Near Aylesford took place, A.D. 455, a grand battle between the Britons, under King Vortigern, and the Angles, or Saxons, under Hengest and Horsa, after the latter, invited over from Germany by Vortigern, to assist him against the Picts, had determined on taking advantage of the degeneracy of their allies to assume possession of so rich and tempting a country. In this engagement Catigern, son of Vortigern, was slain by Horsa, and his soldiers dispersed, after which Horsa himself was killed, and his troops put to flight, by an attack of Catigern's brother, Gortimer. (Lappenberg's Hist. of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings. Thorpe's translation, I, 73.) The ancient funereal monument on Boxley Hill, between Maidstone and Rochester, but in this parish, usually called "Kit's Cotty House," is considered to mark the spot of Catigern's interment, whence the name. Horsa was buried at a place (in Chatham parish, Kilburne) still called Horsted. (Hasted.) A somewhat curious Perp. doorway, belonging to a hospital in Aylesford, is alluded to by Mr. Bloxam (Goth. Archit. 246.) For a notice of Roman remains discovered and vestiges of the Romano-British town of Aiglessa, or Eccles, in the vicinity of Aylesford, consult the Journal of the Brit. Archæol. Association, No. 13; 81, 82.
16. Badlesmere.—"Ibi æcclesia—et piscaria de xii denariis. There is a church, and a fishery of twelve pence." (D. B.) The situation of this place, on a chalky soil, remote from any water, might appear to require the term, "piscaria" being rendered by its proper meaning, "a fish market." Ducange, however, in his Glossary, attributes the same sense to piscaria, piscatio, and piscatura, namely, "jus piscationis, a right of fishing;" which signification consequently we may assume as the general usage of mediæval Latin writers. Piscaria is the word commonly, so far as my experience extends, employed in (D. B.) to describe a fishery; and Doddington, that is, "Dodeham," at no very great distance from Badlesmere, and in a still more unlikely situation, is positively stated to be entitled to "half a fishery of three hundred herrings." We may therefore suppose, that to the manor of Badlesmere was attached a right of fishing elsewhere; but at what spot we have no means of even conjecturing, no memorial of that right now existing in any outlying portion belonging to the parish.
The Domesday description of this place affords incontrovertible evidence (if any were wanting) of St. Augustin's Abbey, Canterbury, being a Saxon foundation: viz. "The abbot of St. Augustin's
