Reviews

REVIEWS Dover: The Buckland Anglo-Saxon Cemetery. By Vera I. Evison. 29.7 x 20.9 cm. Pp. 412, 120 figs., 12 pls., 4 colour pls. Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, Archaeological Report no. 3, London 1987 (£45, cased). It had long been suspected, from the finds displayed in the British Museum and from those selected for special publication by the excavator in advance of this report, that the Dover, Buckland, Anglo-Saxon cemetery would prove to be perhaps the most important to have been excavated in Kent during modern times. And so this substantial and handsome volume confirms. The site is just big enough, well enough excavated, quite wideranging enough in date and sufficiently aristocratic, yielding finds of high quality and informative burial-rituals, to justify the really exhaustive analysis of all its aspects which its excavator presents here. Vera Evison sets an exceptionally high standard in this volume, which should help initiate a new phase in cemetery research and publication. By the end of the volume we have a clearer picture of the history of this community settled near Dover than of any other contemporary Anglo-Saxon society. And when we have comparably clear pictures of the very different communities represented by other recently excavated cemeteries such as Finglesham (report in preparation along the same lines), St. Peter's, Ozingell and others, then we shall have the beginnings of a much better understanding of the apparently very diverse social and economic groupings which made up the early Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent. The cemetery was dug as long ago as thirty-five years, at a time when experience and resources were minimal and the excavator part-time and more or less single-handed except for labourers working with pick and shovel. This reviewer experienced similar problems and all the same frustrations of long years of inadequate post-excavation funding and lack of assistance until very recent times. Professor Evison has been lucky that her retirement from university teaching has enabled her to take full advantage of the recent deal for pre-1973 back-log excavations to crack on with the Dover report as 389 REVIEWS expeditiously as she has. Of course, she had been preparing the ground for many years. Realising from the outset that the state of research into Anglo-Saxon artifacts was woefully inadequate by modern standards, she had been busying herself since the 1950s preparing corpora and studies of many of the major object-types represented at Dover, thus not only furthering the state of the subject generally but also laying the foundations of the present report. The strategy has paid off handsomely. The excavation was carried out under all the adversity of rescue conditions on a building site, and unfortunately part of the cemetery, possibly the earliest part, was destroyed. The record is therefore incomplete, but the 164 graves excavated seem to have been well recorded by Professor Evison, judging from her grave-plans and the fair copies of her detailed measured drawings of the more complex object-assemblages published with the Grave Inventory. Her published photographs of graves have all the authenticity of an amateur's best, given the kinds of film and cameras available in those days, and will certainly all have been taken in the poor light of late evening, since all graves had to be excavated and recorded in one day. The published views of the site convey the dismal circumstances of the excavation extremely well. The drawings of the grave-goods were made over many years thereafter, beginning, as the reviewer knows, well back in the 1950s thanks to the help and patronage of the late Gerald Dunning. They are mostly recognisably the work of the talented Elizabeth Fry-Stone in her prime, thus admirably clear and of high artistry as well as accuracy. The written Inventory is very brief and to the point, but in the reviewer's opinion contains too little detailed description of objects. The result is that all the sections of object discussion, normally Vera Evison's special interest, are too much interlarded with passages of detailed description. In fact, the discussions of the objects, though undeniably high-powered, are almost the worst aspects of the report, consisting of lengthy and indigestible hunks of text without adequate sub-headings to help the reader move from typology and comparanda, through chronology to function. This part of the report needed firmer editing. However, thanks to her handling of chronology, Professor Evison is able to emulate Ursula Koch's initiative in her report on the Alamannic cemetery of Schretzheim, and postulate a series of seven phases of burial, between c. 475 to c. 750, which she illustrates by the objects in use during these phases. This is the first time this has been done systematically for any Anglo-Saxon cemetery and will be especially useful for future work on Kent. The precise phasing may not entirely stand up, however - Professor Evison consistently dates 390 REVIEWS certain objects, notably cast saucer-brooches with five-spiral ornament and button-brooches, too early in the fifth century. Nothing in the way of closed finds-groups from the Dover cemetery dates its excavated graves before c. 500 or even c. 525 at earliest, so the precise phasing will need re-evaluation. But at least her essay in phasing based on the Dover cemetery can be followed and amplified or corrected by work on other sites, so that gradually a reliable chronological system for Kentish grave-goods may be arrived at. The plan of the Dover cemetery is such as to lend itself to interpretation in terms of family plots, gradually increasing in numbers as time went on and the community expanded. Groups of burials were separated and conditioned by enclosures, pathways and visible features such as buildings, totem poles and a prehistoric barrow, which severally and together dictated the placing and orientation of burials at different periods. The elucidation of this aspect is one of the best and most interesting sections of the report. Another outstanding section is the discussion of social status. Eschewing the misleading attempt to 'score' grave-goods, essayed by Chris Arnold in 1980, Vera Evison follows a modified version of a system used by Leslie Alcock in 1981, for interpreting the Dover community as the burial-place of people of aristocratic 'eorl' and free 'ceorl' status. From the shortage of graves without grave-goods, evidently the underprivileged people of unfree and half-free rank were buried elsewhere. As to the functional role of this community in relation to the port of Dover, Evison rejects my own suggestion that her people may have resembled those in the cemetery at Sarre as being the port-garrison of the king's reeve. Now that the cemetery is fully published, one sees that the absolute numbers of weapon-graves are not so high as at Sarre in the critical period during the later sixth and seventh centuries, nor the numbers of imported wheel-made vessels associated with the wine trade so high. But she does deal very usefully with the present evidence for Anglo-Saxon occupation of the port at Dover, which extended back at least into the sixth century, so presumably there must be another cemetery closer to Dover which filled the role of the military community at Sarre. Her useful map (Fig. 36) of Anglo-Saxon sites in the Dover area may provide a clue as to which this may have been. The report on the Dover, Buckland, cemetery was prepared over a long period of time, and this shows in the final product. Whereas Elizabeth Fry-Stone's drawings of the grave-goods stand out as excellent and are reproduced to a decent scale, some of the