Page:Notes on the churches in the counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey.djvu/152

114 dispute, none can overset. Now whether the latter title would be applicable to the Newenden remains may be submitted to any impartial judgment after pondering the considerations urged here, and in (Archæol. Journal, IV, 205.) Neither can it be allowed, that the situation of Newenden answers satisfactorily to the very slight intimation we possess of that of the place sought for. That it was a port in early times I am ready to admit; but, when that was the case, its outlet was distant many miles to the north-east, at either Hithe (Limpne) or Romney, according to Mr. Holloway's own showing; and I would ask whether that condition agrees with Gildas's statement, adduced by Mr. H., of the position of Anderida: "In littore oceani ad meridiem: on the sea coast to the south?" Then again, as to the connection of Newenden with the forest; it can scarcely be said to stand "on the border," when it must have been surrounded by wood on all sides, except, perhaps, in the very channel of the estuary.

We may now review the arguments in favour of Pevensey being the locality in question.—Here are stone walls undoubtedly of Roman construction still standing, in a remarkably perfect state, round the greater portion of the original circumference, and inclosing a space, which seems too extensive for merely a simple solitary fortress, though not more than would be required for the security of the inhabitants, if a large settlement, in fact a town, was established under its protection. A plausible objection indeed has been offered, that the area within the walls of Pevensey is not sufficient to have contained the number of people, who, according to Henry of Huntingdon's description, assembled there during the siege by the Saxons. That chronicler says, that "the Britons collected as thick as bees," but since he does not assert that they all clustered within the walls, while he does mention such vigorous and repeated assaults upon the rear of the besiegers, as necessarily inferred a very strong native force on the outside, it is not straining Huntingdon's language to consider, that the words just quoted comprehend the two parties of Britons, namely, those without the walls, as well as those within.—Another sentence of the chronicler also demands a few observations: "Because the strangers," Saxons, "had suffered such losses there, they so utterly destroyed the city, that it was never afterwards rebuilt. Quia tot ibi damna toleraverant extranei, ita urbem destruxerunt, quod nunquam postea reædificata est." Now at first