11 



the Great Stoni-), and began to check our men, 

 engaging with them from the liigher ground. 

 When they were driven back by the cavalry they 

 t-oncealed themselves in the woods, where they 

 occupied a position admii'ably foi-tified, both by 

 nature and by art. This, it appears, had been 

 lately put in order on account of wars in the 

 island, and all the entrances had been barricaded 

 with felled trees. From this position they sallied 

 out in small detachments and prevented oui" men 

 entering the fortifications. The men of the Seventh 

 Legion, however, formed a roof of shields, thi'ew 

 up a bank against the fortifications, and took the 

 ])lace, di'iving the enemy out of the woods, only a 

 few of our men being wounded." Ctesar, however, 

 forbade his men to pvu-sue their flight to any great 

 distance, as he was unacfjuainted with the natui-e of 

 the ground and also because the ihiy was far spent 

 and he wished to allow time for fortifying his own 

 camp. There can be little doubt that this position, 

 admirably fortified by natui-e and art, is Bigbury 

 Camp, just a little to the West of Canterbui-y, 

 and as little that Bigbury was the oppidum of 

 Oanterbiuy itself, then kno\vn as Durovemum. 

 Happily, Caesar himself defines exactly what he 

 means when he speaks of an oppidiun in Britain. 

 "It is," he says, "a thickly-wooded position, fortified 

 by a raised bank and an intrenchment, within 

 which they are wont to congi'Cgate in order to 

 avoid an incursion of their enemies." This passage 

 <if Cajsar's is intei-preted oven by his latest Oxford 

 editor as meaning that the towns of the British 

 were mere forest fastnesses. Had the com- 

 mentator followed the clue a little fm-ther, he 

 could hardly have failed to have arrived at a 

 very different conclusion. As a matter of fact, 

 the very existence of a forest fastness such 

 as the Britons called an oppidiun necessai-ily im- 

 plied the existence in the near neighbourhood of 

 <h settled conmiunity, whether housed in city, town, 

 or cluster of isolated dweUings ; the members of 

 which had a common right to the protection of 

 the common oppidum in times of necessity. The 

 words in reality connote the exact stage in civili- 

 zation to which the Britains had attained at the 

 time in the art of defending their communities 

 from attack. It was not yet the age of walled 

 towTis in the plains or rolling uplands. Cities and 

 towns there were in many positions which nati,u-e 

 herself had rendered practically impregnable. 

 Many more were safegiuarded by the rude skill of 

 prehistoric engineering. But besides these the 

 needs of a largely pastoi-al and agi-icultui-al popu- 

 lation necossai-ily involved the existence of larger 

 and smaller organized communities in their midst, 

 and topographical conditions made it equally 

 necessary that many of these should be collected 

 and housed in tonTis and vilhi^es open to hostile 

 att;ick. In such cjises — and Canterbiu-y was one 

 such ease — the oppidiun was an exceedingly useful, 

 almost a necessary, institution. It will have been 

 noticed that the British warriors advanced with 

 their war chariots to the river. I am not going 

 to dcs.-ribe the British war chariot, whether with 

 or without the scythes supposed to have been 

 attached to it. I only wish b) draw attention to 

 the fact that war chariots do not grow in the 

 fields like mushi-ooms. Tlicy involve the existence 



of sldlful workers in metal, wood, and leather; 

 .smithies and carpenters' shops, and harness 

 manufactories. But besides these, they involve 

 also the existence of practicable roads. The roads 

 in Britain were probably not so well constructed 

 as those by which Cajsar could, if he chose now, 

 post back in a fairly straight line from Boulogne 

 to Rome, but at least they were well laid out, and 

 no small skill must have been spent upon their 

 construction. A map of early Kent presents, 

 perhaps, the ?most remarkable network of pre- 

 historic roads to be found within the same area in 

 any part of Western Europe. All of them probably 

 were in use dm'ing the Koman occupation of 

 Britain, and in every instance, I believe — 

 certainly in the majority of instances — satis- 

 factory evidence is forthcoming that they were 

 laid out and used in prc-Koman days. The most, 

 important of these is the Watling Street, running 

 almost West yast Favei-sham and Sittingboiu-ne, 

 to Bochester and London. This, the immemorial 

 high road to the capital, worn by the ti*affic of 

 more than two thousand years, naturally retains 

 but few featiu-es Avhich can definitely be assigned 

 to prehistoric antiquity, except its straightness 

 and ithe presence of eai'ly cemeteries along its 

 line. The oppidum at Bigbury lay on the left, 

 at some little distance on leaving Canterbury, 

 and here the disuse of the old intrenchment, 

 consequent on the better enclosure of the City 

 itself, has left the evidence of antiquity 

 more distinctly recoverable. Implements and 

 pottery of the ii'on age were found by Professor 

 Boyd Dawkins in 1893, as well as by myself this 

 year within the Camp, and along the " PilgiTms' 

 Way," wliich passed through the oppidiun. This 

 ancient road is still partially traceable from where 

 it leaves the City to where it joins the highway 

 some two miles fiu-ther on. The early existeno* 

 of this high road from Canterbury to London is 

 further borne out by the old name of Rochester. 

 " Dui'obrivce," the root word " briv " always indi- 

 cating the existence of either a bridge or a ford 

 at the place in which it occurs. Perhaps, however, 

 the most remarkable of the whole connected 

 system of roads is that which runs due North from 

 Dover to the immediate neighboiu-hood of Sand- 

 T^ich to a place bearing the suggestive name of 

 Woodnesborongh. It is still possible to trace the 

 remains of the very one by ^vhich, in all probabil- 

 ity, Ca'sar led Ms armies from Deal and Wakner 

 to Canterbury. This again, like so many other 

 trackways of prehistoric, and early historic date, 

 is kno^\Ti as " the Pilgiims' Way," and the fii-st 

 part of the old road has been hopelessly obliterated, 

 but from Great Jlongehain and on to Goodnestone 

 Park the line is clearly indicated. Just beyond 

 Goodnestonc it again disappears, and it seems 

 doubtful whether it passed the Little Stour at 

 Patrixbourne or Bekesboiurne, but a little fui-ther 

 on.the line is again clearly markeil,and continues to 

 be so, tiU it reaches the Southern outskii-ts of Can- 

 terbuiy. Canterbiu-y thus forms the principal 

 angle of a " mUitiii-y quatlrilateral," obviously de- 

 signed for the x>rotection of the co;ist from foreigu 

 invaders. High roads, suitable alike for war 

 chariots and commercial tratfic, i-adiate from Can- 

 terbui'v to every single port and harbour of any 



