The sick man often wears a crown, in reference to the
passage in the bestiary, which says that the caladrius is
found in the courts of kings. In the Paris Arsenal MS.^
the caladrius is represented flying away with the disease,
and has two horns upon its head, as described in the
French prose text. On the sculpture at Alne the bird is
looking in the face of the sick man, who is therefore
destined to recover. In the tenth century MS. at
Brussels the caladrius is drawn, first, being held up by
an attendant to look at the sick man, and then is seen
flying up towards the sun.^
The Two Stones ivhich emit Fii^e.^ — In the French MSS.
these stones are called "les deux pieres qui rendent fu",
and in the Latin MSS., " lapides igniferi". The name of
the stones is spelt variously, " turobolein", " terrebolen",
" terrebuli", " turobolen", "cserobolim", and "ceroboljm".
At Alne it is " terobolem". The derivation is probably
from the Greek irvpo^akot Xldoi, or fire-producing stones.
Philippe de Thaun tells us that " turrobolen" are stones
of such a nature that when they are near together they
will emit fire, but when far apart they will not do so.
These stones are found, in the East, upon a mountain,*
and one has naturally the semblance of a man, and the
other takes the form of a very beautiful woman. A stone
of such a quality signifies a woman and a man, for when
they are near together their love influences them, and
they go on increasing in heat, as the stones burn, till the
fire is extinguished, and luxury restrained ; therefore
nuns are separated from monks and abbots, and no one
ought to wonder if the Devil catches holy people by
means of woman, for she has more snares than man can
^ Melanges (TArcheologie, vol. ii, PI. 19, fig. F.
2 Ibid., vol. ii, PL 24, fig. C A.
3 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 125 ; Hippoau, Le Bestiaire Divln, p. 84 ; Wright's
Popular Trmtisen on Science during the Middle Ages, p. 124.
â– * Latin aud Preuch prose bestiaries.
NORMAN DOOllWAY AT ALNE. 155
conceive. Adam, Solomon, David, and Samson, were all
deceived and conquered by women. Woman is the Devil's
door for catching holy men by evil contrivance. The
Latin bestiary adds that Joseph was also among those
tempted by women. Eve and Susanna were tempted ;
Eve, consenting, fell ; but Susanna, being protected by
the law, conquered.
The " lapides igniferi" are always represented in the
illustrations of the bestiaries^ exactly as at Alne, in the
shape of a male and female figure in the midst of flames,
which, the Latin MSS. tell us, consume the whole
mountain. The miniature in the tenth century Brussels
MS. differs from those in the later versions, and shows a
woman holding the two stones in her hand ; one being-
ring-shaped, and the other a round ball bursting out into
flame. In front stands a man extending his hand towards
the stones, and behind is a winged angel of darkness.
The Whaler- — Several names are given to the whale in
the bestiaries; the French prose MS. calls it "lacorie";
the Latin MSS. " aspedocalone", " cetus magnus aspido-
helnes", " aspis cheloune", " aspido testudo", and in the
Saxon MS. " fasti tocalon". At Alne the inscription
appears to read " aspido", although the second letter
seems more like a T.
The whale is a great monster called " Fasticalon", who
dwells in the ocean. It spreads the sand of the sea over
its back, and raising itself above the surface of the water,
remains perfectly still, so that the seafarers mistake it
for an island.
" Like is its aspect
to a rough stone
it, as it were, roves
by the sea shore,
by sand hills suirounded
of' sea-aits the greatest ;
so that imagine
wavefarers
that on some island
they gaze with their eyes
:i)id they fasten
1 Melanges d'Arc/ieolorfie, vol. ii, PI. 19, tig. E, and PI. 24, fig. B Y.
2 Ibid., vol. iii, p. 251 ; Hippeau, Le Bestiaire Divin, p. 161 ; Wright's
Popular Treatises on Scienre durinj' the Middle Ages, p. 108 ; Co ' "
oniensis, p. 3t50.
156 NORMAN DOORWAY AT ALNE.
the high-prowed ships
to that false land
with anchor ropes.
Settle their sea horses
at the sea's end,
and then on to that island
mount
bold of spirit ;
the vessels stand
fast by the shore
by the stream encircled ;
then encamp,
weary in mind
the seafarers
(they of peril dream not)
on that island
they waken flame
a high fire kindle.
When the whale feels the heat of the fire and the
weight of the people and the ship, it makes a plunge, and
then suddenly
into the salt wave
with the bark
down goes
the ocean's guest,
seeks the abyss
and then, in the hall of death
to the flood commits
ship with men.
