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cumftance was communicated to the owner, and fome curious perfon fuggefted to him, that by expending a little more money it might lead to a further difcovery, and throw new light on the history of the town. He went to the excavation, looked at the remains with perfect indifference, and coolly obferving, that "thes'em fort of things had nothing to do with his coal fpeculation," ordered the workmen to cover them up.

"Much of the present town ftands within the precincts of an ancient Roman camp, the walls of which fill partially exift, though deprived of their facings, and fo dilapidated as to leave their foundation fcarcely vifible in many places. Their form is parallelogramical, and their extent nearly fix hundred yards by five hundred. A little to the north-weft of thefe, in a meadow, a circular depreffion or concavity of the ground occurs, which is fuppofed by, the initiated to be a Roman amphitheatre; though the profane vulgar confider it as the place of revelry between Arthur and his knights of the round table, and affert that the hero, when he quitted mortal exiftence, fank into the earth at this his favourite fpot. Whatever its former confequence might have been, it is now inferior to many an English cock-pit, and holds out an ufeful leffon to the pomp of greatnefs, and the pride of defcent. If it be Roman, as many circumstances concur to make us think it is, it would be a caftrenfian amphitheatre, formed by hollowing out the ground to a certain depth and circumference, and then fur nishing its gently declining fides with green turf feats to accommodate the numerous fpectators, a practice to which the poet of Sulmo alludes *, The mound of earth, called the keep, though probabiy owing its origin to the Normans, feems to confift partly of Roman ruins; fragments of Roman pottery, and maffes of Roman bricks, are easily difcovered by penetrating into the ground in the flighteft manner. Of more modern antiquity, the only fpecimen which truck us, was the conventual houfe of the Mifs Morgans', having an interior quadrangle, originally connected, in all probability, with an abbey of Cistertian monks, which appears to have been fettled very early at Caerleon +

* In gradibus fedet populus de cespite factis. De Arte amandi.

Tanner's Not. Mon. 327. Edit. 1744.

66 It

"It may be amusing, perhaps, to recal to your recollection a few particulars connected with the hiftory of this place.

"The prefent name, Caerleon, (the caftle or camp of the legion) clearly points out a Roman origin. Horfley, than whom we cannot follow a better authority, fuppofes that the Romans arrived at this fpot in the reign of Antoninus Pius, about the middle of the second century; and finding it to be a place agreeing in the circumftances of its fituation with their fyftem of caftrametation, they made it the flation, or headquarters, of the fecond Auguftan legion. In allufion to this difpofition of a particular body of troops, they called it Ifca Legionis Secunda Augufta; or Ifca Silurum, as being the capital city of the Silures or South-Wallians *. Here, it appears, the legion continued till within a fhort time of the departure of the Romans from Britain; fince infcriptions towards the clofe of the empire, and coins of fome of the latter emperors, have at different times been difcovered on this Spot.

"From thefe circumftances, as well as from the extenfive ruins which have accidentally prefented themselves in a circle round the prefent town of a mile in diameter, it cannot be queftioned that Caerleon became, under the auspices of the Romans, a large and magnificent place; exhibiting those specimens of grandeur and refinement which generally decorated a Roman city-a forum, temples, baths, and theatres! The arts, indeed, feem to have been cultivated here to a high degice, as the many elegant relicks of antiquity, and beautiful fragments of Roman mafonry, formerly to be feen in the poffeffion of different people at Caerleon, fufficiently testify +. But its chief glory arofe from the fuccefs with which intellectual acquirements were purfued; for if we give credit to the testimony of an ancient author ‡, we are to believe, that Caerleon was a fecond Crotona, fince he tells us (jutt previous to the arrival of the Saxons in Britain) there was an academy of two hundred philofophers at this place! Excellence, indeed, is only a relative term, and therefore, fagacious as thefe men of science

* Horfley's Britan. Rom. 78.

+ Camden, p. 719, et infra. Horfley, p. 320.

Alexander Elfebienfis, cited by Camden, p. 727.

would

would appear to be in the eyes of the ignorant multitude around them, they might, notwithstanding, be still far inferior to the scholars of Pythagoras. The circumstance, however, if it be fact, proves that Caerleon had attained to a very great comparative degree of civilization under the auspices of the conquerors of the world!

"Even during the times of the Romans in Britain, it appears that Caerleon enjoyed the bleffings of the Chriftian religion. Three noble churches are faid to have been erected in it, almost as foon as the gospel found its way into this country*, one of which was conftituted the metropolitan church of all Wales. Here the archipifcopal feat continued till the time of St. David, who, towards the clofe of the fixth century, tranflated it to Menevia +, or, as it was afterwards called, from the name of this canonized prelate, St. David's. The deities of claffical mythology, however, had their worshippers alfo, and the great goddess of the Ephefians boasted a temple erected to her honour in the city of Caerleon ‡.

