252
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Estuary Company," was formed for enclosing some of the Essex saltings. In the
course of their operations it became necessary to remove a quantity of soil at St.
Peter's Head for the purpose of embanking, and they thus lighted upon the foun-
dations of a solid wall of Roman masonry, which proved, on examination, to be
the remains of the long-lost castrum of Othona, which, enclosing from seven to
eight acres, was seated about the middle (from north to south) of this tongue of
land, but on the east the sea has washed away the greater part of the walls. The
property fortunately belonged to Mr. Oxley Parker, who had the remains thoroughly
explored, with the assistance of Mr. Roach Smith, Mr. Thomas Lewin, Mr.
Chancellor, etc., and the relics discovered were those exhibited at our meeting in
Dr. Plume's library. Full details will be found in Mr. Lewin's paper in volume
xli. of the "Archaeologia," and in a paper by Mr. Roach Smith in the "Gentle-
man's Magazine" for 1865. Othona was probably built by Carausius (a.d. 286-
293), who rebelled against the Roman authority and declared himself Emperor in
Britain, but was soon (a.d. 293) slain by Allectus, who was in turn slain in A.D.
296 by Constantius Chlorus, when he reclaimed Britain again to the Roman
Empire after ten years of independence. Coins of twenty-four Emperors—from
Gallienus to Honorius—were found (exhibited at the meeting), but those of
Carausius occurred in the greatest abundance. The west wall extends 522 feet,
and the Porta Praetoria (principal entrance) was on this side ; the fosse is still
traceable on the north, west, and south sides—the water still stands in the S.W.
corner. The masonry was about twelve feet thick, but no part of the walls now
rise above the surface of the ground. This Castrum, built to oppose the piratical
invasions of the Saxons, was occupied by a band of the Fortenses for about 120
years, as it was, of course, evacuated when the Romans abandoned Britain (A.D.
409) in the reign of Honorius.
As to St. Peter's Chapel, there can be little doubt but that it is the veritable
handiwork of the old Saxon missionary, Bishop Cedd (St. Chad). Bede tells us
that the two most famous churches built by Cedd (who converted the East Saxons
to Christianity in the reign of Sigebert, a.d. 653) were at Ithanceastre and Til-
bury, so probably the chapel was his cathedral; at any rate it is particularly inte-
resting as the earliest attempt at an ecclesiastical edifice in the county of Essex, at
the dawn of Christianity in Britain, when the majority of the population was still
pagan, and when all England lay in comparative darkness. This Saxon chapel
(appropriately dedicated to St. Peter, the Apostle of the Gentiles) is built in the
very jaws of the Castrum—in the Porta Praetoria, the western gateway. The
greater part of it lies within the Castrum, but a portion projects beyond. Not
unlikely the foundations of the Roman pharos were enlarged to serve for the apse
of the Saxon church. Morant tells us that in 1442 a jury found this chapel "had
a chancel, nave, and small tower, with two bells ; that it was burnt, etc." Later
(Elizabeth-Charles II.) it was used as a beacon or lighthouse, and it is still a well-
known sea-mark. The spot where once so many thousands congregated—Britons,
Romans, and Saxons—is now a waste without a dwelling in sight, and the only
building is the barn into which a part of the old chapel of Bishop Cedd has been
perverted. Two water-colour drawings by the Rev. H. M. Milligan were ex-
hibited, from one of which Mr. H. A. Cole has made the accompanying sketch,
and also a plan of Othona, prepared by Mr. Chancellor.
Mr. Fitch read Col. Lumsden's spirited paraphrase of the Saxon "Song of
Maldon" ("Macmillan's Magazine," March, 1887), a contemporary historical
fragment (than which nothing is finer in Saxon literature) celebrating, in poetical
and Caedmonian diction, the prowess of Byrhtnoth the Ealdorman, and other