The whale signifies the Devil ; the sands are the
riches of this world ; the ship is the hody, which should
he guided by the soul, who is the steersman ; and the
sea is the world. When we put our trust most in the
pleasures of this life, and think we are quite safe,
suddenly, without any warning, the Devil drags us down
to hell. The whale has another property : when he
is hungry, and
lusts after food,
then oceanward
his mouth opens,
his wide lips,
a pleasant odotir
comes from his inside,
so that thereby other
kinds of sea fishes
arc deceived ;
eager they swim to
where the sweet odour
Cometh out ;
NORMAN DOORWAY AT ALNE. 157
they there enter
in heedless shoal,
till the wide jaw
is filled ;
then suddenly
around the prey
together crash
the grim gums.
The whale is the Devil, and the sweet smell which
issues from his mouth signifies the seductive nature of
his temptations. The whale is also Hke a wicked woman,
whom the perfect and the cautious do not approach ;
such was Joseph and the Egyptian woman, and Susanna
and the elders. When he has caught his victim, the
Devil,
then he his grim
gums dashes
after the death pang
fast together.
Hell's latticed doors have not
return or escape,
outlet ever,
for those who enter
any more than the fishes,
sporting in the ocean
ft'om the whale's gripe
can turn.
The illustrations in the MSS. show a hug-e sea monster,
supporting a ship on its back, together with a lighted
lire, over which a cooking-pot is boiling ; trees are also
growing out of his body. A shoal of small fishes are
rushino- into his mouth, ^
Upon the sculpture at Alne the ship only appears, the
whale and other accessories being omitted, probably from
want of room.
The Dragon. — There is one medallion at Alne which
has the inscription entirely obliterated, although the
blank space in the ornament where it has been still
remains. The animal represented is apparently a winged
dragon. We do not find the peculiarities of the dragon
described in the bestiaries, with a spiritual application as
in the case of the other animals, but it is introduced in
the story of the panther- as flying away from its cry, in
^ Mfilangef^ (V Arrhenhufie, vol. iii, p. l!ol, and vol. ii, PI. 22, fig. B C
- Ibid., vol. iii, p. '1-^0.
158 NORMAN DOORWAY AT ALNE.
the story of the elephant/ who protects its young from
his attacks; and in the story of the " arbor peredexion'V
where the dragon fears the doves, who eat the fruit of
the tree. In all cases the dragon is the Devil, and the
personification of evil. The chief subject where the
dragon occurs as one of the principal actors is in the
contest with St. Michael or St. George, or in the curious
legend of St. Margaret. None of these scenes are, how-
ever, treated of in the bestiaries.
Upon the inner arch-moulding of the arch of the door-
way at Alne are fifteen circular medallions, two of which
are modern restorations, enclosing sculptures of animals.
Some of these are much defaced, but the following are
the most remarkable : the Agnus Dei ; bird with out-
spread wings ; man with axe, killing pig ; goat with
serpent's tail, as shown on signs of zodiac. Upon the
moulding at the right-hand side of the doorway, above
the capital of the column, is carved a mermaid.
In conclusion I must express my best thanks to the
Rev. W. Grindrod, Vicar of Alne, for his kind assistance
in investigating the sculptures which he watches over
with such loving care.
^ Melavges cVArcheolvyie, vol. iv, p. 55. ^ Ibid., vol. iii, p. 284.
159
ANCIENT SUSSEX FORTRESSES.
BY T. MORGAN, ESQ., V.P., F.S.A., HON. TREASUKER.
{Read August 1885.)
The subject of the ancient fortresses of Sussex has been
treated by many competent authorities, and among the
latest by General Pitt-Rivers, who has the advantage of
professional knowledge in military affairs, not given, as
far as I know, to the other writers on the subject, except
in the case of General Roy, who wrote his work on mili-
tary antiquities many years ago. At the same time, by
accepting the facts as they are related very fully by
General Pitt-Rivers in Archceologia, xlii and xlvi, we
must not undervalue the right of civilians such as the
late Mr. George Vere Irving to be heard, and to draw
their own conclusions from the premises, particularly
when, as in the case of this much valued member of the
British Archseological Association, the antiquary has
given his special attention, through many years, to the
survey of camps on the spot, illustrating his examples in
our Journals with plans and measurements ; and I would
particularly refer to the two chapters in volumes x and
xiii, in which he compares the camps of Lanarkshire with
those on the Sussex Downs.
