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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
In the twenty-second volume of Archæologia, Mr. A. J. Kempe has given an account of some then recent discoveries, by himself and Mr. Thomas Crofton Croker, near the ancient entrenchment called Cæsar's Camp, at Holwood Hill, Keston, near Bromley, Kent. Those discoveries consisted of the foundation of a circular Roman building, supposed to be a temple or tomb, with a square tomb, and two graves, in one of which was a stone coffin, and from the other a stone coffin had been several years previously removed to Wickham Court.
page 120 note a More likely Weard or Ward Bank. Here was probably the weard setle (watch seat, settle, bench, or bank) mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon charter referred to at p. 125; and, as one of the significations of weard setle is a watch tower (Bosworth's A.-S. Dictionary), I should be inclined to suppose that the foundation of the circular building described by Mr. Kempe was that of a watch tower, but that its situation so far down the Bank does not seem to favour that conjecture.
page 124 note a Ceddanleage I take to be Kengley Bridge, at Southend, on the road from Lewisham to Bromley.
page 124 note b Langanleage—Langley in Beckenham.
page 124 note c Bromley Mark.
page 124 note d Lewisham.
page 125 note e The Wonstock, a fixed post or stulp, possibly at Stumps Hill, between Southend and Beckenham. Mr. Kemble conjectures that this word may have some reference to Wodin.
page 125 note f Mottingham Mark.
page 125 note g Cinta Stiogole, or Kent Style, I take to be Kent Gate, on the boundary of the county between Wickham and Addington.
page 125 note h Earnes beame signifies the Eagles Home or Tree, but Mr. Kemble supposes the Earnes beame to be a tree marked with the figure of an eagle, not a tree in which the eagle built.
page 125 note i The hedge or boundary of the settlers on the Crecca or River Cray.
page 125 note j Perhaps Leaves Green, Bromley Common.
page 125 note k Swelgende. The Swallow or Gulph.
page 125 note l Query, Six Slaughters or Murders.
page 125 note m Farnborough Mark.
page 125 note n Keston Mark, still known by that name.
page 125 note o The Watch Seat or Station, being south from Keston Mark, was most probably the Weard, Ward, or Watch Bank, now called “The War Bank,” the situation of which with respect to Keston Mark corresponds with the Charter.
page 125 note P Wickham Mark.
page 125 note q Perhaps Westmore Green.
page 125 note r Bipplestyde is probably Beddlestead in Surrey, on the border of Kent.
page 125 note s I do not know where this place can be; there is a farm called Lustead near Westmore Green.
page 125 note t Biohahema might mean the Bee inclosure or Apiary,
page 125 note u A denne was a certain allotment of woodland in the weald.
page 126 note a It is as follows:—“Let us first take into consideration the Mark in its restricted and proper sense of a boundary. Its most general characteristic is, that it should not be distributed in arable, but remain in heath, forest, fen and pasture. In it the Markmen—called in Germany, Markgenossen, and perhaps by the Anglo Saxons Mearcgeneátas—had commonable rights; but there could be no private estate in it, no lúd or hlot, κλῆρος or haeredium. Even if under peculiar circumstances any markman obtained a right to essart or clear a portion of the forest, the portion so subjected to the immediate law of property ceased to be mark-It was undoubtedly under the protection of the gods; and it is probable that within its woods were those sacred shades especially consecrated to the habitation and service of the deity.
“If the nature of an early Teutonic settlement, which has nothing in common with a city, be duly considered, there will appear an obvious necessity for the existence of a mark, and for its being maintained inviolate. Every community, not sheltered by walls, or the still firmer defences of public law, must have one, to separate it from neighbours, and protect it from rivals: it is like the outer pulp that surrounds and defends the kernel. No matter how small or how large the community—it may be only a village, even a single household, or a whole state—it will still have a mark, a space, or boundary, by which its own rights of jurisdiction are limited, and the encroachments of others are kept off. The more extensive the community which is interested in the mark, the more solemn and sacred the formalities by which it is consecrated and defended; but even the boundary of the private man's estate is under the protection of the gods and of the law. ‘Accursed,’ in all ages and all legislations, ‘is he that removeth his neighbour's landmark. Even the owner of a private estate is not allowed to build or cultivate to the extremity of his own possession, but must leave a space for eaves. Nor is the general rule abrogated by changes in the original compass of the communities; as smaller districts coalesce and become, as it were, compressed into one body, the smaller and original marks may become obliterated and converted merely into commons, but the public mark will have been increased upon the new and extended frontier. Villages tenanted by Heardingas or Modingas may cease to be separated, but the larger divisions which have grown up by their union—Meanwaras, Mægsetan, or Hwiccas will still have a boundary of their own; these again may be lost in the extending circuit of Wessex or Mercia; till, a yet greater obliteration of the marks having been produced through increasing population, internal conquest, or the ravages of foreign invaders, the great kingdom of England at length arises, having wood and desolate moorland or mountain as its mark against Scots, Cumbrians, and Britons, and the eternal sea itself as a bulwark against Frankish and Frisian pirates.
“But, although the mark is waste, it is yet the property of the community: it belongs to the freemen as a whole, not as a partible possession: it may as little be profaned by the stranger, as the arable land itself which it defends. It is under the safeguard of the public law long after it has ceased to be under the immediate protection of the gods: it is unsafe, full of danger; death lurks in its shades and awaits the incautious or hostile visitant:
all the markland was
with death surrounded,
the snares of the foe:
punishments of the most frightful character are denounced against him who violates it; and though, in historical times, these can only be looked upon as comminatory and symbolical, it is very possible that they may be the records of savage sacrifices believed due, and even offered, to the gods of the violated sanctuary. I can well believe that we, too, had once our Diana Taurica. The marks are called accursed; that is, accursed to man, accursed to him that does not respect their sanctity; but they are sacred, for on their maintenance depend the safety of the community, and the service of the deities whom that community honours. And even when the gods have abdicated their ancient power, even to the very last, the terrors of superstition come in aid of the enactments of law; the deep forests and marshes are the abodes of monsters and dragons; wood-spirits bewilder and decoy the wanderer to destruction: the Nicors house at the side of lakes and marshes: Grendel, the man-eater, is a ‘mighty stepper over the mark;’ the chosen home of the firedrake is a fen.
“The natural tendency, however, of this state of isolation is to give way; population is an ever-active element of social well-being: and when once the surface of a country has become thickly studded with communities settled between the marks, and daily finding the several clearings grow less and less sufficient for their support, the next step is the destruction of the marks themselves, and the union of the settlers in larger bodies, and under altered circumstances.”—Kemble's Saxons in England, vol. i. book i. ch. 2.—“The Mark.”