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THE TRADITION OF STANTON DREW.

At the little village of Stanton Drew, in the county of Somerset, about seven miles east of the road between Bristol and Wells, stands a well-known Druidical monument, which, in the opinion of Doctor Stukeley, was more ancient than that at Abury. It consists (according to a recent writer) of four groups of stones, forming (or rather having formed when complete) two circles, and two other figures, one an ellipse. Although the largest stones are much inferior in their dimensions to those at Stonehenge and Abury, they are by no means contemptible, some of them being nine feet in height, and twenty-two feet in girth. There is a curious tradition, very prevalent amongst the country people, respecting the origin of these remains, which they designate the "Evil Wedding," for the following good and substantial reasons :Many hundred years ago (on a Saturday evening), a newly-married couple, with their relatives and friends, met on the spot now covered by these ruins, to celebrate their nuptials. Here they feasted and danced right merrily until the clock tolled the hour of midnight, when the piper (a pious man) refused to play any longer. This was much against the wish of the guests, and so exasperated the bride (who was fond of dancing) that she swore with an oath, she would not be baulked of her enjoyment by a beggarly piper, but would find a substitute, if she went to the infernal regions to fetch one. She had scarcely uttered these words, when a venerable old man, with a long beard, made his appearance, and having listened to their request, proffered his services, which were right gladly accepted. The old gentleman (who was no other than the Arch-fiend himself) having taken the seat vacated by the godly piper, commenced playing a slow and solemn air, which, on the guests remonstrating, he changed into one more lively and rapid. The company now began to dance, but soon found themselves impelled round the performer so rapidly and mysteriously, that they would all fain have rested. But when they essayed to retire, they found, to their consternation, that they were moving faster and faster round their diabolical musician, who had now resumed his original shape.

Their cries for mercy were unheeded, until the first glimmering of day warned the fiend that he must depart. With such rapidity had they moved, that the gay and sportive assembly were now reduced to a ghastly troop of skeletons. "I leave you," said the fiend, "a monument of my power and your wickedness, to the end of time;" which saying, he vanished. The villagers, on rising in the morning, found the meadow strewn with large pieces of stone, and the pious piper lying under a hedge, half dead with fright; he having been a witness to the whole transaction.

Notes and Queries, vol. iv. p. 3.—David Stevens.

THE ROMAN ERA.

FROM B.C. 55, TO A.D. 409-463 YEARS.

CÆSAR'S FIRST INVASION.

In the latter part of the summer of the year 55, B.C. (Halley, the astronomer, has gone far to prove that the exact day was the 26th of August), a Roman fleet, bearing the infantry of two legions (about ten thousand men), collected at the Portus Itius (Witsand), between Calais and Boulogne. Eighty galleys bore the invaders across the narrow seas. As they neared the White Cliffs, which frowned upon their enterprise, Cæsar beheld them covered with armed natives, ready to dispute his landing.* The laurelled conqueror, who, according to Suetonius, only experienced three reverses during nine years' command in Gaul, would not risk the Roman discipline against the British courage on a coast thus girt with natural defences. It is held that the proper interpretation of his own narrative is, that he proceeded towards the north; and it is considered by most authorities that the flat beach between Walmer Castle and Sandwich was the place of his disembarkation.t

It was here, then, that the British and Roman weapons first came into conflict. But the captains and the standard-bearers marched not deliberately on shore, as they are represented on the column of Trajan, the cavalry and war-chariots of the active Britons met the invader on the beach; and whilst the soldiers hesitated to leave the ships, the standard-bearer of the tenth legion leaped into the water, exclaiming, as Cæsar has recorded, "Follow me, my fellow-soldiers, unless you will give up your eagle to the enemy. I, at least, will do my duty to the Republic, and to our general!" The Romans made good their landing. The symbols of the great Republic were henceforward to become familiar to the skin-clothed and painted Britons, but not as yet were they bound with the chain of the captive. The galleys in which the cavalry of Cæsar were approaching the British shores were scattered by a storm. This calamity, and his

This so exactly agrees with the cliffs of Dover, towards the south foreland, that all men of judgment believe this to be the place.

Rapin, p. 10. Such is the shore at the mouth of the river that goes up to Richborough called, in Latin, Rhutupiæ, Rutupæ, or Portus Rutupensis. Dr. Gale calls Ritupæ, which suits best with the modern name.

Ibid.

The use of clothes was scarcely known in the island. None but the inhabitants of the southern coasts covered their nakedness with the skins of wild beasts, carelessly thrown over them; not so much to defend themselves against cold, as to avoid giving offence to the strangers that came to traffic with them. They were wont, by way of ornament, to make incisions on their bodies, in the shape of flowers, trees, and animals, which, with the juice of woad, they painted of a skycolour, that never wore out. These scars are, by Tertullian, termed Britannorum Stigmata. Rapin, p. 5.

imperfect acquaintance with the country and with the coast, determined the invader to winter in Gaul. It is a remarkable fact that Cæsar was ignorant of the height to which the tide rises in these narrow seas. A heavy spring tide came, and his transports, which lay at anchor, were dashed to pieces, and his lighter galleys, drawn upon the beach, were swamped with the rising waves. This second disaster occurred within a few hours after the conclusion of a peace between the invader and the invaded. That very night, according to Cæsar, it happened to be a full moon, when the tides always rise highest-a fact at the time wholly unknown to the Romans. The Britons, with a breach of confidence that may almost be justified in the case of the irruption of a foreign power into a peaceful land, broke the treaty. Cæsar writes that they were signally defeated; but the invader hastily repaired to his ships, and set sail (about the 20th September), even without his hostages, for the opposite shores, where his power was better established. Knight's Old England, page 26.

CÆSAR'S SECOND INVASION.

Cæsar, according to his custom, went and passed part of the winter in Italy, leaving orders with his officers to repair the old, and build some new ships. When he received advice that his orders were executed he came to Portus Itius, where he found six hundred ships, and twenty-eight galleys, on board of which hẹ put five legions (about thirty thousand men) and two thousand horse. He conducts this numerous fleet to a place on the British coast marked by him the summer before, and lands his forces without opposition.* Rapin, page 11.

CESAR'S PASSAGE OF THE THAMES. Cæsar marches towards the Thames, with intent to penetrate into Cassibellanus's dominions; when he comes to the river side, at a very difficult ford, he sees the enemy drawn up on the opposite bank; besides their great numbers they had fortified that part of the river with sharp stakes,† driven so deep that some of them did not appear above the water. Notwithstanding these obstacles, Cæsar resolves to attack them, and orders the horse to ride in,

He landed at the same place as before, no one daring to resist him, both on account of the multitude of the ships and because they reached the shore on so many points at once. Dion Cassius.

These stakes are just above Walton, in Surrey, and the meadow facing them is called Coway. They are, even now, to be seen at low water mark, and one of them was pulled out of the Thames last year, but with great difficulty. They are of oak, and though they have lain in the water so long, are as hard as Brazil, and as black as jet. At Shepperton, they have several knife handles made of them. Rapin, page 11.

Cæsar does not mention a stratagem he is said to make use of on this occasion. He caused an elephant, well fenced with iron, with a wooden tower on his back, full of men, to be forced into the river; the sight of which monstrous creature, that looked like a walking battery, did not a little contribute to frighten the Britons from the opposite shore. Polyænus Stratag, vol. i., p. 8.

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