By the Reo. W. H. E. Mc. Knight. 



199 



distance of the line of Roman occupation similar earthworks there, still retain the 

 name of Castle, or rather " Castell." And that this was the true name for such 

 earthworks or secured dwelling-places we find from Livy's use of the word in 

 his account of Annibal's passage of the Alps. In Book 21, chap. 33, he states 

 that the inhabitants (montani) posted themselves in a strong position over 

 Annibal's line of march and made it impossible for him to advance He therefore 

 halted for the night and kindled his camp-fires. On which the inhabitants 

 withdrew to their own places for the night. In the night he seized upon the 

 very point of vantage, and in the morning, as Livy writes, "Jam montani, signo 

 dato, ex castellis ad stationem solitam conveniebant " were assembling when 

 they found it already occupied. Here the « castella " were the usual dwelling- 

 places to which for the night they retired, for it is not likely they were earth- 

 works suddenly thrown up for the occasion, but, as the whole narrative rather 

 assumes, they were the mountain- villages or dwelling-places through which 

 Annibal was making his way when he met this vigorous resistance. The Romans, 

 therefore, would call these - camps " " castella "-not « castra -and they have 

 left that name, descriptive to them of their real character, to all generations since, 

 even to our times. , 



But Caesar also from his imperfect knowledge of this country, which we know 

 was limited to the county of Kent, or, rather to the south of the Thames gives 

 a description of a British town or dwelling-place of the tribe which tallies re- 

 markably with these camps, with only the exception of the « woods which our 

 downs never could boast of. He says, Bell. Gull, Bk. 5, c. M,« <%prihm 

 autem Britanni vocant cum silvas impeditas vallo atque fossa mumermt. Here, 

 if instead of woods we substitute down or heights, we have the true description 

 of the primitive British toim. . . „ 31C , „ 



The next proof from the names of things we have is in the word bury. 

 After the Romans had left Britain, and their four hundred years of rule had 

 disciplined the Britons (now leavened with the influences of the Christian faith) 

 into the passive acquiescence of a conquered people-after, indeed they had so 

 long enjoyed the rest and security of that « rule "-they were unfit to meet tha 

 6 tru<-le that lay before them. The northern nations of Europe found the victim 

 prepared for conquest, and after a hundred and fifty years of varying conflict 

 the Britons, influenced, as I think, by the strong instinct of their new faith left 

 their native land for Brittany, or withdrew into Wales and Cornwall, rather 

 than submit to the rule of pagan conquerors. But during that long struggle 

 these "camps" assumed a very different character-became of more serious 

 importance than they had ever been during the Roman conquest. They were 

 undoubtedly the chief centres on which the new invaders bent their attention, 

 and they -ave them the distinctive name of their own tongue, and called them 

 Beore-Burg-Bury-which meant a defended town or dwelling-place. We 

 may°see why this was so. Unlike the conquest of the civilized Roman who never 

 meant to occupy the land, but only to hold it for his use and profit, the new 

 invaders were nearer alike to their foe-nay even inferior in civilization-certainly 

 without the influence of the Christian faith-and to them, therefore, conquest 

 meant possession and occupation, and these dwelling-places were to them the 

 country, and the struggle would centre much around them, as tradition ana 

 history affirm it did. 



