down, the glory of a savage perishes for ever. In after ages Fancy labours to supply the loss, but her inconsistencies are visible, and gain no lasting belief."

To come, however, to a more important subject, it is extremely difficult to ascertain at what exact time, and by whose means, christianity was first introduced into these parts; there is undoubted proof of the existence of an ancient British church, but how far it extended among the scattered population of Britons or Romans, we are ignorant. When, however, the Roman legions had at last sailed away from their British possessions in the year 426, and left the old inhabitants to defend themselves, a host of savage strangers swarmed along the untenanted shore, and drove before them the less warlike Britons. When the Saxons first invaded Britain, they were not only heathen savages, but barbarians of the fiercest character. "Like the Danes and Norwegians, their successors and assailants, they desolated, where they plundered, with the sword and flame. They used to launch their predatory vessels, and suffered the wind to blow them to any foreign coast, indifferent whether the result was a depredation unresisted or the deathful conflict. Such was their cupidity, or their brutal hardihood, that they often preferred embarking in the tempest, which might shipwreck them, because at such a season their victims would be more unguarded. Their swords were not unsheathed by ambition or resentment, the love of plunder and cruelty was their favourite habit, and hence they attacked indifferently every coast which they could reach."

It was then, at the hand of these terrible visitors, that a fierce persecution against christianity, as well as property, followed. Weakened by a long servitude under their Roman masters, the old occupants of the country quailed before the Anglo-Saxon host; they retired in every direction, and the only record of the ancient faith of England must be found in those extreme fastnesses of the land in which they took refuge, Cornwall or Cumberland, or Wales. If ever the light of christianity had reached the forests of Essex, it must then for a season have been quenched, for this is the account given in the old chronicle of that time:-"It was in the latter end of the 6th century that Theonus and Thadiocus, Archbishops of London and York, retired from the Saxon persecution into Wales. Upon the declension of piety and justice among the Britons, the Saxons, being reinforced by several recruits, grew too big for the natives,

and seized the sovereignty of the island; and thus, having the odds of power in their hands, they set up their own heathenism, demolished the christian churches, and suppressed the true worship as far as their dominion reached. And now the abomination of desolation may be said to have invaded the holy place. The Britons are expelled the country, London sacrifices to Diana, and Thorney spends her perfumes upon Apollo: and, indeed, the whole country is lost as to their faith, and quite sunk in the heathen idolatry." But we must now pass to a better state of things. Time flowed on; the Saxon invaders had, before many years, made themselves masters of the whole of England, and different, but confederate, sovereignties had been erected, Missionaries had come a second time, and, under Augustine, of Canterbury, gradually won their way. There is a curious letter from Pope Gregory, giving directions as to heathen temples which were still standing.

"A.D. 601.-From Pope Gregory to the Abbot Mellitus going into Britain. When Almighty God shall bring you to the most reverend Bishop Augustine our brother, tell him what I have upon mature deliberation on the affair of the English determined upon, viz. that the temples of the idols in that nation ought not to be destroyed; let holy water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected, let relics be placed; for if those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God, that the nation, seeing that their temples are not destroyed, may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have been accustomed; and because they have been used to slaughter many oxen in sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for them on this account; as that on the day of dedication or the nativities of the holy martyrs, whose relics are there deposited, they may build themselves buts of the boughs of trees about those churches which have been turned to that use from temples, and celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting, and no more offer beasts to the devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating, and return thanks to the Giver of all things for their sustenance; to the end, that whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God; for there is no doubt that it is impossible to efface everything at once from their obdurate minds, because he who endeavours to

ascend to the highest place rises by degrees, or steps, and not by leaps." Given 13 kalends of June, 19th year of Emperor Mauritius Tiberius.

A.D. 604. This immediate district must probably long have remained in their old heathenism. Mellitus was the first missionary bishop of this diocese, but he resided in London; and it was long after the Saxon kingdom of Essex was founded that King Segbercht, having become a christian at the instance of Oswy, King of Northumbria, asked for christian teachers to be sent to his people, and then, says the old historian, "Cedde being sent from the province of the midland angles and travelling with another priest into all parts of that country (East Saxons) gathered a numerous church unto the Lord. Returning then to confer with Bishop Finan, at Lindisfarne, he informed him of his success, and was made Bishop of ye East Saxons. (A.D. 658.) Cedd having received the Episcopal dignity, returned to his province, and pursuing the work which he had began with more ample authority, built churches in several places, ordaining priests and deacons to assist him in the work of faith and ministry of haptising, especially in the city which is called Ithancester, as also in that which is called Tillaburg, the first of which places is on the river Pant, the other on the Thames, where, gathering a flock of servants of Christ, he taught them to observe the discipline of regular life as far as those rude people were then capable." Ithancester was at the mouth of the Blackwater beyond the site of Bradwell, said to have been washed away by the sea. Tillaburg, is Tillbury.

