2 14 ■^' ^* 4-00. 



adminiflration of the five provinces. The miUtary force was under the 

 command of three great officers, viz. 



Comes limitum Britanniarum, whofe diftrid is not exprefled ; 



Comes littoris Saxonici *, who had under his command nine mari- 

 time garrifons on the eaft and fouth coafts, his particular duty being 

 the defence of the country againft the Saxon freebooters ; 



Dux LiMiTUM Britanniarum, who commanded the garrifons of four- 

 teen towns in the province of Maxima, and twenty-three parties of fol- 

 diers, Rationed at fortified pofls on, or near, the fouth wall. 



Thefe three military commanders had under them 19,200 foot and 

 1 ,700 horfe ; a great redudion from, the army fiationed in Britain in 

 former ages. But the Romans, whofe wars were now not for conquefl:, 

 but for defence, found it necefiary to draw their forces homeward ; and 

 the provincial Britons were fully reconciled to the Roman dominion, 

 and the towns were in a great meafure peopled by the defcendents of 

 Roman foldiers and colonifts. 



There were alfo the following revenue officers, who in modern lan- 

 guage may be called 



the receivei'- general of the Britifli revenue; 



the receiver of the emperor's private demefne rents ; 



the comraifiloner of the treafury at Augufia f (London) ; 



and the fuperintendant of a public manufacture carried on by women 

 at Ventaij: (Winchejler, or perhaps CaJIer near Norwich). 



About this time an epifcopal church built of ftone, a kind of fliruc- 

 ture unufal among the Britons, was erected by Ninian, a Britifli prieft, 

 in a fmall ifland on the coaft of the Novantes {Gal/otvay), which, from 

 the white appearance of the building, obtained the name of Whit-hern 

 (or in Latin Candida cafa) §. 



Bells are faid by fome to have been invented by Paulinus, bifliop of 



* He is called hy Ammiamis comes of the fea be pofitivc of the cxiftence of the manufaftiire ; for 



coaft ; anil the warden of the Cinque ports is fup- various readings have Vcntenfis (belonging to, or 



pofed to have been appointed in imitation of his at, Venta), and Bentejifxs (meaning iniknown, if 



office. any) ; gyuKcii (manufactory conduced by \vomen)j 



I have given thefe titles in the original Latin, and cynegii (dog^kenntl). Therefor they have 



becaufe we have not flriftly any coirefpondlng gone much too far who have adduced thefe words 



terms in Englilh. The reader may confult Se/dcn's as a proof of the antient fuperiority of Britifli 



Villes 0/ honour, part ii, c. I. wool. 



f The office of the treafury was probably in § This was by far the moft antient birtioprick 



the fame fpot where the Tower Hands, and it is in the ■;ou!itry fince called Scotland : but York, 



likely that there wa« alfo a mint in the fame place, and th'j ^)thet old iiritilli billiopriiks in the Rom- 



An ingot of filvcr, infcribed ' Ex officio Honorii,' an part of the ifland, if ttie notice concerning 



was found, with fome gold coins of Arcadius and ilu-m be affurcdly authentic, were about a century 



llonorius, in the old foundation of the ordinance earlier, which I did not advert to, when, tiufliiig 



office in the Tower in the year 1777. \_ylrchitoh- too implicitly tu Bfde and William of Mainillniry, 



gia, V. v, p, 291.] who have totally omitted the Britifli billiops of 



\ Though Camden has fixed this mannfafture York, &c. I fiid [.n Cc grnphicnl iUnfti-aiivits of 



at Winchtller, as being the nioft confiderablc of ScnuiJ}) hiflory, vo. ^ihii-hentl ti1.1t tl'is was the 



the three towns in Britain called Venta, we hnre mod antient bllliopin.k on the north lide of the 



110 certain knowlegc of the place, nor can we i.Tcn Hunibcr. 4 