The conflict of opinion is shown in the case of this
camp of Hollingbury. Mr. Horsfield considers it to be
Roman on account of its being square. Mr. Turner, on
the other hand, attributes it to the Druids on account of
its being " decidedly circular"; while General Pitt-Rivers
says " that from personal inspection he should pronounce
it to be of an irregular square form, the corners being-
rounded, and the sides bulging." Such a configuration
appears to have been best adapted to the faces of the
hill on which it stands. There are the remains of a bank
leading from the south-west corner of this work in the
direction of Brighton. "A block of Druid sandstone",
he continues, " stands on one side of one of the gateways
to the west, and another is on the ]>;irai)ct on the south
160 ANCIENT SUSSEX FORTRESSES.
side." He adds, in a'note, that " since writing the above
his attention has been drawn to the evidence of an exten-
sive flint manufacture which exists in the neighbourhood
of HoUingbury, and which leaves little doubt on his
mind that this work, like the others, was of British ori-
gm.
The Rev, Edward Turner, when describing the forts of
this county in vol. iii, p. 1 73, of the Sussex Archceological
Collections, fell into the error common to antiquaries of
his time, by considering that all Roman camps were
square or oblong ; that British camps only were round ;
and that the Saxons had no camps of their own construc-
tion, but rounded off the corners of the Roman camp
found ready for use. Here are several errors. Firstly,
the square or rectangular camps of the Romans were
rounded off at the corners according to their own rules ;
secondly, the rectangular plan adopted as a rule by the
Romans for the large camp of a consular army, or for a
small one, when practicable, in the open country, was
not to be adopted on the hills, or when the exigencies
of the case required it to be round. A square camp on a
round hill would have been open to fatal objections.
This is clearly pointed out by Vegetius in his treatise, De
Re Militari, and quite coincides with what Mr. George
V. Irving says of the camps of Lanarkshire, one example
of which will be sufficient. He describes the fort of Bods-
berry Hill, the last of the range of hills abutting on the
Clyde.
"The top of the hill forms a flat plateau of consider-
able extent, the whole of which is occupied by the forti-
fication, which consists of a single rampart ; but on the
north and north-west the hill slopes very gently, and this
quarter of the camp is defended by a second rampart and
ditch. As a military post, this is one of great strength
and importance. The camp is certainly not a rectangle,
but of an irregular form, and from this it may be urged
that it is not a Roman fortification. But I think this is
clearly rebutted by the fact that an undoubted Roman
road leads directly into it ; and we nuist not forget that
it occupies the whole of the plateau, and that the attempt
to inscribe a rectangle within the latter would have de-
stroyed the security of the camp ; because, had this been
ANCIENT SUSSEX FORTRESSES. IGl
done, the extreme suddenness and sleepn^ss of the de-
scent would have enabled a light-armed enemy to liave
established himself in a perfect aiKl secure cover within a
few feet of the base of the rampart."
Of Roman military affairs, trustworthy accounts by
Polybius, Frontinus, Hyginus, and others have come
down to us as to the palmy days of Rome ; but for the
days of its decline we must fall back on the scattered
notices of military affairs to be gleaned from historians,
and from the military treatise of Vegetius, dedicated by
him to the Emperor Valentinian II. If we divide Roman
tactics, for our present purpose, into four periods, it will
be seen that in the first three the normal model was
herein formed which served in after times as the surest
for imitation, though in effect the system was gradually
falling to pieces through the preponderating influence of
the northern nations from which the Roman armies had
to be largely recruited.
The first period referred to introduces the highly scien-
tific system by which the Romans fought their way to
power up to the time of Julius Csesar. In the second is
seen the system pursued by his successors after he had
conquered Gaul, invaded Britain and Germany, and
brought the army into that state of discipline which en-
abled Claudius, one hundred years later, with four legions
to annex Britain, though not finally to subjugate it till
forty years after. And what the defence must have been
may be judged from the immense force, a double consular
army, sent to ensure the conquest ; and the skill of Fron-
tinus, Vespasian, and Agricola, all masters in strategy
and fortification, being necessary to accomplish it.
In the third period, though modified by the incorjoora-
tion of many tribes into the empire, and certain elements
of disorder which resulted from this innovation, yet the
military system reached under Hadrian a very efficient
stage, maintained through the age of the Antonines. A
gradual reformation, followed by some relaxation of dis-
cipline, may afterwards be traced through the times of
Septimius Severus and his sons, and for another hundred
years to Diocletian.
