By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.d. 



169 



No doubt they were witnesses to many deeds of heroic bravery, 

 and many an Agamemnon lies under the turf, only (as Hamlet says) 

 to be " knocked about the sconce by some rude knave with a dirty 

 shovel/' for their very names and performances are all alike lost, 

 beyond possibility of recovery. 



When we come down to the Roman occupation of Britain, we 

 find, no doubt, a great many relics scattered all over the country, 

 proving that, during those four hundred years and more, the old 

 Britons lived under a more civilised system than before. But what 

 one would like to have is, a careful and particular account of what was 

 the general condition of the masses during that long period : how far 

 they were actually Romanised. Cicero, in his letters to a brother who 

 had accompanied Caesar to Britain, mentions letters received from 

 both of them whilst there. 1 These, if extant, would have been a 

 valuable contribution to our knowledge. As it is, the accounts left 

 to us of the four centuries of Roman occupation would hardly fill a 

 Times newspaper when at its largest. Tacitus, in his life of Agricola, 

 dwells chiefly upon the military movements in the North of the 

 island, but throws very little light upon the common ordinary social 

 state of things. He says, indeed, that at first the young nobles 

 refused to learn the Latin language, but being led away by degrees 

 into a liking for what were considered marks of taste and politeness, 

 " baths, luxuries of the table, &c," they became desirous of speaking 

 it eloquently. They also adopted the " toga " and fell even into a 

 relish of Roman vices. This effeminacy, however, does not appear 

 to have quenched the old British spirit of independence, for as soon 

 as the Romans were no longer at liberty to attend to the affairs of 

 Britain, all traces of them, baths, villas, &c, were immediately 

 destroyed. 



Roman relics are found in the neighbourhood of Calne ; coins at 

 Oldbury Camp ; works for smelting iron ore at Heddington and 



1 11 0 jucundas mihi tuas de Britannia literas!" " De Britannicis rebus 

 cognovi ex tnis Uteris." M Date mihi Britauniain, quam piugam coloribus tuis, 

 penicillo meo." " Ex Britannia Caesar ad me KaL Sept. dcdit literas satis com- 

 modas de Britannicis rebus." (Epist. ad Quintum, Lib, ii. and iii.) 



