17 
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upon it asahome. Many would intermarry with the people of the 
county ; the wives and families of others would be brought with 
them ; and thus, in course of time, from one cause and another, 
there would grow up around each great station a large, permanent 
population, dependent upon, and closely connected with, the 
Roman garrison, sharing its fortunes, and suffering its fate. 
In his “ Origins of English History,” Elton has thus described 
the process we are considering :— 
, 
“*The soldiers were pioneers and colonists. A Roman camp was a city in 
arms ; and most of the British towns grew out of the stationary quarters of the 
soldiery. The ramparts and pathways developed into walls and streets ; the 
square of the tribunal into the market-place; and every gateway was the 
beginning of a suburb where straggling rows of shops, temples, gardens, and 
cemeteries were sheltered from all danger by the presence of a permanent 
garrison. In course of time the important positions were surrounded with lofty 
walls protected by turrets set apart at the distance of a bowshot, and built of 
such solid strength as to resist the shock of a battering ram. In the centre of 
the town stood a group of public buildings, containing the court-house, baths, 
and barracks ; and it seems very likely that every important place had a theatre 
or a circus for races and shows.” (p. 32.) 
Here is another account, written in the 12th century, describing 
what remained of one of those cities at that time :— 
**Caerleon,” writes Giraldus Cambrenses, ‘‘was excellently built by the 
- Romans with walls of brick; and there are still to be seen many traces of 
its former greatness; huge palaces aping the Roman majesty with their roofs 
_ of antique gold ; a giant tower and noble baths, ruined temples, and theatres 
_ of which the well-built walls are standing to this day. Within and outside the 
_ city the traveller finds underground works, canals and winding passages, and 
_ hypocausts contrived with wonderful skill to throw the heat from little hidden 
_ flues within the walls.” 
But we have not to go so far as South Wales for an illustration 
_ of the process by which a military station grew gradually into an 
important town. We have an example of it under our own eyes. 
Indeed the first description we gave might have been taken literally 
from the camp with which we in Maryport are most familiar. Try 
_ to call up in imagination the picture which our own hilltop would 
present in the middle of the 4th century. Standing four-square, 
_ and crowning the summit of a high insulated hill some one hundred 
and eighty feet above the sea, was the camp itself, guarded by 
2 