other art-work fares less well. The colour illustrations of beads are very good and should prove an excellent series for reference. The grave-plans, on the other hand, have been crowded too many onto 391 REVIEWS the page and over-reduced, and the site plan itself, Fig. 2, has been severely over-reduced to fit the A4 page format. In this instance, at least, we could have done with a folder. There is an admirable parade of in-site distributions on the basic cemetery plan of every artifacttype, and everything from grave-chronology to orientation and lay-out, often using two colours (Figs. 85-110). However, not all these figures are easily legible and few make the visual impact that would enable them to reproduce well for teaching purposes as a slide. As a university teacher, this reviewer regards this as a great pity and a blemish. Finally, this volume appears under the name of one sole author. In these days, when so much depends on specialist reports, and latterly on the help of assistants, it is normal to figure the names of one's colleagues in the production of such a complex report more prominently than has been done here. Very many people were involved in the publication of the Dover cemetery, and all deserve to share in the praise, along with Professor Evison herself, for producing such a significant, handsome and thoroughly modern publication of an important Anglo-Saxon cemetery. SONIA CHADWICK HAWKES Continuity and Colonization. The Evolution of Kentish Settlement. By Alan Everitt. 17 x 25 cm. Pp. 426, 16 maps, and 15 tables. Leicester Studies in English Local History, Leicester University Press, 1986. (£47.50, cased. Available to K.A.S. members at £37.50). Professor Everitt gave us a foretaste of his researches into the early history of settlement in Kent in two articles, published in 1977 and 1979, but they did not fully prepare us for the scale and originality of his final work. His book, now published after more than a decade of toil and reflection, is a remarkable demonstration of the new knowledge that can be gathered from the assiduous study of maps, place-names, church dedications, charters, and finally by viewing the landscape with a 'seeing' eye. Here is an exemplary text to inspire others to go and do likewise in other counties. The book sets out to explore the way Kent came to be settled from the Romano-British period onwards, through the Anglo-Saxon and Norman conquests, down to the fourteenth century. The author divides the county into six main regions, namely, the Foothills north of the Downs, the Downland itself, Holmesdale to the south, the Chartland on the Lower Greensand, the Weald, and the Marshland, and gives a general survey of the chronology of settlement in each 392 - REVIEWS zone. Many illuminating observations are offered along the way: for example, the direction of the majority of roads from north-east to south-west has nothing to do with the pull of London, while the present-day nucleated villages of Kent have a different origin from those of Midland England, being usually declined market towns, or industrial centres of later growth. As the account of each region proceeds, however, it becomes clear that the author must concentrate his attention on the northern half of the county, if he is to make sense of the beginnings of settlement. The colonization of the Weald made only limited progress in the period under review, and, in any case, we already have that impressive piece of topographical detective work on the Weald, K.P. Witney's The Jutish Forest. The marshes round Romney also have a late, rather than early, history of settlement, since they could not support habitations until an adequate drainage system was devised, and much the same is true of the marshlands of the Swale, Medway, and Stour in the north, though here the land was incorporated in some of the most anciently settled parishes, their inhabitants making their abode on the drier upland sites nearby. The Chartland, similarly, is an area of late settlement, for although it was used at an early date as a quarry for stone and as common pasture for the communities of Holmesdale, it lacked centres of habitation except on a few fertile patches like that around Maidstone. Many places on the Chartland, indeed, did not appear on the map until the thirteenth century or later; and their churches, which sprang from the missionary endeavours of mother-churches in Holmesdale, for a long time remained dependent on them. Concentrating on the areas of primary settlement, then, Professor Everitt shows how the Foothills north of the Downs, the Downs, and Holmesdale were all as deeply forested at the beginning as the Weald. The first settlers gained a foothold on the flatter lands on either side of the Downs because here the soils were fertile, and access was possible by means of the three rivers Medway, Darent, and Stour. The first territorial estates, frequently royal, were therefore set up along these riversides, or along springlines at the foot of the chalk hills. Their centres became market towns, like Maidstone, Faversham, Dartford, and Milton Regis. With lands extending over 20,000 acres, or even twice that size, different portions of each estate were colonized at different stages and served different purposes. Here Professor Everitt's study of place-names is extremely enlightening, for he shows how deeply wooded were the downlands at this period, affording timber and grazing to the occupants of the lowlands. Among the smaller estates, for example, was that of the Wingham people, located beside the River Wingham, and comman- 393 REVIEWS ding a territory that stretched onto the downs at Womenswold. The layout of Wingham itself suggests an ancient market centre, since its High Street lies on a prehistoric ridgeway, while Womenswold speaks of the former Wald or woodland at the edge of the territory. Another primary estate was Darenth, located in the valley of the River Darent, and starting from the river ford at Dartford. It was a royal estate until the tenth century, and so Kingsdown on the outskirts is a significant place name, denoting the wood-pasture of the estate. Milton Regis was at the centre of yet another major estate, which Professor Everitt is able to reconstitute in some detail in a chapter on its own. Clear maps and a clear text show how Professor Everitt sees the pattern of growth of these early estates, as new habitation sites were established, and the large estates became subdivided. But innumerable examples are adduced to show how, on the outer edges of these territories, the woodland remained dense in the less accessible coombes of the Downs, even into the nineteenth century. Those who know some of these more remote spots nowadays will find this argument entirely credible, and see the landscape with new eyes after reading these pages. The subsequent history of the downlands calls for a chapter on the downland economy, which is full of fresh insights. Since the Downs were the original wood-pasture of the Foothills and Holmesdale estates, it is significant that the permanent settlements that emerged here by the fourteenth century gave rise to many small parishes, quite unlike those of the Weald, although the economy was pastoral in character, with vaccaries and sheepfarms. There was little here to foreshadow the emergence of the Downs as the granary of the county. The permament settlers, who brought transhumance to an end, began to achieve their independence of the primary estates before the Norman Conquest. So the explanation for the small estates contrived here must lie somewhere in the social structure of this early period. Noticeably, grazing rights in the Weald were firmly witheld from them by their lords and masters in Holmesdale and the Foothills, though these maintained for much longer their own hold on the distant dens of the Weald. Domesday Book shows how the downland had already become fragmented into small estates in the hands of obscure local men, and in one case gavelkind is seen at work in the division of one place between six people. In other words, as colonization proceeded, the royal and ecclesiastical owners of the ancient estates shed these poor outlying lands. But in doing so, they gave free rein to modest, hardworking farmers to raise their fortunes, and some of them emerged later to form an indigenous gentry class with a style of their own. Unpretentious manor houses and lonely farmsteads were their hallmark. 