Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/33

TO A.D. 420]  hundred cities; the principal were London, Colchester, Bath, Gloucester, Caerleon, Chester, Lincoln, and Chesterfield; most of them built upon lands which the emperors had bestowed upon the veterans of those legions whose descendants formed the greater part of the population. The larger cities, about ten in number, enjoyed the jus Latii, which conferred, amongst other privileges, the right of electing their magistrates. The inferior ones, called stipendiaries, paid tribute to the emperor, and were governed by officers under the authority of the prefect.

Thus we perceive that Britain owed to Rome, not only her first steps in the path of civilisation, but her municipal government, a code of written laws, judges to interpret them, and civil instead of priestly tribunals; whilst, at the same time, her arts and refinements gradually wrought a change in the savage but warlike character of its inhabitants, who, previous to their invasion, lived in a state of barbarism, inhabiting wretched huts, built in the rudest form. Their progress in architecture must have been rapid. 



remains of Roman architecture in Britain, though numerous, do not exhibit any perfect buildings, and the workmanship in general is not equal to that of the continental remains. The buildings seem to have been inferior and of smaller dimensions, and there is very little of ornamental detail to be found, except the tesselated pavements, of which many fine examples yet remain in the Roman villas which have been discovered from time to time in various parts of the kingdom. The principal places where Roman remains are now to be found are Lincoln, Dover Castle, St. Albans, Richborough Castle, Porchester, York, Cirencester, Leicester, Colchester, &c. But in all these there is little ornamentation or detail left, the remains consisting chiefly of plain walls, the masonry of which has peculiarities of character which mark its date. Of the masonry there are two principal varieties; the first, and that which is most readily 