ANGLO-SAXON 

 REMAINS 



OF all the British areas occupied by Teutonic immigrants in 

 post-Roman times, Kent should on all grounds have the most 

 explicit record. The richness of the soil in this Garden of 

 England is reflected in the splendid furniture of its Anglo- 

 Saxon graves, and proximity to the Continent might be expected to 

 have placed its inhabitants in the foremost ranks of progress and enlight- 

 enment. The reign of Ethelberht (560-616) witnessed the introduction 

 of Christianity by Augustine, and we know that monarch was among 

 the earliest to bear the title of Bretwalda (Wielder of Britain). But 

 these advantages do not lift for us the veil that hides the course of events 

 during the fifth and sixth centuries, when the Romanized Britons were 

 yielding place to newcomers from across the sea. There are indeed 

 traditions, widely known but more than half discredited, which tell of 

 individual leaders and their conquest of the Kentish area, and all that 

 can be gleaned from them has been stated and discussed more than once. 

 There is not likely to be further documentary evidence of early date, 

 and the true story of the English conquest can be recovered, if at all, 

 only from the soil. Such evidence for Kent is fortunately considerable, 

 and a general survey of the finds may prove of more historical value 

 than the tales of Hengist and Horsa. 



For Kent alone among our English counties is there a literature deal- 

 ing with relics of our pagan forefathers ; and the task of setting the 

 numerous discoveries before the reader becomes one of severe compres- 

 sion. The peculiar riches of this corner of England became evident in 

 the latter half of the eighteenth century, and found worthy chroniclers 

 in the persons of two divines. The Rev. Jas. Douglas, F.S.A., Chap- 

 lain-in-Ordinary to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, published in 1793 a 

 folio volume ' with many illustrations and a verbose title-page, detailing 

 the excavations made by himself and others chiefly on Chatham Lines. 

 As was usual at the period, a vast amount of curious lore was incor- 

 porated, mostly in the form of footnotes ; but the work was carried out 

 in a scientific spirit, and, in the words of the preface, ' the reader may 

 frame his own conclusions without any apprehension of being involved 

 in the confusion of self-opiniated theory.' The author was in sympathetic 

 communication with Rev. Bryan Faussett, of Heppington, near Canter- 



» Nenia Britannica ; or, a Sepulchral History of Great Britain, etc. ; quoted below as Ne}i. Brit. 

 339 