394 .· REVIEWS It is impossible in two-or three pages to do justice to a dense and yet wide-ranging argument; all the reviewer can do is to whet the appetite of the reader to read on. The book is attractively written and well furnished with maps (though librarians will groan at the way the maps are bled to the edges of the pages, thereby posing serious difficulties if ever rebinding becomes necessary). The author conveys a strong sense of his own excitement as he clears a path into new territory, is driven from one line of enquiry to another, and finds that the different discoveries lock together like a jigsaw, each line of argument drawing support from its convenient fit with the rest. Some of the most original findings emerge from the study of church dedications, out of which Professor Everitt draws suggestive ideas that call out for local historians to investigate them further. A significant number of primary churches with early-style dedications, for example, are associated with heathen temples or burial grounds, and lie close to prehistoric tracks and Roman roads; in Holmesdale the Greenway actually passes through the churchyards of a line of primary churches at the foot of the Downs. Even more startling is the fact that a remarkable number of Kentish churches are dedicated to women, strongly suggesting that they played a leading role in bringing Christianity to Kent. The connection of early Kentish churches with holy wells and springs may even point to a heathen religious cult of female water spirits, that was turned in a different direction by the Christian church. But Professor Everitt is extremely cautious; he will not speculate too boldly, and in a footnote written later (p. 389, fn. 63) he shrinks back from this particular suggestion. Yet, surely the essential need for water wherever man pushed into new lands makes such a possibility inherently plausible and certainly worth further examination. All who have curiosity in the history of landscape will find this one of the most exciting and rewarding studies yet made. It is launched on many fronts at once, and emphatically demonstrates how essential is this procedure, if one is to uncover some general principles and convince others that the examples studied are not singularities. Throughout the text, Professor Everitt draws parallels with other areas of England, but at the same time stresses repeatedly the respects in which Kent seems to be singular. He calls the landscape 'the language of settlement', and though he is cautious, even to a fault, he can surely take credit confidently for a major achievement in comprehending that language and helping others to do the same. Som􀁮 day in the future it will be possible to propound some general theories of English settlement history, and we shall then be making a qualitative leap forward, bringing us into a new era of understanding of landscape and social history. This book brings us an important step nearer to that day. JOAN THIRSK 395 REVIEWS Kentish Sources X. Kent and the Napoleonic Wars. Selected Documents. By Peter Bloomfield. 21 x 14 cm. Pp. xi + 193, 17 illustrations and 2 plans. Kent Archives Office, 1987 (£5.95). While following the French declaration of war on Britain on 1 February, 1793, and 'faced with the prospect of invasion the whole country was organized to resist' (p. 48), to Kent belongs the distinction of being the 'front line county in the defence of the realm' (p. 56). This was so during the twenty-two years of struggle between Britain and France, 1793-1815, encompassing the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, which were separated only by the short Peace of Amiens, 1802-3. Over that long period 'in no part of the realm was the French threat felt more strongly, nor the urge to act to meet the danger of invasion more immediate, than in the County of Kent' (p.1 ).T his latest volume in the long-running and well-established Kentish Sources series is a most welcome addition to what is already a vast national literature on the Napoleonic period and particularly so for the detailed light which it sheds on the impact of these wars at the local level. The book commences with 56 pages of Commentary touching on the course of the struggle, with insights into what was happening on the French side; naval functions and requirements and how they were met; a survey of the county's coastal fortifications, extending from Gravesend to Dungeness, showing 'what the French would have had to contend with if they had tried to effect a landing in Kent between 1793 and 1815' (p. 23); how those well-known physical remains of the period - the Royal Military Canal, the Martello Towers and the Dover Western Heights - came into being; the county's dependence upon four types of defence force, viz. Regulars, Militia, Fencibles and Volunteers, all but the first being reserve forces; policies affecting the civilian population and the considerable impact of prolonged warfare on everyday life resulting from transport and billeting requirements, the press gang, French privateers and not least 'the excitements of smuggling, deserters and escaped prisoners' (p. 50). What was a prolonged struggle between Britain and France 'has left its mark upon Kent in two respects: physical remains of defences built; and records relating to this and to other aspects of the conflict' (p. 2). Allied to and following the Commentary are 103 pages of original evidence extracted from 33 Documents, it being 'the purpose of this volume ... to recall some of the atmosphere of those times through a selection of the documents that remain' (p. 2). This section of the book draws upon and fully introduces an impressive range of documentary evidence. 396 REVIEWS Among the more interesting items are extracts from the Diary of Thomas Pattenden of Dover (pp. 59-65) showing all too clearly how that town was 'very much in the forefront of events during the French Wars'. An active army officer's life in the 'Front Line' is recalled in a letter written from Shorncliffe Camp in 1804 (pp. 134-5). The Kentish Gazette is revealed as 'an interesting source for the War period providing varied information on such matters as military and naval dispositions (for both sides), defence preparations, reviews, promotions and appointments, and, in great personal detail, deserters' (pp. 77-87). Impressment and the press gang as a cause of local disorder are touched on in Documents 16 and 17 (pp. 119-21). Document 19 concerns John Rennie's Report upon the proposed Military Canal, dated 31 October, 1804, in the Hythe Town Archive, including the fear that it will 'sever Farms across and render them very inconvenient in the occupation', but 'in time exchanges will be made, and Farms rendered much more compact, and easier in their occupation than now' (pp. 125-30). The documentary evidence inevitably includes William Cobbett's famous and scathing attacks of 1823 on the Royal Military Canal, the Martello Towers and the Dover Western Heights (pp. 131-4), but these are