called Newenden, that is, 'a new town in a valley.' "[1] The opinion of Camden deservedly carries great weight; still he was not infallible, and since he is decidedly in error in attributing to Sir Thomas Albuger's monastery the rising of a town at Newenden and the derivation of the name the parish bears, he may have been mistaken in other points likewise. The notion just alluded to is clearly erroneous, because Domesday Book, nearly 160 years previous to the period assigned by Camden for the above foundation, not merely designates the place under the name "Newedene," but also declares it to have then possessed a market of such value ("yielding forty shillings less by five pence—mercatus de xl solidis, v denariis minus,") as proves it to have already attained considerable importance in the reign of King William I, very much greater in fact than it now enjoys. Moreover, the expressions of Camden imply, that the positions of the supposed site of Andredesceaster, of the " little monastery," and of the " new town in the valley," are identical, or nearly so; whereas, the truth is, that they are all separate and distinct spots, the first being above half a mile (speaking from recollection) from the second, and the latter nearly as far from the church, where are congregated the few houses now composing the village. It should be remembered, too, that after all Camden speaks doubtfully, his words being, "I am almost persuaded," so that he had not arrived at a positive conviction; wherefore we may be permitted to conjecture, that a dispassionate consideration of the objections to his theory might have altered his view of the question.
The principal or only real argument, by which the opinion in favour of Newenden is supported, is the certainty that there has been in the parish an ancient settlement, which, though faint traces of it only now remain, must formerly have been both extensive and of much account; and that this settlement had a direct communication with the sea,—was a port, in short.[2] The following is the description of these relics in Harris's
- ↑ Gibson's ed., i, 274.
- ↑ That Newenden, in very early times, the communicated directly with the sea is indisputable, but it was a port, to compare small things with great, very much of the same kind as London is now, namely, standing upon a river several miles from open ocean. This matter will be noticed below in the discussion of a frequently quoted passage from Gildas's History.
