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At the present time anioug those who have paid attention to the 

 Biibject there are few or none, except some of our neighbours whose 

 civic spirit may oljscure tlie evidences and allure from the plainer 

 path, who do not accept Colchester as the site of the old and 

 famous city in question. The debate, it must be understood, is 

 not merely on the site of Camulodunum, but it carries with it this 

 great question, for Mr. Skinner's theory involves no less than this : 

 — Were the events recorded by Tacitus and Dion sjjread over 

 Britain as we have mostly been taught to suppose, or were they 

 acted on a very small scale in a veiy small corner of the Island, 

 as Mr. Skinner would infer 1 



It is no part of my intention to answer this question, for to do 

 so would be to repeat the ordinary story, so often told, yet still so 

 interesting, of Boadicea and her conquerors ; to tell you that which 

 is almost universally known, and as universally apphed to the 

 South Eastern counties. What 1 have had to do was to set before 

 you this pretty quarrel as it stands. I venture to think that, just 

 as he does of those Itineraries of the eastern counties, Mr. Skinner 

 makes too little of the noble remp,ins at Colchester, and too much 

 of the argument that Colchester and Verulam, being north of the 

 Thames, could not have been included in the Province, or Britannia 

 Prima at all, and also of Pliny's rather loose measurement of 200 

 miles instead of 300 miles of distance from Camulodunum to 

 Anglesey, where Suetonius was engaged when the war began. 

 Although it is true that the Thames is described as the northern 

 boundary of Britannia Px'ima, still the countries now called Essex, 

 Herts, and Middlesex, containing as they undoubtedly do, both 

 Verulam and London, cannot be taken as excluded from that 

 Province, and Thames is perhaps a name of not very definite 

 signification. The name Camulodunum soon disappears from 

 history, and Colchester, the successful rival of Camerton, is known 

 to the British writers as Caer CoUon, which name seems to mean 

 no more than the Colony. In the story of Helena, the empress's 

 father is usually named, " Coel, king of Colchester." Coel may 

 have been a Roman governor of British nationality, still the name 

 and title excite just suspicion, and we may, I think, disbelieve that 

 the musical court of the empress's meiTy old father was ever held 