not allowed to pass without comment. His dismissal of Martello Towers, each requiring about a quarter of a million bricks, 'as a complete waste of money' was 'wise after the event perhaps', given that they were never put to the test (p. 36), while the incompleted Western Heights, on which all work had ceased in 1814, presented a 'somewhat chaotic picture' prior to 'their final form, achieved in the mid-nineteenth century' (p. 39). In addition to a generous Commentary, well supported by a wealth of documentary evidence, the overall text is supported by seventeen illustrations and explanatory notes, two plans depicting the Kent defences of 1793 to 1815 and the Kentish martello coast and a useful glossary of terms relevant to a fuller understanding of Kent and the Napoleonic Wars. My regrets about this book are twofold: firstly, a failure to correct the misspelling of accommodate on at least four occasions (pp. 29, 33, 161 and 185) and secondly, the fact that it was thought to be beyond the scope of this study to investigate the wider economic and social effects of prolonged warfare in such areas as employment opportunities, living standards or price movements. Did the wars, for instance, create full employment? How far were they the instigators of future social discontent in the county? Also omitted is the whole question of readjustment to a peacetime economy after 1815, but to be fair to the author what is offered to the reader is 'an introduction to the subject'. Certainly the documentary evidence as presented points the way to 397 REVIEWS further research and, while this study does not tell the complete story, Peter Bloomfield is to be congratulated on producing an authoritative and well documented study of the impact of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars within Kent, which truly deserves a place in any worthwhile library of Kentish books. J. WHYMAN The Earliest English Brasses. Edited by John Coales, with contributions by Malcolm Norris, Nicholas Rogers, Paul Binski and John Blair. 27 X 22 cm. Pp. 234 with 219 illustrations. Published by the Monumental Brass Society, 1987 (£12.95). To celebrate the centenary of its foundation, the Monumental Brass Society has published this work which is to be regarded as a highly important contribution to the study of the origin and early development of brasses. It covers the period from the late thirteenth century to the year 1350 - a time in which some of the finest brasses were produced. Unfortunately, not many have survived, their loss being partly due to the practice of merely bedding the plates in pitch without securing dowels as used later. However, the empty slabs frequently remain and bear indents revealing the significant outlines of the former metal components. Evidence taken from the whole country is sufficient to form a basis for conclusions vital to the understanding of the origins of the craft and distinguish various schools of workmanship. Much has been learned as a result of scholarly research in the last forty years and many previously held views have needed revision. The four contributors to this book have summarised the latest conclusions with admirable clarity and full reference to the relative evidence. Kentish churches contain over seven hundred brasses covering all periods and the latest research suggests that the county possesses one of the two earliest life-size figure brasses in England, namely, that at Cobham to Joan de Cobham (c. 1310), only equalled in age by Margaret de Camoys at Trotton in Sussex. The famous knightly effigy at Stoke d' Abernon in Surrey has been demoted from its preeminence and is now dated c. 1327 instead of c. 1277 as formerly; moreover, it is identified as commemorating Sir John d 'Abernon II and not his father. The splendid brass at Chartham to a member of the Septvans family is claimed to belong not to Sir Robert de Septvans but to his son William, and its date is accordingly brought forward from c. 1304 to c. 1322. Evidence for these changes cannot be adequately summarised in this review, but as set out by Paul Binski it carries conviction. 398 REVIEWS London is shown to have been the centre of production of early brasses in the south-east of England and the trade was in the hands of the marblers who shaped Purbeck slabs in which the brasses were almost invariably set. Bishops and abbots were frequently commemorated by early brasses although archbishops of Canterbury do not appear to have succumbed to the fashion in the period under consideration, while Rochester cathedral has nothing to show in the form of episcopal brasses or indents before 1350, the thirteenthcentury bishops being for the most part commemorated by Purbeck tombs. Early fourteenth-century minor ecclesiastics are, however, represented in Kent, for example, the parish priests Thomas de Hop (c. 1346) at Kemsing, and Nicholas de Gore (c. 1333) at Woodchurch. Inscriptions on early brasses were usually composed of separate brass letters set into the stone, and these appear to have been mass-produced in standard sizes and supplied to the marblers. John Blair has already contributed an article containing reference to the subject in the K.A.S. publication Collectanea Historica in 1981, and he has returned to it in the present volume. The numerous illustrations are mainly in the form of clear line drawings, conveniently arranged in most cases to be observed in close relationship to the relevant text. P.J. TESTER Invasion: The Roman Conquest of Britain. By John Peddie. 23.5 x 15 cm. Pp. 214. 70 illustrations. Alan Sutton, Gloucester, 1987. (£14.95, cased). John Peddie brings a military background, incJuding service with the Indian army during the second world war, to a re-examination of the Roman invasion in A.D. 43 and the subsequent occupation of the West; he approaches the events leading to the landing at Richborough and the following campaigns with a modern military mind, which has much to commend it so long as it not forgotten that the military logic he applies to the whole question may not necessarily have been the Romans' own approach. Having said this, it is not surprising that this well-researched volume contains much that is fresh and acceptable as well as interpretations of events that not everyone will find unquestionable. Particularly interesting is Chapter Two where Peddie's modern approach provides much that is new on the Roman army and its logistics, with information not only on the manpower needed for the invasion force, which is after all well documented, but also on its 399 REVIEWS support troops, naval and animal transport, the supplies essential for feeding both men and animals and so on. As for the landings at Rich borough ( Chapter Three), the author supports the now generally accepted view of one location with landings in three successive waves after consolidation of the initial bridgehead. Then, after considering in detail (pp. 75-6) the most advantageous route to the Medway, Peddie attempts to re-interpret the battle fought for the crossing of the river (his argument is not made easier to follow by the misplacing of Rochester on the west bank of and at some distance from the river on his maps, which have no scale). According to the author, the Romans crossed the Medway in two places: south of Rochester and somewhere north of Aylesford (at the Eccles site there is an early ditch, which may be military, with Claudian pottery, pieces of bronze from a military casket and a calthrop), which is the accepted view, and north of the city, when correctly located, by the Batavians. Peddie suggests that the Batavians were 'protected from view by a bend in the river' (p. 82), though it may be pointed out that, if the Roman HQ had a good view