the like whereof, the Irishmen, our next neighbours, do at this day call Fastness.[1] But after that these hither parts of Britain were reduced into the form of a province by the Romans, who sowed the seeds of civility over all Europe; this city, whatsoever it was before, began to be renowned, and of fame. For Tacitus, who first of all authors nameth it Londinum, saith, that in the 62nd year after Christ, it was, albeit no colony of the Romans, yet most famous for the great multitude of merchants, provision, and intercourse. At which time, in that notable revolt of the Britons from Nero, in which 70,000 Romans and their confederates were slain, this city, with Verulam, near St. Albans, and Maldon in Essex, then all famous, were ransacked and spoiled. For Suetonius Paulinus, then lieutenant for the Romans in this isle, abandoned it, as not then fortified, and left it to the spoil.
Shortly after, Julius Agricola, the Roman lieutenant, in the time of Domitian, was the first that by adhorting the Britons publicly, and helping them privately, won them to build houses for themselves, temples for the gods, and courts for justice, to bring up the noblemen's children in good letters and humanity, and to apparel themselves Roman-like, whereas before (for the most part) they went naked, painting their bodies, etc., as all the Roman writers have observed.
True it is, I confess, that afterwards many cities and towns in Britain, under the government of the Romans, were walled with stone and baked bricks or tiles, as Richborrow or Ryptacester,[2] in the Isle of Thanet, until the channel altered his course, beside Sandwich in Kent; Verulamium,[3] beside St. Albans, in Hertfordshire; Cilcester[4] in Hampshire ; Wroxcester[5] in Shropshire; Kencester[6] in Herefordshire, three miles from Hereford town; Ribcester,[7] seven miles above Preston, on the water of Rible;
- ↑ " The like whereof the Irishmen, our next neighbours, doe at this day call paces." — 1st edition, p. 4.
- ↑ Richborough, about one mile and a half from Sandwich, the Rutupium of the Romans, was a place of great importance until destroyed by the Danes in 1010.
- ↑ On the banks of the river Verlam, opposite to St. Alban's, which is supposed to have arisen out of its ruin.
- ↑ Silchester, in Hampshire, seven miles from Basingstoke ; the Caer Segont of the Britons, and Segontium of the Romans, and Silcester of the Saxons. Leland states its walls to have been two miles in compass.
- ↑ Wroxeter, five miles from Shrewsbury. Its walls are stated to have been three yards in thickness, and to have extended for a circumference of three miles.
- ↑ Kenchester, three miles from Hereford, supposed to be the Ariconium of the Romans.
- ↑ Ribchester, six miles from Blackburn, in Lancashire, supposed to be the Rego-dunum of the Romans.