"How long the Roman forces were continued at Caerleon is not to be ascertained. The fecond Auguftan Legion had retired from it, previous to the final defertion of Britain by that people §; but as coins of the Valentinians have been difcovered here, we may conclude that it was a ftation as low down as the beginning of the fifth century.

"The enfeebled and emafculated Britons, when deprived of the aid of the Romans, became an eafy prey to the fierce hordes of Saxon invaders, who flocked to this country about the middle of the fifth century. Caerleon, with the country furrounding it, fell into their hands, and doubtless fuffered Leverely in the undiftinguishing deftruction which followed all

* Leland Collect. v. ii. p. 90. +Tanner's Not. Mon. 327.

Camden, 719. This is evident from the following infcription discovered at Caerleon in 1608 :-

T. FL. POSTHUMIUS VARUS

V. C. LEG. TEMPL. DIANE

RESTITUIT.

§ Horley, 78. The Romans quitted Britain about the middle of the fifth century.

the

the conquefts of these barbarous tribes. It foon recovered its priftine fplendour, however, and under the protection of the British hero, the renowned Arthur, who wrested it from the Saxons after a fierce battle, it became once more a place of confideration. Here it was that he received the crown from the hand of Dubritius, bishop of Llandaff, on being elected king of all Britain *; and here he instituted that order of chivalry, the Round Table, which makes fo confpicuous a figure in the old romances †.

"Thus Caerleon became the scene of royal amusement, in which the British dames of Arthur's court were, at Eafter and Christmas, entertained with the jousts and tournaments of his hundred and thirty noble knights .

"A tradition of these revels ftill exifts in the town, and a notice of it occurs in the fign of a public-house, which dif plays a military figure, intended to represent King Arthur, and subscribed with the following lines:→→→→

"1200 years and more are pass'd

Since Arthur ruled here:

And that to me once more he's come
Think it not ftrange or quere.

Though o'er my door, yet take my word,
To honour you he's able;

And make you welcome with good ale,
And knights of the round table."

*Godwin de Præful. p. 572.

+ Drayton's Poly-Olbion, fourth fong:

"The Pentecoft's prepared at Caerleon in his court,
"That table's ancient feat;"-

And Selden's note, p. 559. “At Caerleon in Monmouth, after his victories, a pompous celebration was at Whitsuntide, whither were invited divers kings and princes of the neighbouring coafts; with them, and his Queen Guinever, with the ladies keeping those folemnities in their feveral conclaves. For fo the British story makes it, according to the Trojan cuftom, that in feftival folemnities both fexes fhould not fit together."

The Legend of King Arthur. Percy's Ancient English Poetry, v. iii. p. 37.

"Thefe

"These jollities, however, feem to have had but an unfavourable effect on the morals of the ladies. The fair Guinever, Arthur's confort, and her female attendants, if not dealt unjuftly by, were certainly not Lucretias; and the tea-tables of ancient Caerleon buzzed with whispers much to the difcredit of their prudence."

"Little occurs relative to Caerleon, during that period of darkness and confufion known by the name of the middle ages. It fucceffively felt the fury of the Saxon and the Dane, and was afterwards alternately in the poffeffion of the English and Welth. The castle, a remain of which is seen on the north fide of the bridge, feems to have been erected about the middle of the twelfth century, if, indeed, it be the fame called by Powel, the "New Caftle upon Uík." At that time the English held the town, but furrendered it after a desperate refiftance, to Jorweth ap Owen, prince of South Wales, in 1173. On the enfuing year, Caerleon experienced another change of mafters, when a large army of English and Normans took poffeffion of it; they retained it, however, but a few months, King Henry II. again reftoring it to its rightful owner, Jorweth ap Owen, on this prince and the other South-Wallian leaders doing homage to him at Gloucester.

"In the year 1218, Caerleon fell once more into the hands of the English, under William Marshall Earl of Pembroke, and experienced all the horrors of a complete facking, the frequent effect of military ferocity in the feudal ages. Llewellyn ap Jorweth recovered it in 1231, and it was retained by his defcendants* till the complete reduction of Wales by Edward I."

Thus ends this interefting account of CAERLEON, which now, alas! is funk into one of the poorest and dulleft towns of the principality.

* See Powel's Hiftory of Wales, 201, 203, et infra,
(To be concluded in our next.)

Dilworth

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