36 Mr. Victor Horsley [Feb. 3, 



camps and towns of the south-eastern third of England. At this date 

 (about 230 a.d.) our present subject therefore practically commences, 

 and only finishes with the exodus of the Koman garrison in the year 

 404 a.d., in the time of the Emperor Honorius. 



We shall see how during this period of about 200 years, which 

 corresponds to the second half of the Koman occupation of Great 

 Britain, the fate of the kingdom entirely depended upon him who 

 held the command of the sea. 



There is no doubt from evidence which I have not time to lay 

 before you, but which is quite conclusive in several of the instances, 

 that each of the great walled camps tbat I am about to describe to 

 you had as a precursor a Eoman station of smaller dimensions. This 

 is an entirely historical fact, and it is also reasonable that those 

 towns on the coast which afforded the best harbours for the navigation 

 of that period, of necessity became the chief channels of trade, and 

 being consequently the chief centres for the mercantile population, 

 called for an expansion of their boundaries and re-fortification. 



The outlines of the plan of the existing camps is worth noting, 

 being for the most part square, but the conformation was occasionally 

 altered to suit the ground. This is well shown at Lympne and Pevensey, 

 and is indicated in the very early drawings which accompany tbe 

 well-known texts of the Koman land surveyor Hyginus, which I here 

 reproduce. 



Further, the masonry points to the present camps having been 

 built in the third century, and it is of course certain that none of 

 the original stationary camps (castra stativa) were built before the 

 end of the first century, because there was no occupation of the 

 country worthy of tbe name until the first campaign of the Emperor 

 Claudius. 



The earliest thorough establishment of Roman walled fortifications 

 in Britain, like so much of the organisation of the Roman Empire, was 

 accomplished by the Emperor Hadrian about the year 120 a.d. It is, 

 by the way, universally agreed that it is to Hadrian we are indebted 

 for much of the construction of the great Northumbrian wall. 



The fortification of tbe sites of our south-eastern camps at this 

 time was evidently effected by the sailors or marines of the British 

 squadron of the Roman Navy, for tbe tiles of the walls at; Dover, of 

 the original walls at Lympne and at Boulogne and Etaples are 

 marked with the stamp G L B R, which stands for either Classis 

 Britannica or Classiarii Britannici : the former of course indicating 

 the Fleet, the latter the men who manned it, but the first is doubtless 

 the right reading, and harmonises with the military title in which 

 the inscription is always of the legion itself, and not of the men 

 composing it. 



This question of the foundation of the camps has a speoial in- 

 terest to me, because, like Mr. Roach Smith, I found in the area of 

 the castrum, at Lympne, yellow tiles marked CLBR, but the tiles 

 in the wall are red, or even darkly burnt, and are not stamped at 

 all. Further, in the foundation of the chief gate an altar, erected 



