XXIV.—On the Identification of the Roman Portus Zemanis, by WILLIAM HENBY BLACK, Esq. F.S.A.

Bead January 11th, 1866.

ON the 23rd of November last, I took occasion, in the course of some remarks on Dr. Thurnam's paper on the Wiltshire Long Barrows, to mention the titles of some papers which I had in my mind to communicate to this Society in the course of the present session; one of them was, " On the Roman Ports in Kent and Sussex." Immediately afterward I was surprised by a discourse, pronounced in your hearing, by Mr. Lewin, who undertook to identify Hythe with the " Portus Lemanis." My own views of the subject being quite at variance with the theory of that learned gentleman, I would have delivered myself, on the spot, of the sentiments which I entertained respecting his communication, while it was fresh before us; but the time was then too far advanced to permit a discus- sion, and the present date was therefore assigned to me as a peremptory term for answering the case set up by the learned advocate of Hythe. So far as I can recollect his arguments, they amounted to this :—That sufficient indications did not exist, to fix the locality of the Roman port at a distance from the present sea-coast; that the Romney Marshes had long been filled up with deep and solid deposits of alluvial or marine matter, precluding the possibility of a port at Lymne; and that at Hythe are found a town and port, answering the conditions required for the identification of the Roman port in question. In short, Mr. Lewin's former identification of Hythe, as the place where Julius Csesar is supposed by him to have landed in his expeditions into Britain, having been generally accepted (though with considerable reservation on my part), he seems to have encouraged himself into the opinion that the same place was afterward used by the Romans as a permanent marine station. This is, I believe, quite true, so far as regards the neighbourhood of Hythe ; but I cannot admit Hythe to be either the precise spot of the first landing, or a subsequent marine station of the Romans, at least until the fourth century. 370 On the Identification of the Roman Portus Lemanis. For, in the very outset of this inquiry, it is needful to ask, what " Portus Lemanis" is intended,—that of the Antonine Itinerary, or that of the later Roman records and authors ? The authorities upon which our knowledge of the name is founded are four only ; that is to say : 1. The Antonine Itinerary, which devotes a separate journey, the fourth out of fifteen, to show the way and distance from London to the " Portus Lemanis," and which treats it as one of the three Kentish ports reached from the metropolis by land, from the intermediate city of Canterbury. This I assign to the second century. 2. The " Notitia Utriusque Imperii," which is commonly assigned to the fifth, but which (from internal evidence) cannot be later than the fourth century. Here the Antonine word "port" is omitted; and the name "Lemanis" or " Lemannis " occurs alone, as the place where an oflicer of a detachment of the Turnacenses held a garrison, under the command of the Comes Litoris Saxonici. 3. The Peutinger Table, ascribed with good reason to the time of the Emperor Theodosius, before the fifth century. Here the denomination is nearly the same as in the foregoing authority, if we allow for error of transcription ; for " Lemauio " is clearly a depravation of " Lemanis;" and it is attended with the symbol of a gateway between towers,3 signifying a fortified city or port, equivalent to the denomination " civitas " in the Itinerary from Bordeaux to Jerusalem, written in or shortly before the same age. The other places so distinguished in the fragment of Britain preserved in that record are Ritupis, Dubris, Durovernum, Camulo- dunum, and the Devonian Isca. 4. The anonymous Geographer of Ravenna, attributed to the sixth or seventh century; in whose work " Lemanis " occurs, as in the " first part of Britain," between " Mutuantonis" (wThich I consider to be a corrupt reading for either Flu. Trisantonis, or else JPortu Adurni) and " Dubris." To these are added, by our learned and able Fellow Mr. Charles Roach Smith, in his Antiquities of Richborough, Reculver, and Lymne (London, 1850, 4to.), the Geography of Ptolemy, and the work which passes under the name of Richard of Cirencester; but I reject them both as inapplicable to the present case, for these reasons : the former mentions icaLvos \l(ir)v,h which seems to indicate a port

