FOURTH WINTER MEETINQ.— DECEMBER 12th, 1906. 



"CAESAR'S INVASION OF KENT."— Bt ALDERMAN F. BENNETT- 

 GOLDNBY, F.S.A. 



There was a numerous gathering of membors of 

 the East Kent Scientific and Natural History 

 Society and their friends at the Guildhall on 

 Wednesday, Dec. 12, to listm to a lecture by the 

 Mayor of Canterbury, Alderman F. Bennett- 

 Goldney, F.S.A. The chair was occupied by the 

 President of the Society, Mr. Sidney Harvey, 

 F.I.C., F.C.S.. and others present included Mr. 

 Sidney "Webb (President of the Dover Scientific 

 Society), Captain Gordon McDakin, Alderman W. 

 V:. Mason. Mr. \V. P. Mann, the Deputy Mayor 

 (Councillor Anderson), the Sheriff (Councillor 

 Bourne), Councillor Home, Dr. Vipan. Mr. Frank 

 Wacher, Mr. W. H.Hammond, Councillor Goddcn, 

 Mr. .T. McClemeus, Mr. Philip Sidney, Coimcillor 

 "Wiltshier, Councillor Smith, Mr. Sibert Saundei-s, 

 Councillor Belsey, Mr. Walter Cozens, Mr. C. Red- 

 man, Mr. Renfree. Mr. A. W. Ledger, Mr. LindU-y, 

 Mr. Cuthbert Gardner, Mr. E. G. Hammond, and 

 many others. 



The President, in opening the proceedings, 

 mentioned that thej- were rapidly approaching the 

 jubilee year of the Society, which had been in 

 existence for nearly fifty years. At one time their 

 Society covered a largo niunber of other places 

 besides Canterbiuy, but most of those towns had 

 now, so to speak, set up in business on their own 

 account. They wore very anxious that this jubilee 

 year should bo a successful one, and that they 

 should have a Large accession of members. They 

 claimed to have done good and useful work in the 

 past, and they hoped to do more in the future. 

 Their membership was not expensive, the libniry 

 was a good one, the meetings were usually inter- 

 esting, and, altogether, the Society answered a 

 useful pui*poso (applause). They were that even- 

 ing to be favoiu'ed with a lecture by Mr. Bennett 

 Goldney, who had on former occasions contributed 

 valuable information to tlie Society. His subject 

 was a somewhat controversial one, but it was one 

 that must be of great interest to every English- 

 man and especially to the inhabitants of East Kent 

 (hear, hear). 



Mr. Bennett-Golduey expressed the hope that 

 the citizens would take to heart the remarks of the 

 President and that the Jubilee year of the Society 

 would he one of increasing nimibers and prosperity. 

 Remarking that the .sul\ieet of his lectiu'e was one 

 upon wliicli he had spoken on more than one 

 occasion in Canterbury, tin' Mayor proceeded with 

 tlie delivery of his addi'css, which occiipied about 

 an hotu- and was listened to throughout with rapt 

 attention. The full text was as follows : — 



The years fifty-five and fifty-four before Christ 

 correspond vnth the years six lumdred and ninety- 

 nine and seven hiuidred of the Roman era. At 

 such an epoc-h.when the march of destiny is aI)out 

 to pass the frontier line of the centuries, as wo 

 iturselves may well remember at the present time, 



in the last weeks of a dying year, it cannot bo but 

 that the minds of men should look before and after 

 and seek to gather some augiu-y of the future 

 from the events and tendencies of the past. Well 

 nigh two milleniums have passed since the Italian 

 Eternal City celebrated that seventh centenary of 

 her founthition, 3*et the thoughts of men in Eng- 

 land to-day are, strangely , like those that then were 

 uppermost in the minds of men in ancient Rome. 

 They, too, in their time, and, according to their 

 dimmer liglit.s. had to take up " the white man's 

 burden " and to deal as best they might with the 

 ever -increasing responsibilities of an empire, 

 which, even had they wished, they durst not re- 

 fuse to accept. Happily for them the hour revealed 

 the man who knew how to mint and give currency 

 to the hitherto iincoined gold of national senti- 

 ment and tratlition by stamijing it with the image 

 of his own greatness. It was during these two 

 last years of the seventh centiu-y of Rome that 

 Caius Julius Csesar undertook the two campaigns 

 on " English soil " that compelled the free states 

 of " England " to become tributary vassals to the 

 Roman Ropiiblie. The deed was worthy of the 

 time. It is to this invasion of oiu' shores — in its 

 results one of the most momentous events in 

 human liistory — that I wish to direct your atten- 

 tion to-night. The story itself has been told a 

 thousand times. If I toll it yet once again it is 

 because I feel that its true bearing and significance 

 have never yet been fully appreciated. To the 

 world of Ca?sar's day Britain and the Britannic 

 islands were as Timlnictoo to the world of Marco 

 Polo, or the Eldorado of the New Continent, to the 

 world of Columbus. An island, indeed, Britain 

 was sunnised to be, but an island that encompassed 

 the ocean. The wealth was believed to correspond 

 with its magnitude. But its mysteries had been 

 shrouded from those that had sought to penetrate 

 them by a veil outstretched by no mortal hands. 

 Tlie mariners on the Gallic shore could tell the 

 traveller with simple truth that the nearest island 

 of the group was called Death — Thanatos, tho 

 Thanet of to-day. and weave him wondroiis tales 

 of voices heard in the night bidding the fisher 

 folk make ready a b:^-k to ferry the souls of 

 the dead across the sea in darkness to the 

 melancholy island-havens. Again, turning from 

 old-world mytli to modern archseologieal science, 

 much were to bo said about the invasion as 

 definitely marking the close of the prehistoric iron 

 age in South-Eastern Britain. But the tale that 

 Caesar tells has a higher and deeper interest for 

 Englishmen. His expeditions mark the first point 

 of din-ct contact between the English and Roman 

 civilizati<nis, and in the pages he devotes to the 

 description of his enterprise, the "English people" 

 themselves for the fii'st time emerge into the light 

 of autlientic historv. I have said that Caesar's 



