CHAPTER IX
LINCOLN, THE CATHEDRAL AND MINSTER-YARD
The city of Lincoln was a place of some repute when Julius
Cæsar landed B.C. 55. The Witham was then called the Lindis,
and the province Lindisse. The Britons called the town Lindcoit,
so the name the Romans gave it, about A.D. 100, "Lindum
Colonia," was partly Roman and partly British. The Roman
walled town was on the top of the hill about a quarter of a mile
square, with a gate in the middle of each wall. Of their four
roads, the street which passed out north and south was the
Via Herminia or Ermine Street. The east road went to "Banovallum"—Horncastle
(or the Bain)—and "Vannona"—Wain-fleet—and
the west to "Segelocum"—Littleborough. The
Roman milestone marking XIV miles to Segelocum is now in
the cathedral cloisters.
This walled space included the sites of both cathedral and castle, and was thickly covered with houses in Danish and Saxon times. We hear of 166 being cleared away by the Conqueror to make his castle. The Romans themselves extended their wall southward as far as the stone-bow in order to accommodate their growing colony. Their northern gate yet exists. It is known as "Newport Gate," and is of surpassing interest, as, with the exception of one at Colchester, there is not another Roman gateway in the kingdom. Only last October the foundations of an extremely fine gateway were uncovered at Colchester, the Roman "Camelodunum"; apparently indicating the fact that there were two chariot gates as well as two side entrances for foot passengers. The Newport Gate is sixteen feet wide, and twenty-two feet high, with a rude round arch of
