The attachment of our ancestors to this place may be further illustrated
by our taking a view of the efforts they made to preserve it.
Suetonius, relating the invasion of Britain by Vespasian, says, "Tricies
cum hoste conflixit; duas validissimas gentes, superque xx oppida, et
Insulam Vectem Britanniae proximam in deditionem redegit." Cap. iv. Now,
that one of these nations inhabited the Downs of Sussex, seems probable
from their vicinity to the Isle of Wight, and in some measure confirmed by
the lines and intrenchments still subsisting between Brighthelmston and
Lewes, where the principal scene of action must have been, and bearing
every Roman mark.
That there was a Roman station in this neighbourhood is admitted by the
antiquarians, though its exact situation is not as yet ascertained. The
Portus Aldurni, placed by the learned Selden at Aldrington, two miles to
the west of Brighthelmston, is by the ingenious Tabor presumed to have
been at East Bourne, eighteen miles to the east of it: yet there are many
local and incidental circumstances belonging to this place, and which are
wanting in those towns, that render a conjecture probable as to its having
been a Roman station.
Pages:
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44