of the area from the Great Lines Hill at Chatham (61 m.), the Britons must have had an even better view of the postulated crossing from Broom Hill (76 m.). There is no known archaeological evidence for such a crossing, which only becomes necessary if, as Peddie argues (pp. 82 ff.), the Romans pursued the retreating Britons north and crossed the Thames between Higham and East Tilbury. Again, archaeological evidence is totally lacking; all that remains is the logic of the more direct route from the Medway to Colchester and the medieval crossing between Higham and East Tilbury. In these circumstances, the verdict must still be one of not proven. In Chapter Five, Peddie reverts to the usual interpretation of a Roman advance on Colchester after crossing the Thames in London, though he suggests that by then the Romans were in control of both the Kent and the Essex banks of the river and need not have forced its crossing. In spite of Dio's categoric statement to that effect and Professor Frere's warning that 'Dio's words should be taken exactly as they stand unless there is some good reason why the original Greek can be construed in a different way', which Peddie freely acknowledges (p. 108), he questions whether 'Dio telescoped his account' (p. 107); for, if so, it would fit better with the author's suggestion. In the meantime, the contingent that supposedly crossed over to East Tilbury appears to have become unimportant (p. 104) though, logically, the exploitation of the postulated bridgehead on the Essex coast would seem obvious. The remainder of this book is devoted to the withdrawal and defeat of Caratacus (often misspelt as Caractacus), and the campaign in the 400 REVIEWS West which, Peddie suggests, was undertaken mainly in order to shorten the Romans' lines of communication between the English and Bristol Channels, a proposition unlikely to command universal acceptance in that it seems to ignore the strategic objectives of the mining areas of the Mendips and the Forest of Dean. Potted biographies of the protagonists and appendices on Caesar's invasion of 54 B.C., the Medway bridges at Rochester and Roman logistical matters conclude this volume, the last appendix containing some fascinating information. There is an unfortunate tendency in this book to put forward as a fact what was clearly postulated a few pages earlier (e.g. 'the bridge they had retained' (p. 99) for which there is no evidence, and 'He [Caratacus) had succeeded in containing the Romans in the area where they had gained a foothold on the north bank of the Thames' (p. 100). Likewise, Peddie's estimates of the British forces in A.D. 43, based on the Gallic tribes of the Belgic rebellion a century earlier, are very debatable. This is a thought-provoking book which merits to be read with care, even though few may agree that Peddie has proved his thesis where he departs from orthodoxy. Unfortunately, it contains far too many printer's errors (at least 41 were noticed), which should have been corrected on proof; for instance, footnote 81 is really 21, 'Illustrations' should read 'Page ix' and 'Introduction' 'Page xiii' in the list of contents, 'White Sheet Castle' (p. 153) and 'White Street Castle' in the caption of illustration 60 appear on the same page. Also, 'CANTIACI' on the maps (pp. 7 and 9) is anachronistic, and 'Cantii' (p. 22) at least contradictory. The illustrations are a mixture of line drawings (the maps, except those on pp. 62-4, should have had scales) and photographs (the Maiden Castle victim was killed by a ballista bolt, not an arrow, p. 149) most of which are old friends, the main exceptions being those of the Ermine Street Guard, which add a certain piquancy to this interesting book. A.P. DETSICAS Mathematical Tiles in the Faversham Area. By T.P. Smith. Faversham Papers no. 25, The Faversham Society, 1984. (£1.00). Our member, Mr T.P. Smith has explored one of the byways of the history of building technology very thoroughly - the use of mathematical tiles, a form of tile-hanging which closely resembles brickwork. He is at present engaged in making a complete survey of buildings containing these in the County of Kent and has chosen to publish an interim report on those in Faversham and its immediate area in the 401 REVIEWS Faversham Papers series. However, Mr. Smith's interest in mathematical tiles is not just local. He has also contributed a major national paper to the Journal of the British Archaeological Association (cxxxviii, 1985) and, as a student of early brickwork, is well qualified to assess their importance. Mathematical tiles are found particularly in Kent and Sussex, although they also reach into Surrey, Hampshire and Wiltshire and there are some in Cambridgeshire and East Anglia, with an occasional example elsewhere. As far as north-east Kent is concerned, the author shows that they are an urban phenomenon, with 138 examples in Canterbury and 35 in Faversham out of 217 found, many of the others being in small towns. They range in date from the middle of the eighteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth. They were particularly useful for cladding timber-framed houses, when they were no longer fashionable, so that they would resemble more up-to-date brickwork. This publication is not simply a list of the buildings found, but also gives a good introduction to the subject and is accompanied by a very comprehensive bibliography. The format of Faversham Papers, with their duplicafed text and stapled single sheets, makes possible the publication of local history works of specialised appeal at a lower price. The snag usually comes in the reproduction of illustrations. In this case, however, the author has provided clear line drawings of constructional details and these have printed well from an electronic stencil. This booklet can be thoroughly recommended and will cause many to look forward to the final report on the whole County, when it is ready. KENNETH GRA VE'IT The Faversham Gunpowder Industry. By Arthur Percival. 30 X 21 cm. Pp. viii x 36. 2 maps and 4 illustrations by Jack Salmon. Third edition (augmented), 1986. (60 p., limp). Faversham Creek. By Arthur Percival. 21 x 15 cm. Pp. ii + 30. Nutshell Guide no. 2, 1987. The Village of Selling. By Olivia Edmondson (Mrs. Oliva Bovil). 21 x 15 cm. Pp. i + 11. Nutshell Guide no. 1, 1986. Obtainable from the Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre, 13 Preston Street, Faversham, ME13 SNS. The Faversham Society's latest productions show that there is no slackening of research work in that part of Kent. They also show that there is a growing demand for publications such as that of Arthur Percival's paper on the Chart Powder Mills and on the history of the 402 REVIEWS gunpowder industry nurtured there. These mills are acknowledged to be the oldest of their kind in the world. The second edition was well worth its price, but the third excels itself for it is much more than a reprint. I contains four new appendices of eight pages, devoted to an additional bibliography and notes, a summary of gunpowder-making processes, a provisional list of accidental explosions at Faversham during the period 1703 to 1916 and a long roll of employees at the Home and Marsh Works in 1796. The Faversham Society is also undertaking a new venture, the Nutshell Guides, 'launched in response to public demand for brief accounts of topics not covered in the Society's popular Faversham Papers series'. It is fitting that one of these is by Arthur Percival. I read it at one sitting and can thoroughly recommend it as a short, introductory guide to Faversham for it is a commentary on what may be seen on a modern walk through the town from the south (Chart Mills) to the north (Faversham