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WAREHAM : ITS INVASIONS AND BATTLES. 



Those interested in the superstitions of Dorset are aware that the 

 great storm of January 10th, 1505, which caused Philip, King of 

 Castile, and his Queen to pay an involuntary and unexpected visit 

 to Dorset an event which caused some warlike commotion is also 

 said to have blown " downe the Golden Eagle from the spire of 

 Pawles, and in the fall it fell upon a syne of the Black Eagle which 

 was in Pawles' Churchyard." This was regarded " as an omnicious 

 prognostike upon the Imperiall house." 



From its name Durnguies, Wareham is conjectured to have been 

 a British town, probably one of the 20 destroyed. The rude arms 

 of the Britons had defended, but the fine steel of the Romans had 

 conquered, and the standard on which the eagle was emblazoned 

 was probably the first which floated above our ancient town. 

 When the Roman " senator, Aulus Plautius, with four legions and 

 some cavalry " were subduing the dominions of Caractacus to Roman 

 power, " the great Vespasian was summoned to the war," and this 

 General is stated to have conquered Britain south of the Thames. 

 "He had frequent conflicts with the enemy," writes Hutchins, 

 " and the many camps in this and the neighbouring counties are 

 monuments of his glory and success, so that we can scarce doubt 

 but that this was the theatre of his actions. Concerning Wareham 

 as a Roman town Mr. Bellows writes : 



" We are now able to trace with tolerable certainty : 



(1.) That the Claudian invasion in the year '43 was made, not as 

 many suppose in the same part of the coast as Julius Caesar's, 

 but from the mouth of the Rhine to Southampton and Poole 

 Harbour. 



(2.) That Wareham was walled in by the Claudian forces on 

 landing. It has been disputed in the past that the Roman earth- 

 walls were Roman at all, but I need only mention two items 

 to show that very strong evidence exists in proof of this 

 origin. 



(a.) The area of Gloucester, which was built by the II. legion, 

 and to contain that legion is in round figures two million of square 

 feet. The force that was under Vespasian at the landing at Poole 



