed property have caused in later times. A powerful army would naturally form their military way in the straightest line which would connect their military posts; and one cannot help remarking, with a modern map before us, how direct is still the great highway, which was probably the highway 1,500 years since, and connected Londinium with Camulodunum. I have neither the desire nor the ability to enter into an antiquarian controversy, but I cannot help remarking that in my opinion, which after all is not worth much, the evidence greatly preponderates on the side of identifying the ancient Camulodunum with Colchester rather than with Maldon. One of the proofs may be appreciated by every one-that of the old itineraries preserved from the time of the Romans, according to which, by two different reckonings, Camulodunum is described as being 52 miles from Londinium, the very distance which, in the case of Colchester, corresponds with our modern milestones.* * 5. Iter London to Cæsaromagus (Chelmsford or Writtle) We must not forget that during the 400 years of the Roman occupation not only was it the practice of the imperial government to send detachments of their legions recruited from all the tributary nations of Rome into Britain, but also many of the citizens of the empire came here influenced by the same motives which move our modern emigrants to colonize Australia or Canada. The love of adventure or the desire of independence; the wish to escape from home taxation or to avoid the continual recurrence of political confusion were inducements to many an ancient Roman to seek a new home in Britain, though at the farthest corner of the empire. Thus, not only new colonies were formed in the hitherto waste places of this country, but many considerable cities, such as Camulodunum, had granted to them the privilege of a Roman colonia, a circumstance which will account for Colchester having the names both of Camulodunum and Colonia. We have, however, strong evidence that our present highway is near to the line of the old military road of Rome, in the circumstance of urns and coins having been found at no distance from it, close to the Ivy Chimneys, in a field belonging also to Mr. Pattisson; and perhaps still stronger evidence in the late discovery of a Roman villa, near Rivenhall church, which is situate about the usual distance that other villas have been found near to the ancient highways. If any one should feel any interest in knowing somewhat of the character of the ancient agricultural implements used by the Brito-Romish ploughmen, a faint idea may be given by the copy of a bronze which is preserved in the collection of Lord Londesborough. I will not venture to enter upon the disputed history of the British King Coel, of Colchester, and his supposed connection with Helena, the mother of Constantine, but it is not an impossible fact, that a popular chieftain of the British tribes, in this very district, (for this part of the British forest must have been under the dominion of the Roman Colonia, only twelve miles distant,) is still commemorated in the song, familiar to most of us in our boyhood, Old King Coel was a merry old soul, And a merry old soul was he. I am reminded here of the wise remarks of one of our best historians. 66 In this part of the subject we are walking over the country of the departed, whose memory has not been perpetuated by the commemorating heralds of their day. A barbarous age is unfriendly to human frame. When the clods of his hillock are scattered, or his funeral stones are thrown |