Creek). Mrs. Bovil's Guide to Selling is an enthusiastic essay written for a village fete in 1973. The Kentish Messiah, Sir William Courtenay, is mentioned briefly and mainly because his corpse was conveyed to the Red Lion in the van of one of the local Hogbens. Since the mid-eighteenth century, this family produced a pile of business records concerning its activities - building, carpentering and undertaking - which the authoress puts to good use. Historians of the hop industry in Kent may like to know that this firm made hop tallies, which were scored across with notches to represent the amount of hops picked. The essay shows that it is not always necessary to believe local historical gossip, attractive though it may be. Mrs. Bovil writes that 'there is a flag in the south chapter [of the parish church] taken from the Spanish ship at the Battle of Trafalgar by Commander Stephen Hilton, captain of the frigate Minotaur.' What is the truth according to the Navy Lists? Nothing so locally glamorous for Stephen Hilton was but a master's mate in the Minotaur, which was a 74-gun ship of the line under Captain Mansfield. As O'Byrne mentions in his A Naval Biographical Dictionary (1849), Hilton 'after sharing in the glories of Trafalgar was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 22 Jan. 1806.' As a lieutenant, he went on half pay in 1817 and, in 1839, accepted the rank of commander. ALLEN GROVE 403 REVIEWS West Wickham Past into Present. By Patricia Knowlden and Joyce Walker. 22 x 15 cm. Pp. xii + 248, 2 appendices, 98 illustrations and drawings, 3 maps and 2 plans. Hollies Publications, West Wickham, 1986, reprinted 1987 (£6.50, cased). This attractively-entitled, deeply-researched, well-written and lavishly-illustrated history of West Wickham is the end-product -of several years of collaboration between two local residents, both of whom hold the much coveted University of London Diploma in Local History. Their love of West Wickham and its people both past and present is fully reflected in this two-part study of a living community, which has progressed from hamlet to village to suburb. It comes as no surprise to discover that the big changes have occurred during the twentieth century. West Wickham retained the status of a village until after the First World War. Contrary to the general experience of north-west Kent the opening of the railway on Whit Monday, 29 May, 1882, produced only 'a ripple of change, nothing more' (p. 119) and 'there was not the proliferation of house building that occurred elsewhere' (p. 163). Compared to a 1951 population of 20,720, the corresponding figure for 1921 of 1,301 was actually one down on the 1911 figure, but such a state of 'negative growth ... was ... not to last' (pp. 170 and 227). In contrast to only 5 per cent of the housing stock having been built before 1918 (p. 205), '85% was built between the Wars' (p. 203). It was then that suburban West Wickham took shape, characterized by an abundant multiplication of trees, people, houses, roads, buses and trains (p. 174). What had long been Wickham Street, with clear evidence of a main street in existence before the end of the fifteenth century (pp. 27-9), was renamed the High Street during the nineteenth century (p. 121), prior to being transformed between 1929 and 1939 (p. 191). Two years after the length of trains was increased to eight coaches 'when the "up" platform was lengthened in 1932' (p. 174) the larger part of West Wickham, having by then a population of 10,080 living in 3,360 houses, was amalgamated with Beckenham, three seats on the Beckenham U.D.C. being allotted to West Wickham. In 1966, both Beckenham and West Wickham were 'swallowed up in the mighty London Borough of Bromley' (p. 176). Mindful that the twentieth century is drawing to a close, and despite the reservation that the last forty years 'need to be viewed more distantly' (p. 203), it is pleasing to see 38 pages, beginning from p. 165, devoted to the detailed and complex developments of this period, including the impact of two World Wars. This praise in no way detracts from what are equally fascinating developments and periods within the earliest history of 'old' West 404 REVIEWS Wickham. Careful treatment is given to a wide range of subjects, including Roman and other archaeological evidence, medieval manorialism, the fifteenth-century rebuilding of Wickham Court and the restoration of St. John's Church, undertaken by Sir Henry Heydon, how they fared under successive owners and rectors, yeoman families of the Tudor era, specific farms and their farmers, how the Civil War affected West Wickham, insights into the village's everyday life during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with separate chapters on poverty and education, and manifestations of late eighteenthcentury prosperity prior to social discontent following the Napoleonic Wars, which also had some impact in West Wickham. On many occasions the events and developments in its history are related to a wider historical background. The range of sources consulted is no less impressive beginning with archaeological finds prior to the Domesday Book of 1086, rentals dating from 1310, parish registers from 1558, Court Leet records between 1560 and 1680, poor-rate books from 1762, school log-books from 1871, probate inventories and wills, title deeds, the Lennard papers (the Lennard family being owners and occupants of Wickham Court for nearly 350 years), two locally-resident Victorian diarists and other primary MS sources, plus primary printed sources, including newspapers, secondary sources, theses and oral testimony. Here is a study full of interesting details such as an estimated population of 280 in 1310, decimated by the famines and pestilences of the fourteenth century to 101 by 1377 (pp. 27 and 227); an unusually early husbandry clause in a bond of 1577 (p. 91); how the number of cows in Wickham doubled during the twenty years before 1885 (p. 113); the recording of 27 bastards in the parish registers of the eighteenth century (p. 128); eight outbreaks of smallpox occurring between 1766 and 1821 (p. 129), or the strains of running a Victorian school 'with insufficient staff, ... annual examinations the results of which governed the scale of grants, and irregular attendance on the part of the children' (p. 137). Famous and influential people enter the story. There are references to Henry Austen, brother of the famous Jane Austen (p. 108), whose cousin, another Henry Austen, was West Wickham's rector from 1761 to 1780 (p. 152). As a farmer's son, George Clinch, librarian at the Society of Antiquaries and author of Antiquarian Jottings of Bromley and District, spent much of his time during the 1870s 'roaming the fields' of Rouse Farm, 'picking up prehistoric flints' (pp. 92-3). West Wickham Past into Present is an exemplary study. It deserves an extensive readership on grounds of interest alone. It may be justly recommended as a model to be followed by anyone who is contemplating the task of compiling an individual community's history. This 405 REVIEWS history is brought to life in numerous illustrations, including photographs of early documentary evidence, but what a pity that neither authors nor publisher saw fit to list them in their opening contents pages. J. WHYMAN The British Celts and their Gods under Rome. By Graham Webster, 24 x 15 cm. Pp. 205. 