222 THE DOVER ROAD 



between himself and a discreditable son of King Lud by 

 which his landing should not be contested. However 

 that may be, Caesar left a guard over his vessels, and 

 started immediately on a twelve miles' night march 

 inland, in force. 



When morning dawned, he found himself on a 

 high table-land with a river flowing along a valley 

 below him, and here he first descried the Britons. The 

 place at which Caesar had arrived was Barham Downs, 

 and the river he saw was the Lesser Stour, that even 

 now, although a much smaller stream than then, flows 

 through the valley to the right of the Dover Road. 

 A road of some sort existed even at that time, although 

 it perhaps might be more correctly described as a 

 " track." Down it went the exports of that far 

 distant age ; the undressed skins of wild animals ; 

 the dogs and the gold ; and up this way from the 

 primitive Dover came the beads and the trinkets ; 

 the manufactures of pottery and glass, which our 

 very remote fathers loved as much as the uncivilized 

 races of to-day delight in the selfsame kind of thing. 



Caesar deployed his forces along the ridge of the 

 Downs facing the road, the river, and the enemy, 

 who had entrenchments on the further side of the 

 river immediately fronting him and others advancing 

 diagonally toward the road which they crossed on 

 the northern hill-top at Bridge, ending at a point 

 slightly to the north-east of the place where Bekes- 

 bourne Station stands now. Caesar's first object was 

 to reach the water in the valley, there to refresh his 

 horses, and a forward cavalry movement was made with 

 this object. 



But this advance precipitated the battle that was 

 imminent, for the Britons, who held the opposite ridge 

 in force, rushed down the slope to the waterside, 

 and furiously attacked the Roman horse. Exhausted 

 though they were by a waterless night march, the 

 Roman cavalry met the assault, and, repelling it, 

 drove the enemy back into the woods. This cavalry 



