t was ween the houses of York and Lancaster." Had this hypothesis been at all founded in fact, tradition would most certainly have handed down some legendary tale of the annihilation of a town so recently as the wars of the Roses. But Hasted has himself, in the preceding page, utterly disproved his own supposition, by stating that the manor of Ruehill * or Rowhill".. in the reign of King Edward I. in the possession of the family of Gyse," and concludes the paragraph by giving its descent through the different lords to 1778, when he published his History of Kent. That there are great quantities of Roman" bricks and other building materials," and nearly one hundred finely formed British excavations or pits scattered through these woods, I have the confirmatory assurance of S. Landale, Esq. a fellow labourer in the archæological vineyard, who has repeatedly noticed them whilst there shooting, and who moreover informed me that I should find a mass of Roman brickwork in a cart lodge at Hook Green Farm (a building not a quarter of a mile from Rue Hill). It is therefore most probable that a Roman mansion was there erected some years after the conquest of Kent; since the city of the Cassii was not at once destroyed after the victories of Aulus Plautius, (A.D. 43,) but by degrees fell into decay after the divergence of the road from the sea coast into the better ¶ Ruehill is evidently a corruption of the Celtic word Tyrru, which is from Twr, a heap, an accumulation. Thus its modern name, with the merest alteration, has descended to our time in utter defiance of the various languages imported by the different masters of the land, Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans. The name too is expressive of an accumulation of material, or formation of an artificial mound or earthwork. This mound, from its great altitude, was in the present century selected by Government and used as a position for the site of a telegraph. Adjoining to this mound, but quite detached, is a smaller earthwork or fortilage, on the summit of which is a deep round excavation like a well, which, a labourer on the 18th of March last informed me, at the bottom extended for some distance and was strongly arched; it had then been but a few weeks before wattled round to prevent accidents. formed and more direct Watling Street, aided by the establishment of the station of Noviomagus (Dartford), which by degrees attracted and absorbed the aborigines, and gradually caused the desertion and final total abandonment of the British city. However, after the fall of his fortress of Tyrru, Caswallon, like a skilful strategist, changed his tactics, and incited the chiefs in Cæsar's rear to attack the camp on the sea coast. * Cæsar was now compelled to retrace his steps, and, as in the year before, was in such haste to embark and return, that he crowded his men (nothing loth) into what ships he had and sailed away.† According to the best expositors upon Cæsar's Commentaries, he could not have been more than thirty-two days in Britain. From this we must deduct sixteen required for the reparation of the fleet after being damaged by the equinoctial tides, and to which Cæsar had to return from Chartham Downs after fighting his first battle with the Britons. Thus, Cæsar had only sixteen days left for his incursion, conquest, and return; hence it becomes almost a physical impossibility for Cæsar to have marched so far as Coway Stakes, through, to him, an entirelyunknown,wild,inhospitable, and bitterly opposed country, where every minute and hour of the day he had to encounter the vexatious and irritating skirmishing of the 4000 Essedarii, (who never remained long enough to be beaten,) that Caswallon had purposely retained to harass his foes. Besides, he not only had to remove day by day the materiel of his invading forces, but also to construct * Although the Segontiaci had made a peace with Cæsar (lib. v. c. xxi.) yet Segonax joins (lib. v. c. xxii.) Cingetorix, Carmilius, and Taximagulus, in Caswallon's confederacy to destroy the Roman invaders' fleet. † Tacitus, writing more than a century after Cæsar, distinctly says, that even Cæsar, the first who entered Britain with an army, although he struck terror into the islanders by a successful battle, could only maintain himself on the sea coast ;that he was a discoverer rather than a conqueror. In fact, that he only saw a small portion of the island. + Lib. v. c. xix. a camp, which, although only an earthwork, yet was necessary to be done by his wearied legions during day-light, otherwise they would have been subjected to a night attack similar to that Q. Laberius Durust met his death endeavouring to repel. I also think it most probable that the state of the Trinobantes was in the hundred of Hoo, because how otherwise could it have been possible for Cæsar during his advance into the country to have received ambassadors, who had then to return and collect forty hostages, and procure from perchance north, east, west, and south, sufficient corn for the sustenance of the Roman troops, if it had been situate at a greater distance, and across a mighty river like the Thames. Now it is quite clear that the extremely brief stay of Cæsar utterly precluded him from delaying his march to wait for supplies. The road by which the supplies even reached Cæsar is still in existence near Higham. Yours, &c. A. J. DUNKIN. MR. URBAN, Bishopton Lodge. YOUR well-known care for the preservation of antiquities, assures me that you will admit the present communication, which I deem may be interesting to many as connected with the history of a man publicly known in the reign of King Charles the Second. In the possession of William Hugessen Hugessen, esq. of Stodmarch Court in the county of Kent, and Ripon, in the county of York, is a curious