17 figs. and 22 pls. Batsford, London, 1986. (£14.95, cased). As Dr Webster himself says in his preface, he 'came to write this book through [his] long-standing research into the Roman army and the conquest of Britain', for which he is of course very well-known, and completed it with 'a great deal of reading', obvious from his extensive references and bibliography, and 'much help from colleagues', duly acknowledged throughout this illuminating volume. Dr Webster in The British Celts and their Gods under Rome examines how the conquered Britons reacted to the social changes in their life brought about by the Roman invasion and, in so far as the various sources and archaeological evidence will allow him, looks for such changes in the Britons' 'religious ideas and practices'; additionally, he seeks to redress the balance in considering the whole subject of his book from the British viewpoint. After a detailed introduction, Dr Webster discussses Celtic religion, beliefs, practices and organisation, the Celtic deities, deities and religious scenes on pottery, Celtic sanctuaries, temples and shrines, the imperial cult, and concludes with notes on the success or failure of religious integration. Apart from the usual abbreviations, classical sources and bibliography, this book also contains a very comprehensive general index and other indices on Celtic and Latin words. At least for those with only a superficial knowledge of his subject, Dr Webster has achieved a veritable tour de force, not only in the convenient amassing of the evidence under one cover, but also in its interpretation which finds room both for the orthodox and the imaginative. It is undoubtedly a very difficult subject to study when the evidence is so tantalisingly scanty and allows of differing explanations. yet Graham Webster has clearly succeeded in his new approach to the whole question. This volume is written in a style that is easy to follow, bringing at times a smile with Dr Webster's casual asides such as •Jt is unfortunate that there are no similar methods of venting spleen today, since it could be psychologically beneficial' on the topic of curse tablets (p. 136). Moreover. it is a weU produced and illustrated book which, 406 REVIEWS mercifully, is also virtually free of the irritant of printer's errors. Very few such blemishes were noticed in the main text, most of them are hidden in the references and bibliography where foreign words, especially French, have as usual nowadays floored the compositor and also escaped the proof-readers ('Chatelain means the lord or [my italics) lady of the manor', p. 172, reference 193, is incorrect, and Dechelette's Vases Ceramique, three times, is consistently ungrammatical). However, these errors are but very minor flaws in a scholarly and very instructive study to which this reviewer will profitably often return and which is strongly recommended to anyone with an interest in its subject. A.P DETSICAS Roman Brick and Tile. By Gerald Brodribb. 22.5 x 15.5 cm. Pp. 164. 62 illustrations + frontispiece. Alan Sutton, Gloucester, 1987. (£14.95, cased). Roman Brick and Tile is a useful addition to the ever-increasing literature on Roman Britain and a study of a most intractable subject from which, nevertheless, Brodribb has extracted much information. The starting-point of the author's interest in his subject was the excavation of the bath-house at Beauport Park, near Hastings, which understandably figures largely in this book; from there, Brodribb has travelled extensively searching for bricks and tiles in museums, sites and elsewhere, though one doubts whether he has delved into the spoil-heaps, the excavator's unceremonious destination of most such material. If Brodribb has achieved nothing else, which is clearly not the case, at least he may have forced field workers to look more than in a cursory manner at bricks and tiles before their disposal. This is not unjustly claimed to be a pioneer study; as such, it cannot, of course, be entirely comprehensive. Yet, in seven chapters, after an introduction, Brodribb examines roofing-tiles, bricks, cavity walling, miscellaneous items, markings and colour, fabric and texture, and their production, distribution and dating. There is also a glossary and a bibliography, though an index would also have been a great help. This volume is, I understand, a much-abbreviated version of Brodribb's doctoral thesis (obvious, in any case, in that 'Terms underlined are classical words' in the glossary section are printed in italics!), and this may account for the plethora of printer's errors and other infelicities, which slipped through proofing. For instance, 'imbrixes' (sic) and 'imbrices' almost cheek by jowl (p. 23), and the 407 REVIEWS preponderance of mistakes in classical (e.g. 'SUDATORUM', p. 153; 'laconium', p. 88) or foreign words ( e.g. the Franco-Italian 'Musee delle Terme', p. 21, and the bibliographical reference to Gautier which contains three errors). There is also throughout this book a marked inconsistency in the use of italics and Roman type for the same classical words. Chapter 5 on markings may have been over-abridged in that it omits, except for brief reference, much that is already published, such as Lowther's work, supplemented by Johnston and Williams, on relief-patterned box-tiles, which receives scant treatment (pp. 109- 12, mostly taken up by illustrations) and deserved fuller illustration. There are also other patterns than those illustrated known to this reviewer, though the fault lies in that they have yet to be published. Brodribb's interpretation (pp. 99-101) of the common semi-circular markings on tegulae as signatures is not very convincing; for, if signature is indicative of a person's identity, I fail to see how such semi-circles, which any worker could have made in identical fashion, can be considered as signatures. This book is profusely illustrated by excellent line drawings and photographs of variable contrast. It is a good introduction to the subject of bricks and tiles, which clamours for a much larger format, more comprehensive discussion and illustration. A.P. DETSICAS Upchurch and Thameside Roman Pottery: A ceramic Typology for northern Kent, first to third Centuries A. D. By Jason Monaghan. 29.5 x 20.5 cm. Pp. 265, 110 figs. BAR British Series 173, Oxford, 1987 (Limp, no price). Recent years have witnessed a timely upsurge in research in RomanoBritish pottery found in the county. First in the field was Richard Pollard's doctoral thesis in 1983 on The Roman Pottery of Kent, which the Society is shortly publishing in our Monograph Series; it was followed by Jason Monaghan's work on the Romano-British pottery of the Upchurch and Thameside areas, both very welcome studies in that they fill a need for comprehensive works of synthesis (not 'synthetic works' as Monaghan describes them, p. 8), which have been lacking for years. The volume under review is based on Monaghan's thesis and contains chapters on the geographical, social and economic background, production sites, typology, production, distribution and the 408 REVIEWS history of the industries, with appendices on sites and collections investigated, miscellaneous tracts concerning 'Upchurch Ware', fabrics and fabric discrimination, statistical data and a bibliography, but no index which is clearly essential, certainly in a work of reference. Monaghan distinguishes fourteen types of pottery, each subdivided into several classes and sub-classes on the basis of a number of criteria, all profusely illustrated; however, as there is no scale of reduction mentioned in the figures, the reader is left to assume that all pottery illustrations are reduced to the usual one-quarter. The use of the prevailing fashion of various codes in listing these types and classes (e.g. 1B3.2, etc.) may make for easy entries on computer tape, others may think it cumbersome for reference purposes. