THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
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be confined within proper limits. Certain areas of the forest land would be
reclaimed and subjected to cultivation, and the old war-paths would be re-placed
by solid and substantial roadways. The inhabitants still engaged to some extent
in the performance of military duties, but many engaged in manufactures and
other peaceful occupations.
No doubt in the early days of the Roman town, when Boadicea, with her fierce
warriors swooped down upon the place and harried it, life in Caesaromagus was not
much more pleasant than it seems to have been lately in the Soudan ; but after the
country had settled down under the Roman rule, I can see no reason why life in
Caesaromagus, with its unlimited resources in the way of sport, and possibly oysters
at 1d. per 100, with good hard roads to London and Colchester and other towns,
should not have been pleasant, agreeable, and civilized. It must be remembered
that this country was a colony of the Romans for about 460 years ; during the last
350 years of which period they may have been said to have held undisputed sway.
This is a period, comparing it with modern history, which would be equal to that
extending from the commencement of the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the present
time. We can, therefore, well imagine that a people so civilized as the
Romans would introduce, at any rate to some extent, their ordinary mode of life
at Rome into their colonies in exactly the same way as we do in the present day ;
and therefore it does not require any great strain upon the imagination to realize
that the daily life of those who lived in this town some 1,500 or 1,600 years ago
was one of advanced civilization, when trade, commerce, and the fine arts were
cultivated to a considerable extent; and we cannot doubt but that the town was
surrounded by gardens for the growth of fruit, farms for the cultivation of corn, and
pasture lands for the raising of stock.
When the Romans withdrew from this island, the country became the battle
ground of the remnants of the old British tribes which had migrated westward and
northward, and the invaders from the continent known as the Jutes, the Saxons,
and the Angles.
Eventually the East Saxons established themselves in Essex, and it is to the
period of their occupation that we now turn.
In the Saxons we are dealing with a people who present a striking contrast to
their predecessors. The Romans were builders, and their ideas were imperial;
the Saxons were agrarian and domestic. The introduction of Christianity compelled
them to build churches, otherwise we should have but little of a substantial
character to mark their occupation.
As it is, the Anglo-Saxons have left their most enduring traces in our laws and
in our language ; and so, although the Romans occupied this district as long as the
Saxons, yet we find that this whole country is, in its language and the names of
its towns and villages, impregnated with the Saxon tongue, and this very town of
Chelmsford is certainly indebted to the Saxons for its name ; for the original
Saxon name of "Chelmerford" signifies "The ford of a deep, sluggish stream
occasionally overflowing its banks." Up to the year 823 the East Saxons held
Essex, Middlesex, and part of Herts. About that period the seven distinct
kingdoms into which Britain had been divided were united in what was called the
Heptarchy by Egbert, and from that period down to 1013 it remained in the
Saxon line ; but in 1013 Sweyn, the first Danish King, obtained possession of
the country, and so from that period up to 1066, the Saxon and Danish Kings
alternately, according to their success in war, ruled the country. Beyond its name
I am afraid I cannot point out to you any positive evidence of the Saxon occupa-
tion in this town. After the fierce storms which raged between the contending