Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/150

112 earth, since to such only will Harris's account apply, and, if masonry had been removed, fragments would still have been perceptible in the soil; whereas there is not the smallest sign to betoken the presence of masonry, whether Roman or of any other period, at or near the place.

Another, as I conceive very strong, objection to this spot as the site of Anderida lies in its situation; it being the extreme point of a tongue of upland, with a valley and a stream on either side of it. Immediately beyond the ancient fort the two valleys unite, and form a wide expanse of marsh, or meadow, land, sound indeed, but intersected throughout by ditches, and still liable (at least was so within twenty years) to be occasionally overflowed during high floods. The "Castle Toll" stands at the edge of the smaller valley, which at that place is rather narrower, at least on that side of its stream, than it is higher up; but even there the stream, which is too insignificant to be styled a river, and the marsh ditches totally prevent any communication with the upland beyond, to the north, in the parish of Rolvenden. And though the present condition of the locality is, of course, utterly unlike what it was during the existence of Anderida, still that circumstance strengthens, rather than invalidates, my argument; because we may safely assume as a fact, that, at the early period referred to, what is now on all sides valuable grazing land, was a mere morass, impracticable to a disciplined army, so that the only egress from the fort would have been westward along the tongue of high ground already mentioned. Now surely it does not require a military education, or military experience to see, that a position, such as that just described, is about the very last to be selected by such masters in the art of war as the Romans; neither will any advocate of Newenden, it may be presumed, contend, that the Romans would be contented with ramparts of earth alone, which those at Newenden were, for one of their important and permanent stations, although they might be satisfied with such defences for their temporary camps. Camden's assertion (Gibson's edition, 258) that Anderida laid waste after its devastation by the Saxons, till Sir Tho. Albuger erected a monastery there temp. K. Edward I implies, that the latter establishment stood on or very near the site of the ancient city; whereas the priory stood near Losenham House, little, if any, less than a mile from the "Castle Toll:" whence arises a strong suspicion, that Camden wrote without having personally