A.D. 660.-It is most probable that during the missionary excursions of Bishop Cedde the inhabitants of these parts may have heard and received the truth from heaven. In travelling from Ithancester to Tillaburg this part of the forest must have been often traversed, especially as the great road would help them for part of their pious journey. We know it was the custom for many years subsequent to this for the clergy to go out into different preaching stations, and then to gather from all the country round such as might be drawn together to hear this new doctrine.

But we are thus reminded that as yet in our history Witham did not exist: there was the great straight line of road occasionally traversed by companies keeping together for security; there was occasionally the clash of arms in the forest, for soon the northern pirates found their way up every creek on the eastern coast. Nearly 400 years had elapsed since the Saxon savages had landed in Kent; they had become to a great extent the quiet, the civilized, and christian pos

sessors of the land; but they were now threatened in their turn by other hostile invaders. "The sea kings of the north were a race of beings whom Europe beheld with horror. Without a yard of territorial property, without any towns or visible nation, with no wealth but their ships, no force but their crews, and no hope but from their swords, the sea kings swarmed on the boisterous ocean, and plundered in every district they could approach; never to sleep under a smoky roof, nor to indulge in the cheerful cup over a hearth, were the boasts of these watery sovereigns, who not only flourished in the plunder of the sea and its shores, but who sometimes amassed so much booty and enlisted so many followers as to be able to assault provinces for permanent conquest." The Crouch and the Blackwater must have been most convenient for their landing unknown, in the heart of Essex, and it was not long before Mersea, Colchester, and, indeed, the whole of that district which still bears their name (Danesy or Dengye Hundred) owned the Danes as their masters. We know that it was whilst the struggle between Saxon and Dane was still going on, and was still undecided, that Edward, surnamed the Elder, the son of the great Alfred, came into these parts, and first gave to Witham a being and a name. The object of the Saxons' king's visit was, doubtless, to claim and maintain a sovereignty, which the Danes had usurped, and which Alfred himself had not ventured to enforce. The time for operations of any kind, whether warlike or peaceful, was confined to the summer, and therefore, says the old chronicle, "In the year 913, about Martinmas, King Edward had the northern fortress built at Hartford. After this, in the summer, betwixt gang days (i. e. Ascension tide), and Midsummer, went King Edward, with some of his force into Essex, to Maldon, and encamped there, the while that men built and fortified the town of Witham; and many of the people submitted to him who were before under the power of the Danes." The first question that may be asked reasonably here is concerning the character of the town which our royal founder built here.

It is almost certain that there was no castle built here, there would have been some tradition of so important a fact, some remains of the building, and something in the name given to the place which would mark it as a fortification; besides which, the four or five months of one summer, during which the building was carried on would be insufficient for building a castle.

At the same time it is called a burgh in several old documents, which at least would indicate a place of

defence, and such Witham appears to have been; but positions of defence in those early times were of a very simple character. What the Britons call a town (oppidum) Cæsar says "is a thick wood fortified with a bank (vallum) and ditch (foss) where they assemble together to avoid the incursions of the enemy." It may be that somewhat more care and skill may have been employed in constructing the Saxon defences, but we are assured by good authority that "Saxon fortifications were confined to the enclosure of an advanageous site, by a wall, and when necessary, possibly by earthworks: but the strength of such positions must have been in general inconsiderable, or the skill of the defenders must have been small, as throughout the annals of the Saxon period we find no instance recorded of the successful or even protracted defence of a fortified place." It would therefore appear most probable that the army of Edward, encamped at Maldon, were engaged in throwing up some simple earthworks, and it may be in part building where it was necessary some rough wall, so as to enclose a space sufficient for a number of soldiers and the cattle by which they would be provisioned. Such an advantageous site certainly presented itself in the comparatively high ground above the present railway station; the ground, which is highest near the railway bridge, falls in a remarkable manner on all sides, as may be even now perceptible, going round from the railway goods warehouse through the corner of the avenue and Mr. Crump's field to the descent of the road by the Mill-field cottages, and the still more abrupt descent in the Temple-fields above the river. It is not impossible that there may have been a larger enclosure taking in also the ground about Chipping-hill, but this is very uncertain.

Some soldiers would doubtless be left to defend the new earthworks, some rude log huts would soon be raised from the timber of the adjoining forest, and so would exist a new town, not, indeed, presenting the plate-glass windows, the convenient shops, and the handsome dwelling-houses which make our modern Witham so attractive to the passing stranger. But, at least, the forest was cleared; there was a ditch and bank; there were places of rude shelter; and there was a collection of Saxon men, ready to be called into active service whenever the approach of the Danes should require them.

The burgh of Witham having been once formed, persons would soon be attracted towards the spot for security or for profit, huts would be built near, under the protection of the soldiers, and, an elevated spot presenting itself near, a rude chapel would be raised