MIDLAND UNION OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES 
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a point of land overlooking extensive marshes, and placed at the 
confluence of two of Trent’s most important tributaries, the rivers 
Tame and Anker—of which Drayton in his “ Polyolbion” says 
“ And likewise toward the north the lively tripping Rhea 
T’ attend the lustier Tame is from her fountain sent; 
So little Cole and Blythe go on with him to Trent, 
His Tamworth at the last he in his way doth win, 
There playing him awhile, till Ancor should come in ”— 
Tamworth occupied the most important defensive position in the 
Forest of Arden, which anciently covered the whole of the district in 
which I should like to-day to interest you. 
“ Muse, first of Arden tell, whose footsteps yet are found 
In her rough woodlands more than any other ground 
That mighty Arden held, e’en in her height of pride. 
Her one hand touching Trent, the other Severn’s side.” 
And we shall point out to-morrow, on both excursions, venerable giant 
oaks that doubtless graced the glades of this quondam forest. 
Our district is therefore bounded on the south by the Avon, on the 
west by the Severn, on the north by the Trent, and on the east by an 
imaginary line from High Cross (Bennoues), to Branston (Ad. 
Trivonam), near Burton-on-Trent, and was the stronghold of the 
British tribe of the Cornavii which occupied the present counties 
of Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, and 
Cheshire. 
Although we know but little about the Britons before the Komau 
invasion, we have good reason to suppose them to have been a 
powerful and wealthy people, deriving their riches mainly from the 
cultivation of corn, mining for lead and tin, and trading with the 
Phceniciaus and other foreign nations; they were possessed of an 
excellent breed of horses, with an abundance of chariots, their 
country intersected with roads, or trackways, as the earlier writers 
termed them, the chief characteristic of which was that they followed 
the hill tops and avoided the marshes, throwing out branch roads at 
intervals to the adjoining villages or clusters of wattled beehive huts. 
Amongst these roads the Gethling Street, or “ Way of the 
Stranger,” was one of the most important, and was afterwards taken 
possession of by the Romans and called “ Watling Street,” and we 
have therefore devoted our attention to it as the backbone of the 
Tamworth meeting. 
The ancient British forts consisted of large mounds of earth 
surrounded with “ foss and vallum ” (ditch and embankment), the 
latter surmounted with a strong wooden palisade. Of these we can 
show a goodly number in the immediate district. First and most 
important amongst them as occupying the central and strongest 
position, situated at the confluence of the Tame and Anker, defended 
on the south by vast and impenetrable morasses, Tamworth stood, 
surrounded and supported within moderate distance by Seckingtou, 