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Monaghan has been at great pains to achieve thoroughness, and his catalogue of pottery will save hours of often unprofitable search for parallels in numerous other publications. When it comes to the dating of the pottery, Monaghan is under the same difficulty as faced by earlier authors, namely that there is no secure stratigraphy for much of his material, chiefly owing to changes in sea-level in the area and the attentions of antiquarian predators. It is only recently, with the modern excavation of surviving sites (e.g. Oakleigh Farm, Higham), that a secure chronology is at last beginning to emerge though, unfortunately and through no fault in Monaghan's method, this is so far valid for very few only of his types and classes. In these days of fabric analysis, of which Monaghan himself is fully aware (pp. 174-8), he appears in at least one instance to rely on visual similarities: the flagon (1E2.2, pp. 50-1), made at Eccles and there dated c. A.D. 65, may look like Camulodunum 156, dated by Hull to c. A.D. 100-140, but it is not made in the same fabric. The sections on vessel formation and decoration (pp. 180-5) are particularly useful in that they help the reader's understanding of the processes involved, but Monaghan's views on distribution (pp. 199- 210) and trade with the northern frontiers (pp. 211-13) of necessity 'take second place' to 'characterisation' (p. 199) of the industries' products and are very speculative. There is much in this well-researched volume that will prove of lasting help, and for this pottery specialists in Kent and beyond will be in Monaghan's debt. Yet, it is very sad to record also an apparent haste in the preparation of this report. This is obvious from the very large number (at least 135 were noted) of typing errors, which ought not to appear in any publication, even though it is understood that BAR were supplied with camera-ready copy. Starting with the 409 REVIEWS ungrammatical sub-title and progressing with the misspelling of two surnames in the Preface, mistakes occur with monotonous regularity ( e.g. 'Housteads', seven times; 'Castlecarey', twice; 'cemetary', six times; 'occurance' and 'occurrance', etc.); Swan's Pottery in Roman Britain was published in Aylesbury, not Aylesford (p. 264), and references to foreign authors and works are a linguistic nightmare. All in all, though one's admiration for the labours of 'the current author', as Monaghan quaintly describes himself (p. 71), is occasionally tempered by such irksome shortcomings, this volume should prove a worthwhile tool and reference work of the pottery of the area it covers. A.P. DETSICAS The Roman Villa at Lullingstone, Kent. JI. The Wall Paintings and Finds. By Lt.-Col. G.W. Meates, F.S.A. 28 x 22 cm. Pp. xxx x 330. 91 figs. 7 monochrome and 18 colour plates. Kent Archaeological Society, Maidstone, 1987. [£35.00, cased]. The Society is to be warmly congratulated on the publication of this essential companion to the first volume of Meates's final excavation report (published in 1979), for it contains the definitive account of all outstanding archaeological finds - wall-paintings, coins, small finds, pottery and environmental material. The mosaics were published in vol. I, while the marble busts were fully described by Jocelyn Toynbee in Arch. Cant., lxiii (1950) (the reference is wrongly given on p. 53). Col. Meates did not live to see this publication, but before his death he had completed a draft report on the finds, which has been drawn upon extensively by the army of distinguished specialists who have combined under the aegis of H.B.M.C. (or its predecessor) and under the general editorship of Alec Detsicas to write the present book. The effect of the two volumes combined is to provide an outstanding account of one of the most thoroughly-explored Roman villas in Britain. The first chapter, 'The Wall-paintings', from the hands of F.J. Weatherhead and the late Joan Liversidge, describes all the plaster recovered, not merely the well-known cult paintings, and is illustrated by no less than 18 full-page colour plates as well as by the same number of line drawings. It would have been helpful had a plan been provided to show the numbered rooms referred to: as it is we have to search out the general plan on p. 138 of volume I. The three 410 REVIEWS pre-Roman coins are discussed by the late Der􀁤k Allen and the extensive list of 441 Roman coins by Richard Reece. There follow fully-illustrated accounts of the many interesting small finds of stone, bone or metal, including a surprisingly rich collection of glass vessels. Next comes a chapter on the samian and other pottery; and the volume concludes with an account of the environmental material, including the two skeletons from the mausoleum and three infant burials from elsewhere. A review by A.L.F. Rivet of vol. I (Arch. Cant., xcvi (1980)) drew attention to one or two problems of interpretation, the most serious being the supposed abandonment of the villa for 60-80 years in the third century: indeed, it seems little short of incredible that a building empty for so long could have been re-occupied without complete rebuilding, probably on a different site. Resolution of this question had necessarily to await full study of the pottery anticipated in the present volume. It is a surprise that the problem has still not been properly addressed. Dr Reece does indeed (p. 49) raise a caveat, shortening the hiatus to a possible - but unauthenticated - gap from A.D. 230 to 265. But when we look at the pottery report we find that its author appears ignorant of the existence of the problem and unconcerned to clarify the chronology of the site. Instead, he follows the current fashion of distinguishing a series of fabrics - here 88 in number. The report starts with a description of each of these and is often able to suggest a manufacturing source. This is a useful contribution to the economic history of the province and suggests the widespread sources of supply available to people at Lullingstone; but it singularly fails to achieve the main purpose of a pottery report which is to provide the evidence from which the history of the site has been deduced. The fabricdiscussion is followed by the listing of the vessels present, divided into classes such as flasks, amphorae or mortaria; and the classes are subdivided by variations of form. To be fair, the resulting difficulties seem partly to be the result of faulty record of the provenance of much of the pottery; but the method of presentation creates great obscurity, the figured pots being labelled with arabic numbers but the accompanying text divided into groups under Roman numerals, many of which do not seem to be illustrated. The interests of most readers demand that reference should be from illustrations to text and not vice versa. But given the present arrangement, reference would have been greatly aided by the use of bold type for figure-references. There is, indeed, an Appendix (pp. 284--302) listing the stratified groups, but it calls for heavy work to comprehend it since these all-important pieces are not accompanied by their own illustrations. 411 REVIEWS The text may have been compiled some time before publication, for it contains no reference to recent Canterbury reports (1983 onwards), relevant for instance to Fabric 75. In summary, the pottery report is written for a small circle of pottery specialists rather than for the general archaeologist. S.S. FRERE Also received A History of Swanley Horticultural College. By Elsa Morrow. (£1.25, post-free). Obtainable from The Editor, Wye Journal, The Agricola Club and Swanley Guild, Wye College, Ashford, TN25 5AH. A Guide to St. Margaret's, Lee. By Alfred Wood. (25p). A History of St. Margaret's, Lee: By Alfred Wood. (20p; cased, £1). Both obtainable from the author, 11 Blessington Close, Lewisham, SE13 5ED. 412