a Compare the gateway, with small conical towers, on the reverse of a Roman coin, figured in Mr. C. K. Smith's work on Lymne, p. 249. b New Port, or New Haven, described as distant 1° W. in longitude, and 30' S. in latitude, from KdvTiov aKpov, the South Foreland ; while Hythe and Lymne are distant very few minutes of a degree from that promontory. On the Identification of the Roman Portus Lemanis. 377 in Sussex, not in Kent; and the latter is utterly spurious, one of the most impudent and glaring forgeries ever imposed on the antiquarian world. Now to deal with Mr. Lewin's arguments in favour of Hythe, I might content myself by briefly drawing your attention to what has been already written by Mr. 0. R. Smith, and also by our oldest antiquaries. Leland, who saw Lymne in a less ruined state, more than three centuries ago, had no idea of Hythe as representing the Portus Lemanis, but saw in the massive walls, and all the circumstances of Lymne, indubitable evidence of its antiquity. Somner, who preferred Old Romney, seems to have had a preference for an old cinque- port, now blocked up ; and, though his opinion has not been followed in later times, yet the very place which he preferred yields an argument, by analogy, in favour of Lymne and against Hythe. With respect to Mr. Lewin's arguments that I have enumerated, I reply to the first, that Lymne has sufficient indications of its identity at the present time ; first in respect of its name, which is unquestionably derived from and is almost identical with the Roman name; secondly, from its distance, being, as I mea- sure and compute, exactly the required distance of sixteen Roman miles from Can- terbury, while Hythe is by the road about two miles further, though equally distant with Lymne from Canterbury in a right line as the crow flies ; thirdly, in that it has a direct and most remarkable Roman road, called " Stone Street," leading from the south-western suburb of Canterbury, not toward Hythe, but by a little inclination westward away from Hythe to the brow of the hill on which is the town of Lymne, and on the slope of which is the ruined Roman fortress of Stut- fall Castle ; fourthly, in the fortress itself, of which we know more now, since the laborious and careful excavations made by Mr. C. R. Smith about fifteen years ago; fifthly, in the Roman altar, erected by the Prcefectus Classis Britannic(B, and found among the ruins of the fortress during those excavations; and lastly, in its noble situation, surveying and commanding the whole level of Romney Marshes—at first a quiet bay; now, and for ages past, a fertile pasture land. To the second argument, drawn from the present aspect of the Romney Marshes, I answer, that, however old their present state may appear to be, with proofs of Roman occupation, we might as well argue against the insular condition of Thanet in the time of the Romans, and even in Beda's time, from the existence and appearance of similar marshes between Sandwich Haven and Reculver, and deny that the Rutupian port was ever there. The Roman measures in. the An- tonine Itinerary reach precisely to Sandwich town for the Portus Mitupis, though now as far from the sea as Lymne is. The state of the ground at the foot of VOL. XL. 3 C 378 On the Identification of the Roman Portus Lemanis.

