File:Archaeologia cantiana (1900) (14783878202).jpg

Identifier: archaeologiacant24kent_0 (find matches)
Title: Archaeologia cantiana
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Kent Archaeological Society. cn
Subjects:
Publisher: (London) Kent Archaeological Society
Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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these walls, as from the quantity of soil upon the platform wewere compelled to lay bare the latter by trenching large por- Jtions at a time, and then filling them up with the soil of the jnext trench. Certainly Mr. Faussett, if he had paid any jattention to the details of these excavations, could not have Uwritten as he did, and ascribed them to the same builders as r the makers of the cross or platform. In short, Mr. Faussetts jtheory was that the Comes Littoris Saxonici designed to erect Ihere a Pharos or watch-tower of unusual height, and mis- jtrusting the sand of the hill, dug down 30 feet for the foun-dation ; he imagined, however, that some mutiny of troops, Ior series of Saxon attacks, led to the abandoning of the largescheme, and then the cruciform building was a substitute, ;and the walls (F on my plan) used as supports to timberresting against them, and the cross in the centre. In sup- f * See Planche, A Corner of Kent, p. 8. !f Archceologia Cantiana, Vol. VIII., p. 9. ( i
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o o o O p 1 <<<< s Si Si I Si I I ST 5* ^1 5 O W Q s? Si ^2 .8 Si o t-Hft AT RICHBOROUGH. 203 port of this theory he quotes Grildas as writing that theRoman towns had watch-towers. With all due deference to Mr. Faussetts opinion andthat of Mr. Fox, who quite lately adopted the same theory,I cannot see that they have brought forward any new evidenceto shew that this cross or the platform at Richborough isconnected with the remains of a Pharos or a watch-tower.I do not in the least doubt that the Romans did erect watch-towers on the coast. We have an instance of the Pharos inthe castle at Dover on the east, and a similar watch-towerexisted till lately on the western heights; we have alsoevidence of foundations of a Roman watch-tower at Worth,near Sandwich; but we have no evidence whatever thatin any case these remains or foundations in the leastresembled those found at Richborough: and most of thesetheories I must characterize as rash surmises unsupported

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