centuries pagan rites had been performed, and accordingly sought the advice of Gregory the Great. In reply the Pope sent the following directions in a letter dated 17th June, 601, addressed to Abbot Mellitus then going to Britain.

"Tell the most Reverend Bishop Augustine what I have upon mature deliberation on the affairs of the English determined upon-viz.-that the temples of the idols of that nation ought not to be destroyed, but let the idols that are in them be destroyed. Let holy water be made and sprinkled in the said temples: let altars be erected and temples placed. For if these 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 the sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for them on this account, as on the day of the dedication, or the nativities of the holy martyrs whose relics are there deposited, they may build themselves huts 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, It is impossible to efface everything at once from their obdurate minds. . . . "Eccl. Hist.," Bede, i, 30. "

1

2

The Venerable Bede (A.D. 672-735) by giving the text in full evidently considered this direction of great importance since it laid down the policy which the Church missionaries had then been pursuing for nearly two centuries past." Hence arose the practice of the early missionaries to preach the Gospel in the former compita of the villages, and at some of the outlying sacra formerly used during the Ambarvalia. In the Middlesex district these compita were undoubtedly built of wood, or with wattlework and plaster, and when one of them became

The planting of a tree, unusual in the neighbourhood, was a common boundary mark, and as such a yew tree may have signified the position of a compitum by the village crossways. The spreading boughs of this tree would also afford a roof for a temporary hut.

2 This was not new advice. Under an edict of Theodosius, A.D. 392, places of Pagan worship were to be used as Christian churches. Honorius in A.D. 408 forbade the further destruction of Pagan edifices in the cities. The Pantheon at Rome, about A.D. 508, was turned into a Christian church, dedicated to St. Mary of the Martyrs.

3 Kemble when describing the two ways in which parish Churches originated, and after referring to the many Churches erected by owners of property, states that the greater number had probably a very different origin. In all likelihood every mark had its religious establishment, its fanum, delubrum, or sacellum. . . . A well grounded plan of turning the religio loci to account was acted upon by all the missionaries, and that wherever a substantial building was found in existence, it was taken possession of for the behoof of the new religion. Nothing could be more natural than the establishment in every mark that adopted Christianity, and that the adoption of one creed for the other, not only did not require the abolition of the old machinery, but would be much facilitated by retaining it.—“The Saxons in England," ii, ch. 9.

Barking

ruinous, a tiny church would take its place. From time to time these churches would be rebuilt by the villagers, until we come down to the fabrics of the parish churches as at present existing in the county, and marked with a on the map.1

Hence after studying the natural features of a Romanized district, with the assistance afforded by Church sites, survey mounds and marks, oriented ways, old boundaries, and vestiges of ancient habitations, it is possible to reconstruct to some extent the former pagi and the rural settlements they once contained.

In Essex, a portion of which was within the Londinium Canton, the walls of over thirty-five parish churches contain Roman materials. In "The Athenaeum "for 1889, p. 314, the number is given as at least sixty.

Those who extend this research into other Counties will find their preliminary work facilitated by marking the once existing fens, and forests, undoubted Roman roads, towns, stations, and villas, upon an early edition of an ordnance sheet of one inch to the mile. Next should be emphasized the sites of mother churches, ancient stones, and other landmarks, boundaries of hundreds and parishes, together with the trend of immemorial roadways, and paths, especially those in paralled courses, with crossways at right angles. Then with rule, and compass set to nine furlongs, and having special regard to Church sites, the quintarial lines of the ancient survey of a Romanized district may often be traced and recovered, for upon and parallel to them, rural roads frequently ran. Mainly by these means many marks and stones upon the country-side hitherto unexplained, and may be even unnoticed, will fall into line, and their use become evident, while at the same time it will become apparent how much the present setting of the face of the land, its roads and bounds, derives its origin from the Roman Survey in the first and second centuries of our era.

M

CHAPTER X

ROMAN TIMES (PART III) AND ROMAN REMAINS IN MIDDLESEX

VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS-EARLY CHRISTIANITY-A MINT AND A PUBLIC SCHOOL

-PROSPERITY OF THE CANTON-ROMAN REMAINS IN Middlesex.

Village Settlements.

WE

E are now in a position to consider the planting of a typical RomanoBritish agricultural settlement in a pagus of the Middlesex area. When the requisite number of possessae had been assigned for the new settlement, or vicus, the cantonal officials would select the site for the village near a quintarial line, and generally where "the axe and plough" of the native Catuvellauni had already made clearings.' The necessary byeways would then be cut through the undergrowth, huts erected for the settlers, and a compitum for the Lares who were to protect the fields of the new community. After the officials had selected portions of the land suitable for tillage, they would be formed into fields, probably of one or more centuriae, which were subdivided into strips, or plots, each containing a jugerum.

The original Roman allotment (heredium) for a settler was 2 jugera (11 acres) with the right of pasturage (compascua) on the common grazing ground of the community.' The number of jugera to an allotment was subsequently increased, but "the quantity depended primarily on the extent of the divisible land and the number of recipients." Many allotments in the Middlesex area in the eleventh century appear from Domesday to have consisted of 10, 25, and 50 jugera, held in Saxon half-acre strips intermingled apparently amongst those of other settlers in the arable fields of the village farm. One of these fields, for

1 "Grom. Vet.," 201.

2 These wooden buildings would soon decay and disappear. In England from time to time discoveries are made of the remains of houses of a better class, probably erected during the later Roman occupation, which had foundations of brick or stone, their superstructure being only of timber. The owners of these country houses or villas were officials and influential persons, who in the next age were driven out or slain by the Saxons, and their villas generally burnt, but the foundations remained covered by ashes and débris until Mother Earth hid the tragedy in her bosom.