Lymne Hill is much altered hy the continuous effect of springs breaking out in a loose soil, and consequent landslips, which in some instances have transported the Roman ruins to a distance, and buried them to a depth of many feet. This fact is enough to account for the choking up of the mouth of the river, which seems formerly to have flowed along the foot of the cliff, probably that which is now a branch of the Rother, which now has two outfalls in Rye Haven, beside the dikes cut in the marshes. These numerous dikes have diverted the course of the upland waters, and given to some of them an outfall at Romney. But I need not insist on the former existence of such a river as a mere theory, when the Ravenna Geographer names the " Lemana " among British rivers, and the Saxon Chronicle tells us of the arrival of a vast fleet of invading Danes at " Liruene mouth " in the time of King Alfred. It is impossible to deny the identity of Lymne with that name. If it be urged that " Hythe " means port, so also does " "West Hythe," closely adjoining to Lymne, but now no longer a landing-place, except perhaps from the military canal constructed within the present century. Why should this western place have been called " Hythe " at all, unless a port could have existed there in former times, as at the modern " Hythe," which is merely East Hythe, distin- guished from the other ? It is actually called so in Ogilby's Britannia, pub- lished in 1698. But there is also at Lymne the celebrated " Shipway," the very way leading down to the shore (now the marshes) from the village of Lymne, and through that of West Hythe, on the eastern side of the Ptoman fortress, but far from Mr. Lewin's Hythe. Prom this ancient and secluded spot is derived the name of the Supreme Court of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, formerly holden (as Leland says) at or near this place, and still retaining the name of " the Court of Shipway." What greater proof of dignity and antiquity can there be than this P What better identification of the antient place can be desired ? For although it stands now, from various causes, at some distance from the sea, it retains the Roman name of the Portus Lemanis, shortened down to Lymne or Lympne; and it contains the original place of maritime judgment, on the public way, which in old time led to the ships, but does not lead to " Hythe." Mr. C. R. Smith thus mentions the "Shipway," in his description of the locality, at pp. 242, 243 of his " Antiquities" :—" The situation of the castrum" says he, " is one of singular interest. It is on the lower part of a large tract of ground, of considerable acclivity, which separates the Romney Marshes from the mainland, and forms a strong contrast, in its irregular and wild character, with On the Identification of the Roman Fortus Lemanis. 379 the flat and monotonous district intervening between it and the sea. Looking upward from the level land in front of the castrum, portions of the walls are seen, irregular and disconnected, bounded on the right by a hanging wood, and a winding road called the Shipway, leading by the little village of West My the ; on the left, by a long range of broken sloping pasture ground; and in front by an inland cliff, crowned by the church of Lynme, and a castellated mansion situated upon the very verge of the cliff." Indeed the whole passage deserves the most attentive consideration, expressed as it is in a lively and in- teresting manner, by the hand of a master, whose conclusions I seek to justify against Mr. Lewin's new theory. Here too I must add the clear, convincing, and striking testimony of Leland, contained in his Itinerary, vol. vii. p. 132 :—"Lymne Hille, or Lyme, was sum- tyme a famose haven, and good for shyppes that myght cum to the foote of the hille. The place is yet cawled Shypioey and Old Haven. [Farther, at this day the Lord of the V. Portes kepeth his principal Cowrt a lytle by est fro Lymmehil. Ther remayneth at this day the mines of a stronge fortresse of the Britons, hang- ging on the hil, and cummyng down to the very fote. The ciimpase of the fortresse semeth to be a x. (ten) acres, and be lykelyhod yt had sum walle beside that strecchid up to the very top of the hille, wher now ys the paroch chirche, and the Archidiacons howse of Canterbury. The old walles of a the (it are ?) made of Britons brikes, very large, and great flynt, set togyther almost indissolubely with mortars made of smaule pybble. The walles be very thikke, and yn the west end of the castel appereth the base of an old towre. Abowt this castel, yn tyme of mind, were fownd antiquities of mony of the Romaynes Ther went fro Lymme to Canterbury a streate fayr paved, therof at this daye yt is cawled Stony Streat. Yt is the straytest that ever I sawe, and toward Cantor- bury ward the pavement continually appereth a iiij. or v. myles. Ther cummeth at this day through Lymme castel a little rylle, and other prety waters resort to the places about Lymme-hil; but where the ryver Limene should be I cannot tel, except yt should be that that cummeth above Appledor . . . . iii (eight or ten ?) myles of, and that of cowrs ys now chaunged, and renneth a nerer way ynto the se, by the encresing of Romney Marsch that was sumtyme al se."a What, then, if we do find at Hythe a town and a port ? What if I should inform Mr. Lewin, from my own measurements, that Hythe is in part Roman ? It is yet to be proved to have been the Portus Lemanis, or any part or parcel of it, at least in the earlier Roman period. Old Romney is Roman, so is New Romney. a Leland, as quoted by Mr. C. E. Smith, except the explanations within parentheses. 3c2 380 On the Identification of the Roman Portus Lemanis. The inclosure of the marshes ruined the oldest port, and the traffic was at length driven out toward the sea, both by the silent operations of nature, and yet more by the same agency which has removed the traffic of the old Roman city and port of Deva (Chester) to Liverpool, and will soon remove that of Lon- dinium, the Augusta of Julian's time, and our great emporium, to Gravesend, Tilbury, and the Hope, viz. greediness of land, shutting out tidal waters by obstinate and senseless promoters of embankments. For I apprehend that, in the time of Julius Csesar, the site of the Romney Marshes was an ample bay, con- taining some muddy islands ; that the inclosure of these by banks, the decay of the cliffs, the diversion of the current, and the natural accumulation of silt and shingle (which Mr. Lewin has aptly described), in process of time choked up the vast anchorage in which the invading Roman Fleet of 800 ships had ridden; that the proper name of the port clung to the township and fortress of Lymne, after it had ceased to be a maritime station; and that at length the appellative '• Hythe," (which is rather a landing-place than a port or haven,) attached itself to the little village of West Hythe, and afterwards to East Hythe, now called " the town and port of Hythe." If this succession of facts be admitted, it neces- sarily follows that Lymne represents, by situation, the original and proper Portus Lemanis; while its neighbour Hythe has obtained a transfer of the mari- time and commercial denomination of " port," as a kind of successor in business, but is by no means to be regarded as its local and historical representative.

Postscript.—The altar, -which, was found in 1850 among the ruins at Lymne, is damaged at the top and on one side ; hence its inscription is mutilated. As represented in Mr. C. E. Smith's Report on his Excavations (which was printed for the Subscribers in 1852, 4to.), plate vii. and page 25, the inscription is as follows :—

• • iv • * ARAM . AVFIDIV PANTEKA PRAEFECT CLAS ' BRIT

which I read and fill up thus :— [DEO NEP]TV[NO] ARAM P. AVFIDIV[s] PANTERA[NVS] PRAEFECT[VS] CLAS. BRIT[AN. EX VOTO P.] Deo Neptuno aram P. Aufidius Panteranus Prcefectus Classis Britannicce ex voto posuit.