354 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I7I8. 



met at Mercredesburne, and fought with Ella and his sons, and the victory was 

 rather doubtful; for both armies having suffered very much, they parted. And 

 Ella sent to his countrymen to request their assistance. 



This action was in the Qth year after Ella's first footing here, 3 years before 

 Hengist's death. Anno Dom. 485. It so weakened Ella, that we hear no more 

 of him till he received his supplies from Germany : which came not, according 

 to H. Huntingdon, till the first year of the Emperor Anastasius, 3 years after 

 Hengist's death, and 6 years after the hard battle, viz. Anno Dom. 4Q1. 



Being thus strengthened, Ella moved again, besieged Anderida, in Hun- 

 tingdon's words, Urbem munitissimam, at last forced the place; and by reason 

 of the stout resistance the besieged made, savage like, he left not a soul 

 alive, and razed the city, which in Huntingdon's time remained desolate. 



As to the field where the battle was fought, the Saxons extending their power 

 eastward, the check that was given them, in all probability must have been 

 where they pushed on their victories ; and it being near Mercredesburne, this 

 Bourne near Pevensey, may be the place meant, since it sounds like the latter 

 part of that name, and likewise that Anderida, the Briton's last stake and sup- 

 port, was not far from it. It is probable therefore the battle was fought on the 

 Downs, between the camp last mentioned at Burling-gap and East Bourne; 

 for there are nowhere on the Downs marks of a greater battle than there; 

 because, from the top of that very high cliff, by the inhabitants called the 

 Three Charles, and by mariners Beachy Head, to Willington Hill, which is 4 

 miles, the ground is full of large tumuli, or places of burial; and in many parts 

 within that tract, where the position of the ground seems to offer, there are 

 deep trenches and banks, probably breast-works made to defend the front of an 

 army ; and the tumuli on each side of them seem to show that there was no 

 small struggle, in forcing as well as defending them. 



From these arguments, Anderida must have been somewhere in Sussex, not 

 in the west but east part of it, and not far from the east end of the Downs, 

 near the sea. From the bath, pavement, coins, and bricks, it is certain the 

 Romans had once a station, and not a short one, at this place near East Bourne; 

 from the large extent of foundations about the place where these were disco- 

 vered, that there was a large town or city there ; from the common height those 

 foundations bear under the surface of the ground, that the buildings they sus- 

 tained were effectually levelled or razed; and from the coals dug up among 

 the rubbish, it is evident that part was burnt; all which circumstances well 

 enough agree with the account given us of Anderida. 



The situation likewise of a town here, gives reason to suppose it was a place 

 of importance, and whence it had its name; no part hereabouts being anywise 



