The quaggy ground between the
camp and the stream would be an excellent defence against sudden
attack."
[Illustration: Burgh Castle]
Burgh Castle, according to the late Canon Raven, was the Roman station
_Gariannonum_ of the _Notitia Imperii_. Its walls are built of
flint-rubble concrete, and there are lacing courses of tiles. There
is no wall on the west, and Canon Raven used to contend that one
existed there but has been destroyed. But this conjecture seems
improbable. That side was probably defended by the sea, which has
considerably receded. Two gates remain, the principal one being the
east gate, commanded by towers a hundred feet high; while the north is
a postern-gate about five feet wide. The Romans have not left many
traces behind them. Some coins have been found, including a silver one
of Gratian and some of Constantine. Here St. Furseus, an Irish
missionary, is said to have settled with a colony of monks, having
been favourably received by Sigebert, the ruler of the East Angles, in
633 A.D. Burgh Castle is one of the finest specimens of a Roman fort
which our earliest conquerors have left us, and ranks with Reculver,
Richborough, and Pevensey, those strong fortresses which were erected
nearly two thousand years ago to guard the coasts against foreign
foes.
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