COLE : ROMAN REMAINS AT FILEY. 
23 
(d) — The word " Spittal " attached to some masonry jutting 
out from the S. side of the Brigg is playfully derived 
from hospitium, and the little landing-stage dubbed 
Roman work in consequence. 
Now let it be said at once, that apart from theory and 
false derivations, the find itself is unique, and therefore of much 
importance. There is no other known instance of a Roman 
building on the East Coast of Yorkshire. But why exaggerate ? 
It was not a station, not even a villa. There was no tesselated 
pavement, no hypocaust. It was simply a block-house, such 
as one may see on the Roman wall. Mr. F. Haverfield, writing 
to me in 1890, says of it, " The place was perhaps a sort of hall 
for accommodating a small garrison." 
Considering the number of roads radiating from Eboracum 
(York), the seat of Government in Britain in Roman times, to 
the coast, it is somewhat remarkable that no trace of a building, 
other than this, has ever been found. The Romans, during 
their occupancy of Yorkshire for several centuries, must, one 
would imagine, often have had resort to the coast, either for 
pleasure or profit, as people do now, and not only have had 
houses to go to, but also landing places for troops or commerce, 
and guard-houses to protect them against incursions of freebooters, 
"vvith probably a coast-road to connect the various stations. How 
is it then that only one single outpost has been discovered, 
namely, that at Carr Xaze ? 
The answer is not far to seek. The denudation of the 
boulder-clay cliffs throughout Holderness, and in all the bays 
northwards, charged with the same material, has been so rapid, 
amounting on an average to two yards or more a year, that a strip 
of nearly two miles of land has been removed from the coast line 
since Roman times. All has disappeared beneath the sea, even 
Praetorium itself, if it ever existed on the sea copust. 
The crux is to find Prsetorium. The problem has exercised 
the minds of many antiquaries and inquirers after truth for 
many generations. Like the site of the battle of Brunanburg 
it is still unsolved, and will probably remain so. If it could be, 
we should be able to determine the road which led to it, R,nd the 
