16 



Mark occupying about 30 acres, Holwood nearly 100, and Oldbury 

 even more. Fortified by fosses and valla, often doiibled and trebled, 

 these fortresses seem impregnable, yet tbey soon j'ielded to tlie 

 Roman legions, and the entire south of Britain was then broiTght 

 into perfect subjection. Nothing shows this fact more strikingly 

 than the entire absence of the walled permanent castra, such as 

 abound in the north. Holwood and other British earthworks have 

 continually been called Eoman, and even Saxon and Danish ; but 

 very slight reflection must dispel these errors. It was seldom that 

 the Eomans cared to retain possession of the oppida. Instances do 

 occur, as in the case of Hod-hill and of Maiden-castle in Dorsetshire ; 

 but the retention was apparently for the purposes of peace, and not 

 of war. 



Mr. EoACH Smith, in the course of his remarks, drew attention 

 to the absence of lapidary inscriptions in the south of Britain, as 

 evidence of superior civilization ; for they are almost uniformly 

 restricted to the localities in which the legions and auxiliar}^ troops 

 were quartered. These histoiical endences have luckily accumulated 

 of late years, as may be seen by Dr. Bruce's "Lapidarium 

 Septentrionale ; " and our colleagues in the north are yearly dis- 

 covering additional monuments. Very recently there has been 

 excavated the monument of a British lad}', the wife of a Palmyi-ene 

 merchant, settled at the locality now known as South Shields. 

 She is described as of the nation of the Catuavellauni. 



Mr. EoACH Smith, previous to proceeding to the "War Bank" 

 at Keston, said that the names of boundaries given in early Saxon 

 charters proved that the popular notions of the oiigin of these 

 names were erroneous, and he stated that Keston did not come from 

 castrum (a camp), but is the Saxon qjstaning, "the field of stone 

 coffins." 



The circular Eoman building of the " War Bank " was next 

 visited. The Lecturer said that this had nothing to do with war, 

 but was derived from '• iceard-settle," or watch-tower, which the 

 Saxons imagined the building to have been. It was not a temple, 

 or a tower, but a burial-place. 



As the best help towards a study of the British Oppida, 

 Mr, Roach Smith recommended Mr, Warne's "Ancient Dorset." 