silver tankard, presented by King Charles the Second to his ancestor the celebrated Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey, who was murdered in 1678. It records his having been knighted for * Sed eos fugientes longius Cæsar persequi vetuit, et quòd loci naturam ignorabat, et quòd magnâ parte diei consumptâ, munitioni castrorum tempus relinqui volebat. Lib. v. c. viii. + Q. Laberius Durus was buried at Chartham Downs. Mr. Fagg in the eighteenth century opened the barrow, and was rewarded by finding many relics. (Douglas, Nenia Brit.) Eo die Q. Laberius Durus tribunus mil. interficitur: illi, pluribus submissis cohortibus, repellentur. his public services during the Great Fire in 1666, having previously received this cup from the Privy Council for his exertions in counteracting the progress of the Plague in the preceding year. On the front are engraven the arms of the royal donor, and below those of Sir Edmund. On a compartment on the right is a rude representation of the great Fire, with this inscription : Vir reverà Reipublicæ Natus, [Rude Illustration of the Fire.] Cætera Loquentur Pauperes et Trivia. On the left compartment is a representation of the Plague of London in 1666, with the following Latin inscription: Ex Dono E. B. G. Militis, Post egregiam in fugandâ peste præstitam operam Carolus secundus semper Augustus Assensu Procerum a secretis Concilijs In Perpetuam tantæ Pietatis Memoriam Argenteo donavit Oenophoro, et vere Regio, Hoc Amphoræ modo insignito. Gratia Dei et Regis Caroli secundi The weight of this curious relic is 2lbs. 6oz. the height six inches. It may not be amiss to state the way in which it came into the Hugessen family, who have for several centuries resided in the county of Kent. James Hugessen, a native of Dunkirk, the founder of the family, was born in 1557, and died at Linstead Lodge March 24th 1637 ; James, his son, was High Sheriff of the county 17 Ch. I. as was also his son Sir William Hugessen, Knt. who died 1675 from this Sir William descended John Hugessen, esq. of Stockbury and Stodmarch, who married Amye, dau. and heiress of William Courthorpe, esq. of Stodmarch Court, by Amye his wife, dau. and heiress of Peter Godfrey, esq. of Hodiford, who was brother and heir to Sir Edmund, son of Thomas Godfrey, esq. of Hodiford, who was second son of Thomas Godfrey, esq. of Lydd. This John Hugessen had issue two sons and one daughter, of whom William, the eldest, died s.p. 1801. John, the second son, died unmarried, and Elizabeth married at Canterbury Feb. 8th 1761, Robert Spratt of Stodmarch, esq. by whom EFFIGY OF A COURTENAY AT HACCOMBE, CO. DEVON. THE elegant effigy represented in the annexed plate is in the private chapel of the Courtenays at Haccombe in Devonshire.* It is of alabaster, scarcely more than two feet long, and rests on a small table monument. It is evidently of the fourteenth century, and the representation of a youth who had not assumed arms, a change in the life of a young nobleman which generally took place about the age of fifteen. He wears the attire of peace, and, in respect to costume, assimilates with the youthful effigies of William of Windsor, son of King Edward the Third, in Westminster Abbey, and of William of Hatfield, another son of that monarch, in York cathedral. The head of the Courtenay family, during the whole of the long reign of Edward III. was Hugh second Earl of Devon. He died in the last year of that king, and was buried in Exeter cathedral, having married Margaret Bohun, daughter of Humphrey Earl of Hereford and Essex, and granddaughter of King Edward the First. By this lady he had a family, the number of which even exceeded that of their royal cousins, the flourishing 'progeny of King Edward and Queen Philippa. The Earl of Devon had eight sons and nine daughters. The latter were mostly suitably married. The former were as follow: 1. Hugh Courtenay le Fitz, who was *The drawing and etching were both made by Mr. Robert Stothard, who was told that it represented one who would, had he lived, have become Earl of Devon. It had escaped the notice of the Messrs. Lysons. See the major part of the depositions in the Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy. one of the founders of the Order of the Garter, but died in 1348 or 1349, and was buried at Ford Abbey in Dorsetshire ;+ leaving one son, Hugh, who was summoned to Parliament in 1370; but also died before his grandfather, Feb. 20, 1374. 2. Thomas, Knight of the Shire for Devon, who also died before his father. 3. Edward, whose son Edward succeeded his grandfather as third Earl in 1377. 4. William, Archbishop of Canterbury. 5. John, Knight of the Shire for Devon 2 Rich. II. 6. Philip, of Powderham, ancestor of the present Earl of Devon. 7. Sir Peter Courtenay, K.G. buried in Exeter Cathedral. 8. Humphrey. To none of these sons can our effigy belong, unless it be to the last, of whom we have nothing but the name. The others all attained to man's estate. It may, however, represent, if not a brother, a youthful son of one of them, or even of one of their sisters. Should the means of more precise information be in the power of any of our readers, we shall be thankful to receive it. MR. URBAN, Lichfield, March 18. A RESIDENCE of someyears in this cathedral city, hallowed by proud associations from Saxon times even to our own day, having led me to collect materials for " THE LIFE OF SAINT CHAD, THE FIRST BISHOP OF LICH FIELD; together with some notice of his contemporaries and times, and an See a memoir of him in Beltz's Memorials of the Order of the Garter, p. 31. Dugdale and most other writers have erroneously supposed that his father the Earl was the K.G. Dugdale has also attributed to a single person various_facts belonging to the two Hughs, the Earl's son and grandson. |