ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS OF all the British areas occupied by Teutonic immigrants in post-Roman times, Kent should on all grounds have the most explicit record. The richness of the soil in this Garden of England is reflected in the splendid furniture of its Anglo- Saxon graves, and proximity to the Continent might be expected to have placed its inhabitants in the foremost ranks of progress and enlight- enment. The reign of Ethelberht (560-616) witnessed the introduction of Christianity by Augustine, and we know that monarch was among the earliest to bear the title of Bretwalda (Wielder of Britain). But these advantages do not lift for us the veil that hides the course of events during the fifth and sixth centuries, when the Romanized Britons were yielding place to newcomers from across the sea. There are indeed traditions, widely known but more than half discredited, which tell of individual leaders and their conquest of the Kentish area, and all that can be gleaned from them has been stated and discussed more than once. There is not likely to be further documentary evidence of early date, and the true story of the English conquest can be recovered, if at all, only from the soil. Such evidence for Kent is fortunately considerable, and a general survey of the finds may prove of more historical value than the tales of Hengist and Horsa. For Kent alone among our English counties is there a literature deal- ing with relics of our pagan forefathers ; and the task of setting the numerous discoveries before the reader becomes one of severe compres- sion. The peculiar riches of this corner of England became evident in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and found worthy chroniclers in the persons of two divines. The Rev. Jas. Douglas, F.S.A., Chap- lain-in-Ordinary to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, published in 1793 a folio volume ' with many illustrations and a verbose title-page, detailing the excavations made by himself and others chiefly on Chatham Lines. As was usual at the period, a vast amount of curious lore was incor- porated, mostly in the form of footnotes ; but the work was carried out in a scientific spirit, and, in the words of the preface, ' the reader may frame his own conclusions without any apprehension of being involved in the confusion of self-opiniated theory.' The author was in sympathetic communication with Rev. Bryan Faussett, of Heppington, near Canter- » Nenia Britannica ; or, a Sepulchral History of Great Britain, etc. ; quoted below as Ne}i. Brit. 339