In the fourth is witnessed a period of one hundred
years, towards the end of which the decay of the old
162 ANCIENT SUSSEX FORTRESSES.
Roman discipliaie culminated in the murder of the Empe-
ror Gratian by the troops, and its final dissohition under
Maximus, the Rutupian robber as he is styled by Auso-
nius.
Another hundred years of darkness ensued, without
chroniclers, until the South Saxon kingdom in Sussex
starts into being under Ella, the father of Cissa, in a.d.
447; and of this period also the history is very obscure.
The first period of Roman aggrandisement may be ad-
vantageously studied by us in reference to the conquest
of Gaul by Julius Caesar, because the native tribes in
Britain differed but little, as he tells us, from those in
Gaul. His two invasions of Britain (made light of by
historians as scarcely more than reconnaissances in force,
without result, except to sow dissensions among the
native tribes) facilitated the permanent occupation of the
country by Claudius a hundred years later. Julius Caesar
had been assisted in these parts by one Commius, an
Attrebatian, belonging to a tribe which occupied the
country around Arras, in the province of Artois, but hav-
ing influence with our Attrebates in Surrey, who were an
offshoot of the tribe of the same name on the Continent,
as were also the Belgse in Hampshire and Somerset con-
nected with a tribe of that name in the north of France,
who are described by Ca3sar as the most warlike of all
the Gauls. Grand is the account of the final outbreak in
Gaul, when the various tribes united, as a last eftbrt, under
Vercingetorix, to shake oft' the Roman yoke. In Caesar's
eighth campaign, 80,000 Gaulish men were assembled in
the camp of Alesia, in Auvergne ; and here the great
Caesar lost his sword, which was suspended as a trophy
in one of the temples of the Arverni. The great camp of
Alesia may be compared with our Cissbury Hill; but the
defeat of the Gauls was a lesson not lost upon Cogidunus,
who submitted with a good grace, and remained firm in
the Roman alliance.
The discourse on Wednesday evening, by Dr. Birch,
on the coins of the Britons in Sussex, before and after
their conquest, throws much light on British history, the
interest in which has been greatly heightened by visiting
some strongholds of the native tribes, and particularly
Cissbury and Bramber.
ANCIENT SUSSEX FORTRESSES. 103
I may here introduce a correction of some general
assumptions founded on Ci\3sar's words about British
camps. What he says has been quoted to show that all
the camps of the Britons were formed in woods, defended
by stockades and marshes, behind which they guarded
their families and their cattle. Csesar had little other
experience of British camps ; he knew them only in the
woodland country to which he penetrated on his second
invasion. His successors, to their cost, found British
camps on hills where there were no woods, and British
fortresses of stone in stone countries where this material
was less scarce than timber.^
Julius Caesar's description of a Gaulish fortress shows
a skill in carpentry and fortification, Avhich was probably
shared by the kindred tribes of the Attrebates and Belgse
in Britain, among whom there was certainly no scarcity
of timber, and their skill in fortification generally is
amply attested by the same authority. Claudius made
use of a native Prince in the same way that Julius
Csesar had done ; but the patriotism of Commius caused
him afterwards to betray the Boman cause, whereas
Cogidunus was loyal to the last. Claudius secured the
influence of Cogidunus, who was a chief or king of the
Regni, a tribe occupying this county of Sussex, by giving
up to him certain communities to govern as a King.
Bericus was another chief who assisted Claudius accord-
ing to Dion's account, but of him we know as little as of
the other, who is only once named by Tacitus ; this is all
we hear of him except in the probable mention of the
name of Cogidunus in a mutilated inscription found two
hundred years ago at the Barberini Palace at Bome, but
which has disappeared — though there seems no reason to
doubt its genuineness — and that found in 1723 at Chi-
chester, defective and broken into four pieces, wdiich was
described by Roger Gale in the Philosophical Transac-
tions of that year, vol. xxxii, page 391. He then was
1 No antiquary has taken move pains to investigate these British
Ofpida than xMr. C. Roach Smith, V.P., F.S.A., and 1 may refer to his
hist interesting accounts of two of them, tliat of Old Winchester, in the
parish of Meon Stoke, Hants (described in vol xl of i\\e Journal, p. 227),
and that of Tunorbury, a circuhir entrenclmient in Hayhng, also iu tiio
adjoining county (described in p. 420 of the same volume).
