The investigation of that important period in the early history of Great Britain, the invasion and establishment of the Romans, has recently been pursued with increasing zeal and interest. Much had been effected by antiquaries of the last century, in tracing out the great outline, but many evidences remained by which the results of that extraordinary crisis in our history might be more clearly shown and appreciated. It did not suffice to mark with careful accuracy the great military works, the entrenchments and high-ways, monuments of extended conquest; a field of more interesting- inquiry was to be sought in the scattered vestiges of Roman occupation, serving to show the powerful influence of the introduction of foreign arts and manners. It is no idle labour to trace out the results issuing from that hostile ambition or cupidity which had tempted the Romans to our shores, not merely tending to civilisation in social life, and advancement in public institutions, but to the extension of the light of Christian faith to these remote islands.[1]
In the absence of written records regarding the Romans in Britain, the historian must call the antiquary to his aid. It is by the detailed investigations which are still in progress, and the intelligent care with which those researches are directed, that the antiquities of this period acquire an interest, in details relating to the arts and usages of private life, which the dry recitals of Horsley or Stukeley may have failed to excite. It were much to be desired that all these materials could be united and arranged; and it is gratifying to hear that the publication of an extended "Britannia Romana" has been undertaken in earnest. The antiquaries of the Northern Marches, neighbouring to the great works of
- ↑ A novel and interesting example of the occurrence of a Christian symbol amongst Roman remains in England, is afforded by the fragment of "Samian," ornamented with a Cross, and found at Cataractonium. See a representation of this relic, communicated by Sir William Lawson, Bart., in a subsequent page.
