Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/362

 with a vast army, aided, it is said, with no less than four thousand chariots.

But though some of the encounters were at first of doubtful success, the steady discipline of the Romans forced back the hosts of Cassivelaunus, and Cæsar apparently followed his retreating forces, first, in a north-westerly, and then in a direction due north, till they arrived at the banks of the Thames, a little to the west of Walton bridge. Here Cassivelaunus resolved to resist the further progress of Cæsar, It is generally supposed that Cassivelaunus, in execution of a well concerted plan, retired, followed by Cæsar, from the banks of the Stour along the southern side of the chalk hills running from Wye to Dorking, and then down the right bank of the Mole to the nearest point of the Thames at "Coway stakes," situated between Walton and Shepperton. In the year 1855, the author of this work purchased the principal property in the latter parish, and a few years afterwards that of Halliford, so named from the ford at Coway, where the Romans are supposed to have crossed the Thames. Since then he has resided almost constantly in the Manor-house of Shepperton, which, on the authority of Stukeley and of other antiquaries, occupies the site where Cæsar pitched his camp after the final defeat of the ancient Britons. The paddock, about fourteen acres in extent, attached to his house, is said to have derived its name from the fact that there the battle between the Romans and Britons raged in its greatest fury, and that there it ended, with great carnage, in the overthrow of Cassivelaunus. In the recent Ordnance maps, as well as in some maps of an ancient date, this paddock is described as "War-close field, from which there has been dug spears, swords, and great quantities of human bones."

Cæsar in his Commentaries remarks (book v. c. xvii): 'Cæsar, perceiving their design, marched the army to the river Thames, towards the territory of Cassivelaunus; that river was fordable only at one place, and there with difficulty. When he arrived, he saw that the enemy was drawn up in great force at the opposite bank of the river; but the bank was fortified with stakes fixed in front; stakes also of the same kind were driven into the bed of the river, concealed from view by the stream. Cæsar, learning this from the prisoners and deserters, having sent the cavalry before, ordered the legions to follow closely. This the soldiers did with such celerity and vigour, their but was*