164 ANCIENT SUSSEX FORTRESSES.
chief or king of the Kegni ; and as the camps of the
Romans were interspersed among the settlements of the
native communities, and not unfrequently occupied posi-
tions formerly held by the British chiefs, a few words
shall first be said upon these civitates or communities of
the native inhabitants, which, under Roman rule appear
to have had their own government subject to the control
of considares and prcBsides, who were always pure
Komans. J ulius Caesar refers to these communities, with
interesting particulars concerning them, as well as
Tacitus, and when Roman rule in Britain expired they
seemed to have held their own as so many independent
republics.
The thirty-three civitates of Nennius represent pro-
bably the number of those states into which Britain was
divided. In Gaul, the country was occupied by 115
such civitates, and the name of the tribe survived as a
new name to their chief towns, as that of the Bellovaci
surviving in Beauvais, Ambiani in Amiens, Parish in
Paris, Attrebates in Arras, Suessiones in Soissons, Veneti
in Vannes, and many others.
The invasion of Britain by Aulus Plautius and Cneius
Sentius in a.d. 43 was made at three ports, which are
not named, though it is probable they were the three
ports in Kent known to the Romans by the invasion of
Julius Caesar. They had a friend in Cogidunus occu-
pying Sussex, and therefore the Emperor, on his arrival
in Britain the year following, was- free to attack the
Trinobantes, and cross the Thames, making his way to
Camulodunum, formerly the stronghold of the powerful
Cunobelin, and now defended by his gallant sons. The
whole country was afterwards subdued and pacified,
though not without much fighting ; and the episodes of
Caractacus and Boadicea rival in bravery and perseverance
the energetic resistance of the Gaulish chieftains. The
progress of Roman conquest seems pretty clearly indi-
cated by the facts without being very clearly given by
historians, through loss of a great portion of their works.
Kent was conquered, and Sussex in the hands of a
tributary king or client. Then two very powerful nations
were subdued, which I should take to be the Attrebates
in Surrey, who in the time of Caesar had captured and
ANCIENT SUSSEX FORTRESSES. 105
imprisoned his ally Commius ; secondly, the Belgians,
whose territory in Hampshire extended across to Somerset
and to the sea, which looks out upon Ireland, the llomans
thus securing their first province, which they named
Britannia Prima. They would then have had access to
Wales, which, after the capture of Caractacus, became
Britannia Secunda. Without troubling you with the
history of Koman Britain, I will endeavour to follow its
general course in Sussex by some observations on the
military camps and civilian homesteads.
We are looking northwards to the Downs, which
separate, as it were, the extensive tract of Sussex between
them and the sea from the Weald of Sussex, or great forest
of Anderida, on the other side of the hills. The strong
fortress of Pevensey defended Roman territory on the east,
its walls, of immense thickness, being still entire; and the
fortified city of Chichester guarded the country on the
west, with its impregnable outwork, the Broyle, towards
the north. From both these places Roman roads ran in
nearly a straight line to London. The road from Chi-
chester has been traced through nearly its whole course,
passing close to Bignor and through Hardham Camp,
near Pulborough and Billinghurst ; it then leaves Ockley,
in Surrey, a little to the eastward, and makes its way by
Dorking and Tooting to Stone Street, near London
Bridge. The other road, from Pevensey, does not appear
to have been traced throughout, but is supposed by the
Rev. Beale Post to have had its egress from Pevensey by
Hallsham and Hoi wood Hill, through Uckfield and Ash-
down Forest to Hartfield. Thence by Cowden, Eden-
bridge, and Westerham to Tiston and London. According
to this course it would have passed about two and a half
miles to the east of a large camp at Lingfield Mark,
enclosing within its ramparts 26 j acres of ground.
The part of Sussex between the two strongholds of
Pevensey on the one side and Chichester on the other
was occupied by a tribe called by Ptolemy 'Pr^yvoi, whose
name has been thought possibly derived from 'Vr]'y[xi<i, a
sea-beach on which the sea breaks. If this is so, the
word well describes the nature of this coast, having
few harbours, and these not very safe or accessible.
Cissbury Hill would be just such a position, in the centre
166 ANCIENT SUSSEX FORTRESSES.
of a district, as the Romans would have given to be
governed by a tributary king, taking care that he was
well watched by their own strong and commanding posi-
tions. For this reason I think they would rather have
located Cogidunus at Cissbury than at Chichester.
From this centre the tributary king, by occupying High-
Down (a camp near the Miller's tomb), and perhaps the
neighbouring fortified hills, which may have been pre-
viously in the hands of British chiefs, would command
the district and be a useful ally of the Romans to defend